They marched in their hundreds, retracing the footsteps of the volunteers who took to the roads of Co Cork on Easter Sunday 1916.

THE neighbourhood of Springfield just outside Clonlara village in south east Clare is in the forefront of the battle against the raging lower Shannon.

Amid the crackle of gunfire, billowing smoke, and explosions from grenades, Irish troops launched a seaborne attack on an enemy stronghold, eventually subduing its defenders.