Shaping the Future
It hardly seemed like a year had passed since we gathered for a Sinn
Féin ard fheis. It was entirely natural that the party members would
use this year's ard fheis to take stock of the events over the past
year and that many of the contributions to the debates would be in
part a reflection on that year.
This led the media to label this year's ard fheis `low key'. They
were wrong. Last years's ard fheis was a historic one. Sinn Féin
changed its constitution and rules in a very public demonstration of
our commitment to securing a lasting peace in Ireland.
If the media attending our ard fheis this year had probed a bit
deeper, they would have realised that this year's ard fheis was a
reaffirmation of the commitments Sinn Féin made last year. Speaker
after speaker outlined the broken promises and the back tracking of
the Ulster Unionists as well as the Dublin and London governments.
As the debates progressed, there was a clear consensus emerging from
the delegates. The message was that more than a year on from the Good
Friday Agreement, we have lived up to our commitments but others had
not.
Added to this was the unanswered question of whether the other
parties to the Good Friday Agreement are still committed to the
declarations they made in April 1998.
Delegates wondered why we were being asked to show more commitment to
the peace process when others have shown absolutely none. They
wondered why, when others are backtracking, reinterpreting and
rewriting the agreement, Sinn Féin are being asked to do more and
more.
This was not just the message from the Sinn Féin leadership. It was
the message from the vast majority of speakers. The message to
Trimble, Ahern, Blair and others was a simple one - ``We are resolute
and determined. What about you?''
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/harp.gif)