Republicans across Belfast will host their Easter commemorations online this year as the annual parades are cancelled for a second time due to the pandemic.
Last year, there was no Easter parade on the Falls Road for the first time since marches were banned during World War II.
With Covid-19 restrictions still in place, parties and organisations will host a range of virtual commemorations and small ceremonies with limited numbers.
The National Graves Association, which hosts the largest of the parades, will once again mark the occasion with an online broadcast that will start at 2.30pm on Easter Sunday (4 April). Belfast National Graves Association Chair, Joe Austin, will deliver an Easter message that will pay particular tribute to the those buried in the Republican Plot at Milltown Cemetery.
The event will also feature music and a poetry recital, with William Butler Yeats’ poem ‘Easter 1916’ read by young people sporting their GAA jerseys at the Republican Plot.
By incorporating music, sport and the arts, Mr Austin said this year’s commemoration will mark the legacy of local martyrs who were “much more” than IRA Volunteers and political activists.
While republicans will be unable to gather in numbers at the cemetery, Mr Austin said the thousands who visit the Republican Plot throughout the year continue to “recognise the sacrifice” of Ireland’s patriot dead.
Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald will also give an Easter address, which will be released online.
The Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) will hold its virtual commemoration at 2pm on Easter Sunday.
The IRSP urged people to join them as they “commemorate those that paid the ultimate sacrifice for national liberation and socialism in Ireland.”
The Workers’ Party will host an online commemoration at 1pm on Easter Sunday when the party will deliver its annual address. Party activists will also hold wreath-laying ceremonies in Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Lurgan.
At 3pm on Easter Sunday, Saoradh will hold its online national commemoration. The party stated: “It is at this time of year as Irish Republicans we take stock and reflect upon the deeds of the past, our efforts within the last year and indeed our plans to bring about National Liberation and a Socialist Republic in the future, and this year will be no different as we virtually celebrate Easter.”
Socialist Republican group Lasair Dhearg will hold a virtual 1916 Rising commemoration, streaming across social media at 1pm on Easter Monday (5 April).
The broadcast will include its Easter message and associated commemorative display.
Republican Sinn Féin has said its commemorations and wreath-laying ceremonies will take place this year while “adhering to restrictions”. However, it has yet to specify when these will take place.
