Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler's participation in 1916 rebellion

On Tuesday 29^th March the second lecture in the 1916 series will be given by Dr. Des Marnane in the Community Arts Centre at 8.00 p.m.  The subject ‘Saving the Honour of Tipp – Tipperary 1916’ promises to be an interesting insight into a provincial county’s reaction to the events of Easter 1916.  Admission to the lecture is free.

Last week I gave the background to the development of the Irish Nationalist movement in Athy in the years following the Easter Rising.  While the first branch of the Irish Volunteers in County Kildare was formed in Athy on 9^th May 1914 the Volunteers were divided when later in the year John Redmond sought to encourage the Volunteers to enlist in the British Army. The vast majority of the Volunteers here in Athy and elsewhere throughout the country followed Redmond who named the new group which split from the Irish Volunteers as the National Volunteers.  It would be some time before the now smaller group which retained the name Irish Volunteers could reassert itself. 

A military council comprising Tom Clarke, Padraic Pearse and others, all members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, while at the same time leaders of the Irish Volunteers, planned the Easter Rising.  This was done without the knowledge and consent of many of those with whom they shared leadership of the Irish Volunteers and in the ensuing confusion over countermanding orders, fewer Volunteers than expected turned out on Easter Monday 1916.

Two men who did turn out were Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler.  Mark Wilson was born in Russelstown, Athy in 1891 to Robert Wilson, a native of County Wicklow and Julianna Heffernan, formerly of Leinster Street, Athy.  By 1901 the Wilson family had moved to Dublin.  Mark, the eldest of five children, married Annie Stanley of Summerhill, Dublin on 3^rd August 1913.  She was a sister of Joe Stanley, the man who in 1916 printed the Proclamation, original copies of which are now selling for extraordinary sums of money.

Mark joined the 1^st Battalion Dublin Brigade Irish Volunteers and during the Easter Rebellion he was part of the Four Courts garrison under the command of Edward Daly.  Following the surrender of Edward Daly and his men Daly was tried and executed, while Wilson and his colleagues were detained in Richmond Barracks.  In a statement made in 1953 for the Bureau of Military History Patrick Cogan of Maynooth, referring to the Athy man while they were in custody, said ‘in the ranks in front of me was a volunteer in uniform.  When people shouted at us to keep our heads up he answered that they were never down.  He was a source of great encouragement ..... that volunteer was Mark Wilson, a native of Athy.’

The Athy man was later transferred to Stafford Detention Barracks in England where he was detained until December 1916.  On his release Wilson rejoined the Irish Volunteers and following the Treaty enlisted in the National Army.  He attained the rank of Captain before resigning from the Defence Forces in February 1929.  Mark Wilson died in December 1971 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

The other man with connections in South Kildare who fought in the 1916 Rising was Francis Lawler who lived in Castleroe, Maganey between 1918 and 1925.  Like Mark Wilson, Lawler joined the Irish Volunteers and was attached to the 1^st Battalion Dublin Brigade.  He was also a member of the Four Courts Garrison and was also imprisoned following the surrender of the Volunteers.  I have been unable to confirm if Lawler had connections with Castleroe, Maganey prior to 1916.  Following his release from prison in December 1916 Francis Lawler rejoined the Irish Volunteers and played a very active part while living in Castleroe in the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War. 

He served as an instructor/training officer at the I.R.A. camp in Ducketts Grove in 1921.  He joined the National Army in February 1922 and reached the rank of Captain.  It was while he was a Captain that he was involved in an unfortunate incident in Castledermot on 16^th June 1922.  That Friday morning four irregular troops took over the Sinn Fein hall in Castledermot which was the polling station for the general election agreed between Collins and De Valera in an attempt to ward off civil war.  Three Free State officers, Vice Comdt. Cosgrove, Adj. J. Lillis and Captain F. Lawler entered the building to find it occupied by John Dempsey, Thomas Dunne, Peter Brien and William Kinsella.  Captain Lawler in his evidence at the Coroner’s inquest claimed ‘I was the first to enter.  I had my revolver in my hand and was about to cock it when my thumb slipped off the cocking piece and the revolver went off.’

Thomas Dunne was mortally wounded.  Dr. Francis Brannan of Castledermot described the deceased whom he knew well as ‘a hard working respectable young fellow.’  The Coroner in summing up found that the shot which killed Thomas Dunne was not fired maliciously, despite evidence that Captain Lawler had fired three shots.

When we remember the men of 1916 we should not forget that tragedy often marked their activities not only during the Easter Rebellion but long afterwards.

Athy and the 1916 Rebellion

On Tuesday, 22^nd March, Athy’s contribution to the 1916 Centenary commemorations will commence with an opening lecture in the Arts Centre to be given by Kildare author and historian James Durney.  His talk on the involvement of Kildare men and women in the Easter Rising in 1916 will be given under the title “Foremost and Ready – Kildare in 1916”.

This will be the first of a series of Lectures all of which will be delivered in the Arts Centre in Woodstock Street on each Tuesday between the 22^nd March and 12^th April.

 The lectures start at 8.00 p.m and there is no admission charge.

On Tuesday, 28^th March, the lecture “Saving the honour of Tipp - Tipperary in 1916” will be given by the well known author and broadcaster Dr. Des Marnane.  The following Tuesday, 5^th April, Padraig Yeates will deliver his talk on “Looters, Deserters and Crime in Dublin in 1916”.  Padraig is the author of several books on Dublin, the most recent of which “A City in Civil War – Dublin 1921-24” was published last year.  Padraig’s lecture will be preceded by a short recital on the uilleann pipes once owned and played by the 1916 leader Eamon Ceannt. The final lecture in the series will take place on Tuesday, 12^th April, when  Francis Devine, Trade Unionist and Author will speak on the topic “From Lockout to Rising, the I.T.G.W.U., I.C.A., Liberty Hall and 1916”.

Many other events are planned as part of the 1916 commemoration and details are included in the posters which are displayed throughout the town.

When we think of the Easter Rising, we usually associate it with Dublin and the G.P.O.  While the General Post Office was the centre of rebel activity,  elsewhere throughout the capital city that Easter Week there were areas of conflict which tragically resulted in the loss of lives.  Jacob’s factory was commandeered by Irish Volunteers under the command of Thomas McDonagh, while Eamon DeValera commanded the Volunteers who occupied Boland’s Mill on Grand Canal Street.  Other buildings occupied by the rebels included the South Dublin Union which is now St. James’s Hospital, the College of Surgeons, City Hall and buildings in the Church Street area.

The initial plans for the Rising provided for the Volunteers to hold Cork in the South, the Kerry Volunteers to join with their colleagues in Limerick while Volunteers in Clare and Galway were to hold the line of the Shannon to Athlone.  The failure to land arms from the Aud and the capture of Roger Casement led to Eoin MacNeill’s order cancelling the planned manoeuvres.  This resulted in confusion and the subsequent failure of many country based Volunteers to come out as originally planned.

That there was any rebel activity outside of Dublin during Easter Week 1916 was proof of the determination and courage of those involved.  In the area of Athy and South Kildare, the Irish Volunteers having broken away from Redmond’s National Volunteers were not particularly strong or active.  It was only after the execution of the 1916 leaders that the separatist movement gained strength in Athy.  Before then, however,  the Irish Republican Brotherhood had gained a foothold in neighbouring County Laois due to the active involvement of Patrick Ramsbottom. He was elected Captain of the Portlaoise Company of the Irish Volunteers in October 1914 after he returned to his native County following a period in Dublin.  While in Dublin he had contact with Tom Clarke.  Ramsbottom formed an I.R.B. circle in Portlaoise whose members effectively controlled the Irish Volunteers in that town.

Eamon Fleming from the Swan was an I.R.B. member based in Dublin and  he acted as a link person with the I.R.B. circle in Portlaoise.  He brought instructions from Padraig Pease to start the Rising in County Laois on Easter Sunday. The Laois Volunteers were instructed to destroy railway lines to prevent British troops coming from Waterford and Rosslare. The Waterford Dublin Railway line near Athy was to be destroyed as well as the Abbeyleix Portlaoise line at Colt Wood.

Eamon Fleming, Michael Gray and Michael Walsh, the last two from Portlaoise met near Athy at 7 p.m. on Easter Sunday.  They proceeded to cut down a telegraph pole and placed it across the railway line.  In the meantime, Volunteers led by Patrick Ramsbottom uprooted the railway line at Colt Wood and while doing so Ramsbottom fired three shots at a railway employee who happened to come across the saboteurs.  These may have been the first shots fired in the Easter rising of 1916.  The small group who came to Athy slept in a schoolhouse on Easter Sunday night and on the following morning made their way to Brady’s farm at Lalor’s Mills where they joined Patrick Ramsbottom’s group.

The Nationalist and Leinster Times carried the following Report on 29^th April 1916.

“On Easter Sunday night a farmer named Nolan who lived at Ardreigh, Athy when walking along the railway line there discovered that a telegraph pole had been cut down and placed across the rails.  He removed the obstruction and proceeded to a signal house where he reported the matter.  The outage must have been perpetrated between 8.00 and 9.30 as about the former hour the line was clear a train having passed.  At the time of the discovery a train was almost due.”

Patrick Ramsbottom, who was the main organiser of the Volunteers in Portlaoise prior to the Rising, was subsequently imprisoned in Ballykinlar Internment  Camp.  He later joined the Gardai and on retiring in 1953 joined Department of Education. He died in April 1965.  He was one of the many unsung heroes of the 1916 Rising. 

Athy and the aftermath of the 1916 rebellion

Last week in anticipation of the 1916 commemoration lectures which start this Tuesday, 22^nd March, in Athy Community Arts Centre I wrote of the activities in this area of Irish Volunteers from Portlaoise.  Despite the fact that many families in Athy and south Kildare were linked by service and by financial dependency on the British Army, the growth of Irish Nationalism in the years preceding the Easter Rising found a ready response in the town. 

On 9^th May 1914 a local branch of the Irish Volunteers was established in Athy.  Within two months Cumann na mBan had a branch in the town and on the 23^rd of August 1914 Fianna Eireann was set up in Athy.  Not since the days of the 1798 Rebellion had there been such a public display of Irish nationalism in the onetime garrison town.

The First World War and the subsequent split in the Irish Volunteers following John Redmond’s speech in Woodenbridge in September 1914 effectively put a halt to the emerging local Irish Nationalist movement.  The attention of church and civic leaders in Athy was concentrated on encouraging the recruitment of young men to join the colours and fight overseas.  Indeed in June 1915 Athy Urban District Council directed that a ‘roll of honour’ was to be compiled of the local men who had enlisted in the British Army.

It was no surprise to find that the Easter Rising, which commenced with the seizing of the Dublin G.P.O. on 24^th April 1916, was condemned by most public bodies in Ireland as well as by the Irish Hierarchy.  Athy’s Board of Guardians in May 1916 passed a resolution ‘condemning the revolution in Dublin’.  It was the subsequent execution of the leaders of the Easter Rising which led to a change in the public’s attitude.  Another contributory factor was Lloyd George’s Home Rule Bill which was accepted by the Ulster Unionists on condition that six northern counties were excluded. 

The public’s response to the release of the 1916 prisoners in December of that year provided further evidence of the growth of support for the Irish Nationalist cause.  Republican flags mysteriously appeared on telegraph poles in the South Kildare area following the release of the Irish prisoners from Frongoch and Lewes prisons.  On 18^th January 1917 a concert was held in Athy Town Hall to raise funds for the families of men ‘who without being charged were torn from their homes and interned’.  This coupled with the earlier display of republican flags was the first indication of the existence of a group of Sinn Fein supporters in Athy. 

In February 1917 Athy Hibernian players put on a play in the Town Hall and the subsequent press report gave the names of those involved whom it was stated stood to attention at the end of the performance for the singing of ‘A Nation Once Again’.  Those named were the first publically identified nationalist sympathisers in Athy and many of them figured prominently in the local Sinn Fein club which was formed in June 1917.  They included John Coleman, Joseph Murphy, Bapty Maher, Michael May, Joseph May, Joseph Whelan, W.G. Doyle, Tom Corcoran, Robert Webster, Jack Webster and C. Walsh.

On Thursday 19^th July 1917 Athy’s newly established Sinn Fein club organised a concert in the Town Hall in aid of the families of those killed in the Easter Rising.  The audience was addressed by Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Fein.  Following the concert rival parties of females shouting ‘up the rebels’ and ‘up the khaki’, the latter being British soldier dependents, paraded through the town displaying Republican flags and the Union Jack.  The local press reported on the subsequent scuffles during which a shop window in Duke Street was damaged. 

The strength of the local Sinn Fein club was made public when a report of its AGM held in May 1918 was published in the local papers.  One hundred members were present to elect Michael Dooley as President, William Mahon as Vice President, P.P. Doyle as treasurer and Joseph May as Secretary. 

South Kildare’s involvement on the rebel’s side in the 1916 Rising was marked by the presence of Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler, both of whom were part of the Four Courts garrison under Commandant Edward Daly.  Mark Wilson was born in Russelstown, while Frances Lawler lived in Castleroe, Maganey in the post 1916 period.  I am uncertain if he was a native of that area and I am awaiting confirmation as to his pre 1916 connections with Castleroe.

On Tuesday 22^nd March at 8.00 p.m. in Athy Community Arts Centre James Durney will give the first of the series of lectures organised as part of Athy’s 1916 commemoration.  The lecture commences at 8.00 p.m. and admission is free. 

Next week I intend to deal in some detail with Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler who fought with the rebels in 1916 and a third Athy man who was on the other side of the armed conflict in Dublin. 

Athy Heritage Centre and positioning of Shackleton statue

Thirty three years ago a public meeting was held in the Courthouse, Athy to consider the setting up of a local museum.  Following that meeting and subsequent meetings Athy Museum Society was founded.  Its purpose was to highlight the then largely unknown history of Athy and its people.  Within weeks of its foundation the young society opened a museum room in Mount St. Marys every Sunday afternoon displaying articles and material generously donated by local people. 

I recall manning the museum room every Sunday afternoon for upwards of 3 years.  The then County Manager Gerry Ward subsequently allowed the use of a room in the Town Hall to house what was the ever developing but still tiny local town museum.  The room allocated was that which was previously occupied by the Town Hall caretaker’s family.

Around the same time I prepared a detailed submission in relation to the town’s history to support Athy Urban District Council’s application to Bord Failte to have Athy designated as a Heritage Town.  Steps were afoot for the local Fire Brigade, which had been housed for years previously in the former butter market in the Town Hall, to move to new premises in Woodstock Street.  The successful application to Bord Failte resulted in the award of substantial funding which enabled the Urban Council and the Heritage Company which was then formed to refit the entire ground floor of the Town Hall building as a Heritage Centre after it was vacated by the Fire Brigade. 

Fitting out the centre required a detailed re-examination of Athy’s history and the identification of events and persons prominent in that history.  My research unearthed details of interesting but hitherto unknown facts, events and persons such as Athy’s participation in World War I and local involvement in the War of Independence and the Civil War.  The emergence of Ernest Shackleton as a native of nearby Kilkea was a revelation, as up to then I had accepted, as was invariably reported, that Shackleton was a native of Kilkee, Co. Clare.

The Heritage Centre has developed over the years and the Shackleton Autumn School has added enormously to its prestige.  Indeed I have before me a letter from Michael Smith, author and biographer of the Irish Polar explorers Tom Crean and Ernest Shackleton which describes Athy’s Heritage Centre as ‘the most prestigious museum in the world dedicated to Ernest Shackleton’.

The town’s library presently occupying the first floor of the Town Hall will be re-located to the former Dominican Church as soon as refurbishment work on the Church scheduled to commence within months is completed.  Athy’s early 18^th century Town Hall will then be given over completely to the Museum.  The plans are to gain maximum national and international coverage for the Museum given its unique Shackleton connections and exhibits, while at the same time celebrating the life of Athy stretching back over 850 years.  Shackleton is an international brand and born as he was in nearby Kilkea it behoves us to reap the benefits likely to be generated by visitors attracted to the only museum dedicated to the world famous Polar explorer.

Kildare County Council conscious of the huge advantages which can accrue to Athy by association with Shackleton recently commissioned a statue of the Polar explorer to be erected in Athy.  This together with the future enlargement of the Museum to include priceless artefacts relating to Shackleton’s Polar exploration presents a unique opportunity to develop tourism as a secondary, if not a primary element, in the regeneration of Athy.

Kildare County Council has now commenced a public consultation process to determine where the Shackleton statue should be sited.  Let your considered views be known to the Council, bearing in mind that the proper positioning of the statue can help highlight the town’s Shackleton Museum and significantly add to the tourism attraction of the Shackleton theme. 

I realise that some people on Facebook have questioned the justification for a Shackleton statue.  Apart from the obvious marketing advantages in promoting a Shackleton Museum, consider the following.  Shackleton was born in nearby Kilkea and always claimed to be Irish.  Indeed when signing onto the Yelcho to rescue his men from Elephant Island Shackleton clearly stated his nationality as Irish.  Shackleton was described by the geologist on the Nimrod expedition as ‘born in Ireland, educated in England, worked in Scotland but from the top of his head to the soles of his feet he was Irish’.

In a letter to the Times some months ago I claimed that public monuments usually articulate a particular national identity, but that part of our identity is not just Catholic, Gaelic and nationalistic but also includes many other diverse elements.  We have commemorated in recent times the men and women of ’98 and those young men from the town of Athy whose lives were destroyed during World War I.  For his achievements in Polar exploration, Ernest Shackleton is a worthy subject for a statue to be erected close to the Shackleton Museum.

Athy and 1916 rebellion

On Tuesday, 22^nd March, Athy’s contribution to the 1916 Centenary commemorations will commence with an opening lecture in the Arts Centre to be given by Kildare author and historian James Durney.  His talk on the involvement of Kildare men and women in the Easter Rising in 1916 will be given under the title “Foremost and Ready – Kildare in 1916”.

This will be the first of a series of Lectures all of which will be delivered in the Arts Centre in Woodstock Street on each Tuesday between the 22^nd March and 12^th April.

 The lectures start at 8.00 p.m and there is no admission charge.

On Tuesday, 28^th March, the lecture “Saving the honour of Tipp - Tipperary in 1916” will be given by the well known author and broadcaster Dr. Des Marnane.  The following Tuesday, 5^th April, Padraig Yeates will deliver his talk on “Looters, Deserters and Crime in Dublin in 1916”.  Padraig is the author of several books on Dublin, the most recent of which “A City in Civil War – Dublin 1921-24” was published last year.  Padraig’s lecture will be preceded by a short recital on the uilleann pipes once owned and played by the 1916 leader Eamon Ceannt. The final lecture in the series will take place on Tuesday, 12^th April, when  Francis Devine, Trade Unionist and Author will speak on the topic “From Lockout to Rising, the I.T.G.W.U., I.C.A., Liberty Hall and 1916”.

Many other events are planned as part of the 1916 commemoration and details are included in the posters which are displayed throughout the town.

When we think of the Easter Rising, we usually associate it with Dublin and the G.P.O.  While the General Post Office was the centre of rebel activity,  elsewhere throughout the capital city that Easter Week there were areas of conflict which tragically resulted in the loss of lives.  Jacob’s factory was commandeered by Irish Volunteers under the command of Thomas McDonagh, while Eamon DeValera commanded the Volunteers who occupied Boland’s Mill on Grand Canal Street.  Other buildings occupied by the rebels included the South Dublin Union which is now St. James’s Hospital, the College of Surgeons, City Hall and buildings in the Church Street area.

The initial plans for the Rising provided for the Volunteers to hold Cork in the South, the Kerry Volunteers to join with their colleagues in Limerick while Volunteers in Clare and Galway were to hold the line of the Shannon to Athlone.  The failure to land arms from the Aud and the capture of Roger Casement led to Eoin MacNeill’s order cancelling the planned manoeuvres.  This resulted in confusion and the subsequent failure of many country based Volunteers to come out as originally planned.

That there was any rebel activity outside of Dublin during Easter Week 1916 was proof of the determination and courage of those involved.  In the area of Athy and South Kildare, the Irish Volunteers having broken away from Redmond’s National Volunteers were not particularly strong or active.  It was only after the execution of the 1916 leaders that the separatist movement gained strength in Athy.  Before then, however,  the Irish Republican Brotherhood had gained a foothold in neighbouring County Laois due to the active involvement of Patrick Ramsbottom. He was elected Captain of the Portlaoise Company of the Irish Volunteers in October 1914 after he returned to his native County following a period in Dublin.  While in Dublin he had contact with Tom Clarke.  Ramsbottom formed an I.R.B. circle in Portlaoise whose members effectively controlled the Irish Volunteers in that town.

Eamon Fleming from the Swan was an I.R.B. member based in Dublin and  he acted as a link person with the I.R.B. circle in Portlaoise.  He brought instructions from Padraig Pease to start the Rising in County Laois on Easter Sunday. The Laois Volunteers were instructed to destroy railway lines to prevent British troops coming from Waterford and Rosslare. The Waterford Dublin Railway line near Athy was to be destroyed as well as the Abbeyleix Portlaoise line at Colt Wood.

Eamon Fleming, Michael Gray and Michael Walsh, the last two from Portlaoise met near Athy at 7 p.m. on Easter Sunday.  They proceeded to cut down a telegraph pole and placed it across the railway line.  In the meantime, Volunteers led by Patrick Ramsbottom uprooted the railway line at Colt Wood and while doing so Ramsbottom fired three shots at a railway employee who happened to come across the saboteurs.  These may have been the first shots fired in the Easter rising of 1916.  The small group who came to Athy slept in a schoolhouse on Easter Sunday night and on the following morning made their way to Brady’s farm at Lalor’s Mills where they joined Patrick Ramsbottom’s group.

The Nationalist and Leinster Times carried the following Report on 29^th April 1916.

“On Easter Sunday night a farmer named Nolan who lived at Ardreigh, Athy when walking along the railway line there discovered that a telegraph pole had been cut down and placed across the rails.  He removed the obstruction and proceeded to a signal house where he reported the matter.  The outage must have been perpetrated between 8.00 and 9.30 as about the former hour the line was clear a train having passed.  At the time of the discovery a train was almost due.”

Patrick Ramsbottom, who was the main organiser of the Volunteers in Portlaoise prior to the Rising, was subsequently imprisoned in Ballykinlar Internment  Camp.  He later joined the Gardai and on retiring in 1953 joined Department of Education. He died in April 1965.  He was one of the many unsung heroes of the 1916 Rising. 

Social housing / local authority housing in Athy

The General Election has been contested on a number of issues and the one issue which had never previously received much national attention was that of social housing.  Of course that issue has come to the fore because of the plight of the homeless and the growing number of families, almost invariably young couples or single parents with young children forced to live in one roomed hotel accommodation.  The problem is one which will grow over the next few years as the banks and the building societies take legal action to get possession of family homes where mortgages are in arrears.  Our only hope is that the long heralded recovery reaches provincial Ireland and/or the financial institutions adopt a more socially responsible attitude to the problems facing families who were badly hit during the recession. 

When we had Town Councils in Athy the provision of local authority housing was their main contribution to the development of the town.  Of course the provision and maintenance of the town’s infrastructural facilities such as roads, water and sewerage schemes were also important, but the provision of housing was generally regarded by Councillors as the Council’s key contribution to the local community.

Interestingly it was the Labouring Classes Lodging Housing Act of 1851 which first empowered Town Councils, in Athy’s case the Town Commissioners, to build houses for workers.  It was a role which the Town Commissioners never took up, despite the fact that Town Commissioners continued in charge of the town’s affairs until 1899.  Private individuals met the housing needs of what those of us writing of the 19^th century refer to as the ‘poorer classes’.  The small terraced houses built in laneways and alleyways in the town reveal to us in the names of those now lost laneways the landlord/owner in each case. 

Kirwan’s Lane, Kelly’s Lane, Butler’s Row, Barker’s Row, Matthew’s Lane, Higginson’s Lane and Connolly’s Lane are just some of those rows of terraced houses which were part of the town’s built landscape up to the 1930s.  The failure of Athy Town Commissioners to build any houses for the labouring classes under the 1851 Act was presumably because the landlord class represented on the Town Commissioners did not want interference with the private housing market.  Another reason was awareness by private landlords who were generally business people in the town that the provision of any local authority houses had to be financed from local rates which they were obliged to pay.

The role of local authorities in the provision of housing was reaffirmed in the Housing of the Labouring Classes Act of 1890.  Again the financing of any Council housing development had to rely on rates imposed on businesses in the town.  The Town Commission was replaced by the Urban District Council in 1900, but the public representatives by and large remained the same.  Eight years after the Urban Council was established a central housing fund was set up by the Local Government Department to assist Councils in providing housing for those in need. 

The local medical officer, Dr. James Kilbride, was a critic of the Urban District Council’s failure to meet the basic needs of Athy’s ‘poorer classes’ for water supply and housing.  The water from the public pumps in the town was frequently contaminated by sewerage and caused several deaths, but still the Urban District Council refused to burden the ratepayers with the cost of providing a piped water scheme for the town.  The Council’s refusal to act even in the face of several deaths resulted in the Local Government Board insisting that the Urban District Council ‘procure a supply of pure water for the town of Athy.’  Work on the town’s water supply scheme eventually started on 27^th April 1907 and was completed in June of the following year. 

Dr. Kilbride then turned his attention to the unsanitary housing conditions to be found in the laneways and alleyways of the town and it was his efforts which led to the first local authority scheme in the town which was completed in 1913 just a year before the outbreak of World War I with houses built in Meeting Lane, St. Michael’s Terrace and St. Martin’s Terrace.  Although built under the Housing of the Working Classes Act Athy Urban District Council decided that the houses in St. Michael’s Terrace and St. Martin’s Terrace were ‘better class houses’, while ‘labourer’s houses’ were provided in Meeting Lane.  The Town Clerk would report after tenants had been appointed that the Council houses ‘were all occupied principally by artisans.  None of the tenants belonged to the labouring classes.’ 

The poor people living in the unsanitary conditions highlighted in Dr. Kilbride’s reports to the Urban District Council would have to await the Slum Clearance Programmes of the early 1930s before they could be re-housed out of the unhealthy slums rented out by private landlords.

Athy Heritage Centre and Positioning of Shackleton statue

Thirty three years ago a public meeting was held in the Courthouse, Athy to consider the setting up of a local museum.  Following that meeting and subsequent meetings Athy Museum Society was founded.  Its purpose was to highlight the then largely unknown history of Athy and its people.  Within weeks of its foundation the young society opened a museum room in Mount St. Marys every Sunday afternoon displaying articles and material generously donated by local people. 

I recall manning the museum room every Sunday afternoon for upwards of 3 years.  The then County Manager Gerry Ward subsequently allowed the use of a room in the Town Hall to house what was the ever developing but still tiny local town museum.  The room allocated was that which was previously occupied by the Town Hall caretaker’s family.

Around the same time I prepared a detailed submission in relation to the town’s history to support Athy Urban District Council’s application to Bord Failte to have Athy designated as a Heritage Town.  Steps were afoot for the local Fire Brigade, which had been housed for years previously in the former butter market in the Town Hall, to move to new premises in Woodstock Street.  The successful application to Bord Failte resulted in the award of substantial funding which enabled the Urban Council and the Heritage Company which was then formed to refit the entire ground floor of the Town Hall building as a Heritage Centre after it was vacated by the Fire Brigade. 

Fitting out the centre required a detailed re-examination of Athy’s history and the identification of events and persons prominent in that history.  My research unearthed details of interesting but hitherto unknown facts, events and persons such as Athy’s participation in World War I and local involvement in the War of Independence and the Civil War.  The emergence of Ernest Shackleton as a native of nearby Kilkea was a revelation, as up to then I had accepted, as was invariably reported, that Shackleton was a native of Kilkee, Co. Clare.

The Heritage Centre has developed over the years and the Shackleton Autumn School has added enormously to its prestige.  Indeed I have before me a letter from Michael Smith, author and biographer of the Irish Polar explorers Tom Crean and Ernest Shackleton which describes Athy’s Heritage Centre as ‘the most prestigious museum in the world dedicated to Ernest Shackleton’.

The town’s library presently occupying the first floor of the Town Hall will be re-located to the former Dominican Church as soon as refurbishment work on the Church scheduled to commence within months is completed.  Athy’s early 18^th century Town Hall will then be given over completely to the Museum.  The plans are to gain maximum national and international coverage for the Museum given its unique Shackleton connections and exhibits, while at the same time celebrating the life of Athy stretching back over 850 years.  Shackleton is an international brand and born as he was in nearby Kilkea it behoves us to reap the benefits likely to be generated by visitors attracted to the only museum dedicated to the world famous Polar explorer.

Kildare County Council conscious of the huge advantages which can accrue to Athy by association with Shackleton recently commissioned a statue of the Polar explorer to be erected in Athy.  This together with the future enlargement of the Museum to include priceless artefacts relating to Shackleton’s Polar exploration presents a unique opportunity to develop tourism as a secondary, if not a primary element, in the regeneration of Athy.

Kildare County Council has now commenced a public consultation process to determine where the Shackleton statue should be sited.  Let your considered views be known to the Council, bearing in mind that the proper positioning of the statue can help highlight the town’s Shackleton Museum and significantly add to the tourism attraction of the Shackleton theme. 

I realise that some people on Facebook have questioned the justification for a Shackleton statue.  Apart from the obvious marketing advantages in promoting a Shackleton Museum, consider the following.  Shackleton was born in nearby Kilkea and always claimed to be Irish.  Indeed when signing onto the Yelcho to rescue his men from Elephant Island Shackleton clearly stated his nationality as Irish.  Shackleton was described by the geologist on the Nimrod expedition as ‘born in Ireland, educated in England, worked in Scotland but from the top of his head to the soles of his feet he was Irish’.

In a letter to the Times some months ago I claimed that public monuments usually articulate a particular national identity, but that part of our identity is not just Catholic, Gaelic and nationalistic but also includes many other diverse elements.  We have commemorated in recent times the men and women of ’98 and those young men from the town of Athy whose lives were destroyed during World War I.  For his achievements in Polar exploration, Ernest Shackleton is a worthy subject for a statue to be erected close to the Shackleton Museum.

Athy's Parliamentary representatives

The upcoming parliamentary elections give every Irish citizen on the Register of Electors the opportunity to participate in the democratic appointment of representatives to Dáil Eireann.  It is a privilege which has been enjoyed by many for decades but for a time in our history the right to vote for our parliamentarians was restricted to very few.

When Athy was granted Borough status by Henry VIII it brought with it the right of the Borough Council to nominate two members of parliament.  Despite the intention of those who drafted the charter the nomination rights were exercised exclusively by the members of Athy Borough Council acting on the instructions of the Earl of Kildare, later the Duke of Leinster.  It was the same Earl or Duke who assumed to himself the exclusive right to nominate members of the Borough Council.  Those nominated generally knew little about the town but nevertheless they held their positions for life.

Athy’s parliamentary representation came long after the Irish Parliament had ceased to sit in Castledermot where up to the time of King Henry VII it had met on at least 16 occasions.  Naas and Kildare were other County Kildare venues in which 13^th, 14^th and 15^th century parliaments also met.

The earliest extant records of MP’s for Athy are for the 1559 parliament when the local Borough was represented by Richard Mothill and Roland Cussyn.  We know nothing of the first named but Cussyn was probably a relation of Richard Cussyn, Governor of Athy in 1575, whose name is inscribed on one of the sculptured stones set into the wall of Whites Castle.

A name once familiar to Athy people was that of the Weldon family of Kilmoroney.  The first member of that family to represent Athy borough in parliament was Walter Weldon who in 1624 resided in St. Johns and was High Sheriff of the county.  The Weldons had settled in Ireland at the end of the 16^th century and Walter who died in 1634 was married to Jane, daughter of Reverend John Ryder, Bishop of Kildare.  The Weldon family would again be represented in the list of parliamentarians for Athy Borough by William Weldon in 1661 and by 21 year old Walter Weldon in 1745.

The first Fitzgerald to represent Athy borough in parliament was William who lived in Athy and was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the county by King James II.  The next Fitzgerald to accept the nomination of the Borough Council was James, son of the 19^th Earl of Kildare, who was only 19 years old when appointed in 1741.  He resigned three years later on succeeding to the Earldom of Kildare.  The Irish patriot, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, was the next member of the Duke of Leinster’s family to represent Athy borough.  He was just 20 years old when nominated in 1783.  He was followed 7 years later by Lord Henry Fitzgerald, son of James who was himself MP for Athy in 1741.

Another family whose members served on several occasions as MPs for Athy were the Burghs of Bert House and Oldtown, Naas.  Thomas Burgh was MP in 1776, as was his cousin Thomas of Oldtown, Naas.  Thomas served a second term as MP for Athy borough in the Parliament of 1783.

The last MPs for Athy were William Hare and his son Richard Hare, both from Cork.  They were nominated for the 1797 Parliament after the Duke of Leinster disposed of his parliamentary nomination rights to the Hare family.  Both of the Hares while representing Athy Borough supported the Act of Union, following which William Hare was granted the title of Baron of Ennismore.  The Duke of Leinster also received financial compensation following the passing of the Act of Union in respect of his long standing right to nominate Members of Parliament for Athy Borough Council.

With the passing of the Act of Union the Irish Parliament was abolished and a reduced number of MPs represented the Irish counties at Westminster, London.  For the next 26 years there was no parliamentary election in Kildare as only two nominations were received during that time for the two county seats.  The Duke of Leinster’s family members, together with Robert La Touche of Harristown, were deemed elected to the seven parliaments held between 1801 and 1826.

It was the introduction of the secret Ballot Act of 1872 which changed the face of parliamentary representation in Ireland.  The first Home Ruler, Charles Meldon, was elected for County Kildare in February 1874 and six years later James Leahy of Moate Lodge, Athy, another Home Ruler, joined him in parliament.  Leahy was replaced by Matthew Minch of Athy in 1892 who contested that election as an anti Parnellite.  Minch resigned in 1903 to be replaced by Denis Kilbride, formerly of Luggacurran who had previously sat as an MP for Kerry.  Kilbride was returned uncontested at each subsequent election until 1918 when he was defeated by the Sinn Fein candidate Arthur O’Connor.

History informs us that the Parliamentary elections, whether to the Dáil or Westminster, gave the Irish people a limited say in the running of the country’s affairs, but nevertheless the right to vote is a precious part of our democracy and one which every right thinking person should exercise on election day.

Social housing / local authority housing in Athy

The General Election has been contested on a number of issues and the one issue which had never previously received much national attention was that of social housing.  Of course that issue has come to the fore because of the plight of the homeless and the growing number of families, almost invariably young couples or single parents with young children forced to live in one roomed hotel accommodation.  The problem is one which will grow over the next few years as the banks and the building societies take legal action to get possession of family homes where mortgages are in arrears.  Our only hope is that the long heralded recovery reaches provincial Ireland and/or the financial institutions adopt a more socially responsible attitude to the problems facing families who were badly hit during the recession. 

When we had Town Councils in Athy the provision of local authority housing was their main contribution to the development of the town.  Of course the provision and maintenance of the town’s infrastructural facilities such as roads, water and sewerage schemes were also important, but the provision of housing was generally regarded by Councillors as the Council’s key contribution to the local community.

Interestingly it was the Labouring Classes Lodging Housing Act of 1851 which first empowered Town Councils, in Athy’s case the Town Commissioners, to build houses for workers.  It was a role which the Town Commissioners never took up, despite the fact that Town Commissioners continued in charge of the town’s affairs until 1899.  Private individuals met the housing needs of what those of us writing of the 19^th century refer to as the ‘poorer classes’.  The small terraced houses built in laneways and alleyways in the town reveal to us in the names of those now lost laneways the landlord/owner in each case. 

Kirwan’s Lane, Kelly’s Lane, Butler’s Row, Barker’s Row, Matthew’s Lane, Higginson’s Lane and Connolly’s Lane are just some of those rows of terraced houses which were part of the town’s built landscape up to the 1930s.  The failure of Athy Town Commissioners to build any houses for the labouring classes under the 1851 Act was presumably because the landlord class represented on the Town Commissioners did not want interference with the private housing market.  Another reason was awareness by private landlords who were generally business people in the town that the provision of any local authority houses had to be financed from local rates which they were obliged to pay.

The role of local authorities in the provision of housing was reaffirmed in the Housing of the Labouring Classes Act of 1890.  Again the financing of any Council housing development had to rely on rates imposed on businesses in the town.  The Town Commission was replaced by the Urban District Council in 1900, but the public representatives by and large remained the same.  Eight years after the Urban Council was established a central housing fund was set up by the Local Government Department to assist Councils in providing housing for those in need. 

The local medical officer, Dr. James Kilbride, was a critic of the Urban District Council’s failure to meet the basic needs of Athy’s ‘poorer classes’ for water supply and housing.  The water from the public pumps in the town was frequently contaminated by sewerage and caused several deaths, but still the Urban District Council refused to burden the ratepayers with the cost of providing a piped water scheme for the town.  The Council’s refusal to act even in the face of several deaths resulted in the Local Government Board insisting that the Urban District Council ‘procure a supply of pure water for the town of Athy.’  Work on the town’s water supply scheme eventually started on 27^th April 1907 and was completed in June of the following year. 

Dr. Kilbride then turned his attention to the unsanitary housing conditions to be found in the laneways and alleyways of the town and it was his efforts which led to the first local authority scheme in the town which was completed in 1913 just a year before the outbreak of World War I with houses built in Meeting Lane, St. Michael’s Terrace and St. Martin’s Terrace.  Although built under the Housing of the Working Classes Act Athy Urban District Council decided that the houses in St. Michael’s Terrace and St. Martin’s Terrace were ‘better class houses’, while ‘labourer’s houses’ were provided in Meeting Lane.  The Town Clerk would report after tenants had been appointed that the Council houses ‘were all occupied principally by artisans.  None of the tenants belonged to the labouring classes.’ 

The poor people living in the unsanitary conditions highlighted in Dr. Kilbride’s reports to the Urban District Council would have to await the Slum Clearance Programmes of the early 1930s before they could be re-housed out of the unhealthy slums rented out by private landlords.

Athy's 1916 commemoration lectures

Kildare County Council has produced the third edition of the commemorative programme for this year’s centenary ceremonies in connection with the 1916 Rising.  The programme is built on seven strands which taken together reflect the themes of remembering, reconciling, presenting, imaging and celebrating.

The first strand of State and local ceremonial events focuses on remembering and honouring those who took part in the Easter Rising.  Historical reflection designed to deepen our knowledge and understanding of what happened in 1916 is the second strand.  The Irish language, which had a central place in the ideals of Pearse and many of his colleagues, is intended to be celebrated as another strand of the planned programme for 2016. 

Involving the current young generation in a range of imaginative activities to stimulate historical exploration is another strand of the 2016 programme.  In a sense, this complements the cultural expression theme of the commemoration events which seeks to encourage all community and art organisations to reflect on the events of 1916 and to visualise how those events impacted on the Ireland of the past and how they will impact on the Ireland of the future.

Those last two strands neatly merge into the penultimate strand which under the heading of community participation seeks to encourage the broadest possible community and voluntary involvement in every town and village in the county.  Those who for one reason or another left Ireland to live and work abroad are not forgotten and they are invited to join us in remembering and commemorating the events of 1916.  The programme of events organised throughout the county is quite impressive and copies of the County Council’s programme can be obtained from the local Council offices.

Here in Athy a small group came together some months ago to organise a number of commemorative events for the 1916 centenary.  Between the 22^nd March and the 17^th April we will see a diverse range of activities starting with a lecture series in Athy’s Art Centre on Tuesday, 22^nd March at 8.00 p.m.  This will be the first of four lectures to be held each Tuesday up to the 12^th April, all in the Arts Centre and all starting at 8.00 p.m. In keeping with all other events organised for the 1916 commemoration, admission to the lectures is free.

The lecture series is as follow:-

                        22^nd March      James Durney, Author and Historian

                                                ‘Foremost and Ready – County Kildare in 1916’

                        29^th March       Dr. Des Marnane, Historian and Author

                                                ‘Saving the Honour of Tip – Tipperary in 1916’

                        5^th April           Padraig Yates, Author and Historian

                                                ‘Looters , dissenters and crime in Dublin during 1916’

12^th April         Francis Devine, Author, Historian and currently editing a special 1916 issue of the Journal of the Irish Labour History Society

‘From Lockout to Rising – The ITGWU, ICA, Liberty Hall and the 1916 Rising’

The lecture on the 5^th April will feature an extra unique element.  Eamon Ceannt’s uilleann pipes will be played by Tos Quinn at the start of that lecture.

The other 1916 events include an ‘Athy in 1916’ exhibition in the Heritage Centre and a theatrical presentation in the Arts Centre by Athy Musical and Dramatic Society exploring the lives of the 1916 leaders through music, song and poetry.  Other events are planned and will be listed on the programme which will issue shortly. 

The final event will take place in Emily Square on Sunday, 17^th April with the reading of the proclamation, the unveiling of a plaque and the raising of the Tricolour.  Local clubs, groups and individuals will be invited to parade behind pipers from the four main approach roads leading into Athy and gather in Emily Square for the final solemn ceremony.  This final ceremony will be attended by Mark Wilson, a member of the 1955 winning Dublin football team whose father, a native of Russellstown was a member of the Four Courts Garrison in 1916.  Mark Wilson is the only Athy man whom I have been able to identify as a participant in the Easter Rebellion on the side of the Irish Volunteers.  It is quite possible given Athy’s history of military enlistment that some Athy natives bore arms as members of the British armed forces in Dublin during the Easter rising.

All will be remembered during this centenary year.