On 6 December 1922, Cosgrave was elected by the Dáil as president of the executive council. He formed the
First Executive Council of the Irish Free State. Cosgrave was a small, quiet man, and at 42 was the oldest member of the Cabinet. He had not sought the leadership of the new country, but once it was his he made good use of it. One of his chief priorities was to hold the new country together and to prove that the Irish could govern themselves.
Domestic policy As head of the Free State government during the Civil War, he was ruthless in what he saw as the defence of the state against his Republican former comrades. Although he disagreed with the use of the
death penalty in principle, in October 1922, he enacted a Public Safety Bill, after difficult debates, and following the offer of an amnesty, that allowed for the execution of anyone who was captured bearing arms against the state, or aiding armed attacks on state forces. He told the Dáil on 27 September 1922: "Although I have always objected to the death penalty, there is no other way that I know of in which ordered conditions can be restored in this country, or any security obtained for our troops, or to give our troops any confidence in us as a government". His view was that if harsh action were not taken, a guerrilla war could drag on indefinitely, making the achievement of law and order and establishing the Free State impossible. His army ordered
courts martial on the rebels, 77 of whom were executed by firing squads by May 1923, including
Erskine Childers,
Liam Mellowes and
Rory O'Connor, far more than the 14 IRA volunteers the British executed in the
War of Independence. The Republican side, for their part, attacked pro-Treaty politicians and their homes and families. Cosgrave's family home was burned down by anti-Treaty fighters, and one of his uncles was shot dead. Cosgrave said "I am not going to hesitate if the country is to live, and if we have to exterminate ten thousand Republicans, the three million of our people is greater than this ten thousand". In April 1923, the pro-Treaty Sinn Féin members organised a new political party called
Cumann na nGaedheal with Cosgrave as leader. The following month the Civil War was brought to an end when the remaining anti-Treaty IRA guerrillas announced a ceasefire and dumped their arms. , October 1926 One of his first acts in government was to pass a Bill for the
Constitution of the Irish Free State, which some TDs felt did not need to be in writing. This was done by October 1922, ahead of the establishment of the Irish Free State in December. In the first few years in office, Cosgrave's government faced several problems. The government attempted to reduce the size of the
National Army. During the Civil War, it had grown to over 55,000 men which, now that the war was over, was far too large and costly to maintain. Some army officers challenged the authority of the government to cut the size of the Army. The officers, mostly Pro-Treaty IRA men, were angry that the government was not doing enough to help create a republic and predicted massive unemployment. When he and his position were challenged by the disgruntled Army officers of the Irish Republican Army Organisation, other politicians and soldiers took the important decisions. In March 1924, more layoffs were expected, and army officers Major-General Liam Tobin and Colonel Charles Dalton sent an ultimatum to the government demanding an end to the demobilisation.
Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins, who was also acting president for Cosgrave while the latter was in hospital, moved to resolve the so-called "Army Mutiny".
Richard Mulcahy, the
Minister for Defence, resigned from the Executive Council. O'Higgins was victorious in a very public power struggle within Cumann na nGaedheal. The crisis within the army was solved but the government was divided. In 1924, the British and Irish governments agreed to attend a
Boundary Commission to redraw the border which
partitioned Ireland between the Irish Free State and
Northern Ireland. The Free State's representative was
Minister for Education Eoin MacNeill, a respected scholar. The Free State expected to gain much territory in heavily Catholic and republican parts of Counties
Londonderry,
Fermanagh,
Tyrone, and
Armagh, for the British government had indicated during the Treaty negotiations that the wishes of the nationalist inhabitants along the border would be taken into account. However, after months of secret negotiations, a newspaper reported that there would be little change to the border, and the Free State would lose territory in
County Donegal. MacNeill resigned from the Commission and, shortly afterwards, from the government for not reporting to Cosgrave on the details of the commission. Cosgrave immediately went to London for a meeting with the
British Prime Minister and the
Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, where they agreed to let the border remain as it was, and in return, the Free State did not have to pay its pro-rata share of the Imperial debt. In the Dáil debate on 7 December, Cosgrave stated: "I had only one figure in my mind and that was a huge nought. That was the figure I strove to get, and I got it." Cosgrave turned down a plea for asylum in Ireland for
Leon Trotsky while in exile. The request was made by the trade union leader
William O'Brien in 1930. Cosgrave recorded that he: In June 1927, a
general election was held in which de Valera's new party,
Fianna Fáil, won many seats on an abstentionist platform. In July the Minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, was assassinated on his way home from Sunday Mass by the IRA. The government passed the Electoral Amendment Bill (1927) to force Fianna Fáil to take their seats in the Dáil. This proved successful with de Valera and his party entering the Dáil in August of that year. Previously, without de Valera, Cosgrave faced very little opposition, giving him considerable freedom of action. However, de Valera's arrival significantly altered the situation.
Foreign policy at the
1926 Imperial Conference in London, along with King
George V and the Prime Ministers of the
United Kingdom,
Canada,
Newfoundland,
Australia,
New Zealand and
South Africa Although Cosgrave and his government accepted dominion status for the Irish Free State, they did not trust the British to respect this new independence. The government embarked on fairly radical foreign initiatives. In 1923 the Irish Free State became a member of the
League of Nations. The new state also became the first
British Commonwealth country to have a separate or non-British representative in
Washington, D.C., and exchanged diplomats with many other European nations. In January 1926, Cosgrave was honoured by
Pope Pius XI by making him the first Irishman to receive the rank of Knight Grand Cross of the
Order of Pope Pius IX. The Anglo-Irish Treaty itself also gave the Irish much more independence than many other dominions. The
Oath of Allegiance in the Irish Free State was much less
monarchist than its equivalent in Canada or Australia. The king's representative in Ireland was Irish, unlike the other dominions, and although the head of state was the king, power was derived from the Irish people and not him. There were also questions raised about the word "treaty". The British claimed it was an internal affair while the Irish saw it as an international agreement between two independent states, a point which was accepted by the League of Nations when that body registered the Treaty as an international agreement in 1924. Even with these advances, the Irish Free State legally remained subject to the United Kingdom until 1931, when the
Statute of Westminster gave the Free State and the other dominions the right to the full independence of legislative and constitutional action. This step effectively granted the Free State internationally recognised independence. While the state was still partitioned, it arguably fulfilled Collins' vision of the Treaty giving the Irish people "the freedom to achieve freedom." Shortly after the Statute passed, Cosgrave sought and received the right to have an Irish minister advise the king on matters related to the Free State to the exclusion of British ministers. This allowed the President of the Executive Council to directly advise the King in his capacity as His Majesty's Irish Prime Minister.
Economic policy During the ten years that Cosgrave and Cumann na nGaedheal were in power, they adopted a conservative economic policy. Taxation was kept as low as possible and the budget was balanced to avoid borrowing. The Irish currency remained linked to the
British currency, resulting in the overvaluation of the
Irish pound. Free trade was advocated as opposed to protection, but moderate tariffs were introduced on some items. The new government decided to concentrate on developing agriculture while doing little to help the industrial sector. Agriculture responded well with stricter quality control being introduced and the passing of a Land Act to help farmers buy their farms. Also, the
Irish Sugar Company and the
Agricultural Credit Corporation were established to encourage growth. However, the economic depression that hit in the 1930s soon undid the good work of Cosgrave and his ministers. Industry was seen as secondary to agriculture and little was done to improve it. The loss of the industrialised north-east of Ireland had a bad effect on the country as a whole. However, the
Electricity Supply Board, with the first national grid in
Europe, was established to provide employment and electricity to the new state.
General election 1932 A general election was not required by law until the end of 1932. However, Cosgrave called one for February of that year. There was growing unrest in the country and a fresh mandate was needed for an important Commonwealth meeting in the summer. Another reason for calling the election early was the
Eucharistic Congress to be held in June, a major national and international event. Cosgrave, like most of his cabinet a devout Catholic, had invested much time in the build-up to it and wished it to proceed without any tension from a pending general election. In the event, Éamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil were the ones to derive all the kudos from that event. Cumann na nGaedheal fought the election on its record of providing ten years of honest government and political and economic stability. Instead of developing new policies, the party played the "red card" by portraying the new party,
Fianna Fáil, as communists. Fianna Fáil offered the electorate a fresh and popular manifesto of social reform. Unable to compete with this, Cosgrave and his party lost the election, and a minority Fianna Fáil government came to power. ==Cosgrave in opposition==