In an effort to increase the awareness and public celebration surrounding the 1916 Easter Rising, a Bill has been proposed to make the 24th April each year a new Public Holiday called 'Lá na Poblachta'. The legislation, tabled by Aengus Ó Snodaigh would look at increasing Ireland's Public Holidays from nine to ten each year.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has previously highlighted his wish that there should be greater celebration surrounding this time and this Bill will see a Committee established, Bord Lá na Poblachta, to oversee the celebrations and raise public awareness.
The Bill will look to enact the Public Holidays (Lá Na Poblachta) Act 2013, which will add the 24th April to our current list of Public Holidays, as well as establishing a body to coordinate the celebrations on the day.
The Bill also makes provisions for the Act falling during Easter celebrations, where it will mean that should it fall on Easter Saturday or Sunday the preceding Friday (ordinarily Good Friday) will instead be the Public Holiday as the following Monday will already be a public holiday (Easter Monday).
Before people start booking time off work for long weekends this April it is worth pointing out that this is only in Bill stage and is highly unlikely to be passed for this year, it may well be the case that it might not be passed until 2016 in time for the Centenary celebrations of the 1916 rising.
There are currently no objections to the Bill however as stated it is early days yet, and already some critics have highlighted the difficulties in choosing a historical date to mark Irish independence is the fact that Ireland’s gradual transition from British colony to independent state took many incremental steps, each of which took place on a different date – and some of which went without international recognition.
