Last Saturday, thousands of Pittsburghers lined the streets Downtown to watch what is now the second largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the United States. It’s a celebration of all things Irish—the culture, the music, the food (and drinks!) and the patron saint himself—but some people at the parade may not have realized that this year the celebration had a more solemn purpose: to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising.

If they were so overcome by the festive mood and the sunshine that they missed this tidbit, it’s OK, because they haven’t missed their chance to observe this important Irish centennial. The Pittsburgh Irish community has joined to plan a weekend of events from April 15 through 17, and it will be one of the largest 1916 commemorations in the United States.

What happened in 1916?

For those who never covered Ireland in history class, the Easter Rising was an armed rebellion that began on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, as an effort to end British rule in Ireland. Led by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the rebels took over key locations in Dublin, including locations that tourists may recognize today such as the General Post Office and St. Stephen’s Green, and declared an independent Irish Republic.

The Rebellion failed. It lasted for six days, destroying most of Dublin’s city center and leaving 2,500 people killed or wounded, many of whom were civilians. On Easter Saturday, the rebel leaders were then arrested, held prisoner and executed by a firing squad.

Up until this point, Ireland had been under British control for nearly 800 years, and though animosity between the two cultures ran deep and the Irish were mostly in favor of establishing an Irish Republic, many of them were not ready to fight for home rule. After the Easter Rising, however, when the Irish witnessed the horrific way the British treated the rebels, public opinion changed drastically. Just two years later, the Irish War for Independence began, and it resulted in the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, and later, the Republic of Ireland. It established home rule for every county in Ireland except for the six counties in Northern Ireland, which are still part of the United Kingdom today.

The Easter Rising in 1916 is often cited as the spark that eventually led to revolution. While unsuccessful as a rebellion, the major victory of the Easter Rising was a shift in the attitudes of the people that resulted in Irish independence only six years later.

What is happening in Pittsburgh to remember 1916?

The Easter 1916: Pittsburgh Remembers Committee was created more than a year and a a half ago when Sarah McAuliffe-Bellin, St. Patrick’s Day parade Grand Marshal, and Jim Green, immediate past president of the Allegheny County Ancient Order of Hibernians, as well as the  AOH Pennsylvania State Board, began talking about the upcoming centennial and decided to commemorate the Easter Rising. They are now co-chairs of the Easter 1916: Pittsburgh Remembers Committee, with more than 20 local Irish organizations contributing to the commemoration weekend.

“It’s definitely the largest group of Irish-American organizations that have ever gotten together in Pittsburgh to do a project like this,” says Jim Green, “and no one else in the U.S. is doing something as large as us. Other cities are doing small-scale events and festivals, but no one is doing anything as robust as what we’ve got planned for Pittsburgh. I think it’s wonderful.”

The commemoration event has received support from The Irish Society for Education & Charity, The Year of Remembrance Committee, Trebuchet Consulting, The Irish American Unity Conference and the Consulate General of Ireland— New York, but the committee has relied heavily on the individual Irish organizations to raise their own funds and contribute their own time and talents in support of the event.

“There have been some challenges,” says Green, “Each of these groups has their own purpose and each group has things that they would like to see the commemoration touch on. Whether it’s music, traditional Irish dance, politics… But we’ve tried to make sure that everyone has input into the program and that everybody is satisfied with the direction of the event.”

The result is a commemoration weekend that has something for everyone—families, sports enthusiasts, theater-goers, dancers and people who just want to know more about the history of the Easter Rising.

Why Pittsburgh?

Many people in and around the city of Pittsburgh claim Irish heritage. In fact, it’s the region’s second-largest nationality (after German and before Italian), with one in six Pittsburghers identifying as Irish. Pittsburgh has its own honorary Irish consulate, it’s Irish Festival draws in over 25,000 visitors over the course of one weekend and it boasts a variety of Irish organizations and restaurants for a city of its size.

But if the size of Pittsburgh’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is any indicator, it seems an affinity for Irish culture has grown beyond those with Irish heritage and has been adopted by people of many ethnic backgrounds in the diverse melting pot that characterizes the city.

For this reason, it is appropriate that Pittsburgh should join the ranks of the global 1916 commemoration, which will include events in cities such as Washington, D.C., New York, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne, Brasilia, London, Abu Dhabi, Helsinki and others.

“The Easter Rising in Irish history is similar to the Battle of Bunker Hill in American history. We too had to fight off oppressors and win our independence from the British,” says Green. “The Irish organizations in and around Pittsburgh still very much feel a bond with their ancestors… We want to pause and recognize the event that was the most important one to set us toward Irish independence and unification.”