I was a member of the “National Council” formed in 1902 by Mr. Arthur Griffi th on the occasion of the visit of the late Queen Victoria, and of the Executives of “Cumann na nGaedheal”, the “Dungannon Clubs”, and the “Sinn Féin League”, by the fusion of which the old “Sinn Féin” organisation was formed. I was a member of the Sinn Féin Executive until 1911.

The Sinn Féin movement as such, did not contemplate an appeal to arms, believing that its policy, with the majority of Ireland behind it, would be irresistible on a passive resistance basis.

This section explains what Sinn Féin was and what it hoped to do in creating the Sinn Féin Policy, as well as its criticisms of the Irish Party and parliamentarianism, plus its role in history and in its own day. It looks at O'Hegarty's role in Sinn Féin, highlighting both his shared beliefs as well differences with Griffi th, before testing how these fared in revolutionary post- 1916 Ireland, in Part III.

Beginning life as a pamphlet entitled ‘The Resurrection of Hungary’ in 1904, the Sinn Féin Policy, as it later became, quickly sold over 300,000 copies, running through several reprinted editions and becoming a principal document in modern Irish history. As the United Irishman proudly declared on 18 February 1905: