Eileen Costello
{{Short description|Irish politician and writer (1870–1962)}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=February 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{distinguish|Eileen Costello O'Shaughnessy}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image = Eileen Costello.jpg
| caption = Costello in December 1922
| office = Senator
| term_start = 11 December 1922
| term_end = 12 December 1934
| party = Independent
| birth_name = Edith Drury
| birth_place = London, England
| birth_date = {{birth date|1870|6|27|df=y}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1962|3|4|1870|6|27|df=y}}
| death_place = County Galway, Ireland
| occupation = Politician, writer, teacher, folklorist
| spouse = {{marriage|Thomas Bodkin Costello|1903|1956|end=died}}
| children = 1
}}
Eileen (Ellen) Costello ({{Langx|ga|Eibhlín Bean Uí Choisdealbha}}; {{nee|Edith Drury}}; 27 June 1870 – 4 March 1962) was an English-born Irish politician, writer, teacher and folklorist.
Family
She was born Edith Drury on 27 June 1870 in St Pancras workhouse in London. Some accounts state her father, who worked as an attendant at the workhouse, was Michael Drury, a native of County Limerick, and her mother Agnes (Hopton) was Welsh, while others claim that her father was Welsh and her mother was from Limerick. It is likely that a charitable society assisted with her education.{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/ui-choisdeailbh-eibhlin-edith-costello-a8761|title=Uí Choisdeailbh, Eibhlín (Edith Costello)|work=Dictionary of Irish Biography|last=Ní Mhunghaile|first=Lesa|access-date=28 December 2023}}
Edith Drury became a teacher at St Michael's Church of England school, Buckingham Palace Road, London. She was a member of the various Irish organisations in London and became a member of the Gaelic League when it formed. It was there she learned Irish. A member of the committee, she was a representative on behalf of the London Branch at the Ardfheis in May 1902.
She began collecting Irish language songs in London (she first collected "Neillí Bhán" on a train coming from Woolwich).{{cite web | url=http://www.ainm.ie/Bio.aspx?ID=132 | title=Costello, Eileen (1870–1962)|work=ainm.ie|access-date=5 February 2016}} She converted to Roman Catholicism and, in 1903, she married Thomas Bodkin Costello (1864–1956), a medical doctor, historian, and fellow Gaelic Leaguer. They had one child, a daughter, writer Nuala Costello. The family lived in Tuam, County Galway, Ireland.{{cite web|url=http://sources.nli.ie/Record/PS_UR_024761|title=John MacHale by Nuala Costello|publisher=The Dublin magazine, Vol. XIV, Ser. New., No. 4, pp. 86-87, October–December|date=1939|access-date=5 February 2016}}
Life in Ireland
Costello's collecting work really began in Tuam. Although she supplied extensive source-notes to the songs and information on their backgrounds (with English translations mainly by others), her motivation was not academic. She intended her volume primarily 'for popular use in the schools and Gaelic League classes of Connacht'.
Costello was involved in the Irish War of Independence in Tuam. She was elected to the Irish Free State Seanad Éireann as an independent member in December 1922.{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Eileen-Ellen-Costello.S.1922-12-06/|title=Eileen Costello|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=27 March 2009}} She was one of four women elected or appointed to the first Seanad in 1922.The other women were Alice Stopford Green, Ellen Cuffe, Countess of Desart and Jennie Wyse Power She was re-elected until she lost her seat in the 1934 Seanad election. Of the four women in the Senate, Costello was the only one who spoke to any notable extent. She was one of only two of the women senators who spoke against the Civil Service Regulation Bill, which would make it legal for the government to confine certain jobs to specific sexes and the Juries Bill which would require women to volunteer for jury service instead of it being a standard part of citizenship.{{cite book |editor= O'Connor, Sarah |editor2=Shepard, Christopher C. |url=http://www.cambridgescholars.com/download/sample/61523 | title=Women, Social and Cultural Change in Twentieth Century Ireland | publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing | access-date=4 February 2016}}
In 1919, Costello published a compilation of traditional folk-songs from County Galway and County Mayo, titled Amhráin Muighe Seola: Traditional folk-songs from Galway and Mayo.{{cite book | url=http://www.itma.ie/digitallibrary/score/AMS | title=Amhráin Muighe Seola: Traditional folk-songs from Galway and Mayo | access-date=2016-02-05 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611213409/http://www.itma.ie/digitallibrary/score/AMS | archive-date=2016-06-11 | url-status=dead }}
Literature
- Amhráin Muighe Seola, Eileen Costello, (London: Irish Folk Song Society; Dublin : Candle Press, 1919).
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Members of the 1922 Seanad}}
{{Members of the 1925 Seanad}}
{{Members of the 1928 Seanad}}
{{Members of the 1931 Seanad}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Costello, Eileen}}
Category:Irish folk-song collectors
Category:Politicians from County Mayo
Category:Politicians from County Galway
Category:Independent members of Seanad Éireann
Category:Members of the 1922 Seanad
Category:Members of the 1925 Seanad
Category:Members of the 1928 Seanad
Category:Members of the 1931 Seanad
Category:20th-century women members of Seanad Éireann