MEET THE AMERICAN IRELAND FUND.(American Ireland Fund Board of Directors member Denis Healy)(Brief Article)

World of Hibernia, March, 2000 by Mackin, Thomas E.

For all his professional accomplishments,including his current position as CEO of Turtle Wax Inc., Denis Healy received perhaps his biggest compliment from a shopkeeper in Cong, County Mayo. Shopping with his wife Sondra in a store, he told the owner that he was Irish, thanks to having parents from Cork and Kerry.

The elderly shopkeeper looked at him blankly, used to Irish-Americans boldly claiming her nationality to be theirs. She watched Healy while he shopped, noting his mannerisms and the way he carried himself. Upon leaving the store, the shopkeeper stopped Healy and told him, "You could be Irish."

Healy chuckles at that memory, but he's quite serious about giving back to the land where his parents were born, most notably through his current...