25 Facts About Niall O'Dowd

Niall O'Dowd was born on 18 May 1953 and is an Irish-born American journalist and author.

Niall O'Dowd was involved in the negotiations leading to the Northern Irish Good Friday Peace Agreement.

Niall O'Dowd is founder of Irish Voice newspaper and Irish America magazine in New York City, as well as overseeing Home and Away newspaper.

Niall O'Dowd is the founder of IrishCentral, an Irish website which he launched in March 2009.

Niall O'Dowd emigrated to the United States in June 1978.

Niall O'Dowd moved to San Francisco where he founded the first new Irish newspaper in California in 50 years, the Irishman Newspaper.

Niall O'Dowd was a founder of the Irish Americans for Clinton campaign in 1991, supporting candidate Bill Clinton for president.

Niall O'Dowd led an Irish American peace delegation to Northern Ireland after Clinton was elected and he acted as intermediary between Sinn Fein and the White House at a critical period in the peace process.

Niall O'Dowd played a key role in securing a US visa for Gerry Adams in February 1994.

Niall O'Dowd's role was featured in the book Daring Diplomacy by The Irish Times journalist Conor O'Clery and in an RTE-PBS documentary entitled An Irish Voice.

Niall O'Dowd has created numerous successful business networks through his publications including the Wall Street 50, Business 100, Hall of Fame, Legal 100, Silicon Valley 50 magazine in conjunction with the Irish Technology and Leadership Group, and the Science and Technology 50.

Niall O'Dowd created the US Ireland Forum, a forerunner of the Diaspora forum held by the Irish government in 2009.

Niall O'Dowd is a close confidante of the Clinton family and served in Hillary's Finance Committee for her 2008 presidential run.

Niall O'Dowd has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Irish Times as well as tabloid publications.

Niall O'Dowd has spoken to groups involved in the Middle East peace process as well as the former Sri Lanka conflict about the importance of diaspora involvement in seeking solutions.

Niall O'Dowd was awarded an honorary doctorate by his alma mater University College Dublin in 2004 for his role in the peace process and his work on the Irish American and Irish relationship.

Niall O'Dowd was one of the founders of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform in 2005, set up to lobby the Congress for immigration reform that would secure working visas for an estimated 25,000 illegal Irish immigrants.

Niall O'Dowd was named among the state's most influential people by New York magazine in their issue of 15 May 2006.

Niall O'Dowd was featured on the "People You Should Know" segment of the Paula Zahn Now program on CNN in 2007.

In March 2009, Niall O'Dowd launched IrishCentral a companion website to his two publications.

Niall O'Dowd became a Huffington Post blogger in September 2010.

Niall O'Dowd was one of the featured subjects in a major book entitled "Nine Irish Lives" in March 2018 which named the nine Irish-born Americans who contributed the most to America.

Niall O'Dowd approached Sinn Fein and possibly other Irish parties seeking support.

Niall O'Dowd is married to Debbie McGoldrick and they have a daughter Alana.

Niall O'Dowd is the brother of the Fine Gael TD, Fergus O'Dowd.