born March 31, 1871, Dublin, Ire.
died Aug. 12, 1922, Dublin
Irish journalist and nationalist, principal founder of Sinn Féin .
As a young man, he edited political newspapers and urged passive resistance to British rule. He lost influence with the extreme nationalists when he did not participate in the Easter Rising (1916) but regained it when the British jailed him with other Sinn Féin members. In 1918 the Irish members of the House of Commons declared a republic and chose Eamon de Valera as president and Griffith as vice president. In 1921 Griffith led the Irish delegation to the self-government treaty conference and was the first Irish delegate to accept partition, embodied in the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921). When the Dáil narrowly approved it in 1922, de Valera resigned and Griffith was elected president. Exhausted from overwork, he died soon after.