Why is there an air of confidence about Athy?

There is a noticeable air of confidence in Athy town of late. It’s evidenced by the recent opening of several coffee shops and an Italian restaurant on the town’s main street. Yet south Kildare has the highest level of unemployment in the country and Athy has an excess of closed business premises which present an unhappy picture of the town. Nevertheless the ancient town which is handsomely traversed by river and canal, continues to receive many compliments with claims that it is the most attractive town within the boundaries of the short grass county. As a young fellow growing up in Athy I knew nothing of the town’s history and like everyone else had no understanding or appreciation of the town’s built heritage. Athy is truly a gem of an Irish provincial town, something which our visitors readily acknowledge. Sometimes however they wonder why the buildings on the main streets are not being properly maintained. Many unpainted and somewhat dishevelled buildings take from the town’s appearance. Kildare County Council have in the past encouraged shop front improvements by offering grants. Would the County Council consider extending the shopfront scheme by engaging a colour consultant to provide colour schemes on a street by street basis to brighten up the local streetscape? The outer relief road is expected to have a huge effect in reducing traffic in the town centre, thereby affording local businesses an opportunity to attract a bigger footfall. However, it needs the business people to come together to plan and execute the necessary steps to attract shoppers back into the town centre. Different sections of Athy’s residents have in the past taken a lead in promoting the town’s interest. The building of the Parish Church and the Dominican Church necessitated the prolonged involvement of many local volunteers during the 1950s and beyond. Later still another group of Athy men came together on Athy’s swimming pool committee to spearhead the town’s drive for a local swimming pool. Their initiative and voluntary work over several years convinced Kildare County Council to proceed with the building of County Kildare’s first municipal swimming pool in the grounds of the People’s Park. The Shackleton Museum and the Arts Centre came about because of local initiatives taken by local volunteers coming together and working for desired objectives. Indeed the outer relief road, championed for so long by the townspeople as opposed to an inner relief road, is a prime example of what can be achieved by collective action. The retailing life of Athy’s main streets rests in the hands of the present day shop keepers. Unfortunately we no longer have a Chamber of Commerce in the town, but there is a need for the collective voices of the business people and residents of Athy to be heard. There is so much which can and should be done to improve business in Athy. The one common complaint from newly arrived residents is what they describe as the town’s poor shopping experience. All of those whom I have interviewed recently regard Athy people as very friendly and the town as one with great potential. Might I hope that the shopkeepers get together to plan and improve our town’s shopping experience, so that instead of locals travelling out of town to shop we can instead encourage local shopping and attract outsiders to shop in Athy. One of my own favourites for a new independent shop in the town would be a book shop. Athy residents as they faced into three more years of famine in 1846 had a book shop in Duke Street owned by John Lahee. The present Lions Club second hand book shop is a wonderful facility but any town with a population in excess of ten thousand people surely deserves a book shop selling the latest new titles. I don’t know if John Lahee was still selling books from his Duke Street premises in 1857 when gas lights were introduced into the principal shops of Athy. The Leinster Leader reported on Christmas Eve of that year ‘on Monday evening (19th December) the streets were thronged by persons admiring the tasteful manner in which the shops were lighted’. The gas lighting of the shops 166 years ago was a momentous event and heralded decades of successful business in Athy which justified the oft repeated claim that Athy was the best market town in Leinster. The opening of the outer relief road offers an opportunity to revive Athy’s main shopping streets. If that revival or regeneration takes place Athy can reclaim the honour which the Leinster Express of 30th July 1859 bestowed on the town ‘there is not in Ireland an inland town that can boast a more public spirit than Athy.’ As I finished this week’s Eye I learned of the passing of St. Dolores O’Grady, a locally based Sister of Mercy who did so much as a community leader within the Ardrew Meadows estate. She led by example to empower her local community on the Barrowhouse road. As a member of the local Sisters of Mercy community she dedicated her life to helping others, especially those in need. In doing so she made a huge contribution to the Sisters of Mercy mission here in Athy. Our condolences go to her family, especially to her sister Mary English and to the Sisters of Mercy.

James Durney's new book 'Stand You Now for Ireland's Cause'

At the opening night of the recent military seminar held in the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge, author and broadcaster John MacKenna launched James Durney’s latest book. Coming at the end of the Decade of Commemoration celebrations it was appropriate that the book was a biographical dictionary of republican activists in County Kildare during the period 1913-1923. James Durney who was the first historian in residence for County Kildare has written the most important book of the many that have been published in recent years with the assistance of the Kildare Decade of Commemoration Committee. ‘Stand you now for Ireland’s Cause’ is a work of immense research and represents a fitting acknowledgement of, and tribute to, the men and women from this county, or those associated with County Kildare during the years of revolution. I have been reading the fascinating information in the book, especially that relating to men who were members of the 5th Battalion Carlow Kildare Brigade which covered Athy, Barrowhouse, Moone, Ballylinan, Moat and Castledermot. The Volunteers, formed in Athy in May 1914, evolved as the A Coy. of the 5th Battalion, while the B Coy. was centred in Barrowhouse, the C Coy. in Moone, later Ballitore, the D Coy. in Ballylinan, the E Coy. in the Moat area, with Castledermot having the largest membership comprised the F Company of the 5th Battalion. Early entries in the dictionary indicated the extent to how often members of the same family were involved as republican activists. John Behan and his younger brother Edward, who lived in Chapel Lane and later Matthews Lane, were both arrested as anti-treaty activists and imprisoned. James Brown and his brother Billy, both of Barrack Street, were members of Athy A Coy. Thomas Brown, who was also a Coy. member, may have been another brother, but this cannot yet be confirmed. Mick Curtis, whose three brothers, Patrick, Laurence and John were killed during World War I, was another member of the Athy Volunteers. Perhaps the most extensive family involvement as republican activists was that of the Dooley family members of 41 Duke Street. Seven members of that family were active participants during the War of Independence. The father of the family, Michael Dooley, was a Laois man who married Julia Bradley of Athy in 1893. The couple operated a grocery and provision store at 41 Duke Street which address was a regular meeting place for local republicans. Michael Dooley was a founder member of the local Gaelic League branch, as well as a founder member of Athy’s Sinn Féin Club. He was elected President of that club in May 1918 and was still the Sinn Féin President when the Civil War started. He played an extremely influential part in the development of Sinn Féin in the Athy area and following his death in 1933 the newly constructed housing estate on the Stradbally Road was named Dooley’s terrace in his honour. His brother Patrick Dooley who operated a bakery at Leinster Street, later the site of Mrs. Hughes shop and Madden’s chemist, was elected to Athy Urban District Council on several occasions between 1922 and 1934. He first stood as a Sinn Féin candidate and in later elections following the establishment of the Fianna Fáil party, stood as a candidate for that party. He was Chairman of Athy U.D.C. from 1929 to 1936. During the War of Independence, he served as a justice in the local republican court. Three daughters and two sons of Michael and Julia Dooley were also actively involved in the republican movement. Esther Dooley, who many of us will remember as Mrs. Hester May, was a member of Cumann na mBan who later moved to Dublin to work in the Sinn Féin publicity department as Secretary to Piaras Béaslaí. She was later Secretary to General J.J. O’Connell and Oscar Traynor. Esther married Athy man Joe May, who had been Secretary of Athy’s Sinn Féin club and who following his arrest in November 1920 was imprisoned in Ballykinler camp for almost a year. Esther’s sister Catherine was also member of Athy’s Cumann na mBan. She later married Eamon Malone, one time Commander of the 5th Battalion Carlow/Kildare Brigade. Eamon was captured while on the run in November 1919 and imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail where he was elected Officer commanding of the Republican Prisoners who went on hunger strike in April 1920. Julia Dooley, known as ‘Gypsy’ was another Dooley family member of Cumann na mBan, while her brothers Michael Junior and John were members of the Athy Coy. of Volunteers. John was arrested by members of the National Army soldiers during the Civil War which would seem to indicate that he might have taken the anti-treaty side. His brother, Michael Junior, on the other hand, joined the National Army and served as a sergeant in Tralee, Co. Kerry during some of the most bitter periods of the Civil War.

Disquieting Scenes in Inch, Co. Clare

On the Great Famine National Commemoration Day a group of people gathered in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Athy to remember those who died in the local Workhouse during the famine years of the 1840s and later. Events in Dublin and County Clare during the previous week prompted remembrance of the million and a half Irish men, women and children who left Ireland during the 1840s to seek refuge in America or Great Britain. How many left Athy or South Kildare for a new life overseas during those years we cannot say. What we do know is that those Irish who sought refuge in America was subjected to harassment and rejection by many Americans who came together in what was known as the ‘Know Nothing Party’. In England but not so much so in Wales or Scotland the Irish who sought refuge were subjected to rejection which was highlighted by notices such as ‘blacks or Irish need not apply’. I wonder did the people of Inch, Co. Clare who appeared to have been given free rein by the Garda Siochana to block with impunity access to public roads, think of the times when their ancestors were refugees. County Clare was like most western seashore counties severely affected by the failure of the potato crop from 1845 onwards. In the Kilrush union area almost 900 houses were knocked down and made uninhabitable between November 1847 and July 1848 by landlords seeking to limit their contribution to the Board of Guardians annual expense. Almost 4,000 men, women and children were left without homes as a result and those who did not enter the local Workhouse struggled to flee Ireland. It was a scene replicated almost 40 years later in the same county of Clare when evictions started on the Bodyke Estate in East Clare in June 1887. The following year the Vandeleur evictions in Kilrush took place. The two evictions are well remembered, especially in County Clare, as are the Luggacurran evictions of the same period which are remembered here in Athy. How some women and men of County Clare acted in recent weeks in opposing refugees being placed in their area is a sad acknowledgement that they have not learned any lesson from their own past history. During the Bodyke evictions Clare women played a leading part in opposing the bailiffs. Indeed at Court hearings following the evictions 22 out of the 26 persons were charged with assault or obstructing the bailiffs were women. Michael Davitt, founder of the Land League, later presented medals to the Bodyke women to show his appreciation for their courageous stand against the landlord, Colonel O’Callaghan, the bailiffs and the R.I.C. who were in attendance at the evictions. The disquieting scenes in Inch, Co. Clare were a reversal of the roles played out by the women of County Clare in the 1880s. There will be no medals for the Clare women folk or their men folk whose stand against refugees is a reminder of what faced the Irish refugees who arrived in America and Great Britain during and after the Great Famine. What I wondered is one to make of the standoff by the Gardai, whose leader Commissioner Drew Harris, seemed to see merit in not dealing with the public ‘road blockers’ by claiming that the Garda inaction showed that the Gardai Siochana was not reacting to ‘right wing forces’. I am frankly puzzled by the Garda Commissioner’s comments and surprised at the failure of the Garda Siochana to deal with the Co. Clare blockades as they are empowered to do by law. There is a perceptible lack of morale amongst many present members of the Garda Siochana. Recruitment to the force is at a low level, while many relatively new members of the Gardai have resigned within the last year or two. The recent decision of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution to proffer charges against an unnamed Garda following the death of three criminals during a pursuit on the motorway adds further to the concerns of serving Gardai. The Garda in question who put his/her own life at risk in an attempt to arrest criminals now finds himself/herself subject to legal sanction. No wonder Garda morale throughout the country is at a low ebb. James Durney, Historian in Residence for County Kildare has produced another superb book, this time a biographical dictionary of republican activists from County Kildare. His work covers the 10 years between 1913 and 1923 and has been published with the assistance of the Royal Irish Academy and the County Kildare Decade of Commemoration Committee. The Committee has done wonderful work during the past decade, with several publications which have opened up previously unknown aspects of our local history. The latest publication ‘Stand You Now for Ireland’s Cause’ will be the subject of a future Eye on the Past. In the meantime the book is for sale in all good Irish book shops.

Great Britain is no longer great

King Charles III was crowned 333 years after the death of the second King Charles, who on his death bed proclaimed himself to be a Catholic. Charles II was crowned King of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1660 after the death of Cromwell and the subsequent disintegration of the Commonwealth. The Protestant settlers living in the fortress town of Athy were alarmed following Charles II’s coronation. Their concern arose from the prospect of a Catholic resurgence following years of religious repression. They had witnessed the accession to the English throne of Charles I in 1625 in succession to his father James I. James was the son of Mary Queen of Scots and was brought up as a Protestant. He was not a popular King as he incurred the opposition of Catholics and Protestants alike, especially Presbyterians. He initially sought to encourage religious tolerance, but the Parliamentarians forced him in the opposite direction. He then attempted to strengthen anti-Catholic measures by replacing the Catholic majority in the Irish House of Commons and limiting the power of elections to Boro Councils which historically were exclusively Protestant. Athy had achieved Boro status in 1515 and by virtue of the 1613 Boro legislation passed during the reign of James I it became a closed Boro with 12 burgesses of the town having exclusive rights to elect two Members of Parliament. Charles I was 16 years old when the Rising of 1641 started in Ulster. The Rising which spread southwards saw attacks by Catholics on Protestants and reprisals by Protestants on Catholics resulting in widespread sectarian massacres. The 1641 Depositions for County Kildare include many accounts of atrocities in and around Athy. James Pearse, a cooper from Athy, recounted how the Irish rebels attacked the town of Athy and how he and his Protestant neighbours were required to set fire to their own homes near the castle of Athy ‘to prevent the rebels’. The following year the Irish rebels returned to Athy and destroyed much of the town. The crown forces of Colonel Crafford’s Regiment eventually captured many rebels who were hanged, as was Athy’s Sovereign George Walker who was believed to have helped the rebels. The Confederate War continued until 1649 and saw several military actions in and around Athy involving Royalist troops, Parliamentary troops and Irish rebels under the command of Owen Roe O’Neill. The Royalists and the Irish rebels fought on the side of King Charles I in the monarch’s war with the English Parliamentarians who were led by Oliver Cromwell. King Charles I was beheaded in London on 10th January 1649 for treason and within weeks the English monarchy was abolished. Some months later Oliver Cromwell landed in Ireland. By the summer of 1652 the English Parliamentarians had control over most of Ireland. Athy was nominated as one of 14 Revenue Precincts to collect taxes and administer justice and as such was the administrative centre for counties Kildare, Carlow and parts of the Queen’s County. The Commonwealth would end with the restoration of the monarchy when in 1660 Charles II was crowned King of England, Scotland and Ireland. He had in fact been proclaimed King of Ireland 11 years earlier during the final years of the Confederate wars. One year before Charles II’s coronation the population of Athy was 565, of which 85 were English and 480 Irish. Athy was then a larger settlement than either Naas or Carlow. In 1662 William Weldon, MP for Athy, claimed that two priests named Fitzgerald and Carroll daily frequented the town and ‘said Mass in the middle of the town several times’. The two priests on being arrested were rescued by the local people, but were soon retaken prisoner. It’s not known what happened to them. It was also during the reign of Charles II that Fr. Raymond Moore, Prior of the Dominican Friary in Athy on two occasions, was arrested and imprisoned in Dublin where he died in 1655. In 1669 Charles II was petitioned to grant two additional fairs to Athy. The petition from the Boro Sovereign and other town officials, claimed that Athy ‘is an ancient and loyal corporation and seated in the heart of a plentiful country both for corn and cattle’. The petitioners stressed that many of the inhabitants of Athy were English tradesmen and that they had suffered much, both by the recent rebellion and by the two fires ‘which lately destroyed most of their houses’. Continuing the petitioners stressed that as a garrison town it would be to the advantage of Athy and the neighbouring countryside to have fairs on May 29th and November 30th, each to last for three days. King Charles II granted the petition and issued the letter patent on 14th January 1670. The Protestant settlers alarmed at a perceived Catholic resurgence under Charles II and the Titus Oates plot of 1678, pressed to have the anti-Catholic legislation enforced more rigorously than before. The Council of State wrote to Athy’s Town Sovereign on 2nd December 1678 following a complaint that about 1,300 persons assembled in or near the town to hear Mass. The Council wrote again seven days later enquiring as to the names of the priests in the area who had not obeyed the Proclamation banishing priests from Ireland. The Town Sovereign was directed to ensure that ‘no popish service be publicly celebrated within the town’. In 1680 a defrocked Franciscan, James Geoghegan, was sent to Ireland to seek out priests. He arrested Fr. Thomas Archibold in Athy who was later released when Thomas Fitzgerald of Maddenstown entered into a bond on his behalf. Five years later Charles II died and is reported to have proclaimed himself a Catholic on his deathbed. What I wonder might we expect to happen during the reign of Charles III. Another Civil War is unlikely, while hunting Catholic priests is no longer appropriate, even if Charles III still swore in his Coronation oath ‘that I am a fateful Protestant’ and pledged to ‘uphold and maintain the Protestant accession to the Throne’. Charles III’s reign starts with great industrial unrest in Great Britain involving unions led by Union leaders of Irish parentage. Current rail strikes are being led by sons of Irish emigrants Mick Lynch of RMT and Mick Whelan of ASLEF. Both men lead the two sister rail unions, while the female union leader Pat Cullen from the north of Ireland leads the strike by NHS nursing staff. Are the Kings subjects, like those of the earlier Charles I and II, in rebellion? Great Britain is no longer great, it’s a country deeply divided. Would it be too much to expect that with the decline and death of the British empire the former colonial power would acknowledge its wrongs of the past, not only in relation to slavery and religious discrimination but also in relation to the partitioning of our country.