About 200 Friends of Sinn Féin who had gathered in a Washington hotel yesterday for a St Patrick's Day breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and hash browns, rose to their feet and gave Gerry Adams a prolonged ovation when he appeared with his friend, Congressman Peter King.
"We don't believe all we read in the newspapers," cried master of ceremonies Joseph Smith as he urged the supporters, many wearing bright green ties, to continue applauding.
"The White House or the Denny's house, I'd rather be in my own goddamn house," Mr Smith said, referring to a popular American diner and Mr Adam's exclusion from President Bush's St Patrick's Day reception.
The Sinn Féin leader gave the faithful an account of how the peace process had stalled, though "last December we almost had it over the cusp".
Sinn Féin was still prepared to share power with Ian Paisley, he said, adding, "which let me tell you my friends is a very daunting thought. We didn't think and we don't think that next day it would be all bread and roses". But, he asked, "are we going to get back to that situation again? Yes. I have no doubt Sinn Féin will be in government with the DUP".
Clearly referring to the Northern Bank robbery and the murder of Robert McCartney, he said: "Events should not happen. Killings should not happen. Bank robberies should not happen.
"But I don't know anywhere in the world where events that happen are used as an excuse to tear down a peace process. You'd think when events happen they would be a challenge."
He looked beyond the peace process to a united Ireland but first acknowledged: "We have to deal with all these issues, armed groups and their activities and so on, and deal with them we will."
Meanwhile, "let no one be in any doubt that what a British government could not do in 30 years of conflict will not be achieved by beating up on Sinn Féin".
The warm welcome for Mr Adams from an audience dominated by Irish-American trade union leaders contrasted with the previous evening when he had to sit a few feet away from John McCain as the Arizona senator "beat up" on Sinn Féin in a speech to the American-Ireland Fund dinner. Mr McCain compared the IRA to a crime syndicate and said "There is nothing republican about the Irish Republican Army." Referring to remarks by Martin McGuinness about the McCartney sisters being used for political purposes, Mr McCain said they should not tolerate any veiled threat to the McCartney sisters.
"Why should the McCartney sisters be 'very careful' not to cross the line into party politics? Party politics failed them." Several guests were angered by Mr McCain's outspokenness at a formal dinner while agreeing with him that the IRA should disband.
Congressman Peter King said Mr McCain's speech was "too one-sided". He agreed that the IRA should go out of business but Mr McCain "should have noted the tremendous input that Gerry Adams has had on the peace process, how far along Sinn Féin has brought the situation".