A tree grows….in Queens

A Callery Pear, also known as a Bradford Pear.

By Ray O’Hanlon
rohanlon@irishecho.com

Ceremonies remembering 1916 are set to take place all over the United States this weekend, from Seattle to San Francisco, from Chicago to Boston.

One of the more unusual is set for Queens, New York, on Saturday morning.

Unusual in that the raising of flags is being supplanted by the planting of a tree.

Congressman Joe Crowley, Irish Consul General Barbara Jones, members of the Irish American community and local elected officials will commemorate the 1916 centenary with a tree dedication.
Rep. Crowley (D-Queens, the Bronx), Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus and co-chair of the Congressional Ad-Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs, will be trading a gavel for a shovel for the dedication set for 10 a.m. in Sabba Park.

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The tree, according to a release from Crowley’s office, will “serve as a remembrance for the men and women who died fighting for Irish freedom as well as the support that came from the Irish-American community living in New York whose participation was critical in the movement.”

The tree being planted is a Callery Pear, also known as a Bradford Pear.

Sabba Park is at the intersection of Queens Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside.

The planting will be a curtain raiser to a weekend of commemoration that will include a Saturday 1 p.m. Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and subsequent reading of the Proclamation outside 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan organized by the Ancient Order of Hibernians and LAOH, and a full program of events starting at 11 a.m. Sunday in Wagner Park, Battery Park City in Lower Manhattan organized by the Irish government, and which constitutes Ireland’s official commemoration in the U.S. of the 100th anniversary of the Rising which began on April 24th 1916, Easter Monday that year.

The anniversary will also be marked Saturday in Yonkers with a CSL Division 1 all-Irish soccer derby between Shamrocks and Lansdowne at Tibbetts Brook Park at 8 p.m. (preceded by a reserves clash at 6 p.m.).

The 8 p.m. game will be preceded by a brief ceremony marking the Rising centenary and by the end of the 90 minutes the second annual Irish Consulate Cup will be awarded to the winners.

"This weekend promises to be a very special one on so many levels (with) the commemoration of the hundred-year anniversary of the Easter Rising and a trip to Tibbetts to take on our Irish compatriots, Lansdowne,” said the Shamrocks’ Stevie Doyle.

 

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