THE Cosgrave government now faces a supreme test following the resignation of President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh.
It will find itself surrounded with enmity and opposition from many quarters besides the Fianna Fáil ranks.
Common sense and political nous seem to have played only a superficial part in the Coalition response to the [Patrick] Donegan debacle.
Mr [Liam] Cosgrave’s most expensive mistake was in not demanding Mr Donegan’s resignation immediately after his unfortunate remarks when speaking to Irish Army officers at Mullingar.
To attack the President, who is also the supreme commander of the country’s defence forces and from whom officers hold their commission, was deplorable and outrageous.
It left at stake nothing less than the dignity of the Presidential office and Mr Ó Dálaigh had no alternative but to resign.
Mr Cosgrave’s failure to demand Mr Donegan’s resignation had already put a big question against the Taoiseach’s own credibility.
He will now have to reckon with hostility from a large range of people in all walks of life, and even from within the Coalition.
Many TDs are worried about political stability in the country and must feel that the government in taking a wrong turning on this issue has laid the foundations of its own undoing.
If an election were to be held, it is unlikely that the voters would give the Coalition another chance.
The proceedings in Dáil Éireann did not help matters. There was no mention of resignation by Mr Donegan, and the Taoiseach’s half-hearted apology to the President failed to register.
Nor did the offending minister appear in the House to offer a public apology to members of the Oireachtas. This would have been the courageous and manly thing to do.
Mr Donegan had quite specifically called into question the President’s right to exercise his function as the protector of the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution, which he did in referring the government’s new and drastic legislation to the Supreme Court for its decision as to whether it infringed constitutional rights and freedoms.
Mr Donegan’s ill-tempered outburst created a situation which could quickly have been put right by the government action in the shape of an apology to the President and the removal from office of the minister.
Mr Cosgrave’s political sagacity deserted him and his actions will not be forgotten in the critical months to come.
Irish News editorial on the full-blown political crisis for Liam Cosgrave’s coalition government following the resignation of President Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh.
