Join the parade with Panti Bliss, Stephen Rea, Fionnuala Flanagan, Adrian Dunbar, Donal Lunny, Damien Dempsey, Don Baker, Frances Black, Laoise Kelly and Sibéal Ní Chasaide. Assembly Merrion Square on Sunday, April 24th, at 2.00 p.m. setting out to the GPO for 3.00 p.m. This people’s event celebrates the 1916 Rising and urges all to work towards its vision of ‘a republic of equality and opportunity with nobody marginalised’. Well-known actors, musicians and dancers with a wide range of community groups reflecting the diversity of modern Ireland will join forces for the Reclaim 1916 parade, pageant and festival. Actor Stephen Rea and Fionnuala Flanagan, along with Panti Bliss and Stephen Murphy, will give readings. Musician Donal Lunny will play a piece he composed solely for the occasion. Singers include Don Baker, Frances Black and Damien Dempsey. Sibéal Ní Chasaide, who wowed viewers of RTE’s Centenary programme with her haunting rendition of Mise Éire, will also perform. Award-winning uilleann piper Tiarnain Ó Duinchinn, harpists Laoise Kelly and Michelle Mulcahy, and flautist Emer Mayock will join them. Parade participants, including representatives of Ireland’s new communities, will highlight the vision of the 1916 Proclamation for religious and civil liberties and equal rights for all. Travellers, residents of Direct Provision, disability and women’s groups and Clerys workers will underline the work still needed to achieve this. Organised by Reclaim the Vision of 1916, an independent, non-party political, non-profit making citizens’ initiative, the event aims to ensure the 1916 centenary is commemorated and celebrated in an appropriate and relevant manner. RV1916 Chairman Robert Ballagh said: “We believe it is only right and proper, at this historic time, for the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women who fought in 1916 to be marked with dignity and respect.” Ballagh stressed: “It would be a disservice to their memory if we failed to recognise why they did what they did in the first place. These people were not merely rebels, they were visionaries calling for revolution and a complete transformation of Irish society.”
Reclaim 1916 march, pageant and free open air concert
