A chara, - Tony Farmar's snide and mean-spirited remark about the salary of W.T. Cosgrave as chairman of the Executive Council in 1932 (November 16th) is symptomatic of the widespread negativity about a very great but largely forgotten Irishman.
Much of this negativity is based on prejudice and the desire to be part of the patronage of the long-term political victors in this State.
W.T. Cosgrave was a Sinn Féin councillor on Dublin Corporation from 1909. He was on the platform party at the founding of the Volunteers in 1913. He was a lieutenant with Eamon Ceannt at the South Dublin Union in 1916, where his step-brother was one of the casualties. He was court-martialled and sentenced to death. He awaited execution in Kilmainham Jail, alongside Major John MacBride and his brother Phil.
Due to his experience as chairman of the finance committee on Dublin Corporation, he became Minister of Local Government in the Provisional Government. On the deaths of Griffith and Collins he was chosen as head of the government. He brought in the 1922 Constitution and established the Irish Free State in the teeth of a civil war. He saw that State recognised internationally in the succeeding years. His policy of adhering to the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty facilitated the formation of Fianna Fáil and its acceptance of democratic parliamentary politics.
When his government was defeated in 1932, he handed over power in a peaceful manner, despite rumours of a coup d'état, to those who had earlier refused to recognise the State.
For the record, Cosgrave's annual salary was £2,500 and his ministers received £1,700. Mr de Valera reduced those figures to £1,500 and £1,000. The comparative salaries in Northern Ireland at the time were £3,200 and £2,000. - Yours, etc,
ANTHONY JORDAN, Gilford Road, Dublin 4.