They reside in your neighborhoods, shop local grocery stores and could even be sitting next to you in the church pew, but when Michael O’Connor moved here, he asked, “Where are all the Hibernians?”

“I went into the Catholic churches and found them and recruited new members,” said O’Connor, a parishioner of St. Patrick Parish, who moved to Florida in 2007 and is president of the new Palm Beach County Division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH).

The word “Hibernian” is from the Latin for “Ireland,” and the Hibernian order is a Catholic Irish-American organization stemming back to Ireland. The American order was founded in New York City in 1836 at St. James Parish.

The group’s overall mission is friendship, unity and Christian charity, and at this point, the Palm Beach group is focused on recruiting new members.

“We’re a diverse group,” said Doug Bowe, a local dentist and parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola in Palm Beach Gardens. “I’m in my 60s, but guys in their 30s are joining.”