Arthur Griffith | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) | |
| President of Dáil Éireann | |
| In office 10 January 1922 – 12 August 1922 | |
| Preceded by | Éamon de Valera |
| Succeeded by | W. T. Cosgrave |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 26 July 1922 – 12 August 1922 | |
| President | Michael Collins |
| Preceded by | George Gavan Duffy |
| Succeeded by | Michael Hayes |
| In office 26 August 1921 – 9 January 1922 | |
| President | Éamon de Valera |
| Preceded by | George Noble Plunkett |
| Succeeded by | George Gavan Duffy |
| Minister for Home Affairs | |
| In office 2 April 1919 – 12 August 1921 | |
| President | Éamon de Valera |
| Preceded by | Michael Collins |
| Succeeded by | Austin Stack |
| Deputy leader of Sinn Féin | |
| In office 6 June 1917 – 9 January 1922 | |
| Leader | Éamon de Valera |
| Preceded by | Thomas Kelly |
| Succeeded by | Kathleen Lynn |
| In office 20 May 1905 – 11 January 1911 | |
| Leader | Edward Martyn |
| Preceded by | New office |
| Succeeded by | Jennie Wyse Power |
| Leader of Sinn Féin | |
| In office 11 January 1911 – 6 June 1917 | |
| Deputy | Jennie Wyse Power Thomas Kelly |
| Preceded by | John Sweetman |
| Succeeded by | Éamon de Valera |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office May 1921 – 12 August 1922 | |
| Constituency | Cavan |
| In office June 1918 – May 1921 | |
| Constituency | Cavan East |
| Member of Parliament | |
| In office 14 December 1918 – 12 August 1922 | |
| Preceded by | New office |
| Succeeded by | Vacant, then constituency abolished |
| Constituency | Tyrone North West |
| In office 20 June 1918 – 12 August 1922 | |
| Preceded by | Samuel Young |
| Succeeded by | Vacant, then constituency abolished |
| Constituency | Cavan East |
| Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament | |
| In office 24 May 1921 – 12 August 1922 | |
| Preceded by | New office |
| Succeeded by | Edward Archdale |
| Constituency | Fermanagh and Tyrone |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1871-03-31)31 March 1871 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 12 August 1922(1922-08-12) (aged 51) Dublin, Ireland |
| Cause of death | Intracerebral hemorrhage andheart failure |
| Resting place | Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland |
| Party | Sinn Féin |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Arthur Joseph Griffith (Irish:Art Seosamh Ó Gríobhtha or Art Ó Gríofa; 31 March 1871 – 12 August 1922) was an Irish writer, newspaper editor and politician who founded the political partySinn Féin. He led the Irish delegation at the negotiations that produced the 1921Anglo-Irish Treaty, and served as thepresident of Dáil Éireann from January 1922 until his death that August.
After a short spell inSouth Africa, Griffith founded and edited theIrish nationalist newspaperThe United Irishman in 1899. In 1904, he wroteThe Resurrection of Hungary: A Parallel for Ireland, which advocated the withdrawal of Irish members from theParliament of the United Kingdom and the setting up of the institutions of government at home in Ireland, a policy that became known asSinn Féin (ourselves). On 28 November 1905, he presented "The Sinn Féin Policy" at the first annual convention of his organisation, the National Council; the occasion is marked as the founding date of the Sinn Féin party. Griffith took over as president of Sinn Féin in 1911, but at that time the organisation was still small.
Griffith was arrested following theEaster Rising of 1916, despite not having taken any part in it. On his release, he worked to build up Sinn Féin, which won a string of by-election victories. At the party'sArdfheis (annual convention) in October 1917, Sinn Féin became an unambiguouslyrepublican party, and Griffith resigned the presidency in favour of the 1916 leaderÉamon de Valera, becoming vice-president instead. Griffith was elected as anMP forEast Cavan in aby-election in June 1918, and re-elected in the1918 general election, when Sinn Féin won a huge electoral victory over theIrish Parliamentary Party and, refusing to take their seats at Westminster, set up their own constituent assembly,Dáil Éireann.[1]
In the Dáil, Griffith served as Minister for Home Affairs from 1919 to 1921, and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1921 to 1922. In September 1921, he was appointed chairman of the Irish delegation to negotiate a treaty with the British government. After months of negotiations, he and the other four delegates signed theAnglo-Irish Treaty, which created theIrish Free State, but not as a republic. This led to a split in the Dáil. After the Treaty was narrowly approved by the Dáil, de Valera resigned as president and Griffith was elected in his place. The split led to theIrish Civil War. Griffith died suddenly in August 1922, two months after the outbreak of that war.
Arthur Joseph Griffith was born at 61 UpperDominick Street,Dublin on 31 March 1871,[2] of distant Welsh lineage. His great-great-grandfather, William Griffith of Drws-y-coed Uchaf,Rhyd-ddu,Caernarfonshire (1719–1782), was a farmer and supporter of theMoravian Church cause. His great-grandfather, Griffith Griffith (b. 1789), emigrated first to theUnited States and then to Ireland, where some of his sisters had settled in Dublin among the Moravian community there.[3] A Roman Catholic,[4] Griffith was educated by the IrishChristian Brothers. He worked for a time as a printer before joining theGaelic League, which was aimed at promoting the restoration of theIrish language.
His father had been a printer onThe Nation newspaper — Griffith was one of several employees locked out in the early 1890s due to a dispute with a new owner of the paper. The young Griffith was a member of theIrish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). Later in life he came to feel that violence would not be the best way to achieve the independence of Ireland. He felt that passive resistance was the safer and more certain way of defeating the British.[5] He initially supported Parnell's political views but then decided that Parnell's political outlook was not what he thought was best for Ireland.[6] Griffith visitedSouth Africa from 1896 to 1898.[7] In South Africa, Griffith supported theBoers in their campaign against British expansionism and was a supporter ofPaul Kruger.[8]
In 1899, on returning toDublin, Griffith co-founded the weeklyUnited Irishman newspaper with his associateWilliam Rooney, who died in 1901.[9] On 24 November 1910, Griffith married Maud Sheehan, after a six-year engagement; they had a son and a daughter.[10]
Griffith's fierce criticism of theIrish Parliamentary Party's alliance with the BritishLiberal Party was heavily influenced by the anti-Liberal rhetoric ofYoung IrelanderJohn Mitchel. Griffith supported theLimerick boycott, advocating shunning Jewish-owned businesses in the city.[11][12] Griffith also supported movements seeking national independence from the British Empire inEgypt andIndia, and wrote a highly-critical description of the British government action atMatabele. He opposed the policies ofJames Larkin, but worked withJames Connolly, who was a nationalist as well as a socialist.[13]
In September 1900, he established an organisation calledCumann na nGaedheal ("Society of the Gaels"), to unite advanced nationalist andseparatist groups and clubs. In 1903, he set up the National Council, to campaign against the visit to Ireland ofKing Edward VII and his consortAlexandra of Denmark.[14] In 1907, that organisation merged with the Sinn Féin League, which itself had been formed from an amalgamation of Cumann na nGaedheal and the Dungannon Clubs, to form what would become Sinn Féin.[15]
In 1906, after theUnited Irishman journal collapsed because of a libel suit, Griffith re-founded it under the titleSinn Féin. It briefly became a daily in 1909 and survived until its suppression by the British government in 1914, after which Griffith became editor of the new nationalist journal,Nationality.[citation needed]
Most historians opt for 28 November 1905 as a founding date because it was on this date that Griffith first presented his 'Sinn Féin Policy'. In his writings, Griffith declared that theAct of Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1800 was illegal and that, consequently, the Anglo-Irish dual monarchy that existed underGrattan's Parliament and the so-calledConstitution of 1782 were still in effect. Its first president wasEdward Martyn.
The fundamental principles of abstentionism on which Sinn Féin was founded were outlined in an article published in 1904, by Griffith calledThe Resurrection of Hungary, in which, notes how in 1867 Hungary went from beingpart of theAustrian Empire to a separate co-equal kingdom inAustria-Hungary. Though not amonarchist himself, Griffith advocated such an approach for theAnglo-Irish relationship, namely that Ireland should become a separate kingdom alongside Great Britain, the two forming adual monarchy with a shared monarch but separate governments, as it was thought this solution would be more palatable to the British.[16] This was similar to the policy ofHenry Grattan a century earlier. However, this idea was never really embraced by later separatist leaders, especiallyMichael Collins, and never came to anything, althoughKevin O'Higgins toyed with the idea as a means of endingpartition, shortly before his assassination in 1927.[17]
Griffith sought to combine elements ofParnellism with the traditional separatist approach; he saw himself not as a leader but as providing a strategy which a new leader might follow. Central to his strategy was parliamentaryabstention: the belief that IrishMPs should refuse to attend theParliament of the United Kingdom atWestminster, but should instead establish a separate Irish parliament (with an administrative system based on local government) in Dublin.
Griffith was a stauncheconomic nationalist, he argued that nationalism was central to the fostering of economic growth. He often cited the works of German economistFriedrich List.[16]
In February 1908, Sinn Féin unsuccessfully contested a by-election inNorth Leitrim, where the sitting MP, oneCharles Dolan ofManorhamilton,County Leitrim, had defected to Sinn Féin. At this time Sinn Féin was being infiltrated by theIrish Republican Brotherhood, who saw it as a vehicle for their aims; it had several local Councillors (mostly in Dublin, includingW. T. Cosgrave) and contained a dissident wing grouped from 1910 around the monthly periodical calledIrish Freedom. The IRB members argued that the aim of dual monarchism should be replaced by republicanism and that Griffith was excessively inclined to compromise with conservative elements (notably in his pro-employer position during the 1913–1914Dublin Lockout when he saw the syndicalism ofJames Larkin as aimed at crippling Irish industry for Great Britain's benefit).
In 1911, he helped to found theProportional Representation Society of Ireland, believing thatproportional representation would help to prevent animosity between unionists and nationalists in an independent Ireland.[18]
In 1916, rebels seized and took over a number of key locations in Dublin, in what became known as theEaster Rising. After its defeat, it was widely described both by British politicians and the Irish and British media as the "Sinn Féin rebellion", even though Sinn Féin had very limited involvement. One day after the rebellion began Griffith cycled across Dublin and met with the leader of theIrish Volunteers,Eoin MacNeill asking him (unsuccessfully) to mobilize the Volunteers across the nation.[19] Griffith was detained, being released fromReading Gaol at the end of 1916.[20] When in 1917, surviving leaders of the rebellion were released from jail (or escaped) they joined Sinn Féinen masse, using it as a vehicle for the advancement of the republic. The result was a bitter clash between those original members who backed Griffith's concept of an Anglo-Irish dual monarchy and the new members, underÉamon de Valera, who wanted to achieve a republic. Matters almost led to a split at the party's Ard Fheis (conference) in October 1917.
In a compromise, it was decided to seek to establish a republic initially, then allow the people to decide whether they wanted a republic or a monarchy, subject to the condition that no member of Britain's royal house could sit on any prospective Irish throne.[21] At that Ard Fheis, Griffith resigned the presidency of Sinn Féin in favour of de Valera; he andFr. Michael O'Flanagan were elected vice-presidents. The leaders of theIrish Parliamentary Party (IPP) sought a rapprochement with Griffith over the British threat ofconscription, which both parties condemned, but Griffith refused unless the IPP embraced his more radical and subversive ideals, a suggestion whichJohn Dillon, a leader of the IPP rubbished as unrealistic, although it would ultimately mean the defeat and dissolution of the IPP after the election in December 1918.
In May 1918, along with Éamon de Valera and 72 other Sinn Féiners, Griffith was arrested on the pretext of involvement in the fictitiousGerman Plot. Griffith spent ten months interned inHM Prison Gloucester, being released on 6 March 1919.Fr. O'Flanagan was left as Acting-President of Sinn Féin.[22] Griffith was put forward as a Sinn Féin candidate for theEast Cavan by-election on 20 June 1918.[23] Under the slogan "Put him in to get him out," and was elected. and held the seat when Sinn Féin subsequently routed theIrish Parliamentary Party at the1918 general election with a commitment ofabstentionism from theBritish House of Commons.[24] Griffith was returned for both East Cavan andTyrone North West.
Sinn Féin set up an Irish parliament,Dáil Éireann anddeclared independence for theIrish Republic; theIrish War of Independence followed almost immediately. The dominant leaders in the Dáil included Éamon de Valera,President of Dáil Éireann (1919–21), President of the Republic (1921–1922), andMichael Collins,Minister for Finance, head of the IRB and theIrish Republican Army's Director of Intelligence.
During de Valera's absence in the United States (1919–21) Griffith served as Acting President and gave regular press interviews. He was arrested at his house at 3 am, on 26 November 1920, and later jailed,[25] Fr. O'Flanagan again taking over as acting leader until de Valera returned from America on 23 December.[22] Griffith was to spend the next seven months in Dublin'sMountjoy Prison. He was released on 30 June 1921 as peace moves got underway.[citation needed]
In Ireland, ageneral election was held on 24 May 1921 and Griffith, while still in prison, headed the poll in the contested constituency ofFermanagh and Tyrone, and was returned unopposed forCavan. On 26 August 1921, Griffith was appointedMinister for Foreign Affairs in the new Irish cabinet.[26]
.jpg)
In September 1921, de Valera, President of the Republic, asked Griffith to head the delegation of Irish plenipotentiaries to negotiate with the British government. The delegates set up Headquarters inHans Place,London. After nearly two months of negotiations, on 5 December, the delegates decided in a private conversation in their headquarters to sign the Treaty and recommended it to the Dáil; negotiations closed at 2.20 a.m. on 6 December 1921. Griffith was the member of the treaty delegation most supportive of its eventual outcome, a compromise based ondominion status, rather than a republic. Griffith was content for an independent Irish State to remain within theBritish Empire orBritish Commonwealth as it soon would become. The Treatywas ratified by the Dáil by 64 votes to 57 on 7 January 1922. On 9 January, de Valera stood down as president and sought re-election by the Dáil, which he lost by a vote of 60 to 58.[27] Griffith then succeeded de Valera as President of Dáil Éireann.[28] A second ratification of the Treaty by theHouse of Commons of Southern Ireland followed shortly afterwards. Griffith was, however, to a great extent merely a figurehead as President of theSecond Dáil.[citation needed]
Suffering from overwork and strain after the long and difficult negotiations with the British government (Griffith attended 41 of the 42 provisional government meetings held between 23 June and 30 July), and the work involved in establishing the Free State government, he entered St. Vincent's Nursing Home,Leeson Street, Dublin, during the first week of August 1922, following an acute attack of tonsillitis.[29] He was confined to a room in St Vincent's by his doctors, who had observed signs of what they thought might be asubarachnoid haemorrhage, but it was difficult to keep him quiet,[30] and he resumed his daily work in the government building. He had been about to leave for his office shortly before 10 a.m. on 12 August 1922, when he paused to retie his shoelace and fell down unconscious. He regained consciousness but collapsed again with blood coming from his mouth. Three doctors rendered assistance but to no avail. Fr John Lee of theMarist Fathers administeredextreme unction, and Griffith died as the priest recited the concluding prayer. The cause of death,cerebral haemorrhage,[31] was also reported as being due to heart failure.[32] He died at the age of 51, ten days beforeMichael Collins' death in an ambush inCounty Cork. He was buried inGlasnevin Cemetery four days later.[citation needed]
The historianDiarmaid Ferriter considers that, though he had founded Sinn Féin, Griffith was 'quickly airbrushed' from Irish history. His widow had to beg his former colleagues for a pension, saying that he 'had made them all'. She considered that his grave plot was too modest and threatened to exhume his body. Only in 1968 was a plaque fixed on his formerClontarf home on St Lawrence Road.[33][34]
Griffith Barracks which is nowGriffith College Dublin onSouth Circular Road, Dublin,Griffith Avenue in North Dublin,Griffith Park inDrumcondra and Arthur Griffith Park inLucan, Dublin are named after him. An obelisk erected in 1950 in the grounds ofLeinster House commemorates Griffith, as well asMichael Collins andKevin O'Higgins.[35]
As editor of theUnited Irishman, Griffith took an "Anti-Dreyfusard" line, writing in 1899 to defend the conviction of"the Jew traitor" Dreyfus; accusing the Dublin press of being"almost all Jew rags"; and decrying[36][37]
Fifty other rags like those which have nothing behind them but the forty or fifty thousand Jewish usurers and pick- pockets in each country and which no decent Christian ever reads except holding his nose as a precaution against nausea.
Other editorials in Griffith'sUnited Irishman that year expressed concern about a conspiracy where"the Jew capitalist has got a grip on the lying "Press of Civilization" from Vienna to New York and further", and concluded"we know that all Jews are pretty sure to be traitors if they get the chance."[36][37] In late 1899The United Irishman published an article by Griffith that stated: "I have in former years often declared that the Three Evil Influences of the century were the Pirate, the Freemason, and the Jew."[38] The antisemitism found in the pages ofThe United Irishman during Griffth's editorial tenure has been credited with shaping various aspects of Joyce'sUlysses, especially in the "Cyclops" episode.[37][39]
In 1904, a piece in the paper voiced support for theLimerick boycott, a boycott of Jewish businesses in Limerick organised by a local priest, declaring that
the Jew in Limerick has not been boycotted because he is a Jew, butbecause he is a usurer" and that "If Jews —as Jews— were boycotted, it would be outrageously unjust.
Griffith was apparently unaware that the Jews of Limerick had little or no involvement in moneylending or similar practices.[40][4][41]The United Irishman also published articles byOliver St. John Gogarty that contained antisemitic sentiments, which were common in the Ireland of the time.[42]
During this time an article inThe United Irishman also expressed positive views towardsZionism; while
The Jews ofGreat Britain and Ireland have united, as is their wont, to crush the Christian who dares to block their path or to point them out for what they are — nine-tenths of them— usurers andparasites of industry.
and excluded from this criticism was[42]
the Zionist minority of the Jews, who include those honest and patriotic Jews who desire the reestablishment of theHebrew nation in Palestine.
From 1904 until his death, Griffith wrote virtually nothing which could be construed as antisemitic.[4] Historian Colum Kenny writes that Griffith's "thinking developed" which is shown by a "radical shift" in his journalism.[43] Already in 1903, he had endorsed the Temperance–Labour CouncillorAlbert L. Altman, a Jew, for election to Dublin Corporation.[43][44] In 1909, he wrote a favourable article inSinn Féin on the Jewish contribution to European civilisation, and inNationality in 1915, he railed against theIrish Parliamentary Party for saying that Jews should be barred from public office.[41][42] Griffith's publication 'Scissors and Paste' published three separate articles sympathetic to Jewish victims of Eastern European pogroms and in 1915 his 'Nationality' published a piece which defended English JewMatthew Nathan - "We do not know of one Nationalist Irishman who objects to Sir Matthew Nathan because of the religion he professes, or who holds the creed that an Irish Jew should be ineligible for any office he was competent to fill in an Irish government".[42]
Griffith was a close friend of Jewish solicitorMichael Noyk, who defended many IRA members incourts martial during theIrish War of Independence, and served as an official in theFirst Dáil Department of Finance and as aDáil Court judge during the war.[45] Other Jewish friends included Dr Edward Lipman, Jacob Elyan and DrBethel Solomons.[42] Noyk and Solomons were among a group of friends who purchased a house for Griffith when he married.[42][46]
Griffith held racist views towards Black people; in a preface he authored for the 1913 edition of John Mitchel'sJail Journal, Griffith argued that "no excuses were needed for an Irish Nationalist declining to hold the Negro his peer in right".[47]
However while in South Africa, he opposed the exploitation of blacks by whites and he expressed appreciation that theRusso-Japanese War which led to a Russian defeat had destroyed "the prestige of the white face" in India.[9] Meanwhile, Griffith's newspapers,United Irishman andSinn Féin, both produced sympathetic coverage ofIndian nationalists.[48][49] Griffith was particularly interested in India'sSwadeshi movement.[50]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCavan East 1918–1922 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forTyrone North West 1918–1922 | Constituency abolished |
| Parliament of Northern Ireland | ||
| New parliament | Member of Parliament forFermanagh and Tyrone 1921–1922 With:Edward Archdale 1921–1929 William Coote 1921–1924 Seán Milroy 1921–1925 William Thomas Miller 1921–1929 James Cooper 1921–1929 Seán O'Mahony 1921–1925 Thomas Harbison 1921–1929 | Succeeded by |
| Oireachtas | ||
| New constituency | Teachta Dála forCavan East 1918–1921 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Teachta Dála forTyrone North West 1918–1921 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Teachta Dála forFermanagh and Tyrone 1921–1922 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister for Home Affairs 1919–1921 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Foreign Affairs 1921–Jan 1922 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Foreign Affairs Jul 1922– Aug 1922 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of Dáil Éireann 1922 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| New post | Vice President of Sinn Féin 1905–1908 withJohn Sweetman (1905–1907) withBulmer Hobson (1907–1908) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of Sinn Féin 1911–1917 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Vice President of Sinn Féin 1917–1922 withMichael O'Flanagan | Succeeded by |
