Patricia Harty founded Irish America magazine along with publisher Niall O’Dowd in October 1985. Among Harty’s many interviews in the past 32 years are Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, Wall Street guru Peter Lynch, best-selling author Pat Conroy, Hollywood legend Gregory Peck, corporate titan Jack Welch and Ford Motor Executive Chairman William Clay Ford.
In 2017, Harty received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad from President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins. On October 19, 2015, the 30th anniversary of Irish America, she was presented the Eugene O’Neill award by the Irish American Writers & Artists Association. In 2009, Harty received the Ambassador Award from the St. Patrick’s Committee of Holyoke, Massachusetts for her work “to promote the relationship between the people of the Republic of Ireland and the people of the United States.”
She was twice honored by the Office of the Comptroller of the City of New York for her “outstanding journalistic contributions to the Irish community in New York and throughout the United States.”
And in 2000, she was made a Citizen of the Bronx by Fernando James “Freddy” Ferrer, the Bronx Borough President.
Harty, who is a native of Tipperary, serves on the board of Glucksman Ireland House, NYU’s center for Irish studies. She also serves on the Irish Repertory Theater’s Advisory Board, and on the committee for the annual Women of Concern Luncheon which raises funds for the Irish relief organization Concern Worldwide.
In addition to her book, Greatest Irish Americans of the 20th Century, Harty contributed essays to Being Irish: Personal Reflections on Irish Identity Today, edited by Paddy Logue, and The Irish Face in America by Julia McNamara.
You inspire us all.
Dear Patricia, what a super issue. I loved looking at each story – all terrific until the last – can you really imagine another 4-8 years of that demonic pair in the White House?
I’m disappointed not to hear any response from you to my “The Love Life of Erskine Childers.” I can see you get so many good stories but I thought you’d bite – especially for Childers and his American wife in this centenary year.
Thanks for the email. I’ll read those stories.
Squeaky wheel.
I just saw the Sean Sexton photo you featured taken during the evictions on the Vandeleur Estate in the summer of 1888. My great grandparents were American witnesses. I have published an account of what they saw in the 2015 edition of The Other Clare. I continue to write about my Irish ancestry. Could we exchange more by email?