Athy's War of Independence - A Further Instalment

For the first time in my memory, and indeed I believe for the first time ever, the people of Athy have had an opportunity all of last week and continuing this week to acknowledge the sacrifices of the men and women from this area who played a part in the Irish War of Independence.  The local Heritage Centre is hosting an exhibition which gives the story of the men and women of that time and the background to the events in which they were involved. 

Strange to relate that in our local schools we learned our Irish history and even delved further afield as we were taught some aspects of the wider European story, but at no time did we learn the history of our own town.  Several generations have grown up in Athy since the War of Independence and indeed since the subsequent Civil War ended.  Each of those generations in turn remained unaware of what had happened in Athy and the South Kildare area during the 7 year period which started with the 1916 Rising in Dublin and ended with the ceasefire which brought the Civil War to a close. 

Some might say that what happened was best forgotten.  Others might take a more pragmatic view and regard the history of those times as holding important lessons for the present and for the future.  Whatever one’s views, I suppose it has to be admitted that recovering the past was never going to be an easy task when faced with the silence of those who were active participants in the conflicts.  The War of Independence was a stressful time and one which brought with it painful memories.  The subsequent Civil War heaped pain upon pain and caused incalculable anguish to an entire nation.  Understandably therefore the men who enlisted in the Volunteers and the women who served in Cumann na mBan seldom spoke of what they had witnessed.  Their silence unfortunately was seldom, if ever, threatened because for decades there was no apparent public interest in the subject of the War of Independence.  The untold stories were lost as the freedom fighters of the second and third decade of the last century passed away.  It is an awful shame that even within the records so carefully compiled for the Bureau of Military History in the 1950s there is not a single account relating to Athy and district. 

The exhibition in the Heritage Centre attempts to tell the story of this area’s involvement in the War of Independence by highlighting those men who were interned, as well as outlining the key events which marked this area’s contribution to an important part of our shared history. 

As a young lad growing up in Athy I remember Gardai Jim Kelly, Johnny McMahon, Mick Tuohy and John O’Connell.   They had served the community in Athy since the 1930s and earlier and all of them had been active members of I.R.A. units during the War of Independence.  They were proud possessors of I.R.A. medals with active service bars confirming their participation in military engagements in their native counties of Mayo or Clare.  I was not aware of this until recently for like all their colleagues in the old I.R.A. they never spoke of their combat experiences.

Similarly the men who were interned for periods during the War of Independence.  My recent research has shown that ‘Bapty’ Maher, Joe May and Joseph Mullery were interned in Ballykinler Camp, while J.J. O’Byrne and John Hayden were imprisoned in Portlaoise Prison.  Others who would live in Athy after the conflict ended and who had been imprisoned by the British authorities included Tom Flood, Fintan Brennan and Seamus Malone.

Tom Flood perhaps of all the ‘local’ participants in the War of Independence had a most illustrious career as an active member of an I.R.A. Brigade.  Brother of Frank Flood, who was hanged in Mountjoy on 14^th March 1921, Tom was captured after being wounded when a Dublin I.R.A. contingent burned the Custom House just two and a half months after his brother Frank died.  Acute appendicitis on the eve of his trial caused its postponement and undoubtedly saved his life as the Truce was declared on the eve of his rescheduled trial.  Tom Flood moved to Athy in the 1920s, as did Fintan Brennan, the Monasterevin man who spent some months in Parkhurst Prison.  Seamus Malone, a teacher in the local C.B.S. after the Truce, had also been imprisoned.  He served time in Frongoch and several other prisons following his arrest in Limerick after the Easter week Rising.  He was later a member of the East Limerick Flying Column of which his brother Thomas (both of whom were from Tyrrellspass, Co. Westmeath) was Vice Officer Commander.  Incidentally his brother Thomas later wrote of his exploits under the title ‘Alias Sean Forde’ which was the name he used when as his obituary notice claimed ‘he was the scourge of the Black and Tans’.  Seamus Malone who taught in Athy in the 1920s wrote his autobiography in Irish which was later translated and published by Fr. Patrick Twohig under the title ‘Blood on the Flag’.

The ambush at Barrowhouse on 16^th May 1921 and the Coolbawn Ambush just over a month later are both featured in the Exhibition.  Strange to relate that both ambushes, despite being carefully planned, resulted in the deaths of two young Irish men at each of the ambush sites.  William Conner and Jim Lacey died at the side of the road at Barrowhouse, while John Hartley and Nicholas Mullins perished at Coolbawn. 

But it wasn’t just on the side of the I.R.A. that good decent young Irish men died.  The ranks of the R.I.C. in the years prior to the War of Independence had been filled by young Irishmen.  Their enlistment in the local Police force of the time was an accepted practice at a time when the Parliamentary Party led by Charles Stewart Parnell and later by John Redmond sought Home Rule for Ireland by parliamentary means.  There was no objection to young Irishmen joining the ranks of the R.I.C. or indeed the ranks of the British Military forces but as the events of Easter 1916 unfolded the public’s attitude to the men in uniforms changed.  Tragically during the War of Independence bitterness led to bloodshed and to the loss of many hundreds of R.I.C. lives, most of whom were Irishmen who had done little or nothing to deserve sudden violent deaths.  R.I.C. men such as Joseph Hughes of Wolfhill and Edward Doran from Athy who were shot and killed by the I.R.A. in 1921. 

Maybe the killing of men such as Hughes and Doran justified the silence which marked the events in Ireland from 1916 until after the Civil War ceasefire.  Whatever the reason the time is long past when we should remember the good and the bad of a time in our history when young men and women sacrificed more than we can imagine so that we could enjoy the privilege today of complaining about our own duly elected government.

Go and see the exhibition in Athy’s Heritage Centre.  It remains open until Friday, 24^th April.

Photographs of Ballykinlar Camp Prisoners / Athy War of Independence - A Further Instalment

The Irish War of Independence Exhibition will open in the Heritage Centre, Athy on Easter Monday at 7.30 p.m.  There has been a good response from the public for material to be included in the exhibition which is intended to highlight this areas involvement in the events of post 1916 Ireland.  Going through the material I have personally gathered together over many years I “rediscovered” some very interesting items including copies of photographs taken inside Ballykilner Internment Camp in 1920-1921.  A number of men from County Kildare were interned in the County Down camp at the height of the War of Independence and amongst them were two Athy men, Joe May of Woodstock Street and “Bapty” Maher who had a bicycle shop in Duke Street.

Both of these young men had links with the Republican movement which were well known to the local RIC.  “Bapty” Maher was a friend of Kevin Barry who was executed in Kilmainham Jail on the 1^st November 1920.  They had corresponded with each other after spending time together as school boys in Belvedere College in Dublin.  The Heritage Centre will have on display during the exhibition an original letter from Kevin Barry to “Bapty” Maher who would later marry his sister Sheila Barry.

Following the Truce, Joe May would marry Hester Dooley of 41 Duke Street whose father Michael Dooley was one of the leading members of the local Republican movement and after whom Dooley’s Terrace, built in 1934 is named.  Hester Dooley worked for a number of the Dublin based leaders of the Republican movement during the War of Independence including Piaras Beaslai, Oscar Traynor and J.J. “Ginger” O’Connell.  Her sister  Kathleen who worked in the Post Office married Eamon Malone the young Barrowhouse man, who following his release from Mountjoy Jail was appointed Officer Commanding the Carlow/Kildare Brigade of the IRA.  Malone Place opposite St. Dominic’s Park is named after him.

A unique double link with the War of Independence period is found in the persons of Joe and Kally May of Chanterlands.  Joe’s father was interned in Ballykilner camp while Kally’s late father  Michael Mahon, a native of Newcastle, Athenry was a prisoner in Frongoch in North Wales.

Michael Mahon with his two brothers Peter and Thomas were interned following the Easter Rising of 1916.  Michael who was one of the earliest members of the newly established Garda Siochana served as a member of the Gardai in Athy for 21 years. He died suddenly in September 1934,  it is believed from delayed after effects of a beating received at the hands of the Black and Tans. 

The exhibition in the Heritage Centre opens on Easter Monday at 7.30 p.m. and the official opening will be performed by Joe May.  The Monasterevin based Lord Edwards Own re-enactment group will be in attendance to give a visual representation of the difficult times which preceded the signing of the Treaty.

This will be the first ever exhibition held in Athy devoted to the Irish War of Independence and a Cead Mile Failte is extended to everyone to come along to the opening on Easter Monday night.

Two photographs accompany this article.  They show groups of men photographed in Ballykilner internment camp in Co. Down.  The Athy men, Joe May and Bapty Maher are shown in the first photograph standing next to each other in the right hand side of the middle row.

Athy's War of Independence - A Further Instalment

The War of Independence Exhibition will open in the Heritage Centre in Athy on Easter Monday, 13^th April to coincide with the anniversary of the start of the 1916 Easter Rebellion.  It was the coming together of the Irish Volunteers under Padraig Pearse and the Irish Citizen Army under James Connolly in the action centered on the G.P.O. Dublin which in retrospect can justifiably be viewed as the start of the Irish War of Independence.  The action of Dan Breen and his colleagues, in shooting to death two middle-aged members of the R.I.C. while they were escorting explosives at Soloheadbeg in Co. Tipperary on 21^st January 1919, is usually regarded as the start of the independence struggle.  Parliamentary methods had been to the forefront following the debacle of the planned Fenian rising and for 50 years or more a succession of Irish leaders culminating in John Redmond had pursued a non violent approach to Ireland’s call for independence.

The failure of the 1916 rebellion might have remained just that if the English authorities had not executed its leaders.  In doing so the English authorities inflamed Irish passions and effectively drove a hitherto docile people to question the right and wrongs of the Irish question.  The resulting shift in public opinion, from one of indifference to the demands of the 1916 insurgents to uncritical support for Sinn Fein was a starting point for what was to follow.  The Irish War of Independence had started, even if in its early manifestation it merely consisted of meetings, enrolments, drilling and military style manoeuvres.  The bloodshed would not come until January 1919 but all that went before was a preparation for the war which would engulf the country from January 1919 to June 1921.

Athy, which had sent so many of its sons to the World War after Kitchener’s call for volunteers in 1914, was not the most likely place to find men willing to join the Irish Volunteers in the fight for Irish independence.  A breakaway volunteer group had pulled away from Redmond’s Volunteers, declining to take part in the overseas fight for small nations while their own country was denied Home Rule.  The re-grouped Irish Volunteers in South Kildare were included in the newly formed Fifth Battalion Carlow Brigade of the Republican Army I.R.A. which also took in some parts of County Wicklow. 

The names of the men from South Kildare who were members of the Irish Volunteers and who played a part in the hostilities during 1919/1921 have not been identified to everyones satisfaction.  I am very conscious that some of those who claimed involvement played little or no part, while many who did so did not receive the credit they deserved.  One man whose involvement is not in question was John Hayden of Offaly Street, described in the following way in the Nationalist Newspaper after he was sentenced to six months imprisonment in February 1919 for breach of the Defence of the Realm Act.  ‘One of the most brilliant pupils turned out by Athy C.B.S.  He won a County Council Scholarship – instead of taking his degree as the professional man he has taken out his degree as a rebel.’

It was probably John Hayden’s release from jail the following July which led to a riot in Athy involving demobilised soldiers from the Great War.  The Leinster Leader under the headline ‘Disgraceful Riots in Athy’ reported:-  ‘His friends organised a reception (for the released prisoners) and he was met at the train by the Leinster Street Band.  The temper of demobilised men manifested itself after Sinn Fein held a meeting in the Square.  The Union Jack flew over the Post Office and a pony and trap drove through the town decorated with British colours.  After this meeting ex soldiers tried to capture the Sinn Fein flag.  In less than 5 minutes the town was in an uproar.  As many as five or six encounters went on simultaneously with cries of “up the rebels” and “up the khaki” filling the air.’

The following day the holding of a Feis in the Showgrounds Park was the occasion of another riot when some shop premises were damaged, including the cycle shop of Sinn Fein member, J.P. (Bapty) Maher.  A banner with Irish lettering erected across Leinster Street for the Feis was taken down by the rioters and brought back to the town Square where it was ceremoniously burned according to a local newspaper ‘to the cheers of the ex soldiers and their wives and children.’  Many years ago when I interviewed a number of local people about this incident there was a marked reluctance to talk of what happened that day.  This was because of the alleged sacrilege committed when a badge of the Sacred Heart was committed to the flames with the Feis banner.  Indeed a newspaper report of the day confirms that this did happen.

The difficulties facing local men wishing to be involved with the Irish Volunteers can be readily understood but despite this the Volunteer Corps was reasonably active in the South Kildare area.  Roads were blocked or trenched and trees were felled in order to disrupt the movement of soldiers, Black and Tans and R.I.C. alike.  However the authorities dealt with the problem by press ganging local men into reopening the roads.  Applications filed by local men in connection with Military Service Pension applications in the 1950s  tended to claim military training, escort duty, blocking roads and the blowing up of Kilmoroney Bridge and Cloney Bridge as the principal activity of the Volunteers in this part of the county.  A few could also claim involvement in the May 1921 attack on the Athy R.I.C. Barracks which came six days after the unsuccessful Barrowhouse ambush which resulted in the deaths of James Lacey and William Connor.

The months leading up to the cessation of hostilities in June 1921 saw some of the greatest activity by both sides.  The R.I.C. raided houses in Barrowhouse in early May some days before the ill-fated ambush and arrested two young men, Patrick and Peter Dunne.  On the first Sunday in June a large force of police and military took over Athy, guarding all the approaches to the town.  The occasion was the intended holding of the County Kildare Feis in the Showgrounds.  Approximately fifty lorries of soldiers arrived in the town and they took up position with machine guns mounted at vantage points.  A number of soldiers and police marched to the Showgrounds where all those in attendance were subjected to a systematic search in which several police men and two female searchers were employed.  The Secretary of the Sports Committee, Patrick Conway, who refused to give his name other than in Irish was arrested, as were two other young men.  Those arrested were brought to the local Police Barracks then located in Barrack Lane and after some hours were brought with the soldiers when they withdrew from Athy.  Within a mile of Kildare town the three prisoners were released and told to walk back to Athy.

Following the truce which came into effect on 11^th July 1921 preparations were made for the soldiers, the Tans and the R.I.C. to withdraw.  The Nationalist newspaper reported on 11^th February 1922:-  ‘The process of evacuation still proceeds – the Tans are going ...... on Tuesday evening quite a big batch of the local R.I.C. force left by the 4.35 train for Dublin.’

The R.I.C. Barracks in Athy was finally vacated on Friday, 10^th March 1922 when a large number of military lorries and Crossleys arrived in the town.  As the lorries drove up Woodstock Street with the last of the R.I.C. men there was a feeble cheer from onlookers.  Lorries and Crossleys lined both sides of the street and scores of soldiers marched up and down fully armed until the last R.I.C. man had left.  At 12.30 p.m. after the soldiers and policemen had left, Athy Barracks was taken over by Brig.   Police Officer Ryan Comdt. Finn, Butler, Police Officer Farrelly and Hugh Eoin  McNeill from Headquarters.  The tricolour was later hoisted over the Military Barracks which had housed a British Cavalry troop since the 1730s and the Royal Irish Constabulary from the 1890s.

I had written this article before the latest horrific killings in Northern Ireland.  A selective study of Irish history will always afford some people an opportunity to justify whatever outrage is committed in the name of Irish independence.  Those people, I would suggest, are as representative of the Irish people as were those who rioted in the streets of Athy in July 1919 with shouts of ‘Up the Khaki’.