On the 15th of March every school in Ireland celebrated Proclamation Day (Flag Day) in memory of the 1916 Easter Rising. Here in John Scottus we had a beautiful moving ceremony to mark the occasion.

We began with Mr Clancy and Ms Skelton unveiling the national Irish flag as the school community gave a beautiful rendition of Amhrán na bhFiann, our national anthem.

A number of teachers then read out the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic as was done by Padraig Pearse at four minutes past noon on Easter Monday, April 24th 1916, form the steps of the GPO.

5th Class then sang a beautiful rendition of the well known Irish song, The Foggy Dew and recited a William Butler Yeats poem.

Four 6th class girls read us some poems they had written and gave moving and inspiring speeches about the role of women in 1916 and another about equality.

6th Class boys spoke about a number of prominent men who featured in the Rising and showed us their fact files and pictures.

We closed the ceremony with a representative group of children along with Mr Callaghan and Mrs Monaghan reading our very own Reimagined Proclamation that was collectively written by all the pupils in John Scottus School.

And of course we all displayed our fine outfits from the 1916 era.

https://vimeo.com/159275543