Taoiseach Micheal Martin has praised the "vital role" of the European Union in bringing peace to the island of Ireland, on the 50th anniversary of it joining the bloc.
Friday marked half a century since then-Taoiseach Jack Lynch and foreign affairs minister Patrick Hillery signed the treaty in Brussels that took the fledging state into the European Economic Community.
It laid the groundwork for a referendum in May 1972 which saw the Irish people vote by an overwhelming 83% in favour of joining the EEC, which was renamed the European Union in 1993.
