Historical/Biographical Note

Pete Hamill (b. 1935), a novelist, essayist, journalist, and Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. Raised in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY, the son of immigrants from Belfast, he was editor-in-chief of both the New York Post and the  New York Daily News, and a columnist for both as well as for  New York Newsday, the  Village Voice,  New York magazine and  Esquire. His 1994 memoir,  A Drinking Life, was on the same New York Times best-seller list for 13 weeks.

Harrington, Odette: 2014-   https://aeon.library.nyu.edu/remoteauth/aeon.dll?Logon&Action=10&Form=31&Value=http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/ead/tamwag/aia_030.xml&view=xml

Biographical Note

Odette Harrington was born in 1960 in San Francisco, California.  In 1962, her family returned to Ireland and settled in Ballintubbert, Athy, County Kildare, Ireland.  She worked at the Irish International Immigrant Center in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1980s and 1990s.

Scope and Contents

This interview was conducted by Íde B. O'Carroll at Odette Harrington's home in Ballintubbert, Athy, County Kildare, Ireland on July 5, 2014.  The interview covers Harrington's early life in Ireland and her working life in the United States (US).  Harrington discusses her parents, their immigration experiences, and their decision to return to Athy in 1962.  She recounts her education and jobs she held before immigrating to the US in 1985. She discusses living in San Francisco, California; working in elder care; and living in Chicago, Illinois and Savannah, Georgia for six months in 1987.  She discusses her move to Massachusetts in 1987 and her work as companion to an older woman in Cambridge. She describes her work with the Irish Immigration Reform Movement (IIRM) and at the Irish International Immigrant Center (IIIC), and recounts the decision to establish the IIIC in 1989.

Historical/Biographical Note

Philip C. Haughey (b. Waltham, MA, 1935) has served as Chair of Celtic Studies at his alma mater, Harvard University, on the board of University College Dublin's Smurfit School of Business in Ireland, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2005 from the University of Ulster, Coleraine, for his contribution to business and support for philanthropic organizations.

Biographical Note

Eddie Hayes (b. Co. Limerick, Ireland, 1966), a narcotics detective with the New York City Police Department, emigrated in 1989. After service with the U.S. Navy, he joined the NYPD in 1996. He is married to Catriona Hayes.

Other Finding Aids Note

Subject notes have been created by track number, and the Word file is available upon request at tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu.

Scope and Content Note

Some key themes that Hayes discusses in this history are: being Irish in the navy ; racial dynamics of the navy; and being Irish in the NYPD and working in Harlem.

This oral history was digitally recorded on a Marantz PMD660. The interview is approximately 80 minutes long, on 1 CD. The interview took place in Bellerose Terrace, New York, on March 9, 2009, and the interviewer was Myriam Nyhan.

Historical/Biographical Note

Anne Hearn (b. Co. Longford, Ireland, 1943) emigrated to the United States in 1961 and began working at Verizon Communications until she retired in 1997. She is very involved in both the Longford Association and the United Irish Counties Association of New York.

Historical/Biographical Note

Seamus Henchy (b. Ennistymon, Co. Clare, Ireland, 1954) came to the United States in 1983 and has established a niche business in New York managing museum and gallery renovations.

Other Finding Aids Note

This interview has been logged at ten-minute intervals, and the Word file is available upon request at tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu.

Historical/Biographical Note

Patrick Hurley (b. Wellington, New Zeland, 1962), raised in County Cork, was a member of the New Irish generation who found himself in New York City in the 1980s as an "illegal" alien with few options to succeed in America without proper documentation. Along with a core group of partners, he helped to found the Irish Immigration Reform Movement in 1987 and lobbied successfully to change immigration law in the US with the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990 HR-4300 which granted thousands of non-preference visas to immigrants considered unfairly disadvantaged by previous legislation, many of whom were Irish.