View source for Arthur Griffith

[[File:Arthur Griffith (1871-1922).jpg|thumb|Arthur Griffith<br>Art Ó Gríobhtha]]'''Arthur Griffith''' ({{lang-ga|Art Ó Gríobhtha}}; 31 March 1872 – 12 August 1922) was the founder of [[Sinn Fein]], which became the political wing of the [[Irish Republican Army]].

Griffith's opposition to British domination was based on his rejection of the legality of the [[Act of Union 1800|Act of Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1800]], despite the treaty having been signed voluntarily between the two kingdoms. Elected to the parliament in 1918, he was also [[wikt:responsible|responsible]] for the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921) which helped set up the [[Irish Free State]].<ref>{{cite book
|title=100 Great Leaders
|last=Frederick
|first=Robert
|year=2005
|location=India
|isbn=0-7554-3390-4
}}</ref>

==Antisemitism==

Despite Griffith's role in Ireland's achievement of independence, he was known for his antisemitism<ref name="IHRA">{{cite web |website=World Jewish Congress |url=https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/working-definition-of-antisemitism |title=Working Definition Of Antisemitism |access-date=October 22, 2024}}<br>'''IHRA ''Working Definition of Antisemitism'' ''':
* Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical [[ideology]] or an [[Extremism|extremist]] view of [[religion]]. 
* '''Making [[Antisemitic trope|mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews]]''' as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a [[Antisemitic trope#World domination|world Jewish conspiracy]] or of [[Antisemitic trope#Controlling the media|Jews '''controlling the media''']], [[Antisemitic trope#Economic tropes|economy]], government or other societal institutions. 
* Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by [[Gentiles|non-Jews]]. 
* [[Holocaust denial|Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people]] at the hands of [[Nazi Germany|National Socialist Germany]] and its supporters and accomplices during [[World War II]] ([[The Holocaust|the Holocaust]]). 
* Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or [[Antisemitic trope#Fabricating or exaggerating the Holocaust|exaggerating]] the Holocaust. 
* [[Antisemitic trope#Dual loyalty|Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide]], than to the interests of their own nations. 
* Denying the Jewish people their right to [[self-determination]], e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
* Applying [[Hypocrisy|double standards]] by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other [[Democracy|democratic]] nation. 
* Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., [[Antisemitic trope#Guilt for the death of Jesus|claims of Jews killing Jesus]] or [[Antisemitic trope#Blood libel|blood libel]]) to characterize Israel or Israelis. 
* Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]].
* Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of [[Israel]].</ref>. As an editor of the ''United Irishman'', Griffith took an "[[Dreyfus Affair|Anti-Dreyfusard]]" line, writing in 1899 to defend the conviction of "the Jew traitor" Dreyfus and accuse the Dublin press of being "[[Antisemitic trope#Controlling the media|almost all Jew rags]]" and decrying<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Hadel|first=Ira B.|title=Joyce and the Jews: Culture and Texts|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=1989|isbn=978-0-333-38352-0|pages=64–66}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Goldberg|first=Gerald Y.|date=1982|title="Ireland Is the Only Country...": Joyce and the Jewish Dimension|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30059524|journal=The Crane Bag|volume=6|issue=1|pages=5–12|jstor=30059524 |issn=0332-060X}}</ref>

{{Blockquote |text=Fifty other rags like those which have nothing behind them but the forty or fifty thousand [[Antisemitic trope#Usury and profiteering|Jewish usurers]] and pick-pockets in each country and which no decent [[Christianity|Christian]] ever reads except holding his nose as a precaution against nausea.}}

Other editorials in Griffith's ''United Irishman'' that year expressed concern about a conspiracy where "the Jew capitalist has got a grip on the lying ''Press of Civilization'' from [[Vienna]] to [[New York]] and further", and concluded "we know that [[Antisemitic trope#Treachery|all Jews are pretty sure to be traitors if they get the chance]]."<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> In late 1899, the ''United Irishman'' published an article by Griffith stating:<ref name="keogh">{{cite book|last=Keogh|first=Dermot|title=Jews in Twentieth-century Ireland: Refugees, Anti-semitism and the Holocaust|publisher=Cork University Press|year=1998|page=22|isbn=1-85918-150-3}}</ref>

{{Blockquote |text=I have in former years often declared that the Three Evil Influences of the century were the Pirate, the [[Freemasonry|Freemason]], and the Jew.}} 

The antisemitism found in the pages of the ''United Irishman'' during Griffth's editorial tenure has been credited with shaping various aspects of Joyce's ''Ulysses'', especially in the "Cyclops" episode.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Davison|first=Neil R.|date=1995|title="Cyclops," Sinn Féin, and "The Jew": An Historical Reconsideration|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3831591|journal=Journal of Modern Literature|volume=19|issue=2|pages=245–257|jstor=3831591 |issn=0022-281X}}</ref> In 1904, a piece in the paper voiced support for the Limerick boycott, a boycott of Jewish businesses in [[Limerick]] organised by a local priest, declaring that

{{Blockquote |text=the Jew in Limerick has not been boycotted because he is a Jew, but because he is a usurer.}}

Griffith ignored the fact that the Jews of Limerick had little or no involvement in moneylending or similar practices.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kenny|first=Colum|title=The Enigma of Arthur Griffith: 'Father of Us All'|publisher=Irish Academic Press|date=20 January 2020|isbn=9781785373145|location=Ireland|pages=36}}</ref><ref name="Maye, Brian 1997, p368" /><ref name="McGee409">{{cite book |last1=McGee |first1=Owen |title=Arthur Griffith |date=2015 |publisher=Merrion Press |isbn=978-1-78537-009-0 |page=409 (fn 62)}}</ref> The ''United Irishman'' also published articles by Oliver St. John Gogarty that contained antisemitic sentiments, which were common among Irish Catholics back then.<ref name="Kenny1">{{cite journal |last1=Kenny |first1=Colum |title=Arthur Griffith: More Zionist than Anti-Semite |journal=History Ireland |date=2016 |url=https://www.historyireland.com/volume-24/arthur-griffith-zionist-anti-semite/ |access-date=10 February 2019 |archive-date=9 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209124309/https://www.historyireland.com/volume-24/arthur-griffith-zionist-anti-semite/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==

* [[Dublin]]
* [[Ireland]]
* [[Antisemitism]]
* [[Antisemitic trope]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

{{bio-stub}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffith, Arthur}}
[[Category:1872 births]]
[[Category:1922 deaths]]
[[Category:Irish Free State]]
[[Category:Irish republicanism]]
[[Category:Sinn Féin members of Dáil Éireann]]
[[Category:Sinn Féin MPs]]