Sinn Fein conference opens

Sinn Fein opened its annual conference in Dublin tonight with a series of question marks hovering over the party’s full involvement in Northern Ireland peace process.

As many as 2,000 representatives of the IRA’s politically allied group from both sides of Ireland’s border were due in the Irish capital for the three-day event at the prestigious headquarters of the Royal Dublin Society – and a record 324 motions featured on the agenda.

Sinn Fein general secretary Lucilita Bhreathnach formally opened the party’s biggest-ever conference, but the keynote speech of the weekend is set for delivery early tomorrow night by leader and West Belfast MP Gerry Adams.

For the first time, the leader’s address – as well as some of the debates preceding it – will be broadcast live on RTE.

That development follows Sinn Fein’s capture at last year’s general election of a high-enough percentage of the votes cast to merit them live airtime.

And it signifies a marked contrast from the period a little more than a decade ago, when Sinn Fein were banned from staging their Ard Fheis – annual meeting - in any government-controlled premises because of the party’s continued link with IRA violence.

In this year’s vastly-changed conference circumstances, a lot of attention was set to focus on a debate on policing in Northern Ireland, and specifically on the issue of the party joining the province’s Policing Board.

Though the crowded agenda gave few hints – and little more was expected to emerge from Sunday’s debate – the probability was that a second conference of delegates would be called soon to declare and adopt an ultimate position on the policing issue.

A motion framed by the party’s Ard Comhairle policy-directing executive stresses that the current policing arrangements cannot be endorsed as they fall short of the new beginning promised in the 1998 Good Friday agreement.

Another motion underscores that joining policing boards in Northern Ireland would be “a tactical mistake,” and another mandates the Ard Comhairle to organise a special conference in the event of Sinn Fein having to take a decision on the policing issue.

Less mainstream proposals tabled for debate at the conference include calls for the legalisation of same-sex marriages and for an invitation to be relayed to next year’s conference to Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Overall, the aim of the party bosses this weekend was to use the Dublin conference as a springboard for success in next May’s elections for a new Northern Ireland Assembly, when Sinn Fein will bid to overtake the Social Democratic and Labour Party as the main political representatives of nationalism.

A potential signal emerged last year, when the party boosted its representation in the Dail from one to five members in the Irish Republic’s general election – their best-ever poll result.