WHAT do you get when you pack two dozen Sinn Fein supporters into a small room in a small hotel on the edge of the Atlantic?
The answer is not an IRA army convention, as the handful of journalists who covered Sinn Fein's Irish language slogadh discovered at the weekend. A glance around the room was enough for even the most paranoid hack to see the agenda was jaw jaw and not war war.
It was all a bit embarrassing for the crews from Sky News and the BBC, who paid perhaps their first visit to the Donegal Gaeltacht to follow up on rumours that the slogadh, or "gathering", would be used as cover for an IRA meeting.
There were no obvious photo opportunities, no balaclavas or armalites in sight. So they busied themselves as best they could "interviewing" delegates about the state of the Irish language and asking them their thoughts about the rumours about what might have been - or might not have been, depending on whom you talked to.
The annual gathering usually attracts little or no media attention. But if the Sinn Fein people were quietly amused at sudden interest, they showed no sign of it as they debated the peace process, the rights of marchers, community arts, and "Democracy in the media: is there a free press in Ireland?"
The speeches for the most part ranged over familiar ground. A former prisoner, Mr Pat Mac Namee, introduced a lighter note. The slogadh is held to remind other parties that Sinn Fein did more than pay lip service to the language, and Mr Mac Namee seemed intent to labour the point.
"Nil ach cupla focal leru agam," he said. Then he quoted mischievously from that grammatically challenged song popular earlier in the year. "A on focal, dha focal, triur focal eile."
After lunch it was time for a spot of media bashing. The Independent group of newspapers came in for a predictable assault, while The Irish Times suffered collateral damage. The general outlook for the press, controlled by an elite group of owners who set their own political agendas, was described as very bleak.
Then the delegates headed off to Glenveagh National Park for a walk by Dun Luiche's lovely lake. On the rear end of the hired bus in which they travelled, some way had fixed a sign to tease the TV cameras. "Southern Command" it read.