The Irish Government has allocated up to $300,000 to help fund New York’s troubled American Irish Historical Society, whose board has resigned and been replaced by an interim board under a plan by the New York attorney general’s office to preserve the nonprofit organisation and save the Gilded Age town house, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, that has been its headquarters for more than 80 years.
The attorney general’s announcement on Monday signalled the end to one Irish-American family’s half-century control of the society, which ultimately led to managerial dysfunction and charges that the patriarch, Dr Kevin M Cahill, had turned it into his private club. Cahill, a physician and political adviser, died in September, at the age of 86.
After a protracted immersion in the society’s books and practices, the attorney general’s Charities Bureau secured the resignation of the Cahill-controlled board, which had been seeking to sell the society’s €40 million mansion to settle its debts and relocate to Cooperstown, in New York State, known as the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame but not as a centre of American Irish culture.
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According to New York attorney general, Letitia James, an interim board and executive director will work with “members of the American Irish community” to revitalise the society and select a permanent board during a six-month transition. As part of the plan, the society’s mansion, at 991 Fifth Avenue, is no longer for sale.
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A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said: “The Consulate General in New York has agreed to support the AIHS transition process in recognition of the foundational importance and historical significance of the Society, and the importance of maintaining and preserving its assets for Ireland for Irish America and for our community organisations and diaspora in New York State and across the United States.
“The Consulate General will provide advice, guidance and other support to the transition process by engaging closely with the Office of the AG, the interim leadership and with other key stakeholders.
The Irish Government is providing a grant to cover the costs of utilities and other essential services during a transition period where the interim board will be responsible for securing and assessing the Society’s assets, $300,000 has been allocated for this purpose.”
The Irish Consulate General in New York welcomed the changes. “The American Irish Historical Society is an historical symbol of the profound relationship between Ireland and the United States,” it said in a statement. “We are very pleased to see a plan in place to revitalise the society and preserve the organisation’s headquarters in New York City.
“The Government of Ireland will support the transition process in recognition of the foundational importance and historical significance of the society, and the importance of maintaining and preserving its assets for Ireland for Irish America and for our community organisations and diaspora in New York State and across the United States.
“The AIHS headquarters on Fifth Avenue is an iconic emblem of Ireland in New York. Its loss would have been keenly felt by the community in New York and beyond.”
“The intention is to stay right where we are,” John Keefe, the organisation’s interim executive director, said in a telephone interview from the mansion, lately the scene of little activity. His voice echoed as he spoke.
The American Irish Historical Society was founded in 1897 to keep Irish and Irish American contributions secure in memory. By 1940, the society had enough money to buy a five-story town house on 5th Avenue, across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As the years passed, the society settled into relative irrelevance, its many books and artefacts infrequently read or seen. Then, in the mid-1970s, Cahill, a tropical-disease expert celebrated for his humanitarian work, became its president general.
He revitalised the society in part by holding annual galas at which gold medals were awarded to the esteemed and deep-pocketed. And every March, standing on the town house balcony in morning coat and surrounded by select guests, he seemed almost to preside over the St Patrick’s Day parade as it moved up Fifth Avenue.
Along the way, Cahill family members and loyalists joined the board, and one of the doctor’s sons, Christopher, became its well-compensated executive director.
When Cahill decided to step down a decade ago, a series of prominent Irish Americans succeeded him, only to discover what they later described as an underachieving organisation that didn’t do much beyond holding an annual gala and providing a Cahill scion with employment. Once they raised their concerns, they said, they were pushed out.
In 2019, Brian McCabe, the society’s chair and a former New York City homicide detective sergeant, and James Normile, its president, pushed for an immediate reorganisation. This would include mandatory counselling and a reduced role for Christopher Cahill, who had recently threatened a well-known Irish director at an event in the mansion.
Instead, Normile and McCabe joined the growing list of reform-minded officials who were ousted by the Cahill-controlled board. Only this time, they fought back.
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McCabe alerted the attorney general’s office to what he said were financial irregularities, as well as his concerns about the integrity of the society’s collection, which includes extensive documentation of the role of Irish Americans in Ireland’s fight for independence from England.
In March 2021, McCabe and the society’s just-fired marketing co-ordinator, Sophie Colgan, started an online petition opposing the sale of the society’s mansion. More than 40,000 people signed on.
The attorney general’s office, which is responsible for reviewing the sale of any property owned by a charity, took note and began to look into the organisation’s operations.
With the society’s mansion effectively closed, the dwindling Cahill board pressed ahead with its plans to sell the building and move out of the city.
Now, with the announcement by the attorney general, there will be no move to Cooperstown. There will also be a full cataloguing of the society’s collection, since none has been found (although a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office noted that it had not found evidence of stolen items).
The announcement drew sighs of relief from many of the interested parties. McCabe expressed satisfaction that the years-long fight for reform that he and others had waged had succeeded, and the Irish consulate in New York said in a statement that Ireland looked forward to “building a positive and constructive relationship” with the reformed society.
A telephone call seeking comment from the spokesperson for the old board was redirected to Keefe, the interim executive director and a seasoned expert in non-profit rehabilitation.
Speaking from inside the society’s mansion, Keefe said that he was excited about the society’s potential, because so much more “can be done with this organisation than has been done in the recent past.”
As he talked, he said he was hunting around for the thermostat. “It’s a little bit cold in here,” he said. – A version of this article originally appeared in The New York Times
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