By Erin Delmore
Correspondent
The green, white and orange of Ireland’s flag flies high over the Emerald Isle today and on this side of the Atlantic.
This week commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising — the bloody rebellion that jump started the movement for Irish independence.
“The spark that started today is like the Boston Massacre in American history where it didn’t succeed ultimately it did. The people took that and they took the kernel of the revolution and they moved on and created the uprising of 1918, so it’s the spark that started the Irish revolution” said Michael Dressler.
More than 1,600 Irish nationalists rose up against British rule in Dublin for six days, beginning April 24, 1916 — the day after Easter. Nearly 500 people died, more than half of them civilians. The rebels were crushed; they surrendered, and were executed. But the spirit of the rebellion lived on.
“After the execution there were actually 15 men who were directly involved with the uprising and another man, Roger Casement who was hanged in England subsequently. The tide of public support drifted away from the English towards the Irish Republican side after that,” said Administrative Attache for the Consulate General of Ireland Gerard Shivnan.
Around one in 12 Bergen County residents has Irish ancestry — together they make up the second largest ethnic group in the county.
“We’ve never had the Irish flag raising ceremony here. We’ve always had every different nationality and it just came to me one day and I say why can’t we do this for the Irish? And I went to a couple of people and they said yeah put together a committee and I made some phone calls and one thing lead to another” said Bobby Keane.
All four of Keane’s grandparents came over from Ireland. He organized the event, the first in Bergen County’s history.
“I did a lot of the knocking on doors and handing out fliers and just really going to establishments, every pub and promoting and promoting and promoting. Just anybody that I knew, you know Glenn Rock has a lot of Irish. North Vale has a lot of Irish, Hillsdale, Washington Township. I just went around. Actually any door that had a flag or a shamrock I stopped and I put a flyer in their mailbox,” Keane said.
With more than 200 in attendance on this rainy Monday, Keane’s calling the event a success. Now, he can kick back and put his feet up.