Irish men and women who died in 1916 Rising to be honored on Easter Sunday

The Irish men and women who fought and died in the 1916 Rising will be honored at a ceremony on Easter Sunday.

A ceremony to mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising will take place outside the GPO, O’Connell Street, Dublin on March 31. President of Ireland Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste and the Minister for Defence Micheál Martin and the Defence Forces will be there.

Defence Forces soldiers, including a brass band, a pipe band and representatives of the Army, the Air Corps and the Naval Service will take part in the ceremony, which will conclude with an Air Corps flypast.

The National Flag on the GPO will be lowered at noon. The 1916 Proclamation will be read by an officer from the Defence Forces.

Members of the Defence Forces file past the GPO on O’Connell Street for the Easter Rising 1916 Centenary Commemoration

President Higgins will then lay a wreath to commemorate those who died in the 1916 Rising. A minute’s silence will be observed.

Members of the public can watch the ceremony from the public viewing area outside the GPO, located at the Clery’s side of O’Connell Street and at the south end of the GPO. There is an area for wheelchair users and large video screens will show the ceremony.

On Easter Monday 1916, Irish nationalists launched an armed revolt against British rule in Ireland. Although quickly defeated by the British Army, the rising was a seminal moment in modern Irish history, helping pave the way to the nation’s independence in 1922.

The leaders of the Rising and signatories of the Proclamation, Éamonn Ceannt, Thomas James Clarke, James Connolly, Seán MacDiarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, Patrick Pearse, Joseph Mary Plunkett and Roger Casement were later executed at Kilmainham Gaol.

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