Courtney McGrailJudging W.T. Cosgrave: The Foundation of the Irish State
by Michael Laffan
(Royal Irish Academy, €30)
Felix M. Larkin
It seems to me that whereas Fianna Fáil would claim to embody the spirit of the Irish nation, Fine Gael sees itself as the champion of the Irish state. That self-image is Fine Gael’s inheritance from W.T. Cosgrave, as Michael Laffan’s new book about Cosgrave makes abundantly clear.
This is a splendidly produced and lavishly illustrated volume, the third in the series published by the Royal Irish Academy, which also includes Judging Dev by Diarmaid Ferriter and Judging Lemass by Tom Garvin.
Cosgrave was not, however, the first leader of Fine Gael; strictly speaking, that distinction belongs to General Eoin O’Duffy. Cosgrave was its second leader, serving from 1934 to 1944, but he had led its antecedent, Cumann na nGaedheal, from its inception until 1933.
More importantly, of course, from 1922 to 1932 he was the first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, the equivalent of the Taoiseach today, and it is largely on his record in that capacity that he is to be judged.
Laffan’s verdict echoes that of Dublin Opinion magazine. It published a cartoon on the occasion of Cosgrave’s retirement from public life in which the iconic female figure of Ireland is shown introducing Cosgrave to an elderly robed gentleman with the words: “Mr Cosgrave, this is History. I’ve a kind of feeling he’s going to do you rather well.”
Laffan argues that it was largely due to Cosgrave’s leadership that independent Ireland became – and remained – a democratic, constitutional state despite our bitter civil war and at a time when most of Europe was descending into totalitarianism.
Laffan notes six instances when Cosgrave’s actions were crucial in this regard. Firstly, his was the swing vote when the Dáil Éireann cabinet accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty by four votes to three in December 1922, thus avoiding the resumption of war with the British and opening the way to the establishment of a native government with a popular mandate.
Government control
Secondly, he moved decisively to bring the army under government control after Michael Collins’s death – Collins having established what was essentially a military dictatorship in the last months of his life in order to have a free hand in prosecuting the civil war. Incidentally, Laffan is somewhat critical of Collins and of his “dynamic but dangerous impetuosity” – in contrast to Cosgrave’s sober style of leadership.
Thirdly, Cosgrave consolidated civilian control of the army after the mutiny in 1924. Fourth, in the wake of Kevin O’Higgins’s assassination in 1927, he forced de Valera and Fianna Fáil to abandon its policy of abstention from Dáil Éireann. Fifth, he dutifully handed over power to Fianna Fáil when his party, Cumann na nGaedheal, was defeated in the 1932 general election.
And finally, when General O’Duffy and his paramilitary Blueshirt movement imploded, he re-asserted the primacy of parliamentary opposition to the new Fianna Fáil government and replaced O’Duffy as leader of Fine Gael.
There are some blots on Cosgrave’s record as a constitutional leader – noted by Laffan, but perhaps downplayed by him. The most damning are the extra-judicial executions during the civil war – state-sponsored reprisals, unworthy of any state espousing democratic values and the rule of law. The fact that they were effective in countering republican threats to the institutions of the new state is, from a constitutional perspective, irrelevant.
In addition, Cosgrave’s government undermined its own constitution – the 1922 constitution of the Irish Free State – by serially amending it and, in a particular outrage against constitutional propriety, doubled the period from eight to 16 years during which it could be amended by ordinary legislation (rather than by referendum).
Cosgrave’s acquiescence in the Blueshirt movement, albeit temporary and reluctant, also did him no credit. I think Laffan, by dismissing the Blueshirts as “an embarrassing parenthesis”, underestimates their potential threat to democracy in Ireland.
Thankfully, none of these regrettable matters had any long-term effect in undoing Cosgrave’s great achievements in the constitutional sphere – and so, on balance, “history” can indeed do him rather well.
Michael Laffan has certainly done him well, and his excellent book is a fine tribute to a man who can justly be described as the architect of the independent Irish state.