An estimated 3,000 people attended the annual Easter 1916 commemoration ceremony at Dublin’s GPO today. Led by President Michael D Higgins, dignitaries present also included the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, and the Lord Mayor of Dublin Cllr Andrew Montague.
Led by Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Sean McCann as many as 350 personnel from the defence forces, including the Air Corps and the Naval Service, took part what was the 96th anniversary of the Rising.
Following a prayer by the Defence Forces chaplain Msgr Eoin Thynne the 1916 Proclamation was read by Capt Shane Keogh. The President then laid a wreath in memory of those who died in the Rising, which was followed by one minute’s silence.
The national anthem was played as four Air Corps performed a fly-past.
Among guests at the ceremony were relatives of the 1916 leaders, Chief Justice Susan Denham, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan, Minister for Trade and Tourism Joe Costello, Fine Gael chief whip and Minister of State at the Department of Defence Paul Kehoe, Minister of State for Small Business John Perry, as well as Fine Gael TDs Terence Flanagan and Patrick O’Donovan.
A noticeably low Fianna Fáil presence included included Senators Thomas Byrne and Darragh O’Brien and former senator Donie Cassidy. Also there was Sinn Fein TD Caoimhghíin Ó Caoláin, Senator Katherine Zappone, SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell, member of the Council of State Michael Farrell, the papal nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown, IFA president John Bryan, and Fr Sean Healy of Social Justice Ireland.
