The Sinn Féin movement crystallised around the propaganda campaign of Arthur Griffith, a nationalist typesetter, and William Rooney, a republican office clerk, both of whom were extremely active in Dublin's nationalist clubs at the beginning of the 20th century. In his account of the movement's early years the propagandist Aodh de Blácam says that Sinn Féin "was not a party: it was the amorphous propaganda of the Gaelicised young men and women". Griffith was first and foremost a newspaperman with an impressive network of friends in the Dublin printing industry. His propaganda newspapers, the United Irishman and Sinn Féin, channeled the enormous energy of the self-help generation into an unorthodox political project based on the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy of 1867 and the theories of the German nationalist economist Friedrich List. Tapping into the growing self awareness of an Irish identity which was reflected in movements like the Gaelic Athletic Association, the Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge) and in the founding of the Abbey Theatre, he created a loose federation of nationalist clubs and associations which competed with John Redmond's Irish Parliamentary Party to embody the aspirations of 20th century nationalists.

Most historians opt for November 28, 1905, as a founding date because it was on this date that Griffith first presented his 'Sinn Féin Policy'. In his writings, Griffith declared that the Act of Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1800 was illegal and that, consequently, the Anglo-Irish dual monarchy which existed under Grattan's Parliament and the so-called Constitution of 1782 was still in effect. Others date the foundation of Sinn Féin to May 1906, when Griffith launched a paper called Sinn Féin, or to April 1907, when an organisation called the Sinn Féin League was established (Griffith was opposed to it) or to September 1907 when Griffith incorporated the League into a new Sinn Féin organisation, moving Sinn Féin from an idea to an actual party structure.

Though Sinn Féin had a high name recognition factor among some voters it attracted minimal support. In August 1909, it had only 581 paid-up members throughout all of Ireland. 211 were in Dublin, while Sligo had only 2 members, a student and a shopkeeper. By 1915, it was, in the words of one of Griffith's colleagues, "on the rocks", so insolvent financially that it could not pay the rent on its party headquarters in Harcourt Street in Dublin. It was partially rescued by the mistaken belief among the British administration running Ireland from Dublin Castle that it had been behind the 1916 Rising, an unsuccessful attempt to establish an Irish Republic, the failure of talks in late 1916 between Unionists and Nationlists, presided over by David Lloyd George, to agree home rule, and the Conscription Crisis on 1917.

Following the conclusion in December 1921 of the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations between representatives of the British Government and de Valera's republican government and the narrow approval of the Treaty by Dáil Éireann, a state called the Irish Free State was established. Northern Ireland (a six county region set up under the British Government of Ireland Act 1920) opted out, as the Treaty allowed.

The reasons for the split were various, though partition was not one of them - the IRA did not split in the North and pro- and anti-treaty republicans looked to pro-treaty Michael Collins for leadership (and weapons). The principal reason for the split is usually described as the question of the Oath of Allegiance to the Irish Free State, which members of the new Dáil would be required to take. It explicitly recognised that the Irish Free State would be part of the British Commonwealth and many republicans found that unacceptable. The pro-treaty forces argued that the treaty gave "freedom to achieve freedom". Ironically the actions of Eamon DeValera in the 1930s and the adoption of a republican constitution proved the pro-treaty argument to be right on that point. In the elections of March 1922 De Valera and the anti-treaty Sinn Fein secured 35% of the popular vote. The anti-treaty element of the IRA formed an Executive that was not subordinate to the new parliament.

A short but bitter Irish Civil War (June 1922 – April 1923) erupted between the supporters of the Treaty and its opponents. De Valera resigned as President of the Republic and sided with the anti-treatyites. The victorious pro-treaty "Free Staters", who amounted to a majority of Sinn Féin TDs and a majority of the electorate, set up the Irish Free State. The pro-treaty Sinn Féin TDs changed the name of the party to Cumann na nGaedhael, subsequently merging with the Centre Party and the Blueshirts in 1933 to form Fine Gael.

Having temporarily suspended armed action in the Free State, the movement split again with the departure (March 1926) of its leader Eamon de Valera, after having lost a motion to abandon abstention if the statement of "Fidelity to the King" were abolished. He subsequently founded Fianna Fáil with fellow advocates of participation in constitutional politics, and entered the Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann) the following year, forming a government in 1932.

With the Officials' repudiation of violence in 1972, and its move from republicanism to Marxism, Provisional Sinn Féin became the political voice of the minority of northern nationalists who saw IRA violence as the means of forcing an end to British rule and institutionalised discrimination against nationalists which, in the words of Ulster Unionist leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate David Trimble, had created "a cold house for Catholics".• The British government agreed to legalise Sinn Féin in May 1974, legalising the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force at the same time to placate angry unionists. However, Sinn Féin never succeeded in attracting the majority of Catholic support while the IRA continued its campaign of violence: most Catholics voted for the Social Democratic and Labour Party, under Gerry Fitt and later John Hume. A small minority voted for the Alliance Party; small numbers of Catholics also voted for the leading unionist parties, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), the Democratic Unionist Party and the shortlived Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin only achieved the support of the majority of the nationalist community in 2004, six years after the Belfast Agreement.

Nationalist alienation in the aftermath of the deaths of ten Republican hunger-strikers in Long Kesh prison in 1981 gave Sinn Féin a springboard into electoral politics in the North. An internal power struggle, between a southern leadership under Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and a northern leadership under Gerry Adams, saw Ó Brádaigh and his associates leave to establish Republican Sinn Féin, which they claimed was the 'true' Sinn Féin. The split was over the decision of a majority of Sinn Féin members to alter party policy on abstentionism (i.e. the refusal to accept the legitimacy of, or to participate in, the parliaments of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland); while the policy of abstentionism towards the Westminster British Parliament was continued, it was dropped in relation to Dáil Éireann. Under the presidency (from November 1983) of Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin leaders sought to explore wider political engagement through political agitation and the use or threat of violence.

In October 1982 a Sinn Fein function was held at Tralee, attended by, among others, Pat Doherty, Martin Ferris and Martin McGuinness. According to Sean O'Callaghan, he was informed by McGuinness ... that he and Gerry Adams were stepping down as Chief of Staff and adjutant-general respectively, to be replaced by McKenna (Kevin McKenna) and Doherty (Pat Doherty). The reason given was that both Adams and McGuinness had being chosen by Sinn Fein to contest assembly elections in Northern Ireland, which had been called by Jim Prior, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland. There is no doubt, however that the supergrass system, an exclusively Northern Ireland phenomenon, also played a part in their decision, for nobody knew where the next supergrass would come from. It was no coincidence that both McKenna and Doherty lived in the Republic and were safe from compromise by a new supergrass."

Whatever the true explanation, that decision, augmented by the much-later involvement of SDLP leader John Hume in the Hume-Adams dialogue, and the decision of successive Irish Taoisigh (prime ministers), Charles Haughey, Albert Reynolds, John Bruton and Bertie Ahern to initiate and maintain contact with the Sinn Féin leadership, helped produce the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s.


Ironically, Adams and company had originally come to dominate the republican movement because of their unwillingness to compromise and their refusal to contemplate a ceasefire. They reassessed their position after it became clear that British intelligence successes, as well as war weariness meant that a decisive military breakthrough was unlikely and that the violent stalemate would continue.

The new strategy - famously described by Danny Morrison as "a ballot paper in one hand and the Armalite in the other"• - was also, if subtly, eventually ditched as republicans again came to terms with the limits on their political success that continued "armed struggle" imposed. The very thing that propelled Adams into leadership, his opposition to military ceasefires, now became central to his approach (albeit this time, unlike during previous ceasefires, the IRA would retain their ability to return to violence at short notice).

The largest of the modern-day Sinn Féin parties, also referred to as Provisional Sinn Féin, is the only political party to have seats in the parliaments of both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Sinn Féin is currently the third-largest party in Ireland by vote share, although the whole island only votes together at European elections.


Sinn Féin is the largest nationalist political party in Northern Ireland, having recently displaced the previously dominant nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in national elections. It currently has five MPs (gaining one in the United Kingdom general election of 2005) in the House of Commons (out of eighteen MPs representing Northern Ireland) and twenty-four Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) (out of a Northern Ireland Assembly membership of 108, making it the joint second largest, behind the Democratic Unionist Party with thirty-three seats and alongside the Ulster Unionist Party who also have twenty-four).

It is a much smaller political force, in electoral terms, in the Republic of Ireland, where it currently has five TDs (out of 166) in Dáil Éireann and no members of the Republic's Seanad Éireann (Senate). Sinn Féin has two Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) out of sixteen Irish MEPs, one from either side of the Irish border; one out of three in Northern Ireland, and one out of thirteen in the Republic. It is the only political party in Europe to be represented by members from different EU states. Its MEPs sit as part of the left wing European United Left - Nordic Green Left group in the European Parliament.

Sinn Féin had two ministers in the now suspended Executive Committee (cabinet) of the Northern Ireland Assembly but has never sat in cabinet in the Republic. In 2005 the unionist parties indicated that they would not serve in government with Sinn Féin until its relationship with the Provisional Irish Republican Army was terminated.

Sinn Féin, and other republicans, typically refer to Northern Ireland as the Six Counties, due to the early 20th century political history of the region - part of the Northern Ireland naming dispute.

Sinn Féin is the largest group in the Republican wing of Irish nationalism and is associated with the Provisional IRA. The question of whether Sinn Féin is in fact the political wing of the provisional IRA remains in dispute. Although many prominent party members have also been members of the IRA, both organisations maintain that they are independent from one another. Each advocate a United Ireland and avowedly socialist values with a nationalist slant. The Independent Monitoring Commission which was established to monitor paramilitary and terrorist activity in Northern Ireland however has imposed sanctions against Sinn Fein due to the actions of the IRA.