Speeches:The Sinn Féin decision to back the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the criminal justice system is a "watershed in the history of our struggle", a leading party member declared.
Urging delegates to back the motion "overwhelmingly", Derry-based ardchomhairle member Martina Anderson said the passage of the motion would "remove another pillar of the corrupt state from the enemy's hands".
"If war is the continuation of politics by other means, then this is the reverse. I urge you to vote for this. And if you cannot vote yes, abstain," said Ms Anderson, who left the ardfheis to attend the 35th Bloody Sunday anniversary march in Derry.
During seven hours of talks, delegates spoke in favour of the leadership's motion by a majority of about eight to one, although the debate was brought to an end with many others still waiting to speak.
Throughout the debate, delegates on both sides of the argument emphasised the need for unity, and for those on the losing side of the vote to abide by the majority's wishes.
Cllr Mark Daly from Tallaght compared the vote to the issues of weapons decommissioning in September 2005 and the statement from the IRA earlier that year to formally end its campaign.
Republicans had committed themselves firmly to politics, and this required republicans to ensure that political institutions functioned properly.
The PSNI was far from being a civic force, he said, and the SDLP had failed to hold them properly to account since 2001.
It was vital that Sinn Féin took a long-term view. "The army have brought us to where we are. It's now up to us." Comparing the PSNI to "a rat's nest", Monaghan delegate Oliver Bradley said: "We have to get into that nest and dismantle it and destroy it. We must replace them with one that we can all support."
Louise Minihen from Dublin also advocated a strongly pro-leadership line, and she placed the issue firmly in a political contest.
"It is up to us to drag the DUP over the line."
Francie Molloy, the Mid-Ulster Assembly member, defended the ardchomhairle motion against some hostile amendments. "Would anyone now seriously say that Bobby Sands should not have stood for election?"
Those seeking to amend the motion would only succeed in negating the entire motion, he said..
Tom Hartley, a Belfast city councillor, said the policing issue was unique in that it delineated the relationship between the individual and the state.
"Nationalists have been on the receiving end of police violence. Today is a new juncture in the struggle, and there is now a need to decide on the agenda of policing."
The motion was "a fundamental change in our strategic direction," , and he called on the movement to move towards "a challenge role" within policing.
Paul Butler, a Lisburn councillor and a former Maze prison "blanket man", said the Ireland they wanted "could not be built on our own terms".
Republicans had to "break the grip of unionists on policing". Sinn Féin had to end "political policing".
"That is the challenge for republicans," he said. Such a strategy was "risky", but added: "Those who want maximum change have to take the biggest risks."
Pressing for the motion to be amended, Seán Mac Brádaigh called on delegates not to build "conditionality" into its strategy, and he argued against the exclusion of non-jury courts from an appeal for support of the judicial systems of North and South.
He said delegates should oppose the Special Criminal Court and equivalent non-jury courts in the North.
He called for a continuation of republican "critical engagement" in institutions of state in both parts of Ireland.
Pressing for the ardfheis to back policing, he called on voting delegates not to give unionists their day by rejecting the motion.
Newry/Armagh MP Conor Murphy said Sinn Féin had to be involved in policing to ensure that collusion with loyalist paramilitaries never happened again.
"Who else will sort it out? The Irish Government? The British government? Or, God forbid, the SDLP?"
SDLP councillors, he claimed, had been "wined and dined" by senior RUC officers who had been involved in collusion with loyalists.
Dublin City Council's Cllr Daithí Doolan urged delegates, whatever their attitude to the motion, to "stay united" afterwards.
Belfast City Council's Cllr Tom Hartley said a yes vote would create a framework for policing that would allow Sinn Féin to demand accountability.
Declan Kearney, a member of the ardchomhairle, said Republicans had been faced with many difficult decisions in the past, including the 1986 decision to take up seats in the Dáil and Stormont.
However, he said: "Every time we have taken the initiative our struggle has become bigger, stronger and more powerful.
"If we remain united and remain cohesive and strategically focused we will not just sort out policing, we can achieve anything that we want."
Paul Deeds from Andersonstown in Belfast said there was "an inescapable logic" to the motion, though he warned that unionists did not "want the party to say yes".
"They do not want us to do it. We are taking away one of the unionists' last bastions of power. Policing is important to unionism. It is because of its importance that we must be part of it."
Séamus Breslin from Shantallow in Derry said the unionists were afraid of "the wee man from the Falls, or the Creggan" joining the policing board.
"The leadership has taken risks and courageous decisions."