Editing Liam Cosgrave (section)

===Clashes with the Presidency===
The coalition suffered an early electoral defeat in the [[1973 Irish presidential election|1973 presidential election]], when [[Fine Gael]] candidate [[Tom O'Higgins]] was defeated by the Fianna Fáil candidate, [[Erskine Hamilton Childers|Erskine H. Childers]]. Childers had sought the presidency with promises of making the office more open and hands-on, in particular with plans to create a [[think tank]] within [[Áras an Uachtaráin]] to develop an outline for Ireland's future. Cosgrave refused to allow it, and frustrated Childers' plans to break with the restrained precedent of his office.

Childers died suddenly in November 1974. His successor [[Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh]], a former [[Chief Justice of Ireland]] and former [[Attorney General of Ireland]], was an [[1974 Irish presidential election|agreed candidate in an unopposed election]]. Ó Dálaigh was identified with [[Fianna Fáil]].<ref name="HistoryIreland2007-09/10a">{{cite web|url=http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/tv-eye-16/|title=Review of TG4's Wasted by a sojourn in the Park?|publisher=History Ireland|first=John|last=Gibney|date=October 2007|access-date=7 October 2017|quote=Published in 20th-century / Contemporary History, Issue 5 (Sep/Oct 2007), Reviews, Volume 15  … Alongside a natural Fine Gael distaste for a Fianna Fáil president, the cultured and cosmopolitan Ó Dálaigh … John Gibney is an IRCHSS Government of Ireland fellow at the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Studies, NUI Galway.|archive-date=8 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171008030941/http://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/tv-eye-16/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Independent2006-10-29a/> Ó Dálaigh was also a noted critic of the curtailment of free speech and was highly critical of the introduction of [[Censorship in the Republic of Ireland#The Troubles|Section 31]] of the Broadcasting Act, which forbade the broadcast of the voices of [[Sinn Féin]] members. This put him at odds with Cosgrave, whose government had strengthened the Act. Cosgrave also briefed President Ó Dálaigh only once every six months, which was, in the President's opinion, too infrequently as well as too inadequately.<ref name=Independent2006-10-29a>{{cite news |url=http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/the-many-resignations-of-o-dalaigh-26418031.html |title=The many resignations of O Dalaigh |newspaper=The Irish Independent |location=Dublin |first=Ronan |last=Fanning |date=29 October 2006 |access-date=7 October 2017 |quote=I would however be failing in my duty if I did not also record here – for history – that since I entered on the Presidency on 19 Dec. 1974, on none of your infrequent visits to Aras an Uachtarain did you, in your conversations with me, say anything to me that could be construed even remotely to amount to keeping the President generally informed on matters of domestic and international policy – a mandatory requirement of your office under the terms of article 28 (6) (3) of the Constitution. … But the Taoiseach proved as unprepared to call on the President as the President was unprepared to receive the Minister for Defence. Cosgrave's reluctance was in part born of what his government regarded as O Dalaigh's pretensions: to see himself as akin to a third house of parliament. Nor would O Dalaigh's life-long identification with Fianna Fail (a protege of de Valera since his appointment as Irish editor of Irish Press (1931–40) and as a Fianna Fail attorney general (1946–48 and 1951–53) subsequently elevated to the Supreme Court by de Valera's government) have endeared him to so staunchly a Fine Gael taoiseach. |archive-date=8 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171008030900/http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/the-many-resignations-of-o-dalaigh-26418031.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=IrishTimes1998-11-26a>{{cite web |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/flawed-office-needs-an-injection-of-harmony-1.218873 |title=Flawed office needs an injection of harmony |newspaper=The Irish Times |location=Dublin |first=Jim |last=Duffy |author-link=Jim Duffy (journalist) |date=26 November 1998 |access-date=8 October 2017 |quote=President O Dalaigh was treated disgracefully, being briefed once every six months by Liam Cosgrave, "an act of constitutional defiance" in O Dalaigh's view, but there was nothing he could do about it. ... |archive-date=8 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171008081437/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/flawed-office-needs-an-injection-of-harmony-1.218873 |url-status=live }}</ref> In addition, Cosgrave frequently interfered in Ó Dálaigh's constitutional role as the state's representative to foreign governments; he was not permitted to receive the [[Legion of Honour]] from [[France]], although former president [[Seán T. O'Kelly]] had previously received it, and Cosgrave attended the United States' bicentennial celebrations in 1976 in Ó Dálaigh's place.<ref name="Uachtaráinodalaigh">{{cite video |people=Diarmaid Ferriter |date=2007 |title=Uachtaráin – Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh |url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6651077580342435606# |medium=Television production |language=Irish |publisher=TG4 |location=Dublin |access-date=20 January 2011}}</ref>

The government had introduced the Emergency Powers Bill following the assassination in July of the British Ambassador to Ireland, [[Christopher Ewart-Biggs]], by the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|IRA]]; it had passed the Dáil on 21 September. After consultation with the [[Council of State (Ireland)|Council of State]], Ó Dálaigh exercised his power to refer the Bill to the Supreme Court two days later to test its constitutionality, bringing him into more direct conflict with the government. Although the Court ruled that the Bill was constitutional, and Ó Dálaigh signed the Bill into law on 16 October, an IRA action on the same day in [[Mountmellick]] resulted in the death of a member of [[Garda Síochána|Garda]] Michael Clerkin. Cosgrave's government, already infuriated, blamed Ó Dálaigh's delaying enactment of the bill for Clerkin's murder.<ref name="Uachtaráinodalaigh" /> On 18 October [[Minister for Defence (Ireland)|Minister for Defence]] [[Paddy Donegan]] attacked the President for sending the bill to the Supreme Court, calling him a "thundering disgrace".<ref>{{cite book|first1=Gene|last1=Kerrigan|first2=Pat|last2=Brennan|title=This great little nation: the A-Z of Irish scandals & controversies|publisher=Gill and Macmillan|year=1999|page=287}}</ref>

Cosgrave called Ó Dálaigh 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 Ó Dálaigh's Fianna Fáil links and perceived pretensions,<ref name=Independent2006-10-29a/> fuelling the president's anger. He refused to receive Donegan when he came to personally apologise.<ref>{{cite news |title=The many resignations of O Dalaigh |author=Fanning, Ronan |work=The Irish Independent |url=http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/the-many-resignations-of-o-dalaigh-136320.html |date=29 October 2006 |access-date=20 January 2011 |archive-date=12 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090512174231/http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/the-many-resignations-of-o-dalaigh-136320.html |url-status=live }}</ref> When Cosgrave then refused to accept Donegan's resignation, this proved the last straw for Ó Dálaigh, who resigned on 22 October 1976 "to protect the dignity and independence of the presidency as an institution".