Past National President, Mary B. Dolan, Immigration and Legislation Officer
Dear Sisters
I wish to introduce myself as the newly appointed Chair of Immigration
and Legislation for this term of the office for the National Board
LAOH. I would be remiss if I don’t thank our National President, Pat
O’Connell for this appointment.
I must begin by explaining that due to the IRS status, we as members
of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians,Inc., are not, as members
allowed to lobby for causes near and dear to our hearts, that is not
to say that if I choose to lobby, without any reference to this
membership, (i.e. sashes, medals etc) I as a private citizen am
allowed to do so. For example, if I attend the activities of the
March for Life in January in Washington DC, I cannot go to the House
or Senate Office Buildings wearing any outward manifestation of my
membership, however, as Mary B Dolan private citizen from N
Brookfield, MA, I have the right to go and speak to whomever will
listen to me. The other part of this job as I understand it, is that
I will be gathering information regarding our involvement in promoting
legislative issues as they will assist the goals of our organization,
and those folks who will best benefit from said promotion.
I have been in contact with my predecessor, Ann-Marie Nyhan Doherty, my US Representative, James McGovern, my prior Representative Richard Neal and the US Senators for MA Elizabeth Warren, and Edward Markey and my counterpart on the AOH Board Dan Dennehy, and if the gods are with me, I will be sending emails tonight to the Irish Ambassador Ann Anderson and the Consul General in Boston, Fionnula Quinlan for their advise on how our 10,000+ membership can best serve the needs of our “mother country”.
As I prepared my contact list for this mailing, I noted that of the
29 State and District Boards more than half of them do not have
appointed folks to fill the Chairs as the Immigration and Legislation
Chairs, in fact there are only 13 appointments for the 29 which
should have these positions filled. I will respectfully ask that the
States without said appointees search your members so that all 29
entities will be able to get the word out effectively. Thank you!
If you have any need to reach out to me, please feel free to contact
me, and if I am not available, I will get back to you as soon as
possible. You can email me at Mary B Dolan.
Yours in Friendship, Unity and Christian Charity,
Mary B Dolan
Past National President/ Immigration and Legislation Chair
Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians,Inc.