Arthur Griffith

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Griffith, Arthur (1871–1922), journalist and politician. Born in Dublin, Griffith was a printer by trade, but turned writer and journalist. Strongly influenced by Parnell, Thomas Davis, and John Mitchel, he was a founder member of the Celtic Literary Society in 1893 and was active in the Gaelic League and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, which he left in 1910. He edited several radical newspapers, including the United Irishman and Sinn Féin. Although his ideas attracted little support in this period, they had a long‐term influence on the public mind. In 1904 he wrote The Resurrection of Hungary: A Parallel for Ireland, in which he set out his ideas on Irish independence under a dual monarchy. His protectionist economic programme was heavily influenced by the German economist Friedrich List. These two elements became central to the political programme of Sinn Féin, set up on 28 November 1905.

In defence of home rule Griffith joined the Irish Volunteers on its foundation and took part in the Howth gun‐running. However, he rejected the use of force to establish a republic and did not take part in the rising of 1916. The authorities, like much of the population, nevertheless thought the rebellion was inspired by Sinn Féin and arrested Griffith. After his release he became vice‐president of the revived Sinn Féin party which now became a republican organization.

He was again arrested in 1918, and while imprisoned was elected MP for East Cavan. He became acting president of the Dáil when de Valera toured the USA from June 1919 to the end of 1920. He was rearrested in November 1920 and released shortly before the truce which ended the Anglo‐Irish War. He was appointed head of the plenipotentiaries assigned to negotiate the Anglo‐Irish treaty, and regarded the resulting agreement as the best that could be achieved for Ireland. He was elected president of the Dáil on 10 January 1922 after de Valera resigned. He became increasingly weakened under the strains and died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 12 August 1922.

Although generally seen as one of the founding fathers of the democratic Republic of Ireland, Griffith was a nationalist before he was a democrat, and believed that the rights of nations came before those of the individual. The feasibility of his proposals for dual monarchy and economic self‐sufficiency has been questioned, and it has recently been shown that he had little appreciation for the position of unionists, assuming that there was no real conflict of interest within Ireland.

Bibliography

Maume, Patrick , ‘The Ancient Constitution: Arthur Griffith and his Intellectual Legacy to Sinn Féin’, Irish Political Studies, 10 (1995)
Younger, Calton , Arthur Griffith (1981)

Joost Augusteijn

Arthur Griffith 1872–1922, Irish statesman, founder of Sinn Féin . He joined the nationalist movement as a young man. In 1899 he founded the United Irishman, in which he advocated that Irish members of Parliament withdraw from Westminster and organize their own assembly. His goal was the creation of a dual monarchy of England and Ireland, like that of Austria-Hungary. His ideas found adherents who, in 1905, formed the Sinn Féin. Griffith took no part in the Easter Rebellion of 1916, but he was imprisoned several times (1916–18) by the British. Elected to Parliament in 1918, he joined the other Sinn Féiners in forming Dáil Éireann and was elected its vice president. He led the Irish delegation that negotiated the treaty (1921) establishing the Irish Free State. When Eamon De Valera, president of the Dáil, rejected the treaty, Griffith succeeded to his office. He died suddenly at the beginning of the civil war.

Bibliography: See biographies by P. Colum (1959) and V. E. Glandon (1985); study by C. Younger, A State of Disunion (1972).

Griffith, Arthur (1871–1922). A printer from Dublin, Griffith was active in the Celtic Literary Society, the Gaelic League, and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He spent 1896–9 in South Africa, returning to Ireland to commence vigorous journalism, urging that Ireland could emulate Hungary and acquire substantial autonomy. In 1906 he launched Sinn Fein, preaching abstention from British politics, and was involved in the Howth gun-running in 1914. Twice imprisoned during the First World War, Griffith did not take part in the Easter Rising, but was returned for East Cavan at a by-election in 1918. He was again imprisoned but emerged to lead the Irish delegation at the negotiations in 1921 which resulted in the Irish Free State. He succeeded de Valera as president of the Dáil in January 1922 but died from a stroke seven months later, just as the civil war between pro- and anti-treaty factions was beginning.

J. A. Cannon

Griffith, Arthur (1872–1922) Irish statesman, president of the Irish Free State (1922). From 1899 he edited the republican newspaper, United Irishman. In 1905, Griffith founded Sinn Féin. He took no part in the Easter Rising (1916), but the British imprisoned him (1916–18). In 1919, he became vice president of the unofficial Irish parliament, the Dáil Éireann. Griffith and Michael Collins were the chief negotiators of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921), which created the Irish Free State and de facto acceptance of partition. Eamon De Valera rejected the settlement and Griffith became president.

Griffith, Arthur (1872–1922) Irish nationalist leader and statesman, President of the IRISH FREE STATE (1922). In 1905 he founded and became President of SINN FEIN. Griffith was among those who established the unofficial Irish Parliament, the Dáil Éireann, in 1919, becoming Vice-President of the republic it declared in the same year. With Michael COLLINS, he negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921) establishing the Irish Free State, of which he was elected President in 1922. He died in office several months later.