Ireland Marks Centenary Of Irish Volunteers

By David Blevins, Ireland Correspondent

The centenary of the Irish Volunteers, the force that fought for independence from Britain and participated in the Easter Rising of 1916, is being marked in Ireland.

President Michael D Higgins lays a wreath during the State Ceremony

Irish President Michael D Higgins has addressed guests and laid a wreath in Dublin's Garden of Remembrance before a fly-past by the Irish Air Corps.

Two years ago, the Queen honoured Ireland's dead when she laid a wreath at the same memorial during her historic visit to the Irish Republic.

Soldiers mark the founding of the Oglaigh na hEire

President Higgins' office announced last week he is to make an equally significant official visit to the United Kingdom in April of next year.

The Irish Volunteers came into being at a public meeting in Dublin's Rotunda on November 25, 1913, to reinforce the nationalist argument for Home Rule.

President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Enda Kenny

Earlier in the year, Unionists in Ulster had formed the Ulster Volunteer Force to resist Home Rule, then the dominant issue in Anglo Irish relations.

World War One split the Irish - tens of thousands fought for Britain in the hope that their efforts would be rewarded with Home Rule afterwards.

The commemoration is one of many occuring in "the decade of centenaries"

But by 1916, membership of the Irish Volunteers had increased again to 15,000 and they played a critical role in the Easter uprising against Britain.

The commemoration is just one of many taking place in a period described as "the decade of centenaries" in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.

A lament to The Volunteers is performed by bagpipe players

In September 2012, Unionists marked 100 years of the Ulster Covenant, signed by half a million men and women opposed to the Home Rule Bill.

Next July marks the centenary of World War One, in which thousands of soldiers from the 16th Irish and 36th Ulster Divisions lost their lives.

And the centenary of the Easter Rising, a defining moment in the establishment of Ireland's independence from Britain, will fall two years later in 2016.

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