There was no walkout, no split, and little if any danger of one. There was never any doubt about the result yesterday, just curiosity about the margin, writes Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor
'This is a historic day in the annals of Irish history, in my view,' said Martin McGuinness at the start of the debate. "This decision we have taken today is truly historic," said Gerry Adams after the vote at the Sinn Féin ardfheis.
"Historic" is a much devalued word but their views indeed could not be contradicted in the RDS in Dublin yesterday.
Sinn Féin supports the PSNI.
Not so long ago no journalist would anticipate writing such a line, no republican would have considered it possible.
Outside the RDS yesterday morning a handful of Republican Sinn Féin (RSF) supporters cried "traitor" at Martin McGuinness. "There goes the chief constable," they said.
Inside the hall some speakers said endorsing the PSNI was endorsing the British state. "We can still call ourselves revolutionaries but we will be constitutional ones," said Paul O'Connor from Cork.
None the less the leadership prevailed, and did so, not so much comfortably, but overwhelmingly. At 5.35pm chairman Pearse Doherty put the amended motion - but amended to the liking of the leadership - to the hall and it was carried by the vast majority of delegates.
Between 900 and 1,000 of the 2,500 delegates there were entitled to vote and if you said up to 10 per cent voted against you could reasonably be accused of exaggeration.
This was a far cry from the electric ardfheis of 1986 on electoral abstentionism when Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Dáithí Ó Conail walked away. That was because the men they ceded leadership to, Adams and McGuinness, had done their groundwork. There was no walkout, no split, and little if any danger of one. There was never any doubt about the result yesterday, just curiosity about the margin. By lunchtime yesterday speakers in favour of the Sinn Féin leadership motion endorsing the PSNI were running six to one, 24 for, six against. By the end of the day it was more than four to one in favour, by my count 65 speakers for 15 against.
And you had some interesting individuals urging support for the PSNI: Seán McGlinchey, brother of murdered INLA leader Dominic McGlinchey and Eddie Gallagher's former IRA accomplice Rose Dugdale, to name just two. She opened with the line, "I want to support this revolution . . . sorry, resolution . . ."
Gerry Adams started the proceedings and was well received, although a small number in the huge hall sat passively, arms folded. He made the arguments he made in dozens of halls and meeting rooms in the past two weeks for supporting the police, all the time hammering home the message that whatever the result republicans must and would remain united and cohesive. And that's the result he got.
Anyone in that hall yesterday with a vote had been briefed and briefed again, canvassed and canvassed again by the likes of Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness over recent weeks, talked into submission at a hundred meetings throughout Ireland.
A big moment in Irish history needed a big speech yesterday and it came from Mr McGuinness. Adams spoke primarily to the republican head but McGuinness spoke to the heart. They were quite the double-act.
"There is every possibility that Sinn Féin will be the largest political party in the North within the next five to 10 years," said Mr McGuinness. "We have to boss policing." Two comments respectively that will worry and annoy unionists, but the RDS wasn't the place for emollient words to unionism.
Or for self-searching analysis about what the IRA had perpetrated during the Troubles. "We come from the IRA tradition that fought the British army to a standstill," Mr McGuinness added to loud applause, ratcheting up the sound level even higher with his rider and his reference to the insults he took from the RSF picketers, ". . . and we are being criticised by those who never fought them to a start". And then his voice cracking he spoke about meeting families who had lost IRA members during the conflict.
One family said it could not accept the police and left the meeting, said Mr McGuinness. "My heart went out the door with them," he said, "but my head stayed in the room." The "securocrats", he added, wanted a "resounding no" from the ardfheis. Fill them with "fear and trepidation", he said, with a "resounding yes".
Most of the opposing speeches came from Ógra Sinn Féin, young republicans, some of whom would have been watching Teletubbies or Barney around the time of the 1994 IRA ceasefire. They spoke passionately but with just about 35 votes out of 1,000 they were never going to have a significant impact. Moreover, many who opposed the motion went out of their way to emphasise that while they would not like the result they would live with it.
To quote one opponent of the motion, Mark Daly from Tallaght, Dublin, "There are no traitors in this hall, there is no sell-out in this hall." So, what does it all mean? Well time will tell, is the short answer. Mr McGuinness also said that yesterday "was a big day for Sinn Féin" but that today "is an even bigger day for the Rev Ian Paisley". In other words, we've jumped, now it's your turn, Dr Paisley.
Expect some positive words from those in the DUP who appear amenable to a deal but no absolute commitment to powersharing by the St Andrews Agreement deadline of March 26th, and negative words of suspicion from those who won't or can't acknowledge how Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness persuaded members to tear up the Sinn Féin rule book on policing.
The "yes" word is unlikely to be available from Dr Paisley until after the Assembly election on March 7th, if then, because the DUP will hardly go into the election confirming that Dr Paisley as first minister will sit alongside Martin McGuinness as deputy first minister at the end of March.
Time will also be required to establish what the motion means on the ground. There is an element of conditionality about the motion in that the final paragraph says that it will "only" be implemented by the ardchomhairle when powersharing is established and when there is agreement on transferring policing powers to a restored Northern executive, or alternatively when "Plan B" is in place - ie the strengthening of British-Irish "partnership arrangements".
The bottom line though is that Sinn Féin supports the police. The conditionality only applies to when and in what circumstances it endorses the PSNI: with powersharing, or with Plan B? Most politicians say they want Plan A. There is a big choice for the DUP, the most devolutionist of parties, to make now, or by mid-March to be more exact. The pressure is on them.
It's new, uncharted territory, where republicans were brought by Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness yesterday. Strange and challenging not only for republicans but unionists too.