Patrick Cosgrave

Patrick Cosgrave
Born	Patrick John Francis Cosgrave (1941-09-28)28 September 1941 Dublin, Ireland
Died	16 September 2001(2001-09-16) (aged 59) London, England
Nationality	British Irish
Occupations	Journalist writer

Patrick John Francis Cosgrave^[1] (28 September 1941 – 16 September 2001)^[1] was a British-Irish journalist and writer. A staunch supporter of the Conservative Party, he was an adviser to Margaret Thatcher whilst she was Leader of the Opposition.

Patrick Cosgrave was the only child of an improvident builder,^[2] who died from cancer when Patrick was ten, leaving his mother impoverished.^[3] She took work as a cleaner in the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle.^[4] Cosgrave rebelled against the Roman Catholic piety of his mother and his teachers at St. Vincent's C.B.S. in Glasnevin.^[2][3] He acquired a love of British history aged 14, while reading as a convalescent from rheumatic fever.^[2] He read works by Rudyard Kipling, Winston Churchill, and Lawrence of Arabia.^[4]

At University College Dublin (UCD), he was influenced by Desmond Williams, professor of history.^[4] He embraced the epithet "West Brit";^[5] at a debate, when an opponent accused him of being "to the Right of Douglas-Home", he retorted that he was "to the Right of Lord Salisbury".^[6] He claimed that his grandfather, a warden in Mountjoy Prison, had beaten up Kevin Barry, a Republican rebel executed in 1920.^[3] He partnered Anthony Clare to win the Irish Times debate and the Observer Mace debate,^[2] and was elected auditor of the Literary and Historical Society in spite of his unpopular pro-British views.^[3]

At Peterhouse, Cambridge, Cosgrave switched from "Paddy" to "Patrick",^[4] and earned a doctorate in history from Cambridge University.^[2] His supervisor was Herbert Butterfield, whom he later described as "the greatest influence on my life I can define".^[6] He was among the Peterhouse alumni nicknamed "the reactionary chic" by the New Statesman.^[6]

Having freelanced for Raidió Teilifís Éireann while at UCD, he was appointed their London correspondent in 1968,^[1] before working at the Conservative Research Department from 1969, where he became a Zionist.^[3] He became political editor of The Spectator in 1971,^[2] where his numerous, often scathing, articles about Edward Heath's leadership were influential in effecting the change to Margaret Thatcher,^[1][5] and earned him the nickname "The Mekon".^[1]

When Thatcher first saw him speaking on television, she reportedly dismissed him as a "typical upper-class public school twit", to his obvious delight.^[6] In 1975, he became her advisor while she was Leader of the Opposition.^[2][6] He seemed on the path to a safe seat in Parliament, and ultimately a cabinet post.^[6] However, Thatcher dropped him after winning power in the 1979 general election,^[2] by which time his heavy drinking was impairing his reliability.^[1][3] Private Eye suggested Thatcher dropped him because he had vomited on her in a taxi,^[1] though the story is disputed.^[3]

Subsequently, he was briefly editor-in-chief of Tiny Rowland's Lonrho publications.^[2] He had first attracted Rowland's attention in 1973 after criticising in The Spectator Ted Heath's calling Lonrho "the unacceptable face of capitalism".^[7][8] After this, Cosgrave earned a precarious living as a freelance journalist and by writing books, mainly political biographies.^[3] Among other publications, he wrote for The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Irish Times, The Irish Press, the Literary Review, Encounter, the New Law Journal, and Le Point.^[5]

Cosgrave's first book was a review of the poetry of Robert Lowell.^[9] Martin Seymour-Smith derided the book, but Lowell agreed with Cosgrave's criticism of "Mr Edwards and the Spider", and dedicated a rewritten version to him.^[9]

His 1978 biography of Margaret Thatcher was faulted for hero worship;^[3] George Gale called it "not much above a hagiography".^[1] His biography of Enoch Powell, whom he also admired, was made with access to Powell and his correspondence,^[1] and was the work of which he was most proud.^[2] He completed only the first volume of a planned two-volume study of Winston Churchill during World War II.^[10]

He published three mystery novels featuring the daring Colonel Allen Cheyney.^[11]

He obtained a British passport^[2] and sometimes attended services of the Church of England, while remaining agnostic.^[2][5] In contrast to his public image as a vigorous polemicist, he was considered kind and courteous in private.^[1][3][5]

He married three times and divorced twice.^[1][3] His first marriage in 1965 was to Ruth Dudley Edwards, a fellow student at UCD and, later, Cambridge.^[6][12] He married Norma Green, mother of his daughter Rebecca, in 1974; and Shirley Ward, his widow, in 1981;^[1][3] she was secretary of the European Democrats at the European Parliament.^[4]

He had financial problems from the late 1970s and when Green left him in 1980, Rebecca was made a ward of court.^[13] In 1981 the Inland Revenue filed a tax demand for over £10,000 and he was declared bankrupt.^[13] His debt of £18,700 was discharged in 1985.^[13]

He died of heart failure.^[4] His poor health was exacerbated by heavy drinking and smoking.^[2][3]

• The Public Poetry of Robert Lowell. London: Gollancz. 1970. ISBN 0-575-00539-4.
• Churchill at War. Vol. 1, Alone, 1939-40. London: Collins. 1974. ISBN 0-00-211184-5.
• Cheyney's Law. London: Macmillan. 1977. ISBN 0-333-21635-0. (novel)
• Margaret Thatcher: a Tory and her party. London: Hutchinson. 1978. ISBN 0-09-131380-5.
• The Three Colonels. London: Macmillan. 1979. ISBN 0-333-25941-6. (novel)
• R.A. Butler: an English life. London: Quartet Books. 1981. ISBN 0-7043-2258-7.
• Adventure of State. Bolton: Ross Anderson Publications. 1984. ISBN 0-86360-016-6. (novel)
• Thatcher: The First Term. London: Bodley Head. 1985. ISBN 0-370-30602-3.
• Carrington: a life and a policy. London: Dent. 1985. ISBN 0-460-04691-8.
• The Lives of Enoch Powell. London: Bodley Head. 1989. ISBN 0-370-30871-9.
• The Strange Death of Socialist Britain: post-war British politics. London: Constable. 1992. ISBN 0-09-471430-4.

• Impressions of Israel. Anglo-Israel Association. Vol. 53. London: Anglo-Israel Association. 1975.
• Israel Revisited: address to the Anglo-Israel Association. Vol. 78/2. London: Anglo-Israel Association. 23 February 1978.
• The defence of Britain. Salisbury papers. London: Salisbury Group. 1978.
• The origins, evolution and future of Israeli foreign policy. Sacks lectures. Vol. 6. Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies. 23 May 1979.
• George Richey (1985). NATO's strategy: a case of outdated priorities?. Occasional paper. London: Alliance Publishers for the IEDSS. ISBN 0-907967-40-X.

• Auditors of the Literary and Historical Society (University College Dublin)