At the cabinet meeting in Dublin held to consider the Treaty immediately after it had been signed, Cosgrave surprised de Valera by agreeing with Collins and with Arthur Griffith, de Valera's predecessor as leader of Sinn Féin and the chairman of the delegation which included Collins that had negotiated the Treaty.

Collins, in accordance with the Treaty, formed a Provisional Government ; this included Cosgrave amongst its membership.

In April 1923 the Pro-Treaty Sinn Féin members organised a new political party called Cumann na nGaedheal with Cosgrave as leader.

Cosgrave immediately went to London for a meeting with the British Prime Minister and the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, where they agreed to let the border remain as it was, and in return the Free State did not have to pay its pro-rata share of the Imperial debt.

Cosgrave had legislation passed to force Fianna Fáil to take their seats in the Dáil and this proved successful with de Valera and his party entering the Dáil.

Cosgrave ( standing, far-right ) representing the Irish Free State at the 1926 Imperial Conference in London, along with King George V of the United Kingdom | George V and the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, Canada, Dominion of Newfoundland | Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand and Union of South Africa | South Africa.

Unable to compete with this Cosgrave and his party lost the election, and a minority Fianna Fáil government came to power.

Perhaps the best endorsement made of Cosgrave came from his old rival, with whom he was reconciled before his death, Éamon de Valera.

While popular with Irish language enthusiasts and artists and respected by many Republicans, he had a strained relationship with the Coalition Government, particularly with Conor Cruise O ' Brien and with Liam Cosgrave.

Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave declared that " this atrocity fills all decent Irish people with a sense of shame.

Until 1932, Cumann na nGaedheal continued to form the Government of the Irish Free State, with Cosgrave as President of the Executive Council.

From an early age Liam Cosgrave displayed a keen interest in politics, discussing the topic with his father as a teenager before eventually joining Fine Gael at the age of 17, speaking at his first public meeting the same year.

Cosgrave outlined the three principles of his foreign policy to the Dail in June, 1956, the first was adherence to the principles of the UN Charter, the second was independence and non-alignment, but the third made clear where Ireland's sympathies lay: " to do whatever we can as a member of the UN to preserve the Christian civilisation of which we are a part and with that end in view to support whenever possible those powers principally responsible for the defence of the free world in their resistance to the spread of communist power and influence.

James Dillon and Cosgrave contested the leadership with Dillon decisively elected.

Cosgrave balanced these with hardline Christian Democrats such as Richard Burke, a former teacher, Cork merchant prince Peter Barry and west Dublin farmer Mark Clinton.

In line with his conservative credentials, and on a free vote, Cosgrave, without warning, crossed the floor to help defeat his own Government's bill in the summer of 1974.

Cosgrave refused to allow it, and frustrated Childers ' plans to break with the restrained precedent of his office.

This put him at odds with Cosgrave, whose government had strengthened the act.

Cosgrave called to inform the president of Donegan's speech, but refused to meet with him in person to discuss the matter owing to his dislike for Ó Dálaigh, fueling the president's anger ; he refused to receive Donegan when he came to personally apologize.

Combined with the Donegan affair and the hard line approach to law and order, the economic difficulties were quite damaging to Cosgrave and Corish's popularity.

Only two individuals held the office of President of the Executive Council during its existence: W. T. Cosgrave, until 1932, and Éamon de Valera thereafter.

In an era when democratic governments formed in the aftermath of the First World War were moving away from democracy and towards dictatorships, the Free State under Cosgrave remained unambiguously democratic, a fact shown by his handing over of power to his one-time friend, then rival, Éamon de Valera, when de Valera's Fianna Fáil won the 1932 general election, in the process killing off talk within the Irish Army of staging a coup to keep Cosgrave in power and de Valera out of it.

Clockwise from top left: Cathal Brugha, Éamon de Valera, W. T. Cosgrave, Arthur Griffith.

< center > Members of the First Dáil, 10 April 1919First row, left to right: Laurence Ginnell, Michael Collins ( Irish leader ) | Michael Collins, Cathal Brugha, Arthur Griffith, Éamon de Valera, George Noble Plunkett | Count Plunkett, Eoin MacNeill, W. T. Cosgrave and Ernest Blythe.

* Both the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, and the Leader of the Opposition, W. T. Cosgrave, admired him ;

Great rivals Éamon de Valera and W. T. Cosgrave, after years of enmity, also became reconciled in the 1960s.

This office was first held by W. T. Cosgrave from 1922 – 32, and then by Éamon de Valera from 1932 – 37.

* March 14-The new Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, receives his seal of office from President Éamon de Valera at Áras an Uachtaráin.

Previously, without de Valera, Cosgrave faced very little opposition, giving him considerable freedom of action.

de: William Thomas Cosgrave

de: Liam Cosgrave

Cosgrave was awarded the Distinguished Service Order first in 1916 and again in 1918 ; later Cosgrave was presented with the French Croix de Guerre.

Sinn Féin demonstrated its new electoral capability in three by-election successes in 1917 in which Count Plunkett, W. T. Cosgrave and De Valera were each elected, although it did not win all by-elections in that year and in at least one case there were allegations of electoral fraud.

The true reason, however, appears to have been the new government's discovery that in 1932, O ' Duffy's was one of the voices urging W. T. Cosgrave to resort to a military coup rather than to turn over power to the incoming Fianna Fáil administration.

He presided over a tough four years in the National Coalition under Liam Cosgrave, during the 1970s oil crisis, during which time Ireland's foreign debt increased and the economy steadily worsened.

* October 15-The Mallow Viaduct over the River Blackwater is officially re-opened by President W. T. Cosgrave.

In 1923, the previous W. T. Cosgrave administration had assured Britain that the Free State would honour its debts and hand over the land annuities and other financial liabilities.

Cosgrave, the British Government recommended to King George V that Healy be appointed the first ' Governor-General of the Irish Free State ', a new office of representative of the Crown created in the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and introduced by a combination of the Irish Free State Constitution and Letters Patent from the King.

* September 18-W. T. Cosgrave introduces the Constitution of Saorstát Éireann Bill to enable the implementation of the Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland.

Birch Wathen Lenox was created in 1991 through the merger of The Birch Wathen School that was founded in 1921 by Louise Birch and Edith Wathen, and The Lenox School founded by Jessica Cosgrave Finch in 1916.

from: 1922 till: 1922 shift :($ dx ,$ dy ) color: CnaG text: W. Cosgrave I

from: 1922 till: 1923 shift :($ dx ,$ dy ) color: CnaG text: W. Cosgrave II

from: 1923 till: 1927 shift :($ dx ,$ dy ) color: CnaG text: W. Cosgrave III

from: 1927 till: 1927 shift :($ dx ,$ dy ) color: CnaG text: W. Cosgrave IV

from: 1927 till: 1930 shift :($ dx ,$ dy ) color: CnaG text: W. Cosgrave V

from: 1930 till: 1932 shift :($ dx ,$ dy ) color: CnaG text: W. Cosgrave VI

from: 1973 till: 1977 shift :($ dx ,$ dy ) color: FG text: L. Cosgrave

Liam Cosgrave becomes the new Taoiseach.

* June 6 – W. T. Cosgrave, Irish politician ( d. 1965 )

Tim Healy is appointed first Governor-General of the Irish Free State and W. T. Cosgrave becomes President of the Executive Council.

W. T. Cosgrave, the first President of the Irish Free State had led both of these " governments " since August 1922.

* Cumann na nGaedheal under W. T. Cosgrave ( 1922 – 32 )

With no ensuing restrictions on his policies, he abolished the Oath of Allegiance ( which Cosgrave intended to do had he won the 1932 general election ), the Senate, university representation in the Dáil, and appeals to the Privy Council.

William Thomas " W. T ." Cosgrave (; 6 June 1880 – 16 November 1965 ), was an Irish politician who succeeded Michael Collins as Chairman of the Irish Provisional Government from August to December 1922.