Almost 24 years ago hundreds of troops in riot gear and gardai were drafted into Ballina, Co Mayo, for a funeral attended by 10,000 people. During the sermon in St Muiredach's Cathedral the priest was accused of failing to mark the death of a "true Irish soldier".
Outside, the late Daithi O Connaill, O Conaill, Provisional republican leader, gave an oration. It was June 1974, at the funeral of Parkhurst Prison hunger-striker Michael Gaughan.
A quarter of a century later, Gaughan and Frank Stagg, the Wakefield Prison hunger-striker, lie in the republican plot in Leigue Cemetery outside Ballina, and the memory of their much publicised funerals has faded - as has the late night-reburial of Frank Stagg, against his family's wishes, in "IRA soil".
Now what has been described as the "heartland" of the republican movement in the west is said to be split and riven, with some serious soul-searching among those who remain about Articles 2 and 3.
An elderly Ballina businessman who has had a 50-year association with the movement, and will not be named, can count supporters on the fingers of one hand. "Most of them have gone, or don't want to talk," he says. "I've lived through two republican splits and I can't bear this third one now."
Republican Sinn Fein (RSF) has its strongest support in Galway now, he says. There the party managed to break a Fianna Fail stranglehold on the local authority for a time by taking two council seats. It also out-polled a Labour candidate in the last Udaras na Gaeltachta elections. Now with about 50 active members, the party is spearheaded by Conchur O Bradaigh, son of its president, Ruairi, who lectures in NUI Galway.
Last week it held one of a series of county campaign meetings in the Imperial Hotel in Tuam. The keynote speaker was the party's "Vote No" campaign director, treasurer and member of Bundoran Urban District Council, Mr Joe O'Neill, who referred to the Belfast Agreement as the "worst step since the 1922 separation".
Some in the audience forecast a "Lord Adams" and a "Lord McGuinness" in a couple of years' time.
Although it was attended by only a handful, the RSF meeting was one of the few public events held to date in the western region by any political party during this referendum campaign.
Mr Michael Donnelly, lecturer in politics in NUI Galway, says voting patterns in the west, north-west and south-west have always reflected strong pockets voting against the grain. These pockets, some of which may reflect republican sympathies, will be more pronounced if there is a low turn-out on polling day.
Sinn Fein in Galway says there has been some "serious concern" among members locally about Articles 2 and 3, but will not comment on reports that certain key supporters have left the party, including one of its candidates in the last general election.
A series of meetings have been held as there was a need for a thorough debate, Mr Eoghan MacCormick of the party says. Such meetings were held right throughout the peace process to keep people informed, with various guest speakers including members of the Garvaghy and Ormeau Road residents' associations. Saoirse branches in Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and NUI Galway have also contributed to this debate, he says.