The Irish standard., 1898-04-16
ALEADER In PATRIOT CIRCLES.
He Is Interested In the Movement
for Irish Liberty.
COMES FROM WEXFORD STOCK.
His Forefathers Figured in the
'99 Insurrecti0n.

There is one man in the United States
who will fill a large space in the eye of
the Irish people this year. For many
years he has been a prominent figure in
the world called Irish-American, not
alone in New York, but wherever Irish
patriotic organizations live. For eight
years at least he has been the leader,
the genius of the movement for Irish
freedom, the man who mapped out the
campaign, who urged here and reproved
there, and through it all was tolerant,
broad-minded and unequivocally honest
The prosperity which has come to sue
cessful business men has not influenced
his genial nature one .iota Edward
O'Flaherty is the same man today as he
was five years ago, modest and unas-
suming, but with wealth of organizing
ability behind an amiable exterior
Edward O'Flaherty is one of the prince
dry goods merchants of New York city.
The big store of Mcfarland G OFlah-
erty, on Eighth avenue, between For
tieth and Forty-first streets, fills large
section of the block. 1t employs more
hands than any other store on Eighth
avenue and larger percentage of the
employees have been there since the store
was opened. They are unlike other store
hands in that they consider themselves
part Of one family with Edward O'Fla-
herty as the paternal head. One should
be present at a social gathering of
"O'Flahertys 300" as they are popularly
feeling they have for their chief. All
this, however, is another story.
Over dozen years ago natives Of Wex-
ford county, Ireland, and their sons and
daughters, conceived the idea Of organic
ing 1898 Centennial Association" the
object Of which was to commemorate the
sacrifices of the men who in 1898 went
out on the Wexford hilsdes behind the
flag Of an Irish republic. The organiza-
tion Of Wexford men and women grew.
City to Brooklyn and New Jersey, and
finally men and women from states fur
ther inland applied for admission. The
patriotism Of the men of '9S, which some
believed dead, was merely resting 1t
needed but the touch spring Of an old
thought to give it life. The thought
came without forcing, and today the
Ninety-Eight Centennial Association of
America has a membership of over 5O,-
900, militant, Irish patriots, in the main,
and all with eyes set on the Ireland of
their hopes and dreams, their faith and
their love.
Edward O'Flaherty is the president of
this immense organization. 1t Is only
natural he should be. He comes from a
family Of Wexford rebels to British rule
in Ireland. Somewhere among the Wex-
ford hills, few miles from the sea
line, where stands the town of
New Ross, is rusty pikehead. 1t was
at the battle Of Ross and Oulart hill and
Tobeneering. An O'Flaherty held the
handle of stout ash when the sheen of
tho steel sent warm patriotic blood
coursing through mems veins "at the
rising of the moon," Apart from this
however, Edward O'Flaherty has good
reason to dislike British rule in Ireland
He is the son of an evicted tenant.
story is still told around firesides in
Southern Wexford of the eviction of the
OFlahertys from their comfortable
homestead; how the sentence of death
was carried out with all its denominations
of cruelty, and how Edward O'Flaherty's
father, with the wild justice of revenge
in his riven heart, was prevailed upon in
time for carrying out the grim and des-
perate resolve of his outaged manhood
From such stock has Edward O'Flaherty
come. Small wonder he has given his
: life to the movement for Irish liberty
with the memory of an eviction engraver
upon his boyhood mind and generations
Of patriotic blood in his veins.
Edward O'Flaherty is a restless worker
In any good cause at all. He finds time
to act as president Of the Irish Nationa
Club of New York, and president of the
Irish Independent League, an organiza
tion with the best of the New Yorl
Irish in it's ranks. He is one of tht
trustees Of the fund raised at the grea
Irish fair in New York, prominen
member of the Catholic Club and trus
tee Of St. Agnes church, Of which tn,
Rev. DR.. McCready well-known priest
is pastor. To all OF the various move
ments with which he is identified III
brings untiring energy and disposition
which usually carries success with it.
In the old days of the Irish Nationa
Land League, the Twenty-second warr