Jasper Coal - Half Way to St. Patrick's Day Party on 9/19/09 - Fundraiser for AOH

Come on downtown to Matthew's Bar and Grill (2208 Morris Avenue) on Saturday, September 19, 2009 for a performance by Alabama's finest Irish rebel band, Jasper Coal (http://www.jaspercoal.com/).

The show begins at 8:00 p.m. and will go on until after midnight. The band has generously offered to donate a portion of the $7 cover charge to our AOH division.

We are extremely fortunate to have an Irish band of this caliber in Alabama and you are guaranteed to hear the most authentic pub and rebel music this side of Boston.

You can either get on a plane to hear legit versions of Merry Plough Boy, Follow Me Up to Carlow, and Come Out Ye Black and Tans, or just get in your car and pilot yourself to Matthew's on 9/19.

Up the Republic.

Father Coyle Memorial Mass - Tuesday, August 11, 12:10 p.m. - St. Paul's Cathedral

Celebration of Father Coyle's Life
August 11 at St. Paul's Cathedral
by John Wright, Jr.

The 12:10 Mass on Tuesday, August 11 at St. Paul's Cathedral and a reception will honor the life of Father James Edwin Coyle on the 88th anniversary of his assassination in Birmingham. The Irish-born priest served as Pastor of St. Paul's for almost seventeen years, from October of 1904 until his death at 48 years of age.

Father Coyle courageously defended the Catholic Church and what Catholics believe during a time of public anti-Catholic economic and psychological persecution, promoted by the Ku Klux Klan and the True Americans, a powerful anti-Catholic group in Birmingham.In the early evening of Thursday, August 11, 1921, Father Coyle was shot in cold blood as he sat in the swing on the porch of the former parish rectory.

He was killed by an emotionally unstable minister, who was a Klansman, because Father had presided at the marriage of the man's daughter, Ruth, to a dark-skinned Puerto Rican, Pedro Gussman, less than two hours before the murder. The shooter was found not guilty after a one-week trial held in the former Jefferson County Courthouse, then located in the same block as St. Paul's.

This year's celebration of Father Coyle's life is co-sponsored by The Cathedral of St. Paul, the Father James E. Coyle Knights of Columbus Council 9862 based at St. Paul's, the FatherJames E. Coyle Birmingham Divison of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Father James E. Coyle Memorial Project.

The reception will be held immediately after Mass in the Cathedral Life Center. "We invite everyone to join us as we give thanks for Father Coyle's heroic, faithful priesthood during what was a tense and fearful time for Catholics in Birmingham," said Jim Pinto, Jr., Director of the Father Coyle Memorial Project.

More information about Father Coyle can be found at thewebsite, www.FatherCoyle.org.

Meeting on Tuesday, July 21, 6.30 p.m. at St. Paul's Cathedral

A Chairde,

For a change of pace, we will be holding our meeting this month downtown at the Cathedral of St. Paul on Tuesday, July 21 at 6.30p.m. Details will follow on the meeting room at the Cathedral.

After the meeting, we will head to Matthew's Bar & Grill for fellowship, craic, and delicious draft pints of Guinness, on special for $3.50 for the Hibernians thanks to Nathan Tucker.

Beanacht de Agat,
Dan

Father James E. Coyle

Our Division is named after Father James E. Coyle, Pastor of St. Paul's Cathedral in Birmingham, Alabama during the early 1900's and a native of Ireland. Below is a letter I submitted to the Birmingham News on the 87th anniversary of his death.

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Dear Editor,

On August 11, 1921, Father James Coyle, rector of St. Paul’s Cathedral in downtown Birmingham, was murdered by a local minister and member of the KKK. The minister shot the Irish priest in the head while he was swinging on the porch of the parish rectory as retribution for performing the marriage of the minister’s daughter to a Catholic Puerto Rican.

Although an eyewitness observed the murder, and the shooter did not dispute that he had killed Father Coyle, the minister was found not guilty of the murder after a trial presided over by a judge who was a Klansmen. The KKK funded the minister’s legal defense, which was conducted by a team of attorneys including future Supreme Court Justice and civil rights champion Hugo Black.

Birmingham’s civil rights history is rightly well-documented. Less well known, however, is the past persecution suffered by the city’s Catholics, particularly in the early 1900’s. As the Magic City rose out of the red clay mountains to become a national industrial power, thousands of immigrants flooded into the city to meet an insatiable demand for labor. Many of these immigrants were Catholics from Ireland and other European countries.

The influx of largely Catholic immigrants created a widespread anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiment, which translated into active terrorism by groups such as the KKK, the Know-Nothing party, and the True Americans.

Father Coyle was an outspoken defender of the Catholic community at a time when such advocacy could result in physical attack or death. On this 87th anniversary of Father Coyle’s assassination, we remember his heroism and life of courageous ministry. A memorial Mass will be held for Father Coyle on August 11 at 12:10 p.m. at St. Paul’s Cathedral. All are welcome to attend.