Ancient Order of Hibernians St the Navigator Division Mecklenburg County Division # 2 ISSUE #5 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER VOLUME #2 May 2010 MONTHLY BUSINESS MEETING ARE HELD ON THE SECOND MONDAY OF EACH MONTH AT 7:30 pm IN ROOM 200 AT ST MARKS PARISH CENTER SOCIAL DINNER MEETINGS ARE HELD ON THE FOURTH THURSDAY OF THE MONTH AT 6:30 PM AT AN LOCAL AREA RESTAURANT

2009-2010 Officers

Chaplain Fr Brad Jones President Joe Dougherty Vice President Shane Lis Secretary Kevin Buechler Treasurer Chris O’Keefe Financial Secretary Ron Haley Standing Committee Brian Bourque Marshall Scott Stephan Sentinel Deacon Bob Murphy Chaplain Emeritus Fr. Pat Hoare www.aohmeck2.org

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT Brothers, On Thursday, April 22nd, the St Brendan division celebrated its one year anniversary at Bucci’s Italian restaurant in Davidson. We also honored our “Hibernian of the Year”, brother Ray FitzGerald. We had 26 brothers, spouses and children in attendance. It was, by far, the largest group we had at one of our socials and I wish to thank each of the brothers and families that helped us in honoring brother Ray. Nancy and I thought the food and service were excellent and our thanks go out to Mario Bucci and his family for hosting the division, on this very important day. Brothers of the St Brendan division were in attendance to show their support at the installation of the LAOH division here in Huntersville on April 15th. All the sisters of the new division took their pledge including some wives of AOH members. This last Saturday, I was in Greensboro, NC for the quarterly NC State Board meeting and gave a report as the St Brendan division President and also as the State Organizer. I also reported on the sale of the State fundraiser glasses and turned over to the State Treasurer the division checks for the glasses that were sold. The Southern hospitality room chairman for the National convention, brother Jim Nettles of SC was in attendance and he gave a report on the status of the committee. If you plan on attending the National convention in Cincinnati, all the information can be found at: www.hibernians2010.com. AOH GLASSES ARE STILL AVAILABLE

The cost is $25.00 for a set of four. They are pint glasses, just perfect for your favorite beverage. As the committee chairman, your orders can be sent to me, but please make payment to the division. God Bless Joe Dougherty

The next business meeting will be on Monday, May 10th at 7:30 PM and the next social dinner meeting will be on Thursday, May 27th at 6:30 PM, at a place to be determined at the business meeting Irish Saints

St Brendan the Navigator Division Patron Saint Feast Day May 16th Of all Irish saints, Brendan was the greatest traveller. He was born near Tralee, Co. Kerry, an event reputedly marked by angels hovering in a bright light over the house. He was baptised by Bishop Erc, who ensured that a year later Brendan was delivered into the care of Saint Ita at Killeedy. At the age of six Brendan returned to Erc, who undertook his education for several years before indulging the boy's desire to travel and study under other holy men. Erc asked only that he could perform his pupil's ordination as a priest, and Brendan duly returned for this ceremony. Among the Irish saints Brendan visited were Finnian of Clonard, Enda of Aran and Jarlath of Tuam. From an early age Brendan attracted disciples, and he established a number of monasteries in Ireland. The most famous was Clonfert, Co. Galway, which was founded around 560, towards the end of the saint's life. Clonfert became one of Ireland's greatest monastic schools and endured until the sixteenth century. Today, Saint Brendan's Cathedral in Clonfert is noted for its magnificent Romanesque doorway. Brendan also founded a convent at Annaghdown, Co. Galway, over which his sister Brig presided. Many landmarks of western Ireland are named after the saint, including Mount Brandon in Co. Kerry. Brendan is associated with a number of monastic sites close to the River Shannon and around the west coast of Ireland. In addition, he voyaged to Scotland, founding a monastery on Arran and visiting other islands. He is said to have met Saint on Hynba Island in Scotland, and even to have gone to Brittany with Saint Malo, a Welsh monk. He may also have stayed at Llancarfan, the Welsh monastery founded by Saint Cadoc. Brendan's reputation as a traveller rests, however, on the Navigatio Sancti Brendani, an account written by an Irish monk in the ninth or tenth century. More than 100 medieval Latin manuscripts of this Voyage of Saint Brendan still exist, and there are versions in Middle English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and other languages. The story has been much embroidered from its original factual basis and it is impossible to separate fact and fancy. However, an epic modern voyage led by Tim Severin in the 1970s showed that it was possible to sail a coracle of wood and leather to America, and consequently that Irish monks might indeed have preceded Christopher Columbus by several centuries. On the 3200-foot high summit of Mount Brandon are the ruins of a small beehive-shaped chapel commanding views of up to 100 miles in distance. There, it is said, the saint had a vision of the Promised Land. (There are, incidentally, many recorded accounts of the sighting of an island, a mirage usually identified as the fabled Hy-Brasil, off the west coast of Ireland.) Brendan's first attempt to sail to the Promised Land was apparently unsuccessful, but he was not discouraged. He and his crew of monks prayed and fasted for forty days, and set off on a second voyage which lasted seven years and probably took them to Iceland, Greenland and even the American mainland. The Navigatio Sancti Brendani describes meetings with Saint Patrick and Judas Iscariot, the latter clinging to a rock during a temporary release from Hell. The saint celebrates Easter on the back of a whale, and escapes a predatory sea-cat as big as a horse. It is a work in the tradition of Homer's Odyssey, and draws on Celtic mythology as well as classical sources and the Scriptures. Many medieval cartographers included Brendan's island on their maps. In later life Brendan returned to his work in Ireland and died there in 578 at Annaghdown.

Please check the division web site often to keep up with what’s going on. www.aohmeck2.org A Bi t of Irish History

Gustavus Conyngham, from an original lithograph by Arthur Szyk, courtesy of the Arthur Szyk Society

On April 27, 1779 Irish-born (County Donegal) U.S. Navy Capt. Gustavus Conyngham, "The Dunkirk Pirate", was captured by the British navy in the waters off New York. Conyngham had immigrated to the American colonies in his teens and went to work for his cousins shipping house in Philadelphia. By 1775 he was the master of the brig Charming Peggy, sailing to France to pick up war supplies for the colonial government. The British got wind of his plans and managed to maneuver him out of his ship with the help of the Dutch. Conyngham was stranded in France for the next year, until the American commissioners in Paris helped buy a ship for him to use against the British. Setting sail in a small ship called Surprise, Conyngham scored a first victory that would warm the heart of any Irishmen, capturing the British merchant ship Prince of Orange on May 3, 1777. Later that year he was commissioned a captain in the Continental Navy and given command of the Revenge. He began a series of highly successful raids into British waters from the port of Dunkirk, thus earning his sobriquet The Dunkirk Pirate. In 1778 Conyngham set sail for the West Indies and terrorized British vessels there before finally returning to Philadelphia on February 21, 1779. He and his men had claimed 60 prize vessels in just 18 months. When he set sail again his luck ran out and his ship was captured by the British vessel Galatea in April. Conyngham was taken to prison in England and treated harshly by his British captors. But after two other failed escape attempts, the determined naval officer tunneled his way of Mill Prison in Plymouth and managed to make his way to the continent. Conyngham joined John Paul Jones on a cruise on the Alliance before returning to the United States. He made his way back to the U.S., but was captured by the British again in March 1780 and spent another year in Mill Prison. After the war Conyngham failed in his efforts to continue his naval career or to gain recognition from Congress for his service during the war. He had lost the commission papers given to him by colonial representatives in Paris in 1777. It was said that Conyngham assisted in the defense of Philadelphia against his old British foes during the War of 1812; he would die in that same city seven years later. Some hundred years after Conyngham's death his commission papers surfaced in the collection of a Paris autograph dealer, proving that the "Dunkirk Pirate" had never been a pirate at all, but one of the first heroes of the United States Navy.

Division Calendar of Events for May

10th Regular St Brendan Division Business Meeting – Room 200, 7:30 at St Mark’s

27th Division Social dinner, 6:30 PM at a place TBD later.

Brother Ray receiving his Hibernian of the Year plaque

Irish Recipes

Irish Barmbrack Bread

 450g/ 4 cups strong bread flour  25g/2 tablespoons butter or margarine  50g/ ¼ cup caster, superfine sugar 7.5 ml/ 1 ½ teaspoons easy blend yeast  2.5 ml/ ½ teaspoon ground ginger  1.5 ml/ ¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg  175g/1 cup sultanas (golden raisins)  175g/ 1 cup currants  50g/ ¼ cup chopped mixed (candied) peel  300ml/ 1 ¼ cup of warm strong tea

How to make Irish Barmbrack

Place the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter or margarine until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in 5 ml/1 teaspoon of the sugar. Then add the yeast, ginger and nutmeg mix well Stir in the sultanas, currants and mixed peel and make a well in the centre. Gradually work in enough of the warm tea to make a soft but not sticky dough. Knead well until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl clean. Knead on a lightly floured board for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in an oiled bowl cover with Clingfilm (plastic wrap)and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size Knead again and then shape into a large round and place on a greased baking sheet. Cover and leave in a warm place or 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size. Shape into a greased and lined 900g/ 2lb loaf tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 230°C/450°F gas mark 8 for 15 minutes then reduce the oven temperature to 200°C/400°F gas mark 6 for a further 20 minutes until well risen and golden and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Dissolve the remaining sugar in 15ml/ 1 tablespoon of hot water and brush the syrup over the loaf and return to the oven for 2 minutes. Leave to cool then serve sliced with butter.

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ó hÉalaighthe Though a genuine Gaelic name, Healy is very rarely found nowadays with its proper prefix O; there is no entry in current directories under O'Healy, O'Hely or O'Haly, forms which were quite usual up to the end of the seventeenth century. Healy, however, is one of the commonest names in Ireland having forty-seven place in the list of the hundred commonest surnames, with a total number of persons so called of nearly thirteen thousand. One set, in Irish O hElidhe, derived from eilidhe (claimant), possessed a territory at the foot of the Curlew Mountains on the western shore of Lough Arrow, I.e. the corner of County Sligo lying between Counties Mayo and Roscommon. The first of the frequent references to the family by the Four Masters is to Dermot O'Healy who died in 1309 - he is described as "a princely farmer, the best of his time". A greater number, however, belong to the Munster sept. In Munster it is O hEalaigh - the, possibly from the word ealadhach (ingenious). This name was formerly correctly rendered as O'Healihy in English, and so it appears in the seventeenth century records. e.g. those reciting the transfer of their estates to the Earl of Clancarty after the Restoration. Though dispossessed, the O'Healihys remained on the lands and it was one of those who, having become a Protestant, was created Earl of Donoughmore. This title was taken from the place Donoghmore in the barony of Muskerry, Co. Cork, which was the centre of the territory possessed by the sept. the influential family of Hely d'Oissel of Normandy, ranked among the nobility of France, is descended from Peter O'Hely, a Jacobite exile. Several places in Ireland perpetuate the name Healy: Ballyhely in Co. Sligo was the seat of the O'Healys of Lough Arrow, mentioned above. It is curious that four such place names (three Ballyhealys and one Healysland) are to be found in Wexford, a county not specially associated with the septs of O'Healy, either traditionally or by reason of present population distribution. No less than five of the Donoughmore Helys (who assumed the additional name of Hutchinson) were considered worthy of a place in the Dictionary of National Biography, several of whom, notably John Hely-Hutchinson (1724-1794), Provost of Trinity College, were advocates of Catholic Emancipation. Four other Healys have a lasting place in Irish history; Patrick O'Healy, Franciscan, last Bishop of Mayo before it was united to Tuam, who in 1579 was tortured and martyred; John Healy (1841-1918), Archbishop of Tuam, author of Insula Sanctorum, etc.; the famous humorist, Father Hames Healy (1824-1894); and Timothy Healy (1855-1931), universally known as Tim Healy, the irrepressible Irish Nationalist M.P., who finally became a most successful first Governor- General of the Irish Free State. James Healy (1830-1900), has been described as the first black American bishop. Actually he was only one quarter black, his father, Michael Healy, being an Irish immigrant and his mother a mulatto slave. In the Tralee and Killarney areas of Co. Kerry Healy is usually a synonym of Kerrisk or Kerrish, in Irish Mac Fhiarais I.e son of Ferris, the first to be so called being the son of one Pierce O'Healy. Woulfe thinks the eponymous ancestor was Ferris O'Helie. In Co.. Clare Mac Fhiarais is anglicized Kierse. 

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Frank McCourt to be commemorated in Limerick with bronze bust

A local Limerick artist has organized a commemorative bronze bust of author Frank McCourt, which will be unveiled at a ceremony outside his old school in the Treaty City on May 13. Una Heaton, who also runs an art studio at Leamy’s on Hartstonge Street in the city, is behind the project. “I wanted to do something to honor Frank because he's a great Limerick man, and I'm delighted to be a part of this," said Heaton. McCourt passed away on July 16, 2009. He had been battling melanoma and then became gravely ill with meningitis. McCourt’s widow, Ellen, will attend the ceremony, as will brothers Malachy, Alphie and Michael. West Clare sculptor Seamus Connolly made the bust. Connolly has also sculpted statues of another of Limerick’s most famous sons, actor Richard Harris, and one of Ireland’s greatest storytellers, author John B. Keane. Using photos of the "Angela's Ashes" author, Connolly completed the sculpture in six weeks. "Stunning" Viking necklace unearthed in Ireland

An archaeologist team has unearthed a "stunning" 1,150-year-old Viking necklace in cave in the Burren,

The team is lead by Sligo Institute of Technology's Dr. Marion Dowd, and they are currently excavating Glencurran cave in the Burren National Park. Dowd described the find as a "treasure trove" for archaeologists.

“The necklace is the largest Viking necklace to have been found in Ireland. Normally, Viking necklaces that have been found have five to six glass beads, but this has 71 glass beads covered with gold foil,” she said.

"It really is bizarre how this necklace from a high status Viking came to be in a cave in the Burren. There is no parallel for it in Ireland and it is puzzling on a number of fronts.”

Dowd suspects that the necklace may have been used as trade off between Vikings in Limerick and Gaelic chieftains in the Burren.

St Brendan Division Social, Thursday Night, May 27th at 6:30 at a location TBD. Bring the wife and family and a potential new member. When you see Brother Ray FitzGerald, congratulate him for being “Hibernian of the Year”.