I have just returned from the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge where I attended the opening of an exhibition of works portraying “the vast array of talent amongst the social groupings in Athy”. At least that’s what the exhibition programme described what was on display in the county’s only publicly funded Arts Centre. The concept of an exhibition of local talent was an excellent one, but somehow to ally it to some unspecified social groupings and thereby giving a social consciousness was, as far as I am concerned, guilding the lily somewhat.
The title of the exhibition, “Athy with all its Flavours” required a more comprehensive and wider embracing display of talent than that on show in the Riverbank. Athy has a huge pool of resourceful people of various talents and skills, many of whom, but not all, are involved in local voluntary clubs and groups. If the Riverbank exhibition was to succeed in giving a flavour of our historic town and it’s people it needed to broaden the scope of the works on show. Nevertheless the exhibition which continues until 23rd February is worth a visit. Incidentally it was somewhat surprising to see no more than three Athy Town Councillors at the official opening. I would have thought that an exhibition as important as “Athy with all its Flavours”, showing in neighbouring Newbridge would have merited the full support of our “city fathers”.
Members of St. Michael’s Boxing Club were special guests at the Riverbank on Thursday night. Dom O’Rourke, Club President and President of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association of Ireland, lead in the club’s four Irish champion boxers as they received the generous applause of the audience in recognition of the club’s exceptional success in the National Boxing Stadium over the previous weekend. St. Michael’s Boxing Club is Athy’s most successful sporting organisation and indeed is the most successful amateur boxing club in the whole of the island of Ireland. The continuing success of the Joyces, Ray Sheehan and Eric Donovan and the other club members is one of the great sporting stories of our generation and for Athy represents perhaps the greatest sporting success ever achieved by any club based in the town. St. Michael’s Boxing Club deserves to be formally recognised and hopefully steps will be taken to mark in a suitable way the achievements of the young men who under the guidance of their trainer and mentor, Dom O’Rourke have recently moved into their new club premises opposite Dooley’s Terrace.
Local playwright and author John MacKenna has his play “Who by Fire” in rehearsal for a tour of the provinces which starts in Athy on Wednesday, 14th February. In the absence of a local theatre the play will be put on in a marquee erected in the grounds of White’s Castle providing a unique backdrop for a play which has earned for its promoters some notoriety even before it has opened to the general public. Pre-performance publicity for the play included the flying of a swastika from the top of the medieval towerhouse at the foot of Cromaboo bridge and the unfurling of a large banner on the side of the Castle. I gather a few people objected to the display of the swastika and amidst claims of “racism” demanded that the flag and banner be removed. The “offending” material was removed but really one wonders whether the objectors had legitimate grounds for imposing their will on the promoters of the play.
“Who by Fire” is the story of a young girl who was taken to the concentration camps at Auschwitz with her mother. She survived, but her mother died and twenty years later she revisits the former death camp, where as the author explains, the sights, sounds and smells of her three years in Auschwitz, bring the past back to life. I hope that the success of this important work which is a timely reminder of the barbarity of war is not affected by the controversy generated by a few objectors who seemed unable to distinguish between a theatrical experience and its attendant publicity and the real manifestation of racism in society today.
Early in the week Ernest Coyle, the last watchmaker in Athy, passed away aged 85 years. I don’t know if Ernest did ever make watches but he certainly repaired them and the myriad of clocks which passed across his counter since he returned to Athy over sixty years ago. It was a coincidence that a week or so before he died a Dublin friend gave me a watch hallmarked 1856 bearing the name William Plewman, watchmaker, Athy. Plewman, an Athy watchmaker, had been noted in a trade directory for 1824 and I have come across an early 19th century reference to payments made to Thomas Plewman of Athy for repairs carried out to a Grand Canal clock in Monasterevin. Of course one of Ireland’s greatest clockmakers was an Athy man, John Crosswaite, who as a young man walked from Athy to Dublin where he would in later years establish a well known clock making business. Ernest Coyle was in the great tradition of the watchmakers of old having learnt his trade from his uncle, George Coyle, who had a business in Mountmellick. George Coyle had served, as did his brother Alfred, in the First World War. Both were from Nicholastown but while George survived that terrible conflict, his brother died from gas poisoning on 21st August 1917 aged 22 years. Ernest Coyle had a great store of stories and a wonderful knowledge of Athy and its people and it is my great regret that I did not have the opportunity to share in that knowledge of his native place.
It was wonderful to see St. Michael’s Church full of neighbours and friends for the reception of his remains on Wednesday evening. I am always struck, on the occasions I attend St. Michael’s Church at the top of my old street – Offaly Street – at the huge differences in the congregations involvement in the singing of hymns compared to that encountered in the other St. Michael’s. It’s as if the Roman Catholics, myself included, are muted by what I can’t imagine, in contrast to the full throated participation of the reformed congregation.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Eleanor Hull’s name appended to the end of the ancient Irish hymn, “The Lord’s Prayer” as its versifier. I had not realised that Hull who was one of the founders of the Irish Text Society and a lifelong student of Irish studies was responsible for the appearance in the Irish Church Hymnal of such beautiful lines as :
“Riches I need not, nor vain empty praise:
Thou mine inheritance through all my days.”
On the day Ernest Coyle was buried in Old St. Michael’s Cemetery and less than two weeks after her husband died, Kathleen Delahunt passed away. Her death coming so soon after the death of her lifelong companion and husband Eddie is a sad and shattering blow for the Delahunt family. Our sympathies go to the members of the Delahunt family and to Ruth Coyle and her children.
A number of people have approached me over the past year suggesting, although asking might be more accurate, if a book of old photographs of Athy is to be published. Many people over the years have lent me photographs which I have copied and these form an archive totalling many hundreds of photographs which hopefully will form the basis of a photographic record of old Athy which it is intended to publish later this year. In the meantime I am anxious to include in that book as many old photographs as I can and I would welcome hearing from anyone who might have any interesting photographs of people, places or events connected with the town which they would be prepared to have reproduced in a book on Athy. If you would like to share photographic memories with others I would welcome hearing from you.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Eye on the Past 747
He has often been described as “the last of the old style butchers”. It’s a claim which finds favour with Noel Scully, but I’m not so sure that it is strictly correct. Whether it is or not is unimportant for Noel Scully is undoubtedly a great ambassador for the sawdust era of butchering when butchers did their own slaughtering in the rough and ready slaughterhouses which were to be found in Athy up to twenty or so years ago.
Noel left school a few weeks short of his 14th birthday and got his first job in Tim Hickey’s butcher shop in Emily Square. Interestingly, Hickeys was next door to the town Shambles which was the area set aside for the display and sale of meat during earlier centuries. Every town had its shambles and this was the only place within the town boundaries where meat could be sold. To return to Noel, when he started with Tim Hickey it was as a messenger boy and a general helper in the butchers shop. He worked 55 hours a week for £1.7.6 which in modern currency would amount to €1.75. Noel stayed working with Hickeys for nearly six years, always hoping that the long awaited apprenticeship to the trade would in time come his way. It was not to be as in the hungry 1950’s jobs in shops of any description were eagerly sought after and sometimes required a substantial payment to the employer before one could embark on an apprenticeship. As Noel himself says apprenticeships, especially in Hickeys, were kept for sons of “the people of substance” and so the eager young man from Plewman’s Terrace was not to be accommodated. Noel left Hickeys and tells me that he found himself without work until my own father who was the local Garda Sergeant got him a summer job in the neighbouring Bord na Mona works.
Noel still hankered after the butchering business and when Brendan Murphy opened up his butcher shop in the town in 1958 he offered Tim Hickey’s one time messenger boy a job as an apprentice butcher. Athy in the 1950’s had at least six independent butchers. Ned Ward had two shops in William Street and Stanhope Street, Finbar Purcell was in Duke Street with Kevin O’Toole and Jimmy Martin, while Andy Finn had Barney Day working for him in the shop opposite Mulhalls (now the Castle Inn). Alfie Coyle had his butchering business in Leinster Street next to Hyland’s present shop, while Tim Hickey had a prime location in Emily Square. Tom McStay opened his butcher shop at the start of the 1950’s when he bought Wotty Crosse’s little shop in front of the defunct and vacant mill building which once belonged to the Hannons.
All of the local butchers at that time slaughtered their own heifers and lambs. Meeting Lane had two slaughter houses, one in McHugh’s Yard used by Tom McStay, the other behind Bapty Mahers used by Tim Hickey and Alfie Coyle. Finbar Purcell slaughtered behind his shop in Duke Street, while Ned Ward had his slaughter house behind No. 1 Woodstock Street. The rear of Ned Wynne’s shop in William Street provided slaughtering facilities in the 1960’s for Noel Scully and his predecessor Billy Harris.
I remember witnessing a young heifer going under the pike in Ned Ward’s slaughter house sometime in the late 1950’s. A pole axe into the forehead was the slaughtering practice of the day, while lambs had a knife drawn across their throats. None of the local butchers sold pork. This was the speciality of Ernest Herterich who killed pigs at the rear of his shop in Duke Street. The other butchers collected blood from their own slaughtering houses which they passed on to Herterichs pork butchers to help make black pudding.
It was an era of butchers blocks and stainless steel hooks with sides of meat hanging from cross irons in the ceilings of local butcher shops. Meat was not pre cut or pre packed, your order was cut from the side of beef or lamb in front of you. Shopping in those unhurried days was a time consuming chore for the housewife. You waited your turn while the customers before you had their orders dealt with. I remember my own mother who shopped in Tim Hickeys constantly trying to get the best cut of meat. No matter what it was the piece first proferred by Tim or any of his assistants, Frank Kelly, Tim Junior, Tom Byrne would be rejected, the excess fat trimmed off and unwanted bones cut out before the meat was parceled and made ready for the journey back to 5 Offaly Street.
Noel Scully spent almost ten years with Brendan Murphy before he got the opportunity of opening up his own butchering business in Stanhope Street. Billy Harris who had served his time in Finbar Purcells had opened up the shop just a year or two previously and decided that he did not want to continue in the butchering business. Noel Scully’s name went over the door of the Stanhope Street shop and would remain there for almost thirty years. Noel remembers fondly some of the young men who worked with him over the years, Jack O’Keeffe, Paul and Sean O’Neill who are now in America and his own son Frank.
Noel who has been a Town Councillor since 1999 has always demonstrated a strong commitment to the local community. In his young days he was a member of the F.C.A. when the voluntary military force had a base at the back of Ted Vernal’s forge in St. John’s Lane. He recalls some of the men who paraded with him while in the F.C.A. under the command of Michael Dooley of Nicholastown. Eamon Stafford, Aidan Stafford, Eamon Walsh, Ambrose McConville, Michael Chanders, Thomas Whelan, John Kelly and Joe Brophy were just some of those men who gave of their free time to bolster the efforts of the F.C.A. It had been Noel’s ambition at a very early age to join the Irish Army but by the time he was old enough to enlist the butchering trade had taken a hold on his imagination and ambition and so his military dreams were confined to parading with his F.C.A. colleagues in St. John’s Lane.
One matter which Noel brought to my attention puzzled me somewhat. It was a football match in Geraldine Park between Athy minors and another club team which was played before a county senior game involving Kildare and Carlow. Apparently Noel was substituted during the game and the young fellow brought on to take his place was myself. I am not sure if either myself or the team manager Matt Murray took the blame for Noel’s footballing demotion, but fifty years after the event it still figures large in Noel’s memory. However, I think he has forgiven me for the part I unwittingly played in his substitution that day.
Sport of another form provided Noel with his greatest sporting achievement. Irish greyhouse racing to which he was introduced in the 1970’s has four major events, the St. Ledger, the Derby, Oaks and the Produce Stakes. It was the last of these which Noel’s dog, “Dilly Don’t Dally” won in 1986 to make Noel Scully of Athy the first County Kildare dog owner to win that major prize. He tells me that one of Dilly’s prodigy has won the same race many years later.
However, his success in the dog courses cannot even compare with the ballroom dancing successes which he shared over the years with his wife Maureen whom he married in 1963. They both competed in ballroom dancing competitions all over the country winning many competitions between 1970 and 1982 after which Noel became a Judge on the ballroom circuit. If that was not enough he has chaired for many years the Bleach and District Community Association and with his present role as a Town Councillor he has been kept busy. Noel is the eldest of five brothers and five sisters and as he looks back over a life of work and community involvement in his native town of Athy he can be justifiably proud of what he has achieved.
Noel left school a few weeks short of his 14th birthday and got his first job in Tim Hickey’s butcher shop in Emily Square. Interestingly, Hickeys was next door to the town Shambles which was the area set aside for the display and sale of meat during earlier centuries. Every town had its shambles and this was the only place within the town boundaries where meat could be sold. To return to Noel, when he started with Tim Hickey it was as a messenger boy and a general helper in the butchers shop. He worked 55 hours a week for £1.7.6 which in modern currency would amount to €1.75. Noel stayed working with Hickeys for nearly six years, always hoping that the long awaited apprenticeship to the trade would in time come his way. It was not to be as in the hungry 1950’s jobs in shops of any description were eagerly sought after and sometimes required a substantial payment to the employer before one could embark on an apprenticeship. As Noel himself says apprenticeships, especially in Hickeys, were kept for sons of “the people of substance” and so the eager young man from Plewman’s Terrace was not to be accommodated. Noel left Hickeys and tells me that he found himself without work until my own father who was the local Garda Sergeant got him a summer job in the neighbouring Bord na Mona works.
Noel still hankered after the butchering business and when Brendan Murphy opened up his butcher shop in the town in 1958 he offered Tim Hickey’s one time messenger boy a job as an apprentice butcher. Athy in the 1950’s had at least six independent butchers. Ned Ward had two shops in William Street and Stanhope Street, Finbar Purcell was in Duke Street with Kevin O’Toole and Jimmy Martin, while Andy Finn had Barney Day working for him in the shop opposite Mulhalls (now the Castle Inn). Alfie Coyle had his butchering business in Leinster Street next to Hyland’s present shop, while Tim Hickey had a prime location in Emily Square. Tom McStay opened his butcher shop at the start of the 1950’s when he bought Wotty Crosse’s little shop in front of the defunct and vacant mill building which once belonged to the Hannons.
All of the local butchers at that time slaughtered their own heifers and lambs. Meeting Lane had two slaughter houses, one in McHugh’s Yard used by Tom McStay, the other behind Bapty Mahers used by Tim Hickey and Alfie Coyle. Finbar Purcell slaughtered behind his shop in Duke Street, while Ned Ward had his slaughter house behind No. 1 Woodstock Street. The rear of Ned Wynne’s shop in William Street provided slaughtering facilities in the 1960’s for Noel Scully and his predecessor Billy Harris.
I remember witnessing a young heifer going under the pike in Ned Ward’s slaughter house sometime in the late 1950’s. A pole axe into the forehead was the slaughtering practice of the day, while lambs had a knife drawn across their throats. None of the local butchers sold pork. This was the speciality of Ernest Herterich who killed pigs at the rear of his shop in Duke Street. The other butchers collected blood from their own slaughtering houses which they passed on to Herterichs pork butchers to help make black pudding.
It was an era of butchers blocks and stainless steel hooks with sides of meat hanging from cross irons in the ceilings of local butcher shops. Meat was not pre cut or pre packed, your order was cut from the side of beef or lamb in front of you. Shopping in those unhurried days was a time consuming chore for the housewife. You waited your turn while the customers before you had their orders dealt with. I remember my own mother who shopped in Tim Hickeys constantly trying to get the best cut of meat. No matter what it was the piece first proferred by Tim or any of his assistants, Frank Kelly, Tim Junior, Tom Byrne would be rejected, the excess fat trimmed off and unwanted bones cut out before the meat was parceled and made ready for the journey back to 5 Offaly Street.
Noel Scully spent almost ten years with Brendan Murphy before he got the opportunity of opening up his own butchering business in Stanhope Street. Billy Harris who had served his time in Finbar Purcells had opened up the shop just a year or two previously and decided that he did not want to continue in the butchering business. Noel Scully’s name went over the door of the Stanhope Street shop and would remain there for almost thirty years. Noel remembers fondly some of the young men who worked with him over the years, Jack O’Keeffe, Paul and Sean O’Neill who are now in America and his own son Frank.
Noel who has been a Town Councillor since 1999 has always demonstrated a strong commitment to the local community. In his young days he was a member of the F.C.A. when the voluntary military force had a base at the back of Ted Vernal’s forge in St. John’s Lane. He recalls some of the men who paraded with him while in the F.C.A. under the command of Michael Dooley of Nicholastown. Eamon Stafford, Aidan Stafford, Eamon Walsh, Ambrose McConville, Michael Chanders, Thomas Whelan, John Kelly and Joe Brophy were just some of those men who gave of their free time to bolster the efforts of the F.C.A. It had been Noel’s ambition at a very early age to join the Irish Army but by the time he was old enough to enlist the butchering trade had taken a hold on his imagination and ambition and so his military dreams were confined to parading with his F.C.A. colleagues in St. John’s Lane.
One matter which Noel brought to my attention puzzled me somewhat. It was a football match in Geraldine Park between Athy minors and another club team which was played before a county senior game involving Kildare and Carlow. Apparently Noel was substituted during the game and the young fellow brought on to take his place was myself. I am not sure if either myself or the team manager Matt Murray took the blame for Noel’s footballing demotion, but fifty years after the event it still figures large in Noel’s memory. However, I think he has forgiven me for the part I unwittingly played in his substitution that day.
Sport of another form provided Noel with his greatest sporting achievement. Irish greyhouse racing to which he was introduced in the 1970’s has four major events, the St. Ledger, the Derby, Oaks and the Produce Stakes. It was the last of these which Noel’s dog, “Dilly Don’t Dally” won in 1986 to make Noel Scully of Athy the first County Kildare dog owner to win that major prize. He tells me that one of Dilly’s prodigy has won the same race many years later.
However, his success in the dog courses cannot even compare with the ballroom dancing successes which he shared over the years with his wife Maureen whom he married in 1963. They both competed in ballroom dancing competitions all over the country winning many competitions between 1970 and 1982 after which Noel became a Judge on the ballroom circuit. If that was not enough he has chaired for many years the Bleach and District Community Association and with his present role as a Town Councillor he has been kept busy. Noel is the eldest of five brothers and five sisters and as he looks back over a life of work and community involvement in his native town of Athy he can be justifiably proud of what he has achieved.
Eye on the Past 748
Older residents of the town will remember the huge fund raising activities which went into the drive for funds for the construction of St. Michael’s Church in the town. They included weekly house-to- house collections, parish draws, card drives, whist drives, sales of work, concerts, bingo nights, a drama festival, football matches and exhibition golf matches. This community effort was rewarded when the church was opened and blessed by John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin on 19th April 1964. This week the Eye features two photographs of what the Nationalist of April 24th 1964 headlined “GREAT DAY IN ATHY PARISH”. The first photograph shows the Archbishop inspecting the Guard of Honour provided by the 6th Field Artillery Regiment F.C.A. under the command of Lieutenant F. McGowan.
The second photograph shows a procession preceding the Archbishop and prominent among them was the Parish Priest of the day, the Very Rev. Vincent Steen, Fr. Mitchell, Fr. Corbett and sub-deacon Brendan Houlihan. I would like to hear from readers who can help me identify anyone else in the photographs.
The second photograph shows a procession preceding the Archbishop and prominent among them was the Parish Priest of the day, the Very Rev. Vincent Steen, Fr. Mitchell, Fr. Corbett and sub-deacon Brendan Houlihan. I would like to hear from readers who can help me identify anyone else in the photographs.
Eye on the Past 749
Just a few months before I returned to Athy in 1982 the then Urban District Council was engaged in a lively debate on the merits or otherwise of acquiring the mace of Athy Borough which was to be auctioned in Sotheby’s of London on 18th March of that year. The Councillors were, with one exception, in favour of purchasing the silver mace, the only dissenting voice being that of Councillor Paddy Wright who described the item as “a relic of British imperialism”.
The County Manager, Gerry Ward, agreed to pursue the matter and he authorised Seamus O’Conchubhair, the County Librarian, to bid up to £10,000 at the auction for the mace. The estimate given by Sotheby’s was in the region of £5,000 and £9,000 and the Council was to be assisted by the Bank of Ireland who agreed to donate £2,500 towards the purchase price. The mace which was made by Dublin silversmith, John Williamson, in 1746 weighed 187 ounces and stood 46 ½ inches high. Originally it had been presented by James Earl of Kildare on the 29th of September 1746 to the Borough of Athy. James had been a Member of Parliament for Athy Borough from 1741 to 1744. His father, the 19th Earl of Kildare, died in 1744 and James succeeded to the Earldom. He was later created Earl of Offaly and Marquess of Kildare and finally Duke of Leinster in 1766. James was father to Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the 1798 patriot, and to William Robert Fitzgerald who would succeed his father as the second Duke of Leinster. Athy’s main streets were renamed William Street, Duke Street and Leinster Street after the second Duke when he officially opened Augustus Bridge over the newly built Grand Canal, which bridge was named for his surviving eldest son, Augustus Frederick, who would in time become the third Duke. The second Duke’s eldest daughter Emily gave her name to what was previously known as Market Square in the centre of the town.
The mace was intended to be carried by the Sergeant of Mace in front of the Town Sovereign as he and the other Borough officials paraded to and from Borough meetings. A mace was originally a heavy metal club for battering in chain mail. Later, because of its resemblance to a sceptre, it was used to symbolize high rank and was generally ornamented with an arched crown at its head and often made of precious metal. The officers of Athy Borough Council in the 18th century were the Sovereign, two bailiffs, twelve burgesses, a recorder, three Sergeants of Mace, a Town Clerk, a Treasurer, a Bellman, a Weighmaster and an Inspector of Coals and Culm.
The Borough of Athy was abolished in 1840 being one of the many “rotten” Boroughs where the twelve Burgesses who comprised the Borough Council were elected for life by the Duke of Leinster. Inevitably the Burgesses acted in accordance with the Duke’s instructions and as such did not represent the democratic will of the local people. Athy Borough, with a number of similar Boroughs in Ireland, were consequently abolished to be replaced by democratically elected Town Commissioners. The last Sovereign of the town of Athy was John Butler whom I believe lived in St. John’s House in what is now Edmund Rice Square. An inscription on the mace reads: “This mace, presented to John Butler by the Corporation of Athy, November 1841”. The only other inscription found on the silver mace reads: “The gift of the Rt. Honble. James Earl of Kildare to ye Borough of Athy September 29th 1746.”
It is believed that Thomas Butler, son of the man who was gifted the mace in 1841, sold it to the Duke of Leinster in January 1876. The Irish newspapers of February 1982 carried details of the Sotheby’s auction in which the Athy mace was to feature as one of the more interesting and historical items for sale. Apparently it had formed part of the estate of the Duke of Leinster whom the Evening Herald of the 27th of February 1982 claimed had “died in poverty in London a few years ago.”
Sotheby’s Auction took place in London on 18th March and Seamus O’Conchubhair, acting on behalf of Athy U.D.C., was unsuccessful in his attempt to have the ancient mace returned to its original home. A London silversmith by name Richard Vander bought the mace for £15,000 Stg., buying it he said “on a whim because I liked it. It is one of the finest specimens of a mace for this period and is in remarkable condition”. He did not rule out the possibility of it finding its way back to Ireland: “If the interest is there, it might end up in a museum in Ireland”.
The exquisitely carved silver mace did not come back to Ireland. Indeed I remember writing to Mr. Vander at the time to clarify his plans for the mace but there was a deafening silence from across the Irish Sea. I never knew where the mace was located until recently when on a trip to the Texas University town of Austin I journeyed to San Antonio, home of the famous Alamo. With a population of something over one million, the former Spanish settlement has a large number of museums, including a Museum of Art which was opened in 1981 in a former brewery. The museum is home to an array of Greek and Roman antiquities, Asian art, Latin American art and holds a small Irish silver collection, amongst which is to be found the Athy Borough mace.
It was quite an extraordinary feeling to see for the very first time the mace which for almost 100 years symbolised the power and majesty of the corporation of the Anglo Norman town on the River Barrow. I had previously seen the Naas and Carlow maces in the National Museum in Dublin, but both are quite small compared to the almost majestic 46 ½ inches of exquisitely worked silver which makes up the Athy mace. Photographs of the mace which I had seen did not do it justice and I had not realised what a truly splendid piece it was until I saw it on exhibition in the San Antonio museum. I returned a second day to take some photographs of the mace and accompanying this article is one of the many photos taken on that occasion showing the former District Council Chairman who was a successor to the Town Sovereigns of an earlier century standing alongside the Athy mace.
The description given on the exhibition case reads “Mace of the Borough of Athy, John Williamson, Dublin 1746-1747 chased with the arms of George II and of Fitzgerald and the emblems of Great Britain, France and Ireland. Presented by James Fitzgerald (1722-1773) 20th Earl of Kildare”.
The mace was included in an exhibition of Irish silver at the De Witt Wallace Decorative Arts Gallery in Williamsburgh, Virginia in 1992 and in the San Antonio Museum of Art in 1993-’94 where it still remains. The catalogue for that exhibition entitled “The Genius of Irish Silver – a Texas private collection” includes a photograph of the Athy mace.
The Athy mace now shares, for me at least, pride of place with the legendary Alamo as the star attraction in the Texan town of San Antonio.
The County Manager, Gerry Ward, agreed to pursue the matter and he authorised Seamus O’Conchubhair, the County Librarian, to bid up to £10,000 at the auction for the mace. The estimate given by Sotheby’s was in the region of £5,000 and £9,000 and the Council was to be assisted by the Bank of Ireland who agreed to donate £2,500 towards the purchase price. The mace which was made by Dublin silversmith, John Williamson, in 1746 weighed 187 ounces and stood 46 ½ inches high. Originally it had been presented by James Earl of Kildare on the 29th of September 1746 to the Borough of Athy. James had been a Member of Parliament for Athy Borough from 1741 to 1744. His father, the 19th Earl of Kildare, died in 1744 and James succeeded to the Earldom. He was later created Earl of Offaly and Marquess of Kildare and finally Duke of Leinster in 1766. James was father to Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the 1798 patriot, and to William Robert Fitzgerald who would succeed his father as the second Duke of Leinster. Athy’s main streets were renamed William Street, Duke Street and Leinster Street after the second Duke when he officially opened Augustus Bridge over the newly built Grand Canal, which bridge was named for his surviving eldest son, Augustus Frederick, who would in time become the third Duke. The second Duke’s eldest daughter Emily gave her name to what was previously known as Market Square in the centre of the town.
The mace was intended to be carried by the Sergeant of Mace in front of the Town Sovereign as he and the other Borough officials paraded to and from Borough meetings. A mace was originally a heavy metal club for battering in chain mail. Later, because of its resemblance to a sceptre, it was used to symbolize high rank and was generally ornamented with an arched crown at its head and often made of precious metal. The officers of Athy Borough Council in the 18th century were the Sovereign, two bailiffs, twelve burgesses, a recorder, three Sergeants of Mace, a Town Clerk, a Treasurer, a Bellman, a Weighmaster and an Inspector of Coals and Culm.
The Borough of Athy was abolished in 1840 being one of the many “rotten” Boroughs where the twelve Burgesses who comprised the Borough Council were elected for life by the Duke of Leinster. Inevitably the Burgesses acted in accordance with the Duke’s instructions and as such did not represent the democratic will of the local people. Athy Borough, with a number of similar Boroughs in Ireland, were consequently abolished to be replaced by democratically elected Town Commissioners. The last Sovereign of the town of Athy was John Butler whom I believe lived in St. John’s House in what is now Edmund Rice Square. An inscription on the mace reads: “This mace, presented to John Butler by the Corporation of Athy, November 1841”. The only other inscription found on the silver mace reads: “The gift of the Rt. Honble. James Earl of Kildare to ye Borough of Athy September 29th 1746.”
It is believed that Thomas Butler, son of the man who was gifted the mace in 1841, sold it to the Duke of Leinster in January 1876. The Irish newspapers of February 1982 carried details of the Sotheby’s auction in which the Athy mace was to feature as one of the more interesting and historical items for sale. Apparently it had formed part of the estate of the Duke of Leinster whom the Evening Herald of the 27th of February 1982 claimed had “died in poverty in London a few years ago.”
Sotheby’s Auction took place in London on 18th March and Seamus O’Conchubhair, acting on behalf of Athy U.D.C., was unsuccessful in his attempt to have the ancient mace returned to its original home. A London silversmith by name Richard Vander bought the mace for £15,000 Stg., buying it he said “on a whim because I liked it. It is one of the finest specimens of a mace for this period and is in remarkable condition”. He did not rule out the possibility of it finding its way back to Ireland: “If the interest is there, it might end up in a museum in Ireland”.
The exquisitely carved silver mace did not come back to Ireland. Indeed I remember writing to Mr. Vander at the time to clarify his plans for the mace but there was a deafening silence from across the Irish Sea. I never knew where the mace was located until recently when on a trip to the Texas University town of Austin I journeyed to San Antonio, home of the famous Alamo. With a population of something over one million, the former Spanish settlement has a large number of museums, including a Museum of Art which was opened in 1981 in a former brewery. The museum is home to an array of Greek and Roman antiquities, Asian art, Latin American art and holds a small Irish silver collection, amongst which is to be found the Athy Borough mace.
It was quite an extraordinary feeling to see for the very first time the mace which for almost 100 years symbolised the power and majesty of the corporation of the Anglo Norman town on the River Barrow. I had previously seen the Naas and Carlow maces in the National Museum in Dublin, but both are quite small compared to the almost majestic 46 ½ inches of exquisitely worked silver which makes up the Athy mace. Photographs of the mace which I had seen did not do it justice and I had not realised what a truly splendid piece it was until I saw it on exhibition in the San Antonio museum. I returned a second day to take some photographs of the mace and accompanying this article is one of the many photos taken on that occasion showing the former District Council Chairman who was a successor to the Town Sovereigns of an earlier century standing alongside the Athy mace.
The description given on the exhibition case reads “Mace of the Borough of Athy, John Williamson, Dublin 1746-1747 chased with the arms of George II and of Fitzgerald and the emblems of Great Britain, France and Ireland. Presented by James Fitzgerald (1722-1773) 20th Earl of Kildare”.
The mace was included in an exhibition of Irish silver at the De Witt Wallace Decorative Arts Gallery in Williamsburgh, Virginia in 1992 and in the San Antonio Museum of Art in 1993-’94 where it still remains. The catalogue for that exhibition entitled “The Genius of Irish Silver – a Texas private collection” includes a photograph of the Athy mace.
The Athy mace now shares, for me at least, pride of place with the legendary Alamo as the star attraction in the Texan town of San Antonio.
Eye on the Past 750
I have often wondered to what extent farm labourer militancy (if I could call it such) in South Kildare was due to the influence of William Conner of Inch or for that matter Benjamin Pelin of Ballindrum. Neither of their names are likely to be recognised today but in their time they were leaders of agrarian movements which for a time gripped the attention and the support of a great number of Irish people.
William Conner lived at Inch just outside Athy. He was a cousin of Fergus O’Connor, the Chartist and it’s not surprising that despite being a wealthy individual he devoted the best part of his life and a considerable amount of his personal fortune in furthering the cause of Irish tenant farmers.
He first came to public notice when he published a pamphlet in 1822 on agrarian disturbances in County Cork. Ten years later he delivered a speech on Rack Rents which he later published in pamphlet form under the title the “Speech of William Conner Esquire against Rack Rents, etc.”. In 1840 another Conner pamphlet was published which he called “The Axe Laid at the Root of Irish Oppression” in which he expressed similar views as those outlined in the earlier publication. Two years later at a public meeting in Mountmellick, Conner attacked Irish landlordism and subsequently found himself facing charges at the Maryborough sessions. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment which he served in the local jail.
In 1843 the Devon Commission was set up to examine the state of the law and procedures relating to land occupation in Ireland. Conner published another pamphlet, “A letter to the Right Hon. the Earl of Devon on the Rack Rent Systems” in which he set out his now well established views. The Commission reported two years later but its principal recommendation that outgoing tenants be compensated for improvements was not passed into law. Around the same time Conner was expelled from Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal Association for advocating a strike of tenant farmers and the withholding of rents until rents were adjusted downwards. Undeterred William Conner published two letters addressed to the Times newspaper on the subject of Rack Rent, but included in it’s introduction a bitter denunciation of Daniel O’Connell and the other Irish politicians. Conner was apparently not prepared to accept criticism of his long held views as to the best way forward for tenant farmers. This lead to a split between himself and that other great agrarian agitator Fintan Lalor which culminated in a dispute between them at a public meeting in Holy Cross, Co. Tipperary in 1847. Conner was described by Lalor as a mischief maker, while Lalor was in turn accused by Conner of having “rack rented his tenants”.
Within two years Lalor was dead. Conner continued to publish his well expressed views on rack renting and freedom of tenure which he referred to as “perpetuity of tenure”. His ideas were subsequently adopted by the Tenant League of 1850 and within time formed the basis of Gladstone’s legislation which gave the Irish tenant farmers the three, fixity of tenure, fair rents and freedom of sale. Conner’s later years are shrouded in mystery. I have been unable to unearth any information of when or where he died. He is not mentioned in the Irish history books. William Conner is the forgotten agitator who born to wealth spent his life fighting for the cause of Irish tenant farmers.
Almost 50 years separate the Inch resident William Conner from another agrarian agitator, Benjamin Pelin of Ballindrum, Athy. Pelin who was born of farming stock was 40 years of age when on Sunday, 19th June 1892 he called a meeting for Narraghmore to address issues relating to tenant farmers and landless labourers. He later explained that the meeting was arranged at the request of a large number of local farmers and labourers concerned at the poverty of the former and the low wages, uncertain employment and bad housing of the latter. Patrick Byrne, a local man, was appointed chairman of that meeting. He described himself as a laboring man with a wife and seven children who during “the past 45 years has been working as hard as I am able. I have had to send away one of my children because employment was scarce in the neighbourhood and now at the turn of life if I happen to be laid up with sickness for three or four weeks, unless I get assistance from neighbours my little house will be broken up”. Continuing, Byrne claimed that within 100 perches of where he lived was rich fertile soil which as long as he could remember had been “a walk for sheep and bullocks, if my family had the privilege of cultivating this soil I would not have to send away my son for want of employment”.
He then called upon Benjamin Pelin to explain the purpose of the meeting. Pelin who received a warm reception from those in attendance posed the questions, “Ask a farmer with 20 acres of poor land trying to support a wife and large family and he will tell you if he got a reduction in rent and security of tenure, all would be well. Ask a large farmer and he will tell you that what the country wants is a Land Purchase Act that will enable the farmers to become owners of their farms. A labourer in Narraghmore will tell you that a cottage and a whole acre is what the poor man wants.” In a lengthy speech Pelin made a case for founding “The Knights of the Plough Union” claiming that “every additional plough set going in this parish means permanent employment for three more men, every additional man means an addition to the wages of the toiler and as the competition for labour increases the social conditions of the people must improve.”
The meeting unanimously agreed to establish the Knights of the Plough and Benjamin Pelin was appointed as its first president, M. McDonald its secretary and John Shannon as treasurer. The principal objects of the Knights as outlined at the meeting were “to gain possession of the 15 million acres of rich lands of Ireland robbed from the toilers by the landlords and graziers and given over to bullocks and sheep while the people are driven to the roadside, the city slums, the emigrant ship and the poorhouse.”
The final resolution of that first meeting of the Knights of the Plough which was passed unanimously read “that we the working farmers, labourers and artisans of Narraghmore Parish form an organisation to reduce our rents, to compel the rich lands of the parish to be cultivated, to increase the wages of labourers and provide a pension for all labourers over 65 years of age.”
The name of the organisation established at that Narraghmore meeting was obviously prompted by the American Union – The Knights of Labour. Founded in 1869 the Knights of Labour was initially a secret organisation and one of the earliest American labour groups which in the 1880’s was successful in expanding its operations to become a nationwide union with membership open to all workers. Under the slogan “an injury to one is the concern of all”, the Knights of Labour unionized labourers and skilled workers and after much success in having labour legislation passed into law, sought a reduction in working hours to eight hours a day. Agitation for the eight hour day included strikes in Chicago in 1886 which lead to serious conflict between strikers and police, resulting in the death or injury of six strikers. A strikers meeting called to protest against police brutality ended when a bomb was thrown into the ranks of policemen, killing seven and injuring many more. That awful incident contributed to the delay for a generation of the adoption of the eight hour day and to the subsequent demise of the Knights of Labour which within a few more years was virtually non existent.
However, when Benjamin Pelin called a meeting for Narraghmore in June 1892 the Knights of Labour were still active in organizing American labour and undoubtedly Pelin’s choice of name, “Knights of the Plough” was influenced by the American Union.
[.....TO BE CONTINUED…..]
I would be interested in hearing from anyone who may have information on the final years of Benjamin Pelin’s life.
William Conner lived at Inch just outside Athy. He was a cousin of Fergus O’Connor, the Chartist and it’s not surprising that despite being a wealthy individual he devoted the best part of his life and a considerable amount of his personal fortune in furthering the cause of Irish tenant farmers.
He first came to public notice when he published a pamphlet in 1822 on agrarian disturbances in County Cork. Ten years later he delivered a speech on Rack Rents which he later published in pamphlet form under the title the “Speech of William Conner Esquire against Rack Rents, etc.”. In 1840 another Conner pamphlet was published which he called “The Axe Laid at the Root of Irish Oppression” in which he expressed similar views as those outlined in the earlier publication. Two years later at a public meeting in Mountmellick, Conner attacked Irish landlordism and subsequently found himself facing charges at the Maryborough sessions. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment which he served in the local jail.
In 1843 the Devon Commission was set up to examine the state of the law and procedures relating to land occupation in Ireland. Conner published another pamphlet, “A letter to the Right Hon. the Earl of Devon on the Rack Rent Systems” in which he set out his now well established views. The Commission reported two years later but its principal recommendation that outgoing tenants be compensated for improvements was not passed into law. Around the same time Conner was expelled from Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal Association for advocating a strike of tenant farmers and the withholding of rents until rents were adjusted downwards. Undeterred William Conner published two letters addressed to the Times newspaper on the subject of Rack Rent, but included in it’s introduction a bitter denunciation of Daniel O’Connell and the other Irish politicians. Conner was apparently not prepared to accept criticism of his long held views as to the best way forward for tenant farmers. This lead to a split between himself and that other great agrarian agitator Fintan Lalor which culminated in a dispute between them at a public meeting in Holy Cross, Co. Tipperary in 1847. Conner was described by Lalor as a mischief maker, while Lalor was in turn accused by Conner of having “rack rented his tenants”.
Within two years Lalor was dead. Conner continued to publish his well expressed views on rack renting and freedom of tenure which he referred to as “perpetuity of tenure”. His ideas were subsequently adopted by the Tenant League of 1850 and within time formed the basis of Gladstone’s legislation which gave the Irish tenant farmers the three, fixity of tenure, fair rents and freedom of sale. Conner’s later years are shrouded in mystery. I have been unable to unearth any information of when or where he died. He is not mentioned in the Irish history books. William Conner is the forgotten agitator who born to wealth spent his life fighting for the cause of Irish tenant farmers.
Almost 50 years separate the Inch resident William Conner from another agrarian agitator, Benjamin Pelin of Ballindrum, Athy. Pelin who was born of farming stock was 40 years of age when on Sunday, 19th June 1892 he called a meeting for Narraghmore to address issues relating to tenant farmers and landless labourers. He later explained that the meeting was arranged at the request of a large number of local farmers and labourers concerned at the poverty of the former and the low wages, uncertain employment and bad housing of the latter. Patrick Byrne, a local man, was appointed chairman of that meeting. He described himself as a laboring man with a wife and seven children who during “the past 45 years has been working as hard as I am able. I have had to send away one of my children because employment was scarce in the neighbourhood and now at the turn of life if I happen to be laid up with sickness for three or four weeks, unless I get assistance from neighbours my little house will be broken up”. Continuing, Byrne claimed that within 100 perches of where he lived was rich fertile soil which as long as he could remember had been “a walk for sheep and bullocks, if my family had the privilege of cultivating this soil I would not have to send away my son for want of employment”.
He then called upon Benjamin Pelin to explain the purpose of the meeting. Pelin who received a warm reception from those in attendance posed the questions, “Ask a farmer with 20 acres of poor land trying to support a wife and large family and he will tell you if he got a reduction in rent and security of tenure, all would be well. Ask a large farmer and he will tell you that what the country wants is a Land Purchase Act that will enable the farmers to become owners of their farms. A labourer in Narraghmore will tell you that a cottage and a whole acre is what the poor man wants.” In a lengthy speech Pelin made a case for founding “The Knights of the Plough Union” claiming that “every additional plough set going in this parish means permanent employment for three more men, every additional man means an addition to the wages of the toiler and as the competition for labour increases the social conditions of the people must improve.”
The meeting unanimously agreed to establish the Knights of the Plough and Benjamin Pelin was appointed as its first president, M. McDonald its secretary and John Shannon as treasurer. The principal objects of the Knights as outlined at the meeting were “to gain possession of the 15 million acres of rich lands of Ireland robbed from the toilers by the landlords and graziers and given over to bullocks and sheep while the people are driven to the roadside, the city slums, the emigrant ship and the poorhouse.”
The final resolution of that first meeting of the Knights of the Plough which was passed unanimously read “that we the working farmers, labourers and artisans of Narraghmore Parish form an organisation to reduce our rents, to compel the rich lands of the parish to be cultivated, to increase the wages of labourers and provide a pension for all labourers over 65 years of age.”
The name of the organisation established at that Narraghmore meeting was obviously prompted by the American Union – The Knights of Labour. Founded in 1869 the Knights of Labour was initially a secret organisation and one of the earliest American labour groups which in the 1880’s was successful in expanding its operations to become a nationwide union with membership open to all workers. Under the slogan “an injury to one is the concern of all”, the Knights of Labour unionized labourers and skilled workers and after much success in having labour legislation passed into law, sought a reduction in working hours to eight hours a day. Agitation for the eight hour day included strikes in Chicago in 1886 which lead to serious conflict between strikers and police, resulting in the death or injury of six strikers. A strikers meeting called to protest against police brutality ended when a bomb was thrown into the ranks of policemen, killing seven and injuring many more. That awful incident contributed to the delay for a generation of the adoption of the eight hour day and to the subsequent demise of the Knights of Labour which within a few more years was virtually non existent.
However, when Benjamin Pelin called a meeting for Narraghmore in June 1892 the Knights of Labour were still active in organizing American labour and undoubtedly Pelin’s choice of name, “Knights of the Plough” was influenced by the American Union.
[.....TO BE CONTINUED…..]
I would be interested in hearing from anyone who may have information on the final years of Benjamin Pelin’s life.
Eye on the Past 751
Two photographs this week of Athy scenes no longer to be seen. The first is an interior shot of St. Dominic’s Church which was demolished and replaced by the present Church. Fr. Lawrence Cremmin, Prior of the Dominicans in Athy, bought Riversdale House from Ann Lapham in 1846. Riversdale had been built for George Manseargh about 65 years previously and was approached from Duke Street through Tanners Lane. Another four years were to pass before the Dominicans moved from their residence at the Dublin Road end of Athy. The small cruciform shaped Church was adopted from existing outhouses and those of you old enough to remember the Church which stood on the site will recall the narrowness of its nave and transepts. There were two galleries, one above the southern end of the nave, and the other above the western transept and close to the bell tower. The photograph shows the main altar of St. Dominic’s Church but as the church was so narrow the two side altars are also clearly shown. It was on the main altar that Fr. John O’Sullivan died while saying Mass in 1932. He was remembered for many decades following his death but his name has now passed from memory as the older generation of Athy people have passed on.
The second photograph was taken from the roof of White’s Castle in the mid to late 1960’s and shows Mill House, a three bay two storey over basement house which was demolished to make way for the Allied Irish Bank. The house, I believe, was built in the first half of the 19th century and was the home of the Hannons who were owners of the Mill which was on the far side of Duke Street just below Crom a Boo Bridge. The Mill closed down in 1924 or thereabouts and when this photo was taken the house was owned, as it had been for several years before, by local veterinary surgeon, Michael Byrne.
The house, a fine example of Victorian architecture, was replaced by the present bank building which regretfully has little to recommend it.
The second photograph was taken from the roof of White’s Castle in the mid to late 1960’s and shows Mill House, a three bay two storey over basement house which was demolished to make way for the Allied Irish Bank. The house, I believe, was built in the first half of the 19th century and was the home of the Hannons who were owners of the Mill which was on the far side of Duke Street just below Crom a Boo Bridge. The Mill closed down in 1924 or thereabouts and when this photo was taken the house was owned, as it had been for several years before, by local veterinary surgeon, Michael Byrne.
The house, a fine example of Victorian architecture, was replaced by the present bank building which regretfully has little to recommend it.
Eye on the Past 752
An entry in the annals of the Sisters of Mercy Convent for 1935 reads: “During the year the creation of a row of cottages facing the Convent on the borders of the Clonmullin Road and just beyond the enclosure wall of St. Raphael’s field was begun”. A somewhat censorious tone was noted in the final entry relating to what was to be called the “Convent View houses”. “This was the work of the Urban Council. We had no voice in the matter.” In May 1936 Mother Mary Gonzaga was elected Superior of Athy Convent and with so many postulants joining the local Convent it was found necessary to enlarge the novitiate.
The following September Mary Breen and Winifred Meagher entered the Convent of Mercy. Less than three weeks later Catherine O’Hara also joined the Sisters of Mercy in Athy. All three would spend the rest of their lives in Athy as part of the once growing but now dwindling community of nuns who made up the Athy Convent of Mercy. Mary Breen took the name Sr. Enda, while Catherine O’Hara would in religion be known as Sr. Philomena.
Winifred, or Una Meagher as she was sometimes called, came from the County Tipperary village of Doon and after her first year in the Convent she received the Holy Habit, taking the name Sr. Mary Oliver in a ceremony shared with her colleagues Mary Breen and Catherine O’Hara. Around the same time in far away Australia the foundation stone of a new Church was being laid in Parramatta, New South Wales by the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Kelly. The Church was to be dedicated in memory of Mother Mary Clare Dunphy, a Sister of Mercy who had entered the Athy Convent as a young postulant in 1873 where she received the Holy Habit before transferring to the Callan Convent. The Convent of Mercy in Callan opened when following an invitation from Dr. Moran, Bishop of Ossory, six nuns transferred from the Athy Convent on the 8th of December 1872. When Bishop Moran later went to Sydney as a Cardinal of the Church he requested the Sisters of Mercy in Callan to open a convent in his Australian diocese. Sr. Clare Dunphy and her colleagues travelled to Australia where the one time postulant who had entered the Sisters of Mercy at the Athy Convent died in 1927.
In January 1939 Sheila Meagher, who would later be professed with the name Sr. Alphonsus, entered the Athy Convent where she joined her sister Winifred. Three years later on 18th April 1942 Sr. Enda, Sr. Philomena and Sr. Oliver made their final profession. All three would have a joint celebration of their Silver Jubilee on 18th April 1964. I was puzzled as to why the Silver Jubilee was celebrated 22 years after their final profession, but it seems the Jubilee in question referred to the taking of their Triennial Vows in 1939. The final profession occurred three years after the taking of those vows.
Sr. Oliver and Sr. Enda taught for over 40 years in St. Michael’s primary school. Indeed the former Winifred Meagher was for several years principal of the school, from which position she retired on 30th June 1982. Sr. Enda retired from the school staff on 31st February 1983. Sr. Oliver was a member of the first Board of Management appointed for the girls primary school in 1975. Incidentally it is interesting to note that when Sr. Oliver retired as principal of St. Michael’s Primary School she was replaced by her own sister, the former Sheila Meagher, known in religious life as Sr. Alphonsus. Following her retirement Sr. Oliver visited the Holy Land in 1983 accompanied by Sr. Carmel, having made an earlier pilgrimage to Rome in October 1975.
In March 1984 Sr. Oliver was appointed Sister in Charge of St. Vincent’s Hospital where she remained for five years. In 1989 Sr. Oliver, together with the two other Jubilarians, Sr. Enda and Sr. Philomena, all of whom had entered the convent fifty three years earlier were planning to celebrate their Golden Jubilee. Sadly, however, Sr. Philomena died in the local St. Vincent’s Hospital on 21st March of that year. Sr. Philomena had trained as a nurse in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, while her two colleagues, Sr. Oliver and Sr. Enda had trained as primary teachers. The remaining two Jubilarians, Sr. Enda and Sr. Oliver, celebrated their 50 years as Sisters of Mercy in April and the following month Sr. Oliver had a family celebration in the Convent of Mercy. Her extended family came from Doon in Co. Tipperary and on 26th May she was joined by nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, as well as her two sisters and her brother, all of whom were in religious life. Sr. Alphonsus had sometime previously transferred to Arklow as Superior of the local Sisters of Mercy Convent, while Sr. Antonio travelled from Florida, U.S.A. to join her sisters, Sr. Oliver and Sr. Alphonsus in the Jubilee celebrations. With them was their brother, Fr. Roger Meagher who was a Parish Priest in Derby, England. Fr. Roger concelebrated Mass in the Convent chapel and following lunch all the guests and the Sisters of Mercy adjourned to St. Michael’s school hall where the extended Meagher family of different generations put on an entertainment.
Sr. Enda passed away in 1998 aged 81 years. Sr. Oliver celebrated her 90th birthday last week amongst her friends and colleagues at the Mercy house in Church Crescent. She has spent 71 years in the Convent of Mercy, initially as a postulant and then as a Sister of Mercy, teaching for more than 40 years in St. Michael’s Primary School. It was while a teacher and a mentor to the hundreds of young girls who passed through St. Michael’s in her time, that she gave witness to the mission directives of the followers of Catherine McAuley who commit themselves:-
“To promoting the dignity of women
enabling the oppressed to become
agents of their own liberation
to the upbuilding of the family
conscious of its many and diverse forms
and to promoting the well being of children
to being radically and unequivocally
on the side of those who are poor and marginalized.”
The Sisters of Mercy came to Athy in 1852. I have identified 144 nuns who were members of the Convent of Mercy in Athy in the intervening 155 years. There are, I believe, 19 Sisters of Mercy still with us in Athy. No longer based in their magnificent convent building which was partly built with funds collected in Athy in the years immediately following the Great Famine, the nuns now live at four different locations around the town.
Sr. Oliver, at 90 years of age, is not the oldest member of the local Mercy Sisters. That honour goes to Sr. Carmel Fallon who continues to be involved in the Wheelchair Association at both National and local level. All of the remaining nuns, like their predecessors, have made an enormous contribution to education and nursing in this town. Their legacy is to be seen in the first class schools for girls which we have here in Athy and in the good work which continues to be provided in St. Vincent's Hospital where the Sisters of Mercy served for over 130 years.
Congratulations to Sr. Oliver on her 90th birthday and with it goes our thanks to her and her colleagues in the Sisters of Mercy for the sterling work they undertook in Athy after the founding of the local Convent in 1852.
The following September Mary Breen and Winifred Meagher entered the Convent of Mercy. Less than three weeks later Catherine O’Hara also joined the Sisters of Mercy in Athy. All three would spend the rest of their lives in Athy as part of the once growing but now dwindling community of nuns who made up the Athy Convent of Mercy. Mary Breen took the name Sr. Enda, while Catherine O’Hara would in religion be known as Sr. Philomena.
Winifred, or Una Meagher as she was sometimes called, came from the County Tipperary village of Doon and after her first year in the Convent she received the Holy Habit, taking the name Sr. Mary Oliver in a ceremony shared with her colleagues Mary Breen and Catherine O’Hara. Around the same time in far away Australia the foundation stone of a new Church was being laid in Parramatta, New South Wales by the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Kelly. The Church was to be dedicated in memory of Mother Mary Clare Dunphy, a Sister of Mercy who had entered the Athy Convent as a young postulant in 1873 where she received the Holy Habit before transferring to the Callan Convent. The Convent of Mercy in Callan opened when following an invitation from Dr. Moran, Bishop of Ossory, six nuns transferred from the Athy Convent on the 8th of December 1872. When Bishop Moran later went to Sydney as a Cardinal of the Church he requested the Sisters of Mercy in Callan to open a convent in his Australian diocese. Sr. Clare Dunphy and her colleagues travelled to Australia where the one time postulant who had entered the Sisters of Mercy at the Athy Convent died in 1927.
In January 1939 Sheila Meagher, who would later be professed with the name Sr. Alphonsus, entered the Athy Convent where she joined her sister Winifred. Three years later on 18th April 1942 Sr. Enda, Sr. Philomena and Sr. Oliver made their final profession. All three would have a joint celebration of their Silver Jubilee on 18th April 1964. I was puzzled as to why the Silver Jubilee was celebrated 22 years after their final profession, but it seems the Jubilee in question referred to the taking of their Triennial Vows in 1939. The final profession occurred three years after the taking of those vows.
Sr. Oliver and Sr. Enda taught for over 40 years in St. Michael’s primary school. Indeed the former Winifred Meagher was for several years principal of the school, from which position she retired on 30th June 1982. Sr. Enda retired from the school staff on 31st February 1983. Sr. Oliver was a member of the first Board of Management appointed for the girls primary school in 1975. Incidentally it is interesting to note that when Sr. Oliver retired as principal of St. Michael’s Primary School she was replaced by her own sister, the former Sheila Meagher, known in religious life as Sr. Alphonsus. Following her retirement Sr. Oliver visited the Holy Land in 1983 accompanied by Sr. Carmel, having made an earlier pilgrimage to Rome in October 1975.
In March 1984 Sr. Oliver was appointed Sister in Charge of St. Vincent’s Hospital where she remained for five years. In 1989 Sr. Oliver, together with the two other Jubilarians, Sr. Enda and Sr. Philomena, all of whom had entered the convent fifty three years earlier were planning to celebrate their Golden Jubilee. Sadly, however, Sr. Philomena died in the local St. Vincent’s Hospital on 21st March of that year. Sr. Philomena had trained as a nurse in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, while her two colleagues, Sr. Oliver and Sr. Enda had trained as primary teachers. The remaining two Jubilarians, Sr. Enda and Sr. Oliver, celebrated their 50 years as Sisters of Mercy in April and the following month Sr. Oliver had a family celebration in the Convent of Mercy. Her extended family came from Doon in Co. Tipperary and on 26th May she was joined by nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, as well as her two sisters and her brother, all of whom were in religious life. Sr. Alphonsus had sometime previously transferred to Arklow as Superior of the local Sisters of Mercy Convent, while Sr. Antonio travelled from Florida, U.S.A. to join her sisters, Sr. Oliver and Sr. Alphonsus in the Jubilee celebrations. With them was their brother, Fr. Roger Meagher who was a Parish Priest in Derby, England. Fr. Roger concelebrated Mass in the Convent chapel and following lunch all the guests and the Sisters of Mercy adjourned to St. Michael’s school hall where the extended Meagher family of different generations put on an entertainment.
Sr. Enda passed away in 1998 aged 81 years. Sr. Oliver celebrated her 90th birthday last week amongst her friends and colleagues at the Mercy house in Church Crescent. She has spent 71 years in the Convent of Mercy, initially as a postulant and then as a Sister of Mercy, teaching for more than 40 years in St. Michael’s Primary School. It was while a teacher and a mentor to the hundreds of young girls who passed through St. Michael’s in her time, that she gave witness to the mission directives of the followers of Catherine McAuley who commit themselves:-
“To promoting the dignity of women
enabling the oppressed to become
agents of their own liberation
to the upbuilding of the family
conscious of its many and diverse forms
and to promoting the well being of children
to being radically and unequivocally
on the side of those who are poor and marginalized.”
The Sisters of Mercy came to Athy in 1852. I have identified 144 nuns who were members of the Convent of Mercy in Athy in the intervening 155 years. There are, I believe, 19 Sisters of Mercy still with us in Athy. No longer based in their magnificent convent building which was partly built with funds collected in Athy in the years immediately following the Great Famine, the nuns now live at four different locations around the town.
Sr. Oliver, at 90 years of age, is not the oldest member of the local Mercy Sisters. That honour goes to Sr. Carmel Fallon who continues to be involved in the Wheelchair Association at both National and local level. All of the remaining nuns, like their predecessors, have made an enormous contribution to education and nursing in this town. Their legacy is to be seen in the first class schools for girls which we have here in Athy and in the good work which continues to be provided in St. Vincent's Hospital where the Sisters of Mercy served for over 130 years.
Congratulations to Sr. Oliver on her 90th birthday and with it goes our thanks to her and her colleagues in the Sisters of Mercy for the sterling work they undertook in Athy after the founding of the local Convent in 1852.
Eye on the Past 752
An entry in the annals of the Sisters of Mercy Convent for 1935 reads: “During the year the creation of a row of cottages facing the Convent on the borders of the Clonmullin Road and just beyond the enclosure wall of St. Raphael’s field was begun”. A somewhat censorious tone was noted in the final entry relating to what was to be called the “Convent View houses”. “This was the work of the Urban Council. We had no voice in the matter.” In May 1936 Mother Mary Gonzaga was elected Superior of Athy Convent and with so many postulants joining the local Convent it was found necessary to enlarge the novitiate.
The following September Mary Breen and Winifred Meagher entered the Convent of Mercy. Less than three weeks later Catherine O’Hara also joined the Sisters of Mercy in Athy. All three would spend the rest of their lives in Athy as part of the once growing but now dwindling community of nuns who made up the Athy Convent of Mercy. Mary Breen took the name Sr. Enda, while Catherine O’Hara would in religion be known as Sr. Philomena.
Winifred, or Una Meagher as she was sometimes called, came from the County Tipperary village of Doon and after her first year in the Convent she received the Holy Habit, taking the name Sr. Mary Oliver in a ceremony shared with her colleagues Mary Breen and Catherine O’Hara. Around the same time in far away Australia the foundation stone of a new Church was being laid in Parramatta, New South Wales by the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Kelly. The Church was to be dedicated in memory of Mother Mary Clare Dunphy, a Sister of Mercy who had entered the Athy Convent as a young postulant in 1873 where she received the Holy Habit before transferring to the Callan Convent. The Convent of Mercy in Callan opened when following an invitation from Dr. Moran, Bishop of Ossory, six nuns transferred from the Athy Convent on the 8th of December 1872. When Bishop Moran later went to Sydney as a Cardinal of the Church he requested the Sisters of Mercy in Callan to open a convent in his Australian diocese. Sr. Clare Dunphy and her colleagues travelled to Australia where the one time postulant who had entered the Sisters of Mercy at the Athy Convent died in 1927.
In January 1939 Sheila Meagher, who would later be professed with the name Sr. Alphonsus, entered the Athy Convent where she joined her sister Winifred. Three years later on 18th April 1942 Sr. Enda, Sr. Philomena and Sr. Oliver made their final profession. All three would have a joint celebration of their Silver Jubilee on 18th April 1964. I was puzzled as to why the Silver Jubilee was celebrated 22 years after their final profession, but it seems the Jubilee in question referred to the taking of their Triennial Vows in 1939. The final profession occurred three years after the taking of those vows.
Sr. Oliver and Sr. Enda taught for over 40 years in St. Michael’s primary school. Indeed the former Winifred Meagher was for several years principal of the school, from which position she retired on 30th June 1982. Sr. Enda retired from the school staff on 31st February 1983. Sr. Oliver was a member of the first Board of Management appointed for the girls primary school in 1975. Incidentally it is interesting to note that when Sr. Oliver retired as principal of St. Michael’s Primary School she was replaced by her own sister, the former Sheila Meagher, known in religious life as Sr. Alphonsus. Following her retirement Sr. Oliver visited the Holy Land in 1983 accompanied by Sr. Carmel, having made an earlier pilgrimage to Rome in October 1975.
In March 1984 Sr. Oliver was appointed Sister in Charge of St. Vincent’s Hospital where she remained for five years. In 1989 Sr. Oliver, together with the two other Jubilarians, Sr. Enda and Sr. Philomena, all of whom had entered the convent fifty three years earlier were planning to celebrate their Golden Jubilee. Sadly, however, Sr. Philomena died in the local St. Vincent’s Hospital on 21st March of that year. Sr. Philomena had trained as a nurse in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, while her two colleagues, Sr. Oliver and Sr. Enda had trained as primary teachers. The remaining two Jubilarians, Sr. Enda and Sr. Oliver, celebrated their 50 years as Sisters of Mercy in April and the following month Sr. Oliver had a family celebration in the Convent of Mercy. Her extended family came from Doon in Co. Tipperary and on 26th May she was joined by nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, as well as her two sisters and her brother, all of whom were in religious life. Sr. Alphonsus had sometime previously transferred to Arklow as Superior of the local Sisters of Mercy Convent, while Sr. Antonio travelled from Florida, U.S.A. to join her sisters, Sr. Oliver and Sr. Alphonsus in the Jubilee celebrations. With them was their brother, Fr. Roger Meagher who was a Parish Priest in Derby, England. Fr. Roger concelebrated Mass in the Convent chapel and following lunch all the guests and the Sisters of Mercy adjourned to St. Michael’s school hall where the extended Meagher family of different generations put on an entertainment.
Sr. Enda passed away in 1998 aged 81 years. Sr. Oliver celebrated her 90th birthday last week amongst her friends and colleagues at the Mercy house in Church Crescent. She has spent 71 years in the Convent of Mercy, initially as a postulant and then as a Sister of Mercy, teaching for more than 40 years in St. Michael’s Primary School. It was while a teacher and a mentor to the hundreds of young girls who passed through St. Michael’s in her time, that she gave witness to the mission directives of the followers of Catherine McAuley who commit themselves:-
“To promoting the dignity of women
enabling the oppressed to become
agents of their own liberation
to the upbuilding of the family
conscious of its many and diverse forms
and to promoting the well being of children
to being radically and unequivocally
on the side of those who are poor and marginalized.”
The Sisters of Mercy came to Athy in 1852. I have identified 144 nuns who were members of the Convent of Mercy in Athy in the intervening 155 years. There are, I believe, 19 Sisters of Mercy still with us in Athy. No longer based in their magnificent convent building which was partly built with funds collected in Athy in the years immediately following the Great Famine, the nuns now live at four different locations around the town.
Sr. Oliver, at 90 years of age, is not the oldest member of the local Mercy Sisters. That honour goes to Sr. Carmel Fallon who continues to be involved in the Wheelchair Association at both National and local level. All of the remaining nuns, like their predecessors, have made an enormous contribution to education and nursing in this town. Their legacy is to be seen in the first class schools for girls which we have here in Athy and in the good work which continues to be provided in St. Vincent's Hospital where the Sisters of Mercy served for over 130 years.
Congratulations to Sr. Oliver on her 90th birthday and with it goes our thanks to her and her colleagues in the Sisters of Mercy for the sterling work they undertook in Athy after the founding of the local Convent in 1852.
The following September Mary Breen and Winifred Meagher entered the Convent of Mercy. Less than three weeks later Catherine O’Hara also joined the Sisters of Mercy in Athy. All three would spend the rest of their lives in Athy as part of the once growing but now dwindling community of nuns who made up the Athy Convent of Mercy. Mary Breen took the name Sr. Enda, while Catherine O’Hara would in religion be known as Sr. Philomena.
Winifred, or Una Meagher as she was sometimes called, came from the County Tipperary village of Doon and after her first year in the Convent she received the Holy Habit, taking the name Sr. Mary Oliver in a ceremony shared with her colleagues Mary Breen and Catherine O’Hara. Around the same time in far away Australia the foundation stone of a new Church was being laid in Parramatta, New South Wales by the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Kelly. The Church was to be dedicated in memory of Mother Mary Clare Dunphy, a Sister of Mercy who had entered the Athy Convent as a young postulant in 1873 where she received the Holy Habit before transferring to the Callan Convent. The Convent of Mercy in Callan opened when following an invitation from Dr. Moran, Bishop of Ossory, six nuns transferred from the Athy Convent on the 8th of December 1872. When Bishop Moran later went to Sydney as a Cardinal of the Church he requested the Sisters of Mercy in Callan to open a convent in his Australian diocese. Sr. Clare Dunphy and her colleagues travelled to Australia where the one time postulant who had entered the Sisters of Mercy at the Athy Convent died in 1927.
In January 1939 Sheila Meagher, who would later be professed with the name Sr. Alphonsus, entered the Athy Convent where she joined her sister Winifred. Three years later on 18th April 1942 Sr. Enda, Sr. Philomena and Sr. Oliver made their final profession. All three would have a joint celebration of their Silver Jubilee on 18th April 1964. I was puzzled as to why the Silver Jubilee was celebrated 22 years after their final profession, but it seems the Jubilee in question referred to the taking of their Triennial Vows in 1939. The final profession occurred three years after the taking of those vows.
Sr. Oliver and Sr. Enda taught for over 40 years in St. Michael’s primary school. Indeed the former Winifred Meagher was for several years principal of the school, from which position she retired on 30th June 1982. Sr. Enda retired from the school staff on 31st February 1983. Sr. Oliver was a member of the first Board of Management appointed for the girls primary school in 1975. Incidentally it is interesting to note that when Sr. Oliver retired as principal of St. Michael’s Primary School she was replaced by her own sister, the former Sheila Meagher, known in religious life as Sr. Alphonsus. Following her retirement Sr. Oliver visited the Holy Land in 1983 accompanied by Sr. Carmel, having made an earlier pilgrimage to Rome in October 1975.
In March 1984 Sr. Oliver was appointed Sister in Charge of St. Vincent’s Hospital where she remained for five years. In 1989 Sr. Oliver, together with the two other Jubilarians, Sr. Enda and Sr. Philomena, all of whom had entered the convent fifty three years earlier were planning to celebrate their Golden Jubilee. Sadly, however, Sr. Philomena died in the local St. Vincent’s Hospital on 21st March of that year. Sr. Philomena had trained as a nurse in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, while her two colleagues, Sr. Oliver and Sr. Enda had trained as primary teachers. The remaining two Jubilarians, Sr. Enda and Sr. Oliver, celebrated their 50 years as Sisters of Mercy in April and the following month Sr. Oliver had a family celebration in the Convent of Mercy. Her extended family came from Doon in Co. Tipperary and on 26th May she was joined by nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, as well as her two sisters and her brother, all of whom were in religious life. Sr. Alphonsus had sometime previously transferred to Arklow as Superior of the local Sisters of Mercy Convent, while Sr. Antonio travelled from Florida, U.S.A. to join her sisters, Sr. Oliver and Sr. Alphonsus in the Jubilee celebrations. With them was their brother, Fr. Roger Meagher who was a Parish Priest in Derby, England. Fr. Roger concelebrated Mass in the Convent chapel and following lunch all the guests and the Sisters of Mercy adjourned to St. Michael’s school hall where the extended Meagher family of different generations put on an entertainment.
Sr. Enda passed away in 1998 aged 81 years. Sr. Oliver celebrated her 90th birthday last week amongst her friends and colleagues at the Mercy house in Church Crescent. She has spent 71 years in the Convent of Mercy, initially as a postulant and then as a Sister of Mercy, teaching for more than 40 years in St. Michael’s Primary School. It was while a teacher and a mentor to the hundreds of young girls who passed through St. Michael’s in her time, that she gave witness to the mission directives of the followers of Catherine McAuley who commit themselves:-
“To promoting the dignity of women
enabling the oppressed to become
agents of their own liberation
to the upbuilding of the family
conscious of its many and diverse forms
and to promoting the well being of children
to being radically and unequivocally
on the side of those who are poor and marginalized.”
The Sisters of Mercy came to Athy in 1852. I have identified 144 nuns who were members of the Convent of Mercy in Athy in the intervening 155 years. There are, I believe, 19 Sisters of Mercy still with us in Athy. No longer based in their magnificent convent building which was partly built with funds collected in Athy in the years immediately following the Great Famine, the nuns now live at four different locations around the town.
Sr. Oliver, at 90 years of age, is not the oldest member of the local Mercy Sisters. That honour goes to Sr. Carmel Fallon who continues to be involved in the Wheelchair Association at both National and local level. All of the remaining nuns, like their predecessors, have made an enormous contribution to education and nursing in this town. Their legacy is to be seen in the first class schools for girls which we have here in Athy and in the good work which continues to be provided in St. Vincent's Hospital where the Sisters of Mercy served for over 130 years.
Congratulations to Sr. Oliver on her 90th birthday and with it goes our thanks to her and her colleagues in the Sisters of Mercy for the sterling work they undertook in Athy after the founding of the local Convent in 1852.
Eye on the Past 753
Last week Des Murphy formerly of St. Michael's Terrace died in his county Meath home. His remains were brought back to his home town for burial in St. Michael's cemetery to rest along side his parents Joseph and May Murphy. A few weeks earlier the former Bernadette Cross who like Des was born in Athy passed away in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Her ashes remain in Scarborough.
The Murphys and the Cross's are two families remembered by the older generation of the Athy people. Jack Murphy was a skilled mason who left a reminder of his work in the beautiful stone entrance gateway to St. Dominic's friary. The former Technical school on the Carlow road is another local building on which he worked in his time. His son Des was a member of the Garda Siochana as was his other son Sean who retired a few years ago. As the funeral cortege arrived outside St Michael's cemetery on a beautiful sunny day last week it was met by a generous gathering of Athy men and women whose memories of times past go back quite a few decades. For Des Murphy left Athy in the late 1950's but even after the elapse of 50 years or so memories of young days were stirred by the announcement of his death. The Murphy family formerly of St. Michael's Terrace were represented by Des's siblings Una and Sean and decade old acquaintances and youthful friendships were renewed when school pals were reunited at the graveside.
The news of Bernadette Cross's death reached me some weeks after it had taken place. We had corresponded for a while eight or nine years ago after she first wrote to me from her home which she called “Athy” at Seaview Gardens in Scarborough. She was the youngest daughter of “Watty”Cross of Duke Street, a Dublin born master plumber who came to Athy in 1925. He had married an Athy girl Christina Littleton who had been working in Dublin. After the birth of their first two daughters the Cross family came to Athy where they lived in a house near the old Comrades Hall in St. Johns Lane. Walter Scott Cross known to all as “Watty” Cross had served in the Dublin Fusiliers in World War I. His daughter Bernadette who first wrote to me in 1998 recalled her father singing the balled “The Dublin Boys” the opening lines of which were:
“We are the Dublin Boys
We are the Dublin Boys
We knew our manners
We earn our tanners
We are respected wherever we go”
Hannons Mills at Ardreigh and Crom a Boo Bridge closed down around the same time the Cross family came to Athy and in time “Watty” Cross bought the small office building towards the front of the mill in the town centre. He opened a sweet shop and an ice cream parlour making his own ice cream with cream bought each day from Mahers of Sawyers Wood. His daughters Maureen, Vera and Bernadette worked at different times in the ice cream parlour. About 1938 “Watty” bought 23 Duke Street where the following year he opened a hardware and plumbing business. His eldest daughter Maureen worked in the hardware shop for a while but World War restrictions on hardware supplies caused her to relocate to the ice cream parlour where she worked for the duration of the war. Cross's Ice Cream was very popular. I am afraid my memory does not go back far enough to recall what must have been a very welcome treat in war time but I am assured by many who remember Cross's ice cream parlour that the ice cream was superb.
Bernadette Cross went to England to train as a midwife in Paddington General Hospital. She later emigrated to Australia where she remained for seven years before returning to England. Her sisters Vera and Maureen would also emigrate to England. Maureen emigrated in 1945 and in 1949 married Athy man Fintan Stafford who passed away in 1999. Vera married Eugene Gormley who worked as a butcher in Athy. When Eugene went to England Vera continued to work for a while in the Duke Street ice cream parlour before joining her husband.
“Watty” Cross sold the former ice cream parlour premises to Tom McStay in or about 1951 and Tom opened a butchers shop from where his son David today operates a fast food outlet. “Watty Cross” died aged seventy nine years of age in February 1968 and is buried in new St. Michaels cemetery. Number 23 Duke Street was sold to John Dunne when “Watty's” widow Christina went to Birmingham to live with her eldest daughter Maureen. Christina died in 1971 aged eighty one years and her remains were returned to Athy for burial with her late husband.
There are no members of the Cross or Murphy family living today in Athy. The links fashioned in decades before and after the Second World War have long been broken but nevertheless the town in which Bernadette Cross and Des Murphy went to school and spent their youthful days was never quite forgotten. In the North Yorkshire town of Scarborough Bernadette called her home after her native town of Athy. Des who lived never too far from the town in which he was born and reared made the final journey back to his roots and joined his parents in the family plot in Old St. Michaels. Athy is for many living in Ireland as well as abroad “the home where the heart lies” For the new families arriving amongst us it may in time become the same.
The local Chamber of Commerce held an information meeting in the Clanard Court Hotel last week to announce details of the various water/canal events planned for 2007 which has been designated “The Year Of The Barrow”. Amongst those was the “Tri Athy” event a triathlon race where the competitors compete in swimming, cycling and running over the Olympic distance. This promises to be one of the most important sporting events ever to be held in Athy and already has attracted over 400 competitors. Hundreds if not thousands of spectators can be expected to come to Athy for the 2nd of June when the river Barrow will be the starting point for the men and women competing in this most difficult of sporting disciplines. I will return to this again but the date should be noted as one of the great highlights in the sporting and social calender of events planned for Athy this year.
The Murphys and the Cross's are two families remembered by the older generation of the Athy people. Jack Murphy was a skilled mason who left a reminder of his work in the beautiful stone entrance gateway to St. Dominic's friary. The former Technical school on the Carlow road is another local building on which he worked in his time. His son Des was a member of the Garda Siochana as was his other son Sean who retired a few years ago. As the funeral cortege arrived outside St Michael's cemetery on a beautiful sunny day last week it was met by a generous gathering of Athy men and women whose memories of times past go back quite a few decades. For Des Murphy left Athy in the late 1950's but even after the elapse of 50 years or so memories of young days were stirred by the announcement of his death. The Murphy family formerly of St. Michael's Terrace were represented by Des's siblings Una and Sean and decade old acquaintances and youthful friendships were renewed when school pals were reunited at the graveside.
The news of Bernadette Cross's death reached me some weeks after it had taken place. We had corresponded for a while eight or nine years ago after she first wrote to me from her home which she called “Athy” at Seaview Gardens in Scarborough. She was the youngest daughter of “Watty”Cross of Duke Street, a Dublin born master plumber who came to Athy in 1925. He had married an Athy girl Christina Littleton who had been working in Dublin. After the birth of their first two daughters the Cross family came to Athy where they lived in a house near the old Comrades Hall in St. Johns Lane. Walter Scott Cross known to all as “Watty” Cross had served in the Dublin Fusiliers in World War I. His daughter Bernadette who first wrote to me in 1998 recalled her father singing the balled “The Dublin Boys” the opening lines of which were:
“We are the Dublin Boys
We are the Dublin Boys
We knew our manners
We earn our tanners
We are respected wherever we go”
Hannons Mills at Ardreigh and Crom a Boo Bridge closed down around the same time the Cross family came to Athy and in time “Watty” Cross bought the small office building towards the front of the mill in the town centre. He opened a sweet shop and an ice cream parlour making his own ice cream with cream bought each day from Mahers of Sawyers Wood. His daughters Maureen, Vera and Bernadette worked at different times in the ice cream parlour. About 1938 “Watty” bought 23 Duke Street where the following year he opened a hardware and plumbing business. His eldest daughter Maureen worked in the hardware shop for a while but World War restrictions on hardware supplies caused her to relocate to the ice cream parlour where she worked for the duration of the war. Cross's Ice Cream was very popular. I am afraid my memory does not go back far enough to recall what must have been a very welcome treat in war time but I am assured by many who remember Cross's ice cream parlour that the ice cream was superb.
Bernadette Cross went to England to train as a midwife in Paddington General Hospital. She later emigrated to Australia where she remained for seven years before returning to England. Her sisters Vera and Maureen would also emigrate to England. Maureen emigrated in 1945 and in 1949 married Athy man Fintan Stafford who passed away in 1999. Vera married Eugene Gormley who worked as a butcher in Athy. When Eugene went to England Vera continued to work for a while in the Duke Street ice cream parlour before joining her husband.
“Watty” Cross sold the former ice cream parlour premises to Tom McStay in or about 1951 and Tom opened a butchers shop from where his son David today operates a fast food outlet. “Watty Cross” died aged seventy nine years of age in February 1968 and is buried in new St. Michaels cemetery. Number 23 Duke Street was sold to John Dunne when “Watty's” widow Christina went to Birmingham to live with her eldest daughter Maureen. Christina died in 1971 aged eighty one years and her remains were returned to Athy for burial with her late husband.
There are no members of the Cross or Murphy family living today in Athy. The links fashioned in decades before and after the Second World War have long been broken but nevertheless the town in which Bernadette Cross and Des Murphy went to school and spent their youthful days was never quite forgotten. In the North Yorkshire town of Scarborough Bernadette called her home after her native town of Athy. Des who lived never too far from the town in which he was born and reared made the final journey back to his roots and joined his parents in the family plot in Old St. Michaels. Athy is for many living in Ireland as well as abroad “the home where the heart lies” For the new families arriving amongst us it may in time become the same.
The local Chamber of Commerce held an information meeting in the Clanard Court Hotel last week to announce details of the various water/canal events planned for 2007 which has been designated “The Year Of The Barrow”. Amongst those was the “Tri Athy” event a triathlon race where the competitors compete in swimming, cycling and running over the Olympic distance. This promises to be one of the most important sporting events ever to be held in Athy and already has attracted over 400 competitors. Hundreds if not thousands of spectators can be expected to come to Athy for the 2nd of June when the river Barrow will be the starting point for the men and women competing in this most difficult of sporting disciplines. I will return to this again but the date should be noted as one of the great highlights in the sporting and social calender of events planned for Athy this year.
The late "Mossy" O'Reilly
He was at different times in his life a footballer, a balladeer, an actor, a public representative, a political activist and a guest of the nation. To the people of South Kildare George “Mossy” O’Reilly was as local as one can become. Yet he was a man apart, defined by his allegiances as were many others who took the same path at different times in Irish history.
About four years ago, conscious of Mossy’s unique talents as a balladeer, I encouraged him to put on tape the ballads which he had composed over the years. It was obviously a task he was reluctant to undertake but I persevered and gave him a tape recorder to encourage him. Time passed and as the years added up Mossy, possibly embarrassed at my persistent enquiries as to how the taping was progressing, eventually got down to the task. Just three months ago the completed tapes were given to me by Mossy. As I listened again last night to Mossy singing his own compositions I could not but smile at his spoken introduction where he claimed, “I would like to say that I have been forced at gunpoint to make this tape.”
I mentioned at the start of this piece that Mossy had once been a guest of the nation. If you are not familiar with the title of one of Frank O’Connor’s stories, it may be necessary to explain that Mossy spent time in prison for membership of the I.R.A. This was something which was well known to those who knew Mossy. Less well known however was the fact that he was imprisoned in Mountjoy for 31 days as a result of a conviction arising out of the aftermath of a football match between Athy and Castlemitchell in 1970. I had forgotten this and was only reminded of it when listening to Mossy’s tape. The first ballad he sang on tape concerned “the wrong I was done by a club called Athy”. Clearly the matter rankled with Mossy and throughout the ballad it was obvious that he felt he had been unfairly treated, both by officials of Athy G.F.C. and the courts.
“As I look back now I think once again
Of the games that we played against Grange and Rheban
Against Sarsfields and Towers how the fists they would fly
But still no one ever was sent to Mountjoy.”
Concluding the ballad Mossy named individuals he blamed for his incarceration in Mountjoy and expressed the view:
“Oh, as long as they live they’ll not look back with joy
On the day they swore lies to send me to Mountjoy.”
Perhaps the most famous and best known ballad associated with Mossy was “The Row in Athy”, the opening lines of which read:
“Oh one night in October in the streets of Athy
Sure a battle took place as I chanced to pass by
Some say that this battle started off in a pub
But sure I know it started in Athy Social Club.”
The narrative goes on for fourteen stanzas as the row progressed down Duke Street as far as Crom-a-boo Bridge where my late father features in the lines:
“So then Sergeant Taaffe leads his men up the street
And you’d swear it was Bulganin with his old Russian fleet
And they got into action with batons held high
But this mob beat them back down to Duke Street Athy.”
The year of the big row was 1957 and some, but not all of the participants ended up in the local District Court where:
“The Judge takes all in and he sits like a mute
And then passes sentence you can hear not a sound
Once he opens his mouth its six months or ten pounds.”
Perhaps one of Mossy’s earliest forays into the world of ballad making was the ballad he composed to mark Castlemitchell’s victory in the intermediate football final of 1953. Mossy was a member of that team which brought the first county championship to the Castlemitchell Club fourteen years after its foundation. Played in Newbridge on 18th October 1953 against Young Emmets the Castlemitchell team won on the score of 3-4 to 0-4. Their victory was marked by Mossy’s ballad in which he played tribute to his teammates. I’ll quote just one stanza from the 1953 victory song.
“Here’s to our three half forwards they starred on the day
Ed Conway was outstanding and a star was Paddy May
If they were in trouble they always thought to cross
To O’Reilly on the other wing who’s better known as Moss.”
Joe Bermingham was Secretary of Castlemitchell Football Club in that year, having taken over from founder member Jim Connor who had been club secretary from 1939 to 1952. Following a dispute Bermingham resigned from the club and started up a rival football team, St. Michael’s, which however was short-lived. Mossy O’Reilly took over as club secretary in 1954 and he remained in that position for the following nineteen years. As club secretary and a playing member of the club, Mossy played a vital role in the continuing success of Castlemitchell G.F.C. His footballing abilities were acknowledged by the County Board mentors when he was chosen to play for the County Kildare senior team which at different times featured his club teammates Jimmy Curtis, Peadar Dooley, Paddy Wright and Ned Conway.
Mossy was a long time member of the Republican Movement and for several years was on the run. This coincided with his time as a member of Athy Urban District Council and because he was unable to attend meetings he subsequently lost his seat on the Council. However, he was re-elected at the following local elections and fulfilled his role as a public representative for many years thereafter.
Mossy devoted his life to the cause of Irish Republicanism. In time that part of his life story may be told but for now we remember the man whose name in so many ways was synonymous with the small but vibrant community of Castlemitchell. Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam.
Colm McNulty, back in Athy for a sabbatical year, from his teaching position in Wellington New Zealand is planning to lead a World War 1 battlefield and cemetery trip to France and Flanders next August. The seven day trip will take place from 6th to 12th August and presents an opportunity for Athy folk to visit the sites associated with the men from South Kildare who were involved in the 1914-18 war. Research has shown that more than 2000 men from Athy and district enlisted to fight in the First World War and I have identified 219 men from the same area who died during that war. In war graves throughout France and Flanders are buried the remains of many of those men. However, for many more the only record of their involvement are their names carved on memorials such as the Menin Gate and Thiepval memorial which records those killed in battle but whose bodies were never found.
There will be a maximum of 45 places available on the August trip so anyone interested should contact Colm McNulty immediately at Ph. (059) 8631089 or by logging on to his website leinsterww1tours.sitesled.com. I am told bookings will be made on a first come basis so prompt booking is essential if you would like to make this trip.
About four years ago, conscious of Mossy’s unique talents as a balladeer, I encouraged him to put on tape the ballads which he had composed over the years. It was obviously a task he was reluctant to undertake but I persevered and gave him a tape recorder to encourage him. Time passed and as the years added up Mossy, possibly embarrassed at my persistent enquiries as to how the taping was progressing, eventually got down to the task. Just three months ago the completed tapes were given to me by Mossy. As I listened again last night to Mossy singing his own compositions I could not but smile at his spoken introduction where he claimed, “I would like to say that I have been forced at gunpoint to make this tape.”
I mentioned at the start of this piece that Mossy had once been a guest of the nation. If you are not familiar with the title of one of Frank O’Connor’s stories, it may be necessary to explain that Mossy spent time in prison for membership of the I.R.A. This was something which was well known to those who knew Mossy. Less well known however was the fact that he was imprisoned in Mountjoy for 31 days as a result of a conviction arising out of the aftermath of a football match between Athy and Castlemitchell in 1970. I had forgotten this and was only reminded of it when listening to Mossy’s tape. The first ballad he sang on tape concerned “the wrong I was done by a club called Athy”. Clearly the matter rankled with Mossy and throughout the ballad it was obvious that he felt he had been unfairly treated, both by officials of Athy G.F.C. and the courts.
“As I look back now I think once again
Of the games that we played against Grange and Rheban
Against Sarsfields and Towers how the fists they would fly
But still no one ever was sent to Mountjoy.”
Concluding the ballad Mossy named individuals he blamed for his incarceration in Mountjoy and expressed the view:
“Oh, as long as they live they’ll not look back with joy
On the day they swore lies to send me to Mountjoy.”
Perhaps the most famous and best known ballad associated with Mossy was “The Row in Athy”, the opening lines of which read:
“Oh one night in October in the streets of Athy
Sure a battle took place as I chanced to pass by
Some say that this battle started off in a pub
But sure I know it started in Athy Social Club.”
The narrative goes on for fourteen stanzas as the row progressed down Duke Street as far as Crom-a-boo Bridge where my late father features in the lines:
“So then Sergeant Taaffe leads his men up the street
And you’d swear it was Bulganin with his old Russian fleet
And they got into action with batons held high
But this mob beat them back down to Duke Street Athy.”
The year of the big row was 1957 and some, but not all of the participants ended up in the local District Court where:
“The Judge takes all in and he sits like a mute
And then passes sentence you can hear not a sound
Once he opens his mouth its six months or ten pounds.”
Perhaps one of Mossy’s earliest forays into the world of ballad making was the ballad he composed to mark Castlemitchell’s victory in the intermediate football final of 1953. Mossy was a member of that team which brought the first county championship to the Castlemitchell Club fourteen years after its foundation. Played in Newbridge on 18th October 1953 against Young Emmets the Castlemitchell team won on the score of 3-4 to 0-4. Their victory was marked by Mossy’s ballad in which he played tribute to his teammates. I’ll quote just one stanza from the 1953 victory song.
“Here’s to our three half forwards they starred on the day
Ed Conway was outstanding and a star was Paddy May
If they were in trouble they always thought to cross
To O’Reilly on the other wing who’s better known as Moss.”
Joe Bermingham was Secretary of Castlemitchell Football Club in that year, having taken over from founder member Jim Connor who had been club secretary from 1939 to 1952. Following a dispute Bermingham resigned from the club and started up a rival football team, St. Michael’s, which however was short-lived. Mossy O’Reilly took over as club secretary in 1954 and he remained in that position for the following nineteen years. As club secretary and a playing member of the club, Mossy played a vital role in the continuing success of Castlemitchell G.F.C. His footballing abilities were acknowledged by the County Board mentors when he was chosen to play for the County Kildare senior team which at different times featured his club teammates Jimmy Curtis, Peadar Dooley, Paddy Wright and Ned Conway.
Mossy was a long time member of the Republican Movement and for several years was on the run. This coincided with his time as a member of Athy Urban District Council and because he was unable to attend meetings he subsequently lost his seat on the Council. However, he was re-elected at the following local elections and fulfilled his role as a public representative for many years thereafter.
Mossy devoted his life to the cause of Irish Republicanism. In time that part of his life story may be told but for now we remember the man whose name in so many ways was synonymous with the small but vibrant community of Castlemitchell. Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam.
Colm McNulty, back in Athy for a sabbatical year, from his teaching position in Wellington New Zealand is planning to lead a World War 1 battlefield and cemetery trip to France and Flanders next August. The seven day trip will take place from 6th to 12th August and presents an opportunity for Athy folk to visit the sites associated with the men from South Kildare who were involved in the 1914-18 war. Research has shown that more than 2000 men from Athy and district enlisted to fight in the First World War and I have identified 219 men from the same area who died during that war. In war graves throughout France and Flanders are buried the remains of many of those men. However, for many more the only record of their involvement are their names carved on memorials such as the Menin Gate and Thiepval memorial which records those killed in battle but whose bodies were never found.
There will be a maximum of 45 places available on the August trip so anyone interested should contact Colm McNulty immediately at Ph. (059) 8631089 or by logging on to his website leinsterww1tours.sitesled.com. I am told bookings will be made on a first come basis so prompt booking is essential if you would like to make this trip.
Eye on the Past No. 755
The name Harland and Wolff conjures up many images. Tragedy hovers on the fringes of many of those images. It was in the sprawling shipyard of Harland and Wolff that the Titanic was built by Belfast workers. The White Star Liner was launched on 31st May 1911 but in less than a year the most awesome ship ever to come out of the Belfast shipyard would sink to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Bruce Ismay was chairman of the White Star Line which commissioned the liner and his name I came across many times in the mid-1960’s when I frequented the beautiful countryside around Connemara. Ismay left the stricken Titanic in controversial circumstances after it struck an iceberg on the night of 14th April 1912. Criticised for doing so, although exonerated by the British enquiry into the disaster, Ismay withdrew from public life and spent a lot of his time at his fishing lodge at Costelloe in County Galway. However, long after his death which occurred in 1937, the Connemara locals were critical of Ismay, the millionaire ship owner who survived the sinking of the Titanic while the majority of the third class passengers including several Connemara men and women, perished.
Harland and Wolff came to mind with the recent announcement by Athy Lions Club of a concert planned for the Dominican Church in Athy on Saturday, 28th April in aid of local Lions charities. Topping the bill for the concert is the Harlandic Voice Choir. The choir was founded in 1944 in the Harland and Wolff shipyard by a group of approximately 20 shipyard workers. During the past 63 years the choir has had many successes at music festivals in England, Scotland and of course Ireland and in 1983 came second in Europe, competing against 200 other choirs in the “Let the People Sing” competition. The choir has appeared many times on television featuring on programmes on the BBC, UTV and RTE alongside such stars as Harry Seacombe, Moira Anderson, Joseph Locke and Stuart Burrows. The musical repertoire of the Harlandic Voice Choir ranges from operatic choruses to Broadway musical hits and the performance in St. Dominic’s Church will mark the choir’s first visit to Athy. It promises to be a wonderful musical experience and because Athy Lions Club is promoting the concert for local charities a “full house” can be expected on the evening of 28th April. Tickets can be purchased in The Gem, Winkles or in Martin Mullins office at Leinster Street.
I had intended to write of Athy Boy Scouts which their notepaper claims as the “5th Kildare Unit Athy Scouts”. The local troop celebrated its 30th anniversary this month and Aidan Prendergast who has been involved with scouting all of those years was to be the focus of whatever was to be put in writing. However, the best laid plans don’t always materialise and I have to confine myself to extending good wishes to Aidan Prendergast and the team of adult volunteers who have dedicated themselves to maintaining scouting in South Kildare over the years. The Scout Centre at St. John’s is located on the site of the Old Comrades Hall which was built as a clubhouse for ex British soldiers following the first World War. It later became the centre of the local Social Club, which in its heyday in the 1940’s and 1950’s had an extraordinary powerful influence on the cultural and social development of the middle class of this area. The Old Comrades Hall, or the Social Club as it was known in later years, is no more. The scouting den of the 5th Kildare Unit now occupies the site and the wish is that the next 30 years will bring even more success to the local scouts.
I had a phone call from Riga in Latvia a few days ago seeking information on Konrad Peterson who was manager of the Bord na Mona peat factory in Kilberry from 1947. I am sure many will remember Peterson who lived in Church Road. He emigrated to live with his only daughter in Newfoundland following his retirement and the extended family returned to live in Athy sometime in the 1970’s. Konrad Peterson died in 1981 and is buried in Old St. Michael’s Cemetery. He was a man with an interesting past, involved as he was in the Latvian Revolution of 1907, and if it is to be believed, was also involved in Dublin’s Easter Rebellion of 1916. If you have any information on Konrad Peterson or a photograph of him I would be delighted to hear from you.
The amalgamation of the boys and girls secondary schools will take place later this year. Scoil Eoin, formerly the Christian Brothers School, will hold a week of events to celebrate its past which I gather will conclude with a celebratory dinner in the Clanard Hotel on 12th May. The Annals of the Christian Brothers Monastery commenced in 1861 with an entry dealing with the history of the house at St. John’s Lane which would later be refurbished as the Brother’s Monastery. The Annals continued and I quote:
“Reverend Andrew Quinn P.P. Athy and Canon of the Archdiocese of Dublin subsequently built two schoolrooms with the aid of the parishioners and a few friends, but chiefly with the assistance of the generous and truly charitable Mr. Pat Maher of Kilrush in this county who principally at the suggestion of his eldest daughter Mrs. Mary Teresa Maher, Superioress of the Convent of Mercy, St. Michael’s, Athy gave £400. When the schools were finished in the August of 1861, three brothers, viz John Stanislaus Flanagan, director; Francis Luke Holland, sub-director and John Patrick Sheely, lay brother were sent by our Very Rev. Brother Michael Paul O’Riordan, superior general to conduct the establishment which was put into the possession of the brothers on the 8th of August 1861 ..... the Brothers commenced the school on 19th August 1861.”
In the intervening years thousands of young boys have passed through the Christian Brothers School in St. John’s Lane and its successors, Scoil Eoin in Rathstewart and St. Patrick’s National School in Greenhills. Following the amalgamation of the two secondary schools the Christian Brothers will no longer have any involvement with secondary education in Athy. Theirs was a long and fruitful engagement with education in Athy and South Kildare and the only reminder we will have of the Christian Brothers past links with this area is in the name Edmund Rice Square, given to the newest public space created in the centre of Athy some years ago.
The Christian Brothers, like the Sisters of Mercy, made an enormous contribution to improving the life and aspirations of the people of Athy and district following the dreadful years of the Great Famine. The Sisters of Mercy came to Athy just a few years after the Famine, while the Christian Brothers arrived nine years later. The educational facilities afforded to boys and girls of this area following the arrival of the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy brought advantages both educational and social which had been denied to previous generations. The new secondary school to be opened in September will be a far cry from the two schoolrooms which John Stanislaus Flanagan and his colleagues first opened to boys 146 years ago. I would hope that at some early date there can be a joint celebration for both the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy.
Harland and Wolff came to mind with the recent announcement by Athy Lions Club of a concert planned for the Dominican Church in Athy on Saturday, 28th April in aid of local Lions charities. Topping the bill for the concert is the Harlandic Voice Choir. The choir was founded in 1944 in the Harland and Wolff shipyard by a group of approximately 20 shipyard workers. During the past 63 years the choir has had many successes at music festivals in England, Scotland and of course Ireland and in 1983 came second in Europe, competing against 200 other choirs in the “Let the People Sing” competition. The choir has appeared many times on television featuring on programmes on the BBC, UTV and RTE alongside such stars as Harry Seacombe, Moira Anderson, Joseph Locke and Stuart Burrows. The musical repertoire of the Harlandic Voice Choir ranges from operatic choruses to Broadway musical hits and the performance in St. Dominic’s Church will mark the choir’s first visit to Athy. It promises to be a wonderful musical experience and because Athy Lions Club is promoting the concert for local charities a “full house” can be expected on the evening of 28th April. Tickets can be purchased in The Gem, Winkles or in Martin Mullins office at Leinster Street.
I had intended to write of Athy Boy Scouts which their notepaper claims as the “5th Kildare Unit Athy Scouts”. The local troop celebrated its 30th anniversary this month and Aidan Prendergast who has been involved with scouting all of those years was to be the focus of whatever was to be put in writing. However, the best laid plans don’t always materialise and I have to confine myself to extending good wishes to Aidan Prendergast and the team of adult volunteers who have dedicated themselves to maintaining scouting in South Kildare over the years. The Scout Centre at St. John’s is located on the site of the Old Comrades Hall which was built as a clubhouse for ex British soldiers following the first World War. It later became the centre of the local Social Club, which in its heyday in the 1940’s and 1950’s had an extraordinary powerful influence on the cultural and social development of the middle class of this area. The Old Comrades Hall, or the Social Club as it was known in later years, is no more. The scouting den of the 5th Kildare Unit now occupies the site and the wish is that the next 30 years will bring even more success to the local scouts.
I had a phone call from Riga in Latvia a few days ago seeking information on Konrad Peterson who was manager of the Bord na Mona peat factory in Kilberry from 1947. I am sure many will remember Peterson who lived in Church Road. He emigrated to live with his only daughter in Newfoundland following his retirement and the extended family returned to live in Athy sometime in the 1970’s. Konrad Peterson died in 1981 and is buried in Old St. Michael’s Cemetery. He was a man with an interesting past, involved as he was in the Latvian Revolution of 1907, and if it is to be believed, was also involved in Dublin’s Easter Rebellion of 1916. If you have any information on Konrad Peterson or a photograph of him I would be delighted to hear from you.
The amalgamation of the boys and girls secondary schools will take place later this year. Scoil Eoin, formerly the Christian Brothers School, will hold a week of events to celebrate its past which I gather will conclude with a celebratory dinner in the Clanard Hotel on 12th May. The Annals of the Christian Brothers Monastery commenced in 1861 with an entry dealing with the history of the house at St. John’s Lane which would later be refurbished as the Brother’s Monastery. The Annals continued and I quote:
“Reverend Andrew Quinn P.P. Athy and Canon of the Archdiocese of Dublin subsequently built two schoolrooms with the aid of the parishioners and a few friends, but chiefly with the assistance of the generous and truly charitable Mr. Pat Maher of Kilrush in this county who principally at the suggestion of his eldest daughter Mrs. Mary Teresa Maher, Superioress of the Convent of Mercy, St. Michael’s, Athy gave £400. When the schools were finished in the August of 1861, three brothers, viz John Stanislaus Flanagan, director; Francis Luke Holland, sub-director and John Patrick Sheely, lay brother were sent by our Very Rev. Brother Michael Paul O’Riordan, superior general to conduct the establishment which was put into the possession of the brothers on the 8th of August 1861 ..... the Brothers commenced the school on 19th August 1861.”
In the intervening years thousands of young boys have passed through the Christian Brothers School in St. John’s Lane and its successors, Scoil Eoin in Rathstewart and St. Patrick’s National School in Greenhills. Following the amalgamation of the two secondary schools the Christian Brothers will no longer have any involvement with secondary education in Athy. Theirs was a long and fruitful engagement with education in Athy and South Kildare and the only reminder we will have of the Christian Brothers past links with this area is in the name Edmund Rice Square, given to the newest public space created in the centre of Athy some years ago.
The Christian Brothers, like the Sisters of Mercy, made an enormous contribution to improving the life and aspirations of the people of Athy and district following the dreadful years of the Great Famine. The Sisters of Mercy came to Athy just a few years after the Famine, while the Christian Brothers arrived nine years later. The educational facilities afforded to boys and girls of this area following the arrival of the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy brought advantages both educational and social which had been denied to previous generations. The new secondary school to be opened in September will be a far cry from the two schoolrooms which John Stanislaus Flanagan and his colleagues first opened to boys 146 years ago. I would hope that at some early date there can be a joint celebration for both the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy.
Athy Traffic Management Plan
I am very loathe to pass judgment in public on the new Traffic Management Plan prepared for Athy Town Council which was recently on public display prior to being presented to meetings of Kildare County Council and Athy Town Council. However, my reluctance in that regard vanishes in the face of yet a further potential waste of public funds should the plan be implemented. I am advised that the Traffic Plan cost in excess of €100,000 to produce and its implementation cost can be measured in millions of euro. Given the rather poor state of Local Government finances at this time I am afraid it is money we can ill afford to waste.
The Traffic Management Plan proposes a number of radical changes to the existing road layout in the town, the first of which is at the Dublin Road end of Leinster Street. The existing wall between the two road levels is to be removed and replaced with a new wall to allow two way traffic on the Lidl side of the widened road. On the People’s Park side of the wall it is proposed to have a pedestrian access route to the railway station and inside that again a road leading from St. Michael’s Terrace to a new road to be built through the People’s Park giving access to the Park Crescent estate from Church Road. Church Road will be straightened and re-graded to allow access directly onto the Dublin Road via a new junction at the top of the Railway Bridge.
Another major change centres on Emily Square where further pedestrianisation of the rear Square will effectively reduce the parking facilities there. However, it is the proposed re-routing of traffic coming from the Carlow Road direction which now turns at the traffic lights onto Leinster Street to go towards Dublin which may create more traffic problems than it can help solve. Dublin Road bound traffic coming down Offaly Street will have to divert across the rear Square and turn right at Barrow Quay onto Leinster Street. The traffic planner who came up with this idea has an obvious liking for turning traffic at the bottom of humpbacked bridges as he also proposes a somewhat similar manoeuvre at the Canal Bridge on the Kilkenny Road. Traffic coming from Stradbally intending to turn onto the Kilkenny Road must go via Nelson Street and hopefully make a safe exit from there onto William Street. Vehicles will stop on Nelson Street just yards from the Canal Bridge where the sight distance is very limited and will then have to exit smartly and speedily if there is to be any hope of avoiding a collision with traffic coming over the bridge into the town. Similarly traffic from Kilkenny going towards Stradbally must turn into Nelson Street.
There are a number of other changes, all of which I cannot now recall having attended the information evening in the Carlton Abbey Hotel a few weeks ago. The overall impression I have of the Traffic Management Plan however is not helped by the use of a plan which has the Courthouse building described as the Town Library. There are I’m afraid compelling reasons why this latest Traffic Management Plan is unsuitable for Athy, not least being the price tag which accompanies the changes proposed. I only wish the planners and our Town Fathers would concentrate on the Outer Relief Road which I see is now being described as ‘the Southern Distribution Route’. It alone can help solve the traffic problems which beset Athy’s town centre and the sooner Council officials and public representatives alike accept this the sooner we can press ahead with this much needed road project.
Incidentally despite the Minister’s clear advice to Athy Town Council and officials of Kildare County Council to make up their minds as to whether they wanted an Inner Relief Road or an Outer Relief Road, the local Council still persists in retaining the Inner Relief Road as an objective in the Town Development Plan. Apparently the decisions of the Planning Appeal Board and the High Court have had little influence on either party and the Minister’s advice has been ignored. It’s no wonder then that the Minister has not to date made any funds available for the construction of the Outer Relief Road. As a consequence we find ourselves today in the unhappy position of attempting to apply what can only be described as ineffective measures to a chronic traffic situation which is crying out for the only viable solution – an Outer Relief Road.
As I came out into the foyer of the Carlton Abbey on Wednesday evening Liam Dunne of the Irish Farmers Association and his team were manning their alternative traffic plan for Athy. It proposes a much simpler solution to the town’s traffic problems. Roundabouts at Leinster Street/Stanhope Street junction, at Barrow Quay/Leinster Street junction, at Leinster Street/Woodstock Street junction and at the junction of the Bleach and Kilkenny Road are the mainstay of the I.F.A. proposals. In addition pedestrian crossings utilising zebra crossings rather than the existing pelican crossings have been suggested by the Farmers Group as a necessary measure to allow traffic to flow as easily as possible. However, I am aware that pelican crossings are more favoured by wheelchair users.
I have to say that the I.F.A. plan seemed reasonable and practical and certainly less costly than the Council Plan. Given the limited costs involved the general feeling of those who examined the two traffic plans at the Carlton Abbey Hotel is that the I.F.A. plan is worthy of further detailed consideration.
I learned recently of the death of Michael May whom I remember well as a pupil in the Christian Brothers School here in Athy in the 1950s. Michael was usually two classes ahead of me and the ginger haired well built young man was an extremely popular member of the school population of that time. Michael, a retired Garda Sergeant, was the son of Hester and Joe May who lived in the Gate Lodge at St. Vincent’s Hospital where Joe May was the hospital administrator. Michael’s parents were part of that great band of Irish men and women who during the War of Independence and later gave so much of themselves so that future generations could enjoy the fruits of a self governing democracy.
Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam.
The Traffic Management Plan proposes a number of radical changes to the existing road layout in the town, the first of which is at the Dublin Road end of Leinster Street. The existing wall between the two road levels is to be removed and replaced with a new wall to allow two way traffic on the Lidl side of the widened road. On the People’s Park side of the wall it is proposed to have a pedestrian access route to the railway station and inside that again a road leading from St. Michael’s Terrace to a new road to be built through the People’s Park giving access to the Park Crescent estate from Church Road. Church Road will be straightened and re-graded to allow access directly onto the Dublin Road via a new junction at the top of the Railway Bridge.
Another major change centres on Emily Square where further pedestrianisation of the rear Square will effectively reduce the parking facilities there. However, it is the proposed re-routing of traffic coming from the Carlow Road direction which now turns at the traffic lights onto Leinster Street to go towards Dublin which may create more traffic problems than it can help solve. Dublin Road bound traffic coming down Offaly Street will have to divert across the rear Square and turn right at Barrow Quay onto Leinster Street. The traffic planner who came up with this idea has an obvious liking for turning traffic at the bottom of humpbacked bridges as he also proposes a somewhat similar manoeuvre at the Canal Bridge on the Kilkenny Road. Traffic coming from Stradbally intending to turn onto the Kilkenny Road must go via Nelson Street and hopefully make a safe exit from there onto William Street. Vehicles will stop on Nelson Street just yards from the Canal Bridge where the sight distance is very limited and will then have to exit smartly and speedily if there is to be any hope of avoiding a collision with traffic coming over the bridge into the town. Similarly traffic from Kilkenny going towards Stradbally must turn into Nelson Street.
There are a number of other changes, all of which I cannot now recall having attended the information evening in the Carlton Abbey Hotel a few weeks ago. The overall impression I have of the Traffic Management Plan however is not helped by the use of a plan which has the Courthouse building described as the Town Library. There are I’m afraid compelling reasons why this latest Traffic Management Plan is unsuitable for Athy, not least being the price tag which accompanies the changes proposed. I only wish the planners and our Town Fathers would concentrate on the Outer Relief Road which I see is now being described as ‘the Southern Distribution Route’. It alone can help solve the traffic problems which beset Athy’s town centre and the sooner Council officials and public representatives alike accept this the sooner we can press ahead with this much needed road project.
Incidentally despite the Minister’s clear advice to Athy Town Council and officials of Kildare County Council to make up their minds as to whether they wanted an Inner Relief Road or an Outer Relief Road, the local Council still persists in retaining the Inner Relief Road as an objective in the Town Development Plan. Apparently the decisions of the Planning Appeal Board and the High Court have had little influence on either party and the Minister’s advice has been ignored. It’s no wonder then that the Minister has not to date made any funds available for the construction of the Outer Relief Road. As a consequence we find ourselves today in the unhappy position of attempting to apply what can only be described as ineffective measures to a chronic traffic situation which is crying out for the only viable solution – an Outer Relief Road.
As I came out into the foyer of the Carlton Abbey on Wednesday evening Liam Dunne of the Irish Farmers Association and his team were manning their alternative traffic plan for Athy. It proposes a much simpler solution to the town’s traffic problems. Roundabouts at Leinster Street/Stanhope Street junction, at Barrow Quay/Leinster Street junction, at Leinster Street/Woodstock Street junction and at the junction of the Bleach and Kilkenny Road are the mainstay of the I.F.A. proposals. In addition pedestrian crossings utilising zebra crossings rather than the existing pelican crossings have been suggested by the Farmers Group as a necessary measure to allow traffic to flow as easily as possible. However, I am aware that pelican crossings are more favoured by wheelchair users.
I have to say that the I.F.A. plan seemed reasonable and practical and certainly less costly than the Council Plan. Given the limited costs involved the general feeling of those who examined the two traffic plans at the Carlton Abbey Hotel is that the I.F.A. plan is worthy of further detailed consideration.
I learned recently of the death of Michael May whom I remember well as a pupil in the Christian Brothers School here in Athy in the 1950s. Michael was usually two classes ahead of me and the ginger haired well built young man was an extremely popular member of the school population of that time. Michael, a retired Garda Sergeant, was the son of Hester and Joe May who lived in the Gate Lodge at St. Vincent’s Hospital where Joe May was the hospital administrator. Michael’s parents were part of that great band of Irish men and women who during the War of Independence and later gave so much of themselves so that future generations could enjoy the fruits of a self governing democracy.
Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam.
Tribute to the late Frank English
Several people have contacted me over the last few days looking for copies of the tribute paid to Frank English at his funeral mass last week. One individual asked that it be published as an Eye and I am taking the opportunity of doing so this week, despite the fact that some of the material may be duplicating what appeared in last week’s article.
‘With the death of Frank English Athy has lost a good man and I have lost a good friend. A family man, a Town Councillor, a community activist and a Fianna Fáil politician, Frank gave of his best for the town of his birth. For Frank was an Athy man, born, educated and worked all his life in the town which he grew to love so much and the people of Athy grew to love Frank for he was of a local family with a background similar to so many other families in the town. His grandfather served in the 1st World War, while his father had to take the emigrant boat to England in 1948. These were common experiences for many families as we grew up in Athy and it was against this background of shared experiences that made Frank’s involvement in politics and community affairs so uniquely relevant. For 42 years he served the people of Athy as an Urban Councillor and tried all he could within the limits of the inadequate Local Government system to help improve the town of Athy and the lives of the people who lived here.
Outside of the Town Council he served on the Community Council and was a founder member of Athy Credit Union and of Aontas Ogra. A long time member of the Vocational Educational Committee he was at one time a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a member of the Parish Choir, served in the Knights of Malta and in recent years taught many hundreds of young children to swim. An avid G.A.A. supporter he followed his beloved Lilywhites with unchallenged enthusiasm and gave freely of his time for the local football club.
His contribution to the town of Athy is beyond measure and he has left us a legacy of community service which we will always treasure.
Frank participated in politics with a sense of purpose, reserving his political allegiance for the party founded by Eamon de Valera. However, he never allowed political differences to mar his relationships with others. He was a devoted and energetic member of the Fianna Fáil party and in that respect followed a path first set out by his mother Peg. She was his greater supporter, that is until the daughter of a onetime Labour Councillor from Westport, Mary O’Grady, came from the west and captured his heart. It was then that Frank English added another dimension to his energetic commitment as a politician and a community activist.
For it was as a family man that Frank achieved his greatest success. Nothing could compare to the satisfaction of bringing into the world five children, all of whom grew up to bring honour on themselves and on their parents. That above all is Franks and Marys greatest legacy, but for Frank who was justifiably proud of his children and his grandchildren, it brought him enormous satisfaction and contentment that Conor, Cathal, Gráinne, Tomás and Ciarán were able to have the educational and work opportunities which were not available to him in the Ireland of the 1950s.
I will remember Frank as a friend. We both attended school for the first time on 12th May 1946. We shared a classroom for the next 12 years or so, Frank leaving school after his Inter Cert, while I continued on for a bit longer. We holidayed together for several years until the demands of married life put a temporary stay on our trips abroad. In 1962 we first went overseas together, thumbing our way around France, staying in hostels and experiencing the delights of Paris. Over the next few years we visited London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels and quite a few other places, some more exotic than others, but all offering a unique insight for two relatively inexperienced young men from provincial Ireland.
In more recent years we resumed our journeys and enjoyed together the sights and sounds of New York, indeed so much so that a return visit was necessary some time later. These visits abroad provided Frank and myself with great memories and forge bonds of friendship between us which have only now been broken with Frank’s passing.
His was a friendship I treasured, for Frank above all was a considerate and courteous man whose zest for life was fashioned from an appreciation of the difficulties we all face, week in week out. Indeed Frank was a friend to many, for his friendly outgoing nature combined with his innate courtesy, good humour and consideration for others, marked him as a man apart.
Frank and I went to the west of Ireland to find wives. He to Westport, myself to Connemara. As a result both of us have strong links with Connaught and last night, mindful of the great number of people who came to Church Road to pay tribute to Frank, I thought of Padraic Colum’s poem, ‘A Connachtman’. I re-read the poem this morning and felt that with some changes to the placenames mentioned to take account of Frank’s Kildare connections it was appropriate for the man we are honouring today.
It’s my fear that my wake won’t be quiet,
Nor my wake house a silent place;
For who would keep back the hundreds
Who would touch my breast and my face?
For the good men were always my friends,
From Kilcullen back into Kildare;
In strength, in sport, and in spending,
I was foremost at the fair;
In music, in song, and in friendship,
In contests by night and by day,
By all who knew it was given to me
That I bore the branch away.
The old men will have their stories
Of all the deeds in my days,
And the young men will stand by the coffin,
And be sure and clear in my praise.
The hundreds who turned up to attend Frank’s wake, the hundreds who turned up for the removal of his remains to St. Michael’s Church and the great crowd here this morning confirm, if confirmation was needed, that the people of Athy and those further afield who knew Frank, are in the words of Padraic Colum sure and clear in their praise of a great man.
I will miss him. We will all miss him.
Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam dÃlis.’
‘With the death of Frank English Athy has lost a good man and I have lost a good friend. A family man, a Town Councillor, a community activist and a Fianna Fáil politician, Frank gave of his best for the town of his birth. For Frank was an Athy man, born, educated and worked all his life in the town which he grew to love so much and the people of Athy grew to love Frank for he was of a local family with a background similar to so many other families in the town. His grandfather served in the 1st World War, while his father had to take the emigrant boat to England in 1948. These were common experiences for many families as we grew up in Athy and it was against this background of shared experiences that made Frank’s involvement in politics and community affairs so uniquely relevant. For 42 years he served the people of Athy as an Urban Councillor and tried all he could within the limits of the inadequate Local Government system to help improve the town of Athy and the lives of the people who lived here.
Outside of the Town Council he served on the Community Council and was a founder member of Athy Credit Union and of Aontas Ogra. A long time member of the Vocational Educational Committee he was at one time a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a member of the Parish Choir, served in the Knights of Malta and in recent years taught many hundreds of young children to swim. An avid G.A.A. supporter he followed his beloved Lilywhites with unchallenged enthusiasm and gave freely of his time for the local football club.
His contribution to the town of Athy is beyond measure and he has left us a legacy of community service which we will always treasure.
Frank participated in politics with a sense of purpose, reserving his political allegiance for the party founded by Eamon de Valera. However, he never allowed political differences to mar his relationships with others. He was a devoted and energetic member of the Fianna Fáil party and in that respect followed a path first set out by his mother Peg. She was his greater supporter, that is until the daughter of a onetime Labour Councillor from Westport, Mary O’Grady, came from the west and captured his heart. It was then that Frank English added another dimension to his energetic commitment as a politician and a community activist.
For it was as a family man that Frank achieved his greatest success. Nothing could compare to the satisfaction of bringing into the world five children, all of whom grew up to bring honour on themselves and on their parents. That above all is Franks and Marys greatest legacy, but for Frank who was justifiably proud of his children and his grandchildren, it brought him enormous satisfaction and contentment that Conor, Cathal, Gráinne, Tomás and Ciarán were able to have the educational and work opportunities which were not available to him in the Ireland of the 1950s.
I will remember Frank as a friend. We both attended school for the first time on 12th May 1946. We shared a classroom for the next 12 years or so, Frank leaving school after his Inter Cert, while I continued on for a bit longer. We holidayed together for several years until the demands of married life put a temporary stay on our trips abroad. In 1962 we first went overseas together, thumbing our way around France, staying in hostels and experiencing the delights of Paris. Over the next few years we visited London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels and quite a few other places, some more exotic than others, but all offering a unique insight for two relatively inexperienced young men from provincial Ireland.
In more recent years we resumed our journeys and enjoyed together the sights and sounds of New York, indeed so much so that a return visit was necessary some time later. These visits abroad provided Frank and myself with great memories and forge bonds of friendship between us which have only now been broken with Frank’s passing.
His was a friendship I treasured, for Frank above all was a considerate and courteous man whose zest for life was fashioned from an appreciation of the difficulties we all face, week in week out. Indeed Frank was a friend to many, for his friendly outgoing nature combined with his innate courtesy, good humour and consideration for others, marked him as a man apart.
Frank and I went to the west of Ireland to find wives. He to Westport, myself to Connemara. As a result both of us have strong links with Connaught and last night, mindful of the great number of people who came to Church Road to pay tribute to Frank, I thought of Padraic Colum’s poem, ‘A Connachtman’. I re-read the poem this morning and felt that with some changes to the placenames mentioned to take account of Frank’s Kildare connections it was appropriate for the man we are honouring today.
It’s my fear that my wake won’t be quiet,
Nor my wake house a silent place;
For who would keep back the hundreds
Who would touch my breast and my face?
For the good men were always my friends,
From Kilcullen back into Kildare;
In strength, in sport, and in spending,
I was foremost at the fair;
In music, in song, and in friendship,
In contests by night and by day,
By all who knew it was given to me
That I bore the branch away.
The old men will have their stories
Of all the deeds in my days,
And the young men will stand by the coffin,
And be sure and clear in my praise.
The hundreds who turned up to attend Frank’s wake, the hundreds who turned up for the removal of his remains to St. Michael’s Church and the great crowd here this morning confirm, if confirmation was needed, that the people of Athy and those further afield who knew Frank, are in the words of Padraic Colum sure and clear in their praise of a great man.
I will miss him. We will all miss him.
Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam dÃlis.’
Thursday, February 11, 2010
The late Frank English
With the death of Frank English we have lost a good man and I have lost a good friend.
Ours was a friendship which had its origin in St. Joseph’s boys school which both of us first attended on the same day. It was the 12th of May 1946, my 4th birthday, when I was brought to infant school for the first time, the same day chosen by Frank’s parents to bring their 4½ year old eldest son to school. Sr. Benignus, faced with the need to differentiate between the two Franks, decided to call my future pal ‘Harry’, a name by which he was known by all his contemporaries until well into his teen years. He had been christened Henry Francis English after his grandfather, but his mother Peg preferred to call him Frank and so presented a dilemma for Sr. Benignus which lead to his temporary re-naming. We shared the same class for the next 12 or 13 years until Frank left school after his Inter Cert. to work in Minch Norton’s laboratory.
Soon after I went to work in Kildare County Council we joined up for holidays abroad, starting with a memorable trip to France in the summer of 1962. We thumbed our way from Cherbourg to Paris and up through Normandy, two inexperienced Irish lads whose time in the Parisian city was to provide an education in life, as well as a talking point for years to come. In those days hostelling was the only possible way of meeting our accommodation needs and meeting and greeting similar age groups from the Continent and from America was an education in itself. We spent another holiday in London enjoying the domestic delights of an Earls Court hostel, with the eye boggling delights of the early 1960s central London scene. We were ready for the world, or so we thought, but nothing prepared us for the charms of Berlin and Amsterdam which were our last holiday destinations while we both enjoyed the single life. The Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie were but a year or so in place when we arrived in the German capital via Brussels and Hanover. Crossing into east Berlin to see the contrast between the bleak soviet controlled part of the city and the western ‘Free’ was an unforgettable experience.
Married life put an end, temporarily at least, to our gallivanting but we did manage once children had stopped appearing to make acquaintenances with New York on two occasions. Sharing a room over the famous McSorley’s Ale House was an experience which we had hoped to recreate again. It is not to be.
Frank was an extraordinary likeable man whose consideration for others was unlimited. His family shared with many Athy families common experiences going back over the generations. His grandfather Henry Francis English, although born in Kilkea, lived in Athy and like so many others in the town served in the British Army. He later became a hackney driver and was tragically killed in a road traffic accident on the Dublin Road. Frank’s grandmother had earlier died during the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918. Frank’s father Tommy trained as a barber but the economic difficulties of post war Ireland forced him as it did so many others in Athy to emigrate in the late 1940s to seek work in England. Military service overseas during World War 1 and the emigrant trail were common features in the lives of many Athy families when Frank and I were going to school.
It was against that background of shared experiences that made Frank’s involvement in politics and community activities uniquely relevant. He was an Athy man – the town where he was born, reared, schooled and worked was for him the centre of his political and community life. He was a founder member of Athy Credit Union and of Aontas Ogra, as well as being a one time active member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Knights of Malta and the choir of St. Michaels Parish Church. In more recent years he was a member of Athy Community Council and a swimming coach who gave swimming lessons to hundreds of children from Athy and the surrounding area. It was as a public representative for 42 years that he is possibly best known. First elected to Athy Urban District Council in 1967 as a Fianna Fáil Councillor he successfully contested eight local elections until he stepped down as a Councillor last year. He served as the Chairman of the Council on four, if not five occasions and proved himself an able and conscientious member of that body.
I was his colleague on the Council for some years and came to see at first hand how he sought to get results by consultation and agreement rather than by headline seeking contributions in the Council Chamber. We did not always agree on how effective the Council was and I can remember one occasion when he took grave exception to my criticism of the Council which he as a Councillor felt was a personal reflection on himself. Frank tried as best he could within the limits of the inadequate Local Government system to improve the town of Athy and he never gave up on that objective.
The political passion which ruled Frank’s entire life was to see him champion the cause of the party founded by Eamon de Valera in 1926. Fianna Fáil was Frank’s second home. His mother Peg was a passionate Fianna Fáil supporter and no doubt she was largely responsible for his unquestioning and unquenchable allegiance to the party which when Frank was first elected as a councillor was still being lead by Eamon de Valera. He was proud of his party membership and the party was proud of him. The young lad who in 1967 joined the then doyens of the local Fianna Fáil party M.G. Nolan and Paddy Dooley on the local Council would 42 years later step down as a Councillor having in the interim become the father of the Council and indeed the father of the local Fianna Fáil Cumann.
His contribution to the community life of his hometown was enormous and over the decades he made a difference to the lives of many people. But most important of all was his good nature, exemplified in his courtesy and his consideration for others. His affability allowed him to meet and greet friends and strangers alike with a pleasant word and a smile. Frank never allowed political differences to intrude into his personal relationships with others and he never allowed differences of opinion to mar those same relationships.
In his role as a Peace Commissioner he called to my offices on a regular basis to sign documents and always partook of a cup of coffee and the opportunity to have a chat. His easy going manner made him a great favourite and nothing pleased him more than recounting the details of Kildare’s latest, if sometimes scarce, football successes. For Frank was an avid supporter of Gaelic football and followed the Lilywhites from venue to venue. It was I think one of his greatest disappointments that he had not played football in his young days, but made up for that by his wholehearted support for the County team and for the local G.A.A. Club in Geraldine Park.
His legacy of dedicated service for the people of Athy is second only to his most cherished legacy. He has left behind his wife Mary and his five children, Conor, Cathal, Gráinne, Tomás and Ciarán, all of whom have brought honour and respect to the family name. He was justifiably proud of Mary and their children and as I visited him in hospital during the last weeks of his life I came to understand and appreciate that he had passed on to his children some of those exceptional qualities which had endeared Frank to those who knew him.
Frank was a family man, a community activist and a Fianna Fáil politician who gave of his best for the town of his birth. He has left us a legacy of dedicated service for the people of Athy and the most cherished legacy of all, the family of whom he was justifiably proud.
Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam.
Ours was a friendship which had its origin in St. Joseph’s boys school which both of us first attended on the same day. It was the 12th of May 1946, my 4th birthday, when I was brought to infant school for the first time, the same day chosen by Frank’s parents to bring their 4½ year old eldest son to school. Sr. Benignus, faced with the need to differentiate between the two Franks, decided to call my future pal ‘Harry’, a name by which he was known by all his contemporaries until well into his teen years. He had been christened Henry Francis English after his grandfather, but his mother Peg preferred to call him Frank and so presented a dilemma for Sr. Benignus which lead to his temporary re-naming. We shared the same class for the next 12 or 13 years until Frank left school after his Inter Cert. to work in Minch Norton’s laboratory.
Soon after I went to work in Kildare County Council we joined up for holidays abroad, starting with a memorable trip to France in the summer of 1962. We thumbed our way from Cherbourg to Paris and up through Normandy, two inexperienced Irish lads whose time in the Parisian city was to provide an education in life, as well as a talking point for years to come. In those days hostelling was the only possible way of meeting our accommodation needs and meeting and greeting similar age groups from the Continent and from America was an education in itself. We spent another holiday in London enjoying the domestic delights of an Earls Court hostel, with the eye boggling delights of the early 1960s central London scene. We were ready for the world, or so we thought, but nothing prepared us for the charms of Berlin and Amsterdam which were our last holiday destinations while we both enjoyed the single life. The Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie were but a year or so in place when we arrived in the German capital via Brussels and Hanover. Crossing into east Berlin to see the contrast between the bleak soviet controlled part of the city and the western ‘Free’ was an unforgettable experience.
Married life put an end, temporarily at least, to our gallivanting but we did manage once children had stopped appearing to make acquaintenances with New York on two occasions. Sharing a room over the famous McSorley’s Ale House was an experience which we had hoped to recreate again. It is not to be.
Frank was an extraordinary likeable man whose consideration for others was unlimited. His family shared with many Athy families common experiences going back over the generations. His grandfather Henry Francis English, although born in Kilkea, lived in Athy and like so many others in the town served in the British Army. He later became a hackney driver and was tragically killed in a road traffic accident on the Dublin Road. Frank’s grandmother had earlier died during the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918. Frank’s father Tommy trained as a barber but the economic difficulties of post war Ireland forced him as it did so many others in Athy to emigrate in the late 1940s to seek work in England. Military service overseas during World War 1 and the emigrant trail were common features in the lives of many Athy families when Frank and I were going to school.
It was against that background of shared experiences that made Frank’s involvement in politics and community activities uniquely relevant. He was an Athy man – the town where he was born, reared, schooled and worked was for him the centre of his political and community life. He was a founder member of Athy Credit Union and of Aontas Ogra, as well as being a one time active member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Knights of Malta and the choir of St. Michaels Parish Church. In more recent years he was a member of Athy Community Council and a swimming coach who gave swimming lessons to hundreds of children from Athy and the surrounding area. It was as a public representative for 42 years that he is possibly best known. First elected to Athy Urban District Council in 1967 as a Fianna Fáil Councillor he successfully contested eight local elections until he stepped down as a Councillor last year. He served as the Chairman of the Council on four, if not five occasions and proved himself an able and conscientious member of that body.
I was his colleague on the Council for some years and came to see at first hand how he sought to get results by consultation and agreement rather than by headline seeking contributions in the Council Chamber. We did not always agree on how effective the Council was and I can remember one occasion when he took grave exception to my criticism of the Council which he as a Councillor felt was a personal reflection on himself. Frank tried as best he could within the limits of the inadequate Local Government system to improve the town of Athy and he never gave up on that objective.
The political passion which ruled Frank’s entire life was to see him champion the cause of the party founded by Eamon de Valera in 1926. Fianna Fáil was Frank’s second home. His mother Peg was a passionate Fianna Fáil supporter and no doubt she was largely responsible for his unquestioning and unquenchable allegiance to the party which when Frank was first elected as a councillor was still being lead by Eamon de Valera. He was proud of his party membership and the party was proud of him. The young lad who in 1967 joined the then doyens of the local Fianna Fáil party M.G. Nolan and Paddy Dooley on the local Council would 42 years later step down as a Councillor having in the interim become the father of the Council and indeed the father of the local Fianna Fáil Cumann.
His contribution to the community life of his hometown was enormous and over the decades he made a difference to the lives of many people. But most important of all was his good nature, exemplified in his courtesy and his consideration for others. His affability allowed him to meet and greet friends and strangers alike with a pleasant word and a smile. Frank never allowed political differences to intrude into his personal relationships with others and he never allowed differences of opinion to mar those same relationships.
In his role as a Peace Commissioner he called to my offices on a regular basis to sign documents and always partook of a cup of coffee and the opportunity to have a chat. His easy going manner made him a great favourite and nothing pleased him more than recounting the details of Kildare’s latest, if sometimes scarce, football successes. For Frank was an avid supporter of Gaelic football and followed the Lilywhites from venue to venue. It was I think one of his greatest disappointments that he had not played football in his young days, but made up for that by his wholehearted support for the County team and for the local G.A.A. Club in Geraldine Park.
His legacy of dedicated service for the people of Athy is second only to his most cherished legacy. He has left behind his wife Mary and his five children, Conor, Cathal, Gráinne, Tomás and Ciarán, all of whom have brought honour and respect to the family name. He was justifiably proud of Mary and their children and as I visited him in hospital during the last weeks of his life I came to understand and appreciate that he had passed on to his children some of those exceptional qualities which had endeared Frank to those who knew him.
Frank was a family man, a community activist and a Fianna Fáil politician who gave of his best for the town of his birth. He has left us a legacy of dedicated service for the people of Athy and the most cherished legacy of all, the family of whom he was justifiably proud.
Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam.
Dictionary of Irish Biography
The nine volume Dictionary of Irish Biography was published just before Christmas. A collaborative project between Cambridge University Press and the Royal Irish Academy it has been many years in preparation and may well prove to be one of the most important publishing enterprises ever undertaken in this country. The dictionary gives the background on Irish men and women who are identified as having made a significant contribution in Ireland or abroad, as well as those born overseas who had noteworthy careers in Ireland.
Up to now anyone interested in the biographical details of Irishmen and women had to rely on a number of different publications, the first of which was James Wills six volumes, ‘Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen’ published in 1847. Alfred Webb was the Author of ‘Compendium of Irish Biography’ published by Gills of Dublin in 1878 and half a century later John S. Crone was the author of ‘A Concise Dictionary of Irish Biography’. A more up to date work was Henry Boylan’s ‘A Dictionary of Irish Biography’ first published in 1978 and now in its third edition.
In the intervening years other specialised biographical dictionaries relating to the Irish have been produced, including Richard Hayes’ ‘Biographical Dictionary of Irishmen in France’ and Louis McRedmond’s ‘Modern Irish Lives’, not forgetting the nine volumes produced to date in Irish of ‘Beathaisnéis’ under the editorship of MaÃre Nà Mhurchú and Diarmuid Breathnach.
The newly published Dictionary of Irish Biography is truly the most comprehensive and authoritative biographical dictionary yet published in relation to Irish persons. Containing 9,014 biographical articles covering a time span from the beginning of written records to the end of 2002 it does not include biographies of any persons living after that latter date.
I spent the Christmas period going through the nine volumes with a view to noting those persons with Athy connections. I ended with a list of 58 names, some of which had slight enough links with the town such as Patrick Delaney, Clergyman and writer born in 1685 who was educated in Athy. He was a friend of Sheridan and Swift and his second wife was the artist Mary Graville who as Mrs. Delaney wrote her autobiography which remains a valuable source of information about the social history of her time. Delaney himself became Dean of Down and as a writer produced several publications. His bust is in the Long Room in Trinity College.
His namesake, Malachy Delaney, from Ballitore is also included in the Biographical Dictionary. Delaney was a prosperous farmer who left Ireland and enlisted in the Austrian Army to escape punishment for some crime or other but who later returned to join the United Irishmen. As leader of the Rebels in the Ballitore area he lead the ambush of the Tyrone Militia on the Narraghmore Road in 1798 and following the collapse of the Rebellion escaped capture by going into the Wicklow hills. He later took part in Emmet’s Rebellion and served time in Kilmainham Jail before being released in or about 1805. He died in March 1807 aged about 50 years.
Lettice Digby, the only child of Lord Offaly and grandchild of Gerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, is also included in the dictionary and her relevance to Athy arises out of her possession of the manors of Woodstock and Athy.
Ownership of property in this or any other area did not concern Johnny Doran, uilleann piper and a member of the travelling community. Johnny was a celebrated musician who often passed through and in all probability played his uilleann pipes in the town of Athy. He was camped near Athy when his health broke down in the autumn of 1949 and had to be admitted to St. Vincent’s Hospital. There he remained under the care of Sr. Dominic and her staff until he died on 19th January 1950 and it was in St. Vincent’s Hospital that the legendary Johnny Doran played the uilleann pipes for the last time.
One man whose links with South Kildare were previously unknown to me was George Downes, born 1790, died 1846. Described in the dictionary as a travel writer and topographer, he was educated in Ballitore school after being befriended by the Shackletons. He later entered Trinity College from where he graduated with an M.A. in 1823. Downes wrote a number of books on his travels throughout Europe and later worked with George Petrie on the Ordnance Survey and assisted him in his published work on ‘The Round Towers of Ireland’. As a poet he was noted in the ‘Poets of Ireland’ by D.J. O’Donoghue. Downes, who was unmarried, died in Dublin in 1846 and is buried in the Quaker graveyard at Ballitore.
William Harvey Du Cros was another South Kildare man whose story is told in the Dictionary of Irish Biography. Born in Moone during the Great Famine Du Cros was a sportsman who won honours in fencing, boxing and captained Bective Rangers Rugby Club to win an Irish championship. As President of the Irish Cyclists Association he was approached in 1889 by associates of John Dunlop, the inventor of the pneumatic tyre, following which Du Cros established a company to produce the new tyres. This eventually led to the founding of the Dunlop Rubber Company in England which was headed up by Du Cros. He was in part responsible for the introduction of taxi cabs in London but failed due to the opposition of the Dublin jarveys to have similar cabs brought into the Irish capital. He died in Dublin just a month after the ending of World War 1.
One entry in the new dictionary has solved a mystery which has puzzled me for some time. William Grace, the first Catholic Mayor of New York, an office he held from 1880 to 1882 and again from 1884 to 1886, was noted in all previous accounts of his life as having been born in Cork. Sometime ago I came across a reference in one of the Athy Urban District Council Minute Books of a letter from an American woman seeking information on Mayor Grace whom she claimed was born just outside Athy in County Laois. My research tended to show that Grace was from Gracefield, yet the many references to his Cork background left me in some doubt. The dictionary confirms that he was born in 1832 in Riverstown, Co. Cork, while his parents James and Ellen Grace from County Laois were on holidays. William Grace died in New York in 1904 and the company he founded still operates in America as a leading player in the chemical industry.
I intend to return to the Dictionary of Irish Biography as time allows over the next few weeks to deal with more of the men and women from this area whose stories are included in this new publication.
Up to now anyone interested in the biographical details of Irishmen and women had to rely on a number of different publications, the first of which was James Wills six volumes, ‘Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen’ published in 1847. Alfred Webb was the Author of ‘Compendium of Irish Biography’ published by Gills of Dublin in 1878 and half a century later John S. Crone was the author of ‘A Concise Dictionary of Irish Biography’. A more up to date work was Henry Boylan’s ‘A Dictionary of Irish Biography’ first published in 1978 and now in its third edition.
In the intervening years other specialised biographical dictionaries relating to the Irish have been produced, including Richard Hayes’ ‘Biographical Dictionary of Irishmen in France’ and Louis McRedmond’s ‘Modern Irish Lives’, not forgetting the nine volumes produced to date in Irish of ‘Beathaisnéis’ under the editorship of MaÃre Nà Mhurchú and Diarmuid Breathnach.
The newly published Dictionary of Irish Biography is truly the most comprehensive and authoritative biographical dictionary yet published in relation to Irish persons. Containing 9,014 biographical articles covering a time span from the beginning of written records to the end of 2002 it does not include biographies of any persons living after that latter date.
I spent the Christmas period going through the nine volumes with a view to noting those persons with Athy connections. I ended with a list of 58 names, some of which had slight enough links with the town such as Patrick Delaney, Clergyman and writer born in 1685 who was educated in Athy. He was a friend of Sheridan and Swift and his second wife was the artist Mary Graville who as Mrs. Delaney wrote her autobiography which remains a valuable source of information about the social history of her time. Delaney himself became Dean of Down and as a writer produced several publications. His bust is in the Long Room in Trinity College.
His namesake, Malachy Delaney, from Ballitore is also included in the Biographical Dictionary. Delaney was a prosperous farmer who left Ireland and enlisted in the Austrian Army to escape punishment for some crime or other but who later returned to join the United Irishmen. As leader of the Rebels in the Ballitore area he lead the ambush of the Tyrone Militia on the Narraghmore Road in 1798 and following the collapse of the Rebellion escaped capture by going into the Wicklow hills. He later took part in Emmet’s Rebellion and served time in Kilmainham Jail before being released in or about 1805. He died in March 1807 aged about 50 years.
Lettice Digby, the only child of Lord Offaly and grandchild of Gerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, is also included in the dictionary and her relevance to Athy arises out of her possession of the manors of Woodstock and Athy.
Ownership of property in this or any other area did not concern Johnny Doran, uilleann piper and a member of the travelling community. Johnny was a celebrated musician who often passed through and in all probability played his uilleann pipes in the town of Athy. He was camped near Athy when his health broke down in the autumn of 1949 and had to be admitted to St. Vincent’s Hospital. There he remained under the care of Sr. Dominic and her staff until he died on 19th January 1950 and it was in St. Vincent’s Hospital that the legendary Johnny Doran played the uilleann pipes for the last time.
One man whose links with South Kildare were previously unknown to me was George Downes, born 1790, died 1846. Described in the dictionary as a travel writer and topographer, he was educated in Ballitore school after being befriended by the Shackletons. He later entered Trinity College from where he graduated with an M.A. in 1823. Downes wrote a number of books on his travels throughout Europe and later worked with George Petrie on the Ordnance Survey and assisted him in his published work on ‘The Round Towers of Ireland’. As a poet he was noted in the ‘Poets of Ireland’ by D.J. O’Donoghue. Downes, who was unmarried, died in Dublin in 1846 and is buried in the Quaker graveyard at Ballitore.
William Harvey Du Cros was another South Kildare man whose story is told in the Dictionary of Irish Biography. Born in Moone during the Great Famine Du Cros was a sportsman who won honours in fencing, boxing and captained Bective Rangers Rugby Club to win an Irish championship. As President of the Irish Cyclists Association he was approached in 1889 by associates of John Dunlop, the inventor of the pneumatic tyre, following which Du Cros established a company to produce the new tyres. This eventually led to the founding of the Dunlop Rubber Company in England which was headed up by Du Cros. He was in part responsible for the introduction of taxi cabs in London but failed due to the opposition of the Dublin jarveys to have similar cabs brought into the Irish capital. He died in Dublin just a month after the ending of World War 1.
One entry in the new dictionary has solved a mystery which has puzzled me for some time. William Grace, the first Catholic Mayor of New York, an office he held from 1880 to 1882 and again from 1884 to 1886, was noted in all previous accounts of his life as having been born in Cork. Sometime ago I came across a reference in one of the Athy Urban District Council Minute Books of a letter from an American woman seeking information on Mayor Grace whom she claimed was born just outside Athy in County Laois. My research tended to show that Grace was from Gracefield, yet the many references to his Cork background left me in some doubt. The dictionary confirms that he was born in 1832 in Riverstown, Co. Cork, while his parents James and Ellen Grace from County Laois were on holidays. William Grace died in New York in 1904 and the company he founded still operates in America as a leading player in the chemical industry.
I intend to return to the Dictionary of Irish Biography as time allows over the next few weeks to deal with more of the men and women from this area whose stories are included in this new publication.
Athy Gaelic Football team 1956
For the past two weeks, prompted by the illness of a close friend, I have been thinking more and more of times past and especially the halcyon times associated with Athy and my now long past teenage years. Those carefree days lived out, in otherwise harsh times, bring back wonderful memories of youthful friendships, football and girls. The order in which they appear is not indicative of our preferences, for at different stages of my youth, each played a more prominent part than the others. Youthful memories are refocused by photographs of the time and in the nature of things, it is almost inevitable that football leaves plenty of photographic evidence for future enjoyment.
The Christian Brothers were noted for promoting Gaelic games in their schools and here in Athy Gaelic football, rather than hurling, was the more favoured. There was no question in the 1950s of either soccer or rugby being part of the school sporting activity. Each Wednesday afternoon the boys of the Christian Brothers Secondary School took off what we enthusiastically referred to as a half day when in fact it was perhaps only an hour or so, to walk to Geraldine Park for a game of football. Football was the sport enthusiastically taken up by most youngsters in those days and nowhere was that enthusiasm more pronounced than in a provincial Ireland devoid of sporting facilities other than playing fields of varying sizes and quality.
My first involvement in a Gaelic football team was with the Under 14 school team when I played at left full back for three years. Recently I was given a copy photograph of the Athy Christian Brothers Under 14 team which I’m assured was taken in 1956. That photo which is reproduced here shows from left to right at back:-
Francis Webb, Paul Cunningham, Michael Rowan, Frank Taaffe, Brian Finn, Mick O’Neill, J. Murphy, Mick Cardiff, Donal Barr and Moses Doyle.
In the front row are:-
Pat Timpson, Eddie Hearns, Johnny Miller, Edmund Loughman, Peter Archibald, Oliver Moran, Hugh McDonnell, Niall Fingleton and Johnny Hoare.
Sadly Frank Webb, Mick Cardiff and Niall Fingleton have passed away. Several of that team are still in the Athy area but I wonder to where life has brought the other youngsters of 50 years ago?
I see from last week’s newspaper that the long awaited Outer Relief Road, now renamed the Southern Distributor Route, has been advanced with the preparation of the Compulsory Purchase Order and the Environmental Impact Study. There is nothing however to show that funding is available for the road and it would appear that construction work on the road may have to be attempted in three different phases. In the meantime the spur road from the N9 continues to be built and will be completed shortly. If the Southern Distributor Road had been incorporated into the N9 spur road at the planning and approval stages, we would be facing into the exciting prospect of having the local traffic problems solved during the course of this year.
Instead we are facing into more traffic studies, the latest of which appears to want to deal with the traffic situation by creating a number of strange new roadways and by imposing restrictions on current routes.
A new road is proposed to be built through the Peoples Park to facilitate access to houses at Park Crescent. I wonder is it also to provide an entrance to land locked pieces of property purchased some years ago in anticipation of the building of the Inner Relief Road
The realignment of Church Road to link it directly with Dublin Road at the Railway Bridge is another element of the plan which would seem to be somewhat strange.
I am puzzled at what is proposed in the new Traffic Management Plan for Athy and feel that the Council are yet again failing to grasp the importance of concentrating all their resources on getting the Outer Relief Road in place.
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