NEW YORK, NY.- The board of directors for the troubled American Irish Historical Society has resigned and an interim board has taken over, under a plan by the New York attorney generals office to preserve the nonprofit organization and save the Gilded Age town house on 5th Avenue that has been its headquarters for more than 80 years.
The announcement Monday signaled the end to one Irish American familys half-century control of the society, which ultimately led to managerial dysfunction and charges that the patriarch, Dr. Kevin M. Cahill, had turned it into his private club. Cahill, 86, a physician and political adviser, died in September.
After a protracted immersion into the societys books and practices, the attorney generals Charities Bureau secured the resignation of the Cahill-controlled board, which had been seeking to sell the societys $44 million mansion to settle its debts and relocate to Cooperstown, New York, known as the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but not as a center of American Irish culture.
According to Attorney General Letitia James, an interim board and executive director will work with members of the American Irish community to revitalize the society and select a permanent board during a six-month transition.
As part of the plan, the societys mansion, at 991 Fifth Ave., is no longer for sale. In addition, the Irish government has allocated as much as $300,000 to cover the costs of utilities and other services during the transition.
The intention is to stay right where we are, John Keefe, the interim executive director, said in a telephone interview from the mansion, lately the scene of little activity. His voice echoed as he spoke.
The American Irish Historical Society was founded in 1897 to keep Irish and Irish American contributions secure in memory. By 1940, the society had enough money to buy a five-story town house on 5th Avenue, across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As the years passed, the society settled into relative irrelevance, its many books and artifacts infrequently read or seen. Then, in the mid-1970s, Cahill, a tropical-disease expert celebrated for his humanitarian work, became its president general.
He revitalized the society in part by holding annual galas at which gold medals were awarded to the esteemed and deep-pocketed. And every March, standing on the town house balcony in morning coat and surrounded by select guests, he seemed almost to preside over the St. Patricks Day parade as it moved up Fifth Avenue.
Along the way, Cahill family members and loyalists joined the board, and one of the doctors sons, Christopher, became its well-compensated executive director.
When Cahill decided to step down a decade ago, a series of prominent Irish Americans succeeded him, only to discover what they later described as an underachieving organization that didnt do much beyond holding an annual gala and providing a Cahill scion with employment. Once they raised their concerns, they said, they were pushed out.
In 2019, Brian McCabe, the societys chair and a former New York City homicide detective sergeant, and James Normile, its president, pushed for an immediate reorganization. This would include mandatory counseling and a reduced role for Christopher Cahill, who had recently threatened a well-known Irish director at an event in the mansion.
Instead, Normile and McCabe joined the growing list of reform-minded officials who were ousted by the Cahill-controlled board. Only this time, they fought back.
McCabe alerted the attorney generals office to what he said were financial irregularities, as well as his concerns about the integrity of the societys collection, which includes extensive documentation of the role of Irish Americans in Irelands fight for independence from England.
In March 2021, McCabe and the societys just-fired marketing coordinator, Sophie Colgan, started an online petition opposing the sale of the societys mansion. More than 40,000 people signed on.
The attorney generals office, which is responsible for reviewing the sale of any property owned by a charity, took note and began to look into the organizations operations.
With the societys mansion effectively closed, the dwindling Cahill board pressed ahead with its plans to sell the building and move out of the city.
Now, with the announcement by the attorney general, there will be no move to Cooperstown. There will also be a full cataloging of the societys collection, since none has been found (although a spokesperson for the attorney generals office noted that it had not found evidence of stolen items).
The announcement drew sighs of relief from many of the interested parties. McCabe expressed satisfaction that the yearslong fight for reform that he and others had waged had succeeded, and the Irish consulate in New York said in a statement that Ireland looked forward to building a positive and constructive relationship with the reformed society.
A telephone call seeking comment from the spokesperson for the old board was redirected to Keefe, the interim executive director and a seasoned expert in nonprofit rehabilitation.
Speaking from inside the societys mansion, Keefe said that he was excited about the societys potential, because so much more can be done with this organization than has been done in the recent past.
As he talked, he said he was hunting around for the thermostat. Its a little bit cold in here, he said.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.