Cosgrave first became politically active when he attended the first Sinn Féin convention in 1905.

Cosgrave rapidly rose through the ranks of Fine Gael, and was regarded as being by far the most able and active of Fine Gael's newer TDs.

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.

Cosgrave was very successful in his role at the Department of Local Government.

Following the general election Cosgrave assumed the nominal role of Leader of the Opposition.

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.

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.

Many Irish Republicans had never forgiven him for his role in the Civil War executions carried out under the Cosgrave government.

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.

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.

W. T. Cosgrave, President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State ( prime minister ) from 1922 to 1932 and a deeply religious Catholic, suggested that the burnt out shell of the General Post Office, the location of the 1916 Rising, be turned into a cathedral, but the idea was not acted on, and the GPO was restored for use as a post office.

He was made commandant of the 4th Battalion of the Volunteers, and during the Rising was stationed at the South Dublin Union and the Marrowbone Lane Distillery, with more than 100 men under his command, notably his second-in-command Cathal Brugha, and W. T. Cosgrave.

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

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.

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

Cosgrave became the first parliamentary leader of the new party, serving until his retirement in 1944.

O ' Duffy, though not a TD, became the first leader, with former President of the Executive Council, ( prime minister ) W. T. Cosgrave serving as parliamentary leader.

He was appointed to the Cabinet in 1926, serving under W. T. Cosgrave as Minister for Education.

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

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

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.

However in 1976 the then Irish government, the Fine Gael – Labour Party National Coalition under Liam Cosgrave informed him that he was not being re-appointed to the Commission.

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.

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.

Initially the Government of the Irish Free State under Cosgrave wished for Healy to reside in a new small residence, but, when facing death threats from the IRA, he was moved as a temporary measure into the Viceregal Lodge, the former ' out of season ' residence of the Lord Lieutenant, the former representative of the Crown until 1922.

The Provisional Government under W. T. Cosgrave hired the use of the main lecture theatre of the Royal Dublin Society in its headquarters in Leinster House, a formal ducal palace, to enable a formal state opening of the new two chamber Oireachtas of the new Irish Free State and the delivery of the speech from the throne by the new Governor-General of the Irish Free State, Tim Healy in December 1922.

In 1924, the new Free State under Cosgrave bought Leinster House as a temporary seat of parliament, pending the erection or conversion of an alternative.

A minister under two taoisigh, Liam Cosgrave and Garret FitzGerald, Bruton held a number of the top posts in Irish government, including Minister for Finance ( 1981 – 1982 and 1986 – 1987 ), and Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism ( 1983 – 1986 ).

In 1922, when the Provisional Government under W. T. Cosgrave made plans for the coming into being of the new Irish Free State, it gave little thought to using the old Parliament House as the parliament building for the new state.

Dillon became deputy leader of Fine Gael under W. T. Cosgrave.

O ' Higgins was appointed as the Assistant Minister for Local Government under W. T. Cosgrave.

O ' Higgins had formed a negative view of Cosgrave having worked under him at Local Government and was not happy when the latter was appointed President of the Executive Council.

The Irish Executive Council under W. T. Cosgrave chose not to keep appointing people to the Order when the Irish Free State left the United Kingdom in 1922.

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.

From 1973 to 1977 he served in the National Coalition government under Liam Cosgrave as Minister for Industry and Commerce.

He served in the government on one occasion in the National Coalition under Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave between 1973 and 1977 as Minister for the Gaeltacht.

Fitzpatrick served in the Irish Government on several occasions under two Taoisigh, Liam Cosgrave and Garret FitzGerald.

However, the subsequent government attitude under Cosgrave was that the anti-Treaty side were rebels against the lawful government and were not entitled to recognition as legitimate combatants.

William Thomas Cosgrave, W. T., or Liam as he was generally known, was born at 174 James's Street, Dublin in 1880.

W. T. Cosgrave was a small, quiet man, and at 42 was the oldest member of the Cabinet.

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.

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.

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.

Cosgrave wrote to the Party Leader, Richard Mulcahy, in May, 1947, on the poor attendance in the Dail, and informed his leader that " I cannot any longer conscientiously ask the public to support the party as a party, and in the circumstances I do not propose to speak at meetings outside my constituency.

On this occasion Liam Cosgrave, at the age of 34, was given a cabinet position.

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.

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

Cosgrave retired at the 1981 general election.

Given that Cosgrave had never kept minutes before, it is understandable that Cosgrave's minutes, at least early on in the government, proved less than a thorough record of government decisions.

While studying English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford in the 1980s, he wrote and performed comedy in a revue group called " The Seven Raymonds " with Richard Herring, Emma Kennedy, Michael Cosgrave, Richard Canning and Tim Richardson, but did not perform in the well-known Oxford Revue, though he did write for and direct the 1989 Revue.

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.

* March 18-Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and Mrs Cosgrave are greeted by President Gerald Ford and Mrs Betty Ford at the White House.

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

He served in the Government of Liam Cosgrave ( 1973 – 77 ) as Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach and while keeping that post also served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence until May 1977, at which point he became Attorney General, succeeding Declan Costello upon the latter's appointment to the High Court.

Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave DSO & Bar ( August 28, 1890-July 28, 1971 ) was the Canadian signatory to the Japanese Instrument of Surrender at the end of World War II.

On July 28, 1971, Cosgrave died at his home in Knowlton ( Eastern Townships ), province of Quebec.

Ireland at the time had a very volatile economic situation and the show spared no political expense in portraying the then Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, as the " Minister for Hardship ," while the Minister for Finance, Richie Ryan, was portrayed as " Richie Ruin ".