Arthur Griffith

This article needs attention from an expert in Ireland. The specific problem is: I am checking the section about his anti-semitism. That seems rather shaky sourced and a deep check is needed. See the talk page for details. WikiProject Ireland may be able to help recruit an expert. (February 2023)

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

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.

Family and early life

Arthur Joseph Griffith was born at 61 Upper

His father had been a printer on The 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 the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). He initially supported Parnell's political views, but then decided that Parnell's political outlook was not what he thought was best for Ireland.^[5] Griffith visited South Africa from 1896 to 1898.^[6] In South Africa, Griffith supported the Boers in their campaign against British expansionism and was a supporter of Paul Kruger.^[7]

In 1899, on returning to Dublin, Griffith co-founded the weekly United Irishman newspaper with his associate William Rooney, who died in 1901.^[8] On 24 November 1910, Griffith married his fiancée, Maud Sheehan, after a six-year engagement; they had a son and a daughter.^[9]

Griffith's fierce criticism of the Irish Parliamentary Party's alliance with the British Liberal Party was heavily influenced by the anti-Liberal rhetoric of Young Irelander John Mitchel. Griffith supported the Limerick boycott, advocating shunning Jewish-owned businesses in the city.^[10][11] Griffith also supported movements seeking national independence from the British Empire in Egypt and India, and wrote a highly-critical description of the British government action at Matabele. He opposed the policies of James Larkin, but worked with James Connolly, who was a nationalist as well as a socialist.^[12]

In September 1900, he established an organisation called

In 1906, after the United Irishman journal collapsed because of a libel suit, Griffith re-founded it under the title Sinn 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]}

Foundation of Sinn Féin

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 the

Grattan's Parliament and the so-called Constitution of 1782 were still in effect. Its first president was Edward Martyn

.

The fundamental principles of abstentionism on which Sinn Féin was founded were outlined in an article published in 1904, by Griffith called

Anglo-Irish relationship, namely that Ireland should become a separate kingdom alongside Great Britain, the two forming a dual monarchy with a shared monarch but separate governments, as it was thought this solution would be more palatable to the British.^[15] This was similar to the policy of Henry Grattan a century earlier. However, this idea was never really embraced by later separatist leaders, especially Michael Collins, and never came to anything, although Kevin O'Higgins toyed with the idea as a means of ending partition

, shortly before his assassination in 1927.

Griffith sought to combine elements of

MPs should refuse to attend the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster

, but should instead establish a separate Irish parliament (with an administrative system based on local government) in Dublin.

Griffith was a staunch economic nationalist, he argued that nationalism was central to the fostering of economic growth. He often cited the works of German economist Friedrich List.^[15]

In February 1908, Sinn Féin unsuccessfully contested a by-election in

Dublin Lockout, when he saw the syndicalism of James Larkin

as aimed at crippling Irish industry for Great Britain's benefit).

In 1911, he helped to found the Proportional Representation Society of Ireland, believing that proportional representation would help to prevent animosity between unionists and nationalists in an independent Ireland.^[16]

1916 Rising

In 1916, rebels seized and took over a number of key locations in Dublin, in what became known as the

Reading Gaol at the end of 1916.^[17] When in 1917, surviving leaders of the rebellion were released from gaol (or escaped) they joined Sinn Féin en 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, under Éamon 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.[18] At that Ard Fheis, Griffith resigned the presidency of Sinn Féin in favour of de Valera; he and Fr. Michael O'Flanagan were elected Vice-Presidents. The leaders of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) sought a rapprochement with Griffith over the British threat of conscription, which both parties condemned, but Griffith refused unless the IPP embraced his more radical and subversive ideals, a suggestion which John 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.

War of Independence

Griffith seen in July 1922, a month before his death

Michael Collins with Arthur Griffith

In May 1918, along with Éamon de Valera and 72 other Sinn Féiners, Griffith was arrested on the pretext of involvement in the fictitious

British House of Commons.^[21] Griffith was returned for both East Cavan and Tyrone North West

.

Sinn Féin's MPs set up an Irish parliament,

Dáil Éireann and declared independence for the Irish Republic; the Irish 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), and Michael Collins, Minister for Finance, head of the IRB and the Irish 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 3am, on 26 November 1920, and later jailed,[22] Fr. O'Flanagan again taking over as acting leader until de Valera returned from America on 23 December.^[19] Griffith was to spend the next seven months in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison. He was released on 30 June 1921 as peace moves got under way.^{[citation needed]}

In Ireland, a general election was held on 24 May 1921 and Griffith, while still in prison, headed the poll in the contested constituency of Fermanagh and Tyrone, and was returned unopposed for Cavan. On 26 August 1921, Griffith was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in the new Irish cabinet.^[23]

Treaty negotiations and death

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 in

House of Commons of Southern Ireland followed shortly afterwards. Griffith was, however, to a great extent merely a figurehead as President of the Second 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,

cerebral haemorrhage,^[28] was also reported as being due to heart failure.^[29] He died at the age of 51, ten days before Michael Collins' death in an ambush in County Cork. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery four days later.^{[citation needed}

]

Posthumous commemoration

Griffith's grave in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Richard Mulcahy and Michael Collins at Arthur Griffith's funeral

The historian Diarmaid 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 former Clontarf home on St Lawrence Road.^[30][31]

Lucan, County Dublin are named after him. An obelisk erected in 1950 in the grounds of Leinster House commemorates Griffith, as well as Michael Collins and Kevin O'Higgins.^[32]

Views on race

Views on Jews

As editor of the

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 "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".^[33][34] Other editorials in Griffith's United 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."^[33][34] In late 1899 The 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."^[35] The powerful antisemitism found in the pages of the United Irishman during Griffth's editorial tenure has been credited with shaping various aspects of Joyce's Ulysses, especially in the "Cyclops" episode.^[34][36]

In 1904, a piece in the paper voiced support for the Limerick 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, but because 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 money-lending or similar practices.^[37][4][38] The United Irishman also published articles by Oliver St. John Gogarty that contained antisemitic sentiments, which were common in the Ireland of the time.^[39]

During this time an article in the United Irishman also expressed positive views towards Zionism; while "The Jews of Great 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 and parasites of industry" and excluded from this criticism was "the Zionist minority of the Jews, who include those honest and patriotic Jews who desire the reestablishment of the Hebrew nation in Palestine".^[39]

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.^[40] Already in 1903, he had endorsed the Temperance–Labour Councillor Albert L. Altman, a Jew, for election to Dublin Corporation.^[40][41] In 1909, he wrote a favourable article in Sinn Féin on the Jewish contribution to European civilisation, and in Nationality in 1915, he railed against the Irish Parliamentary Party for saying that Jews should be barred from public office.^[38][39] 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 Jew Matthew 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".^[39]

Griffith was a close friend of Jewish solicitor

courts martial during the Irish War of Independence, and served as an official in the First Dáil Department of Finance and as a Dáil Court judge during the war.^[42] Other Jewish Friends included Dr Edward Lipman, Jacob Elyan and Dr Bethel Solomons.^[39] Noyk and Solomons were among a group of friends who purchased a house for Griffith when he married.^[39][43]

Views on other races

Griffith held racist views towards Black people; in a preface he authored for the 1913 edition of John Mitchel's Jail Journal, Griffith argued "that no excuses were needed for an Irish Nationalist declining to hold the Negro his peer in right".

Indian nationalists.^[45][46] Griffith was particularly interested in India's Swadeshi movement.^[47]

References

1. ^ "Arthur Griffith". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 19 July 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
2. ^ "31st March 1871 - Birth of Arthur Griffith" (PDF). Civil Records on Irish Genealogy Site. Archived from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
3. ^ R.T. Jenkins, The Moravian Brethren in North Wales, (Hon. Soc. of Cymmrodorion, London, 1938, pp.82-6, 151-4; broadcast gan Karen Owen, Radio Cymru, Rhaglen Dei Tomos, 24.02.2019
4. ^ ^{a b c} Maye, Brian: Arthur Griffith, Dublin, Griffith College Publications, 1997, p. 368
5. ^ "BBC - History - 1916 Easter Rising - Profiles - Arthur Griffith". www.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
6. ^ "Arthur Griffith | president of Ireland". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
7. ^ "The rising of unlikely band of brothers". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 7 July 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
8. ^ ^{a b} Laffan, Michael. "Griffith, Arthur Joseph". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
9. ^ Arthur Griffith by Owen Magee, 2015
10. ^ Hanley, Brian. "'Jewish Fenians' and anti-Semites: the Jewish role in the Irish fight for freedom". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
11. ^ "The Limerick pogrom, 1904". History Ireland. 21 February 2013. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
12. ^ Review of Brian Maye's Arthur Griffith by Patrick Maume Archived 1 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine, History Ireland, 6:1 (Spring 1998)
13. ^ Irish Leaving cert history textbook; Movements for Political and Social Reform 1870–1914.
14. ISBN 1134320000. Archived
    from the original on 29 January 2017. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
15. ^
    ISBN 9780521650731
    .
16. ^ John Coakley and Michael Gallagher, Politics in the Republic of Ireland (Taylor & Francis, 2010), 113.
17. ^ Kennedy, Maev (21 April 2016). "Jailer complained about noisy Easter Rising prisoners, letter reveals". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
18. ^ Packenham, Frank (1974). Éamon de Valera. Arrow Books. p. 68. Archived from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
19. ^
    ISBN 978-1-78218-300-6.^{[page needed}
    ]
20. ISBN 0-7171-2744-3
21. ^ "Arthur Griffith". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 25 October 2007. Retrieved 1 June 2009.
22. ^ "MR. ARTHUR GRIFFITH (ARREST). (Hansard, 26 November 1920)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 26 November 1920. Archived from the original on 7 August 2016. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
23. ^ "THE NEW MINISTRY – Dáil Éireann (2nd Dáil) – Friday, 26 August 1921". Houses of the Oireachtas. 26 August 1921. Archived from the original on 31 August 2019. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
24. ^ "RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT – Dáil Éireann (2nd Dáil) – Monday, 9 January 1922". Houses of the Oireachtas. 9 January 1922. Archived from the original on 31 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
25. ^ "ELECTION OF PRESIDENT – Dáil Éireann (2nd Dáil) – Tuesday, 10 January 1922". Houses of the Oireachtas. 10 January 1922. Archived from the original on 31 August 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
26. ISBN 0-8204-0041-6
    .
27. ISBN 0-393-31645-9
    .
28. ^ "General Registrar's Office". IrishGenealogy.ie. Archived from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
29. ^ "Arthur Griffith Dies Suddenly" (PDF). The New York Times. 13 August 1922. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
30. ISBN 1-86197-307-1
31. ^ "Plan to delist 500 buildings defended". The Irish Times.
32. ^ The OPW – a history of service (PDF). The Office of Public Works. 2006. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 September 2012.
33. ^
    ISBN 978-0-333-38352-0
    .
34. ^
    JSTOR 30059524
    .
35. ISBN 1-85918-150-3
    .
36. JSTOR 3831591
    .
37. ISBN 9781785373145
    .
38. ^
    ISBN 978-1-78537-009-0
    .
39. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Kenny, Colum (2016). "Arthur Griffith: More Zionist than Anti-Semite". History Ireland. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
40. ^ ^{a b} Kenny, Colum (November 2016). "Arthur Griffith and Anti-Semitism". History Ireland. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
41. ^ Davison, Neil R. An Irish-Jewish Politician, Joyce's Dublin, and Ulysses(University Press of Florida, James Joyce Series, 2022), 148-151.
42. ISBN 978-1-906353-00-1
    .
43. ^ Manus O'Riordan, Citizens of the Republic, Jewish History in Ireland Archived 28 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Dublin Review of Books, Summer 2007
44. ^ Fanning, Bryan (1 November 2017). "Slaves to a Myth". Irish Review of Books (article). 102. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
45. ^ Beyond the Black Atlantic Relocating Modernization and Technology. Taylor & Francis. 2006. p. 51.
46. ^ Bonakdarian, Mansour (2006). Britain and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911 Foreign Policy, Imperialism, and Dissent. Syracuse University Press. p. 136.
47. ^ The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume IV: The Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press. 1999. p. 147.

Further reading

• Patrick Maume, The Long Gestation (Gill & Macmillan, 1999).
• There is a 2003 reprint of The Resurrection of Hungary with an introduction by Patrick Murray (University College Dublin Press).
• The Treaty Debates on-line (Dec 1921 – Jan 1922)
• Anthony J. Jordan, Arthur Griffith with James Joyce & WB Yeats – "Liberating Ireland" [Westport Books 2013]
• "Griffith, Arthur" . Thom's Irish Who's Who . Dublin: Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. 98  – via Wikisource.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arthur Griffith.

• Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins (dual memorial volume) available from the Digital Library@Villanova University
• Newspaper clippings about Arthur Griffith in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Samuel Young	Member of Parliament for Cavan East 1918–1922	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Tyrone North West 1918–1922	Constituency abolished
Parliament of Northern Ireland
New parliament	Member of Parliament for Fermanagh 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 Edward Archdale William Coote Seán Milroy William Thomas Miller James Cooper Seán O'Mahony Thomas Harbison
Oireachtas
New constituency	Teachta Dála for Cavan East 1918–1921	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Teachta Dála for Tyrone North West 1918–1921	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Fermanagh and Tyrone 1921–1922	Succeeded by Alex Donnelly
Political offices
Preceded by Michael Collins	Minister for Home Affairs 1919–1921	Succeeded by Frank Aiken
Preceded by Count Plunkett	Minister for Foreign Affairs 1921–Jan 1922	Succeeded by George Gavan Duffy
Preceded by George Gavan Duffy	Minister for Foreign Affairs Jul 1922– Aug 1922	Succeeded by Michael Hayes
Preceded by Éamon de Valera	President of Dáil Éireann 1922	Succeeded by W. T. Cosgrave
Party political offices
New post	Vice President of Sinn Féin 1905–1908 with John Sweetman (1905–1907) with Bulmer Hobson (1907–1908)	Succeeded by Bulmer Hobson
Preceded by John Sweetman	President of Sinn Féin 1911–1917	Succeeded by Éamon de Valera
Preceded by ? Thomas Kelly	Vice President of Sinn Féin 1917–1922 with Michael O'Flanagan	Succeeded by Michael O'Flanagan