The GAA revealed plans on Thursday for a 2016 commemorative event to be held on the same day as the football league Division One and Two finals at Croke Park. These will take place on Sunday 24th April, the precise centenary of the Easter Rising.
All clubs have been invited to nominate a member to participate in the event, to be produced by Tyrone Productions, who have previously worked with Croke Park on the Special Olympics presentations in 2003. Details were given at Croke Park by artistic director Ruán Magan.
"The GAA is more than just an athletic organisation," he told the media conference to launch the event. "It's a movement. Maybe as a movement it's the clearest manifestation of the ideals of the proclamation: liberty, equality and fraternity - this notion of all Ireland being part of this new Ireland that emerged out of the 1916 Rising.
“We wanted to get that idea into this show so 3,500 people will take part. We’ll tell a story of Irish history from Cúchulainn and the Táin Bó Cúailnge all the way to the Gaelic revival from which the GAA was born and then into the 1916 Rising itself. But really it’s the phase after that that’s the important one.
“After the 1916 Rising so many GAA clubs begin to spring up around the country and their names tell you a lot about what the founders of their clubs were trying to express: a lot are called after Pearse or O’Rahilly and have connections with the ideals of the Easter Rising.
“What we wanted to do was encapsulate that spirit so from the beginning to the end everybody sitting in the stadium will be part of the show. They will sing in it and parts of the show are set around the stadium so we’re not building a stage which would be normally done here in Croke Park. Instead we’re staging it within the stadium and of course on the pitch.
“We’ll have a massive display of fireworks to kick it off and a celebration of ancient Irish history along with three spectacular expressions of Irish dance throughout but very much in the spirit of inclusivity. We have the proclamation being read by 32 children from the 32 different counties and we have as many of the clubs as we possibly can, marching onto the field at different times with club flags and county flags.”
He also said that there would be a procession of 2,016 people - drawn from various walks of life - onto the field before the crescendo, a firework display celebrating the tricolour.
“It will be very much about celebrating the Irish flag,” said Magan, “celebrating GAA history and everything that it means but being focused on and conscious of the inclusivity of the flag: Catholic, Protestant - all of us together as one.”
Tickets for the finals will be available from the usual sources.
