Liam Cosgrave

Liam Cosgrave (Irish name Liam Mac Cosgair) (born April 13, 1920), served as the fifth Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland between 1973 and 1977. The son of W.T. Cosgrave (who served as the first President of the Executive Council from 1922 to 1932), Liam Cosgrave entered Irish politics, becoming a TD in Dáil Éireann in 1944, when his father retired. He retained his seat until his own retirement in 1981. Cosgrave served as Minister for External Affairs from 1954 until 1957. During his term as Minister, Ireland joined the United Nations.

Taoiseach

Cosgrave led a National Coalition of Fine Gael and Labour to victory in the 1973 General Election. It was the first non-Fianna Fáil government since the Second Inter-Party Government was elected in 1954. Cosgrave was determined not to alienate certain wings of his party in choosing his cabinet. The cabinet was described as being the "government of all talents", including such luminaries as future taoiseach and writer Garret FitzGerald, former United Nations diplomat, Conor Cruise O'Brien, Justin Keating and others. Cosgrave was determined not to alienate certain wings of his party in choosing his cabinet.

Related Topics:
National Coalition - Fine Gael - Labour - 1973 General Election - Second Inter-Party Government - Garret FitzGerald - Conor Cruise O'Brien - Justin Keating

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In retrospect, the National Coalition is judged to have to have been one of the best in Irish history. It had however a string of bad luck. It started with the world energy crisis, with caused inflationary problems. It suffered the its first electoral defeat, when its odds-on favourite in the June 1973 presidential election, Tom O'Higgins, was unexpectedly defeated by the Fianna Fáil candidate, Erskine Hamilton Childers, who became President of Ireland.

Related Topics:
National Coalition - Inflation - Tom O'Higgins - Erskine Hamilton Childers - President of Ireland

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The presidency dogged the National Coalition. President Childers died suddenly in November 1974. The agreed replacement, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, through a brilliant former Irish Attorney-General (1946-48; 1951-53) and Chief Justice (1963-73), was monumentally politically inexperienced and it showed. He needed guidance from the politically experienced Cosgrave. Unfortunately Cosgrave was someone who did not express his feelings openly (he only informed his wife that he planned to resign on the morning he submitted it). Previously, presidents had been briefed by taoisigh (pronounced, 'thee-she', plural of taoiseach). While the frequency under the previous Taoiseach had declined as President de Valera's health declined in old age, Liam Cosgrave briefed Presidents Childers and Ó Dálaigh on average once every six months.

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Left unguided, the inexperienced Ó Dálaigh's relationship with the National Coalition deteriorated. When, in the aftermath of the assassination of the British Ambassador to Ireland, Sir Christopher Ewart Biggs, the President correctly referred a number of key anti-terrorist Bills to the Supreme Court to test their constitutionality, Paddy Donegan, an outspoken minister with a reputation for saying the wrong thing and who it turned out had a drink problem and had taken some drink that day, lashed the President as a 'thundering disgrace' in a speech to senior army officers. (Some reports in later books claimed that the term used was "thundering bollocks and fucking disgrace", a version the President told a dinner party subsequently which he evidently believed was the correct one.)

Related Topics:
Christopher Ewart Biggs - Paddy Donegan

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Donegan, an honourable man, twice offered his resignation, as well as sending a fulsome apology to the President. However, in the biggest misjudgment of his career, Cosgrave twice refused the resignation. The President, not so much angered by the outburst as the further comment, that the "army must stand behind the state", which the President interpreted as being a suggestion that he, the Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Army, didn't stand behind the state, an astonishing claim to make in front of Irish Army officers who had been commissioned by the President of Ireland. Ó Dálaigh resigned the presidency. He was replaced by the Fianna Fáil candidate, Patrick Hillery. The whole affair, and the National Coalition's treatment of an honourable if politically naïve man, severely damaged the government's reputation.

Related Topics:
Irish Army - Patrick Hillery

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Its tough anti-terrorist laws alienated the public, as did its tough austerity measures (Finance Minister Richie Ryan was nicknamed 'Richie Ruin' on a satirical TV programme). In 1977, the National Coalition was heavily defeated, with Fianna Fáil winning an unprecedented massive parliamentary majority through its infamous giveaway manifesto which would plunge the State into economic crisis during the late 1970s and much of the 1980s. In the immediate aftermath, Liam Cosgrave resigned as Fine Gael leader. He was replaced by his former Foreign Minister, Garret FitzGerald. Cosgrave did not contest the 1981 general election.

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