My father was a Mayo man through and through who was born in 1919 and raised on a small farm just outside Charlestown County Mayo. His family have proudly lived and worked on that very same farm since the late 1800s.
My mother was born in 1929 and grew up in Churchtown in what was then Dublin County. Her family were split between Wicklow and Edenderry, County Offaly.
I grew up in a raucous Irish household of 10 children, and whilst we may have been living in the middle of an English city you would never have known it as the majority the neighbours were Irish, the schools were predominantly populated by Irish catholic children. Our teachers were mainly Irish nuns, and it was to all intents and purposes an Irish enclave deep in the heart of England.
That upbringing engendered a huge sense of pride in my Irish heritage. Irish music was the soundtrack to our lives. The musical energy of reels & jigs, the variations of Irish accents, and the tales of Ireland as our parents and relatives knew it, all conspired to etch an unbreakable affinity to Ireland and all things Irish that has remained with me throughout my life.
I have been fortunate enough to have travelled widely throughout my adult life to most parts of the world, and it has never failed to amaze me that wherever I travel, be that in Europe, Asia, Africa the Middle East etc, there has always been an Irish success story to be found. There will be an Irish society, and without doubt an Irish bar where the welcome is forever warm and the conversations are suitably lively. From Manchester to Mumbai, from Dublin to Dubai, from Bratislava to Bangkok, from Jersey to Johannesburg, I have had the great fortune to meet with brilliant Irish people who have made a success of their lives.
Those journeys, those travels, and those accumulating Irish success stories are what encouraged me to develop Irish Success as a project that would hopefully inspire young Irish people, and those youngsters around the world of Irish heritage, so that they can wear their Irish heritage with pride and that they can achieve absolutely anything they want to in life because they are "Blessed with that dynamic Irish spirit".
For centuries Irish people have achieved wonderful things all over the world, and in all walks of life and professions. And the young people of Irish descent, wherever in the world they are, deserve to know that they too can achieve great things. It is something deep within the Irish DNA.
Researching and discovering the amazing achievements of Irish people all over the world has been a true joy and I look forward to sharing those Irish success stories with you, and if you enjoy them, please do share this website with your own Irish friends and family.
Slán go fóill!
Michael Sloyan
Irish Success - Editor & Publisher
PS: If you have an Irish success story that you would like to share with me, or you would like to contact me for any other reason, click here I look forward to hearing from you