The Statesmanship of Mr. Cosgrave
For reasons of health Mr. W. T. Cosgrave has retired from the leadership of the party which forms the principal opposition in the Dail, and which supported him during the ten years when as Presi- dent of the Executive Council he built up the Irish Free State. He took a full part in the Sinn Finn movement and in the rebellion, and was one of those who with Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins signed the Treaty. When Griffith and Collins died there seemed no leader of the pro-Treaty party with their daemonic qualities to succeed them, but Mr. Cosgrave in fact proved to be just the man to guide the young Free State through the critical formative years. He knew that his country wanted peace, economic reconstruction, and an amicable modus vivendi with Britain. His country having made peace with Britain on terms which commonsense Irishmen knew to be just, reasonable and satisfactory, he was determined that that peace, so far as he was concerned, should be a reality ; it was not in his disposition to seek to undermine the Treaty by stealth or specious argument ; by honourably carrying it out and applying both tact at home and straightforward diplomacy towards Britain he made the Treaty workable and gained the utmost out of it to . the advantage and increasing prosperity of Ireland. He brought his country successfully through the difficult transition period and created, outside the borders of the Free State, a respect for its Government which, had it continued, might even have changed the whole attitude of Northern Ireland on the question of unity. But when, after ten years, he had completed the more essential parts of his task, his countrymen transferred their favour to another leader, who was peculiarly qualified to conserve and even foster among them their traditional and now legendary grievance.
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