A matter of weeks since becoming Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald is aiming to stamp her identity on the party. She tells Political Correspondent John Manley where her priorities lie...
Mary Lou McDonald has plenty in her in-tray. It's just six weeks since she succeeded Gerry Adams as Sinn Féin president but she has sought to hit the ground running.
The Dublin Central TD has already launched a number of initiatives which will address organisational matters within the party. She doesn't allude to the accusations of bullying that have dogged Sinn Féin in the Republic over recent years but among the matters addressed in a planned "substantive conversation" are communications, training, and the health and wellbeing of elected representatives and activists.
It's about making Sinn Féin "match fit” and ensuring the party is a "friendly and politically energetic environment", she says.
Mrs McDonald has swapped offices in Leinster House with her predecessor and has highlighted how the Louth TD took his treasured recliner with him.
"I'd like you to report that in The Irish News to shame him," she jokes.
The new leader sees Mr Adams "every day" and will occasionally seek his advice – but no more so than she would from other party colleagues.
"I’m conscious that I have to do this myself, so I don’t seek his counsel on every issue or decision," she says.
The new Sinn Féin leader took a hands-on role in the recent negotiations aimed at restoring the executive. She repeats her belief that there was an accommodation with the DUP but that the latter "couldn't deliver", having been spooked by "a lot of overblown and unnecessary panic" around the proposed Irish language act.
But she believes that "every cloud has a silver lining".
"The accommodation demonstrates that agreement was possible because an agreement was reached," Mrs McDonald says.
Arlene Foster insists there was never an agreement and claims that the document the two parties exchanged on the Friday before the talks collapsed on February 14, which included provision for an Irish language act, "had no more standing than a paper on Sinn Féin ministers implementing the military covenant".
However, the Sinn Féin president is adamant that the military covenant formed no part of the draft accommodation.
"We couldn’t sign up to something that gives a stated advantage to one group over another," she says.
Mrs McDonald does concede that the proposed deal was "not perfect from a nationalist point of view".
"But to our mind it was a perfectly fair accommodation and actually quite a creative way of dealing with issues which people said were impossible," she says.
The Dublin Central TD believes that in the absence of devolution, the two governments have a responsibility to address the draft agreement's "equality provisions".
"I'm not going tell people in the north that they’re going to wait a little bit longer," she says.
Mrs McDonald believes the British government "has no plan or sense of navigation" but that a fresh round of negotiations is inevitable at some stage.
"We need to talk again," she says.
"Whatever way you come at this and whatever the circuitous route, you end up with people talking to each other – but it has to be dialogue with a purpose."
Over the coming weeks, the Sinn Féin leader's primary focus will be on campaigning to repeal the eighth amendment of the Republic's constitution, which protects the rights of the unborn child.
The referendum is expected to take place in the last week in May but the Sinn Féin ard fheis, where the party's abortion policy will be debated, will not take place until mid-June.
While Sinn Féin supports repealing the eighth amendment, its official policy restricts terminations to cases where the mother’s life, health or mental health are at risk; or in cases of fatal foetal abnormality.
The leader advocates support for the Fine Gael government's legislation that is expected to emerge if a majority votes to repeal the amendment. It is likely to legalise abortion under any circumstances in a period of up to 13 weeks.
Not all Sinn Féin representatives will be happy with the move but Mrs McDonald insists she has a "duty to lead on this".
And despite being a practising Catholic, who has raised her three children in the Catholic faith, the Sinn Féin leader says she can reconcile her religious beliefs and her efforts to modernise Ireland's abortion laws "with great ease".
"Because I understand fully that as a political leader, as a legislator in a republic, and indeed in a new Ireland, you cannot legislate and you must not legislate in accordance with one theological view," she says.
"I believe in the separation of Church and state, and I believe that the law has to serve and accommodate everybody and protect everybody, so I don’t want Catholic laws."
She says that in the past there had been "a fair amount of Catholic dogma turned into law and it didn’t work well for society".
Elsewhere, the Sinn Féin president aims to "speak to sections of society who wouldn't necessarily have had a dialogue or a relationship" with the party.
This includes sections of the business community but also the loyal orders and victims and survivors of the conflict.
"If I get the chance I’ll speak to anybody, right across Ireland and right across the north," she says.
"It’s very easy to misunderstand, to be fearful of and to put horns on the head of people you haven’t met but it’s an entirely other ball game when you have the opportunity of direct contact."
She believes the antidote to the current impasse and increased polarisation is for "political leaders to lead from the front".
"We need to stretch out the hand of friendship, go to places you’re not necessarily comfortable or familiar with."
