Almirall was a student of the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona but had to leave after criticising the Professor Claudi Lorenzale.

He participated in the preparation and the facts of the revolution of 1868 in Barcelona, directed the newspaper El Federalista (The Federalist) and collaborated with the Federal-Republican Journal, where he published leaflets quite radical like Guerra a Madrid!

[citation needed] Between 1868 and 1881 he was a member of the Federal Democratic Republican Party (PRDF).

Between 1868 and 1869 he guided the publication of El Federalista, characterized by the dogmatism, intransigence, maximalism and idealism of its ideas.

In 1882 he founded the Centre Català which tried to bring together all the Catalan cultural and regionalist associations under one umbrella organisation.