A landmark three week long festival of Irish arts and culture gets underway in Washington DC today as part of the US commemorations of the 1916 Rising.
The celebratory festival - Ireland 100 - held at the John F Kennedy Center for Performing Arts will be officially opened by US Vice President Joe Biden and Taoiseach Enda Kenny at a special concert tonight.
While in Washington DC for a two-day visit, Mr Kenny will also plant a tree on the grounds of the US Congress at Capitol Hill to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising, and view documents relating to the Rising held at the US Library of Congress.
Irish actor Fiona Shaw is the artist in residence for the festival and is the director of tonight's gala performance.
Ms Shaw said the festival at the Kennedy Center was "terribly important", that the centenary year marked a transition in Ireland's formation, the end of the first "teething, baby century" of "our ancient culture" and "our modern selves now have an important runway to take off from".
She said that President John F Kennedy had really been the "last Ard Ri" of Ireland and he really was an honorary king of Ireland.
She said his visit had had a "huge effect" on Ireland, giving the country a symbol of power it did not know it had. She described the late US President as the "alpha male who made Ireland believe it was an alpha country", adding that holding an Irish festival celebrating 100 years of the arts at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts made it a suitable alma mater".
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Alicia Adams, Vice President for International Programming at the Kennedy Center is responsible for curating this festival. She said the task of narrowing 100 years of Irish arts down to just three weeks was "wonderful" and she worked with many artists in Ireland to decide on a package of performances that would best reflect that.
She said she expected the Irish-American audience would flock to the festival but she expected it have a broader appeal because Irish arts and culture were so familiar to almost all Americans.
She said Irish dancer Colin Dunne would be a particular draw as he had never performed at the Kennedy Center before now. Jean Butler will also perform.
The festival also includes an Abbey Theatre production of The Plough and the Stars, as well as readings and discussions from writers Colum McCann, Colm Toibin, Paul Muldoon, Anne Enright and Eavan Boland.
There will be musical performances from The Gloaming, Anthony Kearns, and Camille O'Sullivan amongst others.
An Irish teenage uilleann piper will also take part tonight with two adult members of Na Píobiarí Uilleann (NPU).
16-year-old Amy Campbell is totally blind and will perform onstage tonight with Gay McKeon and Emmett Gill.
In addition to the gala performance for the US Vice President, the pipers will also take part in a number of sessions to allow young people with disabilities in Washington DC to try out the uilleann pipe.
A number of the events are free.
There will be somewhat of a festival experiences with a whiskey and beer tasting, as well as an artificial grass outdoor picnic area.
A giant harp has also been constructed in one of the great halls, strung from ceiling posts, which will be played at ground floor level.
In addition to hosting tonight's opening performance, Fiona Shaw will also perform an evening of poetry from WB Yeats and Emily Dickinson. Something she said she put together to reflect Irish and America, describing Yeats as the "greatest poet of the heart" and Dickinson as the "greatest poet of the soul".
Ms Shaw said the Irish arts scene was "beginning to be very vibrant now". She said the literary scene always performed but she was "particularly interested that training for actors, singers, set designers, painters and all aspects of the technical training" was improving.
She said Ireland was "on the brink" of not having to "send everyone away for training", adding that it would be "great" if there was good training available in Ireland.
