According to editor Keith Carney, the site will also include expanded news and features not appearing in the newspaper.

The site is HibernianDigest.com, which was designed by Nassau County Webmaster and Division 8 Vice President Joe McDonald, who was named Online Editor of the paper.

So please stop by the Digest website and we ask for all divisions to add the link to the Digest site to its respective websites.

For more information about the digest or to send in a story, contact National Editor Keith Carney at editor@hiberniandigest.com or Online Editor Joe McDonald at onlineeditor@hiberniandigest.com.

To place an ad and reach thousands of  Hibernians nationwide, contact Ad Director Steve Everly at adsales@hiberniandigest.com.

Photos by Robert Lynch

Mike Moran with members Charlie Phillips and Jim McCabe, leading the 1990 parade.

Michael J. Moran was born in Co. Carlow, Ireland, on March 22, 1930.  Mike emigrated to the U.S., settling in Sea Cliff, where he was employed for many years as a chauffeur for the Village of Sea Cliff Sanitation Department.

He was first inducted into Division 8 on March 28, 1957.  Mike went on to become a model of what a true Hibernian is, serving for six years as Division President, as chairman for Project Children and of the Glen Cove St. Patrick’s Day parade and in many other positions.  On the County level, Mike served as Treasurer, Financial Secretary, Marshall and Co-chair of the annual Ladies Communion Breakfast.

In recognition of his service to the Order Mike received the high honor of being named Aide to the Grand Marshal of the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

A special committee had been formed early in 1987 to address an oft-expressed desire by the membership that Division 8 follow the tradition set by many other Divisions of naming them selves after persons of high regard as a tribute to those persons and an inspiration an example of true Hibernianism to present and future members.

On April 14, 1997 that Committee submitted its report to the President, recommending that Division 8 “bear the name of our beloved Brother Hibernian, Michael J. Moran, and hereafter be known as the ‘Mike Moran Division, Glen Cove, New York”. The report went on to say:  “This recommendation is made with keen awareness that the Division has no greater honor to bestow, and will never again be empowered to extend such an honor – but no Hibernian has contributed more to the Division than Mike Moran.  His contributions have been countless, selfless and honorable, always given cheerfully, with unfailing dignity and charm – the hallmark of a great Irishman.

The Division was slated to vote on the Committee’s recommendation at its monthly meeting in May.  Mike died on April 29, 1997 at the age of 67.  He had been advised before his death that the Division was to be named in his honor.    That honor was bestowed posthumously, and by unanimous acclamation of the Division members, on May 8, 1997.   The new Division banner bearing Mike’s name was dedicated on December 17, 1997 in a ceremony held at the Swan Club, in the presence of Mike’s wife, Mary, and his daughters, Maureen Basdavanos, Theresa Pierce and Anne Gentile.

The following is an account of Mike’s funeral from the North Shore Hibernian:

We were all deeply saddened by the death of Brother Mike Moran on April 29, 1997.  Our brothers and their families followed Mike’s fine example of Friendship, Unity and Christian Charity by attending the Hibernian wake service and his Funeral Mass in great numbers, ad did our Hibernian brothers and sisters from all over Long Island.

Mike was eulogized by County Board President Ed Friel and Division President Robert Lynch and our Chaplain Msgr. McCann led the prayer service.  The Funeral Mass at Mikes’ parish church, St. Boniface Martyr, Sea Cliff was concelebrated by Msgr. McCann and Fr. Michael Torpey, pastor of St. Boniface.  Mike’s coffin, draped in the Irish tricolor, was led into the church by a lone piper and accompanied by an honor guard of twenty five of his brother Hibernians.  Mike’s best friend, Charlie Phillips, acted as lead pallbearer.

A moving graveside ceremony was conducted at Locust Valley Cemetery where the lone piper played a lament over Mike’s grave while a color guard with the Division’s banner and colors stood to attention.  The honor guard held the outstretched tricolor over Mike’s coffin in the pouring rain during this final farewell.

Below you will find some newspaper clips about Mr. Moran.

Robert P. Lynch

Robert cherishes his Irish roots and heritage.  He has from his youth been an activist in Irish causes and follows a long family practice of love and support for both the countries of their origin and adoption, keeping one foot firmly planted on each side of the Atlantic.  While he is “first generation” on his mother’s side, from Kiltimagh, in Mayo, the same County, along with Kerry, produced his earliest American ancestors, in 1820, followed by his maternal grandfather who arrived here from Westmeath in the early 1900′s.  He has traveled to his ancestral homeland many times for family, political and musical activities.

Robert follows in the footsteps of his brother, Patrick J. Lynch, President of the NYC Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA), who served as our Grand Marshal in 2001.

Robert has been a proud Hibernian all his adult life, being a Charter Member of Div. 13 in Queens and serving Glen Cove Division 8 as Corresponding Secretary, Vice President, with two terms as President in the 1990′s and two terms just ended.  He is also former Chairman of our Parade.

Ten years ago he devised the idea of a consortium he called Cairdenet, (invoking in loose Irish translation the idea of a “net of friends”) to allow Irish, religious, charitable and cultural associations he was involved with to establish and maintain a presence on the internet, something they had hitherto been slow to do for financial and technical reasons.  As part of this arrangement Division 8 was able to establish one of the first and largest Hibernian websites in the Metropolitan area.

Robert is well known as a traditional Irish piper.  Robert has been active for many years in a wide variety of efforts in support of Irish freedom and is a member of Friends of Sinn Fein and a founding member of the Brehon Law Societies in both NYC and Long Island.  He is an outspoken and active supporter of the Irish peace process, being a member of a delegation which met twice with the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) monitoring the Irish ceasefire and of the first Irish American delegation to meet with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to encourage the formation of the present coalition government between that party and Sinn Fein.

In addition to his legal practice, Robert works as Supervisor of the after-school recreational and tutoring program at St. Martin De Porres School in Uniondale, where he also instructs students in the Irish tin whistle and pipes.  He is an active member of St. Boniface Parish in Sea Cliff, where he is a Eucharistic Minister the webmaster and instructs parents in the Baptism program.

He is a member of the County Tyrone and County. Mayo Societies, the Co. Tyrone Pipers, the Long Island Uilleann Pipers and was a founder of the North Shore Irish American Cultural Society and the St. John’s University Irish Society.

Address by Robert P. Lynch at the Grand Marshal’s Sash Presentation Ceremony, February 22, 2009

About thirty years ago I read an article in the Sunday NY Times about a young Jewish man from New York, Bill Ochs.  Bill had become fascinated by Irish music and especially the Irish bagpipes.

He sought out the few pipers left on Long Island and the Northeast and set out to revive that instrument, even though most Irish people seemed to have abandoned it.

He went to Ireland and sought out elderly traditional musicians to teach him.  They made the point to him that being an Irish piper was not only about being a proficient musician but also involved another special job.  That job was to preserve and tell the story of the people who had produced this musical tradition, and not to let it die.  It meant telling the people their own story.

I was reminded of Bill’s lesson a few years ago when Barney Lough and I attended a big annual St. Patrick’s dinner in Manhattan.   It was addressed by the acclaimed Irish actor Gabriel Byrne.

Gabriel asked those gathered to contemplate what purpose is served by getting together for these St. Patrick’s Day events.

He reminisced of how, as a child in Dublin, he listened to his relatives from Galway sit at home in the kitchen and tell stories.  That was how he learned of and developed a love for his culture.

Gabriel answered his own question by suggesting that St. Patrick’s Day events serve some of the same purpose for Irish Americans that those kitchen gatherings did for him:  they give us the chance to think about and share our story.

I agree with Gabriel.  The value of events such as our parade is that the give us the chance we might not otherwise have to ask ourselves “who are we” and “what is our story?” It gives us the opportunity to tell that story to our children and to our neighbors.

For all their trouble and expense, these are opportunities not to be missed.  The fact is that, for a people who are supposed to be great storytellers, we don’t practice that art very well when it comes to our own story.  We don’t value the concept of contemplating who we are and telling others about it.

There are many reasons for this.  It has been argued that this is the result of a subconscious lack of esteem for our own culture, coupled with a fear of expressing it openly, possibly the legacy of generations of colonial oppression.

Whatever the reason, the fact is that many of our immigrant ancestors didn’t tell us their story.  We, the Irish Diaspora in America, remains very Irish, indeed more than more Irish than most of us know, on what might be called an unconscious level, even many generations removed from “home”.

The fact that we don’t have a highly conscious level of awareness of who we are and where we come from leaves us somewhat inarticulate in describing ourselves.  Outsiders like the musician I spoke of earlier can often be more eloquent in explaining who the American Irish are than we can ourselves.

It has been said that the beautiful stained glass in venerable European church buildings were first developed to aid people who weren’t full literate enough to learn about their faith by reading Scripture and the written works of the church.

It might be said that events that surround St. Patrick’s Day in Irish America serve somewhat of the same purpose for our people.  We of the Hibernian Divisions of Glen Cove have been blessed with a veritable Parthenon of personalities whom we can view for a personification of who the Irish in America are.

They include not only our long list of distinguished Grand Marshals, but also the Aides to the Grand Marshal (for as is the case this year the Aides are often just as worthy or more so of recognition as the person with the top billing), Hibernians of the year and Presidents.

They include:

• John Sweeney, Mike Moran, Charlie Phillips and John Whelan, who before they passed on taught us the love of our culture and pride in our Ancient Orders.

• Andy Stafford, Paul Long, Patsy Furlong and Eamonn Beck, our very own “Boys of Wexford” who, along with likes of Bill Doherty, Vic Sackett and Martin Mannion, have kept that legacy alive.

• LAOH members such as my wife, Sighle Lynch, Mary Moran, Shelia Zeineth, Pauline Stafford, Marylynn Johnson and Sioban Rack, who show us who really gets things done in an organization supposedly dominated by men;

• Steve McDonald, the terribly wounded police officer who went on to quadruple his initial heroism by becoming a missionary of God’s mercy and forgiveness;

• Denis Dillon who epitomizes the streak which runs through Irish life of fearless insistence on protection and justice for the weak and threatened;

• Sister Janet Fitzgerald who embodied the Irish love of learning and the dedication of the generations of consecrated religious men and women who dedicated their lives to teaching;

• Peter King, who put his career at risk, and honorary grand marshals Joe Doherty, Malachy McAllister and Gerry Adams who put their lives and freedom on the line, as did our own Patrick Webster, Danny Lane and Tony Deignan all to remind the world that for nearly a millennium the most passionate thread of the Irish story has been our struggle for national sovereignty;

• Tom Suozzi, Brian Fitzpatrick, Maryanne Holzkamp and John Canning told us the story of Irish public service; it is not surprising that they are involved with the same Hibernian Divisions which once welcomed as a member Sen. Robert F. Kennedy during his brief time with us;

• Jim McCabe, Eddie Doohan, Al Baker, Jeff Moore and Cardinal John O’Connor demonstrates the truism that the Irish male cherishes his faith just as much as the women do;

• Joe Buckley, who embodied for us the ancient Irish tradition of hospitality;

• Jack Ryan, Tom Lilly and my brother Patrick Lynch bring forward to our time the unparalleled Irish tradition of support for the right of working people to organize to protect their interests, even in the face of fierce opposition by the powers that be;

• It is Dr. Mary Gilroy who is our most beloved exemplification of the Irish women’s reputation for healing and compassion;

• Jack McDougal and the Fighting 69^th teach us to “never forget” the courage of the Irish in uniform who clear the way for the rest of us when our lives are threatened;

• Our Order’s real-life seanachie, Michael McCormick, who finds joy in telling our story in print, as does this year’s Aide to the Grand Marshal of the NYC parade, John O’Connell, while Tony Jackson and Patti Ann Brown do the same on the airwaves.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let us go forward with these models in mind to continue to tell the story of who we are.

GLEN COVE, NY – The Ancient Order of Hibernians, Division 8, awarded the Hibernian of the Year on Thursday evening, December 11th, 2008, to Brother Michael Harrington. The Hibernian of the Year is awarded to an individual who has demonstrated the ideals of the AOH motto – “Friendship, Unity and Christian Charity.”

Mike Harrington, over the course of years, has lived this motto of excellence and his commitment to the AOH and it’s charity is reflected as a true light in the community. Mike’s story has many facets. Mike is a volunteer firefighter in The Locust Valley Volunteer Fire Department where he leads fund raising efforts to ensure that our firefighters are safe and equipped. Mike has been an integral member of the Oyster Bay Bayman’s association as well as creator of the AOH Div 8 Independence Day Seafood Raffle.

His compassion also extends a world away to our troops overseas when in 2007 he volunteered for the 1st in Goal for America’s Troops project that was spearheaded by AOH Div 8 member Jack McDougal. More recently, Mike, along with AOH Div 8 member Paul Long and the Locust Valley Fire Department, hosted a spaghetti dinner to raise funds for Operation Wounded Warriors based at Camp Lejeune. Mike’s character is especially revealed when he donates his time, effort and patience to the ministries of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Glen Cove. These are only a handful of examples in which Mike exhibits the motto of “Friendship, Unity and Christian Charity” and this is why AOH Div 8 is proud to herald Mike Harrington as 2008 Hibernian of the Year.

Congratulations Mike!

For more information on the AOH, the worlds finest Irish Catholic organization, or if you are interested in joining please visit us on the web at http://www.glencoveirish.com or call Jeffrey Moore at (516) 322-5225.

Dr. Mary Gilroy Doohan

A native of Locust Valley, Dr. Gilroy was received her education at St. Patrick’s School, Glen Cove, St. Dominic’s High School, Oyster Bay and University College Dublin. She has spent her professional career serving the people of Glen Cove at the North Shore University Hospital Glen Cove (formerly the Community Hospital at Glen Cove), where she is now the Director of Emergency Services.

Mary is married to well known educator and local Hibernian Edward Doohan. She and Ed are the proud parents of Tom, a doctor at Winthrop Hospital, Anne, and attorney in New York, Denise, a teacher, Jim, a student at Loyola University, and Ted, who is studying in Belgium.