The front line of the republican "struggle" has shifted to the South, said Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.
In his first key address since the party's disappointing general election result, Mr Adams said Sinn Féin "is an all-Ireland party operating in two jurisdictions with their own political cultures and different political realities that have developed since partition".
He said that "while we must continue to advance in the North, the front line is now clearly shifting South".
After the election, the party began an internal review of its structures and organisation and this is expected to continue until September, to agree a "two-year programme of work" for the 2009 local elections.
In the 2004 local elections, Sinn Féin won 126 seats, more than doubling its 1999 result of 62 seats.
Mr Adams said "leadership is needed from within party structures at all levels. Interventions by national leadership people are no substitute for this".
He later denied this was an admission that the party's strategy to have him to the forefront of the general election campaign was a mistake.
The party's need was to "develop a public element of our leadership across Ireland but particularly here in the 26 counties".
Speaking at the annual Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown Cemetery, in Co Kildare, the Sinn Féin president said "the election result is a wake-up call". He added: "We are where we are. But we don't intend to stay here."
He said that in the run-up to this year's elections, "we had identified weaknesses and put in place plans for the development of our party, particularly in this State."
Speaking afterwards, he said they included "underdevelopment of organisation in some areas, a raised expectation in terms of our potential in the election itself, the ongoing ABC of party building".
The party increased its votes by 20,000 but it "fell in some crucial areas".
Sinn Féin "needs to engage more than ever before in campaigning politics. Our progressive republican message is correct but we have more work to prove that."
He indicated party opposition to the reformed EU treaty. However, speaking afterwards, Mr Adams said "the party will have to deal with that" but he recalled that they had successfully opposed the Nice treaty.
Up to 1,000 people attended the commemoration, including a number of survivors of the IRA Border campaign that ran for six years from the mid 1950s.
Joanne Spain, the party's Dublin Mid West election candidate, said 2007 had been a "mixed year" for Sinn Féin, with great success in the Assembly elections and establishment of the power-sharing executive and all-Ireland institutions, but also noted the disappointing general election.
At the commemoration, Annie Cahill, widow of former IRA chief of staff Joe Cahill, laid the wreath at Wolf Tone's grave.