Since the the Ard Fheis 86 which was intended to reclaim the Dail and Sinn Fein as a 32 county voice the party has managed to end the aggressive stance of the British and it is time to increase our representation and engagement with Dail Eireann. I think it is important that from next year the Ard Fheis should elect a leader from Dail Eireann.

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Surely it is more important for ye to elect the best person for the job, not depending on their location. Dont think ye have a whole lot this side of the border to chose from the dail.

Could someone translate this into English please?

That would make sense. Gerry Adams stucks out like a sore thumb as the only Dail party leader who is not actually a Dail member. As such, the leadership of SF lacks credibility with the Irish electorate as being relevant to the lives of Southern voters.

Many thanks for your genuine response..given the amount of time wasters who put in cynical space that clutter these threads. My idea was not to focus on Adams at all or to get into personally ananlysing who of the four Dail Eireann candidates would be the best leader but the media are not our strategists and the conventions of 86 were about rebuilding the party primarily in Dail Eireann so a regional assembly shouldn't get priority. Many journalist have misrepresented 86 as being about a north south power struggle but in actual fact Adams wasn't even the driving force behind it. The real resource came from within the army and the long term strategy was mapped out by the same people. It wasn't a Belfast thing and the timing had more to do with the ages of those involved and the dynamic and skills they had.

Wont happen, Grizzly want to keep control in West Belfast.

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It would certainly help Sinn Fein to progress in this state.

Definitely although I don't see a candidate in their current parliamentary party

if you won't give them a chance to develop in the role and see how the electorate respond and are prepared to sit and watch the party stagnate as it is at present.

I think there is a decent chance of SF doubling their total of Dail seats from 4 to 8. That will allow a few more people to enter the fray and position themselves for a leadership role. But I believe that is a few years down the line yet.

As it is SF are an all island party and the majority of its inflluence is in the North, there is little point in denying any of that. SF have to appeal to people who regard a UI as something they want and as such view a northern leader as of secondary importance.