ABSTRACT
The republican movement is broader than Sinn Fein, and includes individuals and groups who distinguish themselves from the party. Republican commemorations are often organized under the auspices of the broader movement or by named local groupings, rather than advertised as a Sinn Fein event. Their commemorations acknowledge a debt to late-eighteenth-century Irish Nationalism, and emphasize the roots of their movement in the events of Easter 1916. A general introduction and welcome is followed by a reading of the 1916 Proclamation of Independence and then a decade of the Rosary. Rather than remembering acts of individual sacrifice, of violence and death, Internment has come to be focused away from the past and instead directed towards the future. Easter and the Hunger Strike parade focus on the determination to continue the fight and the readiness for self-sacrifice, while Internment has become a time to celebrate the creative aspects of society that allow the republican movement to look forward with optimism.
