A true patriot who stood by the Republic

Liam Cosgrave 1920 – 2017 Obituary & analysis: Pages 2-5

FORMER Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave has died in Dublin at the age of 97.

Mr Cosgrave, who led a successful Fine GaelLabour Coalition from 1973 until 1977, was the son of the first head of government of the Irish Free State, WT Cosgrave.

He was the last surviving Taoiseach born prior to the foundation of the State. Father and son dominated Irish political life for six decades.

Mr Cosgrave had been in Tallaght Hospital for some months. Last month, illness forced him to miss his first All-Ireland finals since the 1930s.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described him as “a courageous voice against terrorism”. He added: “Throughout his life, he worked to protect and defend the democratic institutions of our State.”

Mr Cosgrave is chief ly remembered as a staunch defender of Irish constitutional nationalism against serious threats from the IRA and other paramilitary violence through the 1970s.

His government took a hardline anti-terrorist stance as violence in the North threatened to spill into the Republic.

LIAM Cosgrave had an early childhood memory of the acrid smell of burning timber as he and his family watched their home burn to the ground on January 3, 1923, at the height of the Civil War.

He also had a life-long vivid recall of events on July 10, 1927, when his father returned from a prolonged late-night cabinet meeting which discussed the government response to the IRA murder of justice minister Kevin O’Higgins.

Distraught with worry, his mother was convinced her husband had also been gunned down as he was so late returning, and his father’s profound upset left an indelible impression on the then seven-year-old boy.

These two vignettes remind us that the death of former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, at the age of 97, severs a direct personal link with the tumultuous events around the hard birth of the new Irish State. He was also a central figure in his own right in Irish public life for 40 years, serving in two governments, leading Fine Gael, and finally holding office as Taoiseach in the years 1973-77.

Since quitting politics, before the June 1981 general election, he has shunned the limelight, devoting a remarkable retirement of 36 years to his passion for race horsing and his love of all sports, especially hurling. His mental and physical vigour belied his age, but the death of his wife of 56 years, Vera, in September 2016, coincided with a decline in his health.

Liam Cosgrave was born in Dublin on April 13, 1920. His father, William T Cosgrave, had been sentenced to death for his leading role in the Easter Rising, but he was reprieved and briefly jailed.

Later, ‘WT’ served as minister for local government trying to organise a parallel council network to report to the First Dáil, while also on the run from the British authorities with a IR£3,500 reward for his arrest. WT’s backing for the Treaty, which ended the War of Independence, was crucial defeating the Treaty opposition of Éamon de Valera inside cabinet and later in the Dáil.

After the untimely deaths in of Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, WT Cosgrave became the first officially recognised head of the Irish Government, a post he held from 1922 until 1932. Despite fears of a renewed Civil War or a decline into dictatorship, Cosgrave handed over the reins of government to his rival, Éamon de Valera, and kicked off decades of Fianna Fáil versus Fine Gael rivalry.

In 1933, WT Cosgrave founded the restructured Fine Gael from Cumann na nGael and other groups. He led this party in opposition until his retirement from politics in 1944.

Liam Cosgrave remained close to his father right up to his death in 1965. He would later say his devotion to democratic politics and the rule of law owed much to his father’s influence. For a year in 1943/44 both father and son were sitting TDs.

After school, at Synge Street in Dublin and Castleknock College, he began legal studies at King’s Inns and practiced as a barrister. He also served in Irish Army, first as a private, and later as lieutenant during World War II, known in Ireland as the “Emergency.”

But he resigned from the army in 1943 when he was elected Fine Gael TD for Dublin County. In 1948, he moved constituency to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown where he served for 33 years.

Even as Taoiseach he remained a very assiduous constituency TD, and one contemporary recalls him paying as much attention to local matters, as reported in the ‘Evening Herald’, as he ever did to affairs of state. Aged just 28, he was appointed to the pivotal post of government chief whip in the first inter-party government in 1948.

THIS was a combination of parties and independents whose only common goal was to oust Fianna Fáil after 16 years in power. Many years later, Liam Cosgrave would recall the demands for the job, trying to give direction to a diverse group, many of whom had never even been members of a town council.

In the second inter-party government, 1954-57, he served as external affairs minister, a period in which Ireland joined the United Nations. In 1965 he succeeded the flamboyant James Dillon as leader of Fine Gael, which was again trying to break Fianna Fáil’s grip on power.