It may not have taken place sufficiently long ago to justify
inclusion in an “Eye on the Past” but given that the local newspapers did not
carry a report of what was a significant local event, I’m moved to devote this
Eye to Athy’s 90th anniversary commemoration of the 1916 Rising held
on Sunday, 30th April.
It was organised by the three main stream political parties
represented on Athy Town Council, all of whom displayed unusual but welcome
unanimity in the way that the historical occasion was to be celebrated. The proceedings commenced with a parade to
Emily Square from the four main roads leading into Athy. Members of the Monasterevin Historical
Society marched down Stanhope Street, all dressed in volunteer uniforms. From the Carlow Road, the same route where
Preston and his troops retreated at the height of the Confederate Wars in the
1640’s marched a contingent from Wexford dressed as ‘98 pikemen and bearing
pikes as did their forebearers over 200 years ago. The other marchers included members of Athy
Town Council accompanied by local school children, all parading to the
accompaniment of a lone piper.
They all assembled in the back square before the platform which had
been set up in front of the Courthouse.
On the platform were the Town Councillors, well most of them anyway,
with Ministers of the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church and the
Catholic Church. The opening address was
given by the Chairman of the organising committee, Eugene Doyle, who said:-
“Today we remember
the men and women who in Easter week 90 years ago struck the first blow which
would eventually culminate in the founding of the Irish Republic. Pearse and his colleagues were involved in a
supreme expression of unselfish idealism and their actions were to awaken
amongst others throughout Ireland and here in Athy the desire for Irish
independence. People like J.J. O’Byrne,
a school teacher and secretary of the local Sinn Fein Club, who in this very
Square in August 1918 read the Sinn Fein Manifesto to a gathering of local
people. He was arrested the following
day, court marshalled and sentenced to twelve months imprisonment. Men like Joe May of Woodstock Street and John
Baptist Maher of Duke Street who as members of the local Sinn Fein Club were arrested
and imprisoned in Ballykinler Camp. Men
like Eamon Malone of Barrowhouse, Commander of the Carlow/Kildare Brigade
I.R.A. who was arrested and imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail. We are honoured to have with us today members
of the O’Byrne, May and Maher families, all direct descendants of those brave
men who sacrificed so much so that we could enjoy the freedom we have
today. We remember all those men and
women who made so many unselfish sacrifices and endured great hardships during
the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War in a continuation of the
struggle for independence which had commenced in Dublin in Easter 1916. We remember those young men who were killed
in this area during those dark days.
John Byrne of Gracefield, Ballylinan;
John Lacy and William Connor of Barrowhouse; Thomas Dunne of Cowgate, Castledermot; Sylvester Sheppard of Monasterevin; Laurence Sweeney of Stillorgan, Co.
Dublin; Edward Byrne of Hacketstown; Patrick Allison of Harristown and James
Murphy of Baltinglass. Today we affirm
the legacy of the men and women of 1916 and those who followed after them - it
is a legacy of freedom and democracy in this part of the island of Ireland, the
final chapter of which has yet to be written.”
There then followed an ecumenical prayer service led by the four
clergymen present, after which the tricolour was lowered to half mast by Kieran
Browne of Athy Community College. The
1916 proclamation was read in Irish by Fiona Mahon of Scoil Mhuire, Athy,
followed by a reading in English by Scoil Eoin student, Ger Lyons.
The last post was sounded by bugler, Charlie O’Neill and following a
minutes silence observed by the assembled crowd, the reveille was played,
followed by the National Anthem. The
impressive ceremony concluded with music and dance by the Marie Caffrey School
of Dance and the Hazel Flanagan dancers, followed by a play performed by sixth
class students of Churchtown National School.
The importance of the 90th anniversary commemoration lies
in the fact that for the first time ever those I.R.A. men from this area who
were interred in the aftermath of the Easter Rising were publicly recognised
and honoured. “Bapty” Maher was the only one of those living in 1966 when the 50th
anniversary was held, the others, Joe May, Eamon Malone and J.J. Byrne having
died before then. It was wonderful to
see the sons of Joe May and Bapty Maher and the daughter of J.J. Byrne
represent their fathers on the platform during the commemoration ceremony. Regrettably Eamon Malone’s daughters were
unable to attend. Incidentally Malone,
who was for a period Commandant of the Carlow/Kildare Brigade I.R.A., was
remembered some years ago when a new Council housing estate at Woodstock Street
was named “Malone Place” in his
honour.
There was a large attendance at the ceremony in Emily Square, a
clear indication, if one was ever needed, that the people of this country are
reclaiming those events in our history which, in a period of historical
revisionism were in danger of being unjustly devalued. It prompts the thought that no-one has taken
up the suggestion I made some time ago that the memorial, which once marked the
spot where Sylvester Shepperd was killed by Free State soldiers in July 1922,
should be restored. Given the success of
the 1916 commemoration event would it not be appropriate for its all party
organisers to take on the task of commemorating those men who like Sylvester
Shepperd paid the ultimate penalty for their involvement in the War of Independence
and the subsequent Civil War. Indeed I
would go further in suggesting that it is entirely appropriate that the
political parties at local and national level should be so involved as a
defining measure of the unity which has evolved in Irish political and social
life since the terrible events of the Civil War.
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