DOING an interview with Gerry Adams can be like having a conversation with a garda on point duly in O'Connell Street. Everyone wants a piece of him autograph-seekers, party officials, other journalists.
The only thing was to divert him into a back room. But even here he was found out and taken away to a "photo-opportunity" with Martin McGuinness and other colleagues.
A practised interviewee, he doesn't have to be asked to hold the small tape recorder close to his mouth so as not to miss anything.
A somewhat embattled figure in the media since the breakdown of the IRA ceasefire last year, his anxiety to clarify his stance-and set the record straight according to his own lights remains undiminished.
There are odd revelations.
When I asked him what the difference was between a "ceasefire" and a "cessation", which is the word the IRA uses, he said he didn't know. He had used the word "ceasefire" from time to time but edited it out of his speeches because he wanted to stick to the IRA's terminology.
He regards John Bruton as a "personable and decent man to work with" but feels that at another level the Taoiseach lacks the instinct and consistency in policy required for the peace process.
The overwhelming sense that comes through from an hour in conversation with the Sinn Fein leader is his deep and abiding distrust of the British government. In fact he believes the Taoiseach himself has gone through the education of a lifetime" in his dealings with Perfidious Albion.
"He must have got a huge lesson in how the British deal with the Irish."
The other main thrust underlying Mr Adams's remarks is his almost pathological determination not to split the republican movement.
Others may argue that you cannot allow the slowest car in the cavalcade to dictate progress but Mr Adams is determined that the next time the IRA lays aside its arms the republican movement will remain as united as it was in 1994. "We had no Hamas in that situation."
Like other senior republicans he expresses near-total disillusion with John Major. He hopes the aftermath of the elections will see a reopening of the peace process.
I would hope that, when the elections are out of the way, those who have an interest in developing and rebuilding the process will do just that.
He would like to think that if Labour comes to power, "it will make this whole issue of Ireland and its Irish policy a matter of major priority".
When I suggested that the activities of the IRA in disrupting the Grand National and snarling traffic on the motorways were hardening Labour's attitude and leading to a possible crackdown, he replied that he didn't want to engage in recrimination, but Labour administrations in the past did not need any encouragement to use the mailed fist.
He acknowledges the annoyance and inconvenience suffered by punters. Why, he even puts a bet on the National himself. But the issue must be seen in its totality, he argues. There had been a ceasefire, sorry, cessation, but the British had squandered it.
Instead of seizing the opportunity to tie up a peace settlement, the military advisers and intelligence spooks who have Major's ear persuaded the Prime Minister to use the peace process to wage war by other means.
"They stretched it like elastic and then it snapped."
Mr Adams believes Mr Major was advised that if he waited long enough the IRA, a voluntary organisation, would evaporate and its members go back to ordinary life in colleges, on the farm or on the factory floor.
Thus, when Canary Wharf occurred it caught them all on the hop.
He was encouraged by what he calls Bertie Ahern's "open-door" approach of his ardfheis speech.
Although the Fianna Fail and Labour parties are at "daggers drawn" he found a similar attitude from Dick Spring.
"I think that we should have been involved in talks long before this." Sinn Fein was prepared to "do business" now. "I'm at the end of a telephone."
The role of the Irish Government in the game-plan is crucial he believes. If Dublin and London are singing from the same hymn sheet, then there is no space for the Americans and others to get involved.
"The international community will only act in the space between London and Dublin."
He says there is "universal goodwill" towards the peace process and argues that "Irish consular and diplomatic services could do a huge job" to promote a resolution of the conflict.
The Sinn Fein president says he almost has a sense of deja vu at the moment, with the possibility of new governments in both London and Dublin, Bill Clinton still in the White House and the Northern parties renewing their electoral mandates. He finds it highly reminiscent of the 1992-94 period.
Sinn Fein, he says, is in a "peace settlement mode" but, he couldn't sell the IRA "a pig in a poke". The fact that the last ceasefire lasted so long, by guerrilla army standards, and received such a poor response from London is making it difficult to bring about a new one. "The perception, and I believe the reality, is that the British didn't try."
What were his personal feelings when a woman RUC officer was shot in the back in Derry recently?
He says that since the breakdown of the ceasefire, he does not know what will be on the next news.
"The fact, even in these days of gender balance, that it was a woman who was shot obviously has its own impact. I have always felt sorry for families and for victims even if they're combatants in this situation. Patrick Mayhew, or even Ian Paisley or David Trimble will never take the risks that the ordinary British soldier, RUC officer, IRA volunteer or even loyalist will take."
I asked him about the argument that Irish public opinion at home and abroad wanted him to go to the IRA, demand a ceasefire and break with the organisation if it refused.
He will have none of this. Last time around they had brought everyone with them and next time it would be the very same.
They were not setting out to be the Workers' Party or Democratic Left Mark 5. They were not "Sinn Fein the Splitters' party".