Declan Costello

David Declan Costello was born and grew up in Ballsbridge, Dublin, the son of John A. Costello who served as Taoiseach on two occasions, and Ida Mary Costello (). He attended the Sacred Heart convent school, Leeson Street, and St Xavier's School, Donnybrook. In 1948, Costello completed his degree, joined the Irish Bar and began practising law in and around Dublin. ==Political career==

Becoming a TD and early social influences Having a family connection to the party, Costello had been a member of Fine Gael since joining college. In 1951, at the age of just 24, he was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael TD for the Dublin North-West constituency during that year's general election. He was the youngest member of the house at the time, earning him the informal title of Baby of the Dáil. The following years would significantly influence Costello's political views; his exposure to the poor living conditions of his constituents in Dublin North-west radically altered his views on housing. In 1953, Costello married Joan Fitzsimons. With Joan, Costello would go on to have four sons and two daughters. One of these sons was later found to have autism, and the cause of children with special needs quickly became an area of special concern for Costello, particularly as "his elder brother Wilfrid had been left with a mild mental disability during birth". In the aftermath, a dejected Costello sought to become the party's spokesperson for Finance, but instead was handed the position of spokesperson for health and social welfare. Costello was further frustrated by Cosgrave's limp espousal of the Just Society concept. Although outside the confines of Fine Gael, Costello continued to remain in the political sphere. He would host parties and meetings of Fine Gael and Labour members, where they would discuss possible Fine Gael/Labour coalitions, how to dislodge Cosgrave as leader of Fine Gael and even the possibility of forming a new political party. When the prospects of an actual Fine Gael/Labour coalition became more and more tangible from 1970 onwards, Costello announced he would stand for the Dáil in the next election. He stood in a different constituency from his previous one, moving to Dublin South-West, but was elected at the 1973 Irish general election. The inclusion of a progressive such as Costello on the Fine Gael ticket helped cement the Fine Gael/Labour coalition. As Attorney General, Costello refused requests by members of the coalition to have their constituents' minor criminal charges squashed, an established practice in Ireland. Costello sought to depoliticise the office of Attorney General and successfully did so in 1975 upon his establishment of the Director of Public Prosecutions's office. From then on, briefs for criminal cases would be apportioned despite the party relationship. Finding many of his attempts to reform Irish law stifled by a combination of bureaucratic lethargy and defiance from vested interests, Costello founded the Law Reform Commission in 1975. Although the Law Reform Commission lacked resources or political support, in time it was able to produce significant legal reform in Ireland thanks to its institutional status. During his time as Attorney General, Costello proved to be a thorn in the side of the British government. Costello was vocal in his belief that, wherever possible, the Irish state should refuse to extradite Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners to the United Kingdom. Costello's stance was born out of his experience in 1973 when he was in charge of Ireland's case with the European Commission of Human Rights being against the UK for the internment and torture of nationalists in Northern Ireland. Costello had been convinced he needed to establish precedent in international law on the matter, regardless of diplomatic concerns. Engaging the political right and tabloid press in the UK, Costello was able to prove in court that the British state was illegally using sensory deprivation techniques on prisoners. In 1977, it was decided by the court that the prisoners were treated harmfully before giving the verdict of the UK being cleared of torture. For having created the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Law Reform Commission, Costello has been called the "most consequential attorney general in the state's history". == Judicial career ==

Although the Fine Gael–Labour coalition had expanded social investment and broadened the tax base in Ireland, its more ambitious plans were halted by the 1973 oil crisis as well as by the deepening of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. A by-election in Dublin South-West in 1976 signalled that his seat was in danger, and Costello responded he would not try to be re-elected. In May 1977, he resigned as attorney general and as a TD and was appointed as a judge of the high court. In 1993, Costello ruled "that the Office of Public Works was not exempt from the planning process". In 1995, Costello ruled that a "withholding tax" was unconstitutional, a decision which was said to have cost the state around £60 million. The X Case In February 1992, the Attorney General, Harry Whelehan, sought an injunction from the High Court to restrain a 14-year-old girl, known as "X", who was a victim of statutory rape, from travelling outside the State to obtain an abortion. The case came before Costello, who was forced to weigh the argument that there was a high probability of "X" committing suicide unless she were permitted to travel against the "right to life of the unborn" contained in the constitution following the Eighth Amendment in 1983. Costello held "that the certainty of the fetus dying in an abortion outweighed the possibility of a suicide", and granted the injunction. The response was explosive; there was international condemnation of the decision. On 26 February the Supreme Court overturned Costello's ruling. Costello's ruling was opined to be in breach of European law, which "protects the right to travel for services lawfully provided" in other EU countries, although an official ruling on that thinking was avoided. In November 1992, a constitutional amendment to permit travel was approved in a referendum. President of the High Court Although his decision in the X Case had shocked Costello's liberal admirers, his appointment as President of the High Court in 1995 was not judged to be controversial, partly because he had been acting president since 1991. As president, Costello created procedures which allowed "urgent cases to be dealt with faster" before retiring as a judge in December 1997. Costello's final act as a public figure was "to head an inquiry into the tax evasion conspiracy directed by the Guinness and Mahon Bank". Having taken the position in 1999, he retired from it in 2000 upon medical advice. ==Political influences==

Costello has been described as a "devotee" of the Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, a believer that "human rights existed to serve the common good rather than individual autonomy". Researcher Ciara Meehan has suggested that the influence of Pope John XXIII's in 1961 was a clear influence upon the Just Society document. ==Personal life==

In 1950, Jacqueline Bouvier, later to become better known as Jackie Kennedy, was staying for a time in Ireland. She had befriended Father Joseph Leonard, an elderly priest who lived in Drumcondra, Dublin. It was through Father Leonard that Bouvier was introduced to the Costello family. Bouvier had confessed to Father Leonard that she was seeking a husband at the time, and Leonard suggested that Declan, then 24 years old, would be a good match. Bouvier wrote to Leonard that Declan "sounds like absolute heaven" and that he would make a "suitable" husband. However, the match was never to come about as Bouvier continued her travels onwards to Scotland, and later returned to the United States while Costello married Joan Fitzsimons in 1953. Jacqueline would return to Ireland in 1955 as Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy alongside her new husband US Senator (and future US president) John F. Kennedy, whom she introduced to the Costello family. Jacqueline would later write in a private letter to Costello recalling a double date between the couples: "That night we dined at Jammet's and our happy marriage was nearly rent asunder because Jack was enchanted by Joan and I was enchanted with you — but somehow we patched it all up at the movies" Costello and his wife Joan had six children together, including Caroline Costello who followed in his footsteps and also became a Judge. ==Legacy==

The impact of Declan Costello's Just Society continued to be felt decades after it was published. The Just Society had been called "a milestone" in the Fine Gael's history and remains frequently referenced. During the 1980s, Garret FitzGerald as Taoiseach was considered to be the champion of the Just Society concept. During the 2017 Fine Gael leadership election between Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney, Coveney put forward that he would bring the party back in line with the concepts stipulated in the Just Society document. It was also during that 2017 leadership contest that leading member of Fine Gael, Paschal Donohoe, published an opinion piece in The Irish Times in which he heavily praised the Just Society document and called for it to once again become a centrepiece of Fine Gael's policies. ==See also==