Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

We should remember too that just a few short years after the meeting of the First Dáil our country was split by civil war, an experience that disfigured our politics for years to come. Those years of bitterness and sterility should remind us that while our politics should be tough and searching, and maybe rough at times, we should never forget the role of Parliament as a unifying force in times of national difficulty and a source of leadership and solidarity rather than divisiveness.

The most important memory today should be a positive one, the memory of the men and women who made the First Dáil possible. They were, it has been said "politicians by accident", but by any standards they were an exceptional generation, rising to the challenge of independent statehood, establishing and sustaining democratic institutions and values. They were men and women of probity, of ability and most of all of simple and honest values. They led by example, living up to the values they preached. This was true of all sides, Cosgrave and de Valera, Lemass and Mulcahy, McGilligan, MacEntee and Tom Johnson. Let us remember them today with pride and take courage in their values as our country faces into days as difficult and uncertain as any we have previously encountered.