Fianna Fail founder Dr Eamon de Valera, would be voting Yes for the Belfast Agreement if he was alive today, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, declared last night as he opened the party's campaign for a Yes vote in Cork.
"I have no doubt that de Valera would be here today voting Yes," said Mr Ahern, stressing that while the agreement involved changes to Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution, it didn't mean the end of Fianna Fail's campaign for a united Ireland.
"I am a republican and I will, as part of this agreement, democratically, as my party has done for years, still fight on for a united Ireland - that's what we're here for but we'll do it through democracy and trying to convince people on the basis of consent."
Speaking before a rally attended by some 300 Fianna Fail supporters at a Cork hotel, Mr Ahern said he was confident the agreement would be backed by the most traditional republican elements in Fianna Fail. The agreement offered constitutional change which made it easier for nationalists in the North to be recognised as Irish citizens, while the 1920 Government of Ireland Act, upon which the Union was based, had also been amended.
He admitted there were those on the republican side opposed to the agreement but they were a small minority.
Asked about dissident IRA members and whether the Government would consider internment, Mr Ahern said it important not to overstate the threat which such groups posed but the Government would use all in its power to curb them.
On the negative reaction by some to the temporary release of the Balcombe Street four to attend the Sinn Fein Ardfheis, he said the Government was sensitive to the feelings of the victims of violence but such releases were part of the agreement.
