Athy Farmers Club

Athy, with its rich agricultural hinterland, has on many occasions been at the forefront of efforts to further the interest of local farmers and the agricultural industry. Many of us are familiar with the part played by Stephen Cullinan, a teacher in Athy’s Vocational School, who helped found Macra na Feirme in 1944. That organisation was established following the development of Young Farmers’ Clubs in Athy, Kilmallock and Mooncoin. Macra na Feirme’s first summer gathering was held in Athy in July 1946. The following year, Macra’s headquarters was opened in the Town Hall, Athy by the then president of Ireland, Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh. Athy would remain the headquarters of the association for the next twelve years. Stephen Cullinan also started The Irish Farmers’ Journal in 1948 with the financial assistance of, amongst others, two South Kildare farmers, John Greene and Paddy Keough. Macra na Feirme led the discussions which resulted in the founding of the National Farmers’ Association in 1955, whose first president was the South Kildare farmer Dr Juan Greene. An even earlier farming organisation with associations with Athy was the National Ploughing Association founded by J.J. Bergin of Maybrook in 1931. J.J. Bergin and Stephen Cullinan were following a lead first set by farmers from the South Kildare area who had founded the Athy Farmers’ Club in December 1865. In February of that year the Town Commissioners had thanked the Duke of Leinster for his offer to make “an assembly room of the old record court.” The founding meeting of the Farmers’ Club is likely to have been held in that Town Hall first floor room, and in the same building where the Macra na Feirme headquarters would be located. The objects of the Farmers’ Club were “the bringing of farmers of the neighbourhood into more general communication and obtaining the best information in matters of interest to the agriculturalist by newspapers, agricultural publications, reports of markets and lectures.” The club members included Robert Anderson of Castlemitchell, John McCullock and William McCullock, both of Sawyer’s Wood, members of two of the seventeen families who had arrived in Athy from Perthshire, Scotland in and around 1852 to take up the Duke of Leinster’s offers of farms in South Kildare. President of the club in its first year was the Marquis of Kildare who was succeeded in that position the following year by his father the Duke of Leinster. The vice-presidents were W.D. Webber of Kellyville and W.R. Bulwer of Barrowford. The energetic committee which arranged a number of lectures during 1886 included Matthew Minch, Athy; Thomas Robertson of Oakfield, Narraghmore; John Greene of Millbrook and James Alexander of Spring Lodge. The club operated a Reading Room which was opened to members every Tuesday and Saturday and on fair days from 8am to 8pm, “when fire and lights will be provided,” and on other days (except Sunday) from 10am to 5pm. The Reading Room was located on the premises of Michael Carey of Barrow Quay, proprietor of a printing works which printed the first annual report of the Athy Farmers’ Club for 1866. Michael Carey’s premises are now occupied by the Emigrant Restaurant. The lectures were printed initially by Hodges Smith and Co., Dublin, but thereafter by the Irish Farmers’ Gazette Office in Bachelors Walk, Dublin. The Gazette’s proprietor was Edward Purden, who generously undertook to print free of charge 250 copies of every lecture for distribution to the club members. During its first year of operation the club arranged nine lectures dealing with a range of agricultural topics including “the cattle plaque,” “banking accommodation to farmers” and “railway management in Ireland with respect to the agricultural interests of Ireland.” At the club’s first AGM held in the clubrooms at Barrow Quay on Tuesday 18th December 1886, the chairman Sir Anthony Weldon stated that “the Athy Farmers’ Club has set a good example to all the farming communities in Ireland and which we are glad to say is being followed by several districts in the country.” Tributes were paid at the AGM to the club’s Secretary, Rev. R.W. Bagot of Fontstown Glebe, who by his work earned for himself “the lasting gratitude of the farmers not only of Athy but of the entire country of Kildare.” At the conclusion of the AGM approximately fifty members of the club adjourned to Kavanagh’s hotel for the club’s first annual dinner. The printed report of the AGM and the subsequent dinner records “the Rev. Mr Bagot having said Grace, the good things provided were amply done justice to and the cloth having been removed, decanters and glasses were placed.” What followed was a plethora of toasts starting with “the Queen”, which toast was “drank enthusiastically,” following which “a worthy magistrate in a splendid tenor voice sang the national anthem, the entire company joining in the choruses.” Toast upon toast followed, all of which were drunk with enthusiasm. “The Prince and Princess of Wales and all the Royal Family” was followed by “the Lord Lieutenant and prosperity to Ireland,” while “the Army and Navy” came before “the agricultural societies of Ireland,” soon followed by a toast to “Athy Farmers’ Club.” Rev Bagot, in responding to the latter toast, expressed satisfaction that neither religion nor political differences had arisen in the club. In fact, the club rules expressly noted “all religious and political questions shall be strictly avoided at all meetings of the club.” The toasts continued with a tribute to the gentlemen who read papers at club meetings, while a toast to the “Kildare and Queen’s County Hunt’ was received with rapture. Another two toasts, by which time the diners were no doubt enjoying themselves, were to “the trade and commerce of Athy” and to “the press,” which in terms of the local press had only one member, namely The Leinster Express. The evening ended with a toast to the chairman, Sir Anthony Weldon and to “the ladies.” No doubt there were many such nights, and that camaraderie - along with the lectures and advice and support to farming neighbours – helped ensure the long success of farmers’ clubs. The farmers who first organised at local level in 1856 - and at national level in later generations – helped build confident and effective farming communities throughout Ireland.