How Sinn Fein Rose to the Forefront of Irish Politics: QuickTake

Rooted in its campaign for a united Ireland, Sinn Fein was long an outsider in politics due to its links with the Irish Republican Army. With the conflict in Northern Ireland largely over following a 1998 peace deal, the movement has reinvented itself to appeal to a new generation of voters. Now, in a historic shift, it has become the biggest party in Northern Ireland, and it leads opinion polls in the Irish Republic to the south, making its demand for a referendum on unification harder to ignore.

The party, whose name means “Ourselves Alone,” was created amid the campaign for Irish home rule at the start of the 20th century. After the Catholic south won its independence from Britain in 1921, Sinn Fein continued to oppose Britain’s hold on the mostly Protestant north. It only began to seriously contest elections south of the border in the 1980s under a strategy known as the “Armalite and the Ballot Box.” (Armalite is a gun manufacturer). Today, it’s a broadly center-left party that campaigns for higher government spending, better housing and increased taxes on the rich.