Independent republican candidates standing against Sinn Féin in the North's Assembly Elections will not be a flash in the pan, a leading Irish American sympathiser claimed today.

Former Noraid chief Martin Galvin spent the last week campaigning for independent republicans Peggy O'Hara in Foyle and Gerry McGeough in Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

While he prepared to return to the United States he said that the independents would surprise many of their political opponents in the March 7 election.

Sinn Féin has dismissed the prospects of the independent candidates who have entered the race for Stormont seats because of their opposition to Gerry Adams' party's decision to back the police in the North.

Mr Galvin, campaigning for Mr McGeough in Dungannon today, responded: "Any political party is going to tend to dismiss its opposition.

"That is a standard political strategy to make little of any opposition and I certainly understand that.

"However from what I have seen in this constituency, in Derry and in Ballymena, candidates like Gerry McGeough and Peggy O'Hara are being received well on the doorsteps.

"They have people campaigning with them who were with Sinn Féin for a long time and gave a lot of themselves to the cause."

As he prepared to campaign in two target seats for Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams urged voters in South Antrim and Lagan Valley to make history for his party.

The West Belfast MP, who will campaign on behalf of Mitchel McLaughlin and Paul Butler in the two constituencies tomorrow, said: "In the last election we made a breakthrough in North Antrim and it is our hope to replicate that success this time around in these two constituencies.

"There is a real sense that we are very close to a major breakthrough in these areas.

"We have two experienced candidates and two strong constituency teams who are focused on delivering in these areas."

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