The early history of Athy's Workhouse

The first meeting of the Board of Guardians of the Athy Union was held in the Courthouse, Athy on Thursday, 29^th April 1841 (the Court room at that time was located in the Town Hall).  Present at that meeting were Lord Downes of Bert House, Sir E.H. Walsh of Ballykilcavan, Sir Anthony Weldon of Rahinderry, W.H. Cole of Moore Abbey, Monasterevin, Benjamin Lefroy of Cardenton and Edward Bagot of Kildoon.  They were ex officio members of the Board, as was B.A. Yates of Moone Abbey and George Evans of Farmhill who were not present at that meeting. 

Those attending also included the following guardians who had been elected to the position.  Patrick Cummins, Athy; Gerald Dunne, Snugboro; P.C. Doran, Castlemitchell; John Butler, Athy; Thomas Fitzgerald, Kilberry; Robert Cassidy, Monasterevin; Edward Conlan, Monasterevin; John Hyland, Ballitore; Patrick Maher, Kilrush; William Pelan, Ballindrum; James Caulfield, Pilsworth, Castledermot; Joseph Lyons, Moyanna, Stradbally; Thomas Budd, Timogue, Stradbally; Michael Dowling, Inch, Stradbally; Francis Roberts, Stradbally; Thomas Kilbride, Luggacurran; John Hovenden, Modubeagh and John Kehoe of Ballylinan.  Elected guardians who were absent included Daniel Browne, Ashgrove, Monasterevin; John Dowling, Kildangan; Andrew Dunne, Dollardstown; William Caulfield, Levitstown; Major E.H. Pope, Carlow and William Tarleton, Stradbally [the last two representing Ballyadams].

At that first meeting of the Board George Evans was elected Chairman, William Caulfield Vice Chairman while Patrick Dunne was elected Clerk to the Board at a salary of €40 per year.  Arrangements were made for the Union area to be surveyed and valued for the purpose of fixing rates to finance the running of the Workhouse which would open in Athy in January 1844. 

At its next meeting on 27^th May it was agreed to admit the press to board meetings and to divide the union area into eight vaccination districts, with vaccination stations located at Athy, Castledermot, Monasterevin, Stradbally, Luggacurran, Nurney, Ballylinan and Moone. 

On 20^th July 1841 the Board received an order from the Poor Law Commissioners directing it to raise or borrow the sum of £6,700 for the building and fitting out of a workhouse in Athy. 

On 10^th March 1842 the Board met to decide applications from persons claiming the right to vote at the annual election for members of Athy Board of Guardians scheduled for 26^th March.  The only change following that election was the replacement of John Butler by John Peppard.  The outgoing chairman, George Evans, retained his position following the first meeting of the newly elected Board when defeating Sir Anthony Weldon by one vote.  However, his name is absent from the record of all subsequent meetings and on 11^th October 1842 the Board unanimously agreed to elect Sir Anthony Weldon as Chairman of the Board of Guardians on the proposal of Lord Downes, seconded by Captain Lefroy. 

In July 1842 the salaries for the various officers of the workhouse were fixed by the Board.  The Workhouse Master was to be paid £40 per year with furnished apartments, fuel and candles and a limited quantity of house provisions.  The Matron was to receive £20 a year, with similar allowances, while the workhouse porter was granted £10 a year and allowances.  The workhouse schoolmaster and mistress were to be paid £20 and £15 respectively in addition to the earlier mentioned allowances.  Their duties were to include ‘assisting the master in the management of the workhouse.’  The medical attendant’s salary was fixed at £50 a year and his duties included the ‘compounding of all necessary medicines.’  A ‘nurse teacher’ was to receive £10 a year with the agreed allowances.  However, the Poor Law Commissioners took issue with the Board of Guardians decisions and directed that the fixing of salaries was premature and consequently refused to sanction any appointments. 

The dispute between the Board and the Commissioners was eventually resolved and on 7^th February 1843 the Board proceeded with appointments of various officials to Athy Workhouse.  William Bryan was appointed Workhouse master, with Elizabeth Quinn as Workhouse mistress and James Butler as the porter.  The appointment of the Workhouse medical attendant appears to have been the only appointment which necessitated a vote, even though there were several applicants for each position.  Dr. Ferris, Dr. Kynsey and Dr. Clayton submitted their applications and the position went to Dr. Kynsey who received 16 votes to 13 votes cast for Dr. Clayton.  The hapless Dr. Ferris received no votes. 

A rate of five pence in the pound was levied on all rateable properties in the Athy Poor Law Union area to fund the operation of the local Workhouse and John Mulhall was appointed to collect the poor rate in the Athy and Kilberry districts.  Collectors were also appointed to the other areas of the union.    As the opening of the Workhouse in January 1844 approached the preceding months were taken up with arrangements to purchase equipment, clothing and food products for which local businesses were asked to tender. 

……………………………………….TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK………………..

Athy's Association Football Club

‘Athy town lifted the League Shield for the first time in the club’s history with a 5-1 victory over Coill Dubh’.  Under the banner headline ‘Five Star Athy lift League Shield’ last week’s Nationalist brought us the story of Athy A.F.C.’s latest success on the field of play. 

The club’s website gives details of eight underage teams catering for under 8s up to under 16 year olds.  Would that, I wonder, make it the sporting club catering for the largest number of young players in and around Athy and south Kildare?  Athy A.F.C. has over the years had several reincarnations with a history stretching back almost 90 years to the mid-1920s.  It was then that a Mr. Sanford who was employed in the Athy headquarters of the Barrow Drainage Company set up the town’s first soccer club.  Calling themselves ‘the Barrow Rovers’ the team included such locals as Chevit and John Doyle, Ned Ward, Jim Eaton and Cuddy Chanders.  The club seemed to have disbanded soon after completion of the Barrow Drainage Scheme.

During the 1930s the popular sports in Athy included Gaelic football, rugby and hockey.  Soccer had apparently lost its appeal with the demise of the Barrow Rovers, while the once popular sport of cricket was but a fading memory.  The local hockey club had its hockey pitch in the agricultural show grounds alongside the G.A.A. pitch and the rugby pitch.  Matt Tynan, who was manager of the local L. & N. shop at the corner of Leinster Street and Emily Square (now the Vodafone shop) was involved with the hockey club.  When that club ceased to exist Matt Tynan with Jimmy O’Donnell, Harry Prole and others called a public meeting in 1948 with a view to restarting a soccer club in the town.  They were fortunate in that the new club got the right to use the vacant hockey pitch and subsequently got a lease of the grounds which is still in use as Athy A.F.C. home grounds.  Several Athy men, who in the absence of a local soccer club had played with Carlow, transferred to the new Athy club.  These included Jerry Sullivan, ‘Oney’ Walsh and Tom Kealy.

In the summer of 1952 Matt Tynan presented a cup to the club for a street soccer league in an early attempt to encourage youthful participation in the game of soccer.  Youth teams from Barrack Street, Pairc Bhride, Offaly Street/Leinster Street and St. Joseph’s Terrace were some of the teams which competed for the Tynan Cup.  Despite some initial success the club lost some momentum during the 1959/’60 season which coincided with the departure of Matt Tynan from Athy.  A few barren years prompted some of the older club members to call a meeting in December 1964 with a view to reinvigorating the club.  The local press reported that the attendance at the meeting included ‘members of both the old Barrow Rovers team of the 1920s and the later club which flourished from 1948/’49 to 1959/’60.’  Lead by former players Brendan O’Flaherty, Denis Smyth and Mick McEvoy the club entered on its second revival.

The following season the club registered with the Leinster Junior League Dublin Division.  Very soon the club had three teams, one playing in the Dublin League, the other two in the Carlow League.  With Denis Smyth as secretary Athy A.F.C. again promoted a soccer street league for underage players.  It proved very successful and lay the foundation for the club’s success in the years which followed. 

In addition to numerous underage teams Athy A.F.C. now also has three adult teams.  The first team won the Lumsden Cup last week with what the local papers described as a ‘good team performance with a man of the match display by Ricky Moriarty.’  One of the club’s adult teams is for over 35s, a category which is also being catered for by another local soccer club ‘Bridge United’. 

The continuing growth and development of association football in Athy is to be seen in the soccer clubs which have been formed in recent years.  In addition to Athy A.F.C. and the earlier mentioned ‘Bridge United’ there are soccer clubs in Clonmullin and Woodstock.  Soccer pitches are now to be found in Clonmullin, Woodstock and the Showgrounds where the latter includes an extensive indoor practice area opened in recent years by the General Secretary of the F.A.I. 

Local involvement in sport is on the increase and is a measure of the healthy attitude of a community which is looking to the future regeneration of the social and economic life of the town with confidence.

Joey Carbery Irish Rugby International

Irish rugby has a new sporting hero.  Joey Carbery made his international debut on the Irish rugby team last week during Ireland’s first win over New Zealand.  The Soldier’s Field in Chicago was the scene of Joey’s entry to the ranks of an Irish international player. 

The New Zealand fifteen whom the one time Athy club player lined out against shared with Joey a country of birth.  A New Zealander by birth Joey has however lived a large part of his young life in the South Kildare town where the Carbery family links stretch back to the dark oppressive years of the Luggacurran evictions.

It was his great great grandfather Dan Carbery, who evicted from his small holding in Luggacurran in June 1889 by agents of Lord Lansdowne set up home in Athy.  It was here that Dan Carbery established the business which on his death in 1896 was continued and expanded by his 31-year-old son, also named Dan.  The Carbery building legacy is to be found in several local schools, numerous housing estates in and around the town of Athy and in the more recent refurbishment by the Carlow branch of the firm of the local Courthouse.

The name Joe Carbery has passed down through several generations of the Carbery family, the last four generations of which have been actively involved with Athy rugby football club.  Joe Carbery, great grandfather of the current rugby star, was a playing member of the club in the 1920s, as was his cousin Donal.  Joe continued to play through the 1930s and was club captain in 1933/’34 and played on the provincial club team of 1938.  Twenty years after his club captaincy he was elected president of Athy Rugby Club for 1953/’54.

The next generation Joe was also a stalwart of Athy rugby club.  A veterinary surgeon by profession he played, as did his brother Jerry, for the Athy club in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  Joe Carbery and his clubmate Jack Ryan were members of the Leinster Junior squad in 1961/’62.  Joe Carbery emigrated to New Zealand for a period and on returning to Ireland played for Naas rugby club and in 1981/’82 trained what is now regarded as one of Athy club’s most successful teams.  It was the third team which hold the unique distinction of not having lost a match while Joe Carbery was their trainer. 

The name Joe and the involvement in rugby passed on to the next Carbery generation.  This was Joey’s father who was born in Athy.  As a young child, he moved to New Zealand with his parents, but now lives in the south Kildare town where he is employed by the Irish Rugby Football Union as a youth coach.  He is also coach to the Athy senior rugby team.  His son Joe, known to the media and public alike as Joey, is the fourth generation of the Carbery family to have had an association with Athy rugby club.  Educated in Athy and Blackrock College he played underage rugby for Athy and later with Blackrock College and with the Clontarf senior team. 

We have to look back many decades to find another Athy player who reached the high status of Irish international senior team player.  The only one I have located is John B. Minch, son of Matthew and Elizabeth Minch of Rockfield House who was born in 1880.  John’s father Matt Minch was elected a Member of Parliament for South Kildare in 1882 and remained an M.P. for the following 21 years.  John B. Minch, like Joey Carbery, also attended and played for Blackrock College.  He won the first of his five international caps playing for Ireland against South Africa at Lansdowne Road on 30^th November 1912.  The following year he was capped twice, playing against England at Lansdowne Road on 8^th February 1913 and against Scotland in Edinburgh on 22^nd February.  His final two caps were earned in internationals against England at Twickenham on 14^th February 1914 and against Scotland at Lansdowne Road two weeks later.

Joey Carbery, Irish rugby international, follows in the proud footsteps of a father, grandfather and great grandfather, all bearing the name Joe and all associated players with Athy’s rugby football club.  The Carbery family association with Athy R.F.C. is one which was mirrored by the family’s active involvement with Athy Golf Club.  That association started with Dan Carbery, eldest son of the Carbery father who was evicted from Luggacurran.  Dan was captain of Athy Golf Club on six occasions between 1915 and 1932 and was followed in that position by three other Carbery family members including Joe Carbery, great grandfather of the rugby international.  Both the aforesaid Dan and his son Joe also held the position of Golf Club President each on three occasions.

The people of Athy and district rejoice in having a rugby player of the calibre of Joey Carbery whom they can say is one of their own, as is that other international sportsman, boxer Eric Donovan who won his second professional fight on the same night as Joey Carbery earned his first international cap.

Athy's Association Football Club

‘Athy town lifted the League Shield for the first time in the club’s history with a 5-1 victory over Coill Dubh’.  Under the banner headline ‘Five Star Athy lift League Shield’ last week’s Nationalist brought us the story of Athy A.F.C.’s latest success on the field of play. 

The club’s website gives details of eight underage teams catering for under 8s up to under 16 year olds.  Would that, I wonder, make it the sporting club catering for the largest number of young players in and around Athy and south Kildare?  Athy A.F.C. has over the years had several reincarnations with a history stretching back almost 90 years to the mid-1920s.  It was then that a Mr. Sanford who was employed in the Athy headquarters of the Barrow Drainage Company set up the town’s first soccer club.  Calling themselves ‘the Barrow Rovers’ the team included such locals as Chevit and John Doyle, Ned Ward, Jim Eaton and Cuddy Chanders.  The club seemed to have disbanded soon after completion of the Barrow Drainage Scheme.

During the 1930s the popular sports in Athy included Gaelic football, rugby and hockey.  Soccer had apparently lost its appeal with the demise of the Barrow Rovers, while the once popular sport of cricket was but a fading memory.  The local hockey club had its hockey pitch in the agricultural show grounds alongside the G.A.A. pitch and the rugby pitch.  Matt Tynan, who was manager of the local L. & N. shop at the corner of Leinster Street and Emily Square (now the Vodafone shop) was involved with the hockey club.  When that club ceased to exist Matt Tynan with Jimmy O’Donnell, Harry Prole and others called a public meeting in 1948 with a view to restarting a soccer club in the town.  They were fortunate in that the new club got the right to use the vacant hockey pitch and subsequently got a lease of the grounds which is still in use as Athy A.F.C. home grounds.  Several Athy men, who in the absence of a local soccer club had played with Carlow, transferred to the new Athy club.  These included Jerry Sullivan, ‘Oney’ Walsh and Tom Kealy.

In the summer of 1952 Matt Tynan presented a cup to the club for a street soccer league in an early attempt to encourage youthful participation in the game of soccer.  Youth teams from Barrack Street, Pairc Bhride, Offaly Street/Leinster Street and St. Joseph’s Terrace were some of the teams which competed for the Tynan Cup.  Despite some initial success the club lost some momentum during the 1959/’60 season which coincided with the departure of Matt Tynan from Athy.  A few barren years prompted some of the older club members to call a meeting in December 1964 with a view to reinvigorating the club.  The local press reported that the attendance at the meeting included ‘members of both the old Barrow Rovers team of the 1920s and the later club which flourished from 1948/’49 to 1959/’60.’  Lead by former players Brendan O’Flaherty, Denis Smyth and Mick McEvoy the club entered on its second revival.

The following season the club registered with the Leinster Junior League Dublin Division.  Very soon the club had three teams, one playing in the Dublin League, the other two in the Carlow League.  With Denis Smyth as secretary Athy A.F.C. again promoted a soccer street league for underage players.  It proved very successful and lay the foundation for the club’s success in the years which followed. 

In addition to numerous underage teams Athy A.F.C. now also has three adult teams.  The first team won the Lumsden Cup last week with what the local papers described as a ‘good team performance with a man of the match display by Ricky Moriarty.’  One of the club’s adult teams is for over 35s, a category which is also being catered for by another local soccer club ‘Bridge United’. 

The continuing growth and development of association football in Athy is to be seen in the soccer clubs which have been formed in recent years.  In addition to Athy A.F.C. and the earlier mentioned ‘Bridge United’ there are soccer clubs in Clonmullin and Woodstock.  Soccer pitches are now to be found in Clonmullin, Woodstock and the Showgrounds where the latter includes an extensive indoor practice area opened in recent years by the General Secretary of the F.A.I. 

Local involvement in sport is on the increase and is a measure of the healthy attitude of a community which is looking to the future regeneration of the social and economic life of the town with confidence.

Stafford Brothers and World War I

Within two months of the start of World War I Edward Stafford, formerly of Butler’s Row, Athy was killed.  He was just 27 years of age when he died on Thursday 24^th September 1914.  He was survived by his widow Margaret of Churchtown, a young daughter Mary Bridget and two sons, Thomas and George.  Two years later his younger brother Thomas was killed.  Thomas was 24 years of age when he joined his brother in death on 6^th September 1916 during the battle of the Somme.  Thomas’s remains were never recovered and he is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial, while his brother Edward is buried in the National Cemetery in the French village of Crouy. 

Until recently my knowledge of the Stafford brothers largely consisted of information available in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission files.  You can imagine my surprise on learning recently from my secretary of almost 40 years ago that she was a niece of Frank Stafford, an Athy man who fought in World War I.  Pat Walsh is a native of Donard, Co. Wicklow and her aunt, Mary Ann Heaney, her mother’s older sister, married Frank Stafford in 1921.  Frank’s father Thomas was a Wicklow man and I learned that Frank was the brother of Edward and Thomas Stafford and like them had also joined the Dublin Fusiliers at the start of the war.

It was Pat’s brother, Fr. Willie Walsh, a priest ministering in Kenya for over 40 years, who told the story of the Stafford brothers in an article in the magazine, ‘Africa’.   Pat sent the article to me and only then did I become aware of her connection with the Stafford brothers and particularly Frank Stafford who was not previously known to me.  Further research has unearthed more details in relation to another family member who also enlisted.

In the Stafford family in Butler’s Row were six sons and two daughters.  I have discovered that in addition to his three brothers Peter Stafford who was born in 1899 had enlisted on 27^th October, 1915.  He claimed to the recruiting officer that he was 18 years of age but when his true age became known in March 1916 he was discharged for ‘misstatement of his age.’  The remaining boys in the Stafford family were Anthony born 1902 and John born 1904, while the girls were Elizabeth and Judy.

When I was Chairman of Athy Urban District Council in 1997 I was asked to send greetings to a former Athy resident who was about to celebrate her 90^th birthday at her home in America.  I subsequently got a letter of thanks from Mae Vagts who turned out to be the daughter of Edward Stafford.  She wrote of her father ‘I do remember his goodbyes to myself, 7 years, and my two brothers, 3 years and 1 year old.  My mother went to the train station with him.  I also remember the notice of his death, it came by the postman that my father Edward Stafford was killed at the battle of the Aisne in France.  My mother was in shock as my father was only 27 years old.  We were all very sad.’

Growing up in Athy in the 1950s I remember John J. Stafford of Duke Street, the youngest member of the Stafford family, his sister Judy who married Andy Cleary and who lived in Janeville.  I knew nothing then of Edward or Thomas Stafford who died during the war or of their two brothers who also enlisted but survived.  Indeed like so many others in Athy I had no knowledge of the suffering and sacrifices of family who lost loved ones in the war of 1914-18. 

Two years ago Edward Stafford’s grandson, who was then living in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, arranged a remembrance mass for his grandfather and his granduncle Thomas Stafford.  This was held in St. Michael’s Parish Church, Athy on 24^th September, the 100^th anniversary of the death of Edward Stafford.  So far as I can recall this was the first church service held locally in recent years in memory of victims of World War I.

Next Sunday, November 13^th, is Remembrance Sunday and a Remembrance Day ceremony will be held at St. Michael’s Old Cemetery at 3.00 p.m. to honour the men from Athy and district who died in the Great War.  Fr. Willie Walsh, at present home on holidays with his 95 year old mother in Donard, will join us that day to remember amongst the dead of the Great War his uncles Edward and Thomas Stafford.

Clem Roche, genealogist and World War I historian, has written a book on the men from Athy and district who died during World War I.  His book ‘Athy and District WW1 Role of Honour 1914-1918’ will be launched in the Heritage Centre in Athy on Friday 11^th November at 7.30 p.m.  An open invitation is extended to everyone to attend the book launch.  It would be particularly appropriate for family members of those who died in the war to come along to the book launch and to the ceremony in St. Michael’s Cemetery on Sunday and by your attendance honour the lost generation of 100 years ago. 

Joey Carbery Irish Rugby International

Irish rugby has a new sporting hero.  Joey Carbery made his international debut on the Irish rugby team last week during Ireland’s first win over New Zealand.  The Soldier’s Field in Chicago was the scene of Joey’s entry to the ranks of an Irish international player. 

The New Zealand fifteen whom the one time Athy club player lined out against shared with Joey a country of birth.  A New Zealander by birth Joey has however lived a large part of his young life in the South Kildare town where the Carbery family links stretch back to the dark oppressive years of the Luggacurran evictions.

It was his great great grandfather Dan Carbery, who evicted from his small holding in Luggacurran in June 1889 by agents of Lord Lansdowne set up home in Athy.  It was here that Dan Carbery established the business which on his death in 1896 was continued and expanded by his 31-year-old son, also named Dan.  The Carbery building legacy is to be found in several local schools, numerous housing estates in and around the town of Athy and in the more recent refurbishment by the Carlow branch of the firm of the local Courthouse.

The name Joe Carbery has passed down through several generations of the Carbery family, the last four generations of which have been actively involved with Athy rugby football club.  Joe Carbery, great grandfather of the current rugby star, was a playing member of the club in the 1920s, as was his cousin Donal.  Joe continued to play through the 1930s and was club captain in 1933/’34 and played on the provincial club team of 1938.  Twenty years after his club captaincy he was elected president of Athy Rugby Club for 1953/’54.

The next generation Joe was also a stalwart of Athy rugby club.  A veterinary surgeon by profession he played, as did his brother Jerry, for the Athy club in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  Joe Carbery and his clubmate Jack Ryan were members of the Leinster Junior squad in 1961/’62.  Joe Carbery emigrated to New Zealand for a period and on returning to Ireland played for Naas rugby club and in 1981/’82 trained what is now regarded as one of Athy club’s most successful teams.  It was the third team which hold the unique distinction of not having lost a match while Joe Carbery was their trainer. 

The name Joe and the involvement in rugby passed on to the next Carbery generation.  This was Joey’s father who was born in Athy.  As a young child, he moved to New Zealand with his parents, but now lives in the south Kildare town where he is employed by the Irish Rugby Football Union as a youth coach.  He is also coach to the Athy senior rugby team.  His son Joe, known to the media and public alike as Joey, is the fourth generation of the Carbery family to have had an association with Athy rugby club.  Educated in Athy and Blackrock College he played underage rugby for Athy and later with Blackrock College and with the Clontarf senior team. 

We have to look back many decades to find another Athy player who reached the high status of Irish international senior team player.  The only one I have located is John B. Minch, son of Matthew and Elizabeth Minch of Rockfield House who was born in 1880.  John’s father Matt Minch was elected a Member of Parliament for South Kildare in 1882 and remained an M.P. for the following 21 years.  John B. Minch, like Joey Carbery, also attended and played for Blackrock College.  He won the first of his five international caps playing for Ireland against South Africa at Lansdowne Road on 30^th November 1912.  The following year he was capped twice, playing against England at Lansdowne Road on 8^th February 1913 and against Scotland in Edinburgh on 22^nd February.  His final two caps were earned in internationals against England at Twickenham on 14^th February 1914 and against Scotland at Lansdowne Road two weeks later.

Joey Carbery, Irish rugby international, follows in the proud footsteps of a father, grandfather and great grandfather, all bearing the name Joe and all associated players with Athy’s rugby football club.  The Carbery family association with Athy R.F.C. is one which was mirrored by the family’s active involvement with Athy Golf Club.  That association started with Dan Carbery, eldest son of the Carbery father who was evicted from Luggacurran.  Dan was captain of Athy Golf Club on six occasions between 1915 and 1932 and was followed in that position by three other Carbery family members including Joe Carbery, great grandfather of the rugby international.  Both the aforesaid Dan and his son Joe also held the position of Golf Club President each on three occasions.

The people of Athy and district rejoice in having a rugby player of the calibre of Joey Carbery whom they can say is one of their own, as is that other international sportsman, boxer Eric Donovan who won his second professional fight on the same night as Joey Carbery earned his first international cap.

Jimmy Robinson and Athy's C.Y.M.S.

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 21^st 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.

Stafford Brothers and World War I

Within two months of the start of World War I Edward Stafford, formerly of Butler’s Row, Athy was killed.  He was just 27 years of age when he died on Thursday 24^th September 1914.  He was survived by his widow Margaret of Churchtown, a young daughter Mary Bridget and two sons, Thomas and George.  Two years later his younger brother Thomas was killed.  Thomas was 24 years of age when he joined his brother in death on 6^th September 1916 during the battle of the Somme.  Thomas’s remains were never recovered and he is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial, while his brother Edward is buried in the National Cemetery in the French village of Crouy. 

Until recently my knowledge of the Stafford brothers largely consisted of information available in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission files.  You can imagine my surprise on learning recently from my secretary of almost 40 years ago that she was a niece of Frank Stafford, an Athy man who fought in World War I.  Pat Walsh is a native of Donard, Co. Wicklow and her aunt, Mary Ann Heaney, her mother’s older sister, married Frank Stafford in 1921.  Frank’s father Thomas was a Wicklow man and I learned that Frank was the brother of Edward and Thomas Stafford and like them had also joined the Dublin Fusiliers at the start of the war.

It was Pat’s brother, Fr. Willie Walsh, a priest ministering in Kenya for over 40 years, who told the story of the Stafford brothers in an article in the magazine, ‘Africa’.   Pat sent the article to me and only then did I become aware of her connection with the Stafford brothers and particularly Frank Stafford who was not previously known to me.  Further research has unearthed more details in relation to another family member who also enlisted.

In the Stafford family in Butler’s Row were six sons and two daughters.  I have discovered that in addition to his three brothers Peter Stafford who was born in 1899 had enlisted on 27^th October, 1915.  He claimed to the recruiting officer that he was 18 years of age but when his true age became known in March 1916 he was discharged for ‘misstatement of his age.’  The remaining boys in the Stafford family were Anthony born 1902 and John born 1904, while the girls were Elizabeth and Judy.

When I was Chairman of Athy Urban District Council in 1997 I was asked to send greetings to a former Athy resident who was about to celebrate her 90^th birthday at her home in America.  I subsequently got a letter of thanks from Mae Vagts who turned out to be the daughter of Edward Stafford.  She wrote of her father ‘I do remember his goodbyes to myself, 7 years, and my two brothers, 3 years and 1 year old.  My mother went to the train station with him.  I also remember the notice of his death, it came by the postman that my father Edward Stafford was killed at the battle of the Aisne in France.  My mother was in shock as my father was only 27 years old.  We were all very sad.’

Growing up in Athy in the 1950s I remember John J. Stafford of Duke Street, the youngest member of the Stafford family, his sister Judy who married Andy Cleary and who lived in Janeville.  I knew nothing then of Edward or Thomas Stafford who died during the war or of their two brothers who also enlisted but survived.  Indeed like so many others in Athy I had no knowledge of the suffering and sacrifices of family who lost loved ones in the war of 1914-18. 

Two years ago Edward Stafford’s grandson, who was then living in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, arranged a remembrance mass for his grandfather and his granduncle Thomas Stafford.  This was held in St. Michael’s Parish Church, Athy on 24^th September, the 100^th anniversary of the death of Edward Stafford.  So far as I can recall this was the first church service held locally in recent years in memory of victims of World War I.

Next Sunday, November 13^th, is Remembrance Sunday and a Remembrance Day ceremony will be held at St. Michael’s Old Cemetery at 3.00 p.m. to honour the men from Athy and district who died in the Great War.  Fr. Willie Walsh, at present home on holidays with his 95 year old mother in Donard, will join us that day to remember amongst the dead of the Great War his uncles Edward and Thomas Stafford.

Clem Roche, genealogist and World War I historian, has written a book on the men from Athy and district who died during World War I.  His book ‘Athy and District WW1 Role of Honour 1914-1918’ will be launched in the Heritage Centre in Athy on Friday 11^th November at 7.30 p.m.  An open invitation is extended to everyone to attend the book launch.  It would be particularly appropriate for family members of those who died in the war to come along to the book launch and to the ceremony in St. Michael’s Cemetery on Sunday and by your attendance honour the lost generation of 100 years ago. 

2016 Shackleton Autumn School

The October Bank Holiday weekend will see many overseas visitors arriving in Athy for the Shackleton Autumn School.  Now in its 16^th year the school brings together international and Irish polar experts and enthusiasts to deal with a wide range of topics concerning the Antarctic and those who have attempted to conquer its inhospitable regions. 

In this the centenary of Ernest Shackleton’s courageous exploits following the crushing of his ship, ‘Endurance’ it is wonderful to relate that the Shackleton Autumn School has grown over the years from strength to strength.  This year we will welcome eleven members of the Devon and Cornwall Polar Society, many of whom will be visiting Ireland for the first time.  Another large group travelling from Norway includes the director and seven staff members of the Fram Museum Oslo.  I am told that tickets for the weekend have been purchased by people travelling to the south Kildare venue from Belgium, Spain, Germany and America.  Of course there will be, as in past years, a considerable number of attendees from the UK confirming, if such was needed, that Athy’s Shackleton Autumn School has become the premier annual polar event held anywhere in the world. 

This is a huge compliment for an event which started off with great enthusiasm but without any experience among its organisers.  The contacts made and developed throughout the world of polar studies arising from Shackleton’s connections with Athy have been hugely beneficial in developing the Shackleton Autumn School.  It is now an event of huge importance which brings enormous benefits to Athy’s fledging tourist industry.  Every bed and breakfast facility in the town of Athy is fully booked for the October Bank Holiday weekend and I am told that bookings have had to be made in surrounding towns by some attendees.

2016, important in itself in terms of Shackleton’s centenary, has been an extremely good year insofar as the development of the local Heritage Centre is concerned.  The Heritage Council earlier in the year granted the Heritage Centre full museum status.  The award was the culmination of three years work in improving standards and meeting the exacting requirements of the Museum Accreditation Programme.  This was achieved with minimum staff levels and limited funding but was a just reward for the enthusiasm and willingness to work of all those involved, whether on a voluntary or paid basis, with the Heritage Centre. 

This year also saw the acquisition of the cabin from the ship the ‘Quest’ in which Ernest Shackleton died in 1922.  Acquiring this extraordinary piece of polar history for the Athy Heritage Centre was the work of many people, helped by the Centre’s good standing and acknowledges that it was the only permanent exhibition anywhere in the world devoted to Ernest Shackleton.  The cabin is presently in Letterfrack, Co. Galway, undergoing conservation work before it comes to Athy to become part of the growing Shackleton display in the Town Hall. 

Reports in the national press and television media concerning the cabin’s shipment from Norway to Ireland provided wonderful publicity for the Heritage Centre.  It was matched some months later when the statue of Ernest Shackleton was unveiled in Emily Square.  The statue has proved to be extremely popular in terms of visitors stopping off in Athy to see the wonderful work of the sculptor, Mark Richards.  It has also proved popular amongst the locals, some of whom may have had doubts as to whether the statue was appropriate for Athy.  Thanks must go to Peter Carey and his team in Kildare County Council for their foresight in commissioning a beautiful work of art to mark the centenary of the rescue of Shackleton’s men following their abandonment of the polar ship ‘Endurance’. 

The development of the Heritage Centre is just a part of the town’s regeneration plan, as is the ongoing shop front painting scheme which has drawn much favourable comments in recent weeks.  The town is on the right track insofar as planning for the future is concerned and we can look to the future with a confidence which was not previously shared by many. 

The Shackleton Autumn School will be opened at 7.30 p.m. on Friday, 28^th October by Mark Richards, the man whose wonderful work stands proud today in Emily Square.  Everyone is welcome to attend if for nothing else than to enjoy the wine reception which this year is being kindly sponsored by the Athy Solicitors. 

The lectures commence on Saturday morning and continue on Sunday.  Pick up a programme from the Heritage Centre or the Athy Lions Book Shop in Duke Street.