A place where you get to learn about our members and what makes them interesting.
This Month's Hibernian,
John Devine
1. Where do your ancestors hail from?
Mom - Mary Loretta O’Hara - Devine
Sracomer (town land)
Dromahair (village / post office)
Leitrim (county)
Dad - Thomas William Devine
Kirkneedy (town land)
Letterkenny (village)
Donegal (county)
2. How long have you been with our organization
Not sure, can you check the records? It was early, but not the beginning group.
3. What is your favorite event?
Aide to GM of the Bergenfield St Pats Parade - been going to it since a wee lad with the family. Getting to be the Aide to the Grand Marshall, with my brother Mike, was a very proud moment for my Mom and Dad, wife and daughters, and the whole big Irish family.
4. Have you ever served with our organization on a board/committee
Secretary for a couple terms. Now VP for a couple terms.
5. What was your most unusual job?
Santa Clause in Paramus Park before they got the look-a-likes of today. I did this in the 90’s. Fun time.
6. What was the most rewarding experience in your life
Becoming a father (of 3 girls) with my high school sweetheart, Rachel.
7. What is your dream job?
I lived it - Hometown police officer with Paramus Police Department.
8. What or who makes you laugh the most?
Irreverent comedy, which is basically any work of Parody and Satire using a blend of slapstick humor. Any kind a guys crude humor. Ex - Spaceballs, Strange Brew, Animal House,
9. If you could live in any other time period, when would it be?
As a teenager in the late 1950’s & then in my 20’s in the 1960’s.
10. Favorite actor/actress?
My Aunt, Auntie Aileen - Aileen O’Hara Henry. She played Alice, Jimmy Gralton’s mother, in “Jimmy’s Hall” (2014). A movie about the only Irishman to ever be deported from Ireland (1933), where he was born (1886 - Leitrim) to another country (NYC, USA) - he had lived in NYC for a couple of years prior to returning home and opening the hall. He was also banned from ever returning home to Ireland - all because he opened a Community (dance) Hall in Leitrim, which was seen as a threat to the Church and the State.
11. Dinner party with 3 deceased famous people, who would they be?
Jesus, Judas and Adam from the Garden of Eden. We would get drunk and all go back to Eve, that...
12. If you could meet one relative who died before you were born, who would you choose?
Actually 3 people -
I would love to have met my Dad’s Mom (Catherine Ann Alger Devine) who passed away (1939) in their house giving birth to my dad’s youngest sibling, Agnes. My dad was 6 at the time. I’d like her to know that her 6 kids turned out good and all moved to USA with her husband.
I would also like to meet, for a second time ( i was only 2 when i met her the first time) my Mom’s Mom, Mary Loretta Ryan O’Hara. She passed away in 1977 in Leitrim, some say she passed due to a broken heart for losing her son, John (See below) in 1968.
And I would like to have met my Uncle John O’Hara, my mom’s little brother who drown while surfing in Strand Hill, County Sligo, two weeks before i was born (1968). My name was suppose to be Christopher. Due to Johns passing, I was named after him. Because my mom was pregnant with me, she could not fly back to Ireland to be with her family for the funeral.
