By Brendan Anderson

Sinn Fein is set to embark on a series of public meetings as part of a consultation process ahead of the party’s special Ard Fheis (convention) on policing later this month.

The Ard Fheis, scheduled for January 28, will decide whether Sinn Fein should support the North’s policing and justice system.

Republican backing for policing and Unionist acceptance of power-sharing are regarded as vital elements of a deal aimed at restoring devolved government to the North by next March.

Sinn Fein’s unprecedented move towards support for the North’s justice system was sanctioned at a meeting of the party executive (Ard Comhairle) in Dublin on Saturday when a majority voted to hold the special Ard Fheis.

"I believe that the new beginning to policing promised in the Good Friday Agreement is now within our grasp. Sinn Fein wants to get policing right. The extraordinary Sinn Fein Ard Fheis is the important next step,” Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said after the nearly six hour meeting at the Great Southern Hotel near Dublin Airport.

The consultation process will include meetings of Republicans and Nation-alists and a series of internal party meetings. Six public meetings will be held in various venues throughout the North in coming days, with the first two scheduled for Tyrone and Antrim on Saturday.

A Sinn Fein spokesperson said, “These meetings will provide an opportunity for ordinary members of the public to come along and engage in this crucial debate. Members of the party leadership and local area representatives will take part in all of the public meetings.”

The proposal to be put to the 2,000 Ard Fheis delegates is almost certain to be carried, but there has been some disapproval from Republicans opposed to the move.

The most sinister reaction came in west Co. Tyrone on Tuesday when ammunition and photographs of the county’s prominent Sinn Fein members were found in two packages in separate graveyards after a tip-off to a priest.

No one has claimed responsibility for the packages, but they are being viewed as a clear threat to those supporting the party’s stance on policing.

It follows threats on the lives of senior Sinn Fein members, including Adams and Gerry Kelly, last month.

The Irish and British governments have marked March 28 as the date for the restoration of the North’s power-sharing government, and Assembly elections have been scheduled for March 7.

While Sinn Fein’s move towards recognition of the justice system has been hailed as a “seismic step,” some Unionists have been less than enthusiastic.

Ian Paisley, leader of the largest Unionist party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), gave a guarded, some would say curmudgeonly reaction to the news, but was nonetheless careful not to close the door on Sinn Fein’s advances.

Paisley cautiously welcomed news of Sinn Fein’s special policing Ard Fheis, but insisted he would not commit to power-sharing until after the matter had been voted on. He also wants Sinn Fein to provide evidence “on the ground” of their support for police.

"If a government cannot be formed on March 26 because Sinn Fein fails to deliver it will be clear Sinn Fein alone is to blame," he said.

Other senior members of Paisley’s party have shown near panic at the prospect of being forced to enter government with Repub-licans and have went public with their opposition to the idea.

Dissention within the DUP led Northern Secretary Peter Hain to remark Monday on the “begrudging attitude” of some DUP politicians towards recent progress in the peace process.

Hain followed this up Tuesday with a warning that he would not postpone the March elections at the behest of “dissidents” from either party.

Hain said, “There are obviously dissident voices within the DUP and Sinn Fein. It's inevitable when you get to this crunch moment that people, perhaps those who have never supported policing and the rule of law in (the case of) some of Sinn Fein's members, or never supported power-sharing in the case of the DUP, some of them will duck out and say, ‘it's not for me.’

“Well, I think they will be in a minority, because the leaderships and the majority of both parties want to do this deal and want to do what the people of Northern Ireland want.”

Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde said, "If the politicians do not secure a deal this time around, there are substantial implications for policing and substantial implications for the communities who these people are supposed to be representing.”