Owen McGee, “Arthur Griffith” (Merrion Press, 2015)

As the founder of Sinn Fin and a leading architect of Irish independence, Arthur Griffith ranks as one of the founding fathers of modern Ireland. In his book Arthur Griffith (Merrion Press, 2015), Owen McGee offers a biography of the writer and patriot framed within the context of the Irish nationalist movement. The son of a Dublin printer, Griffith was active in nationalist politics at an early age. His own experience in publishing led Griffith to start his own review journals, which served as a platform for his ideas and which were read by many of the leading writers and activists in Ireland. The First World War and the Rising that followed brought Griffith’s vision of parliamentary abstention into the mainstream of Irish politics, with Griffith and the other Sinn Fin victors in the general election that followed the war refusing to take their seats in Parliament and instead forming their own representative body, the Dil ireann. A leader of the nascent Irish government, Griffith served in a number of key positions and was the chairman of the Irish delegation that negotiated the controversial Anglo-Irish Treaty a treaty that partitioned the island ad plunged the new nation into a civil war that Griffith’s untimely death left for others to resolve.

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