Sinn Fein History

Are you aware of the following little snippet of Sinn Fein history. I came across it in a book by Professor Donal McCracken “The Irish Pro-Boers 1877-1902” p.162 whilst researching the history of the Irish in South Africa;

“To [Arthur] Griffith the Boer leaders were the caliber of those Ireland had produced in the past. His later organization, Sinn Fein, which he founded in 1905, was more than just the physical heir of the Irish Transvaal Committee for he built it on the guiding philosophy of national self-sufficiency, undoubtedly inspired by his experience of living in the Transvaal among the self-reliant Boers”.

The Irish Pro-Boer movement started in 1877 when Britain first annexed the Transvaal. It was from that movement that the Irish Transvaal Committee was formed in Dublin at the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899. One of it's main aims was to oppose recruitment by the British Army to fight the Boer. It's chief activists were James Connolly, Maud Gonne, Arthur Griffith and John O'Leary. It also supported the two Irish Brigades which were formed to fight on the side of the Boers against the British. One of the Irish Brigade leaders was John McBride.

Ironical isn't it, that shortly after John McBride was executed after the Easter uprising in 1916, the Boer General Jan Smuts, his erstwhile brother in arms, became a member of the British War Cabinet.