Civil Rights Advocate

In his 70 years in New York, Paul O’Dwyer has espoused the ideals of his adopted country in every way. An unparalleled defender of human and civil rights, he has worked with the poor, the oppressed, and all minorities. 

Paul O’Dwyer has been a father figure to countless Irish immigrants, who reveled in his courageous stands on unpopular issues. O’Dwyer has always been an astute reader of the political scene, and his influence has been felt by more than one elected official. A civil rights lawyer by profession, O’Dwyer became New York City Council President, and was appointed as the city’s commissioner to the United Nations by former Mayor David Dinkins. 

His interest in the political scene always extended to his native country, and O’Dwyer was a staunch defender of Irish nationalism for many years. But he was also quick to embrace the political representatives of loyalist paramilitaries when they sought him out because of his work with unionists’ political development in the 1970s and 1980s. 

O’Dwyer, who is 80 years old, spends much of his time at his ranch in upstate New York, where each year he hosts a fundraiser for the O’Dwyer Cheshire House, a residence for physically and mentally handicapped people he built in his native Mayo.