Arthur Griffith

Arthur Griffith
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 and heart failure
Resting place	Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland
Political party	Sinn Féin
Spouse	Maud Sheehan ​ (m. 1910)​
Children	2

Arthur Joseph Griffith (Irish: Art Seosamh Ó Gríobhtha; 31 March 1871 – 12 August 1922) was an Irish writer, newspaper editor and politician who founded the political party Sinn Féin. He led the Irish delegation at the negotiations that produced the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, and served as the president of Dáil Éireann from January 1922 until his death later in August.

After a short spell in South Africa, Griffith founded and edited the Irish nationalist newspaper The United Irishman in 1899. In 1904, he wrote The Resurrection of Hungary: A Parallel for Ireland, which advocated the withdrawal of Irish members from the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the setting up of the institutions of government at home in Ireland, a policy that became known as Sinn 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 the Easter 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's Ardfheis (annual convention) in October 1917, Sinn Féin became an unambiguously republican party, and Griffith resigned the presidency in favour of the 1916 leader Éamon de Valera, becoming vice-president instead. Griffith was elected as an MP for East Cavan in a by-election in June 1918, and re-elected in the 1918 general election, when Sinn Féin won a huge electoral victory over the Irish 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 the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which created the Irish 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 the Irish Civil War. Griffith died suddenly in August 1922, two months after the outbreak of that war.