Richard Mulcahy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Mulcahy in the early 1920s | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader of the Opposition | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 9 June 1944 – 18 February 1948 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President | Seán T. O'Kelly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Taoiseach | Éamon de Valera | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | W. T. Cosgrave | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Éamon de Valera | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader of Fine Gael | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 2 June 1944 – 21 March 1959 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | W. T. Cosgrave | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | James Dillon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President of the Irish Republican Brotherhood | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 14 August 1922 – 19 May 1924 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Michael Collins | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Office abolished | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1886-05-10)10 May 1886 Waterford, Ireland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 16 December 1971(1971-12-16) (aged 85) Dublin, Ireland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Resting place | Littleton, County Tipperary, Ireland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Fine Gael | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 6, includingNeillí | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University College Dublin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Military service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Allegiance | Irish Free State | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Branch/service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years of service | 1913–1924 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank | General Chief of Staff | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Battles/wars | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Richard James Mulcahy (10 May 1886 – 16 December 1971) was an IrishFine Gael politician andarmy general who served asMinister for Education from 1948 to 1951 and 1954 to 1957,Minister for the Gaeltacht from June 1956 to October 1956,Leader of the Opposition from 1944 to 1948,Leader of Fine Gael from 1944 to 1959,Minister for Local Government and Public Health from 1927 to 1932 andMinister for Defence from January to April 1919 and 1922 to 1924. He served as aTeachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1938 and from 1943 to 1961 and aSenator from March 1938 to June 1938 and 1943 to 1944. He served in the cabinets ofW. T. Cosgrave andJohn A. Costello.
He was anarmy general who fought in the 1916Easter Rising, served as Chief of Staff of theIrish Republican Army during theWar of Independence and became commander-in-chief of theNational Army in theIrish Civil War after the death ofMichael Collins.
Richard Mulcahy was born in Manor Street,Waterford, in 1886, the son of post office clerk Patrick Mulcahy and Elizabeth Slattery.[1] He was educated at Mount SionChristian Brothers School and later inThurles,County Tipperary, where his father was the postmaster. One of his grandmothers was aQuaker who was disowned by her wealthy family for marrying aCatholic.[citation needed]
Mulcahy joined theRoyal Mail (Post Office Engineering Dept.) in 1902 and worked inThurles,Bantry,Wexford andDublin. He was a member of theGaelic League and joined theIrish Volunteers at the time of their formation in 1913. He was also a member of theIrish Republican Brotherhood.
He was second-in-command toThomas Ashe (who later died onhunger strike) in an encounter with the armedRoyal Irish Constabulary (RIC) atAshbourne, County Meath during theEaster Rising in 1916—one of the few stand-out victories won by republicans in that week, and generally credited to Mulcahy's grasp of tactics.[2] In his book on the Rising, Charles Townshend principally credits Mulcahy with the defeat of the RIC at Ashbourne, for conceiving and leading a flanking movement on the RIC column that had engaged with the Irish Volunteers. Arrested after the Rising, Mulcahy was interned atKnutsford and at theFrongoch internment camp inWales until his release on 24 December 1916.
_Mulcahy_and_his_wife_Josephine.jpg)
On his release, Mulcahy immediately rejoined the republican movement and became commandant of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers. He was elected to theFirst Dáil in the1918 general election forDublin Clontarf. He was then namedMinister for Defence in the new (alternative) government and later Assistant Minister for Defence.[3] In March 1918, he becameIRA chief of staff, a position he held until January 1922.[4]
He andMichael Collins were largely responsible for directing the military campaign against theBritish during theWar of Independence. During this period of upheaval in 1919, he married Mary Josephine (Min) Ryan, sister of Kate andPhyllis Ryan, the successive wives ofSeán T. O'Kelly; her brother wasJames Ryan. O'Kelly and James Ryan both later served inFianna Fáil governments.
Mulcahy supported theAnglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. Archive film shows that Mulcahy, as Minister of Defence, was the Irish officer who raised the Irish tricolour at the first hand-over of a British barracks to the National Army in January 1922.[5] He was defence minister in the Provisional Government on its creation and succeeded Collins, after the latter's death, as Commander-in-Chief of the Provisional Government's forces,[6] during the subsequentCivil War.
He earned notoriety through his order that anti-Treaty activists captured carrying arms were liable forexecution. A total of 77 anti-Treaty prisoners were executed by the Provisional Government. Mulcahy served as Minister for Defence in the newFree State government from January 1924 until March 1924,[7] but resigned in protest because of the sacking of the Army Council after criticism by theExecutive Council over the handling of the 'Army Mutiny', when someNational Army War of Independence officers almost revolted after Mulcahy demobilised many of them at the end of the Civil War. He re-entered the cabinet as Minister for Local Government and Public Health in 1927.
During his period on the backbenches ofDáil Éireann his electoral record fluctuated. He was elected as TD forDublin North-West at the1921 and1922 general elections. He moved toDublin North for theelection the following year, and was re-elected there in four further elections:June 1927,September 1927,1932 and1933.[8]
Dublin North was abolished for the1937 election, at which Mulcahy was defeated in the new constituency ofDublin North-East. However, he secured election toSeanad Éireann as a Senator, the upper house of theOireachtas, representing theAdministrative Panel. The2nd Seanad sat for less than two months, and at the1938 general election he was elected to the10th Dáil as a TD for Dublin North-East. Defeated again in theelection of 1943, he secured election to the4th Seanad by theLabour Panel.
After the resignation ofW. T. Cosgrave as Leader of Fine Gael in 1944, Mulcahy became party leader while still a member of the Seanad.Thomas F. O'Higgins was the parliamentary leader of the party in the Dáil at the time and Leader of the Opposition. Facing his first general election as party leader, Mulcahy drew up a list of 13 young candidates to contest seats for Fine Gael. Of the eight who ran, four were elected. He was returned to the12th Dáil as a TD forTipperary at the1944 general election. While Fine Gael's decline had been slowed, its future was still in doubt.
Following the1948 general election—at which, following boundary changes, Mulcahy was elected forTipperary South, the dominant Fianna Fáil party finished six seats short of a majority. However, it was 37 seats ahead of Fine Gael, and conventional wisdom suggested that Fianna Fáil was the only party that could form a government. Just as negotiations got underway, however, Mulcahy realised that if Fine Gael, theLabour Party, theNational Labour Party,Clann na Poblachta andClann na Talmhan banded together, they would have only one seat fewer than Fianna Fáil—and that if they could get support from seven independents, they would be able to form a government. He played a leading role in persuading the other parties to put aside their differences and join forces to consign the thenTaoiseach and Fianna Fáil leaderÉamon de Valera, to the opposition benches.
Since Fine Gael was by far the largest party in the prospective coalition, Mulcahy initially seemed set to become Taoiseach in a coalition government. However, he was not acceptable to Clann na Poblachta's leader,Seán MacBride. Many Irish republicans had never forgiven Mulcahy for his role in the Civil War executions carried out under the Cosgrave government in the 1920s. Consequently, MacBride let it be known that he and his party would not serve under Mulcahy. Without Clann na Poblachta, the other parties would have had 57 seats between them—17 seats short of a majority in the 147-seat Dáil. Mulcahy stepped aside and encouraged his party colleagueJohn A. Costello, a formerAttorney General, to become the parliamentary leader of Fine Gael and the coalition's candidate for Taoiseach. According to Mulcahy, the suggestion that another person serve as Taoiseach came from Labour leaderWilliam Norton. For the next decade, Costello served as the party's parliamentary leader while Mulcahy remained the nominal leader of the party.
Mulcahy went on to serve asMinister for Education under Costello from 1948 until 1951. Another coalition government came to power at the1954 election, with Mulcahy once again stepping aside to become Minister for Education in theSecond Inter-Party Government. The government fell in 1957, but Mulcahy remained as Fine Gael leader until October 1959. In October of the following year, he told his Tipperary constituents that he did not intend to contest thenext election.
Richard Mulcahy marriedMin Ryan, the former fiancée ofSeán Mac Diarmada, in 1920, and lived in a flat in Oakley House,Ranelagh.[9] Min, a member of theCumann na mBan Executive, had herself been involved in nationalist activity at the time of the Rising.[10] One of his sons, Risteárd Mulcahy (1922–2016), was for many years acardiologist in Dublin.[11] His daughterNeillí Mulcahy (1925–2012) was one of Ireland's leading fashion designers. She designed the uniforms forAer Lingus in 1962.[12] Another son was the structural engineer and visual artist Seán Mulcahy (1926–2018).[13]
Richard Mulcahy died of cancer inDublin on 16 December 1971, at the age of 85.[1]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forDublin Clontarf 1918–1922 | Constituency abolished |
| Oireachtas | ||
| New constituency | Teachta Dála forDublin Clontarf 1918–1921 | Constituency abolished |
| Political offices | ||
| New office | Minister for Defence Jan–Apr 1919 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Defence 1922–1924 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Local Government and Public Health 1927–1932 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Education 1948–1951 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Education 1954–1957 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Minister for the Gaeltacht 1956 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of Fine Gael 1944–1959 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Thomas F. O'Higgins (acting) | Leader of the Opposition 1944–1948 | Succeeded by |
| Military offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces July–August 1922 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
