Patrick John Cosgrave was born in Dublin on 28
September 1941, an only child, whose father died from cancer when he was
ten years old. His mother worked as a cleaner to support him, but his
childhood was an impoverished one. He attended St Vincent’s Christian
Brothers’ School in Glasnevin, where the Roman Catholic piety of his
teachers, echoed by his mother, led him to rebel against their orthodox
thinking. Aged fourteen, he was forced to spend a year in bed
convalescing after a bout of rheumatic fever. He spent this time
immersing himself in British history, reading such authors as Lord
Salisbury, Winston Churchill, T.E. Lawrence and Rudyard Kipling. This,
combined with his distaste for Catholicism and Irish nationalism, led to
his adopting a staunchly pro-British attitude.
At University College Dublin he was greatly
influenced by Desmond Williams, professor of modern history. He was an
active member of the Literary
and Historical Society, winning (with Anthony Clare) the Observer
Mace debating competition over every other university debating team in
Great Britain and Ireland. He was also elected auditor of the society.
His was an illustrious academic career. He attained a
First in his BA in History and Modern Irish History, and a Masters by
dissertation (Peter Walsh and the Irish Remonstrance Movement, 1660-66)
in 1967. Cosgrave went on to a doctorate in history from Peterhouse,
Cambridge in 1970, his thesis entitled Sir Edward Grey and British
Foreign Policy in the Balkans, 1914-16. His supervisor at Peterhouse
was Herbert Butterfield, who proved to be another major influence on
him. In 1969 his book The Public Poetry of Robert Lowell was
published.
Having previously freelanced for RTÉ,
Cosgrave became their first London editor in 1968. His strong support
for the British Conservative Party led, in 1969, to his joining the
Conservative Research Department, where he specialised in Home Office
affairs. It was here that he developed a keen interest in Israeli
affairs and became a committed Zionist. This later manifested itself in
his writing, and in his involvement with the Jewish education and
vocational training charity Organisation through Rehabilitation and
Training (ORT). In 1977 he co-presented, with Paul Johnson, an edition
of the BBC 2 series Open Door entitled ‘To Live in Peace’,
which explored the current situation in Israel.
His journalistic skills were recognised in 1971 when
he was appointed political and deputy editor of The Spectator,
later moving on to become the features editor of The Telegraph
Magazine. Between 1975 and 1979 Cosgrave was a Special Advisor to
Margaret Thatcher. While this advisory role ceased after the general
election of 1979, he continued his involvement in the party and
corresponded with various Conservative members of Parliament. He
remained a great admirer of Thatcher, eventually writing two books about
her: Margaret Thatcher: A Tory and Her Party and Thatcher: The
First Term. He was briefly managing editor of Quartet Crime (part of
Quartet Books) at this time.
A freelance writing career followed. He was
represented in this by literary agent Mike Shaw of the Curtis Brown
agency, with whom he corresponded over many years. Several other
political biographies authored by Cosgrave were published throughout the
1970s and 1980s, including Churchill at War: Alone; R.A.
Butler: An English Life; Carrington: A Life and a Policy; and
The Lives of Enoch Powell. The latter was written with the
cooperation of Powell, who gave Cosgrave exclusive access to his private
archive. As a freelance journalist he wrote for many publications,
including The Times, the Independent, the Daily
Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Express, the
Irish Times, the Irish Press, the Literary Review, the
American Spectator, Encounter, and the National Review. He
wrote many obituaries, particularly for The Independent, and also
had several adventure novels published.
Cosgrave had a great interest in international
affairs, corresponding and collaborating at length with Lieutenant
Colonel George Richey about defence issues. This culminated in their
production of a pamphlet entitled NATO’s Strategy: A Case of
Outdated Priorities. He also corresponded for several years with the
American freelance political consultant and journalist Peter Witonski.
Cosgrave was married three times: to Ruth Dudley
Edwards in 1965 (marriage dissolved), to Norma Green in 1974 (marriage
dissolved) and to Shirley Ward in 1981. He had one daughter, Rebecca,
born in 1974. He died in London on 15 September 2001 at the age of 59.
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