I've been to many an ard fheis. All Fianna Fail ones, of course. But somehow I thought that Sinn Fein's would be different.
The similarity, familiarity even, of the surrounding, the backdrops, posters, passes, information points -- even the structure of the event -- were eerily the same.
The difference lay in the precision about the organisation of this ard fheis, which made you feel as if you were at a military conference. Every entrance from the sprawling maze that houses the conference centre in Killarney had a checkpoint. No matter how many times you passed in and out of the main area, no matter how familiar you became with the personnel manning the checkpoints, your belongings were always searched. There was no room for error.
Checkpoints aside, one felt that there was a concerted effort to be mainstream. Little reference to the 'Troubles' other than the visuals in the hunger-strike exhibition housed on the first floor. The northern conflict has been consigned to history.
Reconciliation and relationship-building in the march towards a united Ireland are the order of the day, with Martin McGuinness's address outlining the conciliatory advances made towards an inclusive debate with unionists in the North.
However, the conciliatory tone stopped short of extending to the governing parties in the South.
Like a hunter watching its prey and identifying the weakest quarry in the pack, Martin Ferris in his opening speech pounced on the Labour Party for its part in the savage spending cuts that have affected every working-class and middle-class home. There was a sense of, "we've dealt with Fianna Fail, now let's move on to our next target".
Despite the similarity to Fianna Fail in the structure of the party and indeed the structure of the ard fheis itself, there was an undercurrent that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Deference to individuals I didn't recognise. In fact, there was a distinct lack of attention paid by the delegates to most of the elected and publicly recognisable individuals in the party.
Apart from Ferris and McGuinness, who were most definitely serious power brokers, the other public representatives were left, for the most part, to their own devices.
No handshaking. No backslapping. No clamouring for photos to show the family back home. They were, to all intent and purposes, treated as just more cogs in the wheel of a well-oiled machine.
You had to be in the know to know who was who and the few individuals that commanded respect and merited accompaniment by 'the boys' were not instantly recognisable to an outsider like me.
The opening session on Friday night had an air of a party at ease with itself. On the lawn outside, the party leader, Gerry Adams, flanked by Martin Ferris and Mary Lou McDonald, sweated in the blazing sunshine while fielding questions about his leadership and launching the perfunctory attack on the Taoiseach for not succumbing to pressure for a leaders' debate on the Stability Treaty.
However, his controlled veneer did slip for one significant second when he irritably snapped that he would decide when to step down as party leader. He intended on staying until after 2016.
Democracy is self-evidently new to him -- "tiocfaidh ar la" -- in the sense that succeeding to the leadership didn't seem to be something the bright younger folk could aspire to until Gerry was good and finished with the position. Which wasn't going to happen until after the anniversary of 1916.
According to the party stalwart stewarding the ard comhairle elections, the leadership is a position to which a person is elected by the party membership. So Gerry Adams was squarely in the wrong position when he treated it as a personal entitlement. He was fast, though, and recovered himself almost immediately with the addendum: "The party and I will know when it's the right time for me to leave". This was in deference to the fact that it's not actually his call.
It's been a while since I've come face to face with Gerry Adams but he seems to have lost some of his sharpness. The surefootedness I witnessed during the peace process is now sporadic, rather than constant. In sharp contrast, Martin McGuinness has lost none of his awareness, instinct and perspicacity.
In the conference hall itself, the order of the day was to build the party at all costs. I spoke to one young man who had just joined the party.
"Why Sinn Fein?" I asked.
"I like their policies," he said confidently.
"Like what?" I asked. "Which Sinn Fein policy do you like best?"
He fumbled his way into a brief silence. "I just can't stand any of the other parties," he eventually said, oblivious to the fact that he personifies the threat to all of those other parties.
Disenchantment, rather than policy, can be a great recruiting officer and that's confirmed by today's opinion poll. Given its much improved showing, Sinn Fein could have been forgiven for showing a little triumphalism.
However, there were no jubilant displays and no self-congratulations. Just an easy optimism and a confident certainty as they went about their business of picking off their prey and mopping up disenchanted voters with military precision.
On a lighter note and in keeping with the military theme, I smiled to myself when I heard one guy on the door say: "Just show your passes, lads, and shoot straight through." If Labour doesn't get its act together soon it will be the next party to be shot through.
One down, one to go ...
Yes, the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis had a lot that was familiar about it. But at the same time, it was oh so very different. It was the ard fheis of a party ready to take the next hill. Up and over -- and into power within a decade.
Originally published in
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