List of Irish Americans

This is a list of notable Irish Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American-born descendants. For more information see also: List of Americans of Irish descent.

List

"To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Irish American or must have references showing they are Irish American and are notable."

Actors

Arts

* Mathew Brady – photographer
* Kurt Cobain – songwriter and musician, lead singer of Nirvana
* Jerome Connor – sculptor
* Thomas Crawford – sculptor
* Michael Flatley – dancer
* William Harnett – painter, Irish immigrant best known for trompe-l'œil renderings of still life
* George Peter Alexander Healy – portrait painter
* Thomas Hovenden – painter
* Carrie Ann Inaba – dancer, actress; mother of Chinese and Irish descent
* Gene Kelly – dancer, actor, singer, director, choreographer
* James E. Kelly – sculptor and illustrator
* Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt – artist, activist
* Edward McCartan – sculptor
* Samuel Murray – sculptor
* Jim Morrison – singer, frontman of the Doors
* John Neagle – painter
* William Rudolf O'Donovan – sculptor
* Georgia O'Keeffe – painter
* Timothy H. O'Sullivan – photographer
* Maurice J. Power – sculptor, politician, foundry owner
* John Ramage – miniaturist
* George Reynolds – painter, student of Eakins, Civil War Medal of Honor
* Augustus Saint-Gaudens – sculptor
* Louis Saint-Gaudens – sculptor, brother of Augustus Saint-Gaudens
* John Talbott Donoghue – sculptor

Business

* Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. – former ambassador to the UK and father of President JFK.
* Diamond Jim Brady – financier and philanthropist
* Dawn Fitzpatrick – Global Head of Equities, Multi-Asset and O'Connor at UBS Asset Management
* John L. Flannery – former CEO of General Electric
* Henry Ford – founder of Ford Motor Company
* Paul Galvin – inventor of the car radio; founder of Motorola
* Franklin B. Gowen – lawyer, president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, prosecuted the trial against the Molly Maguires
* Herb Kelleher – Southwest Airlines chairman
* John Leahy – COO of Airbus; commercial pilot
* Mike McGrath – Chief Justice of Montana Supreme Court
* Shane McMahon – minority owner of WWE
* Stephanie McMahon – CBO of WWE
* Vince McMahon – CEO of WWE
* Tom Monaghan – founder of Domino's Pizza
* Richard and Maurice McDonald – founders of McDonald's
* Edward Creighton – Omaha businessman and philanthropist
* John A. Creighton – Omaha businessman and philanthropist
* Michael J. Cullen - Founder of King Kullen, inventor of the supermarket
* Marcus Daly (1841–1900) – A "Copper King" of Butte, Montana, United States
* William Russell Grace (1832–1904) – mayor of New York City and founder of W. R. Grace and Company
* Pat Powers – businessman and film producer
* Bill Rancic – entrepreneur
* Joseph F. Sinnott – owner of Moore and Sinnott, the largest rye whiskey distillery in the United States prior to Prohibition.
* Jack Welch – former CEO of General Electric
* George Croghan - fur trader
*Edmund McIlhenny – inventor of hot sauce
*Bill Gates – co-founder of Microsoft
*Thomas Mellon
*Louis Sullivan – inventor of the skyscraper
*Charles Stark Draper – Anglo-Irish
*George Bryan

Educators

* Mary Harris Jones – "Mother Jones", educator and labor organizer
* Christa McAuliffe – teacher-astronaut who was killed in the 1986 Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster; also has Lebanese ancestry
*Joseph S. Murphy (1933–1998) – President of Queens College, President of Bennington College, and Chancellor of the City University of New York
* Victoria Leigh Soto – educator who was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting; hid students and died trying to protect them

Film directors, producers and scriptwriters

* Rafael Casal (1985–) – American writer, actor, producer, and showrunner. He is of Irish, Spanish, and Cuban descent.
* Roy E. Disney (1930–2009) – senior executive for The Walt Disney Company and son of Roy O. Disney
* Roy O. Disney (1893–1971) – Walt Disney's brother
* Walt Disney (1901–1966)
* Thom Fitzgerald – known for independent films like '' The Hanging Garden''; born in New York; his grandparents were immigrants from County Kerry and County Cavan, Ireland
* John Ford (1894–1973) – director, best known for stylish Westerns and the film classic ''The Quiet Man''
* Mel Gibson (1956–) – known for both writing and directing the highest grossing rated R film of all time ($370,782,930), ''The Passion of the Christ''
* Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980)
* John Huston (1906–1987)
* Rex Ingram (1892–1950)
* Leo McCarey (1898–1969)
* Michael Moore (1954–)
* John Sayles (1950–) – independent film director and writer, frequently takes a small part in his own and other indie films
* Mack Sennett (1880–1960)
* Quentin Tarantino (1963–)
* William Desmond Taylor (1872–1922)
* Raoul Walsh (1887–1980)
* William A. Wellman (1896–1975)
* Shannen Doherty
* Pat Powers (businessman)

Gangsters and mobsters

Law enforcement

* Raymond W. Kelly – former New York Police Commissioner
* Francis O'Neill – Chicago Police Chief
* Brian Terry – United States Border Patrol Agent, BORTAC (USBP Tactical Response Team) Operator
* Charles V. Glasco – New York City Police Sergeant who served in the New York City Police Department from June 1926 to July 1948
* Buckey O'Neill
* William J. Brady
* Bat Masterson

Law

* James Duane
* William J. Brennan, Jr. – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
* Sandra Day O'Connor – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
* Wayne M. Collins – civil rights attorney
* James B. Comey – former United States Deputy Attorney General
* Charles Patrick Daly – Chief Justice of the New York Court of Common Pleas
* Patrick Fitzgerald – United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois
* Anthony Kennedy – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
* Robert F. Kennedy – United States Attorney General
* Roger I. McDonough – Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court
* Frank Murphy – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
* Roger J. Traynor – Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California
* James Sullivan (governor)
* George Wythe McCook
* James Clark McReynolds
*Charles Carroll (barrister)

Literature

* Philip Barry – playwright; author of '' The Philadelphia Story''
* L. Frank Baum – author of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''
* Ted Berrigan – poet, part of the second generation of the New York School; author of ''The Sonnets''
* John Berryman – poet; one of the founders of the Confessional school of poetry
* Louise Bogan – poet, translator, and critic; served as Poet Laureate of the United States 1945–1946
* T. Coraghessan Boyle – novelist and short story writer; awarded the 1988 PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel '' World's End''
* Bill Bryson – travel writer; awarded an honorary OBE for his contribution to literature
* John Horne Burns – novelist and travel writer; author of ''The Gallery''
* Jim Carroll – author, poet, and punk musician; author of '' The Basketball Diaries''
* Neal Cassady – author and poet; provided the basis for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's novel ''On the Road''
* Raymond Chandler – novelist and short story writer; author of the Philip Marlowe detective series that shaped the modern "private eye" story
* Mary Coyle Chase – playwright and screenwriter; awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for ''Harvey''
* Kate Chopin – novelist and short story writer; her novel '' The Awakening'' (1899) is considered a proto-feminist precursor to American modernism
* Tom Clancy – novelist; author of many bestselling novels, including ''The Hunt for Red October'' and ''Clear and Present Danger''
* Mary Higgins Clark – bestselling author of suspense novels
* Billy Collins – poet; served two terms as Poet Laureate of the United States 2001–2003
* Joe Connelly – novelist; author of ''Bringing Out the Dead''
* Michael Connelly – crime novelist; author of the bestselling Harry Bosch detective series
* Pat Conroy – novelist and memoirist; author of ''The Great Santini'' and ''The Prince of Tides''
* Robert Creeley – poet and author associated with the Black Mountain poets; awarded a 2000 American Book Award Lifetime Achievement Award
* Maureen Daly – novelist and short story writer; her novel '' Seventeenth Summer'' (1942) is considered the first young adult novel
* Philip K. Dick – science fiction author
* J.P. Donleavy – novelist; author of ''The Ginger Man'', named on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels
* Kirby Doyle – poet and novelist; associated with the New American Poetry movement and "third generation" American modernist poets
* Alan Dugan – poet; winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his volume ''Poems''
* James T. Farrell – novelist; author of the Studs Lonigan trilogy, named on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels
* F. Scott Fitzgerald – novelist and short story writer; his novel ''The Great Gatsby'' was named on both the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels and the ''TIME'' 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005
* Robert Fitzgerald – poet, critic, and translator; served as Poet Laureate of the United States 1984–1985
* Thomas Flanagan – novelist and academic; winner of the 1979 National Book Critics Circle Award – political thriller novelist; author of bestselling Mitch Rapp series
* Alice Fulton – poet and short story writer; awarded the 2002 Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry for ''Felt''
* Tess Gallagher – poet, short story writer, essayist, and playwright
* Lucy Grealy – poet, memoirist, and essayist; author of '' Autobiography of a Face''
* Pete Hamill – journalist, columnist, novelist, and short story writer
* George V. Higgins – novelist, columnist, and academic; known for his best-selling crime novels, including ''The Friends of Eddie Coyle''
* Fanny Howe – poet, novelist, and short-story writer; awarded the 2001 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for ''Selected Poems''
* Marie Howe – poet; winner of the 1987 Open Competition of the National Poetry Series for ''The Good Thief''
* Susan Howe – poet and literary critic; awarded American Book Awards in 1981 for ''The Liberties'' and 1986 for ''My Emily Dickinson''
* Brigit Pegeen Kelly – poet; finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for ''The Orchard''
* Myra Kelly – novelist and schoolteacher
* Robert Kelly – poet associated with the deep image group; awarded a 1980 American Book Award for ''In Time''
* William Kennedy – novelist and author, winner of the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award for '' Ironweed'', and a 1984 American Book Award for '' O Albany!''
* X. J. Kennedy – poet, translator, anthologist, editor, and children's author
* Richard Kenney – poet and academic
* Jean Kerr – author and Tony Award-winning playwright
* Galway Kinnell – poet; awarded the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and 1983 National Book Award for Poetry for ''Selected Poems''
* R. A. Lafferty – Hugo- and Nebula-nominated science fiction author
* Michael Lally – poet and author; awarded a 2000 American Book Award for ''It's Not Nostalgia: Poetry and Prose''
* James Laughlin – poet and publisher; winner of the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters; namesake of the annual James Laughlin Award administered by the Academy of American Poets
* Dennis Lehane – novelist, author of ''A Drink Before the War'' and ''Mystic River''
* John Logan – poet and academic; awarded the 1982 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for ''Only the Dreamer Can Change the Dream''
* William Logan – poet, critic, and scholar; awarded the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award

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