I have just
returned from the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge where I attended the
opening of an exhibition of works portraying “the vast array of talent amongst the social groupings in Athy”. At least that’s what the exhibition programme
described what was on display in the county’s only publicly funded Arts
Centre. The concept of an exhibition of
local talent was an excellent one, but somehow to ally it to some unspecified
social groupings and thereby giving a social consciousness was, as far as I am
concerned, guilding the lily somewhat.
The title of the
exhibition, “Athy with all its Flavours”
required a more comprehensive and wider embracing display of talent than that
on show in the Riverbank. Athy has a
huge pool of resourceful people of various talents and skills, many of whom,
but not all, are involved in local voluntary clubs and groups. If the Riverbank exhibition was to succeed in
giving a flavour of our historic town and it’s people it needed to broaden the
scope of the works on show. Nevertheless
the exhibition which continues until 23rd February is worth a
visit. Incidentally it was somewhat
surprising to see no more than three Athy Town Councillors at the official
opening. I would have thought that an
exhibition as important as “Athy with all
its Flavours”, showing in neighbouring Newbridge would have merited the full
support of our “city fathers”.
Members of St.
Michael’s Boxing Club were special guests at the Riverbank on Thursday
night. Dom O’Rourke, Club President and
President of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association of Ireland, lead in the
club’s four Irish champion boxers as they received the generous applause of the
audience in recognition of the club’s exceptional success in the National
Boxing Stadium over the previous weekend.
St. Michael’s Boxing Club is Athy’s most successful sporting
organisation and indeed is the most successful amateur boxing club in the whole
of the island of Ireland. The continuing
success of the Joyces, Ray Sheehan and Eric Donovan and the other club members
is one of the great sporting stories of our generation and for Athy represents
perhaps the greatest sporting success ever achieved by any club based in the
town. St. Michael’s Boxing Club deserves
to be formally recognised and hopefully steps will be taken to mark in a
suitable way the achievements of the young men who under the guidance of their
trainer and mentor, Dom O’Rourke have recently moved into their new club
premises opposite Dooley’s Terrace.
Local playwright
and author John MacKenna has his play “Who
by Fire” in rehearsal for a tour of the provinces which starts in Athy on
Wednesday, 14th February. In
the absence of a local theatre the play will be put on in a marquee erected in
the grounds of White’s Castle providing a unique backdrop for a play which has earned
for its promoters some notoriety even before it has opened to the general
public. Pre-performance publicity for
the play included the flying of a swastika from the top of the medieval
towerhouse at the foot of Cromaboo bridge and the unfurling of a large banner on
the side of the Castle. I gather a few
people objected to the display of the swastika and amidst claims of “racism” demanded that the flag and
banner be removed. The “offending” material was removed but
really one wonders whether the objectors had legitimate grounds for imposing
their will on the promoters of the play.
“Who by Fire” is the story of a young
girl who was taken to the concentration camps at Auschwitz with her
mother. She survived, but her mother
died and twenty years later she revisits the former death camp, where as the
author explains, the sights, sounds and smells of her three years in Auschwitz,
bring the past back to life. I hope that
the success of this important work which is a timely reminder of the barbarity
of war is not affected by the controversy generated by a few objectors who seemed
unable to distinguish between a theatrical experience and its attendant
publicity and the real manifestation of racism in society today.
Early in the
week Ernest Coyle, the last watchmaker in Athy, passed away aged 85 years. I don’t know if Ernest did ever make watches
but he certainly repaired them and the myriad of clocks which passed across his
counter since he returned to Athy over sixty years ago. It was a coincidence that a week or so before
he died a Dublin friend gave me a watch hallmarked 1856 bearing the name
William Plewman, watchmaker, Athy.
Plewman, an Athy watchmaker, had been noted in a trade directory for
1824 and I have come across an early 19th century reference to
payments made to Thomas Plewman of Athy for repairs carried out to a Grand
Canal clock in Monasterevin. Of course
one of Ireland’s greatest clockmakers was an Athy man, John Crosswaite, who as a
young man walked from Athy to Dublin where he would in later years establish a
well known clock making business. Ernest
Coyle was in the great tradition of the watchmakers of old having learnt his
trade from his uncle, George Coyle, who had a business in Mountmellick. George Coyle had served, as did his brother
Alfred, in the First World War. Both
were from Nicholastown but while George survived that terrible conflict, his
brother died from gas poisoning on 21st August 1917 aged 22
years. Ernest Coyle had a great store of
stories and a wonderful knowledge of Athy and its people and it is my great
regret that I did not have the opportunity to share in that knowledge of his
native place.
It was wonderful
to see St. Michael’s Church full of neighbours and friends for the reception of
his remains on Wednesday evening. I am
always struck, on the occasions I attend St. Michael’s Church at the top of my
old street – Offaly Street – at the huge differences in the congregations
involvement in the singing of hymns compared to that encountered in the other
St. Michael’s. It’s as if the Roman
Catholics, myself included, are muted by what I can’t imagine, in contrast to
the full throated participation of the reformed congregation.
I was pleasantly
surprised to see Eleanor Hull’s name appended to the end of the ancient Irish
hymn, “The Lord’s Prayer” as its versifier. I had not realised that Hull who was one of
the founders of the Irish Text Society and a lifelong student of Irish studies
was responsible for the appearance in the Irish Church Hymnal of such beautiful
lines as :
“Riches I need not, nor vain empty
praise:
Thou mine inheritance through all my days.”
On the day
Ernest Coyle was buried in Old St. Michael’s Cemetery and less than two weeks
after her husband died, Kathleen Delahunt passed away. Her death coming so soon after the death of
her lifelong companion and husband Eddie is a sad and shattering blow for the
Delahunt family. Our sympathies go to
the members of the Delahunt family and to Ruth Coyle and her children.
A number of
people have approached me over the past year suggesting, although asking might
be more accurate, if a book of old photographs of Athy is to be published. Many people over the years have lent me
photographs which I have copied and these form an archive totalling many
hundreds of photographs which hopefully will form the basis of a photographic
record of old Athy which it is intended to publish later this year. In the meantime I am anxious to include in
that book as many old photographs as I can and I would welcome hearing from
anyone who might have any interesting photographs of people, places or events
connected with the town which they would be prepared to have reproduced in a
book on Athy. If you would like to share
photographic memories with others I would welcome hearing from you.
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