General Election 1920 and South Kildare

Towards the end of November 1918 the local newspapers reported on the arrangements made in the Athy area with regard to the General Election scheduled for 14th December. At a meeting held in Athy, Denis Kilbride, the outgoing Member of Parliament for South Kildare, was selected as a candidate for the Irish Parliamentary Party. He was proposed by Athy’s parish priest Canon Mackey and seconded by Mr. John Alexander Duncan, described in the press reports as a “Protestant Home Ruler” who attended at the local railway station in August 1914 as the first batch of soldiers went to war. The Sinn Féin party after its successful foray into parliamentary elections in the previous year’s Roscommon Bye-Election was poised to further its cause in the 1918 General Election on a policy of absenteeism. Denis Kilbride, who thirty years earlier had been evicted from his farm at Luggacurran, was diametrically opposed to the Sinn Féin policy: “I am not in favour of abandoning the House of Commons” he declared, “Home Rule as enjoyed by Australia could only be won by unity in Ireland”. A week later Charles Bergin of Kildare town presided at a meeting of Kilbride’s supporters where letters of support were read from Rev. P. Campion P.P., Kildare, Rev. J. Kelly P.P., Suncroft and Rev. W.A. Staples of White Abbey. Clearly the Catholic clergy were behind the Irish Parliamentary candidate where the only other candidate was a Sinn Féiner. On Sunday, 1st December separate meetings in support of Denis Kilbride and the Sinn Féin candidate, Art O’Connor, were held in Emily Square, Athy. Art O’Connor was still in prison having been arrested the previous May with almost the entire Sinn Féin leadership for allegedly conspiring with the German enemy in what is now referred to as “The German Plot”. The Sinn Féin meeting was addressed by Fr. Michael O’Flanagan, the Roscommon born Catholic clergyman and Republican who had successfully campaigned for the election of Count Plunkett as a Sinn Féin M.P. the previous year. O’Flanagan who was known as the “Sinn Féin priest” told his Athy audience “that by withdrawing her representatives from Parliament Ireland would demonstrate to the world what a united people could do. Thirty members of the Irish Parliamentary Party have already dropped out. The others we will be compelled to sweep aside.” The Irish Parliamentary Meeting supporting the candidature of Denis Kilbride was presided over by Canon Mackey. Addressing many who were his local parishioners, he said Kilbride claimed their support on the strength of Ireland as a nation but not a separate nation. He continued: “There were only two conceivable ways in which the freedom of Ireland could be achieved, physical force or moral or parliamentary persuasion. Any man who would propound the doctrine of physical force must be suffering from mid summer madness. A united Ireland resisted conscription successfully and if the same unity prevailed in other matters, the same happy results would be achieved. Absenteeism was a negative policy and if pursued and brought into practice will bring ruin and disaster on Ireland. Crushing taxation would be imposed in Ireland without parliamentary representation.” Denis Kilbride who was frequently interrupted as he addressed the meeting said the new idea of freedom was “shout down everyone who does not agree with you”. He continued “I never believed until lately that there was so many young men in the asylums and so many lunatics outside. One would think that for the first time in Ireland men went to jail in 1916. In the old days they took their punishment and their plank beds without squealing. Today no political prisoners had to be on a plank bed. All they wanted was cigarettes and chicken. That was the programme of the men determined to lose the last of their blood for Ireland.” M.E. Doyle, Chairman of the Athy Urban District Council, also spoke in favour of the Parliamentary Party candidate and a resolution was passed pledging support to Kilbride. The Irish Independent on the day of the election, Saturday, 14th December 1918, under the heading “The Kildare Campaign” reported that bands and contingents carrying torch lights from various districts including Carlow attended a large Sinn Féin meeting in Athy on the previous Thursday night at which Mr. P.P. Doyle who presided read a letter from Art O’Connor, the Sinn Féin candidate for South Kildare. The Mayor of Limerick, also spoke and referring to the Insurance Act as one of the fruits of the parliamentary party’s 40 year agitation added “I hope they kept their cards stamped as they will be of benefit on Saturday”. Mr. Tynan of the Laois Land and Labour Association made an appeal to labourers to support Sinn Féin “as victory for it meant a better day for the workers”. The election resulted in a landslide victory for Art O’Connor who polled 7,104 votes compared to 1,545 votes for the outgoing M.P., Denis Kilbride. This marked the end of Kilbride’s parliamentary career which had commenced his election as M.P. for South Kerry following the Luggacurran evictions of the 1880’s. The emergence of Sinn Féin changed the political face of urban Ireland. Power and influence hitherto sustained and nurtured by wealth and class passed to men whose allegiances were to Irish nationalism and to an Irish parliament.

Christmas 2020

Christmas time holds special memories for all of us. Joyful memories for many, but for some it is a sad period for reflecting on the loss of loved ones and times past. Family and community are so important in our daily lives for the maintenance of tradition and regularity as we go forward. Each Christmas, since 1993, members of Athy community have become accustomed to attending the annual ‘While Shepherds Watched’ concert produced by the local musical society in the Dominican Church. It brought together tradition and history in an always enjoyable mixture of Christmas carols and songs which were appreciated by so many. Since the departure of the Dominicans from Athy ‘While Shepherds Watched’ has transferred to St. Michael’s Parish Church, but this year because of Covid 19 the 2020 performance will come to us on Tuesday 22nd December by livestream. Carmel Day, Imelda Dooley and David Walsh, with the support of the musical society organising committee, have put together a programme of traditional carols, seasonal readings and instrumental music featuring local artists. I am told the livestream will be available at parishofathy.ie, as well as on radio at 107.9FM. A Go Fund Me page has been set up at amdsstvincentspatientcomfortfund2020 to allow people to donate funds for St. Vincent’s Hospital Patient Comfort Fund, which in previous years had benefitted from admission fees for attendance at the annual ‘While Shepherd’s Watched’. It’s a good cause and worthy of all our support. The local Lions Club has just completed its annual food appeal with the co-operation of the local supermarkets, Perrys and Pettitts. Given the restrictions imposed as a result of Covid 19 Athy Lions Club members were extremely pleased with the amount of food collected, all of which was subsequently handed over to the local St. Vincent de Paul Society for distribution. Athy Lions Club have been doing tremendous work in the South Kildare area for many years and has remained active even during the Covid 19 pandemic. During the past year it has supported a huge number of community projects in Athy, including the Shop Local Campaign, the Shopfront Floral Scheme and the earlier mentioned food collection for families in need. Financial assistance was also provided by the Lions Club for a number of local groups involved in community related activities in the town. The Club’s largest ever project completed some years ago was the construction of the retirement homes at McAuley Court in the grounds of St. Vincent’s Hospital. This year the Lions Club installed heaters in the houses which have been under the management of the H.S.E. for many years. The Lions Club Book Shop, ably managed by Alice Rowan, is the club’s most visible expression of its commitment to the local community. The Corona virus pandemic has created hardship amongst local families where it never previously existed. This has resulted in an ever growing demand for assistance from the local St. Vincent de Paul Society with calls for help which cannot always be satisfied unless those within our community, who can do so, reach out to help. Donations of money as well as gifts, clothing, etc. can be left into the St. Vincent’s de Paul shop, ‘Vincents’ at Upper William Street at any time between now and Christmas. Another community generated annual event is the publication of Athy Photographic Society’s calendar. A calendar displaying the photographic skills of the society members has been produced annually since 2007 with the financial support of a number of local sponsors. This year’s calendar, the net sale proceeds of which will be donated to Athy Community Family Resource Centre in Woodstock Street, features the photographs of Phil Lawler, Aisling Hyland, Viviane Rosa, Eddie Bond, Dave Daly, James Mahon, Borris Shnaiderman, Peadar Doogue, Jimmy McCarthy, Paddy Joe Ryan, Frank Fanning, Alan Salter, John Nugent, Cynthia Coughlan, Chris Bradshaw, Anthony Hubbock and Elizabeth Fingleton. The usual photographic opportunities were not available this year due to Covid 19, so the Society members took the opportunity of highlighting this year’s calendar the local waterways and wild life. 2020 has been a difficult year for every local family, with many of Athy’s shopkeepers and business people suffering substantial losses which in some cases may threaten the continued viability of some businesses. Sadly, the community has lost many family members, friends and neighbours and our normal activities have been curtailed. It continues to be a difficult time for all as we face into an uncertain future. The relevance and importance of community action by groups such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society and Athy Lions Club, or indeed by any other local group involved with the community, cannot be overstated. The work they do is crucial to the wellbeing of community life but to succeed in what they are doing they will always need our continuing support. Keep safe and Happy Christmas to you all.

Kilmichael Ambush

Much has been written in the past week about the Kilmichael ambush, so much so that I was contacted by a number of readers seeking clarification arising from statements made by politicians and questions posed by the media concerning the events of the 28th of November 1920. Kilmichael is described in Samuel Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland published in 1837 as ‘a parish partly in the barony of east Carbery but chiefly in the western division of the barony of western Muskerry, county of Cork six miles from Macroom on the road to Dunmanway.’ In the parish of 1837 was to be found a constabulary police station and a number of large estates, including that of Greenville House which was attacked in 1822 by the Whiteboys whom we are told ‘were repulsed and several of them killed’. Ninety eight years later the rural landscape of Kilmichael was to be the scene of a bitter and deadly battle between Irish Volunteers led by Tom Barry and members of the Auxiliary police force, commonly called the Auxiliaries. The Auxiliaries were formed to support the R.I.C. on the suggestion of Winston Churchill after an earlier similar proposal of the R.I.C. Inspector General had not been acted upon. The British authorities recognised that the Black and Tans, formed in March 1920, had not succeeded in putting down the rebellious Irish. The Auxiliaries inaugurated on 23rd July 1920 were paid one pound a day and operated separately from the Black and Tans and the R.I.C. They were an elite force, members of which had responded to recruitment advertisements seeking ‘ex officers with first class records.’ The Tans were temporary constables who were paid ten shillings a day to augment the R.I.C. The Auxiliaries were based in the counties where the Irish Volunteers were most active. Apart from time spent in training on the Curragh the Auxiliaries did not serve in county Kildare. However, Black and Tans were to be found in every county and several Black and Tans were based in Athy R.I.C. barracks which was located in the former cavalry barracks close to Woodstock Castle. The Auxiliaries, numbered approximately 2,200, were recruited from amongst former British Army, Navy and Air Force officers. Strange to relate that approximately 18% of the Auxiliaries and the Black and Tans were Irish men. Because of their World War I experience the Auxiliaries were formidable fighters who operated on military lines divided into companies. Unlike the Black and Tans who were allocated to R.I.C. Barracks as additional policemen, the Auxiliaries were a mobile force travelling in Crossley Tenders in the ongoing fight against the Irish Volunteers. The Kilmichael ambush, which was the first occasion the Cork West Brigade engaged with the Auxiliaries, was comprehensively studied in a book published a few years ago by Sean Murphy, a retired Irish Army Commandant, as well as receiving extensive coverage in several other books published over the years. ‘Guerrilla Days in Ireland’ by Tom Barry who lead the Volunteers of Kilmichael was published in 1949. Ewan Butler’s ‘Barry’s Flying Column’ appeared in 1971 and in 1995 the Kilmichael Commemoration Committee issued a slim book, ‘The Wild Heather Glen’ which outlined personal details of the men who took part in the ambush. Since then the Ennis based historian Meda Ryan has written an excellent book with the title ‘Tom Barry I.R.A. Freedom Fighter’. The Canadian historian, the late Peter Harte, wrote two books on the Irish War of Independence. ‘The I.R.A. and its Enemies’ appeared in 1998 and five years later his controversial ‘The I.R.A. at War 1916-1923’ was published. The latter book questioned Tom Barry’s claim that a false surrender by the Auxiliaries at Kilmichael which Barry claimed resulted in the killing of three Volunteers prompted Barry’s order not to allow any of those ambushed to survive. Seventeen Auxiliaries were killed, including one young man who escaped but was later shot and buried in a nearby bog. The sole Auxiliary survivor suffered injuries which left him a lifelong quadriplegic. One of the Auxiliary cadets who was killed was Charles Wainwright who was a former captain in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and who was likely to have soldiered with men from Athy during World War I. The Auxiliaries were involved in some of the most shocking incidents of the War of Independence. None more so than the killing and mutilation of the Loughnane brothers in Shanaglish South near Kinvara, Co. Galway just two days before the Kilmichael ambush. Twenty-nine year old Pat Loughnane and his 22 year old brother Harry were arrested by members of the D Company Auxiliaries who were based in Lennaboye House, Galway. The Loughnanes were put through unimaginable torture by the Auxiliaries and their mutilated and burned bodies were thrown into a pond near Ardrahan. Both were officers of the local Sinn Fein club, while Pat was an I.R.A. Volunteer. It is very difficult to read of atrocities committed not only by the Auxiliaries, the Black and Tans, the R.I.C., but also it must be said by the I.R.A. during the War of Independence. Accounts of acts of savagery and brutality on all sides can be found, as well as examples of good soldiering behaviour which on the part of some Black and Tans prompted Tom Barry to claim ‘quite a number of them were rather decent men.’ However, decency was in short supply during the War of Independence. There were so many examples of atrocities committed by Crown Forces and regrettably many examples of violence with a sectarian or an agrarian aspect committed by Irish men many of whom I suspect were not members of the Irish Volunteers. Popular mythology has tended to hide many historical truths surrounding events of the War of Independence. One should read the recently published ‘The Dead of the Irish Revolution’ by Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó’Corráin to fully appreciate the horror of our past guerrilla war which ended with the truce of 11th July 1921.

Cumann na mBan, Athy

It’s one of my many regrets that I didn’t realise the elderly lady whom I met in the early 1980s was once the Officer Commander of Cumann na mBan in Athy during the War of Independence. She was Mrs. Christina Phelan, formerly Christina Malone of Barrowhouse, who was then living in Convent View. I have before me a copy letter she wrote from 85 Haddington Road, Dublin on 14th June 1946 in which she refers to Cumann na mBan ‘first organised in Athy in 1919’. Previous information available through the chronology prepared in 1949/’50 for the Bureau of Military History staff noted that the Cumann was established in Athy in July 1914, just two months after the Irish Volunteers were formed in the town. Miss Bridget O’Mullane, executive member of Cumann na mBan and its official organiser was the person sent from Dublin headquarters to organise the female section of the Irish Volunteers in Athy. The local members of Cumann na mBan were headed up by Christina Malone and amongst the other members was her sister Mary. Family connections with members of the Irish Volunteers saw brothers and sisters joining up to play their part in the struggle for Irish independence. Amongst the Cumann na mBan members was Mrs. Julia Dooley of Duke Street, whose husband Michael was chairman of the local Sinn Féin club and whose daughters Esther and Gypsy were active members. Esther Dooley would later marry Joe May who had been imprisoned for almost a year in Ballykinlar internment camp. Joe’s mother, Margaret May of Woodstock Street, was also a member of Cumann na mBan. Esther Dooley’s membership of Athy’s Cumann na mBan ceased when she joined the staff of ‘An t’Oglach’, whose editor was Piaras Béaslaí, director of publicity and editor of that Republican newspaper. The newspaper, which was first published in August 1918, was occasionally edited by Bulmer Hobson and by Ernest Blythe. Esther Dooley worked for Béaslaí as a typist and as a messenger bringing copy material for An t’Oglach between Béaslaí’s office which were constantly changing between Cabra Park, Gardiner’s Row and North George’s Street to the printing offices at 10a Aungier Street. Béaslaí wrote a letter from his home at 82 Lower Drumcondra Road, Dublin in 18th June 1946 in which he described the work undertaken by Esther Dooley as ‘very dangerous’. Esther also acted as typist for the Dublin Brigade, whose headquarters were in Gardiner’s Row as well as working for the I.R.A. Director of Intelligence, Colonel J.J. O’Connell. Mention was also made by Béaslaí of Esther Dooley’s contacts with Erskine Childers and Michael Collins. Perhaps of greatest importance to the Republican movement was Esther’s regular contact with Lily Merrin who worked in the British Army Command in Dublin Castle. It was Miss Merrin who furnished vital intelligence information via Esther Dooley to Michael Collins and his team, which was of considerable benefit to the Republican movement. Other female members of Athy Cumann na mBan included the sisters Rose and Kathleen McDonnell. Regrettably I have been unable to get any information in relation to these two brave women. Christina Malone was the daughter of James and Mary Malone of Barrowhouse and her brother was James Malone, who in my time in Offaly Street lived in St. Patrick’s Avenue. Christina’s father was I believe a brother of Michael Malone of Dunbrinn. Was he, I wonder, also a brother of the Barrowhouse poet, Fr. James Malone, who spent his priestly life in Australia? There was also a family connection between Christina and Eamon Malone, the I.R.A. commander of the 5th Battalion. Can anyone help to clarify the relationship? The family links between the Irish Volunteers and Cumann na mBan were very apparent within the Dooley family of Duke Street. Julia Dooley, wife of the Sinn Féin chairman was the aunt of Paddy and John Hayden of Offaly Street, both of whom were members of the Irish Volunteers. Indeed, John Hayden who was at one time Brigade adjutant of the 5th Battalion was arrested, convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in Portlaoise jail during the War of Independence. As mentioned earlier Julia’s daughter Esther married the former Ballykinlar prisoner Joe May, while another daughter, Kathleen, married Eamon Malone of Dunbrin who for a time served as Officer Commanding of the 5th Battalion Carlow Kildare I.R.A. brigade. Eamon was another local Volunteer who was arrested and imprisoned in Mountjoy jail. Another family with members in the male and female units of the Volunteers were the Lambe family of Upper William Street. Alice Lambe was a Cumann na mBan member, while her brothers Frank and Peter were active members of the Irish Volunteers. Three other members of the Cumann na mBan I have not yet been able to identify. They are Julia Whelan of Kilmoroney, Mrs. John Whelan of Ballylinan and a Miss Murphy of Maganey. This week saw the publication of a book by Eunan O’Halpin and Daithi O’Corrain which identifies the 2,850 mem, women and children who died during the years of rebellion between April 1916-December 1921. ‘The Dead of the Irish Revolution’ is a work of many years research which will help to give us a better understanding of the consequences of Irish political violence of the past. The death of John Byrne of Gracefield, Ballylinan was recorded. He suffered fatal burn injuries while engaged with other Volunteers in attempting to destroy the abandoned Luggacurran R.I.C. Barracks in April 1920. I have tried in the past to identify John Byrne but have been unable to do so. I was very interested in the editor’s views on the controversy surrounding the late Canadian historian Peter Hart’s analysis of the Kilmichael ambush of 29th November 1921. Tom Barry, for whom I have great admiration, claimed that a false surrender by members of the Crown forces resulted in the killing of some Auxiliaries after they had surrendered. The savagery of guerrilla warfare was captured in the evidence of the only Crown force survivor which supported the claim that some of the Auxiliaries were killed after surrendering or as they lay wounded and helpless. This claimed the Editors ‘would not have been a unique occurrence as there are various incidences before and after Kilmichael where the I.R.A., the police and the military killed, wounded or surrendered captives after combat.’ This is a book which should find a place on the shelf of anyone interested in the War of Independence. Athy’s past in the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War is a narrative which has yet to be satisfactorily outlined. The research continues to ensure that those local men and women who gave their commitment and some their freedom and their lives in pursuit of a political dream can be remembered and honoured.