Brothers:
Anyone having either a new and/or updated missions and charities report can forward them to me at:
pa.aoh.charities.missions@gmail.com
Additionally, if there are any questions or if anyone needs forms, I can be reached at: (570) 236-6691
In Our Motto,
Thomas Hayes
M&C Chairman
To All,
On Monday morning I met with representatives from Senator Dinniman’s office at the Medal of Honor Grove and on Tuesday afternoon we had a meeting with the Senator at his office in West Chester. I was there to represent the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Ken Wang was there as civilian liaison for the US Military and Jim Fields representing Lockheed Martin. All of us, as well as the Senator, being concerned about the deteriorating condition of the Grove.
Several things have come to light. Freedoms Foundation has chapters in a number of areas around the United States and they do beautiful work educating young Americans about America. For a number of years a few of these chapters have been complaining to the Board of Directors at Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge about the conditions at the Medal of Honor Grove, but to no avail. A chapter in the mid-west offered to raise large sums of money to maintain the Grove, again to no avail. Charlestown Township offered to purchase the Grove and put it into perpetuity, but were turned down. A family of a Medal of Honor recipient wanted to replace the dead tree that was placed there in their son’s honor, but were refused permission. Approximately 12 or 14 men of the Military have earned the Medal of Honor in Irag and Afghanistan and nothing has been placed in their honor at the Grove. There are also 4 men from the Civil War yet to be recognized. Members of their own Board have resigned as a result of the above actions. It would appear that it is the attention of someone or persons to let the Grove deteriorate to the point where they would say it has to be sold. The fox is in the hen house. As Senator Dinniman pointed out, if the States had known of these conditions, they would have gladly donated fifty thousand dollars to maintain there own areas.
About the clean-up on October 8, 10 and 11. Senator Dinniman’s office has received hundreds of calls with offers to help. He has asked that Ken Wang, Jim Fields and myself coordinate this clean-up. (Talk about miracles, what did Sister Margaret Gratl at Camilla Hall say about expecting small miracles. I’ll be calling for mine.) They expect so many groups to show up for this clean-up, that parking could be a problem. Students from Phoenixville High School will be brought to the Grove via bus on Friday and students from Downingtown High School will be brought to the Grove via bus on Monday. The Senator thought that not only could these students help with the raking, etc, but they could learn a history lesson as well. Money has already been authorized by the State to Phoenixville High School to provide box lunches for all workers. Ken Wang thought he could have about 50 military Sergeants there who had experience in directing large crowds. Let’s hope there not Drill Sergeants. Governor Rendel is also expected to be there.
On Sunday, Senator Dinniman thought it would be a good idea to have an inter-faith service, early in the morning, at the Grove. He would like to have it around the Ancient Order Of Hibernians obelisk, in honor of Sister Marie Veronica for all her research and for the AOH in brining her work to fruition. The Senator is a personal friend to a number of the IHM Sisters and said he would personally pick them up and bring them to the service. He wasn’t sure what time they got up in the morning, but I assured him they were up earlier than himself. He is also concerned about Sister Maria Veronica’s research work. Her book, with 8 years of research, all in long-hand, was donated to Freedom’s Foundation but sits on a window sill exposed to sunlight, heat and humidity. He offered to return it to Immaulata University where it could be placed in the archives.
I spoke with our AOH National President, Seamus Boyle, last evening. We are setting up a date to meet at the Grove next week, preferably in the morning. If possible, I would like to have a representative from the following groups be there-Montgomery County AOH, Pliladelphia AOH County Board, Havertown AOH, Luzerne County AOH, Military Men of Tradition, Philadelphia Veterans Council, Montgomery County Police Academy and a representative of any other group who would like to attend. As soon as Seamus can arrange a time, I’ll be in touch with all of you. I would like you to walk through the Grove, so you can get an idea of what work has to be done. My next meeting with the Senator and his staff is on September 16th. I can be reached at 610-696-6779 or by e mail.
AOH Division 4 Irish Heritage Classic
September 24th
Pittsburgh National Golf Club
This event supports Division 4′s Catholic Grade School Tuition Assistance Fund
Registration/Light Lunch 11:00 am – Noon
Shotgun Start 12:30 pm
Buffet Dinner, Awards & Entertainment by:
CueBall – Irish & Blues Music
Bring your significant other out for the buffet after golf.
CueBall will be entertaining all into the evening.
Please see links below for Registration and Sponsor information:
As Seamus has stated Bill Collins, National Vice President of the BOE has been stricken ill, and he along with his wife Colleen are dedicated Hibernians in Belfast, who visited their Irish American families in the Philadelphia and California often and enjoyed the United States and the AOH Board of America here enormously. Bill actually worked here in the U.S. for a short while and came here for conferences many times in his position with Shorts Aircraft in Belfast, later purchased by Bombadier. This was some position for a Catholic from West Belfast to hold in the 1990′s and shattered barriers as more and more Catholics became employed at Shorts when the MacBride Principles added even more pressure.
He and his wife were involved in dinners with their Catholic Church and a nearby Protestant Church shared meals in a fledgling reconciliation effort even in 1995.
Bill and his Colleen were among the many who hosted the AOH in America in 1995 at the Clonard Division on Falls Road in West Belfast when we traveled as the AOH National Board, under Ed Wallace’s Presidency to March in Derry Ireland on August 15 in 1995 and dedicate the Famine Memorial near Ennistymon in County Clare, it was a trip for the ages organized by Dave Burke of Massachusetts. We were accompanied by the AOH Choir from Long Island who wowed everyone on our trip around Ireland.
We marched with the Irish Tricolor and the Stars and Stripes through the Butchers Gate around the Diamond in Derry and down to the Guildhall Square, to the consternation of the then RUC, for the presentations as well as being hosted by the Catholic Mayor at a Reception and Dinner in the Guildhall hosted by Derry Division #1 where Noble Laureate John Hume spoke to those assembled. Bill and his wife were proudly there every step of the way.
My wife Mary Ellen and I were lucky enough to meet and sit with Bill and his wife as well as their friends when we arrived early at the Clonard AOH Hall on the evening of the 1995 reception. We kept in touch over the years and just just three week ago, on August 15, I was lucky enough to be in Ireland and traveled to Belfast to March on Falls Road with the AOH Board of Erin as well as Bill Collins and Coleen on this August 15, 2010.
On the Saturday night before the march we sat in a booth in Clonard Hall, with Bill beside me, and we reminsced about 1995, with pints and fun being the order of the day, as members of the Scottish AOH and other BOE officers celebrated before the mornings march. On Sunday morning we had tea in Clonard and Bill and Colleen were again organizing the effort, boiling tea, as they worked in the Hall on Sunday morning.
The AOH BOE on August 15 marched proudly down Falls Road from Milltown Cemetary, where we had placed a wreath on Joe Devlin’s grave, to Clonard Monastery and Bill was proudly at the front in his West Belfast community, as many greeted him from the crowd.
Our hopes and prayers go out to Bill and his family as we wish for his full recovery and return to the AOH BOE and Clonard Division they both Love.
Ned McGinley
Past National President AOH in America
So many times our National Chaplain, Father Tom O’Donnell, when given an opportunity is able to make a powerful analogy between past heroes, here the Hunger Strike Anniversary, and bring it forward to the Peace we have today in the North of Ireland. His perception and passion are amazingly powerful as those who witnessed his Homily at the National Convention in Cincinnati, where he spoke of his family’s resistence to British Rule, can attest he certainly can deliver.
Here he links the heroism of the Hunger Strikers to the Good Friday Agreement and todays politics turning Long Kesh into an International symbol of Peace and Reconciliation.
He calls on us as members of the AOH and indeed Irish American Catholics to continue to focus and seek a United Ireland as the AOH Constitution and By Laws requests.
AOH National PEC
Hunger Striker’s Mass-2010
Pittsburgh, PA
Today we commemorate the 29th year of the Hunger Strikers of 1981, who sacrificed their young lives for the cause of freedom, justice, peace and reconciliation. These ten Irish martyrs – Bobby Sands, Francis Hughes, Raymond Mc Cresh, Patsy O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson, Rom Mc Elwee, Kevin Lynch, Keiran Doherty, and Michael Devine were all martyrs for the sake of their Catholic faith and freedom for all Ireland. These heroes were confined in the H-Blocks of the Maze prison, more infamously known as Long Kesh. These ten Republican prisoners went on a hunger strike with five demands, the most potent being that they refused to be treated as criminals. After the hunger strike was completed these ten brave Irishmen had made the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives for what they believed in – that they had the right to be free Irishmen.
In some ways the sacrifice and death of the Hunger Strikers has now been somewhat vindicated. Within the past several weeks some good news came out recently with regard to the Maze prison, more infamously knows as Long Kesh. Martin McGuiness, the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland announced recently “The Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister will shortly submit a European Union funding application for a Peace Building and Conflict Resolution Facility on the site of the Maze, Long Kesh prison.” “It is anticipated that the center will be a world-class facility of international importance designed to strengthen our peace-building expertise and to share our experiences with others throughout the world.”
Finally this prison of torture and horror where the Hunger Strikers gave their lives will be turned into a positive sight for peace and reconciliation not only for Ireland but the rest of the world.
However, in addition to Hunger Strikers of 1981 let us also remember the many thousands of other Irish martyrs who have died as a result of British tyranny – We also remember the Bloody Sunday martyrs of January 30, 1972. On that Bloody Sunday a dark cloud descended over Derry City and remained for thirty eight years until Tuesday, June 15, 2010. On that day, about one month ago, the ghost of the British Army was banished from the streets and the dignity and pride of the people of Derry returned as the Lord Saville report exonerated the Bloody Sunday martyrs of any wrongdoing. Prime Minister David Cameron offered an extraordinary apology for the 1972 killings of the unarmed demonstrated by the British soldier saying that the long awaited judicial inquiry left no doubt that the Bloody Sunday killings were both unjustified and unjustifiable. Mr. Cameron went on to relate that there was no justification for the shooting of the civilian casualties. One of the most damaging sentences in the Saville report stated that one of the victims was shot while crawling away from the soldiers and another while he was lying mortally wounded on the ground.
Although there has been some measure of justice and peace now for the martyrs of Bloody Sunday, it must be remembered that in Ballymurphy six months earlier the same Para-Military Regiment – shot dead 11 innocent victims and in Springhill five month later they shot dead 5 more. Justice peace must still be given to the families and the victims of the Ballymurphy and Springhill murders.
In the past thirty eight years since Bloody Sunday, and in the past twenty nine years since the death of the Hunger Strikers there have been many significant gains and progress towards the freedom for all Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and its further implementation during the past several years is one step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, sometimes with a measure of success, there also comes apathy. Some may think that the struggle for a peaceful reunification is over. However, we must remember that the dissidents will continue to fight to prevent and derail the unification process. Therefore, it is of prime importance that we as Irish American Catholics continue to have a new strength and purpose. We must continue to lobby our politicians on the National, State, County and Municipal levels to support the United Ireland Resolution, so that, God willing, we will have a United Ireland in 2016, the 100th Anniversary of the Easter Rising.
If we are going to achieve true peace, justice and reconciliation in our beloved Ireland, in addition to lobbying the politicians on the worldly level, it is even more important that we continue to lobby and pray to our Father, Christ and Holy Spirit in Heaven for that peace that only God can give.
In the Old Testament book of Isaiah we read: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
The vision of Isaiah is not simply a kind of justice that is imposed upon us. It rather fills the soul of each person and emanates out. There is justice socially because each person is filled with compassion and meets the needs of those around them. When the writers of the gospel looked back on the life of Jesus and remembered the prophecies of Isaiah, the called him the ‘Prince of Peace’. At the heart of the message that Jesus came to deliver us, is the gospel of peace. It is not just a footnote, nor an editorial comment in the margins, it is central. When Jesus sent out his disciples, in the gospel of Luke, they carried no physical protection, not even a purse or a bag for support. And he tells them, to each house you enter, say “Peace be upon this house and if a child of peace lives in that house, your peace shall rest upon them.” In the gospel of John, just before he is arrested, Jesus speaks to his disciples, summarizing everything that he wants to tell them. There, he speaks of the importance of dwelling in love and then he says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you, not as the world gives… Let not your hearts be troubled, neither be afraid.”
And so as Irish American Catholics, every one of us is called to bring the message of Christ, his message of peace and reconciliation to all the world but especially to our brothers and sisters of Northern Ireland. The simple prayer attributed to St. Francis describes the spiritual disposition that all of us should have as we pray for peace and reconciliation not only in Northern Ireland but throughout the whole world. .
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred . . . let me sow love
Where there is injury . . . pardon
Where there is doubt . . . faith
Where there is despair . . .hope
Where there is darkness . . . light
Where there is sadness . . .joy
Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled . . .as to console
To be understood . . .as to understand,
To be loved . . . as to love
For it is in giving . . .that we receive,
It is in pardoning, that we are pardoned,
It is in dying . . .that we are born to eternal life .
May the ten Hunger Strikers of 1981 as well as all the Irish martyrs who have died for the cause of peace, justice, reconciliation and freedom for all Ireland, continue to find eternal peace and rest.
On a rainy day, such as it was in Ireland, in 1879, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians of Lackawanna County, celebrated on Sunday, August 22, 2010, the first of what is hoped to become a long tradition of “Our Lady of Knock” masses held at St. Peter’s Cathedral,in Scranton.
Celebrants at the mass included Fr. Muldowney, Fr. Clarke, and our newly ordained Shepherd of the Diocese of Scranton, Bishop Joseph Bambera. Approximately 80 Lackawanna County AOH and LAOH members attended the mass which was organized by Lackawanna County President Gary Duncan and Monsignor Bohr, Pastor of St. Peter’s Cathedral Fr.’s Clarke, Muldowney and Bishop Bambera.
Brothers,
The next Pa. State Board meeting will be held at the Pocono Inne Town, 700 Main Street, Stroudsburg on
Saturday, October 2, 2010 beginning promptly at 1 P.M. Anyone wishing to stay over can make reservations by calling 570-421-2200 , the rate is $89 per night.
Also we need locations for the following board meetings of Dec. 4, 2010 and Feb.26, 2011. Please let us know who volunteers to host these meetings. The May meeting will be held in Pittsburgh in conjunction with the State President’s Dinner, more information to follow.
Gerry Ennis – PA State Secretary
Brothers,
Despite the fact that it is still summer vacation for most of us, we have been making some progress toward the organization of new divisions in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
* In Allegheny County, President Dan Devinney reports that things are moving towards the formation of a division at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
* In Levittown, Bucks County twenty – five new members are reported ready to form a division. This may happen in a few more weeks.
* And just in, we have a contact in Pike County in NE PA for a division at Milford , Pa. Joe Hosie and Ned McGinley will be working on this prospect.
Does anyone else have anything to report on prospective new divisions in our 67 counties ?
Let us know !
Gerry Ennis – PA State Secretary
Were Philly’s Irish Immigrants Murdered?
By KATHY MATHESON
Young and strapping, the 57 Irish immigrants began grueling work in the summer of 1832 on the Philadelphia and Columbia railroad. Within weeks, all were dead of cholera.
Or were they murdered?
Two skulls unearthed at a probable mass grave near Philadelphia this month showed signs of violence, including a possible bullet hole. Another pair of skulls found earlier at the woodsy site also displayed traumas, seeming to confirm the suspicions of two historians leading the archaeological dig.
“This was much more than a cholera epidemic,” William Watson said.
Watson, chairman of the history department at nearby Immaculata University, and his twin brother Frank have been working for nearly a decade to unravel the 178-year-old mystery.
Anti-Irish sentiment made 19th-century America a hostile place for the workers, who lived amid wilderness in a shanty near the railroad tracks. The land is now preserved open space behind suburban homes in Malvern, about 20 miles west of Philadelphia.
The Watsons and their research team have recovered seven sets of remains since digging up the first shin bone in March 2009, following years of fruitlessly scouring the area for the men’s final resting place. One victim has been tentatively identified, pending DNA tests.
The brothers have long hypothesized that many of the workers succumbed to cholera, a bacterial infection spread by contaminated water or food. The disease was rampant at the time, and had a typical mortality rate of 40 percent to 60 percent.
The other immigrants, they surmise, were killed by vigilantes because of anti-Irish prejudice, tension between affluent residents and poor transient workers, or intense fear of cholera — or a combination of all three.
Now, their theory is supported by the four recovered skulls, which indicate the men probably suffered blows to the head. At least one may have been shot, said Janet Monge, an anthropologist working on the project.
“I don’t think we need to be so hesitant in coming to the conclusion now that violence was the cause of death and not cholera, although these men might have had cholera in addition,” Monge said.
Other findings: Coffin nails commingled with the remains establish that at least some workers received formal burials; bones indicate the laborers were muscular despite relatively poor diets; and teeth reveal the men were not wealthy enough to afford the sugary sweets that cause cavities.
“They do have indications on their skeletons that life was not a bowl of cherries,” said Monge, who is also the keeper of skeletal collections at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
The Watsons learned in 2002 of the workers’ demise from the personal papers of their late grandfather, who worked for the railroad long after the men died. Their quest, called The Duffy’s Cut Project, is named for Philip Duffy, who hired the Irishmen to build a section of railroad known as a cut.
When the immigrants died in August 1832, Duffy ordered his blacksmith to burn the shanty for sanitary reasons and bury the bodies in the railroad fill, the Watsons say. The men’s families were never told of their deaths.
A passenger list for the John Stamp, a ship that sailed from Ireland to Philadelphia four months earlier, offers possible identities for 15 workers who came from Donegal, Tyrone and Derry counties.
Early on, the Watsons tentatively identified one victim as 18-year-old John Ruddy, based on bone size and the ship’s manifest. They have since found a section of teeth with a rare genetic anomaly — a missing upper molar that never formed — shared by some Ruddy family members in Ireland. Researchers hope for DNA confirmation in about six months.
Excavation of the burial site and the shanty, aided by ground-penetrating radar, has proved a whirlwind education in anatomy and archaeology for the 47-year-old brothers. Both earned doctorates in history but, science-wise, have nothing more than an introductory college biology class under their belts.
“It has been indeed a crash course,” Frank Watson said, “and it’s been fascinating.”
To compensate, they have surrounded themselves with experts — including Monge and a retired coroner, forensic dentist, geophysicist and a graduate student in bioarchaeology — who share the brothers’ enthusiasm and have volunteered their help.
“They’re as professional a team as any one I’ve seen out there on a site,” Monge said.
The brothers see the project as a way to document early 19th-century attitudes about industry, immigration and disease in Pennsylvania. Their ultimate goal is to recover all the remains, identify the men and inter them properly, either here or in Ireland.
Michael Collins, Ireland’s ambassador to the U.S., visited Duffy’s Cut last summer and said in remarks at Immaculata University that it’s an important story to tell.
Immaculata has provided some funding, but the brothers are seeking grants for further DNA tests, archival research in Ireland and a Celtic cross to mark a new grave at a nearby cemetery for any remains that are not repatriated.
“We see this more as a recovery mission,” William Watson said.
“Get them out of this ignominious burial place.”
Our Lady of Knock
Annual Mass
Saturday August 21st, 2010
4:15 pm
At
Holy Name of Jesus Church
701 Gaul Street
Philadelphia, PA
Procession after mass to our Lady of Knock Shrine
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Web site by BrandMill
