People's Park Athy

The Peoples Park in Athy owes its existence to a past Duke of Leinster. The Kildare Observer of 9th February 1887 reporting on the death of the 4th Duke, Charles William, who had succeeded to the title in 1874, claimed that he had given the Peoples Park to the people of Athy. In fact the Peoples Park was in existence long before Charles William became Duke. The Leinster Express of 15th September 1860 reported on the revival of the Kildare, Queens County and Carlow Horticultural Show after the lapse of 7 or 8 years. It was held in the Peoples Park. Strangely this is the earliest reference I have found to the Peoples Park among the various research notes I accumulated after consulting the Minute Books of the Town Commissioners and various local newspapers accessed many years ago. I am sure a more up to date examination of the newspapers for a decade or so before 1860 would help to accurately identify when the park was provided for the people of Athy. I am satisfied that the third Duke of Leinster, Augustus Frederick, who died in 1874 was the benefactor who created the Peoples Park. He was the same man whom it was claimed in 1836 ‘built a mansion for the Roman Catholic clergy of Athy.’ The ‘mansion’ is the current Parish Priest’s house which interestingly was built for all the clergy to live in community. Michael Carey’s diary of the last century records that the first stone of what he called ‘the Priest’s house’ was laid on 2nd July 1829. The third Duke of Leinster was very generous with regard to contributions to the people and town of Athy. He had a corn exchange built in the town, the foundation of which was laid in July 1855. The building described as one of the most beautiful small buildings in County Kildare was found not to be suitable as a corn exchange due to poor ventilation and poor lighting and was subsequently adapted for use as a courthouse. I have yet to discover the significance of the stone finials which are striking features alongside the dramatic tall granite chimney stacks of the mid-19th century building. Two developments, approximately 16 years apart, might give us some indication of when the park was created. The first development was the building of St. Michael’s Church at the top of Offaly Street which was dedicated in 1841. The church is located on an axis with Church Road and presents a dramatic view of the church steeple, the building of which commenced in August 1856. This lends me to believe that Church Road, or Crib Road as we once called it, may have been laid out and constructed around the same time. The railway line had been extended to Athy in 1846, when the entrance road from Leinster Street was developed to allow access to the railway station. It is possible the road may have been extended further to meet up with Offaly Street. If this was done before the Church steeple was built in 1856 it represents a remarkable coincidence which allowed the earlier road and the later steeple to create the dramatic axial view of St. Michael’s steeple. I tend to believe that the steeple built in 1856 around the same time as the Church of Ireland rectory was part of a development which saw the construction of Church Road and the enclosure of the grounds which were laid out as the Peoples Park. The walls which enclose the Peoples Park are similar in all respects with the wall enclosing the rectory and the wall all the way down to Offaly Street. The Kildare Observer of 19th February 1887 described the Peoples Park as ‘a public park ….. flanked by a row of trees, a boulevard in fact which is most luxuriant and of great natural beauty ….. with trees of 30 years growth.’ This description would tend to support my belief that the Peoples Park was developed in or around 1856. The same newspaper reported on 20th September 1902 how two rare fir trees planted and railed to mark the coronation of King Edward were torn up overnight. On Coronation Day female members of the Duke of Leinster’s family had planned to plant the two trees, but due to their absence the trees were planted by Lady Weldon of Kilmoroney and the local rector’s wife, Mrs. H.W. Waller. The park, estimated to consist of five acres (pre swimming pool and subsequent car park development) was maintained by the Duke of Leinster’s estate for 150 years of thereabouts. The park keepers house built at one end of the park was sold some years ago when the Urban District Council acquired title to the park. Athy’s Peoples Park developed by Augustus Frederick, Duke of Leinster can be seen as his contribution to the movement for town parks in the mid-19th century. Parks for the recreation of all classes were part of a mid-19th century English movement anxious to improve public health measures for the workers and the unemployed who lived for the most part in unsanitary unfit housing. It was a significant contribution to 19th century town life coming as it did almost 100 years after the great age of landscaped gardens built and developed for the aristocracy. Our park today included a children’s playground which continues to remain unfenced, leaving the area which should be restricted to young children and their parents open to dogs and as I observed recently adults drinking cans of beer. Perhaps the Council might consider the desirability of installing protective fencing.

Covid vaccination and past vaccinations

2021 has been a hard year for many families and businesses. It was a year many of us had to work behind closed doors, while other workers continued to serve the public on a person-to-person basis. To the nurses, doctors and other hospital staff we must include the shop assistants who were available to serve the public throughout the pandemic. There are many other occupations, including teachers, who continued to provide services during the Covid pandemic and who continued to do so as new variations of the virus spread around the world. Controversy has arisen with the possibility of compulsory vaccination being imposed. Compulsory nationwide vaccination is nothing new in terms of Irish public health. In 1863 compulsory vaccination was introduced to prevent the spread of smallpox. A rare disease nowadays, smallpox was very prevalent in the 18th century and in the early part of the following century. It wasn’t until the 20th century that there was worldwide eradication of smallpox which in earlier times had a high mortality rate. Ireland of the early post famine years of the 1840s recorded approximately 1,500 deaths a year from smallpox. Smallpox deaths in 1871 were 666 at a time when it was estimated that one fifth to two fifths of those with smallpox died, while those who recovered were often blinded or left with pock marked faces. Athy’s Poor Law Commissioners who controlled the local workhouse were responsible for the operation of the State Vaccination Programme in the Athy Poor Law union area. The Workhouse minute books record the details of families who failed to bring their children to the vaccination centres following which fines were imposed. It is unclear whether those fines were ever collected or indeed were collectable given the level of poverty in towns and rural parts of Ireland at that time. Despite the apparent success of the vaccination programme there were further smallpox outbreaks in Ireland between 1871 and 1873 during which period almost 2,000 smallpox deaths were recorded in the Dublin area. The last major epidemic of smallpox in Ireland occurred in 1878/’79. Then the Dublin area recorded 1,490 smallpox deaths and here in Athy between 2nd July 1878 and the following 18th January 24 smallpox deaths were recorded in the local fever hospital. Included amongst the dead were five children, twelve labourers, one boatman, one governess, Richard St. John, jeweller and Samuel Connolly, a druggist, as chemists were then described. These were only the smallpox deaths registered in the Fever Hospital which had been built with funds initially gathered by the townspeople for a Mr. Keatinge following the destruction of his business premises by fire. Keatinge donated the funds collected for the building of the Fever Hospital. The Union Workhouse, as it was called, also had a fever hospital which I suspect was no more than a small isolated building kept apart from the main workhouse building. The smallpox deaths recorded in the Workhouse fever hospital during the smallpox outbreak of 1878/’79 have not yet been identified. During the past year there have been a large number of deaths, both nationally and locally, not all Covid related. However, funeral arrangements have been restricted and this has been especially difficult for families who lost loved ones. During the past year I lost three classmates, none of whose deaths were Covid related, but nevertheless Covid restrictions meant that many former classmates were unable to attend their funerals. Peter Whelan, Teddy Kelly and Pat Flinter were men I had known since childhood and their passing leaves me with sad but treasured memories of times past. Two other deaths this year were of men with whom I shared experiences for almost 40 years. Trevor Shaw I admired for his unwavering commitment to the social and commercial development of his hometown, while Toss Quinn was a highly respected lawyer, whose passion for Irish music and uilleann piping were the hallmarks of a truly cultured Irishman. The photograph shows two relatively young Solicitors with files in hand standing outside the Courthouse in 1992 taken by the late Gerard Osborne.

Tadhg Brennan memories

While isolating during the past few days I had an opportunity to go through papers I collected, stored away and it must be acknowledged forgot about for many years. Amongst those papers I found a letter from Tadhg Brennan which he wrote from 2 Beechgrove on 11th December 1995 with the opening paragraph, ‘After you had driven off I remembered a few other characters in Athy in my young days’. He then went on to write over six pages details of several of those characters as he called them, whom he remembered from Athy of the 1930s and 1940s. I found it interesting that he wrote of Archdeacon McDonnell, former Parish Priest of St. Michael’s, as one of those characters. Tadhg claimed he was ‘a priest ahead of his time’ who said first Mass every morning ‘in about 12-15 minutes’. Apparently, the same priest had a big following for confessions as he listened, never questioned, and invariably gave a penance of three Hail Marys. Tadhg claimed there was always a queue at his confession box, bigger on the altar side for it was said he was deaf in the left ear! Tadhg’s opinion of the Archdeacon, or Canon as he then was, was shaped in part by contrasting his style with that of his predecessor, Canon Mackey whom it was claimed attempted to control everything in the parish. Tadhg wrote: ‘Canon Mackey threatened my father to read him off the altar and possibly have him excommunicated because of some difference they had about the Catholic Young Men’s Society.’ Canon Edward Mackey, who was born five years after the Great Famine, was Parish Priest of Athy between 1909 and 1928. These years included periods of great civil unrest in Ireland and encompassed the years of the Great War. Canon Mackey supported the recruitment campaigns for the British Army during World War I and spoke at recruitment rallies in Emily Square. It was no wonder so many young men from the town enlisted when the local Parish Priest and civic leaders including Athy Urban District Council’s members supported the recruitment campaigns. Canon Mackey died on 31st March 1928 and is commemorated by the fine marble pulpit which was installed in the Parish Church and financed by the people of the parish of St. Michaels. Fr. Patrick McDonnell replaced Canon Mackey as Parish Priest, becoming a Canon in 1934 and Archdeacon in 1953. He died on 1st March 1956 and the local Urban District Council named the new housing estate built on Holland’s fields between the Kildare Road and the Dublin Road as McDonnell Drive. Several times I have come across references in the media and elsewhere to McDonald Drive. It’s correct name, McDonnell Drive, commemorates the man whom Tadhg Brennan regarded as ‘a priest ahead of his time’. Tadhg’s high opinion of Archdeacon McDonnell was not shared by me, for my abiding memory of that priest is his annoyance at my failure to say the Act of Contrition correctly when as a schoolboy in St. Joseph’s I was brought with my classmates by Sr. Brendan to have our confessions heard by the Parish Priest. I must have been 6 or 7 years old and annoyed at my faulty confession practice the Canon who was sitting at a makeshift confessional near the side altar rattled his walking stick at me, prompting me to run. In later years I served Mass for him at the same side altar, but the incident of the unfinished confession was never mentioned. One of the other men mentioned by Tadhg was ‘Sticker’ Ryan, whom he described as a great Labour party man who lived in Foxhill. Tadhg got to know ‘Sticker’ after Tadhg was elected as a Fianna Fáil urban councillor in the 1940s. Both men became great friends and had what Tadhg described as ‘many a heated argument and as many philosophical discussions’. ‘Sticker’ he described as a small determined man with a big heart and a great mind. Tadhg regarded ‘Sticker’ Ryan as one of the exceptional people he got to know through local politics and finished his references to him by writing ‘I would go so far as to say he was unique, a true follower of James Connolly.’ In my research over the years I have come across fleeting references to ‘Sticker’ Ryan but Tadhg Brennan’s letter of 26 years ago prompts me to chase up the story of the man who made such an impression on the retired State Solicitor/County Registrar. If there is anyone reading this article who can give me any information regarding ‘Sticker’ Ryan of Foxhill I would be delighted to hear from them. The Irish Times on Wednesday last under the headline ‘Kindness of Others inspired 40 years of contributing to the community’ told the story of 79-year-old Seamus O ’Doherty’s contribution to the people and town of Clonmel. In accepting the Community Hero of the Year Award Mr. O’Doherty spoke of his parents and the difficulties they faced after his father’s battalion was disbanded at the end of World War 2. ‘We were living in one room in a house in Clonmel. There was no electricity, no water, no heating. My mother cooked on a primus stove ….. what I remember was the kindness of neighbours.’ His story must remind us of the families who need our kindness this Christmas and indeed throughout the year. We must look out for our neighbours while helping those local groups such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society who do so much to alleviate the hardship experienced by so many parents and children, especially at Christmas time.

Visit of Mensun Bound and Colin Teague to Athy's Shackleton Museum

The Shackleton Museum in Athy recently played host to two interesting visitors from abroad. Both of them were drawn to the Shackleton exhibit which remains the only permanent exhibition devoted to Shackleton anywhere in the world. First was Colin Teague whom came on behalf of ‘Reach the World’ which is a United States based educational organisation which uses a virtual platform to support educational projects all over the world. One of their current projects is linked to the forthcoming search for Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance. The Endurance was the ship Shackleton used for the planned traverse of the Antarctic in 1914. As many of us will know the ship got trapped in the ice in late December 1914 and Shackleton and his men were to remain marooned on their ship until the following October. In late October 1915 the Endurance was enveloped in ice, later crushed by the ice and ultimately sank. What followed thereafter was the wonderous escape from the Antarctic led by Shackleton without any loss of life. The rescue of Shackleton’s men from Elephant Island was marked by the unveiling of the statue of Shackleton in Emily Square, Athy on the centenary of this event on the 31st of August 2016. With the approaching centenary of Shackleton’s death in January 2022 ‘Reach the World’ sees this as an opportunity to bring Shackleton’s life, adventures and his leadership into the classroom. They have also been inspired by the planned expedition to the Antarctic in February 2022 to locate the wreck of the ship Endurance. The leader of that expedition, ‘Endurance 2022’, Mensun Bound recently made a special trip to see the Shackleton artifacts in our local Museum. A native of the Falkland Islands, Mensun is one of the foremost Marine Archaeologist’s in the world. Among his many projects are the excavation of a 6th Century BC shipwreck near Tuscany and the discovery of the second world war German battleship, Graf Spee, in the River Plate in 1997. In this quest for Endurance he will lead an international team of marine experts, environmental scientist, and engineers who will employ the latest in marine technology to search for and hopefully locate the Endurance. The ‘Endurance 2022’ expedition will depart from South Africa in February of next year and will have a limited window of opportunity of no more than twelve days in the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea to find the Endurance. The environment in which they will be working will be incredibly challenging and they have no guarantee as to its likely success. Mensun himself believes that with the wealth of expertise on his team he is confident that they can find the ship. As part of the expedition they will be linking in with ‘Reach the World’ to talk to students about the Endurance, about Shackleton and also about the heroic age of exploration in the Antarctic. Discussions will include environmental issues in Antarctica and will hopefully open up debate and research into science, geography, history and politics in classrooms all over the world ‘Reach the World’ has created a dedicated web page to allow students to follow the expedition and will cover a variety of topics which are very relevant to today’s students such as social studies, geography, English, biology, maths, and technology. It is an interesting and innovative approach to exploration with the emphasis placed on engaging with educators and children. Colin Teague himself is seeking expressions of interest from primary and secondary schools in Athy and has invited any teachers who are interested in linking their classes into the project to contact him by email at colin@reachtheworld.org. Teachers can also register their class or schools at www.reachtheworld.org. It is hoped that the schools in Athy will become part of this very worthwhile project.

Lions Club annual Christmas Food Appeal

This year’s Lions Club annual Cash for Food Appeal will be limited to Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 2nd, 3rd and 4th of December from 9.30am to 4.30pm. Because of Covid restrictions Lions members will not be in attendance at the local supermarkets as in previous years. Instead, a stall will be set up in Edmund Rice Square where everyone willing to help those in need within our own local community can contribute to the fundraising venture. All monies collected will go to the local St. Vincent de Paul Society. This year, more than ever before, the volunteers in the local St. Vincent de Paul Society, need your help to ensure that local families in need can enjoy over the Christmas period a short respite from their daily financial difficulties. There are so many young children in this part of the county whose parents do not have the means or the opportunity to give their children the carefree enjoyment which children deserve. These are parents who for the most part have been devasted by the economic fallout from Covid. They simply do not have the means to live life to the full resulting in deprivation for many adults and children alike every day of the week. The members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society freely give of their time to visit the homes of those families in need in order to provide much needed financial assistance. They look to those amongst us who can afford to do so to share what they can with those less well-off members of our local community. The Lions Club members who have been involved in so many charitable events over the years regard the Christmas Cash for Food Appeal on behalf of the St. Vincent de Paul Society as one of the most important contributions its members can make to community identity and solidarity. The Cash for Food stall will be very visible in the Edmund Rice car park, but understandably it will not be as well positioned as previous years’ collection points which one met at supermarket exits. The Lions Club members and the St. Vincent de Paul members will greatly appreciate any financial help you can give during the three days of the pre-Christmas collection. Lions Club members Mary Feely and Aisling Hyland have produced a wonderful series of Christmas cards featuring local scenes which are ideal cards for Athy folk to send to friends and relations this Christmas. I expect the cards will be available to buy at the Lions Cash for Food stall. On St. Stephen’s Day the Lions Club 5km run will start at 10am from opposite the Auld Shebeen with a route along the proposed Blueway towards Cardenton. The race which was initiated 3 years ago by Lions President Brian Dooley and organised with great success by the Club’s late secretary Mary O’Sullivan, has been renamed in honour of the late Mary. The Mary O’Sullivan Memorial Race will be an annual feature of Athy’s Christmas holiday period and I am told it is hoped to present SNOODS to all participants. I had to ask what a snood was as I never came across the term before. Apparently it is a seamless neck scarf bandana which makes me wonder if the Lions President is busy knitting them! However, I do know that while you can register for the run on St. Stephen’s morning, Brian would like to hear expressions of interest in advance. Maybe it is something to do with the knitting! Seriously though, contact Brian Dooley if you intend to take part in the Mary O’Sullivan Memorial Run. The entry fee is €10, with all proceeds going to local charities. Athy Lions Club recently lost one of its founder members with the passing of Trevor Shaw. Trevor was a great contributor over many many years to the charitable work of the club and was an active member right up to his unexpected sudden death. The once all male membership of Athy Lions Club has changed in recent years, with several female members now providing the energy, imaginative ideas and the commitment which makes the Lions Club such an important element of community solidarity in Athy. There is always a welcome for new members, for women or men who are prepared to share their time, experience and goodwill for the benefit of the local community. Again the person to contact if you would like to offer yourself as a Lions member is the current Club President Brian Dooley. The material on display at the recent exhibition organised by Dr. Anne Murphy during Heritage week has now found a permanent home in a delightful publication titled ‘Annals of Athy 2021’. It brings together the exhibit material relating to the agricultural, industrial and sporting heritage of Athy and South Kildare and the book which is on sale for €20 can be bought in Willie Mahon’s stationery shop or the Lions Book Shop. On a personal level Vol. IV of Eye on Athy’s Past consisting of my articles published in the Kildare Nationalist between June 1999 and December 2000 which was launched during Covid 19 is for sale in Winkles. It would make an ideal Christmas present, especially for Athy folk living away from their home town.

Tourism potential for Athy

‘There is nothing at all for Athy’. So said my wife as I prepared to write this week’s article. ‘Kildare Village is expanding, while Newbridge is benefitting from a huge housing development on the outskirts of the town.’ I had just returned from an all-day conference in Kilkea Castle organised by County Kildare Tourism Board and my wife’s unsolicited comments prompted me to reflect on what the future might hold for Athy. Having survived uprisings, epidemics and manmade disasters during the 800 years of its existence, Athy retains a charming presence in the south of the shortgrass county. It’s narrow medieval streetscape was breached in the 18th century by a canal and in the following century by a railway. Both canal and railway boosted the flagging business fortunes of what was an agricultural outpost and helped Athy to develop as a market town of the first order. The original business models of the canal and railway have now given way in the case of the canal to leisure activities, while the railway has opened up Athy as a distant but reachable dormer town of our capital city. Business life in provincial Ireland has changed enormously in recent years, but especially so during the past two coronavirus years. It is difficult to anticipate what the future may hold but there is a growing awareness that the town’s future will include with the manufacturing, commercial and services mix, a fourth component of tourism and leisure activities. Athy is generally viewed by visitors as a very attractive town but one which is yet to awaken to the commercial and social benefits which could arise by making better use of our local waterways. The revival of the commercial heart of the town can be expected to benefit from the removal of heavy traffic with the opening of the outer relief road. Part of that revival must and should see the opening of more small independent shops offering quality goods. The local shopping experience must be improved and the removal of through traffic from the main streets will not in itself be sufficient. Behind the pleasant shop fronts, visitors and locals alike need to find services and goods which both attract and satisfy customers. Without intending to claim that the local economy would rely heavily on tourism, a vital part of Athy’s future as a possible tourist destination is the Blueway development, with the Shackleton Blueway hub at the rear of Hoares Lock. The significance of this development can be gauged when one considers the success of various Greenways and Blueways opened up around Ireland in recent years. The decision of Kildare County Council to proceed with the Blueway development as far as the county boundary contrasts sharply with Carlow County Council’s failure to allow the Blueway development to continue through County Carlow. In the very centre of Athy stands the building erected by the County Kildare Grand Jury in the early years of the 18th century. Known by generations of Athy folk as the Town Hall it will in the near future be adopted and extended to house what will be a major tourist attraction in this area. The Shackleton Museum will feature many artefacts relating to the Kilkea-born Polar explorer, as well as a substantial Polar research library. The worldwide success of the recent Shackleton Autumn School clearly demonstrated how significant the Shackleton Museum can be in terms of attracting tourists to the town. Athy, once regarded as Leinster’s foremost market town, later became a town of iron and bricks with a multiplicity of foundries and brick yards. These are now long gone, replaced in the 1930s and succeeding years by a number of factories, some of which are no longer in existence. Athy, now in part a dormer town, has embarked on the next stage of it’s development. Part of that development will hopefully see Athy emerge as a tourist attraction with the development of the Blueway and the opening of the Shackleton Museum. The comment which opened this article claiming that ‘there is nothing at all for Athy’ is I believe an overly pessimistic view. The town is well positioned to benefit from the anticipated increase in future tourism and leisure travel and I believe the market town of old will meet whatever new challenges are presented. The tourism conference in Kilkea Castle brought together a wide range of persons involved in that industry. It was heartening to hear the organisers speak of the importance of tourism to the County of Kildare. Tourism might today be seen as an unusual addition to the manufacturing and commercial life of the town. However it’s untapped potential must be seen as an important part of the town’s future.

Soccer Clubs in Athy

The game of soccer in Athy has a history dating back to the mid 1920s. The first club, known as ‘The Barrow Rovers’, was started by men working on the Barrow Drainage Scheme which had its headquarters in Athy. The club apparently went into immediate decline with the ending of work on the Barrow drainage. Three years after the ending of World War II Athy Soccer Club was revived. Matt Tynan of the Leinster Arms Hotel is credited with bringing together the men who would guide the club over the next 12 years. It was during the second coming of Athy’s Soccer Club that the club obtained use of the former hockey club pitch which is still in use by the Soccer Club. In the summer of 1952 the Soccer Club organised its first street league which attracted teams representing Barrack Street, Pairc Bhride, Leinster Street and St. Joseph’s Terrace. The street league created a lot of interest and attracted a large number of spectators to the final between Barrack Street and Pairc Bhride, which the former won. At the end of the 1959/’60 season Athy Soccer Club for the second time went into terminal decline. For the next 4 years the club was inactive. A public meeting was called for the Town Hall on 3rd December 1964, following which Athy Soccer Club was organised for the third time in forty years. Brendan O’Flaherty was elected chairman, with Denis Smyth as secretary and Mick McEvoy as treasurer. Committee members elected included Jim Dargan, Ernie Henderson, Mick Godfrey, Brian O’Hara, Mick Aldridge, Mick Eaton and Paddy Chanders. The club revived in December 1964 continues to enjoy much success and has in excess of 300 members. It caters for male and female players from senior level to youth teams. The two photographs accompanying this Eye are of soccer teams, one of which is definitely an Athy Soccer Club team. It features Jim Dargan as the non team member standing at the back on the right. The famous Golly Germaine is the goalie in the centre back row. Can readers give me the names of the other players and the year of the photo? The second photograph has Bob Kelly of Geraldine Road standing on the right at the back. His presence suggests it’s an Athy team photo. Can any reader help me identify the team and its members?

Christopher Supple - Trade Union Activist

Christopher Joseph Supple died at Harrow, North London on the 15th of November 1967 aged 69 years. His remains were brought back to Athy for burial in St. Michael’s Cemetery. A native of Moone where he was born on the 25th of December 1896, Christopher was the youngest son of Thomas Supple and the former Mary Flanagan. His older brother William who joined the royal Dublin Fusiliers died in a British Hospital in Marseilles in April 1915. He is one of the many forgotten heroes of an earlier generation for his role as the trade union organiser who led the South Kildare farm labourers strikes in 1919 and 1923. At just 20 years of age Christy Supple with the assistance of others, unfortunately not now known, organised crossroads meetings to set up farm labour unions in different parts of South Kildare. These unaffiliated groupings came together to establish labour union branches in Burtown, Ballytore, Churchtown and Ballyroe. Within a short time they would amalgamate to form the South Kildare Labour Union with the youthful Christy Supple as it’s secretary. The officers of that South Kildare Labour Union included T. Cullen of Ballycullane as President, Michael Fenlon, Millbrook, Vice President, James Loughman, Castleroe, Assistant Secretary, John Dalton, Foxhill, Treasurer and William Sherlock, Foxhill, Assistant Treasurer. Committee members included James Doyle, Ballindrum, Christopher Wright, Bray, Ed Calahan, Foxhill, John Supple, Ballycullane, Phil Horan, Foxhill, Jimmy Buggy, Burtown, P. Conway, Ballyroe, Thomas Supple, Burtown and S. Travers, Kilkea. On the 19th of March 1918 at a meeting in Castledermot, Laurence Ginnell M.P., Kevin Higgins, later a Minister for Justice in the Free State government and Peter P. Doyle of Athy spoke out against Irish landlordism with Ginnell calling on the farm workers to engage in ‘cattle driving so as to acquire the lands of graziers for food production’. A week later the South Kildare Labour Union organised a meeting in Emily Square, Athy attended by a large number of farm workers who paraded prior to the meeting from the outskirts of the town on the Dublin Road behind a band from Ballylinan. William O’Brien, a founder member of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, addressed that meeting as part of his campaign to reorganise the I.T.G.W.U. The meeting was chaired by Michael Mooney of Grangemellon and it would appear that the South Kildare Labour Union amalgamated with the Dublin based ITGWU soon afterwards with Christy Supple as the local branch secretary. It was not long before the newly affiliated branch of the I.T.G.W.U. were in dispute with the local farmers. In May 1918 several local farmers sacked workers who failed to turn up for work on the 23rd of April, a day which had been designated by the Irish Trade Congress Union as a protest day against conscription. The dispute was settled following negotiations in which Christy Supple was involved and further success was achieved when local farm workers were allowed to stop work two hours early on Saturdays to facilitate shopping. Christy Supple next turned his attention to what he believed was overcharging by local publicans in Athy public houses and he had notices posted around the town calling for a boycott of local public houses until prices were reduced. It was one of Christy Supple’s less successful campaigns. At the beginning of Summer 1919 the I.T.G.W.U. sought a wage increase for farm workers who the previous year had got a two shillings and six pence increase to bring their wages to twenty seven shillings and six pence for a 60 hour week. Strikes were called throughout Kildare and Meath and the Kildare Farmers Union retaliated by locking out all I.T.G.W.U. members. The South Kildare Farmers Union based in Athy followed suit. On the 11th of July 1919 the Irish Times reported that about 161 farm workers in the Athy district were on strike and 210 in South Kildare as a whole. Picketing of some farms resulted in the Royal Irish Constabulary providing protection on farms where non-union labour was employed. However, as the year progressed individual farmers began to agree terms with their workers and by the end of July 1919 it was reported that ‘in the Athy District nine farmers employing between them 17 men settled with their men’. The Irish Independent reported on the 21st of August 1919 that ‘an angry state of feeling is developing on both sides of South Kildare as a result of the prolonged strike’. This anger was reflected on the streets of Athy where it was reported ‘picketing in Athy has become aggressive during the past few days. Cordons are drawn around shops of merchants who were also farmers and the public are warned against dealing with them. Farmers whose men are on strike are locked out or followed and shop keepers warned not to supply them with goods’. The strike continued until the 23rd of August when terms were agreed following a meeting in the Town Hall, Athy between the Farmers Union led by its Chairman J.J. Keegan of Athy and the farm workers strike committee led by Christy Supple. Christy Supple would lead the South Kildare farm workers during the ten-month lockout of 1922/23 during which time he was imprisoned by the Free State Government in Carlow. That dispute arose from the South Farmers Union members decision to reduce farm workers wages from thirty shillings to twenty-five shillings per week. It was a dispute which the farm workers lost and which weakened the I.T.G.W.U. resulting in the loss of Christy’s role as branch secretary. Christy Supple deserves to be remembered as was another local union activist of a later generation. Joe Greene of Castledermot was branch secretary of the Federated Rural Workers in South Kildare during the lockout of 1947. He is remembered at the Joe Greene memorial at the Roundbush in Kilkea which was unveiled 18 years ago. Athy and South Kildare should now honour the memory of Christy Supple.

South Kildare World War I dead

In April 1916, either just before or after the Easter Rising, a roll of the men from Castledermot and district who joined ‘his Majesty’s forces to serve for King, home and country’ was published. It gave the names of 122 men from Castledermot village, Kilkea, Prumplestown, Levitstown, Belan and Knockpatrick. Included amongst the list was the name of Rev. John Coffey described as ‘sometimes Catholic curate of Castledermot’. He had served in the Castledermot parish between 1903 and 1908. The list was of course incomplete as almost 2½ years were to pass before Armistice Day on 11th November 1918. Amongst those named was William Whelan whom I believe was the first County Kildare man killed during the course of the first World War. William died on 27th August 1914 and sadly his remains were never recovered and today lie in an unmarked grave. His namesake and fellow Castledermot native, Gerard Whelan, has for some time past been researching and writing up accounts of the men from Castledermot who died in the war. He has put up on Facebook the results of his research on some individual soldiers and the quality of his work in that regard is exceptionally good. On Thursday 11th November Gerard’s book on the men and women from the Castledermot area who served in the Great War will be launched in Coláiste Lorcáin Castledermot at 7pm. The book entitled ‘The Forgotten’ uncovers the story of the 48 men from the area who died in the Great War and also reveals the forgotten stories of the 113 local men and 2 local women who served during and survived that war. Here in Athy the annual Remembrance Sunday ceremony in St. Michael’s cemetery will take place on Sunday 14th November at 3pm. The magnificent war memorial officially unveiled two years ago will be the starting point for the remembrance service honouring the six World War soldiers buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery as well as the World War I nurse, Eleanor Orford from Foxhill, who died on 3rd September 1917 aged 32 years. The memorial records the names of 132 men from Athy and district who died during the war, but ongoing research has revealed the names of at least 6 more Athy men not previously identified as victims of the war. Their names will be engraved on the memorial during the coming year. One of the great difficulties in trying to compile a list of those who enlisted during the Great War was the loss of British army records destroyed as a result of bombing during the second World War. Clem Roche, who published the results of his research in his book ‘Athy and District World War I Roll of Honour’, has continued to research the subject of Athy’s involvement in the Great War. His contribution to our understanding of the tragedies which beset the men of Athy during 1914/’18 is commendable. Next Sunday the remembrance ceremony which was first held in St. Michael’s cemetery in the late 1980s takes place at a time when we have a better understanding of a previous generations involvement in a war which has been described by the historian Peter Johnson as ‘the greatest moral, spiritual and physical catastrophe in history’. The men who fought in that war seldom, if ever, spoke of a time when almost 10 million soldiers lost their lives on various battlefields across the world. One such man was someone I knew as our family butcher. Tim Hickey was an elderly man when I was growing up in Athy in the 1950s and I was occasionally sent to collect messages from his butcher’s shop in Emily Square. I had often heard the story that he had spent time in America and had been involved in the Klondike gold rush, whether that story is true or not I don’t know. What I didn’t know is that the elderly butcher who was a native of Narraghmore had enlisted as a private in the South Irish Horse. Several men from the South Kildare area also joined that same regiment, but Tim Hickey later transferred to the Royal Irish Regiment as a Lance Corporal. He suffered horrendous injuries at Epehy, a village on the Sommes when on 18th February 1918 a German plane dropped a bomb which killed his colleague and fellow Irishman Victor Stoker and injured two other soldiers. Tim’s jaw was shattered and he was required to wear a protective plate on the side of his head for the rest of his life. Tim was part of the lost generation which included local family members such as the Kelly brothers, Denis, John and Owen of Chapel Lane. Also the brothers John, James and Joseph Byrne of Chapel Lane and Edward and Thomas Stafford of Butlers Row. The Hayden brothers, Aloysius and Patrick of Churchtown who were once near neighbours of Patrick, John and Lawrence Curtis, all of whom like the others mentioned died during the Great War. We remember all of those men and their colleagues, many of whom are buried in unmarked graves far from their home town of Athy. The local cemetery of St. Michael’s holds the remains of soldiers Martin Hyland, Offaly Street, Michael O’Brien, Meeting Lane, John Lawler, Ardreigh, Michael Byrne, Green Alley, James Dwyer, Canalside, Thomas Flynn, New Row and Nurse Eleanor Orford of Foxhill. They and their comrades are no longer among the ranks of the forgotten. Two events this week, the book launch in Castledermot on Thursday 11th and the Remembrance Service in St. Michaels on Sunday 14th give us an opportunity to acknowledge our common history and to remember with gratitude the sacrifices of an earlier generation.

A granddaughters footballing success

he October Bank Holiday Monday was a great day for a group of young girls whose success in the Under 15 football county championship final that day created an unforgettable memory for each of them. They will remember and cherish that day for years to come. It was a memorable day for me also for it was the second time since my brother Tony won a minor championship medal in 1956 that a Taaffe family member won a precious winners medal on the football field. My granddaughter Eva on winning her football medal, as did her sister Rachel two years ago, achieved more success than I ever had, despite a footballing career which extended over many clubs in three different counties. Three years a member of the Under 14 school team brought no success but would give me an unforgettable memory of a football match played in lashing rain in Monasterevin. On that day my elasticated togs were so soaked the elastic band expanded requiring the hapless youngster to play with one hand holding up his togs during the entire second half. Its all I can remember of that match. Playing for Athy Gaelic Football Club for many years and for one year with Rheban Club brought no medal success. The experience was repeated when I played for Colmcille Gaels in Kells and finally with Monaghan Harps Gaelic Football Club. So one can appreciate how important in ones footballing career is the winning of a championship final medal. Well done to Eva and all the girls on the Athy team panel who were photographed after their great win. Remembering that Eva and her teammates are all under 15 years of age I could not but bring to mind the Athy youngsters of a previous generation who did not have the opportunity to play with Gaelic football teams during their youth. If they had, I wonder would Pat Delahunt of Mount Hawkins Lane have chosen to join, as he did, the Leinster Regiment at 15 years of age to participate in a war fought on the foreign fields of France and Flanders. He was possibly the youngest recruit from amongst the hundreds of Athy youngsters and men who enlisted during the 1914/’18 war. Pat was the same age as the young girls who played in the football final in Newbridge last week. He survived the war and returned to Athy but like his comrades in arms did not receive the adulation which is due to the victorious. Athy of Pat Delahunt’s day was a town which showed few changes in terms of buildings and streetscape compared to today’s urban centre. While new suburbs have developed at the edge of the town the inner core of Athy which once housed the towns population of 3,500 or so displays a main street townscape which is largely unchanged. The greatest change is in the social and sporting facilities available in the town for a population of nearly 10,000 which facilities were not available to Pat Delahunt and his friends 100 years ago. The public houses cum grocery shops which were once the principal business outlets in Athy have decreased from about 44 to a dozen or so pubs, with only one premises retaining the old bar/grocery business combination. Perhaps the greatest change noticeable in recent years has been the involvement of girls playing Gaelic football, soccer and rugby and the early involvement of young children in the same field sports. The success of the Athy girls on the football pitch in Newbridge must give the youngsters a deserved feeling of fulfilment and their parents, family and friends an equally deserved sense of pride in their achievement. Well done to the Athy Under 15 team which under the captaincy of Elizabeth Mazur succeeded in repeating the success of Athy’s senior footballers in last year’s senior championship.

Athy's civic affairs of the mid 19th century

In the years following the Great Famine, the meetings of Athy Town Commissioners were largely taken up with discussions on the sanitary condition of the town and the unrelated issues of vagrancy and prostitution. The Commissioners recognised what they described as ‘the right’ of householders ‘to clear before their doors prior to 10 o’clock each morning’. The apparent advantage for householders on the main streets was the collection of horse dung which could then be used in their back gardens. Street cleaners were not employed by the Town Commission and in December 1848 the Commissioner sought the agreement of the local Board of Guardians to allow workhouse inmates to be engaged (without pay) in keeping the streets clean. The Guardians did not agree, no doubt anxious to keep the able-bodied male inmates employed at stone breaking in the workhouse. The Town Commissioners advancing their desire to improve the sanitary conditions of the town agreed to employ ‘two scavengers’. Within a year of their appointment, one of the men was let off leaving the remaining man with the sole responsibility of sweeping the principal streets of Athy. Recognising the need to develop Athy as a market town, a role which had first emerged with the opening of the Canal in 1791, the Town Commissioners decided to establish a second weekly market. Saturday was appointed as the second market day in Athy and the initial market was held in the town square on the first Saturday in September 1853. The weekly markets and monthly fairs attracted buyers and sellers from afar and the local lodging houses were kept busy. So much so that the Town Commissioners appointed a registrar of licensed lodging houses and an Inspector of those same premises whose job was to visit every lodging house on a weekly basis. Those inspections prompted the Commissioners to withdraw lodging house Licences from John Laughlin, Pat McGrath and Pat Prendergast in December 1852. A further three Licence holders had their licences withdrawn in November 1854. The reasons for the licence cancellations were not recorded. In September 1856, the Town Fathers commended the conduct of the troops of the 16th Lancers then based in the Athy Cavalry Barracks under the command of Captain Patrick Agnew. However, the army presence in Athy created another problem for the Town Commissioners which in 1858 prompted the following notice to be posted throughout the town. ‘Caution to persons keeping any places of public resort within the town for the sale of refreshments of any kind who knowingly supplies any common prostitute or resorting therein to assemble and continue in his premises after this notice will be prosecuted according to the law. By Order Henry Sheil Town Clerk’. If the army presence in the town caused one problem, the local workhouse might have been viewed by the Town Commissioners as causing another problem which the Commissioners sought to address in September 1860. They ordered that the local magistrates be required to try and sentence any vagrants and beggars to fine and imprisonment ‘who shall be found standing in doors or loitering about as an obstruction to the public’. This so called ‘Order’ was apparently ignored causing the Town Clerk to issue another notice in January 1862. ‘Whereas it has been brought under the notice of the Commissioners, a nuisance is existing within the township viz vagrants constantly begging on the public streets and at private doors., I hereby direct that in all cases where the law is violated, same vagrants be summonsed before the Justice’. Six years later, the Town Commissioners still concerned about prostitution and vagrancy in the town were prompted to pass the resolution ‘that a man be appointed to take care, that all vagrants and beggars shall be kept out of the town and also prostitutes shall be brought before a Magistrate and at once be dealt with summarily’. At the same time, Pat Walker described in the Commissioners minute book as ‘the former scavenger’ agreed ‘to serve the Athy Town Commissioners in removing off the streets and when necessary bringing them before the Magistrates, all vagrants, beggars and prostitutes’. Ten months later Walker’s employment was continued for a further period for which he was paid six shillings a week for his beggar/prostitute duties and four shillings as the ‘town scavenger’. The good man was also supplied with a coat, trousers, waistcoat and hat. The departure of the army from the local barracks no doubt helped Pat Walker to devote more time to his street cleaning duties. The exact date of the army’s departure from Athy is not presently know but it was sometime between 1856 and 1884 on which latter date the former Barrack Street was renamed Woodstock Street. The Town Commissioners for so long concerned with vagrancy and prostitution in the town were the subject of much criticism by the local dispensary doctor Edward Ferris in September 1873. His report submitted to the local Government Board in Dublin claimed that ‘the dwellings of the labouring population of this town and still more the yards attached to them are for the most part in a very bad state. The local authority whose business is to have the state of things rectified are very inactive and remiss’. It would take another forty years before the Town Commissioners successors, Athy Urban District Council, provided the first public housing in Athy. Another 60 years were to pass before the Slum Clearance Programme of the 1930s saw the commencement of the process which led to the demolition of the slum dwellings mentioned in Dr. Ferris’s report.

Shackleton Autumn School 2021

The arrival of Autumn is always marked by shorter, colder and wetter days and a carpet of leaves which coat our country roads. It also brings with it, in October, the annual Shackleton Autumn School which has been a fixture on Athy’s calendar since 2001. Last year Covid prevented the holding of the Autumn School in its traditional format with lecturers and attendees coming from all over the world but undaunted by this the ever-inventive Shackleton Autumn School committee held an online event which they called ‘Virtually Shackleton 2020’. This comprised a day long series of lectures with contributors from all over the world and which was streamed live over the internet. The hidden benefit of the online hosting was that attendees from such far-flung places as Iceland and Argentina were able to participate in the event for the first time. A most enjoyable element of last year’s virtual event was the series of video messages from attendees all over the world who had either been at the Autumn School or intended to be at the Autumn School in the future. It was a great testament to the positive impact the Autumn School has had on the town both nationally and internationally since its inception in 2001. This year’s virtual event is particularly significant as it kicks off the events marking the centenary of Shackleton’s death on the 5th of January 1921. The event will commence at 10.00am on Saturday, 30th of October with an introduction from a very special contributor, the details of which are a closely guarded secret. Thereafter attendees will be treated to a variety of talks, lectures and films on all things Shackleton. Of particular interest will be the first lecture at 10.20am on the 30th by Jan Chojecki with the title ‘John Quiller Rowett and the Quest’. Rowett is a much forgotten figure in Polar history but he was the former school friend of Shackletons who financed the last expedition on the Quest. As many readers will know the cabin from the Quest was secured by the Shackleton Museum some years ago and in its restored state will be a key feature of the revamped museum which is scheduled to be completed in 2023. Jan Chojecki is John Quiller Rowett’s grandson and we can expect an extraordinary personal view of the man whose financial generosity allowed Shackleton one final journey to the Antarctic where he would meet his untimely death. Other aspects of Shackleton’s colourful life will be addressed by some of the other lecturers. Jo Wolf of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society will speak of the time that Shackleton spent as the society’s secretary. It is hard to imagine the dynamic and charismatic Shackleton in such surroundings. One of the many innovations that Shackleton brought to the society during his short term as secretary was the introduction of telephones which caused much consternation amongst its much older members! A perennial favourite of the Autumn School, Bob Headland a research associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, will treat attendees to a lecture on the ‘Non-existent islands in the Southern Ocean’. No doubt the presentation will be laced liberally with Bob’s ever-present humour. Amongst the many international contributors there will also be a talk from an Irish based academic Dr. Sinead Moriarty of University College, Dublin. She recently published her work ‘Antarctica in British Children’s Literature’, and her lecture will focus on the representation of Ernest Shackleton in children’s literature. Other lectures will focus on the James Caird the lifeboat in which Shackleton and his companions made that epic journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia. One lecture will be on Seb Coulthard’s own recreation of the most exact replica anywhere in the world, which boat will be a future exhibit in our museum as part of the redevelopment. The Swiss based Jean Pommereau and the Australian Meredith Hooper will talk about the extraordinary photographs of the Australian camera artist, Frank Hurley who recorded Shackleton’s Endurance expedition. The boy scouts who went on Shackleton’s last expedition will feature in Alan Noake’s talk. Other events include a book launch, a showing of the film “Southwards on the Quest” which was first shown in 1922 and will be shown in this country for the first time in almost a century. The event would not be complete without the mandatory drink in O’Brien’s pub on Emily Square and this year they will host a virtual pint for all those attendees who cannot be there in person. The event is online and is completely free on the 30th of October and for further details and to register for the event checkout the website www.shackletonmuseum.com

A Memorial for the Famine dead of Athy's Workhouse

Last March I wrote to Councillor Mark Stafford who was then Mayor of County Kildare asking if Kildare County Council would provide funding for the design, construction and erection of a suitable memorial to honour those who died in Athy Workhouse and the County Home and were buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery. That last resting place for so many is just a short distance from the former workhouse from where the emaciated bodies of the famine dead were carted across Lennon’s Bridge on their final journey. I was prompted to write to the Mayor having some weeks earlier read the report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission which outlined a shameful period in our nation’s history. In a subsequent Eye on the Past No. 1486 I recounted how in 1994 I made an appeal to the Eastern Health Board at the launch of my book on the history of St. Vincent’s Hospital for that authority to erect a suitable memorial ‘to the forgotten people who lie in St. Mary’s Cemetery so that they can be shown the respect and dignity denied to them while they lived’. There was no response from the Eastern Health Board but Councillor Mark Stafford replied to my letter indicating that Kildare County Council would pursue the matter with representatives from the Mother and Baby Homes and County Homes and that “your proposal will be considered as part of this process”. I interpreted his reply as a clear indication that Kildare County Council would memorialise the forgotten inmates of Athy’s Workhouse and the County Home. Last week’s Kildare Nationalist carried the news that Kildare County Council, following a motion brought to the Council by Councillors Aoife Breslin and Nuala Killeen, had authorised the expenditure of €68,000 for the erection of a memorial in St. Mary’s Cemetery for ‘all those sadly neglected souls that died in the Workhouse and the County Home’. The members of Kildare County Council are to be congratulated for their decision and the hope is that the memorial will be in position in time for next May’s National Famine Commemoration Day. In the meantime Clem Roche and Michael Donovan are continuing their research to identify as many as possible of the men, women and children who died in the Workhouse between 1844 and 1922. Their task is a very difficult one but is an essential element of any commemorative acknowledgement of our town’s past. Several people have contacted me in recent times with regard to the lack of readily available information relating to activities and events in the town. Within the last week two persons, who are quite recent arrivals in Athy, pointed out that it was very difficult for them to know what activities or events are taking place and questioned why there was no town directory and no regular public announcements as to what was happening in the town. In olden days every town had a town crier whose job was to walk through the streets ringing a bell and proclaiming the latest news or announcements. Nowadays what with mobile phones, texting and emails one might readily assume that passing on information should be a much easier task than in years gone by. The problems associated with the use of modern technology however is that not everyone has a mobile phone or computer and the gathering of information for transmission town wide requires the regular co-operation of event organisers, clubs and associations. The gathering of information on a regular basis is the most difficult part of information transmission across a town or district. Once information is gathered it should be a straight forward matter to have it brought to the attention of the general public whether by leaflet drops, a newsletter or local radio. Perhaps the least costly way of disseminating information is to use public notice boards. There is a notice board in Emily Square which if matched by other similar notice boards in the carpark of the town library and a third perhaps at the Arts Centre in Woodstock Street they could be used to keep the general public advised of forthcoming events. Providing notice boards is the easy part of the process. The greatest difficulty lies in availing of the services of a person or persons whose role is to gather in the material. This would require liaising on a regular basis with local organisations to ensure a comprehensive listing of local events and happenings and the preparation of event listings for the public notice boards. This is a task which will require a great deal of commitment and I believe it might best be undertaken by the community and events officer employed by Athy municipal council. If the local Councillors accept it as a community benefit project worthy of support perhaps they would establish this or some other form of public information link for Athy and the South Kildare area. The 21st Shackleton Autumn School takes place on Saturday, 30th of October. This year’s event is again an online event which last year attracted a large international audience. ‘Virtually Shackleton’ is a free event which you can join by contacting the Shackleton Museum at info@shackletonmuseum.com. Next week’s Eye on the Past will give an account of the 2021 Autumn School speakers, their subjects and an interesting recent arrival in the Shackleton Museum.

Martin Brennan and Education in Athy

Just a few weeks ago as I was leaving my office I met Martin Brennan for the last time. Martin was standing alone on the pavement and I stopped to talk to him as we had always enjoyed chats about what many would regard as the good old times. However, shorn of the romanticism which pervades all our youthful memories, those times were in fact days of hardship for many. Martin was a well known man around town, indeed some might say one of the town’s great characters who helped define and characterise the town of Athy. I enjoyed Martin’s company whenever we met as he always made a point of having a chat about some local matter or persons of interest. Our last conversation was briefer than usual as Martin was not well. His breathing was laboured and he explained with a courageous degree of acceptance why it was so. His death earlier this week brought an end to a life which was notable for strong family ties nurtured by Martin and his sons, Anthony, Timmy, Joseph, Michael, Martin, his late son John Paul and his late wife Bridget. I will miss Martin who joins my classmate Pat Flinter who died a few days earlier. Pat was one of the class of eleven who sat their Leaving Cert. in the local Christian Brothers school in 1960. He was dogged with ill health during his school days and was absent from school for almost six months in the leadup to the exam. Despite that Pat did well in the Leaving Cert., a tribute to his ability, his intelligence and his dedication to study. He reached the highest rung on the ladder of industry when appointed Managing Director of Tegral Metal Forming Limited here in his hometown. It was a remarkable achievement and one which confirmed Pat’s undoubted brilliance as a businessman. Sometime in the early or middle 1950’s four young fellows were ferried in Tosh Doyle’s hackney car to Kildare town to sit Kildare County Council scholarship examinations. The purpose was to get a grant from the County Council to cover secondary school fees. All of us were pupils from the same class in the local CBS where the annual fees were a modest £4 10 shillings. Pat Flinter and Mick Robinson, now in Australia were successful in getting the scholarships while Ted Wynne and myself were the unsuccessful candidates. The first class primary and secondary education facilities which are today to be found in Athy are successors to the foundations opened by the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers in the years following the Great Famine. Both arrived in Athy at a time when there was no legal requirement for young people to attend school and where the “poor school” as it was called and the small private boarding schools of Athy provided little opportunity for the majority of the local children. The education provided by the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers were of immense importance to the town. However, attitudes to education changed ever so slowly and even 100 years after the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy a majority of the young people of the town left school before their 14th birthday. My first day in school was on the 12th of May 1946, the day that I later discovered was also Frank English’s first time in the classroom of St. Joseph’s School. The class comprised 40 or 50 youngsters who were together as classmates for the next 8 or 9 years. The numbers remained constant as we moved to the primary school with the Christian Brothers but as we were preparing to sit the Primary Certificate exam some classmates had left. The slippage became an avalanche as the class transferred to the three room secondary school in St. John’s Lane. By the time we became the Leaving Cert. class of 1959/60 our numbers had fallen to eleven which was the largest ever Leaving Cert. class in that school. Pat Flinter was in that class. About three years ago as many of the Leaving Cert. class of 1960 as were available joined me for a get together for our classmate Seamus Ryan who was on a flying visit from Australia. Sadly since then our numbers have been reduced with the deaths of Kerry O’Sullivan, Teddy Kelly and now Pat Flinter. These classmates of 61 years ago are remembered with fondness and great sadness. Martin Brennan like many of his friends and neighbours had not climbed the iron stairs to the secondary school classrooms. He like so many others had left school at an early age and never had the opportunity to take full advantage of his God given right to complete his education. Martin’s family emigrated to Manchester when he was young. He started work at a young age and on his return to Athy he worked in Minch Nortons. His story and that of Pat Flinter mirror the life stories of so many from Athy. Difficult times in the post World War II years forced many local families to take the emigrant boat and those who remained faced a difficult life which often necessitated young boys and girls being taken out of school to work. The Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy provided the first step in securing educational opportunities for all. The Minster for Education, Donagh O’Malley, advanced another step by ensuring free second level education for all. The days of young teenagers or even pre-teens leaving schools for ill paid jobs is now long gone. However, the memories of those days still linger and are a reminder of how much we in Athy owe to the religious and lay teachers of the past.

Michael Davitt and Athy's National League

Athy Town Commissioners held a special meeting on 3rd July 1885 to consider the motion: ‘that an address be presented by Athy Town Commissioners to Mr. Michael Davitt on the occasion of his visit to Athy on Sunday 5th July as founder of the Land League.’ The motion was passed but only after the defeat of an amendment that the address be given to Davitt and the members of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Davitt’s visit to Athy was to attend a public meeting in the Market Square organised by the Athy and Barrowhouse branch of the Irish National League. The League inaugurated three years earlier by Charles Stewart Parnell replaced the Land League which itself had been founded in October 1879 and modelled on the Land League of Mayo which Davitt had founded following a meeting in Irishtown, Co. Mayo. The President of the Athy and Barrowhouse branch of the National League was local general practitioner Dr. P.L. O’Neill. The meeting was addressed by several members of parliament including James Leahy and Art O’Connor, while the local parish priest Fr. James Doyle was one of several Catholic clergy men to speak. Interestingly Denis Kilbride who would be the first tenant evicted in March 1887 at the start of the Luggacurran evictions was also scheduled to speak at the Athy meeting. The address of welcome presented to Michael Davitt was signed on behalf of the Town Commissioners by Michael Doyle, Chairman and John Muldowney, Town Clerk. I visited the Michael Davitt Museum in Straide, Co. Mayo last week approximately 25 years after my first and only previous visit which I made in the company of the late Frank English. The Museum which was then located in a room in the local community centre is now to be found in the nearby restored pre penal Straide church located next to the 13th century Abbey of Straide. The museum is a wonderful example of what can be achieved by a small community in recording and remembering the achievements of one of their own. For it was amongst the rural community of Straide that Michael Davitt was born during the height of the Great Famine. He was 4½ years old when the Davitt parents and their four young children were evicted from their home. Of that event Michael Davitt wrote several years later: ‘we were one morning thrown out on the roadside and our little house and home pulled down ….. the remnants of our household furniture flung about the road, the roof of our house falling in and the thatch taking fire’. The Davitt family left Ireland by boat for Liverpool and walked 50 miles to Haslingden, a mill town in Lancashire. When he was nine years of age Michael Davitt started work in a local cotton factory and two years later his right arm was crushed, resulting in its amputation. It was against this background of trauma and hardship that Michael Davitt developed his skills as a social reformer. His advocacy for an alliance between the Irish and British working class was reminiscent of the attempts by Cork born Feargus O’Connor to keep Irish issues before the leaders of the Chartist Movement in the 1840s. His involvement with the Land League is well known, but perhaps less so was his strong advocacy of secular state education in Ireland and his support for the Labour Representative Committee in England which would later change its name to the Labour Party. He opposed the treatment by the English of the Boers and resigned his parliamentary seat in the House of Commons in 1889 in protest at the outbreak of the Boer War. Michael Davitt wrote extensively and his collected writings from 1868 to 1906 were published in eight volumes some years ago. They were introduced by Carla King whose magnificent book ‘Michael Davitt and the Land League 1881-1906’ was published by U.D.C. Press five years ago. Davitt who overcame many difficulties to become involved in land and labour issues also found time to visit Russia on three occasions to investigate anti-Jewish pogroms and civil unrest, as well as visiting Finland, America, Egypt and Poland. He was as Carla King described in her book ‘an attractive and symbolic figure for many of his contemporaries in late 19th century and beyond. His story of suffering and self-sacrifice of a childhood eviction and boyhood in industrial exile gave expression to the trials of many others who shared similar experiences.’ Michael Davitt was possibly one of the greatest Irish patriots of the late 19th century and it is fitting that his deeds and his memory are remembered with such an extensive display of Davitt photographs, documents and artefacts in his own place of Straide. Just a few yards from the Davitt Museum Michael Davitt, the father of the Land League, is buried. Thanks to the helpful museum staff who allowed me to photograph the Athy Town Commissioners address of welcome and whose friendly welcome for myself and several other visitors in the museum that morning was very much appreciated.

A visit to Cobh

A recent visit to Cobh, Co. Cork found me, early one Sunday morning, tramping the dew sodden grass of the Old Church cemetery, located just outside the town,. I was there to visit the graves of the victims of the sinking of the liner Lusitania. Buried in the cemetery are the remains of 193 victims of the sinking. Until recently I was unaware of any Kildare connections with the disaster, but in the County Kildare Online Electronic History Journal which is maintained by the Kildare County Library and Art Service I came across a news report from the Leinster Leader of 17th May 1952 which recounted the memories of Thomas McCormack of Killina, Robertstown who was on the Lusitania on that fateful day of 7th May 1915 when the liner was torpedoed by a German Submarine. McCormack, originally a boatman on the Grand Canal, was returning to Ireland after three years in the USA. His vivid recollections recall the moment of impact of the torpedo on the ship when he was standing on it’s portside. He recalled being knocked off his feet by a surge of people when the deck started to rise and lying prone on deck while he watched a boat of women and children being lowered over the side. Unable to make it to a lifeboat he made his way to the ship stern and could not recall whether he jumped or fell off the stern but found himself in the water. Observing the last moments of the ship he noted as the Liner went down she created in her wake a ‘tunnel’. He went on to say ‘It was like a tunnel of green glass, going down into the depths of the ocean. Around it’s sides I could see bodies and wreckage, all whirling about and going deeper into that horrible void. Then the boilers exploded and a column of water shot high in the air.’ One of his enduring memories of the disaster was of a group of men singing hymns in a language he didn’t recognise, while holding hands as they floated in the sea. Another survivor from Kildare was a priest, Fr. Kennedy, who later became a Jesuit Missionary in China. I was very taken with how well the cemetery has been maintained by the local community, and particularly the very informative sign board at the entrance to the cemetery. While reading I was surprised to note another Kildare connection in that the Rev. Charles Wolfe, the author and poet, is also buried there. I found his grave just within the confines of the remains of the 17th century church on the site. Born in Blackhall, Co. Kildare he is now best remembered as the author of the 19th century classic poem ‘The Burial of Sir John Moore’. He was a rector with the Church of Ireland and was based in Donaghmore, County Tyrone until 1820 when for health reasons moved to the south of France. He later returned to Ireland, moving to Cobh where he died at the age of 31 in 1823 from consumption, a disease we now know as tuberculosis, a common cause of death at the time. As I walked around the cemetery another unusual connection jumped out at me. I came across the grave of the Antarctic explorer Robert Forde. A native of Bandon, Co. Cork he joined the Royal Navy at the age of 16 in 1891 and rose to the rank of Petty Officer first class. In 1910 he joined Captain Scott’s second expedition to the Antarctic from 1910 to 1913, serving with fellow Irishmen Tom Crean of Annascaul, Co. Kerry and his Cork compatriot Patrick Keohane. After returning from the Antarctic he served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, eventually returning to Cobh in 1920. On the 50th anniversary of his death in March 2009 a fine memorial was unveiled to him on the promenade in Cobh facing out to Cork Harbour with a bronze plaque showing him in his polar garb. One final grave which drew my attention was that of Jack Doyle, the boxer, actor and singer known as ‘the gorgeous gael’. His star shone brightly but briefly in the thirties, particularly in America where he made a number of films, but sadly he descended into alcoholism and at his death in 1978 in London he was effectively a pauper. However, he was never forgotten by the natives of Cobh who with the assistance of the Cork Ex-Boxers Association brought his remains back to Ireland and they rest again in the old church cemetery in Cobh in a graveyard replete with history.

Brigid Elizabeth Murphy, World War I nurse

I remember seeing her many times as she made the short journey from her house at 4 Stanhope Street to the Parish Church on the far side of the road. Her frail body was bent over with her face positioned in what appeared to be just a little more than knee high above the pavement. She attended Mass every morning as did my mother and both exchanged pleasantries as they exited from the Church. I knew her as Mrs. Murphy, no first name, no knowledge of her background or where she came from. That was until a few days ago when examining an Athy Old Age Pension Committee Minute Book, I found her full name Brigid Elizabeth Murphy. Some years ago, long after Bridget had passed away, I was told that she might have served as a nurse during World War 1. Without her full name a search could not be carried out in the Imperial War Records. With her full name I now enlisted the help of my friend Clem Roche and he was able to access the Service Records of Nurse Bridget Elizabeth Murphy from Ballyroe, Churchtown. Born on the 1st February 1892 to Elizabeth Murphy, formerly Barber, and Thomas Murphy a farmer. Bridget Elizabeth trained as a nurse at the Central London Infirmary and joined the staff of the 4th Southern General Hospital Plymouth on 8th August 1916 as a member of the Territorial Force Nursing Service. She was required to have at least three years training as a nurse before applying to serve so we can predate her training in London to some time before the start of the War. On the 30th March 1917 she signed an agreement to serve abroad signing her name Brigid rather than Bridget as appeared on her birth certificate. The Hospital authorities in Plymouth had to certify that she was “medically examined, re-vaccinated, innoculated against typhoid and para-typhoid and actively fit for service abroad in a hot climate”. A further requirement of the Matron in Chief of the T.F.N.S. was receipt of a confidential report “on the work, conduct etc. of Ms. Brigid Murphy, Staff Nurse”. By now Brigid had returned home to Ballyroe, Churchtown to wait her call up for service overseas. Brigid travelled back to England at the end of April 1917 and on or about the 2nd May embarked on S.S. Transylvania to travel to Salonica. On the 4th May the ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat a few miles south of Savona in Italy. A Japanese destroyer came alongside the sinking ship and began to offload the passengers. Before the rescue work was completed a second torpedo sank the Transylvania with the loss of 410 lives. Brigid Murphy with 59 of her nursing colleagues were amongst those rescued. Within a few weeks Brigid returned to Plymouth where she resumed temporary duties in the army hospital pending further orders. The following December she was a staff nurse attached to the 65th British General Hospital in Baghdad and I believe she served there until she was demobilised in May 1919. Brigid came ashore in Folkestone on the 18th May 1919 and her demobilisation Cert confirming her release from the T.F.N.S. is dated that day. Before returning to England she had indicated that she did not wish to extend her army service and had expressed a desire to take up a civil appointment in New Zealand. Following her disembarkation in Folkstone, Brigid and another Irish nurse Lillian Perishe applied for nursing positions with the Park Lodge Medical and Surgical Nursing Home in Brockly whose Matron sought references for both from the Matron in Chief of the T.F.N.S. The references were not furnished as both Brigid and Lillian decided to remain in London. Brigid Murphy’s post war career is not known apart from a few snippets culled from her war records. In July 1924 Brigid applied to the Army Medical Board on the grounds that she has not been at all well citing “I’ve had to leave London, also to come home from America twice in three years on sick leave”. She was granted a temporary Disability Pension in respect of Malaria attributable to her army service. Twelve years later she applied for help from the Joint Nursing and V.A.D. Service Committee as she was suffering from Rheumatic Fibrositis of the shoulder and arm. The war office confirmed that “her record and services were satisfactory”. Brigid Murphy died in 1986 aged 95 years and I have come across an email sent to me showing a medal which Brigid received from Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy as one of the survivors of the ship Transylvania on the 4th May 1917. Little did I know when I saw the stooped figure of Brigid Murphy crossing the road to her church that here was a woman with an interesting story the outline sketches of which can only now be told.

Sergeant Jim Bergin and the Garda Siochana

EYE ON THE PAST NO. 1492 My friend, Carlow man Seamus Breathnach, wrote the first published history of the Garda Siochana which appeared in the book shops in 1974. Published by Anvil Books it provided a valuable insight into the history of policing in Ireland dealing with the Baronial Constabulary, the Peace Preservation Force, the Royal Irish Constabulary and ending with the Garda Siochana. As a former member of the Garda Siochana Seamus, who was later called to the Irish Bar, drew attention to the lack of concern for the importance of policing within Ireland. Seamus’s book was followed the same year by Conor Brady’s ‘Guardians of the Peace’ in which the future editor of the Irish Times sought to place the Garda Siochana in the Irish historical and political context. He did this by examining the political background to the setting up of the Garda Siochana and the subsequent development of that force. I was reminded of these two important accounts of the Garda Siochana’s early history when I learned of the retirement of Sergeant Jim Bergin who as a young Garda member arrived in the Athy Garda Station just a year after I had arrived back in Athy. Indeed, Jim joined the Garda Siochana in July 1982, exactly one month after my return to Athy after an absence of 21 years. His arrival in Athy coincided with the emergence of the ‘Hole in the Wall gang’ whose activities ensured many hours of investigative work for the Garda Siochana, resulting in several appearances before Judge Seamus Mahon. Jim was promoted to Sergeant after ten years and in recent years he has headed up the Garda station team here in Athy as the station’s Sergeant. It was a position which my late father held for a number of years before he retired in July 1966. When my father transferred to Athy from nearby Castlecomer in 1945 he took up duty with a fine body of men, many of whom had seen service with the Old I.R.A. during the War of Independence. These included Garda Jim Kelly and Garda Johnny McMahon, both from County Mayo, Garda Mick Touhy from Clare and Garda Michael O’Connell. Policing in those days was in many respects very different and more dangerous than it is today. In the year of my birth three Gardai were killed. The first victim who was ambushed and shot outside his home at Ballyboden, Co. Dublin was Sergeant Denis O’Brien. Approximately 3 weeks later Garda Michael Walsh was shot dead in Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan, while October 1942 saw the third Garda killing with the shooting of Garda George Mordant who was shot dead at Donneycarney in Dublin. Regrettably the Gardai are unlikely to be seen on the streets today, while in my young days all members of the force including sergeants were regularly allocated to ‘beat’ duties. Another noticeable change in modern day policing is the apparent reluctance of today’s Gardai to live in the same town as their Garda station base. These two changes in the local visibility of the Gardai have brought with it a lack of appreciation of the Gardai’s role within the local community and emphasises their separation from that same community. The crime prevention role of the Gardai has been largely overlooked today. It is questionable whether trained Gardai who train for two years before qualifying should be employed in checking motor vehicles and drivers for speeding, insurance, motor tax, NCT certificates, driving licences, etc. The assignments of a substantial number of Gardai to the Road Traffic Corps seems a wasteful use of specialised resources. The general feeling is that it would be better for Gardai to be visible on the streets of our towns fulfilling the primary role of the Gardai which is the prevention of crime. While doing so they would also be acquiring and retaining local knowledge which is so vital in the detection of crime. The Sergeant Jims of this world are not to blame for the current policing practices. We must look further up the chain of command and perhaps also to the politicians to address these issues. Sergeant Jim Bergin now retires after 39 years of service and during his many years in Athy I found him to be an efficient and fair-minded Garda. Unfortunately there are some Gardai who in prosecuting their cases in the Courts see it as their duty to secure a conviction at any odds. In reality their duty as prosecutors is to present the facts, irrespective of whether they are advantageous or otherwise to the accused. Too often have I come across this in Court proceedings, but equally it must be said that the good Gardai who carry out their duties efficiently and properly are hugely in the majority. Sergeant Jim Bergin when he appeared in Court was always fair to those he prosecuted. I wish him well in his retirement and hope that perhaps someone higher up in the ranks might take a hard look at the continuing wastage involving using trained members of the Garda Siochana for what can only be described as mundane road traffic duties. It is time for a radical rethink of how members of the Garda Siochana can be better deployed to the advantage of local communities. FRANK TAAFFE

Compiling a list of men/women who served during the War of Independence

This Thursday, 19th August, the Church of Ireland Centre off Offaly Street will host an exhibition of Athy’s industrial, agricultural and sporting heritage. It’s described by it’s initiator, Dr. Ann Murphy, as a ‘modest exhibition put together over a period of three months by enthusiastic hunter gatherers and local knowledge holders’. I have seen parts of the exhibition and can only describe the work done by Dr. Murphy and her team of helpers as a truly wonderful contribution to our understanding of local work practices of past years. The exhibition will include coverage of some of the long-lost local industries such as milling and brick making, two industries which with malting for so long provided the bulk of the jobs available in Athy. Hannons Mills at Duke Street and Ardreigh closed down in the early 1920s, while the last of the Athy brickyards, of which there were approximately 12 at one period, closed down in the early 1930s. The exhibition will give all of us living in Athy an opportunity to appreciate the town’s commercial and industrial heritage, as well as Athy’s notable sporting heritage. I haven’t seen any of the sporting club’s contributions, but their stories are a valuable part of the patchwork which makes up Athy’s history and must be seen as an important part of the town’s story. The exhibition runs from Thursday 19th August for four days, 6pm to 8pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday and from 3pm to 5pm on Sunday. Admission is free. Another part of the story of Athy and district as we journey through the Decade of Commemoration requires an accurate listing to be taken of those men and women who participated as volunteers or as Cumann na mBan members in the War of Independence. Clem Roche and I have done some research in this area and the commemoration committee in Kildare County Council are currently finalising, in advance of publication, a complete list of those patriotic men and women of a century ago. One of the first interviews I carried out when I returned to Athy in 1982 was with Patrick Keogh of Churchtown. Himself a volunteer and a member of the Athy Company Carlow Kildare Brigade, Patrick gave me the names of those men whom he remembered as fellow volunteers. I was struck by his description of some of those volunteers as ‘truce men’ meaning that they joined the Volunteers after the truce came into effect and hostilities had ceased. Around the same time I interviewed Mrs. Hester May who played a very significant part during the War of Independence and whose husband Joe prior to their marriage was one of several Athy men imprisoned during that war. Both Patrick Keogh and Hester May provided important details in relation to local events of that time, as well as helping me to compile a list of the men and women who played their part in the fight for Irish freedom. One man who was not mentioned by either of my interviewees was John Byrne. I came across John’s name when researching volunteer activities in this area and discovered that he was tragically killed while an attempt was being made to destroy the abandoned R.I.C. barracks at Luggacurran in April 1920. I had mentioned John’s name in previous articles seeking information but it is only within the last few weeks that I have got background details on the young man from Gracefield, Ballylinan. Gerry Mulhall, formerly of Ballylinan and now of Carlow, contacted me to advise that his relation John Byrne was a Lieutenant attached to the Laois Battalion and on the night of his death was accompanied by Thomas Dunne, a Dublin man, Joseph Hyland of Coolglass, Wolfhill and Peter Hunt, address unknown. John was killed while two of his colleagues were injured. John Byrne was buried in Rathaspick, Ballylinan and Gerry tells me that a War of Independence medal with bar is to be posthumously awarded for John’s services. There may well be many more men and women whose services during the War of Independence have not been recognised and for that reason in advance of the Kildare County Council’s book publication it is important to identify each and every member of the local Volunteers and local members of Cumann na mBan. If you know of any family member or anyone else who should be included in the list of Volunteers or Cumann na mBan members might I encourage you to pass that information on to me. We all have a responsibility to remember those who have gone before us and to pass on to future generations our community’s own story. This applies not only to War of Independence events and personalities, but also to the more mundane aspects of daily life as evidenced in the recollections of our industrial, agricultural and sporting heritage. The coming weekend exhibition promises to give us an opportunity to look back at the diverse makeup of our community’s daily life of a generation ago. Do visit the exhibition in the Church of Ireland Hall which finishes at 5pm on Sunday, 22nd August.

Augustus Bridge Athy

When it was officially opened in 1792 by the Duke of Leinster it was named Augustus Bridge in honour of one of the Duke’s sons. The keystone from that bridge was discovered in a ditch at Foxhill some years ago and was later removed and placed in the local Heritage Centre. I was aware that the bridge on the Kilkenny Road next to the Auld Shebeen public house was reconstructed during 1896/’97 when the keystone was removed. This was necessary because the high bridge arch originally constructed to accommodate boat traffic on the Canal proved difficult for horse drawn traffic on the road. The following report carried in the Kildare Observer on 11th September 1897 provided interesting details in relation to the bridge. ‘Last Tuesday night Mr. Thomas Plewman, the popular chairman of Athy Town Commissioners entertained a number of his colleagues and the leading people of Athy and district to supper at Woodstock in commemoration of the reconstruction of the Canal bridge. Formerly this bridge was so steep that it proved a great impediment to traffic and was the means of diverting a large amount of trade from the town. The work which has just been completed consisted in the lowering of the arch so that vehicles could now pass over it with ease ….. on Tuesday night Athy was the scene of enthusiasm. Two bands followed by vast crowds paraded the streets and a huge gathering of people assembled at the bridge where Mr. Plewman delivered an address. It was announced that it had been decided to call the bridge “Plewman’s Bridge” ….. Mr. Edward Glover, the county surveyor, was the engineer during the reconstruction and the contractors were D. & J. Carbery Athy.’ I wasn’t aware of D. & J. Carbery’s involvement in the alteration of the Canal Bridge, although there is an indecipherable plaque on the bridge with that information. That local building firm were involved for almost a century with most of the public building projects in and around Athy. I wonder what archival material of D. & J. Carbery have survived to this day. Now that a county archivist has been appointed by Kildare County Council I hope she will be able to collect private records created by local organisations and businesses such as Carburys. I am unaware of the Council’s collection policy but I hope it is to preserve collections of archives relating to the history and development of the county. Reading past issues of the Kildare Observer reminded me of how little is known of local events of the past. The appearance of Charles Stewart Parnell on a platform in Emily Square, Athy on Easter Monday 1880 was recorded but has long since been forgotten. This was shortly after Parnell’s return from America when he was greeted enthusiastically by a huge crowd in the town’s main square. At the height of the Parnell split in December 1890 a meeting of the Athy branch of the Irish National League was held in the Town Hall. The large attendance passed a resolution proposed by T.J. Brennan and seconded by Denis Reeves, ‘that we the members of Athy National League renew our confidence in Mr. Parnell as leader of the Irish party.’ Three months later an anti-Parnell meeting was held in Athy. What the newspaper referred to as ‘a meeting of the McCarthyites’ was held in the Town Hall on a Monday night in March 1891 for the purpose of establishing a branch of the Irish National Federation. The name McCarthyites belonged to those opposed to Parnell who were led by Justin McCarthy following his appointment as chairman of the parliamentary members who had deserted Parnell. The meeting attracted an attendance of ‘only about a score’ with the local curate, Fr. J. Staples presiding. His fellow curates Fr. J. Carroll and Fr. Rowan were also in attendance, confirming the Catholic church’s opposition to the former leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party following the divorce case involving Katherine O’Shea. Amongst those attending were Denis Kilbride M.P., Stephen O’Brien, Dan Carbery and M.J. Minch. A large crowd of Parnell supporters gathered outside the Town Hall cheering for Parnell and abusing the few persons going to the meeting. Those gathered outside were addressed by John Coleman who was a Parnell supporter and a long-standing member of the Land League in Athy. Some attempts were made to force the doors of the Town Hall and stones were thrown, smashing one of the Town Hall windows. A further meeting of the Irish National Federation branch was held the following May and attracted a much larger attendance. Parnell’s death on Tuesday 6th October 1891 occurred as the Irish National Federation branches throughout Ireland were growing in numbers. However, membership began to fall after Parnell’s death and the Athy branch seems to have disappeared without trace soon thereafter. Local memory of past events is seldom passed on to later generations. I have never heard of the Canal Bridge being referred to as Plewman’s Bridge but equally the original name of Augustus Bridge has been largely replaced by ‘the Canal Bridge’. The Minute Books of Athy Town Commissioners does not record any decision by the Commissioners to name the bridge after their Chairman so perhaps the announcement of September 1897 was wishful thinking on someone’s part.

Tos Quinn / Dr. O'Neill's medical practice

The relentless march of time each day brings changes to our lives. Some for the better which are welcomed but there are also many unwelcomed events which leave us saddened. I have just come away from St. Michael’s cemetery where for the second time in a week I have attended the funeral of a friend. My friend and colleague, Tos Quinn, died suddenly and unexpectedly on Sunday morning and with his passing Solicitor colleagues have lost a man who practiced law in the best traditions of the Irish legal profession. On the day of his death I spoke of his qualities as a person and as a Solicitor and how his passing had caused widespread regret amongst his Solicitor colleagues and members of the Bar. ‘Tos’s courteous manner made him one of the most popular Solicitors in the county, but his was not a popularity which prevented him from fearlessly pursuing his clients’ best interests. He pursued the justice of his clients’ cases with vigour, but at all times with honesty and without any hint of deception. His integrity was acknowledged by all of his colleagues.’ The legal profession and the medical profession have in recent times found themselves on opposing sides in the Courts of Justice. Not a week goes by without media coverage of a medical negligence case. The practice of medicine has become a minefield for litigation, but despite this local communities have come to expect, even demand, fairly comprehensive legal and medical services at local level. Looking back over press reports of the mid-19th century it appears that local doctors, but apparently not local Solicitors, then had the time and leisure to get involved in local politics and indeed membership of the local town commissioners. One such doctor was P.L. O’Neill of Geraldine House and it is remarkable to reflect that his great grandson, Dr. Giles O’Neill, is the fourth generation of the O’Neill medical family to provide a G.P. service in Athy. Dr. P.L. was followed by his son Dr. Jeremiah whom I believe practiced for a while out of Geraldine House before transferring to that part of the Abbey off Emily Square subsequently occupied by the late Barry Donnelly Solicitor. It was there that Joe O’Neill was born and when he qualified as a doctor he practiced and lived for some years in the house on the other side of the Abbey before moving to Athy Lodge on Church Road. In my young days I recall Dr. John Kilbride who had succeeded his father Dr. James Kilbride and who practiced from Athy Lodge. Athy Lodge had once been home to local Solicitor John Lord and his family before they emigrated to Canada in the latter part of the 19th century. Dr. Joe O’Neill who graduated in 1943 took over Dr. John Kilbride’s medical practice in 1959 and lived and worked in Athy Lodge until he retired in 1991. I remember Dr. Joe with great fondness and immense gratitude for he saved my son’s life with a speedy prognosis of a burst appendix and a swift despatch to a Dublin hospital where his young life was saved. Dr. Joe also diagnosed, luckily at an early stage in my case, the need for an appendix operation which I had in Naas Hospital under the care of surgeon Gibson. Dr. Giles O’Neill graduated in 1975 and after practising in Dublin and England returned to join his father’s practice in 1981. The following year a new surgery was built on the grounds of Athy Lodge where Dr. Joe and Dr. Giles practiced and where in recent years Dr. Giles has been joined bv Doctor Raymond Rowan. The medical practice at Church Road closed its doors for the last time on Friday last and transferred to premises on the Carlow Road which were first occupied some years ago by Dr. John Macdougald. There the medical team of Dr. Giles O’Neill and Dr. Raymond Rowan will be joined by Dr. Anthony Reeves who until now has practiced on his own account at Convent Lane next to the Town Library. When I look back over the past 39 years during which time Tos Quinn and myself shared the same Court bench in the local Courthouse sitting side by side immediately behind the prosecuting team I can’t but recall the men and women of the local legal and medical professions. All of them with varied attainments, but amongst them stand out as Solicitors the late Tos Quinn, Cyril Osborne and Barry Donnelly and medical practitioners Dr. Joe O’Neill, Dr. Brian Maguire and the recently retired Dr. John Macdougald, all men who displayed the finest qualities of those two ancient professions while working amongst the local community here in Athy.