The performance of Martin McGuinness in the presidential election is a significant milestone for Sinn Féin, the party’s Dublin Central TD and vice president Mary Lou McDonald said.
Ms McDonald said she was "very pleased" with the outcome of the election.
"We ran a very strong campaign. An increased republican vote came out," she said.
She said Mr McGuinness had managed to highlight a few crucial issues such as financial hardship and the need for voters from Northern Ireland to have a vote in presidential elections, which she hoped would be addressed in next year's constitutional convention.
"For Sinn Féin this is a milestone election. There was a time and it's not so long ago that republicans would have been considered a marginal voice in the southern politics and we have changed that," Ms McDonald said. "We made clear that we are part and parcel of the political fabric of this State, the political conversation, and for us it is very significant."
Ms McDonald congratulated Michael D Higgins on his expected victory and said he would make a “fine president”.
Mr McGuinness would return to the North to continue his work there, Ms McDonald said. She believed even Mr McGuinness's sharpest critics had recognised the “incredible work” that he has been doing in the North.
“We still have very significant work to do there,” she said. “When we took the decision to stand, we also took the decision to run our best candidate and Martin McGuinness by any standard is a person of huge accomplishment.
“He is a person who can articulate and almost personifies a republican message and he was the best person to go for it and I think he did a very fine job and we are very proud of him.”
Asked if she was happy that it was the Sinn Féin candidate who had “put an end” to Seán Gallagher's campaign, Ms McDonald said: “Our candidate brought into the public domain questions that Mr Gallagher had to answer and that's how it happened. That fell very well for Michael D Higgins.”