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
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.