Founded in 1905, Sinn Fein became increasingly committed to Republicanism after the failure of the Home Rule movement. Having won a majority of Irish seats in the 1918 general election, its members refused to go to Westminster and set up their own parliament in Ireland in 1919. After a split in the 1920s the party began to function as the political wing of the IRA. It now sends representatives to the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Irish Dáil; Sinn Fein MPs elected to the House of Commons do not take up their seats.