Lions Club Everest Challenge / Pauper burials in St. Mary's Cemetery

The second part of the story of Kildare connected persons killed during the War of Independence is put aside until next week. Instead, I want to write of the unremembered deaths of men, women and children in Athy’s workhouse and the frightful position facing so many families as we prepare to exit the Coronavirus lockdown regime. Countless families, young and old, have suffered emotionally and financially during the long drawn-out months of the Coronavirus pandemic. The financial measures put in place by the government has helped to alleviate some family difficulties but as the country reopens the full impact of the pandemic will be felt. We have already seen in the UK and in this country the closure of long-established retail outlets and it is to be expected that many Irish businesses shuttered for months past will find themselves unable to reopen their doors. Employees will lose their jobs and their families will find themselves facing financial chaos, exacerbated by the unrelenting need to meet mortgage and other recurring payments. The State will of course provide financial help, minimal as it may be, but not of sufficient level to dispel the despair and anxiety which will mark the lives of so many families in the post Covid world. I had previously signalled the sterling work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and that organisation’s unparalleled attempt to alleviate the deprivation of families in need. Theirs is an almost insurmountable task and one which can only be successfully completed by and with the generosity of members of the local community. This Saturday, 1st May at 10.00 a.m. Athy Lions Club’s President Brian Dooley will start his Everest challenge to help raise funds for the St. Vincent de Paul Society and Pieta House. The challenge facing Brian is a huge one and will make enormous demands on his physical and mental wellbeing over the many hours and days it will take him to complete the task. He has made this commitment as his personal contribution to alerting all of us to the pressing needs of so many within our community. Many families need our help now and so many more families can be expected to join the growing pool of families in need in the not-too-distant future. If you can help with a donation, however large or small, please do so by clicking on the website at www.idonate.ie/athylionsclubeverestchallenge or perhaps visit the Everest challenge site at Athy Rugby Club starting on 1st May and make a cash contribution there. I have written previously of Athy’s Workhouse, in light of the recent Mother and Baby Homes Commissions report, conscious of how those who died in the Workhouse and the later County Home are unremembered. Forgotten not just in folk memory but also apparently unrecorded in any extant paper record of burials in the pauper’s graveyard, St. Marys. The price paid by those who entered the Workhouse, women separated from their men folk, children separated from their parents, saw them lose their dignity and their individuality. The loss of these two personal attributes in so many is a shameful indictment of the institutional life as lived in workhouses and county homes for almost 120 years. My research, first published in ‘Lest we Forget – Kildare and the Great Famine’ in 1995 showed that 1,205 died in Athy’s Workhouse and the adjoining Fever Hospital during the Great Famine. How many more died in the subsequent years of the Workhouse and in the County Home after 1922 we do not know? What we do know is that many of them, presumably the majority, were buried in St. Mary’s cemetery across the road from the present St. Vincent’s Hospital. I say the majority because ongoing research shows that a few workhouse inmates were buried in St. Michael’s cemetery. This has shown up in research which Clem Roche and Michael Donovan have agreed to undertake to identify all those who died in the local Workhouse and the County Home and who now lie in unmarked graves in St. Mary’s cemetery. Kildare’s County Mayor who recently issued an apology on behalf of Kildare County Council in the wake of the Mother and Baby Homes Commissions report has received a request for Kildare County Council to fund the design, construction, and erection of a suitable memorial in St. Mary’s cemetery to remember those who died in Athy’s Workhouse and the County Home after 1844. I am hopeful that the Council will respond positively and that likewise the local community will be generous in supporting the Lions Club’s Everest challenge and so help the local St. Vincent de Paul Society and Pieta House to meet the challenges facing many families today.

War of Independence deaths in Kildare or of Kildare men elsewhere in Ireland [1]

The first deaths of participants in the Irish War of Independence occurred three days before the start of the Easter Rising. On 21st April a car on the way to Tralee drove off the pier at Ballykissane, Killorglin. The driver, Tom McInerny, was the only survivor of the four Irish Volunteers who had been on their way to set up a radio transmitter to keep Tralee Volunteers in contact with the German arms ship, Aud. Twenty year old Cornelius Keating, 37 year old Charles Monaghan and 30 year old Daniel Sheehan were drowned. Theirs were the first of the almost 2,350 deaths recorded during the period April 1916 to December 1921 –commonly known as the War of Independence period. In the week which commenced with the deaths at Ballykissane a further 238 deaths were recorded. This of course was the week of the Easter Rising. Amongst the early deaths was that of James Duffy, a County Kildare man, a private in the Royal Irish Regiment. He was shot and killed while marching from Richmond barracks to Dublin Castle via Kilmainham. The troops were fired on by Volunteers led by Eamon Ceannt who had taken over the South Dublin Union. Amongst Ceannt’s men was W.T. Cosgrove, the future Taoiseach, whose father Thomas was a native of Castledermot. Another casualty of the South Dublin Union battle was nurse Margaret Kehoe from Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow who was shot and killed on the same day as Duffy. A day later Denis Kelly from County Kildare, a 43 year old ticket checker with the Great Southern and Western Railway Company was shot and killed while working at the North Wall. Another Kildare man, 42 year old Edward Murphy, the Court crier for Judge Lenihan, also died on 25th April having been shot the previous day in the vicinity of St. Stephen’s Green. On 26th April, George Geoghegan, a Kildare native and a member of the Irish Citizen Army was shot and killed as an I.C.A. contingent led by Captain Sean Connolly took over the City Hall. He is commemorated with three other victims, Sean Connolly, Sean O’Reilly and Louis Byrne in a plaque erected at City Hall by the National Graves Association. As the first week of the revolution came to an end it was marked by the death of yet another County Kildare native. Francis Salmon, a native of Straffan, was just 17 years of age when he was shot dead while standing at the door of his employer’s house at 50 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay in Dublin. The young sales assistant was the youngest Kildare county native to die during the 1916 Rising. On the same day as the first of the Easter Rising leaders, Padraig Pearse, Thomas Clarke and Thomas McDonagh were executed in Kilmainham jail, a 50 year old labourer’s widow died in mysterious circumstances. County Kildare born Margaret McGuinness, a widow, lived at 27 Pembroke Cottages, Dublin and her death is generally accepted to have been as a result of political violence. There is no question surrounding the killing of Prosperous born Michael Kavanagh, a 35 year old carter who was married with 7 children. He was bringing luggage to the Shelbourne Hotel on the first day of the Rising when his cart was seized by members of the Irish Citizens Army to make a barricade. Kavanagh was trying to retrieve the cart when he was shot in the head. He died on 17th May. Almost three years were to pass before the next County Kildare casualty of the Irish War of Independence. On the 13th of February 1919 Patrick Gavin, a 45 year old labourer from Maddenstown, was driving cattle to the Newbridge fair when he was challenged by an English soldier on sentry duty at Brownstown pumping station. It was claimed he was challenged by the sentry and reacted by threatening the sentry who shot him. The soldier was subsequently court martialled but escaped any punishment. One of the rare incidences of armed conflict within the county of Kildare during the War of Independence resulted in the killing of R.I.C. constable Patrick Haverty, a 40 year old Galway man. He was killed during the ambush at Greenhills, Kill on 21st August 1920. The ambush led by Tom Harris, the future Fianna Fáil T.D. was the first such action in County Kildare and resulted also in the death of R.I.C. sergeant Patrick O’Reilly who succumbed to his injuries ten days later. Further R.I.C. casualties in the county occurred on 19th February 1921 when Thomas Bradshaw, a 24 year old policeman from Tipperary, shot himself in Monasterevin R.I.C. Barracks. Just over two weeks later Harold Stiff, a Londoner who had joined the R.I.C. a few months earlier, committed suicide in the Maynooth R.I.C. barracks. On 21st February 1921 R.I.C. sergeant Joseph Hughes, a 35 year old former postman from Wolfhill, was shot while patrolling in Maynooth. He died the following day and the local press reported that his funeral was attended by an immense crowd while passing through Athy where all shops were closed with ‘police with reversed arms marched behind the coffin.’ Information for this article has been extracted mainly from ‘The Dead of the Irish Revolution’ by Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin. ……. TO BE CONTINUED

Shopkeepers Shows 1963 and 1964

Over the years Athy has been home to many festivals, two of which came to my attention as I sorted papers collected, laid aside and forgotten until today. Two xeroxed programmes for the Shopkeepers Show put on as part of Athy’s parish festival in 1963 and 1964 allowed me to recall the names and faces of those who took part in those shows, many of whom are no longer with us. I did not see those shows as I had left Athy in January 1961 but the programmes are a reminder of the active community spirit which prevailed at that time. The festival was the idea of Fr. Joseph Corbett, then a young curate in St. Michael’s parish. He asked the industrial and commercial groups in the town to put on variety shows in the Social Club, St. John’s Lane to raise funds for the new parish church then under construction. The Shopkeepers Show followed or was followed on by shows put on by workers in the Wallboard factory, the I.V.I. Foundry, the Asbestos factory and the local garages. The Shopkeepers Show for 24th March 1963 started with an opening chorus immediately followed by a vocal quartet featuring Maureen Ryan, Helen Walsh, Dettie Kehoe and her sister Sheila. Next up was the wonderful theatrical artiste, Ernest O’Rourke Glynn with a recitation of ‘the Exiles Return’, followed by Maureen Ryan with a vocal rendition of ‘Mother Ireland’. Irish dancing saw Hazel Darling, Deirdre Hughes and Noeleen Murphy take the stage. A comic turn by Wag O’Keeffe and Michael Dempsey was followed by a medley of songs involving male and female members of the show. These included Dinah Donnelly, Mary Conlon and some of the earlier mentioned ladies, together with Ian Antwell, Charlie Prendergast, Michael Noonan, Sean O’Connor, Des McHugh, Paddy Dillon, Kevin Timmons and Alex Kelly. A highlight of the show must have been the duet between Charlie Prendergast and Maureen Ryan, followed by another duet, this time involving Maureen Ryan, partnered with Cecily Brady. All three were singers with exceptional voices. For emerging rock and roll fans there was what must have been a mighty ear full from Brendan Ward, P.J. Hyland, John Murphy, Jerry Byrne and Peter Bowden. The 1963 show came to an end with another piece of comedy dialogue between Wag O’Keeffe and Michael Dempsey, followed by the male voice choir with a number of songs. The Shopkeepers Show must have been well received for the following year their show was put on over two nights, 11th and 13th March 1964. Many of the same performers took part but participants not previously mentioned included John Hillard, Dolly Hyland, Phyllis Coughlan, Ann Dooley, Brian O’Hara, all of whom performed in the one act play ‘Love and Acid Drops’ by Seamus Burke. Margot Higginson and Mary Tuohy featured in an extract from ‘The Merry Widow’, while Carmel Hickey, Esther Bannon, Kathleen Kelly, Carmel Hickey and Patricia Mahon formed the ladies chorus. The compere for both shows was Kevin Timmons with musical accompanist for the first show by Molly O’Brien who was joined the following year by John Corcoran. The Parish Festival ran for 1963 and 1964 and perhaps other years as well. I would like to hear from anyone with information on the shows and I would also welcome the opportunity of viewing and perhaps photocopying any programmes printed for any and all of the shows put on by the local companies as part of the Athy Parish Festival. FRANK TAAFFE The photograph shows the cast of what I believe was the Shopkeepers Show of 1963.

Woodstock Castle as reported in the Dublin Penny Journal / Ben Taaffe

The Dublin Penny Journal was founded in 1831 by Caesar Otway who was later joined by George Petrie and John O’Donovan. In its early life the Journal published original articles of Irish interest which were regarded as being of a high scholarly standard. In 1833 the Journal was taken over by a new owner. Barbara Hayley, in her essay ‘On periodicals as the voice of 19th century Ireland’ in her jointly edited book 300 Years of Irish Periodicals, accused the new owner of having turned the Journal into “a cheap and snippety ragbag of extracts.” She may have a point, but to a reader hunting for local history The Dublin Penny Journal can yield fine historical nuggets. In its issue of 14th March 1835 it gave an account of Woodstock Castle, Athy from which the following is taken: “From its vicinity Woodstock Castle has partaken of nearly all the changes that befell Athy. Standing on the Western bank of the River Barrow it was designed to command the principle ford on this part of the river in conjunction with White’s Castle situated on the opposite bank – the ford lying between… Tradition assigns the building of the Castle to the year 1290 and that a descendant of the Earl of Pembroke was its first master. Antiquaries with more reason are inclined to attribute the castle’s construction to Thomas Fitzgerald, Lord of Offaly and afterwards seventh Earl of Kildare who, on marrying Dorothea, the daughter of Anthony O’Moore of Leix, received in dower the manors of Woodstock and Rheban. The plan of the building was originally a regular square, in after times an addition was made to it of a square tower joining the south side and built in uniformity with the front facing the river. The walls are of great thickness…. The mullioned windows are much admired and were elegantly executed… A fine arched gateway and part of the outer court-wall yet remain… The ford which the castle commanded and from which Athy derives its name was called Athelehac or anciently Athlegar, the ford towards the west; also Ath-trodan or the Cattle Ford. It was here the great battle was fought in the third century between the people of Munster and those of Leix under Laviseagh Cean Mordha. In 1642 the Marquis of Ormond took Woodstock from the rebels and subsequently in 1647 Owen Roe O’Neill surprised it and put the garrison to the sword. His victory however was of short duration for Lord Inchiquin compelled him in a little time after to surrender it and Athy. The lordship of Woodstock and Castlemitchell was set by the Earl of Kildare to Daniel Hutchinson, alderman, for 99 years from May the 1st 1657 at 100 guineas the first 41 years yearly, and 200 guineas a year during the remainder of the lease, with six fat wethers or £3.” In the cavalier manner of The Dublin Penny Journal, I’ll now move from six fat castrated rams – those curious wethers – to another unrelated snippet. Confined to our 5k limit for the past few months, many of us have discovered laneways and byways in our town that we never much noticed before. But one young member of my family has been discovering Athy for the first time. Early in 2020 we welcomed a new grandson, and like most grandparents last year, we visited the new family member more often on screen than in person. When the first lockdown arrived last March he was an eight-week old Dubliner; by the time he could visit Athy again it was already high summer. This year began differently. The small fellow was here on a short Christmas break when the latest lockdown closed his creche, and so he stayed on a little longer. And longer, and longer. The toddler is now an expert on the People’s Park and the loveliest stretches of the River Barrow. This week we’ll finally have to say goodbye to the smallest Taaffe as he and his parents move home to Munster and to his re-opened creche. The Eye on the Past might be written a little quicker without the childminding duties, but like so many families, we’ll be looking forward to a summer reunion. There is a real danger the smallest Taaffe may turn out a Corkman one day, but it’s a lucky Corkman who took his first steps in Athy.