American Irish Historical Society plots move from NYC to Cooperstown

Few -- if any -- outside of an apparently small circle know why, but word out of New York City on February 14 has the American Irish Historical Society moving from its $52 million, 125-year home on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to somewhere in the Town of Otsego – perhaps the Village of Cooperstown.

If the Society has a specific location in mind, that would be news, too. Town of Otsego Supervisor Ben Bauer, Village of Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, and Otsego County Board of Representatives Chair David Bliss each said they knew only what they had read in a report surfacing February 13 in the on-line newsletter Irish Central (www.irishcentral.com) by the publication’s founder, Niall O’Dowd.

Mr. O’Dowd reported that the Society’s Board of Directors met late last week, with many on the Board blindsided by a motion to move the organization upstate. Four members of the board, including the president-general, resigned after the motion was approved.

“This caught everyone off guard,” Mr. O’Dowd said in a conversation with The Freeman’s Journal. He said he spoke with one board member who resigned who told him he stepped down “because – Cooperstown.”

“It’s nothing against the Village, that’s for sure,” Mr. O’Dowd said. “No one can figure out where this came from. It’s baffling.”