SINN FÉIN COMMEMORATE THE SETTING UP OF AN CHÉAD DÁIL ÉIREANN

The centenary of the establishment of Ireland’s first national democratic assembly, the First Dáil on 21st January 1919, was celebrated last Saturday in an afternoon of music, film and speeches in the actual room where that first Dáil met, the Round Room of the Mansion House in Dublin’s Dawson Street.

A capacity attendance from across the length and breadth of Ireland heard speeches from Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald TD and Michelle O’Neill MLA as well as a reading ‘as Gaeilge’ of the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil Éireann by Pearse Doherty TD of Donegal.

The opening address was delivered by Cavan Monaghan TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin who received a spontaneous standing ovation from the several hundred in attendance. In the course of his address Deputy Ó Caoláin said that the event was a celebration of “the foundation of democracy in Ireland because…