In this season of giving, Irish Stew welcomes Pennsylvania-born lawyer-turned-nonprofit leader Sean Granahan, the president of The Floating Hospital, a 160-year-old New York charity with deep Irish roots that still cares for the city’s poorest families. Founded in 1866 out of Trinity Church in the wake of the Civil War Draft Riots, it first served emancipated Black families and post–famine Irish immigrants crowded into lower Manhattan’s notorious Five Points district.

In the episode, Sean connects those early Irish arrivals, once left to die of tuberculosis considered “the natural death of the Irish,” to today’s homeless families in New York’s shelters, many fleeing violence, eviction, or aging out of foster care.

Sean describes the organization’s founding mission as a “three-legged stool” of meeting immediate needs, sharing health education, and delivering care, a model that still guides its work as New York city’s largest provider of healthcare to families in homeless shelters and domestic violence safe houses.

He recounts the organization’s colorful maritime era, when their ships took kids and moms out for fresh-air harbor cruises while they received vaccines, essential services, and vital health education. Sean had to hit pause on that chapter after 9/11 when their vessel, the Lia, was retired to a dock well up the Hudson River. The Floating Hospital may not be floating now, but the work continues full speed ahead at its Long Island City base and satellite sites where 30,000 people are cared for annually, from pediatric and vaccination services to mental health and dental care. Sean insists that their clean, bright, dignified, welcoming clinics have as much an impact on patient outcomes as their healthcare services.

That ethos comes alive in “Candy Cane Lane,” a holiday pop-up where homeless moms and kids experience the joy of holiday shopping as they choose free new coats, pajamas, toys, and hygiene items.

With Mayo and Dublin roots, Sean tells how his high-flying corporate law career was rerouted when he volunteered to help the then struggling Floating Hospital, and how he and his staff navigate through shifting political headwinds and funding threats.

And after 20 years at the helm, he still dreams big, yearning for the day The Floating Hospital floats again! “The ship is magical,” he says of his quest to refit the Lia and sail it again. “If you want to get 500 kids vaccinated, all you do is say, ‘We’re going out on the ship on Friday,’ and you’ll have a thousand.”

The episode closes with a “season of giving” invitation to make a holiday gift to The Floating Hospital or join their “Tugboat Society” of small monthly givers keeping homeless moms and kids afloat.

But to really understand this uniquely Irish New York story, you’ll want to hear Sean tell it himself on Irish Stew.

Links

The Floating Hospital

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Threads
• BlueSky

Sean Granahan

• LinkedIn

Irish Stew Links

• Website
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• LinkedIn

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 37; Total Episode Count: 140

The Irish Midlands flow to the relentless rhythm of the River Shannon and along its banks the Irish Stew podcasters found themselves again, Day Five of their “Off the Beaten Craic in the Hidden Heartlands” wanderings, gazing across its broad expanse from the docks of the County Offaly town of Banagher.

There, cohosts John Lee and Martin Nutty met local historian James Scully and caught up with an old friend of John’s, Mark Boylan, who covers horseracing for The Irish Field, to explore the history, legend, music, and all that gives life and character to this small Shannon-side community with a population aspiring to hit the 2,000 mark.

James met us at the cozy, convivial Flynn's Pub on Main Street, but the craic there proved too mighty for recording purposes, so the trio beat a retreat to the hilltop Church of St Paul's for what proved to be Irish Stew’s first recording in a church (but not their last as you’ll hear in the final Hidden Heartlands episode).

A lifelong educator and noted local historian, James set about unraveling the history of the old Irish saying, “That Beats Banagher!,” in a book of the same name which he co-wrote with Kieran Keenaghan. In this richly illustrated volume they explore the murky provenance of “That Beats Banagher!” and how it entered Irish political and cultural lore. A beguiling spinner of the town’s stories, James shares tales of the earliest days of the town, the arrival of the international man of mystery from the 1600s Matthew de Renzy, the town’s unexpected literary links to Anthony Trollope and Charlotte Brontë, Banagher’s vibrant community life, and its status as a popular port of call for the river cruising crowd.

They started the day in a pub, absolved their sins in a church, and then retreated to a pub, J.J. Hough’s Singing Pub, a renowned destination for trad music fans and tourists alike run by Ger Hough, who IrishCentral called the most creative publican in Ireland.

There they met David and Mark Boylan who John got to know when the Breeders’ Cup flew the whole Boylan family to Kentucky so the then 14-year-old Mark could sing his Breeders’ Cup song before about 80 thousand fans at Churchill Downs for the 2011 World Championship race meet. Mark may be all grown up but he hasn’t outgrown his love of horses and of his hometown of Banagher which shines through in the closing segment.

And in such a small, tight-knit community it was no surprise to learn that James was Mark’s teacher at St Rynagh’s School.

Well, that beats Banagher!

Next week Irish Stew hits pause on their Off the Beaten Craic series to embrace the season of giving with the story of a New York City charity rooted in the plight of the impoverished Irish immigrants in the notorious Five Points district in our conversation with Sean Granahan, president of The Floating Hospital.

Links
James Scully

• Book: That Beats Banagher!

Mark Boylan

• The Irish Field
• X
• Instagram
• Facebook

Hidden Heartlands Travel Resources

• Ireland.com
• Discover Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands

Irish Stew Links

• Website
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 36; Total Episode Count: 139

Ireland has no shortage of stately manors, but as Irish Stew hosts Martin Nutty and John Lee learned, no other historic property has a legacy like Co. Offaly’s Birr Castle Demesne, which for generations has been an incubator of breakthroughs in engineering and science.

With local historian and educator Brian Kennedy as their guide, the podcasters share the story of the Victorian-era, steampunk-style construction of timber, iron, and stonework that was the world’s largest telescope from 1845 to 1917. Built by William Parsons, the 3rd Earl of Rosse, “The Leviathan of Parsonstown” as it became known is a 20-foot-tall engineering marvel that enabled the Earl to map light-years distant nebulae with stunning accuracy that rivals modern Hubble telescope images.

Brian points out that the Parsons family's 400-year legacy includes what’s thought to be one of the world's earliest surviving suspension bridges on the grounds, Charles Parsons' invention of the steam turbine, and the work of photography pioneer Mary Wilmer Field, the 3rd Countess of Rosse.

Her 1850s glass plate photographs are preserved in Ireland’s Historic Science Centre at Birr, which not only tells the Birr science story in historical artifacts and interactive displays, but that of Ireland as well.

And Birr is still writing that science story today as it hosts the Irish station of the Europe-wide LOFAR radio telescope network, which in 2018 observed for the first time a billion-year-old red-dwarf, flare star.

Add botany and horticulture to the science mix with multi-generational botanical treasures on display across the expansive grounds including 17th-century box hedges (among the world's tallest), specimens from China and South America, and Victorian glasshouses under restoration.

“There's something in bloom every day of the year, throughout the whole year of plants from right throughout the world.” Brian says.

The conversation wraps with a discussion of the town's transformation from "Parsonstown" back to its original Irish name, its connection to St. Brendan's monastery, the charming town’s rich Georgian heritage, and things to see and do “off the beaten craic” in Birr’s environs.

But for Brian, it all starts with the Birr Castle Demesne, “Come early in the morning because one day is just not enough to take in all that the castle has to offer,” he advises.

Next week Irish Stew makes one more stop in Co. Offaly at the River Shannon town of Banagher where John and Martin record their first (but not their last) episode in a church!

Links

Birr Castle Demesne

• Website
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• X
• YouTube
• TikTok

Hidden Heartlands Travel Resources

• Ireland.com
• Discover Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands

Irish Stew Links

• Website
• Episode Page: Brian Kennedy
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• X
• Facebook

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 35; Total Episode Count: 138