What was the phrase used to espouse a higher level of nationalism than the Irish's dominant 1870 political movement?
Sinn Féin (slogan) Sinn Féin ("ourselves" or "we ourselves") and Sinn Féin Amháin ("ourselves only / ourselves alone / solely us") are Irish-language phrases used as a political slogan by Irish nationalists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. While advocating Irish national self-reliance, its precise political meaning was undefined, variously interpreted as the aim of a separate Irish republic or (as advocated by Arthur Griffith) that of a dual monarchy. Its earliest use was to describe individual political radicals unconnected with any party and espousing a more "advanced nationalism" than the Irish Home Rule movement. In the 1890s "Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin amháin" was the slogan of the Gaelic League, which advocated the revival of the Irish language.
The pen is mightier than the sword "The pen is mightier than the sword" is a metonymic adage, coined by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839, indicating that communication (particularly written language), or in some interpretations, administrative power or advocacy of an independent press, is a more effective tool than direct violence.