The Minister for Foreign Affairs said tonight that political leaders in Northern Ireland must stop using "brinkmanship" politics if peace is to be brought to the North.
Mr Brian Cowen told delegates at the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis the time for "game playing" was over and statesmanship should prevail.
He criticised the Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble saying: "Partnership government is not there at the whim or favour of the Unionist party leadership."
And he also singled out Sinn Féin saying: "It is necessary also to state that it is not right for Republicans to opt out of their responsibilities and participate in the process of change that police reform now envisages."
And in a message of support for the decision of the Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr John Reid, to declare the ceasefires of the UDA and LVF to be over, Mr Cowen said: "The gun has no place in Irish politics."
"The truth is that the days of the men of violence are over. The people of Ireland are entitled to live in peace and harmony.
"Every shade of opinion has to respect the rights of others to be persuaded by the force of argument rather than the force of arms.
"No part of the community, not least in the Loyalist areas, can have their concerns and grievances properly addressed by a reversal to paramilitary violence.
"Three years of real political involvement has already begun to overturn 30 wasted years of violence. Politics works."
Mr Cowen also voiced support of the US action against international terrorism.
Ireland currently holds the presidency of the UN Security Council, and Mr Cowen said he would use that role to help bring humanitarian aid to Afghanistan - "a nation subjected to one of the harshest and most ruthless regimes in the world."