Policing debate: Sinn Féin will not be "badgered into" supporting the Northern Ireland Policing Board or the Police Service of Northern Ireland, leading party figure Gerry Kelly told the Sinn Féin Ardfheis.
Despite some calls by delegates, the ardfheis finally agreed that the party's policing policy would not change until after a special delegate conference is held.
A number of motions had sought to rule out support for a police service in the North until a 32-county republic is declared.
The issue was put to the test during a debate yesterday afternoon, though the leadership won by a significant margin after delegates supported its motion by a 70-30 margin approximately.
A motion, heavily supported by Tyrone cumann and Ógra Shinn Féin, said the party should resolve never to join "six-county policing arrangements" until "a 32-county republic, free of British rule" is declared.
The British government last week published legislation that would allow for authority over policing to transfer from London to a devolved Assembly and Executive in Stormont.
Mr Kelly said: "Sinn Féin has been pressing for this first step for a considerable time. Both governments know that the publishing of enabling legislation will not on its own be enough to honour the commitments given. The devil, as they say, is in the detail. This is about giving expression in law to the transfer of powers - taking powers - away from London and out of the hands of the British securocrats."
The Sinn Féin leadership is under increasing pressure from Washington and Irish-America to abandon its refusal to take its places on the policing board within months.
Dublin City Council member Killian Forde said supporting police in the North would be "the toughest decision many republicans have ever faced".
However, the situation left by the IRA's decision to disarm has created "a vacuum that will be filled by antisocial elements or dissident republicans" if action is not taken.
Ógra Shinn Féin member Brian McColgan said the party should not take part in policing until it "is free from British rule".
A leading party figure, Declan Kearney, who is chair of the party's Six County Cuige, delivered an influential speech against the motions. Delegates, he said, would be sending a message "to the political detectives" that they were "long-fingering" the policing issue if they accepted the motions.
He said the party needed to go "toe-to-toe" with those in the security forces who are opposed to the Good Friday agreement.
The PSNI, he said, "had killed our friends and torn down governments" and should not remain in its current form.
Monaghan delegate and ardchomhairle member Pat Treanor said policing and justice were too important to "be left to political enemies". Meanwhile, a motion noting "the widening gap between the leadership of Sinn Féin and the grassroots activists" illustrated the difficult weekend faced by the party's leadership.
A hand vote on the motion had to be called twice by the party's national chair Mitchel McLaughlin because the result was not clear the first time, though in the end it was defeated.
On Saturday evening, delegates voted by a significant majority in favour of a motion demanding that the party should lay down the abolition of the Offences Against The State Act as a precondition for entering coalition talks. Mr McGuinness and other senior figures, such as Gerry Kelly, led the voting against the motion by the party's leadership, but their example was sharply rejected.
