Sinn Féin members are gathering in Belfast this weekend for their first ardfheis since the general election in 2024. They meet at an interesting juncture for the party.

That 2024 election was both a disappointment and a relief to the party – a disappointment in that the party failed to win power after such a long period leading in the polls, but also a relief that they recovered after the extraordinary collapse in support that saw Sinn Féin win just 12 per cent in the local elections earlier that year.

At times during that period it looked like the Sinn Féin project, in the South anyway, was kaput; so even though the party lost a not insignificant chunk of its vote in the general election (5.5 points), it recovered sharply from the lows of the local elections six months previously. So the 2024 result was not great but it could have been a lot worse. The question for the party is what follows all that topsy-turvy drama.

Since the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Independent administration was formed 15 months ago, Sinn Féin has worked hard at showing the world that it has recovered its mojo. Mary Lou McDonald remains one of the Dáil’s most forceful performers, hopping off the Taoiseach like a Tipperary fullback of the old school. To the extent that they were ever on, Pearse Doherty has taken off the shackles. The party has dialled up its combustible mix of economic populism and nationalism.

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