Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, when roughly 1,000 Irish nationalists marched through the streets of Dublin, beginning a week long rebellion against British colonialism. That Revolutionary act will be commemorated Sunday as the Rhode Island 1916 Centenary Committee holds a ceremony and places a plaque near the Irish Famine Memorial along the Providence riverfront. RIPR’s Scott MacKay sat down with Donald Deignan, a founder of the committee.  

The Leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were buried in the old prison yard of Arbour Hill prison. The memorial, designed by G. McNicholl, features the Proclamation of 1916, inscribed on the wall in both Gaelic and English.

Scott MacKay retired in December, 2020.With a B.A. in political science and history from the University of Vermont and a wealth of knowledge of local politics, it was a given that Scott MacKay would become...