The 2001 Glen Cove St. Patrick’s Day Parade took place on March 18th of that year. The Grand Marshal was Patrick J. Lynch, President of the NYC Patrolmen’s Benevolent Society, accompanied by Aide to the Grand Marshal Malachy McAllister, a political refugee from the conflict in Ireland who was seeking safety in this country for himself and his family after their home in Belfast was attacked by a pro-British death squad, and by AOH member Paul Long.
Grand Marshal, 2001, Patrick J. Lynch
Grand Marshal Patrick J. Lynch was born in Bayside, Queens. The youngest of seven children, he found union activity almost second nature. His father, Robert, now 75, was a subway motorman for 30 years and took him out of school one day to walk the picketline during the 1980 New York City transit strike. “You saw it then. You could feel it,” Lynch recalls. “If everyone stood together, in unity, you could change things and you could fix things for the better.”
Patrick Lynch’s desire to do something meaningful was why he became a policeman. “Everything you do makes a difference. It’s one job where the lowest person on the totem pole, the average cop, makes all the preliminary decisions and all else follows from that police officer’s decision. So, you really can make a difference.”
Besides fighting for a just salary hike for New York City Policemen, Lynch is battling the “very anti-police climate” in New York City. “It’s not popular to stand with a cop who’s accused, but we’re doing that- and that goes a long way.” In spite of the “bombardment of anti-police activists, Lynch’s message is this: “I think the average person out there who does not have a political agenda supports New York City Cops. We have detractors who try to tear down what we do and attack us on every turn, but there’s no one on this earth who defends the civil or Constitutional rights of this country’s people more than a police officer in uniform standing on the corner.”
Grand Marshal Lynch traces his Irish roots to County Mayo, Ireland. Lynch credits his Catholic education at home and school (St. Robert Bellarmine, Queens and Msgr. Scanlon High School, Bronx) for giving him courage and strength in his duties as New York City PBA President: “It was all interconnected. The lessons at home and the lessons at school were the same. You have to work hard to get ahead. You have to believe in God who put you on earth and allows you to do what you’re doing. That whole lesson began at our kitchen table, but was the same when you went off to school” On President Lynch’s office desk are a dozen memorial cards of policemen killed in the line of duty (three since he became PBA President), and two vials of holy water-one each from Knock and Lourdes.
Lynch and his wife, Kathleen, a nurse, have two sons, Patrick ,9, and Kevin, 7.
(Based on an article by Jack Shanahan, It’s All about Family, The Brooklyn Tablet, August 12 ,2000)
The Mike Moran Division 8, AOH is proud to salute PBA President Patrick J. Lynch as Grand Marshal of the 13th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade as an exemplar of the Society’s Mission of Friendship, Unity, and Christian Charity.
Aide to the Grand Marshal, 2001, Malachy McAllister
Like most republicans in the north of Ireland, Malachy and Bernadette McAllister, and their four children, lived daily with abuse and fear of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British troops occupying the six northern Irish counties. On October 2, 1988, a normal Sunday evening, two masked gunmen fired twenty-six shots into the living room of their home in the Ormeau Road area of Belfast. The McAllister children and their grandmother narrowly escaped physical injury. However, the psychological injuries continue to plague the family today. The McAllister Family fled Belfast shortly after the attack 13 years ago.
The attack on the McAllister’s was no random occurrence. Malachy, a former political prisoner spent nearly four years in Long Kesh prison for political offenses. He had been convicted in a no-jury Diplock court.
Federal court Judge Henry Dogin granted political asylum to Bernadette McAllister and three of her children in October, 2000. He ruled that the family including Malachy had suffered “extreme past persecution” including life long discrimination as Catholics and a “constant campaign of harassment” at the hands of the RUC, the British Army and Loyalist Paramilitary Forces whom the government was unwilling or unable to control.
Despite the inescapable conclusion “that the family suffered persecution including ‘incidents of public humiliation’, physical abuse of Malachy and the murder attempt against them by loyalists”, the judge ordered that Malachy be deported to the United Kingdom because his Northern Ireland convictions for targeting members of the RUC during the Hunger Strike in 1981 classified him as a terrorist and therefore not eligible for asylum.
Bernadette and the children’s political asylum status was short lived when the INS took the unprecedented step to appeal the judges favorable ruling.
Fifty six Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders including Robert Menendez, Joe Crowley and Peter King have written to the Justice Department on behalf of the family and recently they wrote to the Attorney General to complain about the INS treatment of the family.
Despite ongoing ceasefires, loyalist paramilitary groups in the North continue to engage in assassinations and attacks on Nationalists. The McAllister Family continues to fear for the future.
In light of the widespread release of former political prisoners in Northern Ireland and the suspension of deportation against several republicans here in America by the Clinton administration, the Mike Moran Division 8 AOH is proud to honor, support and pray for a speedy resolution of this case hoping that justice will prevail.
Aide to the Grand Marshal, 2001, Paul Francis Long
Paul Long was born in 1964 in County Wexford, Ireland to Michael and Ann Long. He is the oldest of 7 children. He was educated in Ballymitty National School and St. Peter’s College, Wexford.
After finishing high school he worked in his parent’s supermarket as a butcher before joining the F.C.A., Ireland’s Army Reserve, in 1981. He remained with the reserves until he immigrated to the United States in 1984.
Since arriving in the States, Paul has generously given his time and talent to the North Shore Community and the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
Paul is the co-chair for the semi-annual St. Patrick’s Blood Drive.
Paul is an active member of the Locust Valley Neighborhood Watch. He is also an active member of the LV High School Parents Council and a member of the annual “Comedy Night” fundraising committee.
Paul joined the Long Island Rose Society in 1995 and is now a consulting rosarian. For the past 3 years he has served on the board of directors of the Long Island Rose Society, a position he still holds today and has held various positions on the annual L.I. Rose Show committee. Paul is currently pursuing an associate’s degree in ornamental horticulture at SUNY Farmingdale.
Paul was inducted as a member Division 8, Ancient Order of Hibernians in 1995. He immediately became one of the Division’s most active members. He took his major degree in 1996. Paul has worked tirelessly to make Division 8 what it is today- a robust organization protective of the Irish Culture on the North Shore of Long Island, of the Church, and of the Community.
Aide Paul Long was the Division’s Financial Secretary, and holds the office of Vice President. On the County level, he is the current Freedom for All Ireland Chair of the Nassau County Board. For three years, he was the Chair of the Glen Cove St. Patrick’s Parade.
Paul Long is currently employed as grounds superintendent for Nelson Doubleday in Locust Valley where he also lives with his wife Cindy, and children Aaron and Tanya.
