Athy's sporting success in 2022

Grandfatherly duties brought me recently to the new pitches recently acquired and developed by Athy Gaelic Football Club. My granddaughter Eva had to be collected following a training session and I was left marvelling at the recent growth of female involvement in Gaelic football. Little did the Athy men of the 1937 championship winning team, whose photograph I am now looking at, imagine that the game nurtured by Michael Cusack and his colleagues would cater for sports loving young females a few generations later. Reportage of sporting activities fill a not inconsiderable number of pages in our daily and weekly newspapers as they bring us news of success and defeats in almost equal measure. For Gaelic football followers with allegiance to Athy Gaelic Football Club, the defeat of the club’s senior players in the County Championship Senior Semi-Final this year was a huge disappointment. Short of its key player, midfielder Kevin Feeley who was side-lined due to injury, the Athy team nevertheless were masters in an error strewn first half which saw them waste a series of good chances playing against their opponents Clane. The team eventually lost the opportunity to face Naas in the County Final to the disappointment of their faithful followers. It was a huge loss for the club members and the team, but football matches in the weeks following brought welcome success for the South Kildare club. There was a double measure of success on the same day in Newbridge when Athy’s minor team won the Minor B final playing St. Conleth’s Park. The early start time of 1.30pm saw the Cathal Kennedy led team defeat their Clane opponents on a score of 2-11 to 1-13. A few hours later, this time in the Hawkfield pitch in Newbridge, the Reserve A Football Final featured Athy and Naas. Playing was Athy’s second senior team and the young Cathal Kennedy, who had earlier won the man of the match award in the minor final, again featured prominently as Athy defeated Naas on penalties after extra time. Athy Gaelic Football Club, after the disappointment of the senior championship defeat, was now county champions at minor and Reserve A level. The club has also reached this year’s Under 14 years final and the Under 16 years final, both of which will be played sometime soon. The club’s successes is an excellent indication of the enthusiasm which marks the club’s football activities. I understand there are no less than three senior teams in the club, with an Under 20 years team, a minor team and various underage teams ranging from Under 16 years down as far as Under 7 years. The club officials include Henry Howard as President, Marty McEvoy as Chairman, James Robinson and Laura Kinahan Joint Secretaries and Tony Foley, Club Treasurer. The club founded, it is believed in 1887, has a proud history which sadly remains unwritten. The development it embarked upon five years ago to add two fully floodlit pitches to its existing Geraldine Park pitch, is now coming to a successful conclusion and promises to afford every possible opportunity to Athy G.F.C. to achieve more success in the future. If Athy Gaelic Football Club was recently achieving much success on the field of play, another local sporting club, Clonmullin Association Football Club, was doing likewise. The soccer club, formed in 1995 by the late Micheal O’Neill, Ger Connell and Micky Roycroft, recently became the KDFL Senior Division champions after defeating Athy AFC on the Clonmullin home pitch. It followed some weeks after the Clonmullin club had lost a three year home winning run when losing in somewhat controversial circumstances to Oliver Bond Celtic. The Clonmullin club’s ground was allocated to the club by Athy Urban District Council and with funding under the Sports Capital Programme a fine clubhouse was built approximately 10 years ago. There are two senior teams in the club, which was presided over for many years by my late Urban Council colleague, Paddy Wright. Indeed, Paddy played an important part in the club’s successful negotiation with the Urban District Council which ultimately resulted in the development of the club’s current soccer pitch in Clonmullin. On December 19, 1922, the largest mass execution during the Civil War took place at the Glass House military prison on the Curragh. Seven members of the Rathbride I.R.A. Column, Patrick Bagnall, Patrick Mangan, Fairgreen Kildare, Joseph Johnston, Station Road, Kildare, Bryan Moore, Patrick Nolan, Rathbride, Stephen White Abbey St, Kildare and James O’Connor, Bansha, Co. Tipperary, who had been captured in a dugout at a farmhouse in Mooresbridge on December 13th were summarily tried and sentenced to death. Their executions, coming only 11 days after the high-profile executions of anti-Treaty leaders Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Richard Barret and Joe McKelvey on December 8th in Mountjoy Prison marked a further escalation in the Free State Government’s execution policy which would ultimately end with 83 official executions by the end of May 1923. This Tuesday, 18th October at 8pm in the Arts Centre on Woodstock Street, Des Dalton will give a talk on the arrest, trial and execution of the Rathbride men during the Civil War. The lecture, which is part of the Autumn/Winter Lecture Series organised by the Arts Centre, is free.