Name Tim Coogan Role Writer | ||
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Full Name Timothy Patrick Coogan Occupation Editor, broadcaster, journalist, writer Spouse(s) Cherry Coogan (marriage dissolved) Children 6 (five daughters, one son) Books The Famine Plot: Engl, Michael Collins: A Biography, 1916: The Easter Rising, Wherever green is worn, Ireland in the Twentieth | ||
Tim pat coogan what influenced you to write 1916 the mornings after
Timothy Patrick "Tim Pat" Coogan (born 22 April 1935) is an Irish writer, broadcaster and newspaper columnist. He served as editor of The Irish Press newspaper from 1968-87. He has been best-known for such books as The IRA, Ireland Since the Rising, On the Blanket, and biographies of Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera. His biography of de Valera proved controversial, taking issue with the former Irish president's reputation and achievements, in favour of those of Collins, whom he regards as indispensable to the creation of the new State.
Contents
- Tim pat coogan what influenced you to write 1916 the mornings after
- Tim pat coogan at the tom clarke seminar
- Biography
- Comments by Coogan on the 90th Anniversary of Easter Rising
- Criticism
- References
Coogan writes from a nationalist perspective. His particular focus has been Ireland's nationalist/independence movement in the 20th century; a period of unprecedented political upheaval. He has blamed the Troubles in Northern Ireland on "Paisleyism". Sean O'Callaghan, a former IRA paramilitary, turned informant for the Garda Síochána's Special Branch, said that Coogan's material was required reading for jailed IRA prisoners.
Tim pat coogan at the tom clarke seminar
Biography
Coogan was born in Monkstown, County Dublin in 1935, the first of three children born to Beatrice (née Toal) and Ned Coogan. Ned (sometimes referred to as "Eamonn Ó Cuagain"), a native of Kilkenny, was an Irish Republican Army volunteer during the War of Independence and later served as the first Deputy Commissioner of the newly established Garda Síochána, then a Fine Gael TD for the Kilkenny constituency. Beatrice Toal, the daughter of a policeman, was a Dublin socialite who was crowned Dublin's Civic Queen of Beauty in 1927. She wrote for the Evening Herald and took part in various productions in the Abbey Theatre and Radio Éireann. Coogan spent many summer holidays in the town of Castlecomer in County Kilkenny, his father's home town.
A former student of the Irish Christian Brothers in Dún Laoghaire and Belvedere College in Dublin, he spent most of his secondary studies in Blackrock College in Dublin.
In 2000, Irish writer and editor Ruth Dudley Edwards was awarded £25,000 damages and a public apology by the High Court in London against Coogan for factual errors in references to her in his book Wherever Green is Worn: the Story of the Irish Diaspora.
When Taoiseach Enda Kenny caused confusion following a speech at Béal na Bláth by incorrectly claiming Michael Collins had brought Lenin to Ireland, Coogan commented: "Those were the days when bishops were bishops and Lenin was a communist. How would that [Collins bringing Lenin to Ireland] have gone down with the churchyard collections?"
In November 2012, the United States embassy in Dublin refused to grant Coogan a visa to visit the U.S. As a result a planned book tour for his latest book (The Famine Plot, England's role in Ireland's Greatest Tragedy) was cancelled. After representations to then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by United States Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Congressman Peter King (R-NY), Coogan received his visa.
Comments by Coogan on the 90th Anniversary of Easter Rising
Excerpt from the 4/12/2006-4/18/2006 edition of the New York-based Irish Voice (page 11) entitled The Lessons of 1916:
Questions like [sic] should 1916 be commemorated? Should there be a military parade? These questions are in reality irritating diversionary tactics utilized by those whose real mental posture is the colonial cringe and whose political philosophy is crypto unionism. ... The basic importance of 1916 is that it formed a substantive, motivating role in the securing of independence, one of the three great turning points of Ireland in the 20th century ... [w]ithout the foregoing the Republic today would be on the same handout level as the six counties, and to a lesser degree Scotland and Wales ([1]).
Criticism
Coogan has been criticised by Irish historians Luke Kennedy, Cormac Ó Gráda and Diarmaid Ferriter for lack of thoroughness in his research and bias:
However historian Ronan Fanning sees Coogan in a positive light, quoting him in his book about Eamon De Valera.