Mairead McNamara enjoyed a successful career promoting Irish food in Ireland and subsequently in the United States.
Now, she is working to connect successful figures in the Irish community in the US with those back home looking for financial support with their education as well as communities requiring aid for education and development programmes.
It’s a role that, she says, gives her a lot of satisfaction.
The Irish American Partnership has been doing this work for 40 years and, following a career in food marketing on both sides of the Atlantic, McNamara has been working as its vice-president of development for the past 18 months.
READ MORE
As well as meeting the needs of people or communities requiring assistance in Ireland, her work provides opportunities for the Irish in the United States to pay something forward.
“I’ll meet a donor and we’ll discuss what inspires them to help. That could be anything from a literacy programme in a primary school to supporting someone all the way through a college degree,” she says. “Some donors will have come to the US on Morrison and Donnelly visas. They’ve never forgotten how they got here.”
Recent examples include a high-profile attorney in New York who is supporting a student through a four-year law degree at the University of Galway, while another is looking to sponsor a student through their veterinary qualifications in Ireland.
A recent fundraiser within the Irish community raised about $10,000 (€8,800) for a literacy programme for a primary school in Offaly.
McNamara works from her home base in New York as part of a five-person team headquartered in Boston. The organisation works with schools and colleges in Ireland on gift agreements, ensuring that 100 per cent of the funding raised goes to the students or the programmes supported. According to the organisation’s latest Impact Report, $63 million has been donated through the partnership since 1986, with $3 million raised in support of education and community development initiatives last year alone.
McNamara came to the US in 2013, working for Ornua, formerly the Irish dairy board. The Co Clare native had grown up on a dairy farm and had secured qualifications in food marketing at UCC as well as a Bord Bia fellowship and had worked in an international marketing role for Dawn Meats, so relished the opportunity to be part of a team rolling out a big expansion of the Kerrygold brand at the time.
Up to that point, the butter brand had largely been available only in speciality stores in the US, and with milk quotas set to be abolished at that time, the organisation was pushing for growth worldwide.
“I opened up our office on the east coast and we learned as we grew,” she recalls. “It was a huge learning curve. A lot of days involved the first of everything, including the language used by buyers and category managers.
“We knew the potential that was there for the brand, but we didn’t realise how big it would get. We were in the right place at the right time, as consumers were becoming more conscious of what they were eating, and we had a top-quality product with a great story. We were mainstreaming a premium brand from speciality shops to the milk aisle in over 4,000 grocery stores. It was double-digit growth year on year for a long time.”
After nine years with Ornua, McNamara went on to have spells working for Kerry Foods and Impossible Foods, the latter a company that aims to replace meat products with plant-based alternatives. She concedes that having grown up on a dairy farm in Ireland, this took a lot of adjusting to.
McNamara did adapt quickly to life in the US. Her fiance Paul, whom she married a few months after her move, had spent summers in the US and joined her there. The network he had already forged there was a huge bonus, she says. They settled in Pearl River, north of New York City, where they are now raising three children.
Pearl River has a strong Irish community, active GAA scene and the family enjoy a mixture of Irish and US friends.
McNamara says she is impressed by the speed at which you can get appointments in the medical system and special programmes in the school system when required.
The climate can be difficult at times, however, she says. “Winter is tough here, but the kids like to ski and it is affordable.”
As to what she misses from home, apart from family and friends, she singles out food. “I think the quality of food in Ireland is exceptional compared to what you get here.”
While the family’s lives are very centred on the US for now, they maintain a base in Co Clare, where they visit as often as possible.
