Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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123. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the key events being organised by his Department to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising abroad; the budget allocation that has been made from his Department for those commemorations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28340/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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On 29 June, together with the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Ms Heather Humphreys T.D., I launched the Ireland 2016 Global and Diaspora Programme, one of the seven strands of the overall Ireland 2016 Programme, which was launched by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste earlier this year.

The Global and Diaspora Programme, which includes events around the world organised by Ireland's Embassy network and by Culture Ireland, will see the Irish diaspora, international friends, partners and local communities engage in a range of commemorative, community and creative activities to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising, including its international dimensions. The Programme will also be an opportunity to present the best of Irish arts and culture to the world.

The Programme includes a number of flagship events. In Washington D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in partnership with the Embassy of Ireland, will host a three-week festival of Irish arts and culture entitled 'Ireland 100: Celebrating a Century of Irish Arts and Culture', from 16 May to 5 June 2016, while in London, a concert featuring Irish classical musicians and singers will take place at the world-renowned Wigmore Hall, in April 2016.

The Programme also engages with young people and local communities. In Argentina, for example, the Irish Embassy in Buenos Aires will hold schools' essay and art competitions, which will encourage participants to reflect on themes that include the Easter Rising and Irish-Argentine relations. In addition, the importance of the Irish language to our communities abroad is reflected in the Programme. In June 2016, Glór na nGael and our Consulate General in Boston will hold a conference bringing together Irish language groups from across the United States.

Film screenings, artistic and cultural programmes, seminars and commemorative and community events from Paris to Dubai, and from San Francisco to Tokyo, are already included in the Programme and many more are being planned. I have arranged that up to €500,000 be set aside from within existing resources in my Department to support these initiatives.

The current iteration of the Global and Diaspora Programme, which is being updated on a regular basis, can be viewed on my Department's website, www.dfa.ie.