Highlights are the death of Ron Farra, a suggestion by Pat Sullivan and Mike Riley that the October agenda include a vote on what night our meetings should be held, and JP giving notice that he will discuss bonding of financial officers at a future meeting.
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.
17 members were in the hall of 76 (22.4%) and qualified as a quorum.
Meeting was called to order at 7:54 p.m. by the Division President Tom Masarick immediately following a Shamrock Degree ceremony for three brothers.
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 P
Immediate Past President John Masarick E
Reading of minutes from previous meeting: Approved as amended by Mike Riley
President’s Report:
AOH State Conference:
On Saturday August 20th-22nd AOH held is Biennual State Convention, in Glen Allen, Va. outside of Richmond. It was a very enjoyable event socializing with our brother AOH Irishmen and conducting business. I personally had a great time. In attendance from our division was Rich Aleksy, Pete Hawkins, Hugh O’Brien and his son and Tom Masarick. I had the privilege for taking a picture with our State President, Jay McCarthy, our National President, Danny O’Connell and our Rich Aleksy. It’s a treasure.
Nominating Committee:
I have selected a nominating committee for next year’s Officers. They are John Masarick, Chairman, Michael Eggleston, and Dave Riley. Please see one of these AOH brothers, if interested in running for election. I have asked the Committee to make “Unity of our Division” a top priority.
Recent Events:
- Beer tasting at old Bust Head was a very enjoyable event with our brother AOHers. Thank you to Dan O’Leary and Pat Sullivan, for organizing.
- Also, our recent training for the Shamrock Degree was needed and appreciated. Thank you, Pat Sullivan.
- Our 3rd Road Clean up on August 28th was successful – thank you Rich Ring.
- I have taken advice from our Strategic Planner – There was an Ad for AOH membership in the All-Saints Bulletin. I have requested frequent running as space allows. The photo will be updated.
Irish Dinner with Irish Music:
I have rescheduled our Irish Dinner with Irish music. Two key contributors are Dave Riley, as our cook and Dominic Preston, as our main entertainment. Looking between now and the end of the year; Fridays are best to obtain the KOC Hall. I am considering Friday, October 15th as a tentative date, if our key contributors agree.
Recording Secretary Brian’s (reminders):
Friday evening our Trip to Ireland ticket sales begin at Old Towne Sports Pub in Manassas in celebration of halfway to St. Patrick’s Day.
Saturday our division will be marching in the Manassas Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day Parade which starts at noon.
Our next Officer’s Meeting on October 11th we will be focused on Charities. Let Rich Aleksy know your preferences.
Extract from Mother Teresa called “Do it Anyway”
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do it anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
Reading of communications and correspondence: Thank you card from John Oliver
Introduction on new candidates: None
Chaplain’s Report: No report
Report of the committee on the sick: Ron Farrah passed away. Ron’s wife, Johanna, had passed away in May. They have no plans for a public funeral ceremony, showing, or anything like that. They may have a very private family thing in either church or the chapel at All Saints. However, what they are thinking of is in the spring, having a celebration of life for Ron and would probably be out at the monastery, because I guess that was one of his interests was working with the monastery. There is a possibility that they’ll have a virtual gathering. They’re not asking for anyflowers sent anywhere. However, if anybody has any stories about Ron, put it in a card and you can send it to the Bristow address.
Joe Cahill is still ill. Things were really looking good, and things have turned South quite a bit. His brain is now swelling. This is nine months. We’ve got to please continue to pray.
Report on the Standing Committee: Pete Hawkins –
Events/ calendar: report by Pete Hawkins:
SEPTEMBER
17 – Ticket sales for a trip to Ireland begin at 7 pm during the halfway to St. Patrick’s Day celebration at Old Towne Sports Pub
18 – Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manassas begins at noon
Vince said breakfast is at 9 am at the Philadelphia tavern.
OCTOBER
2 – Manassas Fall Jubilee raffle ticket sales and magnets
3 – Bingo kitchen team 3
11 – AOH officers meeting at 7 pm in the club room
12 – Division meeting at 7:30 in the bingo hall
22 – beer tasting fundraiser at Old Towne Sports Pub
16 or 23 – Hunger project at the Food Lion on Liberia
NOVEMBER
6 – State AOH quarterly meeting and major degree
6 – Veterans Day parade
7 – deceased members Mass and corporate communion at the 9:30 Sunday Mass with breakfast afterward
8 – officers monthly meeting at 7 pm in the club room
9 – monthly division meeting at 7:30 pm in the bingo hall
9 – shamrock degree
13 – road cleanup
TBD – visit to the St. John Paul shrine
TBD – road cleanup
TBD – Tomb of the Unknowns
DECEMBER
14 – division monthly meeting, officer elections and Christmas party
TBD – trip to Gettysburg
Beer tastings – Dan O’Leary — $353.46 was raised from a recent beer tasting at Old Busthead
Freedom for All Ireland: Dominic Preston – no report
Historian: Mike Eggleston –
The Battle of the Bogside was a large community riot that occurred 12-14 August 1969 in Derry, Northern Ireland. Trouble had been brewing for years between the Catholic majority that outnumbered the Protestant minority by about two to one in Derry. During the partition of Ireland in 1925, the Protestant Unionist Party ruled Ulster by redrawing electoral boundaries that gave the Unionists more delegates than the Catholic Nationalists. The same approach was used in Derry. The Unionists controlled 12 of the 20 seats of the Derry city council. This allowed the Unionists to steer jobs, better housing, and construction to their constituents. Voting rights of the Nationalists were also undermined by the Unionists. For example, only owners and their tenants and their spouses were allowed to vote. The Catholic population of Derry was centered in Bogside, the frequent location of riots. Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, an overwhelmingly Protestant police force, often assaulted Bogside residents for no apparent reason.
The annual Apprentice Boys parade on 12 August 1969 triggered the Troubles that would go on for 30 years. The parade honored a Protestant victory 300 years earlier and while it did not pass-through Bogside, it moved near it. It was designed to provoke a response from the Nationalists, and it did that. As the parade moved past Bogside it was greeted with a barrage of bottles and stones that rained down from Bogside. The riot was on. When police moved into Bogside to intervene, they were greeted with a maelstrom of missiles including bricks, rocks, and petrol bombs. It was then that the police discovered that their shields were too small, and their uniforms were not fire-resistant. Police casualties mounted as did injuries among the Bogside residents since the police flooded the area with CS gas which can be lethal if the victim is trapped in a confined space, common in the Bogside area.
On the second day of the rioting the Republic of Ireland ordered the Irish Army to the border to set up field hospitals to treat the wounded. Unionists were appalled since they perceived that the next step would be an invasion of Northern Ireland, something longed for by the Nationalists.
After two days of continuous rioting, it became apparent that the police and their auxiliaries were unable to deal with the riot. Worse, it spread to Belfast where a loyalist mob burned mostly Catholic homes on Bombay Street making 1800 people homeless. On 14 August British Prime Minister Harold Wilson ordered British troops into Northern Ireland, the first time that they were sent to Ireland since the partitioning. This ended the riot.
The results of the riot were sobering. While only 6-10 people died, hundreds were badly injured, and the exact number is not known. The riot escalated a situation of civil unrest into an armed conflict among Nationalists, Unionists, and state forces. It is widely considered to be the starting point of the Troubles in Ireland.
Immigration: Richard Ring –
I’ll start off by saying that more individuals lost their lives and 911 and during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the last time the United States had been attacked on home surveillance, such a scale. The susceptibility of the West at the hands of its enemies was the highest it had been since the peak of the Cold War, and American mourn the victims of what was the deadliest terrorist attack in the world. 2989 people lost their lives on that day. And the very first sight certified fatality was Father Mychal Judge, an Irish American Catholic priest, the son of Irish immigrants from County Leitrim judge was a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department. After hearing that a plane had struck the World Trade Center judge rush to the site, along with several firefighters. There he was met by New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who asked him to pray for the victims and for those still stuck in the burning towers. Judge entered the lobby of the north tower where he continually prayed for the rescuers, the injured in the dead, all while allegedly repeating the words. Jesus, please end this right now. God, please end this. When the South Tower collapsed at 9:59am debris went flying through the lobby of the North Tower. Sorry, killing almost everyone inside including father judge. Shortly after the collapse, his body was found and pulled from the rubble and dust
udge was designated as victim 0001 effectively recognizing him as the first official casualty of the attack. 2988 confirmed deaths and soon follow among them seven Irish born citizens.
They didn’t carry him to a morgue or to an ambulance. They carried him to a Catholic Church nearby and put him on the altar. And that’s where he had prayed for a while after the attack.
Trip to Ireland – JP has tickets
St Patrick’s Day Parade and Halfway to Patrick’s Day: The halfway to St. Patrick’s Day parade is scheduled for Sept. 18
26:30
Pro – Life: Mike McManus– absent
Political Education: Vince Fitzpatrick —
Veteran Affairs: Doug Morrison was absent, so Mike Riley spoke.
It just happens to be the 75th anniversary of the Irish naval service. I don’t know if they have submarines or not, but they do have ships.
He read some excerpts from President Michael Higgins. “The connection between Ireland and the seas that surround us is as anxious as it is fundamental to our understanding of ourselves. Seas have played an integral and formative role in Ireland’s social, cultural, and economic history. Through our existence at Europe’s periphery proximity to water has informed us that conscientiousness present in Ireland people of a particular form of vulnerability to the forces of nature that surround us. It was ever present as it contemplated and interacted with the world beyond landfall and sought to fashion a sustainable future from that great, natural benefactor that constitutes our marine environment, dependent on the sea as we have been for millennia for trade and connection with close in distance neighbors. It has been of the utmost importance that vital sea lanes be safeguarded.
In the 19th century, the ocean was synonymous with forced emigration on famine ships.
n the 20th century, many more cross the Irish Sea in pursuit of an opportunity that was not available to home. In recent times, the relationship thankfully has become more positive. The Treaty of 1922 in which 26 countries gained their independence did not however, Grant control the seas around our coastline to newly independent states, it would be 1938 before Great Britain surrendered the treaty ports and control of Irish waters. In May 1939, the Irish government ordered two motor torpedo boats from Britain, which would become Ireland’s first naval vessels. The process of raising some type of Navy was greatly accelerated by the outbreak of World War Two, as Ireland was required to have his own Navy to uphold its neutrality. By 1941, the marine service consisted of 10 craft and approximately 300 personnel.
In September 1946, the Irish government decided that the marine service should become a permanent component of the defense forces, and thus was born the modern day Irish naval service.
Strategic Planning: Mike Riley –
I’d like to recommend that we forecast our calendar six months out, I realized I saw to the end of December, but we do have a lot of activities, and we are picking up even more activities, I think we should forecast that beyond even if positions change. We have implemented several goals in the past nine months. Some of the calendar events that I’d like to consider and keep putting on, for example, fundraisers, and identify charities that falls in with the three tenets of our model friendship, unity, Christian, Christian charity, social events, that talks about friendship, and according with Dennis Connelly right now on an Irish social event, and obviously, Dan’s got our beer tasting and other events that we have.
We now are doing degrees, at least twice a year. That’s a unity tenant. And we’re coordinating with Pat Sullivan to make those occur. Hunger Project, we’re coordinating with Bart Emanuel. That’s a big thing for us as part of Christian charity. And we probably ought to look at some other issues right now with Catholic Charities, immigration service, and refugee programs. As we see the influx of Afghani people come into the country now.
Webmaster: Brian Tumulty – no report
Hibernian Hunger Project: Bart Emanuel – discussion of what other divisions do
Charities: Rich Aleksy – Please submit suggestions
Project St. Patrick: Rich Aleksy —
Club Room: Mike Curry –
Auditors Report: Vince Fitzpatrick – no report
Bills and Claims: Financial SecretaryRich Aleksy
$84.24 to Pete Hawkins for sympathy cards and postage
$14.81 to Rick Ring for the road cleanup
$290.70 to McCabes Printing tickets for trip to Ireland tickets
$150 to Dan O’Leary for military bracelets
$606.54 to Dan O’Leary for the beer tasting
Receipts of the Meeting (Income): Financial Secretary Rich Aleksy –
$24 dues
$10 initiation
$78 club room
$960 for beer tasting
Report of the Treasurer: Richard Ring
Starting balance for August 2021 = $21,981
August 2021 Deposits (income) = $99
August 2021 expense = zero
Ending monthly balance for August 2021 = $22,080
Uncashed checks none
Bank register is reconciled.
Updated Sept. 1, 2021
Unfinished business: Pat Sullivan said we had 19 candidates a few months ago.
Tom said we would like to do it again in November. We had three strong guys tonight.
Rich Aleksy suggested having one every quarter in the middle month of the quarter.
Pat Sullivan said he likes that idea.
Dan O’Leary brought up the bylaws.
Rich Aleksy said we have three priests other than our chaplain and all of them want to stay. The national board recommended not adding information in the bylaws about proxy voting, but he recommended putting a vote into envelope with your vote for use at the meeting.
Rich also recommended keeping the second Tuesday of each month for the meetings.
Pat Sullivan and Mike Riley suggested that we put the meeting night on the October agenda as a point of discussion.
Tom M. said we do have an officers meeting on Oct. 11.
JP also wants to discuss bonding of financial officers. He wants to get another proposal before making a presentation to the officers.
New Business:
Rich Aleksy said the Father Judge division came to us a year ago about the coloring contest and we decided not to participate, but one of the winners was a third grader at All Saints. Rich said he will chair it this year by contacting All Saints School, the CCD at Holy Trinity and the monastery.
Dan O’Leary said he has bracelets.
Good of the order:
Prayers for Joe Cahill
Pete Hawkins asked for prayers for Ron Farra and his family.
Rich Aleksy asked for prayers for Joe Cahill and his family.
Adjourned at 9:08 pm
