[63] In April 2009, the Real IRA released a statement taking responsibility for the killing. Still, it was in the second half of the 1900’s that their differences diminished, and they became part of a unified nationalist front. [69] He polled 1.8% of the vote. Agnès Maillot, New Sinn Féin: Irish Republicanism in the Twenty-First Century p 131. national self-determination. At national level, the Coiste Seasta (Standing Committee) oversees the day-to-day running of Sinn Féin. ``We Ourselves''. Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin, Sinn Féin councillor for Gorey and a teacher at a local gaelscoil, has promoted a Sinn Féin online commemoration to mark 25 years since Mr O’Brien’s death. Should the “alternative vote” system be used instead? [184] In the 2019 election, Carthy was re-elected, but Boylan and Ní Riada lost their seats. With the Partition of Ireland in 1921? [170] It ran seven candidates in the Seanad election, all of whom were successful. The Provisional IRA declared a ceasefire in August 1994. [48] 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. [113][114] The party campaigned for a "No" vote in the Irish referendum on joining the European Economic Community in 1972. [159], The party had five TDs elected in the 2002 Irish general election, an increase of four from the previous election. "Provisional Sinn Féin", in W.D. "[138] The party did, however, support continued UK membership of the European Union in the UK's 2016 EU referendum. They supported all three of the main enemies of the free world in the last century - fascism, communism and Islamism. Politicians from the Republic, along with the Irish media, strongly attacked McLaughlin's comments. Thus, when the motion to end abstention was put to the Ard Fheis on 1 November 1986, it was clear that there would not be a split in the IRA as there had been in 1970. Adams became president of Sinn Féin … At the Ard Fheis on 18 November 2017, Gerry Adams announced he would stand down as president of Sinn Féin in 2018, and would not stand for re-election as TD for Louth. stastical analysis of site performance. However, in his address, Adams said, "We are an abstentionist party. quoted in Gordon Lucy, The Northern Ireland Local Government Elections of 1993, Ulster Society Press. either expressed or implied, and should not be considered [52], This was the origin of what became known as the Armalite and ballot box strategy. Féin is [163] However, the party lost one of its seats to Fine Gael. [78], In February 2021, in Dáil Éireann, the Tánaiste criticised the party for organising a commemoration for Edward O'Brien, an IRA volunteer who died in the 1996 Aldwych bus bombing. [171], The party achieved their greatest contemporary result in the 2020 Irish general election, topping the first-preference votes with 24.5% and winning 37 seats. [54] By 1985 it had fifty-nine seats on seventeen of the twenty-six Northern Ireland councils, including seven on Belfast City Council. Sinn Féin's main political goal is a united Ireland. The party has three ministers in the Executive Committee. [citation needed], The Ardfheis (national delegate conference) is the ultimate policy-making body of the party, where delegates, directly elected by members of cumainn, can decide on and implement policy. After his death on hunger strike, his seat was held, with an increased vote, by his election agent, Owen Carron. Martin McGuinness also won a seat in Mid Ulster. [38] The opposing, anti-abstentionist party became known as "Official Sinn Féin". In the 2010 general election, the party retained its five seats,[152] and for the first time topped the poll at a Westminster election in Northern Ireland, winning 25.5% of the vote. [27] Fianna Fáil came to power at the 1932 general election (to begin what would be an unbroken 16-year spell in government) and went on to long dominate politics in the independent Irish state. [31], The Sinn Féin party split in two at the beginning of 1970. Since being founded in 1905, Irish Republicans [62] Donaldson was found fatally shot in his home in County Donegal on 4 April 2006, and a murder inquiry was launched. The three were S. Cassidy (Dungannon), J. J. McCusker (Fermanagh) and W. McCartney (Derry). [59], Tentative negotiations between Sinn Féin and the British government led to more substantive discussions with the SDLP in the 1990s. Sinn Féin members have been referred to colloquially as "Shinners", a term intended as a pejorative. (It merged with two other organisations to form Fine Gael in 1933. [116] The party was critical of the supposed need for an EU constitution as proposed in 2002,[117] and urged a "No" vote in the 2008 referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, although Mary Lou McDonald said that there was "no contradiction in being pro-Europe, but anti-treaty". Other key policies from their most recent election manifesto are listed below: Sinn Féin has longstanding fraternal ties with the African National Congress[129] and was described by Nelson Mandela as an 'old friend and ally in the anti-apartheid struggle'. It seeks national self-determination, the unity and independence of Ireland as a sovereign state. The phrase "Sinn Féin" is Irish for "Ourselves" or "We Ourselves",[9][10] although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone" (from "Sinn Féin Amháin", an early-20th-century slogan). The IRA were widely blamed for the robbery[86] although Sinn Féin denied this and stated that party officials had not known of the robbery nor sanctioned it. Our priorities will be building of homes, fixing of the health service and delivering a fair economic recovery. In the 1983 UK general election eight months later, Sinn Féin increased its support, breaking the six-figure vote barrier in Northern Ireland for the first time by polling 102,701 votes (13.4%). At the general election in 2007 the party had expectations of substantial gains,[160][161] with poll predictions that they would gain five[162] to ten seats. In the 1997 UK general election, Adams regained Belfast West. It has Sinn Fein celebrated their surge in Ireland’s general election by singing folk songs commemorating the Irish Republican Army’s fight against British … [57] By October of the following year an IRA Convention had indicated its support for elected Sinn Féin TDs taking their seats. In the 1987 general election, Gerry Adams held his Belfast West seat, but the party failed to make breakthroughs elsewhere and overall polled 83,389 votes (11.4%). [174] Ultimately negotiations to form a new government led to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party agreeing to enter a majority coalition government in June. Donaldson told reporters that the British security agencies who employed him were behind the collapse of the Assembly and set up Sinn Féin to take the blame for it, a claim disputed by the British government. All material is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind, [70] Others who opposed this development left to found the Republican Network for Unity. And Sinn Fein rules out IRA disarmament by May 2000 which is the deadline set by the peace accords for the IRA and pro-British Protestant paramilitary groups to surrender all weapons. [28] At the 1955 United Kingdom general election, two Sinn Féin candidates were elected to Westminster, but the party's vote decreased at the following election in 1959, during the IRA's Border Campaign. four Westminster MPs, 28 MLAs, and 105 councillors. [169] In the 2016 election it made further gains, finishing with 23 seats and overtaking the Labour Party as the third-largest party in the Dáil. its [37] By then, however, the label "Provisional" or "Provo" was already being applied to them by the media. At the 1983 Ard Fheis the constitution was amended to remove the ban on the discussion of abstentionism to allow Sinn Féin to run a candidate in the forthcoming European elections. Unionists have criticised Sinn Fein leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O'Neill for joining ex-party president Gerry Adams at the funeral of IRA terrorist and Sinn Fein … [155], Sinn Féin lost some ground in the 2016 Assembly election, dropping one seat to finish with 28, ten behind the DUP. ", Sinn Féin set to capitalise on Irish discontent, "If You Believe in a Prosperous And Independent Ireland ... Vote No", "Sinn Féin urges treaty no vote in newsletter blitz", "SF says North should be able stay in EU in a Brexit", Euroscepticism: Party Politics, National Identity and European Integration, "Sinn Féin lobbies for Northern Ireland MPs to sit in Dáil Éireann", "Ag cur Gaeilge ar ais i mbhéal an phobail", "Same-sex marriage now legal in Northern Ireland", "The Road to Recovery: Sinn Féin Pre-Budget 2010 Submission", "ANC: Comrade McGuinness was a trusted ally of the South African people during apartheid", "Sinn Féin calls on Irish government to recognise Catalan independence", "Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil want to call TDs back from their holidays to talk about Gaza", "Sinn Féin website, International Department", "Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams: 'Fidel Castro a hero and friend of Ireland, "Sinn Fein to ask voters to reject EU 'superstate' constitution", "EU must change direction or risk disintegration", "Sinn Fein to spell out Brexit opposition to Theresa May", "The 2001 Westminster elections in Northern Ireland", "Northern Ireland General election results 2010", "The 2010 Westminster elections in Northern Ireland", "Sinn Fein's Michelle Gildernew retains Fermanagh after dramatic recounts", "Assembly elections: DUP and Sinn Féin remain dominant", "Sinn Féin closes gap on unionist rivals as middle ground collapses", "Efforts to form a power-sharing administration to begin early next week", "It's a tie: DUP's Wells says removal of whip gives Sinn Fein equal voting power in Northern Ireland", "Sinn Fein 29 April 2007 accessed 27 July 2009", "Sinn Fein wins by landslide in Donegal South-West by-election", "Pearse Doherty elected in Donegal South–West", Fine Gael poised to lead next government as FF collapses, "Fianna Fáil largest party but Sinn Féin celebrate", "Irish nationalists Sinn Fein demand place in government after strong election showing", "Sinn Fein pledges to lead strong opposition as parties agree to enter coalition", "2004 Local Election: Seats per Party per Council", "Defecting councillor says SF has become directionless in South", "History made – Sinn Féin is now the largest party in the Six Counties", "2009 Euro – South First Preference Votes", Full recheck in Midlands-North-West constituency, 2019 European election results for Ireland, Sinn Féin delegation to the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament in Brussels website, List of political parties by representation, 2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sinn_Féin&oldid=1016581973, Organizations that support same-sex marriage, All Wikipedia articles written in Hiberno-English, Articles containing explicitly cited English-language text, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2020, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles to be expanded from February 2021, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from March 2021, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, Articles needing additional references from November 2017, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2008, Articles that may contain original research from February 2020, All articles that may contain original research, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with UKPARL identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Sinn Féin is a democratic socialist and left-wing party. In the 1918 general election, Sinn Féin won 73 of Ireland's 105 seats, and in January 1919, its MPs assembled in Dublin and proclaimed themselves Dáil Éireann, the parliament of Ireland. [96] The McCartney family, although formerly Sinn Féin voters themselves, urged witnesses to the crime to contact the PSNI. [183] In the South constituency their candidate, Councillor Toiréasa Ferris, managed to nearly double the number of first preference votes,[183] lying third after the first count, but failed to get enough transfers to win a seat. [143] The party failed to gain any seats in the 1986 by-elections caused by the resignation of unionist MPs in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Sinn Féin are pro-immigration on the basis of filling up vacancies in employment, if the system can properly integrate them and resource it, the party also believes in faster application processing times for refugees. In the Irish local elections of 1999 the party increased its number of councillors from 7 to 23. [93], On 20 February 2005, Irish Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell publicly accused three of the Sinn Féin leadership, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris (TD for Kerry North) of being on the seven-man IRA Army Council; they later denied this. [77], In the 2020 Irish general election, Sinn Féin received greatest number of first preference votes nationally, making it the best result for any incarnation of Sinn Féin since the 1922 election however, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party formed a coalition government in June 2020. which the party reached with the other northern parties and the Irish and British [42] Sinn Féin took off as a protest movement after the introduction of internment in August 1971, organising marches and pickets. The pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty components (led by Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera respectively) managed to agree on a "Coalition Panel" of Sinn Féin candidates to stand in the 1922 general election. “Everyone, Republican or otherwise has their own particular Provos: The IRA and Sinn Fein. [55], The party began a reappraisal of the policy of abstention from the Dáil. [172][173] Party leader Mary Lou McDonald called the result a "revolution" and announced she would pursue the formation of a government including Sinn Féin. It is held at least once a year, but a special Ard Fheis can be called by the Ard Chomhairle or the membership under special circumstances. At the 1910 Ard Fheis (party conference) the attendance was poor, and there was difficulty finding members willing to take seats on the executive. [106] In the European Parliament, the party aligns itself with the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) parliamentary group. In the 26 Counties, Two other Anti H-Block candidates were elected to Dáil Éireann in the general election in the Republic. [136][137] It also criticises the EU on grounds of neoliberalism. [54] Sinn Féin polled over 100,000 votes in the Westminster elections that year, and Adams won the West Belfast seat that had been held by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). At the time, the Northern Ireland Executive co-led by Sinn Féin had capped funeral attendances at 30 — not the thousands who lined the streets of Catholic west Belfast that day. [41] A Sinn Féin organiser of the time in Belfast described the party's role as "agitation and publicity". It takes its name from the Irish Gaelic expression for "[56] A motion to permit entry into the Dáil was allowed at the 1985 Ard Fheis, but did not have the active support of the leadership, and it failed narrowly. Sinn Féin was the mouthpiece for the IRA during the long years of violence and it continues to fulfil that role. Republicans opposed to the direction taken by Sinn Féin in the peace process formed the 32 County Sovereignty Movement in the late 1990s. [177] However, three of Sinn Féin's seven representatives on Dublin City Council resigned within six months of the June 2009 elections, one of them defecting to the Labour Party. officially endorsed or sanctioned by Sinn Fein or the website administrators. [107] The party aims to eradicate poverty. Gerry Adams said that, if there were to be a referendum on the question, there ought to be a separate and binding referendum for Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin is committed to the transformation of Irish society and to a negotiated and democratic settlement. The 1984 European elections proved to be a disappointment, with Sinn Féin's candidate Danny Morrison polling 91,476 (13.3%) and falling well behind the SDLP candidate John Hume. Government and newspapers dubbed the Rising "the Sinn Féin Rising". Ireland Since 1939, Henry Patterson, Penguin 2006, p. 180. FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon. the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Multi-party negotiations began in 1994 in Northern Ireland, without Sinn Féin. In the aftermath of the row over the robbery, a further controversy erupted when, on RTÉ's Questions and Answers programme, the chairman of Sinn Féin, Mitchel McLaughlin, insisted that the IRA's controversial killing of a mother of ten young children, Jean McConville, in the early 1970s though "wrong", was not a crime, as it had taken place in the context of the political conflict. The prisoners' protest climaxed with the 1981 hunger strike, during which striker Bobby Sands was elected Member of Parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone as an Anti H-Block candidate. Sinn Féin members elected in the December 1918 election at the First Dáil Éireann meeting on January 21, 1919. Irish voters decide: voting behaviour in elections and referendums since 1918, Richard Sinnott, Brendan O'Brien, the Long War, the IRA and Sinn Féin (1995). on website activity is collected only for the purpose of none should be inferred. [84], The British government stated in 2005 that "we had always said all the way through we believed that Sinn Féin and the IRA were inextricably linked and that had obvious implications at leadership level". [44] In general, however, the party lacked a distinct political philosophy. This undermined confidence among unionists about the sincerity of republicans towards reaching agreement. [19] In the wake of the vote, anti-Treaty members walked out of the Dáil, and pro- and anti-Treaty members took opposite sides in the ensuing Civil War.[20]. Ó Brádaigh and about twenty other delegates walked out, and met in a Dublin hotel with hundreds of supporters to re-organise as Republican Sinn Féin. Data [68] There was opposition to this decision within Sinn Féin, and some members left, including elected representatives. [164], On 26 November 2010, Pearse Doherty won a seat in the Donegal South-West by-election. have worked for the right of Irish people as a whole to attain The contemporary Sinn Féin party took its form in 1970 after another split (with the other faction eventually becoming the Workers' Party of Ireland) and was historically associated with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). [67] Sinn Féin members began to sit on Policing Boards and join District Policing Partnerships. It suspended Sinn Féin from the talks, and began to insist that the IRA decommission all of their weapons before Sinn Féin be re-admitted to the talks; this led to the IRA calling off its ceasefire. On 10 February 2018, Mary Lou McDonald was announced as the new president of Sinn Féin at a special Ard Fheis in Dublin. The Irish Republican Army wages an armed campaign... Sinn Féin maintains the propaganda war and is the public and political voice of the movement". A split in January 1970, mirroring a split in the IRA, led to the emergence of two groups calling themselves Sinn Féin. [112], Sinn Féin has been considered to be Eurosceptic. Losses in Dublin and urban areas were balanced by gains in areas such as Limerick, Wicklow, Cork, Tipperary and Kilkenny and the border counties . They were manned by Sinn Féin, which had been legalised the previous year by Merlyn Rees, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The Irish government alleged that senior members of Sinn Féin have held posts on the IRA Army Council. [23] De Valera's resignation meant also the loss of financial support from America. [153] All Sinn Féin MPs increased their share of the vote and with the exception of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, increased their majorities. Links to organizations are Sinn Féin is against "open borders" and believes in abolishing the Direct Provision system. [46], Political status for prisoners became an issue after the ending of the truce. [133] Sinn Féin opposes the United States embargo against Cuba and has called for a normalization of relations between the two countries. )[22] Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin members continued to boycott the Dáil. when site visitors voluntarily and explicity provide it. In 1983 Alex Maskey was elected to Belfast City Council, the first Sinn Féin member to sit on that body. [26][27] Vice-President and de facto leader Mary MacSwiney announced that the party simply did not have the funds to contest the second election called that year, declaring "no true Irish citizen can vote for any of the other parties". Sinn Féin were opposed to Northern Ireland leaving the European Union together with the rest of the United Kingdom, with Martin McGuinness suggesting a referendum on the reunification of Ireland immediately after the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum results were announced,[76] a stance later reiterated by Mary Lou McDonald as a way of resolving the border issues raised by Brexit. [108][109] In the 2018 Irish abortion referendum, the party campaigned for a 'Yes' vote, but remained opposed to abortions up to 12 weeks. It is an eight-member body nominated by the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle (National Executive) and also includes the chairperson of each cúige. (1954-1981), on hunger strike in 1981. Longest-served president in the party's history and TD for, Ending academic selection within the education system, A draft Irish Language Bill for Northern Ireland (, To further Irish language teaching in Northern Ireland, A cap on public sector pay at three times the, Standardisation of discretionary tax reliefs, Reducing mortgage interest tax relief for landlords and property-based tax reliefs, Establishment of a government fund to aid small and medium enterprises, An "all-Ireland" economy with a common currency and one tax policy, An "All-Ireland-Health-Service" akin to the, Abolishment of prescription charges for medical card patients, Gradual removal of subsidies of private practice in public hospitals and the introduction of a charge for practitioners for the use of public equipment and staff in their private practice, Free breast screening (to check for breast cancer) of all women over forty, This page was last edited on 7 April 2021, at 23:05. [176] At the local elections of June 2009, the party's vote fell by 0.95% to 7.34%, with no change in the number of seats. Subscribe to receive Sinn Féin then joined the talks, but the Conservative government under John Major soon came to depend on unionist votes to remain in power. Sinn Féin, which operates in both Ireland and Northern Ireland, is a left-wing, nationalist, populist, republican (in the sense that it favors uniting the Irish people under one republic) party. [99][100], Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern subsequently called Sinn Féin and the IRA "both sides of the same coin". In the UK House of Commons, Sinn Féin holds seven of Northern Ireland's 18 seats, making it the second-largest bloc after the DUP; there it follows a policy of abstentionism, refusing to sit in parliament or vote on bills. Sinn Féin is an Irish Republican party. At a special Ard Fheis in March 1926, 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. [47] Around the same time, Gerry Adams began writing for Republican News, calling for Sinn Féin to become more involved politically. With Patrick Pearse’s seizure of the GPO building in Dublin in 1916? Sinn Féin was founded on 28 November 1905, when, at the first annual Convention of the National Council, Arthur Griffith outlined the Sinn Féin policy, "to establish in Ireland's capital a national legislature endowed with the moral authority of the Irish nation". [94][95], On 27 February 2005, a demonstration against the murder of Robert McCartney on 30 January 2005 was held in east Belfast. [12][13], Sinn Féin was founded on 28 November 1905, when, at the first annual Convention of the National Council, Arthur Griffith outlined the Sinn Féin policy, "to establish in Ireland's capital a national legislature endowed with the moral authority of the Irish nation". By the beginning of 1985, Sinn Féin had won its first representation on local councils, owing to three by-election wins in Omagh (Seamus Kerr, May 1983) and Belfast (Alex Maskey in June 1983 and Sean McKnight in March 1984). [175], Sinn Féin is represented on most county and city councils. [179] In the 2009 election, de Brún was re-elected with 126,184 first preference votes, the only candidate to reach the quota on the first count. Sinn Féin returned to Northern Ireland elections at the 1982 Assembly elections, winning five seats with 64,191 votes (10.1%). [83] Robert White states at that time Sinn Fein was the junior partner in the relationship with the IRA, and they were separate organisations despite there being some overlapping membership.