After Knox's death in 1873, the paper was sold to the widow of Sir John Arnott, a Member of Parliament (MP), a former Lord Mayor of Cork and owner of Arnotts, one of Dublin's major Department stores. The sale, for £35,000, led to two major changes. Its headquarters was shifted to 31 Westmoreland Street, remaining in buildings on or near that site until 2005. Its politics also shifted dramatically, becoming predominantly Unionist in outlook, and it was closely associated with the Irish Unionist Alliance. The paper, along with the "Irish Independent" and various regional papers, called for the execution of the leaders of the failed 1916 Easter Rising.