Ms Nora Comiskey:

I thank the committee for inviting us to attend this meeting. We are the 1916-1921 Club. Our sole aim is to celebrate 1916 and 1921 and to stand up for everything initiated by 1916.

We have supported the Government's plans for the celebrations. We have a strong and dedicated following. In 2006 the president of the club, Paraic Byrne, wrote a letter to The Irish Times stating the club's support for the Government's plans for the commemoration and to show that we support the legal government of the country.

People will know that we support the legal Government of the country and we supported it on all its celebrations.

The 1916-1921 Club exists to commemorate the 1916 Rising and the subsequent struggle for independence during the following five years that culminated in the first democratic Government in 1919. It was certainly the first organisation to represent ordinary people, including women. The club sees 1916 as being worthy of commemoration as the seminal event in the nation's history. We should not forget that for some two decades in our recent history the State chose not to commemorate or celebrate the event that led to its foundation. The 1916-1921 Club is in the process of compiling a programme of events as we approach the centenary. We strongly believe, as do our members, that the Moore Street and general retreat area should form a central part of these celebrations. We believe that the extreme sacrifices of the leaders of the 1916 Rising are responsible for the peaceful, democratic Government we all enjoy today. We plead with our public representatives and media to refrain from referring to the Rising as a violent encounter while ignoring the violence that engulfed the world at the time and also ignoring the fact that two years previously the Ulster Unionist Council-UVF armed itself to the teeth to oppose Home Rule. It is said that forgetting the past leads to a repeat of the mistakes of the past, and therefore it is of the utmost importance that all physical links to the event in our history that led to Independence are treated with the utmost care, attention and respect.

We are a mere four years away from the centenary of the 1916 Rising, the pivotal event of our history. The generation who participated in that event are no longer with us, but the buildings, streets and laneways they held in the name of the Republic remain with us as they were then. These are our lasting physical link to that momentous event - the birth of this nation. In light of that, the 1916-1921 Club supports the development of a historic, cultural and educational quarter in the GPO-Moore Street-Moore Lane area, the location of the last headquarters of the 1916 Provisional Government, where five of the signatories to the Proclamation spent their last hours of freedom before being executed. The Proclamation is still one of the most enlightened documents in the world today, and we should continue to bring it to the attention of the international community.

If members would like I will read out part of the letter from 2006 to show that we supported the Government.