SEAMUS COSTELLO

KILKENNY

 

MAN WHO PUT JEWEL IN KILKENNY'S CROWN

 

 

The death of Seamus Costello is the latest in a series that has removed

from Kilkenny some of its most prominent business leaders of the last

decades of the twentieth century.

 

With people like the late Alex Bowen, the late Bobby Kerr, the late Tom Manning and the late Pat Molloy, Seamus shared a vision for his business and his city that

delivered at local level but also contributed to creating a national

profile for the city through membership of professional organisations

and trade contacts.

 

As President of the Retail Jewellers' Association of Ireland, Seamus

drew attention to the position of Kilkenny as a centre of creative

excellence, where mainstream jewellery businesses such as his own could

prosper alongside more than half-a-dozen craft jewellers from the

Kilkenny Design Workshops tradition (Seamus always held that Kilkenny

was the perfect getaway place for romantic breaks - and ring buying!)

 

He also led the way by insisting on international standards of

management, marketing and technology in his own business that served as

an example to his fellow-members of both the RJI and Kilkenny Chamber of

Commerce, which he also served as president.

 

Seamus came from a family that had long ties with both the county and

city of Kilkenny, as was evidenced by his place of burial at Kilkeasy

Cemetery in Hugginstown. In the early 1940s his father, Eamonn Costello,

who married Frances Murphy of the High Street family, took over the

supervision of the business established at No. 85 by her father Patrick

T. in 1903, and combined it with a career as a teacher of Irish at St.

Kieran's College (the family home, then as now, was literally at the

college's 'back door').

 

When it came to the next generation, Eamonn and Frances' eldest son

Padraig chose scholarship over business, and, having graduated at UCD in

Celtic Studies and studied for his doctorate at the University of the

Ruhr in Bochum (Germany), was on the point of embarking on a career that

would surely have taken him to the top levels of philology (his

pioneering work on Old Irish syntax was eventually published in 1998).

However, in the most tragic of circumstances (involving a journey home

to attend an All-Ireland) he was killed in a car accident in 1976 at the

age of 27.

 

The Costello family could never hope to produce another scholar at this

level, so they settled for a division of labour that reflected all of

the backgrounds, interests and skills that they had accumulated: one

became a doctor, some became teachers and Seamus took over the jewellery

business, an assignment made more urgent when his father died

unexpectedly shortly after his retirement from teaching in the

mid-1970s. Still in his early twenties, Seamus set about upgrading the

shop premises on High Street, and with his wife Marie, began building up

the trade connections and staff that ensured later success.

 

Alongside this, Seamus always maintained a lively interest in culture

and heritage, and had a particular interest in old books and

photographs. He worked with another local business leader and photo

expert Kieran White to produce 'Kilkenny City and County: A Photographic

Record' in 1995 in conjunction with Michael O'Dwyer. When Seamus turned

up at a cultural event, he conferred on it a mark of distinction, since

he always chose carefully from among his many invitations.

 

In 2004, Seamus and Marie embarked on a major renovation and expansion

of the store, bringing back to it some of the facilities it had enjoyed

a generation or two earlier, when it had a bustling fabrication and

repair workshop for jewellery, plate and watches. The 21st.-century

development plan was made for the next generation of Costellos, who were

already showing interest and aptitude in the craft side of the business.

 

 

Martin attended the Gemological Institute of America at their training

centre in California, qualifying as a graduate gemologist after an

intensive course of study covering diamonds and over 100 different

coloured gemstones, including hands-on experience in the institute's

world-famous diamond grading and certification laboratories. Stephen

trained for two years with the Craft Council of Ireland, completing

their Jewellery Design and Skills course before going on to run a

manufacturing workshop in Dublin and as a leading bench jeweller for

eighteen months in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). Both are now

working in the family business in Kilkenny.

 

With the arrival of two grandchildren (Conor and Chloe) to his daughter

Caroline and her husband Fergal, Seamus Costello seemed destined to

enjoy the leisure to which he was entitled after more than three decades

of hard work. But that was not to be, and with his serious illness over

the past few months and his death at home in Lacken on May 11th., his

vast contribution to Kilkenny's commercial and cultural well-being came

to an end.