Arthur Griffith

A number of monuments stand, or have stood, around Leinster House in Dublin. Its Kildare Street frontage was in the past dominated by a large statue of Queen Victoria, which was removed in 1947. It was re-erected in the 1990s in Sydney, Australia. Facing its garden front on its Merrion Square side, stands a large triangular monument commemorating three founding figures of Irish independence, President of Dáil Éireann Arthur Griffith, who died in 1922, Michael Collins and Kevin O'Higgins.

Born in Dublin in 1872, Griffith was the founder of the Sinn Féin party and the president of the Provisional Government of the new Irish Free State of 1922. He lead the delegation to London with Michael Collins in 1921 to meet Lloyd George, out of which emerged the Treaty which divided the country into the British held 6 counties in the North, and the 26 county Free State of the South. He died in 1922 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.