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

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.

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.

Though it had the option of going for General Richard Mulcahy, Collins ' successor as Commander-in-Chief of the National Army, the pro-Treaty leadership opted for Cosgrave, in part due to his democratic credentials as a long-time politician.

In the Dáil debate on 7 December Cosgrave stated: " I had only one figure in my mind and that was a huge nought.

Cosgrave, as a devout Catholic like most of his cabinet, had invested much time in the build-up to it and wished it to proceed without any tension from a pending General election.

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.

This proved the last straw for Ó Dálaigh, who believed that Cosgrave had additionally failed to meet his constitutional obligation to regularly brief the President.

Cosgrave and Griffith had been prominent in Sinn Féin since the 1900s, while Collins rose quickly through its ranks after 1916.

Cosgrave had fought in the 1916 Rising and had been prominent in the Government of the Irish Republic ; the burden of responsibility for building the new state on solid foundations was now on Cosgrave and his colleagues.

He had asked Cosgrave to be his " managing director " in the Dail while he was absent on legal work.

Cosgrave, not surprisingly, had declined this.

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

Cosgrave, as such, maintained a marked distance from Aras an Uachtarain ; whereas previously, presidents had been briefed by taoisigh once a month, Cosgrave briefed Presidents Childers and Ó Dálaigh on average once every six months.

In addition, Cosgrave frequently interfered in Ó Dálaigh's constitutional role as the state's representative to foreign governments ; he was not permitted to receive the Legion of Honour from France, although former president Sean T. O ' Kelly had previously received it, and Cosgrave attended the United States ' bicentennial celebrations in 1976 in Ó Dálaigh's place.

Cosgrave, together with James Tully, the Labour Minister for Local Government had redrawn the constituency boundaries to favour Fine Gael and Labour for the first time ( the " Tullymander ") and they confidently expected the new boundaries would win for them.

However, he had a strained relationship with the incumbent government, led by Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave of Fine Gael.

Childers had campaigned on a platform of making the presidency more open and hands-on, which Cosgrave viewed as a threat to his own agenda as head of government.

Under the leadership of Michael Collins and W. T. Cosgrave, it set about establishing the Irish Free State, with the pro-Treaty IRA becoming part of a fully re-organised new National Army and a new police force, the Civic Guard ( quickly renamed as the Garda Síochána ), replacing one of Ireland's two police forces, the Royal Irish Constabulary.

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

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.

Cosgrave remained active in opposition but he privately supported Fianna Fáil's referendum to abolish the system of proportional representation in June, 1959, which was defeated.

The election campaign started without Cosgrave taking any opinion polls in advance-therefore not knowing that Fianna Fáil were well ahead.

In 1977, the Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave called a general election, and Fianna Fáil was returned to power in a landslide victory.

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.

* August 23-Cumann na nGaedheal leader W. T. Cosgrave criticises Fianna Fáil's policy of retaining the land annuities.

The negative impact of the scandal on Fianna Fáil, in addition to the perceived role of Fine Gael's Cosgrave in defending the institutions of the state, contributed to the change of government in the subsequent 1973 election.

Sweetman supported the Pro-Treaty faction in the Civil War period but later denounced the government of W. T. Cosgrave for its abandonment of Griffith's protectionist economic policies, and supported Fianna Fáil after 1927.

However the assassination of the Vice-President of the Executive Council, Kevin O ' Higgins, led the Cumann na nGaedheal government under W. T. Cosgrave to introduce a law requiring all Dáil candidates to promise that they would take the Oath.

However, Lynch took no action until the leader of the opposition, Liam Cosgrave became aware of the smuggling scheme and pressed the Taoiseach to take action.

These councils then cut their links to the British, and pledged loyalty to the Sinn Féin Department of Local Government, under Cosgrave.

*: Following Arthur Griffith's death and Michael Collins's assassination in August 1922, Cosgrave simultaneously held both their offices ; like Griffith he used the title " President of Dáil Éireann ".

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.

At this time Sinn Féin was being infiltrated by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who saw it as a vehicle for their aims ; it had several local councillors ( mostly in Dublin, including W. T. Cosgrave ) and contained a dissident wing grouped from 1910 around the monthly periodical called Irish Freedom.

On the economic front, the Cosgrave administration saw its role as supporting the Irish agricultural export sector by consolidating farms and improving the quality of their produce.

Following the election defeat the leaders of Fine Gael and the Labour Party, Liam Cosgrave and Brendan Corish resigned as leaders of their respective parties, the first occasion in which a defeated Taoiseach or Tánaiste had done so.

In the summer of 1905, he sent a copy to James Joyce, then living in Trieste, via their mutual acquaintance Vincent Cosgrave.

The Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, is one of seven Fine Gael TDs who vote against their own bill.

In the 2004 local election there were 3 seats, won by Gearoid O ' Keefe ( Ind ), Gerry Horkan ( FF ) and Louise Cosgrave ( FG ).

Cosgrave told Lynch he knew of the plot and would announce it in the Dáil next day if he didn't act.

Cosgrave became Chairman of the Provisional Government on 25 August and, when he was also elected as President of Dáil Éireann in September, the two administrations were merged.

To the surprise of his family, Liam decided to seek election to Dáil Éireann in the 1943 general election and was elected as a Teachta Dála ( TD ) for Dublin County at the age of 23, sitting in the 11th Dáil alongside his father W. T. Cosgrave who was one of the founders of the Irish Free State in the 1920s.

In 1981, Cosgrave retired as Dáil Deputy for Dun Laoghaire to be replaced by his son, Liam junior.

As plans were made to bring the new state into being, the Provisional Government under W. T. Cosgrave sought a temporary venue for the meetings of the new Chamber of Deputies Dáil Éireann and Senate Seanad Éireann.

< 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.

Cosgrave told Lynch he knew of the plot and would announce it in the Dáil next day if he didn't act.

After Collins ' and Griffith's deaths in August 1922, W. T. Cosgrave became both Chairman of the Provisional Government and President of Dáil Éireann, and the distinction between the two posts became irrelevant.

After Collins's and Griffith's deaths in August 1922, W. T. Cosgrave became both Chairman of the Provisional Government and President of Dáil Éireann, and the distinction between the two became increasingly confused and irrelevant up until the creation of the Irish Free State in December 1922.

W. T. Cosgrave will lead the party in Dáil Éireann.

W. T. Cosgrave is elected President of Dáil Éireann and Chairman of the Provisional Government.