The republican movement must complete the journey back to the United Irishmen's roots as a purely constitutional party, the Taoiseach said yesterday.
"And if we can achieve this in a way that commands widespread confidence, and can secure commitments on the stability of the institutions, then we can offer the people the prospect of the full and complete implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and the delivery of all the commitments of the Joint Declaration of the two Governments," Mr Ahern added.
"We have been here before, and close before. Nobody should underestimate the scale of the challenge or its enormous importance. Building trust is essential. We, therefore, welcome the direct and intensive engagement between the UUP and Sinn Féin in recent weeks. We hope this will be fruitful and that it will prove possible to turn a further decisive page in the long history of our island."
Speaking at the grave of Wolfe Tone in Bodenstown, Co Kildare, Mr Ahern said trust was not the same as confidence. "That is why both Governments have also established the international monitoring commission which last week met in shadow form. It is our intention that the commission be in a position to go live by the end of November."
Mr Ahern said it would report on the fulfilment of any commitments on the cessation of paramilitary activity and security normalisation. The commission could furthermore recommend remedial action if it concluded that a party was in breach of its commitments, for example, on the pledge of office.
Mr Ahern said Irish history had returned full circle to the beginning, to the original constitutional and democratic spirit of the United Irishmen at a time when it could flourish without further obstacle.
"Europe is no longer divided into friends and enemies, and Ireland is no strategic threat to its larger neighbour."
Next year, he added, Ireland would hold the presidency of what would be, from May 1st, a 25-strong European Union.
"If Tone and Emmet could have conceived of the possibility, their pride and joy would have been immense. They might have been surprised and puzzled on the other hand that Belfast has not hitherto been at the centre of Irish liberty." But that might yet be about to change, Mr Ahern added.
Division which they could only partially overcome, and which for a long time since had widened deeper than ever, could begin to be bridged, if all political groups worked together the institutions of the Belfast Agreement.
"The party in many ways closest to the ideals of the United Irishmen is the SDLP, without whom it would be difficult to conceive either the peace process or the Good Friday Agreement. The United Irishmen, which began as a constitutional movement, was forced underground, and became what has been described as violent democrats."
