The Taoiseach yesterday defended the legacy of the 1916 Rising from the "unionist-minded southerners who besmirched it and republican dissidents who dishonoured it".
At Fianna Fail's annual commemoration of the 1916 leaders at Arbour Hill, Mr Ahern condemned those who maliciously sought to associate the "brave and idealistic leaders of 1916 with the vile deeds of those responsible for the carnage at Omagh".
He said those who continued paramilitary activity in defiance of the Irish people "bring no honour to this place by appearing in it". He was "glad to see signs today that there is beginning to be a more balanced appreciation of what the 1916 leaders achieved. They set out to create a national democracy, not a permanent military dictatorship, and they succeeded."
He said he regretted that so many commentators underplayed and misrepresented "the democratic intent and orientation of the vast majority of those who participated in the struggle for independence". It was no accident, he went on, "that some of the most vocal critics in the southern media of the 1916 Rising have embraced the unionist cause, which in many ways is logical enough but should more often be explicitly acknowledged.
"They focus on the means and not the end. Indeed it is high time that we stood up to those who, with malice aforethought, try to besmirch the brave and idealistic leaders of 1916 with the vile deeds of those responsible for the carnage at Omagh, or of any other tiny group that have no mandate and no prospect of any for their lunatic actions."
Referring to such groups, he said: "Those whose continued paramilitary activity is in straight defiance of the overwhelming vote of the Irish people need not come here seeking the protective mantle of the 1916 leaders, for they have no right to it, and they bring no honour to this place by appearing in it.
"You cannot reject the will of the Irish people while claiming to champion it. On May 22nd, 1998, for the first time since 1918, the people of Ireland, North and South, concurrently exercised their right to self-determination and declared their will that a united Ireland would only be brought about peacefully and by agreement between the two parts of this island. A 32-county sovereign state can only be achieved in this way."
He said Pearse had been prepared to accept the compromise of Home Rule, so long as it was for the entire island and could be allowed to evolve. He and others signed their names to the Proclamation of Independence and therefore to their death warrants, said Mr Ahern.
"One can contrast their openness with the preposterous delusion, post-1938, that the real `government of the Republic' could be an unaccountable IRA Army Council whose names are unknown to the public."