Having experienced ups and downs in its electoral fortunes since embarking on an electoral strategy in 1981 the present ascent may be traced to the recapturing of the West Belfast seat by Gerry Adams in 1997. This victory did not arise from a vacuum but was the culmination of extensive campaigning and work made more productive by the emergence earlier in the decade of the Hume/Adams initiative.

Undoubtedly, part of Sinn Fein's vote relates directly to the popularity of the party's analysis and management of the current peace process and the way in which that process appears to offer for the first time a method of transforming the conflict which is inherent in the forcible partition of any country. The way in which Sinn Fein has refused to allow that process to be hijacked or diluted by the unionists has also struck a note with the Nationalist electorate and gives credence to Sinn Fein's claim that the process belongs to the people and not the politicians.

This coincided with the rise of a moneyed class, which had previously felt that its interests were best served by remaining politically anonymous, now wanting to assert itself in any new political dispensation. This view I will describe as 'new Catholic money'. Largely apolitical but nationalistic in its aspirations this section of the electorate found much that was attractive in Sinn Fein's demand for parity of esteem and equality of opportunity. It may not agree with the ideological and philosophical tenets of Sinn Fein but the fact that Sinn Fein will stand up to the unionist oligarchy and face it down - Belfast city council as an example - gives this view the confidence that Sinn Fein will ensure that 'the fenian pound will be worth as much as the orange pound'.

Together these two factors have caused a section of the electorate - hitherto apathetic towards electoral politics - to feel that its vote can really count and to believe that for the first time in the history of the state nationalism has been legitimised as a political goal. However, a third factor is necessary to advance the electoral march; that is, keeping on board the republican base. The importance of this can be seen in the amount of time and energy which the Sinn Fein leadership has devoted to the management of the decommissioning debate which has the potential to destabilise the delicate balance within the republican movement. While this debate is becoming more and more transparent to the electorate as an indication of unionist foot dragging, the leadership's refusal to bow to the Unionist demand has served to reinforce in the eyes of the republican grassroots that leadership's commitment to one of the sacred cows of republicanism.

Despite the unchecked electoral growth, republicans are well advised to think cautiously where it may all lead. Riding the two horses of working class resistance and Catholic new money - unnatural bedfellows - carries with it an inherent contradiction. That contradiction may be masked in a state of political flux but it carries the potential to arrest progress once the political dust has settled. Therein lies the danger.