44 Facts About Liam Cosgrave

Liam Cosgrave was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 1973 to 1977, Leader of Fine Gael from 1965 to 1977, Leader of the Opposition from 1965 to 1973, Minister for External Affairs from 1954 to 1957, and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Commerce and Government Chief Whip from 1948 to 1951.

Liam Cosgrave served as a Teachta Dala from 1943 to 1981.

Liam Cosgrave was elected to Dail Eireann at the 1943 general election and sat in opposition alongside his father.

Liam Cosgrave became a cabinet member in 1954 when he was appointed Minister for External Affairs.

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

Liam Cosgrave lost the 1969 general election to the incumbent Taoiseach Jack Lynch, but won the 1973 general election and became Taoiseach in a Fine Gael-Labour Party government.

Liam Cosgrave remains to date the longest-lived Taoiseach, and was the last Taoiseach born before the partition of Ireland.

Liam Cosgrave displayed a keen interest in politics from an early age, 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.

Liam Cosgrave was educated at Synge Street CBS, then later at Castleknock College, Dublin, and later at King's Inns.

Liam Cosgrave studied law and was called to the Irish Bar in 1943.

Liam 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.

Liam Cosgrave served in these positions until the dissolution of the Dail on 7 May 1951.

Liam Cosgrave took part in trade discussions and chaired the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 1955.

Liam Cosgrave presided over Ireland's admission to the United Nations in 1955.

Liam Cosgrave outlined the three principles of his foreign policy to the Dail in June 1956: adherence to the principles of the UN Charter, independence and non-alignment, and "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".

Liam Cosgrave privately supported Fianna Fail's referendum to abolish the system of proportional representation in June 1959, which was defeated.

Liam Cosgrave had asked Cosgrave to be his "managing director" in the Dail while he was absent on legal work, which had declined to do.

James Dillon and Liam Cosgrave contested the leadership with Dillon decisively being elected as leader.

In 1965, when James Dillon resigned as leader of Fine Gael after the 1965 general election loss, Liam Cosgrave easily won the leadership.

Liam Cosgrave led his party to defeat in the 1969 election and was under constant threat and challenge by younger more social democratic elements represented by Garret FitzGerald who was elected to the Dail in 1969.

Liam Cosgrave played a key role in the Arms Crisis, when, as Leader of the Opposition, he pressured then Fianna Fail leader and Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, to take action against senior ministers who were involved in importing arms intended for the Provisional IRA.

Liam Cosgrave put the security of the State and its institutions first.

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

Liam Cosgrave supported the government's Offences Against the State Bill in November 1972, despite the position taken by Fine Gael to oppose the Bill.

Liam Cosgrave adhered to the implementation of the Fourteen Point Plan on which the National Coalition was elected.

Liam Cosgrave appointed Richie Ryan rather than Garret FitzGerald as his Minister for Finance when the Labour Party leader, Brendan Corish, declined the position in 1973.

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

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

Liam Cosgrave's successor Cearbhall O Dalaigh, a former Chief Justice of Ireland and former Attorney General of Ireland, was an agreed candidate in an unopposed election.

Liam Cosgrave briefed President O Dalaigh only once every six months, which was, in the President's opinion, too infrequently as well as too inadequately.

Liam Cosgrave called O Dalaigh to inform him of Donegan's speech, but refused to meet with him in person to discuss the matter, partly due to his dislike for O Dalaigh's Fianna Fail links and perceived pretensions, fuelling the president's anger.

Liam Cosgrave refused to receive Donegan when he came to personally apologise.

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

Liam Cosgrave was accused of taking an anti-republican or pro-unionist line on Northern Ireland.

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

Liam Cosgrave made a strong attack on "blow-ins" who could "blow out or blow up".

The election campaign started without Liam Cosgrave taking any opinion polls in advance, and was therefore unaware of the extent of Fianna Fail's support.

Liam Cosgrave reduced his involvement in public life but he made occasional appearances and speeches; in October 2010 he attended the launch of The Reluctant Taoiseach, a book about former Taoiseach John A Costello written by David McCullagh.

Liam Cosgrave appeared in public for the Centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016, watching on from a car as the military parade marched through Dublin.

Liam Cosgrave's son, Liam T Cosgrave, is a former politician.

Liam Cosgrave died on 4 October 2017 at the age of 97 of natural causes.

Liam Cosgrave had been at Tallaght Hospital for several months prior to his death there.

Liam Cosgrave always believed in peaceful co-operation as the only way of achieving a genuine union between the people on this island, and in the 1970s he celebrated that this country had embarked, in his own words, 'on a new career of progress and development in the context of Europe'.

Liam Cosgrave had outlived the three younger former Taoisigh who had followed the second premiership of his predecessor and successor Jack Lynch, respectively: Charles Haughey, who had died in 2006; Garret FitzGerald, who had died in 2011; and Albert Reynolds, who had died in 2014.