Marking the 90th anniversary of the execution of the first three leaders of the 1916 Rising, the annual State commemoration of the Easter Rising took place in Arbour Hill Cemetery in Dublin.
President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and other dignitaries attended the ceremony. They were joined by the only surviving child of an executed 1916 leader, 92 year old Father Joseph Mallin, son of Michael Mallin a leading associate of James Connolly in the Irish Citizen Army.
Father Mallin has been ministering in Asia for over fifty years but returned home to participate in all the ceremonies marking the Rising. Earlier he led a decade of the Rosary for those who died to liberate Ireland. He also revisited Kilmainham Gaol, where he was first taken as a two year old to say goodbye to his father on the eve of his execution.
Father Mallin will be returning to Hong Kong shortly, intensely proud of his fathers role in securing Ireland's freedom.
An RTÉ News report by Joe O'Brien broadcast on 3 May 2006.
