Sinn Féin and Sinn Féin Amháin are Irish-language phrases used as a political slogan by Irish nationalists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. While advocating Irish national self-reliance, its precise political meaning was undefined, variously interpreted as the aim of a separate Irish republic or that of a dual monarchy. Its earliest use was to describe individual political radicals unconnected with any party and espousing a more "advanced nationalism" than the Irish Home Rule movement. In the 1890s "Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin amháin" was the slogan of the Gaelic League, which advocated the revival of the Irish language.
"Ourselves Alone"
The literal translation of sinn féin is "ourselves" or "we ourselves". Among Irish speakers, "Sinn féin! Sinn féin!" was also an exhortation to quell a brimming feud, i.e. "we are all one here!" When English-speakers adopted the slogan, the most common gloss was "ourselves alone", which was also used as a political slogan; it is unclear whether the English or Irish version came first. Ben Novick says the less accurate translation was adopted "as it more clearly summed up the philosophy behind the movement". Alvin Jackson says it may have been a construct of opponents to highlight the individuals' political isolation or the perceived selfishness of abandoning Britain, as in this Punch parody from the First World War: Christopher Hitchens, writing of the Field Day anthology of Irish literature, says: Ourselves Alone was a 1936 British film, set during the Anglo-Irish War of 1919–21.
Early uses
A collection 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" : 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."' The glossary at the end of the volume renders sinn féin as "we ourselves". A nationalist play by "Tom Telephone" published in 1882 was entitled Shin Fain; or Ourselves Alone. In James Joyce's novel Ulysses, set in 1904, The Citizen, a boorish nationalist partly modelled on Michael Cusack, shouts "Sinn Féin! Sinn Féin amháin!" during an altercation with Leopold Bloom; these were also the titles of two nationalist ballads.
After 1905
The name was adopted by Arthur Griffith for the "Sinn Féin policy" he presented in 1905, and the Sinn Féin party formed over 1905–07. In the 1910s, "Sinn Feiners" was a common, often derogatory, label for militant nationalists, regardless of any connection to Griffith's movement. A 1915 mock-unionist article in a University College Dublinstudent journal distinguished types of Irish nationalist: When the Irish Volunteers split in September 1914, the more militant group was soon dubbed the "Sinn Féin Volunteers" by the security forces of the Dublin Castle administration. Likewise, the 1916 Easter Rising was quickly dubbed the "Sinn Féin rebellion" by British-oriented newspapers. However, the Sinn Féin party had no role in the Volunteers or the Rising, although many members had participated. All members of the party's National Council were interned after the Rising. 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. Sir Warren Fisher was sent by the UK government in 1920 to report on the Dublin Castle administration; in his highly critical report, he stated:
