McGuinness to attend GPO Easter Rising ceremony

NORTHERN IRELAND Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness will attend the official State commemoration of the 1916 Rising at the GPO tomorrow, becoming the most senior Sinn Féin politician to be present for the event.

The Government and Sinn Féin both confirmed yesterday that Mr McGuinness will attend at the ceremony in Dublin to mark the 92nd anniversary of the Easter Rising, having been invited in his capacity as Deputy First Minister.

Sinn Féin yesterday said there was no particular political significance to the fact that the party's second most senior figure was attending for the first time this year.

A spokeswoman pointed out that Sinn Féin had always fully supported the event. Party vice-president Pat Doherty attended last year, and two of the party's TDs, Arthur Morgan and Seán Crowe, were present in 2006, when the commemoration was revived after an absence of three decades.

The spokeswoman said the party had never viewed the State's event as being in conflict with its own Easter commemorations.

"Sinn Féin is encouraging republicans and party members to attend the State and also Sinn Féin's commemoration on the Sunday. The party welcomes the fact that this commemoration is now a regular fixture in the State's calendar of events. We see it as natural that Sinn Féin be in attendance at the event."

The formal ceremony at the GPO on O'Connell Street at noon tomorrow is expected to attract at least 5,000 people.

It will be attended by President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea.

The military parade was revived in 2006 as a special event to mark the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising. However, it was decided to make the military parade and 1916 ceremony at the GPO a permanent annual event again as it had been for decades before the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Some 300 personnel from the Defence Forces, including a brass band and pipe band, will march along the route. Members of the Naval Service, the Air Corps and the Defence Reserve will also take part. The centrepiece of the occasion will be a reading of the 1916 proclamation.

The ceremony will conclude with a fly-past salute by the Air Corps. All branches of the Army will be represented in the parade.

President McAleese will lay a wreath. Following the laying of the wreath, the Tricolour will be raised to full mast above the GPO, the National Anthem will be played and there will be a fly past by aircraft from the Air Corps.

The President will also inspect a guard of honour from the Reserve Defence Forces.

The event will be the first public appearance by Mr Ahern since his return from his St Patrick's Day visit to Washington and following the evidence given by his former constituency secretary, Gráinne Carruth, to the planning tribunal earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin TD Aonghus Ó Snodaigh has this weekend renewed his call to the Government to erect a plaque in Dublin to mark the 150th anniversary of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

Mr Ó Snodaigh said the movement was founded in Lombard Street near the City Quays in 1868 and deserved to be commemorated because of the critical role it played on the path to independence. He said he would raise this issue in the Dáil.