ANALYSIS:Sinn Féin is in process of reinventing itself as a social democratic party
SINN Féin used to be the IRA’s brass band and its primary role was to make propaganda for the “armed struggle” and the “long war” to end partition and achieve a united Ireland.
Now that the IRA has left the stage, Sinn Féin has reinvented itself as a left-wing nationalist party pursuing its aims through the parliamentary process, with a bit of street politics on the side.
The party is already in government in Northern Ireland, although the powers of the Stormont Executive are limited. It is the second-largest Opposition party in the Dáil and could well end up in government in the next 10 years or possibly less.
The development of this party is therefore of more than passing interest and the weekend ardfheis of Sinn Féin in Belfast gave a good opportunity to assess that development.
The two dominant personalities continue to be Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams. There are able and committed younger types coming along but none of them has the same status in republican terms.
Given his high-profile paramilitary background, McGuinness seemed an unlikely politician when the peace process first began. Many people have been agreeably surprised at his evolution since then.
The ex-IRA leader turned out to have unexpected political skills. His “Chuckle Brothers” partnership with Ian Paisley is well-known and he clearly gets along quite well also with Peter Robinson.
At the weekend, he produced a new surprise in the form of Derry-based Presbyterian clergyman Rev David Latimer. Such is the warmth between them that it makes the Paisley-McGuinness relationship look more like the “Brothers Grimm”.
Since time immemorial there have been calls for leaders in the two Northern communities to reach out to the other side – and here it was, live, on the stage at the Waterfront Hall.
Rev Latimer initiated what can best be described as the “Mandela-isation” of Martin McGuinness, when he described the Deputy First Minister (to the undoubted horror of some of his co-religionists) as “one of the true great leaders of modern times”.
He also took a leaf out of Queen Elizabeth’s book when he began in Irish with “a chairde” and went one better at the end with “Ádh mór ort” (good luck to you).
The sceptics will say it had something to do with McGuinness securing a substantial grant for Rev Latimer to refurbish his church but, on the night, that seemed far too cynical an interpretation.
It was clear afterwards that even moderate unionists in the North thought Rev Latimer was a tad naïve, but is there not also a proud tradition of the “Holy Fool” revealing Christ’s truth to the world?
Now the Presbyterian minister has challenged the Democratic Unionist Party to invite a Catholic priest to address its next conference “this year or next”. One to watch, perhaps?
The next night it was the turn of Gerry Adams to take centre-stage. He is now effectively the leader of “southern” Sinn Féin.
In a way, he faces a more difficult challenge than Martin McGuinness.
Sinn Féin is the second-largest party at Stormont, but number four in the Dáil. At the same time it is a growing force, as distinct from Fianna Fáil, which has suffered a dizzying fall from grace in recent times.
The leader’s speech is the nominal highlight of every party conference, although it is usually a restatement of established policies and rarely contains anything new.
Nowadays, there is the added pressure of fitting into RTÉ’s broadcast schedule and, unusually for a politician, Adams asked his audience (in Irish) to applaud less often as it was taking up too much time.
There was one new angle in the speech when he said the party ought to “support the nomination” of a presidential candidate. He has since confirmed that this meant an internal nominee. The formal decision will be made by the ardchomhairle on Friday.
Now that Fianna Fáil has left the field, the temptation for Sinn Féin to put forward its own contender must be overwhelming. The party paper An Phoblachtclaims "more and more" citizens are looking to Sinn Féin for leadership on this issue.
Candidates must achieve in excess of one-quarter of the quota to be eligible for up to €200,000 in reimbursed expenses.
This means securing 12.5 per cent of the vote at some stage of the count, as against the 10 per cent of first preferences the party achieved in the general election.
Sinn Féin’s prospects of achieving that have to be quite good and it seems highly likely the party will enter the race.
However, at time of writing, speculation was still continuing as to the actual candidate, with names such as Michelle Gildernew, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and even McGuinness himself being mentioned.
The electorate seems to be gradually buying into the new social democratic Sinn Féin and slowly putting aside the stark history of the Troubles with all its frightful and terrible violence and suffering.
The ardfheis itself was a study in contrasts, with the top floor of the Waterfront Hall devoted to an exhibition on the IRA hunger-strikes of the late 1970s and early 1980s, whereas the floor below was given over to lobby groups and other organisations such as the Federation of Small Businesses, the Royal College of Midwives and the charity, Autism Northern Ireland.
In his speech, Adams focused mainly on the Dublin political scene and made no reference whatever to the activities of the dissident republicans who want to restart the paramilitary campaign although, as he would say himself, “They haven’t gone away, you know”.
He cited republican icons Pádraig Pearse, James Connolly, Henry Joy McCracken and Bobby Sands, but his most interesting remark and the one that best caught the mood of the party at present came off-camera after his keynote speech, when he borrowed a line from the late Ronald Reagan: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”