St Brendan’s Feast Day May 16th Ancient Order of Hibernians St Brendan the Navigator Division Mecklenburg County Division # 2 ISSUE #2 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER VOLUME#3 February 2011 Our next business meeting is on Thursday, February 10th at 7:30 PM Room 200 & 201 2011 Officers Chaplain Father Brad Jones President Joe Dougherty Vice President Brian Bourque Secretary Ray FitzGerald Treasurer Chris O’Keefe Financial Secretary Ron Haley Standing Committee Scott Stephan Marshall Ted Leahy Sentinel Deacon Bob Murphy Chaplain Emeritus Father Pat Hoare www.aohmeck2.org PRESIDENT’S REPORT Brothers, On February 10th, at our monthly meeting, the division’s Shamrock degree team will conduct a degree for all the members that have not had an opportunity to be so honored. I would ask each of you to please mark this date in your calendar and make every effort to make this meeting. On February 24th, instead of a regular social meeting, we will have the installation of the 2011 officers and social at Harvey’s Pub & Grill, 13812 Cinnabar Place, Huntersville. The National Director of the Southeast, brother Bob Mott, has agreed to come and conduct the installation. This is open to the family, so bring the wife and kids. You can check out Harvey’s menu on their website at www.harveysinhuntersville.com. The pledging of the County flags of Ireland is moving right along. As of today, of the 32 county flags, 12 have been pledged. If you are interested in pledging a flag, the cost is $35.00, which will allow the purchasing of a pole and pole carrier. As soon as we reach 16 flags pledged and paid for, the division will order them from Ireland. If this can be done in the next week or so, it may be possible to have them by the dinner show on March 12th. Joe Dougherty BIRTHDAYS IN THE MONTH OF January Bev Leahy Wife of Brother Ted February 2nd Jim Mann Son of Brother Gene February 2nd th Angela Murphy Wife of Brother Bob February 14 th Molly Leahy Daughter of Brother Ted February 20 Ryan Stephan Son of Brother Scott February 29th Irish Saints Saint Brigid Feast Day February 1st Daughter of Dubtach, pagan Scottish king of Leinster, and Brocca, a Christian Pictish slave who had been baptized by Saint Patrick. Just before Brigid’s birth, her mother was sold to a Druid landowner. Brigid remained with her mother till she was old enough to serve her legal owner Dubtach, her father. She grew up marked by her high spirits and tender heart, and as a child, she heard Saint Patrick preach, which she never forgot. She could not bear to see anyone hungry or cold, and to help them, often gave away things that were Dubtach’s. When Dubtach protested, she replied that “Christ dwelt in every creature”. Dubtach tried to sell her to the King of Leinster, and while they bargained, she gave a treasured sword of her father’s to a leper. Dubtach was about to strike her when Brigid explained she had given the sword to God through the leper, because of its great value. The King, a Christian, forbade Dubtach to strike her, saying “Her merit before God is greater than ours”. Dubtach solved this domestic problem by giving Brigid her freedom. Brigid’s aged mother was in charge of her master’s dairy. Brigid took charge, and often gave away the produce. But the dairy prospered under her (hence her patronage of milk maids, dairy workers, cattle, etc.), and the Druid freed Brigid’s mother. Brigid returned to her father, who arranged a marriage for her with a young bard. Bride refused, and to keep her virginity, went to her Bishop, Saint Mel of Ardagh, and took her first vows. Legend says that she prayed that her beauty be taken from her so no one would seek her hand in marriage; her prayer was granted, and she regained her beauty only after making her vows. Another tale says that when Saint Patrick heard her final vows, he mistakenly used the form for ordaining priests. When told of it he replied, “So be it, my son, she is destined for great things.” Her first convent started c.468 with seven nuns. At the invitation of bishops, she started convents all over Ireland. She was a great traveller, especially considering the conditions of the time, which led to her patronage of travellers, sailors, etc. Brigid invented the double monastery, the monastery of Kildara, which means Church of the Oak, that she ran on the Liffey river being for both monks and nuns. Saint Conleth became its first bishop; this connection and the installation of a bell that lasted over 1000 years apparently led to her patronage of blacksmiths and those in related fields. A Bi t of Irish History JOHN PHILIP HOLLAND 1841-1914 IN PARTS OF west Clare, the Christian Brother who went on to reinvent modern naval warfare is a local hero, with a street named after him and his likeness on the walls of local pubs. But in the rest of the world, the name John Philip Holland barely registers more than a quizzically raised eyebrow. This is a shame, because the “father of the submarine”, as he is rightfully known, is a fascinating figure. Born as he was – in 1841 in Liscannor, Co Clare in an Irish-speaking household – within sight of the Atlantic ocean, it was fitting that his intellectual curiosity was so intertwined with a fascination with the sea. His father died while he was young, but Holland managed to survive the famine years and attended the Christian Brothers school in nearby Ennistymon. He subsequently became a Christian Brother himself, teaching in schools around the country, including Limerick and Cork. It was during this time that he developed an interest in science and engineering, with a particular view to developing a functioning, modern submarine – he wrote that he began his study of submarines in the 1860s. Like many technological developments, the submarine had already seen many aborted designs and incremental improvements over the preceding few centuries – including the French Nautilus, designed by American engineer Robert Fulton, which debuted in 1800 – but the feasibility of long-distance subaquatic vessels was very much in question when Holland embarked on his earliest designs. According to a 1996 profile of Holland in the Clare Champion , he was inspired by Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which featured another Nautilus under the surface of the water, to bring his inchoate plans to reality. By 1873, Holland had left the Christian Brothers and moved to the US, where his mother and siblings already lived. Although he resumed his teaching career, this was where he pursued his grand scheme in earnest, aided by the unlikely assistance of the Fenian Brotherhood. Eager to undermine British naval might and disrupt shipping channels, the Fenians agreed to fund Holland’s experimental designs – Holland’s reported desire to see an independent Ireland also played a part in the unusual alliance. His first effort, the one-man, 14-foot Holland No 1, wasn’t an unqualified success when launched in the Passaic River in New Jersey in 1877, but was deemed satisfactory enough to secure funding for a more advanced model (the remains of the Holland No 1 are now in a museum in Paterson, New Jersey). The result, in 1881, was the Fenian Ram. This may sound like a small-town ice hockey club, but was actually a landmark in the evolution of submarine design, most notably in its cylindrical, cigar-shaped design that has become the classic submarine shape. It also marked the end of Holland’s association with the Fenians, who refused to fund any more of his designs. After so many years of working on submarines with so little success, many lesser men might have resigned themselves to the classroom, but Holland demonstrated the quality that denotes so many pioneering innovators – sheer, bloody- minded stubbornness. Thus, he proceeded to seek new benefactors, this time with somewhat deeper pockets: the US navy. The navy had been commissioning various submarines since the 1860s, with the Alligator being the most notable, but Holland oversaw a more sophisticated series of designs, many of which met with skepticism. It was a long, arduous journey, but when Holland unveiled his 53-foot-long, gas-powered Holland No 6 on St Patrick’s Day, 1898, it was the successful culmination of years of obstinate experimentation. It was two years before the US navy actually purchased the design, but at the dawn of the 20th century, the Holland No 6 became the first commissioned submarine in the US Navy, the USS Holland . It was to mark the start of a fruitful relationship for his company, the John Holland Torpedo Boat Company. The company that built Holland’s designs, the Electric Boat Company, continues to be the main builder of submarines for the US navy to this day, although it is now a subsidiary of the giant defense contractor, General Dynamics Corporation. Holland actually became mired in a protracted patent dispute with the Electric Boat Company when he tried to create a new submarine company in the Netherlands, fittingly enough, and the end result was the loss of control of his business. But by that stage he had sold submarines to the Japanese navy (earning a Rising Sun as recognition for his contribution to the Japanese victory over Russia in the war of 1904-05), and even the British navy (his sense of Irish nationalism evidently being more pragmatic than idealistic).