Country readies to commemorate people and events of 1916 Rising
There will be a ceremony, including inter-faith prayers at the graveside, after which President Michael D Higgins will lay a wreath on behalf of the people of Ireland.
Requiem Mass will be celebrated in the Church of the Most Sacred Heart in Arbour Hill, followed by a procession, led by President Higgins, to the graves.
Attending the televised event will be the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, and the Minister for Defence Simon Coveney, who is officially hosting the event.
There will also be commemoration ceremonies in Dublin tomorrow to honour police officers killed in the Easter Rising organised by the HARP (Historical and Reconciliatory Police) Society.
A short remembrance ceremony at the Cork Hill Gate of Dublin Castle will be held for Limerick-born James O’Brien of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, who became the first casualty of the Easter Rising.
Constable O’Brien was shot dead by Irish Citizen Army member, Sean Connolly, at the castle gate on Easter Monday 1916.
A similar ceremony at St Stephen’s Green will be held for Constable Michael Lahiff from Co Clare. He , is believed to have been shot by Countess Constance Markievicz, a member of the Irish Citizen Army.
Limerick will mark the centenary tomorrow and Monday with a wreath laying ceremony on Sarsfield Bridge in the city and the opening of four memorial gardens in the city, in Rathkeale, Kilmallock and Newcastle West.
Two of the 16 leaders executed were Limerick men – Con Colbert and Edward Daly. Eamon de Valera, raised in Bruree, Co Limerick, led the rebels who occupied Boland’s Mills and Kathleen Clarke, who was born in Limerick, was a founding member of Cumann na mBan and set up the Prisoners’ Dependants Fund immediately after the rising.
Coiste Comórtha will mark the centenary in Cork with a Parade of Rights from Parnell Place to the National Monument, Grand Parade.
Events in the county include re-enactments of the mobilisation of over 1,000 Irish volunteers, with events in Kilmurry, Carriganima, Inchigeelagh and Bweeng,
There are events in Cobh, Crosshaven, Kilbrittain, Coachford, Timoleague and, today, the scheduled opening of Michael Collins House, an exhibition centre in Clonakilty.
