This past weekend Athy
hosted a number of events, one of which brought us face to face with our distant
past observed as never before by a mature and confident Irish people. The other event was in its own way a mark of
our growing confidence as a nation and our belief in the importance of our
native language. Remembering a lost
generation destroyed during World War I on Remembrance Sunday in St. Michael’s
Cemetery was in a sense recalling the town’s recent history as a ‘garrison town’. On the other hand the taking over by the
Gaelscoil of the recently built school building at Rathstewart spoke of a
growing confidence in the Irishness of a people living in what was once an Anglo
Norman town.
Our native language has
been on the retreat for centuries.
Indeed here in this part of County Kildare Irish has not been the
everyday language of the local people for more than 200 years. Various attempts to revive the language were
made over the years. The Gaelic League
established in Dublin in 1893 as Conradh na Gaeilge opened a branch in Athy,
when exactly I cannot say, but a contemporary note records that the Athy branch
was ‘revived’ in January 1919. This was at a time when the anglicisation of
Ireland was at its height and everything Irish was being thrust aside in favour
of English ways. It was also a time when
the law discriminated against the Irish language. Padraig Pearse in his only appearance before
the Courts unsuccessfully defended a carter who insisted in putting his name on
his cart in Irish rather than in English.
Here in Athy an Irish teacher based in the newly opened Technical School
in Stanhope Street was convicted and fined at the Petty Sessions held in the
Courthouse for signing his name in Irish.
Brigid Darby, National
school teacher, who lived with her mother in Leinster Street, was Treasurer of
the Gaelic League, the Secretary being James Kealy, while Michael Dooley,
shopkeeper of Duke Street, was the League President. The latter was also Chairman of the local Sinn
Fein Club and the Gaelic League and Sinn Fein would appear to have shared many
of the same members. The League put on
Irish classes in the evening and employed James Tierney of Woodstock Street for
that purpose, but for whatever reason the League appears to have discontinued
operating in Athy in and around December 1921.
It was revived again sometime in the late 1940s by Kevin Meany and
others, but like its predecessors seems to have run out of steam after a few
uneventful years. A further revival of
the Gaelic League in the 1950s involving the late Paddy Walsh, Kevin Meany and
others, also petered out after a while.
It was the setting up of
Athy’s Glór na nGael in 1994 which in time proved to be the most successful
Irish organisation in the town. The
initiative came from Kathleen Robinson during her term as President of the
local Chamber of Commerce. She organised
the first Seachtain na nGaeilge. The aim
was to encourage local shopkeepers to make use of the Irish language for one
week in the year during the course of their business. Advertising signs in Irish, coupled with the
effort to speak in Irish, was the aim of the Chamber of Commerce sponsored
Seachtain na nGaeilge over the following few years. It was people such as Peadar O’Murchú, the late
Paddy Walsh, Maisie Candy, David Murphy, John Watchorn and Kathleen Robinson who
over the years kept the language movement alive here in Athy. Glór na nGael set up the first Gaelscoil in
Athy in December 2004, using Aontas Ógra’s premises adjoining the former
Dreamland Ballroom to accommodate its first Junior Infants Class. 21 young boys and girls enrolled that first
week and their teacher was Michael O’Cuinneagain. The following November Sinead Ni Nualláin
from Graiguecullen in Carlow joined the teaching staff and today Sinead is
Principal of the seven teacher Gaelscoil Atha Í. In November 2005 the Gaelscoil moved from the
Aontas Ogra premises to the Athy Soccer Clubhouse at the Showgrounds. There the classes expanded each year and were
housed in the Soccer Clubhouse which accommodated two classes and in four
prefabricated buildings.
The inter-denominational
and co-educational school now caters for 144 pupils, with seven teachers. They are Sinead Ni Nualláin, Treasa Ni
Earchaí, Fiona Nic Seon, Gobnait Bhreathnach, Doireann Ni Raghnaigh, Eamonn
O’Ceidigh and Sorcha ni Mhisteil. The
Gaelscoil is part of the Gaelscoil movement which operates under the Department
of Education but its teachers are not part of the panel system operated by the
Department. This is to ensure that only
Irish speaking teachers are employed within the Gaelscoil system. Pupils start at junior infant level and by
the end of their second year in senior infants most will have a marked
proficiency in the Irish language. All subjects
with the exception of English are taught through Irish.
Last Saturday I joined my
first grandchild Rachel on the school’s Open Day which coincided with the
transfer of the Gaelscoil from the Athy Soccer Club premises to the
purpose-built school in Rathstewart. The
building, just one year old, had previously housed part of St. Patrick’s Boys
National School which has now transferred to another new building on the same
campus. The Gaelscoil children, as you
can imagine, were excited viewing their new school and parents and teachers
alike shared in the excitement of their new premises. I was delighted to meet Sinead Ni Nualláin,
School Principal, whose father Seamus and her grandfather Jim, who was in his
time a member of Carlow Urban District Council, encouraged the use of Irish and
so Sinead from a young age developed a proficiency in the speaking of our
native tongue.
It is one of the great
regrets of my life that despite fourteen years of primary and secondary
education I was never able to speak the Irish language, other than badly. I blame the system of Irish teaching in vogue
during my years in the Christian Brothers School. It was a system imposed by departmental
mandarins whose lack of appreciation of what was required to develop Irish as a
spoken language was indefensible. I left
the educational system, like so many of my peers, disliking the Irish language,
the teaching of which was so unappealing and quite frankly downright
depressing. If, like me, you would like
to repair the damage of an inadequate schooling in our native tongue, note that
the Gaelscoil will be holding Irish language classes every Monday evening in
its new school at Rathstewart, with beginners’ classes at 7 p.m. and improver
classes at 8.15 p.m.
Two launches during the
past week have given us here in Athy a cultural fillip, just in time for the
forthcoming Christmas season. I missed
the launch of ‘Skin’ Kelly’s book, ‘Winner alright – Skinner alright’, but
made amends the following day by buying the book. I began reading it that same evening and
enjoyed it so much that I did not put it down until the last page was
reached. It is a delightful book, easy
to read and well written. A thoroughly
enjoyable book, it is highly recommended.
The Photographic Society’s
exhibition in the Wet Paint Gallery (which used to be Miss Dallon’s shop
combined with part of the old Leinster Arms Hotel) is a fine example of the
artistic qualities of some of Athy’s finest photographers. Many of the Society’s members are truly
artists with cameras, with the ability to capture and reproduce images as good
as any created by artists working in different mediums. The Exhibition, which continues for a few
weeks, is well worth a visit. The
Photographic Society’s annual calendar is also on sale and it again shows twelve
examples of the Society’s members best photographic work in and around
Athy. It will make a wonderful gift for Christmas,
especially for Athy people living abroad.
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