At the Sinn Féin ardfheis, the party faithful were firmly behind Mary Lou McDonald.
Quite literally behind her, in the case of those trying to crowd into a selfie with her in the corridor of the International Convention Centre in Belfast, which was thronged with party members gathered for this weekend’s conference.
It was a point McDonald had emphasised – though without the selfies – to the media on Saturday morning, when she was repeatedly asked about her position following a report in the Times that there were “increasing levels of dissatisfaction” with McDonald’s leadership of Sinn Féin.
Asked if she would lead her party into the next election, she replied: “Yes.”
READ MORE
She was “very proud to lead this party ... very proud to enjoy the confidence of my colleagues and the broader membership”.
“So, as you may try to seek a story in that, there isn’t a story there.
“I’m the leader of the party, we are a collective leadership, and we are in a very, very good place,” she said.
McDonald also confirmed she would continue to lead Sinn Féin even if the party was unsuccessful in next month’s byelections in Dublin Central and Galway West. “Yes, of course,” she said, rejecting the suggestion that there was an additional impetus for her to deliver a second Sinn Féin TD in her own constituency.
“Far from feeling any pressure,” she said, “I enjoy elections where I’m not the candidate.”
[ Key issues facing Sinn Féin as party gathers for ardfheisOpens in new window ]
Among the party faithful, support for McDonald was repeated time and time again, and not surprisingly. Politics aside, an ardfheis is also a day out for the committed; it is not the time nor the place for plotting, especially in front of the media.
“Mary Lou is going to lead our party into the next generation, I have no doubt about that,” TD Eoin Ó Broin told The Irish Times.
“I’m one of what would be considered the senior leadership team; there are no conversations that I’m aware of that people are thinking anything other than that.
“Mary Lou’s leadership is absolutely secure,” he said, adding that “personally, she’s the right person to lead the party, I’ve always said that”.
“Is there a conversation in the corridors of power anywhere about a challenge? Absolutely not.”
Other sources, from different levels of the party, who spoke to The Irish Times agreed, emphasising that they had heard no one, from the grassroots to that senior team, question McDonald’s leadership.
On Saturday evening, more than 1,000 of those party members packed into the conference hall for McDonald’s speech.
She reiterated the call made on Friday by Pearse Doherty for the Government to introduce an emergency budget, which she said must include “a substantial cut to excise, to make fuel affordable, including the complete removal of carbon tax on home heating oil and green diesel”.
As part of the package, she also called for electricity credits worth €400, a €500 cost-of-disability payment and other supports.
McDonald recommitted to the party’s goal of a Border poll within four years, saying “we can achieve unity referendums by 2030, but preparations must happen now”.
Saying the “biggest barrier to planning for unity is the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Government”, she pledged her party would “bring forward legislation before the summer compelling the Irish Government to publish a Green Paper – a detailed discussion on the process of Irish unity”.
Speaking to the media earlier on Saturday, the First Minister, Sinn Féin’s vice-president Michelle O’Neill, elaborating on her commitment in Friday’s speech to reform the North’s political institutions, said the party would bring forward proposals “in the next number of weeks”.
