A united Ireland remained a legitimate and noble ideal, Cardinal Cahal Daly said yesterday.
Dr Daly, in his homily at the State funerals of the 10 volunteers executed during the War of Independence, said the ideal could only be attained by persuasion not force, "only by consent, not by constraint; only by creating conditions and building relationships which make its attainment no longer repellent for unionists but acceptable and even attractive for them".
Dublin's Pro-Cathedral was full for Requiem Mass for the 10 men. The ceremony which lasted approximately 90 minutes, began shortly before 3 p.m. with the coffins of the 10 Volunteers being taken one by one to the front of the altar from the hearses which carried them from Mountjoy.
All were draped in the Tricolour and onlookers outside applauded as the remains of the men arrived at the cathedral. Led by the Army No 1 band, they made their way afterwards to Glasnevin cemetery.
Up to 700 relatives attended the service which was also attended by the President, Mrs McAleese, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, the Tβnaiste Ms Harney, former Taoisigh Mr Garret FitzGerald and Mr Albert Reynolds, and members of the Cabinet.
Also present were the leader of Fine Gael, Mr Michael Noonan,the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruair∅ Quinn, the leader of the Green Party, Mr Trevor Sargent, and the Sinn FΘin president, Mr Gerry Adams.
The Garda Commissioner Mr Pat Byrne attended along with Brig Gen Mr Eddie Heskin, Dublin's Lord Mayor, Mr Michael Mulcahy, chairpersons of local authorities across the State and representatives of the social partners.
The Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, and the Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dr Dermot Clifford, were among the concelebrants of the Mass. The Church of Ireland, the Methodist, Lutheran Islamic, Jewish, Coptic and Greek Orthodox churches were also represented.
The readings were delivered by Ms Elizabeth Smith, representing the family of Thomas Bryan, and by Mr Seβn ╙g O Ceallachβin, representing the family of Patrick Moran. Members of the families of the other executed Volunteers took part in the Offertory procession.
Dr Daly told the congregation that the true inheritors of the ideals of the men and women of 1916 to 1922 were those "explicitly and visibly" committed to implementing all aspects of the Belfast Agreement. "There is no other basis on which Northern Ireland can enjoy peace, prosperity and normal life."
He said the only legitimate struggle in Northern Ireland was an unarmed struggle for justice, equality and human rights for both of its political traditions and for peace and reconciliation and co-operation between them.
"There must be readiness to accept shared blame and pain as well as shared gain from the Northern peace process. Many will be laying claim to be the legitimate and only heirs of the men we reinter today.
"Some groups will claim that they and they only are the inheritors of their ideals," the cardinal went on. "Some will claim that the mantle has passed to them of being the men and women whose duty it is to complete the unfinished business of 1916 - for there was unfinished business and there still is.
" I want to refer to two areas of unfinished business: namely social justice in both parts of Ireland and the peace process in Northern Ireland." On social justice, he said freedom for the sake of justice was the all-absorbing national aim in 1916.
"The Proclamation of the Republic guaranteed equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens and undertook to cherish all the children of the nation equally.
"Eighty years and a Celtic Tiger later, we are still very far from having turned the noble rhetoric into reality or transplanted the songs of freedom into life experience for our poor and their children, our aged, our homeless, our refugees, or into equality of opportunity for dwellers west of the Shannon or west of the Bann, or for people in sectors of urban blight, whether in Dublin or Cork, Belfast or Derry.
" There is still a vast accumulation of unfinished business to be done. All political parties have had their opportunities to tackle it in the Republic. It is not a question of apportioning blame; all politicians and all citizens share whatever blame is to be apportioned," Dr Daly said.
He added that the men died in the belief that their deaths would bring into being an independent Ireland, an Ireland of freedom, of justice, an island in which people would never again resort to violent means in order to secure human rights and equal opportunities for all its citizens.