| Birth Name: | Patrick John Francis Cosgrave |
| Birth Date: | 28 September 1941 |
| Birth Place: | Dublin, Ireland |
| Death Place: | London, England |
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"; 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".[5] 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".[5] He was among the Peterhouse alumni nicknamed "the reactionary chic" by the New Statesman.[5]
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] [6] 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.[5] In 1975, he became her advisor while she was Leader of the Opposition.[2] [5] He seemed on the path to a safe seat in Parliament, and ultimately a cabinet post.[5] 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.[6]
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] [6] In contrast to his public image as a vigorous polemicist, he was considered kind and courteous in private.[1] [3] [6]
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.[5] [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]
a Tory and her party
. 1978 . Hutchinson . London . 0-09-131380-5 .an English life
. 1981 . Quartet Books . London . 0-7043-2258-7 .a life and a policy
. 1985 . Dent . London . 0-460-04691-8 .