16 April 2009 Edition
Remembering 1916, building for Irish unity
16 April 2009
REPUBLICANS throughout the length and breadth of Ireland turned out in large numbers last weekend to mark the 93rd anniversary of the 1916 Rising. At Easter commemorations the 90th anniversary of An Chéad Dáil and the 100th anniversary of the founding of Na Fianna Éireann were also marked. This year also marks the 40th anniversary of momentous events in the North such as the Battle of the Bogside and the burning of nationalist streets in Belfast by loyalists and the RUC. These and other terrible events were to shape politics, not just in the North, but throughout Ireland for the following four decades. They marked also the resurgence of republican resistance to Partition and British rule in Ireland. Free article