Eileen (Ellen) Costello (; ; 27 June 1870 – 4 March 1962) was an English-born Irish politician, writer, teacher and

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

Family

She was born Edith Drury on 27 June 1870 in St Pancras

workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''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. 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 (; historically known in English as the Gaelic League) is a social and cultural organisation which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1893 with Douglas Hyde as its first president, when it emer ...

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 or ''ardfheis'' ( , ; "high assembly"; plural ''ardfheiseanna'') is the name used by many Irish political parties for their annual party conference. The term was first used by Conradh na Gaeilge, the Irish language cultural organisation, for i ...

in May 1902. She began collecting Irish language songs in London (she first collected "Neillí Bhán" on a train coming from

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained thr ...

). She converted to Roman Catholicism and, in 1903, she married Dr 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.

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 The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...

in Tuam. She was elected to the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house). It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its memb ...

as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

member in December 1922. She was one of four women elected or appointed to the first Seanad in 1922. 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. In 1919, Costello published a compilation of traditional folk-songs from

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

and

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the yew trees") is a county in Ireland. In the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Counci ...

, titled ''Amhráin Muighe Seola: Traditional folk-songs from Galway and Mayo''.

Literature

*''Amhráin Muighe Seola'', Eileen Costello, (London: Irish Folk Song Society; Dublin : Candle Press, 1919).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Costello, Eileen 1870 births 1962 deaths Irish folk-song collectors Politicians from County Mayo Politicians from County Galway Independent members of Seanad Éireann Members of the 1922 Seanad Members of the 1925 Seanad Members of the 1928 Seanad Members of the 1931 Seanad 20th-century women members of Seanad Éireann Women folklorists Irish people of Welsh descent