(Photo above: The tunnel along Kelly Drive.)
By Marita Krivda Poxon
Ryan Heenan, current President of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick describes himself as “the youngest guy in the room” when he speaks about how he often feels when he attends Friendly Sons meetings which he has been doing since he joined in 2010 at age 18. At 29 years old he is indeed one of the youngest ever presidents of that esteemed group. He follows in the footsteps of his father Joe Heenan who was president from 2016 until 2018. This father-son duo is the fourth time this has happened in the 250 year history of the Friendly Sons which was founded in 1771 before the American Revolution.
The Heenan family might even be called a clan since Joe grew up in a family of nine children, seven boys and two girls, living in Havertown which informally is called Ireland’s Thirty-third County. Ryan comes from a family of four and has legions of Heenan cousins most of whom belonged to Havertown’s Annunciation Parish. They attended local Catholic schools and many including Ryan graduated from St. Joe’s Prep.
How the Heenan family members became interested in joining the society in 2008 and assuming leadership positions in the Friendly Sons came about through Joe’s discovery of their family history. Through his amateur sleuthing he discovered a famous 19th century relative, Colonel Dennis Heenan, his great, great grandfather. In John H. Campbell’s book “History of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and of the Hibernian Society for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland:”(Philadelphia: 1892) Ryan’s great, great, great grandfather is listed as a member with this entry:
“Dennis Heenan, (1863 member) – Was Born April 18, 1818 in County Tipperary. Ireland and came to Philadelphia in May 1839. He was at times a liquor dealer, a coal merchant and a contractor. He served in the rebellion, being Lieutenant Colonel of Twenty-fourth Regiment, and afterwards Colonel of One Hundred and Sixteenth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was wounded at Fredericksburg, losing part of his right hand. He died July 4th, 1872 and is buried in the Cathedral Cemetery, West Philadelphia. Dr. Thomas E. Heenan (1870 member) is his son.”
To honor his memory, the Heenan family erected a handsome granite headstone in the Cathedral Cemetery and dedicated it on September 20th, 2009 with great fanfare. In attendance were members of the Color Guard of the 69th PA Irish Brigade Reenactors, the Emerald Pipers, the Friendly Sons and the AOH. Andrew Coldren, Civil War Museum Historian gave the address.
Being president of the Friendly Sons seems to run in the family. Ryan speaks proudly of the famous Irish Brigade Major General St. Clair Mulholland who married Dennis Heenan’s daughter, Mary Josepha Heenan. Mulholland became President of the Friendly Sons in 1892. Another coincidence, is that like Ryan and his father Joe are entrepreneurs and work in general construction, as Dennis Heenan did in the 19th Century. Dennis worked in construction and credited with having dynamited a tunnel out of rock to continue Philadelphia’s East River Drive along the Schuylkill. Ryan owns a number of brown beer bottles that are inscribed with the name D. Heenan which attests to Col. Heenan’s entrepreneurial ventures into the liquor business.
January 2020, Malvern, PA
In 2007, Ryan Heenan along with his siblings Joe Jr., Michael, Audrey and his parents took the family’s first ever trip to Ireland traveling together in a rented bus. The highlight destination of this trip was their visit to Cashelnagore, County Donegal to find the ancestral homestead of Agnes O’Donnell, Ryan’s great grandmother who emigrated from Donegal in 1913. The homestead remaining consisted only of stacked, stone walls with no trace of its original thatched roof and dirt floor. Ryan says:
“There were a few white clay pipes buried in the dirt and a couple of other neat relics. Originally an aunt tracked it down in the 80s and found it. The old homestead was part of our family folklore. It’s a place that does not have an address and you need to know what town to go to and then you need to walk miles to find it.”
Unfortunately for Ryan, he has not had the honor of being officially installed as president since the Friendly Sons’ 249th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Gala had been cancelled because the Covid-19 pandemic. Ryan is hopeful that his formal installation as president and the celebration of the Friendly Sons 250th Anniversary can occur in 2021. Hopeful that the pandemic will subside to allow for large events, the Friendly Sons have booked the Bellevue Hotel for September 17th, 2021 to host a gala for possibly 750 members and guests.
President Ryan Heenan has as his principal mission getting the Friendly Sons to refocus on what he feels are the society’s original roots in benevolence and charity along with robust fund-raising.
His goal for the Friendly Sons 250th Anniversary is to raise $250,000 in matching funds which he has started in earnest in 2020 during his first year as president. So far he has raised $175,000 in matching funds of the total amount. The Friendly Sons have managed to make donations to various, worthy charities which have been important in the Irish community. (See Irish Edition, October 2020 issue.)
Under his leadership the Friendly Sons has raised and donated:
- $50,000 to the Little Sisters of the Poor (with a $50,000 matching donation from John and Bernadette Heenan)
- $50,000 to St. Mary’s College (with a $50,000 donation from Ed and Lisa Wilbraham)
- $50,000 to -St. Joseph’s Prep (with a $50,000 donation from Kevin Maloney and Michael Maloney)
- $25,000 to Merion Mercy Academy (with a $50,000 donation from the Mullarkey Family)
Ryan has taken his position as President of the Friendly Sons very seriously and is confident he will raise the last $75,000. His passion about continuing the Friendly Sons’ benevolent mission is evident in what he has said recently:
“For us to exist for another 250 years the mission of the Friendly Sons needs to go back to its roots and be a benevolent organization that exists not for our own personal benefit, not for our own personal gain, but to help others in the Philadelphia area’s Irish community.”