Written by Brother Patrick Moynihan, a long time Brother of our Order
and of Brevard Division 2 Edited by Brother Greg Seán Canning, 2016 – 2019 v.4
The first persons to call themselves Hibernians in Florida were the members of the Hibernian Regiment of the Spanish Army under the Command of Colonel Arturo O’Neill of County Tyrone who besieged Fort George, drove the British from Pensacola and established Spanish control of Western Florida on the 9th of March
1781. For the next 12 years O’Neill governed Western Florida under Spanish Law. Ninety-five years later the Ancient Order of Hibernians established the first division of the Order in the State of Florida when James D. Redmond became the President of the Jacksonville Division on March 30th 1876. A second division was established in Jacksonville in 1894 and a third division was founded in Pensacola in 1898. No two divisions of the Order were in existence simultaneously in this era and by 1900 there were only 85 Hibernians in Florida; within a very short period all divisions within the State became defunct.
There was a long period of almost three quarters of a century of Hibernian hibernation until the Order was reestablished in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County in 1974 under the guidance of Florida’s only National President, Tom Gilligan, and former State President and National Director, Jim French. Soon thereafter a division was established in Pinellas County. Notwithstanding the fact that no State
Board had been established at the time, Florida Hibernians organized and administered a highly successful National Convention in Miami in 1980. The State Board was established a few years later (circa 1983) and Eddie Kalfleish, formerly of New York, was elected as the first State President. A State banner was designed and produced by Ernie Kees of the then fledgling Brevard 2 Division. This banner has since been replaced with a new design by past State President Greg
Seán Canning, who served from 2011-2015. Past Florida State President Sean Denny (2007-2011) is a native Floridian and the youngest person to hold the office of Florida State President. He was, perhaps, the youngest State President in the
nation when he was elected to that office in 2007. He represents an anomaly in that the majority of the membership in Florida is made up of émigrés from the various States drawn to the warmth of the Sunshine State in their retirement years for the full year or as snowbirds for the winter months. Consequently, the attrition and mortality rates are high and divisions of the Order in Florida prosper
and wane in accord with the movements and health of its members.
Thus, Florida has lost divisions in Brevard, Citrus, Indian River, Palm Bay and St. John’s Counties. New divisions, however, have been added over the past few years with the help of our State Organizers and senior members.