The American Irish Historical Society, through its New York chapter, took part in the earliest gatherings. The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in the City of New York, the oldest Irish organization in the country with a history of 126 years behind it, was also early in the field. Its President, William Temple Emmet, was chosen chairman of the gathering of Irish societies and Alfred J. Talley of the American Irish Historical Society was elected Secretary. First and last some eighty Irish societies answered to the call. Broadly these were the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Clan-na-Gael, the Irish American Athletic Club, the Irish Counties Athletic Clubs, the two societies named above and a number of Gaelic and Literary societies. There appeared at first to be no difficulty whatever about furnishing the quota called for: indeed there was some claim that less than 12,000 would be inadequate, judging from the muster rolls of all the societies desiring to participate. So there was some indignant protest when it was learned later that on account of the inordinate length of time it would take to get the procession past a given point on the basis first laid down, the Irish contingent would necessarily be cut down to 5,000 men. Eventually it was recognized that this was just as well. It developed curiously that the Irish in New York are not as numerously organized as they would seem. When they get the Society habit they are likely to belong to many societies, and this possibly multiplies by four their apparent number. Many of the delegates belonged to half a dozen of the societies represented. Naturally they could march with only one. The falling off from this cause was most noticeable with the Ancient Order of Hibernians—numerically the largest on its lodge rolls.