In the 17th century the ancient orders were endowed with a national character through their revival and reorganization in the Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny by the popular hero, Rory O'Moore, a nephew of Rory Oge. This Confederation, which attempted to estab lish the independence of Ireland, conducted a national war against the English for 10 years. Its armies, under Owen Roe O'Neil, Bishop Heber MacMahon and Preston, took the vow of the Confederation, which was substantially the same as the vow of the ancient orders and almost identical with the obligation of the Ancient Order of Hibernians to-day. A nephew of Rory O'Moore, Sir Patrick Sars field, was the chief figure in the war against the English under William of Orange, and the Rapparrees, an irregular organization of scouts and light cavalry, carried on a desultory war fare until the early years of the 18th century. The Rapparrees had signs, passwords and a somewhat loose system of organization which was adopted by their successors, the Whiteboys of the South, who endeavored to redress many grievances regarding land tenure through both civil and forcible means until than were suc ceeded by the various agrarian societies which expressed the protest of the peasants against intolerable conditions all through the latter part of the 18th and the early part of the 19th centuries. In the North in the latter part of the 18th century the Defenders were organized to resist the encroachments of the Orangemen, with whom skirmishes and battles were fre quent. During the Revolution of 1798 the De fenders aided the Irish patriots, and in the United Irish movement they loyally supported Wolfe Tone and the gifted band of young men who sought to establish an Irish Republic.
History in America.— The Defenders and the Whitesboys had a system of intercourse and identification during the troubled times from 1790 to about 1820, and this connection resulted in the Ribbon Confederation, which was both Catholic and agrarian. When the Ribbonmen were legally suppressed and the emigration to England assumed considerable proportions, some Irishmen in Liverpool, to avoid the sus picion of the authorities and for the purpose of aiding their fellow-countrymen, formed the Saint Patrick's Funeral Benefit Society. The name was changed several times, and Saint Patrick's Fraternal Society, Saint Patrick's Friendly Association, etc., are stated to have been the appellations. Branches of the Saint Patrick's Funeral Benefit Society were estab lished in the large industrial cities of England and Scotland, and in 1836 the society crossed the Atlantic. In May of that year a written charter was received in New York city. The organization was established simultaneously in New York city and in ,the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania, where the emigration of Irishmen had been large from the coal mining counties of England. The head quarters was for a few years in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, but greater convenience in transacting both domestic and foreign busi ness resulted in their removal to New York city. In 1851 a charter was granted to the New York Divisions under the name of °The Ancient Order of Hibernians in America.°
National conventions were held in New York city until 1878 annually, and all the national officers were chosen from New York and vicinity. Since that year national conventions have been held in many other cities, and since 1884 have been held biennially. In 1876 there were bitter labor disturbances in the anthracite coal regions, and in these strikes and feuds a secret organization called the °Molly Maguires' was given an unenviable notoriety through as saults committed by its members upon mine bosses. While the spirit of the ancient order and its precursors has ever been animated with the fraternalism of the trade union, yet the at tempt to cast odium upon the ancient order because of the violence of the °Molly Maguires' was peculiarly unjust, as the members of this secret organization were, except in a very few cases, not connected with the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The national convention of the ancient order in 1877 denounced the °Molly Maguires' and disclaimed any sympathy with lawlessness on any pretext.
During all if history in America the Ancient Order of Hibernians accorded most valuable support to every Irish national movement. The Divisions of the A. 0. H. were the recruit ing field for the Fenian Society, for various associations which forwarded relief to the famine sufferers and to the victims of land lordism in Ireland. Michael Davitt declared that without the co-operation of the Ancient Order the Land League of America would have failed in its purpose. Almost all the famous' Americans of Irish birth or blood have been members of the order, and among these were Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher, Col. Michael Doheny, Gen. Michael Corcoran and Col. John O'Mahony.
Statistics.— In 1916 the organization had divisions in 50 States and provinces. Its mem bership, comprising about 150,000 men and 70,000 women, includes residents of the United States, Canada, Alaska and Hawaii. It has aided multitudes of emigrants to obtain the means of livelihood, and for many years co-operated with the associations which aided Irish settlers to found homes in the West. The A. O. H. had, in 1916, assets of more than $2,500,000, and its annual payments to charitable purposes, to education and religion, exceed $2,600,000 an nually. For sick and death benefits it pays.an, nually more than $1,100,000, and during its existence in America has donated nearly $21, 000,000 to works of beneficence. Among the most useful of its gifts is the $50,000 endow ment of the chair of Gmlic and Irish History in the Catholic University, and its contribution of $40,000 to the Catholic Church Extension Fund and $40,000 to the San Francisco earth quake sufferers. The Ladies' Auxiliary was founded at the Omaha National Convention in 1894, and has increased until it numbered in 1916 70,000 members, inspired devotion to home, religion and patriotism, with ideals of noble womanhood, and encouraging education, morality and social uplift with increasing visor and efficiency. Among the gifts of the Ladies' Auxiliary is its endowment of the chair of Irish Literature in Trinity College, with $10,000.