President McAleese has described 2005 as the year "when we saw the IRA in particular turn its back on violence forever", writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Speaking after a Mass to celebrate World Day of Peace at St Mary's Church, Haddington Road, Dublin, said a "new landscape of opportunity for peace" had been created last year.
Celebrated by the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, and presided over by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, the Mass was attended by the President, her husband, Martin, and members of their family, by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, former taoisigh Albert Reynolds and Liam Cosgrave, and Minister for the Environment Dick Roche.
Also present were Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte, Green Party leader Trevor Sargent, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Catherine Byrne, members of the diplomatic corps and representatives of the judiciary, the Garda and the Defence Forces.
Speaking afterwards, the President said: "We have seen in Ireland what a huge investment you have to make to turn the tide of history away from conflict, away from violence, and how difficult that is."
It had involved hundreds of thousands of people on the island. "They have been singularly successful, and I think there has been no year of greater success than this year, when we saw the IRA in particular turn its back on violence forever. That is history in the making."
She said that World Day of Peace was "an invitation to everybody to ask themselves what they can do to contribute to peace, and not just consider peace in the global sense of thinking in terms of war and conflict, but peace in our homes, peace on our streets, peace in our communities, peace in our country, because wherever peace is absent it means people are behaving badly".
In a statement issued yesterday, the Taoiseach said he shared "the deep concern" about terrorism expressed by Pope Benedict XVI in his message for World Day of Peace. "As we know from our own experience on the island of Ireland, no cause can ever justify terrorism and there are no circumstances in which it can be tolerated. In working against terrorism, we must also endeavour to address the conditions in which it flourishes. On our own island, we are now hopeful, however, that the use of violence for political ends has been consigned forever to history."
Addressing the congregation before the Mass, Archbishop Martin said: "It saddened me again this morning to hear of another stabbing in this city, just 100 yards from my own door . . . We must ensure that our society is one which is safe and one which we can be proud to live in."
In his homily, Father Enda Lloyd, episcopal vicar of the Dublin archdiocese said those who worked for peace "are our prophets in my eyes".