Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

That implies ideals to be lived up to. I do not exclude other parties, even those of which we are severely critical, from using the word "republican" in the hope that a greater depth of understanding of the values involved will develop. Those values were summed up in the very first declaration of the Society of the United Irishmen who pledged to work for deeper constitutional knowledge, the abolition of bigotry in religion and politics and equality of representation. It is not a bad programme for republicanism even today.