Father Mathew's Temperance Society & the AOH

a pane from Holy Name, Cleveland, O.; its twin reads: "The gift of the"

The Holy Name community began in 1854 in Newburgh [later annexed]. The parish began in 1859. The present church was built in the 1880s.

The Discalced Carmelites, John Of the Cross, and Teresa of Avila share a long, double lancet window on the nave wall. Some of the windows have the name of the donors. 'F.M.Temperance. Society.' gave the Carmelite windows. Fr. Theobald Mathew joined in 1838, the Cork Total Abstinence Society. People would 'make the Pledge' before a priest, sign a book, receive a medal/coin.

I promise to abstain from all intoxicating drinks except used medicinally and by order of a medical man and to discountenance the cause and practice of intemperance.

This was successful, in that, half the adult population of Ireland made that, or similar, pledge. Father Mathew came to America, and from July 1849 to December 1851 promoted the cause. He was given the use of NYC's City Hall. He was admitted to both Houses of Congress, and the White House. He was celebrated in Protestant America (as long as he would keep his mouth shut on the subject of the abolition of slavery). Mathew spoke against 'secret societies'.

In the 1830s, the time before the Great Hunger, in Ireland the Catholic Irish were under great duress from Protestant landlords, and the British government. The AOH and the Molly Maguires relieved some of that, and they came over to the United States. Labor unions were illegal in the US. The Molly Maguires were considered a 'secret society'. They were infiltrated by the private police thugs of the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

One pair of windows was given by the A.O.H. (The Ancient Order of Hibernians), which is an Irish Catholic fraternal and protective organisation. In Pennsylvania, they were allied with the Molly Maguires of the anthracite coal fields. The AOH in the US began in 1836 in New York City, but at the time these windows were created, national offices were in Pittsburgh.

The A.O.H. made a gift of a St. Patrick, and St. Cecilia window. This pane is beneath Cecilia.

Newburgh had steel mills, and Cleveland had docks that unloaded the ore. Bishop Richard Gilmour had to know the AOH. To-day, they are mostly noted for sponsorship of the St. Patrick parade.

The two sets of the windows are directly opposite each other.