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(Mac)Costelloe,(Mac)Costello, Nangle, Costley Cushely Casserly

The Costelloes were originally Nangles, or de Angulos, as the great Norman family was called when, soon after the invasion, the Anglo_Normans occupied Connacht. The first reference to them in the Four Masters is in the year 1193 when they were called sons of Oistealb, who was a son of the famous Gilbert de Nangle, whence was formed the surname Mac Oisdealbh, later MacOisdealbhaigh, anglice MacCostello. Curtis calls their eponymous ancestor Gocelin (or Jocelin) and gives the Irish form as MacGoisdelbh. It is the first recorded instance of a Norman family assuming a Mac name. Thenceforward they became thoroughly Irish. There are many traditional tales of the feuds between the MacCostelloes and MacDermots: none more poignant than the tragic love story of Una, daughter of Charles MacDermot (the last inaugurated chieftain of that name), and the son of the head of the MacCostello family, who lie in adjoining graves beside the ruins of the church in Trinity Island. Their lands were in Co. Mayo and the barony of Costello, in the east of the county, was named from the MacCostelloes who possessed it up to the end of the sixteenth century. In 1565 their chief seat was near Ballaghadereen, which is now included in Co. Roscommon. The name Costello (the Mac has been entirely dropped) is found to-day in Counties Mayo and Galway - in south Galway and Clare it is usually spelt Costelloe. The erroneous form O'Costello instead of MacCostello probably arose through the practice in the spoken Irish language of shortening the Mac with names beginning with C: thus 'ac Costello was turned into O'Costello. Dr. Reeves, writing in 1850, noted the adoption of the name Costello for the Donegal surname then known as Cushely and previously O'Cassaly. Muntercassely (Ui Chasalaigh) are recorded in the 1609 inquisition on Armagh church lands as a sept located in the Glenaul area. Casly is the spelling used in the lists of Jacobite outlaws. Cushley and Costello are recorded by Matheson (1901) as synonymous in the parish of Magherafelt, Co. Derry. Cushelly, Cushley, Cuskley (Mac Giolla Choiscle is a north Ulster surname. Costley is more often a variant of this than of Costello, but the similarity of sound accounts for its occasional use as a synonym of the latter It should be added that Cuskley is found today in Co. Offaly, as it was in 1601 in the earlier anglicized form of Mac-gilkuskley. Another name which may be confused with these is Casserley I.e. MacCasarlaigh, which has long association with Co. Roscommon and now (without the prefix Mac) is found there and in the adjoining county of Galway. This confusion is the more likely because in Co. Roscommon some families so called spell the name without the R, viz. Casseley. Cumumhan Mac Casarlaigh is mentioned by the Four Masters as one of the Connacht chiefs slain at the battle of Athenry in 1249 and another of the name was a canon of Tuam in 1462. The Costelloes were one of the many great Irish families which, in the ruin of the seventeenth century destruction of the Gaelic order, produced famous rapparees. Dudley (or Dubhaltach) Costello was an officer in the army of the Confederate Catholics in 1642, and later became a colonel in the Spanish service. Returning to Ireland after the Restoration and disappointed by his failure to recover the family estates, he devoted the rest of his life to wreaking vengeance on the new Cromwellian proprietors. His chief lieutenant in this private war was, appropriately enough, named Nangle: both of them were killed in action with the British soldiery. Arthur Dudley Costello (1803-1865) and his sister, Louise Stuart Costello (1799-1870), English born of Irish stock, were both novelists and travel writers of note: while William Costello (1800-1867), a surveyor, wrote much on medical subjects. The Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of the Republic of Ireland from 1948 to 1951, and again 1954-1957 was John A. Costello (b. 1891).