THE poet Robert Greacen wrote an autobiography in 1997 that drew on the fact that Ireland's Protestant, unionist and loyalist people take great pride in their history. The book was aptly titled The sash my father wore and in it he wrote: "In Ireland… the past hangs round people's necks like an albatross."

With that 'albatross' comes a plethora of historical anniversaries and commemorations such as today's event at Béal na mBláth.

Giving a speech at the Institute of British-Irish Studies in May, Taoiseach Brian Cowen outlined how the ten-year period beginning in 2012 will mark a "decade of commemorations" of the seismic events that occurred between 1912 and 1922.

This period will mark the centenaries of the Ulster Covenant, the Battle of the Somme, the Easter Rising, the War of Independence, the Government of Ireland Act and the Treaty.

Recent comments by former justice minister Michael McDowell that 12 July should become a national holiday in the Republic also kick-started a debate on how we commemorate our history. And this debate is likely to rage until the early years of the next decade.

But we already have a series of annual commemorations, some well-known and others less so.

Easter 1916

Sinn Féin has commemorated the 1916 Rising for decades. In fact a glance through the website of the party's propaganda newspaper, An Phoblacht, shows that Sinn Féin has a commemoration for some republican hero or other almost every weekend.

But as the centenary of one of the most momentous events in Irish history comes close, the rising has been reclaimed by Official Ireland.

In 1966 there was much pomp surrounding the 50th anniversary of the rising; thereafter a 1916 parade was held every year until 1971, when it was discontinued due to the Provisional IRA's campaign casting the rising in a different light. Commemorating the rising became the preserve of Sinn Féin from then on and the state's celebration of the 75th anniversary in 1991 was decidedly muted.

Then at a Fianna Fáil meeting in October 2005, then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced that the state would be commemorating the 90th anniversary of the rising the following Easter Sunday with a military parade.

It is said that eyebrows were raised in Fianna Fáil after Gerry Adams announced that Sinn Féin was starting to prepare for the 100th anniversary of the rising. With that, Ahern declared that he wished to reclaim the legacy of 1916 for all of Ireland's people, not just Sinn Féin supporters.

Since 2006, a ceremony to mark the anniversary has taken place each Easter Sunday outside the GPO at O'Connell Street, Dublin. This year's ceremony was led by President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Brian Cowen and defence minister Tony Killeen. Personnel from the army, the air corps and the navy take part and the air corps flies over the commemoration annually.

Sinn Féin still holds its annual commemoration in Dublin and holds Easter parades all over the country.

National Day of Commemoration

The country's single National Day of Commemoration is held annually at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on the Sunday nearest 11 July, the anniversary of the date in 1912 when a truce was signed ending the War of Independence.

The day commemorates all Irish men and women who died in past wars or in the service of the United Nations. It does not belong to any political party or religion. On the day, a military ceremony and a multi-faith religious ceremony are held in the presence of the president, the taoiseach and other politicians, relatives of the 1916 leaders and next-of-kin of those who died on service with the UN. Established in 1986, the first commemoration was held in the Garden of Remembrance and since then it has been held at the Royal Hospital.

Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown Cemetery

Some political parties lay claim to the 'Father of Irish Republicanism', Theobald Wolfe Tone, and they each hold their own commemorative event at his grave at Bodenstown Cemetery in Sallins, Co Kildare.

The most publicised event is held by Fianna Fáil, which meets in Bodenstown on the Sunday nearest 18 October every year. On that date in 1791, the Society of United Irishmen was formed in Belfast. It is seen as red-letter day in Irish history as it was the first modern separatist group in Ireland and demanded an independent, pluralist republic. The Workers Party, Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin also hold an annual Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown at different times of the year.

Arbour Hill

Located at the rear of Collins Barracks, Dublin, Arbour Hill cemetery is the place where 14 of the executed leaders of the rising were buried after they were executed in Kilmainham Gaol. Every year the state holds a special ceremony there to honour those who died, attended by the president and political and religious leaders.

A James Connolly commemoration is also organised at the military cemetery every year in May. Labour leader Eamon Gilmore addressed this year's event on 16 May and it has also been addressed by members of the Communist party of Ireland and the Connolly Youth Movement in previous years.

12 July

'The Twalfth' is not so much a one-day celebration when the Orange Order goes marching on 12 July; instead it marks a season of marches that lasts for most of the summer in the North. It is an integral part of unionist culture, and of all the historical commemorations held on the island, it certainly ranks among the most globally renowned.

During the 1990s the annual controversy over the Drumcree parade spread a negative image of the North all over the world. Initiatives such as dialogue between the two communities in the North and the setting up of the Parades Commission have eased tensions around 12 July, although there was rioting at this year's parades in north Belfast.

National Famine Commemoration Day

Established in 2009, Ireland had its second annual National Famine Commemoration on Sunday 15 May last, with a wide variety of events to mark the occasion and pay tribute to those who died or suffered during the Great Famine in the 1840s.

The main event was a formal state ceremony at the National Famine Memorial at Murrisk, Co Mayo, and included a wreath-laying. Sporting organisations observed a one-minute silence on the day and a week-long series of events including literary and musical entertainment was also organised for a commemoration that, after two years, looks set to become an annual fixture.

Seán South from Garryowen

During the IRA's ill-fated border campaign from 1956 to 1962, two republican activists, Fergal O'Hanlon and Seán South, were killed during a botched IRA attack on an RUC station at Brookeborough in Fermanagh on New Year's Day 1957. Their deaths inspired the ballads 'The Patriot Game' and the infamous rebel song 'Seán South from Garryowen'.

Among the men involved in the attack were Seán Garland, current president of the Workers' Party, and the late Daithí O'Connell. Every January members of Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin hold separate commemorations for South in Limerick, and Sinn Féin supporters hold a march and commemoration for O'Hanlon in Monaghan.

Liam Lynch commemoration

The General Liam Lynch Memorial Association usually holds its annual commemoration on the last Sunday of July. The event is held at a monument on the slopes of the Knockmealdown Mountains that marks the spot where the chief of staff of the IRA was fatally wounded on 10 April 1923 during the final weeks of the Civil War. The memorial association describes itself as being "independent of all political groupings and annually attracts families from both sides of the Civil War" to the commemoration.

Others

Almost every weekend there is one historical commemoration or another. These include gatherings to remember the Soloheadbeg ambush, when two Catholic RIC men were killed in Tipperary in 1919, and the Kilmichael ambush, when 36 IRA volunteers killed 17 members of the RIC Auxiliary division in Cork in November 1920.