J.J. Bergin

A name which regularly appears whenever I research events of the past 100 years is that of John James Bergin, known by all as J.J. Bergin. Today he is remembered as the founder of the National Ploughing Association. I remember J.J. Bergin for his involvement in athletics in the mid 1950s and his attempt to develop another Ronnie Delaney from amongst the youngsters who attended for training on the green at Pairc Bhride. An even earlier memory of J.J. Bergin is of a film show in the Social Club in St. John’s Hall featuring the 1953 World Ploughing Championships held in Canada which J.J. Bergin attended and where he was elected Vice President of the World Association. Long before the 1950s J.J. Bergin was a famous figure not only in Athy but nationally as well. The first local reference I have found to him was in a newspaper report of January 1917 which mentioned him acting as Master of Ceremonies at the annual Ancient Order of Hibernians Dance held in the Town Hall. J.J., whom I understand was an engineer, was then manager of Wolfhill Colliery and it was he who met with the Chief Secretary of Ireland, H.K. Duke when he travelled to Athy in January 1917 to discuss the proposed construction of a railway line between Athy and the colliery in Wolfhill. By all accounts J.J. Bergin was a busy man as later in 1917 he was reported as having designed the scenery for the Athy Hibernian Players who staged the play ‘The O’Carolans’ in the Town Hall. He was also reported in the local press as the organiser of Irish dancing classes in Athy as well as the founder of a Pipers Band in the town in or around 1914. The founding of the Sinn Fein Club in Athy prior to June 1917 saw many of the local A.O.H. members joining the Republican Club. Amongst those who joined was J.J. Bergin who was one of the speakers at a dinner held in the Leinster Arms Hotel arranged by the local Sinn Club to mark the visit to Athy of the singer and 1916 activist, Gerald Crofts, following his release from Lewes Jail. J.J. issued a statement five days before the arrival of Crofts in Athy in July 1917, asserting that he was a Sinn Feiner for the previous three years and declaring that ‘Sinn Fein are now the only hope for nationalism’. However, he was careful to explain that he had nothing to do with ‘a policy of open rebellion’. The Pipers Band which J.J. formed practised in the Ancient Order of Hibernian rooms in Duke Street. However, relationships between the A.O.H. and the Sinn Fein Club deteriorated and the A.O.H. took exception to the Pipers Band participating in a Sinn Fein Rally in the summer of 1917. The band members had to give an undertaking not to take part in any further Sinn Fein events before they were allowed to continue using the A.O.H. rooms. The undertaking was breached in December 1917 following which J.J. Bergin, his piping friends and their instruments were removed from the A.O.H. rooms. This undoubtedly caused J.J. to lose out in his attempt to become the local A.O.H. president that same month. The anti conscription campaign of April 1918 saw J.J. speaking from a platform in Emily Square with the local P.P., Canon Mackey, the Council chairman Martin Doyle and Denis Kilbride, M.P. He was also one of the marshals, the others being Michael Dooley, Martin Doyle and William Mahon who controlled the Anti Conscription parade led by the Athy Pipers Band which was described as the ‘most remarkable demonstration witnessed in Athy in living memory’. An interesting local press report mentions the Council’s concerns that J.J. Bergin was using town water in a flax dam he had built at Bennettsbridge. Flax was grown in this area in 1917 which year saw the appointment of a Mr. L. Kelly to supervise the growing of flax locally. There is no record of what action, if any, the Town Council took in relation to the Bennettsbridge flax dam. Athy Farmers Union sought to counter the development of the Transport Union amongst local farm labourers. J.J. Bergin stood as a Farmers Union candidate in the General Election in June 1922. He came sixth of the ten candidates with the first five elected. He again stood for the Dail in the 1927 election this time as an independent farmer candidate but failed to gain a seat. One of the more interesting discoveries I made in relation to J.J. Bergin was his involvement in the publication of a bi monthly paper called ‘The Farmers Guide’. I have an original copy of Issue No. 4 dated 15th January 1924, printed by M.C. Carey of Maryborough and Athy and published by the owner and editor J.J. Bergin, Athy. I have yet been unable to research this publication in the National Library but clearly it is evidence of the remarkable energy and initiative of the man from Maybrook who during the first half of the last century figured so prominently in local and national affairs.