WHILE Sinn Féin likes to portray itself as a unified party where everybody continually sings off the same hymn sheet, the reality is somewhat different.
Perhaps the main difference between Gerry Adams's party and its counterparts north and south is discipline – rarely if ever do internal disagreements get a public airing.
Like the Sinn Féin southern leadership's vetoing of Stormont's welfare reform deal in 2014, we may never get official confirmation that Michelle O'Neill's bid to broker a compromise with the DUP was overruled, yet the circumstantial evidence may well support such a thesis.
Three years ago, the apparent reneging on commitments over welfare reform prompted northern political director Leo Green to walk away from the republican movement after decades of service.
Recrimination over the weekend blocking of Stormont's restoration by Mr Adams et al may already be rife among republicans but publicly the northern leadership remains loyal.
There is always a possibility that Fine Gael is being mischievous by spreading black propaganda about Sinn Féin but Irish government sources are adamant that Ms O'Neill was ready to do a deal.
The two governments believe that there was momentum towards agreement at the end of last week but that that hope evaporated in the wake of Saturday's ard comhairle meeting.
We can only speculate whether the differences between the two sides were minor or substantive, or if it was a matter of timing rather than content.
Sinn Féin's strategy since January has been hard to fathom but more often than not it appears that the party is no hurry to get Stormont up-and-running.
Senior republicans will insist that a party which takes a long view and whose ranks are replete with former IRA volunteers, is unlikely to waver in the face of salary cuts but surely some frustration must be building among MLAs and paid activists who potentially face a future on the dole.
The nature of this episode again highlights how the autocratic approach Sinn Féin regards as a strength is seen by outsiders as an anachronism. However, as long as it has the electorate's support there's little prospect of a change in attitude.
