With months to go to the next general election, leading politicians from all the main parties concede that, barring accidents, Sinn Fein will return to the Dail in greater strength next year.
"I will not be walking through the gates of Leinster House alone," says Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain of Cavan-Monaghan, the party's sole TD.
The 42 constituencies break down into two distinct categories for Sinn Fein: Cavan-Monaghan, Kerry North and Dublin South West - its prime targets where it has a real chance of winning seats - and the rest of the country. It will be contesting half of the constituencies.
Mr O Caolain is considered a certainty for re-election. Indeed, there was even speculation for a time that the party might force a running-mate upon him in the Cavan-Monaghan five-seater.
The battle in Kerry North, a three-seater, is more interesting. Cllr Martin Ferris, who was jailed after the gun-laden Marita Anne was intercepted off the Kerry coast, is the Sinn Fein standard-bearer. He polled 5,691 first-preference votes, 15.91 per cent, at the last general election. He is working hard, even if his particular brand of local politics has raised controversy.
The Fianna Fail organisation is riven with bitter internal fighting between the old adversaries, the McEllistrims and the Foleys. With just 20 per cent of the first-preference vote, according to a local poll, Fianna Fail is in danger of losing its only seat.
Perhaps not, however. The former Labour leader, Mr Dick Spring, has yet to declare his hand, though his profile in the constituency is lacklustre in the extreme. For long, it was thought that Mr Spring, who stepped down as leader in November 1997, would run, whether he really wanted to or not, to deprive Mr Ferris, whom he detests, of victory.
Eighteen months ago, there was speculation that his sister, Maeve, a local councillor, would take his place on the Labour ticket. However, tragedy has struck the family since. She lost her husband to cancer last year, then she herself became ill. "If Dick doesn't run, then nobody from the family will do so," says an informed source.
"He has lost interest in politics but my impression is that he will work very hard to keep Ferris out. There is a fondness there for him but there is a strong sense that he is an absentee landlord," the source adds.
In Dublin South West, which will be cut from five to four seats next time, Sinn Fein has high hopes for Cllr Sean Crowe. The constituency gains Firhouse and Bohernabreena, swaps some voters with Dublin South Central and loses Saggart and Rathcoole to the new constituency of Dublin Mid West - the home-to-be of the Progressive Democrat leader, the Tanaiste, Ms Harney.
The Labour Party is confident of getting sitting TD Mr Pat Rabbitte re-elected in Dublin South West but former TD Cllr Eamonn Walsh has little hope because of the rise of Cllr Crowe. He polled 3,725 first preference votes, 8.9 per cent, in 1997.
If it happens in Dublin South West, however, a Sinn Fein seat would be won at the expense of Fianna Fail's second candidate, Mr Charlie O'Connor. The retirement of Mr Chris Flood makes Mr Conor Lenihan the Fianna Fail front runner in the constituency.
There are some strategists who believe that Cllr Crowe's popularity has peaked. He has enjoyed the fruits of Sinn Fein investment. Little expense is being spared by the party's Parnell Square headquarters to boost his chances.
Backed by full-time staff in his South Dublin County Council office in Tallaght, he rarely goes off script. "He is run from headquarters," says one local politician scathingly. Frequently brought along to Government Buildings, TV pictures later show him standing at the shoulder of Mr Gerry Adams; "doughnutting" - in political parlance - has done much to improve his profile.
The "doughnut" role has been filled in the past by Sinn Fein's vice-president, Mr Pat Doherty, the recently elected Westminster MP, and Terenure-born Ms Bairbre de Brun, who is now Northern Ireland's Minister of Health.
Last month, it passed to Dublin South Central candidate Mr Aengus O Snodaigh, and Mr Sean McManus from Sligo-Leitrim, who silently accompanied Mr Adams at Weston Park to meet the media.
The free publicity offered to Cllr Crowe and others by the Government has long annoyed Fianna Fail TDs. In recent times, photo opportunities inside Government Buildings have been limited.
Outside the three top targets - Cavan-Monaghan, Kerry North and Dublin South West - the evidence of Sinn Fein growth on the ground is more difficult to assess. The fact that there will be four more three-seat constituencies in the general election will not help a smaller party.
In addition, the calibre of Sinn Fein's candidates in the Republic does not match those in Northern Ireland. Most of them are not front-ranking people.
In Louth, the Omeath-based Mr Arthur Morgan, a member of Sinn Fein's ardchomhairle, is the candidate. His family runs a fish processing business. He has made considerable play on environmental issues, including Sellafield and the proposed use of incinerators. Badly placed geographically, his chances depend significantly upon whether Labour TD Mr Michael Bell will run next year.
The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, has countered the Sinn Fein threat in the key Dundalk area, including the strongly republican Muirhevnamore estate in the town. However, the suspected involvement of local republican figures in cattle-smuggling before and during the foot-and-mouth crisis may hurt Mr Morgan's chances in the end.
In Sligo-Leitrim, Cllr Sean McManus, whose son was shot dead in 1992 during an IRA attempt to murder an off-duty part-time Ulster Defence Regiment soldier, is confident of victory.
In the last local elections, Sinn Fein won three of the 12 seats on Sligo Corporation, one seat on Sligo County Council and two seats on Leitrim County Council. However, there is a danger that the bad blood that exists between Mr McManus and former Labour TD Mr Declan Bree could scupper the chances of either winning a place.
Fine Gael's Leitrim-based TD, Mr Gerry Reynolds, is weak, but Cllr McManus could make life more difficult for Fianna Fail TD Mr John Ellis, who is suffering from the controversy surrounding his company's failure to pay farmers for stock.
Sligo-Leitrim is further complicated by the presence of Independent candidate Ms Marian Harkin, a runner-up for a seat in Connacht-Ulster in the European elections. She is tipped by all of the main parties to win one of the four seats.
Cllr McManus has an electoral machine that is the envy of others in the constituency. Both he, his son, Chris, and the party's third councillor on Sligo Corporation are full-time. Two other full-time staff are employed in the party's Sligo office.
Cllr Joe O'Reilly, a member of Navan UDC since 1994 and Meath County Council since 1999, is the party's Meath candidate. Formerly the general secretary of the party, Mr O'Reilly is the head of Cairde Sinn Fein and joint national treasurer. He has little profile outside party ranks.
Cllr John Dwyer, a member of New Ross UDC, will run in the Wexford five-seater where two of Fine Gael's leading figures, Mr Ivan Yates and Ms Avril Doyle MEP, are retiring. He is active in the trade union movement and has campaigned against mobilephone masts.
The candidate in Mayo is Mr Vincent Wood, who was released early from a 17-year sentence imposed for storing Semtex in Britain. He has been a member of Sinn Fein's ardchomhairle for the last two years. In Galway West, Sinn Fein has decided to run two candidates, Mr Danny Callanan and Mr Sean O Coistealbha.
The youngest member of Cork Corporation, Cllr Jonathon O'Brien, will represent Sinn Fein in Cork North Central.
The 12 Dublin constituencies are the key to Sinn Fein's long-term hopes, but the last constituency commission cut the number of four-seaters from eight to five in the capital.
Dublin Central, the home of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has been significantly redrawn. The addition of Cabra, however, favours Cllr Nicky Kehoe, jailed for possession of explosives in the 1970s and later given 12 years following the capture of an IRA unit outside the Roundwood, Co Wicklow, home of millionaire Mr Galen Weston.
Cllr Kehoe, with St Finbarr's GAA, Cabra, as his key base, is busy on the ground. The Taoi seach is becoming more and more irked by the sight of him. Despite that, Fianna Fail has yet to get its act into gear. Following the transfer of Fianna Fail TD Ms Marian McGennis to Dublin South Central, the party has still not selected a running-made for Mr Ahern.
Cllr Kehoe finished second in the Cabra-Glasnevin ward in the local elections behind the Taoiseach's brother, Maurice, who served as Lord Mayor of Dublin until recently. He will not be short of helpers come election time. The Dublin Inner City Partnership reported recently that there were 1,600 republican former prisoners living in Dublin, of whom 75 per cent live in the inner city.
The figure emerged during plans by the partnership to set up a £4,000 survey of the conditions of all former prisoners in its area. By the time plans were completed, the scope of the survey had been reduced to cover only republicans, following Sinn Fein pressure, according to some of those involved.
One of those former IRA prisoners, Cllr Dessie Ellis, will run in Dublin North West, where he faces an uphill battle in a tight three-seater.
In the five-seat Dublin South Central, Mr O Snodaigh, a former SIPTU shop steward during his time in Bord na Gaeilge, is a longer-term bet. "Our vote went from 4 per cent to 8 per cent in the local elections in 1999, and there have been constituency changes that will help," he insists.
Mr O Snodaigh, who is yet another of Sinn Fein's full-time activists, lives on a stipend from the party and the backing of his wife, a part-time postal worker. Living in Ballyfermot, he taught literacy classes in Dublin's inner city.
In Dublin South East, Mr Daithi Doolan, who lives alone in a corporation flat off Pearse Street and has a growing base in Ringsend, has been working to raise the party's profile. Endlessly vocal during ardfheiseanna, Mr Doolan offers an interesting portrait of the Sinn Fein candidate.
He works with unmarried mothers in a programme paid for by the Ballymun Community Action Project. Like other Sinn Fein candidates, he supplies a glossy newsletter - the envy of other politicians - to residents, which frequently quotes him as "speaking after the recent corporation meeting". "It is the best of all worlds. Half the people there in the next election will think he is a bloody councillor. He doesn't have to go to the meetings that they do," says an opponent.
In Dublin West, Ms Mary Lou McDonald, who has worked for the Institute of European Affairs, will be the candidate, but the constituency has already elected the Socialist Workers' Party TD, Mr Joe Higgins.
Cllr Larry O'Toole hopes to build on a strong performance in the local elections in Dublin North East but he will be hindered by the fact that the constituency is now a three-seater.
Sinn Fein goes into the next general election with wellgrounded concerns about some of its conduct and the secret sources of its financing. The "money from America" argument does not answer all. It has an ample war chest - even though it declared that it got just $44,926 from the United States last year.
In contrast, the party reported to the Public Offices Commission, under the Electoral Act, that it received $496,323 from the US between 1997 and 1999. The US Department of Justice, which records domestic donations to foreign political parties, shows that Sinn Fein gathered $2.5 million there from October 1995 to August 1999.
The pulling power in the US of Mr Adams is extraordinary, undimmed by the lack of decommissioning. The last Friends of Sinn Fein annual dinner in Manhattan raised $500,000 from the 1,000 guests. But the party has long since moved out of traditional Irish-American strongholds in Boston, New York and Chicago.
Last March, for example, it turned its attention to Atlanta in Georgia. In a letter to potential donors, the head of the local branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Mr David Fitzgerald, wrote gushingly of Mr Adams: "I have watched from afar the great work that (he) has done in constructing, negotiating and shepherding a peaceful settlement to the troubles in NI.
"In a recent meeting with Gerry, I asked him what (we) could do to help in this continuous peace process. He says that any help we could provide in retiring the accumulated debt would be greatly appreciated," he continued.
For $10,000, a "Gold Sponsor" gained priority access for 10 guests to the St Patrick's Day lunch and to a private reception with Mr Adams. A table further down the hall cost $5,000.
The importance of the US connection to Sinn Fein was illustrated last year following an abortive attempt by the Government to ban foreign donations after it was forced to curb contributions from Irish business.
During an angry telephone conversation with the Taoiseach, Mr Adams railed against the move. Eventually, the scope of the change was limited after the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, advised that Irish citizens living abroad could not be prevented from supporting the political process at home.
Buoyed by its performance in the recent elections in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein prepares for the general election in the Republic with its confidence at an all-time high. Political strategists in other parties concede that Sinn Fein is in line for three seats. If it gets four, it could easily get more, because there would be a demonstrable swing to Sinn Fein in those circumstances.
Series concluded