Just a few months before I returned to Athy in 1982
the then Urban District Council was engaged in a lively debate on the merits or
otherwise of acquiring the mace of Athy Borough which was to be auctioned in
Sotheby’s of London on 18th March of that year. The Councillors were, with one exception, in
favour of purchasing the silver mace, the only dissenting voice being that of
Councillor Paddy Wright who described the item as “a relic of British imperialism”.
The County Manager, Gerry Ward, agreed to pursue the
matter and he authorised Seamus O’Conchubhair, the County Librarian, to bid up
to £10,000 at the auction for the mace.
The estimate given by Sotheby’s was in the region of £5,000 and £9,000
and the Council was to be assisted by the Bank of Ireland who agreed to donate
£2,500 towards the purchase price. The
mace which was made by Dublin silversmith, John Williamson, in 1746 weighed 187
ounces and stood 46 ½ inches high. Originally
it had been presented by James Earl of Kildare on the 29th of
September 1746 to the Borough of Athy.
James had been a Member of Parliament for Athy Borough from 1741 to
1744. His father, the 19th
Earl of Kildare, died in 1744 and James succeeded to the Earldom. He was later created Earl of Offaly and
Marquess of Kildare and finally Duke of Leinster in 1766. James was father to Lord Edward Fitzgerald,
the 1798 patriot, and to William Robert Fitzgerald who would succeed his father
as the second Duke of Leinster. Athy’s
main streets were renamed William Street, Duke Street and Leinster Street after
the second Duke when he officially opened Augustus Bridge over the newly built
Grand Canal, which bridge was named for his surviving eldest son, Augustus
Frederick, who would in time become the third Duke. The second Duke’s eldest daughter Emily gave
her name to what was previously known as Market Square in the centre of the
town.
The mace was intended to be carried by the Sergeant
of Mace in front of the Town Sovereign as he and the other Borough officials
paraded to and from Borough meetings. A
mace was originally a heavy metal club for battering in chain mail. Later, because of its resemblance to a sceptre,
it was used to symbolize high rank and was generally ornamented with an arched
crown at its head and often made of precious metal. The officers of Athy Borough Council in the
18th century were the Sovereign, two bailiffs, twelve burgesses, a recorder,
three Sergeants of Mace, a Town Clerk, a Treasurer, a Bellman, a Weighmaster
and an Inspector of Coals and Culm.
The Borough of Athy was abolished in 1840 being one
of the many “rotten” Boroughs where
the twelve Burgesses who comprised the Borough Council were elected for life by
the Duke of Leinster. Inevitably the
Burgesses acted in accordance with the Duke’s instructions and as such did not
represent the democratic will of the local people. Athy Borough, with a number of similar Boroughs in Ireland, were consequently
abolished to be replaced by democratically elected Town Commissioners. The last Sovereign of the town of Athy was
John Butler whom I believe lived in St. John’s House in what is now Edmund Rice
Square. An inscription on the mace
reads: “This mace, presented to John
Butler by the Corporation of Athy, November 1841”. The only other inscription found on the
silver mace reads: “The gift of the Rt. Honble.
James Earl of Kildare to ye Borough of Athy September 29th 1746.”
It is believed that Thomas Butler, son of the man who
was gifted the mace in 1841, sold it to the Duke of Leinster in January
1876. The Irish newspapers of February
1982 carried details of the Sotheby’s auction in which the Athy mace was to
feature as one of the more interesting and historical items for sale. Apparently it had formed part of the estate
of the Duke of Leinster whom the Evening Herald of the 27th of
February 1982 claimed had “died in
poverty in London a few years ago.”
Sotheby’s Auction took place in London on 18th
March and Seamus O’Conchubhair, acting on behalf of Athy U.D.C., was
unsuccessful in his attempt to have the ancient mace returned to its original
home. A London silversmith by name
Richard Vander bought the mace for £15,000 Stg., buying it he said “on a whim because I liked it. It is one of the finest specimens of a mace
for this period and is in remarkable condition”. He did not rule out the possibility of it
finding its way back to Ireland: “If the
interest is there, it might end up in a museum in Ireland”.
The exquisitely carved silver mace did not come back
to Ireland. Indeed I remember writing to
Mr. Vander at the time to clarify his plans for the mace but there was a
deafening silence from across the Irish Sea.
I never knew where the mace was located until recently when on a trip to
the Texas University town of Austin I journeyed to San Antonio, home of the
famous Alamo. With a population of
something over one million, the former Spanish settlement has a large number of
museums, including a Museum of Art which was opened in 1981 in a former
brewery. The museum is home to an array
of Greek and Roman antiquities, Asian art, Latin American art and holds a small
Irish silver collection, amongst which is to be found the Athy Borough mace.
It was quite an extraordinary feeling to see for the
very first time the mace which for almost 100 years symbolised the power and
majesty of the corporation of the Anglo Norman town on the River Barrow. I had previously seen the Naas and Carlow
maces in the National Museum in Dublin, but both are quite small compared to
the almost majestic 46 ½ inches of exquisitely worked silver which makes up the
Athy mace. Photographs of the mace which
I had seen did not do it justice and I had not realised what a truly splendid
piece it was until I saw it on exhibition in the San Antonio museum. I returned a second day to take some
photographs of the mace and accompanying this article is one of the many photos
taken on that occasion showing the former District Council Chairman who was a successor
to the Town Sovereigns of an earlier century standing alongside the Athy mace.
The description given on the exhibition case reads “Mace of the Borough of Athy, John
Williamson, Dublin 1746-1747 chased with the arms of George II and of
Fitzgerald and the emblems of Great Britain, France and Ireland. Presented by James Fitzgerald (1722-1773) 20th
Earl of Kildare”.
The mace was included in an exhibition of Irish
silver at the De Witt Wallace Decorative Arts Gallery in Williamsburgh,
Virginia in 1992 and in the San Antonio Museum of Art in 1993-’94 where it
still remains. The catalogue for that
exhibition entitled “The Genius of Irish
Silver – a Texas private collection” includes a photograph of the Athy
mace.
The Athy mace now shares, for me at least, pride of place
with the legendary Alamo as the star attraction in the Texan town of San
Antonio.
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