About Seamus Costello
Fallen Comrades of the IRSM IRSP Chairperson/INLA Chief of Staff Seamus Costello Assassinated by the Official IRA on 5 October 1977

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Seamus Costello was born in Bray, County Wicklow, in 1939. At the age of 16 he joined both Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army.

Within a year he was commanding an Active Service Unit of the IRA in South Derry and had earned the nickname of the "Boy General".

He was arrested in Glencree, Co. Wicklow, in 1957 and sentenced to six months in Mountjoy. On his release he was immediately interned in the Curragh for two years.

He spent his time in prison studying and was a member of the escape committee which engineered the successful escape of Ruari O Bradaigh and Daithi O'Connell among others.

After his release, Costello worked to rebuild the Republican Movement. He stood for election to the Bray Council in 1967 and was successful.

During the split of the Republican Movement into Official and Provisional movements in 1969, Costello remained with the Officials, serving as Vice-President of Official Sinn Fein and Chief of Staff of the Official IRA.

As the Officials began their slide into reformist politics, Costello's opposition to such politics caused him to be dismissed from the OIRA and suspended from OSF. He was dismissed from OSF in 1974 after the OSF leadership undemocratically blocked his supporters from attending the party convention.

At a meeting in the Lucan Spa, a hotel near Dublin, on 10 December 1974, the Irish Republican Socialist Party was formed by republicans, socialists, and trade unionists with Costello as the Chairperson.

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.

Within days of its founding, the fledgling Irish Republican Socialist Movement was to begin a baptism of fire at the hands of the OIRA. Members of the IRSM would be attacked and even killed. Before a truce was reached, three members of the movement were dead.

Despite the truce, Costello was gunned down by a member of the OIRA in Dublin on 5 October 1977.

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), and the Cualann Historical Society, as well as still holding the positions of Chairperson of the IRSP and Chief of Staff of the INLA.

At his funeral, James Connolly's daughter Nora said "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."

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"I owe my allegiance to the working class." - Seamus Costello
He died as he lived: a Republican Socialist. Remember him with honour and pride.

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Learn More about Seamus Costello

Seamus Costello Tribute Pages:
http://www.irsm.org/fallen/costello/
http://www.irsm.org/irsp/costello/