In doing so, the party badly misjudged the public mood. The royal visit was widely hailed as a political and symbolic success, cementing relations between our once warring nations. As Queen Elizabeth bowed her head in the Garden of Remembrance and recited her cúpla focal as Gaelige in Dublin Castle, the Shinners were nowhere to be seen. Talk about missing out on a photo opportunity!
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| •Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, then Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Cowen and Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness pictured outside St Luke's, Drumcondra, May 2003. PHOTO BY DARREN KINSELLA |
Nothing much has changed in Anglo-Irish relations since the Queen's visit and we continue to get on famously with our nearest neighbours. The peace process, despite attempts by dissidents to derail it, has largely held solid. At the time it struck me as curious that key signatories to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement should boycott a visit from the royals. Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness, didn't seem to have any problems pressing the flesh with the Queen when she was in Belfast in 2012 so why did he not greet her in Dublin a year earlier? Would this have been a concession too far for the party's grassroots members in the 26 counties?
Three years on and we're no closer than we were back then to achieving a united Ireland, yet Sinn Féin seems to have softened its stance and has belatedly come to the royal party. Don't get me wrong, the fact that McGuinness attended the state banquet this week at Windsor Castle was a welcome move and can only but further progress made by Sinn Féin in presenting itself as a legitimate political force on both sides of the border.
Under its present leadership, I believe Sinn Féin is unlikely to make the electoral gains that the polls suggest. For all his new cuddliness and whimsical tweeting, Gerry Adams remains both the party's greatest strength and weakness. He is a symbol of Sinn Féin's Republican ethos but is arguably too close to the party's past for some people's liking.
Unlike Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness has not denied his previous role in the IRA and is all the more credible for it. Adams has stuck to this mantra for so long now that he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.
Mary Lou McDonald will undoubtedly be the heir apparent when Adams eventually decides to stand aside. She performed particularly well during the Dail's Public Accounts Committee hearings into Rehab and her contribution to the recent Garda scandals has been articulate and forceful. She will also appeal to middle-class voters and doesn't have the pre-peace process baggage of some of her party colleagues. And even though Sinn Féin is perceived to be weak on economic issues, the party is starting to find a more coherent voice through impressive Dáil performers like Pearse Doherty.
But to gain a wider acceptance among the electorate, Sinn Féin needs to be unequivocal when it comes to condemning previous acts of violence by the IRA. On a recent television programme, one member of the party refused to condemn outright the murder of gardai by the IRA. He repeatedly trotted out the view that the killing of gardai needed to be seen in the historic context of collusion with security forces in the North, or some old blather along those lines. This is a spurious argument that does a great disservice to the memory of gardai like Jerry McCabe who was killed by members of the Provisional IRA during an attempted robbery in Adare, Co Limerick, in 1996.
Sinn Féin is making strides politically but it might do well to borrow an earlier election slogan from Fianna Fáil - 'much done, more to do'. Martin McGuinness breaking bread with Queen Elizabeth in Windsor Castle was a positive step in the right direction.
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