Even a preliminary assessment suggests what was said and done and written during last year's 1798 commemorations in Wexford was good in community terms. Virtually every parish and half-parish had its own programme of events. In 30 years of working in the county I cannot remember any other event or ideal which galvanised people into action and unleashed such energy and development right across the county.

The commemorations were also good for inter-church relations. Interchurch services were held in every area in a calm, dignified and inclusive way. It was recognised that people from all the Christian churches were involved on both sides in 1798 and clearly people from all the churches suffered and died during the rebellion.

This was further recognised in the many memorials erected during the year, each with the important inclusive wording "in memory of all those from this area who lost their lives in 1798".

The commemorations were good for history. There is now a more balanced, comprehensive and accurate knowledge of the personalities and events than in previous years. As historians have pointed out, the historiography of the event encouraged simplistic fictions suited to the propaganda wars of more modern times - on the one hand a tale of Protestants massacred by Catholics and on the other of Catholic priests leading their people in a crusade for faith and fatherland.

When Sir Richard Musgrave wrote his memoirs of 1798 he listed only the large number of Protestant churches burned, while Father Patrick Kavanagh made Father John Murphy the only true hero of the rising. They both achieved the same goal. They projected a picture of a bigoted and sectarian event.

Part of the legacy of 1998 is the rediscovery of the United Irishmen in their idealism and complexity. The 1798 rebellion, we now realise, was not small, simple, purely local, primarily sectarian, a peasant revolt, unplanned, or of little long-term influence.

People have also realised that the ideals of the United Irishmen (equality, freedom, participation, inclusiveness, democracy, social awareness) were positive, radical and very relevant to the challenges faced by contemporary Ireland.

Indeed it has been recognised that the 1790s were a pivotal decade in the history of this island and threw up those big questions we are still grappling with, including unionism, republicanism, separatism, loyalism, Orangeism and nationalism. Modern Ireland was in a real sense shaped by 1798.

It was also a year which witnessed horrific atrocities, huge loss of life and occasional awful sectarianism. The 1998 commemorations tried honestly and calmly to acknowledge these.

The inter-church services of commemoration and reconciliation held at Wexford Bridge and Scullabogue stand out as honest and moving efforts to heal the continuing legacy of these sorts of attitudes and actions.

The expression of deep regret for the Fethard Boycott by Dr Brendan Comiskey (of the Catholic Church) at the national commemorative service in Wexford, and the immediate and gracious response by Dr John Neill (of the Church of Ireland) and Mr Sean Cloney, (whose family was at the centre of the row) were an important milestone in religious and social development.

Last year was also good for politics. The 1798 ideal was about self-determination, pluralism, an agreed Ireland, a forward-looking and progressive nation, an inclusive country. It was very appropriate therefore that the Belfast Agreement and the promise it holds for us all occurred during the year.

Four years ago when we founded the Byrne/Perry summer school we were conscious that the upcoming 1798 bicentenary could be positive and forward-looking or negative and regressive. It could help move the search for peace and reconciliation forward or seriously set it back.

We were also conscious that a complete, nuanced and calm knowledge of what has gone before could be used to free us from the shackles of the past. It is notoriously true of divided societies that they don't even agree on the history they share.

Thanks to the efforts of historians and, in Co Wexford, the sterling work done by Comoradh '98, we have moved closer to a common shared history, much freer of the distortions and venom of the past.

I do really believe that the bicentenary, as it has been commemorated, can help move us forward in a spirit of openness, generosity and accommodation. It has been a healing, bonding, creative experience throughout Co Wexford.

In the preface to From Heritage to Hope John Grey concludes with this timely and inspiring paragraph: "Christian and agnostic alike can surely still be moved by one vision of 200 years ago; a cameo in the Reverend James Porter's Billy Bluff and Squire Firebrand, where we find the Presbyterian minister and the Catholic priest riding on the one horse to the United Irish Inn, the Adam and Eve, to drink a toast to the common origins and equal rights of all mankind. Porter was executed in 1798 but the clergy he spoke of could surely serve us well today."

Father Walter Forde is parish priest of Castlebridge, Co Wexford, and chairman of the Byrne/Perry summer school. The 1999 school will examine the Act of Union. It will be opened on June 25th at Gorey by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.