• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Irish America

Irish America

        • Who We Are
          • About Us
          • Irish America Team
        • The Lists
          • Business 100
          • Hall of Fame
          • Health and Life Sciences 50
          • Wall Street 50
        • Highlights
          • History
          • In This Issue
          • Music
          • Politics
          • Sports
          • Travel
        • Columns
          • First Word
          • Hibernia
          • Quote Unquote
          • Slainte
          • Those we Lost
          • What are you like?
          • Wild Irish Women
          • Window on The Past
  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • About This Magazine
    • Irish America Team
  • In This Issue
  • Hall of Fame
  • The Lists
    • Business 100
    • Hall of Fame
    • Health and Life Sciences 50
    • Wall Street 50
  • Archives
    • Magazine
    • Highlights
  • Travel
  • Events

Joe Sexton:
The New York Times

By Irish America Staff
April / May 2002

April 1, 2002 by Leave a Comment

Joe Sexton with his daughter Lucy.

After the attacks of September 11, the public turned to newspapers in a fever reliable information on a situation that was changing by the hour. At The New York Times, Joe Sexton, deputy metropolitan editor, distinguished himself by overseeing much of the paper’s acclaimed local investigative and enterprise efforts. In the early days, when estimates of casualties ran as high as 7,000, Sexton edited a series of sensitive reports that showed that while there had been terrible loss of life, the city totals were too high by several factors. Sexton also oversaw detailed reports on the investigation into why the towers collapsed, including the first stories that reported the inquiry was being thwarted by the quick sale for scrap of key structural pieces. And before he edited a major piece on firefighters’ difficulties with communications, equipment and organization on September 11, he personally read thousands of pages of Fire Department oral histories.

A Brooklyn native, resident of Park Slope and father of two daughters, Jane and Lucy, Sexton went to Xavier High School, the University of Wisconsin, and spent a year at the School of Irish Studies in Ballsbridge, Dublin, where the teachers included Eavan Boland and Seamus Deane. The Sextons are from Limerick. On his mother’s side, his great-uncle Lefty Sullivan pitched for the Chicago Black Sox; on his father’s side is a mayor, long-ago of Limerick. Until recently, his family owned a 15th century Norman castle outside Corofin, Co. Clare.

Sexton, 42, began his career at the Times as a sportswriter, then worked as a reporter on the metropolitan desk before becoming an editor. ♦

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Highlights

News
Articles and stories from Irish America.....
MORE

Hibernia
News from Ireland and happenings in Irish America.....
MORE

Those We Lost
Remembering some of the great Irish Americans who have passed.....
MORE

Slainte!
Discover Irish ancestry, predilections, and recipes.....
MORE

Photo Album
Irish America readers share the stories of their ancestors....
MORE

More Articles

  • <b>Fiona Shaw: A Modern Classic</b>Fiona Shaw: A Modern Classic
    She says she's jetlagged, that her head feels as if an arrow is piercing both temples, but Fiona Sha...
  • <b>Angela's Ashes Loses Its Voice</b>Angela's Ashes Loses Its Voice
    Anyone who has read Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes -- and by now that probably takes in about half t...
  • <b>The Boy from Southie</b>The Boy from Southie
    Michael Patrick MacDonald was in the third grade when the anti-busing riots broke out in South Bost...
  • <b>The Connemara Prints</b>The Connemara Prints
    Fashion and celebrity photographer Kit DeFever (who has shot many Irish America covers) turns his ey...

Footer

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Subscribe

  • Subscribe
  • Give a Gift
  • Newsletter
  • Customer Service

Additional

  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use & Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · IrishAmerica Child Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in