Crowds of hundreds of thousands gathered in the Republic of Ireland on Sunday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, remembering the start of a week-long insurrection that laid roots for the nation’s founding.
The day’s weight wasn’t lost on Long Island’s Irish-American community, as more than 200 people including local civic, cultural and political leaders gathered around the Irish Monument in Mineola on Monday to remember those who died for Irish independence.
They said the event reflects the still-strong ties between Ireland and Irish-Americans in the New York metropolitan area, a relationship mentioned in the proclamation of independence read in Dublin on the Monday after Easter in 1916.
“Our monument in Mineola, maintained and cared for, will stand as a testament that the Irish here in America will never forget their past, and we continue to pass it down to the next generation,” said Betty McLoughlin, president of the Mineola-based Irish American Society of Nassau, Suffolk and Queens, which hosted the commemoration.
The commemoration followed the placement of a new plaque remembering the Easter Rising at the Irish Monument, first constructed outside the Nassau County Supreme Court building in 1979 and renovated in 2011.
McLoughlin and Anna McGillicuddy, the deputy head of mission at the Irish consulate in New York, also helped place a wreath on the monument commemorating the uprising, in which nearly 500 people — more than half of them civilians — were killed.
Several speakers on Monday, including Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and Hofstra University professor Maureen Murphy, said the event was an occasion to remember all those who died in Dublin in 1916 — rebels and civilians alike.
“What that highlights is that freedom has never been free. … It has always been due to sacrifice,” Mangano said.
Among those who made such a sacrifice were the seven signatories to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic declaring Ireland’s independence from Great Britain, who were all executed after the uprising ended.
They were among hundreds of Irish rebels who laid siege to several sites in Dublin in 1916, including the General Post Office, where the proclamation was first read.
Eighty-two of those killed in the Easter Rising were rebels, according to the Dublin-based Glasnevin Trust.
Murphy, co-director of Hofstra’s Irish studies program, told the crowd Monday that earlier commemorations took on a “nationalist narrative,” but more recent remembrances have paid better tribute to “ordinary Dubliners” who died and the women who helped the rebellion.
The proclamation, as read by past Irish American Society President Tony Jackson, says Ireland was “supported by her exiled children in America.”
That line means New York’s Irish-American community can “stake its claim” in the early fight for independence, something the Irish Monument memorializes, said Sean Conlon of Monaghan, Ireland, a member of the Irish nationalist political party Sinn Fein.
“The monument we stand in front of, of course, and in other locations dotted around the nation here, speaks volumes in the rich pride of the current generations, and indeed, going back over time, the old guard took in proclaiming their allegiance to the cause of Irish freedom, ensuring that throughout the decades of struggle, those who gave their lives would never be forgotten,” Conlon said.
The Irish Monument is maintained and managed by the Irish Monument Committee, formed in 2007 and comprised of eight Irish cultural organizations.
The committee holds an annual remembrance of the Easter Rising at the monument, and this year was the Irish American Society’s turn to host, committee Chair Donal Mahoney said.
Village of Mineola Trustee Dennis Walsh said he comes to the remembrances every year. Both his parents are from Ireland, he said, and the 100th anniversary is especially important to him.
“I think this is spectacular that they have this in Mineola,” said Walsh, whose surrogate daughter lives in Dublin. “They have it all around the world.”
McLoughlin, a native of County Mayo in western Ireland, said she was glad to see an “amazing” turnout for a “solemn” occasion on a rainy day.
McLoughlin was planning to travel to Dublin for Easter Rising commemorations there, she said, but she decided to cancel her trip to be in Mineola after she was elected president.
“It’s just so amazing to be a part of it, to be here,” she said.
