The President, Mrs McAleese, yesterday attended a Mass at Arbour Hill, Dublin, at the annual commemoration of the 1916 Rising.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, was also present with members of the Government. Also in the congregation were the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, Fine Gael leader Mr Michael Noonan, deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin Mr Royston Brady, Chief-of-Staff of the Defence Forces Lieut Gen Colm Mangan, Garda Commissioner Mr Pat Byrne, and a large number of TDs and senators.
Many relatives of the 1916 leaders also attended. Mass was celebrated by the Bishop of Limerick, Dr Donal Murray. It was followed by a wreath-laying ceremony performed by Mrs McAleese, who was accompanied by her husband, Dr Martin McAleese.
In his homily, Dr Murray said: "Today's commemoration is a reminder that, however changed it may be, today's Ireland did not appear from nowhere. We are the heirs, even if we sometimes seem reluctant to acknowledge it, of those who have gone before us." The 1916 Proclamation opened "In the name of God and of the dead generations from which [Ireland] receives her old tradition of nationhood."
Dr Murray said of those who died in 1916: "They would have expected that we, like them, would be conscious that we are heirs of the dead generations. But they would not have wished us to cling to the past or to try to recreate the past of their dead generation. They would have wished us to look to the future and to ask as Pearse did in his day, `What if the dream comes true?'"