In the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Sinn Féin has held seven of Northern Ireland's seats since the2024 election; it continues its policy of abstentionism at Westminster. InDáil Éireann it is the main opposition, having won the second largest number of seats in the2024 election. The currentpresident of Sinn Féin isMary Lou McDonald, who succeeded Gerry Adams in 2018.
The phrase "Sinn Féin" isIrish for "Ourselves" or "We Ourselves",[19][20] although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone" (from "Sinn Féin Amháin", an early-20th-century slogan).[21] The name is an assertion of Irish national sovereignty and self-determination, i.e., theIrish people governing themselves, rather than being part of a political union with Great Britain under theWestminster Parliament.
A split in January 1970, mirroring a split in the IRA, led to the emergence of two groups calling themselves Sinn Féin. The majority group, under the continued leadership ofTomás Mac Giolla, became known asOfficial Sinn Féin orSinn Féin (Gardiner Place). The minority group, led byRuairí Ó Brádaigh, became known asProvisional Sinn Féin orSinn Féin (Kevin Street).Official Sinn Féin changed its name toSinn Féin-The Workers' Party in 1977, and in 1982 it changed its name toThe Workers' Party.[22] As the "Official" group had dropped all mention of Sinn Féin from its name in 1982, the term "Provisional Sinn Féin" fell out of use, and in 1987Provisional Sinn Féin registered as a political party in the Republic of Ireland under the nameSinn Féin.[23]
Sinn Féin members have been referred to colloquially as "Shinners", a term intended as apejorative.[24][25]
Arthur Griffith is credited as the main founder of the party
Sinn Féin was founded on 28 November 1905, when, at the first annual Convention of the National Council,Arthur Griffith outlined the Sinn Féin policy, "to establish in Ireland's capital a national legislature endowed with the moral authority of the Irish nation".[20] Its initial political platform was bothconservative andmonarchist, advocating for an Anglo-Irishdual monarchy unified with the BritishCrown (inspired by theAustro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867).[26][27] The party contested the1908 North Leitrim by-election, where it secured 27% of the vote.[28] Thereafter, both support and membership fell. At its 1910ard fheis (party conference) attendance was poor, and there was difficulty finding members willing to take seats on the executive.[29]
The campaign car ofJoseph McGuinness, who won the 1917South Longford by-election whilst imprisoned. He was one of the first Sinn Féin MPs to be elected.
In 1914, Sinn Féin members, including Griffith, joined the anti-RedmondIrish Volunteers, which was referred to byRedmondites and others as the "Sinn Féin Volunteers". Although Griffith himself did not take part in theEaster Rising of 1916, many Sinn Féin members who were members of the Volunteers and theIrish Republican Brotherhood did. Government and newspapers dubbed the Rising "the Sinn Féin Rising".[30] After the Rising,republicans came together under the banner of Sinn Féin, and at the 1917ard fheis the party committed itself for the first time to the establishment of anIrish Republic. In the1918 general election, Sinn Féin won 73 of Ireland's 105 seats, and in January 1919, its MPs assembled in Dublin and proclaimed themselvesDáil Éireann, the parliament of Ireland. Sinn Féin candidateConstance Markievicz became the first woman elected to theUnited Kingdom House of Commons. However, in line with Sinn Féinabstentionist policy, she did not take her seat in the House of Commons.[31]
The party supported theIrish Republican Army during theWar of Independence, and members of the Dáil government negotiated theAnglo-Irish Treaty with the British government in 1921. In the Dáil debates that followed, the party divided on the Treaty. The pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty components (led byMichael Collins andÉamon de Valera respectively) managed to agree on a "Coalition Panel" of Sinn Féin candidates to stand in the1922 general election.[32] After the election, anti-Treaty members walked out of the Dáil, and pro- and anti-Treaty members took opposite sides in the ensuingCivil War.[33]
Pro-Treaty Dáil deputies and other Treaty supporters formed a new party,Cumann na nGaedheal, on 27 April 1923 at a meeting in Dublin, where delegates agreed on a constitution and political programme.[34] Cumann na nGaedheal went on to govern the newIrish Free State for nine years (it merged with two other organisations to formFine Gael in 1933).[35] Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin members continued to boycott the Dáil. At a specialArd Fheis in March 1926, de Valera proposed that elected members be allowed to take their seats in the Dáil if and when the controversialOath of Allegiance was removed. When his motion was defeated, de Valera resigned from Sinn Féin; on 16 May 1926, he founded his own party,Fianna Fáil, which was dedicated to republicanising the Free State from within its political structures. He took most Sinn FéinTeachtaí Dála (TDs) with him.[36] De Valera's resignation meant also the loss of financial support from America.[37] The rump Sinn Féin party could field no more than fifteen candidates,[38] and won only five seats in theJune 1927 general election, a decline in support not seen since before 1916.[39][40] Vice-president andde facto leaderMary MacSwiney announced that the party simply did not have the funds to contestthe second election called that year, declaring "no true Irish citizen can vote for any of the other parties".[40] Fianna Fáil came to power at the1932 general election (to begin what would be an unbroken 16-year spell in government) and went on to long dominate politics in the independent Irish state.
An attempt in the 1940s to access funds that had been put in the care of theHigh Court led to theSinn Féin Funds case, which the party lost and in which the judge ruled that it was not the legal successor to the Sinn Féin of 1917.[41]
By the late 1940s, two decades removed from the Fianna Fáil split and now the Sinn Féin funds lost, the party was little more than a husk. The emergence of a popular new republican party, led by former IRA members, inClann na Poblachta, threatened to void any remaining purpose Sinn Féin had left. However, it was around this same time that the IRA leadership once again sought to have a political arm (the IRA and Sinn Féin had effectively no formal ties following the civil war).[42] Following an IRA army convention in 1948, IRA members were instructed to join Sinn Féin en masse and by 1950 they had successfully taken total control of the party, with IRA army council memberPaddy McLogan named as the new president of the party. As part of this rapprochement, it was later made clear by the army council that the IRA would dictate to Sinn Féin, and not the other way around.[43][44][45]
At the1955 United Kingdom general election, two Sinn Féin candidates were elected to Westminster, and likewise, four members of Sinn Féin were elected to Leinster House in the1957 Irish general election. In December 1956, at the beginning of the IRA'sBorder Campaign (Operation Harvest), the Northern Ireland Government banned Sinn Féin under theSpecial Powers Act; it would remain banned until 1974.[46] By the end of the Border campaign five years later, the party had once again lost all national representation.[47] Through the 1960s, some leading figures in the movement, such asCathal Goulding,Seán Garland,Billy McMillen andTomás Mac Giolla, moved steadily to the left, even toMarxism, as a result of their own reading and thinking and contacts with the Irish and international left. This angered more traditional republicans, who wanted to stick to the national question and armed struggle.[48] The Garland Commission was set up in 1967, to investigate the possibility of ending abstentionism. Its report angered the already disaffected traditional republican element within the party, notablySeán Mac Stíofáin and Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, who viewed such a policy as treason against the Irish Republic.[49]
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh (pictured in 2004) was the president of Provisional Sinn Féin from 1970 until 1983.
Sinn Féin split in two at the beginning of 1970. On 11 January, the proposal to end abstentionism and take seats, if elected, in the Dáil, theParliament of Northern Ireland and the Parliament of the United Kingdom was put before the members at the party'sArd Fheis.[50] A similar motion had been adopted at an IRA convention the previous month, leading to the formation of a Provisional Army Council by Mac Stíofáin and other members opposed to the leadership. When the motion was put to theArd Fheis, it failed to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority. The Executive attempted to circumvent this by introducing a motion in support of IRA policy, at which point the dissenting delegates walked out of the meeting.[51] These members reconvened at Kevin Barry Hall inParnell Square, where they appointed a Caretaker Executive with Ruairí Ó Brádaigh as chairman.[52] The Caretaker Executive's first act was to pass aresolution pledging allegiance to the 32-county Irish Republic and the Provisional Army Council.[53] It also declared itself opposed to the ending of abstentionism, the drift towards "extreme forms of socialism", the failure of the leadership to defend the nationalist people of Belfast during the1969 Northern Ireland riots, and the expulsion of traditional republicans by the leadership during the 1960s.[54]
At its October 1970Ard Fheis, delegates were informed that an IRA convention had been held and had regularised its structure, bringing to an end the "provisional" period.[55] By then, however, the label "Provisional" or "Provo" was already being applied to them by the media.[56] The opposing, anti-abstentionist party became known as "Official Sinn Féin".[57] It changed its name in 1977 to "Sinn Féin—The Workers' Party",[48] and in 1982 to "The Workers' Party".[58]
Because the "Provisionals" were committed to military rather than political action, Sinn Féin's initial membership was largely confined, inDanny Morrison's words, to men "over military age or women".[59] A Sinn Féin organiser of the time inBelfast described the party's role as "agitation and publicity".[59] Newcumainn (branches) were established in Belfast, and a new newspaper,Republican News, was published.[60] Sinn Féin took off as a protest movement after the introduction ofinternment in August 1971, organising marches and pickets.[61] The party launched its platform,Éire Nua ("a New Ireland") at the 1971Ard Fheis.[62] In general, however, the party lacked a distinct political philosophy. In the words of Brian Feeney, "Ó Brádaigh would use Sinn Féinard fheiseanna (party conferences) to announce republican policy, which was, in effect, IRA policy, namely that Britain should leave the North or the 'war' would continue".[63]
From 1976, there was a broadcasting ban on Sinn Féin representatives in the Republic of Ireland, after theMinister for Posts and Telegraphs,Conor Cruise O'Brien, amendedSection 31 of the Broadcasting Act. This preventedRTÉ interviewing Sinn Féin spokespersons under any circumstances, even where the subject was not related to the Northern Ireland conflict.[65] This lasted until 1994.
Political status for prisoners became an issue after the ending of the truce. Rees released the last of the internees, and ended 'Special Category Status' for all prisoners convicted after 1 March 1976. This led first to theblanket protest, and then to thedirty protest.[66] Around the same time,Gerry Adams began writing forRepublican News, calling for Sinn Féin to become more involved politically.[67] Over the next few years, Adams and those aligned with him would extend their influence throughout the republican movement and slowly marginalise Ó Brádaigh, part of a general trend of power in both Sinn Féin and the IRA shifting north.[68] In particular, Ó Brádaigh's part in the 1975 IRA ceasefire had damaged his reputation in the eyes of northern republicans.[69]
The prisoners' protest climaxed with the1981 hunger strike, during which strikerBobby Sands was elected Member of Parliament forFermanagh and South Tyrone as anAnti H-Block candidate. After his death on hunger strike, his seat was held, with an increased vote, by his election agent,Owen Carron. Two other Anti H-Block candidates were elected toDáil Éireann in thegeneral election in the Republic. These successes convinced republicans that they should contest every election.[70] Danny Morrison expressed the mood at the 1981Ard Fheis when he said:
Who here really believes we can win the war through the ballot box? But will anyone here object if, with a ballot paper in this hand and anArmalite in the other, we take power in Ireland?[71]
This was the origin of what became known as theArmalite and ballot box strategy. Ó Brádaigh's chief policy, a plan for a federalised Irish state dubbedÉire Nua, was dropped in 1982, and the following year Ó Brádaigh stepped down as president, and was replaced by Adams.[72]
The party began a reappraisal of the policy of abstention from the Dáil. At the 1983Ard Fheis the constitution was amended to remove the ban on the discussion of abstentionism to allow Sinn Féin to run a candidate in the forthcoming European elections. However, in his address, Adams said, "We are an abstentionist party. It is not my intention to advocate change in this situation."[75] A motion to permit entry into the Dáil was allowed at the 1985Ard Fheis, but did not have the active support of the leadership, and it failed narrowly.[76] By October of the following year an IRA Convention had indicated its support for elected Sinn Féin TDs taking their seats. Thus, when the motion to end abstention was put to theArd Fheis on 1 November 1986, it was clear that there would not be a split in the IRA as there had been in 1970.[77] The motion was passed with a two-thirds majority. Ó Brádaigh and about twenty other delegates walked out, and met in a Dublin hotel with hundreds of supporters to re-organise asRepublican Sinn Féin.[78]
In October 1988, the British Conservative government followed the Republic in banning broadcasts of Sinn Féin representatives. Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher said it would "deny terrorists the oxygen of publicity". Broadcasters quickly found ways around the ban, mainly by using actors to dub the voices of banned speakers. The legislation did not apply during election campaigns and under certain other circumstances. The ban lasted until 1994.[79]
Tentative negotiations between Sinn Féin and the British government led to more substantive discussions with the SDLP in the 1990s. Multi-party negotiations began in 1994 in Northern Ireland, without Sinn Féin. The Provisional IRA declared a ceasefire in August 1994. Sinn Féin then joined the talks, but theConservative government underJohn Major soon came to depend on unionist votes to remain in power. It suspended Sinn Féin from the talks, and began to insist that the IRA decommission all of their weapons before Sinn Féin be re-admitted to the talks; this led to the IRA calling off its ceasefire. The newLabour government ofTony Blair was not reliant on unionist votes and re-admitted Sinn Féin, leading to another, permanent, ceasefire.[80]
The election ofCaoimhghín Ó Caoláin to the Dáil in 1997 was the first time in 75 years a Sinn Féin TD had taken their seat and marked a turning point in the party's history
At the1997 Irish general election,Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin was elected to the Dáil. In doing so, he became the first person under the "Sinn Féin" banner to be elected to Leinster House since1957, and the first since 1922 to take their seat.[82][83][84] Ó Caoláin's entry to the Dáil marked the beginning of a continuous Sinn Féin presence in the Republic of Ireland's national political bodies.
The party expelledDenis Donaldson, a party official, in December 2005, with him stating publicly that he had been in the employ of the British government as an agent since the 1980s. Donaldson told reporters that the British security agencies who employed him were behind the collapse of the Assembly and set up Sinn Féin to take the blame for it, a claim disputed by the British government.[85] Donaldson was found fatally shot in his home inCounty Donegal on 4 April 2006, and a murder inquiry was launched.[86] In April 2009, theReal IRA released a statement taking responsibility for the killing.[87]
When Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) became the largest parties, by the terms of the Good Friday Agreement no deal could be made without the support of both parties. They nearly reached a deal in November 2004, but the DUP insisted on photographic or video evidence thatdecommissioning of IRA weapons had been carried out, which was unacceptable to Sinn Féin.[88]
In April 2006, a number of members of Sinn Féin who believed the party was not committed enough to socialism split from the party and formed a new group calledÉirígí, which later became a (minor) political party in its own right.[89]
On 2 September 2006, Martin McGuinness publicly stated that Sinn Féin would refuse to participate in a shadow assembly at Stormont, asserting that his party would only take part in negotiations that were aimed at restoring a power-sharing government. This development followed a decision on the part of members of Sinn Féin to refrain from participating in debates since the Assembly's recall the previous May. The relevant parties to these talks were given a deadline of 24 November 2006 to decide upon whether or not they would ultimately form the executive.[90]
The 86-year Sinn Féin boycott of policing in Northern Ireland ended on 28 January 2007, when theArd Fheis voted overwhelmingly to support thePolice Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).[91] Sinn Féin members began to sit on Policing Boards and join District Policing Partnerships.[92] There was opposition to this decision within Sinn Féin, and some members left, including elected representatives. The most well-known opponent was former IRA prisonerGerry McGeough, who stood in the2007 Assembly election against Sinn Féin in the constituency ofFermanagh and South Tyrone, as an Independent Republican.[93] He polled 1.8% of the vote.[94] Others who opposed this development left to found theRepublican Network for Unity.[95]
Immediately after theJune 2017 UK general election, where the Conservatives won 49% of seats but not an overall majority, so that non-mainstream parties could have significant influence, Gerry Adams announced for Sinn Féin that their elected MPs would continue the policy of not swearingallegiance to the Queen, as would be required for them to take their seats in the Westminster Parliament.[96]
In 2017 and 2018, there were allegations of bullying within the party, leading to a number of resignations and expulsions of elected members.[97]
At theArd Fheis on 18 November 2017, Gerry Adams announced he would stand down as president of Sinn Féin in 2018, and would not stand for re-election as TD forLouth.
On 10 February 2018,Mary Lou McDonald was announced as the new president of Sinn Féin at a special Ard Fheis in Dublin.[98][99][100]Michelle O'Neill was also elected as vice president of the party.[98]
Sinn Féin's first elections under McDonald resulted in the party performing well under its own expectations during the2018 Irish presidential election that October,[103] and similarly, the party's performance was labelled "disastrous" during the concurrent May2019 European Parliament election in Ireland and2019 Irish local elections. In the European elections, Sinn Féin lost 2 MEPs and dropped their vote share by 7.8%, while in the local elections the party lost 78 (almost half) of their local councillors and dropped their vote share by 5.7%. McDonald stated "It was a really bad day out for us. But sometimes that happens in politics, and it's a test for you. I mean it's a test for me personally, obviously, as the leader".[104]
In November 2020, the national chairman of Sinn FéinDeclan Kearney contacted several dissident republican political parties such asSaoradh,Republican Network for Unity and theIrish Republican Socialist Party about creating a united republican campaign to call for a referendum on Irish unification. This information did not become publicly known until 2022 and the move was criticised in some quarters on the basis that it would be wrong for Sinn Féin to work with dissident republican groups which do not repudiate violence by paramilitaries. Sinn Féin retorted that engaging with dissident republicans draws them into the democratic process and political solutions instead of violent ones.[109][110]
Sinn Féin won 29% of thefirst-preference votes in the2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, the highest share of any party. With 27 out of 90 seats, they became the largest party in Stormont for the first time ever.[111] "Today ushers in a new era", O'Neill said shortly before the final results were announced. "Irrespective of religious, political or social backgrounds, my commitment is to make politics work."[112]
Following the2023 Northern Ireland local elections, Sinn Féin became the largest party in local government for the first time.[113] Then, in the local elections in the Republic of Irelandin 2024, Sinn Féin increased their vote share, however, significantly fell short of the polls, showcasing a divide between the party's leadership and grassroots over immigration, with disgruntled Sinn Féin voters voting instead for small right-wing parties.[114][115] However, following the2024 United Kingdom general election, Sinn Féin became the single largest party representing Northern Ireland in Westminster.[116]
A republican document of the early 1980s stated: "Both Sinn Féin and the IRA play different but converging roles in the war of national liberation. The Irish Republican Army wages an armed campaign... Sinn Féin maintains the propaganda war and is the public and political voice of the movement".[120] Robert White states at that time Sinn Féin was the junior partner in the relationship with the IRA, and they were separate organisations despite there being some overlapping membership.[121]
Because of the party's links to the Provisional IRA, theU.S. Department of State barred its members along with IRA volunteers from entering the U.S. since the early 1970s in accordance with theImmigration and Nationality Act on the grounds that they were associated with the IRA waging war against a legitimate government.[122][123]
TheBritish government stated in 2005 that "we had always said all the way through we believed that Sinn Féin and the IRA were inextricably linked and that had obvious implications at leadership level".[124]
TheNorthern Bank robbery of £26.5 million in Belfast in December 2004 further delayed a political deal in Northern Ireland. The IRA were widely blamed for the robbery,[125] although Sinn Féin denied this and stated that party officials had not known of the robbery nor sanctioned it.[126] Because of the timing of the robbery, it is considered that the plans for the robbery must have been laid whilst Sinn Féin was engaged in talks about a possible peace settlement. This undermined confidence amongunionists about the sincerity of republicans towards reaching agreement. In the aftermath of the row over the robbery, a further controversy erupted when, onRTÉ'sQuestions and Answers programme, the chairman of Sinn Féin,Mitchel McLaughlin, insisted that the IRA's controversial killing of a mother of ten young children,Jean McConville, in the early 1970s though "wrong", was not a crime, as it had taken place in the context of the political conflict. Politicians from the Republic, along with the Irish media, strongly attacked McLaughlin's comments.[127][128]
On 10 February 2005, the government-appointedIndependent Monitoring Commission reported that it firmly supported thePSNI andGarda Síochána assessments that the IRA was responsible for the Northern Bank robbery and that certain senior members of Sinn Féin were also senior members of the IRA and would have had knowledge of and given approval to the carrying out of the robbery.[129] Sinn Féin has argued that the IMC is not independent, and that the inclusion of formerAlliance Party leaderJohn Alderdice and a British security head was proof of this.[130] The IMC recommended further financial sanctions against Sinn Féin members of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The British government responded by saying it would ask MPs to vote to withdraw the parliamentary allowances of the four Sinn Féin MPs elected in 2001.[131]
Gerry Adams responded to the IMC report by challenging the Irish government to have him arrested for IRA membership—a crime in both jurisdictions—and forconspiracy.[132]
On 27 February 2005, a demonstration against the murder ofRobert McCartney on 30 January 2005 was held in east Belfast.Alex Maskey, a former Sinn FéinLord Mayor of Belfast, was told by relatives of McCartney to "hand over the 12" IRA members involved.[135] The McCartney family, although formerly Sinn Féin voters themselves, urged witnesses to the crime to contact the PSNI.[136][137] Three IRA men were expelled from the organisation, and a man was charged with McCartney's murder.[138][139]
IrishTaoiseachBertie Ahern subsequently called Sinn Féin and the IRA "both sides of the same coin".[140] In February 2005Dáil Éireann passed a motion condemning the party's alleged involvement in illegal activity. TheBush Administration did not invite Sinn Féin or any other Northern Irish political party to the annualSt Patrick's Day celebrations at theWhite House, choosing instead to invite the family of Robert McCartney.[141] SenatorTed Kennedy, a regular sponsor of Gerry Adams' visits to the US during the peace process, also refused to meet Adams and hosted the McCartney family instead.[141]
On 10 March 2005, theHouse of Commons in London passed without significant opposition a motion, introduced by the British government, to withdraw the allowances of the four Sinn Féin MPs for one year, in response to the Northern Bank Robbery. This measure cost the party approximately £400,000. However, the debate prior to the vote mainly surrounded the more recent events connected with the murder of Robert McCartney. Conservatives and unionists put down amendments to have the Sinn Féin MPs evicted from their offices at the House of Commons but these were defeated.[142]
The October 2015Assessment on Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland concluded that the Provisional IRA still existed "in a much reduced form", and that some IRA members believed its Army Council oversaw both the IRA and Sinn Féin, although it believed that the leadership "remains committed to the peace process and its aim of achieving a united Ireland by political means".[144]
Sinn Féin operates under the principle ofdemocratic centralism;[146][147][148][149][150][151] the concept that policy should be debated internally within the party, and once a decision is made, all members must support the chosen policy publicly or be disciplined. Once a decision has been made, it cannot be revisited or altered for a prolonged period of time.
Decision-making within Sinn Féin is controlled by two bodies; the national officer board and the Árd Comhairle (national executive).[152][153] The national officer board consists of 7 members, made up of the President of Sinn Féin, the Vice President, the chairperson, the General Secretary, the Director of Publicity and two treasurers.[152] Policy will be debated amongst the national officer board before next being brought before the Árd Comhairle.[153]
Sinn Féin's Árd Comhairle consists of 47 members. Members of the national officer board are automatically members, while the rest of the membership is made up of officers elected at Sinn Féin's annual national conference (Ard Fheis). Members of the Árd Comhairle must already be members of the Comhairlí Limistéir (Area councils), which are based county or constituency boundaries.[152] As of 2023[update], despite the fact that the bulk majority of Sinn Féin's membership and elected representatives come from the Republic of Ireland, the majority of the Árd Comhairle is from Northern Ireland.[153] For every 2 TDs on the Árd Comhairle, there are 3 MLAs.[153][149] Some members of the Árd Comhairle hold no public office and are former members of the Provisional IRA.[146][153]
When a decision is made by the Árd Comhairle, all members of Sinn Féin must abide by it without dissent, including the President. In 2020, all of Sinn Féin's candidates in the 2020 Irish general election were required to sign a pledge stating "in all matters pertaining to the duties and functions of an elected representative, I will be guided by and hold myself amenable to all directions and instructions issued to me by An Ard Chomhairle of Sinn Féin".[154]
Within the Árd Comhairle, there is a further subdivision, called the Coiste Seasta (Standing Committee), made up of 8 members, who act as aCentral Committee.[152][153] Unlike other Teachtaí Dála from other parties, Sinn Féin TDs are not allowed to hire their own staff and instead the Coiste Seasta chooses staff for them. Some Sinn Féin TDs have complained of these staff members handing them scripts to read publicly which they had no input into writing.[155][156]
Some critics inside Sinn Féin have opined that decision-making in the party rests with the officer board and that the Árd Comhairle serves merely torubberstamp decisions that have already been made.[153] External critics have called Sinn Féin's organisation and structure "opaque", "hierarchical", "confusing" and "undemocratic".[157][155] Former Sinn Féin TDPeadar Tóibín claimed in 2020 that Sinn Féin TDs have "zero influence" over party policy, and that all decisions ultimately rested with the national officer board.[155] It was also in 2020 that both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil criticised Sinn Féin's organisation, withPatrick O'Donovan of Fine Gael stating "the fact that Sinn Féin reps sign a pledge which says they will be guided by their Ard Chomhairle, a council of people not elected by the public, rather than those who elect them, is an outright affront to democracy".[158] In 2022 the left-wing political magazineVillage opined that while all major political parties in Ireland are influenced by unelected individuals, Sinn Féin is disproportionally controlled by a "backroom regime", and alleged that the Coiste Seasta, made up of unelected Northerners and former IRA members, holds the power to influence the decisions of TDs.[146]
Sinn Féin denies the allegations that its structure is undemocratic and has compared its organisation to other Irish political parties such as Fianna Fáil.[154] Sinn Féin maintains it is a bottom-up, not a top-down organisation and that, ultimately, decision-making comes from its annual Ard Fhéis and the votes of ordinary members.[152][154] In 2020 Mary Lou McDonald dismissed suggestions that Sinn Féin, including herself, were controlled by "shadowy figures" as an idea rooted in sexism. In 2020 she stated "I have a strong sense that there is at least an undertone of sexism and misogyny in suggesting that our strings are pulled. I'm very stubborn. I'm very willful. I know my own mind and God help anybody who tries to pull my strings or tell me what to do".[159] while in 2021 she stated that people needed to get over the "sexist" idea that "this woman couldn't possibly be really the leader of Sinn Féin. Well guess what? I really am, boys".[153]
A pay cap for Sinn Féin TDs tied to the "average industrial wage".[172][173]
Sinn Féin believes in immigration, both to fill up vacancies in employment, if the system can properly integrate new immigrants and has the resources to do so, and also to "protect people fleeing persecution and war", but not in "open borders". The party also believes in faster application processing times for refugees, and in abolishing thedirect provision system.[174]
Abolishment of prescription charges for medical card patients
Expansion of primary care centres
Gradual removal of subsidies of private practice in public hospitals and the introduction of a charge for practitioners for the use of public equipment and staff in their private practice
Free breast screening (to check for breast cancer) of all women over forty[176]
Until at least 2007, the party was not in favour of the extension of legalised abortion (British 1967 Act) to Northern Ireland; Assembly memberJohn O'Dowd said that they were "opposed to the attitudes and forces in society, which pressurise women to have abortions, and criminalise those who make this decision", adding that "in cases of rape, incest or sexual abuse, or where a woman's life and health is at risk or in grave danger, we accept that the final decision must rest with the woman."[177] It voted for theProtection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, which allowed for termination in cases where a pregnancy endangered a woman's life.[178] It voted to support termination, in those limited circumstances, at the 2015Ard Fheis, but stopped short of supporting abortion on demand.[179] In the2018 Irish abortion referendum, the party campaigned for a "Yes" vote, while remaining opposed to abortion without restriction up to 12 weeks.[180] At itsArd Fheis in June 2018, the month after the "yes" vote in the abortion referendum, the party committed itself to supporting abortion, including without restriction up to 12 weeks.[181] This allowed it not only to support abortion legislation in the Republic, but also to campaign for provision of abortion in Northern Ireland.[182] Sinn Féin TDPeadar Tóibín, who was suspended from the party for voting against abortion legislation, left to form a new party:Aontú.[183]
Sinn Féin have been accused of hypocrisy over their positions on abortion in Northern Ireland.[184] In 2021, Sinn Féin abstained on a Stormont vote on restricting abortion access in the case of fetal abnormalities or disabilities, attracting criticism from bothanti-abortion and pro-choice groups, with theAbortion Rights Campaign saying they "let down abortion seekers"[185] andEamonn McCann accusing them of being "impaled on the fence on the issue", but with anti-abortion politicians such asPeadar Tóibín accusing them of "speaking out of both sides of their mouth" on the issue.[186] Later in the year,Amnesty International made a public statement calling on the party to "support full abortion rights across the island of Ireland".[187]
Historically the party has supported access to gender affirming healthcare for transgender individuals. However, in 2024 after the UK's Conservative Party enacted a ban on puberty blockers following theCass Review, Sinn Féin allowed the ban to be extended to Northern Ireland, closing what some considered a "loophole" regarding access to such treatments in the UK.[188][189]
Historically, Sinn Féin has been considered to beEurosceptic.[200][201] The party campaigned for a "No" vote in the Irishreferendum on joining theEuropean Economic Community in 1972.[202] Sinn Féin was on the same side of the debate as the DUP and most of theUlster Unionist Party (UUP) in that they wanted to pull out when UK had its referendum in 1975.[203] The party was critical of the supposed need for anEU constitution as proposed in 2002,[204] and urged a "No" vote in the 2008 referendum on theLisbon Treaty, although Mary Lou McDonald said that there was "no contradiction in being pro-Europe, but anti-treaty".[205] In its manifesto for the2015 UK general election, Sinn Féin pledged that the party would campaign for the UK to stay within theEuropean Union (EU), with Martin McGuinness saying that an exit "would be absolutely economically disastrous". Gerry Adams said that, if there were to be a referendum on the question, there ought to be a separate and binding referendum for Northern Ireland.[206] Its policy of a "Europe of Equals", and its critical engagement after 2001, together with its engagement with theEuropean Parliament, marks a change from the party's previous opposition to the EU. The party expresses, on one hand, "support for Europe-wide measures that promote and enhance human rights, equality and theall-Ireland agenda", and on the other a "principled opposition" to aEuropean superstate.[207] This has led political commentators to define the party assoft Eurosceptic since the 21st century.[208]
Since moving to this "soft Euroscepticism" position, Sinn Féin support a policy of "critical engagement with the EU", and have a "principled opposition" to aEuropean superstate. It opposes anEU constitution because it would reduce thesovereignty of the member-states.[209][210] It also critiques the EU on grounds ofneoliberalism. Sinn FéinMEPMatt Carthy says "the European Union must become a cooperative union of nation states committed to working together on issues such as climate change, migration, trade, and using our common strengths to improve the lives of citizens. If it does not, EU disintegration becomes a real possibility".[211] The party supported continued UK membership of theEuropean Union in the UK's2016 EU referendum[212] and in April 2022, Mary Lou McDonald said in the Dáil that "We strongly support the Ukrainian people's stated desire to join the European Union".[213]
Sinn Féin returned to Northern Ireland elections at the1982 Assembly elections, winning five seats with 64,191 votes (10.1%). The party narrowly missed winning additional seats inBelfast North andFermanagh and South Tyrone. In the 1983 UK general election eight months later, Sinn Féin increased its support, breaking the six-figure vote barrier in Northern Ireland for the first time by polling 102,701 votes (13.4%).[214] Gerry Adams won the Belfast West constituency, and Danny Morrison fell only 78 votes short of victory inMid Ulster.
The1984 European elections proved to be a disappointment, with Sinn Féin's candidate Danny Morrison polling 91,476 (13.3%) and falling well behind the SDLP candidateJohn Hume.
By the beginning of 1985, Sinn Féin had won its first representation on local councils, owing to three by-election wins in Omagh (Seamus Kerr, May 1983) and Belfast (Alex Maskey in June 1983 andSean McKnight in March 1984). Three sitting councillors also defected to Sinn Féin in Dungannon, Fermanagh and Derry (the last defecting from the SDLP).[215][216][217] Sinn Féin succeeded in winning 59 seats in the1985 local government elections, after it had predicted winning only 40 seats. However, the results continued to show a decline from the peak of 1983, as the party won 75,686 votes (11.8%).[217] The party failed to gain any seats in the1986 by-elections caused by the resignation of unionist MPs in protest at theAnglo-Irish Agreement. While this was partly due to an electoral pact between unionist candidates, the SF vote fell in the four constituencies they contested.[218]
In the1987 general election, Gerry Adams held his Belfast West seat, but the party failed to make breakthroughs elsewhere and overall polled 83,389 votes (11.4%).[219] The same year saw the party contest the Dáil election in the Republic of Ireland; however, it failed to win any seats and polled less than 2%.
The1989 local government elections saw a drop in support for Sinn Féin.[220] Defending 58 seats (the 59 won in 1985, plus two 1987 by-election gains in West Belfast, minus three councillors who had defected to Republican Sinn Féin in 1986), the party lost 15 seats. In the aftermath of the election, Mitchell McLaughlin admitted that recent IRA activity had affected the Sinn Féin vote.[221]
In the1989 European election, Danny Morrison again failed to win a seat, polling at 48,914 votes (9%).
The nadir for SF in this period came in 1992, with Gerry Adams losing his Belfast West seat to the SDLP, and the SF vote falling in the other constituencies that they had contested relative to 1987.[222]
The party overtook its nationalist rival, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, as the largest nationalist party in thelocal elections andUK general election of 2001, winning four Westminster seats to the SDLP's three.[223] The party continues to subscribe, however, to anabstentionist policy towards the Westminster British parliament, on account of opposing that parliament's jurisdiction in Northern Ireland, as well as its oath to the King.[224][225]
Results in Northern Ireland from UK general elections. Sinn Féin increased its number of seats from two in 1997 to five in 2005, four of them in the west. It retained its five seats in 2010, was reduced to four in 2015 before increasing to seven in 2017.
Sinn Féin increased its share of the nationalist vote in the2003,2007, and2011 Assembly elections, withMartin McGuinness, former Minister for Education, taking the post ofDeputy First Minister in the Northern Ireland power-sharing Executive Committee. The party has three ministers in the Executive.
In the2010 general election, the party retained its five seats,[226] and for the first time topped the poll at a Westminster election in Northern Ireland, winning 25.5% of the vote.[227] All Sinn Féin MPs increased their share of the vote and with the exception ofFermanagh and South Tyrone, increased their majorities.[226] In Fermanagh and South Tyrone,Unionist parties agreed a joint candidate,[228] this resulted in the closest contest of the election, with Sinn Féin MPMichelle Gildernew holding her seat by 4 votes after 3 recounts and an election petition challenging the result.[229]
Sinn Féin lost some ground in the2016 Assembly election, dropping one seat to finish with 28, ten behind the DUP.[230] In thesnap election eight months later caused by the resignation of McGuinness as Deputy First Minister, however, the party surged, winning 27.9% of the popular vote to 28.1% for the DUP, and 27 seats to the DUP's 28 in an Assembly reduced by 18 seats.[231][232] The withdrawal of the DUP party whip fromJim Wells in May 2018 meant that Sinn Féin became the joint-largest party in the Assembly alongside the DUP, with 27 seats each.[233]
The party had five TDs elected in the2002 Irish general election, an increase of four from the previous election. At thegeneral election in 2007 the party had expectations of substantial gains,[234][235] with poll predictions that they would gain five[236] to ten seats.[237] However, the party lost one of its seats toFine Gael.Seán Crowe, who had topped the poll inDublin South-West fell to fifth place, with his first preference vote reduced from 20.28% to 12.16%.[238]
In the2011 Irish general election the party made significant gains. All its sitting TDs were returned, with Seán Crowe regaining the seat he had lost in 2007 in Dublin South-West. In addition to winning long-targeted seats such asDublin Central andDublin North-West, the party gained unexpected seats inCork East andSligo–North Leitrim.[242] It ultimately won 14 seats, the best performance at the time for the party's current incarnation. The party went on to win three seats in the Seanad election which followed their success at the general election.[243] In the2016 election it made further gains, finishing with 23 seats and overtaking the Labour Party as the third-largest party in the Dáil[244] It ran seven candidates in the Seanad election, all of whom were successful.[245]
The party achieved their greatest contemporary result in the2020 Irish general election, topping the first-preference votes with 24.5% and winning 37 seats. Due to poor results in the 2019 local elections and elections to the European Parliament, the party ran only 42 candidates and did not compete inCork North-West. The party achieved unexpected success in the early counting, with 27 candidates being elected on the first count.[246][247] Party leader Mary Lou McDonald called the result a "revolution" and announced she would pursue the formation of a government including Sinn Féin.[248] Ultimately negotiations to form a new government led to Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and theGreen Party agreeing to enter a majoritycoalition government in June. Sinn Féin pledged to be a strong opposition to the new coalition.[249]
Sinn Féin is represented on most county and city councils. It made large gains in thelocal elections of 2004, increasing its number of councillors from 21 to 54, and replacing theProgressive Democrats as the fourth-largest party in local government.[250] At thelocal elections of June 2009, the party's vote fell by 0.95% to 7.34%, with no change in the number of seats. Losses in Dublin and urban areas were balanced by gains in areas such as Limerick, Wicklow, Cork, Tipperary and Kilkenny and the border counties .[251] However, three of Sinn Féin's seven representatives onDublin City Council resigned within six months of the June 2009 elections, one of them defecting to theLabour Party.[252]
In the2004 European Parliament election,Bairbre de Brún won Sinn Féin's first seat in the European Parliament, at the expense of the SDLP. She came in second behindJim Allister of the DUP.[253] In the2009 election, de Brún was re-elected with 126,184 first preference votes, the only candidate to reach the quota on the first count. This was the first time since elections began in 1979 that the DUP failed to take the first seat, and was the first occasion Sinn Féin topped a poll in any Northern Ireland election.[254][255]
Sinn Féin made a breakthrough in theDublin constituency in2004. The party's candidate,Mary Lou McDonald, was elected on the sixth count as one of four MEPs for Dublin.[256] In the2009 election, when Dublin's representation was reduced to three MEPs, she failed to hold her seat.[257] In the South constituency their candidate, CouncillorToiréasa Ferris, managed to nearly double the number of first preference votes,[257] lying third after the first count, but failed to get enough transfers to win a seat. In the2014 election,Martina Anderson topped the poll inNorthern Ireland, as didLynn Boylan inDublin.Liadh Ní Riada was elected in theSouth constituency, andMatt Carthy inMidlands–North-West.[258] In the2019 election, Carthy was re-elected, but Boylan and Ní Riada lost their seats. Anderson also held her Northern Ireland seat until early 2020 when her term was cut short byBrexit.[259]
Friends of Sinn Féin (an international organisation designed to support Sinn Féin's cause, with members in Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia)
^O'Brien 2019, The next year, 1949, saw another development, also to become significant over time. Sinn Féin and the IRA reformed their alliance, Sinn Féin accepting that the IRA Army Council held the powers of the government of the Republic and as such was the 'supreme authority. Infiltration and control of Sinn Féin became IRA policy and in 1950 Paddy McLogan was elected Sinn Féin President. Within the IRA Tony Magan set about stamping his authority on the organisation, at times forcing out some of its most dedicated people, including Willie McGuinness, and winning broad if grudging support for his harshest disciplinary actions..
^Ryan, Patrick (2001)."'The Birth of the Provisionals – A Clash between Politics and Tradition' by Patrick Ryan (2001)".Cain.Archived from the original on 1 February 2022.The precise nature of the relationship between the IRA and Sinn Féin had been outlined during an IRA / Sinn Féin summit on 13 May 1962 when a confrontation between erstwhile Sinn Féin president Paddy McLogan and the IRA army council over the termination of the movement's armed campaign had brought matters to ahead. It was now to be formally acknowledged that "the army council was the supreme government of the Republic and the supreme authority in the republican movement" and furthermore that Sinn Féin although an "autonomous and independent organisation" paradoxically had to ensure that its policy coincided at all times with that of the Army Council if it wished to remain a viable part of the republican movement. This definition of the subservient role to be played by Sinn Féin, although it led to some prominent resignations, McLogan and Tony Magan included, was largely representative of the general belief in the republican movement that politics was an alien concept, useful at times, but to be generally regarded with suspicion.
^Independent Monitoring Commission,Twenty-first Report of the Independent Monitoring Commission, The Stationery Office, 2009,ISBN978-0-10-295967-3, p. 31.
^"PROFILE: CLARE DALY TD".The Phoenix. 2 May 2019.Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved25 February 2022.the socialist republican grouping Éirígí...which split from [Sinn Féin] in 2006 because it was not fully socialist
^"Republican Network for Unity (RNU)".Cain.Archived from the original on 19 April 2022. Retrieved16 May 2022.The Republican Network for Unity (RNU) was formed in 2007. The grouping represents republicans who are opposed to the direction taken by Sinn Féin (SF) in accepting the Good Friday Agreement and in particular the decision taken by SF on 28 January 2007 to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and to support the criminal justice system in the region. The RNU was formed out of a pressure group known as 'Ex-POW's and Concerned Republicans against RUC/PSNI'.
^Mooney, John (1 May 2022)."Sinn Fein reached out to political wing of New IRA".The Times.Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved13 May 2022.Sinn Fein said yesterday that Kearney has consistently tried to engage with a range of groups. "We have always stated that dialogue and engagement — even with those who support armed factions — is a vital part of the peace process and moving these groups away from violence in line with the peaceful and democratic route to ending partition provided by the Good Friday agreement," it said.
^"Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein". Arlington, Virginia:Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 1998.Archived from the original on 9 July 2000. Retrieved30 May 2015.The relationship between Sinn Fein and the IRA, historically, has been symbiotic. It is impossible to separate them. In more recent years, Sinn Fein has said, "We are not the IRA, they are a totally separate organization." In the minds of the vast majority of people in Ireland, whether they are Unionist or Nationalist, Sinn Fein is the political wing of the IRA, and it has played that role quite hotly down the years.
^O'Clery, Conor (1996).The Greening of the White House: The Inside Story of how America Tried to Bring Peace to Ireland.Gill & Macmillan. p. 9.ISBN9-7807-1712-4916.[Gerry Adams] had been barred along with other Sinn Féin leaders from entering the United States since the early 1970s because of his association with the IRA.
^"Sinn Féin member resigns after being confronted over critical tweets". 4 December 2020. Retrieved28 July 2023.She received messages from other members of Ógra Sinn Féin stating that a cornerstone of the functioning of the party was to have discussions that were kept internal and that adhered to the principles of "democratic centralism".
^Cumann, Martin Hurson."174".Sinn Féin.Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved30 May 2015.This Ard Fheis reaffirms its support of equality in all of its forms and reaffirms its support for the LGBT community and commends the work of local councillors and party members throughout both the 26- and Six-County states for pushing for the extension of full marriage rights to the LGBT Community and An Phoblacht for its continued coverage of these important issues.
^Gilland, Karin (2004)."Irish Euroscepticism". In Harmsen, Robert; Spiering, Menno (eds.).Euroscepticism: Party Politics, National Identity and European Integration. Amsterdam: Rodopi. p. 186.ISBN9789042011687. Archived fromthe original on 28 February 2019 – via Google Books.
Hanley, Brian; Millar, Scott (2009).The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party. Dublin: Penguin Ireland.ISBN978-1-84488-120-8.
*Co-operative Party candidates stand jointly with the Labour Party.‡5 independent MPs work together in theIndependent Alliance, 3 of whom are also involved inYour Party.†Sinn Féin have elected members and offices at Westminster, but asabstentionists do not take their seats.
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