Arthur Griffith was also elected for East Cavan, but as he did not take his seat in the United Kingdom House of Commons he could not choose which area he would represent and trigger a by-election in the other.
Sinn Féin MPs were not prepared to attend the House of Commons, to apply for the writ for a by-election, so this seat was vacant at the dissolution of Parliament on 26 October 1922.
Sinn Féin contested the general election of 1918 on the platform that instead of taking up any seats they won in the United Kingdom Parliament, they would establish a revolutionary assembly in Dublin.
In republican theory every MP elected in Ireland was a potential Deputy to this assembly.
In 1921 Sinn Féin decided to use the UK authorised elections for the Northern Ireland House of Commons and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland as a poll for the Irish Republic's Second Dáil.