Responding recently in Rangoon to the Dublin award, Burma's democracy leader recalled a connection between the two countries which once provided the Burmese with some amusement.
During the colonial period, the British commonly referred to the Burmese as "the Irish of the East", Aung San Suu Kyi pointed out. "I'm not sure it was meant to be a compliment but we always regarded it as a sign of a special bond between our two peoples", she said in an interview conducted for RTE's Prime Time programme. The interview was conducted secretly near Suu Kyi's home and had to be smuggled out of Rangoon.
After the events of 1916 in Dublin, the Burmese nationalist movement was able to turn the jeering "Irish of the East" tag on its head and invest it with set of more satisfactory meanings.
Burma's independence leader Gen Aung San, who was Suu Kyi's father, was influenced by Irish leaders such as Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins, Suu Kyi said. "My father referred to them in one of his articles; he said we need leaders like them."
The democracy leader also expressed appreciation for the recent training in Ireland of 19 exiled Burmese activists under the Department of Foreign Affairs Irish Aid programme.
The democracy activists - who represented a wide variety of Burmase ethnic groups, including the Karen, Shan, Kachin, Mon and ethnic Burmans - received management and leadership training at the Institute for Public Administration in Ballsbridge.
Many told harrowing stories last week of the places in Burma they left behind before going into exile to Thailand, India and the United States. "We hope the time will not be long before our activists will be able to return to Burma and help us rebuild the country. We need our activists to be trained, not just in getting democracy, but in how to make democracy work," Suu Kyi said.
Rebuilding Burma will pose enormous social and economic as well as political challenges. One in three Burmese children is malnourished, according to a recent UNICEF report. One in four children never goes beyond primary school. Most universities have been closed since 1996.
About 500,000 people are estimated to be HIV positive. Burma, renamed Myanmar by the ruling State Peace and Development Council, (SPDC) is the world's second largest exporter of heroin.
"The future of our nation is in jeopardy. The gap between us and the rest of the world is getting bigger and bigger," Suu Kyi said, pointing out that at one time Burma was one of the most prosperous countries in Asia.
"If you were to walk into a hospital now you would be aghast to find no medical equipment and no hospital equipment. In rural areas there are no medical personnel at all."
She said the main responsibility for solving Burma's problems lies with the Burmese people themselves. "But we would like the international community to take the terms of the UN General Resolutions (on Burma) seriously. It's not enough to pass a resolution."
As well as strongly condemning Burma's human rights record, a recent UN General Assembly resolution calls on the regime to initiate tripartite political dialogue with the National League for Democracy (NDL) and representatives of the country's ethnic groups.
Suu Kyi said that as far as the NLD was concerned, the door to dialogue was open. "The short and simple answer is that the SPDC do not want to open discussions. If they want to talk to us there is nothing to stop them." She reiterated her support for international sanctions against the regime. "Economic investment now only helps the military and the privileged elite connected to them. The common people don't benefit from investments. Although they (the regime) say there is an open-market economy, it is only open for some, and not for others."
Some in the West have asked whether Suu Kyi might be more effective if she left Burma to lobby the international community. Oxford historian Dr Peter Carey, a friend of Suu Kyi and her husband Michael Aris, who died last year, does not agree.
"It might seem so rationally, but morally and emotionally this would not be possible," he said. "Remember that people have given up everything to follow Suu Kyi. To leave would seem like a betrayal. It would be impossible for her."
Suu Kyi said that while she is protected by virtue of being her father's daughter, and by being known to the international community, other Burmese had no such protection. "There are many unknown activists who risk everything by continuing their work for democracy. If there is one person like that I will carry on. I will never abandon that person."