History of the AOH

Learn About America’s Oldest Irish Catholic Fraternal Organization

History of the National Ancient Order of Hibernians

The Ancient Order of Hibernians is America’s oldest Irish Catholic Fraternal Organization founded concurrently in the coal-mining region of Pennsylvania and New York City in May, 1836. The Order can trace its roots back to a series of similar societies that existed in Ireland for more than 300 years.

Today the AOH exists in America, Canada, Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland, however, while the organizations share a common thread, the American AOH is a separate and much larger organization.

Click here for - An Updated History of the AOH by Mike McCormack

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FACTS ABOUT AOH NATIONAL

The AOH in America was founded at New York's St. James Church on May 4, 1836 by men emulating these Irish societies, to protect the clergy and churches from the violent American Nativists who attacked Irish Catholic immigrants and Church property. At the same time the vast influx of Irish Immigrants fleeing Ireland’s Great Hunger in the late 1840's, prompted a growth in many Irish societies in the USA - the largest of which was, and continues to be, the AOH.