Athy's Regeneration Plan and the launch of Athy's tourist boat

The recent launch of the Athy Tourist Boat “Freedom on the Water” drew a small crowd of spectators to the site of what was once Athy’s busy river harbour.  The harbour was developed some years after the Grand Canal was extended to the south Kildare town in 1792 and after the filling in of the mill race which served the mill adjoining White’s Castle.  ‘Rotten Row’ was the name given to the passageway which ran from the town end of Preston’s Gate at the side of the church located in the Market Square down towards the River Barrow.  Just behind where the Courthouse is now located were to be found the saw pits where timbers brought to Athy by canal boat were cut and shaped to order.  The contours of the river harbour where boats bringing freight from Dublin and the port of Waterford berthed are barely discernible today.  The harbour walls are hidden by spoil dumped there in the 1920s during the Barrow drainage scheme. 

The nearby public space once known as Market Square and later renamed after Emily, wife of the Duke of Leinster and mother of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, is a wonderful addition to the linear streetscape of the town which is a throwback to its Anglo Norman foundation.  There is not a finer public space in any other town in the county of Kildare.  The juxtaposition of Town Hall, Courthouse and White’s Castle gives a wonderful streetscape composition, with the Castle standing sentinel like over the late 18^th century Crom a Boo bridge. 

The Tourist Boat represents another element in the Regeneration Plan recently announced for the town and hopefully it will complement other tourist related activities in the South Kildare area.  Now that Kildare county is part of the Ireland’s Ancient East tourism programme the time is right for Athy to press its claims, as a town replete with history, to be an interesting place to visit.  The Tourist boat offering trips on the River Barrow will complement the attraction of the Heritage Centre-Museum which coincidentally during the week received a huge boost with the award of full museum status.  Interesting to note that the only two other museums to be similarly awarded this year were Fota House in Cork and the Louth County Museum in Dundalk. 

The plans for extending the Museum will require the taking over of the entire Town Hall building to accommodate the revamped Shackleton exhibition.  This will undoubtedly attract national and international interest which in conjunction with the Shackleton Autumn School will make Athy the most important venue for visitors and others alike interested in Shackleton and Polar exploration. 

It has taken just over 30 years to get the Heritage Centre-Museum to the point where it achieved Museum status.  Hopefully it won’t take as long to bring what I hope will be another and perhaps the final cog in the local tourist cycle to fruition.  I mentioned earlier White’s Castle, that iconic building guarding the bridge of Athy.  The bridge and the castle represent Athy not only in the town seal but also in the memory of anyone who was born or lived in the town.  The Castle, once a Fitzgerald fortress, is in private ownership but because of its prominent position in the town centre should be in public ownership.  My hope is that at some stage in the near future Kildare County Council will acquire White’s Castle and help it to be developed as a Fitzgerald museum to tell the story of the Earls of Kildare and the Dukes of Leinster.  Athy would be an appropriate location for such a museum given that the town was always a Fitzgerald town which even now in the 21^st century recalls in its street names members of various generations of that family.

The development of Athy’s tourist potential should not be ignored.  Two wonderful attractions, the Grand Canal and the River Barrow, have been underused and largely ignored for far too long.  Now that we have the tourist boat in the local harbour and nearby the newly accredited museum surely we can look forward with some confidence to developing Athy as a worthy part of the Ireland’s Ancient East experience.  Bookings for the boat can be made by phone on (087)433-5350 or log on to www.athyboattours.ie.

The Kevin Barry exhibition curated by University College Dublin will be officially opened in the Heritage Centre-Museum tonight Tuesday at 7.30 p.m.  In last week’s Eye on the Past I mentioned the various links Ireland’s best remembered patriot had with Athy and the exhibition will give a unique opportunity to learn more of the young man whose execution in Mountjoy Jail gave us the most famous Irish rebel ballad of this or any other era.  The Mayor of County Kildare, Councillor Ivan Keatley, will officially open the exhibition.  All are welcome to attend.

Dominican Church bell and the Dominican Church Athy

Our former Dominican Church has been in the news recently.  Under the front page banner headline “For Whom Will The Bell Toll”, this newspaper recounted the story of Kildare County Council’s efforts to restore the church bell which the Dominican Fathers had removed some months ago.  They did so in the expectation that the bell would find a home in another church and continue to be used to summon worshipers to church services.  It was not to be.  What one Council official described as ‘an important part of our heritage’ had to be returned to the belfry from which it was removed.

The bell was cast by M. Byrne of Fountain Head Foundry, James’s Street, Dublin and his name also appears on the rotary mountings from which the bell hung.  The bell was inscribed ‘Presented to the Dominican Church, Bridgeview, Athy – Rosary Confraternity and other kind friends A.D. 1898.’  The account books of Athy’s Dominican Priory, which are held in the Dominican archives in Tallaght, indicate that the bell weighing 21cwt was brought to Athy from the foundry in Dublin by canal boat.  It was blessed in July 1898 and christened by the local Dominicans as ‘Dominick’. 

The Kildare Nationalist in the same issue which reported the supposed tug of war over the church bell carried an advertisement concerning Kildare County Council’s proposed conversion of St. Dominic’s Church to a public library.  The public are asked to submit comments or observations on the proposed development to the County Librarian before 4p.m. on Monday 19^th September.  The proposed change of use will undoubtedly be welcomed locally, even if some may quibble over the Council’s failure/refusal to countenance the occasional use of the building for the holding of concerts.  I believe this was the original suggestion made in the expectation that modern mobile library furniture would allow such usage, with little inconvenience or difficulty.  It’s a pity the idea was not followed through as the Dominican Church has proved over the years to be a wonderful venue for the occasional concerts which were held there.  Would it be possible, I wonder, for the County Council to revise its plans for the former church to allow its usage as a library as well as an occasional concert venue?

While the Dominican Church was in the course of construction the members of Athy Urban District Council at its meeting in June 1964 decided to honour the Dominican Order.  Tom Carbery in proposing that the new 42 house scheme off Woodstock Street be named ‘St. Dominic’s Park’ said that it was a fitting way of showing the public’s appreciation of and gratitude for the great work of the Dominican fathers over the previous 700 years.  Joe Deegan in seconding the motion said the church under construction was the wonder and admiration of people not only in different parts of Ireland but in other countries as well.  M.G. Nolan and the Councils Chairman Michael Cunningham also spoke in favour of the motion as did Jim Fleming who however asked that the Council’s next housing scheme be named after the late Deputy William Norton ‘in recognition of the outstanding work he has done for the working classes.’

Reading press reports in the aftermath of the opening of the church in March 1965 I am not at all sure if we locals fully appreciated how important the church was in terms of its architectural style.  Headlined as a church of the 21^st century it attracted thousands of visitors in the months after its dedication.  The church was designed by 39 year old French born architect Adrien Pache who incorporated a number of Continental ideas into his design.  Speaking at a news conference while the church was still in the course of construction he said ‘the Church will be the first of its kind in Ireland.  Nothing like it has been attempted before and the fact that it is completely different in design to all other Irish churches makes it somewhat revolutionary.’ 

The modern design of the Dominican Church would no doubt have found favour with James Johnson who writing from 1055 Manhattan Ave., Brooklyn following the opening of Athy’s Parish Church in 1964 claimed that the dedication of the Parish Church pointed to a regrettable and avoidable failure to join the movement towards contemporary forms in ecclesiastical architecture.  He regarded the Lombardy style of St. Michael’s Church as a tragic anachronism.

Unlike the Parish Church the former Dominican Church, soon to be the town library, is truly a magnificent example of contemporary architecture.  It will make a first class library, with or without the ancient church bell but imagine what a huge additional contribution it could make to the cultural and musical heritage of the town if its use for occasional concerts was also allowed. 

Kevin Barry and the Kevin Barry exhibition in Athy's Heritage Centre

Kevin Barry was born in Dublin on the 20^th January 1902, the fourth child of Thomas Barry and his wife Mary Dowling both of whom were natives of County Carlow.  In 1919 Kevin entered University College, Dublin as a medical student.  Some years earlier he had joined the Irish Volunteers and was a member of the 1^st Battalion of the Dublin Brigade. As a Volunteer he took part in a number of actions by the Dublin Brigade aimed at securing arms and ammunition.  One such action took place in Church Street, Dublin on the 20^th September 1920 when Irish Volunteers including Barry attacked a military lorry.  Three British soldiers were killed that day and Kevin Barry became the first Volunteer to be captured in an armed attack since the Easter Rising in 1916.  He was subsequently court martialled and sentenced to death on the 20^th October 1920.  Kevin Barry was the first person tried and executed for a capital offence under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act which was passed earlier that same year. He was also the first Irish person to be executed since the executions carried out following the Easter Rebellion. Kevin Barry was hanged in Mountjoy Jail on the 1^st November 1920.

The British Army commander who headed up over 40,000 troops in Ireland in 1920 was confident as was the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, that the guerilla warfare which started in January 1919 would soon be ended.  However, even with the reinforcements of the R.I.C. by the recruitment of ex-World War I soldiers commonly known as the Black and Tans and the setting up of a new auxiliary division of the R.I.C. law and order could not be restored in Ireland.  While deValera was in America seeking support for the self proclaimed Government of the Irish Republic, young men such as Kevin Barry continued  to be involved in the fight to achieve an independent Irish Republic. 

The recent commemorations for the Easter Rising brought forward an enormous amount of claims, too many to be substantiated, of active involvement in the Rising.  The numbers tended to indicate exaggerated claims of involvement.  Even more exaggerated claims of involvement in the subsequent War of Independence have in the past been made and will undoubtedly resurface in the coming years.  As to the actual participants in the guerilla warfare of post Easter rising Ireland, historians have estimated that it is unlikely that any more than 3,000 men and women were actively involved. 

Just a week before Kevin Barry’s execution, Terence MacSwiney, the Mayor of Cork died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison.  Four weeks later, fourteen British army personnel were assassinated by Michael Collins’s men and on the same day twelve civilians were killed in Croke Park in a retaliatory action by British soldiers.

The death sentence passed on Kevin Barry’s  Court martial attracted world wide attention given that he was just eighteen years of age Eamon deValera, then in America spoke in New York at a large rally on the morning of Barry’s execution.  His speech was recorded and later issued as a commercial record, copies of which were on sale in America that following month.  Appeals for clemency for Kevin Barry went unheeded and the British Government headed by Lloyd George decided against a reprieve pointing out that the British soldiers killed in the Church Street raid were also very young men.

The Irish Weekly Independent of the 6^th November 1920 reported that Barry objected to being pinioned and blindfolded saying that as a soldier he was not afraid to die. Arthur Griffith wrote to his mother “your son has given his young life for Ireland and Ireland will cherish his memory forever”. He was buried within the walls of Mountjoy jail where four months later another young man his friend Frank Flood, was also buried.  Kevin Barry’s sister later married “Bapty” Maher of Athy who was a member of the Irish Volunteers in the town.  Frank Flood was a brother of Tom Flood who following the Treaty lived in Leinster Street, Athy.  Another link with both Barry and Flood was made when Patrick Moran was also executed and buried in Mountjoy Jail.  He had spent some years working as a bar man in Athy before leaving for Dublin where he took part in the Easter Rising.

A Kevin Barry exhibition put together by University College Dublin will be opened at Athy Heritage Centre on Tuesday, 12^th July at 7.30 p.m.  The images displayed throughout the exhibition come from the University’s Digital Archive with text prepared by Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History in UCD. The newly elected Mayor of County Kildare, Councillor Ivan Keatley, will officially open the exhibition. All are welcome.        

Danny Kane and Mary Fleming

Danny Kane and Mary Fleming came from a similar rural background in South Kildare.  Danny was from Oldgrange, while Mary was from the nearby townland of Fontstown.  In age they were a generation apart but both passed away within weeks of each other.  Mary was an extremely devout person whose commitment to her church never waivered, while Danny’s work ethic was an essential part of his approach to life. 

Mary left Ireland as a young girl in 1937 at the height of the economic war.  She would spend the next 67 years of her life in England where she qualified as a nurse and midwife.  Even in retirement she continued working as a health visitor in Northampton, near to the home place of the great English poet John Clare.  She was however never lost to Ireland or to the extended Fleming family and she returned to Athy 12 years ago.  Here in Athy she renewed her commitment to the local parish in the same way as she had committed herself as a volunteer in her UK parish over many years.

Danny Kane, who was one of the most agreeable persons one could meet, left school like so many of his peers at an early age.  His lack of formal education did not in any way impinge on his ability to relate to people and he enjoyed an excellent relationship with everyone as he passed through life.  While working on local farms at an early age he developed an extraordinary work ethic which he maintained all his life.

In or about 1971 Danny purchased a small grocery shop at 32 Woodstock Street.  I am told that the enterprising young man from Oldgrange found that the mortgage repayments exceeded his income and so with friends Syl Bell and Eddie Ryan he purchased a chip van.  Travelling to various functions in the area selling chips proved profitable and prompted Danny to open a chipper in part of the existing grocery shop in Woodstock Street.  In time Danny gave over the entire premises to the fish and chip business and it flourished while Danny was the proprietor before selling it on in 1998. 

Legion are the stories I have heard of Danny’s thoughtfulness and generosity during his time as the shop proprietor in Woodstock Street.  It was the same spirit and thoughtfulness which saw him working later in his life as a volunteer driver for the Cancer Society.  After retiring from the business he had built up over 26 years Danny worked for a time as a driver for his brother-in-law Fergal Blanchfield.  This was followed by a spell as a driver with local hardware firm Griffin Hawe Ltd. and later as a taxi driver for Vals Cabs and Ernest O’Rourke-Glynn.

Sadly in more recent years Danny was troubled by a heart complaint brought on unquestionably by a life of hard work and long hours.  He was scheduled to have heart surgery for some time past but health cutbacks caused the operation to be postponed several times.  When at last the call came it was via a text message while Danny was attending 12 mass at St. Michael’s Parish Church.  He was admitted to St. James’s Hospital the following morning but tragically following a 14 hour operation died shortly after being transferred to the intensive care unit.

Danny is survived by his wife Fidelma who on their marriage in 1972 brought together two families, Kanes and Blanchfields, who are long associated with this part of the county of Kildare.  Fidelma and their 8 adult children have lost a wonderful caring husband and father and a man for whom the local community came out in their hundreds to honour on the occasion of his funeral. 

The contrasting lifestyles of both Danny Kane and Mary Fleming, both from rural backgrounds, were founded on commitment, one to the church, the other to the family.  Mary, who remained single throughout her whole life, found contentment and purpose in the Catholic Church and in her later years on returning to Ireland found great happiness with the extended family members, young and old, with whom she spent her final days.  Danny found great happiness in his family life and the life stories of Danny and Mary while different in so many ways show that their passages through life were marked by dedicated commitment to life’s true values.  Our sympathies go to the families and friends of Mary Fleming and Danny Kane. 

Battle of the Somme

At 7.20 a.m. on 1^st July 1916 a huge mine was detonated under the German lines on the Somme.  A few minutes later more mines were exploded.  Just a few seconds after 7.30 a.m. bugles and whistles sounded and the waiting British army soldiers rose from their trenches and went over the top.  The Battle of the Somme which extended from north of Beaumont Hamel to Chilly, south of Chaulnes had started.

At the beginning of 1916 the Great War had reached a stalemate.  A month earlier Douglas Haig was appointed Commander in Chief of the British Army in France.  He would adapt a strategy of sending men forward in the region of the Somme to deflect German attention from Verdun approximately 150 miles to the south east.  There a battle of attrition which started the previous February had caused nearly 750,000 casualties. 

The Battle of the Somme commenced with a seven day artillery bombardment of the German lines.  On the morning of 1^st July the British Infantry moved towards the German trenches walking behind a rolling barrage of artillery fire which extended slowly towards the German lines.  Those German lines however were heavily defended and the artillery barrage proved so ineffective that the advancing British soldiers were scythed down by German fire.  Before the end of the day British Army losses on the Somme amounted to 41,000 men, 19,240 of whom were killed. 

The British professional army of 1914 had suffered such heavy losses at the start of the war that many of the troops engaged at the Somme were volunteers who were facing enemy fire for the first time.  The casualty figures on the Somme represents the heaviest loss for any one day in British military history.  The Somme battlefield would result in over 1,000,000 casualties before the military offensive ended on 13^th November 1916 with negligible gains in terms of territory by the British army.

Robert Hackett who was born in Kelly’s Lane, Athy enlisted as a private in the York and Lancaster regiment and served in the 12^th Battalion.  He was killed in action on the first day of the Somme and was the first Athy man to die during that battle.  On 4^th July Frank Alcock, a young man of 20 years, born in Athy and formerly of Woodstock Street who had earlier enlisted in Wicklow, died of his wounds.  He had joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and served in the 2^nd Battalion.  Was he, I wonder, a brother of Thomas Alcock, another Athy man who served in the 1^st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers and had enlisted in Carlow?  Thomas was killed in action in France on 1^st June 1917. 

On the last day of the Somme on 13^th November 1916 Athy man James Dunne was killed.  His father was Peter Dunne who lived at 3 Offaly Street.  Twenty young men from Athy were killed between 1^st July and 13^th November 1916.  These included John Hannon of Ardreigh House who was just 24 years old when he died on 18^th August 1916.  His death came 15 months after his 20 year old brother Norman was killed at Festubert.  One man who survived the Battle of the Somme was John Vincent Holland of Model Farm whose gallantry at the siege of Guillemont was awarded with the Victoria Cross. 

Many of the Somme dead are buried in the Connaught Cemetery at the edge of Thiepval Wood.  A short distance away is the Mill Road Cemetery and nearby the 36^th Ulster Division Memorial.  The imposing Thiepval Memorial to the missing is close by.  It was built of bricks with stone facing on which are inscribed the names of more than 73,000 soldiers of the British Army who died on the Somme and whose bodies were never found.  Amongst them are the names of many young men from Athy and South Kildare, just some of the 218 men from the area who died during the 1914-18 war.

The Battle of the Somme which commenced on 1^st July 100 years ago occupies a unique position in British history as well as Irish history.  It marked a time when two countries, one the oppressed, the other the oppressor, came together for a brief period before engaging in their own war, of a lesser scale than the Somme, which we call the War of Independence. 

Earlier this week Michael Fox of Dublin, whose mother was Elizabeth O’Rourke, a niece of the O’Rourke brothers of Canal Harbour, presented me with a copy of his booklet ‘To Stem the Flowing Tide’.  It tells the story of the O’Rourke brothers involvement in the War of Independence as members of the Old I.R.A.  Copies of the booklet are available for sale in The Gem at €5.00 per copy.

Athy's Regenertion Plan and the launch of Athy's tourist boat

The recent launch of the Athy Tourist Boat “Freedom on the Water” drew a small crowd of spectators to the site of what was once Athy’s busy river harbour.  The harbour was developed some years after the Grand Canal was extended to the south Kildare town in 1792 and after the filling in of the mill race which served the mill adjoining White’s Castle.  ‘Rotten Row’ was the name given to the passageway which ran from the town end of Preston’s Gate at the side of the church located in the Market Square down towards the River Barrow.  Just behind where the Courthouse is now located were to be found the saw pits where timbers brought to Athy by canal boat were cut and shaped to order.  The contours of the river harbour where boats bringing freight from Dublin and the port of Waterford berthed are barely discernible today.  The harbour walls are hidden by spoil dumped there in the 1920s during the Barrow drainage scheme. 

The nearby public space once known as Market Square and later renamed after Emily, wife of the Duke of Leinster and mother of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, is a wonderful addition to the linear streetscape of the town which is a throwback to its Anglo Norman foundation.  There is not a finer public space in any other town in the county of Kildare.  The juxtaposition of Town Hall, Courthouse and White’s Castle gives a wonderful streetscape composition, with the Castle standing sentinel like over the late 18^th century Crom a Boo bridge. 

The Tourist Boat represents another element in the Regeneration Plan recently announced for the town and hopefully it will complement other tourist related activities in the South Kildare area.  Now that Kildare county is part of the Ireland’s Ancient East tourism programme the time is right for Athy to press its claims, as a town replete with history, to be an interesting place to visit.  The Tourist boat offering trips on the River Barrow will complement the attraction of the Heritage Centre-Museum which coincidentally during the week received a huge boost with the award of full museum status.  Interesting to note that the only two other museums to be similarly awarded this year were Fota House in Cork and the Louth County Museum in Dundalk. 

The plans for extending the Museum will require the taking over of the entire Town Hall building to accommodate the revamped Shackleton exhibition.  This will undoubtedly attract national and international interest which in conjunction with the Shackleton Autumn School will make Athy the most important venue for visitors and others alike interested in Shackleton and Polar exploration. 

It has taken just over 30 years to get the Heritage Centre-Museum to the point where it achieved Museum status.  Hopefully it won’t take as long to bring what I hope will be another and perhaps the final cog in the local tourist cycle to fruition.  I mentioned earlier White’s Castle, that iconic building guarding the bridge of Athy.  The bridge and the castle represent Athy not only in the town seal but also in the memory of anyone who was born or lived in the town.  The Castle, once a Fitzgerald fortress, is in private ownership but because of its prominent position in the town centre should be in public ownership.  My hope is that at some stage in the near future Kildare County Council will acquire White’s Castle and help it to be developed as a Fitzgerald museum to tell the story of the Earls of Kildare and the Dukes of Leinster.  Athy would be an appropriate location for such a museum given that the town was always a Fitzgerald town which even now in the 21^st century recalls in its street names members of various generations of that family.

The development of Athy’s tourist potential should not be ignored.  Two wonderful attractions, the Grand Canal and the River Barrow, have been underused and largely ignored for far too long.  Now that we have the tourist boat in the local harbour and nearby the newly accredited museum surely we can look forward with some confidence to developing Athy as a worthy part of the Ireland’s Ancient East experience.  Bookings for the boat can be made by phone on (087)433-5350 or log on to www.athyboattours.ie.

The Kevin Barry exhibition curated by University College Dublin will be officially opened in the Heritage Centre-Museum tonight Tuesday at 7.30 p.m.  In last week’s Eye on the Past I mentioned the various links Ireland’s best remembered patriot had with Athy and the exhibition will give a unique opportunity to learn more of the young man whose execution in Mountjoy Jail gave us the most famous Irish rebel ballad of this or any other era.  The Mayor of County Kildare, Councillor Ivan Keatley, will officially open the exhibition.  All are welcome to attend.

John McCormack Principal Ardscoil na Tríonóide

John McCormack was appointed principal of Ardscoil na Tríonóide in 2013.  His appointment was one of huge importance in terms of the history of education in the town as John, or Johnny as he is generally known, is a past pupil of Athy Christian Brothers School which following an amalgamation with Scoil Mhuire has evolved as one of the largest educational campuses in South Kildare.

Born in Kilkenny in 1962 Johnny came to live in Athy nine years later and joined the 2^nd class in the St. John’s Lane School where Brother Murphy, the last in a long line of Christian Brother principals, was head teacher.  Later on ascending the iron stairs to the secondary school classrooms he came under the tutelage of Bill Ryan, Mick Hannon and Brother Tobin.  He finished his secondary education in 1981 and having graduated with a B.Com. from U.C.D. returned as a teacher to his old alma mater four years later.

Just a year before John returned to Athy the old Christian Brothers secondary school closed and reopened in new premises at Rathstewart.  The move came 167 years after the Christian Brothers came to Athy on the invitation of the Archbishop of Dublin to provide schooling facilities for the young boys of St. Michael’s parish.  A year earlier the Sisters of Mercy had opened their convent school here in Athy.  The move to a new site in Rathstewart saw the Christian Brothers secondary school operating side by side with the Convent of Mercy secondary school, Scoil Mhuire.  While there were some shared facilities the boys and girls schools operated under different school Boards of Management, separate principalships and under their own names, Scoil Eoin and Scoil Mhuire.  Lay principals would later replace the previous principals who like their predecessors going back to the schools foundations had always been members of religious orders. 

John McCormack was appointed vice principal of Scoil Eoin in 2002 following the retirement of Mick Hannon.  Five years later Scoil Eoin and Scoil Mhuire amalgamated to become a co-educational school under the name Ardscoil na Tríonóide.  The religious trusteeships under which Scoil Eoin and Scoil Mhuire had previously operated were replaced by a trusteeship under the name, Catholic Education Irish School Trust (C.E.I.S.T.).  In 2012 John McCormack was appointed principal.  He was the first past pupil of Athy C.B.S. School to assume that position. 

Today Ardscoil na Tríonóide is a far bigger secondary school than that which my school pals and myself attended in the 1950s.  Secondary education in those days was a facility which the vast majority of my primary schoolmates could not avail of.  While the Christian Brothers sought a very small fee where they felt it could be paid and no fee if thought otherwise, family circumstances often dictated that the young boys had to leave school at 14 years of age and sometimes earlier.  So it was that four small classrooms at the top of the iron stairs in the St. Johns Lane School provided sufficient accommodation for Athy’s Secondary School pupils up to more recent years.  The school staff in the 1950s consisted of four teachers, two Christian Brothers, Brett and Keogh and two lay teachers, Bill Ryan and Michael O’Riordan.

It was not until Donagh O’Malley’s move to make secondary education more freely available that the secondary school scene started to change dramatically.  Today Ardscoil na Tríonóide caters for upwards of 840 pupils with enrolment two years in advance.  A maximum of 150 pupils can be catered for in each class year, a number which is even larger than the total secondary school population of the Christian Brothers School in my time.  Another huge change is that approximately 95% of those who enrol in the first year of secondary school go on to sit their Leaving Certificate.  In my time the dropout rate after 6^th class primary and 1^st year secondary was very high and just a few years before I sat my Leaving Certificate the Leaving Cert. class in the local Christian Brothers School consisted of just one pupil.

Today Ardscoil na Tríonóide has 53 teachers, with backup secretarial staff.  The range of sports provided include basketball, rugby, soccer, equestrian and Gaelic games, with sports hall facilities not dreamed of in my St. John’s Lane school days. 

The Catholic ethos of Ardscoil na Tríonóide reflects those of the community it serves but it is a passive inclusion in a school which is non denominational and respectful of the religious beliefs of others.  Johnny McCormack, as a past pupil of the earlier Christian Brothers School, fosters and encourages his pupils to continue on to University.  The fact that up to 90% of the school’s pupils continue on to third level education is a tribute to the quality of education provided in Ardscoil na Tríonóide and the educational philosophy pursued by Johnny McCormack and his team.  The gateway to success in life is a good education and Ardscoil na Tríonóide combines the best traditions of my old secondary school and that of Scoil Mhuire to provide a first class educational environment for its pupils.

Last week I mentioned the sad death of journalist and last editor of the Sunday Press, Michael Keane.  As I finish this article I have before me a copy of ‘The Greenhills Magazine’ published at Christmas 1964 by the pupils of the C.B.S. Athy.  Its editor was Michael Keane who in his editorial expressed the hope that the magazine ‘will make you a little bit more proud of your school’.  We were indeed proud of our school and proud of Michael’s achievement in Irish journalism and we can be justifiably proud of the wonderful educational facilities available in Ardscoil na Tríonóide provided under the guidance of Johnny McCormack who like the late Michael Keane is a past pupil of the C.B.S. here in Athy. 

Kevin Barry and the Kevin Barry exhibition in Athy's Heritage Centre

Kevin Barry was born in Dublin on the 20^th January 1902, the fourth child of Thomas Barry and his wife Mary Dowling both of whom were natives of County Carlow.  In 1919 Kevin entered University College, Dublin as a medical student.  Some years earlier he had joined the Irish Volunteers and was a member of the 1^st Battalion of the Dublin Brigade. As a Volunteer he took part in a number of actions by the Dublin Brigade aimed at securing arms and ammunition.  One such action took place in Church Street, Dublin on the 20^th September 1920 when Irish Volunteers including Barry attacked a military lorry.  Three British soldiers were killed that day and Kevin Barry became the first Volunteer to be captured in an armed attack since the Easter Rising in 1916.  He was subsequently court martialled and sentenced to death on the 20^th October 1920.  Kevin Barry was the first person tried and executed for a capital offence under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act which was passed earlier that same year. He was also the first Irish person to be executed since the executions carried out following the Easter Rebellion. Kevin Barry was hanged in Mountjoy Jail on the 1^st November 1920.

The British Army commander who headed up over 40,000 troops in Ireland in 1920 was confident as was the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, that the guerilla warfare which started in January 1919 would soon be ended.  However, even with the reinforcements of the R.I.C. by the recruitment of ex-World War I soldiers commonly known as the Black and Tans and the setting up of a new auxiliary division of the R.I.C. law and order could not be restored in Ireland.  While deValera was in America seeking support for the self proclaimed Government of the Irish Republic, young men such as Kevin Barry continued  to be involved in the fight to achieve an independent Irish Republic. 

The recent commemorations for the Easter Rising brought forward an enormous amount of claims, too many to be substantiated, of active involvement in the Rising.  The numbers tended to indicate exaggerated claims of involvement.  Even more exaggerated claims of involvement in the subsequent War of Independence have in the past been made and will undoubtedly resurface in the coming years.  As to the actual participants in the guerilla warfare of post Easter rising Ireland, historians have estimated that it is unlikely that any more than 3,000 men and women were actively involved. 

Just a week before Kevin Barry’s execution, Terence MacSwiney, the Mayor of Cork died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison.  Four weeks later, fourteen British army personnel were assassinated by Michael Collins’s men and on the same day twelve civilians were killed in Croke Park in a retaliatory action by British soldiers.

The death sentence passed on Kevin Barry’s  Court martial attracted world wide attention given that he was just eighteen years of age Eamon deValera, then in America spoke in New York at a large rally on the morning of Barry’s execution.  His speech was recorded and later issued as a commercial record, copies of which were on sale in America that following month.  Appeals for clemency for Kevin Barry went unheeded and the British Government headed by Lloyd George decided against a reprieve pointing out that the British soldiers killed in the Church Street raid were also very young men.

The Irish Weekly Independent of the 6^th November 1920 reported that Barry objected to being pinioned and blindfolded saying that as a soldier he was not afraid to die. Arthur Griffith wrote to his mother “your son has given his young life for Ireland and Ireland will cherish his memory forever”. He was buried within the walls of Mountjoy jail where four months later another young man his friend Frank Flood, was also buried.  Kevin Barry’s sister later married “Bapty” Maher of Athy who was a member of the Irish Volunteers in the town.  Frank Flood was a brother of Tom Flood who following the Treaty lived in Leinster Street, Athy.  Another link with both Barry and Flood was made when Patrick Moran was also executed and buried in Mountjoy Jail.  He had spent some years working as a bar man in Athy before leaving for Dublin where he took part in the Easter Rising.

A Kevin Barry exhibition put together by University College Dublin will be opened at Athy Heritage Centre on Tuesday, 12^th July at 7.30 p.m.  The images displayed throughout the exhibition come from the University’s Digital Archive with text prepared by Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History in UCD. The newly elected Mayor of County Kildare, Councillor Ivan Keatley, will officially open the exhibition. All are welcome.