Easter Rising centenary parade over 3,700 military personnel, 78 vehicles and 17 aircraft. The events were broadcast on RTÉ television and it is estimated that around 1 million people viewed the parade across the streets of Dublin. The parade commenced at 10.30am from St. Stephen's Green and made its way along Dublin before stopping at O'Connell Bridge for the main Easter Sunday Commemoration at the GPO. Following the ceremony, the troops marched past the GPO in O'Connell Street before finishing at Bolton Street around 3pm. The Easter Rising ceremony was attended by the President of Ireland Michael D Higgins, the First Lady Sabina Coyne,
Easter Rising Belfast and other towns celebrating the actions of Pearse and his comrades, and annual parades in remembrance of the Rising. The Irish government, however, discontinued its annual parade in Dublin in the early 1970s, and in 1976 it took the unprecedented step of proscribing (under the Offences against the State Act) a 1916 commemoration ceremony at the GPO organised by Sinn Féin and the Republican commemoration Committee. A Labour Party TD, David Thornley, embarrassed the government (of which Labour was a member) by appearing on the platform at the ceremony, along with Máire Comerford, who had fought in the Rising,