The 1916 Proclamation will be read out by students at around 4,000 schools today, and the tricolour will be raised at every school and college.

Proclamation Day, which marks the centenary this year, is set to become an annual event and will also feature re-enactments, poetry and music.

Schools have been asked to draft a Proclamation for a New Generation, reflecting the values and hopes of this generation.

The Irish Army has been visiting schools to deliver the national flag, and Commandant Stephen MacEoin said it had been a huge undertaking.

He said: "It involved individual visits to over 3,200 schools across the Republic, including special schools, state-run primary schools and private schools, as well as settings people may not have thought of such as schools in hospital wards, schools for deaf children etc.

"It's been a major logistical operation for our personnel."

Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Heather Humphreys said: "As well as remembering the past, we want children to ambitiously imagine the future."