Tim Pat Coogan

Tim Pat Coogan
Born	22 April 1935 (1935-04-22) Monkstown, County Dublin
Occupation	Editor Broadcaster Journalist Historian
Children	5 Daughters 1 Son
Religious belief(s)	Atheist
Notable credit(s)	Editor of The Irish Press

Timothy Patrick Coogan (born on 22 April 1935) is an Irish historical writer, broadcaster and newspaper columnist. He served as editor of the Irish Press newspaper from 1968 to 1987. Today, he is best known for his popular and sometimes controversial books on aspects of modern Irish history, including The IRA, Ireland Since the Rising, On the Blanket, and biographies of Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera.

His biography of Éamon de Valera proved the most 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.

Life

Tim Pat Coogan was born in Monkstown, County Dublin in 1935. He was the first of three children (Brian was born two years later, and Aisling was born four years later) born to Ned Coogan and his wife Beatrice. His father Ned (or Eamonn Ó Cuagain as he sometimes preferred to be known) was active in the Volunteers during the War of Independence and later went on to be the first Deputy Commissioner of the newly-established Garda Síochána, then a Fine Gael TD for the Kilkenny constituency. His mother was a Dublin socialite who was crowned Dublin's Civic Queen of Beauty in 1927. She also 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.

He is a former student of the Christian Brothers in Dun Laoghaire, Belvedere College and spent most of his secondary studies in Blackrock College (he had two spells here) in Dublin. In his memoir, published in 2008, he describes himself as an atheist.

Publications

• Ireland Since the Rising, 1966.
• The I.R.A. a History, 1970. ISBN 0-00-653155-5
• The Irish : a personal view, 1975.
• On the Blanket : the H Block story, 1980.
• Ireland and the Arts, 1986.
• Disillusioned Decades : Ireland 1966-87, 1987.
• Michael Collins : a biography, 1990. ISBN 0-09-968580-9.
• De Valera : long fellow, long shadow, 1993.
• The Troubles : Ireland's ordeal 1966-1995 and the Search for Peace, 1995. ISBN 0-09-946571-X.
• The Irish Civil War (with George Morrison), 1998.
• Wherever Green is Worn : the Story of the Irish Diaspora, 2000.
• 1916: The Easter Rising, 2001.
• Ireland in the Twentieth Century, 2004. ISBN 1-4039-6842-X
• Memoir, 2008.

External links

• Tim Pat Coogan's website
• The Green Book — chapter from The IRA, Coogan's book on the Irish Republican Army