Liam Cosgrave

Ireland was non aligned in favour of the United States. The second Inter Party government collapsed amid severely deflationary policies set by the patrician Minister for Finance, Gerard Sweetman, and Cosgrave held Sweetman personally responsible for Fine Gael's defeat in 1957, and told him so, reportedly stating that Fine Gael "was no longer led by people living in big houses at the end of long avenues." He did not speak to Sweetman for some years. Read Less

The presidency dogged the National Coalition. Erskine 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 Aras an Uachtarain 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.

President Childers died suddenly in November 1974. The agreed replacement was Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, a former Attorney General of Ireland and Chief Justice. O'Dalaigh was a member of Fianna Fáil and had run unsuccessfully for election as a TD. O'Dalaigh was also a noted critic of the curtailment of free speech and was highly critical of the introduction of 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, as such, maintained a marked distance from Aras an Uachtarain; whereas previously, presidents had been briefed by taoisigh once a month, Cosgrave briefed Presidents Childers and Ó Dálaigh on average once every six months. Read Less