Wr of Independence deaths in Kildare or of Kildare men elsewhere in Ireland [2]

During the period of civil unrest extending from the Easter Rising of 1916 to the end of 1921, 2850 Irish men, women and children were killed as a result of what the historians Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin describe as political violence. In the previous Eye on the Past I dealt with the County Kildare casualties of conflict, ending the with death of Wolfhill native Joseph Hughes, a sergeant in the R.I.C. who was killed while patrolling near St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Maynooth on 22nd February 1921. That same day there were nine other men killed. The I.R.A. were responsible for killing five R.I.C. officers in counties Kildare, Cork, Donegal, Wexford and Kerry as well as three English soldiers stationed in Strand Barracks, Limerick and an alleged spy in Co. Cork. The sole I.R.A. casualty on 23rd February was Michael Looney from the rebel county who died of septicaemia a week after being shot in the leg by Crown Forces. Between 23rd February and 10th March 1921 a total of 94 men were killed, for the most part I.R.A. Volunteers and members of the R.I.C. or the Crown Forces. A number of innocent bystanders were tragically killed during that brief period, including James Hayden, a 35-year-old farmer from Rathanna, Carlow who was shot by a North Staffordshire regiment soldier while standing with a group of men outside his local church. That same day Henry Guy, a 25-year-old ex-service man who lived in Baldoyle was shot and killed when two lorries of auxiliaries pulled up at Sutton Cross and opened fire on men who were playing pitch and toss. In both incidences it was claimed that the men who were unarmed disobeyed an order to halt. No soldiers were disciplined as a result of the shootings. It is of interest to note that two retired soldiers are currently being prosecuted in the north of Ireland for shooting dead I.R.A. commander Joe McCann in 1972 because the State Prosecutor claims ‘the killing was not justified as Mr. McCann was running away when he was shot.’ On 7th March Michael O’Callaghan who had served as mayor of Limerick in 1920 was shot and killed in his own house. That same night George Clancy, the then Mayor of Limerick was also killed. In their book, ‘The Dead of the Irish Revolution’ the authors O’Halpin and Ó Corráin comment that the killing of O’Callaghan and Clancy was believed to be the work of an auxiliary named George Nathan. This auxiliary would later join the republican side during the Spanish Civil war and would command a Marseillaise battalion. Kit Conway and a group of fifty Irish Volunteers joined Nathan’s battalion when he was recognised as a former black and tan. Nathan was confronted as regards his involvement in the killing of the Limerick mayors but he denied any involvement. Apparently his denial was accepted by the Irish Spanish Civil War Volunteers, even if not by I.R.A. Volunteers active in 1921. Nathan was killed rallying his battalion members in the Brunet salient north of Madrid in July 1937. On 11th March 1921 ten persons were killed. I.R.A. members accounted for six of that number, with two R.I.C. casualties. The remaining deaths were that of Mrs. Mary Lindsay and her chauffeur James Clarke. The killing of Mrs. Lindsey was one of the most controversial events of the War of Independence. Several writers have claimed she was from county Kildare but the late Tim Sheehan who published his book ‘Lady Hostage’ in 1990 confirmed that she was born Mary Georgina Rawson in county Mayo. The Rawson name was a prominent name in south Kildare in the early years of the 19th century and earlier. There may well have been a family connection between Mrs. Lindsay and Thomas Rawson, the controversial Glasealy and later Cardenton resident whose involvement in the 1798 Rebellion has been the subject of previous Eyes on the Past. Mrs. Lindsey was executed along with her chauffeur by the I.R.A. after both had been kidnapped and held hostage for several days. Mrs. Lindsay had learned on 28th January 1921 of an ambush planned by the I.R.A. and had informed the authorities in Ballincollig barracks Cork, as well as the local Catholic curate, with a request that the I.R.A. call off the ambush. The priest told the I.R.A. commander and the ambush party but he was not believed and the Crown Forces succeeded in surrounding the I.R.A. men. Eight I.R.A. men were captured and one of whom died of his wounds. Five of the I.R.A. men captured at the Dripsey ambush site were charged before a military court in Cork on 8th February and were sentenced to death. Two other I.R.A. men were to be tried later. Twenty days after the Dripsey ambush Mrs. Lindsay’s home was burned to the ground and herself and her driver were taken prisoner by the I.R.A. The Cork I.R.A. command offered to trade their lives for the lives of the five I.R.A. men awaiting execution. There was no response to that I.R.A. offer. The five men, John Lions (aged 26), Timothy McCarthy (aged 21), Thomas O’Brien (aged 21), Daniel O’Callaghan (aged 23) and Patrick O’Mahony (aged 24) were executed in the military barracks Cork on 28th February. Also executed with them was Sean Allen (aged 24), convicted of possessing a revolver and a booklet entitled ‘Night Fighting’. Of the two I.R.A. men whose trial had been delayed one was sentenced to death, but this was later commuted to 25 years in jail, while the other I.R.A. man’s injuries were such that his trial never took place. Mrs. Lindsay and her driver were executed by the I.R.A. and buried in an unmarked grave which has not been traced to this day. She was one of 98 women killed during the War of Independence. Their deaths and especially that of the elderly widow Mrs. Lindsay provoked a backlash and aroused a lot of criticism within the ranks of the I.R.A. ………………………..TO BE CONTINUED

Lions Club Everest Challenge / Pauper burials in St. Mary's Cemetery

The second part of the story of Kildare connected persons killed during the War of Independence is put aside until next week. Instead, I want to write of the unremembered deaths of men, women and children in Athy’s workhouse and the frightful position facing so many families as we prepare to exit the Coronavirus lockdown regime. Countless families, young and old, have suffered emotionally and financially during the long drawn-out months of the Coronavirus pandemic. The financial measures put in place by the government has helped to alleviate some family difficulties but as the country reopens the full impact of the pandemic will be felt. We have already seen in the UK and in this country the closure of long-established retail outlets and it is to be expected that many Irish businesses shuttered for months past will find themselves unable to reopen their doors. Employees will lose their jobs and their families will find themselves facing financial chaos, exacerbated by the unrelenting need to meet mortgage and other recurring payments. The State will of course provide financial help, minimal as it may be, but not of sufficient level to dispel the despair and anxiety which will mark the lives of so many families in the post Covid world. I had previously signalled the sterling work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and that organisation’s unparalleled attempt to alleviate the deprivation of families in need. Theirs is an almost insurmountable task and one which can only be successfully completed by and with the generosity of members of the local community. This Saturday, 1st May at 10.00 a.m. Athy Lions Club’s President Brian Dooley will start his Everest challenge to help raise funds for the St. Vincent de Paul Society and Pieta House. The challenge facing Brian is a huge one and will make enormous demands on his physical and mental wellbeing over the many hours and days it will take him to complete the task. He has made this commitment as his personal contribution to alerting all of us to the pressing needs of so many within our community. Many families need our help now and so many more families can be expected to join the growing pool of families in need in the not-too-distant future. If you can help with a donation, however large or small, please do so by clicking on the website at www.idonate.ie/athylionsclubeverestchallenge or perhaps visit the Everest challenge site at Athy Rugby Club starting on 1st May and make a cash contribution there. I have written previously of Athy’s Workhouse, in light of the recent Mother and Baby Homes Commissions report, conscious of how those who died in the Workhouse and the later County Home are unremembered. Forgotten not just in folk memory but also apparently unrecorded in any extant paper record of burials in the pauper’s graveyard, St. Marys. The price paid by those who entered the Workhouse, women separated from their men folk, children separated from their parents, saw them lose their dignity and their individuality. The loss of these two personal attributes in so many is a shameful indictment of the institutional life as lived in workhouses and county homes for almost 120 years. My research, first published in ‘Lest we Forget – Kildare and the Great Famine’ in 1995 showed that 1,205 died in Athy’s Workhouse and the adjoining Fever Hospital during the Great Famine. How many more died in the subsequent years of the Workhouse and in the County Home after 1922 we do not know? What we do know is that many of them, presumably the majority, were buried in St. Mary’s cemetery across the road from the present St. Vincent’s Hospital. I say the majority because ongoing research shows that a few workhouse inmates were buried in St. Michael’s cemetery. This has shown up in research which Clem Roche and Michael Donovan have agreed to undertake to identify all those who died in the local Workhouse and the County Home and who now lie in unmarked graves in St. Mary’s cemetery. Kildare’s County Mayor who recently issued an apology on behalf of Kildare County Council in the wake of the Mother and Baby Homes Commissions report has received a request for Kildare County Council to fund the design, construction, and erection of a suitable memorial in St. Mary’s cemetery to remember those who died in Athy’s Workhouse and the County Home after 1844. I am hopeful that the Council will respond positively and that likewise the local community will be generous in supporting the Lions Club’s Everest challenge and so help the local St. Vincent de Paul Society and Pieta House to meet the challenges facing many families today.

War of Independence deaths in Kildare or of Kildare men elsewhere in Ireland [1]

The first deaths of participants in the Irish War of Independence occurred three days before the start of the Easter Rising. On 21st April a car on the way to Tralee drove off the pier at Ballykissane, Killorglin. The driver, Tom McInerny, was the only survivor of the four Irish Volunteers who had been on their way to set up a radio transmitter to keep Tralee Volunteers in contact with the German arms ship, Aud. Twenty year old Cornelius Keating, 37 year old Charles Monaghan and 30 year old Daniel Sheehan were drowned. Theirs were the first of the almost 2,350 deaths recorded during the period April 1916 to December 1921 –commonly known as the War of Independence period. In the week which commenced with the deaths at Ballykissane a further 238 deaths were recorded. This of course was the week of the Easter Rising. Amongst the early deaths was that of James Duffy, a County Kildare man, a private in the Royal Irish Regiment. He was shot and killed while marching from Richmond barracks to Dublin Castle via Kilmainham. The troops were fired on by Volunteers led by Eamon Ceannt who had taken over the South Dublin Union. Amongst Ceannt’s men was W.T. Cosgrove, the future Taoiseach, whose father Thomas was a native of Castledermot. Another casualty of the South Dublin Union battle was nurse Margaret Kehoe from Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow who was shot and killed on the same day as Duffy. A day later Denis Kelly from County Kildare, a 43 year old ticket checker with the Great Southern and Western Railway Company was shot and killed while working at the North Wall. Another Kildare man, 42 year old Edward Murphy, the Court crier for Judge Lenihan, also died on 25th April having been shot the previous day in the vicinity of St. Stephen’s Green. On 26th April, George Geoghegan, a Kildare native and a member of the Irish Citizen Army was shot and killed as an I.C.A. contingent led by Captain Sean Connolly took over the City Hall. He is commemorated with three other victims, Sean Connolly, Sean O’Reilly and Louis Byrne in a plaque erected at City Hall by the National Graves Association. As the first week of the revolution came to an end it was marked by the death of yet another County Kildare native. Francis Salmon, a native of Straffan, was just 17 years of age when he was shot dead while standing at the door of his employer’s house at 50 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay in Dublin. The young sales assistant was the youngest Kildare county native to die during the 1916 Rising. On the same day as the first of the Easter Rising leaders, Padraig Pearse, Thomas Clarke and Thomas McDonagh were executed in Kilmainham jail, a 50 year old labourer’s widow died in mysterious circumstances. County Kildare born Margaret McGuinness, a widow, lived at 27 Pembroke Cottages, Dublin and her death is generally accepted to have been as a result of political violence. There is no question surrounding the killing of Prosperous born Michael Kavanagh, a 35 year old carter who was married with 7 children. He was bringing luggage to the Shelbourne Hotel on the first day of the Rising when his cart was seized by members of the Irish Citizens Army to make a barricade. Kavanagh was trying to retrieve the cart when he was shot in the head. He died on 17th May. Almost three years were to pass before the next County Kildare casualty of the Irish War of Independence. On the 13th of February 1919 Patrick Gavin, a 45 year old labourer from Maddenstown, was driving cattle to the Newbridge fair when he was challenged by an English soldier on sentry duty at Brownstown pumping station. It was claimed he was challenged by the sentry and reacted by threatening the sentry who shot him. The soldier was subsequently court martialled but escaped any punishment. One of the rare incidences of armed conflict within the county of Kildare during the War of Independence resulted in the killing of R.I.C. constable Patrick Haverty, a 40 year old Galway man. He was killed during the ambush at Greenhills, Kill on 21st August 1920. The ambush led by Tom Harris, the future Fianna Fáil T.D. was the first such action in County Kildare and resulted also in the death of R.I.C. sergeant Patrick O’Reilly who succumbed to his injuries ten days later. Further R.I.C. casualties in the county occurred on 19th February 1921 when Thomas Bradshaw, a 24 year old policeman from Tipperary, shot himself in Monasterevin R.I.C. Barracks. Just over two weeks later Harold Stiff, a Londoner who had joined the R.I.C. a few months earlier, committed suicide in the Maynooth R.I.C. barracks. On 21st February 1921 R.I.C. sergeant Joseph Hughes, a 35 year old former postman from Wolfhill, was shot while patrolling in Maynooth. He died the following day and the local press reported that his funeral was attended by an immense crowd while passing through Athy where all shops were closed with ‘police with reversed arms marched behind the coffin.’ Information for this article has been extracted mainly from ‘The Dead of the Irish Revolution’ by Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin. ……. TO BE CONTINUED

Shopkeepers Shows 1963 and 1964

Over the years Athy has been home to many festivals, two of which came to my attention as I sorted papers collected, laid aside and forgotten until today. Two xeroxed programmes for the Shopkeepers Show put on as part of Athy’s parish festival in 1963 and 1964 allowed me to recall the names and faces of those who took part in those shows, many of whom are no longer with us. I did not see those shows as I had left Athy in January 1961 but the programmes are a reminder of the active community spirit which prevailed at that time. The festival was the idea of Fr. Joseph Corbett, then a young curate in St. Michael’s parish. He asked the industrial and commercial groups in the town to put on variety shows in the Social Club, St. John’s Lane to raise funds for the new parish church then under construction. The Shopkeepers Show followed or was followed on by shows put on by workers in the Wallboard factory, the I.V.I. Foundry, the Asbestos factory and the local garages. The Shopkeepers Show for 24th March 1963 started with an opening chorus immediately followed by a vocal quartet featuring Maureen Ryan, Helen Walsh, Dettie Kehoe and her sister Sheila. Next up was the wonderful theatrical artiste, Ernest O’Rourke Glynn with a recitation of ‘the Exiles Return’, followed by Maureen Ryan with a vocal rendition of ‘Mother Ireland’. Irish dancing saw Hazel Darling, Deirdre Hughes and Noeleen Murphy take the stage. A comic turn by Wag O’Keeffe and Michael Dempsey was followed by a medley of songs involving male and female members of the show. These included Dinah Donnelly, Mary Conlon and some of the earlier mentioned ladies, together with Ian Antwell, Charlie Prendergast, Michael Noonan, Sean O’Connor, Des McHugh, Paddy Dillon, Kevin Timmons and Alex Kelly. A highlight of the show must have been the duet between Charlie Prendergast and Maureen Ryan, followed by another duet, this time involving Maureen Ryan, partnered with Cecily Brady. All three were singers with exceptional voices. For emerging rock and roll fans there was what must have been a mighty ear full from Brendan Ward, P.J. Hyland, John Murphy, Jerry Byrne and Peter Bowden. The 1963 show came to an end with another piece of comedy dialogue between Wag O’Keeffe and Michael Dempsey, followed by the male voice choir with a number of songs. The Shopkeepers Show must have been well received for the following year their show was put on over two nights, 11th and 13th March 1964. Many of the same performers took part but participants not previously mentioned included John Hillard, Dolly Hyland, Phyllis Coughlan, Ann Dooley, Brian O’Hara, all of whom performed in the one act play ‘Love and Acid Drops’ by Seamus Burke. Margot Higginson and Mary Tuohy featured in an extract from ‘The Merry Widow’, while Carmel Hickey, Esther Bannon, Kathleen Kelly, Carmel Hickey and Patricia Mahon formed the ladies chorus. The compere for both shows was Kevin Timmons with musical accompanist for the first show by Molly O’Brien who was joined the following year by John Corcoran. The Parish Festival ran for 1963 and 1964 and perhaps other years as well. I would like to hear from anyone with information on the shows and I would also welcome the opportunity of viewing and perhaps photocopying any programmes printed for any and all of the shows put on by the local companies as part of the Athy Parish Festival. FRANK TAAFFE The photograph shows the cast of what I believe was the Shopkeepers Show of 1963.

Woodstock Castle as reported in the Dublin Penny Journal / Ben Taaffe

The Dublin Penny Journal was founded in 1831 by Caesar Otway who was later joined by George Petrie and John O’Donovan. In its early life the Journal published original articles of Irish interest which were regarded as being of a high scholarly standard. In 1833 the Journal was taken over by a new owner. Barbara Hayley, in her essay ‘On periodicals as the voice of 19th century Ireland’ in her jointly edited book 300 Years of Irish Periodicals, accused the new owner of having turned the Journal into “a cheap and snippety ragbag of extracts.” She may have a point, but to a reader hunting for local history The Dublin Penny Journal can yield fine historical nuggets. In its issue of 14th March 1835 it gave an account of Woodstock Castle, Athy from which the following is taken: “From its vicinity Woodstock Castle has partaken of nearly all the changes that befell Athy. Standing on the Western bank of the River Barrow it was designed to command the principle ford on this part of the river in conjunction with White’s Castle situated on the opposite bank – the ford lying between… Tradition assigns the building of the Castle to the year 1290 and that a descendant of the Earl of Pembroke was its first master. Antiquaries with more reason are inclined to attribute the castle’s construction to Thomas Fitzgerald, Lord of Offaly and afterwards seventh Earl of Kildare who, on marrying Dorothea, the daughter of Anthony O’Moore of Leix, received in dower the manors of Woodstock and Rheban. The plan of the building was originally a regular square, in after times an addition was made to it of a square tower joining the south side and built in uniformity with the front facing the river. The walls are of great thickness…. The mullioned windows are much admired and were elegantly executed… A fine arched gateway and part of the outer court-wall yet remain… The ford which the castle commanded and from which Athy derives its name was called Athelehac or anciently Athlegar, the ford towards the west; also Ath-trodan or the Cattle Ford. It was here the great battle was fought in the third century between the people of Munster and those of Leix under Laviseagh Cean Mordha. In 1642 the Marquis of Ormond took Woodstock from the rebels and subsequently in 1647 Owen Roe O’Neill surprised it and put the garrison to the sword. His victory however was of short duration for Lord Inchiquin compelled him in a little time after to surrender it and Athy. The lordship of Woodstock and Castlemitchell was set by the Earl of Kildare to Daniel Hutchinson, alderman, for 99 years from May the 1st 1657 at 100 guineas the first 41 years yearly, and 200 guineas a year during the remainder of the lease, with six fat wethers or £3.” In the cavalier manner of The Dublin Penny Journal, I’ll now move from six fat castrated rams – those curious wethers – to another unrelated snippet. Confined to our 5k limit for the past few months, many of us have discovered laneways and byways in our town that we never much noticed before. But one young member of my family has been discovering Athy for the first time. Early in 2020 we welcomed a new grandson, and like most grandparents last year, we visited the new family member more often on screen than in person. When the first lockdown arrived last March he was an eight-week old Dubliner; by the time he could visit Athy again it was already high summer. This year began differently. The small fellow was here on a short Christmas break when the latest lockdown closed his creche, and so he stayed on a little longer. And longer, and longer. The toddler is now an expert on the People’s Park and the loveliest stretches of the River Barrow. This week we’ll finally have to say goodbye to the smallest Taaffe as he and his parents move home to Munster and to his re-opened creche. The Eye on the Past might be written a little quicker without the childminding duties, but like so many families, we’ll be looking forward to a summer reunion. There is a real danger the smallest Taaffe may turn out a Corkman one day, but it’s a lucky Corkman who took his first steps in Athy.

A Virtual Tour of Athy [2]

This week we continue our virtual tour of Athy, beginning at the town hall in Emily Square. Built 300 years ago as a market house, courthouse and borough offices, the building’s courtroom hosted many trials presided over by John Toler, later ennobled as Lord Norbury, but better known in his time as the hanging judge. Wolfe Tone, as a barrister on the Leinster circuit, appeared on a few occasions at trials in Athy. Between the Town Hall and the River Barrow one can see the colonnaded building which was opened in 1852 as a corn exchange and now serves as the town’s courthouse. Nearby is the sundial donated by Macra na Feirme in 1994 to commemorate Athy’s part in its founding 50 years previously. At the side of the Shackleton Museum is the much-admired statue of the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton by the celebrated sculptor Mark Richards. In the middle of Emily Square is a 1798 monument erected some years ago to commemorate the brave men and women from this area who fought and those who died during the rebellion. Several local men were imprisoned in the White’s Castle jail, which is just ahead of us. Patrick O’Kelly, a local man who wrote his account of the 98 Rebellion, recounted how 7 young men from South Kildare were marched over Cromaboo bridge to be hanged on the banks of the Grand Canal. Beheaded, their heads were displayed on Cromaboo bridge, which was built two years previously. Robert Emmet’s rebellion five years later saw another Athy resident, Nicholas Grey of Rockfield House, arrested and detained in the White’s Castle jail. He had been commissioned by Emmet to lead the Kildare men into Dublin. Gray was eventually released, having been transferred to a Dublin prison and allowed to leave Ireland to live out the rest of his life in America. White’s Castle, built in 1417 to house a garrison to protect the bridge of Athy, was adapted for use as a prison following the removal of the soldiers to a newly built barracks in the 1720s. It continued to be used as a jail until about 1830 and for the next 60 years or more served as a police barracks. We now cross Cromaboo bridge, named for the war cry of the Fitzgeralds. It has been standing since 1796, a much shorter time than the castle ruins we see to our right in the distance. Woodstock Castle, the first stone building in the medieval village of Athy, has remained unoccupied since the middle of the 17th century. Edmund Rice Square is on our right, so named in 1996 to commemorate the Christian Brothers whose schools were located off St John’s Lane. St John’s was the original name, first used in Anglo-Norman times, and is the only street name of that period which is still in use. On our left, through the archway, was the site of the Kellyite meeting house of the early 19th century. Rev. Thomas Kelly, still remembered as one of Ireland’s finest hymnologists, was the founder of a breakaway group from the Church of Ireland called the Kellyites. He had 40 or so followers in Athy as well as meeting houses in Portarlington, Waterford, Wexford and Dublin. The Kellyites as a dissenting group faded away after Kelly died in 1855. Duke Street, with Leinster Street, is the main shopping street of Athy. In Duke Street we can see several fine examples of jostle stones, a reminder of the horse and carriage days. The jostle stones are at the side of the archway entrances to former stables and were designed to jostle the carriage wheels into position as the carriages entered the archway so as not to cause damage to the walls. As we pass up Duke Street on our left is Convent Lane, with the former Dominican Church at the end. Now the town’s library, the building when opened in 1965 represented a remarkable addition to modern Irish architecture and includes artwork by Brid Ni Rinn and George Campbell. Further on Duke Street on our left is Crown House, which once enjoyed the patronage of judges attending the quarter sessions in Athy. Adjoining the Crown House was the town’s cockpit, which was a popular venue until cockfighting was made illegal in 1849. The cockpit was restored many years ago. Crown House was from where Stephen Cullinan, founder of Macra na Feirme, first published the Farmers’ Journal. Just ahead of us on the road to Stradbally, which we reach by travelling on Woodstock Street, formerly called Barrack Street, is the site of the former cavalry barracks, built in the 1720s. The barracks is long gone but as we turn into Woodstock Street we can see on our left an archway which once formed an entrance to one of the barrack buildings. If we continued towards Stradbally we would pass on our right St Vincent’s Hospital, first opened in January 1844 as Athy’s workhouse. During the Great Famine the workhouse, built to accommodate 600 persons, catered for over 1500 men, women and children, necessitating the opening of two auxiliary workhouses in the town. Sadly, 1250 deaths were recorded in the workhouse during the four years of the Famine, and those unfortunate people are buried in the nearby St Mary’s Cemetery, known locally as the pauper’s graveyard. Now we continue our journey by William Street to Augustus bridge, named after one of the Duke of Leinster’s sons. We are crossing the Grand Canal, which was extended to Athy in 1791. The Grand Canal, like the railway of 1846, brought prosperity to Athy and allowed it to develop as one of Leinster’s great market towns. Facing the canal harbour is the former Canal Hotel where travellers stayed overnight so as to catch the Dublin-bound boat which left Athy at 5 o’clock in the morning to reach Dublin 13 hours later. We have now reached the end of our tour of Athy, which was once Co. Kildare’s principal town. The South Kildare town is traversed by rail, river and canal, and is endowed with many buildings of merit. The laneways and byways of Athy, its secret places and hidden corners, all have their own stories to tell, but those stories are for another day.

A Virtual Tour of Athy [1]

This week’s Eye is the first half of my script for a virtual tour of Athy, broadcast on local radio last Thursday. The second part of the tour will follow next week. We’re on the road to sweet Athy, approaching the South Kildare town from the Kilcullen direction. Our first stop on the outskirts of the town, which was founded as an Anglo-Norman village in the 12th century, is at Gallows Hill. Up to the 18th century every Irish town had a gallows on the town’s outskirts at a time when hanging was the penalty for many crimes, even as petty as stealing goods with a value of 5 shillings. Just beyond, on the left hand side, we have what may be a unique sporting complex in an Irish provincial town. Here, the local GAA club, the rugby club, tennis club and soccer club sit cheek by jowl in the former showgrounds. The GAA grounds of Geraldine Park hosted the 1906 All-Ireland Football Final, which was played on the 31 October 1907. Two years later the 1908 All-Ireland Hurling Final was played here on the 27th of June 1909. Sporting activities were not on the minds of the Commissioners for Education in Ireland when they financed the building of a Model School and Agricultural School, which building we pass shortly on the right hand side. The building was opened in 1850, and was designed by the Yorkshire-born architect Frederick Darley. It was acquired by Kildare County Council some years ago and is now planned to be developed as a Food, Drinks and Skills Innovation Hub. Frederick Darley, who designed the King’s Inns building in Dublin, as well as the RDS building in Ballsbridge, was also the architect for the Presbyterian church just beyond the Model School on the left hand side. This church of finely crafted stonework was built to serve the religious needs of the Presbyterian families from Perthshire in Scotland who came to South Kildare in the immediate post-Famine period following an invitation from the Duke of Leinster, who offered them farms in this area. As we approach the railway bridge we pass on the right St Michael’s Cemetery, with the ruins of a small medieval church. This may have been the first parish church in the medieval village of Athy, built as it was outside the town walls at a time when the French-speaking Dominicans and the Trinitarians provided church services for the Norman settlers only. Resting just inside the front wall of St Michael’s Cemetery is the late Paddy Johnson who lived in a small terraced house which, with its neighbouring houses, was torn down to accommodate the construction of the railway line to Athy and Carlow in 1846. His neighbours all emigrated to America where it is said they settled in an area which they called Bothar Buí after their old Athy address. Paddy Johnson remained in Athy and when he died it is claimed that he was buried in what was once his own backyard. Breasting the railway bridge we get a panoramic view of Athy east of the river Barrow. This was the scene which greeted the young Ernest Shackleton when he was brought into town and one which was familiar to Thomas LeFroy, the onetime boyfriend of Jane Austen, who for some time attended a classical school in Athy. The railway station on our left, through which the first train passed on Monday 3rd August 1846, was the work of the Great Leinster and Munster Railway Company, and in front of the station is the People’s Park. This handsome public park was a gift of the town’s landlord, the Duke of Leinster, early in the 19th century. Proceeding down Leinster Street we are reminded that the principal streets of the town are named after the Duke of Leinster’s family. The second Duke, William, Duke of Leinster, is recalled in the street names Leinster Street, Duke Street and William Street, which are the main streets of the town of Athy and a fine example of the linear street pattern common to Anglo-Norman settlements. Halfway down Leinster Street we pass on the left a fine bricked three-storey building, now a pub, and known previously as the Railway Hotel. A previous owner was Tom Flood, a War of Independence veteran whose brother, Frank, was hanged in Mountjoy on 14th March 1921. Another Athy man, Patrick Moran, who prior to the 1916 Rising worked for a time in Glynn’s pub on Duke Street, was also hanged in Mountjoy Jail on the same day as Frank Flood. Passing by Meeting Lane on the left reminds us of the Quaker meeting house which, when opened in 1780, gave the lane its name. Athy had an active Quaker community several years before Ballitore was founded, but regrettably that fine group who did so much for the Irish people during the Great Famine no longer have a presence in Athy. We now reach the centre of the town, with a crossroads leading to Monasterevin on the right, Carlow on the left, and Kilkenny straight ahead. To our left is Emily Square, named for Emily, wife of the Duke of Leinster and mother of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Lord Edward was a member of parliament for Athy borough for some years. The town hall, built in the 1720s to the southside of the town square, houses today the Shackleton museum, and it is where the annual Shackleton Autumn School takes place.

Poverty in 19th century Athy and later

When I wrote some years ago of the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 and its deadly impact on the people of Athy and district, I had little thought that the world was soon to face into another pandemic. COVID-19 has already brought so many changes in society – and not only a huge loss of lives but also, sadly, loss of employment that has led to family deprivation on a scale never before experienced by the current generations. Reading the minute books of Athy Town Commissioners of the 19th century, and press reports from that time, confirms that poverty and social deprivation were once all too common features of life in Athy. Three years before the start of the Great Famine, Athy’s Town Commissioners wrote to a Mr Bunbury seeking to have the brickyards continue working throughout the year “to assist in employing the poor” (the name “Bunbury” is currently in use with reference to Bunbury Bridge – what, I wonder, is the connection?). In December 1848 the Town Commissioners considered using (not employing ) “paupers from the workhouse to sweep the street.” It was a suggestion which would repeatedly arise at future meetings of the Town Commissioners, and it had little to do with offering help to the poor. It was, rather, an attempt by the Commissioners to save public funds. The Board of Guardians of the local workhouse were not willing to cooperate and so the Commissioners in 1849 appointed two local men, supplied with wheelbarrows, to clean the streets. The men were appointed as “scavengers”, a rather impolite term which would not be acceptable to use nowadays. Three years after the Great Famine saw the first mention in the official records of flooding at Rathstewart. This was a perennial problem which was always described as causing “distress for the poor people”. Poverty was widespread in the town of Athy in the 19th century, and the Athy Loan Fund gave what was described as a “liberal donation” of £30 for the “labouring poor of Athy” in 1856. The Town Commissioners gave a less liberal donation of £1 to purchase seeds for distribution amongst the poor. Poverty, coupled with the constant presence of soldiers in the local cavalry barracks and the nearby Curragh camp, gave rise to what the Town Commissioners described as “the scandal of public prostitution in Athy.” The Town Clerk, Henry Sheil, was required in 1858 to publish the following public notice in the town: “Caution to persons keeping any place of public resort within the town for the sale of refreshments of any kind who knowingly supplies any common prostitute or resorting therein to assemble and continue in his premises after this notice will be prosecuted according to the law.” The notice did not have the desired effect, so the following year Thomas Roberts was appointed for the purpose of prosecuting public prostitutes and street beggars for which he was paid a salary of 4 shillings per week, and two shillings and sixpence for each conviction of a prostitute. Another indication of the widespread poverty in Irish society of the 1850s was the Athy Town Commissioners’ request to the local magistrates “to try and sentence vagrant beggars to fines or imprisonment who shall be found standing at doors or loitering about.” Ten years later the Town Commissioners were still concerned by the presence of vagrants and prostitutes in the town, and decided to appoint a man “to take care that all vagrants and beggars shall be kept out of Athy and all prostitutes shall be brought before a magistrate.” The parsimonious Commissioners next wrote to the Board of Guardians in charge of the local workhouse seeking recoupment of this man’s wages “as his work greatly lessened the cost of nightly paupers in the workhouse.” The final years of the 19th century were marked by several outbreaks of typhoid fever in Athy town, leading to many deaths. The outbreaks were caused by contaminated drinking water in the town’s public water pumps. For several years the medical officer of health, Dr Kilbride, had complained of the dangers presented to the poor people of the town who relied on the public water pumps for drinking water. The Ratepayers’ Association, whose members no doubt had their own private wells, resisted the attempt to provide the town with a piped water supply. It eventually arrived in 1906, but not before many of those living in the unsanitary hovels of the laneways and courtyards of Athy had lost their lives. Nearer to our time was the report in January 1915 that “there are about 60 children attending national school in Athy who are unable by reason of lack of food to take full advantage of the education provided.” About 36 of these children were provided with breakfast by the Sisters of Mercy. The Urban District Council, as successors to the Town Commissioners, provided a grant of £18 in 1923 to fund a midday meal for 96 children in the convent school. The early years of the Irish Free State were very difficult, with little employment and disastrous harvests in 1923 and 1924. By 1926 the local convent school provided meals for poor children consisting of bread and syrup, leading the Urban Council to provide extra funds so that a more substantial meal could be served. Today COVID-19 has brought huge social challenges, one of which is the plight of families left without an income. Athy Lions’ Club has agreed to organise a fundraising event over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend to help the local St Vincent de Paul Society to assist local families in need. More about this at a later date.

Mother and Baby Homes Commission references to Athy's County Home

The recently-published Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation Report has been the subject of much comment and criticism. Running to 2865 pages, the report tells the story of Mother and Baby Homes between 1922 and 1998, in accordance with its terms of reference. The Commission, chaired by Judge Yvonne Murphy, acknowledges that the experiences of women and children in the 1920s were vastly different from the experiences of the 1990s, and that the institutions under investigation were very different in 1998 than they were in 1922. The Commission recognised that Ireland was a harsh environment for many during the early decades of the newly established Irish Free State, and women in particular suffered serious discrimination. Women who gave birth outside marriage were subjected to particularly harsh treatment. The report makes the important and clearly correct claim that “responsibility for that harsh treatment rests mainly with the fathers of their children and their own immediate families,” while “it was supported or contributed to and condoned by the institutions of the State and the Churches.” The institutions investigated include a variety of Mother and Child Homes as well as County Homes in Cork, Stranolar and Thomastown. The Commission found that County Homes offered worse physical conditions than the majority of the Mother and Baby Homes and that in addition mothers in County Homes had to carry out “onerous and unpleasant work for which they were not paid.” County Homes were successors to the workhouses and provided accommodation for the poor and the elderly, as well as single mothers and their children. The County Home in Athy, although not fully investigated by the Commission, is referenced several times in the report. It quotes a report of 1927 which claimed that the majority of the County Homes were in poor condition, reflecting the lack of investment prior to 1920. In Athy’s County Home, for instance, the bedside lockers provided “were simply tables made in the Home, each with a small drawer closed by a wooden catch sufficient to hold small personal items.” Unmarried mothers in the Home were noted as having “no privacy or personal space.” As early as 1927 the Commissioners for the Relief of the Sick and Destitute Poor recommended that the County Homes be reserved for the aged and the chronic sick and that unmarried mothers and their children should be removed to special homes. This recommendation was followed up by the Department of Local Government and Public Health, but without success. In 1926 772 unmarried mothers lived in Ireland’s County Homes. Their numbers were reduced to 582 by 1942. The newly established Department of Health returned to this issue in the 1950s when it made a sustained effort to have unmarried mothers and children removed from County Homes. However, the County Boards of Health, administered by the County Councils, failed to respond and would continue to use the County Homes not only to accommodate the aged and infirm but also to provide emergency accommodation for families and unmarried mothers from poor backgrounds. A 1953 report concerning Athy’s County Home reported that it had “a fleeting population of families admitted because of eviction, unemployment, illness of one or both parents or some other causes of break in family life.” County Managers exercised executive control of the County Homes, and they decided whether expectant mothers were sent to County Homes or to Mother and Baby Homes. Apparently a woman’s family background was considered by the Boards of Health and the County Managers when deciding whether to send a woman to a Mother and Baby Home or to a County Home. Until the maternity unit attached to St Vincent’s Hospital was closed in 1986, unmarried mothers continued to give birth in what was Athy’s former County Home. However, unlike the County Home days, neither mother nor baby remained in the hospital after birth. The situation was different in the years after Irish independence. Unmarried mothers, generally from poor backgrounds, were confined in the County Home and on many occasions their babies remained in the County Home when the mothers left. The children abandoned in Athy’s County Home were of sufficient numbers to require a school to be maintained on the premises until the 1940s. Thereafter, the schoolgoing children from the County Home attended local national schools, marching each morning to school wearing their distinctive County Home clothing. The Commission reports how the Athy County Home had a separate nursery in 1952, but that two years later it was gone. That year, the County Home housed 24 children, from infants to early teens, who slept in the adult dormitories. The sleeping arrangements were adversely commented on by the Department of Health’s inspector, who expressed concern about young boys sleeping in dormitories “with some kindly old men” but where it might be expected there were also “degenerates and the subnormal.” Strangely, there was no concern expressed for the young girls’ sleeping arrangements. The 1952 report on Athy’s County Home noted that “mothers do the household work. There appears to be three or four women, all unmarried mothers, working daily in the laundry… none are paid… the washing for the whole institution is done here… other mothers work as ward attendants, nursery attendants, and one looks after the nurses. There are in the Home women admitted as unmarried mothers whose children have been boarded out. They are employed according to their capacity but not paid.” While the inspector’s report did not criticise the facilities in the County Home, it was critical of the conditions in which the unmarried mothers lived, with particular reference to long hours worked and unpaid labour. The most damning evidence of the draconian work required in Athy’s County Home in 1952 was given in the inspector’s observation of one nine-week-old baby which “appeared healthy, clean and well catered for. She was however lying in her cradle with a half-emptied bottle of milk beside her. I suggested that she should be lap fed – the excuse offered was that the child’s mother would never get her work done if she had to spend so much time feeding her baby.” The practice of requiring unmarried mothers, or indeed anyone in receipt of public assistance, to do unpaid work ended with the passing of the Health Act of 1953. The first paid attendant was employed in Athy’s County Home in 1952 a few years after it was recorded that the County Home’s staff consisted of three nurses and three members of the Sisters of Mercy. Children abandoned in the County Homes were sometimes boarded out once they reached nine months of age, while their mothers were expected to remain in the County Homes carrying out unpaid work for two years after giving birth. It is uncertain if any infants were boarded out from Athy’s County Home, but several young boys were boarded out at nine years of age or older. Regrettably, the practice of boarding out children left some of those children abused and isolated. The passing of the Adoption Act 1953 and the Unmarried Mothers’ Allowance paid from 1973 brought an end to the abandonment of infants in County Homes. Children at risk are now boarded out or fostered under arrangements made by TUSLA. Their arrangements are better financed and monitored than the unacceptable practices which saw young boys and girls from Ireland’s County Homes boarded out, many to be ill-treated and used as slave labour. The rebuilding of Athy’s County Home commenced in 1966, long after the practice of admitting and retaining children of unmarried mothers in that institution had ended. The building work took three years to complete and on 3rd April 1969 the newly-named St Vincent’s Hospital was opened. Workhouse, County Home, St Vincent’s Hospital - each marked a step away from the misery and hunger of the Famine years, but that slow improvement was almost crippled by the shameful, harsh discrimination suffered by women in the first half of the last century. The journey continues into the 21st century, but with vast improvements in both institutional care and society’s attitudes to the most vulnerable. The Commission’s report on Mother and Baby Homes is a hugely comprehensive account of a shameful period in our nation’s history, and its findings have been unfairly criticised. Its finding that blame rests with absent fathers, unsympathetic families and Irish society generally, as well as Church and State, must leave us all ashamed of our country’s grim, joyless history.

Athy's protected structures

The public advertisement in the local newspapers last week of the proposed development of a Food, Drinks & Skills Innovation Hub at the former Model School on the Dublin Road is very welcome news for Athy. Coming so soon after confirmation that work on the Outer Relief Road is on schedule to begin towards the end of this year, it represents a huge vote of confidence in the future of the town. The Model School building was built in 1851-2 to house both a Model School and an agricultural school. Built on a site provided by the Duke of Leinster, the school was opened in August 1852. It served the dual purpose of providing schooling for local children on a non-denominational basis while also providing preliminary training for candidate teachers who had been selected by the Commissioners of National Education and who attended the school as boarders for six months. The Model School complex also included an agricultural training college to which was attached a substantial farm. The college closed within a few years and the farmlands were subsequently auctioned. The non-denominational aspect of the early school was undermined by the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy in the town in 1852, followed by the opening of the Christian Brothers schools in 1861. The building, constructed in the Tudor style, was destroyed by fire some years ago and was subsequently acquired by Kildare County Council. The building was designed by Frederick Darley, an Irish-based architect with an international reputation who is also believed to have been the architect of the local courthouse; the Presbyterian church and former manse on the Dublin Road; and the Methodist church on Woodstock Street. Darley, who came to Ireland from Yorkshire, designed the King’s Inns buildings at Henrietta Street, Dublin, as well as the Royal Dublin Society’s headquarters in Ballsbridge. His work in Athy stemmed from the patronage of the Duke of Leinster, who engaged Darley to remodel his residence at Kilkea Castle. The number of buildings in Athy linked with Darley is quite remarkable and represents a unique architectural legacy for an Irish provincial town. The County Council advertisement was required under planning legislation as the Model School is included in the Council’s Record of Protected Structures. Buildings recorded as protected structures are so listed because the county councillors, advised by experts, have identified those buildings as having special architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, scientific, social or technical merit. Owners of such properties must protect them, for if the County Council feels that a protected structure is endangered, the Council can serve a notice on the owner requiring remedial work to be carried out to protect the building. Failure to comply with such a request allows the County Council to carry out any necessary work to save the building and to subsequently recover the cost of such work from the owner. In addition to these maintenance requirements, planning permission is required for any work to be carried out on a protected structure which might materially affect its character. The responsibility imposed on property owners whose buildings are declared to be protected structures are onerous, and there are few private owners who would willingly take on the responsibility of owning a protected structure. However owners have little choice in the matter when the County Council declares a building to be a protected structure. The Athy Town Development Plan which is currently up for review has a large list of local protected structures. These range from a mid-nineteenth century coach house on Church Road to an early nineteenth century two-storey house on the same road. Pubs on the main streets make up many of the listed protected structures in Athy representing, as many of them do, structures dating back to 1800 or thereabouts. Several buildings are included on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as well as being on the County Council record of protected structures. That inventory aims to promote an appreciation of architectural heritage by systematically recording the built heritage on a nationwide basis. These include Cromaboo Bridge, St Vincent’s Hospital and the gazebo at the rear of the Allied Irish Bank. Another building listed as a protected structure is White’s Castle, which is included in the Record of Monuments and Places - a list of historical sites first compiled under the National Monuments Acts and maintained by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Regrettably, the opportunity to declare the castle a national monument – one which was presented to our late TD Joe Bermingham when he was Minister of State at the Office of Public Works in the 1970s - was not availed of by the Castlemitchell man. If the Minister of State had made the decision to declare White’s Castle a national monument, the future of the most important building in Athy would have been assured. Kildare County Council is seeking submissions or observations on the proposed Food Hub development in the former Model School and is complying with the law relating to protected structures under the planning and development Acts. The proposed development should be welcomed by everyone in this area and hopefully the project will progress without undue delay. With daffodils appearing in my garden I’m reminded that the Daffodil Day annual collection taken up on behalf of the Irish Cancer Society has had to be cancelled yet again. However, anyone wishing to donate to this worthy cause can send their donations to Rainsford Hendy at Woodlawn, Timolin, Ballytore. Rainsford has organised the Daffodil Day collection in Athy for the last 34 years.

Athy Farmers Club

Athy, with its rich agricultural hinterland, has on many occasions been at the forefront of efforts to further the interest of local farmers and the agricultural industry. Many of us are familiar with the part played by Stephen Cullinan, a teacher in Athy’s Vocational School, who helped found Macra na Feirme in 1944. That organisation was established following the development of Young Farmers’ Clubs in Athy, Kilmallock and Mooncoin. Macra na Feirme’s first summer gathering was held in Athy in July 1946. The following year, Macra’s headquarters was opened in the Town Hall, Athy by the then president of Ireland, Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh. Athy would remain the headquarters of the association for the next twelve years. Stephen Cullinan also started The Irish Farmers’ Journal in 1948 with the financial assistance of, amongst others, two South Kildare farmers, John Greene and Paddy Keough. Macra na Feirme led the discussions which resulted in the founding of the National Farmers’ Association in 1955, whose first president was the South Kildare farmer Dr Juan Greene. An even earlier farming organisation with associations with Athy was the National Ploughing Association founded by J.J. Bergin of Maybrook in 1931. J.J. Bergin and Stephen Cullinan were following a lead first set by farmers from the South Kildare area who had founded the Athy Farmers’ Club in December 1865. In February of that year the Town Commissioners had thanked the Duke of Leinster for his offer to make “an assembly room of the old record court.” The founding meeting of the Farmers’ Club is likely to have been held in that Town Hall first floor room, and in the same building where the Macra na Feirme headquarters would be located. The objects of the Farmers’ Club were “the bringing of farmers of the neighbourhood into more general communication and obtaining the best information in matters of interest to the agriculturalist by newspapers, agricultural publications, reports of markets and lectures.” The club members included Robert Anderson of Castlemitchell, John McCullock and William McCullock, both of Sawyer’s Wood, members of two of the seventeen families who had arrived in Athy from Perthshire, Scotland in and around 1852 to take up the Duke of Leinster’s offers of farms in South Kildare. President of the club in its first year was the Marquis of Kildare who was succeeded in that position the following year by his father the Duke of Leinster. The vice-presidents were W.D. Webber of Kellyville and W.R. Bulwer of Barrowford. The energetic committee which arranged a number of lectures during 1886 included Matthew Minch, Athy; Thomas Robertson of Oakfield, Narraghmore; John Greene of Millbrook and James Alexander of Spring Lodge. The club operated a Reading Room which was opened to members every Tuesday and Saturday and on fair days from 8am to 8pm, “when fire and lights will be provided,” and on other days (except Sunday) from 10am to 5pm. The Reading Room was located on the premises of Michael Carey of Barrow Quay, proprietor of a printing works which printed the first annual report of the Athy Farmers’ Club for 1866. Michael Carey’s premises are now occupied by the Emigrant Restaurant. The lectures were printed initially by Hodges Smith and Co., Dublin, but thereafter by the Irish Farmers’ Gazette Office in Bachelors Walk, Dublin. The Gazette’s proprietor was Edward Purden, who generously undertook to print free of charge 250 copies of every lecture for distribution to the club members. During its first year of operation the club arranged nine lectures dealing with a range of agricultural topics including “the cattle plaque,” “banking accommodation to farmers” and “railway management in Ireland with respect to the agricultural interests of Ireland.” At the club’s first AGM held in the clubrooms at Barrow Quay on Tuesday 18th December 1886, the chairman Sir Anthony Weldon stated that “the Athy Farmers’ Club has set a good example to all the farming communities in Ireland and which we are glad to say is being followed by several districts in the country.” Tributes were paid at the AGM to the club’s Secretary, Rev. R.W. Bagot of Fontstown Glebe, who by his work earned for himself “the lasting gratitude of the farmers not only of Athy but of the entire country of Kildare.” At the conclusion of the AGM approximately fifty members of the club adjourned to Kavanagh’s hotel for the club’s first annual dinner. The printed report of the AGM and the subsequent dinner records “the Rev. Mr Bagot having said Grace, the good things provided were amply done justice to and the cloth having been removed, decanters and glasses were placed.” What followed was a plethora of toasts starting with “the Queen”, which toast was “drank enthusiastically,” following which “a worthy magistrate in a splendid tenor voice sang the national anthem, the entire company joining in the choruses.” Toast upon toast followed, all of which were drunk with enthusiasm. “The Prince and Princess of Wales and all the Royal Family” was followed by “the Lord Lieutenant and prosperity to Ireland,” while “the Army and Navy” came before “the agricultural societies of Ireland,” soon followed by a toast to “Athy Farmers’ Club.” Rev Bagot, in responding to the latter toast, expressed satisfaction that neither religion nor political differences had arisen in the club. In fact, the club rules expressly noted “all religious and political questions shall be strictly avoided at all meetings of the club.” The toasts continued with a tribute to the gentlemen who read papers at club meetings, while a toast to the “Kildare and Queen’s County Hunt’ was received with rapture. Another two toasts, by which time the diners were no doubt enjoying themselves, were to “the trade and commerce of Athy” and to “the press,” which in terms of the local press had only one member, namely The Leinster Express. The evening ended with a toast to the chairman, Sir Anthony Weldon and to “the ladies.” No doubt there were many such nights, and that camaraderie - along with the lectures and advice and support to farming neighbours – helped ensure the long success of farmers’ clubs. The farmers who first organised at local level in 1856 - and at national level in later generations – helped build confident and effective farming communities throughout Ireland.

Fundraising for new Convent of Mercy in the 1840s

The Museum Standards Programme for Ireland was established by the Heritage Council some years ago to promote professional standards in the care of collections in Irish museums and galleries. Last week this national organisation announced the names of museums throughout Ireland which had achieved full or partial accreditation, and in the case of four museums, which had maintained their full museum accreditation first achieved some years ago. Amongst these four museums was Athy Shackleton Museum, which shared equal billing with Fota House Museum, Cork; the Hunt Museum, Limerick; and the Medieval Museum in Waterford. Our local museum’s achievement is enormous given the rank and status of the other three museums and the financial resources available to each of them. In terms of available finance, the Shackleton Museum cannot compete with Fota House, the Hunt Museum or the Medieval Museum. However, in terms of the commitment and dedication exhibited by the museum’s staff, volunteers and Board of Directors, the wealth of the Athy museum cannot be overstated. The museum’s manager is Margaret Walshe, assisted by Sinead Cullen and museum volunteer Clem Roche, who have done a wonderful job of helping visitors to enjoy the Shackleton Museum. The museum, which started in a small way in 1983, has helped to create a sense of place for Athy folk and has given us a greater understanding and appreciation of our town’s past. Well done to Margaret Walshe and her team for maintaining such high standards to have merited full museum accreditation for Athy Shackleton Museum. If the museum is an important part of our town’s cultural heritage, so too are the buildings and monuments - some old, many more recent - which form a backdrop to Athy’s townscape. One such monument was removed during the replacement of the 150-year-old Catholic church of St Michael’s in the last months of 1960. The fine Celtic cross which had stood for almost ninety years in front of the main entrance to St Michael’s church was erected in 1873. It was the gift of the people of Athy and neighbourhood in honour of Fr Thomas Greene, a former curate in the parish of St. Michael’s. Fr Greene arrived in Athy on 12 May 1843, just nine days afar his ordination in Maynooth. He would spent the next eighteen years of his priesthood serving the people of Athy before moving in 1862 to become parish priest of Skerries. It was in Skerries that he died in 1871, aged fifty-two years. I have in the past credited Fr Greene as the leader in the movement which led to the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy to open a school in Athy in 1852. From Fr Greene’s own account, as included in the Convent of Mercy annals, the idea of opening a convent in Athy originated with a Miss Goold of Leinster Street. This was some time prior to the Great Famine, and Miss Goold was supported by a Mrs Fitzgerald and her daughter Ann of Geraldine Lodge. Clerical support was afforded by Rev Patrick Byrne, who I understand was a curate in Athy, but unfortunately I have been unable to positively identify him. Fr Byrne’s sudden death, followed soon thereafter by the death of Ann Fitzgerald, interrupted Miss Goold’s plans. However, in her will Ann Fitzgerald left the sum of £100 for the founding of a convent in Athy, in addition to which her father, Colonel Fitzgerald offered £50, as did her sister Elizabeth Fitzgerald. Patrick Maher of Kilrush, who would prove to be the most generous benefactor of the Sisters of Mercy in Athy also pledged a sum of £50. As a result, the local people met in the parish church in the spring of 1843, following which it was agreed to take up weekly collections in the town to finance the building of a convent for the Sisters of Mercy. The general management of what was called ‘the convent collection’ was entrusted to Fr John Gaffney just a few months before he left Athy to join the Jesuit order. With Fr Greene’s arrival in the parish, responsibility for managing the convent collection fell to him. The weekly collection continued during the first two years of the Great Famine but was stopped as the worst effects of Black 47 began to be felt. Collecting resumed in 1848, but the hardships suffered by the local people during the Great Famine were such that Fr Greene and his fellow curate Fr John Harold were obliged to take up collections every Saturday in Leinster Street and Duke Street. The local fundraising proved insufficient, and eventually Archbishop Cullen and the Superioress of the Mercy Convent in Baggot Street, Dublin were obliged to provide funds to allow the convent building to be completed. Fr Greene’s involvement in St Michael’s parish during his eighteen years as a curate was clearing cherished by the local parishioners, for when he died in 1871 the people of Athy and neighbourhood collected funds to erect a Celtic cross in his memory. He was the only curate, or indeed parish priest, of St Michael’s who was honoured in this way. The cross was erected in 1873 and two further priests of the parish were subsequently honoured by having their names inscribed on the base of the Celtic cross. The first was Fr James Doyle, who served as a curate in Athy between 1862 and 1879, and as the parish priest for the following thirteen years. He died aged fifty-eight years in 1892. He was replaced as parish priest by Fr James Germaine, later Canon and Archdeacon, who served as parish priest of St Michael’s for thirteen years, dying in 1905. His name was also inscribed on the base of the Celtic cross. The cross was removed in 1960 and brought to a quarry in Co. Wicklow, where it has been stored ever since. I understand plans are afoot to have the damaged Celtic cross repaired and restored in a prominent position in front of St Michael’s parish church. Its restoration will be a fitting reminder of the huge contribution made not only by Fr Thomas Greene, but by all the other priests who have served in the parish of St Michael’s over the years.

Turf Development Board/Bord na Mona

The recent announcement of the cessation of peat extraction by Bord na Mona highlights the important part ancient boglands have played in creating jobs in south Kildare. As early as the final year of the Great Famine the bog at Kilberry was the location of a manufacturing process which produced chemicals from peat. Kilberry was also associated with briquette making as early as 1855 when an English entrepreneur opened a briquette factory there. However, the process of using air-dried peat for compression by machinery proved unsuccessful and the factory soon closed. A Bog Commission established by the House of Commons considered between 1804 and 1813 the developmenet potential of bogs in Ireland and “the practicability of draining and cultivating them, and the best means of effecting the same.” The Commission was set up as it was believed that upwards of one-seventh of Irish land which was bogland might usefully be brought into use for agricultural purposes. Glassealy resident Thomas Rawson had made this case in his book “The Satistical Survey of County Kildare”. Amongst the Commissioners appointed was Henry Hamilton, an agent for the Duke of Leinster, who owned the largest land holding in the County of Kildare. The Bog Commission submitted four reports to Parliament, but because of private property rights these reports made little difference to the development of Irish bogs. However, the surveys carried out on behalf of the Commission and the maps prepared by their various surveyors were to prove of use to the Turf Development Board when it was established in 1934. In south Kildare in the early part of the 19th century one local initiative saw the growing of flax in boglands supported by grants from the Irish Linen Board. Place names in Athy which reflect that early 19th century flax industry are “Bleach Yard” and ‘The Bleach.” Rev. Thomas Kelly, the Ballintubbert native and founder of the religious group “the Kellyites”, was involved in setting up a weaving shed in Athy which he referenced in his published pamphlet “Some account of James Byrne of Kilberry addressed principally to the Roman Catholic Inhabitants of Athy and its Neighbourhood.” Following the setting up of the Turf Development Board, the first bog considered for development for machine-produced turf was the Kilberry bog. The bog, which was in private ownership between the Earl of Drogheda, the Irish Land commission and some private owners, was acquired by the Turf Board in 1936. However, following its acqusition it was decided that Kilberry bog would be used for the production of peat moss rather than machinery turf. The production of peat moss in Kilberry was to start in 1939 but the Turf Board reversed its decision a year later and decided to concentrate its peat moss operation in Turraun, Co. Offaly. Hand-won turf continued to be harvested in Kilberry but this work was discontinued after a few years as the local peat moss provided poor fuel material. In the final year of World War II, Todd Andrews of the Turf Development Board travelled to Sweden following a Board decision approved by the wartime Department of Supplies to use Kilberry for the production of peat moss. It was there that Andrews met Konrad Peterson, a Latvian who took part in the 1905 revolution against Russia and who had been a student in Dublin during the 1916 Rising. Peterson was invited to manage the new Kilberry factory, which he did on taking up employment in 1946. Work on building the factory commenced in the latter part of that year. Peterson remained in charge of the Kilberry plant until 1958, when he transferred to the experimental station in Newbridge. He died in 1981 and is buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery, where I attended a ceremony a few years ago organised by the Latvian Ambassador to Ireland to honour a man who is highly regarded in his native country as a Latvian patriot. The Turf Development Board became Bord na Mona in 1946 and the following year peat moss production started in Kilberry. Wihin a few years the Kilberry factory was supplying markets in America, Britain and the Channel Islands. In the mid 1960s Bord na Mona began to market peat moss for horticultural purposes and that marketing campaign was enhanced by the Board’s decision some years earlier to market peat moss under the brand name ‘Shamrock.” In 1964 another peat moss factory was opeened in Cuil na Mona near Portlaoise, where Athy man Jimmy Dooley was manager for a number of years before retiring as Chief Executive of Bord na Mona’s Horticultural Product Division in 2004. In August 1974 the Kilberry factory was destroyed by fire and had to be rebuilt. Twenty years later a new bark processiong plant was installed in Kilberry. This followed a campaign by conservationists to reduce the use of peat and instead use alternative material. In time the Kilberry works was used to store and compost grain and green waste for use in producing horticultural growth material. Many local men and women have worked for Bord na Mona over the years. For Leaving Certificate students of the 1940s and 1950s, Bord na Mona, with the ESB and county councils offered the most sought-after opportunities for employment not otherwise available in rural areas. Today, Kilberry is the centre of a vibrant rural community whose work life is inextricably linked to the past, and hopefully continuing, success of the Kilberry peat factory.

Irish Land League Branch Athy

The Irish National Land League, commonly called the Land League, was founded on 21 October 1879 at a meeting held in a Dublin hotel attended by Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell. It followed on the earlier Mayo Land League which Michael Davitt and James Daly founded following meetings in Irishtown and Westport the previous August. Its objectives were rent reductions and the right of tenants to purchase the freeholds of their holdings. It was in truth a reaction to the agricultural depression of the 1870s and to the arbitrary system of rackrenting and evictions which the Land Laws allowed Irish landlords to inflict upon tenant farmers. The passing of the 1870 Land Act gave Irish tenant farmers the right to be compensated in the event of eviction for improvements carried out during their tenancy. However landlords were entitled to contract out of the operation of the Act, thereby depriving their tenants of its benefit. The Duke of Leinster was one of the first Irish landlords to seek to defeat his tenants’ rights under the 1870 Act. The Leinster Lease, as it became known, sought to sidestep the Land Act and local opposition to its terms saw the founding of the Tenant Defence Asociation in Athy. This was the first such association formed in Ireland following the decline of Isaac Butt’s Tenant League of 1848. The Athy Tenant Association held its first meeting on Tuesday 19 November 1872 with Captain Morgan of Rahinderry in the Chair. Local man Thomas P. Kynsey, J.P. acted as the Association’s Secretary. The group passed the following resolution: “That an attempt has been made on the Leinster Estate to deprive the tenants of all the advantages conferred on them by the Land Act, the attempt in question should receive the instant and most determined opposition from the Association.” The Duke of Leinster succeeded in overcoming local opposition to the Leinster Lease, usually as a result of the threat of eviction. One tenant farmer who signed was James Leahy, Chairman of Athy Town Comissioners, who would later attend the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament for South Co. Kildare. Athy’s Board of Guardians, at its Board meeting on 1 January 1879, declined to sign the Leinster Lease on the basis “that this Board as the representatives of the people decline to give their signatures to a document directly opposed to the provisions of the Land Act of 1870.” Parliamentary elections brought Charles Stewart Parnell to Athy for what I believe was the first time on Easter Monday 1880. At that meeting James Leahy, the farmer from Ardscull, was nominated as the candidate for the Irish Parliamentary Party. He would win the seat and remain a Member of Parliament for the next fifteen years. Opposition to the Leinster Lease was maintained at a low level up to the summer of 1880, but evictions in September of that year on the local Verschoyle Estate prompted the formation of a branch of the Land League in Athy. Michael Boyton, an Irish American who lived in Kildare town, organised the meeting which established Athy’s Land League branch on Sunday 10 October 1880. Boyton, on addressing the meeting, claimed to have been commissioned by Charles Stewart Parnell to establish the Athy branch of the Land League following a request from tenant farmers of Athy to the League’s national organisation. It also followed approximately three weeks after Parnell, in a speech in Ennis, Co. Clare, had called for a “boycott” against those who opposed the Land League. Parnell had not used that exact phrase, but boycotting soon became the Land League’s most effective weapon following aggrieved tenants’ refusal to engage with Captain Charles Boycott of Lough Mask House in Co. Mayo. I have been unable to discover who was elected President of Athy’s Land League branch. Dr. Patrick O’Neill was the Vice-President, with Timothy Byrne as Treasurer and John Cantwell as Secretary. The Athy Branch had a flag which was last known to have been in the possession of Peter P. Doyle of Woodstock Street. Made of green silky material, it had a picture of Parnell on one side, with the words “United We Stand, Divided We Fall” on the reverse. On 8 January 1881 the local papers reported a Land League meeting in Market Square, Athy, during which Michael Blyton burned a copy of the Leinster Lease. However, within a few weeks local support for the Land League was undermined by a clerical instigated tenants’ agreement to accept a 20% rent reduction offered by the Duke of Leinster. Dr. Kavanagh, the parish priest of Kildare, chaired a meeting of tenants which accepted the Duke’s rent reduction without referring the matter to the Land Leauge breanch. As a result, Dr. O’Neill resigned as Vice-President of the Athy branch as “the acceptance of the Duke’s offer had broken the backbone of the local Land League.” Athy, which in 1872 had given Ireland the first of the new wave of tenants’ defence associations, had little further involvement in the Land League. The movement first started by Davitt and Daly in a small Co. Mayo village united Irish tenant farmers as never before. The British Prime Minister William Gladstone acknowledged that if the Land League had not existed the 1881 Land Act would not have been brought to Parliament. His Act gave legal status to the tenants’ freedom of sale and right to compensation for improvements. It also established the Land Commission and a Land Court with power to review rents under the Fair Rent clause of the Act.

Tom Moore, long time Secretary of Rheban G.F.C.

He was born in 1901, the youngest of seven children, and grew up in Rheban on a small farm with the nearby Grand Canal as his youthful playground. His name will be forever linked with Rheban Gaelic Football Club, which he helped to form in February 1929. Tom Moore was living in No. 7 Offaly Street when the Taaffes arrived from Castlecomer in 1945 to live in No. 6. We were neighbours and I was friends with Tom’s sons Willie and Mickey; together we shared with Teddy Kelly, Basil White and Tom Webster much-treasured youthful memories. Tom Moore and his brother John were Gaelic footballers who played for Athy for many years prior to the founding of Rheban Football Club. Both featured on the first Athy team to contest a Kildare Senior Championship Final. That was in 1923 when Naas defeated an injury-hit Athy team whose performance was described as less memorable than that of the Athy Jazz Band “who paraded in fancy dress befor the match.”.That Athy team comprised, in addition to the Moore brothers, Eddie “Sapper” O’Neill, Chris Lawler, Dan Nolan, Jim Clancy, Paddy Hayden, Tom Forrestal, Johnny Kelly, P. Brogan, Tom Germaine, George Dowling, Mikey Grant, Dick Mahon and M. Byrne. I wonder if Athy Club’s loss of the Senior County Finals in 1927 and 1928 while the Country Senior Team won the All-Ireland Finals in those years might have prompted the Moore brothers to join their Rheban neighbours to form the new football club in 1929. Whatever the motivation, John and Tom Moore were to the forefront in establishing Rheban Gaelic Football Club, with John elected as the club’s first Chairman and his younger brother Tom as the Treasurer/ Secretary for the next 55 years, during which time he oversaw many successes by the Rheban players on the field of play. The club’s very first victory was achieved in Geraldine Park, Athy when Rheban defeated Suncroft in a Junior match in 1929. That first winning team included the two Moore brothers as well as a young Paddy Myles, who played so well on the Kildare County Junior Team which won the Leinster Title in 1931 that he was promoted to the Kildare County Senior Team. Uniquely, his first and only time to play for the County Seniors was in the All-Ireland Football Final against Kerry in 1931. Under Tom Moore’s stewardship Rheban won its first Championship Final in 1940 when defeating Ardclough following a replay of that year’s Junior Championship. That was followed two years later by the club’s success as County Champions in the Intermediate Championship, and in 1945 the same team contested the semi-final of the County Senior Championship. Pat McEvoy, who was a member of the 1942 Intermediate Team, wrote the now famous “Rheban Victory Song” to celebrate the club’s success in the Junior Championship of 1940. The song concludes with a reference to those non-players “who brought us fame, Ben Kane ever faithful, Tom Moore for his brains and Tom Mac for his field where we could always train.” The history of Rheban Gaelic Football Club is inextricably linked with the life of Tom Moore. In addition to his role as Club Treasurer/ Secretary, he served as a County Board delegate and as selector for the County Junior Team which won the All-Ireland in 1970. He also served as a selector for the County Minor Team which won Kildare’s first Leinster Minor Title in 1973. Tom, who worked as an insurance agent, served one term as a Fianna Fáil member of Athy Urban District Council from 1955 to 1960. Tom and his wife Margaret, a native of Rathcormack, Co. Waterford were an ever-present part of my growing up in Offaly Street in the 1950s. I don’t know what prompted Tom to call on me to join the Rheban Club but join I did, travelling with Willie Moore to play in matches in the field just below the Railway Bridge at Kilberry. I only lasted one year before rejoining Athy G.F.C, but I’m afraid Rheban G.F.C never missed me. Tom Moore’s service to Rheban G.F.C and the wider GAA community was marked in 1954 by the presentation to him in the Old School in Kilberry of a gold medal. Fifteen years later he was presented with a seven day clock to mark 40 years uninterrupted service to the club. Tom passed away in 1984, just five years after the club had purchased grounds which over the following years were developed to provide up-to-date playing facilities. On Saturday, 19 June 1999 the grounds, now supplied with dressing rooms and parking facilities, were officially opened and re-named as the Tom Moore Memorial Park. It was a fitting tribute to a great Gael and a man who I remember as a quiet, gentlemanly neighbour of whom I have many good memories.

Irish White Cross Committee Athy

The New Year brings us further into the decade of commemoration. The first day of 1921 saw the destruction of seven houses in Middleton, Co. Cork as an act of reprisal by crown forces. It followed the St. Stephen’s Day killing by R.I.C. officers of five young men attending a dance in Bruff, Co. Limerick. I.R.A. members in County Kildare were engaged in road trenching, the destruction of bridges and the toppling of telegraph poles so as to impede the movement of the R.I.C. and crown forces. The local I.R.A. activity in and around Athy resulted in the imposition of a curfew from 9.00p.m. to 5.00a.m. in the town in March 1921 and prompted a military order prohibiting the holding of the Tuesday market. One of the most significant developments of 1921 was the founding of the Irish White Cross by Sinn Fein in February of that year. Its purpose was to help those affected by the ongoing War of Independence, in particular the almost 1,000 Irish families made homeless by the destructive actions of crown forces. Also to be helped were the 10,000 or so Catholic workers driven from their jobs in Belfast. The Irish White Cross was headed up by Cardinal Logue and its trustees included Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. The organisation was tasked initially with distributing the funds collected by the New York based Committee For The Relief Of Irish Distress founded in December 1920. The first report of the Irish White Cross for the period to 31 August 1922 reported that ‘at least 2,000 houses – dwellinghouses, farmsteads, shops – were utterly destroyed, while about 1,500 were partially destroyed’ by crown forces during the War of Independence. The wholesale destruction by crown forces included 40 cooperative creameries totally destroyed, while another 35 creameries were partially wrecked. The report continued: ‘in the course of the struggle some 7,000 persons were arrested and frequently without a charge even being made against them, were confined in prison or internment camps.’ Amongst the many examples of crown forces’ acts of terrorism were the burning of 25 houses and a hosiery factory in Balbriggan on 20 September 1920 and the burning of approximately 45 shops in Cork three months later. Citing examples of the distress caused to Catholic families in Belfast, the report noted that 10,000 workers were forcibly expelled from their places of work, while in July 1921 more than 160 houses belonging to Catholic families were attacked and rendered uninhabitable. A local White Cross committee was founded in Athy on 28 June 1921. It was chaired by the parish priest, Canon Edward Mackey with the local Rector Archdeacon Johnston as the Vice Chairman. The Town Clerk, Joseph A. Lawler, acted as the committee’s secretary. The committee’s first act was to pass on a cheque for £35 to Patrick Lynch of Barrowhouse to buy carpentry tools. His house and workshop had been burned down by crown forces in the immediate aftermath of the Barrowhouse ambush. A later payment was made to his sister Ellen Lynch, while financial assistance was also extended to Mrs. Margaret Connor and James Lacey following written representations from the Barrowhouse teacher, P.J. Walker. The two beneficiaries were the parents of the I.R.A. Volunteers killed at Barrowhouse on 16 May 1921. The late William Connor was described as the second son of Mrs. Margaret Connor and had been a farm labourer who supported his mother and his sister. His colleague, James Lacey, who was also killed, was described as the eldest son of a family of eight whose father was a small farmer and ‘a most respectable man’. Another victim of the crown forces reprisals following the Barrowhouse ambush was Patrick Keating of Barrowhouse whose application for White Cross assistance was deferred as he had taken up a collection in Athy to cover his losses. Another beneficiary of White Cross Committee funding was Mrs. Jane Bradley of Woodstock Street who was in receipt of 25/= per week from the Dependents Fund. She had three young children and no income as her husband James was detained in Rath Camp on the Curragh. He had been arrested in February 1921 and was detained until released on parole on 28th November. The local White Cross Committee held church gate collections in Athy which netted £187 and an additional £25 was collected and forwarded to the Dublin based national organisation by the organisers of a sports day held in Kilberry in September 1921. Athy’s committee distributed £125.15.0 in the Athy area, considerably less than the £736.15.0 distributed in Newbridge, while in Kildare county a total of £2,765.9.0 was distributed. The comparable figures for Kerry were £661,347.77 and Cork £548,862.19.3 The centenary of the Barrowhouse ambush in which William Connor and James Lacey were killed will occur on the 16th May. This will be the most important centenary commemorative event for Athy and district in 2021. The local history group based in Athy’s Town Hall Shackleton Museum would wish to make contact with members of the Connor and Lacey families, as well as the Lynch and other families whose properties were targeted by crown forces in the aftermath of the Barrowhouse ambush. Any information in that regard might be passed to me by email to frank@taaffe.ie.

Methodism in Athy

One of the many interesting exhibits in Athy’s Shackleton Museum refers to the town’s religious diversity. On its formation in the 12th century and for two centuries thereafter the inhabitants of the medieval village of Athy were French speaking Catholics. The French language in time gave way as English settlers came to live in the settler’s town on the Marches of Kildare. Following the Reformation, the developing town witnessed a change in the religious makeup of its citizenry and over the following generations the religious diversity widened to include not just Catholics and Church of Ireland, but also Presbyterians and Methodists. The first Methodist Minister appointed to Athy in 1790 was Rev. John Mullen. This was a time when Methodism was still closely associated with the Church of Ireland, with Methodists attending morning service in the Parish Church and later attending their own preaching services in the evening. In 1813 approval was given for the erection of a Methodist chapel in Athy. It does not appear to have been built as the 1837 map of Athy shows the former Quaker meeting house in Meeting Lane described as ‘a small house of worship formerly belonging to the Quakers and now to the Methodists.’ The Methodist Minister appointed in 1813 was John Rogers who was replaced two years later by Robert Bowen. Athy was then part of the Carlow circuit and was to remain so until 1970 when it was included in the Portlaoise and Tullamore circuits. In 1824 Rev. Robert Banks, who had been appointed to the Carlow Circuit in 1812, was appointed a supernumerary and settled in Athy. He was apparently the first Methodist Minister to reside in the town, the other appointees dating back to 1790 having lived in Carlow. The Methodist cause was by then very low in the town but soon revived under the guidance of Rev. Banks. The rent for the Chapel approved in 1813 payable to the Duke of Leinster remained unpaid for 10 years or so until Rev. Banks took the matter up with the Duke. The Landlord visited Athy, inspected the Chapel and immediately remitted the arrears of rent and reduced the annual payments from four pounds to twenty shillings. A Sunday School was provided in the Chapel under the superintendence of the Church of Ireland curate Rev. F.S. Trench, while his colleague Rev. Bristow, frequently attended the Methodist preaching service. When asked why he did so he replied, “Many of my people go there and I must hear what it is said to them”. The close co-operation between the Church of Ireland and the Methodist did not continue as it was alleged that Rev. Trench subsequently became narrow and exclusive in his views and removed the Sunday School from the Methodist Chapel. As a result of the formal separation of Methodist and Church of Ireland the Methodist cause in Athy prospered and grew. By 1832 the level and fervour of participation in Methodist services in Athy were such as to excite the interest of a Wexford man, Moses Rowe, who was in the town on business. Moved by what he witnessed he returned to his home town where he held many meetings describing the glorious scenes he had witnessed in Athy. During the Great Famine the Methodist Mission continued and in 1847 two itinerant preachers, Henderson and Huston, reported that in Athy they had at least 15 conversions and “several backsliders were restored.” Rev. Banks was still living in Athy, while one of the principal members of the Methodist congregation were the Duncan family of Tonlegee House. The death of Rev. Thomas Kelly in 1854 resulted in the closure of his meeting house in Duke Street and the disbandment of the 30 or 40 strong Kellyites. Their members returned for the most part to the local Church of Ireland and Methodist communities. With the growth of Methodism in Athy it was felt that the former Quaker meeting house was no longer large enough for Sunday Services and the Sunday School which was also located there. In 1867 Alexander Duncan who was then on his second term as Chairman of Athy Town Commissioners purchased some ground at Woodstock Street and offered it to the local Methodist congregation as a site for a new Methodist Church. In April 1871 the Methodist congregation of Athy decided to construct the first purpose built Methodist Church and Sunday School in Athy on the site donated by Alexander Duncan. The foundation stone of the new building was laid on 12 June 1872 before a large and representative crowd of local people by Mrs. Alexander Duncan whose husband had donated £600.00 in addition to the site. The first Sunday Service in the new church was held on the following Sunday when Rev. G.T. Perks, President of the British Methodist Conference, preached the sermon. The Sunday School opened at 4pm on the same day. During the 1870s the average Sunday service attendance was 120, while a similar number of children attended the summer school. The Methodist Church in Woodstock Street now serves both as a church and as Athy’s Art Centre.

General Election 1920 and South Kildare

Towards the end of November 1918 the local newspapers reported on the arrangements made in the Athy area with regard to the General Election scheduled for 14th December. At a meeting held in Athy, Denis Kilbride, the outgoing Member of Parliament for South Kildare, was selected as a candidate for the Irish Parliamentary Party. He was proposed by Athy’s parish priest Canon Mackey and seconded by Mr. John Alexander Duncan, described in the press reports as a “Protestant Home Ruler” who attended at the local railway station in August 1914 as the first batch of soldiers went to war. The Sinn Féin party after its successful foray into parliamentary elections in the previous year’s Roscommon Bye-Election was poised to further its cause in the 1918 General Election on a policy of absenteeism. Denis Kilbride, who thirty years earlier had been evicted from his farm at Luggacurran, was diametrically opposed to the Sinn Féin policy: “I am not in favour of abandoning the House of Commons” he declared, “Home Rule as enjoyed by Australia could only be won by unity in Ireland”. A week later Charles Bergin of Kildare town presided at a meeting of Kilbride’s supporters where letters of support were read from Rev. P. Campion P.P., Kildare, Rev. J. Kelly P.P., Suncroft and Rev. W.A. Staples of White Abbey. Clearly the Catholic clergy were behind the Irish Parliamentary candidate where the only other candidate was a Sinn Féiner. On Sunday, 1st December separate meetings in support of Denis Kilbride and the Sinn Féin candidate, Art O’Connor, were held in Emily Square, Athy. Art O’Connor was still in prison having been arrested the previous May with almost the entire Sinn Féin leadership for allegedly conspiring with the German enemy in what is now referred to as “The German Plot”. The Sinn Féin meeting was addressed by Fr. Michael O’Flanagan, the Roscommon born Catholic clergyman and Republican who had successfully campaigned for the election of Count Plunkett as a Sinn Féin M.P. the previous year. O’Flanagan who was known as the “Sinn Féin priest” told his Athy audience “that by withdrawing her representatives from Parliament Ireland would demonstrate to the world what a united people could do. Thirty members of the Irish Parliamentary Party have already dropped out. The others we will be compelled to sweep aside.” The Irish Parliamentary Meeting supporting the candidature of Denis Kilbride was presided over by Canon Mackey. Addressing many who were his local parishioners, he said Kilbride claimed their support on the strength of Ireland as a nation but not a separate nation. He continued: “There were only two conceivable ways in which the freedom of Ireland could be achieved, physical force or moral or parliamentary persuasion. Any man who would propound the doctrine of physical force must be suffering from mid summer madness. A united Ireland resisted conscription successfully and if the same unity prevailed in other matters, the same happy results would be achieved. Absenteeism was a negative policy and if pursued and brought into practice will bring ruin and disaster on Ireland. Crushing taxation would be imposed in Ireland without parliamentary representation.” Denis Kilbride who was frequently interrupted as he addressed the meeting said the new idea of freedom was “shout down everyone who does not agree with you”. He continued “I never believed until lately that there was so many young men in the asylums and so many lunatics outside. One would think that for the first time in Ireland men went to jail in 1916. In the old days they took their punishment and their plank beds without squealing. Today no political prisoners had to be on a plank bed. All they wanted was cigarettes and chicken. That was the programme of the men determined to lose the last of their blood for Ireland.” M.E. Doyle, Chairman of the Athy Urban District Council, also spoke in favour of the Parliamentary Party candidate and a resolution was passed pledging support to Kilbride. The Irish Independent on the day of the election, Saturday, 14th December 1918, under the heading “The Kildare Campaign” reported that bands and contingents carrying torch lights from various districts including Carlow attended a large Sinn Féin meeting in Athy on the previous Thursday night at which Mr. P.P. Doyle who presided read a letter from Art O’Connor, the Sinn Féin candidate for South Kildare. The Mayor of Limerick, also spoke and referring to the Insurance Act as one of the fruits of the parliamentary party’s 40 year agitation added “I hope they kept their cards stamped as they will be of benefit on Saturday”. Mr. Tynan of the Laois Land and Labour Association made an appeal to labourers to support Sinn Féin “as victory for it meant a better day for the workers”. The election resulted in a landslide victory for Art O’Connor who polled 7,104 votes compared to 1,545 votes for the outgoing M.P., Denis Kilbride. This marked the end of Kilbride’s parliamentary career which had commenced his election as M.P. for South Kerry following the Luggacurran evictions of the 1880’s. The emergence of Sinn Féin changed the political face of urban Ireland. Power and influence hitherto sustained and nurtured by wealth and class passed to men whose allegiances were to Irish nationalism and to an Irish parliament.

Christmas 2020

Christmas time holds special memories for all of us. Joyful memories for many, but for some it is a sad period for reflecting on the loss of loved ones and times past. Family and community are so important in our daily lives for the maintenance of tradition and regularity as we go forward. Each Christmas, since 1993, members of Athy community have become accustomed to attending the annual ‘While Shepherds Watched’ concert produced by the local musical society in the Dominican Church. It brought together tradition and history in an always enjoyable mixture of Christmas carols and songs which were appreciated by so many. Since the departure of the Dominicans from Athy ‘While Shepherds Watched’ has transferred to St. Michael’s Parish Church, but this year because of Covid 19 the 2020 performance will come to us on Tuesday 22nd December by livestream. Carmel Day, Imelda Dooley and David Walsh, with the support of the musical society organising committee, have put together a programme of traditional carols, seasonal readings and instrumental music featuring local artists. I am told the livestream will be available at parishofathy.ie, as well as on radio at 107.9FM. A Go Fund Me page has been set up at amdsstvincentspatientcomfortfund2020 to allow people to donate funds for St. Vincent’s Hospital Patient Comfort Fund, which in previous years had benefitted from admission fees for attendance at the annual ‘While Shepherd’s Watched’. It’s a good cause and worthy of all our support. The local Lions Club has just completed its annual food appeal with the co-operation of the local supermarkets, Perrys and Pettitts. Given the restrictions imposed as a result of Covid 19 Athy Lions Club members were extremely pleased with the amount of food collected, all of which was subsequently handed over to the local St. Vincent de Paul Society for distribution. Athy Lions Club have been doing tremendous work in the South Kildare area for many years and has remained active even during the Covid 19 pandemic. During the past year it has supported a huge number of community projects in Athy, including the Shop Local Campaign, the Shopfront Floral Scheme and the earlier mentioned food collection for families in need. Financial assistance was also provided by the Lions Club for a number of local groups involved in community related activities in the town. The Club’s largest ever project completed some years ago was the construction of the retirement homes at McAuley Court in the grounds of St. Vincent’s Hospital. This year the Lions Club installed heaters in the houses which have been under the management of the H.S.E. for many years. The Lions Club Book Shop, ably managed by Alice Rowan, is the club’s most visible expression of its commitment to the local community. The Corona virus pandemic has created hardship amongst local families where it never previously existed. This has resulted in an ever growing demand for assistance from the local St. Vincent de Paul Society with calls for help which cannot always be satisfied unless those within our community, who can do so, reach out to help. Donations of money as well as gifts, clothing, etc. can be left into the St. Vincent’s de Paul shop, ‘Vincents’ at Upper William Street at any time between now and Christmas. Another community generated annual event is the publication of Athy Photographic Society’s calendar. A calendar displaying the photographic skills of the society members has been produced annually since 2007 with the financial support of a number of local sponsors. This year’s calendar, the net sale proceeds of which will be donated to Athy Community Family Resource Centre in Woodstock Street, features the photographs of Phil Lawler, Aisling Hyland, Viviane Rosa, Eddie Bond, Dave Daly, James Mahon, Borris Shnaiderman, Peadar Doogue, Jimmy McCarthy, Paddy Joe Ryan, Frank Fanning, Alan Salter, John Nugent, Cynthia Coughlan, Chris Bradshaw, Anthony Hubbock and Elizabeth Fingleton. The usual photographic opportunities were not available this year due to Covid 19, so the Society members took the opportunity of highlighting this year’s calendar the local waterways and wild life. 2020 has been a difficult year for every local family, with many of Athy’s shopkeepers and business people suffering substantial losses which in some cases may threaten the continued viability of some businesses. Sadly, the community has lost many family members, friends and neighbours and our normal activities have been curtailed. It continues to be a difficult time for all as we face into an uncertain future. The relevance and importance of community action by groups such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society and Athy Lions Club, or indeed by any other local group involved with the community, cannot be overstated. The work they do is crucial to the wellbeing of community life but to succeed in what they are doing they will always need our continuing support. Keep safe and Happy Christmas to you all.