Irish America

Irish America

Pat Hume

The Good Friday Agreement and Beyond

By Mary Pat Kelly
Irish America Newsletter June 17, 2023

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“I was worried about my cousins getting killed,” Kevin Sullivan, Project Director for the Ad Hoc Committee to Protect the Good Friday Agreement said. “My mother was born in Sixmilecross, County Tyrone. My father was a career Army officer, and we lived abroad quite a bit. I often went back to my mother’s home place. I saw when the violence began and felt my own family was at … [Read more...] about The Good Friday Agreement and Beyond

Those We Lost

By Mary Gallagher

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Stephen Downey  (1937-2021) Speechwriter and communications consultant Stephen Downey died in early December 2021, aged 84. Married to lauded cabaret singer and musical theater actress KT Sullivan, Downey was a passionate supporter and aficionado of the arts, and served as president of both the Yeats Drama Society and the New York Browning Society. Born in Providence, Rhode … [Read more...] about Those We Lost

Pat Hume Remembered

Mary Pat Kelly
IA Newsletter September 18, 2021

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Pat Hume, the widow of the late SDLP leader and Nobel prize winner John Hume died on September 2nd. A former teacher, Pat worked alongside her husband throughout his career – from the civil rights movement in the 1960s to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, and was deeply involved in the Derry community. Her longtime friend, the author Mary Pat Kelly recalls the woman that she … [Read more...] about Pat Hume Remembered

To Live For Ireland

Mary Pat Kelly
IA Newsletter, August 18, 2020

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Mary Pat Kelly writes about her friendship with politician and peacemaker, John Hume “Mr. Hume says Northern Ireland is too complicated to reduce to a Yes/No proposition,” Ted Smyth said to me. Fall 1976. I’m an Associate Producer at Good Morning America and Ted’s the Press Secretary for the Irish Embassy. We didn’t realize how young we were – Ted wasn’t 30; I was 31 and John … [Read more...] about To Live For Ireland