Patrick Smith (politician) career, Smith being said to have shouted across the floor at Dáil Éireann, "They gave us stepping-stones, but they [state forces in 1922] would not walk on them." A play on the same quote by Irish revolutionary, Michael Collins. He entered the Dáil in September 1923, as a Republican candidate. In 1926, Éamon de Valera, the Leader of Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein, approached Smith and persuaded him to join his newly founded political party, Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fail abandoned the abstentionist policy of Anti Treaty Sinn Fein and its elected members took their seats in Dáil Éireann. De Valera and Smith
Sinn Féin (newspaper) Patrick, the Virgin Mary, and The Pilgrim’s Progress, and reflects the explicitly religious language of the Sinn Féin propagandist Robert Lynd. Through "The United Irishman" and "Sinn Féin" Griffith demonstrated the need to arrogate legislature from the hands of the British by transferring Irish Parliament back to Dublin. However, Irish Parliamentary parties quite clearly could not agree to Griffith's urgings, as such a move would undermine the foundation of their existence in Westminster. "Sinn Féin" thus served as conduit for Griffith's opposition to The Act of Union 1800. Sinn Féin (newspaper) Sinn Féin was a weekly Irish nationalist newspaper edited