On 28 November 1905, Arthur Griffith presented his “Sinn Féin policy” at the first annual convention of the National Council. Griffith, a writer and journalist, articulated a political platform centred on establishing “a national legislature endowed with the moral authority of the Irish nation”.

Griffith had created the National Council in 1903 to campaign against King Edward VII’s visit to Ireland. The Sinn Féin (“We Ourselves”) policy, meanwhile, was heavily influenced by Griffith’s 1904 work, The Resurrection of Hungary: A Parallel for Ireland.

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Griffith advocated a dual monarchy solution, modelled on the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, in which Ireland would be a separate kingdom alongside Great Britain. Griffith argued that Acts of Union of Great Britain and Ireland (1800) were, in fact, illegal. He believed that the Anglo-Irish dual monarchy and the Constitution of 1782, which provided Ireland with legislative independence, were still in effect.

Griffith, influenced by the tactics adopted by dissidents in Hungary, proposed a strategy of abstentionism and passive resistance. He argued that Irish nationalist MPs should withdraw from Westminster to form a national assembly in Dublin.

In The Resurrection of Hungary, Griffith argued: “The Hungarians resorted to a manly policy of passive resistance and non-recognition of Austria’s right to rule – the Irish resorted to parliamentarianism, implying recognition of an English right to rule this country.

“And one nation today is rich, powerful and able to defy her conqueror, while the other is poor, weak and more tightly held in the conqueror’s grasp.”

The party’s foundation represented a political challenge to the hegemonic Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), which pursued home rule as a constitutional nationalist force.

Sinn Féin was initially unsuccessful in electoral terms, however. In the 1908 North Leitrim by-election, the Sinn Féin candidate, Charles Dolan, secured 27% of the vote; the IPP’s Francis Meehan won 72.8% of the vote and a majority of 1,946.

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On Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, an armed insurrection against British rule began in Dublin.

The Easter Rising, marked by the proclamation of an Irish republic, was initially met with bemusement and even hostility from many Dubliners. However, the week of fierce fighting, the destruction of much of central Dublin by artillery fire, and the British government’s hardline response – including large-scale arrests, the killing of civilians and the execution of rebel leaders – radicalised public opinion.

Griffith did not take part in the rising. But the British press and political class labelled it the “Sinn Féin Rebellion”. (Nationalists seen as more radical than the IPP were generally referred to as “Sinn Féiners”.)

The IPP’s mode of constitutional nationalism did not survive the Easter Rising as public opinion shifted decisively towards Sinn Féin. In February 1917, Count George Noble Plunkett – father of the executed leader Joseph Plunkett – won the North Roscommon by-election as an independent “Sinn Féiner” nationalist.

In May, Sinn Féin’s Joseph McGuinness, won the South Longford by-election with a majority of 37 over the IPP candidate. At the time, McGuinness was serving a prison sentence for his role in the Easter Rising; Sinn Féin’s campaign slogan was “Put him in to get him out”.

In July, Éamon de Valera, recently released from imprisonment for his role in the Easter Rising, won the Clare East by-election with 71.1% of the vote. Finally, in August 1917, Sinn Féin’s W. T. Cosgrave won the Kilkenny City by-election with 66.3% of the vote.

At the October 1917 Ard Fheis, a motion was agreed defining Sinn Féin’s goal as “securing the international recognition of Ireland as an independent Irish republic.”

Sinn Féin’s constitution also reflected initial tensions between republican and monarchist nationalists. The agreed motion added: “Having achieved that status the Irish people may by referendum freely choose their own form of government.”

The party’s new constitution continued: “Whereas no law made without the authority and consent of the Irish people is or ever can be binding on their conscience.

“Therefore in accordance with the resolution of Sinn Féin adopted in convention, 1905, a constituent assembly shall be convoked, comprising persons chosen by the Irish constituencies as the supreme national authority to speak and act in the name of the Irish people and to devise and formulate measures for the welfare of the whole people of Ireland.”

At the 1917 Ard Fheis, Griffith also stepped aside to allow de Valera to become president of the party. Sinn Féin was shifting steadily to unambiguous republicanism.

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The Easter Rising, in reshaping the Irish political landscape, effectively created the conditions for Sinn Féin’s replacement of the IPP as the spokesperson for nationalism. At the 1918 general election, the party – founded just 13 years previously – won 73 out of 105 Irish seats. The IPP secured six seats – a net loss of 74.

Among the successful Sinn Féin candidates were Griffith, in East Cavan, and Constance Markievicz, who became the first woman elected to the House of Commons.

In line with the Sinn Féin policy, neither Griffith, Markievicz nor any successful Sinn Féin candidate took up their seats. Instead, the Sinn Féin representatives assembled at the Mansion House in Dublin on 21 January 1919 to form Dáil Éireann.

The first act of Dáil Éireann was to declare Irish independence.

The Sinn Féin representatives resolved: “Now, therefore, we, the elected representatives of the ancient Irish people in national parliament assembled, do, in the name of the Irish nation, ratify the establishment of the Irish Republic and pledge ourselves and our people to make this declaration effective by every means at our command.”

The revolutionary parliament also resolved that a state of war existed “between Ireland and England”. The Irish Volunteers, formed in 1913 to reinforce nationalist demands for home rule, were restyled as the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

The IRA waged a guerrilla campaign against the British Army in the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921).

Griffith succeeded de Valera as president of the Dáil in January 1922. This followed the Sinn Féin schism over the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which brought an end to the war of independence and established the Irish Free State.

Instead of a sovereign republic, the treaty provided for dominion status, which meant Ireland would remain in the British Empire. Griffith, having been part of the negotiating team, was among the Sinn Féiners who backed the treaty; de Valera remained bitterly opposed. This schism paved the way for the Irish Civil War, which was fought from June 1922 to May 1923.

Griffith died on 12 August 1922 of heart failure, aged 51.