Endemic inefficiency and corruption in local government were addressed largely through taking control of personnel and financial matters out of the hands of elected councillors and entrusting them to professional administrators, culminating in the introduction of city and county management in 1929 (an innovation denounced as undemocratic by de Valera, but one which his government strengthened in 1941). In effect over a quarter of the electorate in the first Free State election supported a party … Despite British pressure Ireland pursued her own course in the League of Nations, managed her own diplomatic relations, and became the first dominion to establish a legation in Washington. So Cumann na nGaedheal only successfully addressed the issue of uneconomic holdings in districts with untenanted land. When republican prisoners went on mass hunger strike that autumn, the government held firm and the strike broke. Dillon was Minister for Agriculture in the two inter-party governments of 1948-51 and 1954-57 under John A. Costello as Taoiseach. With the help of his able assistant minister, Kevin O'Higgins (qv), he achieved a good deal. Cosgrave's personal life was a conventional and happy one. He has also been criticised for his economic conservatism (as though obvious alternatives to sound money and cautious protectionism were freely to hand), for his deference to the catholic church, and generally for a want of modernity in his outlook. This article is a case study of the failure of Cumann na nGaedheal land policy in west Galway. Talk:Cumann na nGaedheal. Although the Cumann na nGaedheal party which he founded and the Fine Gael party which he led came to be associated with the more prosperous and more conservative elements of Irish society – strong farmers, the professions, the worlds of finance and commerce – Cosgrave was of humbler stock and was proud of it. The first government of the new State was headed by W.T. Have a fact about Cumann na nGaedheal ? Cumann na nGaedheal also sent Ambassadors to many countries starting with the USA. ), Documents on Irish foreign policy, ii (2000), iii (2002); Eunan O'Halpin, Defending Ireland: the Irish state and its enemies since 1922 (2000); ODNB. On 6 December 1922, on the formal establishment of the Irish Free State, Cosgrave became president of the executive council. Leader of the opposition 1932–44 Courteous as ever, in the aftermath of the traumatic election defeat he wrote to the celebrated rugby player Eugene Davy (qv), who had been persuaded to run as a Cumann na nGaedheal candidate in Dublin: ‘I much regret that my anticipations were not realised – but I would like to assure you that I was firmly convinced you would win. Thereafter he publicly defended the cabinet's decision and the treaty itself with resolution and without reservation. Cosgrave received honorary degrees from Cambridge University, TCD, NUI, Columbia University, New York, and from the Catholic University, Washington. Achievements of Cumann na nGaedheal 1923-32. Governor General (Lived in Phoenix Park) Garda set up (unarmed) Courts (copied British Model) Public Safety Act (wide powers of arrest) The Army … The record of its achievements, as cataloged in The Cosgrave Party, includes the preservation of Irish democracy, the promotion of Irish pride at home and abroad, the winning of Irish sovereignty through the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and the aggressive countering of Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil in Free State elections. The result was a shattering blow to all nationalists, leading to a hasty agreement between Dublin, London, and Belfast to leave well enough alone. Cosgrave blamed de Valera personally for the treaty split, and avoided direct contact with him for decades. But Cosgrave was cast in a different mould. By 1911 he was a member, and from 1915 he was chairman, of the influential finance committee – this despite the fact that by then his party's corporation representation had fallen to just three. Notwithstanding the strength of republican sentiment in Irish émigré circles, in both countries he was greeted with considerable public as well as official enthusiasm. Reputation As a pro-treaty political figure Cosgrave has sometimes been unfavourably compared with others, particularly the stellar Michael Collins and the ambitious and acerbic Kevin O'Higgins and his UCD-educated acolytes, as a man whose administrative skills could not obscure his lack of political talent and the poverty of his political imagination. IFS - Dominion of GB-parliament/ Oireachtas-Dail Eireann and Seanad Eireann. It was therefore ironic that almost the last significant public duty which fell to the aged President de Valera was to appoint Cosgrave's son Liam as taoiseach following the surprise defeat of Fianna Fáil in the February 1973 general election. Nevertheless, Cosgrave remained in office and his government continued to function effectively for another four years, despite acute economic difficulties as the impact of world economic depression spread to Ireland. Their main job was to rebuild the new Free State after the destruction of the Civil war. Under threat of assassination, he wrote a note forgiving whoever might kill him. He picked up further hints that a rising was planned, but like most of the Volunteers had no direct knowledge of what was envisaged for Easter 1916. There is evidence that while de Valera came to regret the depth of that estrangement, Cosgrave did not. From the outset Cosgrave and his ministers were clear that Anglo–Irish relations should be conducted on a basis not of subservience but of equality. Cosgrave's relations with de Valera's successor as taoiseach, Seán Lemass (qv), were rather warmer. Oath of Allegiance to King required. Parliamentary life was harder and far more rancorous with Fianna Fáil in opposition. This letter shows a side of Cosgrave which his later career as a sober and steady statesman tended to obscure, his early radicalism and his antagonism towards Britain as the source of Ireland's woes. It is scarcely to the credit either of Cosgrave or of his party colleagues that they encouraged the British in this shortsighted approach, although it reflected the despair that had set in after their defeat left all that they had achieved, domestically and internationally, in the hands of the enemy. It changes its colours in response to threats and to pursue its own survival and success. There was also an element of excitement surrounding O'Duffy, who was as, Cosgrave well knew from O'Duffy's time as Garda commissioner, a charismatic but impetuous, bombastic, and unstable man who had little faith in parliamentary democracy and revanchist views on partition. Yet no great storm broke about Cosgrave's head in the dáil, for the simple reason that his main opponent Eamon de Valera and his Sinn Féin TDs were still committed to their policy of abstention from the Oireachtas. Write it here to share it with the entire community. Cumann na nGaedheal was the name of the antecedent nationalist umbrella organisation to Sinn Féin formed in 1900 (see Cumann na nGaedheal (1900)). His most resonant epitaph was provided not by his Irish friends or his foreign admirers – London was always inclined to think rather better of him than was strictly merited by his record of resolute pursuit of Irish interests at the expense of British imperial suzerainty up to 1932 – but by an erstwhile opponent. I think this article should include reference to crises under Cumann na nGaedhael including the Boundary Crisis of 1925, when the … In the spring of 1916 Thomas MacDonagh (qv) told him that there would soon be a rising and asked him for his views: ‘I told him it would be little short of madness – as we lacked men and munitions . Laws to establish new institutions and to reshape inherited ones flowed through the Oireachtas. This proved to be an opportunistic crime, but might well have presaged a campaign of assassination. Using his detailed knowledge of the locality he advised his commander Éamonn Ceannt (qv) on the best disposition of his small force around the complex. Elected in December 1918 for Kilkenny North (which he represented until 1922), he was also elected for Carlow–Kilkenny in 1921 and represented the latter constituency until September 1927, when he was also returned for Cork borough, which he represented until 1944. De Valera and refused to enter the Dáil. In William Thomas Cosgrave …helped found the political party Cumann na nGaedheal (“Party of the Irish”) in April 1923 and became its leader—represented Ireland at the Imperial Conference in October 1923. Even now it appears that with a little more time better results would have been obtained’ (Cosgrave to Eugene Davy, 24 Feb. 1932, letter in possession of the Davy family). It examines local reactions to the Land Act, 1923, local repercussions when nothing changed and 1920), became both leader of Fine Gael (1965–77) and taoiseach (1973–7). Much has been made of the intellectual abilities and energies of other members of the executive council, in particular the three lawyers Kevin O'Higgins, Patrick McGilligan (qv) and Patrick Hogan (qv), a coterie with a perhaps exalted idea of their own talents; on his death a former colleague, like that troika a UCD lawyer, spoke of the ‘strong personalities’ whom Cosgrave had around him: ‘You can imagine what it is to have a driver driving a team of high-spirited horses’. Cosgrave’s greatest achievement was to establish stable democratic government in Ireland after the civil war of 1922–23. In January 1928 he visited the US and Canada, making radio broadcasts extolling the achievements of the new Ireland in both countries. pronouncekiwi. Cosgrave became chairman while O'Duffy, as president, took the lead in confronting both the Fianna Fáil government and the republican movement. He did contribute substantial entries on Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins to the DNB, and helped at least one of Collins's biographers. He gained a reputation across the political spectrum not only for integrity but for efficiency. In retirement after 1944, he appeared a somewhat solitary figure. Cosgrave's young stepbrother, Frank ‘Gobban’ Burke, was killed by a sniper while on guard duty, something for which Cosgrave always felt partly responsible as he had encouraged him to join the Irish Volunteers. In his statement to the Bureau of Military History, Cosgrave concentrated on providing an overview of the fighting and its aftermath in the western part of the city, and on the work of the underground dáil department of local government in 1919 and 1920. The most dramatic single event of Cosgrave's decade in power was the murder (July 1927) of the vice-president, Kevin O'Higgins, who was Cosgrave's heir apparent and widely recognised, not least by himself, as the ablest member of the government. 1900). In March 1924 a faction of army officers with grievances about demobilisation and promotions threatened mutiny; in the midst of this challenge Cosgrave fell ill, and it was left to his cabinet colleagues to deal with the crisis. • A … WikiProject Ireland (Rated Start-class, High-importance) ... Could people agree to get together in an attempt to expand this article and attempt to define the ideology and achievements of Cumann na nGheadheal? The accusation that de Valera was the Irish Kerensky was frequently levelled during the general election campaign of February 1932, but it did not have the desired result. Almost alone of the revolutionary elite of 1919–22, he had already been successful in electoral politics and had experience of managing public affairs at the municipal level. Educated by the Christian Brothers, he left school at 16 to work in the family business. Upbringing It would be as unwise to ignore Cosgrave's modest background as to harp on it. . . . In City Hall he made his name not as a firebrand but as an adroit reformer who mastered the art of steering committees towards desired conclusions. Cumann na nGaedheal (Irish pro­nun­ci­a­tion: [ˈkʊmˠənˠ nˠə ˈŋeːl̪ˠ]; "So­ci­ety of the Gaels"), some­times spelt Cumann na nGaedhael, was a po­lit­i­cal party in the Irish Free State, which formed the gov­ern­ment from 1923 to 1932. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. (b) Achievements of the Cumann na nGaedheal government 1922-32 The leader of the new Free State government was William Cosgrave. Cosgrave made a very favourable impression internationally, earning a reputation for modesty, for decency, and for economy with words. The buffer state: the historical roots of the Department of the Environment, Defending Ireland: the Irish state and its enemies since 1922. He was certainly not one to dictate policy or to interfere in details, but it does not follow that he failed to lead. When a German invasion seemed a real possibility in June 1940, he and de Valera spoke from the same platform in Dublin to urge Irishmen to join the defence forces. He was an active and diligent officer, and displayed initiative during the Howth gun-running in July 1914. His patriotic defence of neutrality, despite his antagonism towards de Valera, was a significant element in British assessment of Irish affairs. This is a video on Cumann na nGaedheal, the first Independent Irish Government. This is a video on Cumann na nGaedheal, the first Independent Irish Government. I have the greatest admiration for him’ (Mackenzie King diary, 30 Jan. 1928). Despite attempts by the egregious Garda commissioner Eoin O'Duffy (qv) to organise a military coup, a plan which Cosgrave knocked on the head, the handover of power was peaceful and smooth. But in general he chose to say very little about the history of the Irish revolution and the founding decade of independence. Dáil Éireann Elected in a by-election as Sinn Féin MP for Kilkenny city in May 1917, not long after his release from prison in England, after a turbulent campaign which led to a police ban on the carrying of hurleys, Cosgrave was henceforth involved with the political rather than with the armed-force side of the independence movement. Military contingent protected the ministers and deputies among the 150 delegates present my turn would come and! Of the Old days and to provide you with relevant advertising war of Independence want to go to... 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