AOH Pennsylvania State Board

Please take notice of the following :

First, The Pa. State Board will meet next Saturday, December 3rd, at the VFW Hall,  440 Sterling Rd. (RT196) in Tobyhanna, Monroe Co. beginning promptly at 1:00 PM. All Officers and Chairmen giving reports must have typed copy for the State Secretary.

Second, when your division elections are complete please forward copy of the Certificate of Elections / Form 9 to the State
Secretary. A copy will be faxed to the National Secretary.

Third, So far about 20 divisions have updated their information for the Pa. Division Directory to be posted on our State Website. Go to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqkKjwZrsJ9cdHNISURLOFpidGFxcGZ0a0VQN1NCT3c  to do so online.

Finally, The Pa. State Board Calendars are still available, Please contact Eugene Daly at   Eugh39@aol.com   or
call him at   215-606-7580. You can also pick them up at Div. 39 on Tulip St. The sale of the calendars enables
the Pa. State Board to keep its State Assessments at $2 per member,  the lowest in the AOH !

Brothers,

Here are all the totals for the AOH Div. 4 part of the CPRAIL Holiday Train.

This started 6 weeks ago with a meeting between the Nicholson Business Association, represented by Mr. Kurt Stevens, Ms. Lucilia Lopes from Keystone College and myself, representing Div. 4 and CPRAIL.  Keystone came on board with the food collection by having a contest between 7 groups of students. The group that collected the most food was given a pizza party.   And this ended Monday Nov. 28 when all the food was delivered to the food bank.

We had a total of 75 hours involved by our members from start to finish. A total of just around 1,000 pounds of food was collected by Keystone and at the Pump & Pantry, the night of the CP Holiday Train’s stop on the Nicholson Bridge. We also sold a few of the Holiday Train Pins that we left over from past years and we turned over $23.00 cash to the food bank.

I would like to thank all Div. 4 members involved including John Maher & wife and their grand daughter and my wife & son. Pat Gilroy & wife, Todd Frick and Dave Baker from JFK Division 1, these people gave up their Saturday night, brought food with them
and helped collect more food at Nicholson.

Also, a special thank you must go out to Schiff’s food service for their help and donation that brother Gilroy brought to the food drive and friends of ours who’s son ran around and sold the pins.  And we must thank the Pump & Pantry for letting us set up
our collection barrel in their parking lot and by telling their customers that we were out there collecting food.  Thank you all.

We are all hoping that this will keep getting bigger and bigger so that we need to have John Connor bring his truck up, as he has in the past, and we can fill the truck to the top.

This report will also be sent to CPRAIL so the totals will be added to the amount collected along the route of the Holiday Train.

Respectfully submitted,

Joe Walsh–Div. 4 V.P.
CPRAIL Engineer
& Safety Committee member

The Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed in the aftermath of the truce that ended the War of Independence and led to the establishment of the 26-county Irish Free State, has just been made available to the public for the first time.  While a far cry from the totally independent Republic of Ireland that exists in the 26 counties (so far), the document is an interesting read and obviously of tremendous historical significance.

The new site, hosted by the National Archives of Ireland, was formally launched by Irish Prime Minister Kenny and Minister for
Arts and Heritage Deenihan today.

The decision to publicly unveil the document was taken in recognition of the 90th anniversary of the negotiations which led to the signing of the Treaty in the early hours of Tuesday December 6th, 1921.
         ^{http://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/anglo_irish/dfaexhib2.html}

See the attached Report from the October meeting…
Director 2, Oct 8, Philadelphia

Trip to Dublin Ireland for the Notre Dame game has been basically set up. The dates will be leaving Phila.on August 30th  by luxury coach to Newark airport leaving AOH 39 at 4pm for our 9 pm flight. We will be picked up at Newark on our return from Shannon at noon on Sunday September 9th and dropped of at the Club. No parking at the club while you are away.

Leave Newark at 9 pm Thursday August 30th arrive Belfast at 9am on Friday August 31st.. Picked up by luxury Coach for the remainder of our trip. About a 2 hour ride to Balbriggan outside Dublin to our hotel. We will stop for breakfast on the way and probably stop at some important sites on the way as we will not be able to book into the hotel until afternoon. Father Judge plays on Friday evening in Dublin and anyone who wants to go to the game we will have tickets and transportation on our coach.

Saturday Sept 1st Breakfast in the Hotel then go to Dublin. Sightseeing Dublin on your own and the Notre Dame game tickets for those who want to go. We have tickets for everyone for both games but some people may not want to go it is up to you. According to what time the game is we may tailgate or go someplace for the evening. Back to the hotel Sat. night.

Sunday Sept 2nd Breakfast at the hotel & mass, check out of hotel and head for city of Newry stopping on the way for some beautiful scenery. Check into hotel and you can either go around the town or possibly the AOH Hall for a reception and music. Back to hotel on your own as it is walkable from anywhere in the city. 

Monday Sept 3rdBreakfast in the hotel and head for Armagh City, tour the Cathederal and St Patricks and other sights. Sightseeing in South Armagh and back to the hotel for a late dinner. Probably about 7pm.

Tuesday Sept. 4th Breakfast in the hotel and head for Belfast for a tour, on to the Giants Causway and more beautiful scenery on to Derry for a tour of the walls of Derry and the city itself. Stay in Derry or possibly go on to Donegal. Whether we stay in Derry or Donegal we will be visiting Donegal and Derry both. 

Wed. Sept. 5th tours of Derry and Donegal stay in whichever city we decide on prior to going.

Thursday Friday and Saturday we will be in the Galway area visiting the sites on day trips to Kerry, Cork and other sites.

Sunday Morning 5am leave for Shannon airport for home.   

Breakfast every day except the day we arrive and the day we leave. We will also have 3 dinners. Admission to any group tour is included. Tickets to games are included. Tip for the driver is also included.  

Price will be between $2500 and $2700 per person. for 9 nights everything above included. Everything is not yet settled so that is why the difference in price. As soon as we get a headcount and hotels get back to me we will have a solid price. This will fill up fast let me know asap. Sorry for the delay but we had reouble getting airline space, everything is booked out of Philas for 2 weeks either side of the game. 

Seamus Boyle National President
Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, Inc

Guys, This is the language that was agreed on by Senator Stack’s Office in our last effort. Matt Franchik (Stack’s guy) did a great job. We also had a breakthrough with the Republican Senators and we have an AOH member Sen. McIlhenney in their leadership.

Brothers,

The next Pa. State Board meeting will be held at the V.F.W., 440 Sterling Road, (Rte. 196) in Tobyhanna, Pa. 18466 at 1 P.M.

A block of 8 rooms is being held at the Quality Inn, 546 Pocono Blvd., Mt. Pocono, Pa. ( Rte.611) for any member in need of a room for that Saturday. The rate for the room is $67.00 plus tax ($73.03 Total) For reservation call 570-839-3600.
Tell operator it is under AOH/Tom Hayes.

There will be a fundraiser at the VFW that night “A Night at the Races” benefitting a widow of a VFW member who recently passed away.

The meeting was changed from Stroudsburg to Tobyhanna due to scheduling conflict per Tom Hayes.

Gerry Ennis – PA State Secretary