Sinn Féin has dismissed claims that the party is in the grip of a crisis over the murder of Robert McCartney, the Northern Bank raid and the Garda investigation into republican money-laundering.
Despite the onslaught of pressure from some of Sinn Féin's own supporters over the implication of IRA members in Mr McCartney's murder, party MEP for Dublin Mary-Lou McDonald dismissed as a "non-story" suggestions that the party was traumatised by recent events.
"While we don't underestimate for a second the difficulties that pertain at the moment, nor do we deny our part of the responsibility in terms of finding a way through all of this, it would be completely inaccurate to imagine Sinn Féin is in crisis. That's simply not the case," she said.
"Just to make it crystal clear: I have spoken, as have my other colleagues, around the murder of Robert McCartney, and I think Sinn Féin couldn't have been more crystal clear in our condemnation of that murder and calls for people to come forward with information."
Some 2,000 Sinn Féin activists are expected at the RDS for the ardfheis this weekend, which is the party's policy-making forum. They will debate some 380 motions and a new constitution for the party.
The draft constitution, which will replace a 1999 document, mostly deals with party's organisational structures.
"For the first time it contains a membership pledge to "accept the constitution and policies of Sinn Féin".
While the draft makes no mention of Sinn Féin's links with the Provisional IRA, party's vice-president Pat Doherty claimed there never was a relationship with the paramilitary organisation. Such a suggestion was a media myth, he said.
At a press conference in Dublin, Sinn Féin's leader in the Dáil, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, made light of the Northern Ireland political parties' exclusion from St Patrick's Day festivities at the White House in Washington.
Mr Ó Caoláin said it was for the US authorities to explain their actions.
