TO the strains of Roddy McCorley, Mr Gerry Adams entered a room full of supporters in Manhattan's Plaza Hotel last night and drew cheers by calling for the restoration of the peace process.
At his first public function on a five day trip to the United States, the Sinn Fein leader conveyed in every way except by direct speech the message that he is trying to pull the republican movement in a different direction than the IRA.
"I regret very, very much that the IRA cessation has ended," he said. Making peace was "risky and dangerous," and sometimes "it's far easier to make war". His message was "a message of hope ... Now is the time to embrace democracy.
"We are faced with perhaps the biggest challenge of our present and recent history, how to overcome fear, distrust, suspicion in order to reconstruct a peace process," he said. But frustration at Britain should not be an argument "for not redoubling our efforts to build the peace".
Mr Adams was speaking in the Plaza ballroom, where President Clinton had received an Irish American award the previous evening.
The presence of hundreds of prosperous members of New York's 2.6 million Irish American community highlighted the financial loss to Sinn Fein of the IRA campaign.
This should have been a big money spinning event, but Mr Adams may not raise funds on this trip. Some of his most important patrons, such as Mr Bill Flynn of Mutual of America, who was at the meeting, agree with this restriction.
Mr Flynn, who will be grand marshal for Saturday's St Patrick's Day parade in New York told The Irish Times there would be no money for Sinn Fein, nor should there be, as long as the IRA campaign continued.
The choice of Mr Flynn as parade marshal, the highest honour for a New York Irish American, underlines the current political mood of the community. Mr Flynn is highly regarded as a peacemaker who has reached out to both sides. Two weeks ago he was in Northern Ireland urging loyalist leaders he has befriended to help maintain the loyalist ceasefire.
In Washington Senator Edward Kennedy, who fought to get the fund raising ban lifted a year ago, agreed Mr Adams should not raise money now, saying: "It doesn't make a lot of sense for them to be doing that until they're part of the political process."
Mr Larry Downes, chairman of Friends of Sinn Fein, said in an interview: "We are not raising any funds this week. We are not even soliciting the expenses in some kind of general way. We are going to a few discreet individuals who will help us pay the cost."
If there was an open invitation to cover expenses, it's quite conceivable we would get a flow of money that would exceed our expenses," he said. This would not be in the spirit of Mr Adams's agreement not to use his name to raise funds. The few people who offered were told: "Look, we can talk in the future, but during this week, absolutely no fund raising."
Mr Downes said Sinn Fein supporters were "concerned but supportive and ultimately determined to help Gerry and Sinn Fein push on through peaceful means to resolve the situation once and for all". They were "disappointed" at the resumption of the IRA campaign.
In his assessment of the crisis in the political process, Mr Adams placed part of the blame on the Irish side. "The commitment on the Irish side through a consensus approach to address the conflict was significantly weakened by the collapse of Mr Reynolds's government and the election of a new Taoiseach, John Bruton," he said.
"Once the basis of a cessation had been removed by the reneging [by Britain] on negotiations and by the breaking of the nationalist consensus, then the fall down of the process itself became almost inevitable," he said.
"I would love to be in the White House with David Trimble drowning his shamrock," he concluded to laughter. "But I shall be here in New York with all of you, among friends."
At an enthusiastic peace rally in the Bronx later on Tuesday evening, Mr Adams was heckled by a woman protesting about his planned participation in the St Patrick's Day parade which bars the lesbian and gay group, ILGO. When she was shouted down by some in the crowd Mr Adams insisted on her right to be heard.