The fact that the leaders of the two political parties which emerged from the war (and which have effectively governed the country ever since) addressed the commemoration suggested that Ireland has finally reached the point of what might be termed “grown-up politics”. 

As Mick Clifford put it eloquently in Monday’s Irish Examiner, while the leaders of the two Civil War parties are now accustomed to sharing a stage in Government, this was different.

“They came together to a sacred place in Irish history… to affirm the shared values they claim to have been willed by Collins and his revolutionary comrades.” But the two men also came together at Béal na Bláth under the cloud of a modern political truth.

That reality sees Sinn Féin — the party which claims the high ground when it comes to modern revolutionary politics — as likely to grip the reins of power here after the next election.

Sinn Féin was conspicuously absent from Sunday’s commemoration — unwilling, it seems, to immerse itself in the murky waters of previous revolutionaries and revolutions.

Martin and Varadkar know it is time to move on from the strident hatred which was the original raison d’etre of their parties if either is to survive the oncoming Sinn Féin onslaught.

Needs must.