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Sinn Fin: A Hundred Turbulent Years
Sinn Féin is one of the oldest and most controversial parties in Irish politics. This is the fascinating story of a party which has repeatedly reshaped its identity over a hundred years. From Arthur Griffith to Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin boasts a roll-call of major personalities from twentieth-century Irish history including de Valera, Markievicz, Collins, Ó Brádaigh, Goulding, MacGiolla, and McGuinness. Brian Feeney traces Sinn Féin's zigzag path towards constitutional politics and presents a critical analysis of the party's personalities and policies over the century. He shows how it has arrived at last in government in the north with hopes of a future role in coalition in the republic, and confidently predicting a united Ireland. This is an important and timely book from an esteemed journalist, and an impartial analysis of Sinn Féin's involvement in Irish politics, north and south, over the last hundred years.
490 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2002
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About the author
Brian Feeney
12 books4 followersBrian Feeney, a political columnist with the Irish News, is a leading nationalist commentator and frequent broadcaster on Northern Ireland affairs. He was an SDLP councillor for sixteen years. He is co-author of Lost Lives: the story of the men, women and children killed in the Northern Ireland troubles. In 2001 the book won the Christopher Ewart-Biggs award for its contribution to reconciliation in Ireland and Europe. A historian by profession, he is Head of History at St Mary's University College, Belfast.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 9, 2022
This was a well-written history about the republican political party in the parliament of Ireland. Sinn Féin translates to "We Ourselves" or "Ourselves Alone" and has been a strong political party since its creation in 1905. Sinn Féin has undergone about five reincarnations since its inception with changes in politics and interactions within Irish Parliament. There was a lot to digest here and would require some side-research on terms, people, and events. The author concluded by stating:
Sinn Féin has pushed its platform for Irish nationalism, self-determination, and conservative republican politics. For years they have been associated as the political arm and propaganda front for the Irish Republican Army for leading the charge in self-rule and removing what they believe to be illegitimate rule of England over Northern Ireland.
I learned a lot along the way but now it is outated since being published in 2002. Overall I thought it was decent. Recommended for anyone interested in modern Irish politics. Thanks!
The biggest success for modern Sinn Féin has perhaps been in overcoming weakness inherent in the republican movement's dual make-up and entering into the contemporary political world of Ireland. By doing so it has helped create the conditions in which Ireland can achieve the end that Irish leaders have sought down through the centuries. pg 442
Sinn Féin has pushed its platform for Irish nationalism, self-determination, and conservative republican politics. For years they have been associated as the political arm and propaganda front for the Irish Republican Army for leading the charge in self-rule and removing what they believe to be illegitimate rule of England over Northern Ireland.
I learned a lot along the way but now it is outated since being published in 2002. Overall I thought it was decent. Recommended for anyone interested in modern Irish politics. Thanks!
February 3, 2020
Overall, it was an ok book. There were times that it really dragged. Very in-depth and thorough.
January 26, 2010
"Sinn Fein: A Hundred Turbulent Years," goes back to the late 19th century when the group was formed under the moniker which translates to "Ourselves Alone."
Primary movers of the early formation were one Arthur Griffith who did the heavy intellectual lifting, and Eamon de Valera who turned out to be the natural politician of a bunch that included Michael Collins, about whom Hollywood made a movie starring Liam-whatever-his-name-is some 14 years ago.
The group became the crucible for a push toward a republican and Irish state independent of Great Britain around the end of World War I. Since this was something of a leisure read (!) the scribe doesn't have it all ordered perfectly in his mind, but the upshot was one of heavy repression and finally a partition, granting a new Irish state to most of the island, but leaving the northern part which has, to complicate life for everyone involved, a protestant and unionist (pro-Britain) majority, outside it.
De Valera moved toward the center when the "Free State" of Ireland, separated from the North, was born and the republican movement, and Sinn Féin in particular, got lost in a netherworld of self-generated "theology" as per author Brian Feeney's choice of word.
The result was years out on the margins debating whether or not to participate in politics, or stay on the outside of things, because neither the Irish Republic nor Westminster in London were recognized as legitimate rulers of Ireland (which they were doing anyway).
By mid-century Sinn Féin had practically disappeared, reduced to a club for a few keepers of the free, republican, Irish state flame. The "armed struggle," which was both a noble effort to defend Catholics from Protestant pogroms and a stupid campaign that killed many innocent people, took center stage.
The IRA found Sinn Féin's credentials useful and decided to take it over and make use of the party for its own purposes.
Sometime in the 1980s, a young bearded fellow named Gerry Adams, who hailed from a family with strong roots in the Republican movement, began a slow campaign to "run down" the armed struggle and modernize the political wing into a legitimate and independent mass electoral party.
Feeney, whose prose are typical for a historian (okay), does a good job of connecting the dots, interviewing survivors of that time, and detailing the daunting task that Adams faced in seeking to, surreptitiously and slowly, divest the IRA of relevance.
It makes a good and easy read, the 442-page length notwithstanding. Like many historical works, it does a fine job of cutting and pasting events according to the dates they happen and producing documents to support it all.
highwayscribery rented "The Boxer" with Daniel Day Lewis, to get a sense of what the atmosphere in which all of this transpired was like.
The film, shot through a graying blue lens, essays a Northern Ireland stunted economically and spiritually by poverty and violence since the beginning of "The Troubles," as the IRA's last, longest and most deadly campaign was known. It brings to life the hardliners, who resisted political participation and the decommissioning of arms, while capturing the desperation and exhaustion everyone doing a daily dance with violence felt.
The movie fills in the facts with some sentiment and rounds out the portrait, for those interested in a deeper understanding.
Primary movers of the early formation were one Arthur Griffith who did the heavy intellectual lifting, and Eamon de Valera who turned out to be the natural politician of a bunch that included Michael Collins, about whom Hollywood made a movie starring Liam-whatever-his-name-is some 14 years ago.
The group became the crucible for a push toward a republican and Irish state independent of Great Britain around the end of World War I. Since this was something of a leisure read (!) the scribe doesn't have it all ordered perfectly in his mind, but the upshot was one of heavy repression and finally a partition, granting a new Irish state to most of the island, but leaving the northern part which has, to complicate life for everyone involved, a protestant and unionist (pro-Britain) majority, outside it.
De Valera moved toward the center when the "Free State" of Ireland, separated from the North, was born and the republican movement, and Sinn Féin in particular, got lost in a netherworld of self-generated "theology" as per author Brian Feeney's choice of word.
The result was years out on the margins debating whether or not to participate in politics, or stay on the outside of things, because neither the Irish Republic nor Westminster in London were recognized as legitimate rulers of Ireland (which they were doing anyway).
By mid-century Sinn Féin had practically disappeared, reduced to a club for a few keepers of the free, republican, Irish state flame. The "armed struggle," which was both a noble effort to defend Catholics from Protestant pogroms and a stupid campaign that killed many innocent people, took center stage.
The IRA found Sinn Féin's credentials useful and decided to take it over and make use of the party for its own purposes.
Sometime in the 1980s, a young bearded fellow named Gerry Adams, who hailed from a family with strong roots in the Republican movement, began a slow campaign to "run down" the armed struggle and modernize the political wing into a legitimate and independent mass electoral party.
Feeney, whose prose are typical for a historian (okay), does a good job of connecting the dots, interviewing survivors of that time, and detailing the daunting task that Adams faced in seeking to, surreptitiously and slowly, divest the IRA of relevance.
It makes a good and easy read, the 442-page length notwithstanding. Like many historical works, it does a fine job of cutting and pasting events according to the dates they happen and producing documents to support it all.
highwayscribery rented "The Boxer" with Daniel Day Lewis, to get a sense of what the atmosphere in which all of this transpired was like.
The film, shot through a graying blue lens, essays a Northern Ireland stunted economically and spiritually by poverty and violence since the beginning of "The Troubles," as the IRA's last, longest and most deadly campaign was known. It brings to life the hardliners, who resisted political participation and the decommissioning of arms, while capturing the desperation and exhaustion everyone doing a daily dance with violence felt.
The movie fills in the facts with some sentiment and rounds out the portrait, for those interested in a deeper understanding.
November 28, 2008
What I've learned so far:
1) In the early days of the Irish Republican movement, economic factors motivated most of the Loyalists (especially those in Northern Ireland) to support the British Crown. Later, religion became more of a divisive factor.
2) Black and Tans were Irish Loyalist soldiers. (So...if you must order a mixed beer drink, have a black velvet.)
3) Sinn Fein is famous for advocating the "armalite and the ballot box" approach to political reform, but that philosophy developed after the party had been in existence for over fifty years.
4) I need to learn Gaelic.
1) In the early days of the Irish Republican movement, economic factors motivated most of the Loyalists (especially those in Northern Ireland) to support the British Crown. Later, religion became more of a divisive factor.
2) Black and Tans were Irish Loyalist soldiers. (So...if you must order a mixed beer drink, have a black velvet.)
3) Sinn Fein is famous for advocating the "armalite and the ballot box" approach to political reform, but that philosophy developed after the party had been in existence for over fifty years.
4) I need to learn Gaelic.
August 10, 2011
Interessant història d'un partit durant gairebé un segle, lligat al naixement d'un estat i al seu desenvolupament. Lluny de ser un bany de lloances, l'autor sap criticar els defectes del moviment: la seva política antiparlamentària fins a l'arribada de Gerry Adams, la seva condició de titella de l'IRA durant més de quaranta anys, les relacions entre irlandesos del nord i del sud,... Obra molt acurada i que dóna a conèixer les vicissituds i contradiccions d'aquest partit durant tot aquest temps.
September 27, 2020
This was an outstanding book tracing the history of Sien Fein. It provided insight into the highs and lows of the party, and the realistic future of Sien Fein and its role in the politics of Ireland.
September 11, 2012
A well-documented history of the first half of the 19th century, mostly the Uprising and shortly thereafter.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews