State Conventions and election of new officers in each state have been the focus of the last couple of months. North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia all had conventions recently. Louisiana held their Convention in the Summer. Much of the discussion at the Conventions focused on expansion as well as retention. At times retention [...]
It has been 15 months since the Cincinnati Convention and most of us wonder where the time has gone, as do I. It is an honor and privilege to serve my Hibernian brothers as the Chairman of Anti Defamation and National Director for the West. It has been 10 years since I was first elected [...]
A couple of unrelated items this month. For starters, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently announced the expansion of the Traumatic Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (TSGLI) program to include injuries servicemembes and veterans received outside of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Under the original TSGLI law, it was made retroactive [...]
Since the introduction of the new AOH membership application, I have had a few questions about the requirements for membership. Article IV Section 1 of the National Constitution, letter “C”, reads: “Be a practicing Catholic”. The “Roman” has been removed. It was done to make sure that anyone otherwise eligible who belongs to one of [...]
Bhí deis agam tamall ó shin bualadh le daoine deasa in Astoria ag teach tábhairne darb ainm Lavelle’s. I had a chance to meet some nice people a while ago at the pub…in… Daoine as an nGaeltacht roinnt díobh, agus a sleachta na daoine eile. Gaeltacht people and their children. Thaispeáin mé cóipeanna den irisleabhar [...]
The past few months have been a flurry of activity regarding immigration. The AOH has always formed the basis of Irish-American support for positive legislation and adjudication on Irish issues and Immigration is no exception. The AOH Preamble states that the purpose of the AOH is “to encourage an equitable U.S. Immigration law for Ireland, [...]
I hope you enjoy this end-of-year issue of the Digest. I think it’s important to note that more then 90 AOH and LAOH members contributed the contents of this edition. And who knows how many other brother and sister Hibernians helped them produce that copy and take and caption the photos on these pages. It’s [...]
Like all of you, I look at the desk calendar and wonder how to fit in or balance what is upcoming, along with what needs to get done. Those desk calendars work both ways though. They not only point us forward, but also provide a record of where we have been and what we have [...]
It hardly seems possible that we are only weeks away from our National President’s Dinner in Philadelphia. It is also hard to believe that my tenure as National Treasurer will be winding down in six or seven months. How time flies! Before you know it, we will all be looking at a changing of the [...]
Back in July, I listened to something that I never thought I would ever hear from a Fine Gael politician, let alone the Taoiseach himself: a rebuke, not of an individual Bishop, but of the Vatican itself. This reproach was brought about upon the presentation of the report of the Commission of Investigation into the [...]
