Parish Priests of St. Michael's Parish

The light reflected in the window of the parochial house in Stanhope Place which I noticed earlier in the week had all the significance of a beacon of revival.  Sadly the parochial house, once one of the focal points for the parish of St. Michael’s, had been unoccupied in recent years while the Parish Priest who also had responsibility for Narraghmore and Moone parishes, resided in the rural tranquillity of Crookstown.  Our new Parish Priest has now occupied the early 19^th century stone fronted parochial house and by this very act has reaffirmed the importance of the Parish Priest living amongst the people he serves.  This is not to say that the parishioners of Narraghmore and Moone. deserve any less consideration but in terms of population numbers the parish of St. Michael’s must be seen as the first amongst equals in this part of the diocese. 

 

The parish of St. Michael’s was established I am told in 1670 and the only extant records relating to the priests in the parish record Fr. John Fitzsimons who was ordained a priest in 1673 at 23 years of age.  He had the distinction of being ordained by the then Archbishop of Dublin Oliver Plunkett and was appointed Parish Priest of St. Michael’s 24 years later.  It is interesting to note that his designation as Parish Priest referred to St. Michael’s, St. John’s, Churchtown, Kilberry and Nicholastown.  He was shown in government records as residing in Athy in 1704.

 

The next recorded Parish Priest was Fr. Daniel Fitzpatrick who was in charge of the parish in 1744 while living over the border in Queens County [now County Laois].  Fr. James Neill or  Nele, was Parish Priest of St. Michael’s from 1771 until his death on 28^th October 1789.  Fr. Maurice Keegan was a curate in Athy for 7 years from 1780 and transferred to nearby Castledermot as Parish Priest where he remained until 1789.  He returned that year to St. Michael’s as the Parish Priest and served in that capacity until 26th October 1825.  It was during his stewardship of the parish that the Parish Church, then located in Chapel Lane, was torched and burned to the ground.  It happened on the night of 7^th March, 1800 and was one of a number of Catholic churches in this area and throughout Ireland which were similarly burned out following the 1798 Rebellion.  Fr. Fitzpatrick lodged a claim for compensation with the Dublin Castle authorities and those proceeds and presumably further local funding financed the building of St. Michael’s Church, familiar to older residents of the parish which was demolished in 1960.

 

Following Fr. Fitzpatrick’s death in 1825 I have counted 18 Parish Priests who succeeded him, including the recently appointed Fr. Liam Rigney.  Amongst them was Fr. Andrew Quinn who was Parish Priest from 1853-1879.  A native of Eadestown, Naas, his brothers were Bishop James Quinn of Brisbane and Bishop Matthew Quinn of Bathurst.  Two other Parish Priests who in my young days were remembered in Athy were Canon James Germaine who presided over the parish for 13 years up to 1905.  Canon Mackey was another well remembered holder of the office from 1909-1928.  Both died in office and both are buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery.

 

Canon Patrick McDonnell, after whom McDonnell Drive was named, was Parish Priest from 1928-1956.  He was the old-style leader of his parish who to a youngster like me attending confessions in the early 1950s was a cross, contrary individual who was unable to deal kindly with the awkward silences of a dumb struck youngster.  My tale of woe has been told in a previous Eye, however now that I am approaching Canon McDonnell’s age I can understand and forgive him.

 

Amongst the Parish Priests of the past we have had a number of priests with interesting backgrounds.  Canon Owen Sweeney, who was a dynamic Parish Priest for 5 years from 1980, was the former president of Clonliffe College.  Fr. Gerard Tanham, Parish Priest from 2010, was director of the Dublin Institute of Adult Education for 10 years from 1981.  Both left their mark on the parish of St. Michael’s and are remembered with great fondness. 

 

In any lookback at the Parish Priests of our parish it would be remiss of me not to mention Fr. Philip Dennehy who first came to Athy as a curate in 1963.  He served for 10 years before returning as a Parish Priest in 1985, retiring 21 years later.  Now aged 86 years he remains in the parish as Parish Priest Emeritus, a much-loved pastor who has devoted the majority of his ordained life to the parishioners of the Parish of St. Michael’s.

 

The parish has gone through difficult times since the departure of Monsignor John Wilson in 2009 and the widening of the pastoral responsibility of the Parish Priest for the outlying parishes has increased the difficulties facing the present incumbent.  His decision to occupy the Parochial House in Stanhope Place goes a long way to reassuring his parishioners that the regeneration of St. Michael’s parish as a relevant and important part of community life in the area can be expected. 

Tim Harward / Eddie Wall

The English and the Irish nations have had an uneasy relationship for centuries but mercifully the appalling ‘No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs’ boarding house notices of a few decades past are no more.  However, the partnership which could and should mark the relationship between neighbouring islands is held back by politicians and historical baggage foisted on us as a result of the Boundary Commission of 1924. 

 

My thoughts on the otherwise amicable relationship between the people of Great Britain and ourselves were prompted by my visit last week for a funeral in West Sussex.  I have been a frequent visitor across the Irish Sea and I have always been impressed by the pleasant and courteous manner in which the English and Welsh people meet and greet the Irish.  Everywhere one goes on the British mainland there is evidence of Irish connections.  I was attending a funeral service in St. Andrew’s Church, Bishopstone, a small church dating from Saxon times with 12^th century Norman additions.  The Church of England service was an engaging reminder of the ever-slight differences in the services in our own St. Michael’s Church.  The Minister in charge was a Sligo man, now retired from his own parish and acting as priest in charge of the church where miniature sized Stations of the Cross and candlesticks spoke of a High Church following, or as the Rev. Minister later put it to me ‘High Churchish’.

 

I was there to honour the memory of my daughter’s father-in-law who passed away recently.  Tim Harward, born in Madras, India where his father was an army Colonel was educated in England and attended Trinity College Dublin in the 1950s.  His was an interesting life which saw him work for a time as a theatre critic for the Times, and after service with the 2^nd Gurka Rifles in Malaya he worked for several years as an archaeologist in Nepal.  I was particularly interested to find that his first book was published in 1964 by Liam Miller’s Dolmen Press and his most recent book on pillar stones in west Nepal was published in Central Malaya 48 years later. 

 

Tim Harward’s connection with Ireland reflected in reverse the links which many Irish men and women have with Great Britain.  There are very few Irish families who do not have a family member working or living in retirement on the British mainland.  Once such was my friend Eddie Wall who was born in Ardreigh and like me went to school in the local Christian Brothers.  Shortly after the funeral service in Bishopstone I received a text from Eddie’s daughter, Helen Hives, telling me that her father had died some days previously.  Eddie left school at an early age to work in Andersons and Conroys pubs.  He subsequently emigrated to England where he married Evelyn Barrett from Belmullet, county Mayo and it was in Luton that they reared their family. 

 

Eddie had a great love for his native place which he never lost, despite the many years he spent in England.  He was delighted to attend the 40th school reunion organised in September 2002 where he renewed acquaintances with men whose faces and ages had changed enormously since last seen as young boys in the Christian Brothers.  Eddie kept in touch with me for a number of years after that and I was very saddened to hear of his passing.

 

The connections between Eddie’s country of birth and the land where his remains will now lie are so many and so varied it is impossible to untangle the two.  Even on my short trip last week I met and talked to several strangers, all elderly, many still conversing with the soft lilt of an Irish brogue which they brought with them so many years ago from Ireland.  You cannot travel anywhere in England or Wales without meeting an Irish exile who has made his or her home there.  The Irish exile has proved to be a trustworthy, hardworking and genial person, becoming in time an integral part of the local community overseas.

 

Tim Harward and Eddie Wall came from entirely different backgrounds but somehow their lives enshrined, for me at least, an understanding of those transferable qualities which allow the English and the Irish to live in harmony.  How I wish those qualities could be utilised to solve the difficulties which still mark relationships on the island of Ireland and which have their origin in the shambolic political settlement of almost 100 years ago.

 

[I wrote the above lines on Thursday morning and later that afternoon I received a telephone call to say that Tim Harward’s wife Paula, who had spoken so eloquently at his funeral service a few days previously, had tragically died following a road traffic accident earlier in the day.]

                                   

Jimmy Kelly and Paddence Murphy

The recent death of Jimmy Kelly of Chanterlands marked another milestone in the passage of time and the reactivation of memories first gathered during youthful days in Offaly Street. Jimmy was the second son of County Mayo born Garda James Kelly and his Kerry born wife Marie. He was a child of the early 1930s who spent his entire working life in Athy. No more than myself his attachment to the south Kildare town was the result of his father’s transfer to Athy early in his Garda career. For Jimmy his schooling in the local Christian Brothers school and the strong work ethic which he displayed throughout his adult working life were the foundations of his honourable approach to life. He had huge regard and respect for his workmates in the Wallboard factory where he worked during the entire period of that factory’s existence. He shared in the disappointment of his colleagues when the innovative industrial venture first mooted in the pre-World War two years closed down in 1977. The Wallboard company was formed in 1939 but due to the outbreak of World War two the machinery needed to open the factory could not be imported. The factory finally opened in April 1949 only to close 28 years later. Jimmy had treasured memories of his Wallboard colleagues and was always anxious for their role in the industrial life of Athy to be recorded. He knew Athy and his own generation with a knowledge which generously interposed reality and myth and gave to his memories of times past a feeling of nostalgia which we all share. In truth life in Athy of the 1940s and the 1950s was difficult for many families. However, as we look back with the passage of time those difficulties once experienced in youth are sidelined and give way to recollections of happier times. Jimmy was a man who over the years shared many memories with me, but always on the understanding that his name was never to be mentioned. Not that those memories were anything but good and complimentary of the persons and events mentioned. For Jimmy never sought the limelight and would never countenance his name being interposed in the accounts which I frequently wrote about after another friendly chat with the man from Offaly Street. That was the street where the Kellys, the Moores, the Whites, the Websters, the Cashs and the Taaffes of my generation were reared. Jimmy was of an older group of sons who were already part of the local employment force when we younger ones were still playing cowboys and indians in the People’s Park. Paddens Murphy, another Offaly Street man, was of that older generation and in the week that Jimmy Kelly died Paddens Murphy and his colleagues in the Sorrento dance band were honoured with the unveiling of a plaque on the Town Hall. I was in England for the past while and missed Jimmy’s funeral and the plaque unveiling ceremony. I would certainly have liked to have been present for both to mark my respect for the two former residents of Offaly Street. I found it strange to read of the Sorrento band being described as a showband. In the 1940s and the 1950s the musical combinations of the time were either orchestras or bands and even though the Sorrento under Paddens Murphy opened Dreamland with Victor Sylvester, I believe it was always known as Paddens Murphy’s Sorrento dance band. I had hoped that the plaque would be put on the wall of what remains of the Murphy’s house at No. 24 Offaly Street. That for an Offaly Street fellow would I felt be the most appropriate place for such an honour. However, the unveiling of the plaque to the Sorrento band was a remarkable tribute, not just to Paddens Murphy but also to the many local musicians who over the years were part of the Sorrento story. A week in which my old street lost one of its old boys and also saw another old boy honoured is a week tinged with sadness and pride. Memories of times past gives all of us an opportunity to reflect on the passing years and to understand and appreciate the people whose lives touched ours. Jimmy Kelly and Paddens Murphy were part of that past as was Mrs. Maureen Rigney who died within the last week. My sympathies go to the families of Jimmy Kelly and Mrs. Rigney and my regrets to the extended family of Paddens Murphy for missing what was a great occasion and the opportunity to meet old neighbours when they attended the plaque unveiling ceremony at the Town Hall last week.

The Tithe Wars of the 1830s

Many of us have been transfixed by the machinations of the Westminster Parliament in London since the Brexit vote. There has been a sense, until very recently, that the public at large had lost interest in parliamentary politics but the daily dissection of parliamentary matters across the water is proof that this is not the case. Kildare and particularly Athy occupied a prominent place in the thoughts and actions of the legislators in Westminster in the 1830’s with the upheaval triggered by the outbreak of the Tithe wars of the 1830’s. It is mostly forgotten today, bookended as it was by Daniel O’Connell’s emancipation campaigns of the 1820’s and the Great Famine of the 1840’s. None the less it was a period of significant civil discord and dissent in Ireland and Athy. The Tithes were a form of tax levied on the population to maintain protestant churches. The taxes were applied to the population whether they were members of the church or not, therefore the Catholic peasantry and the members of the Presbyterian community were also liable for the tax. The war or campaign against Tithes was triggered by the actions of Fr. Martin Doyle, the Parish Priest of Graiguenamanagh, County Kilkenny, the cousin of Bishop Doyle of Kildare and Leighlin when Fr. Doyle refused to pay Tithes on a 40-acre farm which he had in addition to his parochial house. Thereafter the campaign spread rapidly through the country. By 1833 the matter was of such concern that it received considerable attention in the House of Commons. The chief secretary of Ireland E.G. Stanley delivered a substantial speech to the house on February 27th, 1833 where he detailed what he described as the ‘outrages’ in Kildare. The purpose of the speech was to support his promotion of the Disturbances (Ireland) bill which was in his words “for the repression of violence and disturbance, for the protection of life and property and for the maintenance of order”, he described its adoption as “a most imperious and pressing necessity”. Speaking of Athy he referred to reports received from the Chief Constable of the Irish Constabulary. He noted that on the night of the 15th of January 1833 that the house of William Batt, a retired naval officer living at Bray, Athy was entered by several men who robbed Batt of a case of pistols, a fowling piece and some ball cartridges. The house of a Dr. Carter of Castledermot was burnt on the 25th of January, while an armed party went to the house of a farmer called Kelly near Kildangan and demanded the surrender of his arms. Kelly refused, the armed party opened fire and Kelly returned fire wounding one of his assailants in the face. Stanley went on to refer to a letter he had received from a correspondent from Athy in February 1833. This correspondent advised him that members of juries at the last Court sittings had been obliged to carry firearms for their personal protection while attending the courts and that magistrates had been unable to get providers of coaches, caravans or conveyances locally to bring witnesses to court. They had been threatened that their carriages would be broken up if they facilitated the court sittings. Thereafter the Court officials were obliged to order carriages from Dublin to bring witnesses to the Court in Athy. Previously Mr. M. Singleton, a magistrate sitting in Athy, writing from the town on the 23rd of September 1832 informed Stanley of his difficulty in getting a witness to give evidence in relation to an attack on a farmer’s house in Athy. The witness, from Kilkenny, refused to give evidence for fear of the consequences of his actions. Singleton committed him to Carlow jail for his contempt of Court. When next brought before the Court the witness said that he would only give evidence if he could get the approval of his priest. After the intervention of the clergymen the witness was more forthcoming, and the ultimate culprit was committed for trial in Portlaoise later that year. Stanley’s bill was ultimately passed but the Tithe war rumbled on until the late 1830’s and only petered out when responsibility for payment passed to the landlord and not the tenant. Stanley, later to become Earl Derby, would go on to become Prime Minster on three separate occasions. His contribution to Irish affairs is probably better and more positively remembered by reference to “the Stanley letter”. In writing, in 1831, to the 3rd Duke of Leinster he set out the governments proposals to establish the legal basis for national schools in Ireland. The letter was an important stepping point for the establishment of the national schools’ system which remains the basis for primary education in this country to this day.

Barrowhouse 16th May 1921

‘On Thursday 19th May 1921 the final phase of the Barrowhouse tragedy was completed when the bodies of two young men, Lacey and Connor, were interred at Barrowhouse graveyard.’ So reported the Leinster Leader a week after the Barrowhouse ambush on Monday 16th May. A subsequent military Court of Enquiry was held in Ballylinan into the deaths of James Lacey and William Connor. The evidence adduced at the enquiry showed that an R.I.C. cycle patrol, consisting of a sergeant and four men, were ambushed at Shanganamore. The patrol consisted of Sergeant John McHale, Constables Grey, Denis Griffin, James Keane and another unidentified constable. The police were cycling in single file when the sergeant saw a man with a gun in his hand running across a field towards a ditch near the road. Sergeant McHale shouted a warning to the patrol to take cover. While they were doing so a volley of shots rang out and one of the constables fell to the ground wounded. The policemen returned fire. After about an hour the attackers withdrew (subsequent reports indicated that the exchange of fire lasted for 10 or 15 minutes). Following a search the R.I.C. found a body lying in the ditch with a shotgun still held in the hand. This was the body of James Lacey in whose pockets ammunition was also found. The enquiry was told that the R.I.C. then withdrew to Athy, returning later with reinforcements. Another search of the ambush scene lead to the discovery of a second body, as well as several shotguns and some ammunition. The Court of Enquiry found that James Lacey and William Connor died from bullet wounds inflicted by crown forces in the execution of their duty. The local newspapers when reporting the incident noted that when news of the ambush reached Athy the streets cleared quickly and were empty before curfew hour. The curfew in force from 10pm to 5am was changed to commence at 9pm following the Barrowhouse ambush. Reprisals by crown forces following I.R.A. activity was a common feature of the War of Independence. Houses in the Barrowhouse area were raided by crown forces following the ambush. Patrick Lynch, a carpenter by trade who lived near the ambush site, subsequently prepared a statement of the R.I.C. raid on his house which culminated in the burning of his home and his workshop. Lynch was first approached by constable Bagley and an unidentified sergeant who questioned him about his involvement with the I.R.A. Lynch had not been involved in the ambush but after being questioned Constable Bagley said to him: ‘it’s only ten chances to one that you will be burned out tonight Lynch’. The R.I.C. search of Lynch’s house left the house contents in disarray and Lynch reported how one man wearing a dark waterproof coat threatened him with a revolver saying, ‘you thought to shoot me up the road today’. However, Constable Denis Griffin intervened and told Lynch, ‘I won’t let him shoot you.’ The following morning at 2am a threshing machine, 40 tons of hay and 20 tons of straw belonging to Martin Lyons were destroyed in an act of reprisal by the crown forces. Patrick Lynch’s home and workshop were burned to the ground, while Mary Malone’s house was also destroyed. On the 3rd of July the house which Constable Griffin rented from Mrs. Hickey at Ballylinan crossroads was burned to the ground. Local newspapers reported how a party of masked men entered at night-time the house occupied by Mrs. Griffin and her children while her husband was away. The I.R.A. burned the house with all its contents. Two days later Constable Griffin was shot and seriously injured when ambushed by a number of men as he cycled from his lodgings to the R.I.C. Barracks in Mountmellick. He was severely wounded in the left groin and was subsequently declared unfit for service in the R.I.C. He would receive the constabulary medal in July 1921 as did Constable James Kane, while Sergeant McHale and Constable Edward Gray were awarded the third-class favourable record for their involvement in the Barrowhouse ambush. The day after the Barrowhouse ambush Constable Martin Doran, formally of Cardenton, Athy was shot and killed in Kinnity, Co. Offaly. A 24 year old single man Doran had joined the R.I.C. three years previously. The R.I.C. barracks in Athy was attacked by the I.R.A. six days after the Barrowhouse ambush. The attack started at about 11pm and lasted for about thirty minutes. There were no casualties. Three days after the ambush Fr. J. Nolan C.C. Athy, assisted by Canon Mackey, P.P. Athy and six other priests celebrated High Mass in Barrowhouse church for James Lacey and William Connor. There was a large congregation in attendance and at the end of the Mass I.R.A. volunteers carried the coffins to the nearby graveyard. The two coffins were placed in the same grave. The last post was sounded by a volunteer and three volleys were fired over the grave. The ambush site at Barrowhouse is today marked by a simple memorial.

Niamh Boyle's new book 'Her Kind'

The highly anticipated second novel from Niamh Boyce, the author of ‘The Herbalist’ will be launched in Athy Library on the 12th April at 7.00 p.m. Published by Penguin books ‘Her Kind’ is an escape into to the imagined events leading to the Alice Kytler witch trials of the 14th century. This will be Niamh’s second historical novel and follows the success she secured with ‘The Herbalist’. That novel was based on the Athy story of the 1940’s involving the infamous Doctor Roderick De Vere, a one-time resident of Beggars End. His story and subsequent trial provided Niamh with the opportunity which every historical novelist desires of exercising freedom to reimagine the past. She did so with aplomb producing a first novel which attracted and pleased a large readership. Now with her second novel, Niamh, a history graduate of University College Galway, returns to a dramatic event in Irish social history. With her new novel she follows in the footsteps of those Irish writers who are particularly noted for the excellence of their historical novels. That list is top heavy with male writers, the most noteworthy being George A. Birmingham and Francis McManus. Birmingham published a number of political novels starting with the ‘Seething Pot’ and continued with ‘The Red Hand of Ulster’, finishing with ‘Up the Rebels’ in 1919. The author’s name was the pseudonym of Church of Ireland canon, James Owen Hannay who for a time was rector in nearby Carnalway, Kilcullen. Francis McManus published a highly regarded historical trilogy in the 1930s which dealt with 18th century Irish peasant life. ‘Stand for Challenge’, ‘Candle for the Proud’ and ‘Men Withering’ still remain firm favourites with readers today. Another name amongst the leading Irish historical novelists is that of Eilis Dillon whose best selling ‘Across the Bitter Sea’ published in 1973 is an impressive historical romance set against the background of the Easter Rebellion. The Kilkenny witch trials of Alice Kytler, which is the centre of Niamh’s new book, brings to mind another famous Kilkenny based historical novel. Thomas Kilroy’s ‘The Big Chapel’ which told the story of the Callan Parish Priest’s dispute in the 1870s with the Catholic Church authorities won many awards when it was published in 1971. The Athy Kilkenny connection is further enhanced by the historical research which was carried out by Niamh which shows that the letter from the Bishop of Ossory to the Justiciar of Ireland accusing Alice Kytler and others of witchcraft was written in, and dispatched from the town of Athy. It is often claimed that there is a book in everyone. But of course few get the inspiration, the time or indeed the courage perhaps to put pen to paper. How did the eldest daughter of my good friends Frank and Ann Boyce come to achieve such success in a relatively short time. Another local and very successful writer, John MacKenna. played a big part in helping to channel the writing talents of the young Niamh Boyce. John’s writers’ classes attended by Niamh encouraged her to write short stories. Her first published piece was a short story ‘Wild Cat Buffet’ which appeared in the Crannog magazine eleven years ago. Niamh’s work has appeared since then in several magazines including Poetry Ireland. Inclusion in that later publication followed her success in winning a Hennessy award in 2012 for her poem ‘Kitty’. I was surprised to hear Niamh declare that despite her success as a novelist, she is happiest when writing poetry. It reminded me that the pen of Thomas Hardy in his later years was devoted exclusively to poetry after a hugely successful novel writing career. Niamh last year published a book of poetry ‘Inside the Wolf’ and her new novel published by Penguin marks a further progress in her development as a writer. The launch takes place in Athy’s new library on Friday, 12th April at 7.00 p.m. An invitation is extended to readers far and wide to attend the launch. Another cultural event worthy of note is the scheduled performance of John MacKenna’s one man play, ‘The Mental’, premiered last year which is to be performed in the Woodbine Bookshop in Kilcullen on the 2nd May. John’s theatrical company, Mend and Makedo, will also stage ‘Between your Love and Mine’, a requiem by Leonard Cohen in the National Concert Hall, Dublin on the 21st September, coincidentally the date of what would have been Cohen’s 85th birthday. The show featuring a cast of eighteen, all from Athy or Carlow will be staged in Carlow, Athy and other venues during the year. The book launch in Athy’s library on Friday 12th April promises to be a further important step for a local writer who on the strength of her published work has become an integral part of the Irish literary scene.

Peadar Dooley footballer and Mary Carbery

Playing football was the abiding passion of young fellows living in Athy in the pre television days of the 1950s. Street leagues fanned our enthusiasm for the sport which was further encouraged by the weekly break from school on Wednesday afternoons to participate in football practice in Geraldine Park. Gaelic football was the only game encouraged or indeed allowed during our Christian Brothers school days, but truth to tell it was the only game most of us aspired to play. Soccer and rugby were not part of our youthful horizons. The national newspapers carried reports of major G.A.A. games, while the local papers, the Nationalist and Leinster Times and the Leinster Leader occasionally listed the members of school teams. It was in those local newspapers that many of our names were first mentioned and how important we felt to see our young names in print. The 1950s was a difficult time jobwise for young men leaving the local schools. Many of those I went to school with in the national school had to emigrate to find employment. Emigration was something our country folk experienced for centuries but the establishment of the Irish Free Sate coming fast on the heels of the Civil War saw many young men leave Ireland. With their departure G.A.A. clubs and teams suffered and similar losses continued apace throughout the war years and into the 1950s and the 1960s. I was reminded of the past loss of young Irish men to their country and to their clubs when news arrived of the death of Peadar Dooley, formerly of St. Michael’s Terrace. Peadar was one of the many good footballers to grace Gaelic football during the 1950s. He was a member of the Castlemitchell intermediate team which won the Intermediate championship final of 1953. His team mates included Ned Conway and five members of the legendary Donnelly brothers. It was a team which brought the first championship silverware to the Castlemitchell club. Peadar Dooley and Ned Conway, no doubt on the strength of the Castlemitchell club’s success in the Intermediate championship and the club’s subsequent elevation to the senior ranks, became members of the County Kildare senior panel. Both Peadar and Ned played their first game for the county on 28th February 1954 in a match against Waterford played in Kildare Town. Peadar’s senior football county career continued until April 1955. He played his last game for County Kildare when togging out against Cork in a match played in the nation’s second capital. He emigrated to England soon afterwards following his teammate, Ned Conway, who had earlier taken the emigrant boat. Peadar would later return to Ireland to play in a football match as a member of a London team. It would be his last time to play football in his native country. Peadar Dooley was a member of a select group of Gaelic footballers from Athy who were privileged to play for their county. Peadar who played in the fullback line, sometimes as a corner back, occasionally as full back, was replaced in that latter position by another Athy man and former Castlemitchell player, Danny Flood. Danny would go on to have a long and illustrious career with Kildare winning a Leinster senior championship medal with the county in 1956. Peadar was one of the foursome with Jimmy Curtis, Ned Conway Mossy Reilly, all members of Castlemitchell Football Club who in a junior match against Dublin were, I believe, the first Castlemitchell players to play in Croke Park. Peadar, Ned, Danny and other Athy men including Mick Carolan, Jimmy Curtis and Brendan Kehoe, to name just a few, were part of the pantheon of local sporting heroes of the 1950s and later. They achieved sporting success on the field of play and secured the admiration of those of us who played football but who could never hope to emulate their achievements. Another death during the week was that of Mary Carbery whose husband Jerry shared a classroom with me for several years while we both attended the Christian Brothers school in St. John’s Lane. The large attendance at the funeral in St. Michael’s Parish Church spoke volumes for the esteem in which Mary was held and the respect we all hold for Jerry and the Carbery family members. Mary’s daughter, Mary Lys, spoke eloquently at the funeral mass and recalled her mother’s words one Christmas morning as together they prepared Christmas dinner. Those words ‘we are creating memories’ spoke of the wisdom and love of a kind, thoughtful mother. Throughout our lives we create memories, not just for ourselves but also for those with whom we come in contact. Sometimes those memories are short lived but the treasured memories we hold are long lasting. They last a lifetime, as for example, the youthful memories of sporting successes on the football fields of 65 years or more ago. Our sympathies are extended to the families of Peadar Dooley and Mary Carbery.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes to visit Athy's Heritage Centre

Although the statue of Shackleton in Emily Square was only unveiled as recently as 30th August 2016 it has quickly become an accepted part of the streetscape of Athy. This fine piece of art, commissioned by Kildare County Council, and executed by the eminent sculptor Mark Richards has drawn numerous international visitors to the town over the last 2½ years. On Friday 22nd March Athy will welcome a real live explorer to the town. County Kildare Chamber of Commerce are hosting a Health and Wellbeing symposium at the Clanard Court Hotel where the keynote speaker will be Sir Ranulph Fiennes who the Guinness Book Records describes as the world’s greatest living explorer. Fiennes has an extraordinary record of achievement behind him. He was the first person to reach both the North and South poles, cross the Antarctic and the Antarctic oceans and to circumnavigate the world along its polar axis. His 50 years of adventure and exploration will be a feature of his talk at the symposium in Athy. Demand for tickets for the event have been so high that the event has been booked out for a number of weeks. I understand that the event was originally planned to take place elsewhere in the county but Fiennes asked that it should take place in Athy, close to the birth place of Ernest Shackleton. He wanted to pay homage to Shackleton, the world’s greatest explorer by visiting the Shackleton Museum in Athy’s Town Hall and the nearby statue of the Kilkea-born explorer. Fiennes own life encapsulates much of what we know about Shackleton in terms of leadership, team work, determination and most of all self-belief. His book ‘Beyond the Limits – the lessons learned from a lifetime of adventure’ published in 2000 gives an overview of the extraordinary expeditions Fiennes has been involved in since the late 1960s. What is clear from this publication is his willingness to adapt and learn from every new experience and incorporate those into his subsequent expeditions. One of his most challenging experiences was his crossing of the Antarctic by foot with his fellow explorer, Dr. Mike Stroud in 1992-1993 when they together completed the first unsupportive crossing of the Antarctic continent. This is now viewed as the longest unsupported polar journey in history. In summing up the experience he wrote: ‘we had walked over the highest, coldest, most inhospitable continent in earth, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with only the supplies that we carried. Somebody might one day complete the journey faster than we but like Hilary and Tenzing on Everest, we will always retain the rights to priority.’ Many expeditions would follow this experience including a successful summiting of Everest in May 2009 and the completion of the marathon Des Sables regarded as the toughest foot race on earth. But there is something about the crossing of Antarctica which resonates with us here in Athy. It was Shackleton’s own failure to cross the Antarctic in 1914-1916 that led to the epic adventure story centred on the loss of his ship Endurance, and his charismatic leadership which facilitated the escape of Shackleton and his men from icy graves in the Antarctic. In tandem with Fiennes expeditions he has raised millions for charities all over the world and is a prolific and skilled writer. His most recent publication is titled Cold - ‘Extreme adventures at the lowest temperatures on earth’ where he celebrated his life dedicated to researching and exploring some of the most hostile and intensely cold places on earth. No doubt those fortunate enough to have secured tickets for the talk on Friday will enjoy listening to the stories of the adventures of a man very much cast in Shackleton’s mould. The death of Peadar Dooley in London a few days ago marks the loss of a man who graced the county football scene playing for his native county of Kildare and who for many years played with the local Castlemitchell club. The story of the once intense rivalry which marked the relationship between the Athy and the Castlemitchell clubs is a story which has yet to be written, but next week I will return to the story of Peadar Dooley, footballer.

Traffic imporvements in Athy over the years

With preliminary work on the outer relief road now started we can look forward in a few years time to the disappearance of lorries and heavy goods vehicles from Athy’s main shopping streets. Those same streets first laid down in medieval times as passageways for man and beast have witnessed over the centuries the everchanging transport. The linear layout of town’s principal streets stretching from Leinster Street through Duke Street and beyond William Street are typical of what was an Anglo-Norman settlement. Unfortunately, the narrow streets which resulted from the town’s development as a market town are not suitable for modern traffic as large vehicles are driven through streets which should be accommodating shoppers. The outer relief road when built will create the opportunity to make huge improvements to the retailing life of the town. In many ways the new road has the potential to bring change to Athy in much the same way as two earlier major infrastructural developments did in the 1790s and the 1840s. The year 1791 saw the Grand Canal extended to Athy and the new waterway link between Athy and Dublin led to the development of two major industries in the town. The malting stores once dotted around Athy from Offaly Street to Stanhope Street and Shrewleen Lane made Athy one of the most important centres of the malt industry in Ireland. It was an industry which provided much needed employment for the men of Athy, while providing at the same time an enormous financial boost for the farmers of the area. The other local industry which benefitted hugely from the waterway link to Dublin was that of brick making. Before 1791 it was a localised cottage industry, but with the opening of the Dublin market the local brick making industry expanded. It would continue to operate as a substantial employer of local men and women up to the mid-1930s. From the earliest times Athy had a boating tradition with trade between Waterford and the south Kildare town. The opening of the Grand Canal saw the boatmen of the Barrow navigation, many of whom lived locally, engage in the canal freight business between Athy and Dublin. Several local families became canal boat owners and their involvement with the canal extended over several generations and only ended during the post-World War II years. The halcyon days of canal boating were in the pre-railway days when passenger boats and freight boats travelled daily to and from Dublin. That period lasted for less than 60 years but in that time the extension of the canal to Athy brought prosperity to the town never previously experienced. The second major development which brought opportunities for the town folk was the building of the railway line from Dublin to Carlow. It opened on 4th August 1846 during the height of the Great Famine. Its construction provided local men with badly needed employment during that Famine. The railway allowed goods to be brought to and from Dublin much faster than the 13 hours it took by canal boat and as a consequence canal traffic went into decline. The decades immediately after the opening of the railway marked what was possibly the most prosperous years of Athy’s business life. However, in truth the costly railway fares did not find many locals able to take advantage of the third-class open carriages which were first deployed on the Athy Dublin journey. It would take many years before the railway made an impact on the lives of the ordinary folk of Athy, whatever about the benefits it brought to the business people of the town. The advantages created by the opening of the Grand Canal in 1791 were further enhanced by the extension of the railway to Athy in 1846. Both developments brought increased prosperity to the town by virtue of the impetus they gave to the development of industry and the commercial life of Athy. Many believe that the construction of the outer relief road, like its predecessors the canal and railway, can create tremendous opportunities for Athy. If the canal and railway brought industrial and commercial benefits, the outer relief road offers the opportunity to improve the retailing/commercial centre of the town. I understand an Athy Town Team has been established to plan for the town’s future. They can look back at the history of changes for good brought about by the extension of the canal to Athy and the later arrival of the railway to see what can to be done to take maximum benefit from the new road. Retailing Athy is in urgent need of a makeover and the outer relief road offers a unique opportunity to plan for change and improvement.

A walk from Lennons Bridge to Augustus Bridge

I walked on both sides of the Grand Canal between Lennon’s bridge and Augustus bridge last Sunday morning, a journey which I had not previously undertaken. It was a journey of discovery, as I noticed in the distance buildings well known to me but seen for the first time from a different angle. Starting my journey at Augustus bridge erected in 1791 and opened by the Duke of Leinster, the bridge was named after the Duke’s eldest son Augustus who would in time become the third Duke of Leinster. The original bridge was so hump backed that it caused great difficulty for carts travelling to the local market. As a consequence, the bridge was re-modelled in the 1890s and the original bridge keystone which was found a few years ago lying in a ditch in Foxhill is now in the local Heritage Centre. The fine building facing onto the canal harbour was the Canal hotel, built to cater for people travelling by canal boat to Dublin. The passenger service to Dublin in the pre-railway days started out from the Athy harbour at 5 o’clock in the morning and the canal boat reached Dublin after a journey lasting 13 hours. The canal harbour was the scene of an arms robbery early on the morning of 7th December 1797 which was to have serious repercussions for the local people. The night boat from Dublin docked in the harbour with a cargo of arms and ammunition intended for a corps of yeomanry in Leighlinbridge. At about 3 a.m. men armed with pistols and swords raided the canal boat and carried away the arms and ammunition. The boat men who were locals of Athy were suspected of complicity in the robbery and were arrested. Troops from the local military barracks carried out searches in the Athy area but without success. The weapons were never found and in all probability were used by the local United Irishmen during the 1798 rebellion some months later. Beyond the harbour one can see to the right the spire of the Methodist church built in 1872 on a site donated by Alexander Duncan of Fortbarrington House. The proprietor of Duncan’s drapery store in Duke Street (now Shaws), was not old enough to have welcomed John Wesley as he journeyed from Portlaoise to Carlow on one of his last trips to Ireland. The church now fulfils a dual role as the Methodist place of worship and as Athy’s Arts Centre. As I continued walking, I passed on my right St. Dominic’s Park housing estate, built in 1963 and named after the founder of the Dominican order. A former owner of the fields on which the next housing estate was built is remembered in the name Flinter’s Place. Beyond it and again in the distance on the right lies St. Vincent’s Hospital opened in January 1844 as a workhouse. It was there that over 1200 persons died during the Great Famine and those unfortunate people today lie buried in St. Mary’s cemetery. The cemetery is on the left as we near Lennon’s bridge. Once neglected and forgotten it now presents as a peaceful and tidy place to remember the Famine dead after Athy folk participated in the annual National Famine Commemoration Day. Just beyond St. Vincent’s Hospital is the former fever hospital, built in 1841 with the proceeds of a collection taken up in Athy for the benefit of William Keating, a businessman of Market Square. Keating suffered the loss of his business premises following a fire in 1836 and the local people collected the sum of £300 which Keating indicated should be used to build a badly needed fever hospital for the town. On the other side of Lennon’s bridge and the bridge leading to Coolroe I noticed the rope marks cut deep into the corner stones of the bridge arches on the towpath side. These deep cuts are evidence of the heavy strain which must have been felt by the canal horses pulling the boats as they manoeuvred them under the bridges. On the return journey to Augustus bridge I came across fishing plaques embedded at intervals in the ground and put there some years ago by the local angling club. Approximately half way between Lennon’s bridge and Augustus bridge I passed Lovers Lane. Still known as such by the older generation the lane has a dark sinister history. It was there in the first decade of 1900 that a young girl was murdered by, I believe, an English soldier. Now into view comes the malt works which in days gone by gave employment to many local men. Minch Nortons, as it then was, still flourishes but today is heavily mechanised. Still standing, though not used, are the kilns known as Port Arthur and Ladysmith, reminders of a time when the overseas exploits of local men serving in the British army were recognised. I gather the government has recently provided funding to improve the Lennon bridge to Augustus bridge canal towpath walkway. The importance of the canal and the nearby River Barrow as recreational and heritage resources cannot be underestimated. Both of them form very valuable parts of Athy’s public amenities.

Athy family connection with War of Independence

Recently I wrote of the local members of the old I.R.A. who were noted as members of the A Coy of the 5th Battalion Carlow Kildare brigade following the truce of July 1921. There were many family ties between members of the I.R.A. of 1921 and the Cumann na mBan members of that time. Amongst those named were Michael Dooley and John Bradley, the first named a shop keeper of Duke Street, the latter a resident of Offaly Street. The Dooley and Bradley families were connected by marriage as John Bradley’s sister Julia was married to the aforesaid Michael Dooley who was chairman of the Sinn Fein club in Athy. The two members of the Bradley family were joined by several members of the Dooley family in promoting the Irish Republican cause during the Irish War of Independence. The former Julia Bradley, by then married to Michael Dooley, was a member of the Athy branch of Cumann na mBan. Her three daughters were also actively involved in the Republican movement. Kathleen Dooley married Eamon Malone who was for a time Officer Commander of the Carlow Kildare I.R.A. brigade. Her sister Gypsy, who married Bill O’Neill of Newbridge, son of a former station master in Athy, was also a member of the Cumann na mBan. Another sister Hester married local man Joe May who following his arrest by crown forces in November 1920 was incarcerated in Ballykinlar prison camp for almost a year. Hester Dooley before her marriage to Joe May worked in Dublin as secretary to Piaras Beaslai and later General Ginger O’Connell. Joe May’s mother was Mrs. Margaret May of Woodstock Street who was another member of Athy’s Cumann na mBan. Another local family whose members, both male and female, were very actively involved in the Republican Movement was the Lambe family of Upper William Street. Alice Lambe was a member of Cumann na mBan, while her brothers Peter and Frank were active members of the I.R.A. 5th Battalion. Mrs. Julia Dooley, after whose husband Michael the 1934 Council housing estate Dooley’s Terrace was named, was the mother of Paddy Dooley who was first elected to the Dail as a Fianna Fail T.D. for County Kildare in 1959. The Dooley family, extending back over several generations, had possibly the greatest record of involvement in Athy’s municipal affairs than any other family in Athy. That involvement continues to this day with Brian Dooley’s recent appointment as a County Councillor for Athy’s municipal district. Patrick Dooley, brother of Michael Dooley, the Sinn Fein Chairman, was for many years chairman of Athy Urban District Council. It was a position also held by Michael’s son Paddy Dooley, later T.D., and his grandnephew Kieran Dooley. The current County Councillor Brian Dooley’s grandfather Michael was a son of Michael and Julia Dooley. Julia Dooley (nee Bradley) died at her home in St. Michael’s Terrace in August 1957 aged 89 years. Her story and that of the Dooley family as well as that of the Lambes, O’Rourkes, Mays, Bradleys and many other local families, some yet to be identified, is a story of commitment to the cause of Irish freedom in the face of constant harassment by crown forces in the years pre-dating the truce of July 1921. Those families whose members were involved in the I.R.A. or the Cumann na mBan underwent constant unwanted attention by R.I.C., the Black and Tans and the military. The lists of I.R.A. members and Cumann na mBan members included in Eye in the Past No. 1363 were compiled at the end of the truce by or for I.R.A. headquarters in Dublin. One could expect these records to be complete and accurate, but unfortunately they are not. Two omissions I mentioned in that article were the names of Sean Hayden and Eamon Malone. Another omission was that of James O’Keeffe of Ardreigh who later joined the Garda Siochana. He played an active part in the I.R.A. campaign which was later officially recognised, but yet his name is missing from the 1921 list. There may be many others overlooked and my research continues to record as accurately as possible the men and women who were part of the local republican movement of 1919-1921. I am anxious to get background information on Kathleen McDonnell and Rose McDonnell who were listed as Cumann na mBan members in 1921. I would welcome hearing from anyone who can give me information on the McDonnells, or indeed any of those men or women listed as members of the Old I.R.A. or Cumann na mBan in July 1921.

Pat Doyle, Peter Smith and Pat Flood

During the past week Athy has lost two men who in years past carried on business in Leinster Street. Pat Doyle, a Wexford man, came to Athy in 1972 when after many years of retailing experience gained while working for various businesses in the south east opened his own drapery shop at No. 28 Leinster Street. Athy’s main street, known in earlier times as High Street, was also the location of Pat Flood’s business which the Monaghan man opened in 1963. That same street in the 1920s and later was home to two of the largest and busiest commercial firms in the town. Duthie Larges and Jacksons provided a range of services and employment opportunities which unfortunately came to an end with the closure of Duthie Larges and the liquidation of the Jackson company. Jacksons extensive premises were sold off in two lots. Chapman & Timoney acquired Jacksons garage which occupied what is now Perrys supermarket, while Pat Flood with two business associates purchased that part of the Jackson premises from where Quinn & Co. subsequently traded. Nine years after Pat Flood’s arrival in Athy Pat Doyle opened his shop in what was previously Charlie Prendergast’s electrical shop. The neighbouring businesses 37 years ago included Des Noonan’s pub, the fashion shop owned by Misses Farrell and Mulhall, Darlings former barber shop (but by then a private residence) and nearby Hannah Nolan’s drapery shop. The changes in the street since then are quite apparent as all those listed businesses have been replaced not only by new owners but also different types of businesses. It’s a very noticeable feature of life in Athy, and possibly of every town in Ireland, that the constant movement of people both in and out of the town provides an everchanging business format on our main streets. The physical streetscape remains unchanged, but the business names change and at times the business models also change. This latter change comes about almost unnoticed but becomes apparent when one reflects on the number of public houses which once lined the streets of Athy supported by a population less than half of its current size. But it is not only the pubs which have closed and re-opened with new businesses. Long established businesses changed hands and new arrivals, such as Pat Flood in the 1960s and Pat Doyle in the 1970s, renewed or created business models to help regenerate the commercial life of the town. Both Pats retired from their business operations some years ago and they did so with the good wishes of the people of Athy. It was a sad coincidence which saw Pat Doyle and Pat Flood die within days of each other. Both were gentlemen of the highest integrity and well liked within the local community. Both Pats endeared themselves to everyone they came in contact with and both extended courtesy and good humour to all throughout their involvement in various aspects of the town’s life. Pat Doyle’s association with the Credit Union and Pat Flood as a founder member of the Lions Club showed commitment and a willingness to work for the community they both joined when setting up business on the south Kildare town’s main street. Another death noticed as I write this Eye was that of Peter Smith, son of Andy Smith, a shopkeeper of Leinster Street many years ago. Peter after retiring from the ambulance service went to live in Wexford and relatively recently returned to this area. His father, Andy Smith, like Pat Doyle and Pat Flood came to Athy to set up business on Leinster Street. He did so in the early part of the last century and during his years in Athy Andy Smith was a stalwart supporter and member of the local GAA club. Indeed, Smiths of Leinster Street was the ‘eating house’ for county teams involved in matches in Geraldine Park during the 1940s and 1950s. The sadness felt by family members and friends when loved ones die is tempered somewhat when the deceased are elderly, as was the case with Pat Doyle, Peter Flood and Peter Smith. The sudden tragic death of Marian Reid following a road traffic accident at Duke Street on Wednesday afternoon brings in its wake untold sadness and a huge sense of loss for her family and friends. This was the third tragedy I can recall in recent years involving the death of a female pedestrian on our main streets. In each case I believe the vehicle involved was a truck which highlights the need to get heavy duty traffic out of the town and onto a bypass road. The loss when loved ones die is in many ways immeasurable and our sympathies go to the families of all those who have died during the past week.

Athy and the War of Independence

Athy Heritage Company is currently preparing an exhibition to be opened in May dealing with the Irish War of Independence and the part played in that struggle by men and women from Athy and district. I have been researching that local involvement ever since I first interviewed the late Patrick Keogh of Churchtown in July 1985. During that interview I was given the names of those men recalled by Patrick as members of the old I.R.A. over 65 years previously. Over the years I have added to and corrected the list, but even now the definitive list of old I.R.A. members from this area awaits further work. The A Company of the 5th Battalion Carlow Kildare I.R.A. Brigade was centred around Athy. The highest rank accorded to a local man was that held by Eamon Malone of Dunbrin who for a time prior to the truce of July 1921 was Commander of the 5th Battalion and later Officer Commander of the Carlow Kildare Brigade. He was arrested in November 1919 and imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail where he was elected leader of the I.R.A. prisoners and lead the hunger strike of April/May 1920. Patrick Kane of Kilkenny in his statement to the Military History Bureau referred to Eamon Malone as having a difficult assignment when he was appointed Officer Commander of the Carlow/Kildare Brigade. He had much rebuilding to do, according to Kane, while at the same time the police and the military had orders to shoot him on sight. Eamon Malone was described as a small wiry, courageous man, but rather delicate as he suffered from asthma. He married Kathleen Dooley, eldest daughter of Michael Dooley of Duke Street, after whom the council housing estate opened in 1932 was named. His sister Hesther married another local I.R.A. man, Joe May, who like Malone was arrested by the British military authorities on 22nd November 1920. He was subsequently imprisoned for almost a year in Ballykilnar camp where fellow prisoners included Bapty Maher and Richard Murphy. Eamon Malone had to emigrate to England after the establishment of the Irish Free State and while at home in Dublin for Christmas 1937 he contracted pneumonia and died. Eamon Malone is buried in Barrowhouse. The small local authority housing scheme opened in the early 1990s at Woodstock Street and which adjoins the site of the former military barracks was named Malone Terrace in his honour. Following the truce of 11th July 1921 the A Company of the 5th Battalion included the following members: Michael O’Rourke Peter Lambe Frank Lambe Patrick Hayden William Brown Daniel Maher Thomas O’Rourke James O’Rourke Michael Kehoe Patrick Flanagan Philip Murphy J.B. Maher James Davis Joseph Ratchford John Bradley Frank Canning John Dooley James O’Brien Michael Curtis James McNamara Michael Dooley Michael Dooley Daniel Murphy Joseph Donnelly Leo Davis John Delaney Thomas Germaine William Hoare John Hoare Patrick Day This was also an official list compiled for I.R.A. headquarters following the truce but does not include the names of Eamon Malone or Sean Hayden whom I know were active members of the local I.R.A. There was also an active Cumann na mBan branch in Athy attached to the 5th Battalion and the following were the members in July 1921: Julia Whelan, Kilmoroney Kathleen McDonnell Rose McDonnell Mary E. Malone Mrs. Julia Dooley, St. Michael’s Tce. Mrs. May, Woodstock St. Mrs. O’Neill, Newbridge Alice Lambe, Upper William St. Mrs. John Whelan, Ballylinan Miss Murphy, Maganey Christina Malone I would like to hear from anyone who can give me any information on any old I.R.A. member or Cumann na mBan member, whether or not included in the above lists, bearing in mind that honouring the men and women of this area who were involved in the War of Independence is the responsibility of all of us who today enjoy the freedom they achieved. The A Company based in Athy comprised the 5th Battalion with the B Company in Barrowhouse, C Company in Moone, the D Company in Ballylinan, the E Company in the Moate and the F Company, Castledermot. Information on any of the I.R.A. members in any of those companies would also be most welcome.

Spanish Flu

During November 1918 more persons, young and old from the town of Athy and the nearby district of Castledermot died of the Spanish flu than at any other time during the flu pandemic of 1918/1919. In Athy 49 persons died during the second last month of the year including three young Blanchfield children of Leinster Street and two even younger Eston children of Meeting Lane. In the nearby rural area of Castledermot there were 18 influenza deaths in November 1918. The first occurred on the third day of the month with the death of David Byrne, a 25 year old labourer from Graney. From then until the 24th of November there was a regular death roll call. John Walsh aged 35 of Castledermot, a baker and Elizabeth Birney aged 71 of Crophill died on the 4th of November. Two days later Catherine Hayden aged 74 a single woman of Levitstown passed away. On November 7th William Finn a 1 year old child of Gurteen, died. Robert Lawler aged 27 of Castledermot, a boot maker died on the 9th of November. Was he I wonder a brother of the Lawler brothers John, Patrick and Peter who had enlisted to fight overseas during World War 1. Robert was a cousin of Ellen Dempsey and Robert Dempsey, brother and sister of Woodlands, Castledermot, both of whom would die from influenza within five days of each other in November. Other Woodland residents to die that November were 26 year old Mary Kelly and 4 year old Lucy Hickey who died on the 10th and 12th of the month. On November, 13th three more locals died. Joseph Cash aged 48 of St. John’s, Joseph Forrestal 19 years old of Skenagan and James McDonald a farmer aged 83 years of Hoberstown. Those few days either side of the armistice day, 11th of November 1918, were the deadlist period of the influenza pandemic in the Castledermot area. Six deaths were recorded in the days immediately before and after the church bells rang out to celebrate the ending of WWI. On November 15th Edward Foster aged 2 of Castleroe and Ellen Dempsey aged 37 of Woodlands died. The next day Andrew Byrne aged 27 of Tankardstown and Mary Halligan aged 73 of Kilkea died. The 19th day of the month saw the passing of William Hegarty a 48 year old land steward from Kilkea followed the next day by the death of Robert Dempsey, a farmer aged 33 years from Woodlands. The last influenza related death recorded in November 1918 was that of Ellen Deegan, a 34 year old single woman from Hallahoise. Influenza related deaths in the Castledermot area during the flu pandemic totalled 30 compared to 65 deaths in Athy. During the pandemic the highest death rate per one thousand of the Irish population was in the 25-35 age group and a similar finding was confirmed in relation to the Castledermot area. The over 65 age group recorded the second highest death rate in that rural area with children under 5 years recording the third highest death rate. The youngest victim of the flu pandemic in Castledermot was five week old Michael Kinsella of Hobartstown who died on the 29th of March 1919 while the oldest victim was 88 years old, Edward Wall described in the death register as a blacksmith. The Foster family of Castleroe lost two young children, the earlier mentioned Edward and his brother Patrick who died on the 2nd of December 1918, while the Dempsey family of Woodland lost an adult son and daughter. When the census of 1926 was taken the population of Castledermot village had fallen to 247, the lowest figure recorded for the village where the population in 1841 was 1,416. Ten years later and following the Great Famine the village population had fallen by 53% to 666 and would continue to fall reaching its lowest population figure of 247 seven years after the flu pandemic. It was not until 2016 that the population of Castledermot again reached its pre-famine level with a recorded population of 1,475. The flu pandemic started in the last year of the Great War during which war 23 young men from the Castledermot area were killed. The lost of life’s from these two catastrophic events cast a shadow over the South Kildare area and the local families who were about to face into a guerrilla war of independence and a brutal civil war.

1918 General Election and the first Dail

Last Wednesday Kildare County Councils Decade of Commemorations Committee organised an event in Naas to mark the first meeting of Dail Eireann held in the Mansion House, Dublin on the 21st January 1919. That meeting of the “Assembly of Ireland” followed a remarkable electoral triumph by the Sinn Fein Party which was helped hugely by the changes brought about by The Representation of The People Act 1918. That Act which broke the link between property ownership and voting rights gave the parliamentary vote to men over 21 years and to certain women over 30 years of age. This increased the Irish Electorate from approximately 700,000 to just under two million. Given what happened in Ireland in 1918, it was no surprise to find that the Sinn Fein party candidates got the majority of support. The rise of the Sinn Fein Clubs and the Volunteer movement owed much to the conscription crisis of April 1918. The Sinn Fein party’s popularity was further enhanced by the “German Plot” of the following month when many of its leaders and Volunteer organisers were arrested and interned. The British Governments decision to proclaim these two organisations in addition to Cumann na mBan and the Gaelic League added further impetus to the wave of Irish Nationalism which gripped the Country in the months prior to the General Election of December 1918. 105 Members of Parliament were elected in December 1918 of which 73 were Sinn Fein and 26 Unionists with the once powerful Parliamentary Party returning only 6 members. Many of the Sinn Fein members elected were either in Prison or on the run and that first Dail sitting consisted of only 28 Sinn Fein members. Representing the County of Kildare was Domhnall Ua Buachalla and Art O’Connor. Ua Buachalla from Maynooth, a veteran of the 1916 Rising represented North Kildare while here in the South, Art O’Connor, an Engineer with Kildare County Council had defeated the sitting M.P., Denis Kilbride. O’Connor was one of the many Sinn Fein candidates interned at the time of the election and so missed the first Dail sitting. The Parliamentary success enjoyed by Sinn Fein was added to with the holding of local elections in 1920. They were the first nationwide elections held under the proportional representational system which was intended to support minority groups. The result was an overwhelming victory for Sinn Fein candidates. Irish local authorities subsequently acknowledged the authority of Dail Eireann. In the meantime, the British House of Commons had passed legislation providing for parliaments in the six counties and twenty six counties. On the 24th May 1921, elections were held to return members to the two parliaments. The two sitting TD’s for County Kildare were returned without a contest. The following day, the I.R.A. attacked and burned the Dublin’s Custom House, an action intended to destroy British government files and so reinforce the Irish claim to self government. The truce came into effect on the 11th July 1921 and on the 7th January 1922 the terms of the Treaty was agreed leading many on the anti-treaty side to claim it was an act of betrayal. Seven days later the “Parliament of Southern Ireland” was convened and was attended only by the pro-treaty members of Dail Eireann. Neither of the Kildare members attended. On the 14th April 1922, anti-treaty forces took over the Four Courts in Dublin, an action which is generally regarded at the start of the Civil War. Michael Collins and Eamon DeValera in an attempt at making peace later agreed to put forward candidates for a further general election. Collins later repudiated the agreement in the face of continuing guerilla warfare but it was clear that the pro-treaty side had the support of the majority of the Irish people. The election held on the 16th June 1922 saw Ua Buachalla and O’Connor lose their seats while another unsuccessful candidate was Athy man JJ Bergin standing for the Farmers Union. The Civil War which was marked with brutality and atrocities ended in May 1923. Regrettably the anti-treaty irregulars were not accorded an amnesty and many had to leave the country or go on the run to evade arrest. The first general election under the new Free State Constitution was held on the 27th August 1923. Ua Buachalla and O’Connor lost again. In the June 1927 General Election, O’Connor was unsuccessful but Ua Buachalla was elected and re-elected in the election call for the September of the same year. The June election saw two unsuccessful candidates from the Athy area JJ Bergin and George Henderson both representing Independent Farmers. The Irish State which emerged from the Treaty negotiations acquired a maturity and stability, the start of which was that first Dail meeting of the 21st January 1919. Kildare County Council’s celebration was a worthy event which regrettably was attended by only four of the forty County Councillors who represent this county.

Memories of Eddie Roycroft, Olive Smyth and Aidan Stafford

Within the last two weeks old treasured connections with Offaly Street were severed with the deaths of Eddie Roycroft, Olive Smyth and Aidan Stafford. Eddie was the eldest son of the Roycroft family who lived behind Offaly Street in Janeville Lane next to the Doody family. It was a time when the Urban District Council had not completed the housing programme first commenced in the mid-1930s to rid the town of its unfit housing stock. The small houses accessed by the lane which ran between No. 3 and No. 4 Offaly Street and which backed on to the Abbey, then Dr. O’Neill’s residence, were small two roomed dwellings built in the 1870s. The builder was local man, Thomas Cross, who had also constructed similar sized houses in Connolly’s Lane off Meeting House Lane. The latter houses were demolished by the time I was able to take cognisance of my surroundings and indeed they may well have been demolished during the construction of the Councils first housing scheme in 1913 which saw new council houses erected in Meeting House Lane, St. Michael’s Terrace and St. Martin’s Terrace. Eddie Roycroft was the eldest son of the late Jimmy and Teresa Roycroft. Jimmy was from Sligo and while serving in the army and stationed in the Curragh he met and married Teresa Cummins of Athy. They lived for some years in Sligo where Eddie was born before coming to Athy in 1954. Living firstly in Shrewleen Lane the Roycroft family later moved to Janeville Lane where they and their neighbours, the Doody family, brought a welcome musicality to the neighbourhood with the wonderful ballad singing of Teresa Roycroft and the musicianship of Paddy Doody and his siblings. Olive Smyth was the youngest of six brothers and sisters who lived in No. 2 Offaly Street which in earlier times was called Preston’s Gate. The medieval gate was removed in 1860 following the accidental death of the local rector, Rev. Frederick Trench, but the name Preston’s Gate lingered on for a time until replaced with yet another Leinster family name. The Smyth family were part of a close-knit Offaly Street community at a time when the street was alive with youngsters. It was a street where those of us who lived there enjoyed companionship and friendships which endured even after we left the area. Memories of Pattie Websters, Miss Sylvesters, Dowlings, later Kehoe’s pub and Moores nearby, recall a street full of activity where young families shared experiences and life in good times and difficult times. One of those difficult times was when the scourge of TB ravished the country. Families in Offaly Street lost loved ones, as did many other families in this part of south Kildare. Olive Smyth and Eddie Roycroft were part of that local community who in their time helped create the memories which have carried forward over the decades. Aidan Stafford was part of the wider Athy community but back a generation there was an Offaly Street connection. His father John once lived in Offaly Street and it was from there that four of John’s older brothers, Edward, Thomas, Frank and Peter joined the Dublin Fusiliers during World War I. Edward and Thomas died in that war and their nephew Aidan was one of those who attended the annual Remembrance Day ceremonies in St. Michael’s cemetery from the time they were started almost 20 years ago. Aidan’s father John was an officer in the LDF during the Second World War continuing, but in a different uniform, the military tradition of the Stafford family established by the Stafford Brothers in 1914-18. Another Offaly Street connection with the Staffords was provided by John Stafford’s sister Judy who married Tipperary born Andy Cleary, both of whom lived in Janeville opposite St. Michael’s Church for many years. The Roycroft, Smyth and Stafford families were part of the rich tapestry of life in Athy stretching back several generations. The passing of these family members reawakens treasured memories of times past. The Decade of Centenaries Commemoration continues with a commemoration of the first Dail meeting in 1919 which will be held in the Osprey Hotel in Naas on Wednesday, 23rd January at 8.00 p.m. Castledermot Historical Society will host a talk given by yours truly on ‘Castledermot and the Spanish Flu 1918’ on Tuesday, 29th January. Athy’s Historical Society lecture series for 2019 recommences with a talk by James Durney at 8.00 p.m. on Tuesday 12th February on ‘County Kildare and the First Dail’.

Soloheadbeg and later incidents in the War of Independence

Polling in the General Election of 1918 took place on 14th December and the count and the declaration of the result occurred two weeks later. Twenty-five of the seventy-three successful Sinn Fein candidates were returned unopposed. Arrangements were made for the first meeting of Dáil Éireann to be held on 21st January 1919. That meeting would adopt a provisional constitution for the Dáil and make a formal Declaration of Independence for the Irish Republic. On the same day eight men, members of the south Tipperary Volunteers, waited at Soloheadbeg to ambush a convoy consisting of two workmen conveying gelignite in a horse and cart, accompanied by two local RIC men. The ambushers were led by Seamus Robinson, but subsequent accounts relegated Robinson to a minor role, while promoting both Dan Breen and Sean Treacy to more prominent positions. The first written account of the ambush was published in 1924 under Dan Breen’s name where he claimed: ‘again and again we called on them to put up their hands ….. their fingers were on the triggers ….. another appeal on our side would be useless ….. quick and sure our volleys rang out ….. the two policemen were dead.’ The two R.I.C. men, the first killed since the 1916 Rising, were county Mayo born James McDonnell, a 57-year-old widower with five children and 36-year-old Patrick O’Connell, a single man from Cork. They were Irish men, whose killing marked what is generally claimed to be the start of the Irish War of Independence. It is a claim which is difficult to sustain, given that it did not result in the start of any sustained military activity over the following months. Indeed, the Kerry volunteers could well claim that their attack on the R.I.C. barracks at Gortatlea, Co. Kerry on 13th April 1918 when two of the volunteers, John Browne and Richard Laide, died could well claim to be the start of the War of Independence. Whatever the merits of the often-repeated claim that the Soloheadbeg ambush marked the start of the War of Independence, the action of the Tipperary men certainly upstaged the first Dáil sitting of 21st January. It was according to Todd Andrews ‘an operation that went wrong’ while the Volunteers Chief of Staff Richard Mulcahy would claim ‘this episode has on the one hand being outrageously propagandised as a leading episode in waking up the country ….. it had many regrettable and unwarranted features ….. bloodshed should have been unnecessary in the light of the type of episode it was.’ The maverick nature of the Soloheadbeg action was not to the liking of the Volunteer’s headquarters staff and indeed was condemned by church dignatories of the time. The War of Independence would eventually end with the truce of 11th July 1921 by which time 432 R.I.C. men, for the most part Irishmen, had died at the hands of the Volunteers. By the time the R.I.C. was disbanded a further 65 constables would be killed. As students of Irish history, we have grown up on stories of the Black and Tans. Less well known are the actions of the Volunteers, many of whom fought the good fight, while others sadly tarnished the good name of freedom fighters by actions which even after the elapse of almost 100 years cannot be justified or condoned. The assassinations of unarmed constables as they attended church services were appalling actions. The killing of two R.I.C. sergeants in Galway on 15th March 1922, long after the truce was in place, was particularly repugnant. The two men were patients in St. Bridget’s Hospital, Galway, Tobius Gibbons, a 44-year-old single man from County Mayo having been admitted three weeks previously, while John Gilmartin, a 50-year-old married man from County Leitrim had been admitted on 9th March. Four masked men entered the hospital and shot the two bedridden R.I.C. men. This coming week the community of Soloheadbeg will commemorate the centenary of the ambush and in doing so will honour not only the ambush party but also the two Irish R.I.C. men who lost their lives on that fateful day. The commemoration will be in keeping with the views of the expert advisory group set up by the Government to advise on commemorating the decade of centenaries. The expert group stated: ‘the State’s task is to encourage an effective and conciliatory tone that recognises that neither side has the monopoly of either atrocity or virtue.’ Many of the events of the Irish War of Independence require detailed critical reflection if we are to have a better understanding of how our country achieved its long-sought independence.

Michael Conry, Carlow Author

The 2019 edition of Carloviana, the journal of the Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society, has been published. It is a fine publication, with a range of well researched articles relating to County Carlow and persons from that county which even non Carlovians will find of interest. The society which started life as the Old Carlow Society in 1946 published its first journal in January of the following year. This year’s Carloviana brings to 67 the number of journals produced in the intervening years. Carlow has seen a number of excellent publications in recent years, from the pens of writers as diverse as Alan Stanley, Gerard Murphy and Dr. Michael Conry. The latter’s published output is extremely impressive, having first reached out to the general public with his book ‘Culm Crushers’ in 1999. Since then Michael Conry has written seven other books, all of them dealing with different aspects of Ireland’s rural folk life. A native of County Roscommon Michael, who is now retired, spent many years working for An Foras Taluntais in Oakpark, Carlow. He was awarded a Ph D by Trinity College where he studied under the guidance of the legendary George Mitchell, one of Ireland’s foremost environmentalists. No doubt influenced by Professor Mitchell, Michael set about the study of various aspects of Ireland’s cultural heritage. Over a period of 17 years ending with his last book in 2016 Michael Conry has published a veritable library unique in its scope and subject range. His first book published was ‘Culm Crushers’. It describes the history and folklore of an almost forgotten aspect of Ireland’s industrial archaeology – that of grinding stones for tempering culm, as well as grinding corn, bones, chalk, mortar and rendering. As Michael explained in the book’s foreword: ‘in times when money was scarce ….. culm (anthracite slack) provided an excellent and cheap source of fuel ….. dancing the culm and yellow clay with a pair of brogues was an laborious and time consuming task ….. its not surprising that man developed the simple technology of tempering the culm and yellow clay with culm crushers’. That first small paperback was followed the next year by ‘The Carlow Fence’, a book devoted to a unique feature of the County Carlow landscape. County Carlow, two thirds of which is underlain by granite bedrock, had stone masons who over the years learned to use the natural granite to create granite slab fences and the two-tiered granite fences unique to the county. It was a book which awakened interest in what was a forgotten feature of the Carlow landscape. Michael Conry’s third book in three years was a masterful account of culm as a domestic and industrial fuel in Ireland. Under the title ‘Dancing the Culm’ Michael traced the history of burning the culm as a domestic fuel, the techniques used to make the culm balls and the various methods of cooking on the culm fire in different parts of the country. Dr. William Nolan in the books foreword described how the culm was mixed with dry yellow clay in the ratio of 7:1, with some water on the flagstones before the mixture was worked by tramping the bed of culm with a pair of old boots. It was, he noted, a monotonous hard ‘dance’, but a necessary one for so many households for whom coal was an expensive commodity. How right William Nolan was when he declared that in ‘Dancing the Culm’ Michael Conry ‘had struck a rich vein that shone with the lustre of peacock coal.’ Next up after a lapse of three years was the book ‘Cornstacks on Stilts’ which dealt with the use of building stacks of corn stands, a practice which died out long before the author began to research the topic. Two years later ‘Carlow Granite – years of history written in stone’ appeared in the bookshops. This latest tome drew attention to the importance of granite stone in the lives of Irish people and in the economy of the country. It detailed how Carlow people learned to use granite so extensively that it today forms an integral part of the architectural heritage of the county. Michael Conry’s research and publications on various aspects of rural life gave us two other remarkable publications ‘Picking Bilberries, Fraochans and Whorts in Ireland’ published in 2011 and five years later ‘The Rabbit Industry in Ireland’. Both books unveil for its readers a view of Irish life of the recent past. Both are important studies recording in print a way of life which was once quite common but is today unknown to a people for whom the country life is viewed, if at all, as a cultural wasteland. Michael Conry through his books has shown that the store of cultural heritage to be found in the Irish countryside provides a richness of history and folklife which tells the story of a now largely disappeared rural life.

St. Michael's Medieval Church

‘St. Michael’s is one of the most ancient of the many ruined churches in the parish of Athy’, so wrote a former Athy curate, Rev. James Carroll, with reference to the church in St. Michael’s cemetery in an article in the second issue of the Kildare Archaeological journal published in 1893. He claimed that the church was built in the 14th century but the Urban Archaeology Survey led by the late John Bradley in the mid-1980s noted ‘the Church of St. Michael’s was in existence by 1297’. Athy was one of many Anglo-Norman settlements in this area and by the mid-13th century had developed into a sizeable settlement as evidenced by the presence of two religious houses. The Crutched Friars, the name commonly given to the Canon Regulars of the Holy Cross, were invited to come to Athy by Richard de St. Michael, Baron of Rheban and Lord of the Manor of Woodstock. They were followed some years later by the Dominicans who chose a site for their priory on the east bank of the river Barrow. The late Dominican historian, Fr. Hugh Fleming, was unable to determine who invited the Dominicans to this part of the country. The most likely candidate he thought was either a member of the St. Michael family or Maurice Fitzgerald who was owner of Kilkea from 1244. The Crutched Friars, unlike the Dominicans, had parish responsibilities for St. Johns. The Dominicans, as was usual for that religious order, built their priory outside the village settlement. What is perhaps even stranger is that the parish church of St. Michaels was built so far away from the Anglo Norman settlement which had developed around a castle at Woodstock. The Anglo Norman settlers, like the native Irish, shared the same catholic faith and while separated by status and nationality they were also separated by language. French was the language of the settlers, Irish the language of the natives. The small church of St. Michaels was, I believe, built for use by the native Irish inhabitants of this area, while the Crutched Friars and the Dominicans, in the early years at least, catered exclusively for the French speaking settlers. Fr. Carroll, who had transferred from Athy to Baldoyle by the time his article appeared in the archaeological journal, noted that ‘the church’s west gable is nearly perfect and the small “light” above with its oaken lintel yet remains ….. some years ago a portion of the side walls disappeared, as did the eastern end and the vestry on the south.’ Unfortunately in the intervening years further damage has occurred to the ancient structure and for safety reasons it has been closed off with metal barriers for the last 3 or 4 years. I have in previous articles noted that the town’s distinctive heritage comprising historical buildings such as St. Michael’s Church, the Town Hall, Woodstock Castle and Whites Castle, to mention just a few, are key resources in promoting our town. As a community we need to take care of these resources for they give Athy with its other historical assets the town’s unique character. The elevated ground in front of St. Michael’s Church is evidence of its use for burials over many centuries. Some years ago the volunteers who comprised Athy’s cemetery committee while cleaning up St. Michael’s cemetery, attempted to recover grave slabs which over the years had disappeared underground. One grave slab recovered was that of the Daker family which records deaths which occurred from 1739 onwards. The Daker family were proprietors of the large tanyard recorded as operating in Athy in the latter half of the 18th century. The town boasted several tanyards, but Daker’s tanyard at the end of Tanyard Lane which later led to the Dominican Church (now Athy’s library), was by far the largest in the area. Unfortunately the volunteers were unable to locate the grave slab of Robert Pearson which was once recorded with the following inscription: ‘In hope of the happy resurrection here lyeth the body of Robert Pearson Esq. Captain of the 10th Regiment of Foot of Ireland who served under the brave Duke of Marlborough’. The damage to the old Church of St. Michael’s was compounded by the even more regrettable removal of what was once described as a fine old arch which was located between the church and Bothar Bui, now the Dublin Road. Its removal some time during the mid 1800s deprived us of an important medieval structure. There is an urgent need to preserve and maintain St. Michael’s Church, which every native of Athy knows as ‘The Crickeen’. Kildare County Council’s Historic Monuments Committee, in cooperation with Athy’s Cemetery’s Committee should, undertake the necessary work to protect St. Michael’s Medieval Church.

Dolores Nolan and Niamh Hegarty

I was reminded of long lost youth when, during the week, I had an unexpected visit from two friends of my late brother Seamus. Fifty-three years have passed since his tragic death in a road traffic accident on the Dublin road, but memories were quickly revived when ‘walks down the line’ as part of teenage life in Athy of the early 1960s was mentioned by my visitors. Dolores Nolan and Niamh Hegarty have been friends since school days. Both attended the local St. Mary’s Secondary School, Dolores making the morning journey from Duke Street, while Niamh made her way from the Hegarty home at Geraldine Road. Dolores’s parents were Tom and Molly Nolan, her father having come to Athy in 1943 to open a shop at 42 Duke Street. Tom was a native of Newbridge and after his early behind the counter work experience in shops in Castledermot and Carlow came to what was then the thriving market town of Athy to open his own shop. His wife was the former Molly Moore, whose brothers Michael, Eddie and Charlie were already part of the commercial life of the town. Tom Nolan carried on business in Athy until 1971 when he retired to live in Dublin. Dolores who had spent most of her adult life abroad returned to live in Ireland last year. Three years earlier Niamh Hegarty made the return journey to Ireland after spending 35 years in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was there that the school friends from Athy, both living in Johannesburg, were able to renew their friendship. Niamh was the youngest child of Joseph and Teresa Hegarty who came to Athy in 1949 when Joseph took up a position with the Wallboard factory at Tomard. Dolores and Niamh were part of a young group of friends and students from St. Marys and the local Christian Brothers School, many of whom would leave Athy as school years ended. Both remembered with fondness many of their classmates, Carmel Brophy, Katherine Clancy, Noelle O’Connor, Olga Rowan, Stacia Miller, Fidelma Blanchfield, Eilish O’Donnell, Eithne Hughes, Enda McNulty and Finola Moriarty. Between the Christian Brothers School boys and the girls of St. Marys friendships were forged and memories created with never to be forgotten walks ‘down the line’. I well remember my own classmates’ appreciation of the welcoming countryside around Sunnyside and how we all enjoyed meeting there for after school activities, free from the questioning gaze of parents and teachers. Dolores and Niamh were part of school class group which included not only their friends in St. Marys, but also CBS students such as Ger Moriarty, Seamus Taaffe, Kevin McNulty, Terry Dooley, Denis O’Sullivan, Liam Kane, Niall Hegarty and many many more, too numerous to mention. Athy in the late 1950s and early 1960s was in many ways so very different than it is today. This year we have a population in excess of 10,000 persons, whereas 50/60 years ago the busy town pubs catered for a population of a little more than 4,000. It was a small town full of independent shops where men such as Tom Nolan could run a successful business at a time when not a single empty shop premises was to be found in Athy. It was a time when Joe Hegarty could look forward with confidence, as did many other men and women as employment opportunities in the town improved after the economic downturn of post war years. Dolores and Niamh recalled with nostalgia their school days which were spent in the primary school and secondary school of the local Sisters of Mercy. They remembered with fondness Sr. Raphael and Sr. Alphonsus, two of their primary school teachers and their secondary school teachers, Sr. Paul, Sr. Oliver, Sr. Rose, Sr. Zavier and Mother Therése. Having spent a greater part of their lives abroad Dolores and Niamh enjoyed sharing with me their memories of Athy, of friends and of friendships of almost 60 years ago. Those memories were underpinned by a youthful happiness shared with classmates and families, many of whom are now gone from us. Dolores’s mother Molly died in 1977, to be followed months later with the passing of her father Tom in January 1978. Niamh’s parents continued to live in Athy where her father Joseph died in 1984 and her mother Teresa 13 years later. Both are buried in St. Michael’s cemetery. The extended Nolan/Hegarty families are no longer part of the current Athy community but for the one-time Convent of Mercy school girls Athy will always hold a special place in their memories.

Dolores Nolan and Niamh Hegarty

I was reminded of long lost youth when, during the week, I had an unexpected visit from two friends of my late brother Seamus. Fifty-three years have passed since his tragic death in a road traffic accident on the Dublin road, but memories were quickly revived when ‘walks down the line’ as part of teenage life in Athy of the early 1960s was mentioned by my visitors. Dolores Nolan and Niamh Hegarty have been friends since school days. Both attended the local St. Mary’s Secondary School, Dolores making the morning journey from Duke Street, while Niamh made her way from the Hegarty home at Geraldine Road. Dolores’s parents were Tom and Molly Nolan, her father having come to Athy in 1943 to open a shop at 42 Duke Street. Tom was a native of Newbridge and after his early behind the counter work experience in shops in Castledermot and Carlow came to what was then the thriving market town of Athy to open his own shop. His wife was the former Molly Moore, whose brothers Michael, Eddie and Charlie were already part of the commercial life of the town. Tom Nolan carried on business in Athy until 1971 when he retired to live in Dublin. Dolores who had spent most of her adult life abroad returned to live in Ireland last year. Three years earlier Niamh Hegarty made the return journey to Ireland after spending 35 years in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was there that the school friends from Athy, both living in Johannesburg, were able to renew their friendship. Niamh was the youngest child of Joseph and Teresa Hegarty who came to Athy in 1949 when Joseph took up a position with the Wallboard factory at Tomard. Dolores and Niamh were part of a young group of friends and students from St. Marys and the local Christian Brothers School, many of whom would leave Athy as school years ended. Both remembered with fondness many of their classmates, Carmel Brophy, Katherine Clancy, Noelle O’Connor, Olga Rowan, Stacia Miller, Fidelma Blanchfield, Eilish O’Donnell, Eithne Hughes, Enda McNulty and Finola Moriarty. Between the Christian Brothers School boys and the girls of St. Marys friendships were forged and memories created with never to be forgotten walks ‘down the line’. I well remember my own classmates’ appreciation of the welcoming countryside around Sunnyside and how we all enjoyed meeting there for after school activities, free from the questioning gaze of parents and teachers. Dolores and Niamh were part of school class group which included not only their friends in St. Marys, but also CBS students such as Ger Moriarty, Seamus Taaffe, Kevin McNulty, Terry Dooley, Denis O’Sullivan, Liam Kane, Niall Hegarty and many many more, too numerous to mention. Athy in the late 1950s and early 1960s was in many ways so very different than it is today. This year we have a population in excess of 10,000 persons, whereas 50/60 years ago the busy town pubs catered for a population of a little more than 4,000. It was a small town full of independent shops where men such as Tom Nolan could run a successful business at a time when not a single empty shop premises was to be found in Athy. It was a time when Joe Hegarty could look forward with confidence, as did many other men and women as employment opportunities in the town improved after the economic downturn of post war years. Dolores and Niamh recalled with nostalgia their school days which were spent in the primary school and secondary school of the local Sisters of Mercy. They remembered with fondness Sr. Raphael and Sr. Alphonsus, two of their primary school teachers and their secondary school teachers, Sr. Paul, Sr. Oliver, Sr. Rose, Sr. Zavier and Mother Therése. Having spent a greater part of their lives abroad Dolores and Niamh enjoyed sharing with me their memories of Athy, of friends and of friendships of almost 60 years ago. Those memories were underpinned by a youthful happiness shared with classmates and families, many of whom are now gone from us. Dolores’s mother Molly died in 1977, to be followed months later with the passing of her father Tom in January 1978. Niamh’s parents continued to live in Athy where her father Joseph died in 1984 and her mother Teresa 13 years later. Both are buried in St. Michael’s cemetery. The extended Nolan/Hegarty families are no longer part of the current Athy community but for the one-time Convent of Mercy school girls Athy will always hold a special place in their memories.