Patrick Smith (politician) career, Smith being said to have shouted across the floor at Dáil Éireann, "They gave us stepping-stones, but they [state forces in 1922] would not walk on them." A play on the same quote by Irish revolutionary, Michael Collins. He entered the Dáil in September 1923, as a Republican candidate. In 1926, Éamon de Valera, the Leader of Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein, approached Smith and persuaded him to join his newly founded political party, Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fail abandoned the abstentionist policy of Anti Treaty Sinn Fein and its elected members took their seats in Dáil Éireann. De Valera and Smith
Sinn Féin (slogan) the original for this is 'Ourselves—or "."' The glossary at the end of the volume renders "sinn féin" as "we ourselves". A nationalist play by "Tom Telephone" (Thomas Stanislaus Cleary) published in 1882 was entitled "Shin Fain; or Ourselves Alone". In James Joyce's novel "Ulysses", set in 1904, The Citizen, a boorish nationalist partly modelled on Michael Cusack, shouts "Sinn Féin! Sinn Féin amháin!" during an altercation with Leopold Bloom; these were also the titles of two nationalist ballads. The name was adopted by Arthur Griffith for the "Sinn Féin policy" he presented in 1905, and the Sinn Féin party