Arthur Griffith (31 March 1872 – 12 August 1922) was the founder and leader of Sinn Fein, a liberal political party in Ireland that led the fight for Irish independence during the early 20th century. Griffith was a believer in a dual monarchy, and he was opposed to socialism and communism in favor of a form of anarcho-liberalism.
Biography[]
Arthur Griffith was born in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland on 31 March 1872 to a Catholic family of Welsh descent, and he became an Irish nationalist associated with the Irish Republican Brotherhood movement. Griffith saw Paul Kruger, a leader of the South African Boers during the Second Boer War against the United Kingdom, as one of his heroes; Griffith decided to fight for his own people's freedom from Britain. In 1907, Griffith founded the nationalist Sinn Fein party, and he supported the creation of a state modeled after Austria-Hungary; Britain and Ireland would be ruled by separate parliaments under a dual monarchy. Griffith was opposed to both communism and socialism, instead favoring a semi-independent Ireland that would remain a part of the UK. However, the result of the 1916 Easter Rising was that republicans such as Eamon de Valera sought to create a democratic and independent Ireland as opposed to a monarchy with ties to the British, and Griffith decided to lead the independence struggle.
Irish independence[]
Griffith in 1922
In 1919, Griffith and other Sinn Fein leaders refused to take their seats in the British House of Commons, instead proclaiming a new parliament in Ireland, the Dail Eireann; this action led to the start of the Irish War of Independence. Griffith led the Irish delegation to London in 1921, and the Irish signed a peace treaty with the British that created the "Irish Free State" as a client state of Britain. Griffith died of heart failure on 12 August 1922, just ten days before his protege Michael Collins was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army.