The Sinn Fein president was expected to say that moves designed to force First Minister Ian Paisley to stand down are a sad reflection of the state of unionism.

And echoing his controversial ‘well done, David’ remarks about Mr Paisley’s predecessor, Lord Trimble, it was anticipated Mr Adams would praise "long-sighted" DUP leaders who agreed to the restoration of devolution.

In his ard fheis address this afternoon, the West Belfast MP was also expected to emphasise that the future for the DUP, unionism and the Stormont arrangements will depend on how party members "who want to go back to the past" are tackled.

While saying it is up to the DUP to decide who leads the party, he was also expected to insist they must deliver on the transfer of policing and justice powers and the Irish language.

Reasserting himself after several months of being overshadowed by Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, Mr Adams was pointing up that the civilised working relationship between Mr Paisley and Mr McGuinness had uplifted many people.

But he said others including some within the DUP were and had been "actively" seeking to end the current power-sharing regime.

Mr Adams was expected to argue that historians have concluded the demands of the civil rights movement 40 years ago could have been conceded by the unionist authorities without invoking a crisis in unionism.

"This dilemma continues to afflict unionism today," Mr Adams was to tell his party.

He said the DUP had advanced a number of spurious reasons for opposing the transfer of policing and justice by the British and Irish governments’ target date of May this year, including that the time was not right.

In his keynote speech, Mr Adams also was expected to argue that Irish reunification is closer than any time in the past and many unionists accept an end to Government "engagement" in Ireland "would be no bad thing".