A Christmas message from President Michael D Higgins has acknowledged the difficulties that some families will experience at this time of the year.
President Higgins said rising unemployment, emigration and family bereavement will cast a dark shadow.
However, he said he was confident the people of Ireland can rebuild a sustainable and strong economy.
"So these are troubling and testing times for so many but while acknowledging the hurt inflicted, the dismay caused, by the mistakes that were made," he said.
"I also believe that the Irish people have the resilience, the fortitude and the wisdom to move beyond any destructive cynicism and recrimination and have the capacity and determination to move on and craft a new positive form of their Irishness."
He said he had been inspired by the "innovation and the resourcefulness" that people had displayed in recent times and said people were showing practical concern for each other and the less fortunate.
President Higgins said Ireland was a country that still had a lot to be proud of and where "possibilities are still to be fully imagined and realised".
