Richard Mulcahy

Richard James Mulcahy (10 May 1886 – 16 December 1971) was an Irish Fine Gael politician and army general who served as Minister for Education from 1948 to 1951 and 1954 to 1957, Minister for the Gaeltacht from June 1956 to October 1956, Leader of the Opposition from 1944 to 1948, Leader of Fine Gael from 1944 to 1959, Minister for Local Government and Public Health from 1927 to 1932 and Minister for Defence from January to April 1919 and 1922 to 1924. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1938 and from 1943 to 1961 and a Senator from March 1938 to June 1938 and 1943 to 1944. He served in the cabinets of W. T. Cosgrave and John A. Costello.

He fought in the 1916 Easter Rising, served as chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence and became commander-in-chief of the National Army in the Irish Civil War after the death of Michael Collins. Mulcahy earned notoriety through his order that anti-Treaty activists captured carrying arms were liable for execution and for his failure to punish Free State army soldiers for atrocities. In later years this legacy prevented him from becoming Taoiseach in a coalition government.