Athy's Wallboard factory

One of my earliest memories is of walking with my older brothers to the huge fire which broke out at the Wallboard factory in April 1949. I was a month short of my seventh birthday when like so many other Athy folk we all gathered on the roadside at Barrowford to watch ricks of straw on fire. The Athy Fire Station master made the following entry in the station records; ‘I received a call to fire at Wallboard Factory on 14th April 1949. All members of the Brigade were present. When we arrived we discovered three ricks of straw on fire. We remained working until Saturday 16th May. The Curragh and Carlow Brigades were also there.’ A later entry for the month of May listed as fire members R. Webster, P. Delahunt, Thomas Fleming, Jas Fleming, J. Webster, P. Cowman and P. Doyle who attended a fire at Mrs. Quinn’s house in St. John’s Lane. The Wallboard Mills were located on a 17 acre site approximately one mile north of Athy. Irish Wallboard Co. Ltd. had been formed in 1939 to manufacture hardboard from straw but did not commence production until 1949. Two years later it began to use native timber as the basic raw material for the manufacture of the oil tempered hardboard which was marketed under the trade name ‘Lignatex’. The Irish company had become closely associated with the Bowater organisation in 1950. The timber used in the manufacturing process consisted of forest thinning, while steam power was generated by machine won turf supplied by Bord na Mona. Over 12,000 tons of turf was used each year while 3 or 4 weeks turf supply was always kept in reserve. A major expansion programme in 1957 increased the mill’s production capacity by almost 60% and a further expansion scheme, completed in 1966, trebled the capacity of the Wallboard factory in the space of fifteen years. A report in the Nationalist and Leinster Times of 15th January 1949 noted that while equipment installation work in the new factory was nearing completion two local men, Pat Doyle and Ed Hicks, spent some days at Clondalkin Paper Mills studying the working of the various machines in preparation for their duties at Athy’s new factory. I am uncertain as to whether the factory was in production when the fire started on 14th April 1949. Despite that early setback, with the use of timber rather than straw, and the expansion programmes initiated in 1957 the factory was able to produce 60 million square feet of board annually. Two thirds of the factory output was exported. A press report of the 1960s outlined the steps taken at the Wallboard factory to ensure the production of a high-quality product. The factory laboratory where samples from every part of the production process were tested was managed by Jim Flanagan, assisted by John Murphy, Terry Doyle and many others. Three quality controllers were constantly sampling during every stage of the manufacturing process. This was a responsibility of Pat Daly, John Murphy and Michael Ahern, while Kevin McNulty kept an eye on the quality of the turf and the finished board. In the chemical mixing department Arthur Kavanagh was employed in the preparation of approximately ten tons of aluminium sulphate solution each week. Another laboratory man was George Robinson who assisted the chief chemist Jim Flanagan in research and development. The first manager of the Wallboard factory was Richard Shackleton, while the initial production managers employed were Swedish, the fifth production manager was Andy Coughlan whom I understand was a former RAF flight engineer. With many other local factories the Wallboard staff participated in the annual parochial variety festivals which were initiated by the local curate, Fr. Joe Corbett. In 1964 the Wallboard Variety Show was reported in the local press as ‘a pleasant and colourful presentation which won loud applause from the audience.’ The performers included Ena, Joan and Frances Coughlan, Connie Stafford, M. Dooley, P. Dunleavy, N. Wright, M. Holohan, K. McNulty, T. Dooley, S. Fanning, P.J. Loughman, Tim Ryan, M. Rainsford, F. Ryan, S. Finnerty, B. Finnerty and B. Robinson. The laughter, songs and work stopped in December 1978 when the Wallboard factory closed down. Approximately 220 workers were made redundant when production of wallboard transferred to Sweden where it is today still carried on. When corresponding with my good friend Liam Kenny, doyen of Kildare local historians, I invariably refer to Athy as being in the deep south of the county. For a change this Eye comes from the deep south of the island of Ireland to where I have travelled to greet my latest grandchild, Hannah Rose, born just a few days ago in Cork city. Hannah was the name of her maternal great grandmother who was born and reared in Doneraile, Co. Cork. The circle has now been completed.

A look back over the past 1500 Eyes on the Past

It is close on 29 years ago that I penned my first Eye on the Past. This week the 1500th article is printed and I want to take the opportunity to reflect on past articles, the people and events that formed the subject of those articles and to acknowledge the help given to me by so many people over the years. The first article was a short piece of approximately 400 words in which I mentioned the publics growing interest in local history and the opening of what I referred to as “the new vastly improved library service in the Town Hall”. Subsequent articles grew in wordage to 800 words then 1,200 words and that latter figure was maintained until the Kildare Nationalist changed to tabloid form. Prior to my first article I had been researching the history of Athy and 29 years later that research is still ongoing and my long promised history of the town is still not ready for publication. As a “blow in” to Athy from just down the road in Castlecomer but having all my remembered youthful life experiences here in Athy it is understandable that my interest in history should be centred on Athy. It was an interest first encouraged by my teachers in the local Christian Brothers school, especially the late Bill Ryan who was a gentleman, a scholar and an encourager. While I was out of Athy for 22 years my interest in history saw me researching Athy’s past. That research opened up many unknown and some forgotten elements of the town’s story. Even while I had attended the local secondary school and studied history for my Leaving Certificate I had never encountered any significant references to Athy’s involvement in Irish national events. Nothing was ever related to me or my school mates of how the Great Famine affected the local people. We learned of the famine tragedies of the West and the South West of Ireland such as that reported in the United Irishmen newspaper of the 19th of February 1848 which quoting a correspondent of the Mayo Constitution claiming “we had been informed that within the last week upwards of 20 deaths have taken place from starvation in Ballintubbert”. We now know that our local workhouse was the last place of residence for hundreds of local men, women and children who died during the famine and whose remains were brought by cart across Lennons Bridge to be buried in paupers graves in St. Mary’s cemetery. As students we never learned of the young men from Athy who enlisted to fight overseas in World War or the great number of those men whose broken bodies disappeared into the blood-soaked soil of France and Flanders. I had never heard of John Vincent Holland whose act of bravery during that same war resulted in him being awarded the Victoria Cross. These were some of the towns past stories which had escaped the memory of later generations, and which were awaiting to be discovered, for without these stories and the many other stories of local events and local men and women our community’s shared past would be incomplete. In my first article I wrote “Eye on the Past will each week deal with a topic of interest from the history of South Kildare when we will delve into the rich vein of local history which remains to be discovered”. I didn’t know then what an overwhelming rich vein of history awaited to be discovered. I have been fortunate to be contacted personally, by phone, by letter and in more recent times via email by hundreds of persons interested in Athy’s history. Many have sought information of ancestors who once lived in the town or South Kildare while others had generously shared memories and knowledge of past events with me. Eithne Wall who first joined my office in 1982 has typed, with very few exceptions, the Eyes since 1992 and Noreen Day has provided the proof reading necessary to correct my mistakes. The availability of the Eyes on the Past on the internet has led to enquiries from many countries particularly America, Australia, New Zealand and as might be expected Great Britain. Those enquiries have brought home to me how generations of Athy folk can spread throughout the world and how information regarding the past of such a small town as Athy can be gleaned from sources throughout the globe. Our local history mirrors in many ways the national events of the time and we can get a better understanding of our country’s own history by knowing the history of the generations who have gone before us. I am pleased to acknowledge that today Athy people have a better understanding of their own history and this is reflected in a cultural reawakening which was not readily observable a few decades ago. We have a proud history whether it is recounting the men, women and events of the War of Independence or the story of those who went to war overseas during 1914/18. Part of that history is knowing that an international figure such as Polar Explorer Ernest Shackleton was born in nearby Kilkea and undoubtedly walked the same streets we walk today. But above all our towns history is the story of the local men and women, many of whom lived in the back streets and alleyways in Athy in houses which were demolished during the slum clearance programmes of the 1930’s. They were the workers in the brickyards and the foundries and the farm labourers who with their wives and children gave life to the Anglo Norman town founded over 800 years ago. I was privileged to have been able to share some of their stories even if at times I might have unintentionally offended someone’s delicate sensibilities. Yes, there had been a few occasions over the past 29 years when someone has objected to something I wrote or made a point of seeking a correction when none was justified. I remember one reader who sought to correct my research findings regarding the location of the Quaker Meeting House in Meeting Lane on the basis that her mother told her it was elsewhere. I couldn’t persuade her otherwise or indeed ameliorate the fury of the woman who felt I had insulted the former tenants of the soldiers houses in the Bleach by reciting the accommodation details as outlined in the War Office files of the 1920s. However it was not all conflict. The readers have been more than complimentary and I am ever grateful for the continued help afforded to me by so many with my research. A special thanks to one individual who has been writing to me for years with the most beautiful handwriting always drawing my attention to items or persons of interest. He has constantly provided me with additional information but always on the strict understanding that his name is never mentioned. I started off by stating my intention to reflect on past articles but my pen has galloped away without doing what I intended. I hope you have enjoyed the past 1,500 Eyes on the Past and here is hoping that time will be given to me to write some more Eyes and more importantly finish and publish my long promised history of Athy.

When Athy was the largest town in County Kildare

In 1841 Athy had the largest population of any town in County Kildare. With 4,980 persons living within the town boundaries, it exceeded the population of Naas by over 300. Newbridge was only a sizeable village with a population of 1,177 while nearby Portlaoise fell short of Athy’s population with 3,702 inhabitants. Ten years later Athy’s population had increased to 5,263 as a result of the workhouse numbers which masked an actual fall in the towns native population over the course of the Great Famine. Naas in the meantime had begun to match Athy in terms of population numbers with 5,184 inhabitants. Both towns were to show substantial population losses by 1911 when Athy was recorded with 3,535 inhabitants with Naas overtaking Athy as the largest town in the County with 3,842. In fact, the first time Naas showed a higher population figure than Athy was in 1871 with approximately 100 more residents than the South Kildare town. The ups and downs of urban population figures no doubt were reflected in the range and extent of local commercial activity. Here in Athy, we have witnessed even within the past two or three years several businesses which have changed hands or gone out of business. As I write this article, I can only recall two local business still operating in Athy as they were 100 years ago. Indeed, O’Brien’s of Emily Square was the name over the shop as early as two or three decades before the new century arrived, while Doyle’s of Woodstock Street opened many years later. Both pubs operated at a time when Athy with less than half the population it has today, was home to 44 public houses. One of their commercial colleagues at that time was A. Duncan & Son, Drapers and Outfitters of Duke Street which business was bought out by Sam Shaw in or about 1914 and which business is still the anchor tenant in Athy’s main shopping street. Many other firms now long forgotten once traded in our town. Who remembers James Reid & Son, Family Grocers and Publicans of Leinster Street or William Triston, Solicitor of Duke Street. Both carried on business in Athy in 1916 as did Henry Hannon & Sons, Millers of Duke Street and Columb Geraghty, Grocer and Publican of Market Square. Thomas Lumley merchant tailor worked in his workshop in Athy until he retired on the 23th July 1917. Amongst those who continued in business for some time after that were P.J. Corcoran, principal of the Athy Auctioneering Company and Daniel Toomey, Builder and Contractor. Many of today’s older generation will recall Glespens Carriage Builders who carried on business in 1917 and much later. In the 1950’s Glespens occupied premises in Duke Street but has anyone heard of John P. Glespen who in 1917 advertised himself as “Carriage Builder and Designer, Wheelwright, Harness Maker and Motor Car and Cycle Agent” with premises in Nelson Street and Offaly Street. Edward Vernal was plying his trade as a General Smith and Horseshoer in Leinster Street in 1907. The Vernal forge was located in St. John’s Lane immediately behind Mrs. Haslem’s house when I was attending the Christian Brothers School in the 1950’s John Blanchfield operated out of 26 Leinster Street as a pork butcher and sausage maker in 1916. Was he, I wonder, related to the saw milling Blanchfield family at the top end of Leinster Street. A business not previously known to me was that of the Miley Brothers who had the General Supply Store in Duke Street in 1916. Names still remembered today and found over business premises in Athy over 100 years ago include Duthies of Leinster Street. W.T. Duthie, Watchmaker, Jeweller and Optician had been in business for several years prior to 1917 and his son, Albert, would later take over the business. On the far side of Crom a Boo Bridge in 1917 was the Grocery Tea, Wine and Spirits Stores of Cantwell’s of Duke Street while George Dillon of 19 Leinster Street advertised Spiced Beef as a speciality to order. Michael Murphy carried on business in the Commercial House facing the Market Square as a Clothier, Hatter offering “ boots and shoes in great variety”. Around the corner in Stanhope Street was another Murphy, this time with the forename Patrick who ran a General Grocery and Provision Business. David Walsh, Family Grocer, Hardware, Seed and General Merchant “with a variety of Guns and Ammunition always in stock” had his premises at the corner of Chapel Lane and Leinster Street. Other businesses in Athy in the early years of the 20th century included Athy Gas Company, Hibernian Bank, Duthie Large Foundry and Iron Works, Leinster Arms Hotel, D&J Carbery Builders and Athy Tile and Brick Company. These firms are no longer in Athy and their absence reminds us that the ever changing needs of new generations require new and improved commercial outlets to serve their needs. 100 years ago the market town of Athy with a population of less that 4,000 boasted of 44 public houses. Today our main streets show a monopoly of hairdressing salons, betting shops, charity shops and fast food outlets. Times indeed are a changing.

Athy in the 1840s

The worst effects of the famine which had ravaged Ireland following the failure of the potato crop in 1845 had abated by the time 1853 arrived. William Byrne was then station master in Athy, a position he held for the previous four years and where he would remain for the next six years. Athy boasted many trades in 1853, including a Fack and Hook Maker, a trade practiced by Michael Cushian who found himself on the wrong side of the law on assault charges. Julia Bradley, dressmaker, was summoned by her mistress, Mrs. O’Neill, for leaving her indentures without fulfilling her term. She was ordered by the Court to return to her ‘master’, otherwise she would be jailed for the remainder of her apprenticeship. Also in trouble were the four paupers brought before the local petty sessions by the Master of the workhouse for refusing to work and disobeying the Master’s orders. They each got one month’s imprisonment with hard labour. Early in the year eight locals were summoned by order of the Town Commissioners for exhibiting turf for sale in a place other than that designated for such sales by the town fathers. Athy resident Mrs. Walsh was one of sixty passengers who drowned when the steamer, ‘Queen Victoria’, sank in Dublin Bay on Tuesday 15th February of that year. Forty passengers survived, including her husband. The Presbyterian families who had arrived the previous year from Perthshire Scotland to take up tenancies of the Duke of Leinster’s lands in the Athy area, gave public notice that their meeting house was a place of religious worship and registered for solemnising marriages. Controversy arose when the vacant position of Coroner for South Kildare prompted an advertisement to be inserted in the Leinster Express expressing ‘regret that the election of Coroner has endeavoured to be made a political and religious question’. The contest was between James Butler who although an Anglican had the support of the Roman Catholic voters and Dr. Carter, another Anglican, who was eventually appointed. Two years after the abolition of Athy Borough Council the newly elected Town Commissioners for Athy, numbering 21 in all, whose numbers included the Catholic Parish Priest Fr. John Lawler and the Anglican Rector, Rev. Frederick Trench, agreed to have a certain number of Catholics and Protestants as Town Commissioners and to have a Catholic and Protestant chairman on alternate years. Michael Lawler, who was Chairman of the Town Commissioners in 1853, wrote to the press in July 1858 stating that ‘we have never deviated from our original compact’. Michael Lawler was one of the 21 Town Commissioners who was sworn into office before Lord Downes and John Butler on 18th February 1842 at a ceremony held in Athy’s Courthouse which was then part of the Town Hall. During his long service as a Town Commissioner he was elected Chairman on three occasions, 1853, 1876 and 1890. Lawler who died on 20th October 1900 and was buried in Barrowhouse, started in business in Athy in and around 1840. He had a licenced premises in Leinster Street immediately adjoining Whites Castle which was subsequently purchased by Edward T. Mulhall in November 1900 for £500. Edward Mulhall was described in the press reports of the time as having worked in Lawlers licenced premises as ‘the foreman and manager’. Michael Lawler gave what the local press described as ‘a sumptuous entertainment to upwards of 60 persons on the advent of his inauguration to the chairmanship of the Town Commissioners. The dinner was given in a spacious room in Mr. Lawler’s private residence.’ Michael Lawler lived at Park House in Duke Street which was later acquired by McHugh’s chemist. Alexander Duncan, a local trader, in a speech to the dinner guests said ‘those gentlemen who had but lately seen the town, could not well appreciate the progress it had made in the last 20 years. If they were to know the sanitary conditions then and compare it with the present appearance, they would in the fullest acceptance of the word admit that Athy had progressed.’ Four months later an extraordinary meeting of Athy Dispensary Committee was held to consider the medical officers report regarding the filthy state of the town. It was an issue which Michael Lawler returned to the following October when he claimed ‘Athy is a different town to what it was 21 years ago. Then the streets were in ruts, the homes were falling, the best streets were interspersed with thatched houses ….. now we have a flourishing town ….. the houses and establishments second to none to any inland town in Ireland.’ Twenty years later an editorial in the Leinster Express under the heading ‘The water supply of Athy’ noted ‘we are now paying for our past neglect and for the carelessness of former generations ….. the water we have been consuming all our lives turns out to be polluted ….. our dwellings have been constructed without any regard to the health of the inhabitants ….. the sanitary conditions of the town are very bad.’ The editorial noted that a special meeting of the sanitary committee had been convened for that day to consider whether a pure water supply could be brought from a distance into the town by means of pipes. Thirty years were to elapse before a piped water supply was provided for the people of Athy. By comparison fifty-five years have passed since Athy’s outer relief road was first suggested in a consultants report presented to Athy U.D.C.

'The Black and Tans 1920/'21' and 'The World War 1 Dead of Co. Kildare'

Two important books arrived on my desk in the last week, both of them with listings of men who served our neighbouring country at a time when Ireland was an unwilling part of the British empire. The first book was Jim Herlihy’s latest publication, ‘The Black and Tans 1920 – 1921’, which added to his impressive list of previously published works makes him the outstanding author of policing before and during Ireland’s War of Independence. Subtitled ‘A complete Alphabetical List, Short History and Genealogical Guide’, the book is a complete listing of the 7,684 men who enlisted in the Royal Irish Constabulary Special Reserve, or as they were better known the Black and Tans. The Black and Tans were recruited to compensate for the shortfall in R.I.C. members, resulting from the IRA campaign against the police which forced so many policemen to resign. Between 6th January 1920 and 7th July the following year 7,684 men were recruited in Britain and brought to Ireland to join the R.I.C. Special Reserve. Amongst their numbers were 381 native Irishmen, including 9 from County Kildare, 6 from County Laois and 5 from County Carlow. The Black and Tans, so called because they dressed in black trousers and tan tunics, were initially trained in the R.I.C. Depot at Phoenix Park, but later in the Hare Park Camp on the Curragh before ending up in September of 1920 in Gormanstown Camp, Co. Meath. On completion of their one month training the R.I.C. Special Reserve were transferred to R.I.C. Barracks around the country. Athy, while not regarded as an active rebel town, had a small number of Black and Tans stationed in the old Cavalry Barracks at Woodstock Street. While recruiting for the Special Reserves stopped on 7th July 1921 the members of that force only began to leave Ireland in January of the following year. At least one member of the Black and Tans who was based in Athy remained in the town or later returned, which I do not know, for he married a local girl. The story of the Black and Tans is one which we Irish remember as one of killings and atrocities by men who were a law unto themselves. Jim Herlihy’s book is a comprehensive listing of the men who during the 18 months they were in Ireland suffered 143 casualties. During their time in Ireland they earned the outrage of Irish men and women who regarded them as terrorists. The second book published by the County Kildare Decade of Commemoration Committee is titled ‘Remembrance: The World War 1 Dead of Co. Kildare’. Compiled by Karel Kiely, James Durney and Mario Corrigan it lists the 753 men and 1 woman from the County of Kildare who served and died during World War I. The research for this book has uncovered 9 Athy men not previously identified who died during the war. Three of them were from Offaly Street, two brothers James and Thomas Connell and Joseph Breen. As a young lad growing up in Offaly Street I remember the brothers Mick and Johnny Connell lived in Crampton House opposite what is now the Credit Union in Offaly Street, while another brother Lar lived in Stanhope Street. They were the brothers of the two World War 1 soldiers, James who died on 17th April 1915 and Thomas who died on 9th September 1916. Further up Offaly Street during my youth lived Tom Breen and his family, whose daughter Nan died within the last year or two while she was still living in the family home. Tom’s brother Joseph, a soldier in the Royal Army Service Corps, died aged 32 years, less than two weeks before the end of the war. He was born in Janeville and his younger brother Tom at the time of his brother’s death was living with his grandmother Julia Bradley in Offaly Street. Two other soldiers of whom I was not previously aware are identified as William Dooley of Castlemitchell and his namesake whose brother James Dooley lived at Rathstewart Cottage, Athy. Other Athy soldiers who died in the war but whom I was unaware of until they were included in the new book were 22-year-old Christopher Doran of St. John’s Lane, 33-year-old Michael Davis of Kelly’s Lane and later Chapel Hill, Patrick O’Mara of Chapel Hill, and the Vigors brothers, Arthur and Charles, whose father Charles Vigors was a shopkeeper in Market Square in the 1890s and later. The book lists the deaths of 120 men born in Athy, by far the highest number of any town in the county, the next highest being the Curragh with 67 and Naas with 64. An additional 19 names must be added to Athy’s World War I casualty list, representing men not born in the town but who lived there either when they enlisted or sometime earlier. For many years it was believed that they were on the wrong side of history, that is until Kevin Myers, John MacKenna and later Clem Roche and others wrote of Athy’s men’s sacrifices with pride and gratitude. Here in Athy we arranged the first Armistice Day Sunday Service nearly 30 years ago as part of a weekend of remembrance which featured a seminar in the Town Hall, with lectures by Con Costello, Pat Casey, Kevin Myers, Josephine Cashman and Jane Leonard, followed by a performance of ‘The Fallen’, a voice play of the Great War by John MacKenna. This was the first awakening of an important part of our town’s story and one which now finds another retelling of part of that story in the new book ‘Remembrance: The World War I Dead of Co. Kildare’. Congratulations to Karel Kiely and her colleagues James Durney and Mario Corrigan for a magnificent new publication on Kildare’s World War I dead.

St. Vincent de Paul Society and Athy Lions Club Presidents Everest challenges

During twelve months of lockdown we have witnessed a catastrophic change in the commercial life of our town and district. Local businesses have suffered badly, and business owners and workers alike have felt the financial repercussions of a local economy which is closed down. Families which have always managed to face up to life’s trials now find themselves facing an ever more uncertain future. There is an increasing number of families and individuals experiencing financial difficulties who, for perhaps the first time, have to rely on the charity of others. In Athy we are very fortunate to have an active branch of the St Vincent de Paul Society which, for more than 100 years, has been helping local families and individuals in need. Historically that help was availed of by those whose poverty was the result of long-term unemployment. Today, the Vincent de Paul Society is called upon to help those no longer able to cope financially as a result of the Covid lockdown. Reliance on the Vincent de Paul Society is a new experience for many. Their needs are all the greater as the psychological impact of the national lockdown is felt by parents and children alike. The local branch of the St Vincent de Paul Society is made up of a small number of men and women who quietly and discreetly help local people in need. The demands on their time and on the resources of the local branch are in normal times quite high. However, with the ongoing Covid lockdown demands for help have increased enormously. More money than ever before is required to meet the urgent needs of those in want. Athy Lions Club, recognising the crisis facing many people in Athy and district, have decided to organise a fundraising event to help the St Vincent de Paul Society. Called the Everest Challenge, it will feature an attempt by the Lions Club president, 45-year old Brian Dooley, to ascend 39,340 steps representing the height of Mount Everest. The world’s highest mountain is located on the crest of the great Himalayas of Southern Asia, between Nepal and Tibet. It was believed to be 29,028 feet high when first climbed by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. However, a recent American survey found that it is 29,035 feet high. The extra seven feet will mean a little extra work for Athy Lions president, who will not only walk up 39,340 steps but also descend the same number of steps. He will get no credit for steps descended, but will find a little relief going down before facing into another upward advance. The challenge will start on Saturday, 1st May and continue the next day and into a third day, if necessary, until the target is reached. As I write this Eye, Brian Dooley is practising his stairclimbing techniques to ensure the fitness levels necessary to keep climbing for eight hours on the opening day, and on each day thereafter. It will all take place on the Athy Rugby Club fire escape, which is a sturdy metal stairs, ten feet four inches high, with fourteen steps. The Lions Club president is undertaking this challenge in return for donations which will be divided between Athy St Vincent de Paul Society and Pieta House, which provides counselling to people who are in suicidal distress. Donations can be made online at www.idonate.ie/athylionsclubeverestchallenge or at the Everest Challenge site on any of the days the intrepid Brian Dooley is “stepping it out”. I would hazard a guess that there is not another Lions Club president in Ireland who could match our Lions president’s vision and stamina. If and when Brian successfully makes the 39,340 upward steps, and reaches the summit of the virtual Everest, it will mark an extraordinary personal effort by him. We will all wish him well on the day, or days, of the climb beginning on the 1st of May. In the meantime, remember the two charities which will benefit: St Vincent de Paul Society, Athy and Pieta House. Your donations, no matter how small, will help both organisations continue to offer assistance to all those in need during these difficult times.

Whites Castle and the early years of medieval Athy

Last week’s Kildare Nationalist carried a news item concerning White’s Castle and an announcement of the forthcoming auction of what was described as a 2.5 acre development site in the centre of Athy. It was an unusual coincidence which highlighted on the same paper two important elements of Athy’s past history, even if the development site description might not immediately signal any historical significance. But in fact the site located off Emily Square has a history which predates that of White’s Castle by over 150 years or more. The site was correctly identified in the notice as being located within the old ‘Abbey lands’, a reminder that a few years ago it was the site of the Abbey, a fine 18th century house which was pulled down overnight. The name came down to us over the years because it was the site of the first Dominican Abbey or Friary founded in 1257. The French speaking Anglo Normans who sailed up the river Barrow and opened settlements at various locations in the Barrow valley founded one of their most important settlements at the Ford of Ae. They built a fortified castle at Woodstock around which the medieval village of Athy developed. Within a few years the Crouched Friars founded a monastery on the west bank of the River Barrow in the area still known to this day as St. Johns. A few years later the Dominicans founded their monastery on the opposite bank of the river in the area which the auction notice called the ‘Abbey lands’. The Dominicans occupied their monastery until the Reformation when Henry VIII suppressed the Irish and English monasteries and sequestered the Abbey property which was leased to Martin Pelles, constable of the castle of Athy. The Abbey consisted of a church with a bell tower, a chapter house, dormitory, kitchen, rooms and two halls in addition to an open cloister, a cemetery, an orchard and a garden. The buildings were in time destroyed and levelled to the ground leaving only, I believe, traces underground. The Abbey site has an important story awaiting to be told and it is a story which can only be fully explained after a comprehensive archaeological survey of the site has been carried out. Following the Battle of Ardscull on 26th January 1316 when the Scottish troops under Edward Bruce defeated the Anglo Normans, the Book of Howth records that ‘of the Scot side were slain Lord Fergus Anderson, Lord Walter More and many others whose bodies were buried in the Abbey of the Friars Preachers Athy.’ Also buried there were the Dominican Friars who in the first 300 years of the Abbey’s existence lived, worshipped, and prayed in Athy’s Abbey. This important historical site needs to have an archaeological assessment and investigation carried out as a matter of urgency. White’s Castle recently purchased for the third time in recent years by a private individual without any interest being expressed by Kildare County Council, has been awarded funding under the Community Monuments Fund. I understand the purpose of the funding is to help protect the historical building and facilitate access to it by the general public. White’s Castle is an iconic building at the heart of our town which stands not alone but is twinned with the adjoining Crom a Boo bridge to provide a symbolic representation of the town’s ancient history. Picture Athy in your mind’s eye and almost certainly images of the castle and the bridge will come into view. For so long at the heart of town life in Athy the Castle, as a garrison fortress, as a prison and as a police barracks has witnessed the passing of so many different generations stretching back over 600 years. I had hoped that White’s Castle would again become an integral part of community life in Athy with its development as a heritage centre/museum to complement the Shackleton Museum in the former market house. I don’t know what plans the new owner has for the castle but the successful application for Community Monument funding is an encouraging sign that private enterprise might yet take up the challenge which Kildare County Council and Athy Town Council so abysmally failed to do in the past.

Crime in Athy

Athy’s transition from village to town status was marked by the construction of the town hall building. Its exact date of construction is not known, but it is believed to have been in the 1720s. Around that same time a cavalry barracks was built on the north west outskirts of the town which allowed the White Castle to be thereafter used as a town jail. This was a time when under the Penal code many offences were punishable by death or transportation. Theft of as little as a loaf of bread resulted on conviction to the imposition of the death penalty. This was a situation which prevailed until Robert Peel introduced a series of reforms between 1823 and 1830 which abolished the death penalty for over 180 crimes. The death penalty was still carried out in Athy for murder and other serious crimes using the gallows sited on the approach road from Dublin in the area now known as Gallowshill. One convict who escaped the gallows was James Carr who at Athy assizes in September 1779 was sentenced to death for ‘carrying away Judith Mitchell against her consent, with an intent that she should marry Thomas Condron and also having assisted the said Thomas Condron in ravishing the said Judith Mitchell.’ A Proclamation issued on 30th September 1779 offered a reward for the apprehension of the rescuers of James Carr who had attacked the sub sheriff and bailiffs and other peace officers as they transported Carr to the place of execution. It recounted how ‘a great number of persons concealed themselves behind the wall that bordered the road leading to the place of execution and from there made a violent assault upon the sheriff and the persons who so accompanied him and forcibly cut the ropes by which the said James Carr was pinioned and let him at liberty.’ Many persons who attended the planned public execution of Carr were struck by stones thrown by Carr’s supporters and the man who was to act as executioner died of injuries he received that day. The White Castle jail was to house many prisoners facing execution or transportation during its times as a prison. Housed in a medieval castle the building was understandably not fit for use as a prison and indeed Athy jail was condemned by prison inspectors on several occasions who in 1824 reported that it was ‘without exception the worst county jail in point of accommodation, having neither yards, pumps, hospital, chapel or proper day rooms.’ Responsibilities for the maintenance of the jail rested with the Grand Jury of the county which was made up of 23 members of the landed gentry, all selected by the High Sheriff of Kildare. The Grand Jury system was inefficient, but it was not until 1877 that the Grand Jury’s functions in relation to jails was taken over by central authorities. In the early decades of the 19th century there was a ground swell of support for penal reform following the Jail Act of 1823 which removed many of the worst abuses in the English prison system. The Duke of Leinster’s interest in penal reform saw him donate a site on the Carlow road in Athy for the building of a new jail. John Hargrove, architect, was engaged by the County Kildare Grand Jury to design the new prison and he prepared plans for a small polygonal building which was constructed of local limestone at a cost of €5,400 between 1826 and 1830. The Duke of Leinster in addition to donating the site also contributed the sum of €1,700 towards the building costs and he laid the first stone of the new jail on 20th June 1826. When opened in 1830 the new prison consisted of 30 cells in a semi-circular form, with five yards and five day rooms and a Governor’s house in the middle. While the prison was built to accommodate 30 prisoners, the average prison numbers in 1852 was 48. Amongst those imprisoned were men and women convicted at Athy Assizes and sentenced to transportation in Van Diemen’s land. At the Quarter Sessions in Athy in June 1850 nine persons were sentenced to 10 years transportation, with three persons sentenced to seven years transportation. Amongst the latter was Margaret Gambion who was convicted of cabbage stealing. The first convict ship to leave Ireland sailed from Cork in April 1791 carrying 175 men and 25 women to New South Wales. Amongst them were several prisoners convicted at assizes in county Kildare. Four years later they were joined in New South Wales by amongst others three men who were convicted at Athy assizes of the murder of John Hill and Michael Hill. James Connors, John Murray and John Meagher were sentenced to transportation for life and spent several months in Athy jail following their convictions in 1794 until joining the convict ship ‘Marquis of Cornwallis’ in Cork on 9th August 1795. The ship was 186 days at sea before arriving at Port Jackson Australia. Athy’s new jail was closed in 1859 and the prisoners transferred to the newly extended jail in Naas. Transportation to Australia which started in 1787 following the cessation of transportation to America, finished with the arrival of the last convict ship, ‘the Hougoumont’, carrying 63 Irish political prisoners including John Boyle O’Reilly in Freemantle on 9th January 1868. We do not know how many men and women sentenced at Athy Courts were transported between 1791 and 1868. The White Castle, the former medieval stronghold, later a prison, and following that a police station, reminds us of a dark and sad history which may never be fully recovered.

Planned Redevelopment of Athy's Shackleton Museum

During the early days of my research into the history of Athy I spent many hours in the main reading room of the National Library in Kildare Street Dublin. This is an impressive horseshoe shaped room with a domed structure almost 50 feet high. During the time I spent there in the 1970s it provided a wonderful setting for my never-ending research into the history of Athy. The National Library is a fantastic resource and its archives provided me with many new insights into the town’s history and shed light on forgotten aspects of its earlier years. I imagine that the numbers of members of the general public who frequent similar research rooms have fallen over the years. In most of our pockets is a smart phone which gives us instant access to data all around the world. Nevertheless the research rooms of national and county libraries still fulfil an important function. They are the access point for knowledge and information which is not necessarily readily available on the internet. Not every document or book is available online and national and local research centres play an important role in preserving our nation’s history. Many years ago on the founding of the Athy Museum Society and with the support of the late Bertie Doyle, Pat Mulhall and many others the Museum Society had planned to establish an Athy town archive which would comprise both the administrative records of Athy Urban District Council, local clubs and the commercial records of local businesses. Unfortunately this proved to be beyond the capabilities of the Museum Society. I was reflecting on this recently when I was depositing with the archive section of the Kildare County Council library some business records and remaining records of Athy’s Workhouse. Although not complete those records constitute an important amount of local historical material that will in time warrant some significant research. Something to consider in tandem with the records of deaths in Athy’s Workhouse recently compiled by Clem Roche and Michael Donovan. The planned redevelopment of the Shackleton Museum in Athy will see the establishment of a research room and reading library. The purpose is to provide an area to facilitate both study and research of all aspects of life and endeavour in the polar regions with particular focus on the Antarctic. Because the Antarctic continent was uninhabited until the establishment of permanent research stations in the early twentieth century, the corpus of Antarctic literature is quite small. That has encouraged the Directors of the Shackleton Museum to proceed with its plan to establish a research library and archive in in the redeveloped museum. These plans have been greatly assisted by the generosity of two Antarctic veterans. Fergus O’Gorman from Dublin who over-wintered in the Antarctica in the late 1950’s with the British Antarctic Survey generously donated hundreds of his polar books to the museum two years ago. Following on from that generous bequest the museum has entered into partnership with the publishers Harvest Press to publish Fergus’s memoirs of his time in the Antarctic and that publication will be launched at the Shackleton Autumn School on the night of October the 28th. Another generous bequest which will add immeasurably to the Museum’s research library and archive came from the U.K based naturalist and writer Robert Burton who sadly passed away at the start of this year. Robert or Bob as we knew him was a regular attendee of the Shackleton Autumn School and was a prolific lecturer to the Autumn School and a contributor of articles to its journal, Nimrod. Bob was an expert on all matters Antarctic and his meticulous research is reflected in the library of books which will find their way to Athy at the end of the Summer. Combined with Fergus O’Gorman’s they will form a body of almost one thousand volumes focused on the Antarctic regions. The museum itself has been assiduous in collecting original archival material that is pertinent to the Antarctic regions and amongst its treasures are diaries belonging to Emily Shackleton, the wife of Ernest Shackleton. The museum remains active in collecting such material and when the archive/library opens for researchers in 2024 there will be a wealth of Antarctic material available, for the first time, to researchers in this country. It is heartening to think that a small town like Athy can become in the near future a destination for researchers and academics from all over the world.

My favourite sports stories

Looking back over the years I find that sport of all kinds has provided me with wonderful memories which I have been able to revisit time after time. With these memories are reminders of the great sportsmen who brought excitement into many lives. My own memories of sporting heroes started with my namesakes Pat and Toss Taaffe, two brothers who graced the horse racing world of the 1950s and later. Pat Taaffe was a champion jockey, whose wins in the big races brought headlines which I was delighted to see whenever I came home from school at lunchtime. The Irish Independent was the family paper then and the name Taaffe was often headlined in the sporting pages with accounts of Pat Taaffe’s successes. Maybe there was an assumed reflected glory in my sharing a surname with the great jockey in much the same way when as a young school lad I was enamoured of Raftery the poet, one of whose poems offered the lines, ‘Saol fada ag Frank Taaffe agus na Loinsigh ann.’ Recently thinking of the great sports stars whom I admired over the years I wondered if in retirement they are conscious of the part their sporting careers played in creating never to be forgotten precious memories for the general public. For my part my first enduring sports star was the great Kerry footballer Mick O’Connell. In a footballing career which spanned the 1950s to the 1970s the Valentia islander won 4 All Ireland football medals and captained Kerry in the 1959 final. He was one of the greatest exponents of Gaelic football as we knew it before it was transformed into the basketballing game of today. Next to Mick O’Connell and of the same vintage was another great sporting hero of mine, hurling legend Eddie Keher. Eddie’s father was a Garda, as was my father, and the fact that I was born in County Kilkenny allowed me to cheer for Eddie and the Kilkenny team on hurling days and for Kildare in that county’s quest for footballing glory. Eddie was one of the most prolific scorers in hurling during the 1960s and late into the 1970s. Kildare’s success on the football field never matched that of Kilkenny’s in the hurling arena so I have collected more great hurling memories than football memories over the years. At the same time I have added to my hurling heroes with D.J. Carey, Tommy Walsh and J.J. Delaney, all of Kilkenny joining Eddie Keher as my hurling legends. While Kildare footballers did not meet with much success over recent decades, nevertheless several Kildare County players were footballing heroes of mine. Pa Connolly, Pat Mangan, Kieran O’Malley and three Athy players, Danny Flood, Brendan Kehoe and Mick Carolan were my youthful footballing heroes. Another favourite Kildare County player was Seamie Harrison of Monasterevin whom I admired for his not to be forgotten display in the 1956 Leinster Final. These players were just a few years older than myself but at a very young age those few years were sufficient to create an almost generational gap. They were excellent footballers whose names evoked wonder and excitement amongst many young followers of Gaelic football in County Kildare including myself in the 1950s and later. Apart from hurling and Gaelic football my other great sporting hero is Ronnie Delaney who won the gold medal in the 1500 metres Olympic final in Melbourne in December 1956. I had watched him training over the sand dunes in Arklow some time earlier when the Taaffe family was on holidays in Ferrybank, Arklow. Ronnie Delaney was Ireland’s first four-minute miler and an Olympian champion at a time when Irish field sports were not as prominent as they are today. As younger generation grows older the sporting heroes of the past slip from memory. I was reminded of this when reading of the athletic successes of Ballyroe native Paddy Moran who died in May 1970 aged 82 years. Paddy was a champion runner who won a large number of races organised by the GAA and other sporting bodies between 1911 and 1920. He was a Leinster champion over two miles, one mile and a half mile for different years during the second decade of the last century. His athletic colleague, a local man Dan Harkins, who for some unexplained reason raced under the name of F. Daniels, was 440 yards champion of Ireland for a number of years. Thanks to Paddy Moran’s daughters, Kathleen and Bridget, I have been able to research some parts of their father’s running career, but more research needs to be done. The sporting world saw both Kathleen and Bridget feature on camogie teams playing for County Kildare and Leinster province as members of St. Anne’s camogie club in Ballyroe long after their father had retired from athletics. I would welcome any information on Paddy Moran, Greg Bradley and Dan Harkins who were well known athletes from South Kildare during the early years of the 1900s.

Fr. Philip Dennehy

Fr. Philip is dead. The news of the passing of the Pastor Emeritus passed quickly through St. Michael’s parish. There was sadness at the passing of a much loved priest who had lived among the parishioners of the south Kildare parish for all but 20 years of his 67 year long priesthood. Fr. Philip was first appointed curate of St. Michael’s in 1955, eight years after his ordination and after having spent some years a chaplain in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Dun Laoghaire and in St. Mary’s Hospital, Phoenix Park, as well as six years as curate in East Wall and later in Valleymount. I first met the then young Fr. Dennehy when following the road accident which resulted in the death of my 21-year-old brother Seamus he called to No. 5 Offaly Street to comfort my parents. Philip Dennehy, born on 27th March 1931 in Middleton, Co. Cork, the son of a Garda, was to live in a number of Irish towns as he grew up, each new address marking another step in his father’s advancement up the ranks of the Garda Siochana. At the age of two he moved to Tramore, later to Limerick City and finally to Roscommon. Philip Dennehy, who had six sisters and one brother, attended the Christian Brothers Schools in Tramore and Limerick, ending his secondary schooling in St. Brendan’s College, Killarney. Both his parents were born in Co. Kerry and as he once told me his County allegiance was somewhat difficult given his almost nomadic early lifestyle. However, he acknowledged a sneaky regard for his County Kerry ancestry, the County where both of his parents were born and where the vast majority of his relations came from. It was as a schoolboy in Roscommon where his father was a Garda Chief Superintendent that his priestly vocation first emerged. After finishing his Leaving Certificate in St. Brendan’s College in 1948 he entered the seminary of Clonliffe College in Dublin. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University College of Dublin before transferring to Maynooth College where he was ordained on 4th June 1955. Fr. Dennehy first arrived in Athy as a young curate in 1963 to join the clergy team lead by Parish Priest Rev. Vincent Steen, which team included Fr. Frank Mitchell C.C. and Fr. Joe Corbett C.C. He participated in the ceremonies on 19th April 1964 when the Archbishop of Dublin John McQuaid blessed and dedicated the new Parish Church to St. Michael. Fr. Dennehy remained as a curate in Athy for ten years before transferring in 1973 to James’s Street, Dublin from where he moved to Corduff five years later. In 1979 he was appointed administrator of Mountview and a year later appointed Parish Priest of the same parish where he remained for five years before coming to Athy as Parish Priest in 1985. Ten years later I wrote of Fr. Dennehy on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his ordination:- ‘Sunday is the most important day in the weekly calendar for all Christians. For a clergyman it assumes perhaps even greater significance when viewed as an opportunity to address his congregation other than on an individual basis. However, the average sermon or homily can sometimes seem strained and perhaps even less than relevant in the context of the modern world but never when the words are those of the man who is the subject of today’s article. Fr. Philip Dennehy, Parish Priest of Athy, has a most eloquent if sometimes understated way of putting his thoughts before his parishioners. The obvious attention and care which goes into the preparation of his homilies is reflected in the meaningful words designed to help his congregation to come closer to God.’ On Saturday 4th June 2005 the parishioners of St. Michael’s came together to celebrate with Fr. Dennehy the 50th anniversary of his ordination with Mass in the Parish Church, followed by a reception at the G.A.A. centre at Geraldine Park. He retired as Parish Priest in 2006 and was then appointed Pastor Emeritus of St. Michael’s Parish. As a clergy man who took things at face value Fr. Dennehy refused to delve too deeply into people’s motives, always prepared to assume the best of intentions for every act, charitable or otherwise. Conscious of the excessively strong role of the old-style Parish Priest of another era, Fr. Dennehy always adopted an easy-going attitude in his contacts with members of his congregation. Recognising the important role of the laity he sought to motivate people within the Parish to do what they can for themselves. His common sense approach in all things underscored his belief that as a Parish Priest he was not an authority on everything. To him so called experts were suspect, common sense being the most useful tool in dealing with most situations. Fr. Dennehy’s time in Athy was marked with many happy events, many achievements and inevitably some sad occasions. Above all as a Pastor he shared the joys and burdens of his parishioners at all times expressing in action the words of the Gospel he preached every Sunday. Fr. Philip Dennehy, who died on 31st January 2022, was buried in Ballygunner, Co. Waterford with his parents following requiem mass in St. Michael’s Parish Church, Athy at 11am on 3rd February 2022.

Athy miscellaneous notes

Athy’s economic lifeline in the early years of the 19th century were its fairs and markets. The weekly markets were of particular commercial importance at a time when the majority of the townspeople lived in primitive housing conditions, created by private landlords in newly built one and two roomed cottages in lanes and alleyways named after the landlords in question. There was also to be found in Athy and the surrounding districts a class to whom the pangs of hunger were as alien as the Gaelic of the native Irish was to the absentee landlords of the time. Apart from the dispensary system established in Athy in 1818 little appears to have been done by the civil authorities or the local gentry to relieve the stress and poverty amongst the people of Athy. An unidentified correspondent in the Athy Literary Magazine of March 1838 castigated ‘the spiritless and inert beings that form the more elevated circle here in Athy’ whom it was claimed ‘should be active in conceiving measures for ‘….. adopting useful schemes for the improvement and comfort of the distressed and hardworking poor ….. there is not a town in Ireland so completely neglected.’ That same year the British Parliament passed the Irish Poor Relief Act which led to the setting up of Boards of Guardians throughout Ireland and the opening of workhouses. The first stone at Athy’s Workhouse was laid on 5th July 1841. Built and equipped at a cost of £7,000 Athy’s Workhouse, designed by the English architect George Wilkinson, was intended to be of ‘the cheapest description compatible with durability with all mere decoration being studiously excluded.’ It was built to accommodate 360 adults and 240 children, but during the years of the Great Famine the number of inmates in the Workhouse far exceeded those numbers. Throughout its long life the Workhouse building was managed by a variety of bodies, starting with the Board of Guardians in 1844. Later in the early years of the newly established Irish Free State the Workhouse, now called the ‘County Home’, came under the control of Kildare County Council as the authority responsible for the provision of health services in the county of Kildare. Kildare County Council were later replaced by the Eastern Health Board and now the Health Service Executive, is the body responsible for Ireland’s health services, including St. Vincent’s Hospital, which was previously the Workhouse and later the County Home. From the early years of Athy’s Workhouse the cemetery where the Workhouse dead were buried was under the control and management of the Board of Guardians and subsequently that of Kildare County Council. I was therefore surprised to read in last week’s Kildare Nationalist under the headline ‘ownership of Athy’s cemetery still yet to be established’ the following report, ‘Local Councillors have been told its probably safe to assume that no memorial could be installed in St. Mary’s Cemetery Athy until ownership is established.’ What a ridiculous excuse to offer in response to requests made almost two years ago for Kildare County Council to erect a memorial in the old Workhouse cemetery to the dead of the Great Famine and the many unfortunate people who died in the Workhouse and the County Home. The Council has agreed to provide funding for the memorial which I had hoped would have been in place in time for this year’s National Famine Remembrance ceremony held last May. It is clear that ownership of the cemetery passed from the Board of Guardians to Kildare County Council in the early 1920s and while title documents confirming this are apparently not available, the title of the HSE and its predecessors cannot be challenged. I cannot understand why the Council is unable to proceed with the memorial project. After all it is not intended to erect an office block in the cemetery, its merely a memorial to the dead who lie in that same cemetery. The erection of the memorial will never give rise to legal issues in relation to ownership or entitlement. All that is required is for the HSE to confirm to Kildare County Council that it has no objection to the erection of the memorial. In anticipation of the memorial being erected Clem Roche and Michael Donovan have compiled a listing of all those who died in the Workhouse and in the Fever Hospital in the years to 1921. They have identified 3,891 persons by name, address and occupation, as well as the cause of death in each case. Theirs was a mammoth voluntary undertaking which is deserving of recognition, and I hope Kildare County Council will press ahead with the memorial project in time to have it in place for the National Famine Remembrance ceremony in May of next year.

1909 in Athy

The All Ireland hurling final Sunday found me in the unusual setting of a Cork city household as I sat down to watch the 2022 senior hurling final between Kilkenny and Limerick. Both the setting of my viewing (in rebel territory) and the date of the final perhaps made me a little unsettled, but not as unsettled as the result left me after an enthralling final. There has been some debate in the media about the bringing forward of the date of the hurling final in the sense that the summer has been truncated without the usual August visit to Croke Park. However, delving into the history of All Irelands it was not unusual to find the senior hurling final played at unusual times of the year. The agricultural grounds in Geraldine Park Athy hosted on 27th June 1909 a replay of the All Ireland senior hurling final between Dublin and Tipperary. Athy was selected as the location for the replay as one of the few grounds in Leinster that was fenced at the time and it hosted a crowd of almost 7,000 people. Another reason why the venue was chosen was that Dublin had refused to play either in Thurles or Kilkenny city, while Tipperary were amenable to play at either venue and thus Athy was the compromise choice. Tipperary won the game comfortably by 3-15 to 1-5, but although the final was held in 1909, it actually was the 1908 championship. At the previous instalment of the final which had been held in Croke Park on 25th April, the score ended up Tipperary 2-5 and Dublin 1-8. A journalist reporting on the match described Athy as a ‘cosy town’ and that ‘The ground under the Agricultural Society was also in perfect order with the sod as lively as the most fastidious hurler could wish’. It led me on to reflect as to what a visitor to Athy would have found here in 1909 and what some of the personalities from the town were doing at the same time. The Post Office in Duke Street which is such a fundamental part of our streetscape was under construction in 1909. It was not without controversy when it was revealed that the building contractor engaged to build the Post Office was using Tullamore brick in its initial stages rather than the Athy brick, readily available from the brickyards just outside Athy. Following representations from Athy Urban District Council the postal authorities agreed that only Athy brick would be used thereafter in the building. In that same year the Church of Ireland parochial hall on Church Road was also constructed, designed by the architect Speirs & Co. of Glasgow. Athy Ladies Hurling Club was noted as organising a reunion on 20th July, while a Miss Campbell was listed as Club Captain and a Miss Tierney as Secretary. Older readers will remember the Athy Social Club Players who put on many plays in the Town Hall and the Social Club in St. John’s Lane in the 1940s and 1950s. Their 1951 production was Lennox Robinson’s play, ‘The White Headed Boy’. In 1909 Lennox Robinson had staged his first play in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin following on from which the poet W.B. Yeats offered the inexperienced Robinson the post of manager of the theatre. In Dublin, in November the Kilkea born explorer, Ernest Shackleton, could be found giving a lecture at the National University about his recent exploits in the Antarctic and his dash to reach the South Pole. 1909 was also the year that John Vincent Holland, a former pupil of Clongowes Wood College, after studying veterinary medicine for three years, left Athy to try his fortune in South America where at various times he worked as a rancher and on the railways. Of course he later returned to Athy in 1914, joined the British Army and was awarded a Victoria Cross for his exploits in the Somme campaign of 1916. Another Athy man, slightly younger than John Vincent Holland, was Sydney Minch who while John Vincent Holland was heading across the Atlantic, Minch was making the shorter journey to Clongowes Wood College for the first of his three years of study there. Like Holland he would join the British Army in the Great War, serving with the Connaught Rangers and fighting at the 3rd Battle of Ypres. Returning from the war he took an active role in public life, serving as a Cumann na nGael T.D. from 1930 to 1938, as well as being a member of Athy Urban District Council and Chairman of the Athy branch of the British Legion. Although the defeat of Kilkenny in this year’s All Ireland senior hurling final was a huge disappointment to myself and many others, I can comfort myself with the knowledge that in the 1909 All Ireland senior hurling championship final held in Cork Athletic Grounds, Mooncoin, representing Kilkenny, overcame the club side Thurles, representing Tipperary, with the score of 4-6 to 0-12. This was Tipperary’s first defeat in an All Ireland final and Kilkenny’s fourth victory. Thankfully there have been many Kilkenny successes since then and undoubtedly more to come!

Military activity in and around Athy 1642

News of military activity in and around Athy in April 1642 just months after the start of the Rising in Ulster was the subject of a pamphlet published in London later that same year. The pamphlet of 13 pages, printed by G. Miller for W. Bladen, recorded how the English army set out from Dublin on 2nd April comprising 3,000 foot soldiers and 500 cavalry, all under the command of the Lord Lieutenant General, the Earl of Ormond. On the next day the army marched to Naas entering about 3 miles into County Wicklow ‘burning houses and killing such rebels as they found straggling on the way.’ Having been shot at by rebels in the Castle of Tipper, the soldiers blew up the castle, killing 8 rebels. On April 4th, having burned down some houses in Naas, the English army marched to Kilcullen ‘killing and hanging rebels and burning houses on the way.’ The next day the army set out for Athy, camping overnight near Ballyshannon Castle. This was the home of Colonel Fitzgerald, who was regarded as a rebel, and where it was believed a rebel army of 500 men were in occupation. The English troops having no battering rams left the area for Athy without attacking the castle. On the road to Athy the English army continued to burn houses and kill rebels. They found the greater part of Athy ‘all burned by the Protestants the day before to prevent the rebels, who in great multitudes had entered in and were about to fire the castle/church, and other places, wherein the Protestants to the number of 300 besides children were preserved.’ Sir John Bowen of Ballyadams Castle came to Athy to greet the English army but being suspected of disloyalty was imprisoned. That same day the army marched to Ballyadams Castle where it was claimed Bowen’s wife entertained the officers ‘liberally with ale and cakes,’ but despite this the army on returning to Athy seized and brought with them 200 head of cattle and 100 sheep as the people of Athy were ‘in great distress through want of meat and drink.’ On 7th April ‘George Walker, son of English parents, then Sovereign of Athy with many other rebels being hanged,’ the army, leaving Colonel Crafford’s Regiment behind in Athy, marched to Maryborough. The next reference to Athy following the army’s march into Laois occurred on 12th April. We are told that ‘the Protestants had broken down Maganey bridge to prevent the incursion of the rebels’ and that 700 rebels were repairing the bridge intending to march over it and intercept the English army which was returning to Athy from Maryborough. The rebels were attacked by men from Colonel Crafford’s regiment, killing ‘one or two of the rebels’. The Irish rebels were camped near to Captain Erasmus Burrowes’ house in the vicinity of Maganey, but the English army commander decided not to attack and instead returned to his base in Athy. On 15th April a man named Brocke, ‘an English papist’, with a number of other rebels was hanged in Athy. The number of rebels executed in this way while the army was in Athy was believed to be seventy. After seven days waging war in various parts of Laois the English army regrouped in Athy before marching back to Dublin. They brought with them as prisoners Sir John Bowen, Fitzgerald of Timoga, Richard Grace of Maryborough and Captain Crosby. On their way about 2 miles from Athy Irish rebels numbering it is believed 8,000 foot soldiers and three or four troops of horses, were seen marching in the same direction as the English army, but with a bog between them. This prompted a race between the armies, both of which were anxious to reach firm ground, with the Irish rebels winning the race. We are told that at ‘Black-hale Heath on the lands of Kilrush about 5 miles from Athy and a mile from the Castle of Ballyshannon in the possession of the rebel Colonel Fitzgerald ….. the rebels made a stand ….. with the advantage of two great ditches on each wing, so high that we could see no more than the heads of their pikes.’ The rebels comprised men from counties Kilkenny, Laois, Carlow, Wexford, Wicklow and Kildare, as well as some men from Tipperary and Waterford. Despite their numbers the Irish rebels suffered a costly defeat, with 1,500 men or more killed and the loss of 15 regimental colours and much military equipment. An interesting description of some of the rebel colours captured indicated the religious background to the conflict which had started in Ulster the previous October, with banners displaying Jesus Mary and Joseph, with others of Mary Magdalene and St. Patrick. The English army having claimed the victory marching via Old Connell to the Curragh and then to Naas, before reaching Dublin on 17th April. Their commander expressed the view that the Irish rebels having ran into the woods, bogs and castles ‘will prolong the war and bring us all to ruin unless this summer we are furnished out of England with great store of men and money to maintain garrisons in all places.’ The White Castle in Athy would continue to be garrisoned and the town itself would figure prominently in the Confederate Wars fought on Irish soil as part of the English Civil War which would commence on 22nd August 1642.

Medieval Athy

In last week’s Eye on the Past when referring to Woodstock Castle, I mentioned the relocation to the east side of the river Barrow of the Anglo-Norman village of Athy which was first established on the west bank. This followed a prolonged period during which the Irish chiefs, particularly the O’Mores of Laois, attacked the village which had grown up around Woodstock Castle. Sir John Talbot brought the war into the heartlands of the Irish beyond the River Barrow and having defeated them sought to protect the village from further attacks. We are told that Talbot repaired and mended the bridge of Athy and erected a new tower on the bridge to house a garrison. This tower is generally believed to have referred to White’s Castle and its from the date of the castle’s erection that the gradual evacuation of the medieval village on the west bank is believed to have commenced. Woodstock Castle was by then a Fitzgerald holding and with the adjoining prior of the Canon Regulars of the Holy Cross, commonly referred to as St. John’s Monastery, continued to be the nucleus of the medieval settlement which did extend across the river to where the Dominican Friary was located. In 1434 the citizens of Athy were given the right by virtue of a murage grant to levy customs on persons selling goods in the village to finance the construction of defensive walls. This is the first reference found to murage grants for Athy and it might tend to suggest that the settlement had begun to take shape in its new location on the east bank of the river. Henry VIII in 1515 granted a charter ‘for the greater safety and security of the town of Athy’ which the charter described as lying ‘on the frontiers of the March of our Irish enemies.’ It was not only the Irish who continued to cause problems for the settlers in Athy, for the Silken Thomas Rebellion in 1534 saw the Earl of Ossory attacking Athy and Rheban, destroying both. A little more than 60 years later another Anglo Norman, James FitzPiers rebelled, resulting in further plunder and mayhem in south Kildare. The rebel James was the son of Sir Piers FitzJames of Ardreigh Castle which was burned and destroyed by Feach McHugh’s followers in 1593, resulting in the massacre of FitzJames’ family and servants. The Battle of Kinsale in 1601 resulted in the defeat of the Irish and brought a fragile peace to the settlers’ town of Athy. In 1611 James I granted a new charter to Athy, which despite the earlier charters referenced to ‘the town of Athy’ was now called ‘the village of Athy.’ The new charter created the Borough of Athy which extended one half a mile in ‘a direct line from every side of the Castle commonly called the White Castle in the village.’ This would suggest that a settlement was now firmly relocated in the more easily defended east side of the river Barrow. However, the countryside was to witness the outbreak of war in 1641. The Confederate War which ended after eight years, saw considerable action in and around Athy, with the legendary Owen Roe O’Neill at one time in charge of the White and Woodstock castles. Following the Confederate War which saw Woodstock and the White Castle severely damaged, as was the Dominican Friary, Woodstock was left damaged and vacant. It would remain in splendid isolation on the west bank of the river Barrow until the building of Council houses in its vicinity in the 1930s and later. When the Kildare Archaeological Society members visited Athy recently to view Athy’s medieval buildings I mentioned the society’s visit to Woodstock in September 1892when the local curate, Fr. Carroll, spoke of a Woodstock Castle’s ‘outer court having a fine arch gateway to the north’ which he indicated ‘still remains as does part of the outer enclosure walls.’ Sadly neither features were to be seen during this year’s visit by the Kildare Archaeological Society members. Woodstock Castle with St. Michael’s Medieval Church are Athy’s most important medieval structures which deserve to be protected and preserved. Would Kildare County Council on behalf of the people of Athy consider seeking funding to protect and restore both buildings and at the same time taking all appropriate action to save the White’s Castle. Aughaboura bridge, erected during the Great Famine, was removed last week as part of the Outer Relief Road Project. The dressed stones of the bridge were put in place by a skilled stone mason, assisted by local labourers who found work during the construction of the railway line to Carlow which helped to keep their families out of the Workhouse during the Great Famine. It would be a very fitting tribute to the dead of the Great Famine for these dressed stones to be used for constructing a memorial to Athy’s famine dead who now lie in unmarked graves in St. Mary’s cemetery? FRANK TAAFFE

Kildare Archaeological Society's Visit to Athy

Members of Kildare Archaeological Society visited Athy on Saturday last for a guided tour of the medieval and post medieval built heritage of the town. The 12th century village founded by the Anglo Normans on the banks of the river Barrow in the vicinity of Ath Ae, the Ford of Ae, has retained some important elements of his historic past. The 21st century town of Athy is readily identifiable from any image of the bridge and castle. The present Crom a Boo bridge erected in 1796 replaced an earlier stone bridge which consisted of 7 arches, a drawing of which was prepared by a William Smith just a year before it was demolished. A bridge over the river Barrow at Athy was an important part of the first line of defence for those living within the Pale against the hostile Irish, especially the O’Mores of Laois. This was borne out by a petition sent by the gentry of the Pale to the King of England in June 1417 in support of Sir John Talbot’s appeal for more funding in his fight against the O’Mores. The petitioners recounted how Talbot had repaired and mended the bridge of Athy and had erected a new tower on the bridge in order to resist the Irish enemy and to protect the inhabitants of Athy. The reference to repairing the bridge confirmed that there was already a bridge in place prior to 1415. Indeed, we know from other Anglo Norman settlements in Ireland that the French speaking adventurers had built stone bridges in many other parts of Ireland as early as the 13th century. The reference to the erection of the new tower on the bridge has generally been accepted as referring to White’s Castle. However, Ben Murtagh in his essay on the dating of White’s Castle in the book ‘Dublin and the Pale in the Renaissance C 1540-1660’ believes that the tower built by Talbot is not the current White’s Castle, but a castle built at a later date on the site of the original tower of 1415. White’s Castle is the most important readily visible medieval building in our town, as the other important buildings at that time, Woodstock Castle and St. Michael’s Medieval Church, are more often than not unseen by many of our visitors. Woodstock Castle lies in a low-lying area close to the river Barrow and directly northwest of the town’s centre. It is believed to have been built for the St. Michael family early in the 13th century and around it developed the settlers village and the monastery of the Crouched Friars. Located on the west bank of the river the castle and the village was subject to several attacks by the Irish. The first recorded attack on the village of Athy was in 1308 when the village was burned, a fate it was to suffer on four occasions during the following 70 years. Edward Bruce, brother of the Scottish King, having landed with his army on the Antrim coast in 1315 at the invitation of some Irish chiefs inflicted several defeats on the Anglo Normans. The Battle of Ardscull a few miles from Athy saw Bruce’s army defeat the joint forces of Lord Justice Sir Edmund Butler and Lord John Fitzthomas. Bruce is recorded as having plundered Athy and Rheban, both of which villages were developed around castles built for the St. Michael family. The positioning of Woodstock castle on the west bank of the river Barrow and on the same side of the river where the ‘wild Irish’ lived is a puzzle. The east side of the river where the Dominicans founded their friary in 1257 offered greater safety for the inhabitants of the newly founded village. Towards the end of the 14th century the Anglo Normans began a policy of retrenchment, having failed to successfully hold all the lands initially taken by them in the 12th and 13th centuries. The policy of retrenchment focused attention on Athy as a settlement of strategic importance and made Athy a first line of defence against the hostile Irish. The rebuilding of the bridge of Athy and the erection of a new tower in 1415-1417 was followed by a gradual relocation of the village from the west side of the Barrow to the opposite side. This process was no doubt accelerated following Sir John Talbot’s rebuilding of the bridge and the construction of the tower. The plantation of Laois and Offaly during the reign of Elizabeth I saw Athy take on an even more important role. It became a vital link in the supply chain for the beleaguered English settlers of Laois and Offaly. This was recognised by John Dymmok who in his ‘Treatise of Ireland’ in 1600 wrote:- ‘Athy is divided into two parts by the river Barrow over which lies a stone bridge and upon it a stone castle ….. the bridge of the castle ….. being the only way which leads into the Queen’s county’. …..TO BE CONTINUED

Michael Day, boxer, footballer and emigrant

One of the pleasures of writing a weekly newspaper column, which is made available on the internet, is the many queries one receives from around the world and the subsequent store of knowledge which is unveiled in relation to Athy persons of the past. For some time Sophie Hepburn of Glasgow has been emailing me in relation to her father’s family, originally from Athy. Michael Day, son of Peter and Bridget Day, emigrated to Scotland in 1942. As a young man in Athy he was a boxer of note and was a member of the Irish Army boxing team while he served in the early years of World War II. It was a sport in which he had a lifelong interest. He founded a boxing club in Glasgow and amongst those he trained was the youthful ‘John Cowboy McCormack’ who went on to win a bronze medal in the Olympic Games. Michael in addition to boxing was also a senior playing member of Athy Geraldine hurling and football club which won the Kildare Senior Football Championship in 1937. That team was captained by George Comerford, the famous County Clare and Munster provincial footballer who was then stationed as a Garda in Athy. I interviewed another member of that team in January 1990, the legendary Barney Dunne, who was the only man to have won four senior championship medals with Athy. He spoke of the players who defeated Sarsfield in that 1937 County final and he mentioned Michael Day whom he said lived in Barrack Street. The photograph of the Athy winning team of 1937 shows Michael Day lying in front to the left, Tommy Buggy/English, the player on the right. The photograph, a copy of which Sophie had, was she believed a picture of a street league team called the Starlights. It was in fact the 1937 Athy Championship winning team. The full team with subs were Tommy Mulhall, Joe Gibbons, Jim Birney, ‘Chevit’ Doyle, Pat Mulhall, Matt Murray, Tom Kelly, Paul Mathews, Barney Dunne, John Rochford, Tom Wall, Tom Ryan, George Comerford, Richard Donovan, Joe Murphy, Tommy Buggy, Johnny McEvoy and N. Heffernan whose first name regrettably is not known to me. The team trainer was the legendary Jack ‘Skurt’ Doyle. Michael Day’s parents had four sons and two daughters and given the difficult times during the economic war of the 1930s and those posed by World War II it’s not surprising that all of them emigrated to either Scotland or England to find employment. Jack Day and his brother Pat went to London, as did their sister Julia, while Michael and Peter spent the rest of their lives in Scotland. When Peter died his ashes were returned to his home town of Athy for burial in St. Michael’s Cemetery next to his parents Peter and Bridget. His sister Lizzie Day worked in Dublin for a time, but I understand she subsequently emigrated to England. Sophie Hepburn whom I met during the week last visited Athy almost 72 years ago when as a young girl herself and her brother were sent on summer holidays to their Granny Bridget Day. Bridget was by then a widow living alone, her husband Peter having died in 1948 aged 68 years. Sophie recalls her grandmother’s house which she described as a one roomed cottage. She had a photograph showing the small whitewashed cottage in the background from which I was satisfied that Bridget lived in what locals called ‘Beggars End’. It was one of a row of houses owned by the Plewman family and were located directly opposite the present Plewman’s Terrace. Sophie had fond memories of the time herself and her brother spent with their grandmother all those years ago and of the return boat trip from Broomley, Scotland to Dublin. Sophie who with her partner spent a few days in and around Athy last week traced and paid a visit to her grandparents’ grave in St. Michael’s Cemetery. She was immensely proud of her father and what he achieved after leaving Athy so many years ago. Sophie’s visit to Athy 70 years after her only previous visit and 80 years after her father Michael left his home town in search of work, was a pilgrimage in search of a family past. She would be delighted to make contact with any of her father’s relations still living in and around Athy.

Dr. Giles O'Neill, the Taaffe Legal Practice, identifying those who died in Athy Workhouse

Many of you, like myself, got a letter from the HSE a week or so ago informing us of the retirement of Dr. Giles O’Neill from 11th June. Messages of good wishes poured into Dr. Giles’ practice in the following days but it seems we were all somewhat premature in consigning the good doctor to a life of unending leisure. It now transpires that Dr. Giles has retired from the HSE General Practitioners list and will be replaced by Dr. Emma Carroll of the same practice on the Carlow Road. The fourth generation O’Neill general practitioners intends to stay on in the practice working two days a week dealing, I presume, with private patients. My Eye last week on Dr. Giles’ retirement prompted several people to ask the question of me – when do you propose to retire? I’m afraid the good man above will retire me and in the meantime I will continue as long as Dr. Giles keeps me in good trim or as I often say to my friends, ‘so long as I can continue to cast a shadow’. The June bank holiday found me spending a few days in Connemara where unlike the rainy weather which greeted the TriAthy athletes, the western countryside was basking in glorious sunshine. I had overlooked that this year’s June bank holiday was an important anniversary in my working life as it was on the Tuesday after the bank holiday Monday 40 years ago that I opened my own practice. Joining me that day was a young Eithne Wall as we waited the arrival of the first client to the first-floor offices of Taaffe & Co. Solicitors. I had rented rooms over the Hibernian Insurance offices located in the former Hibernian Bank premises on Leinster Street. During the past four decades the offices have been relocated to three other locations, but what has remained constant is the wonderful staff who have joined me over the years. Eithne Wall, with forty years’ service, is followed by Noreen Prendergast with 36 years’ service, Deirdre Dooley with 31 years’ service and Lisa Walsh who has been part of the staff for 22 years. All of the girls joined the office when they were single and their names have been recorded in those names, although all of them have since married. My son Seamus, after 5 years working as an archaeologist, joined the practice as a solicitor in 1997. Individually and collectively they have made an enormous contribution to the work of my office which because of the nature of its business deals with a myriad of sad human situations. On our fortieth anniversary I pay a heartfelt tribute to Eithne, Noreen, Deirdre, Lisa and Seamus. Clem Roche and Michael Donovan have been working for some months past on retrieving the names of those unfortunate persons who died in Athy’s Workhouse. Opened in January 1844 the Workhouse was a last refuge for a starving people who could not survive without institutional help during the Great Famine. In later years deaths were recorded as occurring in the Workhouse, Athy’s Infirmary and Athy’s Fever Hospital. The Infirmary was attached to the Workhouse, while Athy’s Fever Hospital was a separate institution first opened in February 1841. The perilous state of public health in the town of Athy was a matter of concern, particularly following a cholera outbreak in 1827 and an influenza outbreak ten years later. A Mr. Keating, whose premises in Market Square burnt down in 1836, was the beneficiary of a public collection intended to help him rebuild his premises. Instead, the generous man donated the community’s gift amounting to three hundred pounds to the building of a Fever Hospital in Athy. Officially designated as a District Fever Hospital under the Fever Ireland Act of 1847 it continued to be operated independent of the Workhouse until 1854. Those who died in the Workhouse, the Infirmary and the Fever Hospital were, so far as we know, buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery. Clem Roche and Michael Donovan have recorded 3,088 deaths with no records available for the first twenty years or so of the Workhouse existence. There are no memorials or grave markers to remember the thousands who were buried in St. Marys. The work of Clem and Michael is the first step in remembering and commemorating those unfortunate people which Kildare County Council is committed to doing in the near future.

The Doctors O'Neill

Four generations of the O’Neill family have provided medical care for the people of Athy and South Kildare, as well as patients in the institution formerly known as the Workhouse, later the County Home and now St. Vincent’s Hospital. On 11th June the fourth generation member of the O’Neill family, Dr. Giles O’Neill, will retire from general medical practice, thus bringing to a close the O’Neill family’s involvement in medical practice in Athy. Dr. Patrick Laurence O’Neill, who lived in Geraldine House, was the first member of the family to practice medicine. He had a private practice before taking up an appointment as medical officer to Athy’s Workhouse in 1874 in succession to Dr. Thomas Kynsey. Dr. P.L. O’Neill was involved in local and national politics and was president of the local branch of the Irish National League until his resignation in November 1885 following a disagreement with Martin Doyle, a fellow National League member. He continued as medical officer to the Workhouse until 1897 when he was replaced by his son, Dr. Jeremiah O’Neill who held the position for the next 55 years. Like his father before him Dr. Jeremiah was involved in local politics and served as Chairman of Athy Urban District Council for three years from 1912 and was also Chairman of the Athy branch of the Fine Gael party for 25 years. He died in 1954 aged 81 years, having been replaced by his son Dr. Joe O’Neill as medical officer in 1952 for what was then known as the County Home. Dr. Joe, who graduated in 1943, took over Dr. John Kilbride’s medical practice in 1959 and lived and worked initially from the Abbey off Emily Square before moving to Athy Lodge on Church Road. The Asian flu epidemic of 1971/’72 provided Dr. Joe and his colleague Dr. Brian Maguire with one of the most trying and difficult periods of their years in medical practice. The first flu victim was treated on 23rd December 1971 and over the following four days neither doctor had any respite as stricken patient after patient was treated in a frantic effort to halt the spread of the flu. The fourth generation of the O’Neill family, Dr. Joe’s son Giles, qualified as a doctor in 1975 and after practicing in Dublin and England returned to Athy in 1981 to join his father’s practice. The following year a new surgery was built in the grounds of Athy Lodge, the former home of Dr. John Kilbride and in the 19th century the home of John Lord, Solicitor. In the meantime Dr. Joe continued as medical officer to the County Home and the later renamed St. Vincent’s Hospital and on his retirement in 1991 his son Dr. Giles was appointed as medical officer. Dr. Joe O’Neill died in 2008, aged 91 years. Dr. Giles, now practicing in the new surgery on Church Road, was joined by another local man Dr. Raymond Rowan and both of them continued in practice there until the opening of a new surgery on the Carlow Road, first occupied years earlier by the now retired Dr. John Macdougald. On the retirement of Dr. Giles the Carlow Road surgery will now include doctors Anthony Reeves, Raymond Rowan, Emma O’Carroll and Dr. Luke Higgins. I remember Dr. Joe and Dr. Giles as dedicated, gifted and pleasant doctors who practiced medicine with kindness and thoughtfulness for their patients. Two of Dr. Joe’s brothers were also doctors who served in the British Army Indian Medical Services during World War II. A younger brother, Dr. Jerry O’Neill, was captured by the Japanese and held prisoner for more than three years until the end of the war. Family tradition tells us that the emaciated former prisoner on release was treated in a Calcutta hospital by his brother Dr. John O’Neill who did not recognise him until the prematurely grey-haired patient spoke of Ireland and of playing golf in the Geraldine course here in Athy. Their nephew, Dr. Giles O’Neill, has devoted 41 years of life as a doctor to the people of Athy and the patients of St. Vincent’s Hospital. He followed in the footsteps of his great grandfather, his grandfather and his father and Dr. Joe proved himself to be a doctor whose dedication to his patients and to his profession will be remembered with fondness and gratitude by all.

Barrowhouse Ambush May 1921

Patrick Whelan, Ned Gleeson, Liam Langton, John Langton, Keith Langton, Martin Langton, Pascal Lacey, Ger Gibson and Nessa O’Meara Cardiff. These are the members of the Barrowhouse Ambush Commemoration Committee responsible for organising the ceremonies on Saturday, 21st May surrounding the unveiling of the new memorial for William Connor and James Lacey and the launch of Nessa O’Meara Cardiff’s book on the ambush. The reawakening of interest in the Irish War of Independence saw a great gathering of folk to honour the memory of the two young Barrowhouse men who lost their lives on a May day 101 years ago. I was honoured to be invited to take part in the service at St. Mary’s Graveyard and to address some words to those who gathered around the grave of Connor and Lacey. In addressing the people in attendance I was conscious that my words could apply to so many other areas around Ireland which saw action during the War of Independence. That conflict was a complex one of military republicanism and of a people’s resistance to British Rule. For that reason the story of the Barrowhouse Ambush is important to our understanding of the history and legacy of our revolutionary past. It’s a struggle which continued long after the Treaty and has now evolved as a political struggle involving Irish, English and Northern Ireland politicians with American and European Union politicians in the background. The Barrowhouse Ambush occurred on a day in May 1921 when five other men suffered violent deaths attributed to political violence in Ireland. The deaths of William Connor and James Lacey lead to reprisals by the RIC and the Black and Tans stationed in the Athy R.I.C. Barracks. Patrick Lynch’s home and workshop were among several premises the subject of arson attacks the night after the ambush. Local narratives about the Barrowhouse Ambush are not always in agreement. New information and fresh interpretations can contradict accepted version of events. The accepted knowledge in the public domain in relation to War of Independent incidents generally is not always correct and as further research unfolds new information can give us a better understanding of those difficult times. The memorial unveiled that Saturday and the launch of Nessa O’Meara Cardiff’s book on the Barrowhouse ambush is a community’s way of confirming the importance of James Lacey and William Connor in the historical tradition of Barrowhouse and its neighbourhood. They were just two of the 2,850 who were killed in a war defined in popular imagination by IRA ambushes and Black and Tan reprisals with assassinations on both sides. The Barrowhouse Volunteers who took part in the ambush were undoubtedly committed Nationalists and Republicans whose motivation was an idealism fostered by the Irish Volunteer movement and developed by the Sinn Fein Clubs to end British Rule in Ireland. William Connor and James Lacey, both of Barrowhouse, were just 26 years of age when they joined James’s brother Joe Lacey, Paddy Dooley of Killabbin, Joe Maher of Cullinagh, Mick Maher and Jack O’Brien, both from Barrowhouse and Joe Ryan of Kilmoroney on that fatal day, 16th May 1921. 101 years later, the Barrowhouse community came together to remember its War of Independence dead and to commemorate the two young Barrowhouse men who died before they had the opportunity of knowing any of their relations who came after them. The Barrowhouse Ambush Commemoration Committee, under the Chairperson of Nessa O’Meara Cardiff, responded magnificently to the need to remember the two young men from Barrowhouse who paid the ultimate price in a people’s struggle for political freedom. I understand that the initial print run of Nessa’s book was sold out but further copies are now available at the Barrowhouse ambush online site. The past week saw the death and burial of Gretta McNulty, formerly Gretta Moore who grew up in Offaly Street as part of that great community, a mix of young and old. Gretta and the Moore family lived in No. 7 Offaly Street and when the Taaffe family arrived in Athy in 1945 they settled into No. 6 before moving after 8 or 9 years into No. 5 Offaly Street. Offaly Street was then home to a vibrant community of mostly young families and Gretta’s death sadly further depletes the shrinking list of Offaly Street neighbours and friends of old. When Gretta and Frank McNulty married in 1962 they moved into No. 9 Offaly Street where they lived for 9 years or so, reinforcing Gretta’s strong alliance with the street where as a young girl she had forged many long lasting friendships. Those precious friendships forged in youth are receding further and further in the fading memory bank of those of us who remain.

Festival Athy 1979

One of the interesting magazines published in Ireland in the aftermath of the Act of Union was the Irish Magazine. Edited by the notorious Walter (Watty) Cox it first appeared in 1807. Cox’s Magazine was one of the more significant journals of that time and engaged in what Barbara Hayley in ‘300 years of Irish Periodicals’ described as ‘outrageously insulting (behaviour) to the Administration and to the Established Church’. My interest in the Irish Magazine stemmed from my purchase of a bound copy of the monthly journal for 1809. In March of that year Michael Devoy of Kill wrote an interesting piece on the history of Athy. Devoy was a granduncle of the Fenian John Devoy. He was born at the Heath, Athy but because of his involvement in the 1798 rebellion the family moved to Kill in 1805. The Nationalist and Leinster Times of 6th October 1928 on reporting the death of John Devoy made reference to Michael Devoy’s article on Athy. It noted that the volume of the Irish Magazine in which the article appeared ‘was picked up at Mendozas Old Book Store at Ann Street, New York by Frank Richardson, a native of Athy and handed to the editor of the Gaelic American.’ The article claimed that Michael Devoy was a captain of the rebels in County Kildare during the ’98 Rebellion and that he had the benefit of his father’s long and intimate knowledge of the town of Athy when writing the article. Devoy in the Irish magazine article recounted how the monastery on the west side of the River Barrow was founded by Richard de St. Michael, the Lord of Rheban, under the invocations of St. John and St. Thomas. The precinct of the monastery extended from the river at the foot of the bridge, containing all that part of the town called St. Johns and St. John’s Lane and its demesne consisted of the island in the river and the adjacent fields as far as the military barracks. He noted that the Dominican Monastery on the east side of the river, founded in 1253 by the families of the Boisels and Hogans, extended from the river along the north side of the church to the corner of the street heading to Prestons Gate and from there along the street under the said gate and to the corner of Janeville Lane and to the rear of the present house called The Abbey. The church referred to was the Church of Ireland church which was then located at the rear of the Town Hall and interestingly Devoy referenced the claim that the church steeple had formed part of the old Dominican Abbey. The reference to the house called The Abbey which was demolished a few years ago was much older than we all thought given Devoy’s references to it in 1809. Whites Castle, according to Devoy, was built by the 8th Earl of Kildare about 1506, a year or two after a bridge over the river Barrow was built. He claimed that the castle was repaired and enlarged in 1575 by William White from hence it obtained the name Whites Castle. Among the town ruins noted over 200 years ago were those of St. Michael’s Church built some time in the 14th century and founded, as Devoy claimed, by the St. Michael family. He described the ‘new chapel’ built in place of the chapel burned in the aftermath of the 1798 Rebellion, which he says was built on a plot of ground granted by the Duke of Leinster. He continued ‘the new chapel (which was demolished in 1960) is not by any means suitable to the large congregation, nor on a plan fit for a country chapel.’ Apparently, he was dissatisfied with the construction of a gallery which he claimed ‘from the noise above the people below for about 60 feet in length cannot hear the priest’s voice, the men ranged on one side and the women on the other.’ He referred to the Quaker Meeting House and to the Methodist House as well as the prison (then in Whites Castle) which he claims was without a privy until an addition was built in 1802. He decried the fact that there was no manufacturer of any consequence in the town which for many years ‘surpassed the Kingdom for the best and most extensive tanyards.’ Athy was also he claimed the most extensive town in Ireland about 30 years previously for distilling whiskey ‘there being 14 stills at full work and the entire of the malt to supply them was manufactured here.’ The one redeeming feature according to Devoy was the extensive porter and ale brewery carried on by Robert Rawson and the extensive flour mills ‘in the neighbourhood, two of which are in the town.’ This years famine Remembrance Service will be held in St. Mary’s Cemetery located opposite St. Vincent’s Hospital on Sunday 15th May at 3.00 p.m. The service gives us an opportunity to publicly honour Athy’s Famine dead with dignity and reverence and to recall a period in our history which cast a shadow over Ireland’s subsequent history.