The history of the Sinn Féin Printing & Publishing Company (SFPP) begins in March 1906 when Arthur Griffith, editor of the nationalist propaganda newspaper the United Irishman, was sued for libel by a Limerick parish priest, Father Donor.

Mr. Leslie, of Castlebellingham, who threatened the Gaelic league with his wrath for daring to hold a Feis on Sunday, has, we regret to say, found an imitator in a Catholic clergyman at the other side of Ireland – the Rev.

Griffith and the Board had, however, anticipated such an outcome and when the court-appointed bailiffs called on the Fownes Street office of the United Irishman Ltd. to collect the money, they discovered that the company had just gone into liquidation and seized the only assets they could find: a table, a few chairs and some manuscripts.

After the closure of the United Irishman Ltd., the directors did not waste any time and a draft prospectus appealing for investors was ready for inspection on 11 April 1906, the day the SFPP was set up.

[9] Both Thomas Kelly and the fruit trader Walter Cole were popular Dublin Corporation aldermen; John O'Mahony was a hotel proprietor; Henry Dixon was a lawyer and influential IRB veteran;[10] and Seumas McManus, the nationalist novelist, already had a flourishing reputation on both sides of the Atlantic.

From then until the autumn of 1910, the contract was given to An Cló Chumann, a Dublin company specialised in Irish language printing which Seumas McManus had helped to set up several years previously.

[13] The first step towards the internalisation of the printing of the newspaper was taken on 5 October 1908, approximately two years after the setting up of the company, when the board launched a subscription for a daily edition of Sinn Féin.

In spite of the reluctance of his friends to take such a financial risk, the astute Griffith was aware of a shift in Irish reading habits and was convinced that there was a market for a new daily newspaper.

[15] Supporters with limited budgets were allowed to pay in four instalments, but when a reader of the weekly newspaper, writing in the name of low-paid workers with large families, suggested the creation of savings clubs, Griffith encouraged the idea enthusiastically.

Ó Ceallaigh's minutes for this period reflect an atmosphere of general optimism: the SFPP was in contact with several suppliers of printing equipment, was recruiting personnel, and was actively looking for a new publishing office and a location for its printshop.

In contrast with the austerity of Griffith's previous publications, the Sinn Féin Daily was abundantly illustrated with cartoons, photographs and maps.

On top of that, unlike Eason & Son who paid their bills promptly every month, the smaller agents who were dotted all over the country seem to have been far less diligent and it was sometimes necessary to send a representative of the SFPP to collect overdue payments in person.

Unfortunately, after the sales record of the first weeks of the daily, probably due to the curiosity of the public, the figures dropped steadily and by Christmas had decreased by half.

[20] The Board eventually resorted to lending itself money via the Sinn Féin People's Bank and canvassing for emergency funds from wealthy Dublin businessmen sympathetic to the cause.

[21] The most important and most generous of them were the city councillor Pat Corrigan, the jeweller Myles Hopkins, and the furniture manufacturer Mac Uí Dheá.

Such was the volume and impact of Griffith's propaganda that hardcore republicans were reluctant to leave him a clear field to spread his unorthodox message.

Criticising the objective of double monarchy fixed by Griffith, The Republic also questioned Sinn Féinism as defined in the pages of his newspaper.

As a result of his tireless efforts to republicanise Sinn Féin, it was Hobson rather than Griffith who was chosen by Clan na Gael in 1907 to tour the United States and explain the movement to the Irish-American community.

[22] He also became the Irish correspondent for John Devoy's influential newspaper, the Gaelic American, and took full advantage of this position to further undermine Griffith's authority in Ireland.

Protected as he was by the law, Griffith resisted this manoeuvre without any great difficulty and the group which gravitated around Hobson and O'Hegarty withdrew in disgust from the movement.

A dramatic fall in advertising sales led to the dismissal of the majority of the personnel, and the SFPP was forced once again to subcontract the printing of the newspaper.

By the time the newspaper was banned by Dublin Castle in 1914, it had dwindled to four narrow pages containing a single block of text written exclusively by Griffith.

Ó Ceallaigh who was the only person present when the Dublin Castle official came to announce the end described this moment in his autobiography: We didn’t have a penny when we needed it most.

[25] Because of the increasingly seditious content of Sinn Féin (Griffith attacked the British war effort in every issue) it was inevitable that it would be banned.