Prior to the 1916 Rising Joseph Stanley had also been involved in the printing and publication of "Honesty", "The Spark", "The Hibernian" and "The Workers Republic". 

During the 1916 Easter Rising, Joseph Stanley, under the direction of Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, oversaw the printing and distribution of Irish War News and the Official Daily Bulletin. This operation was based first in the GPO and later at O’Keeffe’s on Halston Street. Stanley produced a four-page newspaper on the Rising’s first day and a handbill on the second, though subsequent dispatches never reached the public.
Arrested and imprisoned in Wales, he later safeguarded Pearse’s original drafts in a solicitor’s safe for decades. 

Between 1917 and 1921 Joseph Stanley was involved in the printing of the "An t-Óglach" newspaper, the breaking up of British Army recruitment meetings, Sinn Féin election work, and general Irish Volunteer and IRA activity in Dublin and County Louth.

During that time he also served as a District Justice in Republican Courts in County Louth, and was a member of Drogheda Corporation and Louth County Council. He took no part in the Civil War.