Education in Athy (Part 1)

In the 1781/82 Parliamentary session an Act was passed permitting Catholic teachers to teach in local schools.  However, the inevitable sting in the tail provided that Catholics could not teach their co religionists unless they were licensed by clergy of the Established Church. Understandably Catholics were reluctant to seek the necessary permission while the Established Church clergy were equally reluctant to accede to such requests when made.  This restriction was finally removed about 10 years later, thereby paving the way for the introduction of Catholic Schools for the first time since the Reformation.

Depositions taken in May 1798 during the rebellion of that year included references to James Delahunty, Schoolmaster, Athy and James Robinson, Schoolmaster, Foxhill.  Their Irish names and their involvement with the United Irishmen suggest Catholic backgrounds.  If this is correct then it possibly indicates that Athy had a Catholic School at that time, whether a free or a fee paying school we cannot now say.

In 1791 the town had a boarding school for boys provided by Mr. Ashe.  One of the pupils that year was Thomas Lefroy, a future Local Chief Justice of Ireland.  Another pupil was his brother Ben, born in 1782 who married a Miss La Nouse from County Cavan and settled at Cardenton House, Athy, which remained in the Lefroy family until 1956.  In 1793 Anthologica Hibernica referred to the existence in Athy of a public school for the classics with a teaching salary of £40 a year paid by the Duke of Leinster, Athy Borough Council and representatives of the Weldon family.  The Select Committee of the House of Commons on Foundation Schools set up in 1857 investigated the alleged endowment of this school.  It reported:-

“no such school exists or as far as the Assistant Commissioner could learn, ever did exist.”

In the Minute Book of the Athy Borough Corporation for June 24^th 1779, there appears the following entry :-

            “That it was agreed to give £15 a year to a schoolmaster, for the said Borough, which is to be ratified by an act of assembly of the said Borough.”

The Corporation’s Minute Book does not indicate if the necessary ratification was granted or if payment was ever made on foot of the earlier decision.  In Rawson’s Statistical Survey of County Kildare, published in 1807, Athy is credited with having a Classical School and two female boarding schools.  No evidence has been found to support Rawson’s claim for the two boarding schools, but since he was an Athy resident it may be assumed that this information was accurate.

In 1817 the local Church of Ireland clergy established a Parish School in Athy.  In its first year of operation the Parish School had 22 pupils, 14 of whom paid £1 a year each, the remaining pupils being free scholars.  The numbers in attendance increased year by year so that by 1823 the Parish School had 127 pupils on its roll.  The Schoolmaster retained the yearly subscriptions paid by each pupil which in 1823 amounted to £40.  In addition he was paid £10 a year by the Church of Ireland.

In 1811 the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland, commonly called the Kildare Place Society, was founded.  Its stated purpose was to afford the same facilities for education to all classes of professing Christians without any attempt to interfere with their religious beliefs.  The Society was funded by the Government and it gave assistance to the various local schools by way of grants for teacher’s salaries, books and teaching requisites.  The first grant to a Catholic school in Athy was made for the year ended 5 January 1823 when £11.4.4½ was paid to John Goold for the Catholic Free School.  In the same year the Society paid £1 towards the expenses of P. O’Rourke while undergoing training as a schoolmaster for the Athy Poor School as the Catholic Free School was called.  The Church of Ireland curate, Charles Bristow, received a grant of £3.1.9 in 1823 for running a school in the Athy Gaol.  This school was a short lived venture, whether due to insufficient pupils or inadequate accommodation is not known.  The jail school closed in 1824.

Athy's Medieval Defences and Geophysical Survey

One of the many interesting discoveries I made while undertaking some research years ago in the National Library was the pamphlet by Mr. Hierome, Minister at Athy, relating to the siege of Athy in 1641.  The pamphlet had a wood cut depiction of the town showing White’s Castle, numerous houses and a church all enclosed within crenellated town walls.

The first reference I found to town walls in Athy was in reference to Murage Grants which issued in 1431 and 1448.  These grants allowed for goods passing through Athy to be tolled, a right which was later confined to goods sold in the town.  The tolls or taxes so collected were to be utilised in building town defences.  There is no record of what those town defences consisted of, although it is highly questionable whether the tolls collected were sufficient to finance the construction of town walls.

The town charter of 1515 gave the inhabitants of Athy the right to impose tolls and taxes so that ‘they may construct, build and strengthen the same town with fosses and walls of stone and lime.’  To the Earl of Kildare was assigned the right of deciding how much of the tolls collected were to be expended on building town walls.  Undoubtedly given the past history of attacks on Athy, some form of town defences were put in place, but whether these extended to total encirclement of the settlement cannot be verified. 

The Hierome pamphlet of 1641 is the only pictorial evidence we have of the town walls, apart from George Victor Du Noyer’s watercolour of Preston’s Gate of 1837.  It is believed that Prestons Gate was the only surviving remains of the old town walls but it was demolished in 1860 following an accident involving the local Rector, Rev. F. Trench. 

It is clear that whatever defences were built following the 1515 charter afforded insufficient protection for the town.  In 1546 the O’Mores of Laois attacked Athy, burning the town and the Dominican Friary.  This raises questions as to the extent and quality of the town walls.  In that regard it is interesting to note that John Dymok in his ‘Treatise on Ireland’ published in 1600 gave a description of Athy with no reference to town walls.  He described Athy as ‘divided into two partes by the ryver of Barrow, over which lyeth a stone bridge, and upon it a castle occupied by James Fitzpierce ..... the bridge of the castle ..... being the onelye waye which leadeth into the Queene’s County’.

However, an anonymous writer two years earlier referred to Castledermot and Athy as ‘the only important towns of Kildare walled and now ruined.’  It is more than likely that the town was encircled by town walls because of the importance of Athy as a frontier town during the medieval period.  Located as it was on the Marches of Kildare Athy was garrisoned from an early age to protect those living within the Pale which came within twelve or fourteen miles of the town.

The Confederate Wars which lasted for eight years from 1641 were played out in many arenas throughout Ireland.  Here in Athy there was considerable military activity, with the town at different times being held by the different warring factions.  Inevitably the repetitive attacks and counter attacks on the town defences must have resulted in at least the partial destruction of the town walls.  The walls were never re-built and inevitably over time those portions which were damaged were removed, leading to the eventual disappearance of the medieval fortifications.

An Urban Archaeological Survey carried out in the mid 1980s confirmed the existence of the town walls and a plan showing the possible outline of those walls was included in the survey’s final report.  It encompassed the Dominican Friary (now the vacant Abbey site) and incorporated Preston’s Gate (at the junction of Offaly Street and Emily Row), running in a circular route through the top part of Meeting Lane, across through Chapel Lane and down to the Barrow, roughly opposite the existing Parish Church.  Avril Thomas in her 1992 book on the Walled Towns of Ireland gave a slightly different layout for Athy’s town walls which was based on existing street patterns and the remains of burgage plots.

Later this month a geophysical survey of a small area of the town will be carried out in an attempt to confirm the existence underground of the remains of Athy’s medieval town walls, the survey will be a brief one extending over one day and will hopefully be followed by further similar surveys over the next few years.

The image with this article shows Prestons Gate viewed from Emily Row.  This was believed to have been the only remaining part of the medieval town wall visible in 1837 when the Huguenot Du Noyer visited Athy as part of the ordnance survey of that time.

Athy Municipal History

I got a phone call last week from a person who remembered reading an article I wrote some years ago following my visit to the Texas town of San Antonio.  While there I came across the Athy Mace which is now on display in San Antonio’s Museum of Art.  My caller was flying out to the same Texas city and wanted to check the Museum details so that he could himself inspect the Mace.

Around the same time I received in the post a copy of the programme planned for the Carlow 800 Festival to celebrate the 800^th anniversary of the building of Carlow Castle.  What a pity I thought as we approach the 500^th anniversary of the granting of Borough status for Athy that the successors to the medieval Borough, Athy Town Council, is about to be abolished. 

We are now into the final year of the Town Council’s life and it’s last ever chairman, Councillor Thomas Redmond, was elected just two months ago.  The loss of the Town Council will be a matter of huge importance in the history of the town, even if many might dispute the Council’s relevance or usefulness in today’s world.

Undoubtedly the Town Commissioners, the Urban District Council and the Town Council, all of whom in their time were successors to the original 16^th century Borough Council, could point to many useful and worthwhile services provided in the town during their respective terms of office.  The first piped water supply system came in 1907 at a time when unemployment, poverty and disease were the hallmark of life in Athy.  Despite this the then Urban District Council members, by a majority vote, resisted the provision of a piped water supply system and delayed it’s implementation for several years ‘for fear of the cost to the local ratepayer.’

The delay in replacing the existing public pump water system resulted in several more deaths from sewerage contaminated water before the Council members reluctantly agreed to proceed with the piped water system from Modubeagh.

The next most valuable contribution by the Urban District Council to the development of the town was the provision of a sewerage system in the town.  These two public utility services were undoubtedly the most important contribution to the wellbeing of the townspeople by any of the governing bodies of the town, extending back as far as the year of the first Charter granted to Athy in 1515. 

The drive towards centralisation, so beloved of central authority, will deprive Athy and its people of an important element of self government which for all its faults had the merit of letting the local people have some say in their own destiny.  You may well complain that the local Councils have consistently failed to exercise wisely whatever powers they possessed and that by default, if nothing else, local Councils have fallen into disrepute.  Whatever your views on the effectiveness or otherwise of Athy Town Council the loss of municipal self governance after almost 500 years is unquestionably a sad loss for local democracy. 

The chequered history of local government in Athy did not always represent a glorious chapter in the history of the town.  The Borough Council of Athy, whose Mace is now in San Antonio, existed from 1515 to 1840.  During that time successive Dukes of Leinster exercised complete control over those appointed to the Council.  The electoral deficit resulted from the Duke’s manipulation of the powers granted in the town’s Charter which saw Dukes of Leinster nominating the members of the Borough Council.  No elections were held and the powers of the Borough Council, including the power to return two Members of Parliament to represent Athy Borough, were exercised by the Council members at the behest of the Duke. 

The undemocratic nature of the Borough Council’s operations were further signalled by the refusal to allow any member of the majority religion become a Borough Council member.  It was not until the passing of the Emancipation Act that Colonel Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine House was nominated as the first ever Catholic member of Athy Borough Council.  Indeed he was the only Catholic ever appointed to that body prior to its abolition in 1840. 

Following the abolition of the Borough Council there was no municipal body in the town for a few years.  A petition by the local people led to the establishment of Town Commissioners and the holding for the very first time of local elections for membership of the Town Commissioners.  Thereafter elections were held on a regular basis for membership of the Commissioners, later the Urban District Council and more recently the Town Council.  From next year the local people of Athy will vote to elect six Councillors from an area extending from Castledermot to Monasterevin to represent that area, including Athy, in the County Council which will sit in Naas. 

For the first time in 499 years Athy will then no longer have its own Town Council.

Athy Municipal History

I got a phone call last week from a person who remembered reading an article I wrote some years ago following my visit to the Texas town of San Antonio.  While there I came across the Athy Mace which is now on display in San Antonio’s Museum of Art.  My caller was flying out to the same Texas city and wanted to check the Museum details so that he could himself inspect the Mace.

Around the same time I received in the post a copy of the programme planned for the Carlow 800 Festival to celebrate the 800^th anniversary of the building of Carlow Castle.  What a pity I thought as we approach the 500^th anniversary of the granting of Borough status for Athy that the successors to the medieval Borough, Athy Town Council, is about to be abolished. 

We are now into the final year of the Town Council’s life and it’s last ever chairman, Councillor Thomas Redmond, was elected just two months ago.  The loss of the Town Council will be a matter of huge importance in the history of the town, even if many might dispute the Council’s relevance or usefulness in today’s world.

Undoubtedly the Town Commissioners, the Urban District Council and the Town Council, all of whom in their time were successors to the original 16^th century Borough Council, could point to many useful and worthwhile services provided in the town during their respective terms of office.  The first piped water supply system came in 1907 at a time when unemployment, poverty and disease were the hallmark of life in Athy.  Despite this the then Urban District Council members, by a majority vote, resisted the provision of a piped water supply system and delayed it’s implementation for several years ‘for fear of the cost to the local ratepayer.’

The delay in replacing the existing public pump water system resulted in several more deaths from sewerage contaminated water before the Council members reluctantly agreed to proceed with the piped water system from Modubeagh.

The next most valuable contribution by the Urban District Council to the development of the town was the provision of a sewerage system in the town.  These two public utility services were undoubtedly the most important contribution to the wellbeing of the townspeople by any of the governing bodies of the town, extending back as far as the year of the first Charter granted to Athy in 1515. 

The drive towards centralisation, so beloved of central authority, will deprive Athy and its people of an important element of self government which for all its faults had the merit of letting the local people have some say in their own destiny.  You may well complain that the local Councils have consistently failed to exercise wisely whatever powers they possessed and that by default, if nothing else, local Councils have fallen into disrepute.  Whatever your views on the effectiveness or otherwise of Athy Town Council the loss of municipal self governance after almost 500 years is unquestionably a sad loss for local democracy. 

The chequered history of local government in Athy did not always represent a glorious chapter in the history of the town.  The Borough Council of Athy, whose Mace is now in San Antonio, existed from 1515 to 1840.  During that time successive Dukes of Leinster exercised complete control over those appointed to the Council.  The electoral deficit resulted from the Duke’s manipulation of the powers granted in the town’s Charter which saw Dukes of Leinster nominating the members of the Borough Council.  No elections were held and the powers of the Borough Council, including the power to return two Members of Parliament to represent Athy Borough, were exercised by the Council members at the behest of the Duke. 

The undemocratic nature of the Borough Council’s operations were further signalled by the refusal to allow any member of the majority religion become a Borough Council member.  It was not until the passing of the Emancipation Act that Colonel Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine House was nominated as the first ever Catholic member of Athy Borough Council.  Indeed he was the only Catholic ever appointed to that body prior to its abolition in 1840. 

Following the abolition of the Borough Council there was no municipal body in the town for a few years.  A petition by the local people led to the establishment of Town Commissioners and the holding for the very first time of local elections for membership of the Town Commissioners.  Thereafter elections were held on a regular basis for membership of the Commissioners, later the Urban District Council and more recently the Town Council.  From next year the local people of Athy will vote to elect six Councillors from an area extending from Castledermot to Monasterevin to represent that area, including Athy, in the County Council which will sit in Naas. 

For the first time in 499 years Athy will then no longer have its own Town Council.