Thousands of people have taken part in Republican parades across the North to mark the 86th anniversary of the Easter Rising. The biggest turn out was in west Belfast where the parade lead by a Republican colour party marched up the Falls Road to Milltown cemetery.
A crowd of several thousand was addressed in the cemetery by the Sinn Féin MLA, Gerry Kelly, who predicted his party would win additional seats in the Dáil in the forthcoming election in the Republic. Republican commemorations were also held in Derry and in Carrickmore in County Tyrone.
At a commemoration rally in Dublin, the Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said the Irish Government should bring forward formal proposals for a united Ireland.
Mr Adams said while there had been a focus on British resistance to a united Ireland, the reluctance of the political establishment in the Republic to pursue it should also be examined.
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, Sinn Féin's sole member of the Dáil, said his community welcomed the recent call by the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, for a referendum in the North on whether the union with Britain should be broken. Mr Ó Caoláin said such a referendum would provide an opportunity to focus on the Irish unity debate.
