Leader of Sinn Féin joined opposing sides with De Valera leading the Anti-Treaty faction, while Griffith joined the Pro-Treaty faction, which later became Cumann na nGaedheal. De Valera’ successor John J. O'Kelly was one of four leaders who served for brief periods of time as Sinn Féin’s party membership declined in favour of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. In 1937, Margaret Buckley became the first female President of Sinn Féin. During her thirteen years as leader, she vastly improved the relations between the IRA and the party. She was succeeded by Paddy McLogan and Tomás Ó Dubhghaill who both helped rebuild party support in
Maria Fein Lastmann, Paul Leni, Rudolf Walther-Fein, Michael Curtiz, Rudolf Meinert and Fritz Friedmann-Frederich. Following the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, Fein fled to the Netherlands and in 1941 found refuge for the duration of the war in Switzerland. Fein remained active on stage over the balance of her life in her adopted Switzerland and abroad until shortly before her death. Fein was born in Vienna to a Jewish family that reportedly at some point converted to Catholicism. She was the daughter of Fanny Süssermann and Otto Fein, editor of the Neue Freie Presse, and an older sister of Franz Fein,