Salute to roots of freedom on GPO steps
Several hundred members of the permanent and reserve defence forces lined O’Connell Street in Dublin for the 20-minute open-air service, which was attended by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, President Mary McAleese with her husband Dr Martin McAleese, and Defence Minister Willie O’Dea.
About 2,000 members of the public, as well as army families and veterans, gathered behind cordons to watch the service, which was revived in 2006 to mark the 90th anniversary of the rebellion and has since become an annual event.
Serving members from all three regional army brigades, in addition to the Curragh training centre, the naval service and air corps took part in the service, beginning with the lowering of the national flag flying above the GPO and a prayer from the head chaplain of the defence forces, Monsignor Eoin Thynne.
Msgr Thynne asked for remembrance for all those who had lost their lives in the cause of freedom.
“May we continue to know the value of what we have received from those who have gone before us,” he said.
“Unless we know the value of our present and our past, we can not build the future.”
He also spoke of modern Ireland with hopes for a pluralist, peaceful society.
He prayed for “a land where different races and cultures live in tolerance and mutual respect and where the benefits of civilised life are shared and enjoyed by everyone”.
Captain Ross Dunphy, of the Irish Defence Forces headquarters, read the Proclamation of the Republic as it was delivered by Rising leader Pádraig Pearse in the GPO to mark the start of the rebellion, and Mrs McAleese laid a wreath in front of the building in honour of all those who died.
After a minute’s silence and a lament played by a lone piper, the tricolour was raised to full mast and the army band played the national anthem.
The ceremony concluded with a fly-past by the air corps along the route of O’Connell Street.
Junior ministers Dick Roche, Trevor Sargent and Conor Lenihan were also among the attendance, along with the North’s deputy first minister Martin McGuinness.
The Taoiseach and ministers met with veterans and descendants of the independence leaders briefly afterwards at a private gathering inside the GPO.
