Printing Commemorations

In 1923, Saorstát Éireann established a scheme to award pensions to those who had a proven record of service in 1916. The 25th Anniversary of the Rising was celebrated with the establishment of a Roll of Honour, within which each person recorded their service under one of the 1916 garrisons. In 1966, over 600 survivors took part in the 50th anniversary commemorations. This was one of the largest state celebrations of 1916 and it culminated in a military parade. In 2016, the Decade of Centenaries commemorates the Rising and all those impacted by it.

Throughout these anniversaries print publications and souvenirs reflected not only the celebrations of survivors but also served to commemorate those who had died. Earlier anniversary print productions concentrated on the executed leaders, while later anniversaries prints reflected all those who participated in, or were impacted by, the events of Easter Week 1916. Hence the National Print Museum commemorates this exhibition through the works of numerous printers, known and unknown, who set the seditious type in place and inked the words of leaders that served to inspire a nation.