The 40 Under 40 awards were virtual this year and hosted by our colleagues in Belfast due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As such, they will be spanning the miles in America, and the miles across the Atlantic Ocean.
This year's awards were the fourteenth annual, so the grand total of award winners over the past decade plus four years equals 560.
That total number of award winners to date makes for a lot of living, work, accomplishment, ambition, hope, and dreams. The awards celebrate all of these and more. And they are, we hope, as much a spur for the future as they are a recognition of each winner’s present and past.
Our award winners have already blazed trails through their lives that bring credit to themselves, their families, their communities, Ireland, Irish America, and the United States of America.
The awards are not given on the basis of specific jobs, vocations or achievements, but rather cover all possible career bases and pursuits and are prompted by nominators who see in each award winner a reason, or reasons, as to why he or she stands out at a time of life when a certain landmark age has yet to be reached.
The varied careers, and the different places our award winners call home, is now a familiar aspect of 40-Under-40. The awards are national and international, personal and shared. And we believe they wear the passing years well. And the Irish Echo is proud to play host in what is our 93rd year of publication.
This year's guest speaker was Rachael Rollins, Suffolk County District Attorney in Massachusetts. There was opening remarks from Irish Ambassador to the U.S. Dan Mulhall. Gerry Adams will speak on the legacy of Frederick Douglass.