A Short History of Republican Sinn Féin  

In 1902, Arthur Griffith, Editor of the United Irishman, presented to the third annual convention of Cumann na nGaedheal the most revolutionary political idea since the fall of Parnell; it was that the elected Irish Members of Parliament should refuse to sit in Westminster, demand reinstitution of the Irish Parliament of 1782, and pledge allegiance only to a king of Ireland, not to the King of England. While the Liberator, Daniel O’Connell, had once considered such unilateral action, he had not forced the issue. Griffith provided a strategy of passive resistance by turning an assembly of Irish MPs into a de facto constitutional convention. Modeled on Frank Deak’s policy, which resulted in the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867, Griffith serialized his abstentionist program in the United Irishman as the Resurrection of Hungary, and then published it as a pamphlet and distributed it widely in 1904. The direct result of this idea was the formation of Sinn Féin on 28th November 1905, as an abstentionist political party, with internal self-reliance as its principal plank, pledging never to recognize or use the services or forces of the enemy. The founders of Sinn Féin were Arthur Griffith, Seán T. O’Kelly, Bulmer Hobson, Countess Markiewicz and Seán Mac Diarmada. In addition to contesting a Parliamentary election in North Lietrim in 1908, Sinn Féin was also active locally, electing a number of men to county councils and other local bodies. 

Historian, lecturer, Conradh na Gaeilge president and Radio Free Éireann (public service broadcasting, 99.5 FM in New York) commentator Nollaig Ó Gadhra points out that the big change in Sinn Féin came in the Árd Fheis of 1917, when the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) under the guidance of Michael Collins and the Irish Volunteers under Cathal Brugha, caused Sinn Féin to change its policy from monarchist to republican abstention. After the Rising, Sinn Féin adopted an election manifesto for all elections, insisting upon the Irish Republic Proclaimed on Easter Monday, 1916. Éamonn deValera, campaigning in an Irish Volunteer uniform, was elected for East Clare in June 1917. At the Árd Fheis of Sinn Féin in October 1917, Arthur Griffith graciously stepped down from President to Vice President of Sinn Féin, to allow the election of deValera, who, after the death on hunger strike of Thomas Ashe, was the senior surviving Commandant from 1916. 

This was the Sinn Féin which contested the general election of 14 December 1918, promising to NOT represent their constituents or their country in the mighty Westminster Parliament in London, but rather to set up, without foreign let or hindrance, a Republican assembly which would form an Irish government for Ireland. Sinn Féin won over 79% of the popular vote in all Ireland, and 73 of 105 seats, in what can only be described as a plebiscite for independence. The delegates who assembled in the Mansion House in Dublin formed the First Dáil Éireann and issued the Irish Declaration of Independence on 21 January 1919 (legally the equivalent of the American Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress, promulgated on the 4th of July 1776). That Easter Monday, 1916 is regarded as the significant date is a consequence of the pre-existing Army Council of the Irish Republican Army – Óglaigh na hÉireann (the IRA) insisting upon the First Dáil Éireann recognizing the Irish Republic proclaimed in arms in 1916, as a condition for the IRA coming under the authority of the government formed by the First Dáil Éireann. [See also Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic (New York, 1965).] 

The democratic voice of the Irish people had spoken (vox populi, vox Dei), and their elected representatives sought the recognition of their national self-determination as promised by American President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, on which basis the Armistice ending the Great War on 11 November 1918, had been accepted by the Central Powers. Ireland was denied recognition and a seat at the Versailles peace conference. The ensuing conflict between the forces of the Imperial Government in London and the Irish Republic has become known to history as the “Black and Tan War” (1919-1921). But, the military lessons of Dublin 1916 having been studied in the internment camp of Frongoch, the forces of the Irish Republic waged an asymmetrical conflict against the alien forces of occupation. Modern guerilla warfare entered on to the twentieth century. England, though still in control of many strong points, could no longer coerce Ireland into remaining peacefully within her empire. A Second (Republican) Dáil Éireann came together in August 1921 (124 Sinn Féin and 4 Unionist members). Nollaig Ó Gadhra, in Civil War in Connacht (Cork & Dublin: Mercier Press, 1999), points out that the Sinn Féin delegates regarded their mandate to be as Teachta Dála Éir