Ten years ago I
was asked by the Eastern Health Board to write a short history of St. Vincent’s
Hospital which later appeared in booklet form as part of the sesquicentennial
celebration of the former workhouse. The
obstacles to my research into the venerable institution which we had all come
to know as “the County Home” can be
imagined when I discovered that the relevant records including minute books had
been destroyed some years previously. I
was reminded of this when during the week I received a letter from a London
correspondent enclosing press reports relating to Athy which he had culled from
the London Times. One such report dated
15th February 1858 under the headline “DREADFUL
FIRE” related how just fourteen years after the
Workhouse first opened five men and three children died in a fire which appears
to have been confined to the male wing of the house. The newspapers report reads -
“On Thursday morning last,
at about 5 o’clock, a fire broke out in the clothes store of Athy Workhouse,
and the contents being of an inflammable nature the flames quickly spread to an
adjoining dormitory in which there were about 13 children sleeping. This room also caught fire; all the children escaped, except three, who,
melancholy to relate, were burnt to ashes.
The school-master made several attempts to rescue the unfortunate
children, but in vain, for the flames had spread to such an extent that it was
impossible to obtain access to the room.
Subsequently the heated vapour coming from the burning building extended
to a dormitory occupied by 12 men, seven of whom, on hearing of the fire,
immediately got out of bed, dressed themselves, and quitted the room; but the
other five, not being able to escape, such was the powerful influence the smoke
had on them, remained, and were suffocated.
A circumstance connected with the suffocation of these men deserves to
be related. There were two brothers
sleeping in one bed. On the alarm
reaching one awoke the other, and told him to get up as quickly as he could,
that the house was on fire; but the unfortunate man was so much overpowered
from the effects of the smoke that he was unable to move, and was afterwards,
with the other four men, suffocated. The
fire was first discovered by the cook, who immediately informed the master, Mr.
Tracey, and he at once proceeded to unlock all the dormitories, in order to
allow the inmates to escape, which, when done, he despatched a messenger to the
police barrack for a fire-engine; he
also ordered the alarm bell to be rung.
In a short time the fire-engine arrived, and was worked most efficiently
by the police and a number of civilians, who rendered very great assistance in
extinguishing the fire, which was completely done before 8 o’clock.”
The Leinster Express
of 20th February carried a report of the fire, but coming as it did
just ten years after the worst excesses of the Great Famine had been
experienced the Workhouse fire generated little publicity. Almost as much local press coverage was given
to the death of a young girl, Margaret Brady, who the papers of 6th
March 1858 reported, “died of burns
received from an open fire at the Model School” in Athy.
The tragedies
resulting from fires seemed to have a fascination for the reading public in the
middle of the 19th century for we find another report of 23rd
March 1864 dealing with a fire at Keatings Mills, Athy. It read -
“The extensive oat-mills of Mr. Keating,
near Athy, were destroyed by fire on Saturday morning. The buildings covered a space of 100ft. by
60ft., were four stories high, fitted with most expensive machinery, and filled
with grain. The loss is estimated at
4,000l., which falls entirely upon the proprietor, as the premises were not
insured. The Leinster Express states
that:- ‘About 28 years ago, during a contested election, a house in the market
square, Athy, the property of Mr. Keating’s father, largely stocked with
groceries and whisky, was accidentally set on fire, and completely burnt to the
ground in two hours, nothing whatever of the property having been saved. A subscription was set on foot among his
fellow-townsmen, and nearly 300l. was collected; but Mr. Keating handed the sum
over to a committee for the purpose of founding a fever hospital, and from
thence across the existing Athy Fever Hospital, which is now one of the very
few supported independently of the Poor Law Board.’
The oat mill in
question was in Clonmullin and the roofless shell of the building still stands
to this day.
Another newspaper
report later the same year gave an account of another fire in Athy which
resulted in multiple fatalities.
Regrettably the report did not identify the persons involved or even the
exact location of the thatched cottage which caught fire.
“A melancholy occurrence took place at Athy
on Saturday night, which resulted in the death by fire of three persons, and
the serious, if not fatal, injury of two others. A cabin in the outskirts of the town,
containing seven persons, took fire about midnight. As the roof was thatched with straw, it was
soon a mass of flames. A brave fellow
named Curry, rushed into the house, and, with the aid of his son, rescued five
of the inmates. The other two
escaped. Of the five saved three died
before morning. Their bodies presented a
terrible spectacle.”
Just a month
before the Workhouse fire the streets of the town of Athy were lit by gas for
the first time. The happy event took
place on the evening of Thursday, 21st January 1858 and was
witnessed by a large crowd of children whom the Leinster Express claimed “demonstrated their approbation by loud
cheering”. Athy Gas Company had been
formed in April of the previous year and the Gas House was built on a site
donated by the Duke of Leinster at Green Alley.
The Gas Company continued to operate up until the mid-1930’s, by which
time the Electricity Supply Board had already put a street lighting system in
place in the streets of the town. The
old gas works was demolished during the past week as Pat Boyd, Building
Contractor, prepares the site for the building of a number of apartments.
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