Frank Doran and Newspaper Article of Uncertain Age

A good friend of the column recently sent me newspaper articles culled from various sources over the years.  Taken from different unidentified newspapers, the articles are all undated but have one thing in common - they relate to Athy or persons from the town.  One particular piece caught my attention.  It was written by a native of Athy called Frank Doran under the headline “Athy as I remember it 50 years ago”.  There is nothing in the piece to help me date the article but I am of the view that it appeared in the early 1960’s.  I don’t know who Frank Doran was but at the time of his writing the article, he lived in West Cork.  Was he related to the Doran’s who first came to Athy from Hacketstown in the 1880’s?  I don’t know, but maybe I’ll be able to clarify his connection, if any, after some further research.

Frank Doran recalled the Athy of his youth when there was no concrete or macadam roads, “I remember the horse drawn water sprinkler making its rounds in summer weather through the streets laying the dust”.  He also remember John Eston, the town lamp lighter, “moving from lamp to lamp extinguishing the street lamps and Johnny’s fine attempt to beat the challenge of a noted weight lifter in a visiting circus”.

It was in Athy that Frank Doran saw his first all Ireland Football final, “smothered” as he described himself “in the crowd lining the railings six deep.”  The final in question was in 1906 football decider between Fermoy of Cork and Kickhams of Dublin which was refereed by John Fitzgerald of this County.  The match took place in what is now known as Geraldine Park but on All Ireland Final day, 20^th October 1907 was still known locally as the “Agricultural Society field”. 

Frank Doran’s story continued, “I remember mission time in Athy and the stands outside the Church gate displaying pious objects for sale.  We gazed in fright and fascination but came back again and again to look at a picture depicting a horned cloven hoofed devil waiting at the foot of a dying unrepentent sinner’s bed to snatch the soul to eternity.  It was in the shop of Nicholas Keating of Woodstock Street I bought my first cigarettes, a haport of Woodbines, two for a half penny and a penny for a packet of five.  I remember the building of Athy Post Office.  Amongst those engaged was an Englishman, a fishing enthusiast who commissioned me to catch a supply of roach which he required as a bait in an attempt to catch a monster pike frequenting the Cardenton to Milltown stretch of the Canal”. 

The Post Office was built in 1909 at a time when the brick yards of Athy were still working even though they were somewhat in decline.  The building contractor engaged to build the Post Office used Tullamore brick in the initial stages but following representations from Athy Urban District Council, the Postal Authorities confirmed that only Athy brick would be used thereafter.

Frank Doran remembered the Christian Brother’s School and Brother Carey’s enthralling tales of the Irish Chieftains, Brian Boru, Owen Roe, Red Hugh etc.  “We almost ducked beneath the desk to dodge the imaginary sword he swung.  What sport we had under the giant chestnut trees of the school playground with the water cistern nearby with the metal drinking cup on a chain to slake our thirst. I remember at lunch time making for Dooley’s grocery in Duke Street where delicious penny rolls could be got.  Kind hearted Mrs. Dooley used to cut them in two for us and yes indeed covered them thickly with butter.  In Paddy Donoghues’ small apple shop at the corner of St. John’s Lane, we bought apples at eight or ten a penny”. 

The Dooley’s Bakery mentioned was operated by Patrick Dooley who died in May 1937.  He was a brother of Michael Dooley of Duke Street after whom Dooley’s Terrace was named in 1934.

“Passing home from school, we never tired of looking at the stuffed otter in the window of Pat Whelan Victualler and the display of athletic trophies won by his nephew Dan Harkins.  Whelan’s monster newfoundland dogs lazing on the pavement were part of the town and of interest in William Street was the horse worked pulley raising corn sacks’ to the lofty heights of the Canal Bridge Maltings”.

There is amongst Doran’s reminiscences an interesting reference to the local volunteers. “I remember drilling with Redmond’s Volunteers near Roche’s Lock and discomfiture when our squad was captured by a one led by George Robinson who stole up on us through the graveyard.  World War I started a little later and with it came the sad parting scenes at Athy railway station as the army reservists left.  “Goodbye Michael” said one fine lad to a friend, “I’ll bring you back a tiger skin”.  “Bring back your own skin “replied Michael”.   His friend never returned.” 

Was the George Robinson referred to in Dorans narrative the famous handballer who enlisted to fight in World War I and who returned to Athy with a badly injured hand?

Frank Doran’s reminiscences recreated for his readers of forty years ago images of Athy which even then were but faint memories.  “I recall the drip of rain from the giant beeches at Cardington and their leafy shade, squelch of cattle in the soggy mud at watering time; the smell of new mown hay and sweet scent of wild roses in the green hedge rows of old Kildare; ripples on  the Canal and its obedient flow to the locks demand, the rhythmic thump, thump from the Mill at Ardreigh and across the water the long hoot of the horn at Telford’s brick works; brush of parting sedge by Barrow side at Milltown as one pressed through to the Mill stream and the weird cry of a night fowl in the darkness over lonely Tubberara”. 

The pen pictures conjured up by Frank Doran’s description of life in Athy almost 100 years ago are a wonderful reminder of a period which in a few short weeks will be relived with the celebrations for the centenary of the Gordon Bennett Race. The famous road race of 1903 will be the centre of attention over the June Bank Holiday weekend when the Gordon Bennett Circuit is inaugurated as a tourist trail taking in parts of Laois, Carlow and South Kildare. 

A man who like Frank Doran was familiar with Athy of almost 100 years ago was Liam Price, a noted amateur historian and archaeologist.  He sat in this area as a District Justice and spent his leisure  hours researching the placenames, antiquities and topography of counties Wicklow and Kildare.  His notebooks were presented to the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland and these have been published in book form in the last few weeks under the joint editorship of Christiaan Corlett.  Athy Museum Society in association with An Taisce has arranged for Christiaan Corlett to give a lecture in the Town Hall on Tuesday, 8^th April at 8.00 p.m. on the Liam Price Notebooks.  It promises to be an interesting talk which will be of particular interest to anyone living in this area.

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.