Last week our community was attacked in a most mindless and vicious way when attempts were made to burn down St. Michael’s Parish Church. The culprit, and I suspect it was someone acting alone as it was highly unlikely that the criminal stupidity extended to more than one person, failed in his/her attempt to destroy what the people of Athy had worked so hard for over many years. It was Fr. John McLaughlin, the senior curate, who in the early 1950s first announced plans to replace the existing Church building erected almost 150 years previously. That Church which had served generations of Athy folk was built in 1808 on what was described at the time as ‘swampy ground’. It had formed part of the commons of Clonmullin which from medieval times had been the local commonage enjoyed by the people of Athy for grazing animals. The present Church was opened on 19th April 1964.
The first Catholic Church erected in the town following the Reformation was located in Chapel Lane on the left hand side as one approached from Leinster Street. It was built at a time when the main street of Athy was still called High Street, having acquired that name hundreds of years previously. The Duke of Leinster’s family who were the largest property owners in the town would give their names to the streets of our ancient town following the extension of the Grand Canal to Athy in 1791.
I believe the Parish Church in Chapel Lane to have been built about 1720 as the Penal Laws began to be relaxed. The date of its erection is not noted anywhere that I can find and I give the year 1720 as official reports for 1731 noted that two priests had charge of Athy Chapel. The Dominicans, who had been banished from Athy over 30 years previously, would appear to have returned to the town in 1735 when records show that a Prior had been appointed to head up the Athy Friary.
Unlike the Church building programme which followed the granting of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, Church buildings of the early 18th century were not ostentatious buildings and were for the most part confined to side streets and out of the way places so as not to draw adverse attention to Catholic worship. Chapel Lane presumably acquired its name from the siting there of the Parish Church and the name remained long after the Church itself was no more.
Athy’s Parish Church in Chapel Lane, unlike many of its counterparts throughout the country, survived the civil unrest of 1798. However, two years later it was torched and burned to the ground in an arson attack on the night of 7th March 1800.
Three local men were arrested and lodged in White’s Castle Gaol on the following 14th April. Their imprisonment was not due to any involvement in the burning of the Church but arose from their alleged attempt to implicate a soldier of the South Cork Militia and two local yeomen in the attack on St. Michael’s Church. Timothy Sullivan, a member of the South Cork Militia which was then stationed in Athy, had sworn information against them. He claimed that he was on security duty ‘at the gate next to Mrs. Dooley’s house on the night the Chapel of Athy was burned.’ Continuing he swore that he was solicited by James Noud and later by Fr. Patrick Kelly and Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine to swear against John McKeon of the Cork Militia and two local men John Drill and John Willock. Sullivan’s sworn Affidavit led to the arrest and imprisonment of Noud and two other local men Patrick Dooley and Joseph Hendrecan. What eventually happened to them I cannot say.
The Parish Priest, Fr. Maurice Keegan, filed a compensation claim and received a payment of £300 from the British government. Collections were taken up for several years in the town of Athy and realised the sum of £7,100 which with the compensation already paid financed the building of a new Church on a swampy site believed to have been donated by the Duke of Leinster. It was built in 1808 and remained in continuous use until 1960.
The events of March 1800 were fortunately not repeated in May 2010 and the second St. Michael’s Parish Church on the same site at the edge of Clonmullin Commons will hopefully continue for quite a long time yet to serve as our Parish Church.
Two weeks ago I posed the question as to the name of the Athy man who held the position of Provost of Trinity College long before the late Bill Watts, formerly of Barrack Yard. The correct answer was Richard Baldwin and it came from a reader in Australia. Mike Robinson, an old school friend of mine, contacted me by email with the answer. I will hopefully write of Provost Baldwin in a future article.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Eye 912
Last week our community was attacked in a most mindless and vicious way when attempts were made to burn down St. Michael’s Parish Church. The culprit, and I suspect it was someone acting alone as it was highly unlikely that the criminal stupidity extended to more than one person, failed in his/her attempt to destroy what the people of Athy had worked so hard for over many years. It was Fr. John McLaughlin, the senior curate, who in the early 1950s first announced plans to replace the existing Church building erected almost 150 years previously. That Church which had served generations of Athy folk was built in 1808 on what was described at the time as ‘swampy ground’. It had formed part of the commons of Clonmullin which from medieval times had been the local commonage enjoyed by the people of Athy for grazing animals. The present Church was opened on 19th April 1964.
The first Catholic Church erected in the town following the Reformation was located in Chapel Lane on the left hand side as one approached from Leinster Street. It was built at a time when the main street of Athy was still called High Street, having acquired that name hundreds of years previously. The Duke of Leinster’s family who were the largest property owners in the town would give their names to the streets of our ancient town following the extension of the Grand Canal to Athy in 1791.
I believe the Parish Church in Chapel Lane to have been built about 1720 as the Penal Laws began to be relaxed. The date of its erection is not noted anywhere that I can find and I give the year 1720 as official reports for 1731 noted that two priests had charge of Athy Chapel. The Dominicans, who had been banished from Athy over 30 years previously, would appear to have returned to the town in 1735 when records show that a Prior had been appointed to head up the Athy Friary.
Unlike the Church building programme which followed the granting of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, Church buildings of the early 18th century were not ostentatious buildings and were for the most part confined to side streets and out of the way places so as not to draw adverse attention to Catholic worship. Chapel Lane presumably acquired its name from the siting there of the Parish Church and the name remained long after the Church itself was no more.
Athy’s Parish Church in Chapel Lane, unlike many of its counterparts throughout the country, survived the civil unrest of 1798. However, two years later it was torched and burned to the ground in an arson attack on the night of 7th March 1800.
Three local men were arrested and lodged in White’s Castle Gaol on the following 14th April. Their imprisonment was not due to any involvement in the burning of the Church but arose from their alleged attempt to implicate a soldier of the South Cork Militia and two local yeomen in the attack on St. Michael’s Church. Timothy Sullivan, a member of the South Cork Militia which was then stationed in Athy, had sworn information against them. He claimed that he was on security duty ‘at the gate next to Mrs. Dooley’s house on the night the Chapel of Athy was burned.’ Continuing he swore that he was solicited by James Noud and later by Fr. Patrick Kelly and Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine to swear against John McKeon of the Cork Militia and two local men John Drill and John Willock. Sullivan’s sworn Affidavit led to the arrest and imprisonment of Noud and two other local men Patrick Dooley and Joseph Hendrecan. What eventually happened to them I cannot say.
The Parish Priest, Fr. Maurice Keegan, filed a compensation claim and received a payment of £300 from the British government. Collections were taken up for several years in the town of Athy and realised the sum of £7,100 which with the compensation already paid financed the building of a new Church on a swampy site believed to have been donated by the Duke of Leinster. It was built in 1808 and remained in continuous use until 1960.
The events of March 1800 were fortunately not repeated in May 2010 and the second St. Michael’s Parish Church on the same site at the edge of Clonmullin Commons will hopefully continue for quite a long time yet to serve as our Parish Church.
Two weeks ago I posed the question as to the name of the Athy man who held the position of Provost of Trinity College long before the late Bill Watts, formerly of Barrack Yard. The correct answer was Richard Baldwin and it came from a reader in Australia. Mike Robinson, an old school friend of mine, contacted me by email with the answer. I will hopefully write of Provost Baldwin in a future article.
The first Catholic Church erected in the town following the Reformation was located in Chapel Lane on the left hand side as one approached from Leinster Street. It was built at a time when the main street of Athy was still called High Street, having acquired that name hundreds of years previously. The Duke of Leinster’s family who were the largest property owners in the town would give their names to the streets of our ancient town following the extension of the Grand Canal to Athy in 1791.
I believe the Parish Church in Chapel Lane to have been built about 1720 as the Penal Laws began to be relaxed. The date of its erection is not noted anywhere that I can find and I give the year 1720 as official reports for 1731 noted that two priests had charge of Athy Chapel. The Dominicans, who had been banished from Athy over 30 years previously, would appear to have returned to the town in 1735 when records show that a Prior had been appointed to head up the Athy Friary.
Unlike the Church building programme which followed the granting of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, Church buildings of the early 18th century were not ostentatious buildings and were for the most part confined to side streets and out of the way places so as not to draw adverse attention to Catholic worship. Chapel Lane presumably acquired its name from the siting there of the Parish Church and the name remained long after the Church itself was no more.
Athy’s Parish Church in Chapel Lane, unlike many of its counterparts throughout the country, survived the civil unrest of 1798. However, two years later it was torched and burned to the ground in an arson attack on the night of 7th March 1800.
Three local men were arrested and lodged in White’s Castle Gaol on the following 14th April. Their imprisonment was not due to any involvement in the burning of the Church but arose from their alleged attempt to implicate a soldier of the South Cork Militia and two local yeomen in the attack on St. Michael’s Church. Timothy Sullivan, a member of the South Cork Militia which was then stationed in Athy, had sworn information against them. He claimed that he was on security duty ‘at the gate next to Mrs. Dooley’s house on the night the Chapel of Athy was burned.’ Continuing he swore that he was solicited by James Noud and later by Fr. Patrick Kelly and Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine to swear against John McKeon of the Cork Militia and two local men John Drill and John Willock. Sullivan’s sworn Affidavit led to the arrest and imprisonment of Noud and two other local men Patrick Dooley and Joseph Hendrecan. What eventually happened to them I cannot say.
The Parish Priest, Fr. Maurice Keegan, filed a compensation claim and received a payment of £300 from the British government. Collections were taken up for several years in the town of Athy and realised the sum of £7,100 which with the compensation already paid financed the building of a new Church on a swampy site believed to have been donated by the Duke of Leinster. It was built in 1808 and remained in continuous use until 1960.
The events of March 1800 were fortunately not repeated in May 2010 and the second St. Michael’s Parish Church on the same site at the edge of Clonmullin Commons will hopefully continue for quite a long time yet to serve as our Parish Church.
Two weeks ago I posed the question as to the name of the Athy man who held the position of Provost of Trinity College long before the late Bill Watts, formerly of Barrack Yard. The correct answer was Richard Baldwin and it came from a reader in Australia. Mike Robinson, an old school friend of mine, contacted me by email with the answer. I will hopefully write of Provost Baldwin in a future article.
Eye 911
A review of the Development Plan for the town of Athy has commenced and last week a meeting was arranged for the Carlton Abbey Hotel as part of the public consultation process required under Irish planning legislation. Arranged by Athy Town Council with the assistance of planning officials from Kildare County Council it drew a disappointingly small response from the local people who will be directly affected by what’s included in the Development Plan and by the planning decisions which will result. The local attendance just about exceeded the number of Council officials at the meeting, but surprisingly not a single elected member of the Town Council attended.
Planning is a subject which excites, alarms, disturbs and occasionally pleases or satisfies, but not always in equal measure and seldom, if ever, does one find the entire community sharing the same views on any planning issue. It is surprising therefore to see such a lethargic public response to the well publicised notices of the meeting which was organised specifically as an integral part of the consultation process for reviewing the Town Development Plan.
The same week as the planning meeting was held, Kildare County Council erected a modified version of the Dublin ‘spire’ in Emily Square prompting an enormous degree of discussion and dissatisfaction amongst Athy people. Seldom have I met so many who expressed themselves as unhappy with the Athy ‘spire’ and who seemed anxious to know my views on the matter ‘given that Athy is a Heritage town’. My non committal response probably surprised many, for I am quite frankly less than enamoured of the Heritage town label being used as grounds for justifying one’s opposition to any type of development in the town. As for the ‘spire’ itself, like its bigger Dublin brother it is in my view an ugly intrusion into the town centre streetscape.
Given the earlier mentioned public consultation on the revision of the Town Development Plan it was surprising to find that no consultation whatsoever took place with the Town Council before Kildare County Council erected the ‘spire’ in Emily Square. As Athy Town Council and Kildare County Council are two separate and distinct corporate bodies it is reasonable to assume that the permission of the Town Council would be sought before Kildare County Council erected anything on a public open space within the functional area of the other local authority. I believe no such permission was sought or obtained – so much for local democracy.
Returning to the planning consultation meeting the Heritage town issue again raised its head, this time in the context of its possible deterrent effect on the development of the town of Athy. A lazy interpretation I felt of the real causes of the town’s ills.
Athy’s major problem is due solely to the town father’s failure to provide a road infrastructure capable of taking heavy goods vehicles and all the through traffic away from the retailing centre of the town. If the long awaited Southern by-pass was in place the independent retailers on the main street would be encouraged to develop a town shopping experience to rival anything offered by shopping centres in adjoining towns. The Southern Distribution Route would also help create better opportunities for industrial development than is now possible with the current traffic gridlocked streets. Athy needs industry, particularly so having regard to the apparent likelihood of Minch Nortons succumbing to corporate ‘plundermania’, which as in the case of the Irish sugar industry sees more financial advantage in closing factories and importing goods rather than employing local manpower in manufacturing.
The Town Development Plan needs to address not only the traffic issue but also how the planning process for Athy can best serve the local community’s needs for industrial development and improved retailing facilities in the town. The future for retailing in Athy in my view is best served by the development and improvement of independent shops in the town centre rather than on supermarket developments on the outskirts of Athy. There are many other matters affecting the future of Athy which need to be addressed in the new Development Plan, only one of which I will mention. It is the urgent need for a coherent plan for the development of the town’s waterways and trackways to maximise their potential use by locals and visitors alike.
The building of the Southern Distribution Route coupled with a parking policy which encourages shoppers to shop in Athy will provide the impetus for the regrowth of the town retailing centre. The road is vital but even more so is an imaginative approach to encouraging the development of the towns commercial, industrial and cultural needs for the benefit of all, making Athy a better place in which to live and work.
I understand that the Town Council will be accepting submissions on the Town Development Plan up to 27th May.
Planning is a subject which excites, alarms, disturbs and occasionally pleases or satisfies, but not always in equal measure and seldom, if ever, does one find the entire community sharing the same views on any planning issue. It is surprising therefore to see such a lethargic public response to the well publicised notices of the meeting which was organised specifically as an integral part of the consultation process for reviewing the Town Development Plan.
The same week as the planning meeting was held, Kildare County Council erected a modified version of the Dublin ‘spire’ in Emily Square prompting an enormous degree of discussion and dissatisfaction amongst Athy people. Seldom have I met so many who expressed themselves as unhappy with the Athy ‘spire’ and who seemed anxious to know my views on the matter ‘given that Athy is a Heritage town’. My non committal response probably surprised many, for I am quite frankly less than enamoured of the Heritage town label being used as grounds for justifying one’s opposition to any type of development in the town. As for the ‘spire’ itself, like its bigger Dublin brother it is in my view an ugly intrusion into the town centre streetscape.
Given the earlier mentioned public consultation on the revision of the Town Development Plan it was surprising to find that no consultation whatsoever took place with the Town Council before Kildare County Council erected the ‘spire’ in Emily Square. As Athy Town Council and Kildare County Council are two separate and distinct corporate bodies it is reasonable to assume that the permission of the Town Council would be sought before Kildare County Council erected anything on a public open space within the functional area of the other local authority. I believe no such permission was sought or obtained – so much for local democracy.
Returning to the planning consultation meeting the Heritage town issue again raised its head, this time in the context of its possible deterrent effect on the development of the town of Athy. A lazy interpretation I felt of the real causes of the town’s ills.
Athy’s major problem is due solely to the town father’s failure to provide a road infrastructure capable of taking heavy goods vehicles and all the through traffic away from the retailing centre of the town. If the long awaited Southern by-pass was in place the independent retailers on the main street would be encouraged to develop a town shopping experience to rival anything offered by shopping centres in adjoining towns. The Southern Distribution Route would also help create better opportunities for industrial development than is now possible with the current traffic gridlocked streets. Athy needs industry, particularly so having regard to the apparent likelihood of Minch Nortons succumbing to corporate ‘plundermania’, which as in the case of the Irish sugar industry sees more financial advantage in closing factories and importing goods rather than employing local manpower in manufacturing.
The Town Development Plan needs to address not only the traffic issue but also how the planning process for Athy can best serve the local community’s needs for industrial development and improved retailing facilities in the town. The future for retailing in Athy in my view is best served by the development and improvement of independent shops in the town centre rather than on supermarket developments on the outskirts of Athy. There are many other matters affecting the future of Athy which need to be addressed in the new Development Plan, only one of which I will mention. It is the urgent need for a coherent plan for the development of the town’s waterways and trackways to maximise their potential use by locals and visitors alike.
The building of the Southern Distribution Route coupled with a parking policy which encourages shoppers to shop in Athy will provide the impetus for the regrowth of the town retailing centre. The road is vital but even more so is an imaginative approach to encouraging the development of the towns commercial, industrial and cultural needs for the benefit of all, making Athy a better place in which to live and work.
I understand that the Town Council will be accepting submissions on the Town Development Plan up to 27th May.
Eye 910
A ‘Cultural Desert’ is how Athy was once described to me. There may have been an element of truth in that claim at a time when the town, having lost its cinema and its Town Hall ballroom, was also regretting the closure of Dreamland. It was that barn of a building on the Kilkenny Road which brought so much joy into the lives of the younger generation of Athy folk in the 60s and the 70s. A cultural oasis it was not, but somehow the Showband scene in which Athy’s Dreamland played such a prominent part was all we needed in those far off days to live out our dreams and brighten lives which were played out in the relatively unsophisticated Ireland of the 1960s.
Nowadays our lives have changed. Our expectations are much higher than they were 40 or so years ago. We demand a greater variety and a range of leisure activity than ever before and Athy which has always boasted some of the finest field sport facilities in the county of Kildare has of recent times come to life insofar as cultural pursuits are concerned. The ‘cultural desert’ began to retreat when Athy was designated a Heritage Town and obtained Bord Failte finance to develop the ground floor of the old Market House and Town Hall as a heritage centre. This development allowed what was previously an underused building of character and of no little architectural merit located in a prime location in the centres of the town to host lectures, exhibitions and festivals including the Shackleton Autumn School and the annual Medieval Festival.
In recent weeks we have witnessed the opening of the newly formed Athy Film Club based in the fine 60 seater auditorium in the newly built Athy College and the opening of the Community Arts Centre in Woodstock Street. The ‘cultural desert’ has finally disappeared and Athy can now boast a range of activities to meet the most exacting of local demands. As I write a piano recital by concert pianist Seiko Tsukomoto is scheduled for Friday night in the Arts Centre and over the next few weeks the Centre will host a series of concerts, performances and recitals, all of which are deserving of support.
On May Day the Community Arts Centre hosted an afternoon series of lectures on the development of Trade Unionism amongst the agricultural workers of South Kildare which was followed by an evening of songs and story by an American Professor of Literature who is based in England. Will Kaufman gave a wonderful rendition of some of Woody Guthrie’s songs interlaced with an invigorating and instructive commentary on American history of the 1930s and ‘40s. It proved to be one of the best performances I have enjoyed this or last year.
The Athy Heritage Centre is moving towards achieving museum status and when this happens the Centre will hopefully be able to display material, particularly artefacts found over the years in the South Kildare area, which are presently in storage in the National Museum in Dublin. If and when Museum status is granted it will represent a major advancement for the town of Athy.
The Heritage Centre, the Arts Centre and the Cinema Club could not and cannot survive without your support so this gentle reminder to all readers to make use of these great cultural local outlets whenever you can.
I learned of the recent death of Bill Watts, former Provost of Trinity College, whose early days were spent in Athy where he attended the Model School. I first met Bill some years ago, following which I wrote an Eye on the Past on the Athy man, whom I then believed, had been the only man from the South Kildare town to head up Ireland’s oldest and most famous university. In his autobiography published about a year and a half ago Bill devoted a chapter to his youthful life in Athy and it was at the launch of the book in the Long Library of Trinity College that I last met him. His passing is much regretted.
Incidentally I have recently come across another Athy man who also held the position of Provost of Trinity College. A copy of Volume III of Eye on Athy’s Past book to the first reader who can give me that man’s name.
The local Lions Club opened its Saturday bookshop at Leinster Street on Saturday. It will be open for the sale of second hand books each Saturday from 12 – 5pm for the foreseeable future. Used books can also be donated for re-sale, with all proceeds going to local charities.
Nowadays our lives have changed. Our expectations are much higher than they were 40 or so years ago. We demand a greater variety and a range of leisure activity than ever before and Athy which has always boasted some of the finest field sport facilities in the county of Kildare has of recent times come to life insofar as cultural pursuits are concerned. The ‘cultural desert’ began to retreat when Athy was designated a Heritage Town and obtained Bord Failte finance to develop the ground floor of the old Market House and Town Hall as a heritage centre. This development allowed what was previously an underused building of character and of no little architectural merit located in a prime location in the centres of the town to host lectures, exhibitions and festivals including the Shackleton Autumn School and the annual Medieval Festival.
In recent weeks we have witnessed the opening of the newly formed Athy Film Club based in the fine 60 seater auditorium in the newly built Athy College and the opening of the Community Arts Centre in Woodstock Street. The ‘cultural desert’ has finally disappeared and Athy can now boast a range of activities to meet the most exacting of local demands. As I write a piano recital by concert pianist Seiko Tsukomoto is scheduled for Friday night in the Arts Centre and over the next few weeks the Centre will host a series of concerts, performances and recitals, all of which are deserving of support.
On May Day the Community Arts Centre hosted an afternoon series of lectures on the development of Trade Unionism amongst the agricultural workers of South Kildare which was followed by an evening of songs and story by an American Professor of Literature who is based in England. Will Kaufman gave a wonderful rendition of some of Woody Guthrie’s songs interlaced with an invigorating and instructive commentary on American history of the 1930s and ‘40s. It proved to be one of the best performances I have enjoyed this or last year.
The Athy Heritage Centre is moving towards achieving museum status and when this happens the Centre will hopefully be able to display material, particularly artefacts found over the years in the South Kildare area, which are presently in storage in the National Museum in Dublin. If and when Museum status is granted it will represent a major advancement for the town of Athy.
The Heritage Centre, the Arts Centre and the Cinema Club could not and cannot survive without your support so this gentle reminder to all readers to make use of these great cultural local outlets whenever you can.
I learned of the recent death of Bill Watts, former Provost of Trinity College, whose early days were spent in Athy where he attended the Model School. I first met Bill some years ago, following which I wrote an Eye on the Past on the Athy man, whom I then believed, had been the only man from the South Kildare town to head up Ireland’s oldest and most famous university. In his autobiography published about a year and a half ago Bill devoted a chapter to his youthful life in Athy and it was at the launch of the book in the Long Library of Trinity College that I last met him. His passing is much regretted.
Incidentally I have recently come across another Athy man who also held the position of Provost of Trinity College. A copy of Volume III of Eye on Athy’s Past book to the first reader who can give me that man’s name.
The local Lions Club opened its Saturday bookshop at Leinster Street on Saturday. It will be open for the sale of second hand books each Saturday from 12 – 5pm for the foreseeable future. Used books can also be donated for re-sale, with all proceeds going to local charities.
Eye 909
In the Dorset town of Tolpuddle there is celebrated each year a festival to commemorate the sacrifices made by 6 farm labourers whose courageous stand against their bosses is often credited with the birth of the English trade union movement. Their stories are similar in many ways to that of their Irish counterparts although a few decades would pass before the Irish farm labourers would feel confident and strong enough to take on the landlord class.
In 1831/32 there was a general call amongst the English working classes for an increase in wages and the labouring men of Tolpuddle successfully negotiated, or so they had believed, a wage of 10 shillings per week. The agreement came to nought when the farmers reduced the wages, initially to 9 shillings, then 8 shillings and finally 7 shillings, threatening to reduce it even lower to 6 shillings per week. The men agreed to form what they called an Agricultural Labourers Friendly Society but was in affect a trade union in which each member took an oath. It was the taking of the oath which led to their downfall, oath taking being a crime punishable by transportation. Six Tolpuddle villagers were arrested and tried at nearby Dorchester Crown Court on the charge of administering and being bound by secret and unlawful oaths under an act passed in 1797. This act had been passed to deal specifically with the naval mutiny of that year but it was now used by the landlords of Dorset to entrap and punish their farm labourers.
It is interesting to note that 5 of the 6 charged were practising Methodist, 3 of them being lay Methodist preachers. Their leader was George Loveless, a well known local preacher aged 37 years, a married man with 3 small children. His brother James was 25 years old, had a wife and 2 children who was also a lay Methodist preacher. Thomas Standfield another local preacher was aged 44 years and the oldest of those charged. He was married to a sister of the Loveless brothers and had 6 children. Another man charged was John Standfield aged 21 years while James Brine, the youngest at 20 years was the only non-Methodist in the group. James Hammett another lay preacher aged 22 and married with one child was the sixth member.
Packed juries so familiar in the Irish legal system of the 19th century were also a common enough feature of English law enforcement and before a packed jury and a hostile Judge the inevitable verdict was obtained. All were found guilty and sentenced to 7 years transportation and within a month or so they were on convict ships sailing from Portsmouth destined for New South Wales and Van Diemens land. No doubt their fellow passengers included many Irish men and women who for a wide ranging series of petty offences suffered the same faith as the Tolpuddle men – 7 years transportation. Their conviction caused protests throughout England and the Government were forced to give the Tolpuddle farm labourers, by now in Australia and Van Diemens land, a free pardon after a period of two years.
They were allowed to return to England where they remained for some time before 5 of them emigrated to Canada. James Hammett alone remained on in Tolpuddle where he died in the local workhouse in 1891.
The men from Tolpuddle have been honoured as martyrs for trade unionism because their trial and punishment, no different than that suffered by many others, came at a time when trade unionism was finally emerging as a powerful antidote to the influence of the landlord and ruling classes. The cause of the Tolpuddle martyrs was seen as a defence of the right of the working man to freely and legally combine and form trade unions. The Tolpuddle martyrs were then and remain today symbols of a struggle which was to be played out through the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales and would somewhat belatedly cross the Irish sea to empower their Irish counterparts in their uneven struggle against poverty and deprivation.
In 1831/32 there was a general call amongst the English working classes for an increase in wages and the labouring men of Tolpuddle successfully negotiated, or so they had believed, a wage of 10 shillings per week. The agreement came to nought when the farmers reduced the wages, initially to 9 shillings, then 8 shillings and finally 7 shillings, threatening to reduce it even lower to 6 shillings per week. The men agreed to form what they called an Agricultural Labourers Friendly Society but was in affect a trade union in which each member took an oath. It was the taking of the oath which led to their downfall, oath taking being a crime punishable by transportation. Six Tolpuddle villagers were arrested and tried at nearby Dorchester Crown Court on the charge of administering and being bound by secret and unlawful oaths under an act passed in 1797. This act had been passed to deal specifically with the naval mutiny of that year but it was now used by the landlords of Dorset to entrap and punish their farm labourers.
It is interesting to note that 5 of the 6 charged were practising Methodist, 3 of them being lay Methodist preachers. Their leader was George Loveless, a well known local preacher aged 37 years, a married man with 3 small children. His brother James was 25 years old, had a wife and 2 children who was also a lay Methodist preacher. Thomas Standfield another local preacher was aged 44 years and the oldest of those charged. He was married to a sister of the Loveless brothers and had 6 children. Another man charged was John Standfield aged 21 years while James Brine, the youngest at 20 years was the only non-Methodist in the group. James Hammett another lay preacher aged 22 and married with one child was the sixth member.
Packed juries so familiar in the Irish legal system of the 19th century were also a common enough feature of English law enforcement and before a packed jury and a hostile Judge the inevitable verdict was obtained. All were found guilty and sentenced to 7 years transportation and within a month or so they were on convict ships sailing from Portsmouth destined for New South Wales and Van Diemens land. No doubt their fellow passengers included many Irish men and women who for a wide ranging series of petty offences suffered the same faith as the Tolpuddle men – 7 years transportation. Their conviction caused protests throughout England and the Government were forced to give the Tolpuddle farm labourers, by now in Australia and Van Diemens land, a free pardon after a period of two years.
They were allowed to return to England where they remained for some time before 5 of them emigrated to Canada. James Hammett alone remained on in Tolpuddle where he died in the local workhouse in 1891.
The men from Tolpuddle have been honoured as martyrs for trade unionism because their trial and punishment, no different than that suffered by many others, came at a time when trade unionism was finally emerging as a powerful antidote to the influence of the landlord and ruling classes. The cause of the Tolpuddle martyrs was seen as a defence of the right of the working man to freely and legally combine and form trade unions. The Tolpuddle martyrs were then and remain today symbols of a struggle which was to be played out through the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales and would somewhat belatedly cross the Irish sea to empower their Irish counterparts in their uneven struggle against poverty and deprivation.
Eye 908
For an Athy person Barrowhouse is synonymous with the I.R.A. campaign during the War of Independence for the name conjures up images of an ambush which saw the tragic death of two young men from the Barrowhouse area. The Barrowhouse ambush has become part of the folklore of South Kildare and sustains perhaps Athy and district’s most tangible claim to have played its part in the fight for Irish freedom.
Barrowhouse is our next door neighbour and even though it lies across the County border of Leix it is forever linked with the town of Athy. The connection owes as much to the short distance between the two as it does to the vagrancies of Irish church history which places the County Laois townland within the dioceses of Dublin as part of the parish of St. Michael’s Athy. A short distance away its near neighbour Ballyadams is in the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.
How Barrowhouse on the west bank of the Gaelic Irish side of the River Barrow in medieval times came to be included in the Dublin diocese is a mystery. The Church of St. Mary’s, the only Chapel of Ease within the parish of St. Michaels, is reputed to have been built in the 1820s on a site donated by a Miss Fennell who lived in a thatched cottage to the left of the church. She would later leave her entire 15 acre holding to the local church. St. Mary’s, built in anticipation of the granting of Catholic emancipation, was the post penal law replacement for a church at Tankardstown which in pre-reformation days served as the local church for the people of Barrowhouse and Tankardstown. In Tankardstown graveyard today there can still be found some remains of that ancient church.
Soon after the building of the church at Barrowhouse work began on providing a small schoolhouse and it is believed that the building was completed in 1830. The school site had also been donated by Miss Fennell. Consisting of a large rectangular room the schoolhouse remained in use until a new school building was provided in 1998.
The first teacher in Barrowhouse is believed to have been a Hugh O’Connell and he was followed in later years by George Carmichael, John Fleming, Mr. J. Powell and Mr. and Mrs. J. Boylan, whose son was the eminent scholar and theologian Monsignor Patrick Boylan. The future Monsignor attended Barrowhouse School, as did another cleric, Rev. J.J. Malone who spent his priestly life in Australia. Fr. Malone was a writer and a poet and one of his better known poems was ‘The Old White Washed Schoolhouse of Shanganamore’ It was included in his book of poems ‘Wild Briar and Wattle Blossoms’ published in Melbourne in 1914 which carried a photograph of the old school. It included these lines,
‘I looked up the roll for the playmates of old -
Some were lying ‘neath the grass in the chapel-yard mould,
Some were tilling the fields where their childhood had flown,
And the roof that had sheltered their sires was their own;
Some had tempted the deep, and afar o’er the foam
Eat the bread of the stranger and hungered for home;
Some had followed the flag for the battlefield’s joy,
And the blare of the trumpet would madden the boy;
Some scrambled to fortune, some climbed unto fame,
And pawned their heart’s love to the lust of a name.
But the dead and the living came back to me there,
And the child sat again ‘mongst the children that were;
And the world of enchantment that swam from my ken,
Like a lost planet, rose in its glory again.
For memory, the wizard with magical power,
Flung around me the past, and I stood at that hour
By the well-spring of life and its fountain of lore,
In the old whitewashed schoolhouse of Shanganamore.’
The old whitewashed schoolhouse was closed by the Department of Education in 1975 and the two teachers, Eileen O’Connor, school principal and Frances Kelly were transferred to the newly opened school at Ballyroe. The proud people of Barrowhouse rallied to save their school and like the people of Dunquin in County Kerry whose school was also closed around the same time they kept the school open, paying the teachers out of their own pockets. Ignatius Brennan and Bernie Gibbons were employed and paid by the local community to keep Barrowhouse school open. In the face of the community’s commitment the Department of Education decided in 1976 to reopen the Barrowhouse School and Miss O’Connor and Mrs. Kelly were transferred back to their original positions. When Miss O’Connor retired in 1985 Gerry Mulholland was appointed principal and after many years campaigning a new school was built on a site adjoining the old school. The new school was opened in October 1998 with 44 pupils on the roll book and two teachers.
Barrowhouse school today has 78 pupils and three teachers, in addition to a special needs assistant, a resource teacher and a learning support teacher. The increase in pupil numbers has necessitated the building of an extension to the school and last Saturday Bishop Eamon Walsh blessed and officially opened that extension. Mrs. Pauline Lawlor who was appointed principal last September and Eibhlís Candy and Aoife Brennan and the rest of the Barrowhouse school staff shared in the delight of the local people in reaching yet another important milestone in the proud history of Barrowhouse community.
With the recent opening of the Community Arts Centre at Woodstock Street there is a cultural reawakening in our town. At different periods in its long history Athy was known as an Anglo Norman town, a fortress town, a settler’s town and a garrison town, but now with its various festivals including last weekend’s Medieval Festival Athy is fast becoming a centre for community art activities. Coming up is the Mayday celebrations scheduled for the Arts Centre sponsored by S.I.P.T.U. Starting at 2.00 p.m. on Saturday 1st May there will be a series of talks/lectures on labour history in South Kildare, followed by a concert in the evening. It should prove to be a most interesting event.
Barrowhouse is our next door neighbour and even though it lies across the County border of Leix it is forever linked with the town of Athy. The connection owes as much to the short distance between the two as it does to the vagrancies of Irish church history which places the County Laois townland within the dioceses of Dublin as part of the parish of St. Michael’s Athy. A short distance away its near neighbour Ballyadams is in the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.
How Barrowhouse on the west bank of the Gaelic Irish side of the River Barrow in medieval times came to be included in the Dublin diocese is a mystery. The Church of St. Mary’s, the only Chapel of Ease within the parish of St. Michaels, is reputed to have been built in the 1820s on a site donated by a Miss Fennell who lived in a thatched cottage to the left of the church. She would later leave her entire 15 acre holding to the local church. St. Mary’s, built in anticipation of the granting of Catholic emancipation, was the post penal law replacement for a church at Tankardstown which in pre-reformation days served as the local church for the people of Barrowhouse and Tankardstown. In Tankardstown graveyard today there can still be found some remains of that ancient church.
Soon after the building of the church at Barrowhouse work began on providing a small schoolhouse and it is believed that the building was completed in 1830. The school site had also been donated by Miss Fennell. Consisting of a large rectangular room the schoolhouse remained in use until a new school building was provided in 1998.
The first teacher in Barrowhouse is believed to have been a Hugh O’Connell and he was followed in later years by George Carmichael, John Fleming, Mr. J. Powell and Mr. and Mrs. J. Boylan, whose son was the eminent scholar and theologian Monsignor Patrick Boylan. The future Monsignor attended Barrowhouse School, as did another cleric, Rev. J.J. Malone who spent his priestly life in Australia. Fr. Malone was a writer and a poet and one of his better known poems was ‘The Old White Washed Schoolhouse of Shanganamore’ It was included in his book of poems ‘Wild Briar and Wattle Blossoms’ published in Melbourne in 1914 which carried a photograph of the old school. It included these lines,
‘I looked up the roll for the playmates of old -
Some were lying ‘neath the grass in the chapel-yard mould,
Some were tilling the fields where their childhood had flown,
And the roof that had sheltered their sires was their own;
Some had tempted the deep, and afar o’er the foam
Eat the bread of the stranger and hungered for home;
Some had followed the flag for the battlefield’s joy,
And the blare of the trumpet would madden the boy;
Some scrambled to fortune, some climbed unto fame,
And pawned their heart’s love to the lust of a name.
But the dead and the living came back to me there,
And the child sat again ‘mongst the children that were;
And the world of enchantment that swam from my ken,
Like a lost planet, rose in its glory again.
For memory, the wizard with magical power,
Flung around me the past, and I stood at that hour
By the well-spring of life and its fountain of lore,
In the old whitewashed schoolhouse of Shanganamore.’
The old whitewashed schoolhouse was closed by the Department of Education in 1975 and the two teachers, Eileen O’Connor, school principal and Frances Kelly were transferred to the newly opened school at Ballyroe. The proud people of Barrowhouse rallied to save their school and like the people of Dunquin in County Kerry whose school was also closed around the same time they kept the school open, paying the teachers out of their own pockets. Ignatius Brennan and Bernie Gibbons were employed and paid by the local community to keep Barrowhouse school open. In the face of the community’s commitment the Department of Education decided in 1976 to reopen the Barrowhouse School and Miss O’Connor and Mrs. Kelly were transferred back to their original positions. When Miss O’Connor retired in 1985 Gerry Mulholland was appointed principal and after many years campaigning a new school was built on a site adjoining the old school. The new school was opened in October 1998 with 44 pupils on the roll book and two teachers.
Barrowhouse school today has 78 pupils and three teachers, in addition to a special needs assistant, a resource teacher and a learning support teacher. The increase in pupil numbers has necessitated the building of an extension to the school and last Saturday Bishop Eamon Walsh blessed and officially opened that extension. Mrs. Pauline Lawlor who was appointed principal last September and Eibhlís Candy and Aoife Brennan and the rest of the Barrowhouse school staff shared in the delight of the local people in reaching yet another important milestone in the proud history of Barrowhouse community.
With the recent opening of the Community Arts Centre at Woodstock Street there is a cultural reawakening in our town. At different periods in its long history Athy was known as an Anglo Norman town, a fortress town, a settler’s town and a garrison town, but now with its various festivals including last weekend’s Medieval Festival Athy is fast becoming a centre for community art activities. Coming up is the Mayday celebrations scheduled for the Arts Centre sponsored by S.I.P.T.U. Starting at 2.00 p.m. on Saturday 1st May there will be a series of talks/lectures on labour history in South Kildare, followed by a concert in the evening. It should prove to be a most interesting event.
Eye 907
The Kildare County Show offices will be opened at Leinster Street, Athy in premises which in recent years was home to Gerry O’Sullivan’s video business. Courtesy of the present owners Raggett Builders and the County Show Committee the premises will also be shared on Saturdays with Athy Lions Club. This voluntary charitable organisation has been operating in Athy since 1971 and will hold its second hand book sale on the premises each Saturday from 12noon until 5pm commencing on 8th May.
The Lions Club Book Sale has in the past been an annual event held over a weekend and has always been welcomed by many local people who enjoy reading. For a few Saturdays commencing on Saturday 8th May the Lions Book Sale will be held in the Leinster Street premises and as in the past Club members would welcome donations of paperbacks or hardback books of any description.
Over the weekdays the County Show Offices will be open in the same premises to provide information and help for anyone willing to book exhibition space or enter any of the events scheduled for the County Agriculture Show on 20th June. The Kildare County Show is fast approaching its centenary and it has gone from strength to strength since its recent revival following a lapse of some years. The colourful event has enjoyed a great following, not only by the rural communities but also by the people of Athy town who take immense pride in what is one of rural Ireland’s finest agricultural shows.
The co-operation between the Agricultural Show Committee and the local Lions Club is a fine example of community action and the addition, albeit for a temporary period, of a second hand book shop amongst the shopping experiences on the main street of the town will be most welcome.
Amongst the recent donations of books to the Lions Club was a signed copy of John Minihan’s photographic essay on Athy and its people which was published in 1996. ‘Shadows from the Pale’ with an introduction by Irish writer Eugene McCabe is a book of photographs taken by John Minihan in Athy over a 35 year period. The photographs of local people and buildings were exhibited throughout the world and evoked a highly positive response, including a claim by Harold Hobson, the noted critic, that Minihan’s photos were ‘sublime’.
‘Shadows from the Pale’ is a most important photographic record of our town and the book signed by John Minihan will be available for sale with all proceeds going to local charities. Since the publication of the book 14 years ago I have never come across a copy of the book for sale in any book shop in Ireland or England and so this copy presents a unique opportunity to acquire an extremely rare publication. The book is offered for sale to the highest bidder and given that a local charity will benefit from the sale proceeds I hope that there will be a generous response. Anyone willing to put a bid on this unique book can contact me or else call to the book sales office on Leinster Street on any Saturday from 12 noon until 5.00 p.m. commencing 8th May. The book will be sold to the person making the highest bid and bids will be received up to 5.00 p.m. on Saturday 15th May next.
There will be lots of other interesting books on sale at very reasonable prices at the Lions book shop. One book which however will not be on the shelves is one which I purchased in a second hand book shop in Charing Cross Road, London a few weeks ago. ‘Maces, Swords and Other Insignia of Offices of Irish Corporations’ was published in 1898 by the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland in a limited run of 50 copies for presentation by the author. It was a reprint with additions and corrections from the journal of the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland Volume 1 No. 2 and dealt chiefly with maces, swords and office insignia exhibited in the Society’s exhibition held in Dublin in 1895.
My interest in the book stemmed from the extensive coverage given to the Athy mace which was described as ‘one of the handsomest maces in Ireland’. I have previously written of the Athy mace in Eye No. 749 but much of the detailed information in the recently acquired book was not then available to me. The author is generous in his praise of the 18th century mace which in 1898 was to be found in Carton House, then the residence of the Duke of Leinster. He described it as ‘a magnificent specimen of Irish works in the middle of the last century and will probably be regarded as the finest of its kind.’
The mace had several Dublin hallmarks, including a small ‘w’ being the mark of Dublin silversmith John Williamson who made the mace. It was presented by James Earl of Kildare on 29th September 1746 to the Borough of Athy. He had succeeded to the Kildare Earldom following the death of his father in 1744 having served as a Member of Parliament for Athy for three years previously. He was later created the first Duke of Leinster. Interestingly he was father to Lord Edward Fitzgerald and to William the Second Duke of Leinster whose name is recalled in the main streets of Athy, William, Duke and Leinster.
On the rim around the head of the mace is engraved, ‘This Mace presented to John Butler Esq. by the Corporation of Athy – Nov. 1841’. Butler was admitted as one of the twelve burgesses of Athy in 1822 and served as Town Sovereign in 1833 and again in 1841 when Athy Corporation was dissolved. From his son Thomas the Athy mace was purchased by the Duke of Leinster in January 1876. I had always believed that Rev. F. Trench, the local rector, was the last Sovereign of Athy Borough but the presentation of the mace to Butler would tend to cast doubt on this. The Athy mace was sold by Sothebys in London in 1982 and a London silversmith outbid the then County Librarian Sean O’Conchubhair who had been authorised by the then County Manager Gerry Ward to bid up to 10,000 pounds for the unique artefact of local history. It was later sold to an American collector who presented it to the Museum of Art in San Antonio in Texas where it is now on permanent exhibition.
The Lions Club Book Sale has in the past been an annual event held over a weekend and has always been welcomed by many local people who enjoy reading. For a few Saturdays commencing on Saturday 8th May the Lions Book Sale will be held in the Leinster Street premises and as in the past Club members would welcome donations of paperbacks or hardback books of any description.
Over the weekdays the County Show Offices will be open in the same premises to provide information and help for anyone willing to book exhibition space or enter any of the events scheduled for the County Agriculture Show on 20th June. The Kildare County Show is fast approaching its centenary and it has gone from strength to strength since its recent revival following a lapse of some years. The colourful event has enjoyed a great following, not only by the rural communities but also by the people of Athy town who take immense pride in what is one of rural Ireland’s finest agricultural shows.
The co-operation between the Agricultural Show Committee and the local Lions Club is a fine example of community action and the addition, albeit for a temporary period, of a second hand book shop amongst the shopping experiences on the main street of the town will be most welcome.
Amongst the recent donations of books to the Lions Club was a signed copy of John Minihan’s photographic essay on Athy and its people which was published in 1996. ‘Shadows from the Pale’ with an introduction by Irish writer Eugene McCabe is a book of photographs taken by John Minihan in Athy over a 35 year period. The photographs of local people and buildings were exhibited throughout the world and evoked a highly positive response, including a claim by Harold Hobson, the noted critic, that Minihan’s photos were ‘sublime’.
‘Shadows from the Pale’ is a most important photographic record of our town and the book signed by John Minihan will be available for sale with all proceeds going to local charities. Since the publication of the book 14 years ago I have never come across a copy of the book for sale in any book shop in Ireland or England and so this copy presents a unique opportunity to acquire an extremely rare publication. The book is offered for sale to the highest bidder and given that a local charity will benefit from the sale proceeds I hope that there will be a generous response. Anyone willing to put a bid on this unique book can contact me or else call to the book sales office on Leinster Street on any Saturday from 12 noon until 5.00 p.m. commencing 8th May. The book will be sold to the person making the highest bid and bids will be received up to 5.00 p.m. on Saturday 15th May next.
There will be lots of other interesting books on sale at very reasonable prices at the Lions book shop. One book which however will not be on the shelves is one which I purchased in a second hand book shop in Charing Cross Road, London a few weeks ago. ‘Maces, Swords and Other Insignia of Offices of Irish Corporations’ was published in 1898 by the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland in a limited run of 50 copies for presentation by the author. It was a reprint with additions and corrections from the journal of the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland Volume 1 No. 2 and dealt chiefly with maces, swords and office insignia exhibited in the Society’s exhibition held in Dublin in 1895.
My interest in the book stemmed from the extensive coverage given to the Athy mace which was described as ‘one of the handsomest maces in Ireland’. I have previously written of the Athy mace in Eye No. 749 but much of the detailed information in the recently acquired book was not then available to me. The author is generous in his praise of the 18th century mace which in 1898 was to be found in Carton House, then the residence of the Duke of Leinster. He described it as ‘a magnificent specimen of Irish works in the middle of the last century and will probably be regarded as the finest of its kind.’
The mace had several Dublin hallmarks, including a small ‘w’ being the mark of Dublin silversmith John Williamson who made the mace. It was presented by James Earl of Kildare on 29th September 1746 to the Borough of Athy. He had succeeded to the Kildare Earldom following the death of his father in 1744 having served as a Member of Parliament for Athy for three years previously. He was later created the first Duke of Leinster. Interestingly he was father to Lord Edward Fitzgerald and to William the Second Duke of Leinster whose name is recalled in the main streets of Athy, William, Duke and Leinster.
On the rim around the head of the mace is engraved, ‘This Mace presented to John Butler Esq. by the Corporation of Athy – Nov. 1841’. Butler was admitted as one of the twelve burgesses of Athy in 1822 and served as Town Sovereign in 1833 and again in 1841 when Athy Corporation was dissolved. From his son Thomas the Athy mace was purchased by the Duke of Leinster in January 1876. I had always believed that Rev. F. Trench, the local rector, was the last Sovereign of Athy Borough but the presentation of the mace to Butler would tend to cast doubt on this. The Athy mace was sold by Sothebys in London in 1982 and a London silversmith outbid the then County Librarian Sean O’Conchubhair who had been authorised by the then County Manager Gerry Ward to bid up to 10,000 pounds for the unique artefact of local history. It was later sold to an American collector who presented it to the Museum of Art in San Antonio in Texas where it is now on permanent exhibition.
Eye 906
I travelled on the new road leading from Gallowshill to the M9 motorway over the Easter weekend and marvelled at the previously unseen landscapes which the changing geography of the district has now opened up for us. The previously circuitous route via Shanrath and Foxhill leading to the village of Ballitore has been replaced with a direct route which leaves what was once the meandering track way of medieval man and beast, like a modern day castaway. Almost, but not quite superfluous, the ancient roadway now serves as a way of passage to dwelling houses which over the decades sprang up amidst the quietness of a rural setting.
The geography of this part of South Kildare has been changed in much the same way as the original road from Athy to Dublin was changed two hundred years or so ago to give us the straight stretches of roadway on either side of the Moat of Ardscull two hundred years or so ago. The old Dublin Road ran a few hundred yards to the east of the Moat but why it was changed I do not know. As the old road approached Athy it passed through the lands of Gallowshill, as did its 18th century replacement and as still does the new 21st century roadway.
Gallowshill was then a much more important part of the town’s geography than it is today. As the name confirms it was the site of the town’s gallows which stood as a permanent reminder of the fate which awaited those who infringed the law. Property rights in the 17th and 18th centuries and earlier were far more important than the right to life and the death penalty was applied rigorously for what might now appear to have been the most minor of offences. The path to Gallowshill was a well trodden one as the unfortunate miscreants were brought to the public place of execution where afterwards their bodies were left on the gallows as a deterrent to others.
A decade or so ago when excavations were being carried out on sandpits at Gallowshill a number of skeletal remains were found. In all probability these were the remains of some unfortunates who breathed their last on the town gallows at Gallowshill. Now as we approach the new Gallowshill roundabout we can be forgiven for overlooking the history of a place which in another age struck fear and loathing in the hearts of so many. Its story may never be fully known.
On another side of the town, this time out on the Carlow Road, there remains another new roadway awaiting completion. The Ardreigh bypass, which was the subject of much comment after the costly rediscovery of the medieval village of Ardreigh, will hopefully be finished before the year is out. In the meantime the archaeologists who spent so much time and money on excavating the Ardreigh site have provided a multi volume preliminary report on their findings.
The findings indicated that the Ardreigh site was of regional and possibly national importance. As in Gallowshill where the road alignment was changed over the centuries, it was clear that the medieval village of Ardreigh was served by a road which ran to the east of the present roadway.
A quite enormous amount of medieval material and artefacts was unearthed at Ardreigh during the archaeological excavations which commenced in 2000 and initially lasted for just over three years. The site was not worked on again until 2007 and was finally completed approximately a year later. In addition to medieval material the site also gave up evidence of prehistoric life, including a Neolithic stone axe head, as well as several sherids of prehistoric pottery and flint tools. One of the most important finds on the excavated site was an intact late Bronze Age pot. The findings all point to the Ardreigh site being a settlement dating from prehistoric through to medieval times.
The existing graveyard at Ardreigh was always assumed to have been the more modern successor of an ancient burial ground and the finding of nearly 1300 skeletal remains outside the eastern boundary wall of the graveyard confirms that the commonly held belief was indeed correct. The ‘Lost’ graveyard would appear to have held an unusually large number of child skeletons, an obvious indication of the high mortality rate in medieval times. Where however was the explanation for the five skeletons found buried outside the medieval graveyard boundary? Three skeletons were buried in the same grave which might indicate individuals executed for some criminal offence or other. The traditional Christian practice of burying corpses on their backs with their heads to the west and their eyes to the east was practiced during the life of the Ardreigh settlement. Incidentally it is a practice which was and is still followed in Old St. Michael’s cemetery but not in new St. Michaels where corpses are buried in a north south orientation.
The finding of the remains of large lime kilns, lime storage pots and industrial hearths, together with corn drying kilns, fragments of quern stones and the remains of some medieval structures points to Ardreigh having been the site of a substantial settlement. Its importance in terms of Irish archaeology awaits the outcome of further studies including carbon dating and Ardreigh may well prove to have had an early Christian existence. No matter what further findings are made Ardreigh has provided a unique collection of artefacts which adds enormously to the heritage resources of the area. The concern must be that those artefacts can eventually be restored to this area to help us redefine and clarify our prehistoric and medieval past.
The skeletal remains which were removed from the site for analysis will presumably be eventually returned to Ardreigh for re-internment. Would it be too much to hope for the recreation on the ‘idle’ land between the old and new road of the Ardreigh medieval village as found by the archaeologists?
My thanks to the readers who contacted me about the cast of Mary Mullans’ play, ‘The Turn of the Wheel’. Unfortunately no one has yet turned up a photograph of the cast, although I believe that such a photograph exists. If you can help me in my quest I would be delighted to hear from you.
The geography of this part of South Kildare has been changed in much the same way as the original road from Athy to Dublin was changed two hundred years or so ago to give us the straight stretches of roadway on either side of the Moat of Ardscull two hundred years or so ago. The old Dublin Road ran a few hundred yards to the east of the Moat but why it was changed I do not know. As the old road approached Athy it passed through the lands of Gallowshill, as did its 18th century replacement and as still does the new 21st century roadway.
Gallowshill was then a much more important part of the town’s geography than it is today. As the name confirms it was the site of the town’s gallows which stood as a permanent reminder of the fate which awaited those who infringed the law. Property rights in the 17th and 18th centuries and earlier were far more important than the right to life and the death penalty was applied rigorously for what might now appear to have been the most minor of offences. The path to Gallowshill was a well trodden one as the unfortunate miscreants were brought to the public place of execution where afterwards their bodies were left on the gallows as a deterrent to others.
A decade or so ago when excavations were being carried out on sandpits at Gallowshill a number of skeletal remains were found. In all probability these were the remains of some unfortunates who breathed their last on the town gallows at Gallowshill. Now as we approach the new Gallowshill roundabout we can be forgiven for overlooking the history of a place which in another age struck fear and loathing in the hearts of so many. Its story may never be fully known.
On another side of the town, this time out on the Carlow Road, there remains another new roadway awaiting completion. The Ardreigh bypass, which was the subject of much comment after the costly rediscovery of the medieval village of Ardreigh, will hopefully be finished before the year is out. In the meantime the archaeologists who spent so much time and money on excavating the Ardreigh site have provided a multi volume preliminary report on their findings.
The findings indicated that the Ardreigh site was of regional and possibly national importance. As in Gallowshill where the road alignment was changed over the centuries, it was clear that the medieval village of Ardreigh was served by a road which ran to the east of the present roadway.
A quite enormous amount of medieval material and artefacts was unearthed at Ardreigh during the archaeological excavations which commenced in 2000 and initially lasted for just over three years. The site was not worked on again until 2007 and was finally completed approximately a year later. In addition to medieval material the site also gave up evidence of prehistoric life, including a Neolithic stone axe head, as well as several sherids of prehistoric pottery and flint tools. One of the most important finds on the excavated site was an intact late Bronze Age pot. The findings all point to the Ardreigh site being a settlement dating from prehistoric through to medieval times.
The existing graveyard at Ardreigh was always assumed to have been the more modern successor of an ancient burial ground and the finding of nearly 1300 skeletal remains outside the eastern boundary wall of the graveyard confirms that the commonly held belief was indeed correct. The ‘Lost’ graveyard would appear to have held an unusually large number of child skeletons, an obvious indication of the high mortality rate in medieval times. Where however was the explanation for the five skeletons found buried outside the medieval graveyard boundary? Three skeletons were buried in the same grave which might indicate individuals executed for some criminal offence or other. The traditional Christian practice of burying corpses on their backs with their heads to the west and their eyes to the east was practiced during the life of the Ardreigh settlement. Incidentally it is a practice which was and is still followed in Old St. Michael’s cemetery but not in new St. Michaels where corpses are buried in a north south orientation.
The finding of the remains of large lime kilns, lime storage pots and industrial hearths, together with corn drying kilns, fragments of quern stones and the remains of some medieval structures points to Ardreigh having been the site of a substantial settlement. Its importance in terms of Irish archaeology awaits the outcome of further studies including carbon dating and Ardreigh may well prove to have had an early Christian existence. No matter what further findings are made Ardreigh has provided a unique collection of artefacts which adds enormously to the heritage resources of the area. The concern must be that those artefacts can eventually be restored to this area to help us redefine and clarify our prehistoric and medieval past.
The skeletal remains which were removed from the site for analysis will presumably be eventually returned to Ardreigh for re-internment. Would it be too much to hope for the recreation on the ‘idle’ land between the old and new road of the Ardreigh medieval village as found by the archaeologists?
My thanks to the readers who contacted me about the cast of Mary Mullans’ play, ‘The Turn of the Wheel’. Unfortunately no one has yet turned up a photograph of the cast, although I believe that such a photograph exists. If you can help me in my quest I would be delighted to hear from you.
Eye 905
I turned to Byrne’s ‘Dictionary of Irish Local History’ for a definition of the word ‘moat’ as found in the in the Moate of Ardscull. It’s a word missing from Byrnes authorative reference book but he does deal with the word ‘motte’, a word championed by archaeologists when writing of fortified earthworks constructed by the Anglo Normans during the late 12th century. The Ardscull earthworks is generally accepted to have its origins in the late 12th or early 13th century when the Anglo Normans controlled this part of the island of Ireland. Byrne’s definition of ‘motte’ as a ‘truncated conical mound of earth often motted, palisaded and surmounted by a wooden tower, together with a lower adjoining mound or courtyard known as a bailey’ is less engaging than that included in ‘The Companions to British History’, an epic tome of thousands of definitions, facts and origins compiled by its author the late Charles Arnold Baker. This amateur historian who died last year aged 90 years defined ‘motte’ as ‘a steep sided mound covered with turf and surrounded by a ditch. The motte was topped with palisade, occasionally broken by towers, and it contained the owners house. Below there was commonly an enclosure (bailey) which might, but in early days seldom did, surround the motte. It was fortified by ditch and bank with a palisade or thorn edge. This accommodated the garrison and their animals.’
Remarkably, despite general acceptance that the Motte of Ardscull is a 12th or 13th century manmade fortification of Anglo Norman origins, no reference to this enormous structure can be found in medieval documents. It was only in Cromwellian times that a reference was found to the Ardscull Motte. In 1654 the Book of General Orders noted a request from the inhabitants of south Kildare for the State to contribute towards the cost of finishing a fort, the building of which had commenced at the Motte of Ardscull.
The motte was mentioned in the Kildare Archaeological Society Journal of 1897 as standing ‘on the summit of the high ground which rises 140 feet above and 3 miles to the north east of the town of Athy.’ It rises to a height of 55 feet above ground level and as such is one of the more substantial mottes in Ireland.
If, as we believe, it was an early example of an Anglo Norman fortification then as the 13th century unfolded it led to the development of the Borough of Ardscull on a nearby site. The borough was a settlement with a right to self government and entitled its burgess holders to a burgage which was a medieval holding recognisable by a narrow street frontage and a long narrow garden behind the burgess’s house. Medieval Athy also enjoyed borough status, as did Moone village and recognisable remains of burgage holdings can still be seen at the rear of shops and houses on the southern side of Leinster Street in Athy. Unfortunately, while there were 160 burgages in the medieval borough of Ardscull, no trace of the borough remains, largely due to deep ploughing over the years which has effectively removed all evidence of the medieval settlement. Undoubtedly there are underground remains of the settlement which may in time yield up their secrets if an archaeological dig is ever undertaken in the area.
The borough would of course have had a church and reference is indeed found in the Dublin Diocesan records at the latter part of the 13th century to the Church in Ardscull which was linked with St. Patricks Cathedral in Dublin. The Church was approximately 1 km. south east of the Motte and while no feature of the Church building survives above ground there is a raised area within the graveyard which is believed to have been the Church site.
While Ardscull would appear to have formed part of the demesnes of the Lordship of Leinster it passed to the de Mohan family through the marriage of Reginald de Mohan to Isabel, the granddaughter and heiress of William Marshall who had succeeded Strongbow as Lord of Leinster. It was Marshall who founded the borough of Moone and he is also likely to have done the same at Ardscull.
The borough of Ardscull was burned in 1286 and at the same time the nearby village of Narraghmore was also destroyed. This may have prompted John de Mohan to surrender all the lands he held in the area to the English Crown in 1299. Soon thereafter the King granted Mohan’s land, which included Ardscull, to John Wogan. The Wogan family were later believed by some writers to have played a part in bringing the Dominican Order to Athy. That claim however remains unproven. Ardscull, as distinct from the Motte, figured prominently in the events of the day and in 1309, on Candlemas Day, Lord John Bonneville was killed at Ardscull by Lord Arnold Powre and his accomplices. Bonneville was buried in the Dominican Friary in Athy, as were some of those killed six years later at what we now call the Battle of Ardscull, although it took place in nearby Skerries. Murder always seemed to catch the attention of the record keepers of the day as we have an account of Thomas Wogan and Walter Lenfalt killing thirty of the O’Dempseys of Laois at Ardscull on the Feast of St. Clement in 1346. The borough of Ardscull was to disappear almost without trace and certainly without any record of its passing, while the neighbouring village of Athy retained its position as the most important Anglo Norman settlement in south Kildare.
William Beaufort who lived in Athy in the latter part of the 18th century wrote articles, not always favourably received, on matters of archaeological and historical interest. He prepared a drawing of the Moate of Ardscull and produced a detailed description of the ancient fortification which was included in a revised edition of ‘Camden’s Brittania’, published in 1789. It referred to two apartments in which Beaufort discovered nearly 2 feet beneath the surface a fire hearth and the foundations of other buildings which unfortunately have all since been removed. They may have been linked with the Cromwellian fort work which were the subject of a petition in 1654.
Even the name ‘Ardscull’ provides unanswered questions for there is no general agreement as to its meaning. John O’Donovan in his Ordnance Survey Letters written in 1837 described the large fort at Ardscull as nothing remarkable except for its size and commanding situation, an opinion which would not be shared by many historians today. ‘Ard Scol’ he translated as ‘Hill of the Shouts’ or ‘Hill of the Heroes’ as the site of a battle between the Leinster men and the Munster men in the 2nd century which was mentioned in the Book of Lecan.
On Easter Sunday the local churches came together at sunrise on the Moate of Ardscull to celebrate Christian unity. The last time the Moate had witnessed such numbers was in more warlike days. Briefly and for a short time only early on that Sunday morning the site of the ancient medieval settlement was once again the centre of community activity as it had been many centuries before.
Remarkably, despite general acceptance that the Motte of Ardscull is a 12th or 13th century manmade fortification of Anglo Norman origins, no reference to this enormous structure can be found in medieval documents. It was only in Cromwellian times that a reference was found to the Ardscull Motte. In 1654 the Book of General Orders noted a request from the inhabitants of south Kildare for the State to contribute towards the cost of finishing a fort, the building of which had commenced at the Motte of Ardscull.
The motte was mentioned in the Kildare Archaeological Society Journal of 1897 as standing ‘on the summit of the high ground which rises 140 feet above and 3 miles to the north east of the town of Athy.’ It rises to a height of 55 feet above ground level and as such is one of the more substantial mottes in Ireland.
If, as we believe, it was an early example of an Anglo Norman fortification then as the 13th century unfolded it led to the development of the Borough of Ardscull on a nearby site. The borough was a settlement with a right to self government and entitled its burgess holders to a burgage which was a medieval holding recognisable by a narrow street frontage and a long narrow garden behind the burgess’s house. Medieval Athy also enjoyed borough status, as did Moone village and recognisable remains of burgage holdings can still be seen at the rear of shops and houses on the southern side of Leinster Street in Athy. Unfortunately, while there were 160 burgages in the medieval borough of Ardscull, no trace of the borough remains, largely due to deep ploughing over the years which has effectively removed all evidence of the medieval settlement. Undoubtedly there are underground remains of the settlement which may in time yield up their secrets if an archaeological dig is ever undertaken in the area.
The borough would of course have had a church and reference is indeed found in the Dublin Diocesan records at the latter part of the 13th century to the Church in Ardscull which was linked with St. Patricks Cathedral in Dublin. The Church was approximately 1 km. south east of the Motte and while no feature of the Church building survives above ground there is a raised area within the graveyard which is believed to have been the Church site.
While Ardscull would appear to have formed part of the demesnes of the Lordship of Leinster it passed to the de Mohan family through the marriage of Reginald de Mohan to Isabel, the granddaughter and heiress of William Marshall who had succeeded Strongbow as Lord of Leinster. It was Marshall who founded the borough of Moone and he is also likely to have done the same at Ardscull.
The borough of Ardscull was burned in 1286 and at the same time the nearby village of Narraghmore was also destroyed. This may have prompted John de Mohan to surrender all the lands he held in the area to the English Crown in 1299. Soon thereafter the King granted Mohan’s land, which included Ardscull, to John Wogan. The Wogan family were later believed by some writers to have played a part in bringing the Dominican Order to Athy. That claim however remains unproven. Ardscull, as distinct from the Motte, figured prominently in the events of the day and in 1309, on Candlemas Day, Lord John Bonneville was killed at Ardscull by Lord Arnold Powre and his accomplices. Bonneville was buried in the Dominican Friary in Athy, as were some of those killed six years later at what we now call the Battle of Ardscull, although it took place in nearby Skerries. Murder always seemed to catch the attention of the record keepers of the day as we have an account of Thomas Wogan and Walter Lenfalt killing thirty of the O’Dempseys of Laois at Ardscull on the Feast of St. Clement in 1346. The borough of Ardscull was to disappear almost without trace and certainly without any record of its passing, while the neighbouring village of Athy retained its position as the most important Anglo Norman settlement in south Kildare.
William Beaufort who lived in Athy in the latter part of the 18th century wrote articles, not always favourably received, on matters of archaeological and historical interest. He prepared a drawing of the Moate of Ardscull and produced a detailed description of the ancient fortification which was included in a revised edition of ‘Camden’s Brittania’, published in 1789. It referred to two apartments in which Beaufort discovered nearly 2 feet beneath the surface a fire hearth and the foundations of other buildings which unfortunately have all since been removed. They may have been linked with the Cromwellian fort work which were the subject of a petition in 1654.
Even the name ‘Ardscull’ provides unanswered questions for there is no general agreement as to its meaning. John O’Donovan in his Ordnance Survey Letters written in 1837 described the large fort at Ardscull as nothing remarkable except for its size and commanding situation, an opinion which would not be shared by many historians today. ‘Ard Scol’ he translated as ‘Hill of the Shouts’ or ‘Hill of the Heroes’ as the site of a battle between the Leinster men and the Munster men in the 2nd century which was mentioned in the Book of Lecan.
On Easter Sunday the local churches came together at sunrise on the Moate of Ardscull to celebrate Christian unity. The last time the Moate had witnessed such numbers was in more warlike days. Briefly and for a short time only early on that Sunday morning the site of the ancient medieval settlement was once again the centre of community activity as it had been many centuries before.
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