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The famous green-on-top traffic light on the corner of Milton Ave. and Tompkins St. in Tipperary Hill. Michael Greenlar | mgreenlar@syracuse.com

(Michael Greenlar)

Former Herald Journal writer Margaret LeBrun wrote on St. Patrick's Day, 1987, "It's not March 17 if someone doesn't tell the story of the Tipperary Hill stone throwers."

The story led to one of Syracuse's most famous landmarks, the green-on-top-of-red traffic light at Tipperary Hill, on the corner of Milton and Tompkins.

Pat Ahern, a former leader in the local Irish community, told the Post-Standard in 2005 that the traffic light has become a "landmark for the Irish all over the world."

For Ahern, the light represented the defiant spirit of the Irish, be it against British oppression, the potato famine or the struggle of settling in a new land.

The story begins more than 90 years ago, in 1925. City Alderman John "Huckle" Ryan asked that the new traffic light being put up on Tipperary Hill have the green light on top, a salute to the Irish community.

After originally agreeing to it, city officials reversed their decision and installed the light with green at the bottom. They did not realize the anger they created.

Former Onondaga County Sheriff John Dillon said in 1997, "For everybody else in the world, red meant stop and green meant go. But here, it meant England's red over Ireland's green. And that did not go at all."

About a dozen local boys started hurling stones (dubbed "Irish confetti") to break the red light. The city would come and fix the light, but by the next day it would be smashed again. The joke around the neighborhood was that leprechauns were doing the work.

One of the last surviving stone throwers, Gene Thompson, told the Post-Standard in 1996 that the city became frustrated and let the corner go for weeks without any light whatsoever, hoping the boys would forget.

When the new red light went up, it was smashed.

Bob Gilmartin told Sean Kirst in 2005 that the boys might not have stopped with breaking glass. His grandfather, Dinty, ran a store at the intersection where the stone throwers met. According to Gilmartin, the youths also targeted trolley cars passing near the store, and found a way to push the cars off the tracks as another way to force the city to put green back on top.

Eventually the city, relented, and Tipp Hill received the nation's only traffic light where green is on top of red.

The Stone Throwers Monument shown before its installation at Tipperary Hill Memorial Park.

It took years, though, before the traffic light became the beloved community landmark it is today.

The light is not mentioned in the obituary of John "Huckle" Ryan.

In fact, the first reference to the traffic light in the Post-Standard archives is apparently not until 1949, when the mayor of New York City visited Syracuse, and stood beneath the light to greet the famous Walker triplets (two sets of triplets who grew up in the same family).

Widows of the stone throwers told Sean Kirst in 2005 that the silence may have been for two reasons.

For many years, they said, their husbands worried about sharing tales of throwing rocks and vandalism. They may have had mixed feelings about breaking the law, even as boys.

"Everybody knew everybody in the West End," Rita Davis said, "and no one was going to take a step forward on a thing like that."

Mary Dorsey thought that the Tipp Hill regulars in the 1930s and 40s might have been nervous that if they made a big deal about the light, the city might switch the colors, once again.

"The city didn't like it - not at all," Dorsey said.

Recently, though, the traffic light is recognized as a civic treasure. The original stone throwers were grand marshals on the 1987 St. Patrick's Day Parade, and were officially "exonerated" by Mayor Tom Young.

And although some were hesitant to acknowledge their role in interviews with the newspaper over the years, nearly all of their obituaries mentioned being members of the stone throwers.

In 1996, a monument to the stone throwers was installed on Tipperary Hill. The life-size statue of an Irish-immigrant family, depicts the father of the family explaining the significance of the traffic light.

This feature is a part of CNY Nostalgia, a section on syracuse.com. Send your ideas and curiosities to Johnathan Croyle: Email | 315-427-3958