You'll run into lots of these guys.
They say that what happens in Wildwood, stays in Wildwood.
That is, of course, unless we are there with cameras in hand, ready to capture the action.
If you’ve gone to the Wildwood Irish Festival before, let this get you pumped up for the weekend.
And if you’ve never been, let this be your sneak preview.
Seamus Boyle with local AOHer Will Hill at the Ancient Order of Hibernians' Project St. Nicholas in the Northeast in December.
Seamus Boyle has always been a prominent player in the Ancient Order of Hibernians locally, and active in Irish and Irish-American issues.
Over the years, he has continued to make his mark as a leader within the national AOH.
Now, following the AOH’s election in New Orleans in July, Boyle is the organization’s newest president. He’s not the first Philly guy to hold the top post, but he is the first Quaker City-based national AOH president since Michael Donohue, who held the office from 1923 to 1927. (Before that, according to Gerry Ennis, secretary of the state board, Joseph McLaughlin held the post from 1912 through 1919. And before that, Maurice Wilhere was president from 1886 to 1893.
It’s been a long, long time, then, since a Philadelphian claimed the top spot.
We asked the new president to tell us about his plans—and a bit about himself. Turns out there’s more than a bit to say. Seamus Boyle has led an amazingly active life.
Here’s what he had to say:
Q. The AOH has been identified with a lot of issues over the years—protecting Catholic churches from the Nativists and supporting the Molly Maguires in the early going, all the way to more recent concerns about Northern Ireland and immigration. During your tenure as president, is the AOH likely to try to have an impact in any particular areas of politics of public policy? On what issue or issues would you like to make your mark?
A. I think the issue of immigration and the undocumented is probably one of the most important issues facing us as Irish-Americans today. It seems that those who are not eligible to receive a green card because they overstayed a visa or some other minor infraction are treated the same as a terrorist who wants to destroy the United States.
The Irish immigrant is for the most part young, works hard, pays taxes, stays out of trouble and wants to stay here and raise a family. The only difference between them and the millions of immigrants who came before them is the bureaucracy and the lack of common sense that will not let them stay.
Many of our ex-political prisoners like Pol Brennan are treated like a criminal or worse. Malachy McAllister, Matt Morrison, and many more have been harassed and badgered by every agency in our government; it is time it stopped and we are the only ones that can do it.
We need to stand up for our people, we need to band together no matter what organization we belong to and pressure our politicians to do the right and just thing. Politicians hear us when we have a loud voice because they know what we can do if we were organized. We only have a few months left to make the politicians listen to us and, make no mistake about it, when they know the voting power we have they will listen or suffer the consequences. After November we have no leverage; once they are elected all we will get is lip service. We need to do it now. Remember, if they don’t help us, then we don’t help them. It’s a very simple formula.
Q. Is Northern Ireland a non-issue for the AOH, now that we have had our kumbaya moment with Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley? What has to happen next on that issue, from the AOH perspective?
A. Northern Ireland is at peace now, or so we are told, but they cannot be at a true and lasting peace until they are One United Nation. I have heard on so many occasions that the war is well and truly over and our help is no longer needed. Ask the people of Belfast or Derry, Tyrone or Armagh whether we are needed or not, and I know you will get a different answer. Our ex-prisoners who need to be trained for jobs, the many organizations that help the prisoners and their families, the families who were affected by the collusion of the British security forces and the Loyalist death squads need our help.
The reason we need to be involved in bringing a closure to all the open cases is because the world listens to America. We need to pressure the British government through our politicians to bring our Island together as one and we can accomplish that end if we organize, put our petty differences aside, unite and pressure our politicians here in America. If we do this, we can accomplish anything.
Q. You’ve been closely identified with immigration reform. What’s your approach to the issue? What would you regard as the best income for Irish immigrants?
A. Years ago it was much easier for people to immigrate but because of many reasons including 9/11 and the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan it has made it almost impossible to get permanent status here. Family does not count any more, and corporations no longer want to put advertisements in newspapers for workers as they once did to attract our Irish qualified workforce because they were getting sued for discrimination. All our visa programs have dried up, and our green card quota has been drastically reduced.
Q. Some have said that one possible result of immigration restrictions is that Irish communities like those in Delaware County might become much smaller or dry up altogether. Why is that an issue?
A. I think we need to find a fair quota for our people and work with other groups to find this solution. If we have few or no immigration policy it affects all the communities as it hinders our heritage and eventually our children will know nothing about our history, which is so precious to us. Our language and sports here have already suffered and we cannot afford to let it decline any further.
Q. Do you feel like the Irish need to work with other immigrant groups to achieve reform? I mean, fundamentally, this is not an Irish issue so much as an immigrant issue, is it? Can we really achieve any progress on Irish immigration without finding common cause with, say, Latin American or Asian groups?
A. I think that the Irish have more to offer than some of the other groups and I do not mean to degrade any nationality. The Irish have a head start on other groups because the have a tremendous work ethic, great education and speak English, and that is an advantage for employers. We as Irish are not looking for anything except to be treated fairly.
Q. I understand you are a native of Armagh. When did you move to Philly? Tell us about yourself and your family.
A. I was born in the townland of Faughiletra, Jonesboro, County Armagh on July 5, 1942, to Terence and Katie (McArdle) Boyle. My father came to Philadelphia in 1953, where my aunt Mary lived and he stayed with her until we arrived in May of 1954. My father was a carpenter who was offered a job in Philadelphia with Matthew McCloskey, one of the biggest contractors in the Northeast and later became ambassador to Ireland.
My father bought a new house, which was being built at the time in Mayfair, St Matthews’s parish. I finished 8th grade in St Matthew’s and went to Father Judge, graduating in 1961. I had an older sister, Noulagh, who passed away in October of 2004, another sister Carmel, brother Michael who passed away in September of 2005 and a brother Thomas. I was the second oldest of 5.
I married Bernadette (maiden name also Boyle) in Ireland in August 1970, and have three children, Michael, Tara and Bronagh, and six grandchildren: Kieran, Colin, Megan, Sheila, Brady and Finnegan.
I became an apprentice carpenter in Carpenters Local 122, graduating in 1966. I went to work traveling for (BACM) British American Construction Company, returning to Ireland meeting Berna and building a house in South Armagh in Killeavy.
I returned to Philadelphia in 1971 and became very involves in Irish Northern Aid and the AOH. I became involved in the Carpenters Union as an officer and worked up to get elected as business agent for the Philadelphia Council of Carpenters and got elected every election until I retired in 1997.
I had always been involved in the AOH Division 39 from 1972 and became an officer shortly after joining and have been an officer ever since on a division, county, state or national level. I wanted to do more for my community and for the people of the North of Ireland, where I was born, and the AOH was very involved in both of these issues.
Bob and Kathy Gessler at a recent meeting at the Irish Center.
When he saw the list of previous winners of the John F. Kennedy Medal, the highest honor conferred by the national Ancient Order of Hibernians, this year’s honoree Bob Gessler had what anyone who knows him would call a predictable response.
“I felt like one of those characters on Sesame Street—you know, ‘Which of these things is not like the other?’” confesses Gessler, the founder of the Hibernian Hunger Project, a charity that grew from a tiny project of AOH Division 87 in Port Richmond to a statewide and now a nationwide AOH program to provide food for the needy.
He was referring to some of the well known recipients of the JFK Medal: Gemini and Apollo astronaut James McDivitt; actor Pat O’Brien; Archbishop of New York John Cardinal O’Connor; Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn; Nobel Prize winner John Hume, member of the European Parliament and leader of Ireland’s Social Democratic and Labour Party; and Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein.
And this year, a guy who started a project in 1999 that has since fed hundreds of thousands of people across the country. Gessler, a Temple grad from Kensington who runs his own commercial real estate appraisal business, was president of AOH Div. 87 when the idea occurred to him. “I was in the middle of raising money for the Irish Memorial in Philadelphia, a $1.2 million project that became a $2 million project and I kept thinking, how can we as an organization justify spending all the money on a memorial about the famine and not do something for the people who are hungry today.”
He spoke to some of his AOH members. “I was blessed with a core of about 25 people who first said, ‘Are you out of your damned mind? What is wrong with you?’” Gessler laughs. “Then they said, ‘You’re serious,’ and they all sat down and said, ‘how can we get it all done?’”
If you know Bob Gessler at all (and in the interest of full disclosure, I serve on a board with him), you know that’s either his family motto or his mantra. Or maybe both. He’s the proverbial “irresistible force” you’ve always heard about, a guy who’s never met a worthwhile project he isn’t willing to push, pull, cajole, yank, or ram to fruition, with the occasional flash of Irish temper, but mainly with dogged persistence and a ready sense of humor that he’s always poised to turn on himself.
Ask how he gets so much done and he jokes that it’s his heritage. Not his County Mayo heritage (his mother was a Walsh), but his father’s side of the family. “We’re from County Munich,” he deadpans. “Do you know the story of William Tell? Gessler was the name of the evil burgermeister who forced William Tell’s father to shoot the apple off his head.”
But, when he’s not joking, he also believes it’s his heritage—and his upbringing. “I think the Irish people have a special affinity for people who are hungry. Our people lived through that,” he says. “I think it’s important to help others. My Dad was for the most part disabled when I was growing up in Kensington. We didn’t have a whole lot of money. Back then it was a rough neighborhood, rougher now. When I was growing up houses were nicer and the cars were worse; now cars are incredible but the houses are really bad.” He laughs. But he’s made his point. When you’ve been through adversity, you have two choices: Become angry and bitter, or develop some empathy for others. He’s chosen the latter. His experience in the Irish community has convinced him that the Irish have too.
Under his leadership of AOH Div. 87, founded in 1898, membership grew from 90 to 700, a junior division was launched at North Catholic, and the AOH became an even greater force for good in the community. “I really thought that community involvement was the way to go,” says Gessler. “At our meetings, we did things. It wasn’t just ‘come out on a Tuesday night for a meeting and then have a beer. ‘ We did a lot of that, but we really take pride in ourselves because of our service.”
The Hibernian Hunger Project gets its biggest fundraising push in March in part because Gessler wanted to shift the focus that month from “green beer, stupid hats, and getting plastered on St. Patrick’s Day” to something that didn’t feed the Irish stereotype he hates so much.
“There’s nothing wrong with having a good time,” he says. “But that can’t be the be-all and end-all of the Irish experience in March.”
The culmination of the fundraising is the Irish equivalent of an Amish barn-raising. Hundreds of people come out every year to help prepare meals for Aid For Friends—a charity that provides meals to the elderly and to shut-ins. The first year, it was 1,500 meals. This year, 160 people prepared, wrapped, and froze more than 6,000, all meals made from food the Hibernians collected over the year . Right beside the AOHers are the Ladies AOHers.
“When I picked up my award [in New Orleans on July 26] they told me I had three minutes to speak but I went over,” he says. “I decided I had to be true to myself and I told the national group that AOH and LAOH are equal partners. Nothing would get done if it were otherwise. Hibernians are bound by our motto, ‘Friendship, unity and Christian charity.’ My feeling is, if you follow those precepts, you’re a Hibernian.”
And right beside Bob Gessler is his wife, Kathy. When she was a student at Holy Family University, she volunteered for Aid For Friends and suggested the charity as the logical recipient for the AOH largesse. She was also by his side when, in the Hunger Project’s first year, he and a few other hardy souls braved the bitter cold to collect canned goods from bins scattered around the St. Patrick’s Day Parade route. ”We got a few canned goods and whole lot of half-eaten Whoppers,” laughs Gessler. “We never did that again.”
The two met when they were teenagers and have been married for more than 18 years. “It sounds cliché, but I am so lucky to have someone who supports me all along the way,” he says. “It’s not easy. Never once did I ever hear, ‘When are you going to stop?’ I do occasionally hear, ‘Can we go out with anybody but Irish people tonight please?’”
And when you hear what else Gessler does, you know it’s not easy to be Mrs. Gessler, which is why she’s often at his side at meetings. Though they work together, she might not see him much after hours. Gessler also founded and chaired the Hibernian Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit corporation which renovated homes for first time buyers and new families. He has also started scholarship funds for local high school students, hosted the 2004 AOH/LAOH National Convention in Philadelphia, is a former board member for the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians and served on the Quality of Life and Travel and Tourism subcommittees for Mayor John Street’s Transition Team.
He currently serves on the board of the St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association and is part of a committee developing plans for an Irish Film Festival in Philadelphia.
And what does Gessler do to relax? On any given weekend, he and Kathy might pack a bag, throw it in the car, and go wandering. “We like to wander,” he laughs. On their way to New Orleans to pick up his award, they decided to drive the long way, meandering along the Gulf Coast, which had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. In one little town in the process of rebuilding, they came across a small Catholic school. . . .And yes, the Gesslers’ “do unto others” genes kicked in, even though they were on vacation. They’ve since been in touch with school officials to find out if there’s anything they could do.
“Hey,” he says, “one of the things I’ve learned is that it helps everybody if you help people. And the big surprise for most people is that it helps you too. No matter what happens, you can feel really good about yourself.”
As many of you are aware, several members of the Hibernian and Irish American community have been at the forefront of the cause to find a cure for autism. Speaker of the House Representative Dennis OBrien has been solidly leading the fight, and the folks at Autism Speaks donate time, funding and resources unselfishly time and time again.
They now need our help. We have done it before, we will do it again. Contact your local Senator and let him or her know of this bill and your support of it.
We all know we need more veterans programs, we all know we need a process for the undocumented Irish, and we all know we need to support these children. Please take a moment to drop your Senator an email or phone call and remind them that the Irish community stand united for veterans, for the undocumented Irish and for children with Autism.
HB 1150, which will end autism insurance discrimination by providing the children in the state of Pennsylvania with access to the medically necessary, evidence based treatments and therapies that they need, is once again in need of your attention. Following an extremely successful hearing in April, we hit a little road block and need your help to push through that!
Senator White still isn’t convinced that this issue should go to a vote. He needs some help. He needs to hear from YOU through YOUR Senator that this is an issue that is important to you. Please do not call him directly unless you live in his district! We are sending Don White’s constituents a separate alert.
The nation has its eyes on Pennsylvania to provide the community here with the most comprehensive autism insurance reform to date. As you know, other states such as Arizona and Florida passed similar legislation earlier this spring.
HB 1150 HAS BEEN HELD HOSTAGE IN DON WHITE’S COMMITTEE FOR NEARLY ONE YEAR! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE for OUR COMMUNITY!
It is time for the Keystone State of Pennsylvania…to become the cornerstone and PASS THIS BILL!
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
1. CALL YOUR OWN SENATOR! Ask your Senator to speak to Senator Don White and ask him to allow HB 1150 go to a vote in his committee. For information on how you can find out who your senator is, visit www.autismvotes.org and view the resources section.
2. CALL SENATE LEADERSHIP! Ask these Senators to speak to Senator Don White and ask him to allow HB 1150 to go to a vote in his committee. NOTE: If you are their constituents, please be sure to let them know how much you are counting on them to make this happen!
Senator Dominic Pileggi
717-787-4712 (Harrisburg Office) OR 610-565-9100 (For Constituents!)
Senator Joe Scarnatti
717-787-7084 (Harrisburg Office) or 814-726-7201 (For Constituents)
3. It is time for the state of Pennsylvania to make some noise! We are challenging everyone to involve family members, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, friends, co-workers, therapists, physicians and anyone who lives in the state of Pennsylvania – that would take FIVE minutes to make these phone calls to THEIR Senator and the Senate leaders in # 2 above to end insurance discrimination and get your child(ren) the coverage they deserve.
Six other states have accomplished this! Pennsylvania can be next in line if we FOCUS!
Ancient Order of Hibernians/Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 51 – Fishtown will be holding their 6th Armed Forces Weekend this Saturday (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and Sunday (Noon to 6 p.m.) at the Thriftway Supermarket at Aramingo & York.
The division will collect canned goods (vegetables, meat, fish, soup, gravies, etc.), non-perishable items (rice, pasta, cereals, etc.), personal grooming items (disposable razors, bar soap, shampoo, etc.), as well as cash donations.
It all goes to the Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service & Education Center in Old City. The Center feeds an average of 75 – 100 homeless veterans on a daily basis, as well as providing them with other basic services.
Every little bit helps.
Here’s what the division’s Phil Bowdren has to say.
AOH/LAOH 51 has been running this event for five years. You’re going into your sixth year. Where’d the idea come from? Was it tied into the Iraq/Afghanistan conflict?
Actually, it was suggested to the Division by a member who has volunteered at the Center. It really wasn’t tied into the Iraq conflict, just the need that the Center had.
Does the division have some connection with the Center?
Like I said, the Center was suggested to us. It ties into our efforts with the Hibernian Hunger Project because what we collect helps to feed homeless veterans. Since we began our effort, I was asked to join the Center’s Board of Directors, also, the Center’s CEO, Ed Lowry, has since joined our Division.
Have you all had an opportunity to see firsthand how your event might be benefiting local vets?
A number of us have volunteered to help at the Center with their Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for the Homeless Vets. We’ve helped serve them a hot meal, and we’ve seen and heard how much they appreciate it. If it wasn’t for the Center most of these men and women would not get a hot meal or the opportunity to get a shower or put on clean clothes.
What do you need most?
As for what is needed most, I always tell people bulk food containers (#10 cans of vegetables, etc., and 1-, 25 or 50 lb. bags of rice, pasta, etc.), more bang for the buck with bulk packaging.
What should people bring?
People can bring any canned goods, non-perishable foods (rice, oatmeal, pasta, etc.) and there is always a need for personal grooming items (disposable razors, bars of bath soap, mouthwash, etc.). If anyone has contacts with companies that sell / distribute either sample size or travel size items, and they can get some cases of these items donated, it would be great.
What’s the most you’ve gotten in a single donation, and do you remember from whom? I mean, a particular school, organization, what have you?
A few come to mind… Becky & Joe Minarik from the neighborhood have always donated big bags of rice and #10 cans of vegetables; Judge Pat Dugan, who is an Iraq Veteran, donated an entire shopping cart full of food. And both AOH Divisions 22 and 25 have dropped off bags of food in the past.
Does it bother you that veterans should require charity? Put another way, we’ve expected these folks to risk their lives for us—so shouldn’t they be entitled to benefits of the sort that the Veterans Multi-Service Center provides?
The Veterans Center is a private non-profit organization, which USED to get funding from the City, State and Feds for particular programs, but for one reason or another the funding dried up a great deal. We received a $600,000 grant from Senator Santorum a while ago, only to have the Labor Department cut funding to the Center by $500,000, so in actuality, we only received $100,000 from the Feds.
The Street Administration cut a lot of our funding that helped us get the homeless vets of the street during the day and into the Center. The Center was forced to sell one of its 12-passenger vans because of the cost of insurance.
Once I was told by an “enlightened” person that they didn’t believe that there was such a thing as homeless veterans. I offered to take her out and introduce her to some, the offer was declined.
I have sent a number of letters to President Bush complaining that instead of cutting veterans benefits, the government needs to not only increase them, but expand them to the families of returning Iraq veterans. These people need to know 1) what to expect of their returning vet, and 2) what to look out for as far as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is concerned. And YES, it bothers the hell out of me.
Darrah and Niall field some, at times, humorous questions from the kindergarten.
Champion Irish dancers Niall O’Leary and Darrah Carr had just spent an entire class period in the Woodward Gym at Chestnut Hill Academy, teaching a group of kindergartners all about Irish dance and music. Applying their great powers of concentration and persuasion, they managed to herd all of those energetic little cats and keep them focused on the subject at hand. They even showed them how to dance a jig.
At the end of this exhausting but fun-filled period, there was just enough time for a few questions about Irish culture.
First question, from a little guy in the back:
“Did the Vikings invade Ireland?”
Darrah: Yes, they did, many times.
Brief pause.
Second question, same kid:
“How many times did the Vikings invade Ireland?”
Darrah: Not sure, but many, many times.
Third question, same kid again:
“And what happened to you?”
Darrah: Happened to me when?
Same Scandinavian pirate-obsessed kid:
“When the Vikings invaded Ireland.”
Proof once again that, in the eyes of very small people, we older people can seem unbelievably old.
O’Leary and Carr were visiting CHA this week as part of the Steele Guest Faculty Program, designed to expose students to irish culture. The program is overseen by Peggy Steele and honors her late husband Franklin Steele. Past guests have included Malachy McCourt and Irish fiddle champion Seamus Connolly.
O’Leary is the director of the largest Irish dance school in New York City; Carr is artistic director of a New York-based modern dance company that blends Irish culture with contemporary dance.
The two guest faculty members for the day had a very busy day indeed, visiting classes from morning to late afternoon. They also returned later that evening for a special presentation … for adults.
Whether showing off their hard-shoe skills or playing the spoons, the grown-ups were no less charmed than were the kids.
Emily Semon and Miranda Shaw put the finishing touches on a mac and cheese meal.
How many people does it take to make 6,000 meals?
About 160, working side by side at long tables propped up by apple juice cans for about three hours.
I know that because I saw it for myself on Saturday, March 30, at the warehouse of Aid for Friends in Northeast Philadelphia, just off the Roosevelt Boulevard. Dozens of members of Delaware Valley Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) divisions and their distaff LAOHs filled aluminum trays with slabs of meatloaf, scoops of mashed potatoes, mountains of peas, and puddles of creamy mac and cheese. The individual meals were frozen and will be distributed to the more than 2,000 needy shut-ins served every week by Aid for Friends, a 34-year-old organization that provides three meals a day and an empathetic listener to the homebound, mainly the frail elderly. And it’s all free.
Not for the AOHers, though. They collect money all year long–at parades, Irish events, fundraisers–to buy the food that they whip into meals once a year. And we’re talking enough to prepare more than 60,000 meals since the charity was founded 9 years ago by AOH Div. 87 member Bob Gessler, who was honored by the national organization this year for his efforts.
Though the program started in Philadelphia, the national AOH has adopted the Hibernian Hunger Project as an official AOH charity and it’s quickly spreading across the country from one division to the next.
It’s easy to see why. With Irish music blaring from a portable CD player, the volunteers, bustling in assembly lines, still took time to chat with their neighbors, laugh, and joke. It’s a little like a party–one of the ones that take place mostly in the kitchen.
“This is always a real feel-good kind of day,” said Donna Donnelly, Philadelphia County co-chairman of the organization, who was doing a lot of bustling herself. “But this was amazing. We had members, kids from local high schools, other volunteers. We’ve never been done this early.”
The meatloaf, however, was done before the side dishes ran out, so an executive decision had to be made: The last meals would be light mac and cheese suppers with lots of peas. Then the clean-up. It only took a few minutes to whip off the tablecloths, yank the apple juice cans that raised the folding tables to waist-high for better prep, and fold the tables and put them away. Around noon, the volunteers started to drift away, 6,000 trays of food stocked neatly in a walk-in freezer. It was done. Till next year.
You can learn more about the Hibernian Hunger Project here.
You can learn more about how to volunteer for Aid for Friends here.
Tess, from the Caitrin dancers, is still learning all the steps.
For Pete Hand, it was the ride of a lifetime. The president of the AOH Notre Dame Division and drum major for the division’s Irish Thunder Pipes & Drums has certainly marched down Fayette Street for the Conshohocken St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
But this was his first as grand marshal. He was joined on his journey by a few hundred of his nearest and dearest friends—pipe bands, high school bands, AOH and LAOH divisions, hordes of dancers … and one leprechaun.
Check out our photos, below.
And in the meantime, here are the winners:
The Montgomery County Saint Patrick’s Parade Committee, the AOH and LAOH members of the Notre Dame Divisions thank all those who took part in this event to make it a success.