THE taoiseach held private talks with the Irish army more than three months before announcing the reinstatement of the traditional 1916 Easter parade at Dublin’s GPO.

Bertie Ahern contacted Lieutenant-General Jim Sreenan, chief of staff for the defence forces, about the Irish army marching down O’Connell Street to commemorate the Rising, as it did until 1970.

The taoiseach declared at the Fianna Fail ard fheis on Friday night that the military parade would be an annual event and “an expression of our pride as a nation”.

Brian Cleary, the spokesman for the defence forces, said: “There had been tentative words about it in an unofficial capacity some months back, when the taoiseach spoke to our chief of staff about a large-scale ceremony.”

But the Department of Defence had not been consulted on the plans, and only became aware of it with the taoiseach’s announcement last Friday. Fine Gael and Labour were also left out of consultations, which has angered opposition TDs.

Billy Timmins, Fine Gael’s defence spokesman, said: “While I think it is important that we do commemorate 1916, the setting up of a committee to do this is premature.

“The society of Ireland has evolved and we are still going through a reconciliation process and I don’t think it is helpful for an organisation like a political party to put these plans in place.

“I would be sceptical that Fianna Fail is using this for party political reasons rather than a genuine recognition of what took place in 1916.”

A senior army source indicated the first parade will take place next Easter and will include up to 600 troops from the army, and personnel from the air corps and navy. The air corps will take part in a fly-past over the city. There will be a review of troops by President Mary McAleese and a guard of honour.

The celebration will showcase artillery and air defence equipment used by the forces in overseas operations.

This will be the first large-scale Easter military parade since the eruption of the Troubles in 1969. There was a small parade outside the GPO in 1991 to mark the Rising’s 75th anniversary.

It is understood that talks will be held with the Department of Justice in the coming months to determine the number of extra gardai needed to monitor the event.

Speaking at the ard fheis, Ahern said: “Our defence forces — the only legitimate army of the Irish people — will parade to commemorate this historic event and their proud contribution in the service of the state.

“We in this state will proclaim our republicanism. We will recognise and praise the vision of the volunteers of 1916 and indeed the war of independence. We will show that our defence forces are the true successors of the volunteers. The Irish people need to reclaim the spirit of 1916, which is not the property of those who have abused and debased the title of republicanism.”

Ahern said a one-day commemoration is not enough and announced the establishment of a 1916 Centenary Committee to mark the 100th anniversary of the Rising in 2016.

“Since its foundation, Fianna Fail has rightly commemorated the heroic struggle of the men and women of 1916,” he said. “But it is now time that we suitably recognise the self-sacrifice of our forebears. Many of those who fought in 1916 became the founding members of our party. We all know the names of de Valera and Markievicz. We are also the party of Padraig Pearse’s mother and sister.”

It has not yet been finalised how the parade bill will be funded. The Defence Forces has its own budget to cover ceremonies involving military personnel but it is not thought that this would finance the large-scale event planned for next year.

“We would not be concerned about putting on such a large-scale ceremony,” said the army source.

“The last event at the GPO to mark the Rising was a much more low-key affair which was marked by a military ceremony. We don’t expect additional costs from the defence forces to provide this ceremony.”

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