The former Noraid publicity director, Mr Martin Galvin, has told a meeting in Dundalk that dissident republicans are growing in strength. He predicted they would win more grassroots support as the Sinn Fein leadership made further compromises during the coming months. He said there was increasing disillusionment with the peace process and the Sinn Fein leadership among the republican base. Sinn Fein's refusal to reject the Patten report on policing would lead to further losses in support, he said.
Mr Galvin, a New York lawyer, was addressing around 200 members and supporters of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement at a meeting in the town on Saturday night.
Among those attending was the chairman of the Sovereignty Movement, Mr Francie Mackey, and other prominent republican dissidents.
Mr Galvin is a former close associate of Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness. He resigned from Noraid in 1995 over the peace process.
He is on a 10-day visit to the North. He said he had met republican activists in Derry, south Armagh, Portadown and Dublin.
He claimed there was growing disillusionment with the Belfast Agreement. "People are recognising that it will not lead to equality or justice, let alone freedom.
"It does not offer a transition to a united Ireland. The only transition happening is the transition of Sinn Fein into the British administration. "But this is having repercussions. There is increasing interest and potential support for a credible republican alternative to the failed politics of the Stormont deal. We are offering, and we must continue to offer, that alternative," he said to loud cheers.
He was "disappointed but not surprised" that Sinn Fein had not rejected the Patten report. "By saying it will engage in a consultative period, the leadership are preparing their grassroots to accept this report. But no republican, indeed no real nationalist, could ever accept it.
"Giving the RUC a different name and uniform changes nothing. The same individuals will still be running the police force, whatever its name, and they will still be imposing British rule in Ireland." He said there had been a "seismic shift" in Sinn Fein's position and he predicted the Provisional IRA would decommission.
"But there is strong opposition to all this. There is growing disillusionment among republican grassroots and there is a desire to discuss and debate alternative proposals," he said.