Wearing a green aran sweater, Adams could be seen perched on a rock at Cavehill, the 370 metre high cliff that dominates the Belfast skyline. Adams's pose is relaxed, almost casual. The three-panel portrait has the republican leader looking down onto the Belfast urban sprawl. The underlying message is of a man who is the master of all he surveys.

Sinn Fein will be more than comfortable with the representation of its party president in such vision-maker terms. Despite his IRA associations, Adams's persona has been re-invented over the last decade. Through his involvement in the peace process he has become a key asset in the electoral advance of his party. His satisfaction ratings in Sunday TribuneMillward Brown IMS opinion polls have been consistently high. He had a 45% rating in the most recent poll although there was a slight male and rural bias among respondents.

Since the 1994 IRA ceasefire, voters have found it much easier to cast their ballot for republican candidates. The SDLP has been cannibalised in Northern Ireland with Sinn Fein now the dominant representative of the Catholic nationalist community. There has been progress south of the border but at a significantly slower pace. Prior to 1997, the main contribution of Sinn Fein candidates to elections in the Republic was to forfeiting their deposits. For example, of its 41 candidates at the 1992 general election, 35 received fewer than 1,000 first preferences. Their average vote was a mere 678 first preferences. Only one of these 41 candidates actually secured the minimum number of votes required to hold on to their deposit of 381.

By the time the electorate went to the polls again in the summer of 1997 there had been a transformation in the political landscape as far as Sinn Fein was concerned. The 1994 ceasefire removed the single biggest obstacle to Sinn Fein's electoral prospects in the Republic.

Caoimhghin O Caolain topped the poll in Cavan-Monaghan in the 1997 general election. He was the first Sinn Fein candidate to win a Dail seat in 40 years and, more significantly, the first Sinn Fein TD to take his seat in Leinster House since the 1920s. There were further gains at the 2002 general election when the party doubled its national vote to 7% and increased its Dail representation from one to five seats.

With the recent consolidation of peace and stability in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein should make further gains in the Republic. The party's prospects will be helped by the publicity generated if there is a referendum early next year on the St Andrew's Agreement. But significantly the trend in opinion poll findings in this newspaper shows Sinn Fein's performance may not be enough to achieve a breakthrough from minor party to one with a signifianct political presence in Dail Eireann.

Sinn Fein secured 7% of the first preference vote at the last general election. There has been some uplift in the series of Millward Brown IMS opinion polls in this newspaper since 2002.

However, the party's vote share peaked at 10% in November 2004, but in the five subsequent surveys the Sinn Fein vote has ping-ponged between 8% and 9%.

Those sort of figures do not see Sinn Fein breaking into the big-league dominated since the foundation of the state by Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour.

Talk of a Sinn Fein advance has to be tempered by recognition of strong resistance among key sections of the electorate. According to the latest Sunday Tribune poll the party has a 14% showing with 18-24 year olds and 11% among 25-34 year olds. These younger voters have little living memory of the campaign of violence waged by the IRA.

Indeed, many first-time voters at the 2007 general election will have been five years old when the IRA called its 1994 ceasefire. The impression this group of younger voters have of the republican movement has been largely influenced by the media presence of Adams and other republican leaders arguing their peace-process agenda.

But among older age groups support levels for Sinn Fein falls off. Only 6% of those in the 50-64 age category support the party. The figure is 5% for those over 65 years. There are also significant variations in Sinn Fein's support base.

It has a 5% support rating in the affluent AB category but 10% in the less-welloff DE grouping. The problem for Sinn Fein is that its support is lower in those groups . . . older and better-off people . . .

where voter turnout tends to be higher. In addition, many voters may still be slow to give Sinn Fein candidates lower level transfers which are the lifeblood for electoral success in the Irish PR system.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is known to argue that Sinn Fein's biggest problem in the Republic is its lack of an organisational base in many constituencies. Building an electoral presence from scratch is never easy while the established parties are not about to lie-down for Sinn Fein to take their seats. Nevertheless, the party has several realistic target constituencies.

Pearse Doherty, who received over 65,000 first preferences in the 2004 European elections in Connacht/ Ulster, looks a good bet in in Donegal South West. Padraig MacLochlainn has a strong presence in Inishowen which may allow him to take a seat in Donegal North East. A huge effort will be put behind Mary Lou McDonald in Dublin Central. The election of Sinn Fein's Dublin MEP to Dail Eireann would provide the party with a strong leadership face in Leinster House, something which has been lacking in recent times.

Larry O'Toole in Dublin North East and Dessie Ellis in Dublin North West also have to be contenders. O'Toole, a survivor of the electoral disaster of 1992, polled 4,500 first preferences in the last local elections. Ellis had a similarly strong showing in his Finglas bailiwick. Other potential winners include John Dwyer in Wexford . . . a recent Fine Gael survey in the constituency showed Sinn Fein polling strongly . . . and David Cullinane in Waterford.

Not all of these candidates will be successful. They show a maximum of seven serious runners for the party to add to the five TDs elected last time out.

A party with around 10 Dail seats would stand out on the opposition benches but it's a long way from seizing power at the ballot box.