Cosgrave can be accused of calling the 1977 election prematurely, as the Irish economy was recovering rapidly in early 1977 and a later election in the autumn or winter of that year may have been more propitious for the National Coalition.

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

In March 1924, midway through the Army Mutiny, Minister Joseph McGrath resigned and President Cosgrave took sick leave.

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.

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.

" This praise did not come from Lynch's allies or even his own party, but from the former leader of Fine Gael, Liam Cosgrave.

Liam Cosgrave ( born 13 April 1920 ) is a former Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach ( 1973 – 77 ) and as Leader of Fine Gael ( 1965 – 77 ).

In 1965 Cosgrave was the unanimous choice of his colleagues to succeed James Dillon as leader of Fine Gael.

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.

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.

In 1965, when James Dillon retired as Fine Gael leader after the 1965 general election loss, Liam Cosgrave, as a senior party figure and son of the first parliamentary leader of Fine Gael, easily won the leadership.

At the Fine Gael Ard Fheis in May 1972, Cosgrave faced down his political opponents in spectacular style.

However, the FF government ignored the anniversary while liberals in Fine Gael were plotting to remove Cosgrave as leader.

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 supported the Government's Offences Against the State ( Amendment ) Bill in November, 1972, despite the position taken by Fine Gael to oppose the Bill.

In May 1977, Cosgrave addressed a euphoric Fine Gael Ard Fheis on the eve of the general election.

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.

In the immediate aftermath, Liam Cosgrave resigned as Fine Gael leader.

Liam's son Liam T. Cosgrave was also an Irish politician who was accused before the Mahon Tribunal of accepting illegal payments from property developers in return for voting to rezone property in Dublin: he resigned from the Fine Gael party when this became known and pleaded guilty to criminal charges and was disqualified from continuing in his legal practice.

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

In his leadership address to the 1972 Fine Gael ard fheis in Cork, Cosgrave referred to the ' mongrel foxes ' who should be rooted out of the party, a reference seen by many as an attack on FitzGerald's efforts to unseat him as leader.

After the 1973 general election Fine Gael came to power in a coalition government with the Labour Party with Liam Cosgrave as Taoiseach.

After the resignation of W. T. Cosgrave in 1944, Mulcahy became leader of Fine Gael while still a member of the Seanad.

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

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.

Liam Cosgrave took charge of Fine Gael in 1965 and was now leading his party into his first election.

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.

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

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.

Though one of the most politically experienced of Sinn Féin's TDs, Cosgrave was not among the major leadership of the party.

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

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

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 ".

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.

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

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

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

Richard Mulcahy said, " It is in terms of the Nation and its needs and its potential that I praise God who gave us in our dangerous days the gentle but steel-like spirit of rectitude, courage and humble self-sacrifice, that was Liam T. Cosgrave ".

Three years later he was called to the inner bar and the following year, 1926, he became Attorney-General to the Cumann na nGaedheal government, led by W. T. Cosgrave.

Opposition leader Liam Cosgrave was informed by the Garda that a plot to import arms existed and included government members.

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.

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.

Cosgrave was appointed as the first President of the Executive Council on the same day.