James Joseph O'Byrne, Irish patriot

Last week the Irish Times carried an article on the closure of Ardscoil Eanna in Crumlin, Dublin.  Founded in 1939 by James Joseph O’Byrne, a former teacher in the Christian Brothers School in Athy, it was opened four years after the closure of Padraig Pearse’s St. Enda’s School.  Indeed in an interview I had with Denis Langton in 2001 J.J. O’Byrne, as he was known in Athy, was described as a friend of the 1916 leader who was sent down the country to organise the Gaelic League.  

J.J. O’Byrne’s was the son of an evicted tenant farmer from Valleymount, Co. Wicklow, who as a young man attended St. James’s School in Dublin before graduating with an arts degree from University College Dublin.  He subsequently taught in St. Augustine’s School Waterford before taking up a teaching post in Athy’s secondary school in 1916.  He was an active member of the Gaelic League in Athy as well as being a leading member of the local Sinn Fein Club.  The first reference I found to J.J. O’Byrne in the local papers of the time was in the Nationalist and Leinster Times of 11^th May 1918 when it reported on his speech at a Sinn Fein meeting regarding difficulties experienced by local traders due to the shortage of silver coins.  Apparently the war time shortage was so severe that the authorities had great difficulty in paying outdoor relief and old age pensions.  A few weeks later J.J. O’Byrne was again a prominent speaker at a Sinn Fein meeting held in Emily Square to protest against the arrest of the Sinn Fein leaders.  He addressed another Sinn Fein meeting in Stradbally towards the end of June 1918 where a fellow speaker was Dr. Higgins, father of Kevin Higgins, both of whom would in later years be killed. 

On Thursday 15^th August 1918 J.J. O’Byrne read a statement in Emily Square as part of a nationwide event organised by the Sinn Fein movement.  The statement, which issued after Sinn Fein’s success in the Cavan by-election, under the name of Michael O’Flanagan, Vice President and acting President of Sinn Fein, claimed that both sets of belligerent at the Versailles Peace Conference would have to support self determination for Ireland ‘which has at last emerged into the full sunlight of national consciousness and no power on earth can drive us back.’  The statement I believe was to have been read by P.P. Doyle of Woodstock Street but for whatever reason J.J. O’Byrne had to step in and ensure that the Sinn Fein plans for the day were fulfilled.  Inevitably he was arrested the following day and while kept in custody was not tried for almost two weeks.  The Athy Board of Guardians at its next meeting passed a vote of protest at O’Bryne’s arrest which all the members with the exception of the Chairman T.J. Whelan supported.  Athy Urban District Council also condemned the British government ‘for arresting and imprisoning Irish men without charge’. 

J.J. O’Byrne was one of seven men court martialled in Maryborough (Portlaoise) at the end of August 1918.  The name on the charge sheet read ‘James John O’Byrne’ and the prisoner was reported to have failed to answer when asked if he was J.J. O’Byrne of Duke Street, Athy.  After arguing that he was not handed the charge sheet O’Byrne refused to give his name or to recognise the Court.  Sergeant Heffernan of the R.I.C. Athy gave evidence that on Thursday 15^th August at Emily Square he saw a group of approximately 200 men whom O’Byrne addressed.  The Sergeant had a copy of O’Byrne’s statement, the reading of which he claimed lasted for approximately 15 minutes.  He described the statement as the Sinn Fein manifesto.  O’Byrne, he declared, was known as J.J. O’Byrne which was the name on the card in the house in Duke Street where he lived.  Sergeant Heffernan knew O’Byrne for the previous two years to which O’Byrne replied, ‘my names is James Joseph, not James John.’  Convicted as charged O’Byrne was further remanded in custody and two weeks later was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment.

J.J. O’Byrne was married with four young children when he was imprisoned.  He had married Esther Bates from East Wall, Dublin in 1910 having met her at a Gaelic League meeting.  They would eventually have a family of 12 children, one of whom, their daughter Maureen, married Sean Moore of Rheban.  The O’Byrne family lived for many years on a farm in Barrowhouse at a time when J.J. was teaching in Westland Row Christian Brothers School.  The family left Athy in March 1937 and two years later J.J. opened Ardscoil Eanna in Crumlin.  The school was founded on the principles of Pearse’s St. Enda’s School and one of the first teachers employed was Pearse’s sister Margaret.

J.J. O’Byrne died in January 1966 just four months after the death of his wife Esther.  He was one of the many forgotten patriots whose involvement in the Gaelic League and Sinn Fein during the troubled years of the War of Independence made those of us who came after them proud of our town’s past.

Anti-partition movement 1949

‘It was decided in the interest of harmonious relations between all religions in the district that publication of the two letters from Northern Ireland be withheld.’  This entry in the minute book of Athy Urban District Council in February 1949 intrigued me when I first read it 30 or more years ago.  The letters mentioned were not filed and so their contents remained a mystery which I felt I was never likely to unravel. 

The Nationalist and Leinster Times report had related to a meeting of Athy Urban District Council where Labour Councillor Tom Carbery complimented the people of Athy on their response to an appeal for funds for the Anti-Partition movement.  However, in thanking the locals for their contributions Councillor Carbery deplored the lack of response from the non-Catholic communities in the town.  Fellow Councillors, M.G. Nolan, a local draper and Liam Ryan, a teacher in the local Christian Brothers School, both of whom were Fianna Fail members of the Council, voiced similar views to those expressed by Councillor Carbery.

The Minutes of the next meeting of the Council noted ‘arising out of the discussion at the previous meeting re failure of some people to subscribe to the Anti Partition Campaign Collection held outside the churches in the town two letters were received from residents of Northern Ireland.  Mr. L. Ryan pointed out that none of the speakers at the previous meeting condemned Protestants, as such, but condemned all those who had not subscribed irrespective of their religion.  Mr. Patrick Dooley stated he was absolutely opposed to anything that would cause religious bitterness or strife.’  As already noted the meeting agreed not to publish the letters.

However, the two letters sent from Northern Ireland were apparently copied and found their way into the library of the local Dominican Priory.  They formed part of a cache of papers and documents given to me recently on the departure of the Dominicans from Athy.  The first letter addressed to ‘Chairman and Fellow Bigots Athy County Council’ referred to the ‘Fenian Council’s’ attempt to remove the ‘disloyal element’ for not subscribing to the ‘Chapel pittance’.  The unknown letter writer who used the name ‘Ulster Luther’ after signing off ‘Moscow before Rome’ warned that ‘Northern Protestants are united as never before.  It will be the sons of the planters you will face and unlike our enslaved and tortured brethren in Spain, whom the Christian Franco intends to obliterate, our cause will prevail.’ 

The second letter writer appended his name and his Belfast address but his message was perhaps more threatening given his indirect references to the Belfast pogroms.  ‘There are 100,000 papists in the six counties and bear in mind they are employed by Protestants and I am sure you don’t want a repetition of 1920 and 1922 again.’ 

Referring to the remarks by two unnamed members of Athy Council the writer claimed they suggested that Protestants who did not subscribe to the collection ‘should go back to the North’.  He finished off  his letter with the warning ‘Remember there is no England to come to your aid this time as in the days of Grattan.  I warn you against any further moves towards those Protestants as we will move here inside 24 hours.’  The letter writer claiming not to be a communist but a ‘loyal Ulster man and an orangeman’ gave his name and signed off ‘No Pope and no surrender’.

The local Councillors confined their subsequent discussions to more mundane matters such as calling for a regional hospital serving Counties Kildare, Carlow, Laois, Wicklow and Kilkenny to be located in Athy.  Equally ineffective was their adoption of a draft development scheme for Athy completed by the Council’s planning consultant which provided for a proposed bypass road of Athy.   Sixty six years later the bypass road is still at the planning stage but thankfully references to religious differences are no longer acceptable or even worthy of discussion.

Professor Louise Richardson, whom I believe lived in Athy in the 1960s, was recently installed as the first woman Vice Chancellor of Oxford University.  Before her appointment to the Oxford position she had made Scottish history by becoming the first female and the first Catholic appointed as Vice Chancellor of St. Andrew’s University.  Her parents, I believe, lived in Chanterlands and her father, Arthur Richardson, was an active member of the local St. Vincent de Paul Society during his time in Athy. 

If you remember the Richardson family of Chanterlands I would be delighted to hear from you.

Alice Quinn, Esther Flynn and Sarah Cahill

Emigration has always been a central feature of Irish provincial town life but particularly so in Ireland of the post economic war years of the 1930s.  I was reminded of this when talking recently to three Athy women whose family lives were marked by emigration.  For the vast majority of the Irish men and women who emigrated in the last century the principal destination was Great Britain.  So too for the father of sisters Alice Quinn and Esther Flynn who left Athy in 1942 to work for British Rail in Leicester city. Paddy Wall spent several decades working in Leicester.  On retirement he returned home to Athy and often recounted to his family stories of his involvement in the aftermath of World War II bombings.  Sarah Cahill’s father Thomas Morrin was also driven by Ireland’s past political and economic failures to take the emigrant boat to work in England. 

As I sat in Frank O’Brien’s pub to talk to the three cheerful ladies I was struck by their almost sanguine acceptance of difficult past times, but times which they insisted were nevertheless happy times.  All three left school at an early age, deprived because of their circumstances of the opportunities which a secondary education might provide.  At fourteen years of age they went to work, Sarah Morrin to Plewman’s house on the Kilkenny Road, while sisters Alice and Esther Wall, who with their mother and brother Johnny had joined their father in Leicester,  also joined the work force on reaching 14 years of age.  Esther worked for some years in a wool factory, while her younger sister Alice worked in Woolworths. 

The Wall family returned to their family home in 6 Nelson Street after spending five years in Leicester but a number of years were to pass before they could be joined again by the father of the family.  Thomas Morrin was also able to return to work in his home town of Athy when he obtained employment in the local Asbestos factory.  Family life with an absent father working and living in England was a fairly common situation to be found in provincial Ireland of the 1940s and 1950s.  The difficulties this presented for the mothers of young children and the void it created in family life can only be imagined.  However, in a country with so few employment opportunities and where emigration figured large in everyday life Irish mothers proved resilient and resourceful. 

Sarah Morrin and Esther Wall were in the same class in St. Mary’s Convent School in Athy with Alice Wall two classes behind before Esther and Alice left for Leicester where they continued their education.  Alice on returning to Athy worked in Bachelor’s Pea Factory until she married John Quinn in 1968.  They lived in Plewman’s Terrace, the same terrace where her friend Sarah Morrin was born and lived before her marriage. 

Esther Wall’s story highlights the persistence of emigration in Irish social life as having spent five years in Leicester before returning to Nelson Street, Athy she again emigrated in 1960.  This time the journey was made with her boyfriend Seamus Flynn of Kilberry when both travelled to Manchester where they were married and where they lived for the next 30 years.

Sarah Morrin, who later married Nicholas Cahill, remembers spending a number of years working all year round in Lambs farm in Fontstown.  An early morning start saw Sarah and her work companions collected in Emily Square to be brought by lorry to the Fontstown Fruit Farm.  On marrying at 21 years of age Sarah went to live in Pairc Bhride where she is now a long time resident.  Sarah Morrin whose parents were appointed tenants of No. 18 Plewman’s Terrace in November 1936 proudly claims to have been the first baby born in Plewman’s Terrace.

I met the three happy contented ladies last week when we swopped stories of life in Athy over the years.  Tales of the lively town scene of yesteryear when the shops stayed open until late on Saturday night, mixed with stories of ‘the tuppenny rush’ at Bob’s Cinema in Offaly Street brought back treasured memories.  Alice Quinn, Sarah Cahill and Esther Flynn are some of the wonderful people who with their friendliness and shared memories make Athy such a wonderful place in which to live.

The official opening of Dooley's Terrace April 1934

Mealys Auctioneers recently sold at auction a ceremonial key which had been presented to Sean T. O’Ceallaigh in 1934 when opening the housing scheme at Dooley’s Terrace.  The silver key, inscribed with the words ‘Presented to Sean T. O’Ceallaigh Esq., Minister for Local Government, on the occasion of the opening of the Athy Housing Scheme April, 1934’ was the gift of local building contractors D. & J. Carbery of St. John’s, Athy.

In May 1932 Dr. John Kilbride, whose father Dr. James Kilbride had played a major part in improving conditions in the town in the early part of the 20^th century, submitted a report to the elected members of Athy Urban District Council.  The report noted that 1292 persons were living in 323 houses in Athy, none of which contained more than two rooms.  All were devoid of sanitary accommodation and nearly all of them were in a poor state of repair, with many located in sun starved courts and alleyways.  Dr. Kilbride questioned how could children be brought up properly in those conditions.  He pointed out that in Barrack Street there were 11 persons, including married couples, living in two rooms, while on the Canal Side there were four houses with no yards and in one lived 10 people and in another 6 people.  In New Row 10 people lived in a two roomed house, while a similar house in the same row housed 9 people and in each of two other houses 8 persons lived.  The local medical officer concerned at the appalling housing conditions to be found in the town called on the Council to build houses and for every house built to level an unfit house before it was re-let. 

Councillor Brigid Darby of Leinster Street, a National School teacher in Churchtown, proposed that the Council make arrangements to build 100 houses ‘for the working classes’ and that the houses ‘be divided between east and west Athy in proportion to the need determined by Dr. Kilbride.’  The Council took advantage of the 1932 Housing Act which the newly elected Fianna Fail Government had passed as part of the Government’s Slum Clearance Programme.  By October 1932 the Department of Local Government had approved plans for 17 houses in Carbery’s field at Rathstewart, 20 houses in the Sisters of Mercy field, also at Rathstewart, and 56 houses in Doyle’s field adjoining the County Home.

Local building contractors D. & J. Carbery Ltd. submitted the lowest tender of £14,122 for the 56 houses and for the 17 house scheme they were also the successful contractor with a tender of £4,403.  The Urban District Council directed that ‘all houses are to be roofed with tiles that are made locally and the external walls are to be built of Athy brick.’  Building work commenced at the end of 1932, but it soon became apparent that Athy brick was in short supply.  As a result permission was given to utilise Dolphins Barn brick until Athy brick was available in sufficient quantities. 

On 18^th December 1933 the Urban District Council at a meeting chaired by Patrick Dooley agreed to name the 56 house scheme ‘Michael Dooley Terrace’ in memory of the Chairman’s brother who had died unexpectedly the previous October.  The Minutes of the Council meeting noted in relation to Michael Dooley ‘he was always a staunch and steady supporter of the national cause from the old Sinn Fein days up to the last.  He fought and suffered in the cause of Ireland when there was real fighting to be done and when he had everything to lose in the cause of fidelity to his country.’

The tenants of the Michael Dooley houses were appointed in February 1934.  All of the tenants were re-housed from areas included in Slum Clearance Orders made by the Council which included Barrack Street, Shrewleen Lane and Higginsons Lane.

The Minister for Local Government Sean T. O’Ceallaigh opened the Michael Dooley Terrace houses on Thursday, 5^th April 1934.  The National Press reported that ‘a huge crowd accorded Mr. Kelly a great welcome at the Railway Station from where he was paraded through the town preceded by Churchtown Pipe Band, Bert Pipe Band and Athy’s Pipe Band.’  The Minister received a brief address of welcome read by a young boy on behalf of the tenants before the official opening.  Does anyone know who that boy was?

The key presented to the Minister by the contractors D. & J. Carbery 82 years ago following the official opening of Michael Dooley Terrace has now been purchased by Kildare County Council and hopefully it will return soon to Athy to be exhibited in the local Heritage Centre. 

Anti-partition movement 1949

‘It was decided in the interest of harmonious relations between all religions in the district that publication of the two letters from Northern Ireland be withheld.’  This entry in the minute book of Athy Urban District Council in February 1949 intrigued me when I first read it 30 or more years ago.  The letters mentioned were not filed and so their contents remained a mystery which I felt I was never likely to unravel. 

The Nationalist and Leinster Times report had related to a meeting of Athy Urban District Council where Labour Councillor Tom Carbery complimented the people of Athy on their response to an appeal for funds for the Anti-Partition movement.  However, in thanking the locals for their contributions Councillor Carbery deplored the lack of response from the non-Catholic communities in the town.  Fellow Councillors, M.G. Nolan, a local draper and Liam Ryan, a teacher in the local Christian Brothers School, both of whom were Fianna Fail members of the Council, voiced similar views to those expressed by Councillor Carbery.

The Minutes of the next meeting of the Council noted ‘arising out of the discussion at the previous meeting re failure of some people to subscribe to the Anti Partition Campaign Collection held outside the churches in the town two letters were received from residents of Northern Ireland.  Mr. L. Ryan pointed out that none of the speakers at the previous meeting condemned Protestants, as such, but condemned all those who had not subscribed irrespective of their religion.  Mr. Patrick Dooley stated he was absolutely opposed to anything that would cause religious bitterness or strife.’  As already noted the meeting agreed not to publish the letters.

However, the two letters sent from Northern Ireland were apparently copied and found their way into the library of the local Dominican Priory.  They formed part of a cache of papers and documents given to me recently on the departure of the Dominicans from Athy.  The first letter addressed to ‘Chairman and Fellow Bigots Athy County Council’ referred to the ‘Fenian Council’s’ attempt to remove the ‘disloyal element’ for not subscribing to the ‘Chapel pittance’.  The unknown letter writer who used the name ‘Ulster Luther’ after signing off ‘Moscow before Rome’ warned that ‘Northern Protestants are united as never before.  It will be the sons of the planters you will face and unlike our enslaved and tortured brethren in Spain, whom the Christian Franco intends to obliterate, our cause will prevail.’ 

The second letter writer appended his name and his Belfast address but his message was perhaps more threatening given his indirect references to the Belfast pogroms.  ‘There are 100,000 papists in the six counties and bear in mind they are employed by Protestants and I am sure you don’t want a repetition of 1920 and 1922 again.’ 

Referring to the remarks by two unnamed members of Athy Council the writer claimed they suggested that Protestants who did not subscribe to the collection ‘should go back to the North’.  He finished off  his letter with the warning ‘Remember there is no England to come to your aid this time as in the days of Grattan.  I warn you against any further moves towards those Protestants as we will move here inside 24 hours.’  The letter writer claiming not to be a communist but a ‘loyal Ulster man and an orangeman’ gave his name and signed off ‘No Pope and no surrender’.

The local Councillors confined their subsequent discussions to more mundane matters such as calling for a regional hospital serving Counties Kildare, Carlow, Laois, Wicklow and Kilkenny to be located in Athy.  Equally ineffective was their adoption of a draft development scheme for Athy completed by the Council’s planning consultant which provided for a proposed bypass road of Athy.   Sixty six years later the bypass road is still at the planning stage but thankfully references to religious differences are no longer acceptable or even worthy of discussion.

Professor Louise Richardson, whom I believe lived in Athy in the 1960s, was recently installed as the first woman Vice Chancellor of Oxford University.  Before her appointment to the Oxford position she had made Scottish history by becoming the first female and the first Catholic appointed as Vice Chancellor of St. Andrew’s University.  Her parents, I believe, lived in Chanterlands and her father, Arthur Richardson, was an active member of the local St. Vincent de Paul Society during his time in Athy. 

If you remember the Richardson family of Chanterlands I would be delighted to hear from you.

Athy Heritage Centre granted full Museum status

During the past week the Heritage Council announced that Athy Heritage Centre-Museum had been awarded full accreditation under the Museum Standards Programme for Ireland.  This means that our local Museum, first opened in 1983 in a vacant classroom in St. Mary’s Convent School, is classified as a Museum on the same level as the National Museum in Dublin.  To have reached the necessary standard for such a classification is an enormous achievement, due in large measure to the ongoing work of Margaret Walsh, the Centre Manager, the Centre staff members and the volunteers who give freely of their time and experience.

The Heritage Centre-Museum has ranked up several noteworthy achievements in its short life and has also gained a remarkable international niche for itself in terms of Antarctic studies.  The annual Shackleton Autumn School is now a well known part of the international Polar studies forum.  Nowhere was that more clear than by the Centre’s recent acquisition of the Shackleton cabin despite competition from the famous Fram Museum in Norway.

The future development of the Centre-Museum which will be facilitated by the transfer of the town’s library to the former Dominican Church affords a huge opportunity to maximise its tourist potential.  The development of tourism in the South Kildare area may seem to many as an aspiration which holds out little hope of success.  This however is an attitude which is perhaps fashioned from decades of unimaginative acceptance of a market town mentality and a rigid adherence to an economic model of another era.  We need to look at the regeneration of the town of Athy with an open mind, realising that both local natural and manmade infrastructure afford an opportunity to develop and recharge the town’s economy.

We need industry as well as we need a vibrant commercial sector.  To that mix we should also add the undoubted benefits of a thriving tourism sector.  The proposed Shackleton Museum will in time no doubt prove to be an  important tourist attraction and its success will hopefully encourage us to market better the wonderful facilities we have in this area. 

When I look to the future of tourism in Athy and the region my thoughts turn to the iconic building on the bridge of Athy – White’s Castle.  This is a building which must form part of any tourism development plan for the town.  It is such an important building and one which could potentially prove to be a huge attraction for visitors to Athy if it were adapted to tell the medieval story and perhaps the story of the Fitzgeralds, some of whose family names are remembered in the principal street names of Athy.

Visitors to Athy are always extremely complimentary of the town’s buildings, the town’s central squares, the River Barrow and the Grand Canal.  Living as I have for most of my life in Athy I like so many others in the town was oblivious of these attractive qualities until they were highlighted in the comments of visitors over the years.

The success of the Heritage Centre-Museum is an indicator of the huge potential for tourism development in this part of the county and hopefully in the not too distant future we can look to the Museum and Whites Castle as twin attractions spearheading the drive for tourists in this area.

The Shackleton Challenge, an exercise in leadership development initiated and adapted by Athy Heritage Centre-Museum for secondary school students concluded this week with a final assessment of twelve projects devised and managed by students of Athy’s Ardscoil na Tríonóide.  The assessors for the project were our three local T.D.’s, together with local industrialists who found that all of the projects involving teams of four or five students provided an excellent opportunity for team building and the promotion of leadership skills.  The project teams were monitored throughout the several weeks of the projects by experienced adults from the local community.  It is intended to extend the Shackleton Challenge to other secondary schools over the coming years.

During the week I attended an event in Ardscoil na Tríonóide organised by transition year students to mark the centenary of the Easter Rebellion.  It was quite a good show but two students stood out for their outstanding contributions which deserve particular mention.  Joe Byrne played the uileann pipes and the bag pies brilliantly and made an enormous impact on the audience.  His is a musical talent which has already been recognised and will undoubtedly lead to national and international success in the not too distant future.

The Master of Ceremonies for the evening was another student whose poise and superb speaking voice marked him out as a future radio star if he should wish to embark on such a career.  Adam Bowden had a straightforward role to play in the event but he performed with aplomb and with such ease that he stood out, as did his fellow student Joe Byrne.  Congratulations to both and to all the transition year students and their teachers who were involved in the show.

The official opening of Dooley's Terrace, April 1934

Mealys Auctioneers recently sold at auction a ceremonial key which had been presented to Sean T. O’Ceallaigh in 1934 when opening the housing scheme at Dooley’s Terrace.  The silver key, inscribed with the words ‘Presented to Sean T. O’Ceallaigh Esq., Minister for Local Government, on the occasion of the opening of the Athy Housing Scheme April, 1934’ was the gift of local building contractors D. & J. Carbery of St. John’s, Athy.

In May 1932 Dr. John Kilbride, whose father Dr. James Kilbride had played a major part in improving conditions in the town in the early part of the 20^th century, submitted a report to the elected members of Athy Urban District Council.  The report noted that 1292 persons were living in 323 houses in Athy, none of which contained more than two rooms.  All were devoid of sanitary accommodation and nearly all of them were in a poor state of repair, with many located in sun starved courts and alleyways.  Dr. Kilbride questioned how could children be brought up properly in those conditions.  He pointed out that in Barrack Street there were 11 persons, including married couples, living in two rooms, while on the Canal Side there were four houses with no yards and in one lived 10 people and in another 6 people.  In New Row 10 people lived in a two roomed house, while a similar house in the same row housed 9 people and in each of two other houses 8 persons lived.  The local medical officer concerned at the appalling housing conditions to be found in the town called on the Council to build houses and for every house built to level an unfit house before it was re-let. 

Councillor Brigid Darby of Leinster Street, a National School teacher in Churchtown, proposed that the Council make arrangements to build 100 houses ‘for the working classes’ and that the houses ‘be divided between east and west Athy in proportion to the need determined by Dr. Kilbride.’  The Council took advantage of the 1932 Housing Act which the newly elected Fianna Fail Government had passed as part of the Government’s Slum Clearance Programme.  By October 1932 the Department of Local Government had approved plans for 17 houses in Carbery’s field at Rathstewart, 20 houses in the Sisters of Mercy field, also at Rathstewart, and 56 houses in Doyle’s field adjoining the County Home.

Local building contractors D. & J. Carbery Ltd. submitted the lowest tender of £14,122 for the 56 houses and for the 17 house scheme they were also the successful contractor with a tender of £4,403.  The Urban District Council directed that ‘all houses are to be roofed with tiles that are made locally and the external walls are to be built of Athy brick.’  Building work commenced at the end of 1932, but it soon became apparent that Athy brick was in short supply.  As a result permission was given to utilise Dolphins Barn brick until Athy brick was available in sufficient quantities. 

On 18^th December 1933 the Urban District Council at a meeting chaired by Patrick Dooley agreed to name the 56 house scheme ‘Michael Dooley Terrace’ in memory of the Chairman’s brother who had died unexpectedly the previous October.  The Minutes of the Council meeting noted in relation to Michael Dooley ‘he was always a staunch and steady supporter of the national cause from the old Sinn Fein days up to the last.  He fought and suffered in the cause of Ireland when there was real fighting to be done and when he had everything to lose in the cause of fidelity to his country.’

The tenants of the Michael Dooley houses were appointed in February 1934.  All of the tenants were re-housed from areas included in Slum Clearance Orders made by the Council which included Barrack Street, Shrewleen Lane and Higginsons Lane.

The Minister for Local Government Sean T. O’Ceallaigh opened the Michael Dooley Terrace houses on Thursday, 5^th April 1934.  The National Press reported that ‘a huge crowd accorded Mr. Kelly a great welcome at the Railway Station from where he was paraded through the town preceded by Churchtown Pipe Band, Bert Pipe Band and Athy’s Pipe Band.’  The Minister received a brief address of welcome read by a young boy on behalf of the tenants before the official opening.  Does anyone know who that boy was?

The key presented to the Minister by the contractors D. & J. Carbery 82 years ago following the official opening of Michael Dooley Terrace has now been purchased by Kildare County Council and hopefully it will return soon to Athy to be exhibited in the local Heritage Centre. 

Address at concluding 1916 commemoration ceremony in Athy on 12 April 2016

Athy’s commemoration of the centenary of the 1916 Rising concluded on Sunday 17^th April with a formal ceremony at Emily Square.  The proceedings opened with the following address which I am reproducing as this week’s Eye on the Past.

‘In this the centenary year of the Easter Rising we come together to commemorate with pride and dignity the vision, courage and sacrifices that marked the events of Easter week 1916.  We do so in the knowledge that constitutional nationalism and armed rebellion which fused in the years following the Rising transformed Irish political life.  It led to the first Dáil, the War of Independence and regrettably the Civil War but independence in the face of military oppression by the largest empire in the world was an achievement of historical proportions. 

There are many conflicting interpretations of the Easter Rising and commemorating an armed Rebellion which occurred without the people’s support is always going to be challenging.  Questions may be asked about the legitimacy of the Easter Rising – but it is not for us to justify or condemn but to try to understand.

Insurrection was far from the minds of most Irish men and women at the start of the 20^th century.  In 1798 the United Irishmen inspired by the republican ideals of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution had raised the country in revolt.  Robert Emmet had led a revolt in 1803, the Young Islanders in 1848 and the Fenians in 1867 at a time of agrarian discontent.  All had failed. 

In 1914 the leaders of the Irish Volunteers were secretly organising for an armed revolt.  From the radical socialist James Connolly to the nationalist poet, Padraig Pearse, they were committed to changing Ireland’s political situation.  The execution of the 1916 leaders turned the tide of public opinion and led to a radically new direction for Irish Nationalists.  The effect of the Rising of Easter week 1916 termed by the Irish historian, Desmond Ryan, as – ‘one of the most arresting examples in all history of the triumph of failure’, was as Pearse foresaw to shake Ireland from her sleep of apathy.

Those who had little sympathy with the aspirations of the 1916 leaders while they lived began to change their minds after the executions in Kilmainham jail.  George Russell, the Irish poet better known as AE would write:-

                

                 “Their dream had left me numb and cold,

But yet my spirit rose in price,

Refashioning in burnished gold

The images of those who died

Or were shut in the penal cell.

Here’s to you, Pearse, your dream not mine,

But yet the thought for this you fell

Has turned life’s waters into wine.”

Athy in 1916 was a town which had made a huge contribution in terms of young men who volunteered to enlist to fight overseas in the 1914-18 war.  Another young man born in Russellstown was at that time working in Dublin and as a member of the Irish Volunteers he served under Comdt. Ned Daly in the Four Courts.  Mark Wilson was the only Athy man confirmed to have participated as a Volunteer in the Easter Rising.  Following the surrender ordered by the rebel leaders he was imprisoned in Stafford Detention Barracks.  Today we are privileged to have in attendance his son, also named Mark, who is here with other members of the Wilson family.

It was the bravery of men such as Mark Wilson which helped change the public’s attitude and in time led to the resurgence of Nationalist fervour culminating in the establishment of a Sinn Fein club in Athy in June 1917.  Chairman of that club was local shopkeeper Michael Dooley of Duke Street in whose honour the 1932 Housing Estate on Stradbally Road was named Dooley’s Terrace.  Others associated with the Nationalist cause included  Bapty Maher, Eamon Malone, Joe May, Dick Murphy, Christine Malone, William Mahon, P.P. Doyle, Michael May, Tom Corcoran, Joe Mullery, Julia Dooley, Alice Lambe, Hester Dooley and the O’Rourke and Lambe brothers.

If the Easter Rising was the seminal event in the establishment of the Irish State the involvement of these men and women from Athy in the struggle for independence was a significant continuation of the town’s previous participation in the national struggle which stretched back to the Confederate wars and the 1798 Rebellion.

In our final 1916 commemoration event here in Athy we acknowledge the significance of the contribution of Mark Wilson and others to the shaping of modern Ireland.  While not all of the ideals of the 1916 Proclamation have been realised today, nevertheless in this centenary year it is appropriate for us to acknowledge with pride the part played by the men and women of 1916 in furthering the cause of Irish freedom.’

Thanks to all those who contacted me regarding Athy’s 1966 Commemoration of the Rising.  I am still anxious to see if photographs of that event have been retained by anyone.

Athy Heritage Centre Museum granted full museum status

During the past week the Heritage Council announced that Athy Heritage Centre-Museum had been awarded full accreditation under the Museum Standards Programme for Ireland.  This means that our local Museum, first opened in 1983 in a vacant classroom in St. Mary’s Convent School, is classified as a Museum on the same level as the National Museum in Dublin.  To have reached the necessary standard for such a classification is an enormous achievement, due in large measure to the ongoing work of Margaret Walsh, the Centre Manager, the Centre staff members and the volunteers who give freely of their time and experience.

The Heritage Centre-Museum has ranked up several noteworthy achievements in its short life and has also gained a remarkable international niche for itself in terms of Antarctic studies.  The annual Shackleton Autumn School is now a well known part of the international Polar studies forum.  Nowhere was that more clear than by the Centre’s recent acquisition of the Shackleton cabin despite competition from the famous Fram Museum in Norway.

The future development of the Centre-Museum which will be facilitated by the transfer of the town’s library to the former Dominican Church affords a huge opportunity to maximise its tourist potential.  The development of tourism in the South Kildare area may seem to many as an aspiration which holds out little hope of success.  This however is an attitude which is perhaps fashioned from decades of unimaginative acceptance of a market town mentality and a rigid adherence to an economic model of another era.  We need to look at the regeneration of the town of Athy with an open mind, realising that both local natural and manmade infrastructure afford an opportunity to develop and recharge the town’s economy.

We need industry as well as we need a vibrant commercial sector.  To that mix we should also add the undoubted benefits of a thriving tourism sector.  The proposed Shackleton Museum will in time no doubt prove to be an  important tourist attraction and its success will hopefully encourage us to market better the wonderful facilities we have in this area. 

When I look to the future of tourism in Athy and the region my thoughts turn to the iconic building on the bridge of Athy – White’s Castle.  This is a building which must form part of any tourism development plan for the town.  It is such an important building and one which could potentially prove to be a huge attraction for visitors to Athy if it were adapted to tell the medieval story and perhaps the story of the Fitzgeralds, some of whose family names are remembered in the principal street names of Athy.

Visitors to Athy are always extremely complimentary of the town’s buildings, the town’s central squares, the River Barrow and the Grand Canal.  Living as I have for most of my life in Athy I like so many others in the town was oblivious of these attractive qualities until they were highlighted in the comments of visitors over the years.

The success of the Heritage Centre-Museum is an indicator of the huge potential for tourism development in this part of the county and hopefully in the not too distant future we can look to the Museum and Whites Castle as twin attractions spearheading the drive for tourists in this area.

The Shackleton Challenge, an exercise in leadership development initiated and adapted by Athy Heritage Centre-Museum for secondary school students concluded this week with a final assessment of twelve projects devised and managed by students of Athy’s Ardscoil na Tríonóide.  The assessors for the project were our three local T.D.’s, together with local industrialists who found that all of the projects involving teams of four or five students provided an excellent opportunity for team building and the promotion of leadership skills.  The project teams were monitored throughout the several weeks of the projects by experienced adults from the local community.  It is intended to extend the Shackleton Challenge to other secondary schools over the coming years.

During the week I attended an event in Ardscoil na Tríonóide organised by transition year students to mark the centenary of the Easter Rebellion.  It was quite a good show but two students stood out for their outstanding contributions which deserve particular mention.  Joe Byrne played the uileann pipes and the bag pies brilliantly and made an enormous impact on the audience.  His is a musical talent which has already been recognised and will undoubtedly lead to national and international success in the not too distant future.

The Master of Ceremonies for the evening was another student whose poise and superb speaking voice marked him out as a future radio star if he should wish to embark on such a career.  Adam Bowden had a straightforward role to play in the event but he performed with aplomb and with such ease that he stood out, as did his fellow student Joe Byrne.  Congratulations to both and to all the transition year students and their teachers who were involved in the show.

Ernest Shackleton and the rescue of the crew of the Endurance

On Easter Monday 24^th April 1916 the Easter Rising erupted in Dublin.  Contingents of men from the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizens Army quickly sought to seize sites in Dublin such as the GPO and the Four Courts.  On that same day thousands of miles away three Irishmen embarked upon a boat journey which is now regarded as one of the greatest adventure stories in maritime history.

Six men manned the boat called ‘The James Caird’.  The Caird was one of the lifeboats from Ernest Shackleton’s expedition ship, ‘The Endurance’ which had been crushed on the ice of the Antarctic seas in October 1915.  Shackleton and his men had spent five months surviving on the ice floes until the ice began to break up and then made a dash for safety to Elephant Island.  Elephant Island was a forlorn rocky isle on the edge of the Weddell Sea which did not offer any prospects for long term survival for the men of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition.

On that fateful Easter Monday the Kildare-born Shackleton, the Kerry man Tom Crean, the Cork man Tim McCarthy, the Scots man Henry McNish, the English man John Vincent and New Zealander Frank Worsley left their comrades on Elephant Island on a forlorn mission to rescue the crew of the Endurance now left behind on Elephant Island under the leadership of Frank Wilde, Shackleton’s second in command.

Although these men were experienced seafarers it is hard to imagine that they held up much hope for reaching civilisation given that it was almost 800 miles from the island to South Georgia which was occupied almost exclusively by Norwegians in the whaling and sealing industries.

Under extraordinary tough conditions and with limited equipment and even more limited food they made the journey to Elephant Island in just under 17 days.  When they first reached the coastline around South Georgia they were appalled to find that they had reached land on the wrong side of the island where there was no habitation whatsoever.  Realising that the James Caird could not survive another couple of days at sea they resolved to beach the boat and cross the island, a feat which had never been attempted by any man before.

Notwithstanding their emaciated condition and not having any suitable mountaineering gear Shackleton with Tom Crean and Frank Worsley embarked upon a 36 hour crossing of South Georgia.  What now faced them was the task of attempting to traverse the peaks and glaciers of South Georgia which had never been crossed nor mapped before.

Over the course of 36 hours they achieved the crossing after many hair raising episodes.    They took little or no rest during their trek across South Georgia.  At around 5 a.m. on their final day of the crossing Shackleton directed his companions Crean and Worsley to stop for a brief rest.  Both Crean and Worsley immediately fell into a deep sleep.  Shackleton himself stayed awake.  After five minutes he woke his companions, telling them they had slept for half an hour.  As Michael Smith, Shackleton’s most recent biographer put it, ‘it was a lie that saved their lives.’

At around 6.30 a.m. they reached a rocky ridge overlooking what they believed to be Stromness Bay.  Although they had no sight of the buildings of Stromness Shackleton knew that the whalers aroused from their beds around 6.30 a.m. most mornings and that at 7 a.m. the steam whistle of the factory would summons them to work.  The three men waited patiently and at 7 a.m. on the dot they heard the shrill sound of the steam whistle, the first sound of the outside world that they had heard in 17 months.

Their trek was not yet over but Shackleton knew he had to push himself and his men all the harder to get down to Stromness Bay before the reserves in strength gave out.  Finally at 4 p.m. on 20^th May 1916 they made it to Stromness.  They encountered Mattheus Anderson, the station foreman at Stromness, who was working when he first saw the three bearded and dirt encrusted men.  Anderson brought them to meet the manager of the whaling station, a man who was very familiar to Shackleton.  The manager did not recognise Shackleton.  One of Shackleton’s first questions to the manager was ‘was the war over?’.  The Endurance had left England in August 1914, just as the Great War began in France and Belgium.  The manager answered, ‘the war is not over, millions have been killed.  Europe is mad.  The world is mad.’  Eight days previously the last of the 1916 leaders were executed at Kilmainham Jail.  Among them Sean Mac Diarmada and the critically injured James Connolly.  The world indeed was mad.