Andrews believes FF and FG could yet unite

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael could well reunite in a realignment of Irish politics within a generation or two, the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr David Andrews, predicted yesterday at a ceremony to commemorate republican leader Gen Liam Lynch.

Mr Andrews told the annual commemoration in Fermoy, Co Cork, he believed the unity of purpose among those who fought in the War of Independence and which was lost in the Civil War, and the resultant political divisions, could be regained.

"The time will come, not in my generation, where there will be a realignment as between the political parties. It will be taken as heresy among some of my own party faithful to say that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will return, historically speaking, to where they were before the split," Mr Andrews said.

"I cannot speak for my children's generation but I can speculate that any transferred legacy of bitterness through those generations will have diminished in this next generation to the point of remaking new political party alliances," Mr Andrews said.

It was a credit that following the bloody birth of the State Ireland had built a stable democracy which has endured the test of time and which has helped create a people with a new-found confidence respected throughout the world, Mr Andrews said.

Mr Andrews praised the Good Friday agreement but said the horrors of the past few weeks - where three people were killed in Belfast and many families were driven out of their homes through loyalist feuding - must strengthen people's resolve in the continuing search for a permanent peace.

"For far too long republicanism has been marred with violence and bloodshed, particularly in the North. However, the time has now come to embrace the ideals of republicanism - liberty, equality, fraternity, democracy, citizenship and internationalism," he added.