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.