Jim Gibney wrote this analysis for the Irish News. Gibney is a Sinn Fein executive.

 On Easter Sunday all over Ireland, republicans gather in tribute to

 those who died in Ireland's struggle for independence. This Easter

 republicans have much to be proud of and much to be concerned about.

 The long worked-for breakthrough in the election to the Dail recently

 has put Sinn Fein at the centre of southern politics in a way only

 dreamed off a few short years ago.

 Sinn Fein's considerable presence in the north's executive and assembly

 is a demonstration of how much progress is being made to making the

 north a democratic society based on the principles of equality,

 diversity and inclusiveness.

 Gerry Adams's presence as the party's leader in the Dail and Martin

 McGuinness's presence as joint first minister in the executive

 symbolises for republicans and nationalists the unification of this

 country's two states. This symbolism is extremely important to the

 republican constituency that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness represent

 because it is the same constituency which produced the men and women who

 occupied Dublin's General Po st Office on Easter Monday 1916, 95 years

 ago.

 It was out of that constituency and the political and actual rubble left

 behind after the rising of Easter week that the republican leaders of

 pre and post-partitioned Ireland emerged. The same constituency produced

 those who fought the War of Independence, the Civil War,who set up the

 southern state, who died in its prisons and who in the six counties kept

 the flame of republican resistance alight in the lean years, and who led

 the IRA's armed resistance between 1970 and the end of the IRA's

 campaign.

 The people who inhabit this constituency were and are formidable

 individuals, of that there is no doubt. They are not pacifists nor are

 they war-mongers. When war was the only option they fought it and paid

 a heavy price for doing so, as did the civilian population and those in

 the British Crown forces. And when a peaceful alternative to war became

 an option they embraced it. In doing so they did not depart from the

 vision outlined in the Proclamation of 1916 which republicans remain

 dedicated to and which will be read out at Easter commemorations. Much

 welcome change has occurred in Irish society as a result of the peace

 process but there are issues yet to be finally resolved. These are

 related to the conflict - legacy issues, if you like, such as: the truth

 for the relatives of those killed during the conflict; an amnesty for

 political prisoners with all that that entails; and state recognition of

 nationalist emblems.

 I also believe that the existence of armed republicans is another legacy

 issue - a legacy of Britain's involvement in Ireland and a legacy of the

 use by republicans of armed struggle.

 Their activities are misguided and are creating heartache not only for

 the families of those being targeted for attack but also for their own

 families and those in jail as a result of their activities. And although

 this misery exists on the margins of the new Irish society it echoes

 disturbingly with our recent past. Those involved in helping to end the

 IRA's campaign must involve themselves in helping to end these armed

 activities with similar patience and determination.

 Republicans are steadily pursuing the objectives outlined in the 1916

 Proclamation and are doing so in challenging times for the Irish

 people. The challenges are different to those faced by Padraig Pearse

 and James Connolly in 1916 because Ireland, although still dealing with

 the impact of its colonial past, is a pluralist,modern democracy.

 The biggest challenge of all is to chart a course out of the economic

 crisis that has engulfed the southern state and is impacting daily on

 the lives of people in the north.

 This can best be done by republicans drawing off the Proclamation's

 commitment to social and economic justice andwinning over more people

 to the need for a different society - one that is not based obsessively

 on materialism but on the Proclamation's vision of "the right of the

 people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and the unfettered

 control of Irish destinies".  Belief in that creed would have prevented

 the greedy bankers from bankrupting the southern state.