In February 2007 some minute books
and other books relating to the Catholic Young Mens Society in Athy were given
to me by Jimmy Robinson. Jimmy was the
last Honorary Secretary of the C.Y.M.S., a local institution with a history
extending back over 150 years but which had ceased to exist in 2004.
The first branch of the society was
founded in Limerick in 1849 after a young priest who had attended Knockbeg
College Carlow brought together a number of labourers. Fr. Richard Baptist O’Brien, who had been
ordained in Maynooth ten years previously, spent the first five years of his
priesthood in Canada. On returning to
Limerick during the dreadful famine year of 1847 Fr. O’Brien felt the need for
young men who survived the famine to come together in friendship and
cooperation to better their lives. Approximately
13 years after the foundation of the society a C.Y.M.S. branch was started in
Athy. Unfortunately the minute books
dealing with the early years of the branch have not been found. The earliest minute books to survive starts
with entries for 1958, while an earlier cash book opened in June 1926 lists initially on a daily basis and later weekly
and then twice monthly monies received and monies paid up to 1949. To my great regret the minute book or books
for the period 1964 to 1971 are missing as my late brother Seamus took over as
secretary from Jim McEvoy a short time before his untimely death in a road
traffic accident.
That these records have survived is
a tribute to Jimmy Robinson’s attention to detail and the care which marked his
voluntary work as honorary secretary of the C.Y.M.S. over many years. The last entry in the C.Y.M.S. minute book is
of a committee meeting held on 21st October 1994. The meeting was presided over by another
great stalwart of Athy, P.J. Hyland.
Jimmy who died last week joins P.J. in our memories.
Memories not only of the C.Y.M.S.
but also of the wonderful characters who were members of the local branch when
it occupied premises at the corner of Stanhope Street and Stanhope Place. Where the C.Y.M.S. branch was originally
located following its foundation in 1862 I cannot say. The members took over the building at the
corner of Stanhope Place from the Sisters of Mercy in 1892. Forty eight years later they acquired use of
the adjoining building immediately adjacent to the side entrance gate to the
Parish Church. It lay directly opposite
the Parish Priest’s house and had been home to the technical school since the
setting up of technical education at the start of the century. The building became vacant when a new
technical school was opened on the Carlow Road in 1940. The then Parish Priest Canon McDonnell (after
whom McDonnell Drive is named) gave the C.Y.M.S. permission to use the old
technical school room which in my young days was called the card room. It was the ‘holy of holies’ for the senior members such as Tom Moore, Ned
Cranny, Christy Dunne, ‘Sooty’
Hayden, Willie Bracken and many others for whom card playing was a favourite
pastime.
The late Jimmy Robinson and P.J.
Hyland with other committee members witnessed the gradual falloff of membership
in the C.Y.M.S. during the 1990s. The
original objective of the society ‘to
foster mutual union and cooperation and by priestly guidance, the spiritual
intellectual, social and physical welfare of its members’ may not have
seemed relevant in the world of the Celtic Tiger. During the 1950s there was more than 100 C.Y.M.S.
branches in Ireland. In 1994 there were
just 17 branches left throughout the country and it is likely that the Athy
branch was not the only one to close its doors in recent years.
Jimmy Robinson came from an old Athy
family, as did Jimmy Bolger and John Joe Owens, both of whom passed away
recently. I was privileged to write of
Jimmy Bolger in a previous Eye on the Past.
John Joe Owens was a man who like myself was not afraid of expressing
his views in a forthright manner. I have
huge admiration for men such as the two Jimmys and John Joe who in their own
individual way contributed to what I have often described as the rich tapestry
of life in our south Kildare town of Athy.
Other deaths noted during the recent
past were that of Claus Schmidt and Mary Leech, both of whom were well known in
the town. As I am writing this piece I
have learned of the death of an old school colleague of mine from our days in
the local Christian Brothers secondary school.
John Joe Brennan died while I was abroad and regrettably I was unaware
of his passing until now. I have fond
memories of John Joe who with a few others joined the Christian Brothers
secondary school from outlying rural primary schools in the 1950s.
Their passing brings sadness not
only to family and friends but also to a community which remembers times past
and experiences shared.
