21 August 2016: Annual Collins/Griffith commemoration, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin 11

On Sunday 21 August 2016 Glasnevin Trust hosted the annual Collins-Griffith commemoration, marking the deaths of both Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins in August 1922. Each year, in mid-August, the Collins-Griffith Commemoration Society organises the ceremony at Glasnevin Cemetery to commemorate the lives and legacies of two of the chief architects of the Irish Free State. Arthur Griffith (1872-1922) was the politician and journalist who founded and later led the political party Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. Collins (1890-1922) was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and TD in the first Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence of the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, in early 1922 he became both Chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-chief of the National Army. He was shot and killed on 22 August 1922 in an ambush at Beal na Bláth, in west Cork. Both Collins and Griffith are buried in Glasnevin.

The event took place at their burial places in Glasnevin Cemetery on Sunday 21 August at 12pm. The oration was delivered by Mr. Leo Varadkar TD, Minister for Social Protection. The commemoration was organised in conjunction with Glasnevin Trust and the Defence Forces, and was preceded by mass at Berkeley Road Church.

Explore the National Archives of Ireland online exhibition on the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.