Irish Land League Branch Athy

The Irish National Land League, commonly called the Land League, was founded on 21 October 1879 at a meeting held in a Dublin hotel attended by Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell. It followed on the earlier Mayo Land League which Michael Davitt and James Daly founded following meetings in Irishtown and Westport the previous August. Its objectives were rent reductions and the right of tenants to purchase the freeholds of their holdings. It was in truth a reaction to the agricultural depression of the 1870s and to the arbitrary system of rackrenting and evictions which the Land Laws allowed Irish landlords to inflict upon tenant farmers. The passing of the 1870 Land Act gave Irish tenant farmers the right to be compensated in the event of eviction for improvements carried out during their tenancy. However landlords were entitled to contract out of the operation of the Act, thereby depriving their tenants of its benefit. The Duke of Leinster was one of the first Irish landlords to seek to defeat his tenants’ rights under the 1870 Act. The Leinster Lease, as it became known, sought to sidestep the Land Act and local opposition to its terms saw the founding of the Tenant Defence Asociation in Athy. This was the first such association formed in Ireland following the decline of Isaac Butt’s Tenant League of 1848. The Athy Tenant Association held its first meeting on Tuesday 19 November 1872 with Captain Morgan of Rahinderry in the Chair. Local man Thomas P. Kynsey, J.P. acted as the Association’s Secretary. The group passed the following resolution: “That an attempt has been made on the Leinster Estate to deprive the tenants of all the advantages conferred on them by the Land Act, the attempt in question should receive the instant and most determined opposition from the Association.” The Duke of Leinster succeeded in overcoming local opposition to the Leinster Lease, usually as a result of the threat of eviction. One tenant farmer who signed was James Leahy, Chairman of Athy Town Comissioners, who would later attend the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament for South Co. Kildare. Athy’s Board of Guardians, at its Board meeting on 1 January 1879, declined to sign the Leinster Lease on the basis “that this Board as the representatives of the people decline to give their signatures to a document directly opposed to the provisions of the Land Act of 1870.” Parliamentary elections brought Charles Stewart Parnell to Athy for what I believe was the first time on Easter Monday 1880. At that meeting James Leahy, the farmer from Ardscull, was nominated as the candidate for the Irish Parliamentary Party. He would win the seat and remain a Member of Parliament for the next fifteen years. Opposition to the Leinster Lease was maintained at a low level up to the summer of 1880, but evictions in September of that year on the local Verschoyle Estate prompted the formation of a branch of the Land League in Athy. Michael Boyton, an Irish American who lived in Kildare town, organised the meeting which established Athy’s Land League branch on Sunday 10 October 1880. Boyton, on addressing the meeting, claimed to have been commissioned by Charles Stewart Parnell to establish the Athy branch of the Land League following a request from tenant farmers of Athy to the League’s national organisation. It also followed approximately three weeks after Parnell, in a speech in Ennis, Co. Clare, had called for a “boycott” against those who opposed the Land League. Parnell had not used that exact phrase, but boycotting soon became the Land League’s most effective weapon following aggrieved tenants’ refusal to engage with Captain Charles Boycott of Lough Mask House in Co. Mayo. I have been unable to discover who was elected President of Athy’s Land League branch. Dr. Patrick O’Neill was the Vice-President, with Timothy Byrne as Treasurer and John Cantwell as Secretary. The Athy Branch had a flag which was last known to have been in the possession of Peter P. Doyle of Woodstock Street. Made of green silky material, it had a picture of Parnell on one side, with the words “United We Stand, Divided We Fall” on the reverse. On 8 January 1881 the local papers reported a Land League meeting in Market Square, Athy, during which Michael Blyton burned a copy of the Leinster Lease. However, within a few weeks local support for the Land League was undermined by a clerical instigated tenants’ agreement to accept a 20% rent reduction offered by the Duke of Leinster. Dr. Kavanagh, the parish priest of Kildare, chaired a meeting of tenants which accepted the Duke’s rent reduction without referring the matter to the Land Leauge breanch. As a result, Dr. O’Neill resigned as Vice-President of the Athy branch as “the acceptance of the Duke’s offer had broken the backbone of the local Land League.” Athy, which in 1872 had given Ireland the first of the new wave of tenants’ defence associations, had little further involvement in the Land League. The movement first started by Davitt and Daly in a small Co. Mayo village united Irish tenant farmers as never before. The British Prime Minister William Gladstone acknowledged that if the Land League had not existed the 1881 Land Act would not have been brought to Parliament. His Act gave legal status to the tenants’ freedom of sale and right to compensation for improvements. It also established the Land Commission and a Land Court with power to review rents under the Fair Rent clause of the Act.

Tom Moore, long time Secretary of Rheban G.F.C.

He was born in 1901, the youngest of seven children, and grew up in Rheban on a small farm with the nearby Grand Canal as his youthful playground. His name will be forever linked with Rheban Gaelic Football Club, which he helped to form in February 1929. Tom Moore was living in No. 7 Offaly Street when the Taaffes arrived from Castlecomer in 1945 to live in No. 6. We were neighbours and I was friends with Tom’s sons Willie and Mickey; together we shared with Teddy Kelly, Basil White and Tom Webster much-treasured youthful memories. Tom Moore and his brother John were Gaelic footballers who played for Athy for many years prior to the founding of Rheban Football Club. Both featured on the first Athy team to contest a Kildare Senior Championship Final. That was in 1923 when Naas defeated an injury-hit Athy team whose performance was described as less memorable than that of the Athy Jazz Band “who paraded in fancy dress befor the match.”.That Athy team comprised, in addition to the Moore brothers, Eddie “Sapper” O’Neill, Chris Lawler, Dan Nolan, Jim Clancy, Paddy Hayden, Tom Forrestal, Johnny Kelly, P. Brogan, Tom Germaine, George Dowling, Mikey Grant, Dick Mahon and M. Byrne. I wonder if Athy Club’s loss of the Senior County Finals in 1927 and 1928 while the Country Senior Team won the All-Ireland Finals in those years might have prompted the Moore brothers to join their Rheban neighbours to form the new football club in 1929. Whatever the motivation, John and Tom Moore were to the forefront in establishing Rheban Gaelic Football Club, with John elected as the club’s first Chairman and his younger brother Tom as the Treasurer/ Secretary for the next 55 years, during which time he oversaw many successes by the Rheban players on the field of play. The club’s very first victory was achieved in Geraldine Park, Athy when Rheban defeated Suncroft in a Junior match in 1929. That first winning team included the two Moore brothers as well as a young Paddy Myles, who played so well on the Kildare County Junior Team which won the Leinster Title in 1931 that he was promoted to the Kildare County Senior Team. Uniquely, his first and only time to play for the County Seniors was in the All-Ireland Football Final against Kerry in 1931. Under Tom Moore’s stewardship Rheban won its first Championship Final in 1940 when defeating Ardclough following a replay of that year’s Junior Championship. That was followed two years later by the club’s success as County Champions in the Intermediate Championship, and in 1945 the same team contested the semi-final of the County Senior Championship. Pat McEvoy, who was a member of the 1942 Intermediate Team, wrote the now famous “Rheban Victory Song” to celebrate the club’s success in the Junior Championship of 1940. The song concludes with a reference to those non-players “who brought us fame, Ben Kane ever faithful, Tom Moore for his brains and Tom Mac for his field where we could always train.” The history of Rheban Gaelic Football Club is inextricably linked with the life of Tom Moore. In addition to his role as Club Treasurer/ Secretary, he served as a County Board delegate and as selector for the County Junior Team which won the All-Ireland in 1970. He also served as a selector for the County Minor Team which won Kildare’s first Leinster Minor Title in 1973. Tom, who worked as an insurance agent, served one term as a Fianna Fáil member of Athy Urban District Council from 1955 to 1960. Tom and his wife Margaret, a native of Rathcormack, Co. Waterford were an ever-present part of my growing up in Offaly Street in the 1950s. I don’t know what prompted Tom to call on me to join the Rheban Club but join I did, travelling with Willie Moore to play in matches in the field just below the Railway Bridge at Kilberry. I only lasted one year before rejoining Athy G.F.C, but I’m afraid Rheban G.F.C never missed me. Tom Moore’s service to Rheban G.F.C and the wider GAA community was marked in 1954 by the presentation to him in the Old School in Kilberry of a gold medal. Fifteen years later he was presented with a seven day clock to mark 40 years uninterrupted service to the club. Tom passed away in 1984, just five years after the club had purchased grounds which over the following years were developed to provide up-to-date playing facilities. On Saturday, 19 June 1999 the grounds, now supplied with dressing rooms and parking facilities, were officially opened and re-named as the Tom Moore Memorial Park. It was a fitting tribute to a great Gael and a man who I remember as a quiet, gentlemanly neighbour of whom I have many good memories.

Irish White Cross Committee Athy

The New Year brings us further into the decade of commemoration. The first day of 1921 saw the destruction of seven houses in Middleton, Co. Cork as an act of reprisal by crown forces. It followed the St. Stephen’s Day killing by R.I.C. officers of five young men attending a dance in Bruff, Co. Limerick. I.R.A. members in County Kildare were engaged in road trenching, the destruction of bridges and the toppling of telegraph poles so as to impede the movement of the R.I.C. and crown forces. The local I.R.A. activity in and around Athy resulted in the imposition of a curfew from 9.00p.m. to 5.00a.m. in the town in March 1921 and prompted a military order prohibiting the holding of the Tuesday market. One of the most significant developments of 1921 was the founding of the Irish White Cross by Sinn Fein in February of that year. Its purpose was to help those affected by the ongoing War of Independence, in particular the almost 1,000 Irish families made homeless by the destructive actions of crown forces. Also to be helped were the 10,000 or so Catholic workers driven from their jobs in Belfast. The Irish White Cross was headed up by Cardinal Logue and its trustees included Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. The organisation was tasked initially with distributing the funds collected by the New York based Committee For The Relief Of Irish Distress founded in December 1920. The first report of the Irish White Cross for the period to 31 August 1922 reported that ‘at least 2,000 houses – dwellinghouses, farmsteads, shops – were utterly destroyed, while about 1,500 were partially destroyed’ by crown forces during the War of Independence. The wholesale destruction by crown forces included 40 cooperative creameries totally destroyed, while another 35 creameries were partially wrecked. The report continued: ‘in the course of the struggle some 7,000 persons were arrested and frequently without a charge even being made against them, were confined in prison or internment camps.’ Amongst the many examples of crown forces’ acts of terrorism were the burning of 25 houses and a hosiery factory in Balbriggan on 20 September 1920 and the burning of approximately 45 shops in Cork three months later. Citing examples of the distress caused to Catholic families in Belfast, the report noted that 10,000 workers were forcibly expelled from their places of work, while in July 1921 more than 160 houses belonging to Catholic families were attacked and rendered uninhabitable. A local White Cross committee was founded in Athy on 28 June 1921. It was chaired by the parish priest, Canon Edward Mackey with the local Rector Archdeacon Johnston as the Vice Chairman. The Town Clerk, Joseph A. Lawler, acted as the committee’s secretary. The committee’s first act was to pass on a cheque for £35 to Patrick Lynch of Barrowhouse to buy carpentry tools. His house and workshop had been burned down by crown forces in the immediate aftermath of the Barrowhouse ambush. A later payment was made to his sister Ellen Lynch, while financial assistance was also extended to Mrs. Margaret Connor and James Lacey following written representations from the Barrowhouse teacher, P.J. Walker. The two beneficiaries were the parents of the I.R.A. Volunteers killed at Barrowhouse on 16 May 1921. The late William Connor was described as the second son of Mrs. Margaret Connor and had been a farm labourer who supported his mother and his sister. His colleague, James Lacey, who was also killed, was described as the eldest son of a family of eight whose father was a small farmer and ‘a most respectable man’. Another victim of the crown forces reprisals following the Barrowhouse ambush was Patrick Keating of Barrowhouse whose application for White Cross assistance was deferred as he had taken up a collection in Athy to cover his losses. Another beneficiary of White Cross Committee funding was Mrs. Jane Bradley of Woodstock Street who was in receipt of 25/= per week from the Dependents Fund. She had three young children and no income as her husband James was detained in Rath Camp on the Curragh. He had been arrested in February 1921 and was detained until released on parole on 28th November. The local White Cross Committee held church gate collections in Athy which netted £187 and an additional £25 was collected and forwarded to the Dublin based national organisation by the organisers of a sports day held in Kilberry in September 1921. Athy’s committee distributed £125.15.0 in the Athy area, considerably less than the £736.15.0 distributed in Newbridge, while in Kildare county a total of £2,765.9.0 was distributed. The comparable figures for Kerry were £661,347.77 and Cork £548,862.19.3 The centenary of the Barrowhouse ambush in which William Connor and James Lacey were killed will occur on the 16th May. This will be the most important centenary commemorative event for Athy and district in 2021. The local history group based in Athy’s Town Hall Shackleton Museum would wish to make contact with members of the Connor and Lacey families, as well as the Lynch and other families whose properties were targeted by crown forces in the aftermath of the Barrowhouse ambush. Any information in that regard might be passed to me by email to frank@taaffe.ie.

Methodism in Athy

One of the many interesting exhibits in Athy’s Shackleton Museum refers to the town’s religious diversity. On its formation in the 12th century and for two centuries thereafter the inhabitants of the medieval village of Athy were French speaking Catholics. The French language in time gave way as English settlers came to live in the settler’s town on the Marches of Kildare. Following the Reformation, the developing town witnessed a change in the religious makeup of its citizenry and over the following generations the religious diversity widened to include not just Catholics and Church of Ireland, but also Presbyterians and Methodists. The first Methodist Minister appointed to Athy in 1790 was Rev. John Mullen. This was a time when Methodism was still closely associated with the Church of Ireland, with Methodists attending morning service in the Parish Church and later attending their own preaching services in the evening. In 1813 approval was given for the erection of a Methodist chapel in Athy. It does not appear to have been built as the 1837 map of Athy shows the former Quaker meeting house in Meeting Lane described as ‘a small house of worship formerly belonging to the Quakers and now to the Methodists.’ The Methodist Minister appointed in 1813 was John Rogers who was replaced two years later by Robert Bowen. Athy was then part of the Carlow circuit and was to remain so until 1970 when it was included in the Portlaoise and Tullamore circuits. In 1824 Rev. Robert Banks, who had been appointed to the Carlow Circuit in 1812, was appointed a supernumerary and settled in Athy. He was apparently the first Methodist Minister to reside in the town, the other appointees dating back to 1790 having lived in Carlow. The Methodist cause was by then very low in the town but soon revived under the guidance of Rev. Banks. The rent for the Chapel approved in 1813 payable to the Duke of Leinster remained unpaid for 10 years or so until Rev. Banks took the matter up with the Duke. The Landlord visited Athy, inspected the Chapel and immediately remitted the arrears of rent and reduced the annual payments from four pounds to twenty shillings. A Sunday School was provided in the Chapel under the superintendence of the Church of Ireland curate Rev. F.S. Trench, while his colleague Rev. Bristow, frequently attended the Methodist preaching service. When asked why he did so he replied, “Many of my people go there and I must hear what it is said to them”. The close co-operation between the Church of Ireland and the Methodist did not continue as it was alleged that Rev. Trench subsequently became narrow and exclusive in his views and removed the Sunday School from the Methodist Chapel. As a result of the formal separation of Methodist and Church of Ireland the Methodist cause in Athy prospered and grew. By 1832 the level and fervour of participation in Methodist services in Athy were such as to excite the interest of a Wexford man, Moses Rowe, who was in the town on business. Moved by what he witnessed he returned to his home town where he held many meetings describing the glorious scenes he had witnessed in Athy. During the Great Famine the Methodist Mission continued and in 1847 two itinerant preachers, Henderson and Huston, reported that in Athy they had at least 15 conversions and “several backsliders were restored.” Rev. Banks was still living in Athy, while one of the principal members of the Methodist congregation were the Duncan family of Tonlegee House. The death of Rev. Thomas Kelly in 1854 resulted in the closure of his meeting house in Duke Street and the disbandment of the 30 or 40 strong Kellyites. Their members returned for the most part to the local Church of Ireland and Methodist communities. With the growth of Methodism in Athy it was felt that the former Quaker meeting house was no longer large enough for Sunday Services and the Sunday School which was also located there. In 1867 Alexander Duncan who was then on his second term as Chairman of Athy Town Commissioners purchased some ground at Woodstock Street and offered it to the local Methodist congregation as a site for a new Methodist Church. In April 1871 the Methodist congregation of Athy decided to construct the first purpose built Methodist Church and Sunday School in Athy on the site donated by Alexander Duncan. The foundation stone of the new building was laid on 12 June 1872 before a large and representative crowd of local people by Mrs. Alexander Duncan whose husband had donated £600.00 in addition to the site. The first Sunday Service in the new church was held on the following Sunday when Rev. G.T. Perks, President of the British Methodist Conference, preached the sermon. The Sunday School opened at 4pm on the same day. During the 1870s the average Sunday service attendance was 120, while a similar number of children attended the summer school. The Methodist Church in Woodstock Street now serves both as a church and as Athy’s Art Centre.