Researching Peadar Cowan

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.

In the early 1930s Cowan had become a supporter of Eoin O'Duffy's Blueshirts, but by 1938 had switched his political outlook and joined the Irish 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.

Cowan left the Labour party in 1944, disillusioned with the infighting and turmoil. Initially, he became involved with a hardline Communist group known as (the) "Vanguard". 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. However, the group was (deliberately) extremely small, owing to Anti-Communist sentiments in Ireland and, with the prospects of growth slim, it was not long before Cowan had moved on from them.

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. He sided with 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 and was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1961 general election. In the 1960 local elections he was returned for LEA No. 1 to Dublin City Council. The last eliminated candidate, Victor Carton, petitioned that High Court that Cowan was ineligible both as an undischarged bankrupt 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.