FG’s birthday may be in doubt, but its early achievements are not

THIS week Fine Gael has been remembering John A Costello and the 60th anniversary of the Fine Gael-led coalition government that came to power in February 1948.

The party is understandably keen to highlight a time when it was in government, even though ironically, Costello never wanted to be Taoiseach.

He was a reluctant compromise candidate for the job after the other parties, including Clann na Poblachta, made it clear that Fine Gael leader Richard Mulcahy was unacceptable to them as Taoiseach because of his civil war record.