Ireland

Dissidents’ Easter Monday Derry ceremony passes without incident

Members of Saoradh, self-styled political wing of the New IRA, addressed the crowd

A young dissident republican supporter in Derry City cemetery during the 1916 wreath laying event as snow falls. Photograph: Getty

Mon Apr 5 2021 - 20:16

A wreath-laying ceremony attended by dissident republicans has passed without incident.

About 30 people attended the event, uninterrupted by police, at the Derry city cemetery on Easter Monday.

The Derry 1916 Commemoration Committee had originally planned a march for the event, which marks the anniversary of the Easter Rising. But these plans were scaled back to a wreath-laying ceremony, amid appeals for the event to be cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Members of Saoradh, the self-styled political wing of the New IRA, addressed the crowd from the graveyard. Saoradh opted to hold its Easter commemorations online this year, for the second consecutive year, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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It is now three years since such an event has taken place in Derry. The Easter Monday event was also moved online in 2020 because of the pandemic.

And it was cancelled in 2019 in the days following the murder of journalist Lyra McKee.

The 29-year-old was shot dead by a New IRA gunman while observing riots in the Creggan.

Monday’s wreath-laying ceremony had been branded a “clear challenge to police by dissident republicans” by DUP MLA Gary Middleton.

Concerns had been heightened following a week of unrest in Derry.

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