Editing W. T. Cosgrave (section)

==President of the Executive Council (1922–1932)==
On 6 December 1922, Cosgrave was elected by the Dáil as president of the executive council.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1922-12-06/5/|title=Dáil Éireann debate – Wednesday, 6 December 1922: ELECTION OF PRESIDENT|access-date=26 September 2019|website=Houses of the Oireachtas|date=6 December 1922|archive-date=22 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190822135615/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1922-12-06/5/|url-status=live}}</ref> He formed the [[1st Executive Council of the Irish Free State|First Executive Council of the Irish Free State]]. Cosgrave was a small, quiet man, and at 42 was the oldest member of the Cabinet. He had not sought the leadership of the new country, but once it was his he made good use of it. One of his chief priorities was to hold the new country together and to prove that the Irish could govern themselves. 

===Domestic policy===
{{more citations needed section|date=January 2016}}
[[File:WTCosgrave2.jpg|thumb|right|180px|W. T. Cosgrave]]
As head of the Free State government during the Civil War, he was ruthless in what he saw as the defence of the state against his Republican former comrades. Although he disagreed with the use of the [[death penalty]] in principle, in October 1922, he enacted a Public Safety Bill, after difficult debates, and following the offer of an amnesty, that allowed for the execution of anyone who was captured bearing arms against the state, or aiding armed attacks on state forces. He told the Dáil on 27 September 1922: "Although I have always objected to the death penalty, there is no other way that I know of in which ordered conditions can be restored in this country, or any security obtained for our troops, or to give our troops any confidence in us as a government". His view was that if harsh action were not taken, a guerrilla war could drag on indefinitely, making the achievement of law and order and establishing the Free State impossible.

His army ordered [[Court-martial|courts martial]] on the rebels, 77 of whom were executed by firing squads by May 1923, including [[Erskine Childers (author)|Erskine Childers]], [[Liam Mellowes]] and [[Rory O'Connor (Irish republican)|Rory O'Connor]], far more than the 14 IRA volunteers the British executed in the [[Irish War of Independence|War of Independence]]. The Republican side, for their part, attacked pro-Treaty politicians and their homes and families. Cosgrave's family home was burned down by anti-Treaty fighters, and one of his uncles was shot dead.<ref>{{cite book|first=Helen |last=Litton |title=The Irish Civil War, an Illustrated History |page=113}}<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref> (see also [[Destruction of country houses in the Irish revolutionary period]] and [[Executions during the Irish Civil War]]).

Cosgrave said "I am not going to hesitate if the country is to live, and if we have to exterminate ten thousand Republicans, the three million of our people is greater than this ten thousand".{{sfn|Jordan|2006|p=89}}

In April 1923, the pro-Treaty Sinn Féin members organised a new political party called [[Cumann na nGaedheal]] with Cosgrave as leader. The following month the Civil War was brought to an end when the remaining anti-Treaty IRA guerrillas announced a ceasefire and dumped their arms.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}
[[File:Tour of Inspection (6357384641).jpg|thumb|left|Cosgrave (holding furled umbrella) visiting the sugar beet processing factory at Strawhall, [[County Carlow]], October 1926]]

One of his first acts in government was to pass a Bill for the [[Constitution of the Irish Free State]], which some TDs felt did not need to be in writing. This was done by October 1922, ahead of the establishment of the Irish Free State in December.

In the first few years in office, Cosgrave's government faced several problems. The government attempted to reduce the size of the [[National Army (Ireland)|National Army]]. During the Civil War, it had grown to over 55,000 men which, now that the war was over, was far too large and costly to maintain. Some army officers challenged the authority of the government to cut the size of the Army. The officers, mostly Pro-Treaty IRA men, were angry that the government was not doing enough to help create a republic and predicted massive unemployment. {{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

When he and his position were challenged by the disgruntled Army officers of the Irish Republican Army Organisation, other politicians and soldiers took the important decisions.<ref>"Assassinated strongman was not the Free State's chief executioner", ''[[Irish Examiner]]'', 20 November 2004.</ref>

In March 1924, more layoffs were expected, and army officers Major-General Liam Tobin and Colonel Charles Dalton sent an ultimatum to the government demanding an end to the demobilisation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1924-03-11/13|title=Dáil Éireann debate – Tuesday, 11 March 1924: The Army Position|access-date=26 September 2019|website=Houses of the Oireachtas|date=11 March 1924|archive-date=26 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190926182530/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1924-03-11/13/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Minister for Justice (Ireland)|Minister for Justice]] [[Kevin O'Higgins]], who was also acting president for Cosgrave while the latter was in hospital, moved to resolve the so-called "Army Mutiny". [[Richard Mulcahy]], the [[Minister for Defence (Ireland)|Minister for Defence]], resigned, and O'Higgins was victorious in a very public power struggle within Cumann na nGaedheal. The crisis within the army was solved but the government was divided.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

In 1924, the British and Irish governments agreed to attend a [[Boundary Commission (Ireland)|Boundary Commission]] to redraw the border which [[Partition of Ireland|partitioned Ireland]] between the Irish Free State and [[Northern Ireland]]. The Free State's representative was [[Minister for Education (Ireland)|Minister for Education]] [[Eoin MacNeill]], a respected scholar. The Free State expected to gain much territory in heavily Catholic and republican parts of Counties [[County Londonderry|Londonderry]], [[County Fermanagh|Fermanagh]], [[County Tyrone|Tyrone]], and [[County Armagh|Armagh]], for the British government had indicated during the Treaty negotiations that the wishes of the nationalist inhabitants along the border would be taken into account. However, after months of secret negotiations, a newspaper reported that there would be little change to the border, and the Free State would lose territory in [[County Donegal]]. MacNeill resigned from the Commission and, shortly afterwards, from the government for not reporting to Cosgrave on the details of the commission. 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. That was the figure I strove to get, and I got it."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1925-12-07/3/|title=Dáil Éireann debate – Monday, 7 December 1925: TREATY (CONFIRMATION OF AMENDING AGREEMENT) BILL, 1925|access-date=26 September 2019|website=Houses of the Oireachtas|date=7 December 1925|archive-date=26 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190926182529/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1925-12-07/3/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Cosgrave turned down a plea for asylum in Ireland for [[Leon Trotsky]] while in exile. The request was made by the trade union leader [[William O'Brien (trade unionist)|William O'Brien]] in 1930. Cosgrave recorded that he: {{blockquote|Told [O'Brien] "I could see no reason why Trotsky should be considered by us. Russian bonds had been practically confiscated. He said there was to be consideration of them. I said it was not by Trotsky, whose policy was the reverse. I asked his nationality. Reply Jew. They were against religion (he said that was modified). I said not by Trotsky. He said he had hoped there would be an asylum here as in England for all. I agreed that under normal conditions, which we had not here, that would be alright. But we had no touch with this man or his Government, nor did they interest themselves in us in his 'day'.<ref>{{cite book |last=Keogh |first=Dermot |title=Jews in Twentieth-century Ireland: Refugees, Anti-semitism and the Holocaust |publisher=[[Cork University Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-85918-150-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ae1vo477tVgC&q=%27How+Leon+Trotsky+was+refused+admission+to+the+Irish+Free+State&pg=PA264}}</ref>}}

In June 1927, a [[June 1927 Irish general election|general election]] was held in which de Valera's new party, [[Fianna Fáil]], won many seats on an abstentionist platform. In July the Minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, was assassinated on his way home from Sunday Mass by the IRA. The government passed the Electoral Amendment Bill (1927) to force Fianna Fáil to take their seats in the Dáil. This proved successful with de Valera and his party entering the Dáil in August of that year. Previously, without de Valera, Cosgrave faced very little opposition, giving him considerable freedom of action. However, de Valera's arrival significantly altered the situation. {{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

===Foreign policy===
[[File:ImperialConference.jpg|thumb|400px|Cosgrave (standing, far-right, wearing the star and sash of the Order of Pope Pius IX) representing the [[Irish Free State]] at the [[1926 Imperial Conference]] in London, along with King [[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]]]]

Although Cosgrave and his government accepted dominion status for the Irish Free State, they did not trust the British to respect this new independence. The government embarked on fairly radical foreign initiatives. In 1923 the Irish Free State became a member of the [[League of Nations]]. The new state also became the first [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]] country to have a separate or non-British representative in [[Washington, D.C.]], and exchanged diplomats with many other European nations. In January 1926, Cosgrave was honoured by [[Pope Pius XI]] by making him the first Irishman to receive the rank of Knight Grand Cross of the [[Order of Pope Pius IX]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116759546 |title=THE END OF HOLY YEAR. Honour for President Cosgrave. |newspaper=[[The Freeman's Journal (Sydney)|Freeman's Journal]] |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=21 January 1926 |accessdate=19 July 2022 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article258627864 |title=THE PIAN ORDER. A Rare Distinction. |newspaper=[[The Catholic Advocate]] |location=Queensland, Australia |date=4 February 1926 |accessdate=19 July 2022 |page=53 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

The Anglo-Irish Treaty itself also gave the Irish much more independence than many other dominions. The [[Oath of Allegiance (Ireland)|Oath of Allegiance]] in the Irish Free State was much less [[monarchist]] than its equivalent in Canada or Australia. The king's representative in Ireland was Irish, unlike the other dominions, and although the head of state was the king, power was derived from the Irish people and not him. There were also questions raised about the word "treaty". The British claimed it was an internal affair while the Irish saw it as an international agreement between two independent states, a point which was accepted by the League of Nations when that body registered the Treaty as an international agreement in 1924.{{sfn|Jordan|2006|p=136}}

Even with these advances, the Irish Free State legally remained subject to the United Kingdom until 1931, when the [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]] gave the Free State and the other dominions the right to the full independence of legislative and constitutional action. This step effectively made the Free State the internationally recognised independent, although still partitioned, Irish state, arguably fulfilling Collins' vision of the Treaty giving the Irish people "the freedom to achieve freedom."

===Economic policy===
{{unreferenced section|date=May 2024}}
During the ten years that Cosgrave and Cumann na nGaedheal were in power, they adopted a conservative economic policy. Taxation was kept as low as possible and the budget was balanced to avoid borrowing. The Irish currency remained linked to the [[Pound sterling|British currency]], resulting in the overvaluation of the [[Irish pound]]. Free trade was advocated as opposed to protection, but moderate tariffs were introduced on some items.

The new government decided to concentrate on developing agriculture while doing little to help the industrial sector. Agriculture responded well with stricter quality control being introduced and the passing of a Land Act to help farmers buy their farms. Also, the [[Irish Sugar Company]] and the [[Agricultural Credit Corporation]] were established to encourage growth. However, the economic depression that hit in the 1930s soon undid the good work of Cosgrave and his ministers. Industry was seen as secondary to agriculture and little was done to improve it. The loss of the industrialised north-east of Ireland had a bad effect on the country as a whole. However, the [[Electricity Supply Board]], with the first national grid in [[Europe]], was established to provide employment and electricity to the new state.

===General election 1932===
{{main|1932 Irish general election}}
A general election was not required by law until the end of 1932. However, Cosgrave called one for February of that year. There was growing unrest in the country and a fresh mandate was needed for an important Commonwealth meeting in the summer. Another reason for calling the election early was the [[Eucharistic Congress of Dublin (1932)|Eucharistic Congress]] to be held in June, a major national and international event.

Cosgrave, like most of his cabinet a devout Catholic, had invested much time in the build-up to it and wished it to proceed without any tension from a pending general election. In the event, Éamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil were the ones to derive all the kudos from that event.{{sfn|Jordan|2006|p=171}} Cumann na nGaedheal fought the election on its record of providing ten years of honest government and political and economic stability. Instead of developing new policies, the party played the "red card" by portraying the new party, [[Fianna Fáil]], as communists. Fianna Fáil offered the electorate a fresh and popular manifesto of social reform. Unable to compete with this, Cosgrave and his party lost the election, and a minority Fianna Fáil government came to power.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Knirck |first=Jason |title=A Cult of No Personality: W. T. Cosgrave and the Election of 1933 |journal= Éire-Ireland |year=2012|volume=47|issue=3&4 |pages=64–90|doi=10.1353/eir.2012.0015 |s2cid=161342928 }}</ref>