Sinn Fein

Irish political party founded in 1905, whose aim is the creation of a united republican Ireland. The driving political force behind Irish nationalism between 1916 and 1921, Sinn Fein returned to prominence with the outbreak of violence (‘the Troubles’) in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, when it split into ‘Provisional’ and ‘Official’ wings at the same time as the Irish Republican Army (IRA), with which it is closely associated. From the late 1970s ‘Provisional’ Sinn Fein took on a more active political role, putting up candidates to stand in local and national elections. Sinn Fein won two seats in the 1997 UK general election and one seat in the 1997 Irish general election. In the 2001 UK general election, it increased its number of seats to four. Gerry Adams became party president in 1978. Sinn Fein took part in the multiparty negotiations (known as the Stormont Talks) and became a signatory of the agreement reached on Good Friday, 10 April 1998. The party gained 17.6% of votes in the June 1998 elections to the 108-seat Belfast assembly. In September a historic meeting between Gerry Adams and the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, took place at Stormont; Sinn Fein also agreed to appoint a contact with the international body overseeing the decommissioning of arms – the party's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness. In October 2001 Gerry Adams made an unprecedented plea to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to proceed with decommissioning in order to save the peace process and the devolved power-sharing administration of Northern Ireland from collapse; on 22 October it was verified that the IRA had put some arms beyond use.

Sinn Fein was founded by Arthur Griffith (1872–1922). Éamon de Valera became its president in 1917. Sinn Fein MPs won a majority of the Irish seats in the 1918 UK general election, set up a secessionist Dáil (Irish parliament) in Dublin, and declared Irish independence in January 1919. The party split over the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty which created the Irish Free State and partitioned Ireland. The refusal of a section of Sinn Fein, led by de Valera, to accept the terms of the treaty, led to armed conflict between his followers and the forces of the new Free State. In the aftermath of the Irish Civil War, Sinn Fein pursued a policy of abstention from the Dáil. The party rapidly declined in importance after Éamon de Valera resigned the presidency of Sinn Fein to form his new Fianna Fáil party in 1926.