Belfast: The Sinn Féin president has again pressed the two governments to "stand by the Good Friday agreement" and called for "a meaningful, working partnership between nationalists and republicans, unionists and loyalists", writes Dan Keenan.
Speaking at the republican plot at Milltown cemetery in west Belfast, Gerry Adams referred to the convening of the Assembly at Stormont next month.
He confirmed Sinn Féin members would be there, but for only one purpose.
"We will be there for one reason and one reason only," he said. "The election of a government in line with the Good Friday agreement." Addressing the Taoiseach and British prime minister, he added: "This also has to be the focus of the Irish and British governments."
"The two governments are now faced with a stark choice. Are they going to stand by the Good Friday agreement or are they going to continue to pander to rejectionist unionism?" The answer to that question will become clear in the time ahead, he said.
DUP leader Ian Paisley has a decision to make, Mr Adams claimed.
"He has failed in his campaign to smash Sinn Féin. He has failed in his bid to see unionist majority rule returned. The only way Ian Paisley will exercise political power is in an executive with Sinn Féin. I do not say that to be triumphalist in any way. I say that because that is the reality which faces him today."
If an executive at Stormont is not agreed, Mr Adams continued: "Then the two governments must deliver on their commitment to jointly implement all other elements of the Good Friday agreement and increase substantially all-Ireland harmonisation and management."
SDLP leader Mark Durkan and deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell were joined by senior party colleagues at the official commemoration in Dublin.
Assembly members Tommy Gallagher, Seán Farren, John Dallat, Alex Attwood, Dominic Bradley, Patsy McGlone and Dolores Kelly also attended.
Speaking ahead of the commemoration the SDLP's senior negotiator Seán Farren said: "While leaders like Connolly and Pearse have inspired several generations with their vision of an inclusive, united Ireland, it was not until the Good Friday agreement that the whole of Ireland voted overwhelmingly for an agreed and inclusive way forward."
He added: "The agreement enshrines the primacy of democratic, peaceful dialogue. The role for all political representatives as we remember the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising must now be to maximise reconciliation between all the people of Ireland."
Cork
The aspirations of the 1916 Proclamation have yet to be fully realised as successive Irish governments have ignored the legacy of 1916, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness said yesterday at an event in Cork city to commemorate the Rising, writes Olivia Kelleher. Delivering the oration at the republican plot at St Finbarr's cemetery in Wilton, Mr McGuinness said he was incensed by political parties who have moved to align themselves with the men of 1916 in a bid to win votes in the forthcoming election.
"It is only now that all of the establishment parties who have participated in government in this state are attempting to rebrand themselves as republicans and the inheritors of the legacy of 1916. It is wonderful the effect that the prospect of losing Dáil seats can have on election-year republicans."
Earlier the crowd marched from the National Monument at Grand Parade in Cork city. Easter Rising commemoration ceremonies were also held in Clonakilty, Youghal, Bandon and Bantry.
Kilkenny
Kilkenny held one of the first of the country's weekend commemoration ceremonies on Saturday morning when Mayor Marie Fitzpatrick led what she described as a "dignified and respectful" event, writes Michael Parsons.
Robed members of the borough council, local Oireachtas members, county councillors and veterans from the Organisation of National Ex-Service Men and Women attended. A military honour party was provided by soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Battalion led by Lieut Brian Connolly.
The Proclamation was read in English and Irish and the Milan-based Kilkenny opera singer Paddy Rafter sang the national anthem accompanied on violin by his 14-year-old son Patrick.
Sinn Féin held a separate ceremony later on Saturday in the village of Mooncoin in the south of the county.
Galway
Irish people should remember the "spirit of 1916" by opposing the use of Shannon airport in the war against Iraq, the brother of a Guantanamo Bay internee said during Easter Rising commemorations in Galway, writes Lorna Siggins.
Abubaker Deghayes - a British healthcare worker and brother of Libyan lawyer Omar Deghayes, detained in Guantanamo Bay for four years - said the best way to mark 1916 was to "help other oppressed peoples".
Some 100 Fianna Fáil party members marched around Eyre Square, led by two pipers, to the Liam Mellows statue, where a wreath was laid shortly before 1pm. Minister of State for Justice Frank Fahey recalled the role played by Mellows in 1916. The "Galway of today" owed much to "the courage and tenacity of the men of 1916", Mr Fahey said, and the 1916 proclamation was then read by Connacht-Ulster MEP Seán Ó Neachtáin.
Earlier some 70 supporters of Republican Sinn Féin laid a wreath under the Mellows statue as part of a series of events hosted by the party throughout Galway city and county.