Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I take the opportunity on behalf of myself and my fellow members of the Independent group to express condolences to the members of the family of the late Liam Cosgrave, iar Thaoiseach. Many words have been spoken about him since his death and some of them have been well publicised, but there were aspects of Liam Cosgrave which I think were not sufficiently appreciated by the Irish people and indeed by many commentators.The fundamental feature of his character that deserves to be recorded here was his unique combination of patriotism, decency and determination. Those qualities always governed what he did and his attitude to the events and issues he had to confront.

The other thing about him that I noted in recent times, and I attended a few events at his invitation at which he spoke, was his belief that in this decade of centenaries, it was not his career as a politician that should be vindicated but his father's memory. On more than one occasion, he took it upon himself to emphasise his father's achievements on behalf of the Irish people. He was not speaking about himself; he was not erecting monuments to himself in what he said. Based on what he said and the tone in which he said it, I felt that he was afraid that coming up to the Civil War period and the like, the achievements of his father and his father's generation would be ignored, swept aside or mischaracterised for the Irish people. It is worth remembering that both W. T. Cosgrave and Liam Cosgrave were intensely loyal to the institutions of the Irish State established by the Irish people and they never wavered in that loyalty. At all points, they stood up for those institutions. I do not want to be contentious but when one goes back to the period of the Civil War, which this country will be forced to address again in fairly short order during its centenary, one thing that occurs to me is that Michael Collins and others were republicans. They were people who were determined to establish the independence and sovereignty of the Irish people. Although the treaty settlement was one that did not enshrine in absolutely clear terms the word "republic" as the definition of the Irish State, I challenge anybody in this House to look to the 1922 Constitution and ask themselves compared to Bunreacht na hÉireann, to which I am loyal in equal measure, whether it was not a very republican constitution and whether it did not aspire to be, on its face, a document that acknowledged that sovereignty in Ireland came from the people of Ireland.

The second thing I want to say about Liam Cosgrave is that he was a man of few words and shrewd judgment. None of this was probably more characterised than on an occasion in Thomas Street when the former Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, was unveiling a plaque to W. T. Cosgrave at his birthplace and Liam Cosgrave was there and spoke. Enda Kenny said that when he was running for the by-election after which he succeeded his father as a Deputy in Mayo, he was greatly chuffed when the then Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave came down to canvass with him outside churches in Mayo. Enda Kenny said that he made a number of speeches from the back of a lorry outside a church and they went from one town to another. Eventually, Liam Cosgrave said to him in his typically gravelly tone "Enda, there's no need to say too much. These people know a lot anyway." That sums up the character of Liam Cosgrave, the man who had faith in the people and their judgment and was giving a quiet piece of advice to the man who was to succeed him as Taoiseach of Ireland.

On behalf of my colleagues, I want to record my personal sadness at the passing of Liam Cosgrave. I saw him on the day of the 1916 celebration when he was quite ill. He arrived at the back of the GPO in his car.He had to remain in the car due to ill health but when it came to the national anthem, he got out of the car with some difficulty, stood to attention hand across his heart and then went back to his car. I said, "There is a real patriot." I do not think I can say any more about him.