Episodes

We have two guests this time around, young thirty-somethings and brothers, Peter and Bryan Fahy , originally from Salthill in Ireland's Galway City, who came to live in New York just only in the last ten years, but are in the States now for the long haul. But we also have a third guest: the City of The Tribes itself–we are taking a deep 'Blackrock' dive into Galway City, which also happens to be the hometown of Paul Finnegan , the presenter and producer of CenterPieceNY , so this one is close to...

Legalizing the Irish. In the days before Monday October 14th 1991, thousands converged on a post office in Merrifield, Virginia. They had come from throughout the United States and represented countries the world over. They all had one thing in common. They were undocumented immigrants, and by being there, at that post office in Virginia, at that time, they had a real shot at securing a green card, and coming out of the shadows in America. It was the very first running of the Diversity program, ...

Dubliner Susan McKeown has made a career in music. This is no small feat, and tells us she is an accomplished singer and innovative songwriter. And now, through the Cuala Foundation, she's become a social entrepreneur in the arts. And when you add to the mix that she is also a mother who single-handedly raised her daughter, you're learning about someone who revels in taking on the world when the odds may not be in her favor. In short, she's a warrior. A Celtic warrior. With her dream of making...

Pat Lally is a Galwayman. He hails from the county in Ireland that is the second largest of that country's famed set of thirty two. And that county is Galway. County Galway is named for Ireland's famous, most western city, Galway City, which sits on the shores of beautiful Galway Bay, itself famed in song, with the Aran Islands strung across its entrance like three precious emeralds in a necklace. And on those weather-beaten islands, early settlers brought forth elaborate stone forts from the ...

Few neighborhoods, if any, in New York City have gone through as many upheavals over the last 60 years, as has Bushwick in Brooklyn. For an area that covers a mere two and a half square miles, the sea-changes it has witnessed during this period, both economic and demographic, have been massive. And its residents have lived through times of great urban peril. But Bushwick has remained a community. How it has retained its distinct and unique identity through so much turmoil, is due in no small ...

{Sadly, dear Peggy passed away on June 3rd 2025. She will be forever missed.} Perhaps it came about from the confines of her upbringing, and the little say she had in decisions that greatly affected her life, but Peggy Cooney has a rebel's soul. And as with all the rebellious, she has come to negotiate the world on her terms only. Peggy who has turned 90 years of age in the midst of our great pandemic, was raised in County Meath in Ireland. Her county is often called Royal Meath, so-named, not...

John Houlihan is a native of Ringsend, a fishing village in Ireland, absorbed long ago into the great city of Dublin, the nation's capital. But Ringsend still retains its unique customs and traditions, and a flavor of a Dublin of a by-gone era, which John exemplifies. John came to America in 1970, and has made his home among the Italians of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. John's working life in New York was mostly spent navigating its vast, and famous, 24-hour subway system as a train conductor–as goo...

John McGurrin was a mere lad of twelve years when his family upped stakes in his native County Cavan, Ireland, and headed for New York, unlike many Irish immigrants who arrive on the shores of the United States as young, single adults. It was 1955 and he had his whole life ahead of him, a life that brought him and his family great tragedy and hardship in his adopted country, but also great opportunity and excitement. It's been a life where he's travelled the world over, and a life he continues t...

Like many a man before him, Michael Doherty left his home in Ireland, and followed his brother to New York, in search of a steady wage. What he hadn't figured on was the big down payment he'd have to pay to America soon after arriving in New York, to prove his commitment to his new country. Within months of his arrival, Mike was drafted by the US military and packed off to Vietnam, where he served his tour of duty as a medic. Almost a year later, with war behind him, he finally embarked on hi...

Our very first episode! Though still a teenager, Helen Ward left her small village in rural County Longford, Ireland, in 1960, to come to New York. Now a mother, a grandmother, and a widow, living in the traditionally Irish neighborhood of Woodside, Queens, she has led a full life, with its share of ups and downs, including one very traumatic family event. Learn of her tough upbringing in Ireland, finding her own voice in America, her sustaining faith, and dealing with the pandemic of 2020. And...

We will be dropping our first couple of full episodes in the run up to Thanksgiving (that's before November 26th, for those of you who do not live Stateside). In episode 1, we'll be talking with Helen Ward, a great lady who came to New York in 1960, and who has led a remarkable life since. In episode 2, Mike Doherty, from South Armagh, tells of his service in Vietnam, his love for the US, and the many twists and turns on the road since he arrived in New York in 1963. In the meantime, you can lis...