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
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".