John Aloysius Costello (20 June 1891 – 5 January 1976) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 1948 to 1951 and from 1954 to 1957, Leader of the Opposition from 1951 to 1954 and from 1957 to 1959, and Attorney General of Ireland from 1926 to 1932.

[2] He was educated at St Joseph's, Fairview, and then moved to O'Connell School, for senior classes, and later attended University College Dublin, where he graduated with a degree in modern languages and law.

[5]The remark was a small part of a much longer speech whose main point was that the bill was an unconstitutional over-reaction by the Fianna Fáil government and an unfair scapegoating of the Blueshirts movement.

[5] However, the quote has since been the subject of much historical debate regarding the extent to which the Blueshirts, and by extension Fine Gael – and Costello himself – had ties to European fascist movements.

In 1948, Fianna Fáil had been in power for sixteen consecutive years and had been blamed for a downturn in the economy following World War II.

The general election results showed Fianna Fáil short of a majority, but still by far the largest party, with twice as many seats as the nearest rival, Fine Gael.

However, the other parties in the Dáil realised that between them, they had only one seat fewer than Fianna Fáil, and if they banded together, they would be able to form a government with the support of seven Independent deputies.

While it looked as if cooperation between these parties would not be feasible a shared opposition to Fianna Fáil and Éamon de Valera overcame all other difficulties and the coalition government was formed.

[12] During the campaign, Clann na Poblachta had promised to repeal the External Relations Act of 1936 but did not make an issue of this when the government was being formed.

In September 1948, Costello was on an official visit to Canada when a reporter asked him about the possibility of Ireland leaving the British Commonwealth.

A new record was set in housebuilding, the Industrial Development Authority and Córas Tráchtála were established, and the Minister for Health, Noel Browne, with the then new Streptomycin, brought about an advance in the treatment of tuberculosis.

He resumed his practice at the Bar; what is arguably his most celebrated case, the successful defence of The Leader against a libel action brought by the poet Patrick Kavanagh, dates from this period.

A campaign dominated by economic issues resulted in a Fine Gael-Labour Party-Clann na Talmhan government coming to power.

[26] The government could do little to change the ailing nature of Ireland's economy, with emigration and unemployment remaining high, and external problems such as the Suez Crisis compounding the difficulty.

Measures to expand the Irish economy such as export profits tax relief introduced in 1956 would take years to have a sizable impact.

[28] Although the government had a comfortable majority and seemed set for a full term in office, a resumption of IRA activity in Northern Ireland and Great Britain caused internal strains (see Border Campaign).

Fianna Fáil also tabled its motion of no confidence, and, rather than face almost certain defeat, Costello again asked President Seán T. O'Kelly to dissolve the Oireachtas.

The general election which followed in 1957 gave Fianna Fáil an overall majority and started another sixteen years of unbroken rule for the party.

Some of his colleagues questioned the wisdom of Costello's decision to call an election; the view was expressed that he was tired of politics, and depressed by his wife's sudden death the previous year.