From Crumlin and Tallaght to the City of Brotherly Love, Irish Stew spins another Philadelphia story, appropriately timed to America's Fourth of July celebration timed to the Declaration of Independence forged in Philadelphia 250 years ago.

Recorded in advance at the Irish American Business Chamber & Network's Ambassador Awards Luncheon, cohost John Lee talks with John Cummins and Adele Farrell, who drew on their working-class Dublin to build business success and rewarding lives in America.

They tell of brutal Boston winters, tropical job sites in Puerto Rico, founding their breakout company NEXA Enterprise Asset Management, successfully exiting from it, and founding their new business initiative, Cummins Business Ventures.

The pair underscore the importance of the Irish American Business Chamber and Network in their success story, calling it the “missing piece” they wished they'd found on day one. They looked forward to the Chamber’s signature Ambassador Awards event every year, especially in 2023 when John and Adele received the IABCN’s prestigious Taoiseach Award.

The episode wraps with a heartfelt Seamus Plug. This October, in partnership with the IABCN, John and Adele are launching a fundraising gala benefiting The Autism Hub, a new Dublin-based charity providing assessments, therapies, and family support for autism services in Ireland, a cause that's become deeply personal for them both. Hosted by their Rise Above Fund and the IABCN, The Infinity Gala will be held on Oct 15 in Warrington, PA.

It’s a warm, genuine, and often inspiring Global Irish Nation Conversation about finding your tribe in Philadelphia, three thousand miles from home.

LINKS

• John Cummins LinkedIn
• Adele Farrell LinkedIn
• The Rise Above Fund
• Irish American Business Chamber & Network
• Infinity Gala

IRISH STEW LINKS

• Website Home Page
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Media Partner: IrishCentral
  
  

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 20; Total Episode Count: 161

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What's Sherlock Holmes doing in New York's most Fenian pub?

That's the intrigue at the heart of Terror From America: A Sherlock Holmes
Adventure, the debut novel from journalist and historian Terry Golway, and the
question Irish Stew podcast cohosts Martin Nutty and John Lee set out to answer
before a packed, raucous house at Ernie O'Malley's on the first of June.

A Staten Island native with a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Rutgers and two decades
of political reporting at the New York Observer, Golway has written more than a
dozen acclaimed works of nonfiction. But fiction, he tells us, unlocks something
facts alone cannot: "You can learn as much about history through a novel as you
can in a history book."

His novel imagines Britain dispatching the world's greatest detective to infiltrate
the Irish American revolutionary underground of 1885 New York, a mission
rooted in a real and largely forgotten chapter of history. "The original crime is
based on something that actually happened," Golway explains. "Several Irish
Americans were going to try to blow up London Bridge…instead they blew
themselves up."

Holmes's investigation pulls him into the orbit of real historical figures, none
more compelling than John Devoy. In a dramatic reading brought brilliantly to
life by actor Mick Mellamphy, Devoy records in his diary what Charles Parnell
had told him when they met: "The American people are now the arbiters of the
Irish question,” to which Devoy replied, "I almost had tears in my eyes when I
heard those words. That was exactly what we in New York wished to be, the
arbiters of the Irish question."

And what does Holmes make of the Fenians he encounters? After infiltrating New
York’s Irish revolutionary underground as an itinerant fiddler at Clan na Gael
gatherings, Sherlock observed, "The Fenians who inhabit the back rooms of New
York's clubhouses and taverns bear little resemblance to the crude caricatures
portrayed in some less reputable newspapers. Formidable not because of their
capacity for mayhem, but because of the power they yield over the production of
memories."

Fiddler Eileen McLain provided the evening’s musical accents while Mick
Mellamphy served as producer. Past Irish Stew guests Peter Quinn, Larry Kirwan,
and Maura Clare were in the house as were Black 47 co-founder Chris Byrne and
Irish American Writers & Artists president Liza Engesser.

LINKS

TERRY GOLWAY

• Website
• Substack: Observer
• LinkedIn
• Book: Terror From America
• Amazon: Terror From America

ERNIE O'MALLEY'S

• Website

IRISH STEW LINKS

• Website Home Page
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Media Partner: IrishCentral

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 19; Total Episode Count: 160

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When Frederick Douglass left Belfast in 1845, only seven years after escaping slavery, he declared: "Wherever else I feel myself to be a stranger, I will remember I have a home in Belfast." That remarkable statement from a Black abolitionist finding radical welcome in a 19th-century Irish city is the beating heart of North Star, the immersive musical and theatrical experience that Northern Ireland-based DJ, broadcaster, and creative producer Kwame Daniels brings to New York's Irish Arts Center, June 3–21.

Irish Stew cohosts Martin Nutty and John Lee met Kwame at the Irish Arts Center a few days before opening night and recorded this episode in the IAC Library

He relates that his journey to Belfast began in a Ghanaian household in East London, where identity was worn proudly inside the home and navigated carefully beyond it. "As soon as we entered the house again, it was absolutely back to the background, the roots, and the culture," he recalls. "But outside, there was almost a code-switch going on. We were firm in our identity, and yet we were also aware of our surroundings and how we had to move within them." That same fluency served him when he arrived in Derry in 1997 and found a city divided along lines he didn't yet understand. Music became his passport across the sectarian divide. "I was bringing in sets of decks (the equipment DJs use to play, control, and manipulate music). That's the conversation, all the other conversations come out of that."

Kwame relates that Douglass's Belfast story with his evocation of finding a home in the city hit him with the force of revelation. "A Black man, an enslaved man on the run in 1845 and that's his response to being in Belfast. That has to be the starting point for us to reset."

The result is a 77-minute production, one minute for every year of Douglass's life, an immersive experience fusing hip-hop, jazz, gospel, classical, and electronic music with spoken word, choral arrangements, and the honest voices of young people from both Belfast and New York. "You're going to be presented with a level of musicianship that is extraordinary, and it's unlike anything you've ever seen."

North Star runs June 3–21 at the Irish Arts Center, tickets at irishartscenter.org.

Next up from Irish Stew, Fresh Stew LIVE with Terry Golway on his new thriller Terror From America: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, recorded before sold out audience in the Malachy McCourt Room at Ernie O’Malley’s Pub in NYC with the fiddler Eileen McLain and actor Mick Mellamphy enhancing the experience.

LINKS

NORTH STAR

• Irish Arts Center info and tickets
• Instagram

KWAME DANIELS

• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

ORGANIZATIONS

• Bounce Culture
• Solab

IRISH STEW LINKS

• Website Home Page
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Media Partner: IrishCentral

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 18; Total Episode Count: 159

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