Parade group, AOH to meet

By Ray O’Hanlon

A summit meeting between leaders of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the organizers of the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade is the possible outcome of a meeting this week of the parade’s board of directors.

Both sides have been in a standoff over the issue of whether the AOH has any role in the running of the annual march on Fifth Avenue.

The AOH previously instructed parade organizers to cease using the AOH name, but the organizers, members of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Celebration Committee and its controlling body, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Inc., have claimed that they have had nothing to do with the Hibernians since 1992, when the AOH national leadership divested itself of the event.

However, confusion has followed in the wake of a recent parade committee statement to this effect, given the fact that the AOH was a named party in two cases before a federal court since 1992, one in 1993 and a second case that was filed by the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization in 1996 and argued before a federal judge last year.

As alluded to in the recent parade committee statement, the Hibernians passed a constitutional amendment at their convention in 1992 that precluded the order from sponsoring any parade or public celebration without first setting up a separate, non-Hibernian corporation.

This amendment was almost immediately followed up. The date given for the initial filing of the name of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Inc., with the New York Department of State is July 2, 1992, according to the filing document held by the DOS.

But when the matter of who would get the then disputed parade permit surfaced in Judge Kevin Duffy’s federal court in February 1993, it was the name of the New York County Board of the Ancient Order of Hibernians that appeared on all documents submitted to the court and ultimately issued by it.

And it was the New York County Board of the AOH whose name appeared again on court papers pertaining to the 1996 cases and its 2000 hearing in which ILGO sued the City of New York and in which the County Board intervened as a "Defendant-Intervenor" in support of the city.

Asked about this use of the AOH name, the parade committee’s executive director, Jim Barker, said he could not explain it, although he was certain that legal fees arising from the intervention had been paid by the parade committee, not the Hibernians.

Prior to his testimony in federal court last year, Parade Committee chairman John Dunleavy was asked in a pre-trial deposition, dated Feb. 18, 1999, about the relationship between the parade committee and the AOH.

The question was presented to Dunleavy by an attorney for ILGO in the past tense: "How was the Parade Committee related to the Ancient Order of Hibernians?"

Dunleavy, according to documents obtained by the Echo, replied in the present tense: "It’s the subcommittee of the Ancient Order of Hibernians."

Dunleavy also replied "that’s correct" when asked during the deposition if the AOH applied for the parade permit each year.

Several other answers by Dunleavy indicated a hand-in-glove relationship between the AOH and the parade organizing committee. At one point he stated that the with regard to the participation of ILGO in the parade, the AOH County Board — to which the parade committee has for years been linked — was opposed to the idea because it had to follow the instructions of the AOH National Board.

At the same time, Dunleavy made the point in his deposition that not all the members in the parade organizing hierarchy were AOH members.

And the recent parade committee statement seemed intent on placing daylight between the New York Hibernians and the National Hibernians when it pointed to the former’s founding in 1853 and the latter’s in 1864.

That daylight, real or perceived, and the widespread confusion over the exact present day relationship between the parade and the Hibernians, is likely to be the focus of a possible upcoming meeting between the New York State president of the AOH, Tim Comerford, and Bill Flynn, president and director of the controlling parade corporation.

Both men have been in recent communication after Comerford wrote Flynn a letter proposing one last effort to end the current impasse, the Echo has been told.

Barker, meanwhile, said he did not think there was any impasse to begin with.

"For the Hibernians to say that they are the higher authority in all this is ludicrous," Barker said. At the same time, he said, the parade committee bore no animosity toward anybody, the AOH included.

Dunleavy could not be contacted by press time.