The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, has announced his support for the Shot at Dawn Campaign, which is seeking pardons for Irish soldiers in the British army who were executed following field courts-martial during World War I.
The British-based campaign, which has an Irish arm, says 306 soldiers in the British army were unjustifiably executed during the war. It is believed 26 of these men were born in Ireland.
"The offences with which each Irishman was charged, convicted and summarily executed were repealed by the British authorities in 1930 following sustained lobbying by ex-servicemen disillusioned by the military system of the time" Mr Cowen said.
"That itself indicated serious public concern at the time about the credibility of the convictions and sentences passed by the British military system of justice in the awful conditions prevailing on and near the battlefields."
"Moreover, it reflected serious concerns that the regularity and severity of disciplinary action for offences such as desertion, especially in the Irish Divisions, was envisaged by military commanders of the era as a means of deterrence to others rather than an expression of justice.
"In addition, the failure to give consideration to ameliorating medical conditions known at the time undermine, in my view, those convictions."
Mr Cowen said he had instructed his officials to begin discussions with their British counterparts to "re-establish the good names of these Irishmen".
The campaign is focused on those offences that were repealed in the British Army and Air Force Acts of 1928 and 1930 (including cowardice, desertion and falling asleep at post.
Shot at Dawnbelieves the statistics are "compelling" with regard to the pattern of discrimination experienced by Irish troops.