W. T. Cosgrave
William Thomas Cosgrave was an Irish politician who served as the President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1932, Leader of the Opposition from 1932 to 1944, Leader of Fine Gael from 1934 to 1944, founder and leader of Cumann na nGaedheal, from 1923 to 1933, Chairman of the Provisional Government from August 1922 to December 1922, the President of Dáil Éireann from September 1922 to December 1922, the Minister for Finance from 1922 to 1923 and Minister for Local Government from 1919 to 1922. He served as a Teachta Dála from 1921 to 1944. He was also a Member of parliament for North Kilkenny from 1918 to 1922.
His son, Liam, served as Taoiseach from 1973 to 1977.
Early and private life
William Thomas Cosgrave was born at 174 James's Street, Dublin in 1880, to Thomas Cosgrave, grocer, and Bridget Cosgrave. He was educated at the Christian Brothers School at Malahide Road, Marino, before entering his father's publican business. Cosgrave first became politically active when he attended the first Sinn Féin convention in 1905.He was a Sinn Féin councillor on Dublin Corporation from 1909 until 1922 and joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913, although he never joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood because he didn't believe in secret societies.
He played an active role in the Easter Rising of 1916, serving under Éamonn Ceannt as a Captain at the South Dublin Union. Following the rebellion, Cosgrave was sentenced to death, but that was later commuted to penal servitude for life and he was interned at Frongoch internment camp, Wales. While imprisoned, he won a seat for Sinn Féin in the Kilkenny City by-election of August 1917. After his victory, he made a speech on the courthouse balcony. In September 1917, he and Michael Collins addressed a crowd in Dunboyne, County Meath, urging people to join the Irish Volunteers.
Cosgrave again won an Irish seat at the 1918 general election, this time for Kilkenny North. Although he and many other Sinn Féin MPs were still in prison at the time, 27 free Sinn Féin MPs, in accordance with their party's manifesto, refused to go to Westminster and instead formed the First Dáil, in which Cosgrave took his seat after he was released from prison in 1919. On 24 June 1919, he married Louisa Flanagan in Dublin, daughter of Alderman Michael Flanagan, a nationalist councillor on Dublin Corporation between 1884 and 1919. During his later years, Cosgrave was cared for by his son and daughter-in-law, Liam and Vera.
Political career
Minister for local government
Although Cosgrave was one of the most politically experienced of Sinn Féin's TDs, Cosgrave was not within the leadership of the party. However, when Éamon de Valera formed the Second Ministry of Dáil Éireann on 2 April 1919, Cosgrave was named as Secretary of Local Government. His close friendship with de Valera and his long experience on Dublin Corporation, most recently as chairman of its finance committee, were among the reasons he was selected. His chief task as Minister was the job of organising the non-cooperation of the people with the British authorities and establishing an alternative system of government.After the 1920 local elections, elected under the new system of single transferable vote, 28 of the 33 local councils pledged loyalty to the Ministry of Local Government established by the Dáil. These councils then cut their links to the British government.
Anglo-Irish Treaty
Cosgrave supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which had been signed on 6 December 1921. At the cabinet meeting in Dublin held to consider the Treaty immediately after it had been signed, Cosgrave surprised de Valera by agreeing with Collins and with Arthur Griffith, de Valera's predecessor as leader of Sinn Féin and the chairman of the delegation which included Collins that had negotiated the Treaty. It was narrowly supported by the cabinet in a vote of 4 to 3, and was supported by the Dáil in a vote of 64 to 57. However, de Valera voted against and resigned as president in January 1922. Griffith succeeded de Valera as president. Collins, following the Treaty, formed a Provisional Government; this included Cosgrave amongst its membership as Minister for Local Government. From July onward, he also became Minister for Finance.Chairman of the Provisional Government
The months following the acceptance of the Treaty saw a gradual progression to civil war. The split in Sinn Féin gradually deepened, and about three-quarters of the IRA were hardened against accepting anything less than a full republic. Collins and de Valera tried desperately to find a middle course and formed a pact whereby Sinn Féin fought a general election in June with a common slate of candidates. Despite this pact, the electorate voted heavily in favour of pro-Treaty candidates. On the day of the election, the draft Constitution of the Irish Free State was published; it was rejected by the Anti-Treatyites, for it was not a republican document. Collins, forced to a decision, opted to maintain the Treaty position and the support of the British government, and moved to suppress the Republican opposition that had seized the Four Courts in Dublin. The Civil War began on 28 June 1922, and the IRA was decisively defeated in the field over the following two months, being largely pinned back to Munster. In August 1922, both Griffith and Collins died in quick succession; the former of natural causes, the latter a few days later when ambushed by Republicans at Béal na Bláth, County Cork. With de Valera now on the fringes as the nominal leader of the anti-Treaty forces in the Civil War, the new dominion had lost all its most senior figures.Though it had the option of going for General Richard Mulcahy, Collins' successor as Commander-in-Chief of the National Army, the pro-Treaty leadership opted for Cosgrave, in part due to his democratic credentials as a long-time politician. Having previously held the Local Government and Finance portfolios, Cosgrave became Chairman of the Provisional Government on 30 August and President of Dáil Éirean on 9 September. He served in both offices simultaneously until 6 December 1922, when the Irish Free State came into being.
President of the Executive Council (1922–1932)
On 6 December 1922, Cosgrave was elected by the Dáil as president of the executive council. He formed the First Executive Council of the Irish Free State. Cosgrave was a small, quiet man, and at 42 was the oldest member of the Cabinet. He had not sought the leadership of the new country, but once it was his he made good use of it. One of his chief priorities was to hold the new country together and to prove that the Irish could govern themselves.Domestic policy
As head of the Free State government during the Civil War, he was ruthless in what he saw as the defence of the state against his Republican former comrades. Although he disagreed with the use of the death penalty in principle, in October 1922, he enacted a Public Safety Bill, after difficult debates, and following the offer of an amnesty, that allowed for the execution of anyone who was captured bearing arms against the state, or aiding armed attacks on state forces. He told the Dáil on 27 September 1922: "Although I have always objected to the death penalty, there is no other way that I know of in which ordered conditions can be restored in this country, or any security obtained for our troops, or to give our troops any confidence in us as a government". His view was that if harsh action were not taken, a guerrilla war could drag on indefinitely, making the achievement of law and order and establishing the Free State impossible.His army ordered courts martial on the rebels, 77 of whom were executed by firing squads by May 1923, including Erskine Childers, Liam Mellowes and Rory O'Connor, far more than the 14 IRA volunteers the British executed in the War of Independence. The Republican side, for their part, attacked pro-Treaty politicians and their homes and families. Cosgrave's family home was burned down by anti-Treaty fighters, and one of his uncles was shot dead.
Cosgrave said "I am not going to hesitate if the country is to live, and if we have to exterminate ten thousand Republicans, the three million of our people is greater than this ten thousand".
In April 1923, the pro-Treaty Sinn Féin members organised a new political party called Cumann na nGaedheal with Cosgrave as leader. The following month the Civil War was brought to an end when the remaining anti-Treaty IRA guerrillas announced a ceasefire and dumped their arms.
One of his first acts in government was to pass a Bill for the Constitution of the Irish Free State, which some TDs felt did not need to be in writing. This was done by October 1922, ahead of the establishment of the Irish Free State in December.
In the first few years in office, Cosgrave's government faced several problems. The government attempted to reduce the size of the National Army. During the Civil War, it had grown to over 55,000 men which, now that the war was over, was far too large and costly to maintain. Some army officers challenged the authority of the government to cut the size of the Army. The officers, mostly Pro-Treaty IRA men, were angry that the government was not doing enough to help create a republic and predicted massive unemployment.
When he and his position were challenged by the disgruntled Army officers of the Irish Republican Army Organisation, other politicians and soldiers took the important decisions.
In March 1924, more layoffs were expected, and army officers Major-General Liam Tobin and Colonel Charles Dalton sent an ultimatum to the government demanding an end to the demobilisation. Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins, who was also acting president for Cosgrave while the latter was in hospital, moved to resolve the so-called "Army Mutiny". Richard Mulcahy, the Minister for Defence, resigned from the Executive Council. O'Higgins was victorious in a very public power struggle within Cumann na nGaedheal. The crisis within the army was solved but the government was divided.
In 1924, the British and Irish governments agreed to attend a Boundary Commission to redraw the border which partitioned Ireland between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. The Free State's representative was Minister for Education Eoin MacNeill, a respected scholar. The Free State expected to gain much territory in heavily Catholic and republican parts of Counties Londonderry, Fermanagh, Tyrone, and Armagh, for the British government had indicated during the Treaty negotiations that the wishes of the nationalist inhabitants along the border would be taken into account. However, after months of secret negotiations, a newspaper reported that there would be little change to the border, and the Free State would lose territory in County Donegal. MacNeill resigned from the Commission and, shortly afterwards, from the government for not reporting to Cosgrave on the details of the commission. Cosgrave immediately went to London for a meeting with the British Prime Minister and the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, where they agreed to let the border remain as it was, and in return, the Free State did not have to pay its pro-rata share of the Imperial debt. In the Dáil debate on 7 December, Cosgrave stated: "I had only one figure in my mind and that was a huge nought. That was the figure I strove to get, and I got it."
Cosgrave turned down a plea for asylum in Ireland for Leon Trotsky while in exile. The request was made by the trade union leader William O'Brien in 1930. Cosgrave recorded that he:
In June 1927, a general election was held in which de Valera's new party, Fianna Fáil, won many seats on an abstentionist platform. In July the Minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, was assassinated on his way home from Sunday Mass by the IRA. The government passed the Electoral Amendment Bill to force Fianna Fáil to take their seats in the Dáil. This proved successful with de Valera and his party entering the Dáil in August of that year. Previously, without de Valera, Cosgrave faced very little opposition, giving him considerable freedom of action. However, de Valera's arrival significantly altered the situation.