Brigid was born in a society ruled by the old Gaelic Order and the Druidic religion. St. Patrick had already reached Ireland, and was in the process of changing all that, but although his message may have reached the court of Dubhtach, the powerful Leinster Chieftain held firm to the old religion. In that religion, one of the most powerful Goddesses was Brid or Brigid, the Goddess of Fire whose manifestations were song and poetry, which the Celts considered the flame of knowledge. Her feast day was the first festival of the year and was held on February 1. It was the beginning of the working season for farmers and fishermen and a time of husbanding of animals, and the Celts called on Brid to bless their work as bonfires were lit in her honor.

Patrick did not condemn the Celts as idolatrous pagans, but explained their druidic customs in Christian terms, and gradually, Bible heroes and Christian saints began to replace the Celtic Gods and Goddesses on the Irish calendar. However, the personalities of some of the Celtic deities was so strong that they could not be replaced; one of these was Brid, and the rites associated with her continued to be practiced each February 1 right into Christian times. But that was soon to change.

At about 453 AD, a child was born out of wedlock between Dubhtach and one of his Christian slaves named Brocessa. The slave girl was sent to a Druid priest in a cabin at the foot of the Cooley Mountains near Dundalk, Co Louth, to have the child. The baby was a healthy girl, which was no great joy to Dubhtach who wanted a son. The mother was sold to a Chieftain in Connaught, and the child was left with the Druid to be raised and educated. The child was named Brigid, perhaps to seek the blessing of the Goddess, for from the very beginning, there were indications that she was special. It was reported that she was born at sunrise, and that the cottage in which she was born burst into flame when she left it.

Brigid grew in beauty, and her love for God’s creatures knew no bounds. After her fosterage, she returned to her father’s house as a slave, although she enjoyed the privileges of family. She was given to solitude, and loved to wander the woods befriending the animals. She was renowned for her generosity, giving much of her father’s wealth to the poor. Many are the stories attributed to this remarkable lady, including her journey on foot from Leinster to Connaught to find her mother, whom she freed from bondage, and returned to the house of Dubhtach.

In keeping with the life planned for her, she became a priestess in service to the Goddess Brid, and eventually high priestess at Cill Dara (the temple of the oak), a sanctuary built from the wood of a tree sacred to the Druids, where a perpetual ritual fire was kept in honor of Brid.  The exact circumstance of her conversion to Christianity is unknown, though it is certain that her Christian mother was a guiding influence. Some claim that she personally met St Patrick, which is possible since she was ten years old when he died, but there is no proof of that. Whatever the circumstances, Brigid and her companions in service to Brid, all accepted the Christian faith, and formed Ireland’s first Christian religious community of women. Legend tells that upon her acceptance of her vows, fire appeared above her head.  Brigid changed the pagan sanctuary of Cill Dara into a Christian shrine, which gave its name to the present County Kildare. She extinguished the ritual fire of the Druids, and lit a flame dedicated to Christ which was thereafter maintained by her followers until it was doused by the forces of Henry VIII.

Brigid’s wisdom and generosity became legend, and people traveled from all over the country to share her knowledge.  Her monastery at Kildare became one of the greatest centers of learning in Europe.  She continued her holy and charitable work until her death in 525 AD, when she was laid to rest in a jeweled casket at Cill Dara.  In 835, her remains were moved to protect them from Norse invaders, and interred in the same grave that holds the remains of St Patrick and St Columcille at Downpatrick.

So strong was the respect and reverence for this holy lady that she became the patroness of parishes, towns, and counties, not only in Ireland, but all across Europe.  During the age of Chivalry, she was so revered as a model for women of every age, that gentlemen, knights, and nobles began the custom of calling their sweethearts, their Brides – a custom that has come down to this very day.

In Ireland, the people likened her to Brid, the ancient Goddess of fire and wisdom – for wasn’t Brigid’s life touched with fire, and as for her wisdom – that was undisputed.  She even had a symbol.  As the shamrock became associated with St Patrick, a tiny cross made of rushes was linked with St Brigid.  It was supposedly woven by her to explain the passion of Christ to a dying pagan.  Similar crosses are fashioned to this day as a defense against harm, and placed in the rafters of a cottage on the feast day of St Brigid – February 1.

So it was that reverence for this holy child of Ireland grew so strong that she not only eclipsed Brid, for whom she was named, but was given her feast day.  And the Irish gladly accepted their new saint, and revere her to this day in place of a forgotten Celtic Goddess.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Sadly, there is very little historic evidence – archeological or autobiographical – about this remarkable Saint.  There are many ennobling tales written after her passing, glorifying her life, but some of them are conflicting.  The Catholic Encyclopedia tried to excuse these inconsistencies by stating, “Viewing the biography of St. Brigid from a critical standpoint we must allow a large margin for the vivid Celtic imagination and the glosses of medieval writers.”  Wikipedia Encyclopedia adds that many tales exist which suffer inconsistencies common to such legends, and the only agreement between the various stories is that a girl was born to an Irish king named Dubhtach and that her name was Brigid.

However from the many stories, biographies, lives of the Saints, and other documentation we have researched – both in America and in Kildare – we compiled the beliefs that most often agree between versions, and those that we found to be the most logical.  We have presented them in this biography in the hope of increasing devotion to a most inspirational servant of God and a most remarkable daughter of the Gael. 

The AOH is grateful for the efforts of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, through its Embassy and Consulates and the Coalition of Irish Immigration Centers for enabling the conferences for the AOH, Coalition, Chicago Celts for Immigration Reform, Boston Irish and ILIR that acted as clearinghouses of ideas that lead to the great collaborative and nonpartisan effort towards attaining the Irish E3 Visa Bills.

We also thank Bruce Morrison and ILIR for arranging vital meetings with the White House and were happy to reciprocate by introducing our states’ legislators to Morrison and the Irish Lobby. This bill will remedy many of the future flow immigration issues between Ireland and the US, but our work on the undocumented remains ahead of us. The AOH is working everyday with the Centers and DFA on Irish immigrants facing incarceration, detention, extradition and deportation, as well as our own work with Thar Saile in their long struggle. The AOH efficiently fields inquiries on status adjustment, dual citizenship, retiring to Ireland , pension, legal  and  a variety of matters and connect people with the help they need.

With a network of AOH members across the US, we will continue to work with our legislators, DFA, the Centers, ILIR, the Celts and Boston Irish and others to continue this good work. AOH members are becoming more familiar every day with the Centers and will help them when the really hard work begins for them,  the job of helping the next wave of legal Irish immigrants live, work and become vital members of the rich cultural exchange that has always existed between our two great nations.

Seamus Boyle                                                                                                                                     Dan Dennehy

President, National Board                                                                                                              National Immigration Chairman

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In the 1960‘s, AOH members participated in an effort to prevent removal of the quota of Irish visas by the Immigration Act of 1965. Those concerns were proven as successive economic downturns have left many of the Irish without the option to emigrate legally to the US. In the last 25 years, AOH has worked with the Irish Immigration Reform Movement, Irish Lobby For Immigration Reform, as well as many other organizations and  government officials from the two nations, and elsewhere, to rectify the quota and restore the important cultural exchange between Ireland and the US.

Current events and developments prove our understanding of the need to work with others to meet this goal. One of the great developments of the recent weeks was a video conference  and one week later a teleconference facilitated by the Coalition of Irish Immigration Centers and the Irish Embassy. In cities across the US, Irish immigration advocates, in many cases seeing and speaking live to each other for the first time, shared ideas on the recent moves by Congress. AOH, ILIR and Rep. Bruce Morrison, Boston Irish and Chicago Celts and several other advocacy groups outlined recent work towards an Irish E3 and concerns for the undocumented. We look forward to working with all of the groups towards a successful outcome.

The second and more immediate development is the introduction of two bills that propose an Irish E3. The first bill was proposed by Senators Schumer, Leahy and Durbin and it was quickly followed by the Irish Immigration and Encouragement Act sponsored by Republican Senators Brown (MA) and Kirk (IL). While neither bill solves the undocumented issue, they do address future flow from Ireland. The bills would modify the E3 visa, currently available to only Australia and a few select countries. The modifications would recognize Irelands excellent education system and allows Irish Nationals with a “leaving cert” or two years experience in a trade to apply for 10,500 two year renewable visas. We are grateful to the sponsors of both of these bills for their recognition of the longstanding inequities relating to immigration from Ireland.

Right now, AOH members across the US are meeting and reaching out to their US Representatives and Senators as part of the initiative to secure “The Irish E3 Visa.” The AOH maintains that Ireland has been extremely supportive to US Homeland Security and Defense with the Shannon Stopover of US Troops coming and going from the War On Terror and the innovations of US Customs and Immigration at Ireland’s Shannon and Dublin Airports. We are asking Congress to thank Ireland with an E3 as it had Australia in 2005. In this way, with 10,500 annual renewable visas, a secure and legal path to immigration will be restored, preventing the need for Irish people to seek less desirable methods to escape the current economic hardships in Ireland and strengthen the bond between our two nations.

Seamus Boyle AOH National President & Dan Dennehy AOH Immigration Chairman

In 1948, the Irish Free State abolished its Commonwealth status and passed the Republic of Ireland Act.  The date for it to go into effect was not announced, but it was signed on December 21.  On January 20, 1949, northern P.M. Basil Brooke, called a general election for February 10.  Southern Prime Minister Costello urged support for anti-partition candidates in the upcoming northern election, and pamphlets describing the discrimination and the gerrymandering in the north were published.  Unionists retaliated with a torrent of anti-Republic, and anti-Catholic propaganda that worked on sectarian fears declaring that if the border went, loyalists would be victims of IRA gunmen, urged on by Catholic clergy in an effort to establish the Pope as the ruler of Ireland. The propaganda, as well as years of conditioning by the Orange Order, had the desired effect as record numbers went to the polls to return the Unionists to power!

In the south; Dail Eireann brought the Republic of Ireland Act into effect on Easter Monday, April 18, 1949 – 33 years after Pearse’s declaration on the steps of the GPO.  On May 3, British Prime Minister, Clement Atlee declared “Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom and it is hereby affirmed that in no event will Northern Ireland or any part thereof cease to be part of Her Majesty’s Dominions without the consent of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.”  The new Republic of Ireland protested Britain’s continuation of partition, and mass meetings  urged action, but the new Republic was not prepared for anything stronger than a protest.  With tempers at a fever pitch, a call for action was heard, and the rebirth of the IRA was underway.

Depleted in numbers and finances after the war, the IRA began reorganizing by attacking unemployment and high taxes. They gathered support by standing against the mistreatment of Republican prisoners, and emerged in their traditional role of spokesmen for the Irish people with the rallying cry: ‘The Border Must Go!’  On June 5, 1951, the Derry unit of the new IRA raided Ebrington Barracks and captured a quantity of guns and ammunition.  As raids continued, the situation in the north became more tense, and nervous B-Special patrols became more violent.  The Irish Times urged the northern government to curb its patrols noting that, “para-military forces are an anachronism in a democratic society“, but it was to no avail.  On August 15, 1955, four men attacked a Royal Artillery Training Camp, but fled as a sentry gave the alarm.  Citing the attack, the Minister of War made a special report to the Cabinet, and P.M. Anthony Eden ordered mobilization to deal with the new IRA campaign.  It was later abandoned when four British Officers confessed to the ‘raid’ to “make things hotter for the IRA.”  An embarrassed War Office sent a communique to the police apologizing for the trouble caused and the matter was dropped.

Then, on the night of December 12, 1956, IRA volunteers assembled in 10 different areas along the border in an arc from Antrim to Derry.  On a signal from the campaign center in Monaghan, the morning quiet of December 13 was broken by numerous explosions.  The border campaign to retake the six counties had begun.  Reaction was swift.  By December 15, the Special Powers Act was revived allowing arrest and internment without warrant or trial, a curfew was imposed, and police forces strengthened.  On December 22, the RUC spiked or blew up every border crossing road and bridge that had no customs post.  By the end of the year 3,000 RUC and 12,000 B-Specials were called into action, and the north was an armed camp.

On the morning of January 1, 1957, an IRA raiding party set out for the RUC barracks in Brookborough, Co. Fermanagh.  They parked their truck in front of the barracks in the center of town and opened fire on the barracks with rifles and a Bren gun while an assault group attempted to set off a land mine against the building.  The mine did not explode and the assault group returned, through a hail of bullets, for another one.  This too misfired.  The raiders began to run out of ammunition as guns from the barracks returned a deadly rain of fire.  Misfortune continued to plague them as one of the raiders threw a grenade toward a barrack window to cover their retreat.  The grenade bounced off the building, and rolled under the truck where it exploded, blowing the tires, and damaging the gears.  Somehow the raiders made it back to the crippled truck and the truck limped away.  At Baxter’s Cross, near the town of Roslea, the truck gave out, and the badly shot up raiding party sought refuge in an abandoned barn.  Six members of the party were wounded, two of whom were unable to travel – 19-year old Fergal O’Hanlon of Monaghan and 27-year old Sean South of Limerick.  Both were unconscious.  One of the party, volunteered to stay behind and hold off the pursuing RUC so the others might escape, but it was felt that such an action would endanger the lives of their unconscious comrades.  It was decided to leave South and O’Hanlon to be captured so they would at least get the medical attention they needed.  The rest of the raiding party retreated toward the border.

The RUC arrived just after the IRA had left, and opened fire on the abandoned truck.  After finding it empty, they approached the barn.  The retreating IRA men heard another burst of fire. They prayed it was just the warning shots associated with assaulting a military target, but they later learned it was the murder of their two unconscious comrades.  This was a source of unforgiving bitterness in IRA circles for years to come.  Author Tim Pat Coogan wrote, “In a sense the Brookborough ambush explains everything about the IRA, and its hold on Irish tradition.  It shows all the courage, the self-sacrifice, the blundering, and the emotional appeal that have characterized and kept alive the IRA spirit for centuries.  The two young men who lost their lives in the Brookborough affair were given two of the biggest funerals in living memory – but during their lives there was never sufficient public support for their aims for them to receive proper military training or even or even to be correctly briefed on the target that claimed their lives.”  The two men killed in the raid, took their place among the martyrs to Ireland’s cause, and their memories were kept alive in songs which have become part of the Nationalist tradition - Sean South of Garryowen and The Patriot’s Game.

The oldest mound, Newgrange, is about 262 feet in diameter, surrounded by a border of 97 stones, some  elaborately carved with one magnificently carved stone lying in front.  The front of the mound is also ringed by enormous standing boulders.  Behind the front stone is the entrance to a 65-foot passage to the center of the mound and a three-cove cruciform chamber.  The entire structure is formed of interlacing corbeled stones without a bit of mortar, angled in such a way that no matter how wet the covering soil becomes, seeping water is directed away and the interior remains perfectly dry.  The passage is the most interesting part of the structure as it is inclined at precisely the correct angle, and horizontally aligned  to allow the rays of the rising sun to shine through a small opening above the entrance and illuminate the chambers.  The remarkable thing is that this only happens at one specific time of the year – the winter solstice – the shortest day of the year and the point at which the power of the sun begins its annual return.  The ancients who built the mound called it Bru na Boinne.

Ancient Irish manuscripts say it was built by the Tuatha De Danann, early inhabitants of Ireland who were such an advanced civilization that the Celtic settlers, who came after them, considered them possessed of magical powers and guided by the heavens.  Today, it is obvious that their`guidance’ came from their advanced knowledge of astronomy – a knowledge unmatched in the known world at that time.  To the Celts, Bru na Boinne was a domain of the gods, a palace of the otherworld, and a place of special offerings.  Less than a mile on either side are two similar mounds: Knowth and Dowth, which are also astronomically aligned with celestial events.

Knowth, the second oldest of the three, is about 275 feet in diameter and outlined by 127 massive curbstones.  There are two passages in Knowth, facing east and west.  The west-facing one is curved  while the east-facing one is cruciform-shaped like the one in Newgrange.  These passages are reportedly aligned with the rising and setting sun on the Vernal and Autumnal equinoxes.  Knowth has a huge amount of stone carvings which are said to be one quarter of all of Europe’s neolithic art!

Dowth, known as the fairy mound of darkness, also has two passages and shares the Winter Solstice alignment with Newgrange, but at the setting  sun.  Beginning in November, the rays of the setting sun move along the left side of the western passage, then into the circular chamber, where, at the winter solstice, it lights up three stones.  The convex central stone of the three then reflects that sun light in to a dark recess, lighting up the decorated stones there. Then, until February the rays slowly recede along the right side of the passage and the sun withdraws from Dowth.

With the coming of Christianity, pagan monuments fell into disrepair and were eventually overgrown.  In 1142, the land on which the mounds stood became part of the Cistercian Abbey at Mellifont.  Farm fields were called granges and Bru na Boinne simply became the new grange.  During the Williamite confiscation of church property, the now overgrown mounds were used as a source of stones for fences.  In 1699, as workers were gathering stones from the new grange mound, they discovered the magnificent entrance stone.  Further digging revealed the long narrow passage which led to the center of the mound and the three chambers.  Authorities were notified and Welsh Naturalist Edward Lhuyd came to investigate.  He was thus credited with the discovery of a monument that had been in the ancient Irish manuscripts and local tales for centuries.  Mr. Lhuyd  concluded that the great monument was a passage grave built by visiting Danes since nothing requiring such sophistication could ever be attributed to the Irish.  In  1750, General Charles Vallencey, a British Army Engineer discovered its astronomical alignment, and advanced the theory that Newgrange was an astronomical observatory.  He explained the standing boulders in front of the entrance as sun stones positioned tocast shadows on the carvings on  the entrance stone to indicate the seasons.  He credited considerable astronomical skill to its early Irish architects, but was ridiculed by colleagues who had never even seen the mound.  In spite of local tales and writings which verified this phenomenon, no archaeologist took the time to investigate it until 1969, when MichaelO’Kelly entered the chamber before sunrise on the winter solstice and became the first modern archaeologist to witness that exciting event

Subsequent studies revealed that the structure was built around 3700 BC making it the oldest, still-standing, man-made building in the world.   Since the average human lifespan at that time was only 35 years and it was estimated to have taken 70 years to build, we know that they weren’t built as tombs.  Finally, in 1989,  the New York Times, which is ever slow to credit Irish accomplishments, noted that a British journal had announced that the astrological alignment of Newgrange appeared to be by design rather than by accident and in 1993 the megalithic monuments of the Boyne Valley were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.  Welcome aboard!

In spite of the amount of verified information available on this remarkable historic site, some still stand with their backs to the Boyne Valley and stare in mock amazement at Stonehenge, marveling at the antiquity of a site constructed 1,000 years later.  Or they wonder at the pyramids which were only started hundreds of years after the astronomical observatories in the Boyne Valley were already operating.  It’s now December, and on the 21st, the mound at Bru na Boinne will again receive its annual message from the sun telling man that the days will now be getting longer and the long winter nights are over.  How long will it be before the long night of ignorance is over as well and Irish intellectual significance is recognized?

The New York State Board of the Ancient Order of Hibernians would like to wish you and your family a Very Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year.

Nollaig Shona Duit

Rev. Henry Reid – Chaplain
Michael J. McNabb – President
James J. Burke – Vice President
Timothy McSweeney – Secretary
Victor J. Vogel – Treasurer

Peter P. Durkee – Director
Thomas Lambert – Director
Doug McCurdy – Director
Brian P. Kelly – Director
Patrick Gatins – Director
John C. O’Connell – Director
Leo Kane – Director
Vincent Tyer – Director

At our Board Meeting the following were unanimously endorsed for National Office: Brendan Moore – President, Judge James McKay – Vice-President, Tom McNabb – Secretary and Charles “Chip” McLean – Director.

I hope everyone is starting to make their plans to attend the National Convention at the Turning Stone in Verona, NY July 9- 13, 2012. I am expecting our State to have a FULL Delegation in attendance.

On November 5, the contract was signed with the Holiday Inn in Saratoga for our 2013 State Convention. Also on that day the final checks and paperwork from the 2011 Convention in Rockland were received. A final report should be completed by the time this edition of the ESH goes to print.

Our next State Board Meeting will be May 5, 2012 in East Durham. This will be preceded on Friday, May 4 with the James F. Hayes Golf Classic. This golf tournament is the main fundraiser for the Austin V. Carew Scholarship Fund. If you have never golfed in this, you are missing a fun filled day. The weekend will conclude with our annual pilgrimage to Our Lady of Knock Shrine for Mass. AOH/NYS Catholic Action Chairman, Peter Durkee, has informed me he is already working on the weekend.

Within the next few weeks many of our G.I.’s will be re-turning home from overseas. This will surely be a Merry Christmas for them and their families.

FYI: For those on active duty and either wounded or injured in the line of duty and because of your condition, are no longer able to perform your assigned duties and now have other du-ties not prescribed by your MOS, you are entitled to re-ceive Social Security Disability in addition your pay. Social Security Disability is retroactive to your date of injury. You will need all your military health records that reflect the wound or injury along with a letter of documentation from your doc-tor. The application is on line at:www.socialsecurity.gov/applyfor disability or call 1-800-772-1213.

If you know anyone transition-ing from the military to civilian life there is a useful website at Adecco. It is managed by for-mer military and can assist with career services, employer ser-vices, and associated needs. They are at www.adeccousa.com. In addi-tion, the Small Business Ad-ministration provides services to Veterans who are looking to open their own businesses. They provide counseling and training services. You can reach the New York State Program Coordinator, John Narciso, at www.NYVETBIZ.COM. They are located at Farmingdale State College, 2350 Broadhollow Rd., Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735 or at 631 370-8891.

Have a very happy and Holy Christmas and a healthy New Year.

God Bless our troops and God Bless America.