{"id":865,"date":"2013-03-10T23:43:28","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T03:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/?p=865"},"modified":"2013-03-10T23:43:28","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T03:43:28","slug":"aoh-protests-spencers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/2013\/03\/10\/aoh-protests-spencers\/","title":{"rendered":"AOH Protests Spencer&#039;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Neil Cosgrove<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/WNYW.images.worldnow.com\/interface\/js\/WNVideo.js?rnd=355908;hostDomain=www.myfoxny.com;playerWidth=630;playerHeight=355;isShowIcon=true;clipId=8537537;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=overlay\"><\/script><a title=\"New York News | NYC Breaking News\" href=\"http:\/\/www.myfoxny.com\">New York News | NYC Breaking News<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I regret to say that once again our proud and noble heritage is under attack by the forces of ignorance, prejudice and corporations that will peddle anything for a dollar.\u00a0 Once again Spencer\u2019s, Urban Outfitters and Wal-Mart are selling shirts and novelties that seem to have sprung from the 19<sup>th<\/sup> Century pen of bigoted nativist cartoonist Thomas Nast.\u00a0 Among some of the items on offer this year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A hat with \u201cIrish Girl Wasted\u201d\u00a0 (Spencer\u2019s)<\/li>\n<li>A green shamrock emblazoned shirt with \u201cEveryone Loves a Drunk Slut\u201d (Spencer\u2019s)<\/li>\n<li>A shirt with \u201cWhiskey Beer Repeat\u201d in the colors of the Irish Tricolor (Urban Outfitters)<\/li>\n<li>A green pint glass with \u201cIrish Today, Hung Over Tomorrow\u201d (Urban Outfitters)<\/li>\n<li>A shirt with a Leprechaun wearing shade and holding a crock filled with marijuana leaves and the caption \u201cI always carry a little Pot with me\u201d\u00a0 (Urban Outfitters)<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Drink till your \u201cstumble\u201d with a leprechaun falling down (Wal-Mart)<\/li>\n<li>A leprechaun vomiting a rainbow into a pot of gold (Wal-Mart)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Brothers, this is an outrage and our Oath calls us to action.\u00a0\u00a0 The Rockland County Hibernians organized a protest against the local mall where Spencer\u2019s and some of the kiosk vendors were pushing this defaming garbage.\u00a0 Members were able to enlist the aid of their local state Senator David Carlucci who organized a press conference in conjunction with the Hibernians.\u00a0 There was extensive coverage of this protest on the major NY\/NJ\/Conn television and radio outlets. \u00a0It was interesting to note that while the protest was going on Spencer\u2019s could not be reached for comment, it was only <i><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">after the protests<\/span><\/i> (when they knew that reporters would be unable to ask the AOH for a response) that Spencer\u2019s Corporate Consul issued a statement saying \u201cWe do not feel our merchandise is offensive\u2026 But reflects the attitude of our core customers who are 18-24 year olds.&#8221;\u00a0 Says a lot about Spencer\u2019s courage and convictions that they didn\u2019t want to take the on the issue until they felt safe there could be no rebuttal (if they had issued that contemptuous response earlier we would have been happy to point out that half of the\u201d core customers\u201d that Spencer\u2019s claims to be targeting with shirts such as \u201cTeam Let\u2019s Get Wasted\u201d are under age).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was also interesting to note the reaction of several of the reporters and some people passing by the protest when shown what was being sold, they were truly shocked and revolted.\u00a0 There is a long struggle ahead of us brothers, but we are raising awareness.<\/p>\n<p>We can also report some outright victories.\u00a0 Members of the Rockland County LAOH on seeing defaming merchandise in the local \u201c5 Below\u201d store called corporate headquarters and the items were removed from the local store the next day. Brother Rick O\u2019Neill who reported the offensive items seen at his \u00a0Wal-Mart in Rhode Island, complained to the manager who said they would be removed and sent back to the vendor.<\/p>\n<p>Brothers as the great Irish Statesman Edmund Burke observed \u201c<i>All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 We cannot be discouraged nor fall victim to apathy in defense of our proud heritage.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We will always have those who will tell us to \u201cLighten Up\u201d or \u201cIt\u2019s a joke\u201d when it\u2019s our heritage that is being defamed but who will be outraged when another group is insulted.\u00a0 Sadly more than a few will say \u201cI\u2019m Irish and I think it is funny\u201d, when the only thing Irish about them is there last name.\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t be cowered by political correctness to speak out against these offensive items.\u00a0\u00a0 If the vendor doesn\u2019t do the right thing in removing these defaming items don\u2019t hesitate to take your case to the public through your newspapers and other media.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If all Hibernians speak with one voice we will be heard.<\/p>\n<div class = 'socialMediaOnEveryPost'><div id=\"sgmbShare1-1\" class=\"sgmbShare jssocials-theme-classic sgmbWidget1-1\"><\/div><div class=\"dropdownWrapper dropdownWrapper1 dropdownWrapper-for-widget \" id=\"dropdownWrapper-for-widget\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"dropdownLabel\" id=\"dropdownLabel-share-list\"><span class=\"sgmbButtonListLabel1\">Share List<\/span><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"dropdownPanel dropdownPanel1-1\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><script>  SGMB_URL = \"https:\/\/aoh.com\/gobansaer\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-builder\/\"; 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});<\/script><\/div><script> jQuery(\".socialMediaOnEveryPost\").addClass(\"sgmb-right\") <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Neil Cosgrove &nbsp; New York News | NYC Breaking News I regret to say that once again our proud and noble heritage is under attack by the forces of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/gobansaer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/3-10-2013-11-34-43-PM.png","author_info":{"display_name":"National Board","author_link":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/author\/aohnatl\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aoh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}