Sporting Heroes - Joe Aldridge

As youngsters we all had heroes. Nowadays the young generation take their cue from the all pervasive television.  As a result, the players of Manchester United and Liverpool are more likely to provide the focus of attention for Irish youngsters than anyone on the local sporting scene.

How much different it was in my young days.  I recall my local sporting heroes as Mick Carolan in gaelic football, Cyril Osborne in rugby and Joe Aldridge in soccer. Mick Carolan was a local man whose involvement with the County team assured his status as a local hero.  Cyril Osborne was a rugby player on the Athy senior team whose speed as an out half always seemed as mesmerizing as the efforts of Cecil Pedlow and Mick Gibson on the national team. Joe I recall as a sporting colossus who togged out, as he did every week, as full back on the Athy senior soccer team. 

Joe was born in 1929, the youngest of son of Bill Aldridge and his wife Rose formerly a Gleeson from Ardreigh.  Interestingly, Bill’s brother Tom Aldridge married Rose’s sister Bridget and their youngest son Frankie Aldridge is remembered today in the name of the local soccer pitch “Aldridge Park”.  Bill Aldridge was himself one of Athy’s earliest sporting heroes.  His name features in the Annals of Handball as the Irish singles hardball champion of 1925.

Joe Aldridge left school at 14 years and got his first job as a messenger boy for Murphy’s Commercial House in Emily Square.  A similar job in the Co-op Stores at the corner of Leinster Street and Stanhope Street proved more attractive coming as it did with a proper messengers bike complete with a cavernous basket.  When filled with groceries, the basket proved more than a match for Joe’s young legs.  Many a time the young fellow had to dismount and push the bike, especially when faced with the daunting prospect of travelling over the railway bridge on the Dublin road.  Like many other young fellows in Athy, Joe when he passed his 15^th birthday joined the Asbestos factory.  It was to be his place of employment on three different periods during his working life and it was from there that he retired on health grounds in 1982.

Joe remembers the canal boats lined up along the canal side waiting to be unloaded of bags of asbestos in the 1940’s.  I was reminded of a similar scene witnessed some  time ago in India as Joe described workmen carrying bags of asbestos from the canal boats using narrow planks as walking platforms.  Men worked without a break from the time they clocked in until lunch time and thereafter until clocking out time.   No tea breaks in those days and if you took one without permission, you were likely to get the sack.

There is not a street or terrace in Athy which in the 1940’s and the 1950’s did not see a large part of its community take the emigrant boat to England.  Joe Aldridge joined the exodus in 1949 travelling to join several Athy men in a factory in Edgeware in Middlesex, England.  He recalls Pete Day, Johnny Robinson, Jim Kelly and Paddy Scott, as some of the Athy men he worked with in that English factory.  A visit home for Christmas eighteen months later resulted in Joe taking a job with the D. & J. Carbery’s.  While Joe was with Athy’s best known building contractors, he worked on the building of Scoil Mhichil Naofa and Jack Gorman’s Garage on the Carlow Road.

In 1955 Joe was on the move again, this time to Glasgow where he remained until 1958 apart from a short period spent in Athy while recuperating with a broken wrist.  Joe married Pat Whelan in July 1958 and since then he has lived at 35 St. Joseph’s Terrace.

Joe’s sporting involvement over the years was not confined to soccer.  For about one and a half years, he played Gaelic Football for Athy and featured on the Senior team.  It was the infamous Ban which ended his career as an Athy Gaelic Football player, as it did the career of a number of other young players at the time.  Apparently, Joe together with Cha Chanders, Stephen Leonard, Paddy Ryan and some others who regularly featured on Athy Gaelic Football teams togged out one Sunday for the local soccer team.  All were swiftly suspended and thereafter they gave their allegiance to the Castlemitchell Club which was apparently more tolerent of players involvement with the local soccer club.

My memories of Joe Aldridge is as the towering force in the last line of defence for the Athy Soccer team.  He played his last competitive game when he was 44 years old.  Throughout his long playing career he had many team mates including Mick Aldridge, Onie Walsh and his brother Tommy, Alo Gallagher, Brian O’Hara, Denis Smyth, Jimmy Murray, Tommy Kiely, Brendan O’Flaherty, Stephen Leonard, John Quinn, Tom Hogan and Noel Myles.

It wasn’t only soccer that engaged Joe’s interest during his younger days.  He was a useful boxer, a sport in which he was involved as a member of the F.C.A.  Coached by Peter Bowden, an Athy man who was a former UK Royal Air Force Champion, Joe and his F.C.A. colleagues trained at the Barrow yard in St. John’s lane.  He recalls some of those involved in the F.C.A. in those days under Captain Paddy Dooley and Lieutenant Bill Fenelon.  They included Peter Whelan, Johnny Murphy, Billy Nolan, Tommy Whelan, Peter “Pips” Ryan, Paddy “Gulliver” Cummins, Joe Brennan and Frank Cahill.  These were the good old days as Joe recalls, when a young man could get 21 pints for a one pound note. 

As he said himself “I never won anything” but even if the trophy shelf is somewhat bare, Joe had many friends and admirers during his long footballing career.  There is however, one medal which Joe won as a member of the Asbestos team which won the Leinster Factory Championship Final in 1961.

As the youngest son of one of Athy’s most famous handballers, Joe, as one might expect was himself a useful exponent of the game in his younger days.  While he never played handball with his father, he recalls many games played in the Handball Alley in Barrack Lane where his ability won him many a three penny and six penny wager.  Joe who will be 74 years old next July has wonderful memories of a sporting career which stretches across four decades.  For one young fellow who watched him during the early 1960’s, Joe Aldridge will always be a sporting hero.

Photographs - Athy Agricultural Show 1969

This week’s Eye on the Past features a number of photographs from the Athy Agricultural Show of 1969.  These are some of the many photographs which have been collected over the years with a view to producing a book of Photographs of Athy and its people. 

All of us have at home photographs of family occasions and even of local events and many of these photographs are important in terms of our towns past history.  With a view to producing a pictorial record of the days now long gone, I am asking anyone with photographs which they are prepared to share to contact me. 

Any photographs offered will be copied and the originals returned to the owners within a week.

Deaths - Jack Mitchell / Marjorie Lehane Smith / John Higgins / Mick Corr / Billy Darling / Willie Doyle / Reggie Rowan

The grim reaper gleaned a rich harvest from amongst the local community last week. Last Sunday we prayed for seven men and women who had died, not all of whom I knew personally or at all well. Jack Mitchell from Coneyboro whom I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing both in his own house and in more recent times in St. Vincent’s Hospital was an exception. He was a man who took pride in his South Kildare roots. He had lived all of his hard working life in and around the Ardreigh area. His memories of times past and of the people now gone who filled his memories of youthful days were a treasure trove for an inquisitive researcher like myself. Jack shared his experiences and his knowledge of the days when life was sometimes cruel, work was always hard and pleasures were simple and seldom encountered. Jack Mitchell who was 88 years old last May first went to work as a fourteen and a half year old lad in Bergin’s Bar in Duke Street. He was under age for such work and Garda Johnny McMahon brought his bar tending career to a close following which he worked for A.L. Spiers of Burtown and later still for Mickey O’Meara of Ardree House. A spell as an Insurance man followed before Jack joined the South Kildare Tennis Club, later Geraldine Tennis Club on the Carlow Road where he worked for eleven years. Jack eventually joined the I.V.I. in 1952 as a pattern maker and he retired from there after 30 years. He spoke unhesitantly of those years which are often referred to as the “good old days”. No matter how hard or impoverished life then might appear to somebody looking backwards through a prism created in more affluent times, Jack never faltered in his admiration for those far off days. Strangely in the same week as Jack Mitchell died, two others who had lived in or around the ancient Borough of Ardreigh also passed away. Marjorie Lehane Smith lived with her husband and family at the bottom of Ardreigh Hill from the 1970’s before moving in more recent years to Tramore in Co. Waterford. He husband William Smith, a Vet, died some time before I returned to Athy in 1982. Marjorie’s mother Christine Lehane died two years ago while her brother Ollie died a short time previously. The Lehane family came to Athy in the early 1950’s when Benny Lehane opened a chip shop at William Street. The business prospered and later transferred to Andy Smith’s former premises in Leinster Street and expanded into the adjoining premises once occupied by the Athy Agricultural Co-op Society. Both premises were sold following Mrs. Lehane’s death and are now undergoing major reconstruction. John Higgins of Ardreigh also died last week. He had lived a full and long life after spending most of his adult life working in the local cement factory. By strange coincidence his good friend and former work colleague, Mick Corr also died that same week. Both had outlived so many of their old workmates who either died during their working lives or passed way soon after they had reached retirement age. Mick Corr was a former neighbour when during the 1950’s he lived with his wife and sons Francis and Plunkett in Butler’s Row. I remember the shock of Mrs. Corr’s early death nearly 44 years ago which left Mick a widower with two young children to rear on his own. He continued to live in Butler’s Row after his sons grew to manhood, left Athy to work elsewhere. Mick subsequently transferred to a new house in Nelson Street when the terraced houses of Butler’s Row were vacated prior to their demolition. Both Mick Corr and John Higgins enjoyed a long friendship first forged as work colleagues in the local cement factory. Even in death, they were not to be separated for as news of John Higgins death was being transmitted to Mick Corr’s sons, word was received of Mick’s death. At the same time Billy Darling, late of Leinster Street died in Manchester. If you remember Athy in the 1940’s and 1950’s you will remember Darling’s Barber Shop in what is now Redmond’s Dry Cleaners. Barber shops were then a common feature of Irish provincial towns and the names Darling and Mulhall were long associated with the profession of hair cutting and shaving in the town of Athy. I have written on previous occasions of the Mulhall family and its connection with the Barber shops of Athy. The Darling family like the Mulhall’s had a long history of involvement with the profession which was not confined to Athy but extended to the Curragh and beyond. Billy Darling died in Manchester where so many young Athy men and women had made their homes over the years and where just weeks previously another Athy man, Willie Doyle, passed away. He was a brother of Paddy Doyle and son of the legendary “Barracks” Doyle who came from a family extending back many generations in Athy. I met Willie Doyle in Manchester some years ago and again more recently when he visited his home town. He was a man who was justifiably proud of Athy and of its people. Another man with a long family history in Athy who died last week was Reggie Rowan. Reggie was a family friend and a close friend of my brother George with whom he shared many escapades during their young and single days. Indeed, legion are the stories I have heard over the years of the young red haired teacher with the unquenchable thirst and his friend, the lorry driver, both of whom had the time, the energy and apparently the wherewithall to get up to all sorts of devilment in their younger days. This despite the watchful gaze of a certain local Garda Sergeant who it is said once stopped a motor car on the railway bridge to find a somewhat inebriated young teacher slumped over the steering wheel while his front seat companion was in no better state. I’m sure it never happened but equally, I know that the same two young men worked hard while finding the time to enjoy the fruits of their labour. They certainly lived life to the full before taking any family responsibilities and it was understandable that tears flowed as the friend of a lifetime was laid to rest in St. Michael’s cemetery. Reggie Rowan died the day before the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy turned the first sod on the new Business Park for Athy. A major stakeholder, in that development will be the business firm which Reggie helped to develop. Reggie and his father before him Mick (Rexie) Rowan were in the haulage business and a generation back the Rowans were involved in the transportation of goods by Canal Boats. Reggie worked long and hard over many years developing and extending the haulage business which for so long was dependent on contract work with Bord Na Mona. When the time came for Reggie to hand over the business to his sons, he had laid the foundation for further expansion and development on what is now an International Transport Business. The passing of so many links with Athy’s past in such a short space of time is a great loss to the town. To their immediate families, the loss of loved ones is more keenly felt and our sympathies go out to all of them.

Athy Workhouse - The Early Years

In September 1833 a Commission was established under the Chairmanship of Dr. Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, to report on appropriate measures to alleviate the conditions of the Irish poor. In its report in 1836 the Commission estimated the number of destitute persons in Ireland at not less than 2,385,000. It advised against the application in Ireland of the English Workhouse system which had been introduced there in 1834. The recommendations were not acceptable to the Government and on 22 August 1836 George Nicholls, an English Poor Law Commissioner, was requested to go to Ireland and report on the feasibility of applying the English Poor Law System to Ireland. The Government, acting quickly on Nicholls’ report and recommendations, introduced the Irish Poor Relief Act of 1838 which became law in July of that year. With the assistance of four English Poor Law Commissioners, Nicholls was now entrusted with the task of implementing the legislation. Dividing the country into 130 Poor Law Union Areas, arrangements were made for the appointment and election of Boards of Guardians. George Wilkinson, an English Architect, was appointed to prepare plans and drawings for the Workhouses and he was also given the responsibility of acquiring sites for the new Workhouses and supervising their erection. Nicholls, in his report, had recommended four separate buildings within each Workhouse complex to separately house the aged, children, males and females. However, the general mixed Workhouse was planned and built in all Union areas in Ireland within which separation of the different ages and sexes was to be enforced. The Poor Rate, introduced under the 1838 Act to finance the Workhouses, was levied in equal parts on the owners and occupiers of land within each Union Area. In 1843 occupiers of property under £4 valuation were exempted and their rates became payable by the owners. Under the 1838 Act, it was provided that 75% of the Board of Guardians would be elected by the ratepayers of the Unions with the balance appointed from amongst the Justices of the Peace in the Union Area. This was later changed to equal numbers of elected Guardians and nominated Justices of the Peace under amending legislation in 1847. The first meeting of Athy Board of Guardians was held in the Courthouse, Town Hall, Athy, on Thursday, 29 April 1841. Mr. R.M. Muggeridge, an Assistant Poor Law Commissioner, was elected Chairman, William Caulfield, Vice-Chairman, and Gerald Dunne, Deputy Vice-Chairman. Patrick Dunne was appointed Clerk to the Board at the yearly salary of £40. The Athy Workhouse opened on 9 January 1844. Before the opening, the Board of Guardians met and decided on the meal times and the diet for the inmates. Adults were to have breakfast at 9.30am and dinner at 4pm. Children would eat at 9am and 2pm and would have an additional meal at 7pm. The Board of Guardians then proceeded to admit the first paupers to the local Workhouse and, on 9 January 1844, twenty-five were admitted comprising five men, four women, ten boys, five girls and one infant. On entry the paupers, as they were classified, were bathed, had their clothes removed from them and were supplied with the Workhouse uniform. Men and women were segregated as the separation of the sexes was seen as a fundamental requirement to maintaining discipline in the Workhouse. The Guardians met each week thereafter to approve admissions to the Workhouse. On 16 January, forty-one more paupers were admitted and on 23 January fifty-two luckless individuals including twenty-seven children were to don the Workhouse uniform. Admissions ran at an average of fifty a week until the end of February. On 15 February, George Carmichael and his wife Elizabeth were appointed Schoolmaster and Schoolmistress to the Workhouse children on the strict understanding that their own children would not be brought into the House. In the same month, Michael Byrne was employed as a Shoemaker with an allowance of 6d per day and shoemaking fees for instructing Workhouse boys in the trade. Also employed was a Master Weaver at a salary of £45 per annum to teach handweaving to the children. In 1857 the Board of Guardians agreed to do away with the Master Weaver’s position, deeming it to be a useless trade for boys at a time when loom weaving was superseded by machinery. The local Clockmaker, James Plewman, supplied a clock for the sum of £5.10.0. while the Guardians, obviously surprised at the number of children being admitted, ordered one hundred tablet boards for use in the schoolrooms. At 22 February there were one hundred and fifteen adults in the Workhouse and one hundred and seventeen children Michael Lawler was appointed Tailor to the Workhouse in March 1844 at a salary of £12 per annum. Part of his duties included instructing the young boys in tailoring. On 21 March the Guardians urgently sought quotations for coffins and the contract was awarded to Thomas Peppard to supply large deal coffins at 5/- each and smaller sizes at 4/- each. In 1844 there were several changes made in the Workhouse personnel. The returns for that year showed J.B. Pilsworth as Clerk of the Union and Richard Ivers as Workhouse Master, Elizabeth Quinn was still Matron, a position she held until she retired on age grounds on 26 March 1853. Built to accommodate 360 adults and 240 children the Workhouse had 300 inmates on 2 January 1845. Over the next few years Athy Workhouse was to be home to hundreds of impoverished Irish men and women for whom the Workhouse offered the only hope of survival. Their generation would never know happiness or fulfillment. Their lives would be spent in an endless round of misery and hunger until death brought the only possible relief.

Athy Workhouse - The Early Years

In September 1833 a Commission was established under the Chairmanship of Dr. Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, to report on appropriate measures to alleviate the conditions of the Irish poor. In its report in 1836 the Commission estimated the number of destitute persons in Ireland at not less than 2,385,000. It advised against the application in Ireland of the English Workhouse system which had been introduced there in 1834. The recommendations were not acceptable to the Government and on 22 August 1836 George Nicholls, an English Poor Law Commissioner, was requested to go to Ireland and report on the feasibility of applying the English Poor Law System to Ireland. The Government, acting quickly on Nicholls’ report and recommendations, introduced the Irish Poor Relief Act of 1838 which became law in July of that year. With the assistance of four English Poor Law Commissioners, Nicholls was now entrusted with the task of implementing the legislation. Dividing the country into 130 Poor Law Union Areas, arrangements were made for the appointment and election of Boards of Guardians. George Wilkinson, an English Architect, was appointed to prepare plans and drawings for the Workhouses and he was also given the responsibility of acquiring sites for the new Workhouses and supervising their erection. Nicholls, in his report, had recommended four separate buildings within each Workhouse complex to separately house the aged, children, males and females. However, the general mixed Workhouse was planned and built in all Union areas in Ireland within which separation of the different ages and sexes was to be enforced. The Poor Rate, introduced under the 1838 Act to finance the Workhouses, was levied in equal parts on the owners and occupiers of land within each Union Area. In 1843 occupiers of property under £4 valuation were exempted and their rates became payable by the owners. Under the 1838 Act, it was provided that 75% of the Board of Guardians would be elected by the ratepayers of the Unions with the balance appointed from amongst the Justices of the Peace in the Union Area. This was later changed to equal numbers of elected Guardians and nominated Justices of the Peace under amending legislation in 1847. The first meeting of Athy Board of Guardians was held in the Courthouse, Town Hall, Athy, on Thursday, 29 April 1841. Mr. R.M. Muggeridge, an Assistant Poor Law Commissioner, was elected Chairman, William Caulfield, Vice-Chairman, and Gerald Dunne, Deputy Vice-Chairman. Patrick Dunne was appointed Clerk to the Board at the yearly salary of £40. The Athy Workhouse opened on 9 January 1844. Before the opening, the Board of Guardians met and decided on the meal times and the diet for the inmates. Adults were to have breakfast at 9.30am and dinner at 4pm. Children would eat at 9am and 2pm and would have an additional meal at 7pm. The Board of Guardians then proceeded to admit the first paupers to the local Workhouse and, on 9 January 1844, twenty-five were admitted comprising five men, four women, ten boys, five girls and one infant. On entry the paupers, as they were classified, were bathed, had their clothes removed from them and were supplied with the Workhouse uniform. Men and women were segregated as the separation of the sexes was seen as a fundamental requirement to maintaining discipline in the Workhouse. The Guardians met each week thereafter to approve admissions to the Workhouse. On 16 January, forty-one more paupers were admitted and on 23 January fifty-two luckless individuals including twenty-seven children were to don the Workhouse uniform. Admissions ran at an average of fifty a week until the end of February. On 15 February, George Carmichael and his wife Elizabeth were appointed Schoolmaster and Schoolmistress to the Workhouse children on the strict understanding that their own children would not be brought into the House. In the same month, Michael Byrne was employed as a Shoemaker with an allowance of 6d per day and shoemaking fees for instructing Workhouse boys in the trade. Also employed was a Master Weaver at a salary of £45 per annum to teach handweaving to the children. In 1857 the Board of Guardians agreed to do away with the Master Weaver’s position, deeming it to be a useless trade for boys at a time when loom weaving was superseded by machinery. The local Clockmaker, James Plewman, supplied a clock for the sum of £5.10.0. while the Guardians, obviously surprised at the number of children being admitted, ordered one hundred tablet boards for use in the schoolrooms. At 22 February there were one hundred and fifteen adults in the Workhouse and one hundred and seventeen children Michael Lawler was appointed Tailor to the Workhouse in March 1844 at a salary of £12 per annum. Part of his duties included instructing the young boys in tailoring. On 21 March the Guardians urgently sought quotations for coffins and the contract was awarded to Thomas Peppard to supply large deal coffins at 5/- each and smaller sizes at 4/- each. In 1844 there were several changes made in the Workhouse personnel. The returns for that year showed J.B. Pilsworth as Clerk of the Union and Richard Ivers as Workhouse Master, Elizabeth Quinn was still Matron, a position she held until she retired on age grounds on 26 March 1853. Built to accommodate 360 adults and 240 children the Workhouse had 300 inmates on 2 January 1845. Over the next few years Athy Workhouse was to be home to hundreds of impoverished Irish men and women for whom the Workhouse offered the only hope of survival. Their generation would never know happiness or fulfillment. Their lives would be spent in an endless round of misery and hunger until death brought the only possible relief.

Athy Workhouse - The Early Years

In September 1833 a Commission was established under the Chairmanship of Dr. Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, to report on appropriate measures to alleviate the conditions of the Irish poor. In its report in 1836 the Commission estimated the number of destitute persons in Ireland at not less than 2,385,000. It advised against the application in Ireland of the English Workhouse system which had been introduced there in 1834. The recommendations were not acceptable to the Government and on 22 August 1836 George Nicholls, an English Poor Law Commissioner, was requested to go to Ireland and report on the feasibility of applying the English Poor Law System to Ireland. The Government, acting quickly on Nicholls’ report and recommendations, introduced the Irish Poor Relief Act of 1838 which became law in July of that year. With the assistance of four English Poor Law Commissioners, Nicholls was now entrusted with the task of implementing the legislation. Dividing the country into 130 Poor Law Union Areas, arrangements were made for the appointment and election of Boards of Guardians. George Wilkinson, an English Architect, was appointed to prepare plans and drawings for the Workhouses and he was also given the responsibility of acquiring sites for the new Workhouses and supervising their erection. Nicholls, in his report, had recommended four separate buildings within each Workhouse complex to separately house the aged, children, males and females. However, the general mixed Workhouse was planned and built in all Union areas in Ireland within which separation of the different ages and sexes was to be enforced. The Poor Rate, introduced under the 1838 Act to finance the Workhouses, was levied in equal parts on the owners and occupiers of land within each Union Area. In 1843 occupiers of property under £4 valuation were exempted and their rates became payable by the owners. Under the 1838 Act, it was provided that 75% of the Board of Guardians would be elected by the ratepayers of the Unions with the balance appointed from amongst the Justices of the Peace in the Union Area. This was later changed to equal numbers of elected Guardians and nominated Justices of the Peace under amending legislation in 1847. The first meeting of Athy Board of Guardians was held in the Courthouse, Town Hall, Athy, on Thursday, 29 April 1841. Mr. R.M. Muggeridge, an Assistant Poor Law Commissioner, was elected Chairman, William Caulfield, Vice-Chairman, and Gerald Dunne, Deputy Vice-Chairman. Patrick Dunne was appointed Clerk to the Board at the yearly salary of £40. The Athy Workhouse opened on 9 January 1844. Before the opening, the Board of Guardians met and decided on the meal times and the diet for the inmates. Adults were to have breakfast at 9.30am and dinner at 4pm. Children would eat at 9am and 2pm and would have an additional meal at 7pm. The Board of Guardians then proceeded to admit the first paupers to the local Workhouse and, on 9 January 1844, twenty-five were admitted comprising five men, four women, ten boys, five girls and one infant. On entry the paupers, as they were classified, were bathed, had their clothes removed from them and were supplied with the Workhouse uniform. Men and women were segregated as the separation of the sexes was seen as a fundamental requirement to maintaining discipline in the Workhouse. The Guardians met each week thereafter to approve admissions to the Workhouse. On 16 January, forty-one more paupers were admitted and on 23 January fifty-two luckless individuals including twenty-seven children were to don the Workhouse uniform. Admissions ran at an average of fifty a week until the end of February. On 15 February, George Carmichael and his wife Elizabeth were appointed Schoolmaster and Schoolmistress to the Workhouse children on the strict understanding that their own children would not be brought into the House. In the same month, Michael Byrne was employed as a Shoemaker with an allowance of 6d per day and shoemaking fees for instructing Workhouse boys in the trade. Also employed was a Master Weaver at a salary of £45 per annum to teach handweaving to the children. In 1857 the Board of Guardians agreed to do away with the Master Weaver’s position, deeming it to be a useless trade for boys at a time when loom weaving was superseded by machinery. The local Clockmaker, James Plewman, supplied a clock for the sum of £5.10.0. while the Guardians, obviously surprised at the number of children being admitted, ordered one hundred tablet boards for use in the schoolrooms. At 22 February there were one hundred and fifteen adults in the Workhouse and one hundred and seventeen children Michael Lawler was appointed Tailor to the Workhouse in March 1844 at a salary of £12 per annum. Part of his duties included instructing the young boys in tailoring. On 21 March the Guardians urgently sought quotations for coffins and the contract was awarded to Thomas Peppard to supply large deal coffins at 5/- each and smaller sizes at 4/- each. In 1844 there were several changes made in the Workhouse personnel. The returns for that year showed J.B. Pilsworth as Clerk of the Union and Richard Ivers as Workhouse Master, Elizabeth Quinn was still Matron, a position she held until she retired on age grounds on 26 March 1853. Built to accommodate 360 adults and 240 children the Workhouse had 300 inmates on 2 January 1845. Over the next few years Athy Workhouse was to be home to hundreds of impoverished Irish men and women for whom the Workhouse offered the only hope of survival. Their generation would never know happiness or fulfillment. Their lives would be spent in an endless round of misery and hunger until death brought the only possible relief.

Paddy Byrne - Castledermot

Our local sporting heroes of yesteryear are seldom if ever recalled at a time when unprecedented publicity is given in the Irish media to the English soccer league and its players. Have you ever wondered why it is that so much newsprint is given over to games involving English soccer clubs. Every young Irish lad and lassie is able to recount the deeds of Beckham and company. We no longer take pride in the sporting achievements of our own but instead seek vicarious pleasure in the activities of the soap opera which is now English premier league football. I was reminded of this while attending a function a few weeks ago when I was introduced to a lady who was originally from Castledermot. I normally associate places with famous people from the past and on that occasion I referred to Castledermot as the home of the great Paddy Byrne. Paddy was one of South Kildare’s most famous Gaelic footballers who plied his skills in the years leading up to the beginning of the Second World War. Paddy Byrne like all the other great sportsmen of his time is only remembered today in the record books of the GAA. In his day however Paddy was a remarkably skillful footballer who played not only for his native county but also for Leinster. To my surprise my mention of Paddy Byrne’s name brought a smile to my fellow guest’s face and the response “he was my father”. I have to say that I was delighted to meet her and to add to my store of knowledge of this once great sporting hero whose exploits brought pride and distinction to his village of Castledermot. Gaelic football in Castledermot has a history which stretches back to 1889 when a Gaelic Football Club was founded with the local curate, Fr. T. Ryan as the Club’s first President. This was just five years after the G.A.A. had been established following a meeting in Hayes’s Hotel, Thurles in November 1884. The onset of World War One had a debilitating affect on Gaelic games in South Kildare and both the Castledermot and Athy Clubs went into decline around that time. The Athy Club reformed as the Young Emmets and reached the 1923 Senior County Final with the assistance of at least one Castledermot player. That was Tom Forrestal whom I had the honour of meeting and interviewing in 1990. Naas trounced Athy on that occasion on the scoreline of 2 goals 5 points to no score. Maybe this hammering encouraged Tom and his Castledermot mates to reform the local club which had disbanded some years previously. In any event, 1925 was a significant year for Gaelic football in Castledermot for the new club enlisted as a member a 21 year old local man who had not played competitive football before. Paddy Byrne was destined to become Castledermot’s and indeed South Kildare’s most famous Gaelic footballer. Paddy was chosen for the County Junior team in 1927 and won a Leinster Junior medal when Kildare defeated Offaly in that year’s Leinster final. In the semi-final Kildare defeated their old opponents Kerry before succumbing to Cavan in the final. Cavan was to feature largely in Paddy Byrne’s sporting disappointments throughout his career. At club level Paddy won an Intermediate County final medal in 1928 when Castledermot overcame the might of Carbury. As a result the Club was promoted to senior level where it competed without success before being re-graded in 1931. The following year Paddy Byrne and his colleagues on the Castledermot team won their second Intermediate football final. Paddy was first selected to play on the County Senior team in 1929 where he joined Paddy Martin, an Ellistown man who also played with Castledermot. Martin had been a county player since 1923 and he continued to play for Kildare up to and including the 1936 Leinster Final which was lost to Laois. As far as I can find out Paddy Byrne’s first game with the County Senior team was the 1929 National Football League Final played in Croke Park and which Kerry won by 1-7 to 2-3. Paddy Byrne was a regular team player on the Kildare County Senior team for the following nine years. During that time he played in four Leinster Finals, winning medals in 1930, 1931 and 1935. The only Leinster Final in which Paddy Byrne played and lost was the 1936 Final when our neighbours Laois beat us on the score of 3-3 to 0-8. Paddy scored four points that day, but all to no avail as the Laois goal tally proved too much on the day. Following Kildare’s success in the 1930 Leinster Final Paddy and his colleagues played and lost the All-Ireland semi-final to Monaghan on 24th August of that year. The following year Kildare again came out of Leinster, beat Cavan in the semi-final and qualified to meet Kerry in the All-Ireland Final. Paddy Martin and Paddy Byrne, Castledermot players, were joined on the Kildare team for the All Ireland Final by a young player from Kilberry by the name of Paddy Myles. Myles had played brilliantly for Kildare juniors when winning the 1931 Leinster Junior title and the senior team mentors picked him to play his first senior County game in that years All Ireland Final. Kildare lost the final to Kerry by three points and while Paddy Byrne and Paddy Martin would continue with their County footballing careers, the All Ireland Final of 1931 was Paddy Myles’ one and only time to play with the Kildare senior team. The disappointment of the 1931 Final was forgotten by the time the Kildare County team blazed a successful trail through the early rounds of the 1935 championship. Again Paddy Byrne was in the Kildare forward line and contributed four points in the Leinster Final defeat of Louth. Cuddy Chanders, Paul Matthews and Tommy Mulhall of the Athy Gaelic Football Club were on the team that day, as they were when Kildare defeated Mayo in the All Ireland Semi-Final. Kildare was expected to win the All Ireland against the under-rated Cavan team and so travel as All Ireland champions to New York the following year. Cuddy Chanders, against whom no goal had been scored during the championship, was sensationally dropped for the final and the replacement goalie as might be expected in all the best melodramas let in three goals and Kildare lost the 1935 final by two points. Paddy Byrne had lost his second All Ireland. The lack of All Ireland success was in some way compensated for by Paddy’s success with the Leinster Provincial team on which he played from 1932 to 1937. He won Railway Cup medals in 1932, 1933 and again in 1935. No other Gaelic footballer from the South of the County has ever achieved such success. When Paddy retired as a player in 1938 he continued as an executive member of the Castledermot Club. Indeed he served several spells as Secretary of the Club and in later years as Vice President. Paddy Byrne, Gaelic footballer, described in the newspaper reports prior to the 1935 All Ireland Finals as “the most accurate forward in Ireland” died in 1990 aged 86 years. His feats on the football field are all but forgotten today but his achievements will live on in the record books of the Gaelic Athletic Association and whenever great players are mentioned the name of Paddy Byrne of Castledermot will always be recalled with pride.

Paddy Moran and Bloody Sunday - Patrick Moran killed Drogheda

On 19th March 1921 the Nationalist reported the execution in Mountjoy Jail of Patrick Moran from Crossna, Co. Roscommon. He was 33 years of age and had spent a number of years working as a shop assistant in Athy. Moran had earlier been found guilty by a courtmartial of complicity in the killing of a British Officer, Lieutenant Peter Aimes on what has now become known as “Bloody Sunday”. Aimes boarded at 38 Mount Street, Dublin, as did his colleague Lieutenant George Bennett. Early in the morning of Sunday, 21st November 1920 a number of men called to 38 Mount Street and on enquiring for Lieutenant Aimes were let in by the maid Katherine Farrell. The visitors who were armed with revolvers went upstairs and on entering Bennett’s room ordered him to get up. He was brought across the corridor into Aimes’ room where both men, believed to be members of the British Intelligence, were shot dead. That same morning a total of 14 British Officers were killed in Dublin. Patrick Moran with an address at Main Street, Blackrock and Joseph Rochford of Ranelagh were subsequently arrested and charged with the double killing. Both men were identified when put on an identity parade, although Rochford was subsequently acquitted when he proved that on the morning in question he was somewhere else. Moran was not so lucky as a number of witnesses came forward to identify him. These included a soldier held up by the raiders as they approached No. 38 Mount Street and who was brought into the house where he witnessed the shooting of Aimes and Bennett. Across the street from No. 38 lived another British Army Officer Major Carew who on being alerted by his servant watched the IRA men enter and later leave Aimes’ house. Although he was looking out from a fourth story window Carew was not prepared to accept any possibility of mistaken identity. Similar evidence was given by his servant. No less than 17 witnesses, not all of whom could be said to have Republican sympathies came forward to give evidence on Moran’s behalf. Many confirmed that in or around the time of the shooting they had seen him at Blackrock which was at least two miles distance from Mount Street. It was to no avail. When the trial concluded on 15th February 1921 Moran was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was returned to Mountjoy rather than Kilmainham Jail as just days previously a number of Republican Prisoners had escaped from the latter prison. Amongst them was Simon Donnelly who had been arrested on 10th February, Ernie O’Malley who had hidden his real identity from the Prison authorities and Frank Teeling who was captured on “Bloody Sunday”. It is claimed that Paddy Moran was to have been part of the escape party but that his place for some unexplained reason was taken by Simon Donnelly. Donnelly when writing in later years of the Kilmainham Jail escape claimed that Moran who was still awaiting trial was so sure of being acquitted that he felt his involvement in a prison escape would be an acknowledgment of his guilt. On 14th March 1921 Patrick Moran was one of six men hanged in Mountjoy Jail. The other men hanged were Thomas Whelan of Clifden, Thomas Bryan, Patrick Doyle, Frank Flood and Brendan Ryan, all of Dublin. Both Moran and Whelan were hanged for their involvement in the “Bloody Sunday” shootings of British Intelligence Officers while the remaining four men were hanged after treason convictions were secured. They had taken part in an unsuccessful ambush on crown forces at Tolka Bridge, Drumcondra on 21st January 1921. Patrick Moran was one of a family of eleven from Crossna in Co. Roscommon where he attended the local primary school. He served his time as grocers assistant in Boyle before moving to Dublin in 1910. Shortly after that he came to Athy where he spent a number of years working in the grocery shop of E.J. Glynn. Moran played Gaelic football for the local Geraldine Football Club, where one of his playing colleagues was the famous “Golly” Germaine. According to a report in the local newspaper Moran played an active part in local amateur theatricals as well as being a member of the local C.Y.M.S. On Sunday, 14th October 2001 the bodies of ten republicans who were executed in Mountjoy Jail and buried within the jail precincts were brought through the streets of Dublin for re-burial in Glasnevin Cemetery. Three of those ten men had links with the town of Athy. Apart from Patrick Moran who was well known in the town, Frank Flood’s brother Tom acquired a public house in Leinster Street where he lived until he died in October 1950. Kevin Barry’s sister married “Bapty” Maher of Athy and for many years the Maher family pub was at No. 23 Leinster Street. Just six days before Patrick Moran was sentenced to death another man with Athy connections was killed. John Moran of Church Street, Enniscorthy and his companion Sean Halpin of Drogheda were shot dead on 9th February 1921 by Black and Tans during a shoot-out near Drogheda. Moran was a son of William Moran and a nephew of Denis Moran, both of whom were natives of Athy. That same week Joseph Mullery of William Street, Athy was arrested in Cavan and lodged in Ballykinlar Camp. Back in his hometown of Athy the Crown forces were very active. An armoured car accompanied by a force of military arrived in the town causing some consternation and prompting the locals to stay indoors. The house of John Delaney, a brickmaker of Woodstock Street was raided and a number of what were described as “patriotic” pictures were removed from the wall, placed in the middle of the floor and stamped on by the raiders. Over the same weekend handwritten copies of a Military Order were posted up in the town of Athy. “PUBLIC NOTICE ROAD CUTTING AND DESTRUCTION OF BRIDGES The competent military authority has decided that in any area in which road cutting is indulged in the usual markets and fairs held in towns to which damaged roads lead will be stopped until roads are mended - By Order”. Executions, killings and the activities of the Crown forces during the early months of 1921 had a direct impact upon the people of Athy. Many more months would pass before the town, often described as a garrison town, would return to normality. The Republicans of Athy by then had regained for the south Kildare town some measure of the patriotic spirit which had remained submerged ever since the repressive activities of the military in the months leading up to the 1798 Rebellion.

Death of Thomas Dunne - Castledermot - 16 June 1922

On 26th April, 1922 the Irish Hierarchy issued the following statement, “The best and wisest course for Ireland is to accept the Treaty and make the most of the freedom it undoubtedly brings us”. Their reference was to the Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland approved by the Dáil in the previous January. The Civil War which resulted is generally considered to have begun when anti-treaty troops seized the Four Courts in June 1922. However, Civil War was a reality once those opposed to the Treaty landed German arms at Helvic Head in Co. Waterford on 2nd March. By then the country was inexorably moving towards war and it was a war which would not end until May of the following year. In the intervening period many young men would die, sometimes brutally and almost always needlessly. Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera, one time colleagues in the fight for Irish independence but on opposite sides of the Civil War factions, following the treaty debate of December 1921 entered into a pact in May 1982. They agreed on a Sinn Fein panel of candidates drawn from pro-treaty and anti-treaty sides to contest a general election which was scheduled for Friday, 16th June. On that day yet another young man was to die in South Kildare exactly thirteen months after a botched ambush had claimed the lives of Connor and Lacy in Barrowhouse. Thomas Dunne was a young man described by the doctor who attended at the scene of the shooting as “a hard working, decent, respectable, young fellow”. He was one of a party of four anti-treaty soldiers who on the evening before the General Election took over the Sinn Fein hall in Castledermot. The hall was commandeered in order to establish a Barracks in Castledermot which the anti-treaty troops intended to use as a base for patrolling the area. Both treaty and anti-treaty sides were anxious to extend their control throughout rural Ireland and those opposed to the Treaty sought to do this by providing a militarised police force in as many localities as possible. Particular concern had been expressed at the increased lawlessness in South Kildare during the early months of 1922 and a daring daylight robbery at Ballycullane in early June had prompted the anti-treaty side to establish a barracks in Castledermot. The Garda Siochana set up by the Government some months earlier had not yet arrived in the area and the IRA (both treaty and anti-treaty) were undertaking law enforcement duties in the locality. Mr. O’Gorman, Manager of the Hibernian Bank in Athy was held up at Ballycullane at about 2.00pm on a Monday afternoon as he was returning from the banks Ballitore branch office. Driving his newly acquired motor cycle and accompanied by the bank porter in the side car he had no option but to stop when ambushed near Ballycullane Wood by three masked men armed with revolvers. A sum of £170.00 was stolen on that occasion. On the evening before the 1922 general election polling day Sgt. John Dempsey of F. Company 5th Battalion Carlow Brigade IRA, accompanied by Volunteers Thomas Dunne, Peter Brien and William Kinsella, took over the Sinn Fein hall in Castledermot. They were ordered to do so by Captain P. Kavanagh of Castledermot who in turn had received his instructions from Commdt. Thomas O’Connell of the Carlow Brigade. On the following morning about 14 or 15 pro-treaty troops under the command of Brigadier Adjutant Lillis of Carlow arrived in the village of Castledermot. Statements made by Volunteers Peter Brien, William Kinsella and Sergeant John Dempsey indicated that the pro-treaty troops passed the Sinn Fein hall in a lorry travelling from the Carlow direction. The lorry travelled towards the chapel and stopped about 200 yards from the Sinn Fein hall. Captain A. Nolan got out of the lorry and walked back to the hall and on entering saw that it was occupied by anti-treaty soldiers. He returned to the lorry but almost immediately came back again to the hall when he was refused entry by Volunteer Peter Brien. Within minutes, according to the statement of the anti-treaty Volunteers, the lorry containing the soldiers returned and 14 or 15 men jumped down and rushed through the door of the Sinn Fein hall firing shots. The statements made by the pro-treaty soldiers those who entered the Sinn Fail hall gave a somewhat different version of events. Paddy Cosgrave, a resident of Castledermot, and Brigade Vice Commdt. of the treaty troops stated he entered the Sinn Fein hall with Lillis, Captain F. Lawler and another un-named officer who may have been the earlier mentioned Captain Nolan. Cosgrave was behind the other three officers as they went in, but was able to see four anti-treaty soldiers inside the building, two of whom he said were armed with shotguns in the “ready position”. After he entered the hall he heard three shots, the first of which he believed was fired by Captain Lawler. It was then, according to Paddy Cosgrave, that the soldiers in the lorry jumped down and rushed into the hall. Cosgrave saw Thomas Dunne turn away and stumble towards the back door. He had been mortally wounded and was to die within minutes. Captain F. Lawler who fired the fatal shot was an experienced soldier who had fought during the Easter Rising. He confirmed that he was the first to enter the Sinn Fein hall, accompanied by Lillis and Cosgrave. He had a revolver in his hand and was about to cock it when his thumb slipped and the revolver went off. He turned the revolver towards the ground and attempted to cock it again when “it slipped again and the second shot was discharged”. No explanation was offered for the third shot heard by his companion Paddy Cosgrave. Which of the shots allegedly accidentally fired by Lawler killed Thomas Dunne was never determined. What is known is that Adjutant J. Lillis, having been informed by a local man, Patrick Walsh, that the anti-treaty side had taken over the Sinn Fein hall, decided in consulting with Paddy Cosgrave to have them ejected. Dr. Francis Brannan was immediately called to the scene but the unfortunate young man Thomas Dunne was already dead. That night an inquest was held by Dr. M.F. Kenna, Coroner for South Kildare following which the jury chaired by William J. Dalton brought in the verdict of “death from shock and hemorrhage caused by the piercing of the aorta by a bullet accidentally discharged in a Sinn Fein hall.” On the following Sunday afternoon Thomas Dunne’s funeral procession left Castledermot for Carlow headed by the Clashganny Pipers and the Athy Fife and Drum bands. Volunteer Thomas Dunne was buried in the Republican plot at St. Mary’s cemetery, Carlow town. Less than three weeks after Thomas Dunne’s death another young man was killed in the village of Castledermot. The story of how Volunteer Lawrence Sweeney of Dundrum, Co. Dublin met his death on the same day as Sylvester Sheppard was shot in nearby Rosetown is a story for another day.

Photograph of Cast of second production of 'Dick Whittington' - 1950s

PHOTOGRAPH OF CAST OF SECOND PRODUCTION OF 'DICK WHITTINGTON' - 1950S

Another Athy Musical Show photograph this week.  Those pictured are members of what appears to be a second and later production of Dick Whittington, the show which was first put on in the Town Hall in 1947.  I recognise many of the faces in the photograph and guess that the show was put on sometime towards the end of the 1950’s.  Let me hear from you if you remember the show in question or if you can put names to those captured on film all those years ago.

Next week I plan to return to the photograph which featured in Eye on the Past No. 516.  It was of a school trip to Independent House Dublin in 1959 and I have got many replies to my offer of a book prize for the first person who correctly identified the 59 or so souls pictured on that day.  More about that next week.  In the meantime I have run out of photographs of Athy Musical Shows of the past and if there is anyone out there who has any other photographs of the shows of past years, I would welcome the opportunity of featuring them in future articles.

Harking back to the old ballads of Athy which I mentioned some weeks ago a former neighbour wrote to me about the legendary Barney Davis.  Barney it was who composed “Doctor Don Roderick de Vere” and also “The Girls from the Pea Factory”  and was one of the principals in many of the musicals of the 1940’s and earlier.  In the photograph shown two weeks ago of the 1947 Dick Whittington Show Barney was photographed fourth from the left in the front row holding his cat suit.  He was the cat in the 1947 show and I see that a well known present day resident of William Street played the same part in the later production which is the subject of this weeks photograph.  Barney Davis by all accounts was a most popular fellow and usually brought the house down with his ability to walk on his hands while playing the role of Dick Whittington’s cat.

My correspondent referred to a man whom he regarded as Athy’s rhymer supreme.  He was known to all and sundry in Athy as Archie Sullivan who although born in Dublin he lived in Athy from the early 1930’s.  A cobbler by trade Archie was the author of many local ballads composed to record events and individuals which for one reason or another caught the public imagination.  I rely entirely on my friend’s recall of Archie’s ballads as I have never previously come across them.  Who remembers “O’Hara’s Goose” which told the story of Barney O’Hara’s prize of a goose won at a card game which turned out to be a swan!  The bird still posing as a “goose” was offered as a prize in a series of card games which were played out in local pubs before it eventually passed to an unsuspecting winner.  Another ballad attributed to Archie Sullivan told of the characters working in the asbestos factory in the 1950’s.  It was called “The lads from the Asbestos”.   The affairs of the local Urban District Council in the aftermath of World War II provided Archie with background for another ballad in which a central role was played by the legendary Tom Carbery of St. Martin’s Terrace.

I don’t have the words of any of Archie Sullivan’s ballads, but hopefully some of my readers can recall them and so help record for evermore the work of a man described as the rhymer supreme of Athy.

Many thanks to those who contacted me in response to the request for information regarding the relations of Robert Foster and Stephen Leonard.  As a result of your help I have been able to answer in some considerable detail the queries which emanated from two English readers.

In the meantime keep sending in any information or material you might wish to share with other readers of this column regarding the musical shows of the 1940’s and 1950’s.

Photograph of Cast of 'White Bread and Apple Sauce' - 1945

As promised I have another photograph of a 1940’s musical gracing this weeks Eye on the Past. It is a photograph of the cast of “White Bread and Apple Sauce” put on in the Town Hall in 1945. The producer was Stanley Ilsley who is pictured in the front row 3rd from the left. Ilsley was one half of the famous theatrical partnership of Ilsley and McCabe which for decades played a prominent role in the Olympia Theatre in Dublin. Again this week I am looking for readers help in naming those pictured on the Town Hall stage of 57 years ago. There are several faces in the photograph which I can recognise and it is amazing how some of them show so little changes over the years. One can’t say the same about Irish society during the last half of the century. I was reminded of this last week as I listened to a discussion on the radio about women having to give up their jobs on marrying. We always think of teachers and civil servants in that context but I was reminded of an interview I had a few years ago with an Athy woman living in England who emigrated over 40 years ago. She got married in Athy in 1950 and at the time worked in the pea factory in Rathstewart. She told me that she was required to give up her job the day before she got married. Whether this was at the behest of the unions or of the employers I cannot say but it does seem in hindsight an extraordinary harsh rule. But of course working society in 1950 was so different than today. Can you imagine a factory worker nowadays asking his boss as a favour for a half day or a full day off work so that he or she could get married. That is what a prospective groom had to do 50 years ago. My informant recounted for me how her boyfriend who worked in the Asbestos factory got one day off for his wedding on the strict injunction “to be back here on Thursday morning”. For you see Wednesday was the day set aside in St. Michael’s Parish Church for working men and women to marry. The weddings took place early in the morning, some as early as 7.30am. There was no such thing as an afternoon Church ceremony and the simple ceremony was followed, if you were lucky, by a reception in the bride’s home. With the World War not long over and rationings still something to be contended with, lucky was the family which had boiled ham for family and friends invited to the wedding reception. Miss Mape’s shop in Duke Street was always a popular venue for the local girls when they wanted to get a new coat or hat for a wedding. Her dress shop’s popularity owed much to Ms. Mape’s willingness to “keep a book” and mark off the payments made each week long before the wedding came off. Who remembers “Footie” O’Gorman, supplier of hams for local weddings and funerals. His shop was in Duke Street where Kane’s are now located and while I don’t recall him his name is forever associated in my mind with the advice he gave to a young man about to be married, “make sure you get off at Naas” [work it out for yourself!]. Writing of the old days [and not so old days] in Athy I am reminded that Mary Browne, the famous fish seller who graced Emily Square every Friday for many years died in 1996, aged 98 years. No doubt many of you will remember Mary. Does anyone have a photograph of Mary and her famous fish stall which I could copy? Walking up Church Road last week I saw that the unusual bungalow built by Dr. John Kilbride when he married in 1926 has been demolished and replaced by a block of apartments. Dr. John was son of Dr. James Kilbride who lived in Athy Lodge where Dr. Joe and Mrs. O’Neill now live. The bungalow was built by Jim Lawler’s grandfather, Edward Lawler, and was unusual as it was built of asbestos sheets imported from England. The bungalow which Dr. John and his wife lived until they moved into Athy Lodge was called “Athmore” comprised of the first letters of Athy and the last letters of Tramore. Dr. John was a native of Athy, while his wife was from Tramore and it was to Tramore that both returned when Dr. John Kilbride retired. The unexpected passing of Thomas “Tanner” Bracken last week severed another link with Athy’s past. “Tanner” was a member of an old Athy family and for nearly 50 years he worked in the Asbestos factory with his late brother Willie. Both were members of the C.Y.M.S. in the days when it had its premises in Stanhope Street and later still in St. John’s Hall. “Tanner” and his brother Willie were part of the fabric of my memories of youth and his death deprives us of an Athy man, gentle in his ways who in his own quite way left his mark on the local community.

PHOTOGRAPH OF CAST OF 'WHITE BREAD AND APPLE SAUCE' - 1945

As promised I have another photograph of a 1940’s musical gracing this weeks Eye on the Past.  It is a photograph of the cast of “White Bread and Apple Sauce” put on in the Town Hall in 1945.  The producer was Stanley Ilsley who is pictured in the front row 3^rd from the left.  Ilsley was one half of the famous theatrical partnership of Ilsley and McCabe which for decades played a prominent role in the Olympia Theatre in Dublin.  Again this week I am looking for readers help in naming those pictured on the Town Hall stage of 57 years ago.  There are several faces in the photograph which I can recognise and it is amazing how some of them show so little changes over the years.  One can’t say the same about Irish society during the last half of the century.  I was reminded of this last week as I listened to a discussion on the radio about women having to give up their jobs on marrying.  We always think of teachers and civil servants in that context but I was reminded of an interview I had a few years ago with an Athy woman living in England who emigrated over 40 years ago.  She got married in Athy in 1950 and at the time worked in the pea factory in Rathstewart.  She told me that she was required to give up her job the day before she got married.  Whether this was at the behest of the unions or of the employers I cannot say but it does seem in hindsight an extraordinary harsh rule.  But of course working society in 1950 was so different than today.  Can you imagine a factory worker nowadays asking his boss as a favour for a half day or a full day off work so that he or she could get married.  That is what a prospective groom had to do 50 years ago.  My informant recounted for me how her boyfriend who worked in the Asbestos factory got one day off for his wedding on the strict injunction “to be back here on Thursday morning”.  For you see Wednesday was the day set aside in St. Michael’s Parish Church for working men and women to marry.  The weddings took place early in the morning, some as early as 7.30am.  There was no such thing as an afternoon Church ceremony and the simple ceremony was followed, if you were lucky, by a reception in the bride’s home.  With the World War not long over and rationings still something to be contended with, lucky was the family which had boiled ham for family and friends invited to the wedding reception. 

Miss Mape’s shop in Duke Street was always a popular venue for the local girls when they wanted to get a new coat or hat for a wedding.  Her dress shop’s popularity owed much to Ms. Mape’s willingness to “keep a book” and mark off the payments made each week long before the wedding came off.  Who remembers “Footie” O’Gorman, supplier of hams for local weddings and funerals.  His shop was in Duke Street where Kane’s are now located and while I don’t recall him his name is forever associated in my mind with the advice he gave to a young man about to be married, “make sure you get off at Naas” [work it out for yourself!].

Writing of the old days [and not so old days] in Athy I am reminded that Mary Browne, the famous fish seller who graced Emily Square every Friday for many years died in 1996, aged 98 years.  No doubt many of you will remember Mary.  Does anyone have a photograph of Mary and her famous fish stall which I could copy?

Walking up Church Road last week I saw that the unusual bungalow built by Dr. John Kilbride when he married in 1926 has been demolished and replaced by a block of apartments.  Dr. John was son of Dr. James Kilbride who lived in Athy Lodge where Dr. Joe and Mrs. O’Neill now live.  The bungalow was built by Jim Lawler’s grandfather, Edward Lawler, and was unusual as it was built of asbestos sheets imported from England.  The bungalow which Dr. John and his wife lived until they moved into Athy Lodge was called “Athmore” comprised of the first letters of Athy and the last letters of Tramore.  Dr. John was a native of Athy, while his wife was from Tramore and it was to Tramore that both returned when Dr. John Kilbride retired. 

The unexpected passing of Thomas “Tanner” Bracken last week severed another link with Athy’s past.  “Tanner” was a member of an old Athy family and for nearly 50 years he worked in the Asbestos factory with his late brother Willie.  Both were members of the C.Y.M.S. in the days when it had its premises in Stanhope Street and later still in St. John’s Hall.  “Tanner” and his brother Willie were part of the fabric of my memories of youth and his death deprives us of an Athy man, gentle in his ways who in his own quite way left his mark on the local community.