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Show ORDER OF HIBERNIANS. First Convention in Ireland History -of Organization. (Dublin Irish Catholic,. Oct. 8.) Belfast witnessed on Saturday tfie first convention of the Ancient Order of Hibernians ever held w ithin the con- j fines of Ireland and Great Britain. To very few outside its ranks are the ob- 1 jects and aims of this organization known. The Ancient Order of Hibern- ' ians, as its name indicates, is a so- j eiety composed exclusively of Irish- 1 men by birth or descent, and practical Catholics,, organized for the preserva- ' tion of the church and the protection of its interests. As regards the foundation founda-tion of the order, accounts differ. How ever, it may be safely assumed that the formation in 1565 of the Defenders by Rory Og O'More was the initiation of the Hibernians.. From the death ox O'More the Defenders continued, under . different leaders, till they became a, part of the oath-bound organization, the Confederation of Kilkenny.and were represented at the National Synod hei l in Ye Faire Citie on Oct. 14, 1642. Not till nearing the end of the Kighteentn century can we trace any record of the Defenders, w.hen in the southern counties coun-ties appeared kindred organizations called White Boys and Levellers. So serious at this period were the disturbances dis-turbances in Ireland that a special committee was appointed by parliament to inquire into their cause. But, as is usual with such committees, no ma-j terial benefit was derived from their deliberations and report.- So things dragged on, and the wretched' condition condi-tion of the mass of the Irish peasantry, peasan-try, coupled with all the other ills, forced upon them, drove them to perfect per-fect a combination for self-defence against ejectment from their buildings, and perhaps ultimate destitution, witn its complements, nakedness and starvation. star-vation. To afford security against these .the Ribbon society was formed. The Ribbonmen's association was, in fact, a vast trades union for the protection pro-tection of the peasantry, the object being, be-ing, not to regulate the rate of wages or the hours of work, but to keep the actual occupant in the possession of his land, and to regulate the relation cf landlord ana tenant for the benefit of the latter. In 1771 the Steel Boys, the predecessors of. the. Orangemen, made their appearance in the, north! of Ireland. Ire-land. These were follow ed in 1780-by the Protestant and Peep-o'-Day Boys, and in 1795 by the Orangemen. The government looked upon every Irish Catholic as being . a rebel, and treated him as such. Driven from their homes, the persecuted Catholics were oft arrested and punished for crimes committed by their opponents. The necessity then arose for joint action, ac-tion, and the Defenders of the north and the White Boys of the south joined hands and adopted the name of Ribbonmen so-called from the two pieces of ribbon worn as the symbol of the organization, red and green. The green denoted unity,and the red blood for blood. Branches of the Ribbonmer. began to spring up in England and Scotland under the name of the Hibernian Hiber-nian society and the Hibernla Sick and Funeral society, as the other soubriquet soubri-quet was banned by law. In 1825 the name in Ireland was changed from the Ribbonmen to that of St. Patrick's Fraternal society. In the County Antrim, An-trim, however, the new name did not predominate. However, all things became be-came leavened, and the order began to spread through the other counties' of the north, and nltimatelv tn Amprtra where, within a brief space of time, it numbered in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, 60,000. Larger and larger the order grew until it has become the most powerful and influential Irish Catholic organization in the world. Possessed . asi it is of a large banking account, one is not surprised sur-prised to learn that to aid. the starving starv-ing people of the west some years ago the order in America telegraphed 12,000 to the Most Rev. Dr. Walsh. Towards the erection of the St. Patrick's Memorial Me-morial church in the Eternal-City the A. O. H. subscribed -thousands of dollars, dol-lars, and when Brother Francis appealed ap-pealed for aid in the interest, of the deaf and dumb here in. our own city, the Rev. Father Flynn, acknowledging same, said: "May my; blessing, with the blessing of God, and the blessing of 268 little children, attend the members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians." Then, for the endowment of the Gaelic chair in the Catholic University of Washington, U. S. A., the order gave $50,000. in July last the St. Louis convention con-vention allocated the sum of $2,000 v the Gaelic league here at home to aid them in their noble propaganda work. Thus far is a brief history of the Hibernians. Hi-bernians. On Saturday 500 delegates', representing 50,000 members in England, Eng-land, Ireland and Scotland, assembled in the Avenue hall, Garfield street, Belfast. Bel-fast. The rules of the order precludt; the publication of a report of the proceedings. pro-ceedings. -The question of registration, however, occupied the attention of the meeting for a considerable time, and the matter was; ultimately postponed until the next convention. One of the principal speakers at the convention, was Mr. A. Madden, T. C, No-1 division,, Dublin, who was accorded, accord-ed, a .very; enthusiastic reception. It was on his motion that the vexed question ques-tion of registration - w as postponed for twelve months. Mr. J. Devlin, M. P., as a Hibernian, a!so addressed the gathering, and was very well received. Hegarding the holding of next convention conven-tion it was, on a' division, decided to hold same 1n Dublin. In the evening the various delegates who were remaining 'in Belfast were entertained to a conversazione in the National club, Berry street, by the local, lo-cal, divisions. |