Election result 'a wake-up call', says Adams

Sinn Féin's performance in the last general election was a "wake-up call" for republicans, the party's president Gerry Adams has admitted.

Mr Adams told a gathering of republicans in Co Louth yesterday that Sinn Féin now needed to do things differently given the election outcome, at which the party won just four seats.

Mr Adams suggested that the party would raise the profile of its southern leaders and said Sinn Féin needed to be aware of the different political realities North and South and "shape our republicanism accordingly".

He also identified a need to rejuvenate the party and expand its work in local communities.

Sinn Féin has been engaged in a long process of consultation with its membership since May and a conference is scheduled to be held in Dublin on December 9th to review the general election performance and agree priorities to carry it into the EU treaty referendum due next year and the 2009 local and European elections.

Mr Adams conceded that the election result was a disappointment, but said it was "not the blow our political opponents suggested" and the party was now engaged in a fightback.

He welcomed suggestions that Fianna Fáil might organise on an all-Ireland basis.

"In its own way it can help erode the partitionist mentality that pervades so much of Fianna Fáil's politics," he said, and the SDLP, not Sinn Féin, had most to fear from a Fianna Fáil presence in the North.

He also called on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to honour the Belfast Agreement by giving representation in the Oireachtas to people from the North.

About 3,000 republicans attended the 50th anniversary commemorations of the death of five IRA members who died when the bomb they were working on blew up on November 11th, 1957.

The incident at Edentubber, Co Louth, just a couple of hundred yards from the Border, was one of the biggest setbacks during the IRA's ill-fated border campaign.

Sinn Féin's Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the nature of the debate that took place after May's election was "extremely critical and done through the pages of An Phoblacht week after week".

"Comrades, without any interference or censorship, were given an open platform to voice their critical analysis of why the party didn't do better in the recent general election."

Mr Ó Caoláin said the focus of the criticism had not, however, been on Mr Adams or any other member of the Sinn Féin leadership.

"It was not to isolate the performance of any one individual because that would not be of sufficient impact to have adversely affected the outcome of the election.

"There is a collective effort and a collective responsibility on each and every one of us to ensure that we maximise our support at any given time," he said.