A special guest was part of Suffolk’s Irish Heritage Celebration: Internationally known historian, author, and composer Michael McCormack, a top official of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
McCormack helped organize a division of the Hibernians in 1967 and served as its Secretary, Vice President, and President before his knowledge of Irish history earned him the post of Division Historian.
The Centereach resident is a U.S. Army veteran with a long career as a writer and editor with a number of publications, including the Hibernian Digest, Irish Echo, Arizona Desert Shamrock, San Francisco Gael, Florida Irish American, as well as St Patrick’s Monthly and Ireland’s Eye magazines in Ireland.
He won the AOH National Essay Competition for three years straight starting in 1978, and became the first ever to win the bronze, silver, and gold National Awards in three consecutive years. He was elected Suffolk County Hibernian Vice President and soon settled into the office of County Historian.
McCormack was elected to the AOH New York State Board as Director for Long Island in 1982 and by 1984, was State Historian. He succeeded himself in all three offices and in 1988, was appointed to the National Board. Soon after, he was named National Historian, becoming only the second person ever to hold the same office at all four levels of the Order at the same time.
Looking to create a forum for Ireland’s musical heritage, McCormack hosted “Echoes of Ireland,” a weekly radio program at WLIM in Patchogue in 1983. A year later, WLIM was rated the number-one station in the county in his time slot. He was also featured in AIRPLAY Magazine and on several TV documentaries on Irish themes. He continued his program on Long Island’s top station, WALK, for 21 years until illness forced him to retire.
McCormack has written three songs which have been recorded by top artists. He also plays the bodhran, a traditional Irish drum, and performed at Carnegie Hall along with the Chieftains and Richard Harris. He can be heard on many songs by famous Irish artists and wrote and directed a two-act musical pageant, Emigrant Immigrant, which starred 23 prominent Irish musicians, dancers, singers, and actors.
McCormack worked with local officials to win historic landmark status for the former Manorville home of the Irish patriot, Tom Clarke and was the prime mover behind a Wicklow Granite monument, carved in Ireland, at the site. He was also involved with the publicity for the New Suffolk test site of the first U.S. Submarine, the Holland I, invented by Irish-born John Holland, and spear-headed a nationwide fundraiser to get his original submarines properly displayed in museums. In addition, he served on the committee that erected a centennial memorial to the men and women of Ireland’s Easter Rising.
McCormack helped create a set of history panels explaining Ireland’s Great Hunger of 1845-50 for the international tour of the Jeanie Johnston, a full-scale replica of the three-masted ship that carried Irish Immigrants to America in 1848. He is a member of the New York Irish History Roundtable and is an honorary member of both the Suffolk Police and Suffolk Firefighters Emerald Societies. He’s been Grand Marshal in a number of St. Patrick’s Day Parades, including Ronkonkoma, Glen Cove, Patchogue, and Port St. Lucie, FL.
McCormack was part of the bicentennial commemoration of the 1798 Irish Rebellion and, while there, was privileged to speak at the grave of national hero Wolfe Tone and at the Commodore Barry Memorial in Wexford. He is a recipient of the Washington D.C. Friends of Ireland Award and had the honor of speaking at the Grave of the Patriots at Arbour Hill during the 2016 Centennial Commemoration of the Easter Rising in Dublin.