Éamon de Valera Irish independence. He was arrested, sentenced to death but released for a variety of reasons, including the public response to the British execution of Rising leaders. He returned to Ireland after being jailed in England and became one of the leading political figures of the War of Independence. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, de Valera served as the political leader of Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein until 1926, when he, along with many supporters, left the party to set up Fianna Fáil, a new political party which abandoned the policy of abstentionism from Dáil Éireann. From there, de Valera would
William Bulfin Cross", and shortly afterwards he was both proprietor and editor of that paper. The sketches he wrote were published in "The Southern Cross" and also, due to his friendship with Arthur Griffith, in the "United Irishman" and "Sinn Féin". Eventually they reached the "New York Daily News". They were published in book form in 1907 by Gill. In 1902 he wrote "Rambles In Eirinn", a well-regarded account of his travels around Ireland by bicycle on his return to his homeland. He became ill during a visit to the United States fundraising with The O'Rahilly for Arthur Griffith's newspaper "Sinn Fein".