‘Over 1 million’ attend Dublin Easter Rising commemorations

More than a million people attended either the Easter Sunday parade or the Reflecting the Rising public events on Monday, gardaí have estimated.

Minister for Heritage Heather Humphreys said the events had been a "resounding success" and had gone better than anyone imagined. She said it had been embraced wholeheartedly by the public.

"Last weekend, we all experienced Ireland coming together as a country which is incredibly proud of its national identity," she added.

She described them as the "citizens' commemorations" . Gardaí have put the numbers who attended Reflecting the Rising at 750,000 with more than 250,000 attending the parade on Easter Sunday.

“It was wonderful to see so many young people and families enjoying the public events over Easter weekend,” she stated.

“The fact that so many people were able to participate in and enjoy the events is also a testament to efforts of the hundreds of volunteers who helped out, and to groups like the Civil Defence who were on hand to assist if needed.

“The series of events staged over Easter weekend were the culmination of a huge amount of work across Government and indeed all arms of the State.”

Some 1.1 million people watched some part of the State commemoration on Sunday. The acclaimed Centenary programme on Easter Monday night attracted an audience of 491,000 viewers on RTÉ One representing 35 per cent of the available audience.