The prospects of Gerry Adams carrying an extraordinary ardfheis on policing in Dublin on Sunday appeared enhanced last night after four public meetings on the issue at the weekend in Northern Ireland generally supported the Sinn Féin leadership strategy, write Gerry Moriartyand Dan Keenan.
While a damning Police Ombudsman's report today confirming serious RUC Special Branch collusion with the UVF in north Belfast mainly during the 1990s may cause tensions, Mr Adams last night appeared in a strong position to see the leadership motion endorsing the PSNI passed on Sunday.
That expected sense of nationalist anger is also likely to be exacerbated by informed sources saying that none of the RUC officers implicated in colluding with loyalists, who were involved in at least 12 killings, is likely to be prosecuted.
"They have covered their tracks so well that it is unlikely that any former or serving police officers caught up in the Ombudsman's investigation can be prosecuted," a senior source told The Irish Times last night.
Four of the seven Sinn Féin public meetings on policing were held over yesterday and Saturday in Toome, Co Antrim, Galbally in east Tyrone, Lurgan in Co Armagh and Newcastle in south Down, and in all cases the leadership strategy was positively received.
Numerous other "private" republican meetings are being held throughout Ireland on policing and in all cases the response was positive, said Sinn Féin sources.
There were some dissenting voices but they were in a considerable minority. At Galbally on Saturday night, where Mr Adams received a standing ovation at the end of the night, and in other weekend comments, the Sinn Féin president pre-emptively attempted to counteract the potential effects of Nuala O'Loan's report today.
The findings of collusion merely confirmed what republicans knew all along, he said.
At a republican rally in Crossmaglen in south Armagh yesterday, he added, "Our intention, if the ardfheis agrees with the ardchomhairle, is to ensure that no police officer ever again does what was done on our people without being held to account."
In Lurgan yesterday afternoon Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said support for the PSNI was conditional on the DUP sharing power and agreeing to the transfer of policing powers by May 2008.