Siobhan Dennehy is Echo's Choice for 2025

Siobhan Dennehy, a tireless and outstanding frontline advocate for Irish immigrants in the United States, and a champion for quality of life for these new Americans, is the Irish Echo's Irish American of the Year for 2025.

Dennehy, a native of Ireland and graduate of Trinity College Dublin, has worked for the Emerald Isle Immigration Center in New York for more than twenty years. She is currently Emerald Isle's Executive Director.

The EIIC's Mission Statement could well be Dennehy's own. It states "The Emerald Isle Immigration Center (EIIC) is a not for profit entity created to exercise and protect the privileges and interests of the community; to foster a healthy interest in the civic affairs of the community, to help immigrants acquire U.S. citizenship, and to inquire into civic abuses and seek reformation thereof."

This is a somewhat reserved use of language. Emerald Isle has long found itself standing in the front line of Irish America's battle to make America a welcoming place for those Irish who would choose to call it home, and legally so.

Emerald Isle's original office is in Woodside, Queens. It is this month opening a second office in the Bronx. It is expected that with even more perilous times ahead for undocumented Irish immigrants, and indeed the very idea of legal Irish immigration to America, Dennehy and her dedicated team will be facing heightened challenges in this coming year.

Siobhan Dennehy joins a distinguished and varied Irish American of the Year roster that features our 2024 Irish American of the Year, former New York State Assemblyman and Irish American Presidential Forum founder John Dearie, labor champion John "Chick" Donohue, Professor Christine Kinealy, hotelier and philanthropist John Fitzpatrick, former member of the Irish Senate and immigration activist, Billy Lawless, Irish Immigration Reform Movement co-founder Mae O’Driscoll, Congressman Joe Crowley, university lecturer and Great Hunger curriculum pioneer Maureen Murphy, Congressman Peter King, broadcaster Adrian Flannelly, philanthropist Loretta Brennan Glucksman, attorney and rights activist Brian O’Dwyer, author Pete Hamill, Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal, author Colum McCann, former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.