Ancient Order of Hibernians
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St Brendan’s Feast Day May 16th Ancient Order of Hibernians St Brendan the Navigator Division Mecklenburg County Division # 2 ISSUE #1 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER VOLUME# 4 January 2012 Our next business meeting is on Thursday, January 12th at 7:30 PM Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Denver, NC 2012 Officers Chaplain Father David Miller President Ray FitzGerald Vice President Shane Lis Secretary Tom Vaccaro Treasurer Chris O’Keefe Financial Secretary Ron Haley Standing Committee Ted Leahy Marshall Brian Bourque Sentinel Scott Stephan Chaplain Emeritus Father Pat Hoare Past President Joseph Dougherty www.aohmeck2.org Tis A Blessing to be Irish Use your Irish gift of gab and tell a story. Not only does a good yarn charm the listener, but it also captures the history and wisdom of the age for posterity. And, by the way, if the tale gets embroidered with a bit o’ blarney— all the better! THE PRESIDENT’S REPORT Brothers, As I assume the Presidency of our Division, I am humbled that you have the confidence to allow me to lead the Division. I will surely need your assistance and support to carry on the torch for 2012 I first want to thank our Past President Joe Dougherty for his efforts and contributions in organizing our Division, planting the seeds to get it off the ground, nurturing it and spreading the news about who we are. At the recent St. Mark’s Christmas Midnight Mass when Msgr. Bellow acknowledged just a few of the ministries within the parish, he mentioned the Hibernians; an enormous accomplishment to be recognized in less than three years of existence. There are a number of undertakings that Joe has done, both in front and behind the scenes, for which we are truly grateful. It is a common practice for an incoming President to list his goals in his inaugural comments. My view is that the Division is comprised of all its members, so I would like the opportunity to solicit from our members what they think our goals should be. We are in this together, and together our Division will grow, both in membership and in accomplishments. Don’t hesitate to contact me with your ideas for our Division. As we enter 2012, there are a few events where the planning is already underway, primarily our Installation of Officers Dinner, our annual St. Patrick’s Day Mass at old St. Joseph’s, the parade in Charlotte, our annual Hibernian Dinner and Show and the raffle for a trip to Ireland. If you haven’t been able to make our meetings in the past, try and come to one. We are Irish and we have to show our support for our heritage. This would be an excellent way of doing so. If you’ve been to a meeting and it wasn’t up to your satisfaction, try coming again or better still, give me some input what we should do to get your attention. Our next meeting is at 7:30pm on Thursday, Jan. 12th at Holy Spirit Parish Center. Hope to see you there. As we enter 2012 let’s continue to recruit more members. Whenever you meet someone who has an Irish surname, the first question you should simply ask them is “With a name like _____, why aren’t you a member of the Hibernians?” We meet in two of the surrounding parishes, St. Mark and Holy Spirit. It would be great to include St. Therese as well. There has to be hundreds of Catholic men of Irish heritage in the Lake Norman area that should be a source of our membership. All it takes is a little effort and some nudging. May 2012 bring abundant blessings to you and your families. St. Brendan the Navigator, pray for us. Ray FitzGerald ALL OFFICERS, PLEASE BRING YOUR JEWEL TO THE MEETING THURSDAY, JAN 9th. January Birthdays Valorie Sheehan Wife of Brother Jim January 4th Andrew Smith Son of Brother Ray January 5th Mary Frances Haley Daughter of Brother Ron January 9th Kelly O’Brian Daughter of Brother Bob January 12th Kathleen Dougherty Daughter of Brother Joe January 15th Michaela Martin Daughter of Brother Martin January 16th January Anniversaries Ted & Bev Leahy January 30th 1965 The Limerick Lakers basketball team at Dandelion Market Restaurant. on December 30th, 2011. The St Brendan division was asked to host the team for dinner which we were able to do through the generosity of two division brothers. The two gentlemen on the right and the one on the left in blue shirts are the coaches. Our thanks goes out to the owner of Dandelion Markets, Kevin Devin for arranging this for us. Irish Myths Aengus In Irish mythology, Óengus (Old Irish), Áengus (Middle Irish), or Aengus or Aonghus (Modern Irish), is a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann and probably a god of love, youth and poetic inspiration. He is also called Aengus Óg ("Aengus the young"), Mac ind Óg ("son of the young"), Mac Óg ("young son") or Maccan. His parents were the Dagda and Boann. He was said to have lived at Newgrange by the river Boyne. The Dagda had an affair with Boann, wife of Nechtan. In order to hide their affair, the Dagda made the sun stand still for nine months; therefore, Aengus was conceived, gestated and born in one day. Midir was his foster-father.[1] When he came of age Aengus dispossessed the Dagda of his home, the Brú na Bóinne (an area of the Boyne River Valley that contains the Passage tombs Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth). He arrived after the Dagda had shared out his land among his children, and there was nothing left for Aengus, so Aengus asked his father if he could live in the Brú for a day and a night, and the Dagda agreed. But Irish has no indefinite article, so "a day and a night" is the same as "day and night", which covers all time, and so Aengus took possession of the Brú permanently. In a different version of this story, appearing in "The Wooing of Étaín", Aengus uses the same ploy to trick Elcmar out of Brú na Bóinne, with the Dagda's connivance. In this version, Midir is Aengus's foster-father, while Elcmar is the husband of Boann cuckolded by the Dagda.[2] According to the Death Tales of the Tuatha de Danaan, Aengus killed his step father Elcmar for killing Midir. Aengus also slew the poet of Lugh Lamfada for lying about his brother Ogma an Cermait. The poet claimed that Ogma was having an affair with one of Lugh's wives. Aenghus killed the poet in front of Midir. In the Wooing of Etain, Aengus was able to partially lift Fuamnach's spell against Etain, the horse goddess he had won for his brother Midir. Fuamnach in a jealous rage had turned the girl into a butterfly. Turning her into a woman at night, Aengus made her his lover until Fuamnach found out about it and drove her away. Aengus killed his foster mother for her treachery. In the Tale of the Two Pails, a sidhe woman and foster daughter of Aengus gets lost and winds up in the company of St. Patrick. The girl converts to Christianity, and Aengus cannot win her back. He leaves, and she dies of grief a few weeks later. In the Battle of Ventry Aengus helped defend the battle weary men of Finn mac Cumaill against Roman invaders] Aengus fell in love with a girl he had seen in his dreams. His mother, Boann, searched Ireland for an entire year. Then his father, the Dagda, did the same. Finally, King Bodb Dearg of Munster found her after a year.[3] Aengus went to the lake of the Dragon's Mouth and found 150 girls chained up in pairs. He found his girl, Caer Ibormeith. On November 1, Caer and the other girls would turn into swans for one year, every second Samhain. Aengus was told he could marry Caer if he could identify her as a swan. Aengus succeeded. He turned himself into a swan and they flew away, singing beautiful music that put all its listeners asleep for three days and nights.[3] Aengus was the foster-father and protector of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne of the Fianna. He rescued Diarmuid and Gráinne from one or two tight spots during their pursuit by the Fianna. He owned a sword named Moralltach, the Great Fury, given to him by Manannan mac Lir. This sword he gave to his foster-son Diarmuid. There was also a sword named the Little Fury and two spears of great power that he gave to Diarmuid. When the young man died, Aengus took his body back to the Brugh where he breathed life into it whenever he wanted to have a chat. There are other legends that he was able to repair broken bodies and return life to them. A Bit of Irish History 432 St. Patrick brings Christianity (Catholicism) to Ireland after having traveled in France and Italy. Monasteries are established as preservers of church doctrine and places of learning. Eventually the monasteries are plundered by Vikings-- but since they cannot read, they do not destroy what we now know as valuable illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Kells. Ireland's storytelling tradition begins in this period. 1014 Viking rule is destroyed in the Battle of Clontarf by High King Brian Boru. 1100s Norman adventurers come seeking land. One Norman called Strongbow--really named Richard, second Earl of Pembroke--responded to a request for help from local chieftain Dermot MacMurrough.