February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Born in Dublin, he is a graduate of University College Dublin who worked with the Irish Press newspaper group before moving to the United States in 1987.
He joined the Echo in 1988 and began his career with the paper by expanding its coverage of Irish-American life and activities beyond the New York area.
During the 1990s, O’Hanlon, as senior editor of the paper, continued to expand the Echo’s drive for a greater variety of stories from all corners of the United States, Ireland and beyond.
For a two-year period he was a contributing commentator on the PBS-broadcast “Out of Ireland” television show.
O’Hanlon’s particular beat has long been the immigration issue and his 1998 book, “The New Irish Americans,” is considered a definitive account of the battle for immigration reform waged by the Irish Immigration Reform Movement and other Irish-American organizations in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
“The New Irish Americans” was the recipient of a Washington Irving Book Award.
O’Hanlon, a dual American and Irish citizen, lives with his wife and three children in Ossining, N.Y.