AOH Canada

09/06/2026

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08/21/2026

As mentioned in my previous post, appended is a copy of the notification from Corporations Canada on the latest notification of an illegal change of directors of the Black Rock Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation (Corporation Number: 879306-9) and our response.

We’re in a precarious position. How do we right this wrong without seeming like we are against the project. We have NEVER questioned or criticized our partners, any changes in design, stumbling blocks, bottlenecks or any of the typical issues with a project of this size. While we continue our honest attempts to make people aware of what’s happening, we have never pressured anyone to take sides. We have not spoken out against any person who has devoted their time and resources to this important effort. In fact, we are forever grateful. However, we continue to be prevented from participating in a project we began 14 years ago at a location that we have protected for 158 + years. Doing the legal, and moral thing will not jeopardize its completion.

The AOH has been the custodians of the Irish Commemorative Stone since 1868. This is so well settled that the AOH has always been notified of any work planned near or around the cemetery (photos). Accordingly, we would arrange for members to accompany a priest at the site to bless the work and workers and be prepared to remove any remains for a Catholic burial at the Stone. (photos)

We offered to purchase the cemetery and surrounding land in the late 1800’s with a promise of perpetual care; the cemetery surrounded by a field stone fence adorned with Celtic crosses and an iron gateway protecting the entrance. The Anglican church rebuffed our offer with little consideration and no explanation. Grassroots Irish fully supported the idea, but the Catholic church in Montreal and the only other Irish-Catholic organization remained silent. Months later the Stone was spirted away under cover of darkness demanding an 11-year battle for its return. 30,000 supporters lined the streets at the 30th AOH March to the Stone in 1898 to encourage the 2,000 AOH Marchers. The Stone was eventually returned only to stand before a desecrated track-laden cemetery.

When the AOH (as the “Park Foundation) first met with the purchasers of the land around the cemetery in 2017 we were already 5 years in the planning. Long before the AOH incorporated the “Park Foundation” on February 18, 2014 we met with The City of Montreal, and the Southwest Burrough. We researched the archives at the Grey Nuns, the Anglican church and City Hall. We reviewed our designs with architects, engineers, city planners, and McGill students. We studied bone detection techniques for finding remains, soft construction systems that would allow for the building of structures that would reduce soil disturbance. We met with potential donors. We became experts on natural water purification systems. We submitted our designs to UNESCO for consideration, confident that a site designed and dedicated purely to the protection of the thousands of Irish, and the incredible story of Montreal in 1847, to be a UNESCO Heritage site.

Representatives of the Quebec Crown Corporation were 100% behind the initiative and so began an incredible partnership. I, as AOH National President and Chairman and Founder of the “Park Foundation” participated in all workshops for 5 years. I never missed a meeting, kept our supporters, including the Irish Community, up to date regularly, and frequently met with the Irish Embassy in Ottawa.

We have all the documentation from 2012 until the hijacking in 2022, including government documents, board resolutions from the AOH to allow changes to the "Park Foundation" and Board resolutions from the "Park Foundation" executing the AOH resolution, emails exchanges, letters of support from our partners in the project, and first-hand accounts detailing the facts. If only the community would be willing to hear it and avoid a court case that will certainly cast a shadow on this crucial undertaking.

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Corporations Canada Response:

As per all my previous responses to similar notifications, ALL and ANY changes made to the Corporation in any way after 2020 are NOT legitimate - including this one. There have been NO legitimate changes to the legal board of the corporation. There are currently only 2 legitimate board members:

Victor P. Boyle: Chairman and Founder (February 18, 2014)
Fergus V. Keyes; Secretary Treasurer (February 18, 2014)

The Ancient Order of Hibernians Canada continue to pay the Annual dues for the Corporation , including 2026.

Using unapproved access to the various Government sites, there have been numerous illegal changes to the board members, including removing me - Victor P. Boyle as Chairman and Founder. As such, there has been bank accounts frozen and illegal bank accounts opened without proper or valid Board approval. Contracts have been, and continue to be, entered into illegally and without proper board approval. Complaints have been filed accordingly with the both Federal and Provincial agencies and reports to the RCMP. A lawsuit to reinstate the legal board is in progress supported by all legal documentation as well as witnesses who participated in the creation of the Corporation beginning in 2012. Witnesses include two past Irish Ambassadors to Canada, The board of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, including (Judge James McKay of Louisiana and John Meehan of Massachusetts), Presidents of Irish Organizations across Canada, members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians Canada, and the Irish Communities in Montreal and surrounding area, Toronto, Quebec City and across Canada who participated in the research and development of the 2012 project to protect the thousands of Irish souls resting in unquiet graves at the Irish Commemorative Stone (the Stone) Cemetery located on Bridge street in Montreal, Quebec.

On August 15, 1909, the Ancient Order of Hibernians unveiled its 46 ft. Celtic High Cross atop Telegraph Hill on Grosse Ile Quebec to protect that sanctity and hold dear the memory of the 5,424 Irish buried there. Today, 117 years later, the AOH Cross draws thousands of visitors from around the world to learn the story of Ireland's Great Hunger of 1847. The Ancient Order of Hibernians continue to work for a suitable remembrance for the thousands buried in what is now known as the Wellington Basin less than 1 km from the official Cemetery, but has never recognized.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." A group of small people must not be allowed to continue to hijack this all too important necessity to the memory and sanctity of the tens of thousands of Irish who were forced from the lands by tyrants only to have their story and memory lost to the ages because of different tyrants! Lies repeated by many are still lies. The truth repeated by one remains the truth.

Regards,

V.P. Boyle
National President, Ancient Order of Hibernians Canada
Chairman and Founder, Black Rock Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation

08/21/2026

Directed and edited by Marcus Howard. Filmed in America, Ireland an...

08/20/2026

The AOH has received another notification from Corporations Canada of an illegal change of directors of the Black Rock Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation (Corporation Number: 879306-9). As with the others, we responded with the appropriate advice that no changes of the Board have been approved, and have notified the RCMP and legal counsel again.

I will share our response to Corporations Canada in a separate post.

Associations are not, as inanimate objects, inherently petty or malicious. It’s individuals with their own egos and agendas that push groups off course from their stated mission. Ours of “Friendship, Unity, and True Christian Charity.“ has not wavered, and more than a century long dedication to Irish culture, history and heritage will not fade.

That said, we are in the throws of a time in Quebec where a group of small people are infecting the boards of some our once trusted organizations. The results are grass roots Irish being prevented from purchasing tickets to events, being excluded from participating in organizing those events despite years of dedication, and blocked from pages. My sons and I were prevented from walking the in the Montreal St. Patrick’s Day parade – an event the AOH organized for more than 10 years before creating the current organizing group in 1928. It’s that very group that prevented us from participating based on unfounded accusations. While setting up at the parade, even though I was expressly told not to, I was approached by more than a dozen members of that origination offering their sympathies and not understanding what’s going on. My older son, who was not present at the time of the alleged incident continues to seek remedy through Justice Pro-Bono Quebec.

These people (not the organizations they claim to represent or its members) continue to lie, or propagate lies, to exert pressure on community members to avoid AOH events and attempt to discredit us with our project partners, government agencies and their representatives. That includes the illegal and ongoing attempts to hijack the Park Foundation Board.

The history of this type of behavior is well documented in the annals of the of the Irish Cemetery and surrounding lands.

Desecration can take many forms. In the 1870’s bodies, in coffins, uncovered at what’s now known as the Wellington Basin were smashed and placed in barrels for “disposal” at the Catholic Cemetery – the intact coffins (their eternal home) unceremoniously burned in open air bonfires. All sanctioned and paid for by a Montreal Irish organization claiming to “speak for the Irish”. But not before the construction company, awaiting a decision of how to dispose of the unexpected “debris”, trucked bodies and coffins alike to the Grand Truck Railway dump site where they remain to this day. For years people commented on the lush greenery that returned in that area of the dump each spring.

Or 1964 at the meeting to determine the fate of the Irish Commemorative Stone as it stood in the way of Expo ’67 when Bridge Street needed to be widened. According to records, that same organization foisted the solution that, “The Stone be relocated to a more convenient place and any remains be “disposed of” in a respectful manner.” Like the Wellington Basin?

Desecration can also take the form of neglect and opportunism.

In 1868, with the events of 1847 still very much an open wound for the Irish, the AOH found the Stone sitting abandoned on a cemetery of branches, mud and tall weeds. Not a single organized memorial event had been held since the 1859 dedication. Without the grassroots Irish in Point St. Charles, Goose Village and Griffintown, the site would have conveniently disappeared. The Annual AOH March to the Stone was establish then and continues to this day.

In 2012 the AOH resurrected its late 1800’s attempts to purchase the land around the cemetery. Our 2012 plans, including preliminary designs and budgets, were presented to two representatives of each of the 20+ Irish Organizations in a meeting of the Federation of Irish Societies of Montreal that same year. The reception ranged from cautiously optimistic by 90% in attendance, to one organization president insisting that the idea was pie-in-the sky and that he, and his society who speak on behalf of the Irish, would, “Kill this thing”. What followed were years of slander, false accusations, and persecution, including an email to one of the project partners by a past president of the society claiming that the Irish Community did not support the “Foundation” in the endeavor. The claim was quickly retracted and an apology sent after the intervention of the Irish Ambassador.

Using shared passwords, they made, and continue to make, illegal changes to the Park Foundation structure and to enter into illegal contracts. These are the people who claim to have the souls and memories of the thousands of innocent Irish that suffered and perished in 1847 as the reason for they’re hijacking the project. Their ongoing and increasingly immoral behavior says otherwise.

We’re living in a time where an unscrupulous individual can surround themselves with other unscrupulous people doing the most heinous things while good people look on.

Or have we always been living in those times……..

07/22/2026

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We now have 146 learners enrolled!

Dr. Elizabeth Stack and I developed The Great Irish Famine: History, Diaspora, and Global Legacy to make this important history freely accessible to people worldwide.

This self-paced Alison course examines the causes and human consequences of the Great Irish Famine, British government policy, workhouses, eviction, emigration, international relief, and the creation of the global Irish diaspora. It also introduces learners to historical records that can help connect family stories to the broader history of the Great Hunger.

Whether your interest comes from education, research, genealogy, Irish heritage, or a desire to understand how the Famine continues to shape collective memory, you can study the course for free and at your own pace.

Begin here:

https://alison.com/course/the-great-irish-famine-history-diaspora-and-global-legacy

Please share this with anyone who may be interested. Every new learner helps ensure that this history continues to be studied, understood, and remembered.

Ireland Reaching Out
Alison - Free Empowerment Platform
Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum of Fairfield

07/08/2026

https://ighmf.org/so/a5Psy553s?languageTag=en&cid=d1bbf322-2e2a-4f62-84be-c8abb569b44d

Bus Trip to the Irish Famine Memorial Unveiling Sunday September 20 - $20 per person. (Please make checks payable to Gaelic American Club) This memorial honors Irish Famine immigrants buried on Staten Island. It commemorates 6,000+ men, women, and children from the Great Famine era who died after ar...

07/06/2026

We’re seeing more and more posts recently on Irish History. Artificial Intelligence makes these posts pretty quick and even simple. Unfortunately, they are not always completely accurate.

Now, I’m in no way an expert in AI. I am not a historian. I’m not the custodian of any history, and I’m not here to contradict anyone’s posts. Any professional historian (not self-proclaimed historians who repeat interesting stories) will tell you that even the tiniest aspect of any history is so multifaceted and intricate that years can be dedicated to trying to understanding just a small portion.

And that’s without the complication of the hobbyists who are eager to share whatever seems interesting.

Just imagine the story of 1847 in Quebec City and/or Montreal!

As an example, for decades some Irish have insisted that no bodies were buried at the site of the Irish Commemorative Stone. Instead – explaining that the “Stone” was dedicated to the Irish workers of the Victoria Bridge. It began when a Montreal Bishop made the statement in the newspaper that there are more bodies buried in my basement than beneath that “Stone”. The people in Griffintown, Goose Village and the Pointe were up in arms. Not a peep from the “well-healed” Irish who helped erect St. Patrick’s Church which opened in 1847. That narrative seemed to suit them. So much so that in 2016 the then president of a long-standing Irish Organization told Mayor Coderre that there was indeed, “no evidence of any bodies buried at the “Stone”. A past president of that same organization repeated that claim in 2017 at an event at the Irish Ambassador’s resident in Ottawa. Both claimed that the “Stone” was dedicated to the workers who died building the Victora Bridge. I was present at both occasions.

AI is very efficient at gathering already published information – right or wrong – and recapping it as it finds it after an algorithm driven validation process. It will even create images based on those results. Again, I am no expert, but we have used AI research for the AOH Digital Museums Canada exhibition, Remembering Montreal’s Feminine Irish. I am also working with a company editing the text generated by AI to be sure it sounds human. Very eye opening.

In some cases, it was the suspicious results from AI that ultimately led to the facts.

Enjoy the stories. I do, even when I see the glaring inaccuracies.

The Ancient Order of Hibernians Digital Museums Canada online exhibition “Remembering Montreal’s Famine Irish” is on schedule to be published late December 2026 – early January 2027. Our original intent was to publish with the opening of our extension of the Irish Commemorative Stone Memorial on Bridge street which the AOH began in 2012, handing the project over to the “Park Foundation” which we created in 2014 to allow for greater participation from the grass roots Irish Community.

07/04/2026

05/25/2026

To our American brothers and sisters.