The highlight was a presentation of the proposed changes to our bylaws that will be voted on May 11. And the beer tasting has been postponed until a date to be determined.
This document summarizes the monthly meeting of the Father Kelley Division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians held on video via Zoom and in person at the George Brent Council of the Knights of Columbus in Manassas.
Thirteen members were in the hall and five were online for a total of 18 members.
Meeting was called to order at 7:34 p.m. by the Division President Tom Masarick
Recitation of the opening prayer & Pledge of Allegiance:
Our Father x
Hail Mary x
St. Michael the Archangel x
Glory Be x
Pledge of Allegiance x
Roll call of Officers for Fraternal Year 2021:
Position Name Present/Absent/Excused
President Tom Masarick P
Vice President Patrick Sullivan P
Chaplain Fr. Ed Guilloux E
Recording Secretary Brian Tumulty P
Financial Secretary Richard Aleksy P
Treasurer Richard Ring P
Standing Committee Pete Hawkins P
Marshall Mike Curry P
Sentinel Dan O’Leary E
Immediate Past President John Masarick P
Reading of minutes from previous meeting: Approved unanimously the minutes from the March meetnig
Reading of communications and correspondence: none
Presidents Report by Tom Masarick:
Thank you to JP McCusker and his team for selling all the tickets.
Congrats for Mickie Krause, the wife of Mike Riley, for winning the raffle.
Thank you to Vice President Pat Sullivan for organizing our division’s attendance at the annual Gaelic Mass on March 15. It was broadcast nationally and internationally.
There was an excellent turnout for the AOH fish fry which made $469. Thank you to Mike Curry. Good job getting the turnout.
Thank you to Vince for picking up the two proclamations by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and the mayor of Manassas declaring March as Irish heritage month.
There are two potential candidates for the Shamrock degree which is being rescheduled for a later date. Pat Sullivan and Mike Riley are working on it.
Thanks to our three talented musicians Dominic Preston, Jerry Lafferty and Kevin Byrne for the Irish cultural night we held online on March 16.
Introduction on new candidates: None to report.
Report of the committee on the sick: Tom said Joe Cahill is still hospitalized. He has been moved from Walter Reed to a rehabilitation center around National Harbor. He is making progress. His wife said he can move his fingers and toes. He is alert. Let’s continue to pray for him.
Chaplain’s Report: No report
Events/ calendar: report by Pete Hawkins:
He talked to Dan O’Leary last week and was told the beer tasting will have to be postponed again. He will get back to us with a new date.
May 2 is bingo kitchen team 1
May 7 is an officers meeting. Tom said we could have the officers meeting on Mondays because we still have the club room reserved. And it can be somewhere else.
May 11 is out next division meeting.
May 22 is a road cleanup scheduled that’s headed by Rick Ring.
June 6 is bingo kitchen team 2.
June 10 is the quarterly state meeting via Zoom.
June 14 is a division meeting.
June 26 is the division picnic.
Report on the Standing Committee: No Report
Bills and Claims: Financial SecretaryRich Aleksy
None
Receipts of the Meeting (Income): Financial Secretary Rich Aleksy
He are owed money for the bingo kitchen that hasn’t been paid yet.
Dues ———————- $24
Trip to Ireland raffle — $2,674
KCIC magnets ———- $65
Fish fry —————— $459
Total ———————– $ 2,223
Report of the Treasurer: Richard Ring
Starting balance for March 2021 = $= $17,180.85
March 2021 Deposits (income) = $2,002
March 2021 expense = $0
Ending monthly balance for March 2021 = $19,182.85
Uncashed checks none
Bank register is reconciled.
Updated April 01, 2021
Bylaws: Rich Aleksy – handled later in the meeting.
Freedom for All Ireland: Dominic Preston
RTE, the Irish news agency, reports that Irish citizens in Myanmar are being advised to leave the country by commercial means unless they have an urgent reason to stay, after one of the bloodiest days of protests since a military coup last month. Myanmar security forces killed 114 people, including some children, in a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters today, news reports and witnesses said. The killings, which took place on Armed Forces Day, drew strong renewed criticism from Western countries.
RTE also reports The White House has urged Britain and the European Union to preserve the Good Friday Agreement after the EU launched legal action against the UK for changing post-Brexit trading arrangements. “We continue to encourage both the European Union and the UK government to prioritize pragmatic solutions to safeguard and advance the hard-won peace in Northern Ireland,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Ireland is still on lockdown through June 1. If you go to Ireland now, what happens is you get into 14-day quarantine. You stay at a hotel of the government’s choice, and they will bring up your meals. So, it’s pretty strict in Ireland at the moment.
Historian: Mike Eggleston
In 1745 the Irish brigade was fighting for the French against the English. And the French were losing badly. And they sent in the Irish Brigade, which broke through the British frontline and the British fled. And since then, it’s significant because it has become a rallying cry for Irish units, for example, during the Civil War.
Immigration: Rick Ring
Given the Irish history in fighting the British, I was curious about Irish participation in the Revolutionary War. From the Marquis de Lafayette to the French Naval Support at the Battle of Yorktown, there’s plenty written about the French, but extraordinarily little about the Irish. There had to be Irish colonists to support the idea of independence from Britain.
I was correct in my supposition. However, they were not deemed worthy mentioned by generations of America’s leading historians and scholars because so many of these diehard patriots were recent immigrants from Ireland and members of the lowest class. They were considered outsiders and foreigners, especially those who were Irish Catholics.
Without the disproportionate and significant contributions of the Irish on all levels — political, military and economic — America would not have won it struggle for independence.
As a consequence, the Irish odyssey during the American Revolution is one of the best untold stories of American history. Indeed, the Irish played roles in every phase of America struggle for liberty.
The Irish already fully understood, unlike most colonists of the British descent, what would become America’s tragic fate if Great Britain was allowed to turn this land of plenty into another Ireland.
I started looking for an Irish immigrant who made a difference.
I came across the name Hercules Mulligan. Prior to the musical Hamilton, you may not have heard of Hercules Mulligan. Part of that is due to the forementioned exclusion from history, but also because of his role as a spy.
Mulligan was born in the north of Ireland in 1746. At the age of six, he emigrated with his family to North America, settling in New York City. Mulligan attended King’s College, now Columbia University in New York City. After graduating, Morgan worked as a clerk for his father’s accounting business. He later went on to open a tailoring and haberdashery business catering to wealthy officers of the British Crown forces. Before he became a spy, he was already part of the early plans for independence.
In 1765, Milligan became one of the first colonists to join the Sons of Liberty A secret society formed to protect the rights of colonists and to fight British taxation.
In 1770, he helped to mob British soldiers in the Battle of Golden Hill. He was a member of the New York committee of correspondence a group that rallied opposition to British to the British through written communications. In 1776, Morgan and the Sons of Liberty knocked down a statue of King George the Third in Bowling Green, and then melted the lead to cast bullets to use against the British.
Mulligan remained in New York as a civilian after Washington’s army was driven out during the New York campaign in the summer of 1776.
Mulligan was introduced Alexander Hamilton shortly after Hamilton arrived in New York, by Mulligan’s brother Hugh.
He helped Hamilton enroll in Elizabethtown Academy Grammar School in New Jersey, to prepare him for the College of New Jersey at Princeton now Princeton University, where he placed Hamilton under the wing of William Livingston, a prominent American Revolutionary.
After Hamilton enrolled at King’s College instead, he lived with Mulligan in New York City.
Mulligan had a profound impact on Hamilton’s desire for revolution. Hamilton came to share Morgan’s views, and as a result, Hamilton wrote an essay in 1775 in favor of independence.
When George Washington spoke of his need for reliable information within New York City in 1776, Hamilton recommended Mulligan due to his placement as a tailor to British soldiers and officers.
This proved to be incredibly successful, with Mulligan saving Washington’s life on two occasions.
The first occurred when a British officer who requested a watch coat late one evening told Mulligan of plans to capture Washington. He quickly informed Washington, who was able to change his plans and avoid capture.
Following the revolution, Mulligan’s tailoring business prospered. He retired in 1820 and died in 1825 at the age of 84. He was buried behind Trinity Church in New York.
Trip to Ireland raffle sales: JP McCusker —
Pro-Life: Mike McManus – no report – Tom said Mike can’t drive at night and so he needs a ride to get here.
Political education: Vince Fitzpatrick – no report
Veterans’ affairs: Doug Morrison –
Strategic plan: Mike Riley – no report
Webmaster: Brian Tumulty –
Hunger Project: Bart Emanuel – No report.
Charity: Rich Aleksy – Keep charities in mind
Auditors: Vince Fitzpatrick – No report
Project St. Patrick: Rich Aleksy – No report.
Bingo kitchen: Tom Masarick –
Beer Tasting: Dan O’Leary –
Unfinished business: Patrick Sullivan said the Shamrock degree originally scheduled for last weekend has been postponed until a date to be announced. There may be a location available at the American Legion.
Rick Ring said that Ireland is still closed, as Dominic reported. He suggested reaching out to last year’s raffle winner.
Patrick will host the division picnic at his house. We have a budget of $300. He plans of having some kids’ stuff. It is June 26. JP McCusker suggested taking reservations so there is an accurate head count.
New business:
Rich Aleksy, chairman of the bylaws committee, gave a summary of the proposed changes to the division bylaws that will be voted on at our next meeting May 11.
Aleksy led a committee that included past president John Masarick, Doug Morrison and Vice President Patrick Sullivan.
The proposed changes were recently presented to the division’s officers, who made further changes.
Additional suggestions for changes are encouraged.
Rich said we use the national the new National Constitution, the state bylaws, the National blue book and Robert’s Rules of orders.
We will take comments and discussion at our may meeting next month.
We’ve done a lot of cleanup. We deleted a lot of old stuff. And we’ve added some new stuff in accordance with the National Constitution.
I think the first thing that is new to the draft is we added a division life member. That’s a member with 25 years of service and 70 years of age. We also added the honorary life members as a member with 25 years of service and 75 years of age.
We need to be careful. We should not be offering any gifts or money or anything to join this organization. One thing we added here from the National is an associate membership. Associate membership is open to a Catholic gentleman who is not Irish. But we could accept him by two thirds of the vote of the regular meeting and at no time will we exceed 10% of the division’s regular membership. Associate members would have no voting authority. And he can’t come to meetings, but he can pay dues. Now there are divisions where they have a lady’s AOH. If a brother Hibernian is Irish, his wife can join LAOH, but not vice versa. If a lady is Irish and joins the LAOH bud her husband is not Irish, he’s out of luck unless we take him on as an associate member.
We’ve moved some of the stuff around about meetings to tried to put all the stuff in one location. One of the things we tried to put in, with telecommunications and videos we put some verbiage in for the brothers that are online. They will be counted toward the attendance of a quorum, which is still 25%.
Like tonight, we have 13 brothers here. And I believe we have five brothers on the computer here.
Next is Tenure of Office. It was brought to our attention by several people the National Constitution covers a tenure of office for two years. State bylaws say two years for state officers. So, we adjusted our bylaws to say the Tenure of Office shall be two years. And we added trustees. Trustees would be the last three past presidents, and they are advisors to the president and a division.
The president could use them for the audit every year. But that’s his call.
The next section is the various chairmen. One thing we added is a visit visitation committee. That’s new, it was in the national bylaws. And we adapted that area for visits for sick and disabled members.
The next three things involve the nomination of officers, election of officers, and installation. It was all in one paragraph in our current bylaws. We broke that out. We decided that we should have a separate section for the nomination of officers, another for the election of officers and a third for the installation of the officers.
Another section involves advances for funds. We added a paragraph in here that if a committee chairman wants to make a written request via voucher for advancement of funds for regularly scheduled events. But he has to come back at the end of the event and bring back the advance with receipts.
Division dues. I probably made this comment before. You know our division dues have always been $24 and haven’t changed. Unless some somebody is adamant about maybe increasing it or whatever they will remain $24. Everybody’s dues are $24 except for life members and ordained priests and seminarians and people who are active duty in the armed forces.
Division life members will pay $14. And the reason we picked $14 is we have to pay $12 to national for the per capita and $2 to the state.
But for honorary life members, their dues will be waived.
The budget. The Treasurer shall prepare a budget at the end of December for review and approval and division meeting in January and that’s what we do right now.
The officers get together at the end of December. Our Treasurer puts together a draft for us and as the budget.
The annual audit should be done in January after we close the books in December. And that’s the call of the president to assign people to do that.
The last thing is, obviously, amendments to these bylaws can be amended by two thirds majority of the members attending the meeting.
So that kind of gives you a quick and dirty. Please take a look at the draft and if you have any comments, please let us know.
We have gone through great pains to do this. And this is a major revision.
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On a second topic, Vince thanked the division for the recent get-well card.
Good of the order: Rich Aleksy suggested keeping Joe Cahill in your prayers.
Dominic suggested the people of Ireland.
Another request was to pray for our first responders. Members of our armed forces serve around the world. dangerous place out there. Eastern Europe, South China Sea.
Chris asked for prayers for his grandfather who just turned 90 this past summer.
End at 8:32 pm
