A Dublin tour guide first raised the issue in August as he was “embarrassed” bringing tourists to the site with the flame not being visible.
Ruairí Keogh, who runs Best Dublin Walking Tours, said it was “highly disrespectful” to those who gave their lives in the Irish Defence Forces.
He is now delighted that, thanks his one-man campaign, the eternal flame is back in action after repairs were recently carried out.
“The Defence Forces said the flame was just burning very low. It was burning less than light you’d see on a gas cooker if it was burning at all. It certainly wasn’t visible to the naked eye,” Mr Keogh said.
“But now it’s burning quite well, even in the light. I now tell the story to people on the tour, that I was on a one-man campaign. It pulls at people’s heartstrings, particularly if they’ve any connection with the defence forces abroad or here.
“Americans tend to be very passionate about these things. If somebody gave their life to their country, the last thing they should be is disrespected, I think that’s what it was.
“They’re all delighted to see it burning again, as am I. It did annoy me that 100 yards across the road, we had the infamous bike shed,” he added.
Ruairí previously told the Irish Independent that some tourists and American ex-servicemen on his walks were outraged, and this helped to fuel his campaign.
“I walked by it with one of my groups. One of the ladies walked over to it and asked what it was. I said we’re meant to be standing around eternal flame, but I’m embarrassed we’re not,” he said.
“She said we should be embarrassed. That’s what prompted me to make the call.
“You would never see something disrespectful like that in their country. The penny dropped for me, and I felt it was outrageous.
“I stopped going around there on my tours because I didn’t want the embarrassment of showing how disrespectful we were to our service people.”
A spokesperson for the Defence Forces said: “The Defence Forces engineers corps, with the assistance of some specialist private contractors, improved the visibility of the flame. The repairs were completed on September 20.”
