able to use British law to their own advantage." Austin Molloy For the first few years of its existence the circulation of Sinn Féin was limited. From January 1909 onwards, however, Griffith attempted to attract new readers by publishing a daily newspaper with sensational articles from overseas, a fashion column aimed at women readers, and a new graphic approach. Thanks to the purchase of two brand new Linotype machines, the newspaper became more attractive from a typographical point of view and easier to read. The addition of images gave Sinn Féin a far less austere look and at the same time significantly improved its commercial appeal, with sales reaching a peak of 64,000 in September 1909. Foremost among these images were the large political cartoons which regularly appeared on the front page. This user-friendly graphic discourse translated the National question into a series of emotionally charged life and death struggles set against familiar mythical and literary backdrops. At the same time, it illustrated Griffith's instructions to the individual Sinn Féiner, indicating the path to follow and the dangers to avoid. The man responsible for these cartoons was the Dublin born designer, illustrator, and stained glass artisan Austin V. Molloy. At the age of twenty two Molloy was hired by the Sinn Féin Printing & Publishing Company to provide cartoons at a rate of 1 shilling and 6 pence per week. His work appeared in the newspaper between August 1909 and April 1911. As was the case for many of the contributors to Sinn Féin, Molloy used the Irish version of his name, Maolmhuidhe, to sign his contributions. It is only by consulting the minutes of meetings of the board of directors of the newspaper company that we can identify him as the Austin Molloy who trained at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art between 1909 and 1916, at the same time as his more famous friend Harry Clarke. The art historian Theo Snoddy describes him as 'the main follower' of Clarke at the school but, although his illustrations from the 1920s onwards are unmistakably influenced by the work of his friend, his earlier work, which includes his cartoons for Sinn Féin, reveals his debt to the principal book illustrators at the turn of the century, chief among them being Jack B. Yeats. His cartoons provide us with a snapshot of the issues preoccupying Sinn Féin's propagandists between 1909 and 1911,