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.

He became an important figure almost immediately in the parliamentary party and his liberal ideas were seen as a counterweight to the conservative leader, Liam Cosgrave.

He was immediately appointed Chief Whip by party leader Liam Cosgrave.

The Government immediately appointed as Secretary to the President Michael McDunphy, a controversial, outspoken and temperamental civil servant who had prior to his appointment been Assistant Secretary to the Executive Council, and had once been Secretary to the Provisional Governments of Michael Collins and W. T. Cosgrave ( January – December 1922 ) McDunphy, like the Presidential Commission, was originally based in Dublin Castle until a new presidential residence was chosen.

She eventually went on to win the show, alongside Fran Cosgrave.

He then went on to front the Irish O2 in the Park concert, in Phoenix Park, Dublin, alongside Fran Cosgrave and Caroline Morahan in August 2005.

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.

The link was established by Liam Cosgrave via a Mr Cram and the Irish embassy in London, and was not revealed until December 2007.

Following the rebellion Cosgrave was sentenced to death, however this was later commuted to penal servitude for life and he was interned in Frongoch, Wales.

While in prison Cosgrave won a seat for Sinn Féin in the 1917 Kilkenny by-election.

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.

Kevin O ' Higgins, the Minister for Justice, who was also acting President for Cosgrave while the latter was in hospital, moved to resolve the so-called " Army Mutiny ".

MacNeill resigned from the commission and the government for not reporting to Cosgrave on the details of the commission.

Cosgrave notably turned down a plea for asylum in Ireland for Leon Trotsky while in exile.

Although Cosgrave and his government accepted dominion status for the Irish Free State, they did not trust the British to respect this new independence.

A general election was not required by law until the end of 1932, however, Cosgrave called one for February of that year.

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.

Liam Cosgrave was elected Taoiseach and Lynch found himself on the opposition benches for the first time in sixteen years.

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.

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.

As Minister for External Affairs Cosgrave took part in trade discussions and chaired the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 1955.

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.

The second Inter Party government collapsed amid severely deflationary policies set by the patrician Minister for Finance, Gerard Sweetman, and Cosgrave held Sweetman personally responsible for Fine Gael's defeat in 1957, and told him so, reportedly stating that Fine Gael " was no longer led by people living in big houses at the end of long avenues.

Despite being criticized for taking a " partionist " or unionist stance in his speech, Cosgrave was leading Fine Gael back into power a year later.

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.

When Cosgrave then refused to accept Donegan's resignation, this proved the last straw for Ó Dálaigh, who resigned on 22 October 1976 " to protect the dignity and independence of the presidency as an institution.

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.

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 broke with Éamon de Valera over the issue of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.