In two months time the Dominican Order will leave Athy for the last
time. Their departure, unlike previous
such occurrences, is the result of a voluntary decision precipitated by a fall
in vocations. There were times in the
distant past when the local Dominican friars were banished from the town as a
result of penal legislation. Their
removal from the local area where their ministry commenced in 1257 was however
never permanent as the Friars Preachers always sought to return to the South
Kildare town.
Robert Woulff was Prior at the time of the Reformation and thereafter
for almost 100 years the Dominican Friary on the East bank of the River Barrow
in the area now known as The Abbey
was vacant and very likely in a state of ruin.
The Protestant Church erected in the Market Square long before the Town
Hall was built was believed by an earlier writer on the town’s history to have contained
stone taken from the nearby Dominican Friary.
The Reformation may have condemned the 13th century
Dominican Friary to a future devoid of religious ceremonies, but the subsequent
Penal Laws failed to deprive the local people in the long term of the Catholic
ministry provided by the Friars Preachers.
There was certainly a lull of 100 years before the Dominican Provincial,
Ross MacGeoghegan restored the Dominicans to Athy and appointed Thomas
Bermingham as the new Prior. His
appointment coincided with the latter years of the Confederate Wars and
accounts of sieges of Athy during those wars included a graphic account of an
attack on the Dominican Friary. The
exact location of the Dominican Friary from 1648 onwards is not clear, but the
Dominicans may have reoccupied their original friary.
The list of Priors from 1648 to 1697 would appear to indicate a
period untroubled by rigorous application of the Penal Laws. This obviously changed in the last few years
of the 17th century when the Dominicans were again forced to leave
Athy. In 1698 all bishops and friars
were sent into exile, with the result that Athy was for the next 40 years or so
without a Dominican presence. It was not
until the 1740s that the Dominican friars returned to Athy and it was Thomas
Cummins who took on the role of Prior.
On their return the Dominicans established a friary in what I believe
was Convent Lane, now called Kirwan’s Lane. Even with the relaxation of the Penal Laws
Catholic clergy did not seek to provoke a reaction from reformed Church members
by building Catholic churches other than in laneways away from the main street. It’s for the same reasons that the local
Parish Church destroyed by fire in 1800 was built in Church Lane between
Leinster Street and Stanhope Place.
In 1744 Dublin Castle authorities, concerned about the growth of
popery, sought reports from the Provinces on the practice of Catholicism. John Jackson, a local magistrate, reported
that he could not find a priest or a friar in Athy. Clearly the Dominicans who were in the area
and the Parish Priest, Fr. Fitzpatrick who lived in Barrowhouse, all kept low
profiles. Ten years or so later the
local Parish Church records were left without entries for a number of months
due to what was described as the prosecution of the local curate. Clearly the Penal Laws were still applied
even if at times they were ineffective insofar as church practices were
concerned.
With the passing of Catholic Emancipation in 1829 a great surge in
Catholic Church building took place and some years later the Athy Dominicans
acquired property at the end of Tanners Lane (now Church Lane) which was
redeveloped as a friary and church. It
has been home to the local Dominican community for the past 175 years or
so.
The first Athy Dominican Prior for which records exist was Philip
Pereys who held the position in 1357. It
was Philip Pereys who obtained a pardon from King Edward III for felonies and
transgressions committed by him on paying a fine of half a mark and saying 100
masses for the King. The fine was
afterwards remitted on the Prior saying another 100 masses for the same intention. One wonders what felonies and transgressions
were committed by the Rev. Prior!
Dominican martyrs connected with the Athy Friary included Richard
Ovington, a former sub Prior of Athy, who was captured and executed by Oliver
Cromwell’s troops in Drogheda in 1649.
Cromwell’s men also captured the Athy Prior Thomas Birmingham who after
some time in prison was released and exiled to Italy on payment of a fine. Stories of the local Dominicans fleeing for
safety to Derryvullagh Bog ahead of the Cromwellian troops, form a large part
of the local folklore. Records however
do note that the Dominican Redmond Moore sought safety in the bog before
escaping to the continent. He later
returned to Athy where he was Prior of the local Friary from 1661.
The story of the Dominicans in Athy will soon come to an end. There remains however more than 750 years of
local Dominican history to be studied so that a community served so well for so
long can appreciate the enormity of the contribution the Dominican Order made
to the people of Athy and district.
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