1916 Centenary Commemorative Medal commemorations programme. The medal is based on the 1916 Medal which was awarded to those who rendered recognised military service during the week of 23 April 1916. The project to deliver a National Flag to all primary schools in the Republic of Ireland was conducted between September 2015 and March 2016 and involved 10,000 Defence Forces personnel visiting 3,200 schools and presenting them with a handmade National Flag and a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. The Easter Rising centenary parade at the General Post Office, Dublin (GPO) included 2,800 members of the Defence Forces and a display
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,