Costello dead
(N.Z. Press Assn—Copyrights DUBLIN, Jan. 6. The former Irish Prime Minister, Mr John Costello, has died from cancer in a Dublin hospital, aged 84.
A lawyer by profession, Mr Costello was twice Prime Minister, from 1948 to 1951 and again from 1954 to 1957. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the intervening years, and again from 1957 to 1959, when he retired from active politics. He led Ireland’s first coalition government in 1948 after the surprise overthrow of Mr Eamon de Valera’s 16year Administration. In 1949 he repealed the External Relations Act, tak-
ing Ireland out of the British Commonwealth and establishing it as a republic. : Born of a middle-class Dublin family, Mr Costello ' graduated with top honours in law from Dublin Univer- • sitv in 1914. He became an assistant law officer in the first government of Irish Free States in 1922, and it was his appointment as AttorneyGeneral in 1926 that established his career as a statesman.
He represented Ireland at the League of Nations, and played a prominent part at imperial conferences held in London in 1926, 1927, and 1930.
He was married with three sons and two daughters. One son, Declan, is Ireland’s present Attorney-General.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34044, 7 January 1976, Page 11
Word Count
202Costello dead Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34044, 7 January 1976, Page 11
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