Can you help this man locate his long-lost best man?

Brian Kelly and Edward Costello grew up in Belfast together and were the best of friends and now Brian has launched an appeal with Independent.ie to be reunited with his old pal after more than 40 years apart.

They were inseparable for 15 years, but their lives took different directions and without the advent of technology, they eventually lost touch.

The pair were holidaying together in Majorca when Brian became smitten by a Dublin woman named Vera and eventually moved to the capital with her shortly after their wedding. Ed, on the other hand, decided to see what Scotland had to offer.

“Ed kept in touch with me by phoning me in my office in Dublin, but then he told me that he had decided to move to Scotland. We kept in touch every couple of weeks, but then my company was sold and I was transferred to another one, but Ed didn’t know that company’s telephone number.

"He used to call me from a phone box in Scotland,” Mr Kelly told Independent.ie.

Coming from a pre-internet generation, keeping in contact was far more challenging and the two inevitably fell out of touch.

Brian described his friend as the kind of guy who would do anything for you. “He was a very shy sort of guy, but you could depend on him. He was my best mate.”

Pondering where Ed could be now, Brian thinks he may have pursued their boyhood dream of going to Australia.

“We were talking before about going to Australia together when we were younger. I have a funny feeling he may have gone off to Oz.

Expand Close Brian Kelly and wife Vera celebrating Brian's 70th birthday in Mallorca / Facebook

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“He always wanted to own his own truck or fleet of trucks for transporting stuff – he intended to do that when he went to Scotland,” he said.

Brian first met Ed when they played on the same football team, St. Anthony’s Boys Club.

“He was a left winger and I was a right winger. We used to play in the same league that George Best played in. We played against him once or twice, I remember. There were scouts over from Man United at the time,” Brian reminisced.

The two had many eventful times together, but one of Brian’s favourite memories is from a night when Ed was gearing himself up for a “hot date”.

“Ed had very bad skin on his face and he had to be careful about shaving. He used to borrow my electric razor. If he was going out with a girl at night time, he would say ‘Brian, could I borrow your razor?’ and I would say yeah, no problem.

“It so happens that my brothers were in the house one day when he came to the door, and they asked him what he wanted. ‘Brian told me I could borrow his electric razor',” he laughed.

In the age of social media, Brian has decided to reach out to his long, lost best friend. "It would be lovely to talk to him again, I would love to hear what he has been up to."

If you know an Ed Costello who may be the man Brian is looking for - get in touch: contact @independent.ie.

Online Editors