Alfred J. O’Hagan: Grand Marshal NYC St. Patricks Day Parade, Former New York State AOH President, Division 19 Kings County Founder
Al O'Hagan, who headed the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce and ran the Great Irish Fair for years, has died. He was 81.
O'Hagan was a lifelong booster of Coney Island and the nearly 100 Boardwalk vendors and amusement operators his group represented.
"They used to call him the man with the great Irish flair," his daughter, Sheila, said. "That really hit home for us as a family. He was so involved in promoting Irish culture and the Catholic faith. And he was always for the underdog."
He championed causes like fixing the Stillwell Ave. subway station as well as giving landmark status to the historic Parachute Jump ride.
"Maybe you could put in a restaurant or something. And with a lot of lights it could be visible from all over," he told the Daily News in 2002.
He also served as corporation chairman of the Brooklyn Ancient Order of Hibernians after being introduced to the group as a kid.
"It was a Tuesday night in 1949, and my father took me by the back of the neck to my first AOH meeting," O'Hagan told Denis Hamill in 1996.
"I went every Tuesday night after that. By the time I was old enough to say no to my old man, I was too into the Irish culture to leave," he added. "I fell in love with all things Irish: Irish music, Irish history, Irish politics. Irish people. Now my kids are steeped in Irish culture. My grandfather was the grand marshal of the St. Patrick's Day Parade in 1929. In 1986 I was the grand marshal. I'm kinda proud of that."
In his youth, O'Hagan, who lived in Gerritsen Beach, became politically active.
He braved the freedom marches into the deep South in the turbulent early '60s and later worked on Paul O'Dwyer's failed U.S. Senate campaign and his successful race to the presidency of the City Council.
"Because of the discrimination against Irish Catholics over the years, I could identify with the civil rights movement here in America," O'Hagan said.
As an Irish-American activist, he also led protests in New York for peace and justice in Ireland.
"We certainly do not condone violence," O'Hagan said in 2002. "But I've always believed what Paul O'Dwyer said: 'The IRA is not the cause of the problem in Northern Ireland. It is the result of the problem.' The problem is the Brits being there."
He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Cathy, and his two children, Sheila O'Hagan McGirl and Shaun, as well as six grandchildren.
The wake is scheduled at the Marine Park funeral home on Tuesday from 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. The funeral mass will be held Resurrection Catholic Church on Gerritsen Ave in Brooklyn on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m.