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.

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.

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
 * 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

 * Diamond Jim Brady – financier and philanthropist
 * Dawn Fitzpatrick – Global Head of Equities, Multi-Asset and O'Connor at UBS Asset Management
 * 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 – Conn Creek Winery winemaker
 * Tom Monaghan – founder of Domino's Pizza
 * Bill Rancic – entrepreneur
 * Jack Welch – former CEO of GE

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
 * 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 and producers

 * Roy E. Disney (1930–2009) – senior executive for The Walt Disney Company and son of Roy O. Disney
 * Roy O. Disney – Walt Disney's brother
 * Walt Disney
 * 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
 * John Huston (1906–1987)
 * Rex Ingram (fl. 1914–32)
 * Leo McCarey (1898–1969)
 * Corinne Marrinan (1974– ), writer and producer, winner of Oscar for Best Documentary Short
 * Michael Moore (1954– )
 * John Sayles (1950– ) – independent film director and writer, frequently takes a small part in his own and other indie films
 * David O. Selznick (1902–1965) – producer, best known for Gone with the Wind

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

Law

 * William J. Brennan, Jr. – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
 * 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
 * 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

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; 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
 * 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 for The Year of the French
 * Vince Flynn – 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 Fiction, 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 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 Lifetime Achievement Award and the 1992 National Book Awards 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 for Criticism for The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin
 * Thomas Lynch – poet and essayist; awarded a 1998 American Book Award for The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade
 * Michael Patrick MacDonald – memoirist; winner of a 2000 American Book Award for All Souls: A Family Story From Southie
 * Cormac McCarthy – novelist and playwright; author of Blood Meridian and winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Road
 * Frank McCourt – memoirist; winner of the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for Angela's Ashes
 * Alice McDermott – novelist; awarded the 1998 National Book Award and a 1999 American Book Award for Charming Billy
 * Campbell McGrath – poet
 * Thomas McGrath – poet; awarded a 1984 American Book Award for Echoes Inside the Labyrinth and the 1989 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Selected Poems: 1938–1988
 * Thomas McGuane – novelist, screenwriter, and short story writer; nominated for a National Book Award for Ninety-Two in the Shade
 * Jay McInerney – novelist; author of Bright Lights, Big City
 * James McMichael – poet; awarded the 1999 Arthur Rense Prize
 * Terrence McNally – playwright; winner of six Tony Awards and nominated for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Perfect Ganesh
 * Maile Meloy – novelist and short story writer; awarded The Paris Review's 2001 Aga Khan Prize for Fiction for her story "Aqua Boulevard"
 * Margaret Mitchell – novelist; awarded the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Gone With The Wind
 * Helen Curtin Moskey – poet
 * Robert C. O'Brien – journalist and children's author; awarded the 1972 Newbery Medal for Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
 * Tim O'Brien – novelist and short story writer; prominent author of fiction about the Vietnam War, including The Things They Carried, a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award
 * Edwin O'Connor – novelist, winner of the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Edge of Sadness
 * Flannery O'Connor – novelist and short story writer; notable author in the Southern Gothic style
 * Frank O'Hara – poet, prominent member of the New York School
 * John O'Hara – novelist; author of Appointment in Samarra, named one of the TIME 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005
 * Charles Olson – poet and critic, associated with the second generation American Modernist poets; author of The Maximus Poems
 * Eugene O'Neill – playwright; awarded the 1936 Nobel Prize for Literature and four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
 * J.F. Powers – novelist and short story writer; winner of the 1963 National Book Award for Morte d'Urban
 * Anne Rice – horror novelist; author of bestselling Interview With A Vampire series
 * Ryan Max Riley – humorist and freestyle mogul skier on the US Ski Team
 * Nora Roberts – romance novelist; first inductee into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame
 * Kay Ryan – poet and academic; currents Poet Laureate of the United States
 * Michael Ryan – poet; awarded the 1990 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for God Hunger
 * John Patrick Shanley – playwright and screenwriter; winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Doubt: A Parable
 * Nicholas Sparks – author and screenwriter
 * Mickey Spillane – crime novelist; author of bestselling Mike Hammer detective novels
 * John Kennedy Toole – novelist; posthumously awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for A Confederacy of Dunces
 * Jim Tully – novelist, playwright, best known for Beggars of Life
 * Michael Walsh – novelist and screenwriter; awarded a 2004 American Book Award for And All The Saints
 * Roger Zelazny – fantasy and science fiction author; winner of three Nebula Awards and six Hugo Awards

Media and journalists

 * Mike Barnicle
 * Nellie Bly
 * Jimmy Breslin
 * Howie Carr – author, Boston newspaper columnist and New England radio talk-show host; has claimed family "two-boater" Irish ancestry (i.e., Ireland-to-Canada, then Canada-to-Maine) on his father's side
 * Neil Cavuto
 * Phil Donahue
 * Maureen Dowd
 * Brian Doyle-Murray
 * Roger Ebert
 * Pete Hamill
 * Sean Hannity
 * Magee Hickey
 * Greg Kelly
 * Chris Matthews
 * Bill Murray
 * Joel Murray
 * Peggy Noonan (1950– ) – author, political analyst and pundit for the Republican Party
 * Nicole O'Brian – model, pageant contestant, and reality television contestant
 * Conan O'Brien
 * Soledad O'Brien
 * Norah O'Donnell
 * Michael O'Looney – New York-based reporter; later a business executive with Merril Lynch
 * Bill O'Reilly
 * John L. O'Sullivan
 * Regis Philbin
 * Dennis Roddy
 * Tim Russert (1950–2008) – journalist, hosted NBC's Meet the Press from 1991 until his death in 2008
 * John B. Sheridan (1870–1930) – sports journalist (Sporting News)
 * Ed Sullivan
 * Elizabeth Vargas
 * John Walsh
 * Brian Williams

Military

 * John Barry – father of the United States Navy
 * Patrick Cleburne – Irish-born Confederate Army general, nicknamed "Stonewall of the West"
 * Michael Corcoran – United States Army general
 * Joseph Finnegan – Irish-born Confederate Army general
 * James Hagan – Irish-born Confederate Army colonel
 * James Hickey – leader of Operation Red Dawn
 * Stonewall Jackson – notorious Confederate Army general
 * Stephen W. Kearny – United States Army officer, noted for action in the southwest during the Mexican–American War
 * Andrew Lewis (born c. 1720) – Continental Army general, born in Donegal, Ireland
 * Alfred Thayer Mahan – naval officer and author whose work, including Sea Power, inspired the creation of the modern United States Navy
 * Dennis Hart Mahan – guiding light and head of faculty at West Point for decades prior to the Civil War; influential author whose published works were the keystone for spreading engineering knowledge throughout the antebellum United States; his Napoleon seminar at West Point informed Civil War strategies, North and South
 * George Gordon Meade – commanding general of the Army of the Potomac who led the Union forces to victory at Gettysburg in July 1863
 * Thomas Francis Meagher – United States Army general, Fenian
 * Richard Montgomery – Continental Army general
 * Thomas Z. Morrow – Colonel of the 32nd Kentucky Infantry during the American Civil War
 * Audie Murphy – most decorated combat soldier of World War II
 * Michael Patrick "Murph" Murphy (7 May 1976 – 28 June 2005)
 * Timothy Murphy – marksman, Continental Army
 * Jeremiah O'Brien – captain in Continental Navy
 * Richard O'Kane – most successful United States Navy submarine commander of World War II
 * John O'Neill – United States Army general, Fenian
 * John P. O'Neill – high ranking anti-terrorism expert
 * Molly Pitcher – Revolutionary War heroine
 * John Reynolds – general commanding the right wing of the Army of the Potomac who surprised Lee and committed the Union army to battle at Gettysburg in July 1863; killed in the front lines while personally rallying troops for counterattacks during the first day of fighting
 * Philip Sheridan – United States Army, General of the Army, Cavalry
 * John Sullivan – Continental Army general

Presidents
At least 22 presidents of the United States have some Irish ancestral origins, although the extent of this varies. For instance President Clinton claims Irish ancestry despite there being no documentation of any of his ancestors coming from Ireland, but Kennedy on the other hand have strong documented Irish origins. Also Ronald Reagan's great grandfather was an Irish Roman Catholic, and his mother had some Scots-Irish ancestry. James K. Polk also had Scots-Irish Ancestry. Only Kennedy was raised as a practicing Catholic.


 * Andrew Jackson (Scotch-Irish)
 * 7th President 1829–37: : He was born in the predominantly Ulster-Scots Waxhaws area of South Carolina two years after his parents left Boneybefore, near Carrickfergus in County Antrim. A heritage centre in the village pays tribute to the legacy of 'Old Hickory', the People's President. Andrew Jackson then moved to Tennessee, where he served as Governor


 * James Knox Polk (Scotch-Irish)
 * 11th President, 1845–49: His ancestors were among the first Ulster-Scots settlers, emigrating from Coleraine in 1680 to become a powerful political family in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He moved to Tennessee and became its governor before winning the presidency.


 * James Buchanan (Scotch-Irish)
 * 15th President, 1857–61: Born in a log cabin (which has been relocated to his old school in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania), 'Old Buck' cherished his origins: "My Ulster blood is a priceless heritage". The Buchanans were originally from Deroran, near Omagh in County Tyrone where the ancestral home still stands. Buchanan also had pre-plantation Irish ancestry being a descendant of the O'Kanes from County Londonderry.


 * Andrew Johnson (Scotch-Irish & English)
 * 17th President, 1865–69: His grandfather left Mounthill, near Larne in County Antrim around 1750 and settled in North Carolina. Andrew worked there as a tailor and ran a successful business in Greeneville, Tennessee, before being elected Vice-President. He became President following Abraham Lincoln's assassination.


 * Ulysses S. Grant (Scotch-Irish, English & Scottish)
 * 18th President, 1869–77: The home of his maternal great-grandfather, John Simpson, at Dergenagh, County Tyrone, is the location for an exhibition on the eventful life of the victorious Civil War commander who served two terms as President. Grant visited his ancestral homeland in 1878.


 * Chester A. Arthur (Scotch-Irish & English)
 * 21st President, 1881–85: His election was the start of a quarter-century in which the White House was occupied by men of Ulster-Scots origins. His family left Dreen, near Cullybackey, County Antrim, in 1815. There is now an interpretive centre, alongside the Arthur Ancestral Home, devoted to his life and times.


 * Grover Cleveland (Scotch-Irish & Irish-English)
 * 22nd and 24th President, 1885–89 and 1893–97: Born in New Jersey, he was the maternal grandson of merchant Abner Neal, who emigrated from County Antrim in the 1790s. He is the only president to have served non-consecutive terms.


 * Benjamin Harrison (Scotch-Irish & English)
 * 23rd President, 1889–93: His mother, Elizabeth Irwin, had Ulster-Scots roots through her two great-grandfathers, James Irwin and William McDowell. Harrison was born in Ohio and served as a brigadier general in the Union Army before embarking on a career in Indiana politics which led to the White House.


 * William McKinley (Scotch-Irish & English)
 * 25th President, 1897–1901: Born in Ohio, the descendant of a farmer from Conagher, near Ballymoney, County Antrim, he was proud of his ancestry and addressed one of the national Scotch-Irish congresses held in the late 19th century. His second term as president was cut short by an assassin's bullet.


 * Theodore Roosevelt (Scotch-Irish, Dutch, Scotch, English & French)
 * 26th President, 1901-09: His mother, Mittie Bulloch, had Ulster Scots ancestors who emigrated from Glenoe, County Antrim, in May 1729. Roosevelt praised "Irish Presbyterians" as "a bold and hardy race." However, he is also the man who said: "But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts "native"* before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen." (*Roosevelt was referring to "nativists", not American Indians, in this context)


 * William Howard Taft (Scotch-Irish & English)
 * 27th President 1909–13: His great great great grandfather, Robert Taft was born in 1640 in Ireland and immigrated to America, during the mid 17th century. He died in Mendon, Worcester, Massachusetts.


 * Woodrow Wilson (Scotch-Irish)
 * 28th President, 1913–21: Of Ulster-Scot descent on both sides of the family, his roots were very strong and dear to him. He was grandson of a printer from Dergalt, near Strabane, County Tyrone, whose former home is open to visitors. Throughout his career he reflected on the influence of his ancestral values on his constant quest for knowledge and fulfillment.


 * Warren G. Harding (Scotch-Irish & English)
 * 29th President 1921–23


 * Harry S. Truman (Scotch-Irish & German)
 * 33rd President 1945–53


 * John F. Kennedy (Irish)
 * 35th President 1961–63 (ancestors from County Wexford)


 * Richard Nixon (Scotch-Irish, English & German)
 * 37th President, 1969–74: The Nixon ancestors left Ulster in the mid-18th century; the Quaker Milhous family ties were with County Antrim and County Kildare and County Cork.


 * Jimmy Carter (Scotch-Irish & English)
 * 39th President 1977–1981 (County Antrim)


 * Ronald Reagan (Scotch-Irish, Irish, English & Scottish)
 * 40th President 1981–89: He was the great-grandson, on his father's side, of Irish migrants from County Tipperary who came to America via Canada and England in the 1940s. His mother was of Scottish and English ancestry.


 * George H. W. Bush (Scotch-Irish, & English)
 * 41st President 1989–93: County Wexford historians have found that his now apparent ancestor, Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke (known as Strongbow for his arrow skills) – is remembered as a desperate, land-grabbing warlord whose calamitous foreign adventure led to the suffering of generations. Shunned by Henry II, he offered his services as a mercenary in the 12th-century invasion of Wexford in exchange for power and land. When he eventually died of a festering ulcer in his foot, his enemies said it was the revenge of Irish saints whose shrines he had violated. The genetic line can also be traced to Dermot MacMurrough, the Gaelic king of Leinster reviled in history books as the man who sold Ireland by inviting Strongbow's invasion to save himself from a local feud.


 * Bill Clinton (Scotch-Irish & English)
 * 42nd President 1993–2001: He claims Irish ancestry despite there being no documentation of any of his ancestors coming from Ireland


 * George W. Bush (Irish, Scottish, Dutch, Welsh, French, German & English)
 * 43rd President 2001–09: One of his five times great-grandfathers, William Holliday, was born in Rathfriland, County Down, about 1755, and died in Kentucky about 1811–12. One of the President's seven times great-grandfathers, William Shannon, was born somewhere in County Cork about 1730, and died in Pennsylvania in 1784.


 * Barack Obama (Kenyan American, African American, English American and also very distant Irish ancestry)
 * 44th President 2009–: His paternal ancestors came to America from Kenya and his maternal ancestors came to America from England. His ancestors lived in New England and the South and by the 1800s most were in the Midwest. His father was Kenyan and the first of his family to leave Africa. His great great grandfather, Falmouth Kearney, was born in the Irish town of Moneygall.

Science

 * Michael Collins – astronaut with Gemini 10 and Apollo 11 missions
 * Jim Collins – Rhodes Scholar, MacArthur genius, bioengineer and inventor
 * John Philip Holland – inventor of the submarine; Fenian
 * Charles McBurney – medical pioneer
 * Charles Townes – physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics laureate

Sports

 * Muhammad Ali – professional boxer
 * Lance Armstrong – professional road racing cyclist
 * Cal Bowdler – former basketball player
 * James J. Braddock – professional boxer
 * Tom Brady – NFL player, New England Patriots quarterback
 * Joseph "Joe" Brennan – Basketball Hall of Famer
 * Phillip Brooks (CM Punk) – WWE wrestler
 * Tom Cahill – MLB baseball player
 * Chris Coghlan – MLB baseball player
 * Marty Conlon – former basketball player
 * Billy Conn – professional boxer
 * George Connor – NFL player, Chicago Bears
 * Gerry Cooney – professional boxer
 * James J. Corbett – professional boxer
 * John Daly – professional golfer
 * Jack Dempsey – professional boxer
 * Pat Duff – MLB professional baseball player
 * Mike Dunleavy Sr. – basketball coach
 * Mike Dunleavy Jr. – professional basketball player
 * Patrick Eaves – NHL player, Anaheim Ducks
 * John Elway – NFL player, Denver Broncos quarterback
 * Dave Finlay – former professional wrestler
 * Whitey Ford – MLB player, New York Yankees pitcher
 * Mike Gibbons – professional boxer
 * Tommy Gibbons – professional boxer
 * Mike Hall – professional basketball player
 * Luke Harangody – professional basketball player
 * Jeff Hardy – TNA wrestler
 * Matt Hardy – WWE wrestler
 * Ben Hogan – professional golfer
 * Holly Holm – MMA fighter
 * Derek Jeter – MLB player, New York Yankees shortstop
 * Jason Kidd – NBA player/coach


 * Jay Larranaga – basketball coach
 * Jim Larranaga – basketball coach
 * Tommy Loughran – professional boxer
 * Brian McCann – MLB player, New York Yankees infielder
 * John McEnroe – professional tennis player
 * Donnie McGrath – professional basketball player
 * Terry McGovern – professional boxer
 * Kevin McHale – NBA player
 * Larry Miggins – MLB player, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder
 * Shannon Moore – TNA wrestler
 * Charles "Stretch"Murphy – late Basketball Hall of Famer
 * Troy Murphy – basketball player
 * Larry O'Bannon – basketball player
 * Philadelphia Jack O'Brien – professional boxer
 * Johnny O'Bryant – basketball player
 * Patrick O'Bryant – basketball player
 * Mike O'Dowd – professional boxer
 * Ian O'Leary – professional basketball player
 * Troy O'Leary – MLB player, Boston Red Sox outfielder
 * Kyle O'Quinn – professional basketball player
 * John Quinlan – pro wrestler
 * Ryan Max Riley – skier, US Ski Team
 * Freddie Roach – former boxer, current boxing trainer
 * Ryan Shannon – NHL professional pockey Player, won the Stanley Cup with Anaheim in 2007
 * Sheamus – professional wrestler
 * Kelly Slater – professional surfer
 * Sam Snead – PGA Golf Hall of Famer
 * Giancarlo Stanton – MLB player, Miami Marlins outfielder
 * John L. Sullivan – Professional boxer, first Heavyweight champion of gloved boxing
 * Gene Tunney – professional boxer
 * Mickey Walker – professional boxer
 * Andre Ward – professional boxer
 * Mickey Ward – professional boxer
 * Mickey Ward – professional boxer

Others

 * Billy the Kid – gunslinger
 * The "Unsinkable" Molly Brown – born Molly Tobin; Irish-born father
 * R. Nicholas Burns – American diplomat, Harvard professor, columnist and lecturer; 19th Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs; 17th United States Permanent Representative to NATO; United States Ambassador to Greece 1997-2001
 * Mark Calaway – pro wrestler with the WWE, known as the "Undertaker"
 * John Chambers (1922–2001) – Academy Award-winning makeup artist
 * Eileen Collins – first female commander of a Space Shuttle
 * Éamon de Valera – third president of Ireland
 * John Dunlap – printer, printed the first copies of the Declaration of Independence
 * Henry Louis Gates – professor, at Harvard University
 * Ann Glover – hanged as a witch in Boston
 * Dan Harrington – world poker champion
 * James Healy – Bishop of Portland, America's first African-American bishop; born a slave according to the laws of Georgia to an Irish immigrant and his beloved African wife; first graduate and valedictorian of Holy Cross College in Massachusetts
 * Michael Healy – Captain of the Revenue Cutter Bear; defender of Alaska's Native Americans; inspiration for Jack London's The Sea Wolf; prominent figure in James Michener's Alaska; younger brother of James and Patrick Healy
 * Patrick Healy – President of Georgetown University, considered its second founder; brother of James Healy; first African-American president of an American university; Priest in the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits)
 * James Hoban – Architect of the White House in Washington, DC
 * Mary Jemison – frontierswoman
 * Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis – former First Lady; her mother, Janet Lee Bouvier, of mostly Irish descent
 * Paul Charles Morphy (1837–1884) – chess player
 * Coco Rocha – Canadian model of Irish, Welsh, and Russian descent
 * Ellen Ewing Sherman – stepsister and wife of William Tecumseh Sherman. Because they would have needed to buy a slave to help with the children, Mrs. Sherman refused to accompany her husband to command at the Louisiana military academy, which later became LSU. During the Civil War, she and their children took up residence at Notre Dame University, with which her family was closely affiliated.
 * David Steele – Presbyterian minister
 * John L. Sullivan – last bare-knuckle boxing heavyweight champion of the world; first gloved heavyweight champion of the world; first American athlete to become a national celebrity and to earn over $1 million
 * Kathleen Willey – major figure in the Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky scandals involving President Bill Clinton; mother is of Irish descent