Arthur Griffith

Arthur Griffith was born in Dublin in 1872. Griffith was one of the most important players in Irish Independence. He founded Sinn Féin in 1905 as an Irish nationalist party whose objective was “to establish in Ireland’s capital a national legislature endowed with the moral authority of the Irish nation”.

It was not until after the 1916 Rising that Sinn Féin became a major force in Irish politics winning a landslide majority of Irish seats in the 1918 General Election. Griffith led the Irish truce negotiations in London accompanied by Michael Collins signing the Treaty in December 1921. Acrimonious debates in Dail Eireann led to a walkout by De Valera and anti-Treaty-ites. Griffith died August 1922, while Ireland was embroiled in a civil war over the Treaty.

Pictorial History of Arthur Griffith