On the way to work this morning I noticed a colourful sign
advertising a concert to be given by the Garda Siochana band and school choirs
in the Dominican Church on Tuesday 6th October commencing at 8.00
p.m. My thoughts immediately turned to a
generation of uniformed Gardai patrolling the streets of Athy at all hours of
the day and night. My father was the
local sergeant in the 1950s and he, like his Garda colleagues, was on duty 24
hours 7 days a week.
My father was also a ‘Dominican
Catholic’ in the same sense that today I am a ‘Parish Catholic’, our Mass attendances confirming that particular
status. In his later years he served
weekday Mass in the Dominican Church, while in my young days I served Mass in
the Parish Church. The distinction
between the Dominican and Parish Catholic was one of geography for as the River
Barrow divided the town, so too did it tend to determine local church
allegiances. Those on the west bank of
the river usually supported the Dominicans, while for those on the opposite
bank church attendance generally was reserved for the Parish Church.
The concert on 6th October brings together two important
elements of our shared history. The
Garda Siochana established soon after the foundation of the State has served us
well. It’s life span to date is less
than a century old and much less than that of the Dominican presence in
Athy. When the Garda band performs in
the Dominican Church it will be one of the last occasions that the church,
opened in 1965, will be used in this way. The departure of the Dominican friars from
Athy will I understand take place on 22nd November.
The concert, organised by the local Lions Club to raise funds for
local charities, affords us an opportunity to begin the process of saying
goodbye to the Dominicans. There will be
other events and ceremonies in the Dominican Church to mark the departure of
the Friars Preachers in Athy but nevertheless the Garda concert can be viewed
as perhaps the start of the goodbye process.
Let us all, whether ‘Dominican
Catholics’, ‘Parish Catholics’,
Church of Ireland, Methodist, Presbyterian or whatever church or chapel
adherents, come to the Dominican Church on Tuesday night to enjoy the concert
and join in what can be seen as the beginning of the celebration of the
Dominican presence in Athy which stretches back over 750 years.
There has been much publicity both in the national newspapers and on
radio concerning the acquisition by the Heritage Centre of the ship’s cabin in
which Ernest Shackleton died in 1922.
Shackleton was leading his last expedition to the Antarctic and his
ship, ‘The Quest’ was moored in Grytviken, South
Georgia on the 5th January 1922 when he died of a heart attack. ‘The
Quest’ was subsequently sold and taken to Norway when the cabin was
removed. It’s existence was first
brought to my attention two years ago by Eugene Furlong, a Cork man who was
attending the Shackleton Autumn School here in Athy. Subsequent contact was made with the
Norwegian owner and we brought him as our guest to the Shackleton Autumn School
in October 2014. He was impressed by the
Shackleton exhibition in the Centre and earlier this year Joe O’Farrell and
Seamus Taaffe, both members of the Shackleton Autumn School Committee,
travelled to Norway at their own expense to view the Shackleton cabin. The Heritage Centre subsequently entered into
negotiations to acquire the cabin and Kildare County Council was exceptionally
supportive of our efforts in that regard.
The Fram Museum in Oslo was also trying to acquire the cabin, but
thankfully Athy Heritage Centre succeeded in closing the deal with it’s owner.
The cabin was transported from Norway to Dublin last week by DFDS
Logistics, accompanied on the journey by the earlier mentioned Joe O’Farrell
and Joe, as I am writing this piece, is accompanying the cabin on its onward
journey to the Letterfrack Conservation Centre in Co. Galway. There it will undergo some conservation work
and it is hoped to have the cabin brought to Athy and positioned in the revamped
Heritage Centre in time for the Shackleton Autumn School in October 2016.
You may wonder why it will take so long to bring the cabin to
Athy. There are a lot of ongoing
negotiations regarding a possible new library for Athy which if successfully concluded
will allow the Heritage Centre to occupy the entire historic Town Hall. This will allow us to redevelop the
Shackleton exhibition to become one of national, if not, of international,
importance. In the meantime we await
developments.
Don’t forget the concert in the Dominican Church on Tuesday, 6th
October. Doors open at 7.30 p.m. and
admission is €5.00, with all proceeds going to local charities.
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