Three hundred and fifty international nominees staged a "grand reconvention" of the abortive Wexford senate set up during the 1798 Rebellion when they gathered for the bicentennial commemorations in Johnstown Castle yesterday.
An estimated 30,000 people died in the rebellion, and many thousands more were subsequently transported overseas.
The democratic ideals and aspirations of the United Irishmen who set up the original governing directory, or rudimentary system of emergency government, were recalled in the keynote address by the former New Zealand prime minister, Mr Jim Bolger, whose ancestors came from north Wexford.
One of those nominated to the senate, Mr Gerry Adams MP, was unavoidably absent when the Forum sat in Johnstown Castle, in a large marquee erected beside the lake in the grounds.
All of the new Wexford senate members are Irish-born or of Irish descent. They were nominated by corporate or individual sponsors who were each required to make a tax-deductible subscription of £2,000.
The 350 senators gathered in White's Hotel yesterday morning where they received the specially-cast medallions and memorial scrolls.
The President, Mrs McAleese, attended an ecumenical service in Rowe Street Church commemorating the 30,000 who died in quest of democracy in 1798. Afterwards she planted a tree in the Bullring, and mingled with the honorary senators at a tea-party at Johnstown Castle.
On Saturday she remembered the men, women and children of Co Wexford who lost their lives in the struggle when she performed the official opening of the new Father Murphy Centre on the farmstead at Boolavogue, where the rebel priest stayed during the rising.
The former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, was guest of honour at a ceremony on Saturday on The Rocks in Barntown, where a monument was unveiled at the old battlefield. This site is already well marked by the commemorations of 50 years ago.
Later he launched an old book under a new cover, Who Fears to Speak of '98? It first appeared 100 years ago and was republished by the Ferns Development Association.
The contents of the book have been left as they were written in 1898, giving an interpretation of the United Irishmen rebellion from the perspective of that time.