A specially commissioned bust of the late minister for external affairs, Frank Aiken, was unveiled by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern at the department headquarters in Dublin yesterday, writes Georgina O'Halloran.
The bust of the late minister will be put on permanent display in Iveagh House.
Fianna Fáil minister for external affairs between 1951-1954 and 1957-1969, Aiken had a distinguished political career spanning over 50 years.
Born in Armagh in 1898, Aiken was politically and militarily active from a young age, joining the Irish Volunteers at 16 and commanding a division of the IRA during the War of Independence.
He succeeded Liam Lynch as chief of staff of the IRA in March 1923 and issued the ceasefire and dump arms orders two months later which effectively ended the Civil War.
He was first elected to the Dáil as a Sinn Féin candidate in the Louth constituency in 1923 and entered the first Fianna Fáil government as minister for defence (1932-39). He later became minister for the co-ordination of defensive measures (1939-45) during the second World War.
Frank Aiken was highly regarded for championing the cause of small countries at the United Nations and was a major proponent of nuclear non-proliferation.
He was the first minister to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968.
