Ireland marks its birth 100 years after the Easter Rising Saturday March 26,2016

President of Ireland Michael D Higgins has called for 'a new Ireland' on the 100-year anniversary of the Easter Rising, a rebellion largely regarded as having led to Ireland's independence.

Michael D Higgins called for Irish people to take responsibility for building a true Republic in a keynote address to descendants of those who fought and died in the 1916 Easter Rising. 

But he said the ideals of the Proclamation can still inspire today. 

'Our nation has journeyed many miles from the shell shocked and burning Dublin of 1916,' he said. 'We can see that in many respects we have not fully achieved the dreams and ideals for which our forebears gave so much.

President Michael D Higgins lays a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin, in honour of those who fought and died for Ireland's freedom

 

A mural in Dublin's city centre marking centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising as celebrations get underway nationwide