Arthur Griffith

Griffith was fascinated by Irish history and culture, in addition to policy. A member of the Irish delegates in 1921, Griffith is credited as one of the founding fathers of the Irish Free State, in addition to forming Sinn Fein.

Griffith was born on 31 March 1871 in Dublin. A printer by trade, he developed a passion for Irish history and culture, becoming an active member in the Gaelic League. Griffith’s gifts as an author and journalist were quickly recognized, and he was made editor of various radical newspapers.

Griffith was a staunch Parnellite but following Parnell’s death in 1891 and the fracture of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), he sought an alternative strategy. Griffith proposed the “Hungary Model.” In 1904, Griffith argued that Irish Ministers of Parliament (MPs) ought to withdraw from Westminster and set up an Irish assembly. In this way, Ireland would become a self-governing state and an equal power with Britain under the Crown. He believed that the Irish electorate and, in time, the British government would both come to support the policy. Additionally, Griffith believed Ireland could develop a balanced national economy primarily through high tariffs on British imports. With these ideas in mind, Griffith formed the Sinn Fein Party in 1905. The party had little popular support, but its influence grew rapidly largely due to Griffith’s propaganda skills.[1]

After the 1910 election, the IPP was in a position to push for Home Rule. Griffith, and Sinn Fein, supported the Home Rule Bill as it would ultimately be to the benefit of Ireland. However, if a bill was not passed, stated Griffith, “Sinn Fein must be ready to form the rallying center of a disappointed nation.”[2] In April 1912, the third Home Rule Bill was introduced to the House of Commons.[3] Due to the elimination of the House of Lords’ veto power and the Irish-based majority in the House of Commons, the passage of the bill seemed inevitable.[4] Anti-Home Rule opposition soon mounted. In Ireland, opposition was led by the Ulster Protestants who sought to court Conservatives in Parliament and urge them to reject the bill at all costs. However, since the emergence of the Home Rule movement, Ireland had undergone a vast transformation. By 1909, the land crisis was successfully addressed with many Irishmen now owners of their farms. It appeared to many, including such Conservatives as Winston Churchill, that Ireland’s fiery violent spirit had been calmed. To some it seemed time to grant Ireland Home Rule. To others, the Conservative reforms (political concessions) that had stabilized Ireland seemed reason enough to reject Home Rule—what use would it be now?[5] Debates continued and in 1913 the two sides on the Home Rule Bill became clear. Sir Edward Carson, an Irish Unionist politician, defined the Ulster position:

…the vast majority of our fellow countrymen who are Nationalists in the South and West of Ireland will have Home Rule if this Bill becomes law, and we shall not have power to stop it. All we propose to do is to prevent Home Rule becoming law in our own part of the country.[6]

William O’Brien, Irish nationalist, politician and journalist claimed that the nationalists would do whatever possible to garner the support of Ulster, “with one exception—that is, the partition of our country.”[7]

In January 1913, an Ulster Volunteer Force was assembled. Parliament felt the pressure of the Ulstermen and their demands of exclusion were actively considered. Carson repeatedly refused any form of compromise. In 1914, Parliament offered a more viable solution in which Ulster would be temporarily excluded from Home Rule for six years. After those six years, Ulster’s position would be reevaluated and, if they remained adamant, they would be excluded from Home Rule. The compromise had the support of nationalists who believed Ulster could be convinced of joining the rest of Ireland in Home Rule. Yet Carson rejected the compromise. The British Government vowed that such an offer would be its last, and if the bill is passed, they will see to it that it be enforced.[8]

In November 1913, Griffith joined the Irish Volunteer Force—a paramilitary body—and acted as gun-runner. The Irish Volunteer Force was formed following the creation of the Ulster Volunteer Force—a paramilitary body formed by the six counties of Ulster with the intention to raise arms against the British government, if the Home Rule Bill were to be passed. Griffith himself took no part in the 1916 Easter Rising, but was arrested anway because the authorities had assumed that Sinn Fein was involved in one way or another. The brutal put-down of the Rising and Sinn Fein’s assumed involvement, caused a surge in the party’s popularity. As a result, Sinn Fein’s model was altered. Griffith stepped aside, allowing Eamon de Valera to become the party’s president in October 1917, with himself as Vice President. In the 1918 General Election, Griffith was elected MP for East Cavan.

In 1919, the Irish War of Independence (1919-21) erupted. For most of the war, Griffith was the acting President of the Dail, the newly formed Irish assembly, while de Valera toured the United States. Griffith was uneasy with the Irish Republican Army’s use of force and guerrilla tactics, feeling relief after the July 1921 truce. He was appointed the head of the Irish delegation sent to negotiate the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Griffith’s courage, public speaking skills, and patience impressed the British representatives. Griffith himself was satisfied with the terms of the Treaty, convinced that the results were the best Ireland would realistically achieve. Griffith resented the opposition he face, especially from de Valera. In January 1922, Griffith succeeded de Valera as President of the Dail. Following the passage of the treaty, Sinn Fein broke apart and internal tensions were at an all-time high. To Griffith, civil war seemed inevitable. Six weeks into the Civil War (1922-23), Griffith died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage on 12 August 1922—his colleague Michael Collins would die ten days later. Griffith was one of many republican leaders who died during the Civil War; their deaths depleted Ireland of leadership in the years following the conflict.

[1] “Arthur Griffith, 1872-1922,” BBC History, accessed March 10, 2026, https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/profiles/po07.shtml.

[2] Robert Kee, The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism (Penguin Books, 1972), 456.

[3] Kee, The Green Flag, 462.

[4] Kee, The Green Flag, 463.

[5] Kee, The Green Flag, 470.

[6] Kee, The Green Flag, 477.

[7] Kee, The Green Flag, 477.

[8] Kee, The Green Flag, 483.