His recent arrest has "galvanised" republicans for the European and local election campaigns, the Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said today at the launch of his party's European manifesto in Belfast.
Mr Adams and two of the European candidates, Martina Anderson in the Northern Ireland constituency and Lynn Boylan in Dublin, spoke of how his arrest in connection with the 1972 IRA abduction, murder and disappearance of Jean McConville had sharpened Sinn Féin for the election battle.
“One of the key effects is that has galvanised the Sinn Féin party and the broad republican family. Our people were fighting a good campaign before my arrest but now they are very, very focused,” said Mr Adams.
Ms Boylan said a lot of people were hoping Mr Adams’s detention would damage Sinn Féin’s electoral strategy.
“But the feeling on the doors is one of people saying, ‘Are they trying to take us as fools with the timing of this?’ They are quite angry,” she said.
Sinn Féin’s single outgoing MEP Ms Anderson said that she was finding a “lot of goodwill” on the doorsteps.
"We are not taking anything for granted but without doubt people have seen that this was an attack on the peace process," she said at the launch in the Radisson Hotel on the old Belfast gasworks site.
“Without doubt it has galvanised out activists across the North and across the island but it has also brought into sharp focus the attention of the wider nationalist, republican population as regards the importance of this peace process and the importance of reconciliation,” she said.
More generally on his arrest Mr Adams said, “It is not beneficial to Sinn Féin, it is not beneficial to me, it is not beneficial to my family. The worst thing is the signal it has sent out to citizens who have invested their hopes in the future. I have to think that the calming of the waters afterwards was down to the diligence and calmness of our leadership.”
One outcome of his arrest was “an alertness that the process can’t be taken for granted”, he added.
Earlier in the European and local elections campaign, and ahead of Mr Adams’s arrest, the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said Sinn Féin’s aim was to win a seat in each of the four constituencies on the island of Ireland and to become “the story of the election”.
However, Mr Adams was cautious when asked would the party win four European seats.
“It is possible for us to win (four seats) but we don’t know. We can’t take the people for granted. We are fighting a very, very good campaign and we have an excellent team of candidates but we can’t call it,” he said.
During the campaign unionist politicians such as First Minister DUP Peter Robinson stated that splitting the unionist vote could create the potential for the SDLP candidate Alex Attwood to take a second nationalist seat in Northern Ireland at the expense of one of the two outgoing unionist MEP, Diane Dodds of the DUP and Jim Nicholson of the Ulster Unionists.
However, this would require supporters of Ms Anderson, expected to top the poll, transferring to Mr Attwood in significant numbers.
Asked was he advising how Sinn Féin supporters should use their transfers Mr Adams replied, “No, we are not.”
Mr Adams said Sinn Féin was campaigning in the election as a party that would provide "an alternative to austerity" and one that can represent "Ireland's interests in the European Parliament as opposed to representing the European Parliament's interests on the island of Ireland".
The Sinn Féin manifesto also repeats the party’s call for a Border poll on Irish unity.
“The EU should continue to play a role in supporting the peace process, promoting cross-Border working and ultimately respecting and supporting any vote for reunification,” it states.
