Last month I was invited to the regenerated Robert Briscoe Awards benefiting the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, which in years past had been an engaging and important community event.
The only trepidation I had about attending was that it was being held at the American Irish Historical Society, which I had only returned to twice since spearheading, along with my colleague Sophie Colgan, the campaign to reform and renew the organization and save the iconic building from sale.
After speaking with a number of other invitees I decided to return and participate despite my conflicted emotions concerning the venue, and was very glad to have done so.
I was greeted warmly by those in attendance, although, tellingly, nobody from the putative Board was present. While standing outside prior to the event and chatting with others as they arrived, our New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ SUV pulled up and, all energy and smiling enthusiasm, the AG bounded out and greeted me with a hug and discussed the importance of, again, saving the building for the community.
Tish James understands, and has always understood intuitively, the great importance the Beaux Arts edifice has to our community, and indeed to others, as an example of immigrant success.
This writer with New York State Attorney General Letitia James at the Briscoe Awards held at the American Irish Historical Society. Photo by James Higgins.
Sadly, as reported in the Echo last November, the specter of sale has hung over the building since the current Board has contracted into a handful operating with a total lack of transparency, has marginalized or dismissed members, and, most importantly, has utterly failed in providing for stable and financially viable governance.
It is truly a great disservice to the many who rallied to reform the organization and save the building as well as the good offices of our attorney general to facilitate that reform.
The current Board has squandered the good will engendered in the reform campaign which set the stage for significant fundraising by engaging in self-defeating power squabbles and the purge of Board members situated to be rainmakers to raise funds and retire debt.
“Attorney General James has always been a of our community and causes, and when she was requested to address the assembled attendees during the program she referred to our successful effort to mobilize tens of thousands in support of the effort to renew the organization and save the home of the spirit of Irish-American struggle and success.”
It is well known that shadow insiders have long lobbied for a sale despite the wishes of the community. The questions are whether the current leadership has failed in its mission due to ineptitude, lack of initiative, or that they are truly desirous of a sale as well. In any event, the wishes of the community that put them in place have been ignored and it is long overdue for transparency and accountability from the Board as constituted now. It seems a portent that the large verdigrised bronze 991 address plate had been removed from the façade of the AIHS building.
We must again mobilize to save the building as home to the AIHS and not allow a one hundred and twenty year history to be effaced by two and a half years of incompetence.
