ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22,1998, A STAR STUDDED OPENING DAY CERMONY WAS HELD TO INITIATE "ROCKLAND COUNTY'S BICENTENNIAL" CELEBRATIONS. THE HISTORIC LAFAYETTE THEATER IN SUFFERN, NY, WAS AN APPROPRIATE SITE CHOSEN FOR SUCH AN AUSPICIOUS OCCASION.
A thousand lucky people were on hand to experience the pageantry.
Actors, singers, musicians and volunteers donated their time
and considerable talent to this memorable opening day event.
Others who could not be accommodated within the theater
had the option of gaining an appreciation of what went on over our
local radio station, WRKL.
Honorably mentioned were: Native Americans (indian tribes), Afro-Americans,
Hispanics, Asians, Dutch, British, Protestant refugees from France,
Germans from Palatinate states on the Rhine, Presbyterian Scots, and reference to the fact that
Rockland was never a melting pot of nationalities like Manhattan, where
18 different languages-including Dutch, French, English, German, Italian,
Polish, Portugese, Swedish, and several other dialicts-were spoken in
1640s. The script was thusly worded to get a bunch listed.
Nary a Mention of?
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Now to some things the Irish should have been cited for.
Songwriter George M. Cohan was mentioned in the context of a
"Yankee Doodle" of the Revolutionary era. He was a Freemason also.
Some estimates go higher. The British general, Archibald Robertson,
testifying before Parliament in 1779, declared that 50% of Washington's
army was Irish. Philadelphia loyalist Joseph Galloway named the same
figure. Some American historians have disputed these estimates, arguing
that most of the Irish were really "Scotch-Irish" - a vague term
suggesting they were either from Scotland or Scottish Protestants who
had settled ( planted on native Irish lands, I'd put it.) in Northern Ireland.
The indefatigable O'Brien answered this assertion by compiling a list of
names from Revolutionary muster rolls that have appeared in Irish History
for centuries. There were no less than 695 Kellys in the American
army, 494 Murphy's, 331 McCarthys, 327 Connors or O'Connors, 322 Ryans and
248 Doughertys.
One of O'Brien's most notable triumphs came in a dispute with Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts. Lodge asserted that the population of
Massachusetts at the time of the Revolution was "of almost pure
English blood, with a small infusion of Scotch-Irish from Londonderry."
O'Brien found 3,000 unquestionably Irish names on the state's revolutionary
muster rolls - not one Lodge.
Refer to Irish America magazine of July/August 1998 for more.
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Dancers Bring a tapestry to life
Journal News - Gannet Newspapers/Thursday, July 16, 1998
in an article by staff writer Elizabeth Johnson she quotes
Hemu Aggarwal:
"America is not a melting pot, it's a tapestry," she says. "We're
all connected by that tread, but we keep this our own colors and
textures, When you put it all together, it's beautiful."
...........
...........
"We wanted representatives of all diverse ethnic groups in
Rockland County." says Aggarwal, the chair of the festival.
"Unfortunately, she says, not all the diverse groups in Rockland
will have a representative. No Irish groups applied to dance in the
Canadian festival, and so could not be part of the Rockland one.
.................
Does this mean it's a God Save the Queen affair, I wonder.
Irish Contribution Non-existant
Sorry to relate, there was nary a mention of an Irish contribution
to Rockland County at the Bicentennial kick-off. All of this not surprising
to me given what I've noticed and been monitoring over the years.
Having been present and having read a draft of what was read at the
Rockland Bicentennial Commerative Pageant I can truly relate that ethnics
whose contributions were cited would feel somewhat sheepish and funny
were they to realize some glaring and overlooked facts of our history.
That of an Irish contribution in the founding of Rockland County, being
ignored, either by design or otherwise. The script seemed to be geared
to ensure a WASP, an Anglophile love-in, and to propagate the anti-Papist
notions that are alive and well as in the "No Nothing" days. We're expected
to be excited by a version of history that buries a people's contribution
and remain charmed by the unreality of anothers.
Much play was given to doctors whom I'm sure were worthy of mention. Overdone
was the suffrage movement in Rockland and an accounting of the glories of
Molly Sneden who helped a British soldier escape.
What happened to John Suffern whose "New Antrim" village was renamed
"Suffern" in his honor? Suffern figured very big in the development and
founding of Rockland. Fortune Ryan who founded Good Samaritan Hospital?
Irish sisters who founded numerous homes for orphans and educational
institutions e.g. Dominican College in Blauvelt for starters?
James A. Farley Postmaster General of the US, a president
maker, a brilliant politician. Brickmaking factories along the
Hudson in Haverstraw were Irish owned and with labor that was performed
by their Irish immigrant brothers. Havestraw thus provided 90% of the bricks that
were used in the construction of New York city buildings prior to 1920s.
There was a mention of G. Wilson Bartine of the Journal-News,
"For a century and a half, Haverstraw's terrain was cut and slashed
and pitted with yawning holes to furnish clay for the manufacturing of
bricks, which were set all along the Atlantic seaboard.
Mentioned, but few Knew
General John O'Sullivan grandson of County Kerryman
Major Philip O'Sullivan, served in the Revolutionary Army with
George Washington. He faithfully carried out the scorched earth policy
on the Indians for George. Not a very happy achievement to relate.
To be true to history we must tell the good the bad and the ugly
side of events. He was a Freemason as was Washington and his
comrades.
Yankee Doodle - snippet from article by Tom Fleming
...Exactly how may Irish served in the American Army will always
be a source of debate. Historian Michael O'Brien, who devoted his
life to the study of the Irish in Revolutionary and Colonial America,
concluded approximately 38% of Washington's soldiers were either
Irish born or of Irish descent. O'Brien based his figure on exhaustive
studies of muster lists and recruiting rolls, many of which stated where
soldiers were born.
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