Addressing his Fianna Fail party's annual commemoration of the 1916 Irish Rising against British rule, Ahern said that unlike "hesitant" Sinn Fein politicians who prefer "ideological purity", the Irish Republic's founding fathers had quickly freed themselves of paramilitary links.

The 1998 Northern Ireland peace agreement must not be allowed to "languish and die", Ahern said, democratic institutions could not work alongside continuing paramilitary activity.

"The cause of the Republic was dishonoured by no-warning anti-civilian bombs and other indefensible deeds in a campaign that never won the support of the majority of the nationalist population in Northern Ireland, much less any electoral support here".

After elections in Northern Ireland last November, Sinn Fein -- the political wing of the IRA -- emerged as the biggest Catholic party there.

"Some have garnered and borrowed votes on the promise of the peace process," Ahern told the commemoration in Arbour Hill in Dublin.

"The period for maintaining polite fictions and Chinese walls has expired. It is time for all Republicans to embrace the constitutional principles of the (peace) agreement and for private armies to retire.

"As we can see in Cyprus, for a divided territory to re-unite it is essential that the people of both parts agree, and that is the essence of the principle of national self-determination in our situation as in theirs."

Last Tuesday, the British government said it will impose financial penalties on the 24 Sinn Fein members of the Northern Ireland Assembly as punishment for acts of violence by the IRA.

The assembly was suspended in October 2002 when the British government imposed direct rule on the province, but its members continue to receive salaries and allowances.

The Northern Ireland Minister, Paul Murphy, told the House of Commons in London that from next Wednesday the yearly allowance of 120,000 pounds (168,000 euros, 218,000 dollars) to Sinn Fein would be scrapped.

Because of ceasefire breaches by the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) with one member of the assembly will also be penalised.

The penalties follow a report from an Independent Monitoring Commission which accused both the IRA and the UVF of carrying out violent acts that breach the spirit if not the letter of the ceasefire that both nationalist and loyalist armed paramilitary groups are supposed to respect.

WAR.WIRE