John A Costello

This weekend marks the 76th anniversary of the declaration of the Irish Republic on Easter Monday. All of this of course had come about by the intervention of John A Costello. When he died in 1976 this momentous moment in Irish history was widely recalled. The Irish Press newspaper reported:

John A. Costello lived one of the fullest political lives of this century. While a student he shared in the hopes and aspirations of that talented generation of young Irishmen who helped pave the way to independence. Later he was to have a chance to make a reality of these aspirations.

In the 1920s he held the office of Attorney General. In the 1930s he was to be a stern and uncompromising opponent of Fianna Fail and one of the most vigorous and effective advocates of his own party's cause. Later, in the 1940s, he was sufficiently acceptable to the various opposition groups to become first Coalition Taoiseach and it was his skill as a chairman which helped the two Coalition Governments to last as long as they did.

John A. Costello had many worthy characteristics. He was a superb lawyer with a sharp and aggressive legal mind. He was a man of great common sense hating humbug and speaking clearly and honestly — at times even brutally—on all subjects. He was a fighter —never giving up and never afraid to take the battle into his opponents' court. Most of all he was a man of great loyalty—to his country, to his party and to his friends. It was by this last quality in particular that he will be remembered.

It can be said of John A. Costello that he was a patriot. He loved his country, he served it well and he will be well remembered by his countrymen.

Likewise, the Irish Independent noted that:

MR. JOHN A. COSTELLO, former Taoiseach and one of the most distinguished political figures in Irish history, died last night, at his Dublin home. He was 85. Leader of two inter-party governments he was most noted on the international scene for his announcement in Canada in 1948 of the repeal of the External Relations Act and the declaration of the Republic. In March last year along with his arch rival, the late Mr. Eamon de Valera, he was conferred with the Freedom of Dublin City at the Mansion House.. He predicted just over a year ago that only  ‘a miracle and the Almighty" could solve the Northern troubles and re-integrate North and South. Mr. Costello was speaking as a special guest at a dinner in the Kings Inns, Dublin, to mark his 60th year as a member of the Bar. Mr. Costello was father of the Attorney General, Mr. Declan Costello, S.C. Born in 1891, he was educated at the O'Connell Schools, North Richmond Street, Dublin. He graduated in Modern Languages from U.C.D. in 1911 and in 1914 he obtained an LL.B. degree with first-class honours. He was a Victoria prize winner and an exhibitioner in Brooke Scholarship examinations at King's Inns. Called to the Bar in 1914. he took silk in 1925, and was a Bencher of King's Inns since 1926 and a member of the Royal Irish Academy since 1948. 

 In 1922 when the Provisional Government was set up he was appointed Assistant Law Officer and in 1923 he became Assistant Attorney General in the Cosgrave administration. He became Attorney General in 1926 and represented Ireland at the Imperial Conferences in London in 1926, 1929 and 1930. He was a delegate to the League of Nations and other conferences in Geneva, and was one of the people largely responsible for Constitutional changes in Ireland's relations to the British Empire which culminated in the Statute of Westminster. When the Fianna Fail Government assumed office in 1932, Mr. Costello returned to the Bar and built up a very extensive practice being acknowledged as one of the leading Constitutional lawyers in the country.

For more information search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive (www.irishnewsarchive.com )