A Virtual Tour of Athy [1]

This week’s Eye is the first half of my script for a virtual tour of Athy, broadcast on local radio last Thursday. The second part of the tour will follow next week. We’re on the road to sweet Athy, approaching the South Kildare town from the Kilcullen direction. Our first stop on the outskirts of the town, which was founded as an Anglo-Norman village in the 12th century, is at Gallows Hill. Up to the 18th century every Irish town had a gallows on the town’s outskirts at a time when hanging was the penalty for many crimes, even as petty as stealing goods with a value of 5 shillings. Just beyond, on the left hand side, we have what may be a unique sporting complex in an Irish provincial town. Here, the local GAA club, the rugby club, tennis club and soccer club sit cheek by jowl in the former showgrounds. The GAA grounds of Geraldine Park hosted the 1906 All-Ireland Football Final, which was played on the 31 October 1907. Two years later the 1908 All-Ireland Hurling Final was played here on the 27th of June 1909. Sporting activities were not on the minds of the Commissioners for Education in Ireland when they financed the building of a Model School and Agricultural School, which building we pass shortly on the right hand side. The building was opened in 1850, and was designed by the Yorkshire-born architect Frederick Darley. It was acquired by Kildare County Council some years ago and is now planned to be developed as a Food, Drinks and Skills Innovation Hub. Frederick Darley, who designed the King’s Inns building in Dublin, as well as the RDS building in Ballsbridge, was also the architect for the Presbyterian church just beyond the Model School on the left hand side. This church of finely crafted stonework was built to serve the religious needs of the Presbyterian families from Perthshire in Scotland who came to South Kildare in the immediate post-Famine period following an invitation from the Duke of Leinster, who offered them farms in this area. As we approach the railway bridge we pass on the right St Michael’s Cemetery, with the ruins of a small medieval church. This may have been the first parish church in the medieval village of Athy, built as it was outside the town walls at a time when the French-speaking Dominicans and the Trinitarians provided church services for the Norman settlers only. Resting just inside the front wall of St Michael’s Cemetery is the late Paddy Johnson who lived in a small terraced house which, with its neighbouring houses, was torn down to accommodate the construction of the railway line to Athy and Carlow in 1846. His neighbours all emigrated to America where it is said they settled in an area which they called Bothar Buí after their old Athy address. Paddy Johnson remained in Athy and when he died it is claimed that he was buried in what was once his own backyard. Breasting the railway bridge we get a panoramic view of Athy east of the river Barrow. This was the scene which greeted the young Ernest Shackleton when he was brought into town and one which was familiar to Thomas LeFroy, the onetime boyfriend of Jane Austen, who for some time attended a classical school in Athy. The railway station on our left, through which the first train passed on Monday 3rd August 1846, was the work of the Great Leinster and Munster Railway Company, and in front of the station is the People’s Park. This handsome public park was a gift of the town’s landlord, the Duke of Leinster, early in the 19th century. Proceeding down Leinster Street we are reminded that the principal streets of the town are named after the Duke of Leinster’s family. The second Duke, William, Duke of Leinster, is recalled in the street names Leinster Street, Duke Street and William Street, which are the main streets of the town of Athy and a fine example of the linear street pattern common to Anglo-Norman settlements. Halfway down Leinster Street we pass on the left a fine bricked three-storey building, now a pub, and known previously as the Railway Hotel. A previous owner was Tom Flood, a War of Independence veteran whose brother, Frank, was hanged in Mountjoy on 14th March 1921. Another Athy man, Patrick Moran, who prior to the 1916 Rising worked for a time in Glynn’s pub on Duke Street, was also hanged in Mountjoy Jail on the same day as Frank Flood. Passing by Meeting Lane on the left reminds us of the Quaker meeting house which, when opened in 1780, gave the lane its name. Athy had an active Quaker community several years before Ballitore was founded, but regrettably that fine group who did so much for the Irish people during the Great Famine no longer have a presence in Athy. We now reach the centre of the town, with a crossroads leading to Monasterevin on the right, Carlow on the left, and Kilkenny straight ahead. To our left is Emily Square, named for Emily, wife of the Duke of Leinster and mother of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Lord Edward was a member of parliament for Athy borough for some years. The town hall, built in the 1720s to the southside of the town square, houses today the Shackleton museum, and it is where the annual Shackleton Autumn School takes place.