COSGRAVE, WILLIAM THOMAS ), Irish politician, was born in Dublin, and educated at a school of the Christian Brothers. His father, Thomas Cosgrave, was at one time a town councillor and poor-law guardian. William Cosgrave entered the grocery trade at an early age, and there was nothing in his life to indicate a career of importance. But, like most thoughtful young Irishmen who came of age about the turn of the century, he was attracted by the Sinn Fein movement. In 1913 he won a seat on the Dublin corporation in the Sinn Fein interest. Here he distinguished himself on the financial side and in 1916 was chosen chairman of the finance committee.
In 1913 he became a member of the Irish Volunteers, and when that body divided in Aug. 1914, he was with the minority who refused to follow John Redmond. At the Easter rising, 1916, he was again in an extremist minority, for he joined the section which, against the order of Prof. MacNeill, then head of the or ganization, went out to fight under Pearse. Afterwards, with other prisoners, he was detained at Frongoch in Wales until the general liberation in July 1917.
Mr. de Valera having, immediately on his release, won a seat vacant in Clare, another vacancy soon occurred in Kilkenny city. Mr. Cosgrave was nominated and elected by a large majority. Re-elected in Dec. 1918, this time for Kilkenny co., he was a mem ber of the first Dail Eireann which declared for an Irish republic and was Minister for Local Government in the first Republican Ministry. During the struggle with the British, his task was to organize the refusal of local bodies to co-operate with Dublin Castle. Like all other members of this illegal Ministry, he was the object of pursuit by the law and was more than once in prison.
During the debate in the Dail in Dec. 1921, on the newly signed treaty with Great Britain, Cosgrave's speech was one of the few that attracted attention. Later he became Minister of Local Government in the newly formed Provisional Government. In the summer of 1922 President Griffith, obliged to go to Lon don for the negotiations concerning the treaty clauses, appointed Cosgrave as his deputy, and when, on Aug. 12, Griffith suddenly died and Collins was chosen President in his place, Cosgrave became acting chairman of the Provisional Government. Ten days later Collins was shot, and Cosgrave, a simple Dublin business man, was placed by force of circumstances at the head of a state fighting for bare life. Never was promotion more sudden or more accidental. Griffith and Collins had, in their different ways, a strong hold on the popular mind; Cosgrave was unknown as a per sonality and barely recognized as a name.
As soon as the newly elected Dail could be summoned, and it could meet only behind closed doors and strongly guarded en trances, he made clear his view that the day of individual leader ship was over and team work must take its place. In that anxious period he left much of the work, especially the carrying of the draft constitution through the House, to younger and more bril liant subordinates. But he captained his team, and was always ready to shoulder responsibility. When tempers were roused he introduced a conciliatory spirit. He showed both breadth of view and a sense of humour, and endeavoured to make the Protestant minority at home in the Free State. The appointments made by his Government, especially to judicial office and the first Senate, recognized merit and capability irrespective of either politics or religion.
As President of the Irish Free State he represented Ireland when she first appeared at a conference of the Dominions in Oct. 1923; and a month earlier he was welcomed as her first spokesman at the Assembly of the League of Nations. He saw the country pass from anarchy to a state of complete order. The Ministry of Finance, which he took over at the outset, was transferred in 1923 to Mr. Blythe who proved a success; the Ministry of Defence, which he took over in April 1924, in face of a threatened mutiny in the army, was handed over easily and without comment a few months later to a new minister. In his political career Cosgrave has not been ambitious. He has never sought to thrust his per sonality into the forefront, but in Ireland, as well as overseas, he has won a reputation for good sense and moral courage.
Under his guidance the country moved steadily to settled order ; great industrial enterprises were launched with State aid, of which the Shannon electricity scheme was chief. In the Dail there was no serious opposition, since the party headed by Mr. de Valera which refused to accept the Treaty abstained from attendance. But neither Cosgrave nor his ministry enjoyed much popularity. Order is not enforced after a revolution without drastic measures, and the taxation was heavy and sharply collected. Cosgrave seemed secure of a long tenure only because there was no alterna tive in sight. In July 1927, shortly before a general election was due, the assassination of Mr. O'Higgins, the Vice President, pro duced a crisis. Very severe legislation against political associa tions of an unconstitutional character was introduced and a bill declaring that no candidature for the Dail should be accepted unless the candidate declared himself willing to sit and to take the oath of allegiance. The result of this measure was that de Valera and his party decided to come in and, since this revolu tionized the parliamentary situation, Cosgrave obtained leave to dissolve. The new election in Oct. 1927 left his party numerically the largest in the Dail but liable to defeat by a combination of the rest. A coalition with the Farmers' group followed, but even after this Cosgrave had only a majority of a few votes in the full House. Nevertheless he carried on confidently and at the opening of 1928 made a journey to America, where he was received in the most flattering manner by the President of the United States, was in vited to address the Senate at Washington, and, on the urgent re quest of the Dominion Government, extended his tour to Canada. His return to Dublin was triumphant and marked for himself a de gree of general recognition which he had never before attained : for it was now plain even to the most unwilling minds that Ire land's place as one of the free nations in the British Common wealth was recognized throughout the world. Cosgrave remained president until his party's defeat in 1932. (S. G.)