CenterPieceNY

Jane McCooey thrives when she’s bringing people together to solve a problem, to the benefit of all.
When Jane, from County Armagh in Ireland, is confronted with obstacles, she’s not afraid to reach out for help, and her first port of call is often to tap into the familiar power of sisterhood.
Before you know it, she’s fallen in with a band of sisters. She’s done this repeatedly–sports being a prime example–and more recently in the world of work.
Why there, you ask?
Because, you could say, men and women are separated by a common workplace, and maybe that needs to be looked at.
Along this most ancient of human fault lines, Jane has gotten into her stride tackling the seemingly inherent assumptions in the division of labor between men and women. And one aspect of work is leadership, which of late often begs the question: “who gets to lead?”
And the answer, too often, is “not a woman.”
So last year, 2022, Jane, an attorney by profession, founded a vibrant group named Women With Ambition.
When Jane seeks to create positive change, she does it from within. Her initial goal for Women With Ambition is to nurture positive change from within women themselves. And Women With Ambition seeks to create changes in men too, also from within, by fostering open conversation and recruiting allies.
Jane is a uniter, not a divider.
Some links of note from Jane's story:

• Women With Ambition
• University College Dublin
• Queens College, Cambridge
• Morgan Stanley
• Liberty Gaels

Thanks to Purple-Planet for Intro/Outro music, and to FreeSound for the sound FX, and some music too!
For technical reasons we weren't able to give a shout out this month to the Celtic Irish American Academy, but we'll be sure to give them one next month. Support its work by donating (in USD $, with tax exemption benefits) here: CIAA Scholastic.
Thank you to our sponsor, the Fox Lifestyle Hospitality Group. Pay a visit to one of their great restaurants.
A special shout out to Lochlainn Harte, Imaging Manager at Newstalk Radio, for extra, top class, audio mixing.

'Tis the festive season, and as yet another year ends, a time for self-reflection.
So we thought we'd take a moment this Christmas to have a closer look at this podcast, delivered in the words of creator, producer and host Paul Finnegan, to explain why he does it, and to give you a walk-through on how he goes about doing it. We hope you'll find it a relaxing and perhaps thought-provoking, and hopefully entertaining listen, worthy of your precious time.
It's a Christmas Carol, but by no means up to Dickensian snuff, not even in the same universe, so just a sort of Christmas Carol. (A bit of an owl' Christmas Carol, like.) We invite you to share it with good cheer this holiday season.
Here are links to the CenterPieceNY stories that are mentioned in this episode:

• S1E2: Mike Doherty
• S1E4: John Houlihan
• S1E10: Peter and Bryan Fahy, and a tribute to Galway City
• S2E6: Martin Nutty, the Pensive Podcaster
• S2E7: The Computer Club, Part I
• Season Three Introduction: A Conversation with John Lee

Here are links to just some of the other podcasts in the healthy community of podcasters that we have in the Irish community in New York:

• The Irish Stew Podcast
• Navigating New York
• The Long Hall Podcast
• It's Good To Talk

And here's a couple of sites worth an honorable mention:

• Shantalla
• The Irish Business Organization of New York

Learn more about our sponsor: Fox Lifestyle Hospitality Group.
A special shout out to Lochlainn Harte, Imaging Manager at Newstalk Radio, for extra, top class, professional sound editing.
Thanks to Purple-Planet for Intro/Outro and other music, and to FreeSound for the sound FX and also other music .
Check out the Celtic Irish American Academy. Support its work by donating (in USD $, with tax exemption benefits) here: CIAA Scholastic.
W: CenterPieceNY.com. Ratings & reviews here.
FaceBook/Twitter: @CenterPieceNY

Here in the tenth and final episode of Season Two, we get to know Eamon Harkin, originally from Derry in Ireland, who has achieved celebrity in the world of DJs, and is taking dance culture and its community to a whole other level in Queens, the biggest borough in the city, and one that is not so outer-borough anymore.
Eamon’s story takes us from the troubled streets of Derry in the 70s and 80s, over to a hopping London in the 90s, then on to New York, a city in shock in the wake of 9/11, to the gradual rekindling of its cultural fires, and now to its re-emergence from the virus.
It's also a story of a persistent inner voice that refused to be smothered under the weight of practicality and sensibleness, and of finding a way to hear that voice, of making music the medium for bringing that voice to life, with all the risks and ‘leaps of faith’ that path entailed.
There is also a sidebar on how, as luck would have it, CenterPieceNY found Eamon, since he is not super-embedded in NYC's Irish community. It speaks to the wonders of discovery that is omnipresent and ubiquitous in Gotham.
Also, give this article a read for some visuals on Nowadays, the club that Eamon and his business partner, and fellow DJ, Justin Carter opened in Ridgewood, Queens. There's also a great map of NYC neighborhoods to explore there!
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Some additional info:
NowadaysMister Saturday Night
John McDaid and Snow PatrolJohn O'Neill and The Undertones
The TroublesA-LevelsDerry Girls===========================================

Super thanks to our centerpiece, Eamon Harkin himself, for all music heard in this episode (excluding Intro/Outro). His Insta handles are @mistereamonharkin, @mistersundaynyc, @nowadaysnyc and @mistersaturdaynightrecords. And here he is on Linktr.ee.
A special shout out to Lochlainn Harte, Imaging Manager at Newstalk Radio, for extra, top class, professional sound editing.
Thanks to Purple-Planet for Intro/Outro music, and to FreeSound for the sound FX.
Check out the Celtic Irish American Academy. Support its work by donating (in USD $, with tax exemption benefits) here: CIAA Scholastic. (The Academy will be back in real life in Galway this summer, 2022, after pandemic induced inactivity.)
W: CenterPieceNY.com. Ratings & reviews here.
FaceBook/Twitter: @CenterPieceNY

They say that diversity is being asked to the dance, while inclusion is being asked to dance, but belonging is hearing your music play at the dance. To belong is a fundamental human need, but the road to true belonging continues to be a long one for many in the US.
Shelley Ann Quilty-Lake, or simply Shelley, devotes her day, and her life as a lawyer, to those excluded from the dance, and to those who've made it into the dancehall but who aren't allowed onto the dancefloor. Discrimination, racism, and other -isms, are often deeply buried, but she skillfully teases them out to protect her clients. And Shelley knows what it's like to be othered.
Shelley is gay, unapologetically so, now, but that's neither here nor there, to use a common turn-of-phrase among the Irish, when you learn of the totality of the person she is.
She was raised in the countryside of County Wexford in Ireland, where working with horses, and playing field-hockey (at which she excelled) brought her great joy. But even then, even there, her self-awareness was speaking in her ear, first in the whisper of a gentle breeze, and later, as she grew up and left to attend college in Dublin, in the howl of a more persistent, blustery Irish wind.
Yet, it took being in America for Shelley to finally feel free enough to seek belonging. This is the true essence of American freedom, the real pursuit of happiness, not the corrupt mé féin* version in vogue in this country today. There was a choice to be made, and Shelley describes this choice with exquisite eloquence.
From there, it was a natural progression to being an advocate for any category of people that have been historically excluded. Here the universe conspired to help her, when, out of necessity, she took a job as a paralegal, and witnessed how powerful the law can be in protecting the vulnerable.
She had truly found where she belongs.
The Irish have a keen sense of justice, it should be one of their stereotypes, and Shelley embodies this entirely. She is unapologetic in her beliefs, yet operates with kindness and fairness. It is her superpower.
And like all Irish people, she loves being part of the community, which is evidenced by her leadership in several Irish community organizations.
We can safely say–knowing how well Shelley makes choices–that in whatever she is doing, she belongs.
*Gaelic for 'myself', used here in a selfish, self-centered, context.

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Links to accompany this episode:
Meenan & Associates, LLC
Irish Business Organization NY
IABANY
IAW&A
Trinity College Dublin
Shelley the field hockey 'keeper!
Dublin Horse Show
Same-sex Marriage Referendum
Shelley on Twitter: @ShellQL
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Thanks to Purple-Planet and the group Sláinte, via freemusicarchive, for music, and to FreeSound for sound FX and music.
Learn more about Celtic Irish American Academy. Support their work by donating (in USD $) here: CIAA Scholastic.
W: CenterPieceNY.com. Ratings & reviews here.
FaceBook/Twitter: @CenterPieceNY

Claire McGovern is a sustainable interior designer, art advisor and manufacturer, whose recent work uses Irish wool as its basis, a textile she has come to see as a 'miracle fiber' and after listening to this episode you'll think so too.
Claire spent her formative years in a small enclave in south Dublin called Dartry, nestled between the more well-known suburbs of Milltown and Rathmines. Perhaps it was under the shelter of these leafy idyllic suburban surroundings that she first developed her creative flair, and a passion for nature's sustainability on a fragile, threatened planet, or perhaps this evolved on America's 'Left Coast' during her years in San Francisco.
Either way, it is all reflected in her work and in her business. Though she learned early that she, and her family, would not always be sheltered from life's harsher side, she has persevered, always listening to the voice of entrepreneurship inside her, always creating beauty for the rest of us to enjoy, as she draws on the many strands of a thing called 'soft power'.
Claire likes to use the word 'trajectory' when she narrates her life, describing her various physical locales, or the steps of her career. The word connotates propulsion and flight, up off the ground, and is an apt one for Claire to adopt. She used Dublin and her education to catapult her to the States, all the way to the other side of if, before, in the ways of the boomerang, turning back towards the east and New York. And that eastward trajectory is not yet done.
And in New York, she has taken motherhood, that big thing, in her stride along the way. That particular flight path also has a way to go!
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Links of Note for Claire:

Rhyme StudioDonegal Yarns–the genuine DonegalKerry Wollen Mills
Cushendale Woolen Mills
Dartry
Burning Man
Claire in the Irish Times (June 19 2020)
The poetry of Cecilia McGovern (Claire's mum!)
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Thanks to Purple-Planet for music, and to FreeSound for sound FX, and music too.
Learn more about Celtic Irish American Academy. Support their work by donating (in USD $, with tax exemption benefits) here: CIAA Scholastic.
W: CenterPieceNY.com. Ratings & reviews here.
FaceBook/Twitter: @CenterPieceNY