Collapsing the executive and other political institutions in Northern Ireland has caused the "worst crisis" yet in the peace process, according to Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness.
He told the party's ardfheis at the RDS that "more than any other political decision" the move by the Northern Secretary, Mr Mandelson, to suspend the institutions had caused the "greatest low".
Mr McGuinness said Mr Mandelson's action "has emboldened unionist rejectionists who wish to remain mired in the past".
The Northern Secretary had come to Ireland "with a great reputation" as the moderniser of the British Labour party. "However, here in Ireland he has not displayed this same determination and has floundered in the face of unionist opposition to change."
Ms Bairbre de Brún called on the Northern Secretary to resign along with his NIO ministers, and to "restore the institutions. Give people back some hope for the future and give peace a chance." In her address, she said that "in eight short weeks,nationalists, republicans, unionists and even the DUP, working at one remove, managed to do a better job than any set of British ministers in the last 30 years. The potential is still there." Mr McGuinness said he was "proud and honoured to be associated with and to have worked with people from the unionist community who want the agreement to work and want to be part of a new political way forward".
However, he asked, where was the political leadership in unionism. They were seeking to renegotiate the agreement "to placate unionist rejectionists who have made no bones about their desire to prevent change and have made no bones about their desire to return to the past of unionist domination".
"David Trimble has said that he needs clarity and certainty. Let me be clear, David. Sinn Féin are absolutely committed to a peaceful resolution of this conflict. That is a certainty." They were told that "unionists have a huge concern about arms".
"The people we represent also have a huge concern about arms. The six counties, since its foundation, has been an armed sectarian state held by armed militia and British guns. And of course the unionist people are the most heavily armed in western Europe." However, it was not about decommissioning but about the "no" unionists not wanting to share power with Catholics, nationalists or republicans.
"They do not want a Catholic about the place." They harked back to an era of majority rule.
He warned there was no going back. "If unionists are to be brought out of the time warp that they are currently in, then it is up to Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson to immediately reinstate the people's institutions."
Mr McGuinness said he did not want to be a prisoner of the past. "I want to be a liberator of the future. That is Sinn Féin's task. We are working to build a future where we - all of us, unionist, nationalist and republican - can live and work and grow together as equals in a just and peaceful Ireland." The only way that could happen was "when politicians make politics work for people. That is not only our right but our duty." The collapse "had little if anything to do with decommissioning and everything to do with the antics of some unionist politicians locked in a time warp and who are dedicated to preventing change and to a British government unwilling to stand up to them and do the right thing."
If it was really about decommissioning, "why was movement on the very issues that could create the conditions for arms to be dealt with constantly blocked?"