Voting Station

Arthur Griffith

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World Leader

The Resume

    (March 31, 1872-August 12, 1922)
    Born in Dublin, Ireland
    Advocate for Irish independence
    Co-founded the newspaper 'United Irishman' (1910)
    Founding member of Sinn Fein (1905)
    Chaired the Irish delegation negotiating the Anglo-Irish Treaty establishing the Irish Free State (1921)
    President of the Irish Republic (January-August, 1922)

Why he might be annoying:

    He praised the Russian czars and Kaiser Wilhelm II as morally superior to Britain.
    His position that Ireland and Britain should form a dual monarchy (similar to Austria-Hungary) led to repeated clashes with backers of a republic, such as Eamon de Valera.
    He wrote, 'I have in former years often declared that the Three Evil Influences of the century were the Pirate, the Freemason, and the Jew.'
    He wrote anti-semitic articles about the Dreyfus affair even after Alfred Dreyfus was pardoned.
    He supported a boycott in Limerick of businesses owned by Jews.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was born with misshapen feet.
    Despite his anti-semitic writing, he was good friends with Jewish attorney Michael Noyk, who defended IRA and Sinn Fein members in court.
    He was arrested by the British after the Easter Rebellion even though he had not taken part in it (1916).
    The Earl of Birkenhead, one of the British negotiators of the Anglo-Irish treaty, said, 'A braver man than Arthur Griffith I never met.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 15 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 90.91% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 133 Votes: 42.11% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 16 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 8 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 13 Votes: 61.54% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 12 Votes: 58.33% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 56 Votes: 76.79% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 14 Votes: 71.43% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 14 Votes: 78.57% Annoying