AN ESTIMATED 5,000 people turned out for the military commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin today.
A wreath was laid outside the steps of the GPO by President Michael D Higgins with the Proclamation of the Republic read out by Captain Sean Coffey of the Irish Defence Forces.
Commandant Jayne Lawlor also spoke to the assembled crowd with Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Defence Alan Shatter also in attendance.
The official State commemoration was reintroduced in 2006 by the Fianna Fáil-led government, and is now held every year.
Sinn Féin also held a separate Easter Rising commemoration in which party leader Gerry Adams accused the Government of having “an amnesia about the revolutionary period”.
The Louth TD’s party were launching plans for a ’1916 Revolutionary Quarter’ which they say would protect the historic buildings in the area.
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