1. Patrick John Francis Cosgrave was a British-Irish journalist and writer.
19 Facts About Patrick Cosgrave
2.
Patrick Cosgrave was the only child of an improvident builder, who died from cancer when Patrick was ten, leaving his mother impoverished.
3.
Patrick Cosgrave took work as a cleaner in the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle.
4.
Patrick Cosgrave acquired a love of British history aged 14, while reading as a convalescent from rheumatic fever.
5.
Patrick Cosgrave read works by Rudyard Kipling, Winston Churchill, and Lawrence of Arabia.
6.
Patrick Cosgrave claimed that his grandfather, a warden in Mountjoy Prison, had beaten up Kevin Barry, a Republican rebel executed in 1920.
7.
Patrick Cosgrave partnered Anthony Clare to win the Irish Times debate and the Observer Mace debate, and was elected auditor of the Literary and Historical Society in spite of his unpopular pro-British views.
8.
At Peterhouse, Cambridge, Cosgrave switched from "Paddy" to "Patrick", and earned a doctorate in history from Cambridge University.
9.
Patrick Cosgrave's supervisor was Herbert Butterfield, whom he later described as "the greatest influence on my life I can define".
10.
Patrick Cosgrave was among the Peterhouse alumni nicknamed "the reactionary chic" by the New Statesman.
11.
Patrick Cosgrave became political editor of The Spectator in 1971, where his numerous, often scathing, articles about Edward Heath's leadership were influential in effecting the change to Margaret Thatcher, and earned him the nickname "The Mekon".
12.
Patrick Cosgrave seemed on the path to a safe seat in Parliament, and ultimately a cabinet post.
13.
Patrick Cosgrave had first attracted Rowland's attention in 1973 after criticising in The Spectator Ted Heath's calling Lonrho "the unacceptable face of capitalism".
14.
Patrick Cosgrave's first book was a review of the poetry of Robert Lowell.
15.
Patrick Cosgrave completed only the first volume of a planned two-volume study of Winston Churchill during World War II.
16.
Patrick Cosgrave published three mystery novels featuring the daring Colonel Allen Cheyney.
17.
Patrick Cosgrave obtained a British passport and sometimes attended services of the Church of England, while remaining agnostic.
18.
Patrick Cosgrave married Norma Green, mother of his daughter Rebecca, in 1974; and Shirley Ward, his widow, in 1981; she was secretary of the European Democrats at the European Parliament.
19.
Patrick Cosgrave had financial problems from the late 1970s and when Green left him in 1980, Rebecca was made a ward of court.