Memorial to fallen Royal Irish Constabulary members is a step toward reconciliation

One of the most touching moments of the past year’s commemorations happened 100 years to the minute after the first fatality in the Easter 1916 Rising.

Those who had gathered were left pleasantly overwhelmed when a young girl asked if she may lay flowers alongside the wreaths placed at the gates of Dublin Castle in honour of fallen Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) constable James O’Brien.

It was not so much the gesture at what was already a moving short ceremony, but Freya Connolly’s identity, which marked the moment out as special. Her family explained that she was the great-grandniece of Sean Connolly, the Irish Citizen Army member who had shot dead Constable O’Brien and who was killed himself nearby hours later.