GENERAL ELECTION 2007 - DUBLIN

Sinn Féin (pronounced /ʃɪn feɪn/ in English, [ʃiːɲ fʲeːnʲ] in Irish) is a name used by a series of Irish political movements of the 20th century, each of which claimed sole descent from the original party established by Arthur Griffith in 1905. The name means "ourselves" or "we ourselves", [2] though it has often been incorrectly translated as "ourselves alone" or "we alone" (see Sinn Féin (19th century)). The name originally came from a newspaper that was printed as a local paper in Oldcastle, County Meath. Arthur Griffith asked the publishers if he could use the name of their paper for a new political party that he was setting up and they gave him permission to use the paper's name.

In modern politics, the name almost always refers to the political party dedicated to Irish Republicanism that is often seen as the political front of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The party emerged from a 1970 fissure in the Irish republican movement. Its current leader is Gerry Adams, a controversial figure in Irish politics. Sinn Féin’s most notable feature is its hardline nationalism, but it is also a left-wing organization, espousing democratic socialist views with support for greatly increased public spending on the poor, as well as universal healthcare.

It is established in both the Republic of Ireland (with five seats out of 166 in the Dáil Éireann) and Northern Ireland (with 28 seats out of 108, the largest Irish nationalist party in the Northern Ireland Assembly).

The party also holds the majority of Irish nationalist Westminster Members of Parliament with 5 seats (out of 646), although these members practise abstentionism.