The head of Budweiser was once heard to remark that the secret to the success of his beer was that the Germans brewed it and the Irish sold it.

“Luckily it was not the other way around,” he joked.

He made a solid point, however.  The Irish are great communicators. In whatever industry where communications is a key skill you will find Irish very close to the top.

The gift of the gab is what our ancestors called it, and in the modern day context, despite the era of iPhones and multimedia, it is still all about getting your message across.

The Irish do it superbly as our list of Top 30 Irish in media reveals. As you scroll down the list you will see names and faces that are very familiar to you, but be absolutely certain their skills were first honed in Irish families where talking, arguing, debating and discussing were all on the family to-do list every day.

Little wonder then that the Irish in media play an outsized role.  Little wonder that we found it relatively easy to come up with the names because our Irish media presence is so great.  Long may it continue. Congratulations to all of them, especially our main honoree Maureen Dowd, New York Times columnist and winner of our Irish Spirit Award.