Frank NcNally Ardfheis sketch: Sinn Féin's commitment to feminism knows no bounds. This may explain why at the end of his ardfheis speech, reminded about Mother's Day, Gerry Adams adapted an old republican slogan and applied it to the entire sisterhood, mothers and non-mothers alike.
"Tiocfaidh lá na mBan!" he declared.
Or maybe the mistranslation was accidental and the Sinn Féin leader just fluffed his line under pressure. Inclusive and all as he likes to be, it was to five women in the front row that the key section of Mr Adams's speech was aimed. And rarely has his address been under such scrutiny as that imposed by the McCartney sisters.
The murder of their brother loomed over the ardfheis from start to finish, although some delegates managed not to notice the elephant in the room. Urging the establishment of a "truth recovery process", a Fermanagh speaker said that whenever challenged, the British response was always "denial, concealment and cover-up". A neat summary of recent events in the Short Strand.
But the news that the McCartneys were on the way down from Belfast electrified the RDS on Saturday. Their arrival into the hall was as dramatic - without any of the triumphalism - as that of the Balcombe Street gang at an earlier ardfheis. And although they studiously abstained from the ovations for Adams, their presence still looked like a coup for the leadership.
The only theme that rivalled them during the weekend was Sinn Féin's hatred of Michael McDowell. The Minister for Justice has succeeded the Rev Ian Paisley as the bête noir of the republican movement, to the extent that religious zeal is now one of the qualities attributed to him. "The grand ayatollah of Ringsend and Ballsbridge," was what Cllr Daithí Doolan called him.
Most delegates settled for a simple "Michael McDole", which is either the Northern pronunciation of McDowell, or wishful thinking.
As a Sinn Féin candidate for Dublin South East, Doolan would especially like to give the Minister his P45.
Ballsbridge may not be a traditional republican heartland - delegates popped out of the RDS for a protest at the nearby British embassy.
But the way Sinn Féin tells it, the oppressed people of the embassy belt yearn for liberation from the PD yoke. "Release the Dublin 4" is the new catch-cry.
The McDowell phenomenon probably explained a slip of the tongue by Caitríona Ruane when she mis-introduced one of SF's rising stars, Pearse Doherty.
Such is the stigma attached to the latter's initials that she described him instead as "Pearse McAuley", one of the IRA men who killed Garda Jerry McCabe.
A sister-in-law of Garda McCabe - Una Heaton - was among those at the RDS during the weekend. Unlike the McCartneys, she wasn't given access to the hall, and had to content herself with picketing outside. Ironically, because her protest clashed with Adams's speech, it received little media attention.
But committed feminist that he is, the Sinn Féin leader will console himself that in her own way, Una Heaton was marking Lá na mBan.