As Declan Costello reaches 80, we should recall his "Just Society" programme and his contribution to new thinking in Irish politics, writes Maurice Manning.
Declan Costello's 80th birthday today recalls a life rich in its contribution to Irish public life, as politician, attorney general, lawyer, judge and as a lifelong champion of the disabled.
Declan Costello was that rarity in Irish politics - certainly politics of mid-20th century Ireland - a man of intellectual conviction who sought to infuse new ideas and new thinking into a political system that had little appetite for either.
Declan Costello's background was intensely political. His father, John A Costello, was attorney general in the government of WT Cosgrave and was one of Fine Gael's more vigorous front benchers in the 1930s and taoiseach (albeit a reluctant one) on two occasions, 1948-51 and 1954-57.
Declan Costello was, however, a very untypical politician. Loyal to his party but with no civil war baggage, he was determined to move on from the bitterness which had disfigured Irish politics for years. Private, shy and reserved, he was never a gregarious politician, having little taste for the camaraderie and boisterousness of so much of political life.
As far back as 1947, long before becoming a TD, along with his great friend Alexis Fitzgerald, he had been urging new thinking on Fine Gael - something greatly encouraged by his father and Paddy McGilligan. Shortly after his election to the Dáil in the 1950s, along with Tom O'Higgins, he set up the Fine Gael Research and Information Centre which, among other things, argued that since the private sector was not capable of driving economic development, the public sector would have to intervene on an ever-increasing scale. The public sector had to be transformed to do this effectively and the banks needed to play an "active" rather than "frustrating" part in aiding economic growth - growth which had a strong social as well as economic dimension.
These views were not well received by the then leadership of James Dillon and, in particular, by Gerard Sweetman, a powerful and immensely able figure of vigorously conservative views on economic and fiscal matters. In the end, however, this clash was to lead to the adoption by Fine Gael of the Just Society programme less than a decade later. In the short term, however, Declan Costello failed to bring Fine Gael with him. He was seen by some of his colleagues as a dangerous socialist, by others as impractical and most damagingly of all - "an academic".
It took two stunning by-election defeats - Cork and Kildare - in 1964 to bring the Costello agenda back to the fore in Fine Gael. By today's standards there was little that was alarming in his proposals, but their emphasis on modernisation and professionalism on formulating economic, social and cultural policies influenced by Christian social principles, the continuing emphasis on a strong social component to economic development and the need to work effectively for an alliance with Labour all combined to galvanise Fine Gael into its first real policy debate in decades - and one that Costello, backed by Tom O'Higgins and Liam Cosgrave - won.
The Just Society debate had many consequences. It shoved a reluctant Fine Gael centre-stage politically and the party showed a hitherto unsuspected energy in debating its future shape and direction. The episode showed Declan Costello as a tough and wily fighter, prepared to play by his, rather than his opponent's, rules as he succeeded in having his proposals accepted.
The Just Society never sat lightly on James Dillon's style of leadership but it was Fine Gael policy in the 1965 election, giving the party a sharpness it had long lacked. It proved particularly popular among young people, especially in the universities, and paved the way for the approach successfully adopted by Garret FitzGerald a decade later. And, ironically, if the Labour alliance urged by Costello had been successfully adopted, Dillon would probably have become taoiseach.
Surprisingly, Declan Costello was not a minister in the 1973-77 government, holding instead the position occupied by his father 50 years earlier, attorney general. He was disappointed but his tenure was a reforming one with the establishment of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Law Reform Commission - two enduring achievements. It is interesting to note, too, that during his tenure a Bill was drafted to introduce a code of ethics and behaviour for political life - drafted, but never published, until resurrected in more pressing circumstances 20 years later. It might have made a difference.
As a judge Declan Costello was seen as scholarly, intellectual and rigorous, clear in vision and expression and always with a strong moral sense. But in a life of singular achievement in politics and law, one of his greatest achievements will be the one least noted - his key role in establishing St Michael's House for the mentally handicapped in 1956 and his supporting role ever since.
Maurice Manning is president of the Irish Human Rights Commission.
This article was written in a personal capacity