History of Sinn Féin

[1] An article by Griffith in that paper in March 1900 called for the creation of an association to bring together the disparate Irish nationalist groups of the time, and as a result Cumann na nGaedheal was formed at the end of 1900.

[10] The pressure increased when C. J. Dolan, the Irish Parliamentary Party MP for Leitrim North, announced his intention to resign his seat and contest it on a Sinn Féin platform.

When a split seemed imminent, O'Flanagan mediated an agreement between Griffith and Plunkett, and a group known as the Mansion House Committee was formed, tasked with organising forthcoming by-elections and sending an envoy to the Paris peace conference.

[19] Sinn Féin contested the 1917 South Longford by-election, where Joseph McGuinness, imprisoned in Lewes jail for his part in the Rising, was elected on the slogan "Put him in to get him out".

Over the summer of 1917, surviving members of the Rising were freed from prison by Lloyd George, wary of public opinion as he attempted to get America to join the war.

[19] A compromise motion was passed, which read: Sinn Féin aims at securing the international recognition of Ireland as an independent Irish republic.

Sinn Féin came back with victories for Patrick McCartan in Tullamore in April, and Arthur Griffith in East Cavan in June (when Fr.

[25] The British Government responded by arresting and interning the leading members of Sinn Féin and hundreds of others not involved in the organisation, accused of complicity in a fictitious German Plot.

Sinn Féin won 73 of Ireland's 105 seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom at the December 1918 general election, twenty-five of them uncontested.

The principal reason for the split is usually described as the question of the Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State, which members of the new Dáil would be required to take,[30][31] and which included a statement of fidelity to the British King, which many republicans found unacceptable.

In March 1926 the party held its Ard Fheis and de Valera proposed that elected members be allowed to take their seats in the Dáil if and when the controversial oath of allegiance was removed.

Numbers attending the Ard Fheis had dropped to the mid-40s and debates were mainly dominated with issues such as whether members should accept IRA war pensions from the government.

[citation needed] Sinn Féin, which ran under the label "Republican Clubs" in the North, became involved with the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, although it never controlled it as some unionists believed.

[51][52] The stated reason for the split in the IRA was "partition parliaments",[53] however, the division was the product of discussions throughout the 1960s over the merits of political involvement as opposed to a purely military strategy.

The split, when it finally did come, arose over the playing down of the role of the IRA and its inability to adequately defend the nationalist population in Northern Ireland in the violent beginning to the Troubles.

[57] Those in favour of a purely military strategy accused the leadership of rigging both the Army Convention, held in December at Knockvicar House in Boyle, County Roscommon, and the vote on abandoning the policy of abstentionism and defence of nationalist areas.

[62] The split in the republican movement was completed at the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis on 10–11 January at the Intercontinental Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin, when the proposal to drop abstention was put before the members.

[63] In addition, the leadership had also refused delegate status (voting rights) to a number of Sinn Féin cumainn (branches), particularly in the north and in County Kerry, where they knew them to be opposed.

[65] As the (pro Goulding) IRA Army Council had already resolved to drop abstentionism, this was seen by the minority group (led by MacStiofain and Ó Brádaigh) as an attempt to subvert the party's constitution.

These events produced an influx into the Provisionals on the military side, making them the dominant force and finally eclipsing the Officials everywhere while bringing hundreds into Ó Brádaigh's Sinn Féin.

[74] Despite the dropping of the word 'provisional' at a convention of the IRA Army Council in September 1970, and becoming the dominant group, they are still known, "to the mild irritation of senior members" as Provisionals, Provos or Provies.

[81] Around the same time, Gerry Adams began writing for Republican News, under the by-line "Brownie", calling for Sinn Féin to become more involved politically and to develop more left-wing policies .

[82] Over the next few years, Adams and those aligned with him would extend their influence throughout the republican movement and slowly marginalise Ó Brádaigh, part of a general trend of power in both Sinn Féin and the IRA shifting north.

[84] The prisoners' protest climaxed with the 1981 hunger strike, during which striker Bobby Sands was elected Member of Parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone with the help of the Sinn Féin publicity machine.

[88] Sinn Féin polled over 100,000 votes in the Westminster elections that year, with Adams winning the West Belfast seat previously held by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).

At the 1983 Ard Fheis the constitution was amended to remove the ban on the discussion of abstentionism, so as to allow Sinn Féin to run a candidate in the forthcoming European elections, although in his address Adams said, "We are an abstentionist party.

[91] By October of the following year an IRA Convention had indicated its support for elected Sinn Féin Teachtaí Dála (TDs) taking their seats.

[95] On becoming Taoiseach in 1987, Haughey authorised face-to-face discussions between Martin Mansergh, Head of Research for Fianna Fáil, and Sinn Féin representatives Adams, Pat Doherty and Mitchel McLaughlin.

[97] Sinn Féin aimed at forming an alliance of Irish nationalist parties for the purpose of achieving self-determination for the whole of Ireland, but the SDLP insisted that this could only happen in the context of an end to IRA violence and the dropping of the demand for immediate British withdrawal.

[100] Sinn Féin has increased electoral success, overtaking the SDLP to become the largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland in 2001,[101] and securing the most votes in the 2020 Irish general election.