SF wants special holiday to commemorate 'freedom fighters'

Sinn Féin has published new legislation seeking to establish a special holiday to commemorate the men and women who died in pursuit of an independent Irish Republic.

The party said there should be a bank holiday on April 24, the anniversary of the reading of the proclamation outside the GPO by Padraig Pearse in 1916.

Sinn Féin's Aengus O'Snodaigh said the Bill was about remembering freedom fighters.

"A debate about freedom fighters or terrorists is a long debate…we need to look at the past and remember from the past how we build the future," he said.