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Seanad Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 23 Oct 1923

Vol. 2 No. 4

DEATHS OF DEPUTY P. COSGRAVE AND SENATOR McPARTLIN.

AN CATHAOIRLEACH

Within the last few days we have been painfully but vividly reminded of what shadows we are by the knowledge that since our last meeting death has overtaken two prominent Dublin citizens in circumstances of appalling suddenness and within a few brief hours one of the other, one being a Deputy of the Dáil and the other a colleague of our own in this Seanad. I hope I am properly interpreting the desire of this Seanad in giving Senators, in a few moments, an opportunity of placing upon record their sorrow for the deaths of these men and an expression of their sympathy with those who have been so tragically bereaved. As to Deputy Philip Cosgrave, he was, from all I have ever known or heard of him, a man held in the highest esteem by his many friends and fellow-citizens, and no more signal proof could have been given of this than the fact that the citizens elected him but a few weeks ago at the head of the poll as a Deputy for his native city. In business affairs he was a man of unswerving rectitude and integrity, and these qualities had enabled him to take a part for many years in many forms of public activity to the credit of himself and to the advantage of our city. He gave, in addition, unselfishly courageous service to all that he considered to be the best interests of his country. To his family, and more especially to his distinguished brother, the President of the Irish Free State, the shock of his death must have come with crushing weight, and we only hope that he will be given the strength to bear this added strain with the same courage and resignation as enabled him to confront so courageously the trials and the tragedies of the last few years.

But to us in this Seanad, the death of Thomas McPartlin comes with even a more profound and intimate appeal. I knew little of him until we met as colleagues at the institution of this Seanad, but at once he left upon me the impression of a man of exceptional intellect and strength of character. His unassuming disposition led him but seldom to intervene in our debates, but he did generally speak upon questions affecting the interests of the working classes, to whose cause he had so unselfishly devoted his life. His speeches on those occasions always commanded attention from Senators in every part of this Seanad, because they felt they were listening to a man of transparent honesty of purpose and sincerity of conviction. Always courageous and outspoken, he never took the extreme or narrow view, and what he did say left no sense of bitterness behind it. For myself, I am convinced that had he been spared he would have played an important and an honourable part in the counsels of his country and would have left his mark on the future of the Irish Free State. To his colleagues on the Labour Benches I especially tender my sympathy in the irreparable loss of one who, I know, was always to them a loyal and constant guide, philosopher and friend; one whose work they recognised by selecting him on every opportunity for any position of honour and dignity in their congresses or in their councils that it was in their position to confer. I am sure they and the rest of us will recall, as some slight consolation, the fact that but a few weeks ago this Seanad, by unanimous vote, selected him as one of the two Senators to fill this Chair when occasion required it, and when death overtook him he was acting as delegate from this country at the great International Congress of Labour at Geneva. To-day our hearts must go out in sorrow and sadness for his death and in sympathy with the stricken widow and orphan children.

We are met to-day under exceptionally sad circumstances. These are very sad times, but the general sadness, I think, is more particularly enhanced, so far as we are concerned, by the death of prominent members of the Oireachtas. I think it right that the Seanad should mark its sense of personal loss, and do so on this the first available opportunity. This is the first vacancy in the ranks of the Seanad, I think, since it was instituted. We have lost in Senator McPartlin a colleague whom all of us, no matter to what party—if we can imagine such a distinction in the Seanad—or to what particular division we belong, regarded as a personal friend. I had not very much acquaintance with Senator McPartlin before I became one of his colleagues, but in the short time that he was spared to work with us, and short as have been my personal relations with him, I felt for him a feeling of great respect and strong personal regard. He was unquestionably a transparently honest man who had the welfare of his country as a whole most strongly at heart. He was a most courageous colleague and a most kindly man. We shall miss him very much from amongst us. His own party, to whom I desire to tender my personal condolence, have lost in him a valuable and influential exponent.

Only yesterday we learned of the sad and tragic death of our President's brother. I had not, I am sorry to say, a personal acquaintance with the late Mr. Philip Cosgrave, but evidently from what has appeared in the newspapers, and from the general expressions which have reached me regarding him, he stood high in the estimation of his fellow citizens. He, too, will be a loss unquestionably to the honourable body to which he belonged. More especially do I feel this unexpected death in its relation to our esteemed President. He is bearing very bravely the tremendous burden of the administration of this country. He has very bravely, indeed, borne up in the terrific difficulties surrounding the foundation of the Irish Free State, and this added blow to him must be a terrible one. I can only join with you, sir, in expressing the hope that the President may be given strength to bear up against this latest affliction. With the permission of the Seanad, I wish to propose the following resolution:—

"That this House desires to place on record its profound sorrow at the deaths of Deputy Philip Cosgrave and Senator Thomas McPartlin, as well as its sense of the great loss thereby occasioned to the Dáil and Seanad, our city, and the country, and it offers to the President, to the other members of the Deputy's family, and to the widow and the children of our colleague, its very sincere sympathy on their sudden and sad bereavement."

It is my sad duty to second this resolution, which deals with two very sad and tragic events. I claimed a personal friendship with Deputy Cosgrave. Although that friendship was not of long duration, it was fraught with many pleasant memories, mingled with feelings of respect and admiration for a man whose life work was characterised by deeds rather than by words. To his illustrious brother, and to the other members of the family, I would like to tender my own personal sympathy on another tragedy, only one of many that has stricken that family.

None but those intimately associated with the late Thomas McPartlin can fully realise the extent of the loss which the Labour movement, the Seanad, and the country generally has sustained by his sudden and tragic demise, far away from his country, from his family, and from his home. Disliking the limelight and shunning self-advertisement, he was always quite happy to let others claim credit for much of the best work that he accomplished in his own inimitable, straightforward and unassuming way. Perhaps the best tribute to his memory is the almost passionate affection in which he was regarded by those amongst whom he worked and moved. His opponents even learned to respect and admire him for his unselfishness, integrity and his transparent honesty. We, his colleagues, in the movement to which he devoted his life, and for which he eventually offered his life, will sorely miss him for his wise counsel, his lovable disposition, and his great generous heart. Of his services to his country, it could be truly said of him that few contributed more, although few figured less in the public eye, for the reasons that I have stated—his dislike of publicity and his spirit of self-effacement. Many National leaders who are now dead, and many who still happily live, can bear testimony to his fidelity, his courage and wisdom in dark and troublous times. His ambition was to build up, not to destroy, and it is perhaps a fitting termination to his useful, but too brief, career that he should be called away while he was engaged in the noble task of trying to bind the wounds and repair the damage inflicted upon humanity by the war. It is a poignant aspect of his death that he should die far away from his own domestic circle, because I never knew a man who so passionately loved his children and his home. The manner in which he brought up and educated a large family on a very slender income, earned by hard honest toil, is an eloquent tribute to his worth as a citizen and as a Christian man. If good work nobly done, well done, in this life merits peace and happiness in the next, then we can say with confidence that Senator McPartlin has passed to a well earned repose.

Might I be allowed to join in this tribute to those who have been taken away from us, and more especially on the departure of Senator McPartlin. It was my privilege, when Chairman of the Commission on Reconstruction, which I held for a few weeks, to become acquainted with him, to find him to be a man of very remarkable mind, one with which I felt intense sympathy. Amongst the things referred to us was the question of giving employment during the next winter and discussing matters with him, quietly and privately, I said to him: "Have you seen Sir Lynden Macassey's book on ‘Labour and Labour Problems—False and True'?" He told me he had not. I said: "I should like you to read it, and I will send it to you." I sent that book to him, together with another on the third winter's unemployment, which was published last year in England. I do not think I can do better than read to you the very short letter he sent me in reply. It is so characteristic of the man, and I think it puts his position, in regard to some of the great labour and difficult problems, in a way which I could not mend, and it showed his sympathy and his whole-hearted desire to further the interests of all sides. It was written last May, and I came across it last night accidentally, and I thought it might be useful to-day. Here is the letter:—

"I received the two books which you sent me. I delayed acknowledging them until I finished reading Sir Lynden Macassey's volume, which was so full of interest for me that I disliked leaving it aside until I went through with it. He has such a clear knowledge of the conditions governing the minds of both the employers and workers that while one cannot agree with all the reasonings in his book, yet it is a book that is a great help to anyone who is trying to understand the social structure and conditions as they are. The second book I have not yet read, but I am sure it will also prove good. I apologise for the trouble I gave you, and thank you very sincerely."

Now, these are the words of one whose word I could completely trust. It is the whole-hearted inspiration of the man, his great desire, as it were, to smooth the difficulties that lay in the path between labour and capital, between workmen and their masters; that seemed to him the great object for which he was labouring. I join, therefore, in this vote of sympathy which you so eloquently proposed.

There are times when one feels that words are useless to explain definitely what one feels. I thank you indeed for having put, in such a clear way, what I feel about Senator McPartlin's death. Senator McPartlin was one of those men one rarely meets. The first time one met him, one was impressed by the intensity of his personality and by his honesty, as you put it. I had opportunities of having one or two little conversations with him, and I felt perfectly convinced that his whole object and desire was the advancement and the good of the country. He believed by advancing the good of his own particular party, he was acting one man's part. His honesty, as has been said, was transparent.

One feels that now that he has gone there is a void which can hardly be filled. No doubt, there are men who can fill every gap, but yet one will feel that, looking straightforwardly at big problems and having studied them as he did, and having tried various means of improving the conditions of labour, and always bearing in his mind that labour was labour and that men had got to work, it will be difficult to replace him. He trod various fields of activity, and he had evolved various guilds and many methods of solving labour problems. Now he has gone. To his family I should like to be allowed to tender my sympathy, as the Seanad proposes to do, and to hope that some of them in their time will realise what he has done for Ireland. He was, as Senator O'Farrell says, a modest and retiring man, yet through all his modesty one felt as if he was a moving and driving force in the cause for which he stood. I tender to his colleagues my sympathy in the loss of such a man. The words of Lord Glenavy ringing in my ears teach me that I should say no more.

Motion put and carried in silence, Senators rising in their places.

AN CATHAOIRLEACH

The Clerk of the Seanad has received a communication giving the details for the holding of the funeral of our late colleague, Senator McPartlin. The funeral will be on Friday next, and the details of the arrangements can be ascertained by any Senator on application to the Clerk. Under ordinary conditions I would now have suggested that as a further mark of respect to the memory of our departed dead, we should adjourn, had it not been that there are two non-contentious Bills before us which are very urgent. I would suggest to the Seanad that what it should do would be to take up those Bills, put them through, and then formally adjourn the rest of our business until our next meeting. If that is the wish of the Seanad we shall now proceed to dispose of those Bills.

There was a personal explanation which I was going to ask the Seanad to allow me to make, but in deference to the position which has arisen and the dreadfully unfortunate things which have happened, I will leave the matter over.

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