Wednesday, March 27, 2013
2013 St. Patrick's Day Parade Recap
The 2013 Saint Patrick’s
Day Parade Marching Season
Here
is a shot video recap of all the Parades that Division One took part in this
year:
Thanks
to all of our friends and supporters for another wonderful parade season, and
remember to be Irish all year long, not just in March!
Monday, March 18, 2013
NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade 2013
PRESS
ON !
Yonkers A.O.H. Division One Marches in
252nd
N.Y.C. Saint Patrick’s Day Parade
 |
| Division One Marches Past The Reviewing Stand on 5th Avenue |
The
members of Division One braved chilling temperatures and an unexpected snow
squall while marching in New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday, but the weather couldn’t
dampen our spirits and pride on this very special day.
 |
| Jim and Nancy Walsh |
Division Vice President James Walsh
served as the Westchester County Aide to The Grand Marshal, and members could
not contain their excitement and pride.
Jim paid tribute to our Division by coming down off of the main
reviewing stand and marched with us as we passed the WNBC television
booth!
 |
| This Year's Parade was Wet and Wild! |
This was the first year that the
membership traveled together by bus to the parade, and the feedback was so
positive that it promises to be the way we go from now on. This year, Division
One was also assigned a new place in the line of march, and members appreciated
the fact that this will be our new marching location going forward. Division
One also displayed our new AOH Division One pocket badges for the first time in
the world’s oldest and grandest parade.
After the parade, members gathered for
a parade after party at The Glenrowen in Yonkers, where we enjoyed good food, music, and a surprise
visit from The Pipes and Drums of the Police Emerald Society of Westchester.
Truly a great day and evening was had by all!
 |
| The Weather Did Not Dampen the Joyful Spirit of the Day! |
Division One would like to thank all
of it’s members who soldiered through with dignity and pride, like Hibernians
always do. Congratulations once again to
our Vice President, James Walsh who proved to be a wonderful and deserving Aide
to The Grand Marshal, and thanks to the staff at the Glenrowen for a truly
wonderful time. The parade season
concludes later this week, when we will be marching up “The Emerald Mile” in The McLean Avenue Merchant’s Parade. Meet us on McLean!
Sunday, March 3, 2013
58th Annual Yonkers St. Patrick's Day Parade
“Banner Day” for Division One
In The 58th Annual Yonkers
St. Patrick’s Day Parade
In The 58th Annual Yonkers
St. Patrick’s Day Parade
 |
| Grand Marshal William Harrington and his Aides at the Yonkers City Hall |
South Broadway was a sea of green this past
weekend as the City of Yonkers held its 58th Annual St. Patrick’s
Day Parade, and members of A.O.H. Division One were well honored and
represented throughout the day’s festivities.
 |
| 2013 Aides Ronan O'Brien, Ken O'Brien, and Joseph Hallinan |
The
Division was proud to claim three of the eight Aides to Grand Marshal William
Harrington. Ronan O’Brien, Joseph
Hallinan, and Kenneth O’Brien all were honored as Aides this year, which is
probably the highest one year number of Hibernians to be so honored in the parade’s
history. “The AOH plays an important
role in the Yonkers Irish Community, and to have three Aides in one parade shows the impact that our membership is
having.” said Division One President Kevin Ellis. “What a wonderful honor for Ronan, Joe, Ken and their families, the
entire membership is beaming with pride today!”
The
day started out chilly, with temperatures hovering near freezing, but the
midday sun warmed everyone up enough to make this day enjoyable for everyone.
 |
| New for 2013: The Division One Parade Pocket Badge! |
Division members were excited to debut our new
AOH Pocket Badges that were delivered just in time for the parade marching
season. We have received many
compliments on how good they looked while marching!
To top it all off, Division One was
awarded the Parade Chairman’s Marching Trophy for 2013!
The
membership would like to congratulate Larry McCrudden, Jean Tickell, and the
entire Yonkers Parade Committee for an outstanding job this year! Thanks for keeping this wonderful tradition
alive!
To
learn more about The Yonkers St. Patrick’s Day Parade, visit their website at:
Friday, March 1, 2013
President's Message March 2013
PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE
 |
| Division One President Kevin Ellis |
March 1, 2013
Brothers,
The
2013 marching season is already in full swing, and once again, our Division
will have a full schedule of parades and events for the entire month. We will be taking part in 4 parades this
year. The Yonkers (March3rd), The
Eastchester (March 10th), The
N.Y.C. (March16th), and The McLean
Avenue Merchant’s (March 23rd).
I cannot express how proud I will be to
march together with you in celebrating the life and legacy of St. Patrick. Congratulations to all of our members who
were chosen to be honored for their service as Aides to the Grand Marshal. Our Vice President, James Walsh, will
represent all of Westchester County as an Aide in The 252nd N.Y.C.
Parade this year. Division members Ronan O’Brien, Joe Hallinan, and Ken O’Brien
are honored as Aides in this year’s Yonkers Parade.
Let us never forget that Saint Patrick’s Day
is first and foremost the feast day of Saint Patrick, who was a Roman Catholic
Bishop and is the Patron Saint of Ireland and the Archdiocese of New York. Parades that are held in his honor celebrate
Irish faith, culture, and heritage. On
this day, we remember the struggles, sacrifices and achievements of our
ancestors, and we work to ensure that legacy endures for all of the future generations
that will follow. Unfortunately,
attempts to besmirch and stereotype the Irish also emerge this time every year,
and it is our responsibility as Hibernians to stand up and confront these smears
wherever and whenever they occur.
We
continue to plan and prepare for our Annual Charity Golf Outing at The Ardsley
Country Club on April 29th.
Remember that this is our major charity fundraiser each year, hole sponsorships
are the key to the events success. I
have no doubt that the dedication of our members will make this year’s outing
the best ever!
On
behalf of the officers and members of Division One, I wish you and your family
a Happy and Blessed Saint Patrick’s Day!
Yours In our Motto,
Kevin Ellis
President, Division One
Historian's Report March 2013
Irish Historian’s Report
Division One is honored to share Irish History articles provided
by The National Historian of The Ancient Order of Hibernians
 |
| A.O.H. National Historian Michael McCormack |
MYLES
KEOGH
by Mike McCormack, AOH Historian
Myles was born, one of 13 Keogh
children, to a nationalist family in Co Carlow.
His uncle Pat had been executed by the English following the rising of
1798. He could have lived the life of a
farmer for he inherited the family estate in Kilkenny, but there was something
in him that craved adventure. In March 1860,
Pope Pius IX called upon young Catholic men to defend the Papal States, which
were threatened by the revolutionary forces of Garibaldi seeking a united
Italy. Keogh was one of 1,400 Irishmen
who volunteered and was appointed a battalion lieutenant.
In September, the Papal Army was
defeated. Following a brief
incarceration in Genoa, Keogh and 45 Irish comrades traveled to Rome, where a
special papal medal Pro Petri Sede
was instituted and presented by Pius IX.
It literally means ‘for the seat
of Peter’ and depicts an inverted cross like the one on which St Peter was
crucified. They then joined the Papal
Guard as the green-uniformed "Company of Saint Patrick." For his service there, Keogh was also awarded
the Order of St Gregory medal, but the real fighting was over and he was
getting restless.
 |
| Colonel Myles Keogh |
The American Civil War was raging and
President Lincoln authorized New York’s fiery Bishop ‘Dagger’ John Hughes to
travel to Italy to recruit veterans of the Papal War. He met with Keogh and his comrades and in
March, 1862, Keogh resigned his commission in the Company of Saint Patrick, and
with another officer, Daniel J. Keily of Waterford, returned briefly to
Ireland, then set sail to New York, where they met with another Papal comrade,
Joseph O'Keefe. Through Secretary of
State, William Seward's intervention the three medal holders were given Captains'
rank and on April 15 assigned to the staff of Irish-born Brigadier General
James Shields, whose forces were about to confront the Confederate army of
Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley.
Keogh won praise for his bravery in
the Valley Campaign and at Port Republic where Dan Keily was severely wounded.
On July 31 Keogh and O'Keefe were transferred to the staff of cavalry Brigadier
General John Buford who commended them as "dashing, gallant and daring
soldiers." Army commander George McClellan described Keogh as "a most
gentlemanlike man of soldierly appearance," whose "record had been
remarkable." Keogh served with
Buford through the Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville campaigns, and was in
the thick of the huge cavalry clash at Brandy Station, where O'Keefe was shot
in the leg and captured. He would later
be killed in action. Keogh, for his part
in the battle of Gettysburg received the brevet rank of Major and was later
transferred to the staff of General George Stoneman, commanding the mounted
forces of Sherman's army in the western theater of the war.
Captain Theodore Allen of the 7th
Ohio Cavalry later recalled that Myles Keogh's dandy appearance made him
unpopular with the hard-bitten western troopers who didn’t like his flawless
appearance. Allen wrote; "there was altogether too much style. He was as
handsome a young man as I ever saw. His uniform was spotless and fitted him
like the skin on a sausage." And he
always carried that foreign medal. But
Allen revised his opinion when Keogh displayed undaunted courage on the battlefield. General Stoneman saw to it that Keogh was
promoted to Major and acting chief of staff.
He accompanied the General on a daring raid behind enemy lines to free
the Union prisoners incarcerated at Macon, Georgia. If all went well, Stoneman planned to
continue on and liberate the notorious stockade at Andersonville. But on July
31, 1864, they had their horses shot from under them and were taken prisoner.
Confined in Macon and later at Charleston, Keogh was lucky enough to be freed
in a prisoner exchange with General Stoneman on September 30. He wrote to his sister, Ellen, "I thank God I was thought enough of by Genl.
Sherman to be exchanged. I would have
died in a very short time and as it is I am almost broken down."
After recovering his health, in the
war's final months Keogh rendered distinguished service and at age 25, emerged
from the war with the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel and hoped to obtain a
commission in the postwar Army. In the
meantime he spent several months on duty in Tennessee where he befriended
Colonel Andrew J. Alexander and his young bride, Evy Martin Alexander and
General Emory Upton. When General Upton
wed Evy Alexander's sister, Emily Martin, he asked Keogh to serve as Best Man. Through his association with Upton and Alexander,
in October, 1855, Keogh first visited Willowbrook – the Martin family home on
Owasco Lake, in Auburn, NY. Over the
next decade Myles Keogh became almost a family member and there was a rumored
romance between Keogh and Cornelia Martin, one of Evy's and Emily's sisters.
In
November of 1866 he was ordered to Fort Riley, Kansas, to become Captain of
Company I in the newly formed 7th Cavalry Regiment, in which the flamboyant
George Armstrong Custer was now serving as Lieutenant Colonel. The second of the three original Papal medal
holders who enlisted together, Dan Keily, died of yellow fever in
Louisiana. Lieutenant Henry Nowlan,
became Keogh's closest friend in the regiment.
On October 14, 1875, Keogh went to Fort Lincoln, and from that day until
his death was present for duty with Custer and the 7th Cavalry.
Meanwhile, Sitting Bull, Chief of the
Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux, was attracting an assembly of tribes from the Cheyenne,
Hunkpapa, Miniconjou, and Oglala led by Crazy Horse, Gall, Two Moons, and a
host of Chieftains to a spiritual rally involving the Ghost Dance – a new
religion based on a merge of Indian and Christian traditions. The 5-day dance was for universal love and
peace with the white man, but the assembly of 1,000 Indians frightened the
Indian Agent who called for more troops to break up the gathering. The army dispatched Col Gibbons from the
west, Gen Crook from the south, Gen Terry from the east to catch the Indians in
a pincer movement. Custer, as part of
Terry’s command, left Fort Lincoln to join Terry at the Little Big Horn
valley. Custer was first to arrive.
Myles Keogh seems to have sensed that
the 1876 campaign would be his last. He gave copies of his will to several
comrades, including Lieutenant Nowlan, and took out a $10,000 life insurance
policy. He also left a satchel of personal papers with Mrs. Eliza Porter, the
wife of Lieutenant James Porter, and instructed her to burn them should he be
killed. Finally Keogh wrote what would be his last letter to Nelly Martin,
concluding: "We leave Monday on an
Indian expedition & if I ever return I will go on and see you all. I have requested to be packed up and shipped
to Auburn in case I am killed and I desire to be buried there. God bless you all, remember if I should die
-- you may believe that I loved you and every member of your family -- it was a
second home to me."
Perhaps
the strongest testimony to Keogh's bravery and leadership ability came at
Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. The senior captain among the five companies
wiped out with Custer that day, Keogh died surrounded by the men of Company I.
When the sun-blackened and dismembered dead were buried three days later,
Keogh's body was found at the center of a group of troopers. He was the only one beside Custer who was not
mutilated, perhaps because of the "medicine" the Indians saw in the
Papal Medal he wore on a chain about his neck.
His left knee had been shattered by a bullet that also wounded his
horse, "Comanche," indicating that they may have fallen together. The
badly injured animal was found on the battlefield and nursed back to health as
the last survivor of the tragedy. As
regimental mascot it was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas where it was used in
parades and exhibited a fondness for beer.
It died at 29 years of age in 1891and was sent to the University of
Kansas to be stuffed. When the Army
refused to pay the taxidermy bill it was donated to the University of Kansas
museum where it stands to this day.
As for Siting Bull, after a brief
career with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, he returned to the Standing Rock
Reservation in South Dakota, where he was welcomed by a large group of his
former followers. Agency police, afraid he would resurrect interest in the
Ghost Dance, tried to arrest him and in a scuffle with agency police he was
shot and killed by Indian members of the Agency Police force. Around his neck was found a Pro Petri Sede medal
 |
| Keogh Gravesite, Auburn, New York |
As for Myles Keogh, no one felt his
death more keenly than his surrogate family, the Martins of
"Willowbrook." In 1877, they had Keogh's remains re-interred in the
family plot at Auburn, where he had wished to be. This gallant Irish soldier of fortune,
veteran of three wars on two continents was buried on the afternoon of October
25, 1877. Today the town of Auburn
sponsors an annual Myles Keogh Day which starts with a parade in his honor, an
afternoon of athletic competitions, an award ceremony and concludes with a
dinner; among the sponsors is the Auburn AOH.
On a visit to Auburn many years ago I was taken to see the grave of
Myles Keough. It has a cross over the
grave and at the head, a huge white marble stone on which is carved a military
cape and sword; and carved on the base is an epitaph from the pen of poet
Bayard Taylor which reads:
Sleep
soldier! Still in honored rest
Your truth and valor wearing
The bravest are the tenderest
The loving are the daring.
Your truth and valor wearing
The bravest are the tenderest
The loving are the daring.
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