Editing Sinn Féin (section)

===1923–1970===
Pro-Treaty Dáil deputies and other Treaty supporters formed a new party, [[Cumann na nGaedheal]], on 27 April 1923 at a meeting in Dublin, where delegates agreed on a constitution and political programme.{{sfn|Gallagher|1985|loc=Front cover}} Cumann na nGaedheal went on to govern the new [[Irish Free State]] for nine years (it merged with two other organisations to form [[Fine Gael]] in 1933).<ref>Ruth Dudley Edwards and Bridget Hourican, ''An Atlas of Irish History'', Routledge, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-415-27859-1}}, pp. 97–98.</ref> Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin members continued to boycott the Dáil. At a special ''Ard Fheis'' in March 1926, de Valera proposed that elected members be allowed to take their seats in the Dáil if and when the controversial [[Oath of Allegiance (Ireland)|Oath of Allegiance]] was removed. When his motion was defeated, de Valera resigned from Sinn Féin; on 16 May 1926, he founded his own party, [[Fianna Fáil]], which was dedicated to republicanising the Free State from within its political structures. He took most Sinn Féin [[Teachtaí Dála]] (TDs) with him.{{sfn|Coogan|2000|pages=77–78}} De Valera's resignation meant also the loss of financial support from America.<ref>The Times, ''Southern Irish Elections'', 6 June 1927.</ref> The rump Sinn Féin party could field no more than fifteen candidates,<ref name="Times270602">The Times, ''350 Candidates For 152 Seats'', 2 June 1927.</ref> and won only five seats in the [[June 1927 Irish general election|June 1927 general election]], a decline in support not seen since before 1916.{{sfn|Laffan|1999|page=443}}<ref name="Times270830">[[The Times]], ''Mr. Cosgrave and the Oath'', 30 August 1927.</ref> Vice-president and {{lang|la|[[de facto]]}} leader [[Mary MacSwiney]] announced that the party simply did not have the funds to contest [[September 1927 Irish general election|the second election called that year]], declaring "no true Irish citizen can vote for any of the other parties".<ref name="Times270830" /> Fianna Fáil came to power at the [[1932 Irish general election|1932 general election]] (to begin what would be an unbroken 16-year spell in government) and went on to long dominate politics in the independent Irish state.

An attempt in the 1940s to access funds that had been put in the care of the [[High Court (Ireland)|High Court]] led to the [[Sinn Féin Funds case]], which the party lost and in which the judge ruled that it was not the legal successor to the Sinn Féin of 1917.{{sfn|Laffan|1999|page=450}}

By the late 1940s, two decades removed from the Fianna Fáil split and now the Sinn Féin funds lost, the party was little more than a husk. The emergence of a popular new republican party, led by former IRA members, in [[Clann na Poblachta]], threatened to void any remaining purpose Sinn Féin had left. However, it was around this same time that the IRA leadership once again sought to have a political arm (the IRA and Sinn Féin had effectively no formal ties following the civil war).{{sfn|Gallagher|1985|p=94}} Following an IRA army convention in 1948, IRA members were instructed to join Sinn Féin en masse and by 1950 they had successfully taken total control of the party, with IRA army council member [[Paddy McLogan]] named as the new president of the party. As part of this rapprochement, it was later made clear by the army council that the IRA would dictate to Sinn Féin, and not the other way around.{{sfn|O'Brien|2019|loc=The next year, 1949, saw another development, also to become significant over time. Sinn Féin and the IRA reformed their alliance, Sinn Féin accepting that the IRA Army Council held the powers of the government of the Republic and as such was the 'supreme authority. Infiltration and control of Sinn Féin became IRA policy and in 1950 Paddy McLogan was elected Sinn Féin President. Within the IRA Tony Magan set about stamping his authority on the organisation, at times forcing out some of its most dedicated people, including Willie McGuinness, and winning broad if grudging support for his harshest disciplinary actions.}}{{sfn|Sanders|2011|page=16}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/organ/docs/ryan01.htm |title='The Birth of the Provisionals – A Clash between Politics and Tradition' by Patrick Ryan (2001) |last=Ryan |first=Patrick |date=2001 |website= |publisher= |access-date= |quote=The precise nature of the relationship between the IRA and Sinn Féin had been outlined during an IRA / Sinn Féin summit on 13 May 1962 when a confrontation between erstwhile Sinn Féin president Paddy McLogan and the IRA army council over the termination of the movement's armed campaign had brought matters to ahead. It was now to be formally acknowledged that "the army council was the supreme government of the Republic and the supreme authority in the republican movement" and furthermore that Sinn Féin although an "autonomous and independent organisation" paradoxically had to ensure that its policy coincided at all times with that of the Army Council if it wished to remain a viable part of the republican movement. This definition of the subservient role to be played by Sinn Féin, although it led to some prominent resignations, McLogan and Tony Magan included, was largely representative of the general belief in the republican movement that politics was an alien concept, useful at times, but to be generally regarded with suspicion. |archive-date=1 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220201093202/https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/organ/docs/ryan01.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
          
At the [[1955 United Kingdom general election]], two Sinn Féin candidates were elected to Westminster, and likewise, four members of Sinn Féin were elected to Leinster House in the [[1957 Irish general election]]. In December 1956, at the beginning of the IRA's [[Border campaign (Irish Republican Army)|Border Campaign (Operation Harvest)]], the Northern Ireland Government banned Sinn Féin under the [[Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922|Special Powers Act]]; it would remain banned until 1974.{{sfn|Bourne|2018|pages=46–49}} By the end of the Border campaign five years later, the party had once again lost all national representation.{{sfn|Patterson|2006|page=180}} Through the 1960s, some leading figures in the movement, such as [[Cathal Goulding]], [[Seán Garland]], [[Billy McMillen]], [[Tomás Mac Giolla]], moved steadily to the left, even to [[Marxism]], as a result of their own reading and thinking and contacts with the Irish and international left. This angered more traditional republicans, who wanted to stick to the national question and armed struggle.{{sfn|Hanley|Millar|2009|pages=70–148}} The Garland Commission was set up in 1967, to investigate the possibility of ending abstentionism. Its report angered the already disaffected traditional republican element within the party, notably [[Seán Mac Stíofáin]] and Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, who viewed such a policy as treason against the Irish Republic.{{sfn|White|2006|page=119}}