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Tag Archives: Reveille


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Ceremony Marks the Centennial of First Easter Rising Executions

On Tuesday, May 3, 2016, ceremonies to mark the 100th anniversary of the executions of Tom Clarke, Patrick Pearse and Thomas MacDonagh are held in the Stonebreakers’ Yard in Kilmainham Gaol, the first executions of the leaders of the Easter Rising. Pearse, Clarke and MacDonagh are remembered in similar but distinct commemorations which take place on the spot where they died on May 3, 1916.

The transcripts of the short courts-martial are read aloud. In the case of Tom Clarke, who offered no defence and made no statement prior to his execution, the proceedings take only a few minutes to recount.

The presence of Capuchin friars from Church Street lends a sense of continuity to proceedings. Their predecessors had been there for the men in their final hours and their testimony is read aloud by their contemporaries.

The Government is represented by Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly, Minister for Foreign Affairs Charles Flanagan and Minister of State at the Department of Heritage Joe McHugh. Kelly speaks of living up to the ideals of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, namely a nation that “cherishes all of the children equally.” He says Pearse was well aware of the effect on his family of his pending execution and had written his poem “The Mother” foreseeing his death.

Capuchin friar Adrian Kearns recalls the testimony of Fr. Columbus Murphy, who ministered to Pearse in his final hours. He did not “quail before the possibility of death . . . but faced his last moments with dignity and with grace.” Fr. Murphy remembered Pearse being a “sad, forlorn figure weighed down by the sense of responsibility” who lamented the loss of life and hoped it would not be in vain.

A wreath is laid on behalf of the Pearse family by his namesake Patrick Pearse, a great grandnephew.

Brother Peter Rogers recalls that Clarke was defiant rather than melancholic in his last hours. Fr. Murphy visited him as well. Clarke, the friar recalls, was “relieved that he was to be executed. His one dread was that he would be sent to prison again.” There is no member of Clarke’s family present to represent him at the commemorations, so a wreath is laid on behalf of the family by the staff of Kilmainham Gaol.

Several of MacDonagh’s surviving grandchildren are present. His granddaughter, Barbara Cashin, lays a wreath on behalf of the family. Her father Donagh and her aunt Barbara are left orphans a year after the Easter Rising when MacDonagh’s wife Muriel drowns off the coast of Skerries in July 1917. Cashin says her father had mixed feelings about the Rising, given the double tragedy that befell him and his sister a short time afterwards. “He had a horrendous childhood. He had a strange upbringing and hated to talk about it,” she says. “He had a split mind about it. I remember asking him as a child about it and saying he must be proud. Weren’t they wonderful. He said, ‘they may have been fools as well.’”

The ceremony takes place with full military honours. The “Last Post” and “Reveille” are played, and the service concludes with the national anthem of Ireland, “Amhrán na bhFiann.”

The commemorations are repeated the following day for the next four to have been executed: Joseph Plunkett, Edward Daly, Michael O’Hanrahan and Willie Pearse. Similar events are scheduled through May 12 to mark the exact centenary of the executions of the remaining eight men killed by a British Army firing squad at the Stonebreakers’ Yard.

Meanwhile, President Michael D. Higgins formally renames the East-Link Toll Bridge in Dublin the Tom Clarke Bridge.

(From: “Executed Rising rebels honoured at Kilmainham Gaol” by Ronan McGreevy, The Irish Times, http://www.irishtimes.com, May 3, 2016)


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National Day of Commemoration 2017

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President Michael D. Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar lead the ceremony to mark the National Day of Commemoration at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Kilmainham, Dublin on July 9, 2017. The event is a multi-faith service of prayer and a military service honouring all Irish people who died in past wars or on service with the United Nations. Events are also held in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Sligo, Kilkenny and Waterford.

The National Day of Commemoration is held on the Sunday closest to July 11, the anniversary of the date the truce was signed in 1921 to end the Irish War of Independence.

Leaders from Christian, Coptic Christian, Jewish and Islamic denominations read or sing prayers and readings, and President Higgins lays a laurel wreath. The service is observed by more than 1,000 guests, including Government Ministers, the Council of State, which advises the Taoiseach, members of the judiciary, members of the diplomatic corps, TDs and Senators, representatives of ex-servicemen’s organisations and relatives of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising.

The national flag is lowered to half-mast while the “Last Post” and “Reveille” are sounded. After a minute of silence, a gun salute is sounded, and the flag is raised again before the national anthem is played with a fly-by by three Pilatus PC-9 aircraft.

The Army band of the 1st Brigade and pipers play music including “Limerick’s Lament” and “A Celtic Lament” as guests arrive at the quadrangle of the former British Army veterans’ hospital, now the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

The prayer service begins with Imam Sheikh Hussein Halawa of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland, father of Ibrahim Halawa, who is in prison in Cairo, singing verses from the Quran in Arabic and praying in English, “I ask Allah, the Mighty, the Lord, to bless our country, Ireland, and give the people of our country a zeal for justice and strength for forbearance.”

Soloist Sharon Lyons sings hymns between prayers and readings from all denominations, ending with Rabbi Zalman Lent: “May the efforts and sacrifice of those we honour today be transformed into the blessing of people throughout the world.”

Speaking to reporters, Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces Vice Admiral Mark Mellett says more than 650 personnel are serving in eleven countries and on the Mediterranean Sea. “In the Defence Forces we have over 80 people who have given their lives in the cause of peace internationally, and I think it’s a sign of a State that recognises those who give this service,” he says. “The military of our State serve the political and serve the people. And it’s this loyalty to the State which is actually critical, and I’m delighted that we have a day like this.”

Mellett’s views are echoed by former sergeant Denis Barry, who says 47 Irish soldiers died in Lebanon and it is important to pay respects for that sacrifice. “None of us who served ever thought we would see the day we could travel in Lebanon without weapons, heavy armaments or flak jackets.” That United Nations mission paid off, he says.

Former British soldier Ron Hammond says the event reflects positive developments, such as the creation of the veterans’ Union of British and Irish Forces. He served from 1960 to 1980 in the Royal Irish Fusiliers and Royal Irish Rangers, spending time in Germany, Canada, Yemen and north and south Africa. He joined the British rather than the Irish forces because at the time “a home posting in the Defence Forces was Collins Barracks and an overseas posting was the Curragh encampment.”

(From: “Irish military dead honoured in National Day of Commemoration” by Marie O’Halloran, The Irish Times, July 9, 2017)


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State Funeral for Former Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey

A State funeral is held in Dublin at noon on June 16, 2006, for former Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey followed by burial at St. Fintan’s Cemetery, Sutton, Dublin.

Large crowds turned out for the proceedings including VIP guests, members of the Fianna Fáil party and members of the Oireachtas, who begin arriving at the church at 10:00 AM, although some members of the public begin queuing for a chance to get into the church as early as 8:00 AM. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, arrive at 11:45 AM, followed shortly afterwards by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr. Catherine Byrne. Many members of the public watch and listen to the service outside the church on loudspeakers and big screens.

Approximately 2,000 people pack into the large church for the two-hour service, which includes contributions from members of Haughey’s family and from the Fianna Fail Teachta Dála (TD) Brian Lenihan, Haughey’s friend P.J. Mara and the poet Brendan Kennelly. The majority of seating in the church is reserved for friends of the Haughey family and members of the public from the Dublin North Central constituency that he represented for nearly 40 years.

The requiem Mass is celebrated by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Diarmuid Martin, and by Haughey’s brother, Fr. Eoghan Haughey, OMI. Minister of State Brian Lenihan, the son of former tánaiste Brian Lenihan, conducts the first reading, while the second reading is delivered by Haughey’s daughter Eimear Mulhern. Members of Haughey’s family, including his son, Ciarán, and old friends such as his former political adviser, P.J. Mara, read prayers. Haughey’s son, Seán, who inherited his father’s seat in Dáil Éireann, gives his personal reflections on his father’s life as does poet Brendan Kennelly near the end of the ceremony.

After the solemn Requiem Mass, the coffin is removed from the church by Military Police pallbearers from the 2nd Military Police Company at Cathal Brugha Barracks, followed by President Mary McAleese and her husband, the immediate Haughey family, the Lord Mayor, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste Mary Harney.

The funeral cortege forms outside the church. Soldiers drawn from the 2nd Eastern Brigade battalion carry the Tricolour and the brigade’s flag, escorted by 24 military cadets from the Curragh Military College. Military Police pallbearers carry the coffin to the graveside, where they remove the Tricolour before the prayer service begins.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern delivers a graveside oration in which he says Haughey was “blessed with a strong intellect, natural charisma and driving spirit which was to make him the dominant public figure in the late 20th century Ireland.” A Naval Service firing party fires three volleys over the grave, while the Defence Forces‘ Band plays the Last Post and Reveille.