Board of Directors
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T.J. ENGLISH (President) is a former New York City taxi driver and the author of five non-fiction books, including The Westies, Paddy Whacked and The Savage City. His book Havana Nocturne was a New York Times best-seller and was a finalist for an Edgar Award in the category of Best Fact Crime. English has written for many national magazines, including Esquire, Playboy, New York and Irish America magazine. In addition, he has written episodes of the television crime dramas NYPD Blue and Homicide: Life on the Streets, for which he was awarded the Humanitas Prize for humanitarian writing in the arts.
LARRY KIRWAN (Vice-President) is the leader, singer/guitarist and writer for the political rock band Black 47. The band has released fourteen CDs, appeared on Leno, Letterman and O’Brien, etc. He has written eleven plays and musicals along with two novels, Liverpool Fantasy and Rockin’ The Bronx, and a memoir Green Suede Shoes. Kirwan hosts and produces Celtic Crush for SiriusXM Satellite Radio and writes a weekly column for the Irish Echo.
ASHLEY DAVIS (Secretary), raised on the plains of Kansas, is a vocalist and musician whose songs are as much a product of the natural beauty found in her childhood environment as they are the bluegrass, folk and classic country sounds that informed her youth. She has a MA from the University of Limerick in Traditional Irish Music. She released her first full-length album, Closer to You, in 2005 and received high acclaim. Her sophomore effort, Down By the Sea, plays host to a myriad of Celtic music legends such as Paddy Moloney, Moya Brennan, and Cathy Jordan. Davis has collected stories from her travels and blends these with the storytelling traditions of heryouth to give her live shows a mix of traditional Celtic music and original songs.
MALACHY MCCOURT (Co-Director) was born in Brooklyn, NY and from the age of three was raised in Limerick, Ireland. He returned to the land of his birth at age twenty and began his long-running career as a stage and screen actor, raconteur, radio personality, and writer. He has appeared on and off Broadway in Mass Appeal, Da, The Hostage, Inherit the Wind, and A Couple of Blaguards, which he co-authored and starred in with his brother Frank. His TV credits include appearances on many soap operas and as a guest on The Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien and The Late, Late Show. His movie career has also been varied, with roles in The Molly McGuires, She’s the One, Devil’s Own, Green Card, and many others. As a writer, he has published a New York Times best selling memoir, A Monk Swimming, as well as a history of the song Danny Boy, a history of the Claddagh ring, and Malachy McCourt’s History of Ireland.
PETER QUINN (Co-Director), was raised and educated in the Bronx.
He served as chief speech writer for New York Governors Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo. He is the author of three books: Banished Children of Eve, which won an American Book Award, Hour of the Cat, and Looking for Jimmy: In Search of Irish America. As well as publishing articles and reviews in The New York Times, Wilson Quarterly, American Heritage and other publications, Quinn has been a commentator in Ric Burn’s New York: A Documentary Film; the Academy Award-nominated Passion of St. Rose; and The American Experience: Stephen Foster. He co-wrote McSorley’s New York, which won a local Emmy, and was an advisor for Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York.
MARY PAT KELLY (Co-Director) is a distinguished author and filmmaker. Her awarding winning documentaries To Live for Ireland, Home Away from Home: The Yanks in Ireland, and Proudly We Served: The Men of the U.S.S. Mason, were all shown on PBS. She wrote and directed the dramatic feature film Proud, starring Ossie Davis and Stephen Rea. An author of two books about the film director Martin Scorsese, she also published the non-fiction book Good to Go: The Rescue of Scott O’Grady from Bosnia, and two novels, Special Intentions (based on her experiences as a nun) and Galway Bay. She has worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter for Paramount and Columbia Pictures and in New York City as an associate producer with Good Morning America and Saturday Night Live. Mary Pat was born and raised in Chicago and currently resides in New York City.
CHARLES HALE (Co-Director) Charles R. Hale was born, raised and educated in New York. He, along with Malachy McCourt, is a cofounder of the Irish American Writers and Artists’ Salon. The Salon allows writers and artists the opportunity to present works in progress or published works at venues throughout the New York metropolitan area. He is a former partner of a NYC based consulting firm Hale, Borenstein Ltd., which specialized in succession planning for family-owned and closely-held businesses. He has a Masters in cultural history and has had a number of his family and ancestral history essays published in literary magazines. He has now gathered his stories into a multimedia performance, which incorporates voice, photos, music and live performance.
TIM O'BRIEN (Co-Director) A native of New Haven, Connecticut, Tim O’Brien is an illustrator and portrait painter. O’Brien creates intricately detailed illustrations and his art frequently appears on the cover of TIME and been featured in Esquire, Der Spiegel, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, and Playboy. His other clients include book publishers, such as HarperCollins, Penguin, Scholastic, and Simon & Schuster, and advertising agencies. O’Brien’s work has been recognized by Communication Arts, Graphis, American Illustration, The Art Directors Club and the Society of Publication Designers. He is a winner of the Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators. In addition to being an illustrator, O’Brien is a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He also serves on the executive committee of the Society of Illustrators as Vice President. O’Brien lives in the historic Flatbush section of Brooklyn.
