Centenary of the Easter Rising commemorations marking the occasion began on Easter Eve (26 March), as President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins laid a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin. This was preceded by traditional Irish song "The Parting Glass" being performed by the Island of Ireland Peace Choir and succeeded by a minute's silence. Acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Acting Tánaiste Joan Burton were also present. Relatives of the dead were there too and were only permitted to lay their own wreaths when President Higgins was done. Later that day, President Higgins gave a keynote address at a ceremony in the Royal
St. Enda's School radical politics also made even some moderate supporters question what their children might be exposed to, and some, notably Eoin MacNeill, removed their children from Pearse's influence. As it turned out, a large number of St. Enda's pupils did join the Fianna Éireann, and even the IRB, fifteen of whom later took part in the Easter Rising in 1916. Following the execution of the Pearse brothers after the rising, their mother reopened St. Enda's back at Cullenwood House, which the closure of St. Ita's had vacated. Frank Burke, an ex-pupil who had served in the Rising, was headmaster. The school