Socially, it's a high-water mark of the year, arriving just as the spring is really being felt throughout the Irish countryside and summer fashions start to make a first tentative appearance.

Photo: Schaffhausen City Library, Switzerland With the abandonment of the Irish Easter on Iona in 716 AD, the 84-year table was discarded and all trace of it was lost, until its rediscovery in 1984.

The notion of the spirit of Easter carries multiple layers. For many, it is about rebirth and renewal. In Ireland, it will always bear a political and cultural resonance as the time of the Rising ...