While it is not unusual for a Sinn Féin ard fheis to take place under an intense spotlight of publicity, the level of attention paid to the party s weekend gathering in Athlone was enormous by any standards.
It is almost a century since Fianna Fáil was founded as the result of a bitter split with Sinn Féin, and both sides have taken up diametrically opposing stances throughout the course of their subsequent histories.