Radical Nationalism, the Great War, and Irish Independence Sinn Fein (translated as ‘ourselves’) is the name of a variety of parties in Irish nationalist history which share a common tradition on the radical and violent side of Irish republicanism. The traditions which inform its existence include those of political terrorism and conspiracy and reach back through the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Invincibles, the Fenians, and Young Ireland, as well as that of the rising of 1798. At the same time, the modern party describes itself as a democratic, socialist, and republican party and is the second party in the present northern Irish assembly. The Sinn Fein tradition is notoriously fissile, emerging from different groups, giving rise to the modern Fianna Fail and Fine Gael in the Republic, and splitting to give rise the Worker’s Party in the north of Ireland in the 1970, and thence to the Democratic Left and Irish Republican Socialist Party. ‘SF’ has been a...
This is a collection of personal and largely unedited observations covering the years from 2006 to now; I assert my copyright but am fine with links and footnotes. Some posts are obviously much more researched than others, and any errors are wholly mine except where I have innocently disseminated or linked to other bloggers or commentators.