Diary of Thomas Henry Cross 2

The extracts from the Diary of Thomas Henry Cross concluded last week with his School Master, Mr. Flynne, absconding leaving considerable debts in Athy, and his pupils including our diarist without a school. Cross noted that with Flynne's sudden departure his education at school ended "for as to the subsequent two I wish I had never known them. The first of these was a Mr. Wintour an Oxford student who came highly recommended from Ballitore early in 1847. I remained with him literally and substantially idling until he became insolvent in October 1848 and on his release from prison he left the town. I then was nine months idle entirely, nine months of my life at a time when above all others I could worst have spared it. A time when habits and prejudices just began to be formed, habits of inattention carelessness and negligence which to this very day hang to me and weigh me to the ground. However, about August 1849 my father took the notion that I should enter College. I call it a notion for I was just beginning to settle myself down in contented idleness and ignorance. I then went for an hour in the evening for about six weeks to Mr. Forde where I learned but very little and it was only on the 20th September that I set about preparing for the entrance examination which took place on 16th October following. I worked hard but I had left too much undone - all my knowledge had been dissipated and my mind was left an empty storehouse which I had set about filling as best I might or could. Accordingly every word in Greek or Latin had to be searched for not only in the dictionary but in the Grammar and I found that I had to begin with the very definitions of the Euclid. The entrance day arrived, the Rev. Mr. Jameson (Curate of Athy Parish) came to Dublin with me and introduced me to the Rev. Mr. Haughton whom I selected as my Tutor. We had the usual entrance breakfast and I made my debut in the Examination Hall of Trinity College Dublin at 10 O'Clock on the morning of the 16th October, 1849. I can't remember now my examiners but the great fact remains on record that out of the 84 who entered that day there were 38 better that I was and 45 worse. My father and Mr. Jameson were rather pleased at my doings so in the afternoon after dinner at Mrs. Moore's of Dame Street my health was drank and an "issue suitable to the beginning" wished for".

Thomas Cross continued his Diary on and off until June 1856 and the entry for the 21st of July 1853 gives an interesting insight into political happenings in Athy at that time. "I was engaged on the Friday and Saturday in the Tally Room for Sir Edward Kennedy the Conservative Candidate. W.H. Cogan and O'Connor Henchy were his opponents. It was a pitch battle between Landlordism and Priestism and indeed I cannot say whether the spiritual anathematisings of the latter or the temporal crushings and threats of the former were the more reprehensible. As to "Freedom of Election" it was a monster farce. If the unfortunate elector did not vote as the Priest wished he was cursed from the altar and if he did not bow before a tyrant Landlord's fiat he was exterminated out of the Land. Henchy and Cogan were the successful candidates, the former is little better than a fool but the latter is a man of some intelligence. Either are better (except so far as Principles go) than Sir Edward Kennedy whose sole virtue consists of keeping up a pack of foxhounds for the gratification of the sickly sprouts and scions of Kildare's Landocracy for the indoctrination of habits of idleness, drunkenness and vice in the too genial soil of the squireens heart."

On the 7th of August 1853 Cross wrote "On account of my permanent removal to Dublin I found it necessary to send in my resignation to the Committee of Athy Mechanics Institute, the Society which I was mainly instrumental in founding and of which I had been the Secretary from the very first. The members wishing to pay me some compliment in leaving them signified their wish that I should go down and receive at their hands at a public meeting a Writing Desk as a mark of their appreciation of my services. I accordingly went. They had the room beautifully decorated, hung around with flowers and mottos. Over the chair where I was to sit was "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot" and in other parts of the room "Knowledge is Power", "Success to our Institute" etc. The chair was taken at 8.00 o'clock by A. O'Keeffe, Esq., the Manager of the National Bank who in a highly flattering speech opened the meeting by reading the address which was to accompany the desk. The Rev. Thomas Jameson, Curate of Athy Parish, proposed and Dr. Edward Ferris seconded its adoption and both particularly Mr.Jameson spoke of me in most complimentary terms. I afterwards spoke for about an hour briefly sketching the past history of the Society and exhorting members to unity and to perseverance in the most noble cause of mental amelioration. There were many other speeches delivered and afterwards we had a very elegant soiree, fruit, wine, cakes, almonds, raisins etc. There was the greatest good feeling manifested by all. Indeed I felt not a little proud at seeing myself thus made much of and seeing old and young, rich and poor, Protestant and Dissenter and Catholic all coming forward to testify as I have said that "wherever industry, perseverance and talent are employed in the promotion of useful purposes and directed to the attainment of noble ends that industry, perseverance and talent would be recognised, appreciated and rewarded".

The Diary of the young Athy man first written over 150 years ago gives us an interesting insight into life in provincial Ireland both before and after the Great Famine. A most remarkable absence of any reference in the Diary to the famine which affected the country between 1845 and 1849 is puzzling. I have elsewhere made reference to a similar lack of reference in the Contemporary Minute Books of Athy Town Commissioners. Wherein lies the explanation for these omissions given that over 2,500 men women and children died in the town and in the local Poor House during the four years of the worst of the many famines experienced in 18th and 19th century Ireland? Despite this omission Thomas Henry Cross's Diary is an important social document enabling us to look backwards to a time which the faded pages of a young man's Diary can only now reveal.

Diary of Thomas Henry Cross 1

Some weeks ago I wrote of Mark Cross who in 1872 was involved in the building of houses at Connolly's Lane and Janeville Lane, Athy. Initially I believed that he had built those houses but further research confirming his occupation as a Surveyor leads me to believe that he possibly prepared the housing plans which were recently presented by his great grand-nephew to Athy Museum. Following that article I received in the post from Dr. George Cross of Christ Church, Dorset photocopies of a Diary commenced by Thomas Henry Cross, a brother of Mark Cross of Athy in February 1852. Both were sons of Mark Cross, a former Chairman of Athy Town Commissioners, who lived in Market Square (now Emily Square). Described in Slaters Directory of 1846 as a Civil Engineer and Builder Mark Cross died in 1866. Thomas Cross who was born in 1834 obtained an appointment in the Census Commission Office in Dublin in April 1852 following which he became tenant of a small cottage at 14 Dalymount Terrace, Phibsboro. On the 26th of April of the same year he started his studies in Trinity College and in his Diary noted "It occurs to me that I may appropriately here record the earlier portions of my educational and collegiate career." What follows is an extremely interesting account of his early schooling in Athy from which the following extracts have been taken.

"The first school I ever went to was Mrs. Whites in Barrack Street, Athy, she was a most kind old woman and I always was her especial favourite. Edmund Butler, Abraham Fitzpatrick, Thomas Guest and Thomas Bailey were my chief playmates, my time with her extending from the year 1838 to 1842. I then went to a Mr. MacCrone who lived in the house next Mr. Connollys opposite the Court House. The education I received here was bad both as regarded quantity and quality he being an extremely dissipated character his whole time was spent either asleep or in the Public House. I remained only about six months with him as his school was broken up owing to his Landlord old Henry Handstock distraining for rent. I then went in the early part of 1843 to a Mr. Hill who lived in John Duncans house at the foot of the bridge now occupied by Eliza Graham." (Note: This I believe to be the father of Alexander Duncan subsequently of Fortbarrington House who later had a thriving draper business in what is now Shaws) "This was a great improvement on the previous one but unfortunately the discipline and subordination was very bad amounting very often to beating or otherwise maltreating by the Master. I myself was unfortunately borne down with the current as I remember getting a sound thrashing from him for having sent him to a nameless place. John and William O'Melia Philip Owen and Thomas Waters were here my school fellows as also George & John Judge and Joe Carrol. We fancied ourselves the aristocratic school and so treated contemptuously another school kept by a Mr. Forde in Stanhope Street." (Note: This is believed to have been the Athy Poor School carried on in rooms at the corner of Stanhope Place before the Sisters of Mercy came to Athy). "So high used the party spirit run that often on leaving the respective schools we used to range ourselves on opposite banks of the river we in a plot of ground now attached to the Police Barrack but then merely enclosed by a low wall and they on the bank of the river at Garter Lane behind Michael Lawless Stores." (Note: The Police Barracks was located in Whites Castle. It would therefore suggest that in the years prior to the Great Famine the Mill Race still separated Whites Castle from the premises adjoining Garter Lane). "Many an hour we spent "pelting stones" at each other and on one occasion I had to be carried off the field "severely wounded". I left this school about October 1843 owing to Hills having made a demand on my father for money for firing for the winter which however my father considered degrading his school to the level of a "hedge seminary". I then had a Mr. Jackson attending me in the evenings for a short time when I had William Plewman learning with me, and on alternate evenings I used to go to his house and after school played a game "of hide and seek". His three sisters were then quite little girls though they are since married, one to Henry Hannon another to a Wesleyan Methodist Clergyman of the name of Kernahan and the third to a man named Whelan". (Note: Henry Hannon, son of the Mill owner John Hannon of Prumplestown House married Deborah Plewman and it was their son John Alexander Duncan who lived in Ardreigh House. Comfort Plewman married Rev. James Kernaghan and their son Coulson Kernaghan was a well known writer and renowned as a brilliant orator. The third Plewman daughter Hannah eloped with Myles Whelan and they had a large family the youngest of whom Myles married Jessie Anderson and lived in Fortbarrington House). "In the close of this year 1843 a Mr. Flynne a Bachelor of Arts at Trinity College, Dublin who had been previously Tutor at Mr. Evan's of Farmhill issued prospectuses of an Academy of a description and on a scale far superior to any hitherto known in the town. This school opened on the 2nd January 1844 and from that day I may date the commencement of my education. There was a system in his school that did more to educate his pupils than all the drilling in Classics or Science could do, there was regularity everywhere and in everything. Soon there became developed here those faculties which now profit me so much. I became head of the first class which place I held until I left school in July, 1847. My school fellows here were as best I can remember Edmund Butler, Ben Lefroy, (now a Midshipman Royal Navy) Richard Lefroy (now in United States) Robert Lefroy , George Judge (now in America) John, Tom and Sam Judge, John William and Fred O'Melia Richard Hampden and Eyre Evans (now in Australia) Jo George and Edwin Ennis, Edward Waters and George Archdale (now in America). The school was very select. I remember that I was particularly good in Euclid Greek and Latin and English Grammar but I could never master either History or Geography. We had halfyearly examinations at the first of these held on Monday, December 23rd 1844 I was examined by George Bagot (now a Captain) and obtained first premiums in Sallust Virgil Lucian and Euclid. Fred O'Melia on that occasion getting first in History. At the next examination on 7 July 1845 I obtained first in Virgil and Sallust and English Grammar and second for Recitation. Fred Kynsey obtaining first on this occasion. George Gatot and W.B. Clayton and Capt. Gaisford were my examiners. In the December of that year I obtained four prizes in books and on the 10th July 1846 Captain Groves being my examiner I obtained firsts for Lucian and Horace besides three book prizes. In August Mr. Flynne being involved in pecuniary difficulties absconded leaving debts to a considerable amount unpaid in the town. With his departure was my education at School ended".

Mark Cross

Twelve years ago Laurence Athy of Ohio, U.S.A. visited the South Kildare town of the same name seeking to unravel the mystery of which came first - the place name or the family surname. Ten years later Michael Athy and his family of Illinois, U.S.A. made the same journey. Michael, who had himself emigrated from the West of Ireland over 40 years ago was less interested in the historical minutiae of 12th century Ireland and was content to show his American family the Irish town which bore his name. Two weeks ago we had a visitor from Auckland, New Zealand. Ted Athy and his wife stayed a few days in the town where he could reasonably assume his forbearers held sway 800 years ago. All these visitors were understandably intrigued by the possible link between the town and their ancient family.

It was Michael Athy who in 1984 put forward the thesis that the surname Athy originated in France in the late 12th century when a Norman military leader named Gerard adapted as his surname Athee from the name of the village of his birth - Athee Sur Cher in the province of Touraine. Michael claimed that while in England Gerard de Athee became at different times Athies, Athyes and eventually Athy. He was satisfied that the town named Athy in Ireland was not derived from the Anglo Norman surname.

The leading authority in Irish family names and their origins was the late Dr. Edward Lysaght, former Chief Herald of Ireland who published his authoritative book on the subject in 1972. In his opinion the surname Athy is of a type which is common in most countries but very rare in Ireland being formed from a placename. The Athys he states were of Norman stock, settled in Athy, Co. Kildare whence they soon migrated to Galway.

Rev. Patrick Wolfe of Kilmallock, Co. Limerick in his book "Irish Names and Placenames" wrote "at the time of the Norman invasion surnames were still far from universal in England and many of the first settlers came to this country with only first names. Some of them took surnames on Irish soil after the Norman fashion from the places where they settled."

So here we have two leading Irish authorities for the proposition that the Athy family name derives from the South Kildare town where the Irish branch of the family were some of its earliest settlers. But of course when the French speaking Anglo Normans came to Ireland they knew nothing of the Gaelic language of the native Irish who had already named the Ford on the River where Woodstock Castle was to be built. It had been known as Ath Ae ever since the second century when Ae the son of a Munster Chieftain had fallen there in battle. It is reasonable to assume that the Gaelic placename soon became Athey, Athay, Athie and eventually Athy as it came down to us firstly as a French speakers interpretation, and latterly the Anglicised form of the ancient placename.

The Anglo Norman settlers who had adopted their surname from the South Kildare placename were soon to leave the area and migrated to Galway. There they were destined to become one of the fourteen tribes of that city and had the distinction of erecting the first ever stone building in Galway.

The Athy family name is no longer to be found in Galway and indeed I have not come across the surname anywhere else in Ireland. America is home to a vast network of Athy families most of whom spell their surname Athey. Dr. Charles Athey of Ohio published in 1932 his "Genealogy of the Athey Family in America 1642 - 1932" which was followed in 1972 by "The Descendants of Henry Athey of Maryland, South Carolina and Alabama" published by Thomas Whitfield Athey III. In more recent years the "History of the John and Frances Rue Athey (Athy) family 1637 - 1980" was published in America.

Ted Athy of Auckland, New Zealand, our most recent visitor is a descendant of the Athys of Co. Galway, his great-grandfather having emigrated from there in the 1860's. A genial semi-retired building contracter, he pronounced his name in the New Zealand fashion Ath Ee which on reading is so reminiscent of the original Gaelic place name Ath Ae. He expressed great interest in the town and cast an expert eye on Whites Castle which might have been his home today had his Anglo Norman ancestors not made a quick exit to Galway. Looking at the Athy family crest I was intrigued to find that their motto is "Ductus Non Coactus" - "May Be Led, Not To Be Driven". You know it accurately summarises so much of our attitudes in matters affecting the town of Athy. Maybe we should adopt the motto and renew the link which once existed between the town of Athy and the Anglo Norman settlers of 800 years ago.

Ardreigh Mills

Last week's Newspaper recorded the closure of a local factory in Athy. Sherwood Medical which had been in operation in the town for 22 years announced its impending closure some months ago with the loss of 45 jobs. This is a great loss to the area where last month over 1,200 potential workers were already unemployed. Athy has witnessed several factory and business closures over the years and the departure of Sherwood Medical adds one more to the list which includes such well remembered factory closures as the Wallboard Factory and the I.V.I. Foundry. Just over 70 years another business closure saw the end of Hannon's Mills which had operated at Ardreigh and at the Barrow Bridge in Athy.

There are few today who remember the Ardreigh Mill where the famous Lilywhite flour was produced. Even fewer still will recall the men who worked in the Mill in the years before its closure in 1925. The fine four storey building which straddled the Mill Race at Ardreigh is no more and the drawbridge which led directly into the heart of the building now gives access to Lords Island only.

When the Mill closed it had a devastating effect on the economy of the town. This was understandable given the scarcity of Industrial employment in Athy where the only work was to be found in Minch Nortons or the local brick yards. But the brick yards for so long, valuable providers of employment for local men and women were even then well passed their prime and were destined to close down soon afterwards. If the loss of Hannon's Mill had serious reprecussions for many families in Athy, its closure was felt even more keenly in the Ardreigh area from where so many of the Mill workers were drawn.

Towards the end of World War 1, the head Miller at Hannon's Mill was John Healy who lived in the Mill cottage which is still standing at Ardreigh. His daughter Mrs. Mary Carr was the subject of an Eye on the Past some years ago in which she recalled her young days spent in the Mill cottage and also for a short while in the Gate Lodge attached to Ardreigh House. The Assistant Miller was Tom Nolan who lived in the middle house of three houses on the left hand side of the road between Ardreigh Cemetery and Gray's Lane as the lane to Spring Lodge was then called. His son John also worked in the Mill.

The Mill workers included Patrick Mitchell who lived in a thatched house on the left side of Gray's Lane just before the point where the Railway line crosses what is locally called "The Gullet". Patrick was in charge of the Mill Stores and his son Jack is now living in the Coneyboro. William Brown whose sister was married to Patrick Mitchell was in charge of flour packing. He was a son of Pat Brown who was coachman to the Hannon's and father and son lived in a house now long demolished which stood on the left side of Grey's lane on what was Hannon's farm. Another Mill worker was Dan Dargan, son of Jim Dargan, land steward for the Hannon's who lived in the last of the three houses on the main Carlow Road next to Grey's lane. Paddy Kealy lived in the Lane with his father Dan Kealy in the house now owned by Jimmy Byrne and both father and son were Hannon Mill workers. Two brothers Leo and Martin Nolan who also worked there lived in a thatched house in Grays lane just beyond Loughman's house. Martin was later to work with Athy Gas works after the closure of Hannons Mill and before he emigrated to America. The Nolan house is now demolished.

Jack Howard another mill worker lived in Grays lane in what was recently Reddys. His daughter Kitty married a Kearney and I recall their sons attending the Christian Brothers schools before the entire family emigrated to England in the mid 1950's. A co-worker of Jack Howards was Bill Jenkins who lived in Meeting Lane, Athy and whose daughter Kathleen Sunderland is now living in Church Road. They were but a few "Townies" on the mill staff and apart from Bill Jenkins there was Jack Hayes of Convent Lane, "Gurcock" Murphy and Luke Kelly both from Athy. Other workers not from Ardreigh included Jack Dalton of Foxhill who was the engine man. The mill wheel was water controlled but when the river was toO low tO power the big wheel, engine power was brought into operation under the guidance of Jack Dalton. Another Foxhill man on the staff was Larry Cullen who was employed as a Carpenter.

Flour delivery in the South Kildare area was by horse and dray and a number of men were involved in this work. Pat Keeffe lived in Ardreigh as did Mick Gleeson whose house was in what was locally referred to as the back road but which we know as Bray Road. Peter Behan of Rathstewart was another dray man employed in the Ardreigh Mills. There were also a number of lorries employed in transporting flour and collecting grain and these were in the charge of the Davis brothers and the Knowles brothers about whom regretfully I know nothing.

Reading the names of the men who worked in Hannons Flour Mills it is clear that the local Ardreigh area benefited most in terms of jobs. All the greater then was the areas loss when Hannons closed down in 1925. The reason for the closure cannot now be positively identified given the passage of time. Maybe it was a combination of many factors such as the deaths of the Mill owners sons Ian and Leslie killed while fighting in France during World War 1. Maybe it was the sudden death of the Mill owner John A. Hannon in Ardreigh House on 3rd April, 1923 which heralded the end of the Flour Mill. He was found shot in his bedroom, and the subsequent Inquest finding was one of accidental death. Locals still talk of unexplained movements heard by a servant in the house that morning which raised the possibility of a third parties involvement in his death.

The opening of a modern mill in Limerick just when the Ardreigh Mill was under severe financial strain possibly offers the most plausible explanation for the subsequent demise of what was a long standing Industry in Athy. Whatever the reason, Ardreigh Mills closed in 1925 leaving a trail of desolation in its wake equalled only by that experienced when Athys famous brick yards were closed. The names of the men who worked in the Mill over 70 years ago are all but forgotten. Indeed, time has erased not only their names from memory but has seen the demolition of the Mill and the very houses in which some of the Mill workers lived with their families.

Athy's Hurling Champions 1959/1960

Eoghan Corry's Centennial History of the G.A.A. in County Kildare has all the statistics that one could ever require in relation to football and hurling in the short grass County. Behind the figures however are the stories which cannot always be unlocked. Dealing with the Senior Hurling Championship for 1959 which was played on the 23rd August 1960 in Geraldine Park, Athy, Corry gives a scoreline McDonagh 5-8, Athy 3-3. A footnote gives the startling information "Athy won title on objection". This was the last Senior Hurling title won by the Athy Club although it played in the finals of 1961 and 1964. The "victory" in the 1959 Championship gave the town its second Senior Hurling title following an earlier victory achieved in 1936 on the field of play when Athy beat Broadford on the score of 3-3 to 3-1. The objection which gave the County Championship to Athy stemmed from the McDonagh Barracks team including a Tipperary player named Costello who had played Club Hurling Championship in Tipperary that same year. The merits of Athy's case was readily accepted by the County Board and the game and the Kildare Senior Championship was awarded to the South Kildare Club.

Athy Hurling Club had been re-organised in 1958 largely due to the efforts of John Dooley Snr. of St. Patrick's Avenue who was a Foreman in Jacksons Grocery Dept. in Leinster Street. Other Club Officials were Mick Hogan, a P. & T. linesman of Leinster Street and Tommy Doolan who was employed as a farm steward by Minches. Thomas O'Connor Snr., a Limerick man then living in Kilkea and whose two sons played on the Senior Hurling team in the 1959 final was also an important member of the club management team. Minor and Junior teams were initially organised and many young fellows with no previous experience of the sliothar and caman enthusiastically embraced what is generally believed to be the fastest team game in the world. However speed was noticeably absent from our youthful efforts to propel the sliothar around the playing field and in the end not all of us graduated to the Senior ranks. The initial enthusiasm waned somewhat for this writer at least when blood was drawn in a practice match in Chanterlands in the days before that housing estate was built. The clash of the ash gave way to the sound of the caman smashing into my forehead resulting in a hasty retreat to Dr. Cowhey's room for stitches with a resulting scar which remains to this day. That ended my embryonic hurling career as thereafter I confined myself to football where the only danger was that likely to be experienced when Athy and Castlemitchell clashed in competition.

Athy had won a Junior Hurling Championship in 1950 at a time when hurling was an integral part of the activities of the local Gaelic Football Club. Hurling subsequently went into decline and it was due to the sterling efforts of John Dooley Snr. that a separate Hurling Club was established in 1958. I that year Athy went on to win its second Junior Hurling Championship. As Junior Champions the Club won promotion to the Senior ranks and competed in the Senior Hurling Championship Final of 1959 which was played the following year. The members of the Athy team included many men who although not natives of the town had thrown in their lot with the South Kildare Club. The local area not being a stronghold of Gaelic hurling, it was no surprise to find that the Athy team had representatives from almost every hurling County in the country.

The locals on the team included John Dooley Jnr. and Jimmy Malone both of St. Patrick's Avenue who were subs that day. Paddy "Skinner" Foley of Kilberry, Mick Dempsey of Loughlass and Mick Wall of Castledermot, brother of the present County Board Chairman could justifiably lay claim to be described as local players. Jimmy Hickey, an employee of C.I.E. was from Freshford in Co. Kilkenny as was locally based Garda Mick Cullinane. Another Kilkenny man on the team was the Castlecomer born goalkeeper Paddy Lambe then working in Conroys Bar in Duke Street which he was later to own. Mick "Cactus" Brennan, also a native of Castlecomer was a linesman employed by the E.S.B. The nickname was apparently due to his crewcut hair style which was then very much in fashion. Dinny Curtin, originally from Rathkeale, Co. Limerick, a butcher by occupation, lived in St. Patrick's Avenue. Another Co. Limerick man was Mick Ahern from Abbeyfeale who was then employed in the Wallboard Factory. Other Limerick natives on the team were brothers Tommy and Liam O'Connor then living at Kilkea whose father Tom Snr. was a Club official. Claude Gough, Manager of Bachelors Pea Factory was a player who learned his hurling skills in the Kilkenny/Wexford border area.

Co. Galway was ably represented on that Athy Senior Hurling team by the Harte brothers. Their family had moved from Galway to Kilberry and the four brothers Mark, Paddy, Willie and Tom Harte brought with them an expertise in wielding the caman which helped in no small way to bring success to the Athy Club. Other Galway players included Paddy Morris, a native of Oranmore who worked in Shaws Hardware and Mick Melia, an E.S.B. employee.

Others to join the Club during the early 1960's included Tom O'Donnell, an official of the National Bank and a native of Co. Tipperary as was Willie Dooley , a vet employed with Michael Byrne. Co. Cork representation on the team was augmented with the arrival of Gus O'Shea a Bank Official and Tom Heskins then and still an employee of Minch Nortons. P.J. McConville of Pairc Bhride was one of the few local players who took the field in the 1964 Championship final which Athy lost.

The Club re-organised by John Dooley in 1958 is still going strong and still play in the maroon colours which Mark Harte purchased in his native Galway in 1959 for the Athy team.