Irish in Philadelphia remember Easter Rising
By:  Erin E. Arvedlund, Inquirer Staff Writer  @erinarvedlund

… Roughly one in five Philadelphians claim Irish ancestry, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 survey of the region. Nationally, the Census Bureau reports Americans claiming Irish ancestry have dropped to 33.3 million people, or 10.5 percent of the population. The number was 37 million in 2009.

Kevin Kent represents the 21st-century Irish American.

He works as an attorney in Philadelphia and has a direct family connection to the Easter Rising: a distant cousin, Eamonn Ceannt, fought the British during the weeklong battle.

Ceannt (pronounced Kent) was commander of the Fourth Battalion of Irish Volunteers during the 1916 Rising. He was one of 16 men executed by the British on May 8, 1916, for instigating the rebellion and signing a proclamation demanding Irish independence.

Philadelphia’s commemoration of the centennial shows that the city “has always had a strong Irish American community,” Kent said.
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