Lt. Col. Anthony Weldon

Anthony Weldon of Kilmoroney was commanding officer of the military forces stationed in Limerick during the Easter Rising.  Having joined the militia in 1885 he was subsequently appointed as an aide-de-camp to field marshal Viscount Lord Wolseley, Commander in Chief of the British forces from 1895 to 1900.  During the Boer War Anthony Weldon served on General Buller’s staff and took part in the relief of Ladysmith and military engagements at Colenso, Tugela Heights and several other centres of battle.  He was mentioned twice in despatches and was awarded the Distinguished Service medal.

 

On the death of his father in 1900 Anthony Weldon inherited the Weldon estate amounting to almost 2,800 acres in counties Kildare and Laois.  In keeping with a long-established family tradition he proved to be a considerate landlord and on his marriage in February 1902 his tenants presented him and his bride Winifred Varty Rogers with a silver salver.  Anthony Weldon lived in Kilmoroney House, a fine five bay house of grand proportions with a balustrade roof parapet remodelled in or about 1780 by Stewart Weldon.  The house was originally built around the mid 18^th century and was identified on Taylor and Skinners Map of Kildare in 1783 as ‘Sportland’.  Sir Anthony was very involved in local affairs in Athy, as was his wife Winifred who was responsible for founding the Athy branch of the Women’s Health Association in 1907.  He was the first President of Athy Golf Club and opened the club’s first pavilion in August 1906.

 

On the reorganisation of the British army Weldon was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and Commander of the 4^th Leinster battalion of the Leinster Regiment.  That battalion moved to Limerick in April 1916.  By all accounts Lt. Colonel Anthony Weldon dealt fairly and in an even-handed manner with the Volunteer rebels in Limerick.  He succeeded in having the local Volunteers hand over their arms following the unsuccessful rebellion in Dublin and ensured that all those arrested were treated with respect and dignity.  Michael Colivet, Commander of the Limerick Volunteers, wrote following Anthony Weldon’s death ‘Weldon was a very considerate man and Limerick was the only district where severe measures were not taken after Easter week’. 

 

In early 1917 the newly promoted Colonel Weldon went to France where he was wounded.  He subsequently suffered a stroke and was admitted to Dr. Wheeler’s Hospital for Officers in Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin.  He died in hospital on 29^th June 1917 aged 54 years. Colonel Weldon was buried in the Weldon family vault in St. John’s cemetery, that historic burial ground which once formed part of the first monastery founded in Athy in the early 13^th century.

 

As a member of Athy Board of Guardians Colonel Weldon while at home on leave in August 1916 said: ‘without the North Home Rule will be impossible.  The later rebellion ill judged and ill advised as it was, has opened the eyes of the people to the dangers of carrying arms which should never have been allowed ….. however I think out of ill may come some good as some measure of local government will be devised with the wish of the whole country which will bring peace to this unhappy country in the future.’

 

On Saturday 1^st July the Leinster Regiment Association will hold a wreath laying ceremony in St. John’s cemetery to make the centenary of Colonel Weldon’s death.  The event is one of several organised by the Association to mark the centenary anniversary of those Leinster Regiment members who died during the 1914-18 war.  It commences at 12.30p.m and the public are invited to attend.  A Leinster Regiment exhibition will be held in the Heritage Centre on the same day.

 

The involvement of men from Athy in the 1914-18 war has been well documented in recent years.  The death of 122 young men from the town while fighting overseas at a time when the town’s population was less than 4,000, created social issues which have lingered to this day.  After the death of Colonel Weldon, the Kilmoroney estate went into decline, resulting in the auction in 1934 of many valuable items accumulated over the years by generations of the Weldons.  Mrs. Winifred Weldon moved to Dublin that same year and 13 years later the Land Commission took over the Weldon lands and Kilmoroney House fell into ruin. 

 

Today as you travel on the road to Carlow you will notice on the right-hand side in the distance the crumbling remains of Kilmoroney House.  It is a roofless derelict shell standing outlined against the Laois skyline.  Its story and that of Sir Anthony Weldon is part of our shared history. 

Maurice Shortt and K.A.R.E.

It started with a phone call to the Garda Station, then located as it had been for decades in Duke Street, Athy.  The caller was Mary O’Donovan, a housewife from Newbridge and her call was put through to the Garda Sergeant, Maurice Shortt.  Fifty years later Maurice remembers the conversation he had with Mary O’Donovan and the request which led to the setting up of the K.A.R.E. branch in Athy.

 

Mary and her husband Dan were parents of a handicapped child who found that there were no facilities in the area to cater for their daughter.  Making contact with other parents in a similar situation and with the help of the County Medical Officer, Dr. Brendan O’Donnell, they formed the County Kildare Association of Parents and Friends of Handicapped Children.

 

The phone call to the Garda Station in 1967 arose from a desire to get a local parent’s consent to reproduce in a local newspaper a photograph of handicapped children to publicise the association’s work.  The request towards the end of the phone call was to ask Sergeant Shortt would he be interested in setting up a branch of the association in Athy.  The answer from the ever helpful Maurice was ‘yes’ and so began that great voluntary movement which over the years helped to transform the lives of so many. 

 

The first meeting of the future K.A.R.E. branch was organised by Maurice Shortt in the Leinster Arms Hotel.  He called upon many of his neighbours in Chanterlands and they responded, as did the people of Athy.  Pat Hannigan, Mary Walsh, John Maher, Kitty O’Higgins, Shirley Yates, Rene Kelly and Sean Cunnane are just a few of the names recalled as early members of K.A.R.E. who under the chairmanship of Maurice Shortt helped to develop much needed services for children with intellectual disabilities. 

 

Children were brought to classes organised in Newbridge and later in Carlow by volunteers who provided transport free of charge.  An early remedial class set up by the Sisters of Mercy in Scoil Mhichil Naofa under the supervision of Sr. Carmel Fallon was in danger of closing due to the transfer of a nun to the foreign missions.  A request to Athy’s K.A.R.E. ensured the continuation of that class with K.A.R.E. volunteers providing tutors and reading assistance for the children.  One of those volunteers was Rene Kelly, a near neighbour of Maurice Shortt, and it was Rene’s work with the children and her proven success which prompted the Department of Education to sanction a remedial class in the local school.  The class provided day schooling for children with learning difficulties from 5 to 13 years of age.  This led to the setting up of a similar remedial class in the Christian Brother’s School where another K.A.R.E. volunteer, Gerry Gilroy, was in charge.  The provision of school based facilities developed from the K.A.R.E. model allowed the association to change its services to better help people with an intellectual disability to play a part in their community.  At the same time supported employment was developed to help people get jobs in local companies.

 

As part of those changes a decision was taken to establish a hostel in the former Cunningham house at Shrewleen.  The original building was in time replaced by a newly built complex which was opened in 1992 as an Enterprise Centre.  The facility which now operates as a social drop in centre or a day care centre has a staff of nine, catering for approximately 20 persons who are intellectually challenged.

 

Athy Lions Club, another local voluntary group, funded the purchase of the prefab building in which the remedial class in Scoil Mhichil Naofa was held.  In March 1979 Athy Lions Club again came to the assistance of K.A.R.E. when it purchased and presented a minibus to the county organisation based in Newbridge.

 

Athy’s K.A.R.E. committee has been disbanded but the facilities in Athy will continue as they have in the past as part of the countywide organisation of K.A.R.E.  On Wednesday evening last volunteers and friends of K.A.R.E. came together in the Clanard Court Hotel to celebrate a voluntary commitment stretching back 50 years.  A presentation was made to Maurice Shortt, the man who took the phone call in 1967 and whose generous response to Mary O’Donovan’s request resulted in the setting up of Athy’s K.A.R.E. branch.  After 50 years of volunteering and commitment by so many men and women from the town of Athy and the surrounding district, Athy’s K.A.R.E. branch is no more.  Our community’s thanks goes to the many volunteers who played their part in the work of K.A.R.E. and a special thanks from me to Ita Smyth and Rene Kelly for giving me an insight into the realm of community volunteering.

Maurice Shortt and K.A.R.E.

It started with a phone call to the Garda Station, then located as it had been for decades in Duke Street, Athy.  The caller was Mary O’Donovan, a housewife from Newbridge and her call was put through to the Garda Sergeant, Maurice Shortt.  Fifty years later Maurice remembers the conversation he had with Mary O’Donovan and the request which led to the setting up of the K.A.R.E. branch in Athy.

 

Mary and her husband Dan were parents of a handicapped child who found that there were no facilities in the area to cater for their daughter.  Making contact with other parents in a similar situation and with the help of the County Medical Officer, Dr. Brendan O’Donnell, they formed the County Kildare Association of Parents and Friends of Handicapped Children.

 

The phone call to the Garda Station in 1967 arose from a desire to get a local parent’s consent to reproduce in a local newspaper a photograph of handicapped children to publicise the association’s work.  The request towards the end of the phone call was to ask Sergeant Shortt would he be interested in setting up a branch of the association in Athy.  The answer from the ever helpful Maurice was ‘yes’ and so began that great voluntary movement which over the years helped to transform the lives of so many. 

 

The first meeting of the future K.A.R.E. branch was organised by Maurice Shortt in the Leinster Arms Hotel.  He called upon many of his neighbours in Chanterlands and they responded, as did the people of Athy.  Pat Hannigan, Mary Walsh, John Maher, Kitty O’Higgins, Shirley Yates, Rene Kelly and Sean Cunnane are just a few of the names recalled as early members of K.A.R.E. who under the chairmanship of Maurice Shortt helped to develop much needed services for children with intellectual disabilities. 

 

Children were brought to classes organised in Newbridge and later in Carlow by volunteers who provided transport free of charge.  An early remedial class set up by the Sisters of Mercy in Scoil Mhichil Naofa under the supervision of Sr. Carmel Fallon was in danger of closing due to the transfer of a nun to the foreign missions.  A request to Athy’s K.A.R.E. ensured the continuation of that class with K.A.R.E. volunteers providing tutors and reading assistance for the children.  One of those volunteers was Rene Kelly, a near neighbour of Maurice Shortt, and it was Rene’s work with the children and her proven success which prompted the Department of Education to sanction a remedial class in the local school.  The class provided day schooling for children with learning difficulties from 5 to 13 years of age.  This led to the setting up of a similar remedial class in the Christian Brother’s School where another K.A.R.E. volunteer, Gerry Gilroy, was in charge.  The provision of school based facilities developed from the K.A.R.E. model allowed the association to change its services to better help people with an intellectual disability to play a part in their community.  At the same time supported employment was developed to help people get jobs in local companies.

 

As part of those changes a decision was taken to establish a hostel in the former Cunningham house at Shrewleen.  The original building was in time replaced by a newly built complex which was opened in 1992 as an Enterprise Centre.  The facility which now operates as a social drop in centre or a day care centre has a staff of nine, catering for approximately 20 persons who are intellectually challenged.

 

Athy Lions Club, another local voluntary group, funded the purchase of the prefab building in which the remedial class in Scoil Mhichil Naofa was held.  In March 1979 Athy Lions Club again came to the assistance of K.A.R.E. when it purchased and presented a minibus to the county organisation based in Newbridge.

 

Athy’s K.A.R.E. committee has been disbanded but the facilities in Athy will continue as they have in the past as part of the countywide organisation of K.A.R.E.  On Wednesday evening last volunteers and friends of K.A.R.E. came together in the Clanard Court Hotel to celebrate a voluntary commitment stretching back 50 years.  A presentation was made to Maurice Shortt, the man who took the phone call in 1967 and whose generous response to Mary O’Donovan’s request resulted in the setting up of Athy’s K.A.R.E. branch.  After 50 years of volunteering and commitment by so many men and women from the town of Athy and the surrounding district, Athy’s K.A.R.E. branch is no more.  Our community’s thanks goes to the many volunteers who played their part in the work of K.A.R.E. and a special thanks from me to Ita Smyth and Rene Kelly for giving me an insight into the realm of community volunteering.

Cyril Osborne

As a young lad growing up in Offaly Street my sporting activities were largely confined to the playing of Gaelic football, with an occasional clumsy foray into the classiest of all team sports,  hurling.  In those pre-television days sporting heroes were of the homegrown sort.  English soccer was no part of my sporting lexicon and even the home based equivalent seldom aroused any interest.  However, despite the operation of the G.A.A. ban the local rugby team always attracted some of my attention.  Was it I wonder a reflected interest stemming from the Irish rugby team which so far as I was aware was the only Irish sports team which embraced the 32 counties?  Whatever the reason this proud G.A.A. fellow was an interested follower of the local rugby team and being a young lad looked on the likes of Reggie Rowan, Jack Ryan and Cyril Osborne as some of my early sporting interests.  Reggie was a good friend of my brother George, while Jack had shared early school classes with me in the local Christian Brothers school. 

 

Cyril Osborne was one of the stars of the Athy Rugby Club during the second half of the 1950s.  His electrifying burst of speed at a time when rugby role models centered on the likes of Jack Kyle rather than ‘battering ram’ players of today gave the young Athy player a cache of young supporters and admirers.  I was one of those young fellows and in later years, long after Cyril retired from rugby and when I returned to Athy, I met the man who was not only a good rugby player but more importantly an exceptionally thoughtful and helpful person.

 

It was 35 years ago that I set up practice in the town where I had spent my formative years.  I did so after an absence of 21 years spent in Naas, Kells, Monaghan and Dublin and although I had qualified initially as a barrister and later as a solicitor I knew little or nothing of the practicalities or procedures which are an important part of any solicitor’s practice.  Cyril Osborne was of tremendous help to me in that regard.  I well remember my first day in Court.  I had no cases but Cyril with whom I was sitting passed me what I now know was a straight forward application and advised me how to address the Court.  His thoughtfulness for the newcomer was admirable and was displayed on many occasions in the following years whenever his advice was sought.  He was always generous with his advice and never once in the past 35 years had I ever any reason to question his common-sense approach to even the most complex issue.  He was for me, especially in my early years of practice, a valued mentor who was always ready and willing to help a colleague.

 

The practice of law requires not just a knowledge of the law but also a level of honesty, tact  and integrity which was the hallmark of the legal profession of times past.  Cyril’s father, Bob Osborne, qualified as a solicitor in 1915 and opened a practice joining with Robert Monks.  Bob Osborne subsequently bought out his partner and developed what was to become the largest legal practice in Athy.  Cyril, who qualified as a Solicitor in 1965, joined his father in the practice and Cyril in turn was joined by his son David who now carries on the practise as the third generation of the Osborne family. 

 

With the passing of Cyril Osborne, who was a former President of the Kildare Bar Association, the Athy legal profession has lost a colleague who gave of his best for his clients.  He did so with tact and discretion bringing to his role as a solicitor a wealth of knowledge and experience coupled with a sympathetic understanding of the needs of his clients.  Cyril was not only a colleague, but also a friend who was justifiably proud of his family’s involvement in the affairs of the town of Athy over the past 100 years.  Over 60 years ago Bob Osborne donated land on the Carlow Road for community use and I am conscious that a young Bob Osborne after he married lived for a few years in Ardreigh House where I am now writing this article. 

 

We will all miss Cyril Osborne.  Others may write of his contribution to Athy Rugby Club and Athy Golf Club but for me and my colleagues in Athy, in County Kildare, and in the neighbouring counties the memory will be of a gentleman who brought courtesy and integrity to his practice of the law.

 

Cyril is survived by his wife Maeve, his daughter Brona and his sons David and Alan and four grandchildren to whom our sympathies are extended.

 

Athy casualties at Messines 1917 / Cumann na mBan members Athy July 1927

In the third year of World War I Douglas Haig, Commander of the British Forces on the Western Front planned a military offensive in Flanders to commence on 7^th June 1917.  This offensive which lasted during June and July included the third Battle of Ypres (commonly called Passchendaele) and the Battle of Cambrai.  Ypres was a British held salient which projected into the German lines and Haig planned a full-scale offensive from there to divert attention from the French army which had suffered huge losses during the month of April.  Those French losses, amounting to 120,000 men in one five-day period, were deeply resented by the surviving French troops who mutinied and refused to attack the German lines.  Haig had planned his offensive strategy for some months and had Welsh miners excavate several tunnels under the German lines.  He realised that if an attack from the Ypres salient was to be successful it was necessary to secure the high ground dominating the area which was known as Messines – Wtyschaete Ridge. 

 

The tunnels dug by the Welsh miners were packed with explosives and at dawn on 7^th June the explosives were set off, producing a blast which we are told was heard in London.  The explosion was followed by British troops going over the top and using, amongst other forms of weaponry, poisonous gas canisters which were hurled into the German trenches.  The week-long battle at the Messines Ridge saw for the first time the 36^th Ulster Division and the 16^th Irish Division fighting alongside each other.  The German casualties at Messines were approximately 25,000, while the British Army casualties accounted for 17,000 men wounded and killed. 

 

Among the Irish causalities was Athy man Thomas Alcock, a member of the 1^st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers and William King of Crookstown who was a private in the South Irish Horse.  William was the brother of Jim King and Tommy King who also served in the South Irish Horse.  Many years ago I was told by a family member that Tommy King later deserted from the army and dumped his uniform down a well at Burtown.  Was Tommy Alcock, I wonder, a brother of Frank Alcock who aged 20 years died of wounds in France on 4^th July 1916?  He had enlisted in the 2^nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers and in the 1911 Census was recorded as living in Woodstock Street.  Another possible member of the Alcock family, Richard Alcock, born in 1892 was noted in the Irish Military Service Pension Records as a member of the Volunteers during the Irish War of Independence. 

 

Clem Roche, whose book on Athy men killed in World War I, was recently published (copies can be purchased in the Heritage Centre) has embarked on a project with me to identify those local men and women who were involved in the Volunteer movement during the Irish War of Independence.  Clem has trawled through the I.R.A. pension records, the War of Independence medal records and statistics compiled by I.R.A. leaders in 1921 and 1922 and has identified many individuals, some whose involvement was confirmed by the award of an I.R.A. pension or a black and tan service medal.  Many others who may well have been active during that period, did not succeed in getting either a pension or a medal and consequently their involvement has not received the attention it deserves.  Clem has identified 33 local men whom he is satisfied were members of the Athy Company of the 5^th Battalion Carlow Kildare I.R.A. Brigade.  More names will undoubtedly be added as there are a few men generally believed to have been involved who are not included among the 33 already identified.

 

As we come to commemorate the Irish War of Independence it is important that those men and women from Athy who were actively involved should be remembered.  If any reader has any information about any local person involved in the Irish War of Independence I would welcome hearing from them.

 

The following list of Cumann na mBan members in Athy in July 1921 has recently come to hand.  I am familiar with some of those named, but others are unknown to me and I would welcome hearing from anybody who can help identify those involved. 

 

Julia Whelan, Kilmoroney

Kathleen McDonnell

Rose McDonnell

Mary Malone

Mrs. Julia Dooley, St. Michael’s Terrace

Mrs. May, Woodstock Street

Mrs. O’Neill, Newbridge

Alice Lambe, Upper William Street

Mrs. John Whelan, Ballylinan

Miss Murphy, Maganey

Christina Malone

 

Let me hear from you if you can help in the search to identify local patriots of almost 100 years ago.