Ireland: How Sinn Féin stormed the Dublin party

the “Armalite and ballot box”.

Mr Adams kept most of the IRA leadership on board as he led the movement through a series of seminal changes: the party’s 1986 decision to abandon abstentionism and take up seats in the Dáil, which led to a split; the first IRA ceasefire in 1994; the Good Friday Agreement; and then powersharing with pro-british unionists in Northern Ireland’s government. But it was only in 2017 that Sinn Féin decided it would open itself up to a coalition in Dublin, setting the stage to replicate in the republic what it has done in the north.

Ms Mcdonald would use a place in government to campaign actively for a referendum on a united Ireland — even though it is up to the UK government to call one in the north — potentially antagonising unionist communities already unsettled by Brexit arrangements that will create a trade border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

She belongs to a generation of leaders who had no active part in the conflict. Security officials accept that she was never in the IRA, although they note “very significant contact” with people who were. Sinn Féin faces persistent claims about “shadowy” people with IRA links influencing the party, but Ms Mcdonald says she takes no instructions as leader.

But there is a delicate balancing act she has to perform, insisting the IRA’S war is over as the party seeks new followers while never disavowing it to maintain unity in the republican movement.

Her most difficult moment on the campaign trail came after she was challenged over the brutal 2007 murder of Paul Quinn, a young man beaten to death in the south by a gang wielding staves and clubs. Although nine years after the Good Friday pact was signed the attack was blamed on the IRA. The Quinn family’s demand for a Sinn Féin minister in Northern Ireland to withdraw claims their son was involved in crime put Ms Mcdonald on the spot.

Micheál Martin, leader of Fianna Fáil, now faces a nightmare choice. Having said during the campaign that there were moral reasons not to ally with Sinn Féin, ruling alongside the party may now be his only route to power. Mr Martin has always resisted a full coalition with Fine Gael and the two parties would lack a majority even if they came together. Aligning with smaller parties and excluding Sinn Féin would also open Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to charges of defying the will of the electorate.

David Farrell, head of politics at University College Dublin, says the election result has left Mr Martin on the back foot, with both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael vulnerable if a stalemate in talks leads to a second election.

“The simple reality is that Sinn Féin didn’t run enough candidates in this election,” he says. “So if we go to the country again in the near future with another election then Sinn Féin can on this basis only do better.”

In Ringsend, Ms Waters agrees. “If they go to another general election and there’s no government formed I think the people will be more determined [than ever] to put in more Sinn Féin people,” she says.

“The whole government needs a good shake- up and I don’t think they can do any worse than what has happened so far.”