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British Literature Survey
Reference Pages: James Joyce Group
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Sinn Féin: The Early Years
by Steven Leeson
Sinn
Féin—ourselves alone. The phrase has long captured a sense of
Irish nationalism, though it was not until 1904 that the political party
of the same name saw its beginnings. It was then that Arthur Griffith published The
Sinn Féin Policy, a document which campaigned for a dual-monarchy
in Ireland through passive protesting and non-violence. This document laid
the groundwork for what would be the party’s ideals and in April of
1907, the Cumann na nGaedheal party, the Dungannon Clubs party, the Sinn
Féin League and the National Council combined to form Sinn Féin
(Gallagher 94).
Sinn Féin members were of all classes and political leanings. Republicans,
left-wingers, right-wingers, extremists, and fundamentalists all found themselves
united under Ireland’s “good old watchword” (Feeney 18). It
remained a very minor party in Ireland until 1916, when it was blamed for the
Easter Uprising. British reactionary measures, combined with increasing Irish
nationalism led to Sinn Féin becoming a major player in Ireland. It took
several seats throughout local and Parliamentary government from 1918 to 1922,
when its members split apart. Never fading, however, Sinn Féin has lived
on, and though it would ultimately undergo several more splits and separations,
it remains a factor in Irish politics today.
Works Cited
Feeney, Brian. Sinn
Féin: A Hundred Turbulent Years.
Dublin: The O’Brien
Press
Ltd., 2002.
Gallagher, Michael. Political Parties in the Republic of Ireland. Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 1985.
Jones, Francis P. History of the Sinn Fein Movement and the Irish Rebellion
of
1916. New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1921.
Maillot, Agnès. New Sinn Féin: Irish republicanism in the twenty-first
century.
New York: Routledge, 2005.
Sinn Féin – Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia. 2006. Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinn_Fein.
Paul
Marchbanks
marchban@email.unc.edu