An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir July/August 2016 www.dfmagazine.ie 26 | by GNR TERENCE O'REILLY, MILITARY LIBRARY, MIL COL, DFTC I n June 1940 with the Wehrmacht 300 miles from our shores and the Irish army comprising only two infantry brigades, a desperate call to arms was jointly issued by the three main political parties. thousands of Irishmen responded, allowing the formation of four new brigades later that year. thousands more also joined the part-time Local Security Forces (LSF). OC Southern Command was 36-year-old Colonel MJ Costello. Promoted by General Michael Collins during the Civil War, he had graduated with distinction from the US Army Command and Staff School in 1927 and subsequently served as Director of Training and CMC. As a regular contributor to (and editor of) An t-Óglach, the army's original magazine until its demise in 1930, he was acutely aware of the value of a military journal as a means of dis- seminating training material among his rapidly expanding force and as "a means whereby the words of the Command OC and staff could reach men at a distance". Costello started a new military newspaper, titled An Cosantóir (The Defender), with the first issue going on sale on 27th Decem- ber 1940 and weekly thereafter. In addition to many articles by former Military College instruc- tors, An Cosantóir was also able to avail of first-hand accounts of the experiences of many War of Independence veterans, includ- ing Liam Deasy, Flor O'Donoghue and Tom Barry. According to Costello, their accounts "pointed to the form of combat most likely to allow the LDF to make themselves felt as a fighting force, and linked the experience and prestige of the fighters of the War of Independence with the fight for which we were preparing." Other contributors would include Pte (later Colonel) ED Doyle and Volunteer (later Captain) Seamus Kelly, who later became a household name as 'QUIDNUNC' of the Irish Times. One early editor was Captain John Busteed, World War One veteran and professor in civilian life. The new publication was a great success, with weekly sales reaching 6,500 by November 1941. By 1942 Easons were distrib- uting over 4,000 copies of An Cosantóir outside Munster and it was decided to transfer publication to Dublin and to adopt it as the official magazine of the Defence Forces. From January 1942 it changed to a monthly publication. Southern Command personnel resented the loss of their journal and formed a new newspaper, An Barr Buadh, edited by now Maj Gen Costello's intelligence officer Major Flor O'Donoghue. The number of contributors to An Cosantóir plummeted and it in- creasingly became policy to reprint articles from foreign military journals, particularly the US Military Review. In mid-1943, publication was returned to Cork and Major O'Donoghue served as its editor until the end of The Emergency the story so far

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