Relative’s wish for Sean Costello to be reburied in Athlone

A relative of Sean Costello, the Athlone man killed during the Easter Rising in 1916, spoke this week about her wish to see his remains moved from Dublin back home to his native Cornamagh.

Mary Hanley, a resident of Mayfield Grove in Athlone, is Sean Costello’s grand niece. Or, to put it another way, the man after whom one of Athlone’s main streets is named was a brother of Mary’s grandfather, Thomas Costello.

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent this week, Mary said it wasn’t widely known that there was a direct relative of Sean Costello still living in Athlone.

“We always knew about this connection, but nobody would ever believe it when we used to say it in school,” she recalled. Mary is originally from St Kieran’s Terrace and is a daughter of Brigid and (Sean Costello’s nephew) Patrick Costello.

Sean Costello was born into a large family in Cornamagh. He was educated at the school in Cornamaddy and worked for a time in Melinn’s egg store on Mardyke Street.

Active as a member of the Irish Volunteers, he was sent on dispatch duty to Boland’s Mill where he was fatally wounded on the Wednesday of Easter week, April 26, 1916.

Aged just 23 at the time of his death, Sean was buried in Deans Grange Cemetery in Dublin, where his name was incorrectly inscribed as 'Lieut Joseph Costello’ on the headstone.

To mark the centenary of the Easter Rising, the Old Athlone Society plans to unveil a plaque to commemorate him, and this will most likely be erected somewhere along Sean Costello Street.

Mary Hanley said a tribute she would ideally like to see paid to her grand uncle would be to have his remains removed from the cemetery in Dublin and interred in a plot, where two of his brothers are buried, in Cornamagh Cemetery.

“I know there is space in that plot. He’s from Cornamagh, so I think he should be brought back to Cornamagh. That’s what I would like to see happen.”

She acknowledged that this would not be straightforward, particularly as Sean was buried in a communal grave with other 1916 victims. However, she said “if it doesn’t happen now (in this centenary year) it’s never going to happen.”

Mary has a twin sister, Kathleen, who is currently living in Limerick and a brother, Thomas, in Dublin.

Four of Sean Costello’s siblings emigrated from Athlone to the US, settling in Lowell, Massachusetts. Sean’s sister, Ellen, was one of them and her grandson Bill Mitchell - Sean Costello’s grand nephew - visited the town to explore the family heritage last year. It’s hoped that he and other American relatives of Sean Costello will be back this year for the unveiling of the memorial plaque on Sean Costello Street.

Mary and her husband Michael expressed their gratitude to Gearoid O’Brien and to Dun na Si in Moate for the assistance they provided in helping to trace the family history.