November 28, 1905

Sinn Féin founded in Ireland

Sinn Féin, a political party dedicated to independence for all of Ireland, is founded in Dublin by Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith.

Sinn Féin is Gaelic for "we ourselves" but also for "ourselves alone." From its inception, the party became the unofficial political wing of militant Irish groups in their struggle to throw off British rule. In 1911, the British Liberal government approved negotiations for Irish Home Rule, but the Conservative Party opposition in Parliament, combined with Ireland's anti-Home Rule factions, defeated the plans.

With the outbreak of World War I, the British government delayed further discussion of Irish self-determination, and Irish nationalists responded by staging Dublin's Easter Uprising of 1916. In 1918, with the threat of conscription being imposed on the island, the Irish people gave Sinn Féin a majority in national elections, and the party established an independent Irish Parliament--Dáil Éireann--which declared Ireland a sovereign republic.

In 1919, the Irish Volunteers, a prototype of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), launched a widespread and effective guerrilla campaign against British forces. In 1921, a cease-fire was declared, and in 1922 Arthur Griffith and a faction of former Sinn Féin leaders signed a historic treaty with Britain, calling for the partition of Ireland, with the south becoming autonomous and the six northern counties of the island remaining in the United Kingdom.

Civil war followed the partition, ending with the defeat of the Irish Republican forces in 1923 by the Irish Free State (later the Republic of Ireland). Several years later, the IRA was reorganized underground. During the next eight decades, Sinn Féin remained the unofficial political wing of the IRA in its struggle for a unified and independent Ireland.