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When Unionist leader Ian Paisley traveled from Belfast to Dublin and addressed the packed Long Room of the Trinity College Library, historian Jane Ohlmeyer was on edge. Paisley had telegraphed that he would close his remarks with Sir Edward Carson’s rallying cry “God save Ulster.” But then the former firebrand paused and added, significantly, “and the other provinces as well.”  It wasn’t quite “God save Ireland,” but to Jane and everyone in that room, it was a step in the right direction. That event marked the online release of the 1641 Depositions, as Jane recounts on the latest episode of the Irish Stew podcast. Used for centuries to fuel sectarian hatred, this controversial collection of testimonies on alleged atrocities was released in the spirit of furthering the peace process. “In the wrong hands, history can be a very dangerous political weapon,” Jane acknowledged, “but in the right hands, actually, history can do good.” Jane is the Erasmus Smith Professor of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin and the author of Making Empire: Ireland, Imperialism, and the Early Modern World, a fresh, original interpretation of Ireland's engagement with the English and other European empires. “Wherever there’s an empire, you’ll find an Irish person,” she says, and her stories prove it, from Irish traders who worked at the mouth of the Amazon to Irish soldiers in Tangier who spoke a language the English couldn’t follow. But Jane points out that while Ireland suffered under English imperialism, “Irish people become actively engaged in that imperial system, some of them with great gusto, but the majority simply because they don’t have economic opportunities at home.”  And many Irish looked beyond the British Empire for opportunity. “The Irish are trans-imperial,” she explains. “They hop from empire to empire,” prospering in the service of Spain, France, Denmark, and Russia. She tells of how Irish rubber barons brutalized Peru’s indigenous people, but notes it was Roger Casement, another Irishman, who exposed their abuses. A true citizen of Global Ireland, she was born in Zambia and arrived in Belfast as the Troubles began. Watching both sides of the sectarian divide wield history for their purposes she found herself drawn to the study of the 17th century, when England began its imperial project in Ireland. She reflects on how far Irishness has come since her student days in Scotland, when she was called a “bogtrotter,” saying, “Here we are, 25 years later, to be Irish is one of the sexiest things you can be.” She talks about the TV series From That Small Island screened by RTÉ and PBS and her VOICES project recovering the lives of ordinary Irish women. She also credits actor Stephen Rea for pointing her towards the Brian Friel play that inspired the opening chapter of Making Empire. LINKS Irish Stew Newsletter SignupJANE OHLMEYER LinkedInInstagramBlueSkyWebsitesTrinityVOICESPersonalIRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInBlueSkyMastodonMedia Partner: IrishCentralEpisode Details: Season 8, Episode 30; Total Episode Count: 171 Send us Fan Mail

Almost five years ago, sean-nós singer and native Irish speaker MacDara Ó Conaola gave Irish Stew a tour of Inis Oírr, the smallest of the Aran Islands. Since then he has moved to the mainland, worked two very different jobs, taken a slice of Irish culture to Italy, and come home again. For our 170th episode, Martin catches up with MacDara back on the island, still as passionate about the language as ever. “I keep telling younger people, and just anybody really, that Irish can open a lot of doors,” he says, “and it’s a very positive thing.” The conversation covers his year as an Irish language officer in Ennis, County Clare, and the story of Clare’s lost Gaeltacht, where the last native speaker died only in 1996. His work there launched Irish language events and projects that are still running. While MacDara's role as a language officer was satisfying, he wanted to spend less time in the office and more time rubbing shoulders with people. So he moved on to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, where he had his own cottage as the Irish language and sean-nós singing interpreter. He calls it “the nicest job I ever had.” There he got visitors from Alabama and Connecticut talking to each other, and met Jason Alexander and Jimmy Kimmel along the way.  When his time at Bunratty came to an end last winter, MacDara went looking for his next project, and found it in Verona, Italy. A cold email to Tocatì, a festival of street games that features a different guest country each year, led to Ireland taking the spotlight this September, with a delegation of about 200 sportspeople, musicians, craftspeople and Irish speakers from the Gaeltacht.  His advice for anyone learning Irish is hopeful: speak it at home, starting with the youngest. “They’re not judging you,” he says. The episode features three of MacDara’s songs: Caisleán A’ tSléibhe; The Love Token, title track of his 2006 album; and Fadó Fadó, recorded with his children, Seán and Michelle. LINKS Irish Stew Newsletter SignupMACDARA Ó CONAOLA Original Irish Stew Episode (December 2021)Irish Vibes on TikTokLinkedInMusic on SpotifyFadó Fadó on BandcampIRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInBlueSkyMastodonMedia Partner: IrishCentralEpisode Details: Season 8, Episode 29; Total Episode Count: 170 Send us Fan Mail

The Today Show spotlighted Irish tourism last week in the U.S., but now it’s Irish Stew’s turn to tell the tale to its global audience through the eyes of Stephen Cotter, managing director of CIE Tours International, a company with over 90 years of history bringing people to experience Ireland and beyond. With cohost John Lee flying solo this time, the episode explores CIE Tours’ unlikely origins in the International Eucharistic Congress of 1932, the dynamics of its Irish Government ownership, its impressive international scale and reach, why it’s expanded beyond Ireland’s shores, the “secret sauce” that keeps visitors coming back, the off-the-beaten-track experiences it’s offering, Stephen’s photo op with the Micheál Martin that made national news, and why the tourism industry has such a hold on him. "The business just grabs you. There's never a dull moment," he says, reflecting on such non-dull moments like economic downturns and the COVID pandemic. “Every few years, you have something that's going to knock you back. There's always a challenge that keeps it exciting." In a high-tech world, Stephen cherishes CIE’s high-touch moments. “What I like most about it is when I meet our customers. We’re just so privileged and so honored to work in a business that’s putting a smile on our customers’ faces.” He knows he has an excellent product to sell in Ireland and all the CIE Tours destinations with a strong slate of tours on offer for each, but to him it’s the guides, not the itineraries, which keeps people coming back to CIE Tours.  “The biggest value on our trips is what the driver and the tour guide add to the experience. That is our ‘secret sauce,’ the crew working in all our destinations--Italy, Iceland Scotland, Spain and in Ireland,” he says. “You would not believe the testimonials that we get back. People just fall in love with the crew.” The episode explores Stephen’s Dundalk boyhood, his early business experience bidding at Belfast furniture auctions, and a marriage proposal involving a lamb in Sligo.  And in a tourism-centric episode, it’s not surprising that the conversation might begin with the Burren, but it’s the bovine slant to the opening that’s unexpected.  "If you'd said to me 10 years ago, I'm going to be talking about cattle, no-fence collars and GPS, I would have said you were mad," he says of a CIE Tours sustainability initiative. The program facilitates cattle-grazing on the Burren’s winter uplands, which suppresses unwanted plant species from taking over and encourages the region's rare flowers to return each spring, which also encourages the return of tourists. Additionally, the relative ease of managing cattle remotely through GPS collars is helping keep young farmers in business bymaking grazing on this marginal land viable. And what business conversation today doesn’t touch on AI? While embracing AI’s efficiencies, Stephen says, "People like people. Hopefully in my lifetime, that's never replaced by any AI computer or AI bot." LINKS Irish Stew Newsletter SignupCIE TOURS WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramYouTubeIRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInBlueSkyMastodonMedia Partner: IrishCentralEpisode Details: Season 8, Episode 28; Total Episode Count: 169 Send us Fan Mail

It don't mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. Fortunately, the latest Irish Stew guest has that swing. He’s transatlantic Irish jazz singer Austin O’Brien, out of Malahide, County Dublin, where Irish Stew cohost Martin Nutty calls home, Co-host John Lee saw that this Irish jazz artist was playing at a New York outpost of the Malahide bar Gibney’s. he contacted Austin who invited him out to New Jersey for his recording session at the legendary Van Gelder Studio, where some of the greatest jazz albums were recorded. In this episode the globetrotting crooner looks back to his Irish roots, saying, “I grew up in a very Irish family. There were like eight boys and two girls. And my granny had a shop, and they lived on Francis Street, which is like the belly button of the Liberties," In this episode he recalls his challenges pursuing music. "I was very shy, timid, and dyslexic, so I felt insecure, I can't write music. I actually hear music like a picture. I can hear and see a finished song just from an idea,” he says. Like many artists Austin felt the pull of Paris where he now lives. “At clubs in Paris people come to dance, here in New York people come to sit and listen. It's like they say, if you can sing in Paris, you can sing anywhere,” he joked. He recounts an almost mystical experience he had performing there in one of those clubs. "I was singing in a very famous club in Paris called the Caveau de la Huchette and I could feel a mistake coming, Then it was like my dad was behind me, and he went, ‘you're going to be okay’ and I was able to get through it.” It’s a bittersweet memory for Austin as his father never heard him sing professionally. “He was meant to come to a concert but he died a couple of weeks before,” he says. Following the footsteps of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, Wes Montgomery, McCoy Tyner, and more jazz legends to record at the Van Gelder Studio was career highlight. "My drummer, Jonathan, says,’ hallowed ground, we're in Disneyland for a jazzman.’ The studio has stayed the same since 1959. They bow to nobody," he says. Austin shares another heartfelt personal goal, to bring jazz and other kinds of live music into public school systems where there is need. Four times he’s brought his programs of live jazz and Irish music with Dave Brown mixed with motivational messages to the Cordero Community School in Hamilton, NJ and is now building a team to develop the funding sources and organization needed to make the program grow, with schools in Englewood, NJ showing strong interest in this outreach. Jazz may not mean a thing if it ain’t got a thing, but what does it mean to Austin? "I found out jazz is not a music, it's a culture, and that it's not how you play it, but how you interpret it" Irish Stew Newsletter Signup AUSTIN O'BRIEN WebsiteInstagramFacebookYouTubeLinkedInVAN GELDER STUDIO WebsiteGIBNEY'S NEW YORK (our hosts for this episode) WebsiteIRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInBlueSkyMastodonMedia Partner: IrishCentralEpisode Details: Season 8, Episode 27; Total Episode Count: 168 Send us Fan Mail

It don't mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. Fortunately, the latest Irish Stew guest has that swing. He’s transatlantic Irish jazz singer Austin O’Brien, out of Malahide, County Dublin, where Irish Stew cohost Martin Nutty calls home, Co-host John Lee saw that this Irish jazz artist was playing at a New York outpost of the Malahide bar Gibney’s. he contacted Austin who invited him out to New Jersey for his recording session at the legendary Van Gelder Studio, where some of the greatest jazz albums were recorded. In this episode the globetrotting crooner looks back to his Irish roots, saying, “I grew up in a very Irish family. There were like eight boys and two girls. And my granny had a shop, and they lived on Francis Street, which is like the belly button of the Liberties," In this episode he recalls his challenges pursuing music. "I was very shy, timid, and dyslexic, so I felt insecure. I actually hear music like a picture. I can hear and see a finished song just from an idea,” he says. Like many artists Austin felt the pull of Paris where he now lives. “At clubs in Paris people come to dance, here in New York people come to sit and listen. It's like they say, if you can sing in Paris, you can sing anywhere,” he joked. He recounts an almost mystical experience he had performing there in one of those clubs. "I was singing in a very famous club in Paris called the Caveau de la Huchette and I could feel a mistake coming, Then it was like my dad was behind me, and he went, ‘you're going to be okay’ and I was able to get through it.” It’s a bittersweet memory for Austin as his father never heard him sing professionally. “He was meant to come to a concert but he died a couple of weeks before,” he says. Following the footsteps of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, Wes Montgomery, McCoy Tyner, and more jazz legends to record at the Van Gelder Studio was career highlight. "My drummer, Jonathan, says,’ hallowed ground, we're in Disneyland for a jazzman.’ The studio has stayed the same since 1959. They bow to nobody," he says. Austin shares another heartfelt personal goal, to bring jazz and other kinds of live music into public school systems where there is need. Four times he’s brought his programs of live jazz and Irish music with Dave Brown mixed with motivational messages to the Cordero Community School in Hamilton, NJ and is now building a team to develop the funding sources and organization needed to make the program grow, with schools in Englewood, NJ showing strong interest in this outreach. Jazz may not mean a thing if it ain’t got a thing, but what does it mean to Austin? "I found out jazz is not a music, it's a culture, and that it's not how you play it, but how you interpret it" LINKS CROSTON FLOOD WebsiteInstagramFacebookLinkedInLinda CrostonCatherine FloodPROJECT CHILDREN WebsiteInstagramFacebookMONAGHAN PEACE CAMPUS WebsiteInstagramFacebookIRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInMedia Partner: IrishCentralEpisode Details: Season 8, Episode 26; Total Episode Count: 167 Send us Fan Mail

Andre Archimbaud spent his life carrying three passports worth of heritage: a French surname, an Italian-American and Irish-American upbringing.  While André's Irish identity may be masked by his last name, there is little doubt about the depth of that legacy. This episode, recorded at Ryan's Daughter on the Upper East Side, traces how Archimbaud came to understand that inheritance at a deeper level. It started years earlier at a bar in Washington Heights, where a stranger, several drinks in, turned to him and said, "You are what your mother is," invoking a mitochondrial logic Archimbaud had never considered. Two weeks of digging into his maternal line turned up a great-grandfather from Sligo and a great-great-grandmother born in Dublin. From there, U2, a 1997 road trip through Killarney, and a growing engagement with Irish radio and Irish Twitter did the rest. Archimbaud's other education came from his father, a man who rose from a cramped East Orange apartment to sit on the US Olympic Committee, and who taught his son to network simply by being watched. "It imprinted in me the sort of how to do this," Archimbaud says, a skill that now underwrites Clearly Now Media, the digital agency he launched after nearly two decades in paid search and social advertising. Even the agency's name has an Irish thread: a Hothouse Flowers cover of "I Can See Clearly Now," framed on his living room wall, that his fiancé pointed to when he needed a name. Archimbaud closes on a quieter note: two days alone on Inchydoney Beach in West Cork, sun and rain and a double rainbow, that stayed with him through a season of change. LINKS ANDRE ARCHIMBAUD Clearly Now Media LinkedInPodcastBlogIRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInMedia Partner: IrishCentralRYAN'S DAUGHTER WebsiteEpisode Details: Season 8, Episode 25; Total Episode Count: 166 Send us Fan Mail

Gearóid Mcdaid, known across the surfing world as G-Man, grew up twenty minutes from Mullaghmore, County Sligo's fearsome slab wave, and now holds the 2025 European shortboard title with an eye on the 2028 LA Olympics. John and Martin caught him mid-vacation in New York, tucked into Georgie's Chelsea, right under a photograph of the man himself mid-wave. "It's a pretty cool thing that surfing's in the Olympics now," he says. Gearóid's victory at the European Championships last year did its part for the sport back home, proof, as he puts it, that Ireland has surfers who can compete with the best in the world.  Gearóid walks us through the two lives of a pro surfer: the technical, judged world of competition, and the far riskier business of chasing 50-foot slabs at Mullaghmore, a wave made by limestone reef geology and giant North Athlantic swells. Chasing those waves takes a safety crew on jet skis and a fair amount of nerve, skills built on a childhood his surfer father set in motion, long before Mullaghmore's entered the picture. "You're always scared," he admits, "but it's just trying to push through it and enjoy it." He talks sponsors, wave pool training in Scotland, four straight years of injuries, and the tight-knit, fast-growing surf scene back home. "The Irish surf community's so small," he says. "Everyone knows each other that surfs." Next up for G-Man: a video trip to France for Monster in October, then the World Championships in Peru in November, all building toward one goal. As Martin puts it, fingers crossed we'll see the Irish flag flying on a beach at the LA Olympics in 2028. LINKS GEARÓID MCDAID InstagramYouTubeMullaghmore in the Summer - Hurricane Erin SwellMullaghmore in the Winter - Dec 2025Seamus Plug: Jackdaw GEORGIES CHELSEA (our hosts for this episode) Website POINTBREAK (this episode's featured music) Bandcamp IRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInMedia Partner: IrishCentralEpisode Details: Season 8, Episode 24; Total Episode Count: 165 Send us Fan Mail

One year and a week since taking his new post, the Consul General of Ireland in New York Gerald Angley hosted the Irish Stew podcasters in his office high above Park Avenue for a behind-the-scenes look at Irish diplomacy in action while sharing his reflections on the first year on the job. One event stands out for Gerald. "The scale of St. Patrick's Day blew our minds,” he says. “It's 24/7 for a number of weeks." Gerald walks listeners through the impressive scale of his six-state consular territory of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. "That's 59 million people. That's the same population as the UK," he notes, adding that the region ranks as the world's third-largest economy in its own right. The conversation traces Gerald’s path from a University College Dublin commerce degree and a stint at Citibank to a career in the Department of Foreign Affairs, with postings in Brussels, Paris, and London during Brexit. On landing the coveted New York job, he admits to a bold move: "I wrote a letter that said, 'I dare you not to pick me.'" Talk turns to the perennial Irish Stew topic of diaspora engagement, where the diplomat reflects on evolving Irish American identity, saying, "We have to look at it not as purely Irish-born people, but rather people who have several identities." He also points to what distinguishes Ireland's mission from other consulates: "We're one of the only countries that has an immigrant support fund... we need to be bigger than most of the other consulates, and we are." As the episode wraps, Gerald provides the listeners with his must-read book recommendation and previews of the imminent launch the Green Pages, the new directory of Irish organizations in his consul region. And what’s it like to be a Consul General in New York? Gerald quotes a predecessor in his role who said, "It’s Wall Street by day, Broadway by night!” Links: Gerald Angley WebsiteLinkedIn Consulate General of Ireland in New York WebsiteLinkedInInstagramFacebookXEpisode Details: Season 8, Episode 23; Total Episode Count: 164 Send us Fan Mail

Why doesn’t a country good enough to produce Ryanair and Stripe have a normal venture fund industry? Alan Merriman spent three years lobbying the Irish government just to be allowed to launch one, and what he ran into along the way says more about Ireland’s capital gap than most economic reports ever will. Merriman built Elkstone from a boutique advisory firm into one of Ireland's most active venture investors, and in this conversation he's candid about what it actually took to get there. In this episode, you'll learn:  Why Ireland’s tax code made venture investing nearly impossible before 2022, and what it took to change itWhy Merriman puts the quality of a founder at eighty percent of any investment decision, and what he’s really screening forWhy Elkstone bets on the country instead of a sector, and what that says about the depth of the Irish marketWhat Merriman calls “network compounding,” and his pitch for why the Irish diaspora is worth more than its checkbookIf you've ever wondered what it actually takes to build serious venture capital in a small country, or how Merriman makes the case for engaging the Irish diaspora as more than a source of sentiment, this one's worth the full listen.  ALAN MERRIMAN LINKS LinkedInElkstone  IRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInMedia Partner: IrishCentral Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 22; Total Episode Count: 163 Send us Fan Mail

Through its ongoing “Global Irish Nation Conversation” Irish Stew is all about connecting the worldwide Irish family, so sitting down with Dr. Martin Russell, one of the world's foremost diaspora engagement strategists, felt like a meeting of kindred missions. The proud Corkonian has spent nearly two decades turning diaspora theory into practice, working with governments and communities across Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Balkans, all while championing Ireland's potential to be a global leader in the field. Hosts John Lee and Martin Nutty open with a thought-starter on the "diaspora World Cup" unfolding across North America, then trace Russell's journey from a would-be mathematician at UCC to a scholar of the Irish diaspora's role in the Northern Ireland peace process. Along the way, Russell unpacks the famous 70 million Irish worldwide figure, his four pillars of diaspora engagement, and the crucial distinction between migration and diaspora. "Other partners come and go and that's fine. That's the nature of life. But your diaspora are a community of consistency if you do it well," Russell says, making the case to governments worldwide. The conversation turns to Ireland's new Diaspora Strategy 2026–2030, which Russell's research helped inform, the duty of care owed to the vulnerable Irish abroad, and the threat of "diaspora fade" in Irish America. His answer? "The quick answer is don't let it happen, be active." A masterclass in belonging from a thought leader who's incredibly bullish on the diaspora's future. MARTIN RUSSELL LINKS LinkedInThe Diaspora InstituteThe Networking InstituteEPISODE REFERENCE LINKS  Ireland’s Diaspora Strategy, 2026-2030NY Times: Is this the diaspora World Cup? EU Global Diaspora Facility  Institute for Integrated TransitionsBOOKS Fragile Neighborhoods by Seth KaplanBelonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides by Jeffrey CohenOn Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation  by Kim SamuelIRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInMedia Partner: IrishCentral Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 21; Total Episode Count: 162 Send us Fan Mail

From Crumlin and Tallaght to the City of Brotherly Love, Irish Stew spins another Philadelphia story, appropriately timed to America's Fourth of July celebration of the Declaration of Independence forged in Philadelphia 250 years ago. Recorded in advance of Philadelphia's Irish American Business Chamber & Network's Ambassador Awards Luncheon, cohost John Lee talks with John Cummins and Adele Farrell, who drew on the grit of their working-class Dublin roots to build business success and rewarding lives in America. They tell of brutal Boston winters, tropical job sites in Puerto Rico, founding their breakout company NEXA Enterprise Asset Management, successfully exiting from it, and founding their new business initiative, Cummins Business Ventures. The pair underscore the importance of the Irish American Business Chamber and Network in their success story, calling it the “missing piece” they wished they'd found on day one. They look forward to the Chamber’s signature Ambassador Awards event every year, especially in 2023 when John and Adele received the IABCN’s prestigious Taoiseach Award. The episode wraps with a heartfelt Seamus Plug. This October, in partnership with the IABCN, John and Adele are launching a fundraising gala benefiting The Autism Hub, a new Dublin-based charity providing assessments, therapies, and family support for autism services in Ireland, a cause that's become deeply personal for them both. Hosted by their Rise Above Fund and the IABCN, The Infinity Gala will be held on Oct 15 in Warrington, PA. It’s a warm, genuine, and often inspiring Global Irish Nation Conversation about finding your tribe in Philadelphia, three thousand miles from home. LINKS John Cummins LinkedInAdele Farrell LinkedInThe Rise Above FundIrish American Business Chamber & NetworkInfinity GalaIRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInMedia Partner: IrishCentral Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 20; Total Episode Count: 161 Send us Fan Mail

What's Sherlock Holmes doing in New York's most Fenian pub? That's the intrigue at the heart of Terror From America: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure, the debut novel from journalist and historian Terry Golway, and the question Irish Stew podcast cohosts Martin Nutty and John Lee set out to answer before a packed, raucous house at Ernie O'Malley's on the first of June. A Staten Island native with a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Rutgers and two decades of political reporting at the New York Observer, Golway has written more than a dozen acclaimed works of nonfiction. But fiction, he tells us, unlocks something facts alone cannot: "You can learn as much about history through a novel as you can in a history book." His novel imagines Britain dispatching the world's greatest detective to infiltrate the Irish American revolutionary underground of 1885 New York, a mission rooted in a real and largely forgotten chapter of history. "The original crime is based on something that actually happened," Golway explains. "Several Irish Americans were going to try to blow up London Bridge…instead they blew themselves up." Holmes's investigation pulls him into the orbit of real historical figures, none more compelling than John Devoy. In a dramatic reading brought brilliantly to life by actor Mick Mellamphy, Devoy records in his diary what Charles Parnell had told him when they met: "The American people are now the arbiters of the Irish question,” to which Devoy replied, "I almost had tears in my eyes when I heard those words. That was exactly what we in New York wished to be, the arbiters of the Irish question." And what does Holmes make of the Fenians he encounters? After infiltrating New York’s Irish revolutionary underground as an itinerant fiddler at Clan na Gael gatherings, Sherlock observed, "The Fenians who inhabit the back rooms of New York's clubhouses and taverns bear little resemblance to the crude caricatures portrayed in some less reputable newspapers. Formidable not because of their capacity for mayhem, but because of the power they yield over the production of memories." Fiddler Eileen McLain provided the evening’s musical accents while Mick Mellamphy served as producer. Past Irish Stew guests Peter Quinn, Larry Kirwan, and Maura Clare were in the house as were Black 47 co-founder Chris Byrne and Irish American Writers & Artists president Liza Engesser. LINKS TERRY GOLWAY WebsiteSubstack: ObserverLinkedInBook: Terror From AmericaAmazon: Terror From America ERNIE O'MALLEY'S Website IRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInMedia Partner: IrishCentral Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 19; Total Episode Count: 160 Send us Fan Mail

When Frederick Douglass left Belfast in 1845, only seven years after escaping slavery, he declared: "Wherever else I feel myself to be a stranger, I will remember I have a home in Belfast." That remarkable statement from a Black abolitionist finding radical welcome in a 19th-century Irish city is the beating heart of North Star, the immersive musical and theatrical experience that Northern Ireland-based DJ, broadcaster, and creative producer Kwame Daniels brings to New York's Irish Arts Center, June 3–21. Irish Stew cohosts Martin Nutty and John Lee met Kwame at the Irish Arts Center a few days before opening night and recorded this episode in the IAC Library He relates that his journey to Belfast began in a Ghanaian household in East London, where identity was worn proudly inside the home and navigated carefully beyond it. "As soon as we entered the house again, it was absolutely back to the background, the roots, and the culture," he recalls. "But outside, there was almost a code-switch going on. We were firm in our identity, and yet we were also aware of our surroundings and how we had to move within them." That same fluency served him when he arrived in Derry in 1997 and found a city divided along lines he didn't yet understand. Music became his passport across the sectarian divide. "I was bringing in sets of decks (the equipment DJs use to play, control, and manipulate music). That's the conversation, all the other conversations come out of that." Kwame relates that Douglass's Belfast story with his evocation of finding a home in the city hit him with the force of revelation. "A Black man, an enslaved man on the run in 1845 and that's his response to being in Belfast. That has to be the starting point for us to reset." The result is a 77-minute production, one minute for every year of Douglass's life, an immersive experience fusing hip-hop, jazz, gospel, classical, and electronic music with spoken word, choral arrangements, and the honest voices of young people from both Belfast and New York. "You're going to be presented with a level of musicianship that is extraordinary, and it's unlike anything you've ever seen." North Star runs June 3–21 at the Irish Arts Center, tickets at irishartscenter.org. Next up from Irish Stew, Fresh Stew LIVE with Terry Golway on his new thriller Terror From America: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, recorded before sold out audience in the Malachy McCourt Room at Ernie O’Malley’s Pub in NYC with the fiddler Eileen McLain and actor Mick Mellamphy enhancing the experience. LINKS NORTH STAR Irish Arts Center info and ticketsInstagramKWAME DANIELS InstagramFacebookLinkedInORGANIZATIONS Bounce CultureSolabIRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInMedia Partner: IrishCentral Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 18; Total Episode Count: 159 Send us Fan Mail

While Team Irish Stew preps for its Fresh Stew LIVE before a paying (!) audience on June 1, past guest Sean Granahan and The Floating Hospital he leads are gearing up for June 2, the evening of their 160th anniversary Summer Gala. Given the charity's deep roots serving Irish and other impoverished newcomers to New York, John and Martin are revisiting their conversation with Sean to shine a fresh light on the Floating Hospital and its mission-critical fundraising effort. Sean is a Pennsylvania-born lawyer with Mayo and Dublin roots who has spent two decades leading the Floating Hospital, a charity founded to provide basic healthcare to the Irish and other destitute arrivals crowded into New York’s first slum, Five Points, where tuberculosis was grimly called "the natural death of the Irish." Today the Floating Hospital is New York City's largest healthcare provider to families in homeless shelters and domestic violence safe houses, caring for 30,000 people annually across pediatric, mental health, and dental services. Sean notes that since its origins 160 years ago, The Floating Hospital has stood on its "three-legged stool" of meeting immediate needs of displaced people, providing essential health education, and delivering care to its neighbors in need. The charity's colorful maritime era saw ships taking kids on fresh-air harbor cruises while delivering vaccines and health education, a chapter paused after 9/11 when their vessel, the Lia, was retired. After 20 years at the helm, Sean still dreams of sailing again, saying, "The ship is magical. If you want to get 500 kids vaccinated, all you do is say, 'We're going out on the ship on Friday,' and you'll have a thousand." A volunteer stint keeping the then-struggling organization afloat rerouted Sean's career from corporate law to community service. He and his staff continue navigating funding threats and political headwinds to serve the city's most vulnerable families. Now we can help, through attending the Floating Hospital Summer Gala or providing a donation to support the organization that helped so many Irish and other newcomers survive and thrive in New York. FLOATING HOSPITAL LINKS WebsiteSummer Gala TicketsGivingFacebookInstagramLinkedInBlue Sky IRISH STEW LINKS Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInMedia Partner: IrishCentral Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 17; Total Episode Count: 158 Send us Fan Mail

Balmy spring weather lured Irish Stew cohosts John Lee and Martin Nutty to Central Park to record this episode in an urban pine forest, steps from the site of Seneca Village where so many Irish immigrants once lived. Backed by a chorus of birdsong, the podcasters preview their most ambitious show yet: Fresh Stew LIVE, a podcast recording before a live audience with historian and now novelist Terry Golway on Monday, June 1st, at Ernie O'Malley's,140 E 27th Street, New York City. Tickets are on sale at Eventbrite. Terry will spin tales from his new thriller Terror From America: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure, telling how New York to break up the Fenians responsible for Irish American dynamite campaign in London in the 1880s. The evening will open with a fiddler to set the Holmesian and Irish mood setting the stage for the centerpiece conversation with Terry, with dramatic flourishes from actor Mick Mellamphy and musical accents from the fiddler. Once the program winds down, Terry will stick around to sign books (cash or check only) while legendary uilleann piper Chris Byrne of Black 47 fame leads a session to keep the craic going, The evening will include prize drawings and the first drink on in Irish Stew. The Fresh Stew LIVE episode with Terry Golway recorded that night will drop in early June. Links Tickets:  Fresh Stew LIVE with Terry Golway Terry Golway Book Link:  Terror From America: A Sherlock Holmes AdventureWebsiteFacebookLinkedInErnie O’Malley’s Irish Stew Links Website Home PageFacebookInstagramLinkedInMedia Partner: IrishCentral Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 16; Total Episode Count: 157 Send us Fan Mail