The Democratic Unionists' refusal to engage with Sinn Féin in talks on the future of the Belfast Agreement shows a lack of conviction in their own position, Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams said tonight.
As he arrived in Dublin for his party's annual conference, the West Belfast MP said the DUP would have to reach an accommodation with his party.
And he also ridiculed Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble's position of threatening to leave the review next week over allegations of IRA activity while the DUP remained.
Mr Adams, who arrived at the conference with Sinn Féin chief negotiator Mr Martin McGuinness and its Dublin European Parliament candidate Ms
Mary Lou McDonald, said: "I think the antics of the UUP threatening to leave and the DUP saying they are going to stay turns Lannigan's Ball into a side-show.
"It isn't that long ago that the DUP were leaving and the UUP were staying.
"I think it is all part of the macho battle within unionism for control of unionism.
"But what we accept about the DUP is that they have a mandate which we respect. We don't have any illusions about where they are coming from. "They want this process to be destroyed but we are up for exploring their position. We are not for time wasting.
"We do believe that the logic of all of this is that the DUP and Sinn Féin will have to do business and clearly the logic of the DUP's position is that they will be in government with Sinn Féin.
"These are decisions and discussions which will have to be had in the time ahead. At the moment the DUP stance is ridiculous. It refuses to talk. It is absolutely silly. It shows a lack of conviction about their own policies and their own position."
Sinn Féin's delegates are gathering in Dublin at a time when unionist parties are calling for their ejection from the review of the Good Friday Agreement at Stormont.
The demands have been made this week after Northern Ireland police chief Hugh Orde accused the IRA of attempting to abduct dissident republican Bobby Tohill from a Belfast city centre bar last week.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, added further fuel to the tension within the peace process by claiming yesterday that he always assumed when he talked to Mr Adams that he had been a member of the IRA in the past.