The Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

• The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) in America is a Catholic, Irish-American Fraternal Organization founded in New York City in 1836 at New York's St. James Church. It was formed to protect the clergy and the church property from the "Know Nothings" and their followers.

• The Order can trace its roots back to a parent organization, of the same name, which had existed in Ireland for over 300 years.

• The Order evolved from a society formed in 1565 in Ireland to protect the priests, who risked immediate death, to keep the Catholic faith alive in occupied Ireland during the reign of England's King Henry VIII.

• In 1697, when England implemented its Penal Laws in Ireland, secret societies were formed across Ireland to aid the clergy and the people by every means available.

• The flow of Irish immigrants fleeing The Great Hunger, An Gorta Mor, in Ireland in the late 1840s caused the growth of various social societies in the United States, to aid these refugees, the largest of which was, and continues to be, the Ancient Order of Hibernians.