Tributes to Cosgrave on Dublin return from League of Nations ceremony

Dublin, 15 September 1923 - A major welcoming event was held in Dublin yesterday in honuor of President Cosgrave’s arrival back in Ireland from Geneva following the Free State’s formal acceptance into the League of Nations.

The home-coming saw a staggered procession for the President from the pier in Dun Laoghaire to Dublin City Centre where a banquet was held in the ballroom of the Metropole Hotel to ‘honour one who has returned to Dublin with the nationality of Ireland firmly established before the world.’

Those were words of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Alderman Alfie Byrne, who presided over the Metropole reception and who, in proposing a toast to the health of Mr. Cosgrave on behalf of the citizens of Dublin, noted that for many years the city had borne the pain of foreign domination, had been the scene of acts of alien oppression, and had recently been the setting for an attempt to overthrow the will of the people. However, it had now become the first city to give expression to the national joy felt due to the achievement of President Cosgrave, who had built upon the work of President Griffith and General Collins.

Echoing the Lord Mayor’s sentiments was Senator Alice Stopford Green who declared that not since the time of Brian Boru had such recognition been conferred by Europe, much less the world, upon Ireland as a nation. Ireland had indeed, according to Professor Magennis TD, now taken her place ‘among the nations of the world, and is incarnate in the person of our President..’

Pathé newsreel footage of President Cosgrave's return from Geneva

When the opportunity came for the President himself to speak, he spoke of the pleasure of the Irish delegation in observing how Ireland was already being acknowledged as an independent nation and had been informed that the reception given to Ireland in the Council Chamber of the League of Nations was more cordial than given to any nation. Alongside the many speeches, the Metropole event also included an impressive programme of music. 

It marked the end of an impressive homecoming which betrayed the considerable planning that went into it. Escorted by a squadron of airplanes, President Cosgrave arrived into Dun Laoghaire Pier at 5.15pm and, after a presentation of addresses, travelled in the direction of the city, stopping in Blackrock and again at Mount Street Bridge where St. James’s Band greeted the entourage and there was a further presentation of addresses. The final leg of the procession, along the route of which decorations were strategically placed, took the President and his party past Merrion Square, Leinster Street, Nassau Street, College Green, Westmoreland Street and onto O’Connell Street towards the Metropole.

The various proclamations that were delivered at the Metropole reflected not merely an Irish - or Free State government - analysis of what transpired at Geneva. Similar interpretations are also to be found in the English and wider international press in recent days. Acknowledging the historic significance of the Geneva proceedings, the Manchester Guardian went so far as to suggest that had Parnell and Davitt foreseen it they would have died happy. Furthermore, in a undisguised swipe at some of the Free State government’s internal enemies, the Manchester Guardian added that ‘even Mr. de Valera can scarcely pretend that an Ireland that has a Treaty with every member of the League of Nations is at England’s mercy.’

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]