About the AOH

Origins of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

The Ancient Order of Hibernians is America’s oldest Irish Catholic Fraternal Organization founded concurrently in the coal-mining region of Pennsylvania and New York City in May, 1836. The Order can trace its roots back to a series of similar societies that existed in Ireland for more than 300 years.

The Order evolved from a society formed in 1565 to protect the priests who risked immediate death to keep the Catholic Faith alive in occupied Ireland during the reign of England’s Tudor monarchs. In 1697, when England imposed its dreaded Penal Laws on Ireland, secret societies were formed across Ireland to aid and comfort the clergy and the people by whatever means available.

Similarly, the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America was founded on May 4, 1836, at New York City’s St. James Church, to protect the clergy and church property from the likes of the Nativist Know Nothings or Native American Party and their followers. It was an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant party so named because its members would reply “I know nothing” when questioned.

In the late 1840s, the vast influx of Irish immigrants fleeing The Great Hunger (An Gorta Mór) in Ireland prompted the growth of various social societies in the United States to aid these refugees, the largest of which was, and continues to be, the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America.

In May of 1844, Nativist rioters in Philadelphia burned down two Catholic churches during several days of violence that cost a dozen lives. Nativist leaders then announced their intentions to do the same in New York City. Mayor Harper, a Nativist and owner of Harper & Row Publishers, asked New York’s Archbishop Hughes if he was worried about his churches.

Archbishop Hughes further warned the Mayor that if a single Catholic church were burned in New York, the city would become a second Moscow. Moscow had recently burned to the ground during Napoleon’s invasion and the reference was not lost on the Mayor.

The Archbishop called on the new AOH and asked that they defend old St. Patrick’s Cathedral against a threatened attack. The local AOH headquarters just happened to be across the street from the Cathedral and armed AOH men encircled the church property, causing the cowardly attackers to reconsider their threat.

We invite all Catholics of Irish birth or descent to seek admittance to the FINEST Irish Catholic Organization in the World — all we would ask is for you to live our motto of: “Friendship, Unity, and Christian Charity”.