The Australian Irish Heritage Association (AIHA)

The Australian Irish Heritage Association as the Spiritual Custodians of the memorial,  annually host the Easter Monday Commemoration at the Catalpa Memorial on Rockingham Beach.

Since the erection of the memorial in 2005 there has been an informal annual Easter Monday commemoration held at the site.

 This year, 2016, the event is being promoted as part of the Official Irish Government 1916 Centenary programme themed to remember, reflect and re-imagine the Irish story as an independent nation, past and future.

Easter Monday, 17 April 1876 records the escape of Irish Political ‘Fenian’ prisoners off Rockingham and forty years later on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916 a Proclamation of independence was publicly read on behalf of a provisional new Irish Government at the GPO in Dublin.

These were seeds of the birth of the Irish nation from at home and abroad.

 The program to include contributions from local historians, public figures and musicians on the significance of the memorial, a reflection on the historic events commemorated and some poetry.