Joe "Onie" Walsh

Among those who attend St. Michael’s cemetery each November to honour Athy’s dead in World War I is to be found a sprightly man of advancing years who proudly steps forward to place a cross on the grave of Michael Byrne who died in November 1918. In honouring his mother’s brother Joe Walsh, known locally as “Lowly” remembers also his fallen comrades who served with him in World War II.

Son of master tailor Joseph Walsh and Teresa Byrne, “Lowly” was born almost seventy-five years ago in Barrack Street. His nick-name comes from his maternal grandfather’s ready response to the oft repeated enquiry from neighbours as to the health of his small, then sickly grandchild. “Lowly” was to remain Joe’s name thereafter.

Having left school at ten years of age he started work one year later in P.P. Doyle’s brick yard with all the other young fellows from Dooley’s Terrace where his parents were then living. The winter months were spent picking stones out of the yellow clay while in summer he was put to “hacking” bricks, building them up one on top of the other ready for firing in the kiln. His older brother Michael also worked in the brick yard but sadly he died at nineteen years of age.

When the asbestos factory started in 1936 “Lowly” got a job there. With the outbreak of World War II like so many other Athy men he called to the local Garda Station to enlist in the Irish Army. Garda Connell took his details and the next day “Lowly” was brought with a number of other locals to the Curragh Camp. Conditions in the Irish Army were not good. Indeed his abiding memory of his three years spent in the Irish Army is what he still recalls after a lapse of fifty-four years as the “scandalous Army food”. Conditions in the Army were so bad that there was wholesale desertion by the disenchanted recruits who travelled by train to Belfast to join the British Army.

“Lowly” followed the same path and in 1942 he joined the RAF. He was stopped on his way to Dublin by two military policeman but was lucky to escape the fate of his friend Bobby Bachelor, also a deserter, who spent ninety days in detention following his arrest by “Cushy” Ryan, a military policeman from Athy. An indication of the large number of Southern Irish Army deserters can be gauged from “Lowly’s” description of the fifty or sixty recruits who on arrival at Belfast railway station with him marched with practised steps in strict military formation to the recruiting barracks.

While training to be a rear gunner “Lowly” responded to a request for volunteers to go to France and joined the Motor Transport Light Repair Unit. He passed through Caen where even the graveyards had been bombed and on into Ghent in Belgium where his unit camped for some time. Moving into the Ardennes forest they were attacked by the Germans. This was the arena where Hitler gambled on an offensive against the allies. The Germans were first checked by the Americans and eventually routed by an Allied Counter Offensive in January 1945 which became known as the Battle of the Bulge.

“Lowly’s” unit passed on into Holland and he still recalls the abject poverty of the war-torn people of that country and Belgium after the Germans had retreated. The people were starving, unlike the soldiers who were liberating them. Cigarettes and bars of chocolate supplied each week to the Allied soldiers sustained a barter system in these countries whose economies were destroyed during the War. “Lowly” eventually ended up in Berlin where he stayed two weeks in the stadium which had hosted the Olympic Games in 1936. He also recalls visiting the Reich Chancellery where Hitler had committed suicide in his bunker in May 1945.

Demobbed in June 1946 “Lowly” was unable to return to Athy until Bill Norton, the Labour T.D., successfully raised in the Dail the possibility of an amnesty for deserters from the Irish Army. The numbers involved were such as to necessitate the granting of this amnesty, otherwise the Irish Army authorities would have been overwhelmed by the number of the soldiers returning to their homeland. Anyway it was privately acknowledged that the unsatisfactory conditions in the Irish Army contributed hugely to the mass exodus across the border.

“Lowly” returned to Athy in June 1947 and for the second time got a job in the Asbestos factory. He married Kathleen Brennan of Crettyard in July of the following year and they lived in Geraldine before moving in time to Convent View where they still reside. Later on he joined Bord na Mona, continuing to work there until he retired in 1985.

“Lowly”, a good soccer player, played for Carlow A.F.C. as did the late Gerry Sullivan, a Waterford man, both of whom with “Cymbal” Davis of Joseph’s Terrace and Louis Poperlensky founded Athy A.F.C. in or about 1950. Mick McEvoy of St. Joseph’s Terrace was the first Treasurer, with Willie O’Neill, commonly called “Woodbine Willie” and Gordon Prole Snr. as Club officers.

Another club in which Joe was involved was the handball club which was re-started by George Ryan, Mick McEvoy, Shay May, James Delaney and Joe “Lowly” Walsh. The handball alley was out of repair and those involved each paid six pence a week to pay for the repairs which enabled many to continue playing the game which had such a long tradition in Athy. Good handballers remembered by Joe included brothers Jack and Henry Foley, Tom Day and George Aldridge, all of Barrack Street, Mickey Costello of Shrewleen, Willie Frazier of Higginsons Lane, Jack Delaney and George Roche, both of Woodstock Terrace, Bill Aldridge and George Ryan.

“Lowly” Walsh has a wonderful life story to tell, only snatches of which I have been able to relate. His delightful recounting of times spent both in and out of his native town give an interesting insight into events of national and local interest. His recall is sharply focused as he re-lives both the happy and sad experiences of a life lived to the full. The “Lowly” child of the 1920’s who outlived many of his contemporaries has carried throughout his life a nick-name which age has demonstrably shown to be a less than accurate description of his constitution.

Mullaghmast Rath

I paid a visit to Mullaghmast last Sunday to see again the famous Rath which has figured in Irish history from as far back as 82AD. The site consists of a raised circular rampart breached at two sides allowing grazing cattle to wander through at will. It is now difficult to image that here was once the Palace of an Irish King frequently mentioned in the ancient Annals.

In 82AD O'Toole, a member of the South Kildare Clan whose territory was called Omurethy, waged war on his son-in-law Eochy King of Leinster for leaving O'Toole's daughter to marry her sister. We are told that O'Toole destroyed the Palaces and Fortresses of Naas Mullaghcreelan and Mullaghmast.

Again we find in Keatings history of Ireland the oft repeated reference to Felimy the Law Giver who was King of Ireland from 111 to 119 A.D. During his reign the Munster men invaded Leinster as far as Mullaghmast. The dispossessed clans appealed to the King of Ulster and with his help proceeded to drive out the Munster men from the area. Defeated at a small Ford on the River Greise the Munster men retreated to a Ford on the River Barrow where Ae the son of a Munster Chieftan was killed. It was from him that the future town of Athy got it's name being the anglicised form of the Gaelic place name Ath Ae, meaning the Ford of Ae, being the place where Ae was slain. Thus was Mullaghmast and Athy first linked in history.

Another connection between the two ancient places was forged in the second century when Con of the Hundred Battles, King of Ireland, sought to enforce his right to a Cow Tribute against the son of the King of Leinster resulting in a Battle at Mullaghmast. Victory went to Con's opponent who then proceeded to take over the Royal Palace of Tara. The Cow Tribute or Borumha was an important element in the relationship between King and subjects and in our own locality we have Aughraboura the area where the Cow Tribute was once paid. In 241A.D. another King of Ireland, this time Cormac MacArt burnt the Palace of Mullaghmast to revenge a massacre perpetrated by the son of the King of Leinster.

In 727 Mullaghmast was the site of a pitched battle between the Clans of Dowlings and Kinsellas resulting in a victory for the latter. Following the Battle of Clontarf which saw the Irish victorious over the Danes, the Armies of Desmond and Thomand camped at Mullaghmast on their way home to Munster. The usual rivalry between the two great Munster tribes overlooked in the face of the coming enemy now resurfaced and the men of Desmond thought they would take advantage of the Thomand men who were weakened by exertion and carrying many wounded. Those nursing wounds used moss to stem the flow of blood and declared their intention of playing their part in the fight against the Desmonds. The latter on hearing this left the area whereupon the men of Thomand travelled onwards to Ath Ae where they drank the water from the River Barrow and cleaned their wounds. However it was in 1577 that occurred an event which was to fix the name of Mullaghmast in Irish memories for ever more. Tradition relates that leaders of the Seven Septs of Laois and their followers who had waged a constant war against English settlers were summoned to the Rath at Mullaghmast under terms which guaranteed their safety. On their arrival they were set upon and murdered depriving the ancient territory of Laois of so many of the O'Moores, O'Kellys, O'Lalors, Devoys, McEvoys, O'Dorans and O'Dowlings. Tradition has us believe that one of the O'Lalors escaped on horseback, hurrying back through the countryside to his own place. The horse wounded in the escape collapsed and died near Brackna Woods giving to the area a name which it still bears - The Bleeding Horse.
A carved stone commemorating the massacre of 1577 was placed in the centre of the Rath in 1991 by the Greise Valley Development Association. This is the only visible reminder of the horrible happenings of 400 years ago.

On Sunday the 1st of October 1843 the Liberator Daniel O'Connell spoke at a Repeal Meeting in Mullaghmast. The SequiCentenary of that event so well documented in Irish histories was celebrated in 1993 with the unveiling of a suitably inscribed stone on the roadside nearest to the Rath of Mullaghmast. The fields nearest to the road on the Mullaghmast crossroads side of the Rath are believed to be those in which O'Connell's Repeal Meeting was held. On the same side of the Rath and next to the roadway is the famous long stone of Mullaghmast reputed to mark the grave of a Munster Chieftan. The seven foot high granite stone is the only one of its kind in the area and was evidently brought from afar to its present site.

Mullaghmast once had another six small Raths in the earlier mentioned Repeal meeting field but they have been razed leaving the larger Rath of Mullaghmast as the only visible reminder of the once great Palace of Mullaghmast.

Last Sunday afternoon the area was quiet with not another person in sight. It was difficult to believe that almost 2,000 years ago this was an important settlement, a lordly place fit for Kings.

The grazing cattle were unconcerned as I moved amongst them hoping to catch an echo from the past. The air was still as I gazed across the rich plains of South Kildare and on the horizon I imagined I could see the marching Army of a Munster Chieftain as it made haste to Mullaghmast. But for a moment only I held the vision and then it disappeared leaving me to regret the passing of time and the glories that were once Mullaghmast's.

Butlers Row

Continuing the story of Butlers Row, Athy, last week I mentioned the Mahon family who lived there over 65 years ago. John, a good footballer died young and his brother Michael a superb player with few equals on the football pitch emigrated to New York in October 1927. On the night before he emigrated the local G.A.A. Club, then called Young Emmets, made a presentation to Michael at a function in the local Council offices in the Town Hall. He had played for Athy Senior Team in the 1923 Senior Championship Final when Athy was defeated by Naas and was later chosen for the Kildare County Senior team in the year he emigrated.

In Number 6 Butlers Row lived Fran O'Rourke who had married Kate Cunningham of Meeting Lane. He was a carpenter working for the railway company in their Inchicore Works commuting to Athy each weekend by train. His sons Paddy Joe, Thomas, Frank and Hughie are dead as is a daughter Josephine who was married to the late Joe Moloney. A son Peter is living in Londonwhile a daughter Breda is married to Michael O'Meara and living in Geraldine. George and Mary Ryan were appointed tenants of No. 6 in 1942 and lived there until 1950 when they transferred to No. 63 Pairc Bhride. Their son George born the same year as myself was in my class in St. Joseph's Boys School. He died in 1949 and I can still recall the entire class under Sr. Alberta praying for George, little realising the finality of death. He was buried in St. Michael's Cemetery one week after another of our young friends Jimmy Bracken of Emily Square who had drowned underneath the Barrow Bridge. That was a sad week in November 1949.

George Ryan Senior was a first class handballer who won the All Ireland Hardball Junior Doubles title partnered by "Wiggie" Costello of Shrewleen in 1936. While living in Butlers Row George won the All Ireland Hardball Junior Singles title in 1946. Sadly he died in 1969.

In the next house lived Mr. & Mrs. O'Brien and their daughter. I have no information about them. They were followed by Mick O'Shea, his mother and grandfather who moved from Garden Lane off Meeting Lane. Mick and his sister Molly who had spent many years in England later moved down to No. 2 Butlers Row. Mick who worked for many years in the I.V.I. Foundry was the last tenant of Butlers Row living there for some time after the remaining houses fell vacant. He and Molly now live in Kirwans Court off Leinster Street.

"Robbie" Robinson and his wife Caroline later moved into No. 7. Robbie worked in the I.V.I. Foundry and was known locally as "Black Sam" because of his frequent performances as a blacked up minstrel in local musicals in the Town Hall. Their son Michael who is now in Australia was home for Christmas and renewed acquaintances with his school pals with whom he attended the Christian Brothers School in the 1950's.

The Stapleton family lived in No. 8. There were three brothers and one sister, all now long dead. Jim and Larry were bakers in Bradleys bakery which was located at the rear of the present Delaney's Barber Shop in Duke Street. Mick was unemployed largely due to ill health while their sister Mary kept house for her bachelor brothers. Tom and Maria Langton and family replaced the Stapletons. Tom was a local postman and fireman and both himself and his wife were wonderful ballroom dancers known far and wide for their dancing skill.

Next door in the 1930's we find Mr. & Mrs. Dargan, their son Jim and two daughters. They later moved to Offaly Street taking over the house vacated by the Stafford family. Mr. Dargan worked in Duthie Larges and his son Jim was in his early years in the Irish Army. Jim took part in many of the musical shows in Athy over the years. His sister Katie who never married was reputed to have the cure for haemorrhage. When the Dargans moved to Offaly Street the new tenants were Tommy and Eileen Pender. Tommy worked in the I.V.I. Foundry and when the family were still young they moved to Offaly Street taking over Sunderlands house. In doing so Eileen Pender was moving to live opposite her own family home where her brother John Evans and parents were still living.

Mr. & Mrs. Dempsey and their daughter Lil lived in the second last house in the Lane. "Cruiser" Dempsey as he was known was the Porter in the Hibernian Bank in Leinster Street. He was a small man with a moustache and always wore a cap. Lil married a railway porter named Tobin and moved down the country. Mick Corr, his wife and two sons later lived in the house and Mick is now living in Nelson Street, his wife sadly dying while they were living in Butlers Row.

At the end of Butlers Row lived Mr. & Mrs. Hendricks. He was a photographer and used the wall of the Leinster Arms Hotel yard to hang his photographs of local events and people which he wished to sell. Hendricks was an exceptionally tall man whose wife was equally exceptionally small. Paddy Dunne his wife Molly and family later lived in Hendricks house.

The houses in Butlers Row were privately owned. It may be assumed that the name indicates the original owner or person responsible for their construction. Peter P. Doyle of Woodstock Street at one time collected the rent averaging 2/6 per week on behalf of the then owner George Dillon who was a butcher in Leinster Street. On his death George willed the Butlers Row property to his nephew Tommy who lived in Ardreigh and in time he sold the 11 houses to Mona Sylvester of Offaly Street. Mona is reputed to have paid £100 for the entire housing scheme and she continued to collect the rents to the end.

Butlers Row is now no more. The roofless remains of the houses which once echoed to the lively sounds of family life now wait for the bulldozers to knock the remaining walls. In recording the names of those who lived there over the years since 1930 inevitably some names will be missed and some mistakes made. If you can help to add to what is published here I would welcome hearing from you.

Butlers Row in 1930s

The local Urban Council will shortly commence building houses for the elderly in what was once Butler’s Row, a short narrow cul-de-sac off Offaly Street. Butler’s Row consisted of 11 small two storey houses on the left hand side of the lane which ended at the entrance gate to an orchard. The apple and pear trees which provided generations of young boys from the area with illicit nourishment are no more, and the orchard itself will soon form part of a new housing scheme which will have a pathway linking it with Offaly Street and Meeting Lane.

When the original houses in Butler’s Row were built I cannot say, but the roofless shells which are still standing were once homes to countless families. At the entrance to the lane in the 1930’s was Webster’s sweet shop on the left hand side and Pat Dowling’s public house and grocery on the right.

The first house on the lane was also the largest. It had, like all the others, one room at ground floor level but two bedrooms upstairs. Every other house had one large bedroom upstairs. In that first house lived Billy Leakes with his sister Bertha and her daughters Mary and Bertha. Billy had lost both legs in World War I and was confined to a wheelchair. Despite this handicap he worked as a sack mender for Minch Norton’s and for Jackson’s, also occasionally repairing sacks for local farmers in his own house. Billy was an experienced fisherman, and his fishing rods had pride of place on the wall of the living room of his small house. He was often to be seen each evening sitting in his wheelchair at the end of the lane, chatting to the local people on their way to the Picture Palace in Offaly Street. He died in January 1949. His daughter Bertha worked in the Church of Ireland Rectory for Rev. Dunlop. She died approximately ten years ago, having emigrated to England, and is buried in a cemetery in Eastbourne, where coincidentally, her friend, May Sunderland, formerly of Offaly Street, is also buried. May was an usherette in the Picture Palace before she emigrated to England. Following Billy Leakes’ death, Jim and Sarah Doyle and their family came to live in No. 1 Butler’s Row.

In the adjoining house in the 1930’s lived Mr. & Mrs. Tom McHugh and family. Tom had a foundry in Janeville Lane which continued in operation into the late 1950’s. Some of the men who worked in McHugh’s Foundry included Mannix Thompson, Des Donaldson and Paddy Eaton. The McHugh family included John, Tommy, May, Annie, Gertie, Babs, Matt and Una. Annie died in Butler’s Row before the family moved to No. 7 Offaly Street. Mick O’Shea and his sister Molly later moved into the second house in Butler’s Row.

In the third house over 60 years ago, lived Granny Murphy, even then a very old woman, remembered for the large white apron she always wore. With her was her son Seanie, whom I believe is now in England, and her daughter-in-law Maureen who worked in Murphy’s of Sunnyside. Maureen later remarried Jack Carroll, who was in the Irish Army.

Next door lived Mrs. Stafford and her children John, Peter and Julia. They later moved to No. 28 Offaly Street which adjoins the present Credit Union office. John Stafford was later to occupy the premises opposite the courthouse now owned by Jim Lawlor, from where he operated a bicycle shop and a hackney business. Replacing the Staffords in Butler’s Row were Matt Collingwood, his wife Lil and their family. Lil was a daughter of Mrs. Woods of Meeting Lane, who operated a dairy at the end of Janeville Lane, where Bill Cash and his family later lived. Matt was caretaker of the local courthouse. The entire Collingwood family emigrated to Luton in the mid-1930’s. I believe that one of Matt’s daughters is married in England to Johnny Hoare’s brother, while a son, Thomas, is married to Mick Dunphy’s daughter, formerly of The Bleach. After the Collingwoods, the house was occupied by Jack and Ciss Webster and their young family. Jack was a painter and local fireman, and Ciss, who is now living in Offaly Street, is remembered by me for her early start as an office cleaner in Bob Osborne’s solicitors’ office in Emily Square. In the 1950’s I invariably met Mrs. Webster walking to work as I plodded my way to serve 7.00 o’clock morning Mass in the Parish Church. Her son Tom, who was a good friend of mine when we were growing up, is now a fire officer in Athlone.

Mrs. Mahon, a widow, lived in No. 5 with her children Molly, Stacia, Michael, John and Betty. John, who was a good footballer, died of T.B. while living in Butler’s Row. His team-mates from Athy Gaelic Football Club carried John’s coffin from Butler’s Row on the day of his funeral. His brother Michael was one of the stars of Gaelic football in Athy and he emigrated to America in October 1927. On the night before he departed, members of the G.A.A. Club, then called Young Emmets, made a presentation to Michael at a function in the urban council offices in the Town Hall. He had played for the Athy Senior Team in the 1923 Senior Championship Final when Athy was defeated by Naas, and was chosen for the Kildare County Senior football team in the year he emigrated. Michael Mahon later returned to Ireland, and is believed to be the only Athy man to win an All-Ireland Senior Football medal which he received for playing for his county in the 1928 championship, even though he did not figure in the final of that year. The Mahon family members are all deceased.

Tommy Moran and family lived in the house next door to the Mahons before they transferred to St. Patrick’s Avenue, where Mrs. Moran is still living. Tommy was a master tailor, a craft once very much in vogue in the pre World War II years but which went into decline with the advent of ready-made suits. Jack Bennett and his family replaced the Morans in Butler’s Row, transferring from Janeville Lane on the far side of Offaly Street. Jack worked as a baker in Bradbury’s. His daughter Mary Whelan now lives in Pairc Bhride.

In No. 6 Butler’s Row lived Fran O’Rourke, who was married to Kate Cunningham of Meeting Lane. He was a carpenter who worked for the railway company in their Inchicore Works, commuting to Athy each weekend by train. His sons Paddy Joe, Thomas, Frank and Hughie are dead, as is his daughter Josephine, who was married to the late Joe Moloney. Another son, Peter, is living in London, while a daughter Breda is married to Michael O’Meara and living in Geraldine Road. George and Mary Ryan were appointed tenants of No. 6 in 1942 and lived there until 1950 when they transferred to No. 63 Pairc Bhride. Their son George, born the same year as myself, was in my class in St. Joseph’s Boys School. He died in 1949 and I can still recall the entire class under Sr. Alberta’s guidance praying for George, little realising that we would never see him again. He was buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery one week after another of our young friends, Jimmy Bracken of Emily Square, was drowned underneath the Barrow Bridge. That was a sad week in November 1949.

George Ryan Senior was a first class handballer who won the All Ireland Hardball Junior Doubles title partnered by “Wiggie” Costello of Shrewleen in 1936. While living in Butler’s Row, George won the All Ireland Handball Junior Singles title of 1946. Sadly he died in 1969.

In the next house lived Mr. & Mrs. O’Brien and their daughter. I have no information about them. They were followed by Mick O’Shea, his mother and grandfather who moved from Garden Lane off Meeting Lane. Mick and his sister Molly, who had spent many years in England, later moved down to No. 2 Butler’s Row. Mick, who worked for many years in the I.V.I. Foundry, was the last tenant of Butler’s Row as he continued to live there for some time after the remaining houses fell vacant. He and Molly now live in Kirwan’s Court off Leinster Street.

“Robbie” Robinson and his wife Caroline later moved into No. 7 Butler’s Row. Robbie worked in the I.V.I. Foundry and was known locally as “Black Sam”, allegedly because of his frequent performances as a blacked up minstrel in local musicals in the Town Hall. Their eldest son Michael, who is now in Australia, was home for Christmas, and renewed acquaintances with his school pals from the Christian Brothers School of the 1950’s.

The Stapleton family lived in No. 8. There were three brothers and one sister, all now long dead. Jim and Larry were bakers in Bradley’s bakery which was located at the rear of the present Delaney’s Barber shop in Duke Street. Mick was unemployed, largely due to ill health, while his sister Mary kept house for her bachelor brothers. Tom and Maria Langton and family replaced the Stapletons. Tom was a local postman and fireman and both himself and his wife were wonderful ballroom dancers, known far and wide for their dancing skill.

Next door in the 1930’s we find Mr. & Mrs. Dargan, their son Jim and two daughters. They later moved to Offaly Street taking over the house vacated by the Stafford family. Mr. Dargan worked in his own forge and also in Duthie Large’s while his son Jim left Athy Christian Brothers School to take up a cadetship with the Irish Army. Jim Dargan, who later left the Army to work with his father in the family forge, participated in many of the musical shows in Athy over the years. When the Dargans moved to Offaly Street the new tenants of No. 9 Butler’s Row were Tommy and Eileen Pender. Tommy worked in the I.V.I. Foundry and when his children were very young, the family moved to Offaly Street, taking over Sunderland’s house. In doing so, Eileen Pender was moving to live directly opposite her old family home, where her parents were still living at the time.

Mr. & Mrs. Dempsey and their daughter Lil lived in the second last house in Butler’s Lane. “Cruiser” Dempsey as he was known, was the porter in the Hibernian Bank in Leinster Street. He was a small man with a moustache and always wore a cap. Lil married a railway porter named Tobin and moved down the country. Mick Corr, his wife and two sons later lived in the house and Mick is now living in Nelson Street, his wife sadly dying while they were living in Butler’s Row.

At the end of Butler’s Row lived Mr. & Mrs. Hendricks. He was a freelance photographer, and used the wall of the Leinster Arms Hotel yard to display his photographs of local events and people which he offered for sale. Hendricks was an exceptionally tall man whose wife was very small. Paddy Dunne, his wife Molly and family later lived in Hendricks house.

The houses in Butler’s Row were privately owned. It may be assumed that the name indicates a previous owner or perhaps the person responsible for constructing the houses in the 19th century. Peter P. Doyle of Woodstock Street, at one time collected the rents averaging 2/6 per week, on behalf of the then owner George Dillon, who was a butcher in Leinster Street. On his death George willed the Butler’s Row property to his nephew Tommy who lived in Ardreigh, and in time he sold the 11 houses to Mona Sylvester of Offaly Street. Mona is reputed to have paid £100 for the entire housing scheme and she continued to collect the rents until the last house was vacated.

Butler’s Row is no more. The roofless remains of the houses which once echoed to the lively sounds of family life now await the bulldozers to knock down their crumbling walls. In recording the names of those who lived there over the years since 1930, inevitably some names will be missed and some mistakes made. If you can help to add to what is written here, I would welcome hearing from you.

Pasley-Glynn Cine Variety Company

I was handed an old leather attaché case a while ago and asked to look through its contents. The bearer of this request was himself the scion of an illustrious old theatrical family, and as one might expect, the contents were an interesting mixture of theatrical ephemera dating from the 1930’s and the 1940’s.

The bag itself was stamped with the letters J.M.A.P., which after a little detective work I deduced were the initials of Jonathan M.A. Pasley, one half of the Pasley-Glynn Cine Variety Company which flourished in the midlands almost 60 years ago. Posters for the Company’s performances in Newbridge Picture Palace and the cinema in Mountmellick were found neatly folded in the leather bag. The earliest poster for the Newbridge Cinema, of which P. Foy and J. McGovern were named as lessees, gave a programme, for Saturday and Sunday November 20th and 21st, of “Buck Jones” on the screen and a supporting variety show. No details of the variety performance or the performers were given except to indicate admission charges of 4d, 9d and 1/4d.

The poster for the Mountmellick performance indicated admission prices of 2/=, 1/4d and 8d and might consequently be a few years later than the Newbridge show. Again, the Pasley-Glynn Cine Variety Company were offering the latest in variety with a change of film every night of the week. This time however, the variety programme was detailed, with J.M.A. Pasley billed as Ireland’s own male impersonator. The Two Namrehs, a German comedy acrobatic duo, shared billing with Mr. Knoto, a Japanese contortionist. Mon Nomen, “Never has Ireland seen such a Genius” came near to the end of the programme as did E.T. O’Rourke-Glynn described as Ireland’s Youngest Basso. Glynn, was of course, Ernest O’Rourke-Glynn of Athy, the other half of the Pasley-Glynn Cine Variety Company. It would seem that the Company operated in the mid-1930’s with Pasley as musical director and E.T. O’Rourke-Glynn as director and secretary, with offices at Rathloe House, 47 Upper Rathmines Road, Dublin and the Theatrical Stores, Athy. The latter address was the home of the O’Rourke-Glynns. In a handbill printed for performances in the Electric Cinema, Kildare, it was claimed for the Pasley-Glynn Company “This is the first Cine Variety Company which ever toured Ireland”.

The bag yielded up tickets for a performance of what was described as a “Spectacular domestic costume Irish drama by O’Rourke-Glynn”, titled ‘Mavourneen’, given in the Town Hall, Athy on Wednesday and Thursday the 15th and 16th of June 1936, in aid of the Arranmore disaster fund. A letter from the Town Clerk of Athy Urban District Council J.W. Lawler, dated the 5th of December 1935, expressed the Council’s appreciation of the offer ‘to carry out a play in the Town Hall, Athy, for the bereaved relatives of the Arranmore disaster and to contribute 50% of the proceeds for the worthy cause.”

Another poster advertised dancing in the Ritz Ballroom, Carlow, on Wednesday the 4th of October 1939, and on every succeeding Wednesday, to Ernest Glynn’s Cabaret Band. Tickets were 1/6d, with dancing from 9.00 p.m. to 11.30 p.m.

The varied career of Ernest O’Rourke-Glynn was highlighted by other pieces of theatrical ephemera found in Pasley’s old leather attaché case. Programmes for the Gaiety and the Olympia Theatres in Dublin featured performances in the early 1940’s for which costumes were designed and supplied by O’Rourke-Glynn. A copy for May 1944 of the “Commentary”, a theatrical magazine edited by Sean Dorman, reported :

“The costumes of Lilac Time produced at the Gaiety by the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society last month were some of the loveliest seen in Dublin for a long time. They were the work of Ernest O’Rourke-Glynn, character actor, scene designer and theatrical customaire. Mr. O’Rourke-Glynn comes of a very old theatrical family, his grandfather being Nicholas O’Rourke-Glynn who presented the brilliant violinist Irene Vanburgh to Ireland in 1868 when he opened his first professional company. His father Nicholas O’Rourke-Glynn Jnr. was a writer, actor and producer”.

Ernest O’Rourke-Glynn advertised his scenic studios and theatrical costumes from showrooms and offices at 126 St. Stephen’s Green West, Dublin in the early 1940’s, with his works and stores at Duke Street, Athy. He built and painted scenery to order, and had costumes on hire for all plays, pantomimes and grand operas. A typed note found amongst the papers showed that canvass back drops of a kitchen scene, a prison cell, a library, a palace hall, a landscape or a seascape could be purchased from O’Rourke-Glynn’s stock at £5.5.0 for the standard 12ft. by 9ft. stage size.

Shutting Pasley’s attaché case was like closing a book on theatrical life of 60 years ago. Jonathan Pasley and Ernest O’Rourke-Glynn are now long gone to their reward, but someone out there will remember their Cine Variety Company which toured the midlands before the start of the Second World War.