Today is the 30th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, last night issued a statement recalling that the death of 34 people, including a woman and a stillborn baby, made it the worst single day of all the Troubles.
He reaffirmed the Government's commitment to establish the truth about what happened.
Yesterday, the President, Mrs McAleese, officially dedicated a memorial pillar to the seven people killed in the bombing in Monaghan town.
The 20-foot high bronze and sandstone sculpture, designed by Dublin artist Ciaran Ó Cearnaigh, was mostly funded by an EU peace project worth €120,000.
The dedication ceremony was attended by a crowd of almost 2,000 people, including relatives of the Dublin and Monaghan victims.
The names of the victims of not only the 1974 bombings, but also the Dublin bombings of 1972 and loyalist attacks on towns along the Border in the same period, were read out by Ms Gillian Law.
She is a grand-daughter of Archie Harper, who was one of the people killed in the Monaghan bombing.