Tag Archives: Dublin Castle

Over the last decade, Ireland has led by example, strengthening democracy through citizens’ assemblies. This has inspired the Conference on the Future of Europe – a citizens-led series of debates, which is now coming back to Ireland for more inspiration. The Conference takes place across borders and languages, across cultures and histories, aiming to leave no one behind. This weekend, Dublin Castle will host around 200 citizens from across Europe. These citizens, from all walks of life, will discuss Europe’s future, from the perspective of a ‘stronger economy, social justice, jobs, education, culture, sport, digital transformation’. Being European, means you are part of a unique, living project that enables everyone to reach their full potential and exercise their rights. It means living in societies that aim to maintain peace and unity, while appreciating and protecting our diverse backgrounds, cultures and languages. However, we cannot take this for granted. Democracy is not static and we should be able to respond to …

WHILE the eyes of the nation were on Croke Park this weekend, both for sporting action and commemoration events, ceremonies were also held in this county to mark the centenary of Bloody Sunday. The events of November 21, 1920, are etched deep in the history of the War of Independence. Newspaper accounts of the time used words like “massacre” and “slaughter” to describe the killing of 14 civilians, including three children, and the injuring of up to 80, at the football match between Tipperary and Dublin. The killings were a reprisal for the assassination of 12 British Army intelligence officers and two auxillaries, and were followed, that night, by the torture and murder of Peadar Clancy, Dick McKee and Conor Clune at Dublin Castle. The three had been arrested on suspicion of being part of Michael Collins’s notorious Squad, or of having information about the unit, and are understood to have endured hours of brutal torture. Both Clancy and Clune …

An event to mark the start of the State Ceremonial Programme in 2016 will take place in Dublin Castle this Friday. The New Year’s Day ceremony will be attended by the President Michael D. Higgins, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Lord Mayor Críona Ní Dhálaigh, Tánaiste Joan Burton and Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphreys. It will comprise two key elements – the reading by the Defence Forces of the Roll of Honour of those volunteers who lost their lives during the 1916 Rising, followed by a flag raising ceremony. This will involve the raising of the three flags which were flown on O’Connell Street in Easter 1916 – the Irish Citizens Army Flag, which was flown from the Imperial Hotel on O’Connell Street; the Irish Republican Flag and the National Flag, which were both flown from the GPO . The ceremony will conclude with the playing of the National Anthem. Music will be provided by the Military Band …

CLARE  County Council’s Shannon Town Green Infrastructure Plan has won the Environmental and Sustainable Planning award in the Irish Planning Institute’s National Planning Awards at Dublin Castle. The biennial Awards aim to highlight the best examples of planning practice and honour recent projects, plans and programmes, which have made an outstanding contribution to the quality of life in urban and rural Ireland and internationally. The Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets won the overall National Planning Award. The Shannon Town Green Infrastructure Plan 2012 developed and illustrated concepts put forward as objectives in the Shannon Local Area Plan 2012-2018 to use enhanced wildlife corridors to form a network of walking and cycling routes throughout the town and linking the town centre to the estuary via a walking and cycling routes and a newly developed town park.