Sinn Féin (slogan)

Sinn Féin was a political slogan used by Irish nationalists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. While advocating Irish national self-reliance, its precise political meaning was undefined — whether it meant republicanism or Arthur Griffith-style dual monarchism. Its earliest use was to describe individual political radicals unconnected with any party. In the 1890s it was used by the Gaelic League[1], which advocates the revival of the Irish language.

Sinn Féin is an Irish-language phrase whose literal translation is "ourselves" or "we ourselves"[2]; however, at the time the most common rendering in English was "ourselves alone", which was also used as a political slogan; it is unclear whether the English or Irish version came first. The name itself may have been a construct of opponents to highlight the individuals' political isolation[3] or the perceived selfishness of abandoning Britain, as in this Punch parody[4] from World War I:

[..]For Truth and Right the fools may fight,
We fight but for "Ourselves Alone."[..]

The name was adopted by Arthur Griffith for the "Sinn Féin policy" he presented in 1905, and the Sinn Féin party formed over 1905-7. The 1916 Easter Rising was quickly dubbed the "Sinn Féin rising" by British-oriented newspapers. However, the Sinn Féin party had no role in the Rising, although many members had participated. The distinction between the specific party and the broader slogan of radical nationalism was finally blurred in 1917, when Griffith yielded leadership of the party to Éamon de Valera, the senior surviving leader of the Rising.

Early uses

A collection[5] was published in 1845 of poems printed in The Nation, the nationalist newspaper of the Young Irelanders. It includes a poem entitled Ourselves Alone by "Sliabh Cuilinn" (John O'Hagan):[6]

[...]Too long our Irish hearts we schooled
In patient hopes to bide,
By dreams of English justice fooled
And English tongues that lied.
That hour of weak delusion's past—
The empty dream has flown :
Our hope and strength, we find at last,
Is in OURSELVES ALONE.[...]

Another poem in the same volume, The Spirit of the Nation by D.F. McCarthy, uses the expression "Sinn Féin". The gloss in the original for this is 'Ourselves—or "OURSELVES ALONE."'[7]

[...]A chuisle mo chroidhe, we are wounded and sore,
So bad that we cannot endure it much more.
A cure we must have, though the Saxons may stare
And "curse like a trooper;" but devil may care,
Sinn Féin is our watch-word—so devil may care.[...]

A nationalist play by "Tom Telephone" (Thomas Stanislaus Cleary) published in 1882 was entitled Shin Fain; or Ourselves Alone[1].

References

  1. ^ a b Laffan, Michael (1999). The Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Féin Party, 1916-1923. Cambridge University Press. p. 20. ISBN 0521650739. 
  2. ^ Dinneen, Patrick (1927 (1992)). Irish-English Dictionary. Dublin: Irish Texts Society. ISBN 1870166000.  Also, Sinn Féin! Sinn Féin! was an exortation to quell a brimming feud, i.e. "we are all one here!"
  3. ^ Jackson, Alvin (2004). Home Rule: An Irish History 1800—2000. Phoenix. 
  4. ^ Mr. Punch's History of the Great War. Kessinger Publishing. 2004. p. 149. ISBN 141913566X. 
  5. ^ Davis, Thomas (1845). Ballads and Songs by the Writers of "The Nation". Dublin: James Duffy. 
  6. ^ Davis, op. cit., pg 61
  7. ^ Davis, op. cit., pg 75

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