Among the names which are upon the rolls of the ancient orders of knighthood are those of most of the kings, bards, saints, and statesmen, and in the long list there was no family of greater renown than that of Roderick the Great, to which belonged Conall Cearnach and Lugaidh, who, according to MacGeoghegan and others, were the direct ancestors of the O’Mores of Leix.  In this family the ancient splendor of the knightly orders was a tradition which survived for centuries, and they were in almost continual rebellion against the English, from the siege of Dublin by Roderick O’Connor until the rebellion against Queen Elizabeth, led by Rory Oge O’More and his son Owen in the latter part of the sixteenth and the early seventeenth century.  A nephew of Rory Oge, the sagacious and statesmanlike Rory O’More, revived the ancient orders in the Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny in 1642.  A grandson of Rory O’More, Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, was the most distinguished commander of Irish armies who opposed, in Ireland, the forces of William of Orange.

There is no stranger story in all history than the intimate connection of the O’More family with the annals of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.  The lineage of this family furnishes the links connecting the ancient orders of pagan Ireland through the centuries with the Ancient Order in modern times.  Under the names of Rapparees, Whiteboys, Defenders, Ribbonmen, etc., the Confederation of Kilkenny was carried on through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries until the nineteenth.  At various times the duties of these organizations were subject to local conditions.  Thus the Defenders were occupied in protecting themselves and their priests against the hostility of the Penal Laws, engaging in armed conflict with the Orangemen in the north, while the Whiteboys were waging war against the atrocities of landlordism in the south.  Between these two organizations there was a secret code, which operated until they were combined, under the name of Ribbonmen, in the early nineteenth century.  The contentions of the Whiteboys regarding Irish landlordism have since been acknowledged to be just, and have been enacted into statutes.  The Defenders joined with Wolfe Tone in the formation of the United Irishmen.

About 1825 the Ribbonmen changed their name to St. Patrick’s Fraternal Society, and branches were established in England and Scotland under the name of the Hibernian Funeral Society.  In 1836 a charter was received by members in New York City, and in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.  The headquarters were for some years in Pennsylvania, but in 1851 a charter was granted to the New York Divisions under the name of “The Ancient Order of Hibernians.”  New York thus became the American headquarters.  National conventions were held there until 1878, since which year they have been held in many other cities biennially.  Many of the most distinguished leaders of the Irish race in America have been members of the Order, and from a humble beginning, with a few emigrants gathered together in a strange land, the membership has grown to nearly 200,000.  General Thomas Francis Meagher, Colonel Michael Doheny, General Michael Corcoran, and Colonel John O’Mahony were among the members in the late ’50’s.