Fianna Fáil is proud of the "central role" the generation of people who fought in the 1916 rising played in founding and building the party, Micheál Martin has said.

Mr Martin was addressing a Fianna Fáil event, which took place the Round Room of Dublin's Mansion House last night, to mark the centenary of the Rising.

While he said “1916 belongs to no party” but to the Irish people, the Fianna Fáil leader said his party has “every right to be proud of the central role which the 1916 generation played in founding and building our party”.

Last night’s events also marked the 90th anniversary of the foundation of Fianna Fáil, and Mr Martin said “exactly ten years after the Rising, men and women who had led and fought for their country met to found a party dedicated to showing how republicanism could continue to evolve and respond to the needs of the Irish people”.

Living republicanism

“They rejected the idea that the methods and policies of true republicans could never change - that they had to be preserved intact until every objective had been achieved. Their commitment was to a living republicanism which embraced the new opportunities created during the Irish revolution.

"At our head stood Eamon de Valera, the most senior surviving leader from 1916. He was then and he remains today one of the greatest ever Irish men. Over an unprecedented period he sought and won the support of the Irish people."

He said Mr de Valera’s 1937 constitution “remains a triumph of the ideals of democratic republicanism and the objectives of his friends and colleagues who had died only 21 years before”.

The commemoration event took place in the Round Room of the Mansion House last night. Mr Martin praised Galway West TD Éamon Ó'Cúiv, Mr de Valera's grandson, who was responsible for organising the party's centenary events.

Mr Martin and Mr Ó’Cúiv both praised the events organised by the State.