Fr. Philip Dennehy

Fr. Philip is dead. The news of the passing of the Pastor Emeritus passed quickly through St. Michael’s parish. There was sadness at the passing of a much loved priest who had lived among the parishioners of the south Kildare parish for all but 20 years of his 67 year long priesthood. Fr. Philip was first appointed curate of St. Michael’s in 1955, eight years after his ordination and after having spent some years a chaplain in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Dun Laoghaire and in St. Mary’s Hospital, Phoenix Park, as well as six years as curate in East Wall and later in Valleymount. I first met the then young Fr. Dennehy when following the road accident which resulted in the death of my 21-year-old brother Seamus he called to No. 5 Offaly Street to comfort my parents. Philip Dennehy, born on 27th March 1931 in Middleton, Co. Cork, the son of a Garda, was to live in a number of Irish towns as he grew up, each new address marking another step in his father’s advancement up the ranks of the Garda Siochana. At the age of two he moved to Tramore, later to Limerick City and finally to Roscommon. Philip Dennehy, who had six sisters and one brother, attended the Christian Brothers Schools in Tramore and Limerick, ending his secondary schooling in St. Brendan’s College, Killarney. Both his parents were born in Co. Kerry and as he once told me his County allegiance was somewhat difficult given his almost nomadic early lifestyle. However, he acknowledged a sneaky regard for his County Kerry ancestry, the County where both of his parents were born and where the vast majority of his relations came from. It was as a schoolboy in Roscommon where his father was a Garda Chief Superintendent that his priestly vocation first emerged. After finishing his Leaving Certificate in St. Brendan’s College in 1948 he entered the seminary of Clonliffe College in Dublin. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University College of Dublin before transferring to Maynooth College where he was ordained on 4th June 1955. Fr. Dennehy first arrived in Athy as a young curate in 1963 to join the clergy team lead by Parish Priest Rev. Vincent Steen, which team included Fr. Frank Mitchell C.C. and Fr. Joe Corbett C.C. He participated in the ceremonies on 19th April 1964 when the Archbishop of Dublin John McQuaid blessed and dedicated the new Parish Church to St. Michael. Fr. Dennehy remained as a curate in Athy for ten years before transferring in 1973 to James’s Street, Dublin from where he moved to Corduff five years later. In 1979 he was appointed administrator of Mountview and a year later appointed Parish Priest of the same parish where he remained for five years before coming to Athy as Parish Priest in 1985. Ten years later I wrote of Fr. Dennehy on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his ordination:- ‘Sunday is the most important day in the weekly calendar for all Christians. For a clergyman it assumes perhaps even greater significance when viewed as an opportunity to address his congregation other than on an individual basis. However, the average sermon or homily can sometimes seem strained and perhaps even less than relevant in the context of the modern world but never when the words are those of the man who is the subject of today’s article. Fr. Philip Dennehy, Parish Priest of Athy, has a most eloquent if sometimes understated way of putting his thoughts before his parishioners. The obvious attention and care which goes into the preparation of his homilies is reflected in the meaningful words designed to help his congregation to come closer to God.’ On Saturday 4th June 2005 the parishioners of St. Michael’s came together to celebrate with Fr. Dennehy the 50th anniversary of his ordination with Mass in the Parish Church, followed by a reception at the G.A.A. centre at Geraldine Park. He retired as Parish Priest in 2006 and was then appointed Pastor Emeritus of St. Michael’s Parish. As a clergy man who took things at face value Fr. Dennehy refused to delve too deeply into people’s motives, always prepared to assume the best of intentions for every act, charitable or otherwise. Conscious of the excessively strong role of the old-style Parish Priest of another era, Fr. Dennehy always adopted an easy-going attitude in his contacts with members of his congregation. Recognising the important role of the laity he sought to motivate people within the Parish to do what they can for themselves. His common sense approach in all things underscored his belief that as a Parish Priest he was not an authority on everything. To him so called experts were suspect, common sense being the most useful tool in dealing with most situations. Fr. Dennehy’s time in Athy was marked with many happy events, many achievements and inevitably some sad occasions. Above all as a Pastor he shared the joys and burdens of his parishioners at all times expressing in action the words of the Gospel he preached every Sunday. Fr. Philip Dennehy, who died on 31st January 2022, was buried in Ballygunner, Co. Waterford with his parents following requiem mass in St. Michael’s Parish Church, Athy at 11am on 3rd February 2022.

Kildare Archaeological Society's Visit to Athy

Members of Kildare Archaeological Society visited Athy on Saturday last for a guided tour of the medieval and post medieval built heritage of the town. The 12th century village founded by the Anglo Normans on the banks of the river Barrow in the vicinity of Ath Ae, the Ford of Ae, has retained some important elements of his historic past. The 21st century town of Athy is readily identifiable from any image of the bridge and castle. The present Crom a Boo bridge erected in 1796 replaced an earlier stone bridge which consisted of 7 arches, a drawing of which was prepared by a William Smith just a year before it was demolished. A bridge over the river Barrow at Athy was an important part of the first line of defence for those living within the Pale against the hostile Irish, especially the O’Mores of Laois. This was borne out by a petition sent by the gentry of the Pale to the King of England in June 1417 in support of Sir John Talbot’s appeal for more funding in his fight against the O’Mores. The petitioners recounted how Talbot had repaired and mended the bridge of Athy and had erected a new tower on the bridge in order to resist the Irish enemy and to protect the inhabitants of Athy. The reference to repairing the bridge confirmed that there was already a bridge in place prior to 1415. Indeed, we know from other Anglo Norman settlements in Ireland that the French speaking adventurers had built stone bridges in many other parts of Ireland as early as the 13th century. The reference to the erection of the new tower on the bridge has generally been accepted as referring to White’s Castle. However, Ben Murtagh in his essay on the dating of White’s Castle in the book ‘Dublin and the Pale in the Renaissance C 1540-1660’ believes that the tower built by Talbot is not the current White’s Castle, but a castle built at a later date on the site of the original tower of 1415. White’s Castle is the most important readily visible medieval building in our town, as the other important buildings at that time, Woodstock Castle and St. Michael’s Medieval Church, are more often than not unseen by many of our visitors. Woodstock Castle lies in a low-lying area close to the river Barrow and directly northwest of the town’s centre. It is believed to have been built for the St. Michael family early in the 13th century and around it developed the settlers village and the monastery of the Crouched Friars. Located on the west bank of the river the castle and the village was subject to several attacks by the Irish. The first recorded attack on the village of Athy was in 1308 when the village was burned, a fate it was to suffer on four occasions during the following 70 years. Edward Bruce, brother of the Scottish King, having landed with his army on the Antrim coast in 1315 at the invitation of some Irish chiefs inflicted several defeats on the Anglo Normans. The Battle of Ardscull a few miles from Athy saw Bruce’s army defeat the joint forces of Lord Justice Sir Edmund Butler and Lord John Fitzthomas. Bruce is recorded as having plundered Athy and Rheban, both of which villages were developed around castles built for the St. Michael family. The positioning of Woodstock castle on the west bank of the river Barrow and on the same side of the river where the ‘wild Irish’ lived is a puzzle. The east side of the river where the Dominicans founded their friary in 1257 offered greater safety for the inhabitants of the newly founded village. Towards the end of the 14th century the Anglo Normans began a policy of retrenchment, having failed to successfully hold all the lands initially taken by them in the 12th and 13th centuries. The policy of retrenchment focused attention on Athy as a settlement of strategic importance and made Athy a first line of defence against the hostile Irish. The rebuilding of the bridge of Athy and the erection of a new tower in 1415-1417 was followed by a gradual relocation of the village from the west side of the Barrow to the opposite side. This process was no doubt accelerated following Sir John Talbot’s rebuilding of the bridge and the construction of the tower. The plantation of Laois and Offaly during the reign of Elizabeth I saw Athy take on an even more important role. It became a vital link in the supply chain for the beleaguered English settlers of Laois and Offaly. This was recognised by John Dymmok who in his ‘Treatise of Ireland’ in 1600 wrote:- ‘Athy is divided into two parts by the river Barrow over which lies a stone bridge and upon it a stone castle ….. the bridge of the castle ….. being the only way which leads into the Queen’s county’. …..TO BE CONTINUED

Michael Day, boxer, footballer and emigrant

One of the pleasures of writing a weekly newspaper column, which is made available on the internet, is the many queries one receives from around the world and the subsequent store of knowledge which is unveiled in relation to Athy persons of the past. For some time Sophie Hepburn of Glasgow has been emailing me in relation to her father’s family, originally from Athy. Michael Day, son of Peter and Bridget Day, emigrated to Scotland in 1942. As a young man in Athy he was a boxer of note and was a member of the Irish Army boxing team while he served in the early years of World War II. It was a sport in which he had a lifelong interest. He founded a boxing club in Glasgow and amongst those he trained was the youthful ‘John Cowboy McCormack’ who went on to win a bronze medal in the Olympic Games. Michael in addition to boxing was also a senior playing member of Athy Geraldine hurling and football club which won the Kildare Senior Football Championship in 1937. That team was captained by George Comerford, the famous County Clare and Munster provincial footballer who was then stationed as a Garda in Athy. I interviewed another member of that team in January 1990, the legendary Barney Dunne, who was the only man to have won four senior championship medals with Athy. He spoke of the players who defeated Sarsfield in that 1937 County final and he mentioned Michael Day whom he said lived in Barrack Street. The photograph of the Athy winning team of 1937 shows Michael Day lying in front to the left, Tommy Buggy/English, the player on the right. The photograph, a copy of which Sophie had, was she believed a picture of a street league team called the Starlights. It was in fact the 1937 Athy Championship winning team. The full team with subs were Tommy Mulhall, Joe Gibbons, Jim Birney, ‘Chevit’ Doyle, Pat Mulhall, Matt Murray, Tom Kelly, Paul Mathews, Barney Dunne, John Rochford, Tom Wall, Tom Ryan, George Comerford, Richard Donovan, Joe Murphy, Tommy Buggy, Johnny McEvoy and N. Heffernan whose first name regrettably is not known to me. The team trainer was the legendary Jack ‘Skurt’ Doyle. Michael Day’s parents had four sons and two daughters and given the difficult times during the economic war of the 1930s and those posed by World War II it’s not surprising that all of them emigrated to either Scotland or England to find employment. Jack Day and his brother Pat went to London, as did their sister Julia, while Michael and Peter spent the rest of their lives in Scotland. When Peter died his ashes were returned to his home town of Athy for burial in St. Michael’s Cemetery next to his parents Peter and Bridget. His sister Lizzie Day worked in Dublin for a time, but I understand she subsequently emigrated to England. Sophie Hepburn whom I met during the week last visited Athy almost 72 years ago when as a young girl herself and her brother were sent on summer holidays to their Granny Bridget Day. Bridget was by then a widow living alone, her husband Peter having died in 1948 aged 68 years. Sophie recalls her grandmother’s house which she described as a one roomed cottage. She had a photograph showing the small whitewashed cottage in the background from which I was satisfied that Bridget lived in what locals called ‘Beggars End’. It was one of a row of houses owned by the Plewman family and were located directly opposite the present Plewman’s Terrace. Sophie had fond memories of the time herself and her brother spent with their grandmother all those years ago and of the return boat trip from Broomley, Scotland to Dublin. Sophie who with her partner spent a few days in and around Athy last week traced and paid a visit to her grandparents’ grave in St. Michael’s Cemetery. She was immensely proud of her father and what he achieved after leaving Athy so many years ago. Sophie’s visit to Athy 70 years after her only previous visit and 80 years after her father Michael left his home town in search of work, was a pilgrimage in search of a family past. She would be delighted to make contact with any of her father’s relations still living in and around Athy.

Dr. Giles O'Neill, the Taaffe Legal Practice, identifying those who died in Athy Workhouse

Many of you, like myself, got a letter from the HSE a week or so ago informing us of the retirement of Dr. Giles O’Neill from 11th June. Messages of good wishes poured into Dr. Giles’ practice in the following days but it seems we were all somewhat premature in consigning the good doctor to a life of unending leisure. It now transpires that Dr. Giles has retired from the HSE General Practitioners list and will be replaced by Dr. Emma Carroll of the same practice on the Carlow Road. The fourth generation O’Neill general practitioners intends to stay on in the practice working two days a week dealing, I presume, with private patients. My Eye last week on Dr. Giles’ retirement prompted several people to ask the question of me – when do you propose to retire? I’m afraid the good man above will retire me and in the meantime I will continue as long as Dr. Giles keeps me in good trim or as I often say to my friends, ‘so long as I can continue to cast a shadow’. The June bank holiday found me spending a few days in Connemara where unlike the rainy weather which greeted the TriAthy athletes, the western countryside was basking in glorious sunshine. I had overlooked that this year’s June bank holiday was an important anniversary in my working life as it was on the Tuesday after the bank holiday Monday 40 years ago that I opened my own practice. Joining me that day was a young Eithne Wall as we waited the arrival of the first client to the first-floor offices of Taaffe & Co. Solicitors. I had rented rooms over the Hibernian Insurance offices located in the former Hibernian Bank premises on Leinster Street. During the past four decades the offices have been relocated to three other locations, but what has remained constant is the wonderful staff who have joined me over the years. Eithne Wall, with forty years’ service, is followed by Noreen Prendergast with 36 years’ service, Deirdre Dooley with 31 years’ service and Lisa Walsh who has been part of the staff for 22 years. All of the girls joined the office when they were single and their names have been recorded in those names, although all of them have since married. My son Seamus, after 5 years working as an archaeologist, joined the practice as a solicitor in 1997. Individually and collectively they have made an enormous contribution to the work of my office which because of the nature of its business deals with a myriad of sad human situations. On our fortieth anniversary I pay a heartfelt tribute to Eithne, Noreen, Deirdre, Lisa and Seamus. Clem Roche and Michael Donovan have been working for some months past on retrieving the names of those unfortunate persons who died in Athy’s Workhouse. Opened in January 1844 the Workhouse was a last refuge for a starving people who could not survive without institutional help during the Great Famine. In later years deaths were recorded as occurring in the Workhouse, Athy’s Infirmary and Athy’s Fever Hospital. The Infirmary was attached to the Workhouse, while Athy’s Fever Hospital was a separate institution first opened in February 1841. The perilous state of public health in the town of Athy was a matter of concern, particularly following a cholera outbreak in 1827 and an influenza outbreak ten years later. A Mr. Keating, whose premises in Market Square burnt down in 1836, was the beneficiary of a public collection intended to help him rebuild his premises. Instead, the generous man donated the community’s gift amounting to three hundred pounds to the building of a Fever Hospital in Athy. Officially designated as a District Fever Hospital under the Fever Ireland Act of 1847 it continued to be operated independent of the Workhouse until 1854. Those who died in the Workhouse, the Infirmary and the Fever Hospital were, so far as we know, buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery. Clem Roche and Michael Donovan have recorded 3,088 deaths with no records available for the first twenty years or so of the Workhouse existence. There are no memorials or grave markers to remember the thousands who were buried in St. Marys. The work of Clem and Michael is the first step in remembering and commemorating those unfortunate people which Kildare County Council is committed to doing in the near future.

The Doctors O'Neill

Four generations of the O’Neill family have provided medical care for the people of Athy and South Kildare, as well as patients in the institution formerly known as the Workhouse, later the County Home and now St. Vincent’s Hospital. On 11th June the fourth generation member of the O’Neill family, Dr. Giles O’Neill, will retire from general medical practice, thus bringing to a close the O’Neill family’s involvement in medical practice in Athy. Dr. Patrick Laurence O’Neill, who lived in Geraldine House, was the first member of the family to practice medicine. He had a private practice before taking up an appointment as medical officer to Athy’s Workhouse in 1874 in succession to Dr. Thomas Kynsey. Dr. P.L. O’Neill was involved in local and national politics and was president of the local branch of the Irish National League until his resignation in November 1885 following a disagreement with Martin Doyle, a fellow National League member. He continued as medical officer to the Workhouse until 1897 when he was replaced by his son, Dr. Jeremiah O’Neill who held the position for the next 55 years. Like his father before him Dr. Jeremiah was involved in local politics and served as Chairman of Athy Urban District Council for three years from 1912 and was also Chairman of the Athy branch of the Fine Gael party for 25 years. He died in 1954 aged 81 years, having been replaced by his son Dr. Joe O’Neill as medical officer in 1952 for what was then known as the County Home. Dr. Joe, who graduated in 1943, took over Dr. John Kilbride’s medical practice in 1959 and lived and worked initially from the Abbey off Emily Square before moving to Athy Lodge on Church Road. The Asian flu epidemic of 1971/’72 provided Dr. Joe and his colleague Dr. Brian Maguire with one of the most trying and difficult periods of their years in medical practice. The first flu victim was treated on 23rd December 1971 and over the following four days neither doctor had any respite as stricken patient after patient was treated in a frantic effort to halt the spread of the flu. The fourth generation of the O’Neill family, Dr. Joe’s son Giles, qualified as a doctor in 1975 and after practicing in Dublin and England returned to Athy in 1981 to join his father’s practice. The following year a new surgery was built in the grounds of Athy Lodge, the former home of Dr. John Kilbride and in the 19th century the home of John Lord, Solicitor. In the meantime Dr. Joe continued as medical officer to the County Home and the later renamed St. Vincent’s Hospital and on his retirement in 1991 his son Dr. Giles was appointed as medical officer. Dr. Joe O’Neill died in 2008, aged 91 years. Dr. Giles, now practicing in the new surgery on Church Road, was joined by another local man Dr. Raymond Rowan and both of them continued in practice there until the opening of a new surgery on the Carlow Road, first occupied years earlier by the now retired Dr. John Macdougald. On the retirement of Dr. Giles the Carlow Road surgery will now include doctors Anthony Reeves, Raymond Rowan, Emma O’Carroll and Dr. Luke Higgins. I remember Dr. Joe and Dr. Giles as dedicated, gifted and pleasant doctors who practiced medicine with kindness and thoughtfulness for their patients. Two of Dr. Joe’s brothers were also doctors who served in the British Army Indian Medical Services during World War II. A younger brother, Dr. Jerry O’Neill, was captured by the Japanese and held prisoner for more than three years until the end of the war. Family tradition tells us that the emaciated former prisoner on release was treated in a Calcutta hospital by his brother Dr. John O’Neill who did not recognise him until the prematurely grey-haired patient spoke of Ireland and of playing golf in the Geraldine course here in Athy. Their nephew, Dr. Giles O’Neill, has devoted 41 years of life as a doctor to the people of Athy and the patients of St. Vincent’s Hospital. He followed in the footsteps of his great grandfather, his grandfather and his father and Dr. Joe proved himself to be a doctor whose dedication to his patients and to his profession will be remembered with fondness and gratitude by all.

Barrowhouse Ambush May 1921

Patrick Whelan, Ned Gleeson, Liam Langton, John Langton, Keith Langton, Martin Langton, Pascal Lacey, Ger Gibson and Nessa O’Meara Cardiff. These are the members of the Barrowhouse Ambush Commemoration Committee responsible for organising the ceremonies on Saturday, 21st May surrounding the unveiling of the new memorial for William Connor and James Lacey and the launch of Nessa O’Meara Cardiff’s book on the ambush. The reawakening of interest in the Irish War of Independence saw a great gathering of folk to honour the memory of the two young Barrowhouse men who lost their lives on a May day 101 years ago. I was honoured to be invited to take part in the service at St. Mary’s Graveyard and to address some words to those who gathered around the grave of Connor and Lacey. In addressing the people in attendance I was conscious that my words could apply to so many other areas around Ireland which saw action during the War of Independence. That conflict was a complex one of military republicanism and of a people’s resistance to British Rule. For that reason the story of the Barrowhouse Ambush is important to our understanding of the history and legacy of our revolutionary past. It’s a struggle which continued long after the Treaty and has now evolved as a political struggle involving Irish, English and Northern Ireland politicians with American and European Union politicians in the background. The Barrowhouse Ambush occurred on a day in May 1921 when five other men suffered violent deaths attributed to political violence in Ireland. The deaths of William Connor and James Lacey lead to reprisals by the RIC and the Black and Tans stationed in the Athy R.I.C. Barracks. Patrick Lynch’s home and workshop were among several premises the subject of arson attacks the night after the ambush. Local narratives about the Barrowhouse Ambush are not always in agreement. New information and fresh interpretations can contradict accepted version of events. The accepted knowledge in the public domain in relation to War of Independent incidents generally is not always correct and as further research unfolds new information can give us a better understanding of those difficult times. The memorial unveiled that Saturday and the launch of Nessa O’Meara Cardiff’s book on the Barrowhouse ambush is a community’s way of confirming the importance of James Lacey and William Connor in the historical tradition of Barrowhouse and its neighbourhood. They were just two of the 2,850 who were killed in a war defined in popular imagination by IRA ambushes and Black and Tan reprisals with assassinations on both sides. The Barrowhouse Volunteers who took part in the ambush were undoubtedly committed Nationalists and Republicans whose motivation was an idealism fostered by the Irish Volunteer movement and developed by the Sinn Fein Clubs to end British Rule in Ireland. William Connor and James Lacey, both of Barrowhouse, were just 26 years of age when they joined James’s brother Joe Lacey, Paddy Dooley of Killabbin, Joe Maher of Cullinagh, Mick Maher and Jack O’Brien, both from Barrowhouse and Joe Ryan of Kilmoroney on that fatal day, 16th May 1921. 101 years later, the Barrowhouse community came together to remember its War of Independence dead and to commemorate the two young Barrowhouse men who died before they had the opportunity of knowing any of their relations who came after them. The Barrowhouse Ambush Commemoration Committee, under the Chairperson of Nessa O’Meara Cardiff, responded magnificently to the need to remember the two young men from Barrowhouse who paid the ultimate price in a people’s struggle for political freedom. I understand that the initial print run of Nessa’s book was sold out but further copies are now available at the Barrowhouse ambush online site. The past week saw the death and burial of Gretta McNulty, formerly Gretta Moore who grew up in Offaly Street as part of that great community, a mix of young and old. Gretta and the Moore family lived in No. 7 Offaly Street and when the Taaffe family arrived in Athy in 1945 they settled into No. 6 before moving after 8 or 9 years into No. 5 Offaly Street. Offaly Street was then home to a vibrant community of mostly young families and Gretta’s death sadly further depletes the shrinking list of Offaly Street neighbours and friends of old. When Gretta and Frank McNulty married in 1962 they moved into No. 9 Offaly Street where they lived for 9 years or so, reinforcing Gretta’s strong alliance with the street where as a young girl she had forged many long lasting friendships. Those precious friendships forged in youth are receding further and further in the fading memory bank of those of us who remain.

Festival Athy 1979

One of the interesting magazines published in Ireland in the aftermath of the Act of Union was the Irish Magazine. Edited by the notorious Walter (Watty) Cox it first appeared in 1807. Cox’s Magazine was one of the more significant journals of that time and engaged in what Barbara Hayley in ‘300 years of Irish Periodicals’ described as ‘outrageously insulting (behaviour) to the Administration and to the Established Church’. My interest in the Irish Magazine stemmed from my purchase of a bound copy of the monthly journal for 1809. In March of that year Michael Devoy of Kill wrote an interesting piece on the history of Athy. Devoy was a granduncle of the Fenian John Devoy. He was born at the Heath, Athy but because of his involvement in the 1798 rebellion the family moved to Kill in 1805. The Nationalist and Leinster Times of 6th October 1928 on reporting the death of John Devoy made reference to Michael Devoy’s article on Athy. It noted that the volume of the Irish Magazine in which the article appeared ‘was picked up at Mendozas Old Book Store at Ann Street, New York by Frank Richardson, a native of Athy and handed to the editor of the Gaelic American.’ The article claimed that Michael Devoy was a captain of the rebels in County Kildare during the ’98 Rebellion and that he had the benefit of his father’s long and intimate knowledge of the town of Athy when writing the article. Devoy in the Irish magazine article recounted how the monastery on the west side of the River Barrow was founded by Richard de St. Michael, the Lord of Rheban, under the invocations of St. John and St. Thomas. The precinct of the monastery extended from the river at the foot of the bridge, containing all that part of the town called St. Johns and St. John’s Lane and its demesne consisted of the island in the river and the adjacent fields as far as the military barracks. He noted that the Dominican Monastery on the east side of the river, founded in 1253 by the families of the Boisels and Hogans, extended from the river along the north side of the church to the corner of the street heading to Prestons Gate and from there along the street under the said gate and to the corner of Janeville Lane and to the rear of the present house called The Abbey. The church referred to was the Church of Ireland church which was then located at the rear of the Town Hall and interestingly Devoy referenced the claim that the church steeple had formed part of the old Dominican Abbey. The reference to the house called The Abbey which was demolished a few years ago was much older than we all thought given Devoy’s references to it in 1809. Whites Castle, according to Devoy, was built by the 8th Earl of Kildare about 1506, a year or two after a bridge over the river Barrow was built. He claimed that the castle was repaired and enlarged in 1575 by William White from hence it obtained the name Whites Castle. Among the town ruins noted over 200 years ago were those of St. Michael’s Church built some time in the 14th century and founded, as Devoy claimed, by the St. Michael family. He described the ‘new chapel’ built in place of the chapel burned in the aftermath of the 1798 Rebellion, which he says was built on a plot of ground granted by the Duke of Leinster. He continued ‘the new chapel (which was demolished in 1960) is not by any means suitable to the large congregation, nor on a plan fit for a country chapel.’ Apparently, he was dissatisfied with the construction of a gallery which he claimed ‘from the noise above the people below for about 60 feet in length cannot hear the priest’s voice, the men ranged on one side and the women on the other.’ He referred to the Quaker Meeting House and to the Methodist House as well as the prison (then in Whites Castle) which he claims was without a privy until an addition was built in 1802. He decried the fact that there was no manufacturer of any consequence in the town which for many years ‘surpassed the Kingdom for the best and most extensive tanyards.’ Athy was also he claimed the most extensive town in Ireland about 30 years previously for distilling whiskey ‘there being 14 stills at full work and the entire of the malt to supply them was manufactured here.’ The one redeeming feature according to Devoy was the extensive porter and ale brewery carried on by Robert Rawson and the extensive flour mills ‘in the neighbourhood, two of which are in the town.’ This years famine Remembrance Service will be held in St. Mary’s Cemetery located opposite St. Vincent’s Hospital on Sunday 15th May at 3.00 p.m. The service gives us an opportunity to publicly honour Athy’s Famine dead with dignity and reverence and to recall a period in our history which cast a shadow over Ireland’s subsequent history.

Thomas Reynolds 1798 Informer

In December 1797 a man who would be responsible for betraying the society of the United Irishmen in south Kildare and Leinster and the imprisonment of many of the leaders of the organisation came to live at Kilkea Castle. He was the 26 year old Thomas Reynolds, a distant relation of Lord Edward Fitzgerald and a nephew of Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine House, captain of the Athy Yeomanry Cavalry. Reynolds was a Catholic whose father Andrew Reynolds, a silk merchant from Dublin, had married Rose Fitzgerald of Kilmead. Thomas Reynolds spent the first eight years of his life at the Kilmead home of his maternal grandfather Thomas Fitzgerald. Educated at a school in Chiswick and later at Liege in Flanders he returned to Dublin in 1788 just a few weeks before the death of his father Andrew. Mr. Reynolds Senior had been a delegate to the Catholic Committee and at the age of seventeen years his son Thomas was elected in his place. Thus was Thomas Reynolds ‘without any kind of restraint pushed forward in a career of politics and family business for neither of which he possessed the requisite knowledge or experience.’ So wrote his own son in his ‘Life of Thomas Reynolds’ published in 1838. Reynold’s biographer claimed that his father was inveigled to become a member of the United Irishmen in January or February 1797 through the efforts of a Richard Dillon, a Catholic and Oliver Bond, a Presbyterian. Whatever the merits of this claim, he was sworn in as a member of the organisation by Oliver Bond at his house at Bridge Street, Dublin. Oliver Bond’s house was later to be inextricably linked with Thomas Reynold’s name because of the events which occurred there in March 1798. Some time previously Reynolds had agreed to take a lease of Kilkea Castle from the Duke of Leinster on the death of the previous tenant a Mr. Dixon, an elderly man who passed away at the beginning of 1797. Under the terms agreed Reynolds employed the Duke’s builder, a Mr. Shannon to provide new roofing, flooring and ceiling for the castle which was located a few miles from Athy. When the work was completed Reynolds and his family moved into Kilkea Castle in December 1797, his mother the former Rose Fitzgerald of Kilmead having died in Dublin on 6th November. Reynolds was soon admitted into the Athy Cavalry Corps and as a frequent visitor to Athy, befriended many of the local townspeople. He accepted Lord Edward Fitzgerald’s invitation to take over from him as Colonel of the United Irishmen in the south Kildare barony of Kilkea and Moone. Soon thereafter Reynolds was visited by Matthew Kenna, one of the mainstays of the United Irishmen’s organisation in South Kildare. Kenna informed Reynolds of the strength of the United Irishmen in that part of Kildare and arranged a vote of the local captains to confirm his appointment as Colonel. At the same time Reynolds was appointed as County Treasurer which entitled him to attend meetings of the Provincial Council of the United Irishmen. Reynolds, whose name was later to become synonymous with the dreaded terms ‘traitor’ and ‘informer’ is believed to have passed on information to Dublin Castle regarding a scheduled meeting of the Provincial Council in Oliver Bonds House in Bridge Street, Dublin. Members of the Leinster Directory were arrested on 12th March and their detention effectively destroyed any hope of a successful uprising by the United Irishmen. Those arrested were:- Michael William Byrne, Peter Ivers from Carlow, Laurence Kelly from Queen’s County, George Cummins from Kildare, Edward Hudson of Grafton Street, John Lynch from Mary’s Abbey, Lawrence Griffin from Tullow, Thomas Reynolds from Culmullin, John McCan of Church Street, Patrick Devine from Ballymoney, Christopher Martyn from Dunboyne, Peter Bannan from Portarlington, James Rose from Windy Harbour, and Oliver Bond of Bridge Street, Dublin. Two days later Reynolds met Lord Edward Fitzgerald at the home of Dr. Kennedy in Aungier Street, Dublin and again the following day when Lord Edward gave him a letter for the County Kildare Committee. On 17th March Reynolds left Dublin for Kilkea and stopped overnight in Naas. There he was met, apparently to Reynold’s surprise, by Matthew Kenna, the man who was Lord Edward Fitzgerald’s principal contact person in South Kildare. Kenna told Reynolds of a meeting arranged for March 18th at the house of Reilly, a publican, near the Curragh of Kildare where the County Committee Members of the United Irishmen were to assemble. Reynolds attended the meeting, although he must have been somewhat concerned that his United Irishmen colleagues would be suspicious of involvement in the arrests in Dublin six days previously. Nothing untoward happened to Reynolds and afterwards he arranged a meeting for local captains of the United Irishmen in Athy on 20th March. The meeting in a back room of Peter Kelly’s shop in the Main Street was convened to coincide with Athy’s fair. Reynolds read Lord Edward Fitzgerald’s letter to the rebel captains and then proceeded to burn it in their presence. Anxious to resign from the Society of United Irishmen Reynolds pressed the South Kildare Captains to allow him to do so citing the earlier arrests in Oliver Bond’s house as his reason for wishing to step down. It was decided that Reynolds would share his position as Colonel with Dan Caulfield of Levitstown. Nevertheless Reynolds was never again actively involved in the affairs of the United Irishmen.

Michael Devoy's history of Athy

One of the interesting magazines published in Ireland in the aftermath of the Act of Union was the Irish Magazine. Edited by the notorious Walter (Watty) Cox it first appeared in 1807. Cox’s Magazine was one of the more significant journals of that time and engaged in what Barbara Hayley in ‘300 years of Irish Periodicals’ described as ‘outrageously insulting (behaviour) to the Administration and to the Established Church’. My interest in the Irish Magazine stemmed from my purchase of a bound copy of the monthly journal for 1809. In March of that year Michael Devoy of Kill wrote an interesting piece on the history of Athy. Devoy was a granduncle of the Fenian John Devoy. He was born at the Heath, Athy but because of his involvement in the 1798 rebellion the family moved to Kill in 1805. The Nationalist and Leinster Times of 6th October 1928 on reporting the death of John Devoy made reference to Michael Devoy’s article on Athy. It noted that the volume of the Irish Magazine in which the article appeared ‘was picked up at Mendozas Old Book Store at Ann Street, New York by Frank Richardson, a native of Athy and handed to the editor of the Gaelic American.’ The article claimed that Michael Devoy was a captain of the rebels in County Kildare during the ’98 Rebellion and that he had the benefit of his father’s long and intimate knowledge of the town of Athy when writing the article. Devoy in the Irish magazine article recounted how the monastery on the west side of the River Barrow was founded by Richard de St. Michael, the Lord of Rheban, under the invocations of St. John and St. Thomas. The precinct of the monastery extended from the river at the foot of the bridge, containing all that part of the town called St. Johns and St. John’s Lane and its demesne consisted of the island in the river and the adjacent fields as far as the military barracks. He noted that the Dominican Monastery on the east side of the river, founded in 1253 by the families of the Boisels and Hogans, extended from the river along the north side of the church to the corner of the street heading to Prestons Gate and from there along the street under the said gate and to the corner of Janeville Lane and to the rear of the presen t house called The Abbey. The church referred to was the Church of Ireland church which was then located at the rear of the Town Hall and interestingly Devoy referenced the claim that the church steeple had formed part of the old Dominican Abbey. The reference to the house called The Abbey which was demolished a few years ago was much older than we all thought given Devoy’s references to it in 1809. Whites Castle, according to Devoy, was built by the 8th Earl of Kildare about 1506, a year or two after a bridge over the river Barrow was built. He claimed that the castle was repaired and enlarged in 1575 by William White from hence it obtained the name Whites Castle. Among the town ruins noted over 200 years ago were those of St. Michael’s Church built some time in the 14th century and founded, as Devoy claimed, by the St. Michael family. He described the ‘new chapel’ built in place of the chapel burned in the aftermath of the 1798 Rebellion, which he says was built on a plot of ground granted by the Duke of Leinster. He continued ‘the new chapel (which was demolished in 1960) is not by any means suitable to the large congregation, nor on a plan fit for a country chapel.’ Apparently, he was dissatisfied with the construction of a gallery which he claimed ‘from the noise above the people below for about 60 feet in length cannot hear the priest’s voice, the men ranged on one side and the women on the other.’ He referred to the Quaker Meeting House and to the Methodist House as well as the prison (then in Whites Castle) which he claims was without a privy until an addition was built in 1802. He decried the fact that there was no manufacturer of any consequence in the town which for many years ‘surpassed the Kingdom for the best and most extensive tanyards.’ Athy was also he claimed the most extensive town in Ireland about 30 years previously for distilling whiskey ‘there being 14 stills at full work and the entire of the malt to supply them was manufactured here.’ The one redeeming feature according to Devoy was the extensive porter and ale brewery carried on by Robert Rawson and the extensive flour mills ‘in the neighbourhood, two of which are in the town.’ This years famine Remembrance Service will be held in St. Mary’s Cemetery located opposite St. Vincent’s Hospital on Sunday 15th May at 3.00 p.m. The service gives us an opportunity to publicly honour Athy’s Famine dead with dignity and reverence and to recall a period in our history which cast a shadow over Ireland’s subsequent history.

The People's Park, Brian Hughes Piper and Whistle Player

In Eye on the Past No. 1513 I wrote of the Peoples Park and suggested that the Park provided for the people of Athy by Augustus Frederick Fitzgerald, the 3rd Duke of Leinster, was opened sometime in the 1850s. Referring to the arrival of the railway in Athy in 1846 I believe that the Crib Road, now known as Church Road, was constructed at the same time. A misplaced map recently discovered by Paud O’Connor in the Trinity College library collection helps to confirm that the road was indeed laid down as part of the railway development work in Athy. The map discovered by Paud was misfiled in the collection of John Rocque’s map books. It had been prepared by Clarges Greene in 1850. Greene of Dominic Street, Dublin had prepared a map of Athy in 1827 for the Duke of Leinster on a scale of 80ft. to 1inch. That manuscript map showed with great detail and clarity the entire town of Athy on a single sheet measuring 56inches x 82½inches. The 1850 Clarges Greene map was prepared as part of a survey of ‘Boherbuey in the manor of Athy’ for the Duke of Leinster. It showed the newly developed Southern and Western railway line and the station house, with the fairgreen on the north side of the line and a very small St. Michael’s burial ground. What is of interest are two roads each described on the map as ‘new road’. The first is what later became known as the Crib Road, while the other new road is the present Kildare Road. The original road to Kildare, but then described as a street located as it was in the centre of Athy, was the present Stanhope Street. In Rocque’s map of east Athy prepared in 1756, what we now know as Stanhope Street was then called Cotters Lane and subsequently Kildare Street. So the extension of the railway to Athy in 1846 gave us two new roads, the current Kildare Road and the Crib Road and undoubtedly led to the development of the lands encircled by the new Crib Road as the Peoples Park. Incidentally the name Crib comes from the metal cribs or circular barriers which were put around the young trees planted on both sides of the new road. The trees are no longer on Church Road but I do recall them when as a youngster with my pals in Offaly Street we played on the road which we always knew as the Crib Road. The cribs were long gone at that stage, but the name remained. When writing Eye on the Past No. 1529 of the Garda Siochana members who played Gaelic football for Athy Gaelic Football Club and Kildare County senior team I omitted to mention another great football player Colm Moran. Colm was for many years a stalwart on the Athy senior team and played on the 1987 Athy championship winning team. He featured on the Kildare County senior team for several years and retired recently as a member of the Garda Siochana. The Athy Gaelic Football Club’s association with An Garda Siochana is a unique and proud relationship stretching back to the 1930s when Garda George Comerford played for Athy and continued up to our time by Johnny McEvoy, Brendan Kehoe, Mick Carolan, Anthony McLoughlin, Eamonn Henry and Colm Moran. I missed the recent launch of Brian Hughes’ new CD as I was travelling from Cork that evening but from all accounts a great night of traditional music was enjoyed by all. The musical talent which has originated in Athy in recent years is quite extraordinary given the town’s relatively modest population size. Brian Hughes, a wonderful piper and whistle player, has featured on several CD’s to date and his growing reputation in the world of Irish traditional music is a measure of his masterful musical skills. I have often sought to make connections between Athy’s street bands of previous generations and the musicians of today without convincing even myself that there is a continuous generation link between them. Whether or not we can make that connection there is no doubt that Athy’s current crop of star performers, Brian Hughes, Jack L, Joe Byrne, Picture This, the Sullivan Brothers and Fran O’Mara are part of a great music making tradition which embraced several generations of Athy folk. This year’s famine commemoration service will be held in St. Mary’s Cemetery, located opposite St Vincent’s Hospital, on Sunday 15th May at 3pm. In the grounds of the hospital, formerly the Workhouse, can be found James McKenna’s famine monument. The famine monument, which I understand Kildare County Council agreed to erect in St. Mary’s Cemetery, has not yet materialised. The service on May 15th gives us an opportunity to publicly honour Athy’s famine dead with dignity and reverence and to recall a period in our community’s history which cast a shadow over Ireland’s subsequent years.

White's Castle and the possibility of its acquisition by Athy U.D.C. in the 1950s

The Nationalist and Leinster Times of December 17th 1955 under the headline ‘Bord Failte foots the Bill’ reported on that week’s Athy Urban District Council meeting which had been attended by two representatives of Bord Failte. The Councillors were informed of Bord Failte’s plans to acquire Whites Castle for development as a museum. The entire acquisition and renovation costs were to be borne by the tourism authority. Bord Failte also undertook to provide suitable living quarters for a caretaker and to pay all legal costs in connection with the transfer of ownership to the Urban Council. It was indicated that the Marquis of Kildare had promised several artefacts for display in the museum, while the Acting Town Clerk Jimmy O’Higgins was pleased to announce that ‘all necessary work on the Castle would be carried out under the supervision of Bord Failte’. The Council’s Chairman Tom Carbery proposed a vote of thanks to the Bord Failte representatives, Messrs P. Lawler and P.J. Hartnett which was seconded by Matt Tynan who expressed the view that ‘the people of Athy will be glad to know that the town would soon have its own museum.’ In response Mr. Lawler of Bord Failte reminded the Councillors that ‘if Athy and other inland centres can offer an attraction of that nature, they will be handsomely paid by the money that comes from tourism.’ The Urban Council minute book records the first reference to the museum in Whites Castle as a letter to the Council from Bord Failte on 10th July 1953 suggesting that the Council purchase Whites Castle for use as a local museum. The Council members agreed to enquire into the tenure rights of Miss Norman who occupied the castle. The next reference in the Council minute book to the museum was on 2nd March 1955 after Bord Failte submitted drawings and specifications for proposed structural and decorative work to Whites Castle. The local Councillors enquiries, if any, into Miss Norman’s tenancy rights were not recorded but in considering the Bord Failte drawings it was agreed ‘to see if Miss Norman would act as a caretaker to the museum.’ A new Council was elected in June 1955 and at their meeting the following September the Councillors resolved ‘that before any final decision is taken by the Council as regards the acquisition of Whites Castle a sub-committee consisting of the Chairman Tom Carbery and Councillors Dooley and Tynan be and is hereby appointed to interview Miss Norman to obtain her view on what remuneration she will require if she was appointed caretaker of the proposed museum.’ At the October meeting the Chairman reported that he and Councillor Tynan and the Town Clerk visited Miss Norman on 5th October. She was willing to act as caretaker of the museum for £1 per week plus fees collected from visitors. She also required the Council to provide her with adequate living quarters in the Castle and to employ ‘a charwoman for the museum.’ These terms were dependant on her retaining her old age pension of 24 shillings per week. The terms were accepted by the Council subject to Bord Failte bearing the full costs of converting the castle for use as a local museum. The project advanced when Bord Failte after initially refusing to do so agreed to provide showcases for the museum. In June 1956 Bord Failte reported that if Miss Norman became life tenant of portion of Whites Castle there would be no difficulty in the Council obtaining clear possession on her death. The Council immediately passed a resolution that ‘the caretakers’ quarters in Whites Castle be leased to Miss Mary Norman for her lifetime.’ The County Manager wrote to Miss Norman on 1st August 1956 setting out the Council’s terms to which her Solicitor, P.J. O’Neill, replied on 31st August (P.J. O’Neill had been a member of Athy U.D.C. from 1950 to 1955). Mr. O’Neill claimed that Miss Norman had a ‘valuable saleable interest in Whites Castle which she occupies under a lease dated 25th April 1925 for a term of 60 years at a yearly rent of £5. Accordingly, she was not prepared to surrender her interest in the property to Athy U.D.C. without receiving suitable monetary compensation.’ The Council members having considered the letter concluded that they had nothing further to add to their original offer. The local newspaper of 6th February 1957 reported the Council’s receipt of a letter from Bord Failte which stated ‘in view of Miss Norman’s refusal to accept the Council’s offer ….. there would appear to be no alternative but to abandon the project and accordingly Bord Failte’s offer of grant in aid towards rehabilitation of Whites Castle for the purpose of a museum was being withdrawn.’ The Councillors agreed to send a deputation to meet Miss Norman and her Solicitor. There is no record of what transpired but by letter of 26th April 1957 Bord Failte advised that its commitments over the following five years ‘and the necessity for adhering to a planned programme leaves no immediate prospect of making a grant in aid towards the rehabilitation of Whites Castle.’ When I founded the Athy Museum Society in 1983 I was not aware of the opportunity which had been presented 28 years earlier to open a museum in Whites Castle. There have been three occasions within the past 20 years for Athy Urban Council or Kildare County Council to acquire the castle. However, on each occasion the local authority failed to grasp the opportunity to purchase Athy’s most iconic building. I have no doubt that some time in the future Whites Castle will be acquired, developed and opened as a public museum to complement the town’s existing Shackleton Museum.

Garda Siochana members from Athy and the G.A.A.

We are about to celebrate the centenary of the founding of our police force, a celebration which would throw up memories good and bad for every family and every household in Ireland. For many households it will be good memories of family members who joined the Garda Siochana, for others sad memories of Garda members who were killed or injured in the course of their duties as Guardians of the Peace. Others may have memories which centre on wrongdoings and the part played by Gardai in bringing offenders to justice. Whatever our memories, the Garda Siochana has played an important role in the lives of several generations of Irish people. We may complain about the apparent lack of interaction between the Garda Siochana and the general public drawing comparison with the Gardai of an earlier age for whom “policing” was such an important part of the policeman’s role. Whatever about the strength and weaknesses of the modern day Garda Siochana one welcomed aspect of the earlier force was a decision of the then Commissioner Eoin O’Duffy to encourage Gardai to be involved in Gaelic sports. It was a decision which helped to break down the barriers which existed between the Irish people and the previous policing force, the RIC, during the War of Independence. Over the last 100 years Gaelic football and hurling has had many great exponents of the games who in their everyday life wore the uniform of An Garda Siochana. Here in Athy we were privileged to have one of the great footballing greats of the past, Garda George Comerford who captained the Athy team which won the Kildare senior championships in 1937. George was stationed as a garda in Athy working out of the Garda barracks in Duke Street which was then directly opposite what was Maxwells Garage. During his footballing days George togged out for four different counties, his native Clare, Dublin, Kildare and Louth. He joined the gardai in 1931 and that same year he was the only non Kerry man on the Munster team that defeated Leinster in the Railway Cup final. He also played on the Irish team in the Tailteann games of 1932. As captain of the Athy senior team in 1937 he played alongside Johnny McEvoy of Woodstock Street who would later join the Garda Siochana. Johnny who played for the Kildare senior county team for several years also won a county Dublin championship medal as a member of the Garda football club. The 1950’s saw the emergence of two young Athy club members as stars on the Kildare County senior team. Brendan Kehoe whose father John W operated a pub in Offaly Street first played for the county team in 1957. For the following four years he was a regular on the Kildare County team. Brendan joined the Garda Siochana and retired some years ago as a Sergeant. Another Athy player to feature in the 1957 Kildare county team was Mick Carolan whose county playing career extended over a period of 18 years. Mick, who has been the subject of a previous Eye in the Past, like his team mate, Brendan Keogh also joined the Garda Siochana. He won an All Star award in 1966 and retired from the Garda Siochana as a Superintendent several years ago. Another retired member of An Garda Siochana who played football for Athy Gaelic Football Club and County Kildare is Eamonn Henry. Eamonn who is now a retired member of An Garda Siochana played as did his father for his native County Roscommon. Eamonn featured as a County player on the Kildare team between 1984 and 1987 following which he lined out for County Roscommon for another 3 years. He won a senior championship medal playing for Athy in 1987 and indeed won the Man of the Match award in that final. Anthony McLoughlin currently serving as a Superintendent in the Garda Siochana also played football for Athy and Kildare County. He was on the Athy senior championship winning team of 1987 with his garda colleague, Eamonn Henry. These men all members of An Garda Siochana who played for Athy Gaelic football club surely fulfilled Eoin O’Duffy’s desire for Gaelic sport to create comradeship within the ranks of the Garda Siochana. Their participation in the sport also helped create a bond between the members of the Gardai and the people they served as Commissioner O’Duffy had intended. The involvement of young gardai in Gaelic games up and down the country is in sharp contrast to the events of the 4th of August 1918 when the then young GAA took on the British empire and the Garda Siochana’s predecessors, the Royal Irish Constabulary who had sought to ban the playing of GAA games.

The Great Famine and Athy

Started in 2008 the National Famine Commemoration Day gives the Irish people one dedicated day each year to reflect on one of the most significant tragic events in our history. The Great Famine which started in 1845 resulted in the deaths by starvation or disease of one million Irish men, women and children and the loss of a million and a half others to emigration. The third Sunday in May was officially designated by the Government as the National Famine Commemoration Day and this year the Athy commemoration ceremony will be held in St. Mary’s cemetery across the Canal bridge from the former local workhouse, now St. Vincent’s Hospital, on Sunday the 15th of May. In December 1995 Kildare County Council published “Lest we Forget – Kildare and the Great Famine” and by doing so allowed our knowledge of a significant and sad period of our history to overtake the silence of those who survived the famine. By and large those survivors did not pass on to the next generation their accounts of the unimaginable horrors of the Great Famine and so it was left to a later generation of historians to broaden our knowledge of those distressful days. I was one of the contributors to the County Council’s publication and in researching Athy’s Great Famine story I was astonished to learn of the emigration scheme which saw young girls from Athy’s workhouse sent to Australia after the famine. The death of 1,205 inmates of Athy’s workhouse during the Great Famine was another fact from our local history with which I was not familiar. Indeed that lack of knowledge extended not only to everyone of my generation but also to all post famine generations. A Catholic priest, Fr. John O’Rourke, who served as a curate in Athy from 1851 to 1852 wrote “The History of The Great Famine of 1847” which was one of the earliest accounts of the famine. It remained a standard work for generations but even his account has no reference to Athy’s famine story. The town of Athy was estimated to have lost upwards of 1,036 persons in addition to the 1,205 who died in the workhouse. The population of Athy Poor Law Union fell by 10,701 in the ten years to 1851. Within that part of the union area located in County Kildare the actual decrease was 19.04% while in the County Laois area of the union the population loss was a staggering 28.26%. At the height of the famine 16,365 persons from the Athy Poor Law Union were fed from local soup kitchens. This represented 34% of the total population. The highest dependency on soup kitchen rations was in the Ballyadams electoral division where it was almost 100%. The possibility of hungry distressed poor people exacting retribution on the prosperous merchant class was a matter of concern for local Justice of the Peace, John Butler who lived in St. John’s, Athy. He wrote as follows to Dublin Castle in April 1848 “As the only resident magistrate in this town I beg leave to state to your excellency that a few days ago the troops quartered here were withdrawn and the town left to the protection of a few police. I beg to refer that this is a county town with a jail and nearly 100 prisoners in it, 16 of whom are under sentence of transportation and only the Governor and three turnkeys to guard them. There are two banks in the town, a barrack for either cavalry or infantry and not a soldier. I do not like my native town in these alarming times to be left to the protection of 10 or a dozen policemen”. Athy was to remain peaceful despite the revolutionary events in Europe that same year and the short lived revolution led by William Smith O’Brien which ended with what became known as the battle of widow McCormacks cabbage patch. Throughout the first six months of 1849 the workhouse numbers in Athy increased so as to require the provision of additional workhouse accommodation. A grand canal store at Nelson Street was requisitioned to accommodate the overflow from the workhouse while five houses in Barrack Street were taken over for use as an auxiliary workhouse. It was only in recent years that we have come to understand how the Great Famine physically and emotionally shattered the lives of so many families from this area. It was for generations an unrecorded and unspoken period in our local history until it gradually became part of the community’s folk memory which helped define the relationship between a decolonised 26 counties and Britain. Here in Athy our famine dead from the local workhouse were brought across the road to be buried in unmarked graves in the workhouse cemetery. St. Michael’s cemetery also holds the remains of those residents of the town who died during the Great Famine. On Sunday, 15th of May at 3.00pm a short service will be held in St. Mary’s cemetery to remember Athy’s famine dead and to recall what was the single most important event in Irish history.

The fight for Athy Outer Relief Road

We are told that history is written by the victors. Not always it seems, as evidenced by the recent publicity surrounding the “tossing of the sod” to mark the start of work on the construction of the Southern Distributor Road formerly referred to as the Outer Relief Road. This was a project first proposed in or around 1975 as part of a traffic alleviation measure in anticipation of increased traffic flows through the town of Athy. Both an inner relief road and an outer relief road were suggested as future developments for the town and the then council members Paddy Dooley, Mossie Reilly, Jim McEvoy, Cha Chanders, Christy Delahunt, Enda Kinsella, Frank English, Jim Bergin and Megan Maguire accepted the experts proposals. However, there was no follow up until 10 years later when it became known that the inner relief road was to be built with walls on either side as it went through the centre of the town. This was an unbelievable degree of planning ineptitude which prompted the councillors elected in 1985 to raise objections which eventually led the County Council officials to announce that the roadside walls would not be built. At the same time some members of the Urban Council expressed concern at the building of a traffic route through the centre of the town which prompted the then County Manager Gerry Ward to bring forward an agreement whereby responsibility for any new road development passed from Athy U.D.C to Kildare County Council. At that stage while a majority of the Athy Councillors approved the building of an inner relief road, opposition to it’s construction was increasing amongst the local people. In its later stages that opposition was led by a newly formed Athy Urban Development Group which supported the alternative outer relief road as the best solution for the town’s growing traffic problems. However, a majority of the local councillors still supported the inner relief road and the matter became a local election issue during the Local Government elections of 1999. The election of 9 members of Athy U.D.C in June of that year saw 5 members elected who opposed the inner relief road and supported the outer relief road. However, just two weeks after the election one of the newly elected Councillors changed his views to give a majority in favour of the inner relief road. Kildare County Council was now ready to proceed with the building of the inner relief road which would exit from Meeting Lane across the back square and over a new bridge to join the Kilkenny Road at Augustus Bridge. It was a proposal which was the subject of a Planning Appeal Board enquiry held in the Curragh over 8 days in 2005. The local people’s objections to the inner relief road were presented with the assistance of Derek Tynan, Architect and Conor Wall, Environmental Consultant and opposed by numerous experts engaged by Kildare County Council. The Planning Board decision of the 2nd of June 2005 rejected the Council’s plan for an inner relief road as it considered that the road would both fail as a street and as a relief road because it would continue to bring traffic, including heavy commercial vehicles, through the town centre. This was a landmark ruling being the first time a local authority road scheme was rejected by the Planning Appeal Board. Undaunted Kildare County Council appealed the Planning Board decision to the High Court where they were also unsuccessful. Several years passed during which time Kildare County Council and Athy Urban District Council insisted on including the construction of an inner relief road in Athy’s town development plan. In the meantime nothing was done to advance the building of a new road. A change of attitude came with a change of personnel and the outer relief road project, fast approaching it’s 50th anniversary, was taken up and moved forward. Kildare County Council applied to the Planning Appeal Board for planning permission for the outer relief road which was granted in October 2017. The contract for the €40 million road construction contract was awarded to the Kill, County Kildare based firm BAM Ireland last October. Happily work on the much needed road has now commenced. The new 3.4 KM road will include two new roundabouts, new signalised junctions, footpaths and cycleways as well as an 80M single span bridge over the River Barrow which will allow the present railway bridge to be used for pedestrians and cyclists. It was those local people who resisted the inner relief road project and supported a call for an outer relief road who deserve our praise and gratitude. Amongst those were the following members of the development group which was formed in 1998 as a non-party political group to support the building of the outer relief road and to oppose the building of an inner relief road. They included Joan Collis, Vera Doyle, Mick Grufferty, Padraig Healy, Henry Howard, Fiona Rainsford, Liam Rainsford, Carmel Reddy and Peggy Whelan. The local politicians who supported the towns people’s opposition to an inner relief road and advocated for an outer relief road included Sean Cunnane, Frank English, Mark Dalton and Michael Foley. The true story of the campaign for the outer relief road or what is now called the Southern Distributor Road is one which is in danger of being overlooked or misinterpreted by later generations. This short account tells the true story of a controversial road project which brought a majority of the local people of Athy into conflict over several years with many of the towns public representatives and with the local authorities of Athy and Kildare County. When the new road is completed it will represent the greatest intervention in the town of Athy since the arrival of the railway in 1847.

I.R.A. and the War of Independence in North County Longford

County Longford or more specifically East Longford’s earliest identifiable connection with the Irish Republican movement was the election of Joseph McGuinness, the Sinn Fein Candidate in the bye-election of May 1917. McGuinness who was a prison in Lewes Jail in England defeated the Home Rule candidate with Sinn Fein using the slogan ‘Put him in to get him out’ for the first time. It was a slogan which would be used in many subsequent elections to equally good effect. Not so well known is that during the War of Independence County Longford, and particularly the northern part of the county saw more I.R.A. activity than any other County with the exception of those in the Munster region. Longford’s part in that campaign now forms part of the story of Longford’s Republicanism which has been written by former librarian Sean O’Suilleabhain. It follows on an earlier book dealing with Leitrim’s Republican story written by his son Cormac and Marie Coleman’s excellent book ‘County Longford and The Irish Revolution 1910-1923’ published in 2003. County Longford was my fathers home County and it was there that several generations of the Taaffe’s farmed near to the Cavan border in the townlands of Legga and Moyne. My father and his four brothers attended the National School in Moyne and it was that same school many years later my brother George joined as the school principal. My father was the youngest of five brothers, two of whom emigrated to America as soon as they reached adulthood. The oldest, my uncle George fought as an American infantry soldier in World War 1. The next two brothers James and Frank were each in time to take over the running of family farms in Legga and Moyne while my father was a pupil in the Patrician College in Ballyfin and later in the Teachers Training College in Dublin. It was in Legga that Michael Collins addressing a public meeting on 3rd March 1918 said, ‘when the Volunteers raid for arms they will go where they will find ones that will be of some use to them.’ It was for this speech that Collins was later arrested and lodged in Sligo jail. James Taaffe and Frank Taaffe were members of the Dromard Company, Fifth Battalion I.R.A., a fact not previously known to me but confirmed by the listings in O’Suilleabhain’s book. The leading Longford I.R.A. man during the War of Independence was Sean Mac Eoin, known as the legendary ‘Blacksmith of Ballinalee’ whose biography written by Padraic O’Farrell was published by Mercier Press in 1981. Mac Eoin led the search for arms which Collins had encouraged and the first serious engagement with British forces was an unsuccessful attack on Drumlish R.I.C. barracks on the 5th January 1920. A later attack on the well-fortified Ballinamuck Barracks again led by Mac Eoin resulted in the destruction of that building. The I.R.A. attack on Ballymahon R.I.C. barracks on the 19th August 1920 was the Longford Volunteers first real success when the I.R.A. men led by Mac Eoin captured the barracks, accepted the surrender of the R.I.C. men and captured their weapons. Arva, the nearest village to the Taaffe homesteads saw an I.R.A. attack on the R.I.C. Barracks on the 2nd October 1920. The barracks was set on fire and again the I.R.A. men seized a large quantity of ammunition and guns. The shooting dead of R.I.C. Inspector Philip Kelleher by the IRA while he was drinking in Kiernan’s Greville Arms Hotel, Granard on the 21st October 1920 resulted in the ransacking of the town by Black and Tans three days later. The most famous War of Independence battle in County Longford took place in Sean Mac Eoin’s own village of Ballinalee over two days starting on the 3rd November 1920. The battle of Ballinalee is an important part of County Longford’s War of Independence story as it was there that a superb defence was put up by Mac Eoin’s men in defiance of a much superior military force. The battle ended with the withdrawal of the British forces, an outcome which helped create the legend of the fearless Sean Mac Eoin, who received an address from Athlone U.D.C. on his takeover of Athlone military barracks on 28th February 1922 which included the lines, ‘as long as the story of Ireland lasts Ballinalee and its hero will be written large upon its pages.’ Into February 1921, the war continued and the Clonfin ambush of 2nd February where a British convoy was attacked and the British Commander Francis Craven killed resulted in the surrender of its men. The action at Clonfin became another famous and memorable I.R.A. victory in the War of Independence in County Longford. The day after the ambush, the British Troops carried out numerous reprisals in and around the north of the county. Granard in North County Longford was the home of Michael Collins’s fiancé Kitty Kiernan. County Longford was also the home of Ruairi O’Bradaigh, President of Sinn Fein and one time chief of staff of the modern day I.R.A. His story and that of the Republicans of the past and recent decades is outlined in O’Suilleabhain’s interesting book which adds an amount of colourful detail to the story first told in Marie Coleman’s book almost 20 years ago.

Visit of Manchester Mayor to Athy

On St. Patrick’s Day 1922, the Royal Irish Constabulary barracks on Barrack Lane, Athy was taken over by members of the Irish Free State forces. The building, erected in the early years of the 18th century and occupied as a cavalry barracks by the Princess Charlotte of Wales Dragoon Guards in 1716, was used as an R.I.C. barracks from 1889. Following the Barrowhouse ambush on 16th May 1921 in which William Connor and James Lacey were killed the Athy barracks was attacked by the I.R.A. without any loss of life on either side. On Friday the 17th of March, 100 years ago at 12.30 in the afternoon, after the R.I.C. police men and the few remaining British military had departed, the barracks was taken over by I.R.A. officers and men who paraded down by Barrack Lane led by Commandant Finn of the Carlow/Kildare Brigade. The Irish tricolour was hoisted over the building and so ended 700 years of English rule in the former fortress town of Athy. 100 years later, St. Patrick’s Day 2022 witnessed another parade, this time through the principal streets of Athy led by an English politician - the Mayor of Manchester. The two parades distanced by several generations highlighted the ironies in the historical relationship between England and Ireland. That relationship was determined and regulated by the imperialistic nature of the British empire but despite this Irish men for centuries helped the English to keep control over its foreign colonies by serving in its armed forces. The relationship between the two countries is pitted with paradoxes and no place is that more evident than in the history of the Irish in Manchester. The late John Dowd, one of the founding members of the Irish Association in Manchester wrote of his experiences as an Irish immigrant. “When we left home we carried nothing with us except a strong religious faith and a strong desire for advancement ----- emigration was a leap into the unknown. It was an enormous intellectual and emotional commitment to leave home and loved ones and begin an adventure filled with incalculable uncertainty, risk and hardship”. Manchester over the years was to accept thousands of Irish immigrants like John Dowd despite periodic outbreaks of anti Irish violence in that city. The United Englishmen group organised in Manchester in 1798 was closely associated with the United Irishmen and following the passing of the Act of Union there were several riots in the city involving Orange Lodge members and emigrant Irish. The anti catholic and anti Irish riots in Stockport which followed the Pope’s announcement of the reestablishment of the Catholic Hierarchy in Britain in September 1850 was a difficult time for the Irish communities in Manchester. The Murphy riots followed with Catholic churches in Manchester attacked by followers of William Murphy, an Irish man who toured throughout England lecturing against the Church of Rome. Irish men and women living in Manchester were politically active and perhaps the best known of those Irish Activists was John Doherty, a Donegal man who was to the forefront in ending the Combination Acts which made trade unions illegal. He championed the workers cause and made a huge contribution to the British labour movement. Another Irish man with links to Manchester was Fergus O’Connor a leader of the Chartist movement in the 1830’s. In more recent years the Manchester Irish were represented by many Irish organisations including the Gaelic League and the now defunct anti Partition League while County Associations representing most of the Irish counties are to be found in Manchester. I had the privilege of attending the annual dinner of the Kildare Association in Manchester 25 or so years ago where I met it’s president Tony Connolly, formerly of Kilberry and met many more Kildare folk including my old friend Sarah Allen. It was Sarah who brought me to the “Fenian Arches”, the site of the Fenian ambush in 1867 which led to public hanging of Allen, Larkin and O’Brien. Later that same day I visited the Manchester martyrs memorial in Moston Cemetery. The history of the Irish and the English has been closely interlinked ever since the 13th century but in more recent years by emigration. The conflicts of the past were symbolically ended with the taking over of English military barracks such as Athy’s in March 1922. Family members of Irish emigrants now living in England have strengthened the bonds of friendship between the two countries even if England’s colonial past is still present in the partitioned six counties of Ireland. The visit of the Manchester Mayor to lead Athy’s St. Patrick’s Day parade confirms the unique bond between England and Ireland which despite our troubled history has been shaped and strengthened by many generations of Irish emigrants.

Discovery of Shackleton's 'Endurance'

For many years I have been fascinated by the drama and the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic, partly inspired by a personal family connection to the event. I have written previously of my relation Ellen Corr, a third-class passenger, who survived the sinking and spent the rest of her life in New York. Invariably when a ship is lost at sea loss of life follows adding to the poignancy of these events. I well remember the excitement generated by the discovery of the Titanic in 1985 by the American Oceanographer Dr. Robert Ballard, southeast off the coast of Newfoundland at a depth of 3,800 metres. I had a similar reaction when my phone ‘pinged’ early last Wednesday morning with the news of the finding of the polar exploration ship, Endurance. It had disappeared into the watery depths of the Antarctic Seas 107 years ago and few of us believed it would ever be seen again. The Endurance was the ship which brought Ernest Shackleton and 27 other souls south to the Antarctic in 1914 with the ambitious aim to cross the Antarctic continent, some 2,400 kilometres from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. The story is well known, how Endurance was crushed and sank beneath the ice in November 1915 and the epic journey to safety by Shackleton and his men over the following 9 months. It seemed unlikely, that after its mauling by the ice, that much of the Endurance would survive but like many of us I marvelled at the pristine imagery of the ship now sitting on the Antarctic seabed at a depth of 3,000 metres. Prominently in view was the lettering ‘Endurance’ on the stern of the ship above the five pointed star, a survival from its original name ‘Polaris’. Within hours the worlds media was in touch with the Shackleton Museum in Athy and contributions from the Museum’s directors featured in both print and television media both here and abroad. The Museum has in it’s collections a superb large scale model of the Endurance from the Channel 4 drama series ‘Shackleton’ which featured Belfast born Kenneth Branagh in the titular role. The Museum was delighted to be able to provide the ‘Irish’ angle to this breaking international story, a welcome respite to the darker stories that have dominated the news recently. With the return of the Shackleton Autumn School this October we will all have an opportunity to hear the full story of the search as Mensun Bound, one of the expeditions leaders, a distinguished Marine Archaeologist known as the ‘Indiana Jones of the Deep’, will be presenting a lecture at the weekend. Mensun, a proud Falkland Islander, came to Athy just before his departure on the Endurance 22 expedition, anxious to see Shackleton’s birthplace and to view the Museum’s expanding collection of Shackleton artefacts. The return of the Autumn School will be welcomed, marking as it will the renewal of acquaintances with visitors from here and abroad whom have made long lasting friendships with the town and its people. These connections have been sustained by virtual online events in 2020 and 2021 (Virtually Shackleton) but it is difficult to replicate the sense of togetherness which an ‘in person’ event gives to people. While the Endurance will remain on the seabed, I note press reports about the acquisition by the Irish state of two new ships for the Irish Naval Service from New Zealand. What better way to mark the centenary year of Shackleton’s death by having one of the ships named after the Kildare born explorer. His comrade in arms, Tom Crean, will be similarly celebrated with the launch of the marine research vessel ‘RV Tom Crean’ this summer which will be operated by the Marine Institute and other state agencies. Maybe 2022 will see the return of two Irish icons to the sea?

Joe Byrne Piper and Traditional Music in Athy

Last week’s release of local uilleann piper Joe Byrne’s CD ‘Uilleann Piping from County Kildare’ prompted me to look back over notes I wrote in 1996 after a visit to the weekly traditional music session in Clancys. That night’s session was marked by the appearance of 14 musicians, singers and the unique monologist Ger Moriarty. Ger, who came to Athy from Mullingar to work in M.G. Nolan’s drapery shop in Duke Street, was a regular at the weekly sessions with his witty monologues. I was presented some years later with a CD of Ger performing a number of his monologues which is a wonderful memento of a man who in his younger days acted in many of the plays put on by the Social Club Players in the Town Hall and St. John’s Hall. Others noted on that night 26 years ago were Mary Smith, singer and her husband Niall, a singer and guitar player. Dinny Langton and John Hayden were also singing that night, as was Ger Gibson whose Uncle Ned Whelan played the tin whistle. While I can’t now recall the ballads they sang that night, I do remember that their contributions were in the narrative ballad tradition which was and still is an important part of traditional Irish music sessions. I was told that Ned Whelan who was from Barrowhouse previously played the banjo, but I have since learned that he was an uilleann piper of note. Indeed, Ned had the unique honour of sharing many an uilleann piping session with the legendary uillean piper Johnny Doran and his brother Felix when they called to Ned’s forge in Barrowhouse whenever they were in the area. Uilleann piping was very much to the fore during the Clancy sessions, with piper Toss Quinn leading the session, assisted by fellow piper Seamus Byrne. Jimmy McDonnell from Skerries played the piano accordion, with Conor O’Carroll on tin whistle and Jack Dowling on button accordion. Conor has since made the transition to the uilleann pipes, following in the steps of many uilleann pipers including our own Brian Hughes who is a master piper and whistle player. Two other musicians who enlivened that night’s session were Tony Byrne on fiddle and Martin Cooney on banjo. Tony, a retired National school teacher, came from Glencolmcille in County Donegal to a school just across the county boundary in Laois in or around 1954. He was a great favourite of the Thursday night session in Clancys which today still continues after many decades. The earliest Clancy sessions may have been linked to the establishment of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in 1951. I am unsure of this but certainly it seems that public house sessions replaced the private house sessions which were a regular feature of social life in rural Ireland up to the 1950s. Sadly many of those mentioned in this article are no longer with us but the memory of that night remains with me as I look forward to the musical career of the young Athy man Joe Byrne whose uilleann piping has now been recorded for posterity. Music has been an integral part of everyday life in Athy and South Kildare for many decades. Several pipe bands based in and around the Athy area had been noted in the early part of the last century. Fife and Drum bands were also a feature of life in Athy over many decades, helping to sustain the music tradition which would in time give rise to the local dance bands of the 1940s and the show bands of the 1960s. I have often wondered what part, if any, Athy’s music tradition played in shaping the extraordinary carer of Henry Phillips who was born in Athy in 1866. Phillips was the man who over a 60-year career as an impresario and owner of the world-renowned Carl Rosa Opera Company brought the world’s leading musicians and singers to venues in Northern Ireland, including Enrico Caruso to Belfast and John McCormack and Paul Robeson to Derry. Whatever about the Athy born Henry Phillips and his enormous contribution to the music scene in Northern Ireland over many decades, Athy has earned for itself over the years a very notable music tradition. Athy, the town where the legendary piper Felix Doran died, has now provided to the world of Irish traditional music two young pipers of exceptional merit. Athy man Brian Hughes, a master musician, has already reached out to a nationwide audience and indeed to an audience beyond this island of ours with his CDs of pipe and whistle music. He is now joined by Joe Byrne, another young Athy man whose recently launched CD of pipe music from County Kildare is Joe’s first venture into the Irish traditional recording scene. We wish him well.

Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland visits Athy

We welcomed the newly appointed Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland on a day long visit to the Shackleton Museum and Athy last Tuesday. Her Excellency, Miss Mari Skåre, was appointed just over 18 months ago. She had previously been the Norwegian Ambassador to Afghanistan and her most recent appointment was as Chef de Cabinet to the President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly where she oversaw the recent elections of Ireland to the Security Council. Athy and particularly the Shackleton Museum has had a long and fruitful association with the Norwegian Embassy extending over the last 15 years. Ambassador Skåre is now the 5th Ambassador to visit the Museum and like her predecessors was anxious to learn more about the town and its history. She began her visit at the Clanard Court Hotel where she met representatives of the National Ploughing Association. Coming from a country which prides itself on the support and assistance which it affords its agricultural sector, the Ambassador was anxious to learn more about the National Ploughing Championships which returns to Raheeniska in September 2022. She met two of the driving forces behind the event, Anna May McHugh and her daughter Ann Marie. The meeting was hosted in the Fennin family run Clanard Court Hotel and the Ambassador was particularly appreciative of the warm welcome she received there. The Ambassador next called to the Shackleton Museum which over the last decade and a half has fostered an enduring and growing relationship with the Fram Polar Museum in Oslo. The Ambassador had an opportunity to enjoy the exhibits in the Museum and also met with two pupils from Ardscoil na Tríonóide accompanied by their teacher, Mr. Paul Quinn, who outlined Shackleton related research which some of the schools pupils will be embarking upon shortly. The Ambassador was then treated to a presentation on the Museum redevelopment plans which will incorporate the ship’s cabin from RYS Quest. This is the ship’s cabin in which Shackleton died on 5th January 1922 and will form an important part of the Polar displays in the revamped and redesigned museum which is expected will open towards the end of 2023. The Ambassador was treated to lunch in O’Briens pub and grocery where she was intrigued to find that the O’Brien family have been running their Irish traditional grocery and pub business since the late 1870s. The Ambassador’s trip to Athy concluded with a visit to the Athy library, followed by a tour of the Boormalt malting facilities, better known locally as Minch Malting. Due to pressure of work I was unable to meet the Ambassador until the library visit where she was hugely impressed by what is a superb example of modern Irish architecture. The visit to Boormalt provided a remarkable insight into the present day malt manufacturing process. Athy now has one of the leading malt manufacturing plants anywhere in the world and is in fact the malting capital of Ireland, a role which has evolved since the founding of the Minch malting works in 1847. 2022 marks not only the centenary of the death of Shackleton, but also marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Roald Amundsen, the great Norwegian polar explorer who enjoyed a relationship of mutual respect and admiration with Shackleton. Athy’s Shackleton Museum and the Fram Museum in Oslo are planning a number of related events to commemorate these two anniversaries which will include lectures in Oslo and Athy. The joint publication of a book of commemorative essays and other planned events are yet to be finalised. On a day in which war broke out in Ukraine the Ambassador reflected on the importance of fostering good relationships between the countries on this globe and regarded the ongoing cooperation between the museums in both Oslo and Athy as an indication of the positive outcomes that can develop from such relationships.

Dublin book shops

The recent closure of Chapters book shop in Dublin adds to the growing list of second hand book shops which have shut their doors in recent years. I remember Webbs book shops which were to be found in the 1960s on Bachelor’s Walk and Aston Quay, Dublin. That second mentioned book shop had book stalls outside the shop with well stacked book shelves inside. Its companion shop on Bachelor’s Walk closed some time before the other premises and their closure marked the end of the quayside bookshops which were once so popular in Dublin. For a book vulture like myself the years I spent in Dublin were particularly enjoyable. I worked in Baggot Street, close to Parsons book shop on Baggot Bridge which had become a Dublin literary landmark under the guidance of its owner May O’Flaherty. May, who started the book shop in the late 1940s, was always known as Miss O’Flaherty and with her behind the counter was the County Galway native, Mary King. Both appeared to be of a similar age and for book buyers they were founts of literary knowledge, ever helpful and enthusiastically advising of the works of Irish writers of merit. It was in Parsons that I met Mary Lavin, a gracious woman and a wonderful writer as well as observing, but not approaching, the poet Paddy Kavanagh on one of his regular visits to May O’Flaherty’s emporium. Parsons wasn’t a second-hand book shop but I do recall Miss O’Flaherty’s interest in the writings of Mervyn Wall and her acquisition of many remaindered copies of his books which she encouraged all and sundry to read. The aging Liam O’Flaherty who lived in nearby Court apartments was a very occasional visitor to Parsons and after I met him there he generously signed for me copies of all of his books about two years before he died. Parsons closed in 1989, while another second hand book shop which I visited at least twice a week lasted for another few more years. This was Greene’s book shop in Clare Street which was a second hand book shop with a Post Office on the ground floor and book shelves on the stairway leading to two second hand book filled rooms on the first floor. It was a wonderful place to spend one’s lunch hour and provided many exciting book finds during the 10 years I worked in the Baggot Street office. Sadly Greene’s book shop closed some years ago, as did Fred Hanna’s on Nassau Street directly opposite Trinity College. Hanna’s was a new and second hand book shop, presided over by Fred Hanna who died 11 years ago. The book shop was opened in the 1840s and taken over by Fred’s grandfather in 1907. Fred joined the business in 1951 and remembers his father who had succeeded his own father in the business buying up a substantial part of the Carton library from the Duke of Leinster. I recall attending book signings in Hanna’s by Edna O’Brien in the late 1970s and buying second hand Seamus Heaney signed books long before Hanna’s book shop closed in 1999. Another wonderful second hand book shop was Carraig book shop of Blackrock, Co. Dublin founded by Alfred Day in 1968. Carraig Books closed down in the early part of 2020 but I understand it is still carrying on business online. One of the most famous Irish book dealers of recent times was Kennys of Galway who withdrew from their High Street premises some years ago and are now to be found in an industrial estate on the Tuam Road, Galway. Galway is also home to Charlie Byrne’s book shop in Middle Street, a highly regarded second hand book shop which is probably entitled to be called the most interesting and best shop of its kind in Ireland. Charlie Byrne from County Longford trained as an archaeologist and first set up a book shop which I remember many years ago in Dominic Street, Galway. Charlie Byrnes has now become a Galway literary landmark in the same way as Kennys was some years ago when located on High Street. For the bibliophiles the opportunity to satisfy his or her search for second hand books is becoming more and more difficult. However, the loss of second hand book shops has in some way been softened by the holding of book fairs which were understandably not held during Covid 19. The Dublin book fair is a monthly event, while the Belfast and Cork book fairs are major annual events. Other book fairs are held annually in Fethard and Wexford, while the annual Graiguenamanagh book fair extending over a weekend is another event which attracts a lot of visitors to the County Kilkenny village. As the second hand book shops close a new retailing experience is opening up with the advent of charity book shops. Oxfam book shop in Parliament Street Dublin and a smaller Oxfam unit in Rathmines are worth a visit. Here in Athy we have the Lions Book Shop, opened approximately 10 years ago, where Alice Rowan works as a volunteer on behalf of the Lions Club. It provides a much-needed place for recycling books no longer required and by doing so helping Athy Lions Club charities while giving adults and young persons alike the opportunity to acquire reading material at extremely reasonable prices.

Policing and crime in early 19th century Athy

Throughout the greater part of the 19th century the dark clouds of unemployment hung over Athy. The closure of the tanyards and the winding down of the local breweries left a void which remained unfilled for many decades. Athy was a poor town in the midst of a rich countryside. Throughout the 19th century it was to be home to generations of unemployed men who with their families lived in the unfit hovels which lined it’s lanes and alleyways. Unemployment and wretched living conditions nourished the seeds of social discontent and criminality which surfaced from time to time during the first half of the 19th century. One notable crime recorded occurred on 2nd February 1801 when Joseph Higginbotham, farmer of Narraghmore, was murdered by one Christopher Duffy at Boleybeg and following the Coroner’s inquest it was found that James Johnson of Ballitore conspired with Duffy to murder Higginbotham. The Peace Preservation Force instituted by Robert Peel in September 1814 was the forerunner of modern police forces. A heavily armed force drawn mainly from the ranks of the militia and ex-soldiers, its operations sometimes gave cause for public complaint. On October 22nd 1817 Thomas Fitzgerald, the Geraldine based magistrate, forwarded to Dublin Castle the sworn affidavit of Thomas Noud of Kilmead concerning outrages committed by the new force. The replacement by the Peace Preservation Force of the local yeomanry, whose knowledge of their own locality was invaluable in combating crime, gave the locals greater scope for illegal nocturnal activities. Such activities grew in frequency and a number of incidents in and around Athy in August 1818 were the first indication of the resurgence of ribbonmen activity in south Kildare. Early in 1822 an attempt was made to burn the Athy Gaol for which a conviction was secured against a hapless individual the following March. Around this time the Peace Preservation Force was replaced by County Constabulary, a police force to which local magistrates retained the right of appointing constables and sub-constables. James Tandy, newly appointed Chief Magistrate of Police, residing at Annfield, Kilcullen was petitioned in October 1822 by some baronies to reduce the level of the police numbers in the county. The local landlords felt they were unable to finance from their own resources a large public force, whatever the consequences. However, Robert Rawson of Glassealy warned Tandy ‘that the emissaries of sedition are at work again as busy as ever …… I am assured there are regular meetings held now in this town (Athy) …… I have succeeded in dissuading the landholders of East Narragh from petitioning.’ The following years gave rise to sporadic outbursts of ribbonmen activity, such as the burning of the Athy residence of Chief Constable Dolman in 1825 for which two locals, Ging and Hutchinson were arrested. However, conditions in south Kildare had improved by 1828. Thereafter little of note occurred until 1830 when the house of Rev. Frederick Trench, Church of Ireland curate, was raided for arms when the Rev. gentleman was at Sunday Service. We are told that the raiders ‘were led by his wife quite peaceably through the dining room (where there were silver forks and spoons on the table) to his study where she opened a glass case in which were his arms, and a purse containing some money. They took away the arms, but touched nothing else.’ The ‘first green flag with white ribbon at the top of the pole ever I saw was on August 15th 1830’ wrote local man Charles Carey in his diary. It was apparently the only evidence of anti-government activity in the area at that time. The countryside had become more peaceful, no doubt due to the setting up of the county Constabulary. The general cessation of ribbonmen activities in and around Athy was marked by the first manifestation of union activity in the town. In 1832 the following notice was found posted near the Grand Canal in Athy. ‘T A K E N O T I C E From this day forward, that no man will be allowed to work in any boat without having regular wages 10/= per week. Any person or persons daring to violate this notice, will be visited by night by those people under the denomination of Whitefeet or Terry Alts. Any man putting us to the necessity of paying him a visit will be sorry; therefore any man who has not the above wages, let him not to attempt to leave Athy. I remain your humble servant Terry Alt.’ What effect this warning had on the boatmen of Athy we cannot now say. However, thereafter there was little or no local activity attributed to the ribbonmen or Terry Alts. Athy was to settle back into the murky backwaters of provincial life which in the first half of the 19th century involved continued squalor and poverty for a large proportion of its population.