An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 27 in 1945. In the later opinion of military archivist and historian Comdt Peter Young: "There is no doubt that as a medium of instruction and purveyor of technical information, it succeeded ad- mirably." (Indeed, a speech by Major General Costello to a class of potential NCOs was considered pertinent enough to be reprinted in 2011.) Costello retired a lieutenant general in 1946 and became manager of the Irish Sugar Company, which flourished under his leadership. One of his first measures was to introduce a company magazine, Biatas. The reduction of the Defence Forces to a peacetime strength led to a steep decline in contributors and circulation. By March 1948, monthly circulation had dropped to under 900 copies and the management of An Cosantóir was transferred to G2 in Dublin. However, An Cosantóir's fortunes were boosted by a chance meet- ing in Dublin. Following the German surrender, the Allies detained the Wehrmacht's generals but those with no case to answer re- garding war crimes were later released. Many were subsequently interviewed by British military theoretician Basil Liddell-Hart. He supplied contact details to ex-Capt Fergus Fitzgerald, who invited them "to write their own accounts for An Cosantóir". It would be the first time they had spoken in public about their military cam- paigns. The generals were receiving no pensions and many were in bad financial circumstances. Currency control inhibited cash pay- ments but the editor agreed to pay with food parcels, which were very welcome in Germany at that time. In addition, copyright was vested in the authors so that they might benefit from any reprints of their work. Thus, from 1948, An Cosantóir printed articles by famous names such as Generaloberst Guderian, who gave his ac- count of the assault on Moscow, and General Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin, who gave his account of the Battle of Monte Cassino. Generaloberst Kurt Student gave an account of the German viewpoint of Arnhem and provided the Irish Independent with an account of the proposed German airborne assault on Northern Ireland. By 1953, however, these contributions declined when other means of publication opened to the former generals. Liddell-Hart was to become a regular contributor to An Co- santóir, several of his articles being reprinted by other journals, in particular his 1967 analysis of the Six Day War. Another potential market for An Cosantóir was the FCÁ, over 37,000 strong on its inception in 1946 but declining to under 20,000 by 1959. A prolific contributor on this topic was Coy Sgt James Dillon (FCÁ), a barrister who acted as a roving reporter on FCÁ units around the country. Humorous (but not always fictional) short stories were provided by 'Sergeant Mac'. Even so, monthly sales declined to 600 copies in 1955 and to an all-time low of 437 in 1958. With original contributions in decline, An Cosantóir increasingly relied on reprints from other magazines, which were of questionable relevance to potential subscribers. It is fair to say that the 1950s were a time of stagnation in the Defence Forces as a whole. By 1960, less than a quarter of articles originated from Irish contributors, although in that year a lively debate ensued on the topic of guerrilla warfare as a viable defence option. In July, a new era opened for the Defence Forces when 32 Infantry Battalion deployed to the Congo on the army's first large-scale UN peace- keeping mission. This momentous event was not recorded until the December issue, although this marked An Cosantóir's first use of an attractive photo section and the journal would carry many more reports of the Congo mission until its conclusion in 1964. The 1963 issue was dedicated to the visit of President JF Kennedy to Ireland; five months later another issue was dedicated to the slain president, for which requests came in from all over the world. In 1968, An Cosantóir relaunched itself in a new format, featur- ing greater use of black and white photographs and illustrations. During the 1970s, many corps and services celebrated their 50th anniversary and An Cosantóir produced several commemo- rative issues, such as the November 1973 issue dedicated to the Artillery Corps. In 1980 An Cosantóir published its first colour photographs and in September that year organised the first An Cosantóir 10K run in the Phoenix Park, an event that has been the highlight of the Defence Forces' sporting calendar ever since. Seamus Kelly passed away in 1979, and in 1981 a trust fund in his name established the annual Seamus Kelly Military Journalist

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