Irish American Democrats

Stella O’Leary (President)

url Stella O’Leary graduated from University College, Dublin, Ireland with degrees in Arts and Library Science. With the award of an UNESCO scholarship, she traveled to America to archive a collection of rare Irish books and manuscripts at the Catholic University of America. With a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, she co-authored Classical Scholarship-An Annotated Bibliography published in 1985.

In 1996, she founded Irish American Democrats, a Political Action Committee, to support the re-election of President Clinton. The purpose of the PAC was to ensure that the Irish peace process, under the direction of Senator George Mitchell, would continue until a settlement was reached. That peace process concluded in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement which is a model of how ethnic conflicts should be reconciled.

Brian O’Dwyer

Brian O’Dwyer serves as a partner of O’Dwyer & Bernstien, a law firm in New York City. The law firm which concentrates in Labor Law, Employee Benefit Law, Immigrants Rights, Personal Injury and Government Representation. He regularly appears on Local and National TV as a commentator on legal matters.

Brian O’Dwyer was a founder of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, the largest Irish Immigrant Center in the United States. In over its ten years in existence the center has helped literally thousands of Irish men and women as they have immigrated to New York City. The center also serves as a focal point for the advocacy of Irish Immigrant causes. In recognition of his work at the Center he has been awarded innumerable awards including, Citation in Irish America’s Top 100, the New York City Council Spirit of New York Award and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. He was awarded papal honors when Edward Cardinal Egan of New York named him Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher.

Mr. O’Dwyer was National Chairman of Irish Americans for Clinton Gore in 1992 and Chairman of Irish Americans for Gore in 2000. He was part of the delegation that accompanied President Clinton on each of his three trips to Ireland and served as an adviser to the White House on Irish issues. He was appointed by President Clinton, as a Commissioner of the Presidents Commission on White House Fellowships. In January 2001 he was awarded the Directors Citation for exemplary public service by the White House Director of the Office of Personnel, citing his work on the commission.

In 2006 he was designated as one of New York’s “Super Lawyers” (top 5% of all lawyers in Manhattan.)

Brent O’Leary (New York)

Brent[1] Brent O’Leary is a business attorney and grassroots politician. He resided in Tokyo for 10 years where he was chair of Democrats Abroad Japan and was elected to the Democratic National Committee from 2004-2008 to represent all Democrats residing in Asia. During this time, he worked as a corporate and finance attorney for White & Case, LLC and was Chair of the Corporate Counsel Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

After moving back to New York, Brent was a superdelegate for President Barack Obama and coordinated Irish Americans for Obama in NY.

He founded the Hunters Point Civic Association to be a resource for the community and advocate for neighborhood concerns and was one of the original founders of the Boys & Girls Club of Sunnyside/Woodside which provides afterschool programs and tutoring for local kids.

In 2010, he was recognized by the Irish Echo as one of the top 40 under 40 Irish Americans for his work.

He went to Trinity College, Hartford and did a study abroad to study Irish history at University College Galway before getting his law degree from Boston University Law School

Brent is currently employed as a Senior Legal Compliance Counsel for Bloomberg LP and resides in Queens, New York.

Dennis Gallagher (Colorado)

Dennis Gallagher, currently elected city auditor for Denver, Colorado has served in the Colorado House, Senate, and Denver City Council. He served for 16 years on the Colorado Legislative Audit Committee during his 20 years in the Senate. He serves on the advisory committee for the Denver American Ireland Fund events. Dennis is vice chair of the James Joyce Reading and Marching Society of Greater Metropolitan Denver.He was grand marshall of last year’s St. Patrick’s Parade in Denver. He takes students from Denver’s Regis University to Ireland for two weeks every summer. He gives lots of historic neighborhood and cemetery tours, and always carries voter registration applications. His ancestors came from Cork and Tipperary on his mom’s side and Sligo and Galway on his dad’s side.

Bruce Morrison (Maryland)

Bruce A. Morrison is Chairman of the Morrison Public Affairs Group (MPAG), which he founded in 2001 to conduct and supervise a broad practice involving strategic advice and representation for both domestic and international clients. From 1983 to 1991, Mr. Morrison represented the Third District of Connecticut (New Haven) in the U.S. House of Representatives. He also served on the Judiciary Committee, where he specialized in immigration. His 1990 legislation created the “Morrison visa” program under which almost 50,000 Irish men and women received green cards in the early 1990s. Since 1991, Mr. Morrison has traveled frequently to Northern Ireland and has been involved in many aspects of the Peace Process. In 1992, he advised Bill Clinton, while a Presidential candidate, on issues related to Northern Ireland. He continued to provide advice and information to the Clinton White House from 1993 to 2001, including assistance on negotiations leading to IRA cessations in 1994 and 1997. In 1992 and 1996, he was Co-Chairman of Irish-Americans for Clinton-Gore.

Mary Kate Cunningham (Washington, DC)

Mary Kate Cunningham serves as Senior Manager of Public Policy at ASAE. Prior to this role, she worked at the Federation of American Scientists as the Special Advisor to the President. From 2009-2011, Cunningham worked for the House Armed Services Committee serving in the Communications Office and the Seapower Subcommittee. Cunningham graduated with her Masters in Strategic Security Studies from the National Defense University. She received her Bachelor’s degree from The Catholic University of America where she studied Political Science. Cunningham also serves as the Chair of the DC Public Education Fund Young Professionals Committee and as a member of The Tax Coalition and the Truman National Security Project. In December, she received the 2013 “Up and Coming Practitioner” award from the Professional Women in Advocacy Conference.

Nancy Grandquist (Louisiana)

Nancy Campbell Grandquist Fields is a home builder by trade and a veteran community banker by profession who has evaluated proposals to the U.S Department of Treasury/CDFI Fund New Market Tax Credit program (created under President Clinton’s Administration),on a contractual basis, for the past 5 years. As an Irish American Democrat she has dedicated the past 30 years to helping underserved Americans (African, Cajun, Creole,French, Hispanic, Irish and Native ), in six middle America states, access grants and subsidized loans for affordable housing and community reinvestment. She worked on Senator Kennedy’s campaign for President in 1980, participated in President Carter’s Friendship Force to Ireland in 1978,was a recipient of a President Clinton medal as vp of a FHLBank in 1995, was a campaign volunteer for Secretary of State Clinton’s Senatorial and Presidential campaigns and a campaign volunteer for President Obama. In 2008, she spent 5 weeks in Ireland (Galway, Belfast, Dublin)with a group from Louisiana State University studying the history of the conflict in Ireland and mass communications in a global economy.

Linda Dyer Hart (South Carolina)

Linda Dyer Hart grew up in Ridgefield, Connecticut. She graduated from School of the Holy Child in Suffern, New York and attended college at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.Over the past 30 years, Linda has volunteered and worked on numerous local and national political campaigns in the Greater Charlotte, North Carolina area. She is a member of the Irish American Democrats of North Carolina & South Carolina, the Irish Society of Charlotte and the South Carolina Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians. In 2013 and 2014 she was appointed the S.C. Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Chair of Immigration and Legislation for the State of South Carolina. In the Carolina’s, she has been active working on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, meeting with Senate and Congressional Representatives from North Carolina & South Carolina in the Carolina’s and in Washington, D.C. She was also a Team Leader in York County, South Carolina for President Obama’s Presidential campaign.

Linda is a small business owner of an events planning company, Dyer Hart Productions. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Annual Charlotte St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which has grown from a small event in 1996 to a crowd of over 70,000 spectators in 2014. The parade is in its 19^th year. She is also the Founder & organizer of the Annual “Charlotte Goes Green” Festival. She is involved in the community serving on the planning committee of the 2014 Women’s Equality Day Celebration in Charlotte, NC and serves on the Tega Cay Area Board for the York County Chamber of Commerce. In 2013, she was awarded Tega Cay Area Business Person of the Year by the York County Regional Chamber.

Her ancestors came from County Sligo in Ireland. Linda currently resides in Tega Cay, S.C. with her husband, Frank. They have two children, Deirdre and Brandon, who live in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, IL.

Nate Smith (Washington, DC)

Originally from Southington, Conn., Nate Smith currently serves as the Director of Government Relations for the American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) where he manages ATSSA’s Washington, DC legislative office focusing on both federal and grassroots lobbying, government relations-related communications, advocacy strategy, and PAC management.

Prior to arriving at ATSSA, Smith served as the Senior Government Relations Specialist at the National Court Reporters Association. Before that, he was a congressional intern for former U.S. Rep. Tom Allen (ME-01) and participated extensively on the John Kerry for President campaign in New Hampshire.

Smith is a Past President of the Washington, DC Chapter of the University of New HampshireAlumni Association and also has served as the Deputy Chair for the Young Professionals in Transportation. Smith is an active member of the Road Gang – Washington’s Transportation Fraternity – and the Association of Government Relations Professionals, where he is a formerBoard member of the Young Leadership Network.

Smith is an honors graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and International Affairs and a minor in Spanish. Through UNH’s Center for International Education, he attended the Centro de Lenguas Modernas at the University of Granada in Granada, Spain.