The President, Mrs McAleese, attended the annual ecumenical Remembrance Sunday Service to commemorate the war dead in Dublin. Christine Newman reports.
At St Patrick's Cathedral, the President, dressed traditionally in black, sat with her husband, Dr Martin McAleese.
The congregation included many former servicemen, who wore campaign medals and, like most of those attending, poppies, the emblem of commemoration of the Royal British Legion.
The Government was represented this year by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr Conor Lenihan.
Brig-Gen Gerry McNamara represented the Defence Forces.
The service standards were brought to the War Memorial in the cathedral, and this was followed by wreath-laying by the President's aide-de-camp, Col Ray King, representatives of the Royal British Legion, regiments and corps, disbanded Irish regiments, service associations, and other organisations.
Other wreaths were laid by ambassadors and diplomatic representatives of 19 countries, including Britain, South Africa, Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand and of several European countries.
At one of the most solemn parts of the service, the Last Post was sounded and Maj-Gen David O'Morochoe gave the Exhortation before the traditional two-minute silence was observed. This was followed by a reading of the Kohima Epitaph and the Reveille.
The Dean of St Patrick's, the Very Rev Robert McCarthy, took the service. The first lesson was read by the US ambassador , Mr John Kenny, and the second lesson was read by Capt Edward Cooper, chairman of the Irish Guards' Association
The sermon was given by the Very Rev R.S.J.H. McKelvey, the Dean of St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast. There was spontaneous applause when he began by congratulating the President on her second term and thanking her for all she had done and all she would do in her work to reconcile the peoples of the island.
He thanked God there were those throughout the length and breadth of Ireland who recognised what was at stake during the dark years of 1939 to 1945. "Thank God there were realists; Protestant, Dissenter and Catholic, Unionist, Nationalist, who recognised the evil of fascism and who knew that in the event of England being invaded, the Nazis would not stop at Fishguard, Holyhead, Liverpool and Stranraer," he said.
Today there was the hope of a new future, Dr McKelvey said.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, persistence and, reluctantly, war when all else fails and when corrupted political systems which exploit their own peoples refuse to reform," he said.
Ethnic violence and murder must be faced down and, regrettably in some places, that could only be done by armed might and at great cost in human life, he said. "And if the UN is to do so, it must be willing to be more than a talking shop if it is to retain the confidence not only of the free world, but of the oppressed peoples wherever they may be. Otherwise the fate of the UN will be similar to that of the League of Nations, and dictators will be encouraged to expand their terror machines both at home and abroad."
Earlier, in the Pro-Cathedral, a Book of Honour with names of those from Dublin city and county who died in the first World War was presented to the Mayor of Eu, Normandy, by Dr Martin O'Donoghue. Remembrance Sunday coincided with the celebration of the feast of St Laurence O'Toole, the patron of the Archdiocese of Dublin who died in Eu in 1180.
In London yesterday the Democratic Unionist leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, laid a wreath at the cenotaph for the first time. The DUP is now the bigest Unionist party at Westminster, so the honour fell to Dr Paisley rather than the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, who was present.