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Show ; Ancient Order of Hibernians, t : : i A Brief History of the Oldest Irish Society. j The society now known as the An- cient Order of Hibernians is the oldest j and strongest society of the Irish race. It was organized in Ireland for the preservation of the Catholic Churh j and the protection of the priest and shoolmaster, who were hunted like ; wolves and had a price set on their ' heads, as did those who sheltered or ' otherwise aided these victims of Eng- j li?h barbarity. There 13 some doubt as to the time j and place of the organization of the ; Order. Some authorities set the date as 1642, when Pope Urban the Eighth sent his blessing to the Irish people and encouraged them in their fight for , God and country. Again it is given as 1651, when it is said to have been formed form-ed in Connaught after Cromwell's infamous in-famous edict of "To Hell or to Con- , naught." According to some hlstori- an it was organized in 1563, by Rory Oge O'Moore, in the County of Kildare. i In that year the Earl of Ess?x Issued ; a proclamation making death the pen- I alty to any priest found in the province ! of Leinster. It was then that Rory j Oge O'Moore founded the society call- i ed the Defenders. He made arrange-I arrange-I ments with the prieftsi to erect rude altars in the mountain fastnesses, and I there have the people attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Rory sent out fleet-footed and trusted men to inform the Catholics where the priest would j celebrate Mass, and' while the service was being held placed sentinels on the hill-toips to give warning to the wor-i wor-i shipers of the approach of their foes, j The Defenders found a place to shel-I shel-I ter the hunted priest. Sometimes it ; i would be in an isolated' cabin in the i ' mountain glens, where he would be I welcomed with a Cead Mille Failtha, j regardle93 of the danger incurred by ! such an act; and often it would be in ; the cold and dismal caves in the mountains. moun-tains. Rory Oge O'Moore fell by the 'hand of Brian Oge Patrick on June 30, 1373. After his death Donald O'Driscoll was chostm chief of the Defenders, who continued to protect the priests and harass the English until Dec. 24, 1393, when, with six of his men he was es-: es-: corting Father O'Connor to a place near Bray, County Wicklow, where the priest was to celebrate a midnight Mass The Defenders were surprised by English Eng-lish soldiers, and after a gallant and bloody fight were slain. Thus died the pioneers of the Order fighting for Church and country. Donald O'Driscoll was succeeded as chief of the Defenders, by Owen O'Moore, son of the first chief. He continued con-tinued on the same lines of his father, besides assisting the old Celtic chief in their erforts to drive the brutal invaders in-vaders out of Ireland. In subsequent events the Defender distinguished' themselves. After Ireland had again come under the dominion of England, they took to the mountains and continued con-tinued to defy their enemies. O'Moore then increased the membership of the organization by uniting with other Irishmen, who, like himself, refused to submit to British rule. Branches sprang up all over the northern and western parts of the country. They were known by different names, euch as Tories, Rapperees, Defenders, etc. Through treachery O'Moore fell into the hani of the English, and was hung, drawn, and quartered, on May 16, 1619. The Defenders continued in eixiytence until they became a part of an oath-bound organization known as the Confederation of Kilkenny. The first annual meeting; of the Confederation Confedera-tion waa held in Kilkenny City on October 14, 1542. The delegates repre-' repre-' iented four-fifths cf the people of Ire-I Ire-I land. They formed the national gov-j gov-j eminent under whose legislature the jCartholics struggled for three years for the right to worship God, according to j their conscience: In 1642, the Defend-j Defend-j ers lest their identity as a national organization. They became part of the Confederationists, but as an organization organiza-tion they continued to exlet, and "were assigned to the command of Pheiim O'Neil. Those of the Defenders left after the four years' war united under the leadership lead-ership of Brian Bany. They soon became be-came a formidable body in sheltering and protecting the Soggarth Aroon. After the Catholics were granted the right to worship God, unmolested, in 1745 the Defenders comstitu'ted themselves them-selves the champions of the persecuted farmers. They organized branches throughout the north and west of Ireland. Ire-land. Their objects were to aid the laborer in securing his wages, to prevent pre-vent evictions and to stop land-grabbing and the putting up of farms and houses to the highest bidder. In 1760 kindred organizations made their appearance ap-pearance in the south of Ireland, and were known as White Boys, Levellers, etc. Some years later it became necessary neces-sary for the Catholics to combine for self-protection against their enemies, among whom were the Orangemen. The Defenders of the north and the White Boys of the south joined hands and adopted the name of Ribbonmen. They used two pieces of ribbon as the symbol of their orgAiiization green, denoting unity, and red, blood for blood. This organization rendered valuable aid to the Catholics in their struggles with the Orangemen. Branches otf the Ribbonmen sprang up in England and Scotland, where they were known as the Hibernia. society so-ciety and the Funeral society, as the name Ribbonmen had been outlawed by the government of England. In 1S23 the name in Ireland was changed to that of St. Patrick's Fraternal Society. These changes, however, did not meet with unanimous approval, and many members rebelled at the action and withdrew from the order. Thev continued con-tinued to exist as the'Mollie Masuhes and Ribbonmen. In 1836 some of the members who had emigrated to the United States formed in New York City a branch of the order, or-der, and were authorized to orsranize other branches in the country by their brothersjn Great Britain. The members mem-bers In New York rendered valuable aid to their fellow countrymen who followed fol-lowed them to the new world. How well the twig from the parent tree flourished is evidenced by the fact that branches or divisions sprang up in other Darts of Nirw York. Ohio and all the other etaies of the Union, and by 1883 the Ancient An-cient Order of Hibernians had a mem- bership of nearly tiO.OOO in America an I over $1,000,000 in the treasury to su t.? - i its members in sickness and t nid th ? widows and orphans. The order con- j tinuod to grow and prosper wirh,,;,; anything oi' note occurring until i :.;, j when an organization that existed '.n j Luzerne and Schuylkill counties. Per.:: -sylvania, known as the M-..'l;-- M . -guires, came into bad repute owit!r i. some murders being committed in rh.. coal regions, and it was alleged t'i;i-. they were committed by tho mf.'iib-n of the Mollie Macruireg. Amor. th.---; arrested for the crimes were a few wi, " ! were members of the A. O. H. In 1SS3 began the trouble which m'- j minated in the disruption of the on'-r and the creation of the two win j known as the Ancient Order of Ilibf:-. - f nians' Benevolent Society of Ameri.-a and the Ancient Order of Hibernians' I Board of Erin. In 1SS4 the st.lit . . j curred, and a few years later th rii.j, ruption of the order in Europe. This j unhappy state of affairs continued m I the United Stat?s until lSy7, when ho h, ! branches of the order, after consider- t able conferences, formulated a plan j union and agreed upon Bishop ileF.n.l ) as arbitrator. The result of his wi.f. j labors was the reunion of both factiorm j j and the grand old order became once ! again one powerful body. Bishop sir. j : Faul gave his decision on Dec. u. 1;. i I and it was accepted by both wines. j A joint national convention to ratif- the decision of Bishop McFaul was he! i " j in June, 1S9S, in Taylor's opera h"us", j Trenton. On the second day of the S sion permanent organization was ef- j fected. The following officers were chosen, and are, happily, still serving j the order: John T. Keating of Chi- j cago, national president; James E. Do- lan of Syracuse, N. Y., national i e j president; James O'Sullivan of Phlla- 1 delphia, national secretary; Patrick T. j Moran of Washington, national treas- j j urer. These gentlemen have performed j their duties most efficiently, and to tha j great benefit of the order. j (The above article was condensed j for the Pilot from "A History cf the Anciemt Order of Hibernian:?." writ- j ten by Thomas F. McGrath of Cleveland. Cleve-land. O.) j Peter Jordan, ex-county president of Plymouth county, Mass., in an addres delivered before the members of Di-vision Di-vision 1 of Brockton, on Nov. 26, said that the order was first organized organ-ized in 914 by King Brian, who enlisted enlist-ed the young men of the country under the name of the Order of Hibernians. King Brian led them, to the field of Clontarf, where they successfully repulsed re-pulsed the invading Danes. The Dane at that period were making an effort to overrun the island, to take away the sovereign rights of the people, stamp out their faith, and plant in its pla-e the banner of paganisrm. For a time after that but little is found in history his-tory relative to the order, but later, when the English government passed a penal law making it treason for a Catholic priest to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mas3, and the priests were compelled to exercise their functions func-tions in caves in the mountains, tha order again came into prominent notice. no-tice. The young1 men of the country banded together under the same nama for the protection of their priests. The English government then passed another penal law, making it treason for any one to belong to the order. Meetings were still held, however, in ! caves and in the mountain fastness. The law was soon so rigidly enforced that many of the younger generation fled across the Atlantic and settled in Maryland. Here, in the city of Baltimore, Balti-more, the first division of the order ia the United States was instituted ia 1830. The Pilot. |