Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Jimmy Robinson and Athy's C.Y.M.S.


In February 2007 some minute books and other books relating to the Catholic Young Mens Society in Athy were given to me by Jimmy Robinson.  Jimmy was the last Honorary Secretary of the C.Y.M.S., a local institution with a history extending back over 150 years but which had ceased to exist in 2004. 



The first branch of the society was founded in Limerick in 1849 after a young priest who had attended Knockbeg College Carlow brought together a number of labourers.  Fr. Richard Baptist O’Brien, who had been ordained in Maynooth ten years previously, spent the first five years of his priesthood in Canada.  On returning to Limerick during the dreadful famine year of 1847 Fr. O’Brien felt the need for young men who survived the famine to come together in friendship and cooperation to better their lives.  Approximately 13 years after the foundation of the society a C.Y.M.S. branch was started in Athy.  Unfortunately the minute books dealing with the early years of the branch have not been found.  The earliest minute books to survive starts with entries for 1958, while an earlier cash book opened in June 1926 lists  initially on a daily basis and later weekly and then twice monthly monies received and monies paid up to 1949.  To my great regret the minute book or books for the period 1964 to 1971 are missing as my late brother Seamus took over as secretary from Jim McEvoy a short time before his untimely death in a road traffic accident.



That these records have survived is a tribute to Jimmy Robinson’s attention to detail and the care which marked his voluntary work as honorary secretary of the C.Y.M.S. over many years.  The last entry in the C.Y.M.S. minute book is of a committee meeting held on 21st October 1994.  The meeting was presided over by another great stalwart of Athy, P.J. Hyland.  Jimmy who died last week joins P.J. in our memories. 



Memories not only of the C.Y.M.S. but also of the wonderful characters who were members of the local branch when it occupied premises at the corner of Stanhope Street and Stanhope Place.  Where the C.Y.M.S. branch was originally located following its foundation in 1862 I cannot say.  The members took over the building at the corner of Stanhope Place from the Sisters of Mercy in 1892.  Forty eight years later they acquired use of the adjoining building immediately adjacent to the side entrance gate to the Parish Church.  It lay directly opposite the Parish Priest’s house and had been home to the technical school since the setting up of technical education at the start of the century.  The building became vacant when a new technical school was opened on the Carlow Road in 1940.  The then Parish Priest Canon McDonnell (after whom McDonnell Drive is named) gave the C.Y.M.S. permission to use the old technical school room which in my young days was called the card room.  It was the ‘holy of holies’ for the senior members such as Tom Moore, Ned Cranny, Christy Dunne, ‘Sooty’ Hayden, Willie Bracken and many others for whom card playing was a favourite pastime. 



The late Jimmy Robinson and P.J. Hyland with other committee members witnessed the gradual falloff of membership in the C.Y.M.S. during the 1990s.  The original objective of the society ‘to foster mutual union and cooperation and by priestly guidance, the spiritual intellectual, social and physical welfare of its members’ may not have seemed relevant in the world of the Celtic Tiger.  During the 1950s there was more than 100 C.Y.M.S. branches in Ireland.  In 1994 there were just 17 branches left throughout the country and it is likely that the Athy branch was not the only one to close its doors in recent years. 



Jimmy Robinson came from an old Athy family, as did Jimmy Bolger and John Joe Owens, both of whom passed away recently.  I was privileged to write of Jimmy Bolger in a previous Eye on the Past.  John Joe Owens was a man who like myself was not afraid of expressing his views in a forthright manner.  I have huge admiration for men such as the two Jimmys and John Joe who in their own individual way contributed to what I have often described as the rich tapestry of life in our south Kildare town of Athy. 



Other deaths noted during the recent past were that of Claus Schmidt and Mary Leech, both of whom were well known in the town.  As I am writing this piece I have learned of the death of an old school colleague of mine from our days in the local Christian Brothers secondary school.  John Joe Brennan died while I was abroad and regrettably I was unaware of his passing until now.  I have fond memories of John Joe who with a few others joined the Christian Brothers secondary school from outlying rural primary schools in the 1950s. 



Their passing brings sadness not only to family and friends but also to a community which remembers times past and experiences shared.

Tour of World War I sites in Flanders


Last week I travelled to Belgium with a group of local historians from Northern Ireland and from the Republic to visit sites associated with the Great War. The human evidence of the tragedies of that war can be found there in the cemeteries and memorials dotted across the Flemish countryside. 



The main setting off point for any visit to the Great War sites is the town of Ypres.  The nearby countryside was the location of various battles including the third battle of Ypres, commonly known as Passchendaele where the British army suffered huge losses in what is now regarded as a senseless and pointless battle.



On the eastern side of the town on the road to Menin is the Menin Gate memorial on which are listed the names of more than 54,000 soldiers killed in and around Ypres and whose graves are not known.  Their names are engraved in Portland stone panels fixed to the walls of what is called the Hall of Memory and included are the names of at least 19 men from Athy and south Kildare.  Many of them were killed in action on 26th April 1915 including Joseph Byrne of Chapel Lane, a sergeant in the Dublin Fusiliers.  Other casualties on that day were James Halloran of Crookstown, Patrick Tierney of Foxhill and James Dillon, Christopher Power and Patrick Leonard, all of Athy.  Leonard died of his wounds on 29th April, while Power at 59 years of age was possibly one of the oldest recruits from this area. 



Each evening at 8 p.m. a short ceremony takes place at the Menin Gate memorial when the Last Post is sounded by buglers of the local fire brigade.  The poignant scene as a wreath was laid by two members of the Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic groups was evidence of the shared history of the two parts of our island boosted by the involvement of the 16th Irish Division and the 36th Ulster Division in the Great War.



A few days later we visited Thiepval, that other great memorial to soldiers who died in the Somme battle sector before 20th March 1918 and have no known graves.  The names of approximately 72,000 soldiers are listed on this memorial for the missing, including the names of 18 men from Athy and district.  Two of the south Kildare men named on the memorial died on 6th September 1916.  They were Peter Keogh of Ballindrum and Robert McWilliams of Athy.  Three days earlier Thomas Stafford of Butlers Row was killed.  His brother Edward was killed in action two years earlier.  John Mulhall, a 20 year old from Athy, joined his comrades in death on 23rd October 1916, as did 25 year old Athy man Joseph Murphy eleven days previously.  John Delaney was killed in action on 9th September 1916, while Edward Dowling of Castledermot died six days later.  James Dunne of 3 Offaly Street was killed on 13th November 1916, while Robert Hackett died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.  None of these men have known graves and their names are included on the Thiepval memorial.  I was delighted to see at the Thiepval memorial a wreath placed there on behalf of the people of Grandvilliers, the French town twinned with Athy. 



Not far away Guillemont was the scene of continuous fighting in the second half of 1916 as the English soldiers fought to take possession of the village.  As the scene of repeated attacks and counter attacks the village of Guillemont was virtually a fortress with numerous dugouts and tunnels which defied the heaviest artillery barrages.  On 3rd September 1916 soldiers under the command of Lieutenant John Vincent Holland of Athy broke through the defences of what was regarded as one of the strongest fortified villages held by the Germans.  Holland, who was attached to the Leinster Regiment, gained the Victoria Cross for his bravery on that occasion. 



The capture of Guillemont by Holland and his men was regarded as one of the most important events of September 1916.  Today a Celtic cross stands outside the Parish church in Guillemont and on the church wall is a plaque commemorating the deeds of John Vincent Holland, Thomas Hughes and David Jones, all three of whom received the Victoria Cross for their actions at Guillemont on 3rd September 1916.



Not far from the village is the Guillemont Road Cemetery in which those killed in action in the September attack are buried.  Amongst them is Raymond Asquith, son of the British Prime Minister.  Nearby is the last resting place of John Hayden of Castledermot who died at Guillemont on 3rd September 1916. 



Many of the young men from Athy and district who died in the Great War have no known graves.  It was the French herald in Shakespeare’s play Richard III who seeking permission spoke the lines:-



            ‘That we may wonder o’er the bloody field

            To book our dead, and then to bury them.’



Thankfully today we don’t need permission to ‘book our dead’ of the Great War.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

2016 Shackleton Autumn School


The October Bank Holiday weekend will see many overseas visitors arriving in Athy for the Shackleton Autumn School.  Now in its 16th year the school brings together international and Irish polar experts and enthusiasts to deal with a wide range of topics concerning the Antarctic and those who have attempted to conquer its inhospitable regions. 



In this the centenary of Ernest Shackleton’s courageous exploits following the crushing of his ship, ‘Endurance’ it is wonderful to relate that the Shackleton Autumn School has grown over the years from strength to strength.  This year we will welcome eleven members of the Devon and Cornwall Polar Society, many of whom will be visiting Ireland for the first time.  Another large group travelling from Norway includes the director and seven staff members of the Fram Museum Oslo.  I am told that tickets for the weekend have been purchased by people travelling to the south Kildare venue from Belgium, Spain, Germany and America.  Of course there will be, as in past years, a considerable number of attendees from the UK confirming, if such was needed, that Athy’s Shackleton Autumn School has become the premier annual polar event held anywhere in the world. 



This is a huge compliment for an event which started off with great enthusiasm but without any experience among its organisers.  The contacts made and developed throughout the world of polar studies arising from Shackleton’s connections with Athy have been hugely beneficial in developing the Shackleton Autumn School.  It is now an event of huge importance which brings enormous benefits to Athy’s fledging tourist industry.  Every bed and breakfast facility in the town of Athy is fully booked for the October Bank Holiday weekend and I am told that bookings have had to be made in surrounding towns by some attendees.



2016, important in itself in terms of Shackleton’s centenary, has been an extremely good year insofar as the development of the local Heritage Centre is concerned.  The Heritage Council earlier in the year granted the Heritage Centre full museum status.  The award was the culmination of three years work in improving standards and meeting the exacting requirements of the Museum Accreditation Programme.  This was achieved with minimum staff levels and limited funding but was a just reward for the enthusiasm and willingness to work of all those involved, whether on a voluntary or paid basis, with the Heritage Centre. 



This year also saw the acquisition of the cabin from the ship the ‘Quest’ in which Ernest Shackleton died in 1922.  Acquiring this extraordinary piece of polar history for the Athy Heritage Centre was the work of many people, helped by the Centre’s good standing and acknowledges that it was the only permanent exhibition anywhere in the world devoted to Ernest Shackleton.  The cabin is presently in Letterfrack, Co. Galway, undergoing conservation work before it comes to Athy to become part of the growing Shackleton display in the Town Hall. 



Reports in the national press and television media concerning the cabin’s shipment from Norway to Ireland provided wonderful publicity for the Heritage Centre.  It was matched some months later when the statue of Ernest Shackleton was unveiled in Emily Square.  The statue has proved to be extremely popular in terms of visitors stopping off in Athy to see the wonderful work of the sculptor, Mark Richards.  It has also proved popular amongst the locals, some of whom may have had doubts as to whether the statue was appropriate for Athy.  Thanks must go to Peter Carey and his team in Kildare County Council for their foresight in commissioning a beautiful work of art to mark the centenary of the rescue of Shackleton’s men following their abandonment of the polar ship ‘Endurance’. 



The development of the Heritage Centre is just a part of the town’s regeneration plan, as is the ongoing shop front painting scheme which has drawn much favourable comments in recent weeks.  The town is on the right track insofar as planning for the future is concerned and we can look to the future with a confidence which was not previously shared by many. 



The Shackleton Autumn School will be opened at 7.30 p.m. on Friday, 28th October by Mark Richards, the man whose wonderful work stands proud today in Emily Square.  Everyone is welcome to attend if for nothing else than to enjoy the wine reception which this year is being kindly sponsored by the Athy Solicitors. 



The lectures commence on Saturday morning and continue on Sunday.  Pick up a programme from the Heritage Centre or the Athy Lions Book Shop in Duke Street.


1916 in Athy


1916 was a difficult year for the town of Athy.  The Great War had entered its third year and there was no sign of it ending.  The patriotic fervour and martial ardour that greeted the outbreak of war in 1914 had long since diffused.  The town had grown accustomed to regular reports of casualties from the western front and a number of Athy men had been invalided home.  The year began badly with torrential rains, the worst in memory occasioning the overflow of the Barrow and the flooding of many farms in the Athy area on New Year’s Day 1916. 



By that year over 1600 Athy men were serving in the war and the separation allowance paid to the families of soldiers was a significant bulwark against the endemic poverty of pre-war Athy.



Life in both Athy and Ireland however was itself not without incident.  The Easter Rising would erupt in Dublin in April 1916 and one Athy man, a young Irish volunteer Mark Wilson, would find himself at the heart of events serving in the Four Courts garrison. At the same time Sir Anthony Weldon, a fellow townsman from Kilmoroney House and veteran of the Boer War, was in command of the Limerick Military district.  His humane and sensitive treatment of the Irish Volunteers in Limerick in the aftermath of the Rising was much applauded at the time as no doubt his avowed beliefs as an Irish Home Ruler contributed to his benevolent approach.  He himself would not survive the war, dying at home in 1917 from the after effects of gas poisoning



1916 would mark for Michael Bowden of Athy his second year in captivity in Germany as a Prisoner of War.  The publication of his picture in the Saturday Herald newspaper on 10th June 1916 with that of his brother in law John Byrne was of some comfort to his family, but he would never return home, dying in the camp on 7th May 1918 without ever seeing a child born after his departure for France on the front in the late summer of 1914.



I have no doubt that Bowden and the many other Athy men imprisoned in Limburg would have derived great comfort from the masses they celebrated with Fr. James Crotty, the Dominican friar who had been Prior of the Dominican community in Athy for two years from April 1900 and whose parents left Athy for New Ross in 1867 shortly before Fr. Crotty's birth.



Some aspects of life continued as normal.  The South Kildare Agricultural Show which had been cancelled in August 1914 because of the outbreak of the war was held that summer and local vet, John Holland, received the prize for having the best three year old gelding in the show.  His son, John Vincent Holland, recently returned from working on the railways in Argentina and now an officer in the Leinster Regiments, would win greater acclaim on the Somme battlefield in September where his actions in leading a bombing party would see him awarded the Victoria Cross.  While local vet John Holland enjoyed his success, his former gardener, John Byrne, remained in captivity in Limburg where he would die as the war headed towards its conclusion in September 1918. 



The Hannon family from Ardreigh secured a prize at that same agricultural show for having the best gelding in the four year old category.  The grief and loss they suffered in 1915 when a son was killed would be compounded by the further loss of Lieutenant John Coulson Hannon in summer of 1916. 



1916 was also a defining year for the Kilkea born Ernest Shackleton.  On the day that the Irish volunteers struck for freedom in Dublin on Easter Monday Shackleton set out on an extraordinary 800 mile boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia with his Irish comrades Tom Crean and Tim McCarthy.



It was ultimately with the assistance of the Chilean Navy tugboat ‘Yelcho’ commanded by Commander Luis Pardo, that the rescue was effected on 30th August 1916.  This dramatic event will be celebrated in Athy Heritage Centre Museum next Friday night, 7th October, with a reception to be hosted by the Chilean naval attache to Ireland, Mr. Ronald Baasch.  The reception will be followed by a lecture, at 7.45pm by the distinguished Chilean navy historian, Dr. Fernando Wilson.  All are welcome to attend.



100 years on Athy and Ireland has been transformed and none more so in the prominence of women today in Irish life and society.  This has been particularly apparent in sport, with the extraordinary level of participation of young girls and women in our national game, Gaelic football.  It was particularly uplifting to see the County Kildare ladies football team take the Intermediate All-Ireland title in Croke Park last Sunday in front of a capacity crowd of 35,000 people and I extend my particular congratulations to the two representatives from Athy, Orlaith Moran and Niamh Mulhall on their wonderful achievement.


Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Tour of World War I sites in Flanders


Last week I travelled to Belgium with a group of local historians from Northern Ireland and from the Republic to visit sites associated with the Great War. The human evidence of the tragedies of that war can be found there in the cemeteries and memorials dotted across the Flemish countryside. 



The main setting off point for any visit to the Great War sites is the town of Ypres.  The nearby countryside was the location of various battles including the third battle of Ypres, commonly known as Passchendaele where the British army suffered huge losses in what is now regarded as a senseless and pointless battle.



On the eastern side of the town on the road to Menin is the Menin Gate memorial on which are listed the names of more than 54,000 soldiers killed in and around Ypres and whose graves are not known.  Their names are engraved in Portland stone panels fixed to the walls of what is called the Hall of Memory and included are the names of at least 19 men from Athy and south Kildare.  Many of them were killed in action on 26th April 1915 including Joseph Byrne of Chapel Lane, a sergeant in the Dublin Fusiliers.  Other casualties on that day were James Halloran of Crookstown, Patrick Tierney of Foxhill and James Dillon, Christopher Power and Patrick Leonard, all of Athy.  Leonard died of his wounds on 29th April, while Power at 59 years of age was possibly one of the oldest recruits from this area. 



Each evening at 8 p.m. a short ceremony takes place at the Menin Gate memorial when the Last Post is sounded by buglers of the local fire brigade.  The poignant scene as a wreath was laid by two members of the Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic groups was evidence of the shared history of the two parts of our island boosted by the involvement of the 16th Irish Division and the 36th Ulster Division in the Great War.



A few days later we visited Thiepval, that other great memorial to soldiers who died in the Somme battle sector before 20th March 1918 and have no known graves.  The names of approximately 72,000 soldiers are listed on this memorial for the missing, including the names of 18 men from Athy and district.  Two of the south Kildare men named on the memorial died on 6th September 1916.  They were Peter Keogh of Ballindrum and Robert McWilliams of Athy.  Three days earlier Thomas Stafford of Butlers Row was killed.  His brother Edward was killed in action two years earlier.  John Mulhall, a 20 year old from Athy, joined his comrades in death on 23rd October 1916, as did 25 year old Athy man Joseph Murphy eleven days previously.  John Delaney was killed in action on 9th September 1916, while Edward Dowling of Castledermot died six days later.  James Dunne of 3 Offaly Street was killed on 13th November 1916, while Robert Hackett died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.  None of these men have known graves and their names are included on the Thiepval memorial.  I was delighted to see at the Thiepval memorial a wreath placed there on behalf of the people of Grandvilliers, the French town twinned with Athy. 



Not far away Guillemont was the scene of continuous fighting in the second half of 1916 as the English soldiers fought to take possession of the village.  As the scene of repeated attacks and counter attacks the village of Guillemont was virtually a fortress with numerous dugouts and tunnels which defied the heaviest artillery barrages.  On 3rd September 1916 soldiers under the command of Lieutenant John Vincent Holland of Athy broke through the defences of what was regarded as one of the strongest fortified villages held by the Germans.  Holland, who was attached to the Leinster Regiment, gained the Victoria Cross for his bravery on that occasion. 



The capture of Guillemont by Holland and his men was regarded as one of the most important events of September 1916.  Today a Celtic cross stands outside the Parish church in Guillemont and on the church wall is a plaque commemorating the deeds of John Vincent Holland, Thomas Hughes and David Jones, all three of whom received the Victoria Cross for their actions at Guillemont on 3rd September 1916.



Not far from the village is the Guillemont Road Cemetery in which those killed in action in the September attack are buried.  Amongst them is Raymond Asquith, son of the British Prime Minister.  Nearby is the last resting place of John Hayden of Castledermot who died at Guillemont on 3rd September 1916. 



Many of the young men from Athy and district who died in the Great War have no known graves.  It was the French herald in Shakespeare’s play Richard III who seeking permission spoke the lines:-



            ‘That we may wonder o’er the bloody field

            To book our dead, and then to bury them.’



Thankfully today we don’t need permission to ‘book our dead’ of the Great War.

Clem Roche and his World War I book


Volunteers to help with the work of the local Heritage Centre are always welcome.  The Centre, which this year received full museum accreditation from the Heritage Council, is limited in what it can do with the funds available to it.  Regrettably with only two part-time staff members and a number of volunteers it is not possible to keep the Centre open on Saturdays and Sundays.  A very substantial part of its annual funding comes from Kildare County Council, with admission charges making up the balance.  I am firmly of the view that admission to museums and heritage centres should be freely available but unfortunately because of current financial constraints a small admission charge must be imposed for the foreseeable future.



As I mentioned in a recent Eye on the Past there is huge interest in local history and the Heritage Centre has helped to engender a sense of pride in our own history and in our own town.  The part played in this by volunteers attached to the Heritage Centre must be acknowledged.  One of those volunteers is a young man who has worked tirelessly over the last few years to provide a genealogical research facility as part of the Heritage Centre’s contribution to the local community.  Clem Roche of St. Patrick’s Avenue has recently obtained a Diploma in Genealogy from University College Cork following the completion of his thesis ‘British Military Records 1881-1920 and Family History”.   He had earlier completed a classical studies course through the Open University and obtained a Batchelor of Arts degree. 



Clem’s interest in genealogy was first awakened by his search for details in the World War I army records of a relation of his, James Roche.  James was a native of County Clare who enlisted in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and was killed in action on 25th August 1918, just a few weeks before the war ended.  Another County Clare relation of Clems, his grandfather Michael Roche, was a member of the First Western Division of the Freestate Army who was killed in Tralee on 22nd August 1922.   His son, Patrick Roche, enlisted in the Curragh in 1938 and two years later he married Mary Carey of Nelson Street, Athy.  The young couple came to live in Athy in 1942 or thereabouts and were one of the first tenants of the Pairc Bhride housing scheme which was built in the early 1950s.  The Roche family soldier tradition was continued by Patrick’s son, John and Patrick, who served in the Irish Army for many years.



Clem’s research of both English and Irish army records for information relating to his own family members led him to investigate the records of Athy men who fought in World War I.  His research in that area has added enormously to the work of others in that field including Pat Casey of Bray, Co. Wicklow.  Clem’s concentration on the men from Athy and district has unearthed information previously lost to memory.  He has made that information freely available and has never failed to offer his services and the results of his search to interested parties.  He is one of several volunteers who have worked tirelessly over the years to make the Heritage Centre an institution of which the people of Athy and south Kildare can be proud.



On 11th November next, the 98th anniversary of the ending of the Great War, a new book outlining the men of Athy and district who died in World War I will be launched in the Heritage Centre.  It represents the fruits of Clem Roche’s research over several years and promises to add another layer of knowledge to our understanding of a period in our history which witnessed the loss of so many young Athy men.



Not all of the Heritage Centre’s volunteers are engaged in research.  Their primary role is to help the Heritage Centre staff in running the centre and to assist visitors in understanding the stories which lie behind the artefacts illustrative of Athy’s historical past. 



The Heritage Centre is on the brink of embarking on the next stage of its development and there is an urgent need for more volunteers to assist in its work.  If you feel you could help in advancing the town’s bid to make Athy a tourist stop-off destination, why not contact the Centre’s manageress Margaret Walsh.  She would be delighted to hear from you.



On Thursday, 29th September the Castlecomer male voice choir will take to the stage in the Church of Ireland hall, Offaly Street in a concert organised by Athy Lions Club in aid of local charities.  Also appearing with their conductor, Dean Philip Knowles, will be the In Cantorium choir.  If the Taaffe family had not moved from Castlecomer to Athy when I was three years of age I would probably be on stage on Thursday as a member of the Castlecomer Choir.  My absence will surely make the evening all the more enjoyable.  Do support this latest Lions Club event.




The Great Famine in Athy


It’s a quote I have used before but its use again is justified when announcing the holding of Athy’s annual Famine Commemoration Day to take place on Sunday 25th September at 3.00 p.m. in St. Mary’s Cemetery near to the former workhouse, now St. Vincent’s Hospital.  Athy’s Literary Magazine in its edition of March 1838, just seven years before the start of the Great Famine, printed a letter from an Athy resident in which he claimed:

‘there is not a town in Ireland so completely neglected.  Ramble through our deserted streets and see the able bodied labourers at our corners, hoards of beggars at our doors, disease and famine in the hovels of the poor.’



Three years after that letter was published the census recorded Athy’s population as 4,698, with 1,005 families living in 790 houses.  147 of those houses were unfit one roomed mud walled cabins, while another 318 houses consisted of two roomed mud walled cabins which were undoubtedly unfit for family use. 



Following the passing of the Poor Relief Act a workhouse was opened in Athy on the 9th of January 1844.  It was appropriate recognition of the squalid poverty to be found in Athy and district of that time.  However, even that workhouse which was built to accommodate 360 adults and 240 children could not accommodate the large number of starving people requiring assistance.  As the Great Famine progressed through 1846, 1847, 1848 and 1849 workhouse additional accommodation had to be found in the town to meet the needs of 1,528 adults and children.  They represented the most helpless members of the local community, while at the same time outside the workhouse system 2,807 persons were in receipt of outdoor relief during the summer of 1848. 



The town gaol, opened on the Carlow road in 1830, held almost 100 prisoners as famine ravaged the countryside.  16 of those prisoners were awaiting transportation to Van Diemen’s land.  Their lot was in all probability better than many of those unfortunate local persons availing of outdoor relief, or even the inmates of the workhouse.  John Butler, Justice of the Peace, a native of Athy, obviously concerned by the activity of the Young Irelanders, wrote on 2nd April 1848 to the Lord Lieutenant: ‘As the only resident Magistrate in this town I beg leave to state to your Excellency that a few days ago the troops quartered here were withdrawn and the town left to the protection of a few police ….. I don’t want my native town in these alarming times to be left to protection of ten or a dozen policemen.’  Butler had no justifiable grounds for expressing concern as the local population were so hungry, demoralised and down trodden to do anything other than to live from day to day courtesy of the food kitchens and the workhouse.



To add to the distress of the local families, just as the worst excesses of that time were being played out, an outbreak of cholera killed many more of the hungry and diseased population of south Kildare and the adjoining counties.  A total of 1,205 deaths were recorded in Athy workhouse between 1844 and 1851.  At the same time the town population fell by 825 persons and if one calculates an increase in population for the years to 1851 similar to that which occurred in the previous 10 years the notational drop in the town’s population was over 1,000 persons.



These are startling statistics for a town with a relatively small population.  Regretfully the names of those who died in Athy workhouse during the Great Famine are not known.  They were buried in the nearby cemetery of St. Mary’s which continued to be used to receive the unclaimed dead of the County Home up to recent years.  Sadly St. Mary’s Cemetery, the last resting place of so many from this community, tends to be overlooked in much the same way as the Great Famine was for decades after it occurred.



Next Sunday at 3.00 p.m. St. Mary’s will host a gathering of local people who aware of their past and the importance of remembering those who have gone before us, will commemorate the Famine dead of Athy and the local workhouse.  At the same time they will remember those men and women who left this area to emigrate overseas in an attempt to escape the disease and poverty which marked the Famine years in Athy. 



We should never forget our Famine dead.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

1916 in Athy


1916 was a difficult year for the town of Athy.  The Great War had entered its third year and there was no sign of it ending.  The patriotic fervour and martial ardour that greeted the outbreak of war in 1914 had long since diffused.  The town had grown accustomed to regular reports of casualties from the western front and a number of Athy men had been invalided home.  The year began badly with torrential rains, the worst in memory occasioning the overflow of the Barrow and the flooding of many farms in the Athy area on New Year’s Day 1916. 



By that year over 1600 Athy men were serving in the war and the separation allowance paid to the families of soldiers was a significant bulwark against the endemic poverty of pre-war Athy.



Life in both Athy and Ireland however was itself not without incident.  The Easter Rising would erupt in Dublin in April 1916 and one Athy man, a young Irish volunteer Mark Wilson, would find himself at the heart of events serving in the Four Courts garrison. At the same time Sir Anthony Weldon, a fellow townsman from Kilmoroney House and veteran of the Boer War, was in command of the Limerick Military district.  His humane and sensitive treatment of the Irish Volunteers in Limerick in the aftermath of the Rising was much applauded at the time as no doubt his avowed beliefs as an Irish Home Ruler contributed to his benevolent approach.  He himself would not survive the war, dying at home in 1917 from the after effects of gas poisoning



1916 would mark for Michael Bowden of Athy his second year in captivity in Germany as a Prisoner of War.  The publication of his picture in the Saturday Herald newspaper on 10th June 1916 with that of his brother in law John Byrne was of some comfort to his family, but he would never return home, dying in the camp on 7th May 1918 without ever seeing a child born after his departure for France on the front in the late summer of 1914.



I have no doubt that Bowden and the many other Athy men imprisoned in Limburg would have derived great comfort from the masses they celebrated with Fr. James Crotty, the Dominican friar who had been Prior of the Dominican community in Athy for two years from April 1900 and whose parents left Athy for New Ross in 1867 shortly before Fr. Crotty's birth.



Some aspects of life continued as normal.  The South Kildare Agricultural Show which had been cancelled in August 1914 because of the outbreak of the war was held that summer and local vet, John Holland, received the prize for having the best three year old gelding in the show.  His son, John Vincent Holland, recently returned from working on the railways in Argentina and now an officer in the Leinster Regiments, would win greater acclaim on the Somme battlefield in September where his actions in leading a bombing party would see him awarded the Victoria Cross.  While local vet John Holland enjoyed his success, his former gardener, John Byrne, remained in captivity in Limburg where he would die as the war headed towards its conclusion in September 1918. 



The Hannon family from Ardreigh secured a prize at that same agricultural show for having the best gelding in the four year old category.  The grief and loss they suffered in 1915 when a son was killed would be compounded by the further loss of Lieutenant John Coulson Hannon in summer of 1916. 



1916 was also a defining year for the Kilkea born Ernest Shackleton.  On the day that the Irish volunteers struck for freedom in Dublin on Easter Monday Shackleton set out on an extraordinary 800 mile boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia with his Irish comrades Tom Crean and Tim McCarthy.



It was ultimately with the assistance of the Chilean Navy tugboat ‘Yelcho’ commanded by Commander Luis Pardo, that the rescue was effected on 30th August 1916.  This dramatic event will be celebrated in Athy Heritage Centre Museum next Friday night, 7th October, with a reception to be hosted by the Chilean naval attache to Ireland, Mr. Ronald Baasch.  The reception will be followed by a lecture, at 7.45pm by the distinguished Chilean navy historian, Dr. Fernando Wilson.  All are welcome to attend.



100 years on Athy and Ireland has been transformed and none more so in the prominence of women today in Irish life and society.  This has been particularly apparent in sport, with the extraordinary level of participation of young girls and women in our national game, Gaelic football.  It was particularly uplifting to see the County Kildare ladies football team take the Intermediate All-Ireland title in Croke Park last Sunday in front of a capacity crowd of 35,000 people and I extend my particular congratulations to the two representatives from Athy, Orlaith Moran and Niamh Mulhall on their wonderful achievement.