Dublin_Easter_RisingThis April the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle published a feature that highlights the Flower City’s largely unknown connection to the 1916 Easter Rising, which would spark nearly a century of conflict over Irish independence.

Éamon de Valera fought for the Irish in the Easter Rising and is a well-known figure in many Irish-American communities. After the rebellion ended, de Valera’s mother Catherine Wheelwright, a Rochester resident, helped her son avoid the death penalty.

And according to legend, three years after the rebellion’s end, de Valera smuggled himself into America to visit his mother in Rochester. De Valera is said to have escaped a British prison and stowed away on a ship traveling to the United States to see his mother again.

On Sunday, April 24, members of the Rochester Irish community and descendants of de Valera gathered together at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery to pay their respects to Catherine Wheelhouse, who was buried there. Éamon O’ Cuiv, the grandson of de Valera, laid a wreath on his great-grandmother’s gravesite. Unlike many of the other local Irish-Americans who attended, O’ Cuiv is a member of the Irish parliament, who traveled all the way to Rochester for the occasion.

According to the Democrat and Chronicle, Wheelhouse “neither confirmed nor denied” her son’s legendary Rochester reunion. Now, the incident is finally becoming a part of Rochester folklore:

Rochester’s connections to Ireland’s famous rebellion is not well known, though Sunday’s remembrance at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, where Wheelwright is buried, was a clear stride toward local recognition. Along with a large crowd of local Irish-Americans was Éamon O’ Cuiv, the grandson of de Valera and great-grandson of Wheelwright.

Like the other freedom fighters in the Easter Uprising, Éamon de Valera knew the insurrection “couldn’t succeed militarily,” O’ Cuiv said Sunday. But the rebels — many who were later executed — saw in their uprising the opportunity to spark a fight for Irish independence.

Rochester is home to a large Irish-American community, who were among the first settlers in the region. During the wave of Irish immigration in the 19th century, many Irish workers helped build the Erie Canal.

Today, 45 million people move within the United States each year, though Rochester has been struggling with population decline in recent decades. The Flower City has seen a shrinking population since at least 1990, though population has mostly held steady over the past 10 years at 210,000 residents.

Still, Rochester’s Irish community still has a huge cultural impact on the city, past, present and future.