An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir July / August 2020 www.dfmagazine.ie 32 | L t General MJ Costello was born in Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary in 1904. He joined the IRA in 1920 and subse- quently supported the treaty. He joined and achieved rapid promotion in the Free State Army, being personally promoted in the field by General Collins. In October 1923, aged only 19, he was acting Director of Intelligence in GHQ. He was one of the 6 officers chosen for the 1926 Military Mission to the USA after which he was centrally involved in the establishment and functioning of the Military Col- lege. After a 2 year appointment as ACOS, he transferred to Cork on the outbreak of WW2 as OC Southern Command. Promoted to Major-General in 1941 he was appointed GOC of the newly formed, First (Thunderbolt) Division. He retired from the Defence Forces in October 1945 with the rank of Lieutenant General and began a successful tenure as Gen- eral Manager of The Irish Sugar Company, establishing Erin Foods. In later life he devoted himself to dairy farming in Boyle, Co. Roscommon. He died in October 1986. As a teenager, the founder of An Cosantóir, Michael Joseph Costello, held aspirations to be a journalist. At aged 16, fol- lowing the arrest of his father by The Black and Tans, he was offered the position of Cloughjordan correspondent with Birr's Midland Tribune. In an early display of the innovative thinking that was later to characterise both his military and business career, young Costello discovered that he could submit reports on meetings such as those of the Borriso- kane Board of Guardians without bothering to attend. As the young I/O of C company, 2nd Battalion, North Tipperary IRA, he could easily get hold of the meeting's agenda and predict how various members would react and comment in compiling his "report". Unfortunately for him, on one occa- sion, having submitted his copy, another report reached the editor telling of how the meeting was broken-up by the Black and Tans and never took place at all! Costello was promptly sacked. He learned a valuable lesson in journalistic integrity and attention to detail that was to become the hallmark of the early editions of An Cosantóir. A tone was set that hap- pily continues 80 years later. AN TÓGLACH On his return from the USA Military Mission in 1927, Costello was amongst a small group of senior officers involved in the revival of An tÓglach. During the War of Independence, An tÓglach, under the editorship of Piaras Beaslai, was an impor- tant vehicle of motivation and propaganda for the volunteers around the country. Later, under the guidance of Comman- dant WJ Brennan-Whitmore (Author of "With the Irish in Frongoch"), it remained influential during and shortly after the Civil War, until it began to suffer as a side-effect of the 1923-24 demobilisation. His American experience convinced Costello - now serving in the newly established Temporary Plans Division of GHQ - of the immense importance of a BY BRIAN COSTELLO 1925, as a young Colonel serving as Director of Intelligence 1926 in Washington DC with the Military Mission

• Cover