He followed on from legacy of his father – one of a nation builder
Brian Hayes
ANY understanding of the life of Liam Cosgrave has to be seen as a personal and political continuum with that of his father – WT Cosgrave.
They both lived long lives. They both led their party and obtained the highest political office in the State. They both believed that Ireland’s independence was rooted in democracy, the rule of law and in defending the institutions of the State at all costs.
Liam Cosgrave never denied the nationalist and revolutionary background of his father. Every year, he honoured the men of 1916 and their sacrifice in winning Irish independence.
But he always made clear – both in public and private – that his father had joined Arthur Griffith’s Sinn Féin. It was a very pointed reference to highlight the difference from those who use the name of that party today.
Liam Cosgrave loved his father and what his father’s generation had achieved. He saw the success of WT’s government as moving the country from chaos to order after the destruction of the early 1920s. And I think he saw his time in politics – a career in the Dáil of 38 long years – as building on the legacy of his father, a legacy of nation building. He stoutly defended what his father had done to bring the madness of the Civil War to an end.
While Liam Cosgrave retired from politics in 1981, as someone who met him quite a bit over the years, I know that he still kept a close eye on the political landscape. On becoming OPW minister in 2011, he rang to congratulate me and reminded me that he had appointed Henry Kenny (Enda’s father) to the same position in 1973. “I wouldn’t mind, he did a good job too.” It left me in no doubt of what was expected.
Indeed it was his clipped Dublin accent and wit that made you take note of what he had to say. When he spoke, you listened.
In recent years he spoke out more, but exclusively on the history and the political personalities of the time. He often settled a few scores, but never spoke about current events.
When Liam Cosgrave retired, he retired. But he took duties as a member of the Council of State very seriously.
The 1969-73 period saw Cosgrave face down internal party dissent and he famously backed
Taoiseach Jack Lynch on the Offences against the State Bill in 1972, despite the fact that FG was opposing it. His finest hour came in May 1970 when he forced Lynch to confront the threat of subversion to the State from those within his own cabinet.
While Cosgrave is often seen as an economic conservative, it was his government that introduced capital gains tax and a wealth tax. Liam Cosgrave’s loyal number two and finance minister Richie Ryan was famously christened ‘Red Richie’.
It was also the government that was satirised in a devastating way by ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’.
Cosgrave, like most men of the time, was socially conservative. He famously voted against his own government’s legislation on contraception in 1974.
When the 1977 election took place, the mood of the country had shifted against the Cosgrave government and of course Fianna Fáil bought the election with its promises to abolish rates, car taxes and the recently introduced wealth tax.
I met Liam Cosgrave for the last time in August in Tallaght hospital with my two sons. Despite his years and his remarkable recall, the conversation that day was all about the Galway racing festival and how the new Taoiseach was doing. At 97 years young, he was as inquisitive and as probing as ever.
It’s hard to think that Liam Cosgrave is no longer with us. And while that loss is felt most acutely among his immediate family, I cannot help believing that for many people, especially for older people in Ireland, his death marks the end of an extraordinary era.