Cairoeas, Aontacht, Criostulacht

In The United States

The Ancient Order of Hibernians is a Catholic, Irish American Fraternal Organization founded in New York City 4 May, 1836. The Order can trace its roots back to a parent organization, of the same name, which has existed in Ireland for over 300 years. However, while the organizations share a common thread, the North American A.O.H. is a separate and much larger organization.

The Order evolved from a need in the early sixteen hundreds to protect the lives of priests who risked immediate death to keep the Catholic Faith alive in occupied Ireland after the reign of England’s King Henry VIII. When England implemented its dreaded Penal Laws in Ireland, various secret social societies were formed across the country. These groups worked to aid and comfort the people by whatever means available. Similarly, the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America was founded May 4th, 1836 at New York’s St. James Church, to protect the clergy, and church Property from the “Know Nothings” and their followers. At the same time the vast influx of Irish Immigrants fleeing famine issues in Ireland in the late 1840’s, prompted a growth of various social societies in the USA – the largest of which was, and continues to be, the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

Active across the United States, The Order seeks to aid the newly arrived Irish, both socially, politically. The many Divisions and club facilities located throughout the U.S. traditionally have been among the first to welcome new Irish Americans. Here, the Irish culture — art, dance, music, and sports are fostered and preserved. The newcomers can meet some of “their own” and are introduced to the social atmosphere of the Irish-American community. The AOH has been at the political forefront for issues concerning the Irish, such as; Immigration Reform; economic Incentives both here and in Ireland; the human rights issues addressed in the MacBride Legislation; Right-To-Life; and a peaceful and just solution to the issues that divide Ireland.

The Order has also provided a continuing bridge with Ireland for those who are generations removed from our country. The AOH sponsors many of the programs associated with promoting our Irish Heritage.

Facts about the
Ancient Order of Hibernians

• The AOH is the oldest ethnic organization still operating in the United States.
• The Hibernians represent the most broadly based Irish-American organization with over 80,000 members in 46 States, Canada and Ireland.
• The twin constitutional goals of the Irish and Catholic membership are to assist in the re-unification of Ireland and to support the church and it mission.
• Hibernian monuments to famed Irish or Irish-Americans (Commodore Barry, Robert Emmett) and memorials to events like the Great hunger or the slaughter of abortion are in every major American city and in Mobile, AL (Fr Abram Ryan), Washington, D. C. (Nuns of the Battlefield), Valley Forge, PA (Medal of Honor grove), and Chicago, ILL (.Mt Olivet Cemetery).
• The history of the AOH lies not just in big cities but tracks America’s expansion west along the Lewis and Clark Trail (St Anne’s, Great Falls, MT), along the Cherokee trail (Sacred Heart, Pueblo, CO) and along side the Central Pacific Railroad from Ogden, UT (St. Joseph’s) to Sacramento, CA (Old Cathedral).
• The march of the AOH across the continent stretches from first stop on the National Road (St Patrick’s, Cumberland, MD) to Seattle, WA (St James Cathedral) with lesser known stops along the way that have all but vanished…Hinckletown IA, Snoddy’s Mill, IN, Kalo, IA . Forty Fort, PA, Irwin, GA and Iron Mountain, MO.
• Early history and growth of Hibernians is linked to mining for gold (Yreka, CA), copper and silver (Butte & Anaconda, MT), iron ore in Escanaba, MI (St Patrick’s) and Mt Pleasant, PA (St Joseph’s), hard rock mining (St Peter’s, Rutland, VT) and coal in Schuylkill CO, PA. where the infamous Molly Maguire trials were held
• Hibernians shared meeting halls with other fraternal societies like the Foresters, Odd Fellows, Knights of Columbus, Knights of Pythias, and the GAR but were bitter opponents of the anti-Catholic and anti-Irish Know-Nothing ‘s who burned and attacked Catholic churches throughout the country.
• Members of the AOH have included labor leaders Terrence Powderly and John Sweeney, Bishops John Lennon and Fulton Sheen, and John Cardinal O’Connor, astronaut James McDevitt, President John F. Kennedy, insurance industry leader Bill Flynn, actor Pat O’Brien, Civil War General Francis Meagher, and two recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor

National Website, May, 2008

In Ireland

The use of the name in Ireland goes back as far as 1565, when it was founded by an Irish chieftain, Rory O’Moore, to protect Roman Catholics against the religious persecution by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Thomas Radclyffe, and founded “The Defenders”. The same source adds that: “It is impossible to give the exact date of the foundation of the order in Ireland.” His part of Ireland was called Laois, and had been settled by the Catholic Queen Mary in the 1550s. This formative history was reported in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia but is not supported by any modern academic historians of the period. These goals prevailed in its ranks into the 20th century, by which time it had developed into a militant lay-Catholic mass movement of Ribbon tradition.

At the end of the 19th century the AOH was reorganized in Ulster under its Grandmaster Joseph Devlin (later Member of Parliament) of Belfast. The AOH was closely associated with the Irish Parliamentary Party, its members mainly members off the party. The AOH was strongly opposed to secular ideologies such as those of the Irish Republican Brotherhood who were most unhappy at the re-emergence of this old rival ‘right-wing’ nationalist society.

As a vehicle for Irish nationalism, the AOH greatly influenced the sectarian aspect of Irish politics in the early twentieth century. By 1914 had saturated the entire island, fuelled not so much by sectarianism as by its utility as a patronage, brokerage and recreational association. In Ulster and elsewhere it acted as an unruly but vigorous militant support organization for Devlin, Dillon and Redmondagainst radicals and against William O’Brien: O’Brien regarded himself as having been driven from the party by Hibernian hooligans.

After the 1916 Easter Rising the AOH melted away outside Ulster, its members absorbed into Sinn Féinand the Irish Republican Army. In many areas the organization provided by the AOH was the nearest thing to a paramilitary force. Many republican leaders in the 1916-1923 period, among them Sean MacDermott,J.J Walsh and Rory O’Connor, had been “Hibs” before the formation of the Irish Volunteers in 1913.

The AOH is also significant as a link between the new nationalist organizations and the century-old tradition of popular militant societies. More directly, it lingered on as a pro-Treaty support organization. Some Hibernians fought in the Francoistside of the Spanish Civil War. The quasi-Fascist Blueshirts movement of the 1930s may, in fact, have owed as much to the Ribbon tradition which it so much resembled as it did to continental analogies.

Within Northern Ireland, the AOH remains a visible but somewhat marginal part of the Catholic community. It parades at Easter, Lady Day and a few other times a year.

Wikipedia, October 2009