AAIDN’s November 2024 Leadership Awards Gala
By Mary Hendriksen
November 22nd, 2024
The African American Irish Diaspora Network celebrated its fifth anniversary at an elegant Diaspora Leadership Awards Gala on Thursday, November 7th, at the Harvard Club, New York City.
After a welcome and greetings by the gala’s chairs, board members Christian Bolden and Fionnghuala “Fig” O’Reilly, two award winners were honored:
Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chair Emerita, Ireland Funds America, received the Inspiration and Vision Award, which was presented by Geraldine Byrne Nason, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States.
Dr. Ben Vinson III, President of Howard University, received the Transformative Leadership Award, which was presented by Barron Harvey, Associate Provost for Academic Innovation and Strategic Initiatives, Howard University.
After thanking sponsors, honored guests, and friends, Dennis Brownlee, founder and chair of AAIDN, offered a short history of AAIDN, adding:
We are here to celebrate not only the fifth anniversary of the African American Irish Diaspora Network, but to begin the next chapter in our mission to bring African American and Irish communities together through our shared history, heritage, values, and spirit. This is an important mission of unity to help build a better world for future generations.
From championing freedom and social justice to technology and innovation, and with cultural connections in literature, dance and music, Black and Irish communities share an intertwined history and an outsized influence on our society that is only just beginning to be understood.
It is a living legacy that shapes who we are and who we can become. Together, Black and Irish communities can advance unity and opportunity and build a new future for generations to come.
More unites us than divides us.
He then highlighted two pillars of AAIDN as it enters its next phase:
Education, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
AAIDN has established summer internships in Ireland for US students and is facilitating scholarships for students from US universities, particularly Historically Black Colleges and Universities, to study at Irish universities. AAIDN has also established the US-Ireland Research and Investment Consortium, in which we have brought together University College Dublin, Howard University, Queen’s University Belfast, and Princeton University to collaborate on technology research and innovation, and from that research to spin out high-impact entrepreneurial ventures to address major societal challenges.
Cultural Exploration
AAIDN is establishing the AAIDN Institute with leading university partners in Ireland and the US to explore the parallel social justice and civil rights movements in the US and Ireland and how lessons from those movements in conflict resolution and reconciliation can be applied to some of the world’s trouble spots today. The Institute will also conduct cultural exchanges, research, and collaborations building on historic connections between the African and Irish diasporas spanning political movements, art, dance, music, and literature.
The gala concluded with a special musical and dance performance by the group Ghanaian Irish Fusion with Colin Harte, Dylan James, Amos Gabia, Ray Odai Laryea, and Issac Alderson.