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Categories: 1880 births | 1965 deaths | Irish heads of government | Irish Ministers for Finance | Irish politicians William T. Cosgrave(Redirected from W.T. Cosgrave)
William Thomas Cosgrave, (June 6, 1880 - November 16, 1965) served as the first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1932.
BiographyW.T. Cosgrave, as he was generally known, was born at 174 James's St, Dublin in 1880. He was educated at the Christian Brothers School at Malahide Road, Marino, before entering his father's publican's business. Cosgrave first became politicall active when he attended the first Sinn Féin convention in 1905. He was a councillor on Dublin Corporation from 1909 until 1922. He joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and fought under Eamonn Ceannt at the South Dublin Union during the Easter Rising in 1916. Following the rebellion Cosgrave was sentenced to death, however this was later commuted to penal servitude for life and he was interned in Frongoch, Wales. Whilst in prison Cosgrave won a seat for Sinn Féin in a 1917 by-election. He again won an Irish seat in the British 1918 General Election. Sinn Féin proved to be the big winner of the election in Ireland, capturing most Irish seats (the majority uncontested), with a manifesto of abstaining from Westminster. On January 21, 1919 Sinn Féin's MPs assembled in the Round Room of the Mansion House in Dublin and formed themselves into an Assembly of Ireland, in the Irish language Dáil Éireann. Cathal Brugha became Príomh Aire (First or Prime Minister), also called President of Dáil Éireann. In April 1919 Brugha resigned and Eamon de Valera, the Sinn Féin leader, who had just escaped from prison, assumed the premiership instead. The new government and state, known as the Irish Republic, claimed a right to govern the island of Ireland. It also declared UDI, that is, an illegal declaration of independence which remained until the end of the 'Republic' unrecognised by any other world state except the Russian Republic under Lenin. Cosgrave was imprisoned again in 1918, but was released after a year. He married Louisa Flanagan on June 24, 1919. Though one of the most politically experienced of Sinn Féin's MPs (by now called Teachta Dálaí), Cosgrave was not among the major leadership of the party. Nevertheless he was appointed to Eamon de Valera's cabinet as Minister for Local Government, his close friendship with de Valera (nicknamed deV) being one of the reasons he was chosen. His chief task as Minister was the job of organising non-cooperation with the British authorities and establishing an alternative system of government. Cosgrave broke with de Valera on the issue of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. To de Valera and a minority of Sinn Féin TDs, the treaty betrayed "the republic" by proposing to replace the republic by a new dominion status akin to the position of Canada or Australia within the British Empire. To a majority however, republican status remained for the moment an unattainable goal, with the republic unrecognised internationally. Dominion status offered, in the words of Michael Collins, "the freedom to achieve freedom." Cosgrave agreed 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. De Valera resigned the presidency (which in August 1922 had been upgraded from a prime ministerial President of Dáil Éireann to a full head of state, called President of the Republic). De Valera was replaced as president by Griffith. Collins in accordance with the Treaty formed a Provisional Government. In August 1922, both Griffith and Collins died in quick succession; the former died of natural causes, the latter a few days later through an assassin's bullet. With de Valera now on the fringes as the leader of the Anti-Treaty forces in the Irish Civil War, the new dominion (which was in the process of being created but which would not legally come into being until December 1922) 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 longtime politician. He became simultaneously President of Dáil Éireann (Griffith had returned his office to its pre-August 1922 name) and Chairman of the Provisional Government. When in December 1922 the Irish Free State came into being, Cosgrave became its first prime minister, called President of the Executive Council. As head of the Free State government during the Civil War, he was ruthless in what he saw as defence of the state against his former republican comrades. By many he was never forgiven for the execution without trial of republican prisoners. In all 77 republicans were executed by the Free State between November 1922 and May 1923, far more than the British executed in the War of Independence, including Erskine Childers, Liam Mellowes and Rory O'Connor. An effective and good chairman rather than a colourful or charismatic leader, he led the new state during the more turbulent period of its history, when the legislation necessary for the foundation of a stable independent Irish polity needed to be pushed through. Cosgrave's governments in particular played a crucial role in the evolution of the British Empire into the British Commonwealth, with fundamental changes to the concept of the role of the Crown, the governor-generalship and the British Government within the Commonwealth. In overseeing the establishment of the formal institutions of the state his performance as its first political leader may have been undervalued. In an era when democratic governments formed in the aftermath of the First World War were moving away from democracy and towards dictatorships, the Free State under Cosgrave remained unambiguously democratic, a fact shown by his handing over of power to his one-time friend, then rival, Eamon de Valera, when Dev's Fianna Fáil won the 1932 general election, in the process killing off talk within the Irish Army of staging a coup to keep Cosgrave in power and de Valera out of it. Perhaps the best endorsement made of Cosgrave came from his old rival, with whom he was reconciled before his death, Eamon de Valera. De Valera once in 1932 and later close to his own death, made two major comments. To an interviewer, when asked what was his biggest mistake, he said without a pause, "not accepting the Treaty". To his own son, Vivion, weeks after taking power in 1932 and reading the files on the actions of Cosgrave's governments in relation to its work in the Commonwealth, he said of Cosgrave and Cosgrave's ministers "they were magnificent, Viv." Cosgave founded the pro-treaty political party, Cumann na nGaedheal in 1923. He became leader of the Fine Gael party, which was formed through a merger of Cumann na nGaedheal and the National Centre Party and the National Guard (Blueshirts) in 1933 and served in that role until 1944, when he retired from politics. During that time he served in the largely ceremonial role of Leader of the Opposition. William T. Cosgrave died on Tuesday, November 16, 1965. The Fianna Fáil government under Seán F. Lemass awarded him the honour of a state funeral, which was attended by the cabinet, the leaders of all the main Irish political parties, and Eamon de Valera, then President of Ireland. Cosgrave's son, Liam, was leader of Fine Gael from 1965 to 1977 and Taoiseach from 1973 to 1977. His grandson, also Liam , was a TD and Senator. First Government, December 1922-September 1923
Second Government, September 1923-June 1927
Changes
Third Government, June 1927-October 1927
Changes
Fourth Government, October 1927-April 1930
Fifth Government, April 1930-March 1932
Categories: 1880 births | 1965 deaths | Irish heads of government | Irish Ministers for Finance | Irish politicians The contents of this article are licensed from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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