THE NEXT GENERATION by Adrian Costigan
James Costigan and Johanna Sullivan had eighteen grandchildren. With about twenty years separating the oldest from the youngest, the grandfather knew only seven or eight, but ‘Grandma’ knew all of them, as well as some great-grandchildren.
Children of Frank Costigan and Ursula Hoy
Jacqueline Costigan
Frank Costigan’s eldest, Jacqueline who was a brilliant student, winning the Julia Flynn prize for the top Catholic female student at the end of her secondary education, followed her mother’s profession of nursing although there she had also considered teaching. At all events, after marrying and bearing four children, Jacqui did extensive further study and began lecturing in nursing at a senior level – even internationally – thus combining very nicely her interests. In 1999 she lives with her son, Jeremy, in Richmond, Vic..
Gerard Costigan
Gerard Costigan followed his father as a student at Xavier College, later entered the Jesuit seminary and was ordained in the late 1960’s. His parents were great supporters of the Jesuit community and naturally Gerry’s post-ordination celebrations were held at the college. After working for some years in America Gerry resigned from the Jesuits and now lives with his wife and daughters in Perth, working as a priest in the Church of England and also as Community Relations Manager with Key Start Home Loans.
Madeline Costigan
Madeline (Mimi), the youngest of Frank’s and Ursula’s family, worked as a teacher in Catholic schools and even returned in that capacity to her old school, Mandeville, but when she married Neil Graham moved with him to his property at Currie on King Island and has resumed her teaching career. They have two children.
Children of Eugene Costigan and Vera Kingshott
Eughie’s and Vera’s children also have their own offspring and even grandchildren. Brian, a retired electrician, and Denis, who served with the army in Vietnam and now runs his own franchised food business, both live in Ballarat. Ron, also a retired electrician, is domiciled at Ringwood. Val, a retired teacher, recently moved to Frankston, and Marie, also a teacher, lives in Brisbane with her English husband Mike Evans and their two sons.
Children of Anne Monica Costigan and Martin Tobin
Monica’s two children, Mary Anita and Martin, now live, respectively, almost on the doorstop of James and Johanna Costigan’s Fitzroy home, and in the distant wine-producing and golfing area of Rutherglen. Mary joined the Taxation Department, enjoyed a year-long adventure in Europe and the United Kingdom, married Tony Tuohey and has three daughters. She worked for some years with frail and forgetful elderly people in a Malvern day centre and is still involved as a home care respite worker. Mary has also developed her passion for quality old furniture and antiques- a passion which may have grown from her familiarity with the relics of the Sullivan/Costigan farm at Preston, most of which seemed to have been stored in the garages or stables of the two homes her grandmother occupied after leaving the farm. This passion eventually became profitable as a small antique dealership. Martin, married with a son, trained as a dental technician and enjoyed playing football, cricket and golf, and doing some coaching in country centres. Eventually he took positions in various rural training and detention centres, working with the detainees to improve their social and physical skills, and in 1999 has a position with Uncle Toby’s (the cereal food manufacturer) at Wahgunyah.
Children of Joseph Costigan and Ileen Martin
Adrian Joseph Costigan b. 15/6/1929.
Apparently Adrian nearly died as a very young baby because of feeding problems- he couldn’t keep down his milk – but survived with his only disability (?) a lifelong aversion to milk, rice and bread puddings, yoghurt, tripe or any other white, sloppy chundrous-looking foodstuff.
Like his parents and most of his siblings, aunts and uncles he first attended school at Sacred Heart, Preston, from which he fled before ‘the bell’ on the first day, and hid under a bed at home until found by a concerned parent! Later that year he received The Strap from Miss Doran for talking in class, and won the honour of Dux of ‘The Bubs’ and a giant Christmas stocking im a raffle. Next year he was promoted Straight to Grade Two (skipping Grade 1) where he was taught by his aunt, “Miss Martin’.
Adrian completed his primary schooling in Grade 6, under the redoubtable principal Mother Bernadette whose fearsome, stout deputy was Sister Agnes, known by all the kids as “Tubby”, but who in reality was probably a sweet, humorous, caring, gentle and loving soul. In this year he was introduced to “Art of Speech” by Miss Sheila Mercovitch (later Mrs. Wilson) at the cost of threepence per lesson; when a ‘pal’, Mickey Maher, asked his mother for ‘fripence fer arter speech’ she rightly asked ‘Who is this Arthur Speech and why does he want it?” thereby proving that it would be money well spent. These classes were a change from arithmetic, history, spelling and geography as the children carefully pronounced phrases such as “How now brown cow” and recited “James, James, Morrison, Morrison, Weatherby George Dupree’ (who took great care of his mother, although he was only three). A minor triumph was in a boys versus girls spelling bee when Adrian asked his opponent to spell a certain month: “f-e-b-r-u-a-r-y” said the girl – “Wrong” pounced Ade, “it starts with a capital letter!” Right!” said Sr. Bernadette, and the boys’ team won a point.
Other changes from routine were the “drill” periods with Mr. McDonald, who marched half the school around the playground and gave various jumping and stretching exercises – all in unison, of course, and made cryptic comments in the boys’ toilets; a visiting art teacher who demonstrated how to draw a lemon in pastel and thereby produced a larger number of almost identical portraits of fruit; ‘selling days’ when the kids brought various goodies from home to raise money for the school – Mrs. Costigan’s giant sausage rolls were in demand for they only cost a penny, were three times the length of any other, and their fillings were genuine home-made mince and herbs; the yearly Santa Maria College fete (it was another Good Samaritan school) to which the senior students were bused in order to spend their money; a visiting movie projectionist who showed a film of the life of St. Bernadette (NOT the Grade 6 teacher!); a marvellous display of glass blowing; and, for the music students, visits to concerts at the Melbourne Town Hall where Bernard Heinze conducted and the “Surprise” symphony was considered the most memorable piece. A great memory for these students was seeing the visiting Vienna Boys Choir which was stranded by the outbreak of W.W.II. and whose members were to form the nucleus of a renowned St. Patrick’s Cathedral choir, because of the quick footwork and generosity of Daniel Mannix, legendary archbishop.
At one school concert Adrian played a piane solo and was joined by Michael and Frank to play as a trio “A-Hunting We Will Go”; must have been some proud parents and aunts in the audience. Also taught were songs such as “Advance Australia Fair” and “Wings Over the Navy” and “Hey For the Road” (“…and a heart for the distance” to the tune of Schubert’s “Marche Militaire”). Sr. John said that Schubert had died young, but didn’t say of what: syphillis, of course. Classes were formed into choirs to be trained for competitions by Sister St. John the Evangelist, a wonderful pianist who was said to have played with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra before ‘entering’. Religion was the background to the education but it didn’t seem to be pushed too hard; Miss Doran’s biblical stories, illustrated with coloured charts were magical, first Communion was a great day because there was a bountiful feast in the school after it, Dr. Mannix administered Confirmation (Mr. Clancy the mass sponsor for the boys), was reasonably gentle with his symbolic slap but bored the little kids with his homily; still, marching around the outside of the church after the sacrament as “soldiers of Christ” was fun. For the time (1935-1940) Sacred Heart School gave quite a good education in spite of huge numbers per class, with its variety of activities, inculcation of values, high morale and academic training (at least for the elite or performing students, which the Costigans certainly were).
Adrian survived his primary schooling in a class of over seventy students, occasionally being beaten on the palm of the hand with a cane (the nun’s Instrument of Discipline), inflicting three bleeding noses and learning the piano firstly from Sister Christopher and then Sister John the Evangelist, from whom he received the occasional rapped knuckle, good technique and in 1939 the award for highest marks in Grade VI piano (equivalent to Grade 1 in modern times).
As for his father, some uncles and great-uncles and all his brothers, secondary education was undergone at the Jesuits’ St. Patrick’s College, East Melbourne, where he enjoyed footy, cricket, handball, catching cicadas in the adjacent Fitzroy Gardens, the occasional beating on the palm of the hand with a Leather Strap, twice broke windows and his right wrist, detested and avoided lunchtime dancing lessons, bloodied only one nose (apart from his own), dislocated his knee, and endured one year in the college’s cadet corps. One memorable morning behind the school toilets (an Albert Street, actually) Adrian and some mates met a tall, elderly gentleman clad in rather quaint, old-fashioned clerical gear, striding to work at the ‘Palace’ from his home at Raheen: unfortunately their conversation is forgotten. At an Old Collegians dinner in 1997 he was surprised to learn that a classmate, Ray Johnston, whom he’d considered the smartest kid in the class actually thought that he himself was the one to beat!
After leaving school in 1946, Adrian worked for two and a half years in the Commonwealth Bank, Victoria St., where he came in contact with many trade union leaders such as A.C.T.U. President Albert Monk, Trades Hall Council secretary Vic Stout, stuttering (later Senator) Pat Kenneally etc.; but the most memorable client was a tall, elderly gentleman with a shock of white hair and a North American accent who came in one day (as if he owned the place) to see the manager: King O’Malley, ‘founder of the Commonwealth Bank’.
After two and a half years of eventually enjoyable and efficient work on the cashbook and the ledger, Adrian joined the Education Department as a junior teacher at Bell State School and in 1950 entered Melbourne Teachers College whose principal at the time was A. J. ‘(Tufty’) Law, the obviously proud dad of “my Antarctic son” (Antarctic scientist and explorer Phillip Law).
Later Adrian studied part-time at Melbourne University to gain qualifications for advancement in ‘the Department’ and was privileged to have been a member of the class and tutorial group of a young academic of modest bearing whose lectures were based on a book he was then writing and which Adrian purchased a year later – Geoffrey Blainey’s “The Tyranny of Distance”. By the time of his retirement in 1994 he had spent more than half of his career as a head teacher or principal (the last twenty years as principal of Moorabbin West and St. Kilda Park Primary Schools) thus reinforcing studies showing that eldest children tend to move into positions of leadership: or vice versa. In ‘retirement’ he tries to master golf, plays tennis, is wrote a ‘memoir of his forty-five years in education, and works as a volunteer telephone counsellor with the Care-ring (Crisis Line) organisation.
Adrian took up tennis at age 16 and was still playing the game over fifty years later. Tennis administration also interested him and he occupied many roles such as secretary of the Preston club, president of the Victorian Catholic Lawn Tennis Association and editor of its magazine. Marrying Mary Feain in 1971, he settled in Mentone where he still lives (in 1999) with two of his three adult children – Christina, Matthew and Edward or, as they are generally known, Tina, Matt and Ned.
Francis Xavier Costigan b. 14/1/1931.
Born at the Strathmore private hospital in Clifton Grove, Preston, a few minutes before his twin brother with whom he seemed to vie for scholastic honours throughout his primary education – one or the other was always dux of his class – Frank entered Melbourne University the year he turned 17, and graduated with honours four years later.
One of Frank’s first loves was a classic behemoth, a 1923 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost tourer, a civilian version of T. E. Lawrence’s armoured cars which cruised the desert during W.W.I.. Under the back seat of the car was found a newspaper photo depicting the Duke of Gloucester riding im state in the same vehicle in the city of Adelaide. The car had an immense six cylinder engine with twin ignition (two spark plugs per cylinder fed by either magneto or battery), manual advance/retard and ignition selection mechanisms on the steering column, a pre-synchromesh gearbox with a gate-style gear selector on the floor to the right of the pedal controls, mechanical brakes on all wheels (previous models braked on only two), dual fuel feed – one by electric fuel pump and the other by a hand pressure pump on the dashboard – and of course enormous legroom for all passengers. With a lot of effort the car could be started without a battery by using magneto ignition, pressure pump and starting handle. Unfortunately some past philistine had replaced the original carburettor with a plebian Ford model, but Frank and his friends in the tennis club and the Newman Society had a great deal of fun in that car!
After doing his articles with, and becoming a partner in, the Melbourne firm of Gillott, Moir and Ahern, Frank entered the Bar in 1953, and was appointed a Queens Counsel in 1973. Although his most public position was Royal Commissioner into the Painters and Dockers Union from 1980 to 1984, a position which made him one of the most prominent and admired Australians of his time for his work in exposing taxation frauds – the infamous “bottom of the harbour” schemes – and his innovative method of ‘following the money trail’ to trace powerful and wealthy criminals.
Frank has held many other positions of responsibility apart from his normal professional work, such as Chairman of the Victorian Drug Rehabilitation Fund, President of the Australian Bar Association, Chairman of the Victorian Bar, member of Brosnan Youth Services Committee of Management, of the Victorian Govt. Sentencing Task Force, of the Australian Labour Party Foreign Affairs Committee and Chairman of its Public Office Selection Panel, etc.. He is also sought as a speaker by various groups such as the Centre for Philosophy and Public Issues for whom he spoke on the subject Corruption in the Twentieth Century at Melbourne University in March, 1999.
Like all his siblings and Martin and Purcell cousins, Frank enjoyed tennis in the Preston parish club and was interested in football (Carlton) and cricket, but his demanding career and other interests limited active involvement. Marriage to Kathleen Nelson in January, 1959, brought an early sorrow when their first child, Christopher, died in infancy, but joys followed with Phillipa, Timothy, Genevieve, Joseph and Justine and, in the 1990’s, grandchildren per Phillipa, Genevieve and Joseph.
Frank now lives in William St., Toorak, but plans to move soon to the heart of Collins St., Melbourne.
Michael Eugene Costigan b. 14/1/1931.
As a boy Michael became such a passionate, lifelong devotee of the Collingwood Football Club that the champion centreman Bill Twomey gave him the jumper he’d wom m the team’s 1953 premiership win – clothing that was donned again the day after the Magpie’s 1990 – victory! As a Sydney resident for many years he has some affection for the Sydney Swans but the Magpies remain his true (football) love.
Michael may have been a little delicate – certainly he contracted rheumatic fever (a diagnosis by Dr. Horgan which Michael now questions) while at secondary school, and his recuperation – part of which included an interlude with the Coonans at Yea – entailed so much school being missed that he dropped a year behind his twin. However, perhaps because of the year’s extra maturity, he, like Frank, was to be dux of his final year at St. Patrick’s, and he also won the Exhibition in English Literature and a General Exhibition (Professor David Pennington and Sir James Gobbo, governor of Victoria, were other exhibition winners that year) as well as the “Isabella Walker” prize of the Melbourne Shakespearean Society. “Exhibitions” were awards given to Students who gained highest marks in the State in various subjects at the Matriculation examinations, later subsumed into the Higher School Certificate and then the Victorian Certificate of Education. |
Since 1987 Michael has been Executive Secretary of the (Catholic) Bishops’ Committee for Justice, Development and Peace, a fitting position for one whose tertiary education was at Corpus Christi College, Werribee, which he entered on 1st March, 1949, the Propaganda Fide College and the Pontifical Lateran University, and who was ordained in Rome in 1955. In September, 1957, visiting home for the first time since around 1952 (having arrived as a chaplain on a migrant ship) he remarked during a brief homily at Mass in the former Strathmore hospital – by then a Marist Brothers’ residence – that he was in the unique situation of celebrating Mass in the very room in which he was born! Would it, wondered at least one of his siblings, become a shrine? In 1969 Michael resigned from the ministry and the position of Associate Editor of “The Advocate” (Melboume’s official Catholic weekly newspaper).
On entering the secular world Michael worked for a time as a journalist with “Nation Review” but in 1973 took the position of Director of the Literature Board of the Australia Council, then in 1983 Director of the W.A. Arts Council, and in 1985 Secretary of the Ethnic Affairs Commission of N.S.W. before taking up his current (1999) position with the Catholic bishops. Other positions he has held, some ongoing, are member of the N.S.W. Legal Services Tribunal and the Legal Services Standards Board, the Patrick White Award judging panel, the Caritas Australia National Committee and the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council. He has also published three books concerning Catholic events in Australia – “Congress of the People”, “Man of Many Talents” and “John Paul II:the Journey Through Australia” as well as papers on Catholic Church life, the Second Vatican Council, Australian Literature, ethnic affairs and the Arts.
Michael and Margaret Collis were married by Cardinal Knox, the Archbishop of Melbourne, in the “Raheen” chapel in September, 1972, and now live in Kirribilli (N.S.W.) with one, two or three of their daughters – Siobhan, Sascha and Mairead.
Margaret Anne Costigan b. 22/6/1933.
First daughter of Joseph and therefore the apple of his eye, Margaret also was a brilliant student, but unlike her brothers left the Sacred Heart school for Catholic Ladies College (C.L.C.), which was then in East Melbourne opposite the boys’ St. Patrick’s, before Grade Six.
Like all her family Margaret played a good game of tennis at the local club, and of course was a member of the school team; she also won a junior event at the Daylesford annual tournament. On her last day at school, just before her final (Matriculation) exams were to start, Margaret had an unfortunate accident when her face was burnt as she was helping the nuns to load the school incinerator. She was given special consideration in the exams but no doubt the trauma affected her performance. Nevertheless, some years later she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at Melbourne University.
After leaving school Margaret made a lifelong commitment to religion, joining the Sisters of Charity order of nuns in 1951 – more than a decade before the great changes in the Catholic church inspired by the Second Vatican Council. Her first appointment after profession (on 4th August, 1953) was at the order’s boarding school at Katoomba whose bitter winter cold must have been hard to put up with. Later in the 1950’s she worked at Ashfield, but from 1961 to 1973 was on the staff at her alma mater, C.L.C. at both East Melbourne and Eltham, and had a year’s appointment in Tasmania. During a three-years’ interlude in this period she gained a Bachelor of Arts degree at Melbourne University, majoring in English and History, and earned a Diploma of Education.
After a short appointment at Sancta Sophia College, Glenroy, Margaret became involved in adult literacy programs with the Council of Adult Education (C.A.E.) and in 1976 was admitted to the Australian College of Education. At the behest of the C.A.E. she wrote “Spelling – the Mystery of English”, “Situational Maths for Adults” and “A Course for Essay Writing”. She also wrote book reviews for the Australian Journal of Adult Education. As an adult educator she tutored inmates of Pentridge in basic reading and writing skills and also acted as chaplain with the Catholic Prison Authority.
In 1979 Margaret visited North and South America and met adult educators working in various radical movements, including Bishop Dom Helder Camara of Recife, Brazil. From 1979 to 1981 she lived, studied and worked in Edinburgh and met her Scottish cousins.
While at the University of Edinburgh Margaret acquired a Postgraduate Diploma in Community Education, and had a memorable interview with the then-exiled Brazilian educator of illiterate peasants, Paulo Freire. She also wrote a thesis for the Faculty of Divinity at the university: “Schooling and Deschooling and the Human Spirit”, about which her supervisor commented “…(it) testifies to the range and depth of her study, and to her capacity for creative thinking.” In addition to study, she worked as a consultant to an adult learning project, facilitated a shared Chnistian Praxis program and worked in other adult education programs.
On her return to Australia Margaret worked in adult education in Sydney through the College of External Studies and the Sydney Technical College, taught a variety of topics (including Liberation Theology) and developed Adult Basic Maths and Distance Learning Programs.
In 1989 Margaret worked at Broadmeadows College of TAFE and then at Pentridge as a Prison Educator. She has spent over eleven years in prison work also as a chaplain and youth worker, at the same time developing the Aboriginal Awareness Project of which she is the Director. The program’s Centre is in Rossmoyne St., Thornbury, in a former Uniting church next to St. Mary’s Catholic church and not far from the former homes of Mussetts, Harpers, Aylwards and Purcells.
Margaret now lives in a house in Leicester St., Preston, which 1s directly behind the old family home at 590 Bell St..
Peter Aloysius Costigan 21/6/1935 – 5/8/2002.
As a little boy Peter used to visit the garage across the road in Bell St., for even then he was fascinated by cars. On one famous occasion the four/five years old Peter entered the parked car of one of his father’s clients, released the handbrake, and ‘drove’ the car a few yards down the hill until the owner jumped in to save both his car and Peter from likely damage.
Starting school at Sacred Heart at an early age (either he was very bright or his mother had enough on her hands with other childen; or, perhaps, both alternatives are valid) Peter graduated to St. Patrick’s around Grade 3 or 4.
After leaving St. Patrick’s (where, unlike his brothers, he seemed to enjoy the cadet corps, becoming a lieutenant as well as a school prefect) Peter started a law degree at Melbourne and became involved in student politics and the editing of the university’s magazine, “Farrago”. He also played tennis at the parish club, winning at least one premiership in the Preston Districts competition, and football with the Preston Catholic Young Men’s Society (C.Y.M.S.). While doing national service he shared a tent with the future Brownlow medalist John James and met his distant cousin Bill Serong who later was a Brownlow runner-up. Strangely, although they kicked footballs together at Puckapunyal, only the C.Y.M.S. recruited Peter.
When the policy makers at the Melbourne “Herald” newspaper decided to recruit some journalists with university background they approached Peter, offered him a job which could involve politics, sport and motor cars, and in thirty minutes persuaded him to forsake Academia and join the staff of that (then) great newspaper as a cadet journalist. In retrospect it’s surprising that the persuasion took longer than thirty seconds.
Not long after the end of his cadetship Peter volunteered for the position of Motoring Editor – cars bemg one of his lifelong passions – and became one of Melbourne’s most popular journalists as he wrote with verve about one of Australia’s great love affairs. While at “The Herald” Peter married Tricia Walsh, a fellow member of the parish tennis club and a daughter of Frank Walsh, a highly respected lawyer in Northcote.
An appointment to the Herald’s New York office followed in 1966, and in 1969, because of the sudden collapse and fatal illness of the head of the Washington office (Bill Tipping) at the time of the first Apollo moon landing, he was appointed to Washington. Working as “The Herald’s” representative in New York and Washington during the years of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy campaigns and assassinations, the Apollo moon landings and President Nixon’s rise and fall was a wonderfully exciting and enriching experience for a journalist fascinated by politics.
While in America Peter and Tricia’s daughter Nicole was born and a son, Sean, who, sadly, died after a couple of days.
In 1976 he returned to Australia as head of the paper’s Canberra bureau with his final American article being incorporated in the Congressional Record by Congressman Norman Mineta of California who said:” Mr. Costigan said goodbye to America just a few weeks ago, and in his final dispatch told of his experience and of his feeling towards this country. While I do not agree with Mr. Costigan’s every opinion, I find his remarks very interesting and thought-provoking, and, therefore, include him in the record at this point.”
After leaving “The Herald” not long after Rupert Murdoch’s takeover, Peter worked as a freelance journalist, circuit speaker and professional chairman.
In March, 1999, Peter was elected to the Melbourne City Council as representative of the Domain ward, and on Wednesday 24th March was elected Lord Mayor. Having participated in competitive tennis and football in his youth, reported on politics and driven, worked on, tested and written about cars for many years, Peter thus became a practitioner of the third of his ‘great passions’ – politics – which “The Herald” over forty years previously had offered as inducement to join its staff. And, instead of reporting and commenting on news, was making it.
Peter lived with his partner Susie Norton in Webb Lane, a few hundred metres from the Melbourne Cricket Ground where his beloved “Magpies” play most of their home matches until his sudden death on 5th August, 2002. The funeral service was held at St. Patricks Cathedral in the presence of around 800 people including representatives of government, sport, journalism, and the many, many frends he had made during his remarkably full life.
Elizabeth Mary Costigan b. 16/11/1936.
The first Preston Costigan not to attend her local parish school, Elizabeth went straight to C.L.C., which had classes from Prep to Year 12 (or probably, in those days, “Form VI”). As usual in this family she was a very good a tennis player, and at school was a popular prefect.
On leaving C.L.C. Elizabeth joined her sister in the Order of the Sisters of Charity and after teaching in or administrating as Principal various schools in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, moved into the training of postulants and then into pastoral work, mainly in the Essendon-Glenroy area. When Elizabeth left this ministry a huge crowd of parishioners farewelled her from the Glenroy parish, a tribute to her devotion, warmth, diplomacy and efficiency softened by Christian love.
For some years Elizabeth was a member of the Sisters of Charity Congregational Council, a very responsible job which took up most of her time and entailed considerable travel especially between Melbourne and Sydney but also overseas. For example, in May, 1999 Elizabeth attended a conference in New York on Catholic health services. As originally a teaching sister Elizabeth had not trained in nursing, and she found this experience extremely valuable im her position of responsibility.
Sister Elizabeth now lives with a colleague at Doreen where they conduct retreats, and Elizabeth also works a couple of days a week in staff ministry at Catholic Ladies College, Eltham.
Paul Justin Costigan b. 4/9/1940.
One of C.L.C’s ‘Old Girls’, for he started his schooling in that institution’s lower classes before enrolling at St. Patrick’s, Paul also was a very fine tennis player, winning a number of tournaments at Preston and various country towns. On breaking his (left) arm in a school football match he played a full season of L.T.A.V. Pennant tennis with his wrist in plaster, for he loved any sport and was very determined. At least as great an interest, however, was cricket, which he enjoyed in the first eleven at St. Patrick’s and also for a number of seasons with the Cheltenham cricket club, where, as opening batsman and sometimes captain of the first eleven (turf) he participated in that rare event, a premiership.
Following his matriculation year Paul entered the Corpus Christi seminary to train for the Melbourne archdiocese and was ordained in 1966. After working in the parishes of Healesville, Cheltenham and Brunswick Paul resigned in 1970, drove taxis while looking for more congenial work, and eventually found his niche in the hospitality industry and private business. He and his wife (Patty Ring) have managed motels and bottle shops, lived and worked in the United Kingdom for several years, and in 1999 are partners in the “Roma” cafe in Darwin and the “Near East” restaurant in South Melboure. During some years of work in the United Kingdom Paul re- connected the family with its Scottish ancestry, finding his grandfather’s home in Glasgow and meeting relatives whose last personal contacts would have been with the long-deceased Mick Martin during the Great War. He also enjoyed two seasons of ‘village cricket’ which he felt was one of the most delightful periods of his sporting career. His principal home is in Darwin where he and Patty reside with daughters Phoebe and Georgia and are proprietors and managers of the Roma Bar in Cavenagh Street.
Anne Therese Costigan b. 8/8/1944.
The ‘Last of the (Preston) Costigans’ was also a very good tennis player, won the parish and school championships, and represented her school and club in many a competition; like her sisters, she was appointed a prefect. She also accompanied her schoolmates in Daniel Mannix’s one hundredth (and last) St. Patrick’s Day parade during her own final year at C.L.C..
On leaving school Anne studied for a year at Holmes business college, an experience which well equipped her for her career.
Initially working in secretarial positions including eight years at Trans Australia Airlines (much later subsumed into Qantas) Anne later moved into administration and personnel, both corporate and consulting. For the last sixteen years she has been operating the successful “Masterstaff” Recruitment Consultancy which she was able to lead through the difficult time of prime minister Paul Keating’s Tecession we had to have’ to continuing prosperity.
At one time Anne had considered using her great culinary talents in business but, taking another career path, has reserved these gifts for family and other social occasions. Famous is her restoration of the family’s traditional Christmas Pudding from a recipe handed down over generations. Greatly appreciated also are the many gatherings and superb dinners that Anne has arranged for family members at her home. She also enjoyed sewing and was very popular with her nieces (and nephews) providing beautiful and unique clothing for them.
Anne was a wonderful support to her mother in her old age but at the same time maintained her independence as she obtained her own home in Nunawading and, later, in East Doncaster.
Tennis
Tennis deserves a byline, as all these Costigans were skilled players and all were at one time members of the Sacred Heart Tennis Club, where Anne, Paul and Adrian won the singles championship, and their cousins Frank and Des Purcell (grandsons of Margaret Costigan- i.e, ‘Auntie Mag Mussett’) and Leo Mussett (Margaret Costigan’s youngest son and also a redoubtable champion) were contemporaneous members. Frank Purcell joined the Columban missionary order of priests and was ordained around the same time as his cousin Michael; like Michael he eventually resigned, later marrying and siring twins and in his retirement is working with aborigines in the Shepparton area. Des Purcell joined the Society of Jesus, as a scholastic was appointed to St. Patrick’s College when his cousin Paul Costigan was a student, and worked for years in India; unfortunately illness curtailed his missionary work and he returned to Australia to lighter duties within the Jesuit order and is stationed in Sydney.
Ileen, Dolly’, Wal and Michael Martin and Joe and Eughie Costigan were also almost certainly members. Ileen remembered Eughie showing off a bit on the court because he’d been playing at Kooyong! A flat-head wooden tennis racquet was around the Martin’s Irene Street home for a number of years as was Mick Martin’s hefty cricket bat- and that home was within a high lob of the tennis courts with access through the presbytery “bob-hole’. Winnie Condon (Wal Martin’s bride) also played, and remembers ‘Jim’ Costigan as a good player, as was ‘Mr’ Clancy from Garnet Street, a collaborator with the elder Wally Martin in practical work around the parish. The courts at Preston now support well-developed trees on no. 1 court and a bocce pitch on the others: a measure of how much Preston has changed since Costigans, Sullivans and other Irish farmed in Gower Street and even since the Scot Walter Martin plied his hobby in his Irene St. workshop.