Lions Club first Book Fair / Remembering Ellen Kearney, Dr. Thomas O'Higgins and his son Kevin

The week past has seen Athy’s first bookfair held in the ARCH on the Kilkenny Road and the last of the Winter series of historical lectures in the local Arts Centre. The bookfair was a great success with bookdealers very pleased and I think surprised at the numbers who came by to view and in many cases to buy books. The local Lions Club which organised the event will consider holding another bookfair in October and hopefully make the Athy fair a biannual event in March and October each year. I was astonished to learn of attendees who travelled from as far away as Galway and Leitrim for the bookfair and all those attending either to buy or sell books expressed themselves well pleased with their Athy experience. A special thanks must go to the management committee of the ARCH for the use of the hall and to the president of Athy Gaelic Football Club, Henry Howard for the arrangements he personally oversaw regarding the loan of tables. Thanks also to Seanie Bolger of Athy AFC who helped the Lions Club at short notice by delivering extra tables to accommodate the bookdealers who had not booked in advance. It was a fine community effort spearheaded by Athy Lions Club. The Winter history lecture series concluded on Wednesday evening with another good attendance to hear Marc Guernan’s talk on “Medieval Athy”. His followed the previous month’s lecture by David Walsh, when a full house listened to his talk on “Athy and World War I in Twenty Objects”. The lecture series has attracted appreciative and increasing large audiences since the first lecture last September and it is planned to open the second year series with a lecture in September. The Arts Centre has been particularly busy in recent months following its re-opening with the ending of covid restrictions. The day following Marc Guernan’s lecture there was a full house for the Gordon Giltrap concert. The legendary artist received a great reception on the night and his performance was later highly praised on social media. The Arts Centre is developing as a cultural mecca for Athy and South Kildare and is fully deserving of the support it is getting from Athy folk. Just a few weeks ago I wrote an Eye on the restored Thomas O’Connell roadside memorial near Maganey. I posed a question as to who was the good, generous woman, “Mrs. Kearney” who had a memorial cross for the late IRA leader, cast in the Duthie Large foundry in Athy for installing at the road side where he lost his life on the 31st of August 1924. Michael Dempsey from Castledermot followed up my question and with the help of Bernie Walsh genealogist from Carlow discovered much background information on Mrs Kearney. She was born Ellen Townsend at Lower Tomard, Carlow in or about 1877 and was working as a nurse in the Carlow asylum when in 1911 she married Thomas Kearney, a keeper in the same institution. It is not known if the couple had any children. Mrs Kearney was living in Brown Street, Carlow when she died aged 83 years in 1959. Her involvement with the IRA and the Cumann na mBan is still unclear but given the donation she made in 1924 we can safely assume that she was a supporter of the Republican Movement, if not an active participant during the revolutionary years. Any more information anyone can give on Mrs Kearney and her Republican Movement involvement would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime thanks to Michael Dempsey and Bernie Walsh for the information obtained to date. Travelling back to Athy following a Court appearance in Portlaoise today I intended to stop at the O’Higgins Memorial in Stradbally but found it was inaccessible while it was being cleaned. Was there I wonder any remembrance ceremony to mark the assassination in his Stradbally home of Dr. Thomas O’Higgins by anti treaty men on the night of the 10th of February 1923. The killing of the doctor whose son, Kevin was Minister for Home Affairs was undoubtedly led by local men. Only one man, Martin Byrne of Fallowbeg in Luggacurran was arrested and despite O’Higgins’s daughter, Patricia have identified him he was freed by a military Court. Just over four years later the doctor’s son, Kevin O’Higgins was assassinated on the 10th of July 1927 by republicans later named as Tim Gaughan, Archie Doyle and Bill Gannon. They were never charged with his assassination as their identity only became known fifty eight years later. As the Decade of Commemoration comes to a close I hope that we will remember all the men and women, Republican and treaty supporters alike who were involved in the tragic happenings during Ireland’s revolutionary years.