Nearly 300 supporters have signed a Change.org petition calling for Google to create a “Doodle” to honor the 1916 centenary on April 24 this year. The date marks the 100th anniversary of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

A Google Doodle is a temporary alteration of the Google logo on the search engine’s homepage that is used to mark holidays and special people, events and achievements.

The 1916 Proclamation, which proclaimed Ireland's independence from the United Kingdom, was read from the steps of the GPO on Sackville (now O’Connell Street) on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, by Pádraig Pearse, a leader of the Easter Rising and one of the seven signatories of the Proclamation. Other signatories included Thomas J. Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, Eamonn Ceannt, James Connolly and Joseph Plunkett.

According to the Change.org petition page: “The Proclamation of 1916 was far ahead of its time in promoting universal suffrage for all the people, including women.  It promised to ‘[guarantee] religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities of all its citizens,’ and ‘[to cherish] all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority in the past.’ With an estimated 700 million visitors per day to the Google.com page, a ‘Doodle’ commemorating the centennial of the Proclamation is a unique opportunity to commemorate and inform on this important event in world history.”

“Google has in the past commemorated Independence Day, Bastille Day, the Anniversary of German Unification, the Restoration of Independence of Lithuania, the 70th anniversary of the independence of Korea, etc.  We ask the world wide Irish community to sign the petition below requesting that Google recognize the 100th anniversary of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and the noble principles it represents on April 24, 2016, as Google has in the past for so many other seminal events in world history.”

The petition was started by Neil Cosgrove, of New York, NY, and, as of this writing, has 290 signatures. 

The 1916 centennial is being remembered in Ireland and abroad with an array of events and commemorations.

The Change.org petition can be found here.