Policing and crime in early 19th century Athy

Throughout the greater part of the 19th century the dark clouds of unemployment hung over Athy. The closure of the tanyards and the winding down of the local breweries left a void which remained unfilled for many decades. Athy was a poor town in the midst of a rich countryside. Throughout the 19th century it was to be home to generations of unemployed men who with their families lived in the unfit hovels which lined it’s lanes and alleyways. Unemployment and wretched living conditions nourished the seeds of social discontent and criminality which surfaced from time to time during the first half of the 19th century. One notable crime recorded occurred on 2nd February 1801 when Joseph Higginbotham, farmer of Narraghmore, was murdered by one Christopher Duffy at Boleybeg and following the Coroner’s inquest it was found that James Johnson of Ballitore conspired with Duffy to murder Higginbotham. The Peace Preservation Force instituted by Robert Peel in September 1814 was the forerunner of modern police forces. A heavily armed force drawn mainly from the ranks of the militia and ex-soldiers, its operations sometimes gave cause for public complaint. On October 22nd 1817 Thomas Fitzgerald, the Geraldine based magistrate, forwarded to Dublin Castle the sworn affidavit of Thomas Noud of Kilmead concerning outrages committed by the new force. The replacement by the Peace Preservation Force of the local yeomanry, whose knowledge of their own locality was invaluable in combating crime, gave the locals greater scope for illegal nocturnal activities. Such activities grew in frequency and a number of incidents in and around Athy in August 1818 were the first indication of the resurgence of ribbonmen activity in south Kildare. Early in 1822 an attempt was made to burn the Athy Gaol for which a conviction was secured against a hapless individual the following March. Around this time the Peace Preservation Force was replaced by County Constabulary, a police force to which local magistrates retained the right of appointing constables and sub-constables. James Tandy, newly appointed Chief Magistrate of Police, residing at Annfield, Kilcullen was petitioned in October 1822 by some baronies to reduce the level of the police numbers in the county. The local landlords felt they were unable to finance from their own resources a large public force, whatever the consequences. However, Robert Rawson of Glassealy warned Tandy ‘that the emissaries of sedition are at work again as busy as ever …… I am assured there are regular meetings held now in this town (Athy) …… I have succeeded in dissuading the landholders of East Narragh from petitioning.’ The following years gave rise to sporadic outbursts of ribbonmen activity, such as the burning of the Athy residence of Chief Constable Dolman in 1825 for which two locals, Ging and Hutchinson were arrested. However, conditions in south Kildare had improved by 1828. Thereafter little of note occurred until 1830 when the house of Rev. Frederick Trench, Church of Ireland curate, was raided for arms when the Rev. gentleman was at Sunday Service. We are told that the raiders ‘were led by his wife quite peaceably through the dining room (where there were silver forks and spoons on the table) to his study where she opened a glass case in which were his arms, and a purse containing some money. They took away the arms, but touched nothing else.’ The ‘first green flag with white ribbon at the top of the pole ever I saw was on August 15th 1830’ wrote local man Charles Carey in his diary. It was apparently the only evidence of anti-government activity in the area at that time. The countryside had become more peaceful, no doubt due to the setting up of the county Constabulary. The general cessation of ribbonmen activities in and around Athy was marked by the first manifestation of union activity in the town. In 1832 the following notice was found posted near the Grand Canal in Athy. ‘T A K E N O T I C E From this day forward, that no man will be allowed to work in any boat without having regular wages 10/= per week. Any person or persons daring to violate this notice, will be visited by night by those people under the denomination of Whitefeet or Terry Alts. Any man putting us to the necessity of paying him a visit will be sorry; therefore any man who has not the above wages, let him not to attempt to leave Athy. I remain your humble servant Terry Alt.’ What effect this warning had on the boatmen of Athy we cannot now say. However, thereafter there was little or no local activity attributed to the ribbonmen or Terry Alts. Athy was to settle back into the murky backwaters of provincial life which in the first half of the 19th century involved continued squalor and poverty for a large proportion of its population.