Griffith, Arthur (1872–1922)

Irish journalist, propagandist and politician. He was active in nationalist politics from 1898 and united various nationalist parties to form Sinn Fein 1905. When the provisional Irish parliament declared a republic in 1919, he was elected vice president and signed the treaty that gave Eire its independence in 1921. He was elected the country's first president in 1922, dying in office later that year.

Born in Dublin, Griffith was educated at the Christian Brothers school, was a founder member of the Gaelic Literary Society in 1893 and was active in the Gaelic League and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He left the latter organization in 1910. Although a leading figure in the revolutionary period of Irish politics, Griffith opposed the use of force, and took no part in the Easter Rising of 1916. Instead he advocated Irish independence under a dual monarchy on the Austro-Hungarian model, coupled with a protectionist scheme to encourage Irish economic self-sufficiency. These ideas formed the basis of the programme of the Sinn Fein movement, which Griffith established in 1905. The organization remained comparatively weak until the government (wrongly) concluded that it had inspired the 1916 Rising, whereupon Griffith was arrested. Meanwhile, his movement was taken over by the Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and Griffith found himself vice president of an avowedly republican organization. He headed the Irish delegation that negotiated the settlement with the British in December 1921, and was elected president of the Dáil in January 1922, following de Valera's resignation. Griffith died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage on 12 August 1922.