Andre Archimbaud spent his life carrying three passports worth of heritage: a French surname, an Italian-American upbringing, and, buried a generation or two back, an Irish line he didn't know existed until a chance conversation set him straight. This episode, recorded at Ryan's Daughter on the Upper East Side, traces how Archimbaud built an identity by choice rather than inheritance.

It started years earlier at a bar in Washington Heights, where a stranger, several drinks in, turned to him and said, "You are what your mother is," invoking a mitochondrial logic Archimbaud had never considered. Two weeks of digging into his maternal line turned up a great-grandfather from Sligo and a great-great-grandmother born in Dublin. From there, U2, a 1997 road trip through Killarney, and a growing engagement with Irish radio and Irish Twitter did the rest.

Archimbaud's other education came from his father, a man who rose from a cramped East Orange apartment to sit on the US Olympic Committee, and who taught his son to network simply by being watched. "It imprinted in me the sort of how to do this," Archimbaud says, a skill that now underwrites Clearly Now Media, the digital agency he launched after nearly two decades in paid search and social advertising.

Even the agency's name has an Irish thread: a Hothouse Flowers cover of "I Can See Clearly Now," framed on his living room wall, that his girlfriend pointed to when he needed a name.

Archimbaud closes on a quieter note: two days alone on Inchydoney Beach in West Cork, sun and rain and a double rainbow, that stayed with him through a season of change.

LINKS

ANDRE ARCHIMBAUD

• Clearly Now Media
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IRISH STEW LINKS

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• Media Partner: IrishCentral

RYAN'S DAUGHTER

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Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 25; Total Episode Count: 166

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Gearóid Mcdaid, known across the surfing world as G-Man, grew up twenty minutes from Mullaghmore, County Sligo's fearsome slab wave, and now holds the 2025 European shortboard title with an eye on the 2028 LA Olympics. John and Martin caught him mid-vacation in New York, tucked into Georgie's Chelsea, right under a photograph of the man himself mid-wave.

"It's a pretty cool thing that surfing's in the Olympics now," he says. Gearóid's victory at the European Championships last year did its part for the sport back home, proof, as he puts it, that Ireland has surfers who can compete with the best in the world.

Gearóid walks us through the two lives of a pro surfer: the technical, judged world of competition, and the far riskier business of chasing 50-foot slabs at Mullaghmore, a wave made by limestone reef geology and giant North Athlantic swells. Chasing those waves takes a safety crew on jet skis and a fair amount of nerve, skills built on a childhood his surfer father set in motion, long before Mullaghmore's entered the picture.

"You're always scared," he admits, "but it's just trying to push through it and enjoy it."

He talks sponsors, wave pool training in Scotland, four straight years of injuries, and the tight-knit, fast-growing surf scene back home. "The Irish surf community's so small," he says. "Everyone knows each other that surfs."

Next up for G-Man: a video trip to France for Monster in October, then the World Championships in Peru in November, all building toward one goal. As Martin puts it, fingers crossed we'll see the Irish flag flying on a beach at the LA Olympics in 2028.

LINKS

GEARÓID MCDAID

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  • Mullaghmore in the Summer - Hurricane Erin Swell
  • Mullaghmore in the Winter - Dec 2025
• Seamus Plug: Jackdaw
  
  

GEORGIES CHELSEA (our hosts for this episode)

• Website
  
  

POINTBREAK (this episode's featured music)

• Bandcamp
  
  

IRISH STEW LINKS

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• Media Partner: IrishCentral

Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 24; Total Episode Count: 165

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One year and a week since taking his new post, the Consul General of Ireland in New York Gerald Angley hosted the Irish Stew podcasters in his office high above Park Avenue for a behind-the-scenes look at Irish diplomacy in action while sharing his reflections on the first year on the job.

One event stands out for Gerald.

"The scale of St. Patrick's Day blew our minds,” he says. “It's 24/7 for a number of weeks."

Gerald walks listeners through the impressive scale of his six-state consular territory of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

"That's 59 million people. That's the same population as the UK," he notes, adding that the region ranks as the world's third-largest economy in its own right.

The conversation traces Gerald’s path from a University College Dublin commerce degree and a stint at Citibank to a career in the Department of Foreign Affairs, with postings in Brussels, Paris, and London during Brexit. On landing the coveted New York job, he admits to a bold move: "I wrote a letter that said, 'I dare you not to pick me.'"

Talk turns to the perennial Irish Stew topic of diaspora engagement, where the diplomat reflects on evolving Irish American identity, saying, "We have to look at it not as purely Irish-born people, but rather people who have several identities."

He also points to what distinguishes Ireland's mission from other consulates: "We're one of the only countries that has an immigrant support fund... we need to be bigger than most of the other consulates, and we are."

As the episode wraps, Gerald provides the listeners with his must-read book recommendation and previews of the imminent launch the Green Pages, the new directory of Irish organizations in his consul region.

And what’s it like to be a Consul General in New York? Gerald quotes a predecessor in his role who said, "It’s Wall Street by day, Broadway by night!”

Links:

Gerald Angley

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Consulate General of Ireland in New York

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Episode Details: Season 8, Episode 23; Total Episode Count: 164

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