The United Irishmen realised above all that there was no solution to Ireland's difficulties unless people of all persuasions could agree on the best form of government, a lesson as valid today as in Wolfe Tone's time, Mr John Hume said in Ballina at the weekend when he delivered the memorial address to the Humbert Summer School.
Respect for diversity, overcoming the problem of uniting Catholic, Protestant and dissenter, was the essence of the United Irishmen's democratic philosophy, a principle for which Ireland had been crying out ever since.
Now, at last, that principle was central to the Good Friday agreement endorsed so overwhelmingly by the Irish people as a whole.
"We have at last an agreement that fully respects the identity of both our traditions and creates the framework in which they can work together in their substantial common interest and so begin the real healing process, building the trust that will erode the prejudices and distrust that have divided us for centuries and created our terrible conflict," he said.
"Through that process, the new Ireland will evolve in a generation or two and it will be based on agreement and respect for our diversity.
"One of the tragedies of this century, particularly since 1920, is that many who call themselves republicans in Ireland are not republicans at all, including those who carried out the terrible atrocity of Omagh. They are extreme nationalists, and their definition of Ireland, as expressed in their methods, leaves little room for respect for Protestant and dissenter let alone the many Catholics who differ from them."
Referring to the internationalism of the United Irishmen and their intimate connection with the American and French revolutions, Mr Hume said they were not backwoodsmen rebelling against the modernising metropolitan power, as some versions of history would have it.
They were a very modern, forward-looking group, and if their movement had been successful, Ireland could well have been at the forefront of political democracy in Europe.
"Unfortunately, we know the tragic end of the United Irishmen and the smashing of their cherished hopes. In the end, 1798 became a tragedy for all the people of this island. It gave rise to a form of government - the Union - which not only divided our people but also managed the almost unprecedented feat in modern European history of reducing the population by almost 50 per cent.
"The divisions created by the outbreak of violence have been with us ever since. Repression, insurrection and more repression killed not just people, but also the United Irishmen ideal."
Mr Hume said the 1798 violence left a legacy of mutual suspicion and division which had bedevilled Irish politics for two centuries. Only the acceleration of the peace process in recent years had made it possible to talk of the coming together of Protestant, Catholic and dissenter as a serious objective.
A genuine republic meant creating a society in which all citizens were equal and free and which drew strength from its diversity, unafraid of its differences, and with the maturity to bring together different traditions in a common project.
"These are the values which are central to the stability of any society," Mr Hume said. " They are, essentially, the values of the United Irishmen. It has taken the people of this island centuries to translate these aspirations into realistic objectives.
"It is now up to us to ensure that the spirit and those values of the United Irishmen will be made manifest in the operation of the new political institutions in these islands."
The British Labour MP, Mr Kevin McNamara, former party spokesman on Northern Ireland and now vice-chairman of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, expressed the belief that the ideals of the men of 1798 had indeed been achieved with the Belfast Agreement and the institutions it had created.