Ribbon man activity in and around Athy

Two hundred years ago Athy, like many other parts of Ireland, was the scene of ribbon men type activity. The so called Ribbon Society was an agrarian secret society formed in opposition to the Irish landlords system. Their members got the name ribbon men from the green ribbon worn about the neck as they went about their nocturnal activities. It is uncertain whether ribbonism was organised in the South Kildare area or whether the various ribbon like actions were uncoordinated activities of unrelated local groups. Following the suppression of the 1798 Revolutionaries and the Emmett insurrectionist five years later the Irish countryside remained relatively peaceful for a decade or two. Overseas visitors felt sufficiently encouraged to visit Ireland and one such visitor was Rev. James Hall, a Church of England Minister who arrived in Ireland in 1813. He visited Athy having travelled from Dublin by the canal boat which berthed overnight at Cloneybeg. Travelling into Athy he first visited the Catholic chapel of St. Michael’s on the Monasterevin Road the building of which had started some years previously. In those days the Church of England adherents worshipped in churches while dissenters and the unreformed Catholic Church were designated as worshipping in chapels. Rev. Hall describes the Catholic Chapel as quite new but not yet finished. It had no seats or pews which he claimed was a common feature in Irish Roman Catholic chapels of the time. When he visited the Church of England church at the rear of the Town Hall he described it as “small and very ill attended”. He wrote “indeed as I afterwards found the Established clergy in this as well as many other parts of the country get their money for doing little better than nothing”. Athy was a poor town having suffered the loss of tanyards and the winding down of the local distilleries and breweries. Unemployment and wretched living conditions nourished the seeds of social discontent and criminality in the area. Thomas Rawson, captain of the Athy local yeomanry constantly reminded the officials in Dublin Castle of the need for vigilance for it was claimed by another local “the system of swearing in the lower classes is going forward”. Following the arrest of a number of men in Kildare the ever vigilant Thomas Rawson wrote to Dublin Castle in January 1814 requesting additional troops for Athy “as the Protestant minds of Athy are in great alarm”. The Dublin Castle authorities sent a company of infantry to join the 6th Dragoons and the members of the Clare militia who were already stationed in the town. Shortly afterwards Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine House forwarded a number of resolutions to Dublin Castle which had been passed at meetings of the local people of Athy in July 1814. The resolutions noted that “the towns people were annoyed at the idle, wicked and ill founded reports which were allowed to be circulated day after day following the Kildare’s men arrest”. In addition to the usual garrison Fitzgerald claimed a field officer party of the 6th Dragoons marched in while all night guards and sentries were posted at all the entrances to the town of Athy. This Fitzgerald said was unnecessary and only served to keep Athy in a state of alarm for upwards of ten days. The extra troops were removed from the town and around the same time the Peace Preservation Force (forerunners of today’s An Garda Siochana) was established. Its members took the place of the local yeomanry which was abolished. Within a year a number of incidents in or around Athy were the first indication of the resurgence of ribbon men activity in South Kildare. Attacks on the homes and buildings of local farmers were noted with concern and Thomas Rawson was again to the forefront in informing the Dublin Castle authorities of ribbon men activity in and around Athy. He informed the authorities in December 1822 of a meeting “in Murphy’s public house in Athy on Saturday, 21st of December at which there were 12 men who agreed to take up arms”. Rawson’s information was apparently correct for in a short time thereafter the farmhouse of a mill owner located within two miles of Athy was attacked by 15 men. The farmers servant was viciously assaulted and the dwellinghouse extensively damaged. Further reports noted the houghing of cattle belonging to the Duke of Leinster’s agent and that of Reverend Charles Bristow, the local Church of England curate. A local man Patrick Brady who was transported to Australia for stealing pigs in early 1825 wrote an account of the ribbon men activity in South Kildare. He claimed that William Murphy publican swore in men to take the life of Captain Lefroy. He named them as James Hutchinson, Thomas Ging, Michael Ryder, James Anderson, Daniel Bryan and Terry Neil. He further claimed that a committee calling themselves the Knights of St. Patrick’s met quarterly at Murphy’s public house and that their object was an uprising all over Ireland in 1825. What action the authorities took on foot of this letter is unclear but the successful prosecution of several local men for cattle houghing apparently had a salutary effect on the local ribbon men. The following years gave rise to only sporadic outbursts of ribbon men type activity such as the burning of the Athy residence of the Chief Constable Dolman in 1825 for which two local men, King and Hutchinson were arrested.

Ribbon Men Activity 1820s

The Peace Preservation Force instituted by Robert Peel in September 1814 was the forerunner of the modern Garda Siochana. 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 of Geraldine and magistrate for Athy forwarded to Dublin Castle the sworn affidavit of Thomas Noud of Kilmead concerning outrages committed by the new force. On the other hand 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 were then gaining prominence and in August 1818 a number of outrages committed in and around Athy were the first indication of the resurgence of Ribbonmen activity in South Kildare. These outrages reported to Captain Mansergh of Athy included:
“Party of 5 men had entered the house of a farmer near Athy and shot him.

Another man shot by the same party on the Carlow Road and an attempt made to burn
his house.

Church windows of Athy broken and the piers of Dr. Johnstons gate demolished.”

Ribbonmen were mostly tenant farmers who because of high rents and inadequate prices for their farm produce found their tenancies at risk. Working men were in time to adopt Ribbonmen tactics in their attempt to improve the level of wages. On 1st December 1819 Robert Rawson writing from Glassealy, Athy informed the Dublin Castle authorities that:
“a few nights ago a soldier on duty at the Barracks of Athy having heard a shot looked from a rising situation over the wall and saw as he swears upwards of 12 men, but he has since in private admitted there were 30 running in the field and calling on each other to come on … since, it has been stated that an assembly of 30 persons were at the house of one Keating swearing on the Ribbon business”.

Rawsons distrust of his Catholic neighbours extended even to those occupying government positions for he went on to complain:-
“the investigation has fallen into the hands of Mr Bergin a Catholic magistrate who I fear will not be very jealous in developing the facts and the Sovereign of the Town being weak the loyal man may be easily imposed on …”.

Whether Rawson’s fears were well founded or not we do not now know. Whatever the result of Bergins investigation it did not serve to stop the Ribbonmen activity in the area. Early in 1822 an attempt was made to burn the Athy Goal 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 Kildare baronies to reduce the level of the police numbers in the county. The local land owners no doubt felt that their financial position did not permit them to finance a large public force whatever the consequences. Robert Rawson son of Thomas, having succeeded his father as owner 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”.

Tandy no doubt wise to the Rawson scares of the past reported to the Castle that no outrages had been reported in East Narragh since he stationed the police there some months previously.

On 27 December 1822 Rawson ignoring Major Tandy wrote to Dublin Castle enclosing an anonymous letter which he had received from an Athy informant. The letter undated, unsigned and without an address read:
“….. there was a meeting in Murphy’s public house in Athy on Saturday 21st at which there was 12 men … it was agreed to take up arms from the gentlemen and farmers, your house is the first on the list Colonel Bagots next …. You will find the meetings at Murphy house once a week either Saturday or Sunday …. “

Rawson suggested that himself and Mr Butler the Town Sovereign of Athy attended by the yeomanry force raid Murphys on the following Saturday night. He asked the government authorities not to mention his name to Major Tandy.
“as he is imprudent in speaking of things I told him, only desire him to patrol more frequently and at different hours and I expect an attack on New Years night that his party should be in my vicinity on that night”.

The Castle official dealing with Rawsons correspondence wrote across the letter
“I would rather trust Tandy than Rawson, this is an idle letter”.

Two generations of Rawsons had cried wolf too many times, although subsequent events tended to prove the accuracy of the information concerning Murphys public house.

On 12th March 1823 N. McDonagh wrote from Ballitore to Major Tandy advising him of an attack on the night of the 11th on the farm house of Milo Farango within two miles of Athy, by about 15 men all of whom had their faces blackened. Mr. Farango who kept mills near Athy had previously received threatening letters. The writer continued:-
“… on being refused admittance by a man named Anthony Kavanagh who was lately sent there as a herd by Mr Farango the windows were all demolished. However Kavanagh having got alarmed he gave them admittance on which he was threatened in the severest manner to quit his masters employment. He was then knocked down and most inhumanly beaten his head cut severely in two places so much so that he was obliged to get medical assistance. He was also brought out of his house and stripped laid prostrate on the ground and flogged with furze brushes to that degree that his skin was torn off. I proceeded immediately after to the place and succeeded in apprehending the following persons who are sworn to and committed to Athy Goal:
Pat Moran Thomas Doyle
James Goode John Dunn
James Doyle Thomas Dunn”

The fate of the arrested men is not known.

On 29th October 1824 Tandy reported to Dublin Castle the houghing of cows belonging to Hugh Shields who doubled as the Duke of Leinsters agent and Athy Pound keeper. A number of cows belonging to the local Church of Ireland curate Charles Bristow were similarly ill-treated. It was suspected that the arrest of Patrick Kirwan a local farmer for unpaid rent due to the Duke of Leinster was the cause of the unsavoury activities of the night of 28th. A number of local men were arrested shortly afterwards by a large party of police under the command of Mr Butler Town Sovereign and charged with the houghing offences.