Letter to PHS supporters

The following was sent to those who took advantage of the opportunity to support the Portland Hibernian Society.

Thanks to you, we can proclaim that there will be at least one more year for the Portland Hibernian Society with its friendship, information services, special guests and events worth attending.  

May was Membership Month, and your response is greatly appreciated by the Steering Committee. We’ll soon be releasing our Fall lineup of programming. You’ll continue to receive the PDX Hibernian Independent. Plus, as dues-paying members, you’ll also receive subscriber-only content. 

While we ponder the coming year of activities, let’s take the long view of the Irish American presence in Greater Portland.  In late May of 1904,  Charles Duggan, President of the local Portland AOH Division, sent some bad news to the organizers of that year’s national convention. 

“I can’t attend as we have not got enough of money in our treasury to send a delegate,” he wrote. Things were not going well in Oregon. “So that you can see for yourself that we are like the cow’s tail: always behind and there seems to be no prospect of going ahead.” 

Yet here we are in 2024 honoring the same Irish impulse our ancestors had: to gather with others who share an affinity for Eire. 

Reading how discouraged he was in 1904, I’m certain Charles Duggan would have appreciated our efforts.  “The Irish people don’t seem to pull together in this city. There are a few good members who are trying to keep the Order together, while a great many more don’t take any interest in the order. That is the way things are running in this city at the present time.” 

There will always be “a few good members” like yourself working to keep the tradition going. 

Thanks to Brian Kelly for sending along the copy of Charles Duggan’s letter. Sharing stories about life for the Irish in Greater Portland all those years ago is one of the reasons the Portland Hibernian Society exists. 

Go raibh maith agat.