From illegal emigrant to presidential confidant
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Wednesday March 03 2010
FROM emigrant house painter and part-time Gaelic footballer to confidant of Bill and Hillary Clinton and guest of President Barack Obama at the White House on St Patrick's Day is an extraordinary journey by any standards. How Niall O'Dowd achieved this standing is a tale of adventure and misadventure, of hard work and hard drinking, of initiative, determination and great risk-taking.
His story is of a young Irish emigrant, once illegal in the United States, who rose to become literally the 'Irish Voice' in the USA.
He is founder and editor of The Irish Voice newspaper and Irish America magazine and creator of irishcentral.com, the global Irish portal launched in site 2009.
He is also the author of Fire in the Morning, a book on the Irish in the World Trade Centre on 9/11.
The fact that Drogheda and Louth did much to mould him can be a source of immense pride by the Boyneside.
Now the time has come to tell the story, and Niall O'Dowd knows how to tell a story!
On Tuesday of this week, Taoiseach Brian Cowen launched the Niall O'Dowd story in the Merrion Hotel.
It's a publication that gives an insider's view of the Clintons, Ted Kennedy, Gerry Adams and major players in the world of Irish-American politics on both sides of the water during the historic peace process.
