Adrian Flannelly, the former host of Adrian Flannelly radio show has died after a period of declining health.
Born in Attymass, County Mayo, in 1942, Adrian emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1959 at the age of seventeen.
He was a member of one of New York’s best-known political families. His uncle, Paul O’Dwyer was a renowned civil rights activist and former City Council President from 1974 to 1977. Another uncle, Bill O’Dwyer was the 100th Mayor of New York from 1946 to 1950, and the first Catholic Mayor of New York.
In 2000, the Irish government appointed Adrian as its US Representative on its Task Force on “Policy Towards Emigrants”. He also served as the Irish Cultural Liaison for the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City, adjacent to the World Trade Center and World Financial Center – a major attraction for millions of visitors.
In October 2004, Adrian was awarded the New York Post Liberty Medal in the “Freedom” category. This prestigious civic medal is annually awarded to “a New Yorker from a foreign land who best embodies the immigrant values of honesty, industriousness and hard-earned success” and recognized Adrian’s tireless work on behalf of Irish immigrants in the US.
In 2006, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg appointed him Irish Cultural Liaison to City Hall. Adrian organized the Mayor’s three trips to Ireland: to Ballymote, County Sligo in August 2006 for the memorial dedication of the statue of General Michael Corcoran of New York’s “Fighting 69th”; to Knock Airport, County Mayo in January 2007 to launch the first transatlantic direct flight to New York; and as a delegate to the US Northern Ireland Investment Conference in Belfast May 2008,
Adrian facilitated Mike Bloomberg’s first visit to Northern Ireland where the New York City Mayor was keynote speaker.