Elizabeth Stack has been formally fired as Executive Director of the American Irish Historical Society.
She was notified of her dismissal by email late Friday.
Stack had been informed by the AIHS Board on March 18 that her full time position was being eliminated and that the position was being replaced by a part-time post. She was not offered the part-time job.
The Echo understands that Stack was told Friday that she was being dismissed on the grounds that she had not responded to a separation agreement within a specified 21 days.
Stack, it is understood, had in fact responded within the specified time period and was of the view that negotiations between herself and the AIHS would continue after the period expired on April 10.
While it was evident that her services were no longer required by the board, Stack continued to work through the 21 day period and beyond. It is understood that Stack was of the view that she should continue to work on events she herself had organized.
That ended Saturday in no uncertain terms. In addition to be being fired, Stack found herself locked out of the AIHS building at 991 Fifth Avenue.
Stack had turned up to assist in the presentation of a revue marking the 100th anniversary of the publication of "The Great Gatsby."
She discovered that the locks had been changed and could not gain entry to the society's Gilded Age mansion.
The news of the final termination of Stack's time as Executive Director, both in words and in a physical action, quickly swirled through the emails of a number of people associated with the AIHS, both currently and in former years. Stack herself could not be immediately contacted.
Terry Golway, one of the three board members who resigned after the March 18 elimination of Stack's Executive Director position, said he was astonished.
"The changed locks is shocking," said Golway.
"Imagine, Elizabeth Stack felt obliged to show up after being fired to make sure an event goes smoothly and she finds that she has been locked out. What more do you need to know about Elizabeth's character?"
Golway resigned his board position, together with Danny Leavy, and former NewYork City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, after the March 18 elimination of Stack's full time post. That elimination came just hours after Stack had been presented with an award by New York State Attorney General Tish James.
The three said in a statement at the time that the board’s decision was "a catastrophic setback for an organization that is struggling to put past discord and scandals behind it."
The statement attributed to all three continued: “Dr. Stack has done a remarkable job reviving an organization that was dormant for years. Just yesterday, on St. Patrick’s Day, many people told us that they have enjoyed the programming that Elizabeth has put together over the last year. Now, however, all of the programs she has organized in the coming months are likely to be cancelled because of the board’s unfair and short-sighted decision.”
Terry Golway, who served as interim executive director for several months before Dr. Stack’s arrival from Albany - where she had been running the Irish American Heritage Museum - said at the time that the board’s majority had committed "institutional suicide."
“Just when the society seemed to be headed in the right direction, the board’s majority has decided to scale back in the name of economy,” Golway said.
The statement noted that a fourth board member, Charles John O’Byrne, had resigned several months ago after expressing dissatisfaction with the board’s direction.
It said that two other board members resigned several weeks after their appointment in late 2023.
"Of the original nine members appointed to the revived society board in 2023, only four are left," the statement concluded.
Those former board members are now concerned over the fate of the AIHS archives as they believe that there was a desire on the part of the board to move those archives out of 991 Fifth to another location. This, it is understood, has not actually happened and the archives are still held at 991.
And the former board members also support the view, which has been circulating in corners of the community for some time, that 991 Fifth Avenue should be sold because the cost of running and maintaining it cannot be met in the long term.
The four former board members say that the idea of ridding the society's headquarters of it archives, a move they describe as “outrageous," was in keeping with the current board’s determination to preserve the society’s building at 991 Fifth Avenue, this at the expense of its core mission.
The Echo understands that all four believe the society should sell its building.
They point to the idea being raised at a private fundraiser last fall by former board chairman Michael Dowling, head of Northwell Health Systems, and former longtime board member Niall O’Dowd.
The four are supporting their contention in part due to the building facing foreclosure. This is linked to the society being sued over an unpaid $3 million loan given during the previous board’s tenure.
The previous administration also proposed selling the building and moving the society to Cooperstown in upstate New York. That proposal led to community outrage and removal of that board. The initial selling price at the time was $52 million. It was later reduced to $44 million. There was ultimately no sale.
“The sad reality is that the building is a burden that the society simply cannot shoulder,” the former board members said.
“We agree with Michael Dowling and Niall O’Dowd. The only way the society can continue its mission is by selling the building and finding a new location elsewhere in Manhattan, where the archives will remain accessible to scholars.”
“The archives are the very reason the American Irish Historical Society exists,” the four contend.
“The collections are an invaluable and irreplaceable resource for scholars on both sides of the Atlantic. The idea of moving them elsewhere was never discussed in a full board meeting. This process is yet another example of a vision of the society as a social club, and not an educational and cultural center.”
Terry Golway, a historian who used the archives for several of his books, and who told the Echo thirty years ago that the collections were in disarray, said that he had been told last summer that the archives were taking up valuable space in the society’s building.
“I was not opposed to the idea of taking a hard look at the collections and seeing if some might be irrelevant to our mission, or might be better housed elsewhere," said Golway.
"But when I was put in charge of a cursory assessment of the collection, I discovered, to my surprise, that the collections were much better organized and in better condition than they were in the 1990s."
The AIHS archives include correspondence by Eamon de Valera, Michael Collins, John Devoy, Judge Daniel Cohalan, written during the Irish War of Independence and Civil War, as well as letters written by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, Charles Stewart Parnell and Patrick Pearse.
The archives also house a collection of Irish-American newspapers from the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as hundreds of rare books.
