The Architecture of Athy

Visitors to Athy, at least those I have met, are unanimous in their views that the south Kildare town is endowed with buildings of architectural merit. Some of those buildings are included on the National Inventory of Architecture, while many more are included on the Register of Protected Structures compiled by Kildare County Council. We are all familiar with the early buildings such as Whites Castle, Woodstock Castle and the medieval church in St. Michael’s cemetery, known to all and sundry as the ‘Crickeen’. Less obvious in terms of their historical and architectural value are many other buildings familiar to all of us as part of the local urban streetscape. The town centre consists of buildings which for the most part started life in the 17th and 18th centuries but which over the years have been improved, added to and altered resulting in the concealment of earlier buildings. Much development followed the opening of the canal to Athy in 1792 and again 54 years later with the opening of the railway line to Carlow. That development was led by private individuals, unlike the public realm development for which the town landlords, the Earls of Kildare and later the Dukes of Leinster were the facilitators. It was the Earl of Kildare who it is claimed built the market hall/town hall in or about 1720. The Earl was the beneficiary of the market tolls and customs collected within the town boundaries ever since the Town Charter was granted in 1515. If he did pay for the construction of the market house it was one of the few occasions that the tolls and customs originally intended to finance the building of the town walls were used for the townspeople’s benefit. It has been claimed that the Kildare county Grand Jury financed the building of the market house in Athy which, if correct, meant that one had to wait another 130 years or so before the Duke of Leinster released funding for the building of the town’s corn exchange. Whatever part the Fitzgerald family members played in the development of the town centre, Emily Square unquestionably shows evidence of 18th century buildings. One building facing the Bank of Ireland has fine Wyatt windows on the first and second floors. Similar windows were to be found on the first and second floor of the corner building which now houses the phone shop. Unfortunately those windows were replaced some years ago. One of the many buildings directly linked to the coming of the Grand Canal to Athy is the former Bridge House at Upper William Street. Now the ‘Auld Shebeen’ it is believed to have been built in 1796, just a few years after the canal opened. On the opposite side of the canal bridge is the former Grand Canal Hotel fronting onto the canal harbour. All the nearby buildings on William Street from the top of Duke Street to the Canal Bridge, formally called Augustus Bridge, are rebuilds of late 18th century buildings. Not too far from the canal led building development of the late 18th century is the Crown House at Duke Street which today houses the business premises of Griffin Hawe. Tradition relates that the name Crown House indicates the use of that fine building by judges on circuit for the assizes. Of perhaps more importance is the building which once adjoined Crown House. The restored cockpit now forms part of the Griffin Hawe premises. The cockpit restoration was facilitated by the owners of Griffin Hawe many years ago and marked a major contribution by Kildare Co. Co. and the then county architect Niall Meagher in the preservation of a unique building of historical and architectural merit. The vernacular buildings of 18th century Athy are not the only buildings of interest in the town. Apart from the earlier mentioned medieval buildings there are a range of 19th century buildings for which the Dukes of Leinster were largely responsible. The Model School, opened in 1852, was designed by Frederick Darley who was also the architect responsible for the corn exchange, which is now the Courthouse. Darley, who was one of the founders of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, was commissioned by the Duke of Leinster and it was Darley who designed the local Presbyterian Church and St. Michael’s Church of Ireland church. In both cases the church sites were donated by the Duke of Leinster. Other local architectural gems include the Church of Ireland Rectory in Church Road which was the work of Deane and Woodword, while the former Workhouse, now St. Vincent’s Hospital, was one of approximately 40 workhouses built in Ireland to the design of George Wilkinson. The most exciting modern building in Athy is of course the former Dominican Church, now the local community library. It was designed by John Thompson and Partners, with interior artwork by George Campbell and Bríd Ní Rinn, The earlier reference to Kildare Co. Co. and the county architect Niall Meagher is a reminder of the importance of the local authority’s role in protecting and preserving the architectural streetscape of Athy, thereby enhancing our appreciation of the architectural heritage of the past.

Athy Senior Football Champions

In years to come it may be described as the Covid 19 Final, in much the same way as the weather disrupted All Ireland Hurling Final of 1939 is known as the ‘thunder and lightning final’. Last weeks Senior Football Championship Final between Moorefield and Athy was played while the country was reeling from the greatest pandemic to have hit the world since the 1918 Spanish Flu. Normal social interaction is limited. Our working lives are disrupted and against that background, a team from Athy created another memorable page to add to the history of Athy Gaelic Football Club. A club’s history is measured in terms of success on the field of play and it is success on the big occasions which are remembered. When we look back on the club’s past, it’s a past featuring County Senior Finals won, not those lost. Those victories provided the identifiable yardstick by which the players of the past are remembered. The conquering footballing heroes of the 1930s, a decade in which Athy won the Senior County Championship three times are recalled by a generation who never knew or saw the players involved. They are the heroes of the Club’s past glories whose names have come down to us as proud wearers of the town’s jersey. County players like Paul Matthews, ‘Cuddy’ Chanders and Barney Dunne who togged out with the legendary George Comerford whom the sports writer, P.D. Mehigan, described in 1941 as ‘one of the best all round footballers in Ireland’. George was from Clare and he played for his native county, for Munster and for Athy while stationed in town as a Garda. The victories of 1933-1934-1937 brought other names to the forefront. Names of players who are recalled but whom we never had the privilege of supporting on the field of play. They are remembered because they were winners, men like Tommy Mulhall who played for Club, County and Province and whose footballing prowess is recorded in the annals of Gaelic Football. Nearer to our time are the winning teams of 1987 and 2011. Teams which provided the club with long overdue success. The 1987 victory was the first time in forty five years that Athy Gaelic Football Club won the Senior Championship. That win and the club’s success fourteen years later helped preserve for future generations the names of the players involved. Gaelic Football is a team sport – fifteen players with back up subs and nowadays a player pool too big to include on a match programme. It throws up the heroes of the hour. Some players may be consistently guiding the team’s fortunes throughout the championship but there will be players who on a specific day blossom to give performances undreamed of before. That is the beauty of Gaelic football. The coming together of the great players, the County team players with the club players to form a unified well-prepared team ready and able to take on the best. This year’s team, captained by David Hyland, has created history and an identifiable niche in the club’s historical chronology which will always be recalled as the 2020 County Final. The team names will be recorded but with the passing of time references to the 2020 final success will be reduced to the players who like their predecessors of 90 years ago were regarded as the stars of the team. This year’s final was undoubtedly one of Mick Foley’s greatest hours. A former county player and the only Athy club player to win a footballing All Star, he joins the pantheon of local footballing greats of the past. He will always be remembered, as will the county players Kevin Feeley, David Hyland, Niall Kelly, Mark Hyland and Pascal Connell. That is the nature of memory which initially recalls all the relevant elements of a story but as time marches on, more and more of the detail vanishes. Hence the importance of recording and acknowledging all those who played in the county final and by doing so pay tribute to the footballing heroes of 2020. The people of Athy, whether living at home in their native town, country or abroad are proud to salute the Kildare County Champions of 2020. James Roycroft Tony Gibbons Mark Hyland Barry Kelly Sean Rowan John Moran Darren Lawler James Eaton Brian Maher Niall Kelly Mick Foley Kieran Farrell David Hyland Danny O’Keeffe Kevin Feely Paul Whelan Pascal Connell Cian Reynolds Liam McGovern David McGovern Many other footballers on the team panel contributed to the Club’s success, as did the team manager Vinny Walsh, fitness coach John Doran and team selectors Sean McGovern, Barry Dunne, Jimmy Robinson and Stephen Doyle.

Athy G.A.A. Club

Michael Cusack, a Clare man, and proprietor of an academy at Gardiner’s Place Dublin, wrote to several prominent Irish men in 1884 inviting them to a meeting in Hayes’s Hotel Thurles to consider setting up an organisation for the development of Irish athletics and what he described as native sports. The purpose of the meeting was to take control of Irish athletics from the hands of people who did not support the cultural importance of Irish sport. In this he sought and received the support of Maurice Davin, a retired athlete who had achieved international recognition as a hammer thrower having won many Irish and English championships. Cusack’s original plans related to athletics and hurling, and it was Davin who brought football into the frame. At the meeting in Hayes’s Hotel on 1st November 1884 the Gaelic Athletic Association was founded and Maurice Davin who compiled the first Gaelic football rules was elected as its first president. In the intervening 136 years the Gaelic Athletic Association has made enormous contributions to the sporting, social and cultural life of Ireland. This was achieved not just by the accomplishments of club and county footballers and hurlers, but also by the many volunteers who have worked tirelessly for GAA clubs throughout the country. Athy’s GAA club, renamed ‘Geraldine Hurling and Gaelic Football Club’ at the Club’s AGM on 16th December 1945, has benefitted hugely from the spirit of volunteerism which has been the backbone of the club since its foundation in 1887. In the early years the men and youth of Athy gave of their time and experience to furthering the aims of Cusack and Davin in relation to the native games of Gaelic football and hurling. In more recent years the women folk have joined the men in running a successful club which provides the club’s young and not so young footballers with the facilities so necessary in the modern game. Regrettably, the hurlers have not enjoyed the same level of assistance and now operate as a separate club, even though the 1945 club name has not been changed in the meantime. Among the many hundreds of volunteers of the past were two men whose contribution I want to highlight in this article. Neither were from Athy or even Kildare county. One man was from Bailieborough, Co. Cavan, the other from Tullamore near Listowel in Co. Kerry. Both men served the Athy club as players, committee members and club secretaries. The Kerry man, on his own admission, played an ordinary game of football but his forte was in the administrative side of the club’s affairs. The late Tim O’Sullivan who came to Athy from Kerry in 1937 to work as a chemist’s assistant with J.J. Collins of Duke Street, togged out with Athy’s junior team for several years and was a sub on the senior team when it played the first round of the 1942 championship. Tim later served as a committee member from 1945 and in 1953 was appointed club secretary, a position he held for the following four years. He was appointed to the Geraldine Grounds Committee in or about 1951 and served as chairman of that committee from 1961-1963. He was later elected as president of Athy Gaelic Football Club, having attended every club A.G.M. since 1938. His was a unique record of service to the club which continued until his death in October 2004. The Bailieborough man was the late Barney Dunne who came to Athy in 1931 to work in Mrs. O’Mara’s pub in Leinster Street. He togged out with the legendary Paul Matthews, the Ardee man who himself came to Athy in 1925. Barney was a member of the first Athy club team to win a senior championship title in 1933. This victory was repeated the following year to give Barney his second senior medal, while a third medal was won by Barney and his Athy teammates in 1937. A fourth championship medal was won in 1942 by Barney who played for the Kildare county senior team, winning a Leinster championship medal in 1935. He was a sub on the Kildare team which lost the All Ireland final of that year. Barney retired from playing football in 1945 and was later elected to the club committee and served for a short period as the club’s joint secretary. He holds with Paul Matthews the unique record of winning four senior county championship medals as a member of an Athy team. Barney passed away some years ago. The players and volunteers of Athy’s Gaelic Football Club are an important part of the town’s social fabric as are the other men and women associated with the rugby club, the soccer clubs and the many non-sporting organisations in the town.