Sinn Féin
left-wing nationalist political party in Ireland
Sinn Féin ( shin FAYN; Irish: [ˌʃɪn̠ʲ ˈfʲeːnʲ] ; lit. '[We] Ourselves') is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in Ireland, including both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith. Its members founded the revolutionary Irish Republic and its parliament, the First Dáil, and many of them were active in the Irish War of Independence, during which the party was associated with the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922). The party split before the Irish Civil War and again in its aftermath, giving rise to the two traditionally dominant parties of Irish politics: Fianna Fáil, and Cumann na nGaedheal (which merged with smaller groups to form Fine Gael). For several decades the remaining Sinn Féin organisation was small and often without parliamentary representation. It continued its association with the Irish Republican Army. Another split in 1970 at the start of the Troubles led to the modern Sinn Féin party, with the other faction eventually becoming the Workers' Party.
During the Troubles, Sinn Féin was associated with the Provisional Irish Republican Army. For most of that conflict, it was affected by broadcasting bans in the Irish and British media. Although the party sat on local councils, it maintained a policy of abstentionism for the British House of Commons and the Irish Dáil Éireann, standing for election to those legislatures but pledging not to take their seats if elected.
“Sinn Féin” enters the record as left-wing nationalist political party in Ireland. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sinn, Féin and left-wing can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Sinn Féin” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Sinn, Féin and left-wing provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q76382. VIAF identifies the subject as 134714867. The Library of Congress control number is n82094405. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1905, 1919, 1922 and 1970.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Sinn Féin”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Sinn Féin primary sources, Sinn Féin archive and Sinn research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sinn Féin”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Sinn Féin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.