It was a solemn and largely silent ceremony which took place in the new Island of Ireland Peace Park outside the village of Mesen (Messines), south of Ypres, in Belgium yesterday when the round tower memorial to the Irish soldiers who fought and died in the first World War was inaugurated there by the President, Mrs McAleese.
Queen Elizabeth II and King Albert and Queen Paola of Belgium also took part in the ceremony in this area, which witnessed one of the few battles in which the 16th Irish Division and the 36th Ulster Division fought together.
After a short welcome to the three heads of state by the Mayor of Mesen, the first voices heard were those of the former Donegal Fine Gael TD Mr Paddy Harte and the Derry loyalist community leader, Mr Glen Barr, who were the originators of the tower project.
In unison they read a specially composed "peace pledge" which recalled the "solidarity and trust that developed between Protestant and Catholic soldiers when they served together in these trenches".
On the 80th anniversary of the 1918 armistice, they affirmed that a "fitting tribute to the principles for which men and women from the island of Ireland died in both world wars would be permanent peace in Ireland".
The President then unveiled the plaque under the tower.
A laurel wreath was laid by the President; a wreath of poppies was laid by Queen Elizabeth; and a wreath of flowers by King Albert. Finally, Mr Harte and Mr Barr laid a wreath on behalf of A Journey of Reconciliation Trust, the body behind the project.
After a minute's silence for the dead, The Last Post and the Reveille were sounded by buglers from the Army Number One band and the band of the Royal Irish Regiment from the North. The two bands had come together for the occasion under the baton of Commdt Joseph Ryan.
At a press conference afterwards, Mrs McAleese said it had been a historic day for Ireland, north and south: for the relationship between the peoples of Ireland north and south, and for the relationship between Ireland and Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Asked whether she had invited Queen Elizabeth to come to the Republic of Ireland, she said: "It doesn't quite happen like that. There's quite a lot of preparatory work goes on between the two governments first of all, and in a sense the invitation process comes at a stage further down line."
She said it was "well acknowledged now on both sides that there is a willingness that it should happen when the time is right". As the peace process unfolds, "it is incumbent on all of us to make sure that we work towards, and keep working towards, creating a situation in which that event can happen. And that's what we're all doing."
She said yesterday was the "redeeming of the memory of those who died in the first World War and who were drawn from every corner of Ireland".
She added that every parish had been "touched in some way by the events of that awful period, so it's been very important as part of our maturation process to create a space in our memory for those who died and to give them the respect and the cherished memory that their deaths deserved."
She recalled the late Sean Lemass saying it had been "commonplace" in nationalist Ireland "to question the motives of those from Ireland who fought for the British in the Great War and he himself was guilty in that respect and had a conscience about it". It had taken 30 years for other Irish people to follow him in admitting that.
She told the citizens of Mesen in a short speech later that "if we are to build the culture of consensus promised by the Good Friday agreement, then we need to create mutually respectful space for different traditions, differing loyalties, for all our heroes and heroines."
Earlier, the North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, called the ceremony "part of a new beginning" and "a very positive marker for the future". He was "very glad that the Irish Republic is recognising those who fought for freedom along with the rest of us in the first World War." He also paid tribute to the "major contribution" of those from the South who had fought in the second World War.
The EU Social Affairs Commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn, said that as an Irish nationalist he was "delighted" to be at the ceremony. "Peace and reconciliation are driving Irish nationalism now and it is very fitting that we should be represented here."
The DUP assemblyman and councillor from Omagh, Mr Oliver Gibson, said it was "a good sign of maturity in southern Ireland that they've at last publicly recognised the men from the areas now in the Republic who fought bravely and with great distinction in the first World War."