Sinn Fein
Preserved but no longer current.
Irish for "Ourselves alone" This was the Nationalist movement that finally brought about the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1921. The rebellion of 1916 was its first overt act of great im- portance; in the following year Eamonn de Valera was elected president of the movement and the new republican policy was inaugur- ated.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Sinn Fein” mean?
Irish for "Ourselves alone" This was the Nationalist movement that finally brought about the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1921. The rebellion of 1916 was its first overt act of great im- portance; in the following year Eamonn de Valera was elected president of the movement and the new republican policy was inaugur- ated.
Is “Sinn Fein” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.