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Life
1873-1950; b. Belfast; ed. Royal University, Dublin; and London University, 1895; Prof. of Latin, QUB, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, 1938; Prof. of Humanities at St Andrew’s, 1939; RIA; Pres. of Classical Association of Ireland, 1920; wrote The Evolution of Sinn Féin (Dublin: Talbot Press 1920), 284pp. [Carty 82], and eds. of Livy, Cicero, Virgil, and a study of the Roman epic. DUB
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Commentary
Joseph Sweeney, ‘Why “Sinn Féin?”’, Éire-Ireland, 6, 2 (Summer 1971), pp.33-40, notes that Henry relates that a famous Irish scholar [presum. Douglas Hyde], when asked to provide Arthur Griffith for an Irish name in the spirit of Davis’s saying, ‘The freeman’s friend is self-reliance’, told the following story: ‘a country servant in Munster [was] sent with a horse to the fair. The horse was sold and the servant after some days appeared in his master’s kitchen, worn out but happy, and seated himself on the floor. To the inquiries of some neighbours who happened to be there, as to where he had been and what he had done, he would give no answer but “sinn fein, sinn fein”. The prodigal servant’s witty reply eludes the translator. To his hearers it conveyed that family matters were matters for the family; but it was no mere evasion of a temporary or personal difficulty. It was the expression of a universal truth.’ (The Evolution of Sinn Féin, 1920, p.43; Sweeney p.34.) Sweeney further cites T. P. Coogan: ‘The name Sinn Féin (Ourselves Alone) is said to derive from an old Irish story about a servant who returned home drunk one day - errand unaccomplished, his master’s money spent - and refused to tell what had happened to anyone outside the family. He just muttered “sinn fein, sinn fein” - meaning, “it’s a matter for ourselves alone.”’ (Coogan, Ireland Since the Rising, 1966, p.6; Sweeney p.34.) [See further under Hyde, Notes, infra.]
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