Editing W. T. Cosgrave (section)

==Legacy==
An effective and good chairman rather than a colourful or charismatic leader, he led the new state during the more turbulent period of its history, when the legislation necessary for the foundation of a stable independent Irish polity needed to be pushed through. Cosgrave's governments in particular played a crucial role in the evolution of the [[British Empire]] into the British Commonwealth, with fundamental changes to the concept of the role of the Crown, the governor-generalship and the British Government within the Commonwealth.

In overseeing the establishment of the formal institutions of the state, his performance as its first political leader may have been undervalued. In an era when democratic governments formed in the aftermath of the [[World War I|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 government.

Perhaps the best endorsement made of Cosgrave came from his old rival Éamon de Valera, with whom he was reconciled before his death. To his son, [[Vivion de Valera|Vivion]], weeks after taking power in 1932 and reading the files on the actions of Cosgrave's governments concerning its work in the Commonwealth, he said of Cosgrave and Cosgrave's ministers, "[W]hen we got in and saw the files … they did a magnificent job, Viv. They did a magnificent job."<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Tim Pat Coogan |first=Tim Pat |last=Coogan |title=Éamon de Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow |publisher=Hutchinson |year=1993 |page=426}}</ref>