Peadar Cowan
{{Short description|Irish politician (1903–1962)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image = Captain Peadar Cowan.jpg
| caption = Cowan during his time in Clann na Poblachta
| party = {{Ubl|Labour Party {{small|({{circa}} 1937 to 1945)}}|Vanguard Movement {{small|(1944)}}|Clann na Poblachta}}{{small|(1946 to 1948)}}
| office = Teachta Dála
| term_start = February 1948
| term_end = May 1954
| constituency = Dublin North-East
| birth_date = {{birth date|1903|10|23|df=y}}
| birth_place = Arvagh, County Cavan, Ireland
| death_date = {{death date and age|1962|5|9|1903|10|23|df=y}}
| spouse = {{marriage|Rosemary Collumb|1923}}
| children = 11
| education =
| alma_mater =
| branch = {{Ubl|Irish Republican Army|National Army}}
| rank = Captain
| battles = {{Ubl|Irish War of Independence|Irish Civil War}}
}}
Peadar Cowan (23 October 1903 – 9 May 1962) was an Irish soldier, lawyer, and politician.
Biography
He was a member of the West Cavan Brigade IRA during the Irish War of Independence. Subsequently, he joined the National Army on 10 February 1922 as a Captain during the Irish Civil War. His rank was reduced to 2nd Lieutenant during the army cut-backs in 1924, following the end of the Civil War. He was promoted to captain in September 1931 and resigned shortly thereafter. He changed profession and became a solicitor.{{cite web |url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107673618/peadar-cowan |title=Capt Peadar Cowan |last= |first= |date= |website=Find a Grave |publisher= |access-date=25 April 2019 |quote=}}
In the early 1930s Cowan bounced between radical political factions, becoming a supporter of Eoin O'Duffy's fascistic Blueshirts,{{cite web |url=http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/4075/1/BW_Thesis.pdf |title=Ireland and Spain, 1939-55: Cultural, Economic and Political Relations from Neutrality in the Second World War to Joint Membership of the United Nations |last=Whelan |first=Barry |date=2012 |website= |publisher= |access-date=25 April 2019 |quote= |page=70}} before becoming a member of the radical left-wing Irish republican groups Saor Éire in 1931, and the Republican Congress in 1934. However, by the late 1930s, Cowan had switched his political outlook and joined the Labour Party. He first stood unsuccessfully for election at the 1937 general election as a Labour Party candidate for the Meath–Westmeath constituency. He also stood unsuccessfully at the 1938, 1943 and 1944 general elections in the same constituency.
=Vanguard Movement=
{{Infobox political party
| name = Vanguard Movement
| logo =
| logo_alt =
| colorcode =
| leader = Peadar Cowan
| president =
| chairperson =
| secretary =
| general_secretary =
| first_secretary =
| secretary_general =
| presidium =
| governing_body =
| standing_committee =
| spokesperson =
| founder =
| founded = August 1944
| dissolved = {{circa}} 1945
| headquarters =
| ideology = {{ubl|Communism|Marxist-Leninism}}
| international =
| website =
| country = Ireland
| elections_dab1 = Elections in the Republic of Ireland
}}
Following the entry of the Soviet Union into World War II, the Communist Party of Ireland in the Republic of Ireland disbanded, with its member instructed to join the Labour Party en masse. This influx of radical communists into the Labour Party lead to intense factionalism that eventually caused a split in the party, with the National Labour Party breaking off in 1944 to distance themselves from the communists. Among this in-fighting and splitting, Cowan broke also broke from the Labour Party to form his own group: In August 1944 Cowan founded a hardline Communist group known as (the) "Vanguard Movement", which led to his expulsion from the Labour Party in 1945.{{cite web|last1=Dempsey|first1=Pauric J.|title=Cowan, Peadar|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/cowan-peadar-a2116 |work=Dictionary of Irish Biography|access-date=19 April 2022|date=October 2009}} The group advocated the abolition of private property, the ownership by the workers and labourers of the means of production and the assimilation of Ireland into a Federation of Socialist Republics once World War II had ceased. The group also accused the Knights of St Columba of behaving like a secret Catholic society existing with undue control over Irish society. Some names associated with the group included John de Courcy Ireland, RN Tweedy and Frank Edwards.{{cite podcast |url=https://open.spotify.com/episode/5cppZwStzlcdajcanwTsCT?si=cf779339676c4cf1 |title=Peadar Cowan and the Vanguard |website=The Others with Alan Kinsella |publisher= |host=Alan Kinsella |date=8 June 2022 |time= |access-date=14 June 2022}}
The Vanguard's blazen communistic rhetoric quickly made the group a target for the new National Labour Party as well as the Catholic Church. Wth the prospects of growth for the group slim, it was not long before Cowan had moved on from them.
=Dáil Éireann=
In 1946 he joined the newly formed Clann na Poblachta, where he became the party's first treasurer. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1948 general election as a Clann na Poblachta Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North-East constituency.{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Peadar-Cowan.D.1948-02-18/|title= Peadar Cowan|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=9 April 2009}} He was expelled from the party in July 1948, after he criticised Ireland's receipt of aid from the Marshall Plan negotiated by party leader Seán MacBride as Minister for External Affairs.
During Cowan's time in the Dáil, he was constantly needled by other TDs about his time in the Vanguard, with Seán MacEntee in particular using speaking time in the Dáil to pepper Cowan about his communist statements as Vanguard's leader.{{cite web |url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1951-06-13/12/?highlight%5B0%5D=cowan&highlight%5B1%5D=vanguard&highlight%5B2%5D=cowan&highlight%5B3%5D=vanguard&highlight%5B4%5D=cowan&highlight%5B5%5D=vanguard |title=Dáil Éireann debate - Wednesday, 13 Jun 1951 |last= |first= |date= |website= |publisher= |access-date=14 June 2022 |quote=Deputy Norton: "Deputy Cowan a few years ago was frequently criticised and, indeed, on many occasions, blackguarded by Deputy MacEntee for being the Czarlike chief of the Vanguard organisation which Deputy MacEntee wrote down as the wildest and most irresponsible Communistic organisation in Europe. Deputy Cowan knows how he was abused by Deputy MacEntee about the Vanguard organisation, and Deputy Boland, the present Minister for Justice, took a hand in lambasting Deputy Cowan as well about the Vanguard organisation. We all know that."}}{{cite web |url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1950-07-11/33/?highlight%5B0%5D=cowan&highlight%5B1%5D=vanguard&highlight%5B2%5D=cowan |title=Dáil Éireann debate - Tuesday, 11 Jul 1950 |last= |first= |date= |website= |publisher= |access-date=14 June 2022 |quote=}}
Cowan supported Noël Browne over the Mother and Child Scheme and stood again as an Independent candidate at the 1951 general election where he retained his seat. He was defeated at the 1954 general election.{{cite web|url=http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1932|title=Peadar Cowan|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=9 April 2009}}
During Cowan's time as a TD, he continued to work in his capacity as a solicitor. It was during this period that Cowan represented (pro bono) the family of a young Eamon Dunphy who were faced with eviction. Cowan was able to prevent the eviction and Dunphy would later recount the episode in an autobiography.
=Imprisonment=
In 1956 Cowan declared himself bankrupt. On 1 November 1957 Cowan was convicted of embezzling £3,705 from a bricklayer, James O'Reilly and was sentenced to 2 years of prison. After an appeal to the Supreme Court failed, Cowan was struck off the roll of solicitors by the chief justice on 31 October 1958. Following his release from prison, Cowan would write the book Dungeons Deep, which discussed the state of Ireland's prison system.
=Return to politics=
In the 1960 local elections Cowan was re-elected to Dublin City Council. The last eliminated candidate, Victor Carton, petitioned that High Court that Cowan was ineligible due to being bankrupted and having been sentenced to two years' hard labour within five years of the election. The petition would have been tried under the Municipal Corporations Act 1882, but in 1961 the High Court struck out the 1882 act as incompatible with the 1937 constitution, so that Cowan kept his seat.{{cite book |author1=Department of Local Government |title=Report 1960–61 |date=1963 |publisher=Stationery Office |location=Dublin |pages=23–25}} Cowan was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1961 general election.
=Death=
Cowan died on 7 May 1962 in Dublin, leaving an estate valued at £5. Cowan married Rosemary Collumb in 1923, and they had seven sons and four daughters. One of those sons, Rory Cowan, unsuccessfully contested the Dublin North-East constituency for the Labour party in 1965. Rory's son is the actor Rory Cowan.{{cite news |last=Smyth |first=Jonathan |date=27 Jun 2020 |title=Peadar Cowan TD, soldier, solicitor, and Irish republican|url=https://www.anglocelt.ie/2020/06/27/peadar-cowan-td-soldier-solicitor-and-irish-republican/|work=The Anglo-Celt |access-date=14 June 2022}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Dublin North-East (Dáil constituency)/TDs}}
{{Clann na Poblachta}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowan, Peadar}}
Category:Clann na Poblachta TDs
Category:Irish Republican Army (1919–1922) members
Category:Labour Party (Ireland) candidates in Dáil elections
Category:Members of the 13th Dáil
Category:Members of the 14th Dáil
Category:National Army (Ireland) officers