Opinionated, spirited, courageous: the inspirational Rosabelle Gifford.
One woman was an Academy Award winning actress who became a princess.
Another courageously left an abusive marriage and took her children across an ocean to safety at a time when society frowned on divorce and single parenthood.
One heads the major division of a multi-billion dollar company that’s an iconic giant in the food industry.
Another, a nurse on a heart transplant team, dealt with her husband’s history as an Irish political prisoner by working tirelessly for Irish reunification and with her son’s death at the age of 15 in a skateboard accident by creating a scholarship for other skateboarders.
These are just four of the women who will receive an Inspirational Irish Women Award on Sunday, May 23, at the Irish Center, 6815 Emlen Street, Philadelphia.
Princess Grace of Monaco
Philadelphia’s favorite daughter, Grace Kelly, who earned her Oscar playing Georgie Elgin opposite Bing Crosby in “The Country Girl,” later became Princess Grace of Monaco who devoted her time to motherhood and charity until her untimely accidental death in 1982.
Rosabelle Gifford
Rosabelle Gifford was born in Gortward, Mountcharles, County Donegal, 90-something years ago. The mother of 5 was living in post-war London when she decided to leave her abusive marriage, spiriting her children out of the country than emigrating to America where she supported them by working as a nanny in Delaware County. Described as “opinionated, spirited, and courageous,” she was honored in 2009 with the first Mary O’Connor Spirit Award by the Philadelphia Rose of Tralee Centre, a major sponsor of the Inspirational Irish Women Awards. Not only did her large family come to support her, so did some of the children she cared for some 50 years ago.
Denise Sullivan Morrison
Denise Sullivan Morrison leads the Campbell USA, North America Foodservice, and Campbell Canada businesses, which represent approximately $4.9 billion of the company’s net sales and nearly 90 percent of the company’s profits.
But for Morrison, there’s more to it than profits. She has served on the board of the Food Industry Crusade Against Hunger and Leadership California and is a founding member and current board member of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, an initiative composed of manufacturers and retailers designed to combat obesity in the marketplace, workplace, and in schools through communication and education. She is also the mother of two daughters–with a great role model.
Liz Kerr
Liz Kerr, RN, is on the transplant team at Temple University, where she daily confronts life and death. When her own son, Patrick, died in a 2002 accident, she made the decision to keep his memory alive by establishing two scholarships—one for students at Roman Catholic High School where Patrick had been a freshman, and another for high-achieving students who share another of Patrick’s loves—skateboarding.
Her husband, Pearse, who grew up in Belfast, became a political prisoner at 17, released only when authorities learned he was an American citizen, born when his parents lived in the States. Kerr, who has Galway roots, serves as the Freedom for All Ireland officers of Ladies AOH Brigid McCrory Div. 25—the person charged with helping make the dream of a united Ireland a reality. Kerr has been lobbying local lawmakers to pass resolutions supporting Irish reunification: Last year, Philadelphia passed the resolution and Kerr and other AOH members are working with state lawmakers to have one passed at the state level.
Artist Patrick Gallagher, the son of Irish immigrants who grew up on the Main Line, is painting portraits of the women which will hang for several months at the Irish Center and then be on display at the Oscar Wilde House of American University Dublin.
Tickets to the May 23 cocktail reception and awards event are $35 and available at www.inspirationalirishwomen.org. They will not be sold at the door. Information on tax deductible sponsorships are also on the website. For more information, contact Denise Foley at 215-884-1936 or 215-779-1466 or email denise.foley@comcast.net.
Two great groups with strong links to the Philadelphia Irish community and the Irish Center in particular will provide the music: The Boyces and Shannon Lambert-Ryan and Runa. The Boyce Family (they include founding members of Blackthorn) and Shannon Lambert-Ryan literally “grew up” at the Irish Center. “That’s where I learned to dance,” says Lambert-Ryan.
Proceeds from the event will go to support the Irish Center, which has been the focal point of the region’s Irish community for more than 50 years. Ten percent has been pledged to Project H.O.M.E., a nonprofit organization founded by another of the winners, Sister Mary Scullion.
The other winners are:
- Sister Kathleen Marie Keenan, senior vice-president of Mission and Sponsorship of Mercy Health System, the largest Catholic health care system in southeastern Pennsylvania
- Rosemarie Timoney, founder of Timoney School of Irish Dance and a longtime promoter of Irish culture in the Delaware Valley
- Kathy McGee Burns, Realtor, president of the Delaware Valley Irish Hall of Fame, vice president of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day Observance Committee and mother of nine
- Kathy Orr, CBS3 meteorologist, anchor of the Philadelphia St. Patrick’s Day coverage, longtime supporter of Alex’s Lemonade Stand and other charities
- Emily Riley, executive vice president of Connelly Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports Catholic education, the arts and other nonprofits.
- Siobhan Reardon, first woman president of The Free Library of Philadelphia
