Hundreds gathered in Portlaoise on Saturday to see Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Brian Cowen unveil a commemorative sculpture of writer, rebel and patriot, James Fintan Lalor.
In the bicentennial year of Lalor's birth, Mr Cowen described the Laois man as "one of the leading political philosophers" who "appears at the heart of all major political movements of the 19th century".
He spoke of how Lalor's "classic formulation of Irish sovereignty was quoted by de Valera in his first St Patrick's Day radio broadcast. 'Ireland her own, and all therein from the sod to the sky. The soil of Ireland for the people of Ireland.'"
Speaking outside County Hall, Portlaoise, former president of Siptu Des Geraghty described Lalor as a man of "extraordinary intellectual capacity whose ideas were extremely relevant to today's world". He said that democracy had been absent from Lalor's world and his way of achieving democracy was to be a revolutionary.
Speaking at the unveiling, IFA national president Padraig Walshe said that Irish agriculture owed a great debt to Lalor, who had been born into a legacy of plantations and subdivision.
Lalor died in prison in 1849 following an attack on the RIC barracks at Cappoquin. Over 25,000 mourners attended his funeral.
The publicly-funded sculpture, cast in bronze by Mayo-based artist Rory Breslin, depicts Lalor as having stepped down from his plinth to be among his people. The ceremony marks the culmination of months of work by Laois County Council Arts Office and the James Fintan Lalor Commemorative Committee.