Archbishop Diarmuid Martin will lead a "Way of the Cross" procession from the Wellington monument at 3pm today in Dublin's Phoenix Park.
This increasingly popular Good Friday event, which Dr Martin has taken part in every year since his return to Dublin, continues to the papal cross, stopping at five "stations" along the way. Open to everyone, it is organised by Communion and Liberation, with music provided by the group's choir, conducted by Raffaela Braga.
In Lucan, Co Dublin, there will be an ecumenical prayer walk, starting at 1pm from St Mary's Catholic church. It will continue to the local Presbyterian church, the Methodist church and end at St Andrew's Church of Ireland church. At 8 pm there will also be a Communion service at Lucan Presbyterian church.
In Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, at 3pm there will be a procession of the cross from the Catholic church to the local Church of Ireland church.
At Christ Church in Dublin there is choral evensong at 3.30pm with Tenebrae at 9pm, while in St Patrick's cathedral the proclamation of the cross takes place at 2pm, with Bach's St Matthew Passion at 8pm in aid of the Carmichael Centre.
Good Friday ceremonies take place in most Catholic churches at 3pm; details can be found at www.catholiccommunications.ie (click on "Easter 2006").
The name of spy Denis Donaldson, murdered in Donegal last week, will today join the list of more than 3,500 people who have died as a result the Northern conflict and which are read out every year on Good Friday in an act of commemoration at the Dublin Unitarian church on St Stephen's Green. Believed to be the only service of its kind in the country, it begins at noon and continues until around 3pm. Readings are by church members, and begin alphabetically with Anthony Abbott, a soldier from Manchester shot dead in 1976 by the IRA in Ardoyne, north Belfast. The litany will conclude with William and Letitia Younger, an elderly Protestant man and his daughter who were beaten, stabbed and shot by intruders in their home a mile further north in Ligoniel in 1980.
The litany starts with John Patrick Scullion, the first victim of the Troubles, a Catholic storeman shot by the UVF in June 1966 as he walked to the house in the Falls Road area he shared with his blind father.
The names are simply read out, most taken from the 1999 book, Lost Lives, by journalists David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton and David McVea. Occasionally Unitarian minister Rev Bill Darlison will interrupt to say a short prayer or a member of the congregation may read a poem.
Editorial comment: page 15