List of Americans of Irish descent

This is a list of Americans of Irish descent, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American-born descendants.

To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article and/or references showing the person is Irish American.

List

Actors

Arts

* Jean Butler – dancer; mother is from County Mayo
*Kurt Cobain – songwriter and musician, lead singer of Nirvana
*Auliʻi Cravalho – singer and actress
*Colleen Doran – cartoonist, illustrator, writer
*Michael Flatley – dancer, musician, businessman,
*William Harnett – painter, Irish immigrant best known for trompe-l'œil renderings of still life
* Carrie Ann Inaba – dancer, actress; mother of Chinese and Irish descent
*Gene Kelly – dancer, actor, singer, director, choreographer
* Nancy Jewel McDonie – singer, dancer, member of the South Korean group Momoland; mother is Korean and father is of Irish ancestry
* Dorothy Miner – art historian and curator
*Georgia O'Keeffe – painter; of Irish and Hungarian ancestry
* Eileen O'Meara – animator, artist; of Irish and Italian ancestry
*Augustus Saint-Gaudens – sculptor; Irish mother

Astronauts

*Neil Armstrong – first man on the moon
*Eileen Collins – commander for STS-93 and STS-114; pilot for STS-63 and STS-84
*Michael Collins – Command Module Pilot for Apollo 11, 1969
*James Irwin – Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 15
*Mark Kelly – commander for STS-124 and STS-134; pilot for STS-121 and STS-108
* Scott Kelly – NASA astronaut; he and his brother Mark are the only twins and the only siblings who have both traveled in space

Business

*Diamond Jim Brady – financier and philanthropist
* Edward Creighton – Omaha businessman and philanthropist
* John A. Creighton (1831–1907) – Omaha businessman and philanthropist
* Marcus Daly (1841–1900) – A "Copper King" of Butte, Montana, United States
*Henry Ford – founder of Ford Motor Company; Anglo-Irish
* 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
* William Russell Grace (1832–1904) – mayor of New York City and founder of W. R. Grace and Company
*Herb Kelleher – Southwest Airlines chairman
* Joseph P. Kennedy Sr – SEC Chairman, US Ambassador to the UK, bootlegger
* John Leahy – COO of Airbus; commercial pilot
*Richard and Maurice McDonald – founders of McDonald's
*Tom Monaghan – founder of Domino's Pizza
*Bill Rancic – entrepreneur
* Vinny Smith – software executive, billionaire, and philanthropist
* Jack Welch – former CEO of GE
*Edmund McIlhenny Inventor of hot sauce.

Film directors and producers

*Roy E. Disney (1930–2009) – senior executive for The Walt Disney Company; son of Roy O. Disney
*Roy O. Disney – Walt Disney's brother
*Walt Disney
*Thom Fitzgerald – known for independent films including '' The Hanging Garden''; grandparents were immigrants from County Kerry and County Cavan
*John Ford – best known for stylish Westerns and ''The Quiet Man''
*Alfred Hitchcock – mother of Irish descent
*John Huston – became an Irish citizen in 1964; father of Irish descent
*Leo McCarey – Irish father
*Michael Moore
*John Sayles (1950– ) – independent film director and writer, frequently takes a small part in his own and other indie films; both parents are half Irish

Gangsters and mobsters

Journalists, news producers, talk show hosts

* Mike Barnicle
*Nellie Bly
*Jimmy Breslin
* William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925–2008)
*Howie Carr
*Ann Coulter
* John Devoy (1842–1928) – editor of the ''Gaelic American'' 1903–1928
*Phil Donahue
*Maureen Dowd
*Roger Ebert
*Jimmy Fallon
* Austin E. Ford (1857–1896) – editor of the ''New York Freeman''
* Patrick Ford (1837–1913) – founded the ''Irish World'' in New York
*Pete Hamill
*Sean Hannity
* Magee Hickey
*Greg Kelly
*Mary McGrory – Washington political reporter and columnist
*James McMaster (1820–1886) – editor of ''Freeman's Journal'' (New York)
*Chris Matthews
*John Mitchel (1815–1875) – editor of leading Confederate newspaper
*Peggy Noonan (1950– ) – author, political analyst and columnist
*Conan O'Brien
*Soledad O'Brien – journalist and producer
*Norah O'Donnell
*John Boyle O'Reilly (1844–1890) – editor of ''Boston Pilot''
* Bill O'Reilly
* John L. O'Sullivan
*Dennis Roddy
*Tim Russert (1950–2008) – hosted NBC's ''Meet the Press'' 1991–2008
* Mark Shields (1937–2022)
*Ed Sullivan
*Elizabeth Vargas – ''ABC News'' anchor
*Brian Williams – ''NBC News'' anchor
*Ellen DeGeneres – talk show host

Law enforcement

* John O. Brennan – Director of the CIA
* Raymond W. Kelly – former New York Police Commissioner
* Francis O'Neill – Chicago Police Chief
* Bernard Kerik former NYPD commissioner (Irish mother)
*Bat Masterson

Law

* William J. Brennan, Jr. – 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 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
* Frank Murphy – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
* Roger I. McDonough – Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court
* Dorothy Miner – chief counsel for the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
* Roger J. Traynor – Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California

Literature

*Philip Barry – playwright; author of '' The Philadelphia Story''
*Ted Berrigan – poet, part of the second generation of the New York School; author of ''The Sonnets''
*John Berryman – poet; a founder of the confessional school of poetry
*Louise Bogan – poet, translator, and critic; Poet Laureate of the United States 1945–1946
* T. Coraghessan Boyle – novelist and short story writer; awarded the 1988 PEN/Faulkner Award for novel '' World's End''
*Bill Bryson – travel writer; awarded an honorary OBE for his contribution to literature
* William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925–2008)
* 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; 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; '' The Awakening'' (1899) is considered a proto-feminist precursor to American modernism
*Tom Clancy – 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; twice 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; '' Seventeenth Summer'' (1942) is considered the first young adult novel
* 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; ''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; 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 bestselling 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; 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''
* 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 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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