Six years after the Easter Rising a new organisation was formed to honour “Men of Easter Week”. Named the “1916 Club”, they held their first annual church parade. Before the procession that began at St. Mary of Angles on Church Street and continued to Glasnevin Cemetery, where some of the fallen of Easter Week were buried. At the time, the Republican Plot didn’t exist as such, as many of who are now buried there, were still alive at the time. None of the executed leaders of the Rising were buried their neither, their final resting place in Arbour Hill Cemetery.
In spite of the political tension between the pro and anti Treaty supporters, which could have erupted at any moment the commemorations continued. Large crowds lined the route from Church Street to the Parnell Monument, stopping all traffic on the route. When the parade reached O’Connell Bridge, they slowed down and the St. James Pipe Band began playing a lament, as the reached the GPO, still a burnt out hollow behind it’s facade at the time.
On the approach to Glasnevin Cemetery, the parade slowed down again to the solemn music of the “Dead March”. Again a crowd had formed to greet them at the cemetery gates. Inside wreaths were laid on the graves of the dead heroes of more recent times and of old in various locations throughout the cemetery. The Rosary was recited in Irish, which formed a Republican tradition, that still exists, regardless of the patriot’s religious faith.
The event concluded by the band playing “The Soldier’s song” and “Wrap the Green Flag Round Me.”
Weekly Freeman’s Journal 29 April 1922
Sources
Freeman’s Journal 25 April 1922 p 3
Weekly Freeman’s Journal 29 April 1922
