Seamus Costello
Seamus Costello | |
|---|---|
Séamus Mac Coisdealbha | |
 Costello during a December 1975 interview with RTÉ | |
| Wicklow County Councillor | |
| In office March 1967 – October 1977 | |
| Constituency | Bray |
| Bray Urban District Councillor | |
| In office 1977–1967 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1939 Old Connaught Avenue, Border Campaign |
Seamus Costello (
He argued for a combination of socialist politics on economic issues and traditional
Early life and IRA Border Campaign
Born into a middle-class family in
At the age of 16 he joined
He was arrested in Glencree, County Wicklow, in 1957 and sentenced to six months in Mountjoy Prison. On his release, he was immediately interned in the Curragh prison camp for two years.[3]
He spent his time in prison studying. He was particularly inspired by his studies of the Vietnamese struggle for independence.[4] He became a member of the escape committee which engineered the successful escapes of Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Dáithí Ó Conaill, among others. Costello would later refer to this time as his "university days".
Costello eventually reached the rank of
Political activism
After his release, Costello worked to rebuild the republican movement, beginning by building a local base of support in
After
He was the Official IRA's Director of Operations.[8]
Costello was opposed to the 1972 ceasefire and started to clash openly with the leadership, in particular with Eoin Ó Murchú. Costello was subjected to court martial in 1974. Brigid Makowski, who was called to testify at his court martial in Mornington in County Meath, remarked that "Jesus could have testified on Costello's behalf and it wouldn't have changed the verdict."[9] He was dismissed from OSF in 1974 after the OSF leadership blocked his supporters from attending the party convention.
He stood again in the 1974 local elections and topped the poll for the
Founds INLA and IRSP
At a meeting in the
At a private meeting later the same day, the Irish National Liberation Army was formed with Costello as the Chief of Staff, although its existence was to be kept secret for a time. The new grouping intended to combine left-wing politics with the "armed struggle" against British security forces in Northern Ireland.
Within days of its founding, the fledgling
In July 1976 Costello was replaced as INLA chief-of-staff by South Derry man Eddy McNicholl, although he still wielded considerable influence within the movement, retaining his position as chairman of the IRSP.
Assassination
Despite the truce, Costello was shot dead with a shotgun as he sat in his car on Northbrook Avenue, off the North Strand Road in Dublin on 5 October 1977 allegedly by a member of the Official IRA, Jim Flynn, who happened to be in the area at the time.[11] The Official and Provisional IRAs both denied responsibility and Sinn Féin/The Workers' Party issued a statement condemning the killing. Members of an opposing INLA faction in Belfast also denied the killing. However, the INLA eventually deemed Flynn the person responsible, and he was shot dead in June 1982 in the North Strand, Dublin, very close to the spot where Costello died.[12]
Costello is the only leader of an Irish political party killed to date.
At the time of his death, he was a member of the following bodies:
- Wicklow County Council
- County Wicklow Committee of Agriculture
- General Council of Committees of Agriculture
- Eastern Regional Development Organisation
- National Museum Development Committee
- Bray Urban District Council
- Bray Branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union
- Bray and District Trade Unions Council (of which he was president 1976–77)
- Cualann Historical Society
as well as still holding the positions of
- Chairperson of the IRSP and
- Chief of Staff of the INLA.
His funeral was attended by
Of all the politicians and political people with whom I have had conversations and who called themselves followers of Connolly, he was the only one who truly understood what James Connolly meant when he spoke of his vision of the freedom of the Irish people.
Notes
- ^ Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, p. 25.
- ^ Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, p. 14.
- ^ Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, p. 17.
- ^ Biography retrieved 6 January 2010
- ^ Official Irish Republicanism, 1962 to 1972 by Sean Gowan page 338
- ^ "Chinese archives reveal IRA approaches seeking help for armed campaign". Irish Times.
- ^ "Nenagh". Tipperary Star. 27 October 1977.
- JSTOR 25551178.
- ^ The Lost Revolution : The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party by Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, p. 272
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, p. 402
- ^ Jack Holland and Frank McDonald, p. 118
- ^ Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, p. 403
References
- Holland, Jack; McDonald, Henry (1994). INLA: Deadly Divisions. Dublin: Torc. ISBN 978-1-898142-05-8.
- Hanley, Brian; Millar, Scott (2009). The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party. Dublin: Penguin Ireland. ISBN 978-1-84488-120-8.
- "Irish Republican Socialist Party" Irsm.org Seamus Costello Tribute Page 6 October 2003, retrieved 5 January 2010.
- Political Biography and Tributes [1] 13 August 2003, retrieved 5 January 2010.
- Profile at Electionsireland.com ElectionsIreland.org: Seamus Costello
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