Annual Remembrance Sunday Service4 in St. Michael's Cemetery and the Casual Trading Byelaws passed by Kildare County Council

The annual Remembrance Sunday ceremony for the men from Athy who died during World War I will take place in St. Michael’s old cemetery on Sunday, 9th November commencing at 3pm. It was approximately 35 years ago when the novelist John MacKenna, David Walsh (now Athy correspondent for this newspaper) and myself arranged the first Remembrance Sunday event in St. Michael’s Cemetery. That first year’s attendance largely consisted of members of our own families. It was around the same time that a weekend of remembrance took place which featured a World War I exhibition in the museum in the Town Hall and a performance by the Mend and Makedo Theatre Company of ‘The Fallen’, a voice play of the Great War by John MacKenna. This was held in the Town Hall on Saturday evening and on the following day, which was Remembrance Sunday, a ceremony for the laying of crosses on World War I graves in St. Michael’s Cemetery took place. In the afternoon a series of lectures were held in the Town Hall on World War I themes. These included ‘The British Army and the Curragh Camp 1855-1922’ given by Con Costello, ‘Kildare Casualties in World War I’ by Pat Casey and ‘Men of the Dublin Fusiliers Killed in World War I’ by Kevin Myers. The final lectures were ‘The Forgotten Women of World War I’ by Josephine Cashman and Jane Leonard’s lecture on ‘How Catholic Ireland Commemorated World War I’. Following the start of World War I the ranks of the National Volunteers in Athy were heavily depleted. This was because so many Athy men having enlisted in the National Volunteers accepted John Redmond’s advice to join the British Army and thereby guarantee Home Rule. The National Volunteers were formed in the South Kildare town on 9th May 1914, followed two months later by the setting up of a local branch of Cumann na mBan. In August 1914 Athy youth group ‘Fianna Eireann’ was established in the town. Apart from the Athy casualties in the First World War casualties also occurred in Ireland during the War of Independence and the Civil War. The first I.R.A. casualty in this area was John Byrne who suffered fatal burns while part of an I.R.A. group attacking Luggacurran R.I.C. barracks on 20th April 1920. Three months later Athy Courthouse was burned down by a lone I.R.A. attacker whose actions were not authorised and who found himself court martialled as a result. The ambush at Barrowhouse on 16th May 1921 resulted in the killing of I.R.A. Volunteers William Connor and James Lacey. The Civil War, which would start with the seizure of the Four Courts in Dublin on 13th April 1922 and lasted for 14 months, saw more casualties in the South Kildare area than in the almost 3½ years of the War of Independence. Thomas Dunne was killed in Castledermot on 16th May 1922, while Laurence Sweeney and Sylvester Sheppard died on the same day, 5th July 1922. Sweeney was killed in Castledermot and Sheppard died in an ambush at Grangemellon. The Graney ambush of 24th October 1922 resulted in the killing of three young Free State soldiers, Edward Byrne, Patrick Allison and James Murphy. I am prompted to suggest that Remembrance Sunday commemorations in the future should be extended to include remembrance not only of Athy’s dead in World War I, but also those who died in our War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War. What do you think? On Tuesday last Kildare County Council published a notice advising of the making of Casual Trading Byelaws for the municipal district of Athy. I was one of several persons who on the published invitation of the Senior Executive Officer of the Corporate Services Department of Kildare County Council, filed a submission with the Council regarding the proposed Byelaws. In essence, my submission favoured the retention of the existing market rights which were granted by Henry VIII but repositioning them in part in the Back Square and the lands attached to the former Abbey house. I was surprised not to receive any acknowledgement of my submission and even more surprised that the final decision of the Council was not communicated to persons, who like myself, made submissions. I am awaiting a copy of the Casual Trading Byelaws 2025 as approved by the five Councillors of Athy Municipal Council on 20th October. It would appear that the Council have effectively attempted to kill off the Tuesday market by requiring stallholders to have public liability insurance as well as valid Tax Clearance Certificates. The Market Byelaws review was in my opinion an opportunity for the Council to improve the market, which generations of Athy folk stretching back over 500 years have enjoyed. It is a pity that the County Council did not take that opportunity rather than kill it off with a series of bureaucratic requirements. I will write further about this in next week’s article as questions may arise about the legality of the decisions made by or on behalf of Kildare County Council. In the meantime, I note a comment on social media claiming that four Municipal Councillors attended the meeting which passed the Parking Byelaws, while one Councillor in attendance abstained. Do you know who they were?