Sinn Féin has a reputation for recruiting lots of members in colleges throughout the country. But how successful is it, compared with the other parties? Kathryn Holmquist, Education Correspondent, reports.

Last Tuesday evening, as the latest attempt at creating lasting peace in Northern Ireland was unravelling, students at UCD were hearing about the process first-hand. Sinn Féin TD, Martin Ferris, had travelled down from Belfast in the middle of the crisis to address the monthly meeting of the UCD branch of Ógra Shinn Féin.

Third level students, Sinn Féin says, are its fastest growing constituency. Ferris talked of his disappointment to his student audience - all 17 of them in the lecture room at the UCD student centre - and said that each one had an important role to play.

"Because we have people like you here tonight, who are prepared to engage in politics, who are intelligent and well-educated, it bodes well for the future. Many of us are on the wrong side of 50 now. I was your age in 1969-70. I was part of the generation of people who came through prisons and saw friends killed on the streets, and now we have delivered a peace strategy," Ferris told the students.

The small group hung on his every word for half an hour, as he briefed them on the current state of the peace process. "Sinn Féin stands for equality and that it is about empowering people, and electing people who can empower people. The fact that I am a TD means nothing unless I am prepared to go back to my community and represent their views and entitlements," he said.

It's this sense of credibility that is attracting students to Sinn Féin. Disillusioned with the corruption scandals associated with some of the larger parties, idealistic students see Sinn Féin leaders such as Martin Ferris as heroes.

Conor O'Brien, an Ógra Shinn Féin member, says: "We are just students. If he had ignored us, we would have accepted that. But he made every effort to be here tonight. We got a call from a secretary that he was in Belfast and if we saw him on TV there, not to worry because he was still coming. So many other parties would not have turned up."

For O'Brien, this is further proof that "Sinn Féin is about respecting your members, not about saying what you want people to hear to get voted in, then not doing what you said you would." Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Sinn Féin is gaining such high visibility on university campuses. Sinn Féin is attracting students from agricultural backgrounds, as well as the urban middle classes, he says. With 2,000 members at third level, Ógra Shinn Féin is not the largest campus party - but its members say it is the most active in student politics.

At UCD, however, society auditors report that Ógra Shinn Féin membership has fallen to 57 in 2003, down from 133 this time last year. Fine Gael has increased slightly, while Fianna Fáil and Labour have dropped in membership.

While Sinn Féin party headquarters claims that membership at universities is increasing, the party could not offer hard figures about student membership at the various universities. They say they are too busy, with all that's happening over the peace process at the moment, to call up the information.

It's the quality of the membership, not the number, that matters to Matt Carthy, a 26-year-old Sinn Féin town councillor in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, who became involved in the party while at third level.

"Student unions across the country will tell you that Sinn Féin members are the most active and most involved in the issues," he says. Recently, Ógra Sinn Féin has been active in campaigning for increased levels of student grants. Even with so-called "free" third-level, many young people cannot afford to go to college, Carthy says.

However, Carthy's claim is contradicted by student union leaders at universities throughout the country. They say that campus Sinn Féin membership is dropping and that the party's visibility is greater than its activities deserve. One student union president says: "Sinn Féin has very few members, but it gets a lot of the attention. Their members are highly intelligent, very active and committed, well-spoken and well-dressed people." Fine Gael's national youth officer, Susie O'Connor, says that when she took on her job she had heard that the campuses were heaving with Sinn Féin members, but quickly learned that this was untrue. "I was surprised at how badly they were doing. This idea that they are very active at third level is a lot of spin," she says.

Fine Gael has increased its numbers by 200 per cent in the colleges, so has no need to compete. "Fine Gael is stronger than Sinn Féin," she asserts.

According to student unions, Fianna Fáil still dominates UCD - the most politically embroiled campus - and Fianna Fáil is slightly ahead at Trinity College Dublin. Maynooth is generally regarded as apolitical, although an appearance there by Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny recently drew 100 students. UCC is traditionally seen as Fine Gael, thanks to the Michael Collins connection, although Sinn Féin has been very active there in the past.

However, Ógra Shinn Féin was disqualified as a society two years ago when a protest it organised against the visit of controversial Holocaust revisionist David Irving to the UCC campus got out of hand. Sinn Féin's UCC campus society is only this year up and running again, with a handful of members.

"They plastered the place in posters, but only about 20 people turned up," says Cáit Mehigan, UCC's non-party student union president. That compares with attendances of about 40 at meetings for other main political parties. At the first meeting of Sinn Féin at UCC this year, 15 of the 25 in attendance were activists and candidates from outside the campus, she says.

University of Limerick (UL) is considered to be turning Green, although it too has seen a lot of Sinn Féin activity. Perhaps UL's most famous Ógra Shinn Féin graduate is Martin Ferris's daughter, Toireasa Ní Fhearaoise (23), who now holds her father's seat on Kerry County Council. She is hoping to be nominated to run in her own right in the 2004 local elections. Fast on her heels is Eamon Clancy, vice-president of the students' union at Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) and youth officer for Sinn Féin in the Munster area. Clancy's father is Sinn Féin party activist Tom Clancy, who has been a candidate in local and general elections.

Eamon Clancy says growing numbers of students at LIT, Cork Institute of Technology and UCC are viewing Sinn Féin as an "alternative" that promotes ideology including equality, socialism and non-sectarianism. In Munster, Sinn Féin's third-level campus campaigns have focused on opposing bin charges, supporting the right to a free education and fighting for increases in student grants. "Students are fed up with empty promises," Clancy says.

Ógra Shinn Féin members say the party doesn't just pay lip service to students; it actively involves them. Sinn Féin organises weekend workshops for students in leadership, public relationships, Irish language and culture, politics and social issues. It encourages them to run for local office and will ensure that students are given prominence at next week's Sinn Féin Ardfheis.

Clancy points out, however, that Ógra Shinn Féin membership isn't just about serious politics. Sinn Féin held a paint-balling party to raise funds at LIT. Says Clancy: "We know how to have fun too."