In fact Francis Higgins is mentioned in the Secret Service Money Book as having betrayed Lord Edward FitzGerald.

On the nationalist side some preferred The Nation founded by Thomas Davis while others, including radical supporters of Parnell, read the United Irishman.

The collapse of the IPP in 1918, and the electoral success of Sinn Féin, saw a more radical nationalism appear that increasingly was out of step with the moderation of the Journal.

Just prior to the outbreak of the Irish Civil War in March 1922, the Freeman's Journal printing machinery was destroyed by Anti-Treaty IRA men under Rory O'Connor for its support of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

After its destruction, the newspaper refurbished buildings at 6-8 Townsend Street incorporating the former Dublin Coffee Palace however these were ultimately ransacked by anti-treaty forces in March 1922.

Its decline is reflected in "the anxious question posed in Aeolus about the Freeman’s editor, WH Brayden: 'But can he save the circulation?