Louise Cosgrave (FG councillor, Dún Laoghaire)

Granddaughter of WT Cosgrave

Louise Cosgrave

“We called him Pappy, we didn’t call him granddad. We all knew him as Pappy and my father always called him sir, very old-fashioned, or The Boss, in all seriousness. He had so much high regard and respect for him.

“We knew he was very important, although I couldn’t have told you exactly why at the age of five. We just knew he was an important politician. He is seen as remote, but we see him exactly the opposite of that. He was so warm, colourful, happy and great fun.

“A friend of mine said she read that Churchill said he was the funniest man he’d ever met, and he did have a lovely jolly way about him. He had the most wonderfully warm, smiling personality.

“We used to go to his house on Sundays. I remember him as being so tall, I suppose because I was so small. He looked different – he had a shocking mass of white hair when most older people seemed to be bald!

“WT didn’t get married until he was in his forties and my grandmother was 39. That was very, very late in those days to marry and have children. Many people think he’s our great-grandfather.

W T Cosgrave

“The day he died, my twin sister and I weren’t allowed to go to the funeral – our parents thought we were too young. We watched it on TV. We were so upset, our uncle and aunt couldn’t do anything with us. We were crying and giving out that our brother – who was about 10 or 11 – could go, and we couldn’t.

“As we got older we understood that our grandfather was responsible for one of the first democracies in Europe. He went through tough times but came out the other end. Not that he did it on his own; he was more of a chairman. He wasn’t looking out for himself at all, he was very unselfish.

“He and my father had talked politics non-stop and Dad continued talking politics to us. Even as young children, we were standing outside churches handing out leaflets. I couldn’t even vote and I was out canvassing. Politics was always in the family and it went down through the generations.

“Dad used to tell us he told great stories with great wit. He had such a way with words.” – Mary Minihan