‘There is no glory in
defeat’. A
maxim oft told to a football team at half time as its members regather their
strength and energies for the second half.
The result of last Sunday’s football match in Croke Park gave lie to the
claim when the Kildare footballers walked off the pitch to the applause of
proud supporters from the shortgrass county.
The team had remained on the pitch for quite some time after the game
and the majority of the Kildare supporters also stayed behind in the stands and
on Hill 16 to applaud their heroes as they trudged wearily towards the dressing
rooms. The Kildare Senior team did us
proud, not only last Sunday, but after the opening losing match, throughout the
subsequent footballing year and the supporters showed their appreciation at the
end of the Croke Park game.
Nearer to home, Athy achieved a unique double with the success of
Clare Kambamettu in the 2010 Rose of Tralee competition. What are the chances of two Athy girls in
successive years winning the London Rose competition? But to transfer that question to the winning of
the Rose of Tralee competition itself raises issues of betting odds far beyond
our understanding.
Two Tralee Roses in two years from a small Irish town is a unique
achievement and contributes enormously to raising the town’s profile. For too long Athy was identified by reference
to a bank robbery and unjustified claims of being a rough town subject to the
activities of Hole in the Wall gangs. All
that is now surely in the past as the two winners of the Rose of Tralee
competition show a different side to the South Kildare town. Athy for the foreseeable future will be
inextricably linked with the beauty and grace of two wonderful ambassadors who
have given us cause to renew our pride in our own place.
One family who in my time and before my time, took great pride in
Athy and its people were the Meany’s of St. Patrick’s Avenue. Jack, Kevin, Danny and Dermot with their
sisters Molly and Margaret were involved in different aspects of the town’s
life from the 1940s onwards. I remember
Kevin as the town’s librarian in the 1950s.
It was then a part time position, the library opening in the evening
time only to give access to the books which were shelved in the small room in
the Town Hall which is now used as a reference room. Accessed by the stairs opposite Mrs. Josephine
Gibbon’s house, the scarcity of motor traffic in those days posed no great
dangers for library users. Nowadays the
hall door leading onto Emily Row is deemed a safety hazard and is consequently
permanently locked.
I used the library a lot in the late 1950s, being then a great fan
of John Creasey novels. Kevin was proud
of Athy and always encouraged library users to read anything touching on Athy
and its history. There was indeed very
little known of local history in those days, but one book he always mentioned
was ‘The Rebellion of 1798’ by Kilcoo
born Patrick O’Kelly. The local library
never had a copy of the book and it was many years later before I managed to
purchase a copy of this scarce work and so began a history journey which has
never ended. Kevin’s brother Danny who
worked in the local Asbestos factory, was a keen photographer and an avid
gatherer of photographic images of the town and its people. Long before others had acknowledged the
importance of photographs in recording social history, Danny had amassed and
collated a lot of photographic material.
His legacy of prints and film is a vitally important element of Athy’s
social history.
Jack Meany had worked abroad for years, returning to Athy when he
retired. He was a great supporter of the
Heritage Centre when it was first mooted and was always to be seen at
historical walks and talks arranged in conjunction with the local history
group.
Two weeks ago the last surviving member of the Meany family passed
away, aged 86 years. Dermot had been a
patient in St. Vincent’s Hospital for many years past. I knew Dermot when he worked in Paddy
Dillon’s shop in Emily Square which is now the J1 Cafe. He had previously worked in Galway and
Tullamore. He was a courteous man who
was never known to give offence and his passing and the earlier death of his
sister Margaret who passed away three years ago deprives us of the last of a
family which graced the cultural and social life of Athy over many decades.
The local Heritage Centre is gearing up for the Shackleton Autumn
School over the October Bank Holiday weekend and hosts a photographic
exhibition on the Antarctic by John Gamble, Professor of Geology at University
College Cork commencing on 14th September. The exhibition titled ‘Fire and Ice: A Photographic Journey of Antarctia’ will run until
15th October.
Professor Gamble returned to Ireland after 28 years in Australia and
New Zealand. He has published more than
100 scientific papers and has the rare distinction of having three terrestrial
landmarks named in his honour – Gamble Glacier and Gamble Cone in Antarctia and
the Gamble Volcanic Complex on the Tonga – Kermadec Island Arc in the South
West Pacific. The exhibition comes to
Athy from the Jennings Gallery in Cork City.
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