Niall O'Dowd is the Founder of IrishCentral as well as of Irish America Magazine and the Irish Voice Newspaper. He is also responsible for publishing IrishCentral.com community newspaper and The Irish Emigrant newspaper, in Boston. He founded the Wall Street 50 awards, the Top 100 Irish Americans, the Business 100 and more recently the Top 50 Women in Business and the Irish Legal 100 awards.
Niall was awarded an honorary doctorate by University College Dublin for his work on the Irish peace process, which was a subject of a book, "Daring Diplomacy" and a PBS Special, "An Irish Voice."
His book, An Irish Voice, is a remarkable first-hand account of an Irish emigrant who began as a part-time footballer and house-painter, and became a journalist, author, founder and publisher of two newspapers, a magazine and website, as well as a leading advocate for immigration reform for the ‘illegal’ Irish in the United States.
He played a pivotal role in the Northern Ireland peace process, securing a US visa for Gerry Adams in 1994 and acting as intermediary between the White House and Sinn Féin during a critical time in the peace negotiations.
He is also the author of Fire in the Morning, about the Irish at the World Trade Centre on 9/11 and an adjunct professor of journalism at Columbia University.
He was also a founder of the Irish Americans for Clinton campaign in 1991, supporting candidate Bill Clinton for president. He led an Irish American peace delegation to Northern Ireland after Clinton was elected and acted as intermediary between Sinn Fein and the White House at a critical period in the peace process. His role was featured in the book Daring Diplomacy by Conor O'Clery.
O'Dowd created the US Ireland Forum, a forerunner of the Diaspora forum held by the Irish government in 2009.
A native of Ireland, (his father was from Cillchuile, Ballydavid Co. Kerry, and lives in New York with wife Debbie McGoldrick and daughter, Alanna..
Aran Island Discs is an Irish themed podcast hosted by Rossa McDermott
Each episode features a guest who is invited to imagine themselves on the Aran Islands—a symbolic place evoking rugged beauty and Irish cultural heritage—and explore the soundtrack of their life. Guests choose songs that have shaped their personal journeys, sparking conversations about key moments, memories, and influences in their life.
The series is recorded at Dublin South Podcast Studios in Dundrum, produced and edited by Peter Rice, and distributed via platforms Acast, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. .
Sponsorship enquiries
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