Niall O’Dowd was “at the very center of the Irish American role in the historic Irish peace process,” according to The Guardian newspaper.
He ”brokered talks between the IRA and American officials” that led to the 1994 ceasefire said The New York Times. Now for the first time he tells that inside story of how he became involved in the most successful peace process of the modern era as well as his own unique Irish emigrant story.

The journey from schoolteacher in Ireland to construction worker, journalist, founder and publisher and peacemaker is told for the first time in An Irish Voice.

His 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, coupled with his authentic recounting of the often-harsh reality of emigration and the immigrant’s lot in trying to realize the American dream makes revealing and compelling reading. His friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton and role as guest of President Barack Obama at the White House on St. Patrick’s Day is an extraordinary journey by any standards. To be also recognized by the New York Times as ‘the authentic voice of the Irish in America, who has more knowledge of this community than almost anyone else alive’ is an extraordinary endorsement.

How Niall O’Dowd achieved this standing is a tale of adventure and misadventure, of hard work and tough times, of initiative, determination and sometimes great risk-taking.

 

 

"Now Niall O'Dowd has written an outstanding book which tells, with sympathy, how such attitudes were formed. But An Irish Voice is more than that. On one hand, it is a classic work of emigrant literature which, in the Irish canon, deserves to be assessed alongside such works as Patrick McGill's Children of the Dead End and Donal MacAmlaigh's Diallan Diorat or, in the American, with Barak Obama's Dreams from my Father."

Irish Independent, 27th February 2010