Adams calls for 'another Rising' as commemorations take place

Those who died in the 1916 Rising are being remembered around the country today.

A ceremony took place outside the GPO in Dublin today, led by President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Enda Kenny, to commemorate the men and women who died, fighting for the freedom of Ireland.

Prayers were said for those who died, while the proclamation was read out and the tricolour lowered to half mast.

Great grand-nephew to Padraig Pearse, Patrick Scarlet, said he would like the annual commemorations to be a bigger celebration.

"We could do more. Hopefully from next year onwards, next year won't be just a once off because of the 100th anniversary, but I think we should have a real celebration at Easter time every year into the future."

He said he hoped Ireland would celebrate in a similar manner to the United States on July 4, or the French on Bastille Day, with "that sense of nationhood, of citizenship."

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has claimed Ireland needs "another Rising".

Speaking at an Easter 1916 Commemoration in County Fermanagh, he said the country needs a peaceful rising to take control of the ideals of the Proclamation and to put them into practice.

"Partition has retarded and distorted the political, social and economic life of this island … many people now realise that that it makes no sense to have two economies, two education systems, two health systems, two tax codes, two currencies on one small island," he said.

He said he and his party were committed to holding a referendum on a united Ireland "in the time ahead", and that next year's centenary celebrations would act as a catalyst for discussion.