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
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".