The political impasse is not about the IRA and its intentions, Mr Gerry Adams has claimed, it is about attempts of reactionaries to halt change. Northern News Editor Dan Keenan reports.
Addressing an election rally on the Falls Road last night, the Sinn Féin president insisted "a deal is still do-able" involving the Irish and British governments and the other parties, and that "nothing should prevent us from moving forward".
Mr Adams confirmed he would be in direct contact with both the British Prime Minister and the Taoiseach last night following yesterday's flurry of political activity.
He said the British government was in possession of a statement which the majority of IRA members had not seen.
"The terms have been outlined and in the possession of the British government for the last two weeks . . .
"The inability of that government to move forward isn't based on their need to be sure. The problem lies with the inability of a British government to face up to the challenge that it has to bring about change while it retains any sort of control on this part of our island. It cannot forever be in hock to unionism."
He said republicans had moved from a culture of resistance to one of change, and from one of outlining what they opposed to defining the change they saw as essential.
But he warned that this is "a scary time for unionism". Change, he said, threatened the very existence of the Northern state and the rationale of unionism. He said there was nowhere for unionists to go "unless we make them welcome on this island".
"Let no one be in any doubt," he said. "As we grow, they who are in opposition to us will continue to become more frenetic in their reaction against us."
He said this was evident among some unionists and among "elements within the British system".
He told party workers to assume the election scheduled for May 29th would go ahead. He said: "This election is the most important." He added: "Nothing should daunt us. Nothing should prevent us from moving forward." He said appealed to voters who intended to give first preferences for other parties to give transfers to Sinn Féin.
"Let us ask every single man, woman and teenager to vote for our party. And if they're going to vote for other parties then let us ask them to give us a stroke - a five or a six - to go down the line. And to go forward after the elections confident in our ability to continue pushing this process of change forward."
He said: "The day after the votes are counted we are still in struggle." He said that struggle would continue until there was a "new republic on this island".
He called on unionists not to be fearful. "We will never treat unionists the way the old regime treated us."