Sinn Féin ("ourselves alone") is one of the most controversial political movements in Ireland. Here, for the first time, is the complete story of the rise and fall—and rise again—of a party that repeatedly has reshaped its identity over the course of a hundred years, moving from dual monarchy to dual strategy—the gun and the ballot box.

From Arthur Griffith to Gerry Adams, this is a roll-call of major personalities from Irish and British history and politics, including Eamon de Valera, Countess Constance Markievicz, David Lloyd George, Michael Collins, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Cathal Goulding, Tomás MacGiolla, Margaret Thatcher, and Martin McGuinness.

Now at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Sinn Féin seems poised to play a pivotal role in the Irish political arena, north and south, well into the future. Its place in history is still being written.