President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Micheál Martin have attended an official ceremony at Clonmult in east Cork to mark the 101st anniversary of the Clonmult ambush.
This is where the IRA suffered its greatest loss of men during the War of Independence.
Twelve men were shot dead near a thatched farmhouse at Clonmult by British armed forces on 20 February 1921. Eight others were taken prisoner.
Two of the 12 men were killed as they got water from a nearby well, seven were shot as they lined up outside the house, and three while they attempted to escape.
Two of the men taken prison were subsequently executed.
It was the greatest loss of volunteers in the conflict when almost the entire East Cork flying column was wiped out in a single defensive action.
The ambush is also controversial as the seven men were shot while they were attempting to surrender.
The Clonmult ambush commemoration committee had organised a centenary event last year but Covid restrictions prevented it going ahead.
However it has now been marked after its 101 years.
It included the official opening of a centenary monument which is a diorama of the battle site around the thatched farmhouse, including a memorial listing the 24 men.
The ceremony also included a cross laying ceremony on behalf of the 24 men in the house that day.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Addressing a large crowd who attended the ceremony, including relatives and descendants of those who were killed, President Higgins said it was important we recalled the men's courage and values, and the trauma visited on their families.
He said he found the photograph of the men in plain clothes who were not military trained, taken shortly before they died, very moving.
Here were men to whom independence was so important taking on an empire and the Clonmult ambush had lasting significance in one of the worst weeks of the entire conflict of 1921 with the biggest single loss of life, he said.
The Taoiseach, who also attended the ceremony, had a family connection to the event.
His grandaunt Margaret (Meg) Ahern helped to lay out the bodies of the dead men after the bloody ambush.
