Republican News · Thursday 3 April 2003

Upbeat and confident

Last weekend's Sinn Féin Ard Fheis marked another watershed for republicans. It was the party's first ever annual conference to be televised live on RTE, a right won for Sinn Féin by all those who put faith in the party at the last Leinster House elections.

It was also an Ard Fheis when the party's officer board welcomed some new faces. Gerry Adams paid tribute to outgoing Ard Rúnaí Lucilita Bhreatnach and Treasurers Dessie Mackin and Joe Reilly for their work in putting the party on its strongest national footing since partition. Coming in to build on these strong foundations are Robbie Smyth as Ard Rúnaí and Margaret Adams and Treasa Quinn as Treasurers.

What people will take away from the weekend is a growing sense of a party on the move. The quality of debate was exceptional and displayed a confidence among republicans that the project is on course, that a United Ireland of Equals is within reach. Never has the party approached an election with more going for it.

Gerry Adams paid special attention in his Presidential address to the issue of gender equality within the party, acknowledging that a lot needs to be done to make the party representative of society. Gender quotas have been proven to work in increasing and sustaining women's participation in politics and a motion calling for the Ard Fheis to in future elect six men and six women to the Ard Comhairle from the floor was narrowly passed after a hotly contested debate.

But if equality and the Assembly elections featured strongly, the controversial issue of policing dominated the final day. In the end, the leadership and delegates spoke with one voice. Sinn Féin will not stop negotiating until the Good Friday Agreement version of policing becomes reality. And Sinn Féin will not take any decisions on policing without a special Ard Fheis and after wider consultation with those communities in the North directly affected by the party's decision.

But the most potent visual signal of the Ard Fheis had to be the appearance together, on live television, of the ANC and Sinn Féin, two liberation struggles, two peoples in struggle, united by comradeship and a shared vision based on justice and equality for all.