History of Sinn Féin 218. De Valera resigned and formed a new party, Fianna Fáil, on a platform of republicanising the Free State from within. He took the great majority of Sinn Féin support with him along with most of Sinn Féin's financial support from America. The remains of Sinn Féin fielded only 15 candidates and won only six seats in the June election, sinking to a level support not seen since before 1916. In the August 1927 by-election following the death of Constance Markievicz, SF's Cathal Ó Murchadha gained just 2.5% of the vote. Shortly after Vice-President and de facto leader MacSwiney announced
United Irishman Press 1896-1916, The Irish Republic website United Irishman The United Irishman was an Irish nationalist newspaper co-founded by Arthur Griffith and William Rooney. It was first published on the 4th of March 1899 and ran from 1899 to 1906. Contributors included Oliver St. John Gogarty, Padraig Pearse, Maud Gonne and Roger Casement. The writer James Joyce is quoted as saying that the United Irishman was "the only newspaper of pretensions in Ireland". In 1906 the "United Irishman" collapsed under a libel suit and was refounded as "Sinn Féin", which ran until 1914 when it was suppressed by the British government.