Culture Night in Athy in 2022

Culture Night has been with us for several years. It is the one night of the Irish year we are encouraged to celebrate the richness and diversity of our shared cultures. Organised on a local basis and coordinated at county level, the different events of culture night provided a unique opportunity to sample and to begin to appreciate the works of talented people amongst us. I was understandably committed to attending the official launch of the Shackleton mural painted on the side wall of Quinn’s office next to the Town Hall. The Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland Skari Nare did the honours on Friday night. The mural painted by the UK artist Eloise Gillow is a magnificent piece of artistic work and brings together the Kilkea-born explorer and the Norwegian Explorer Amundsen whose reference to Shackleton is displayed on the wall next to Shackleton’s portrait. Immediately afterwards, I visited the photographic exhibition housed in the Courthouse arcade. This exhibition was Athy Photographic Club’s contribution to culture night and it attracted an interested and appreciative audience throughout the evening. The work of the photographic club members past and present over the years has captured on film local persons, local events and local scenes which will be treasured as the years go by. They are compiling a social history in visual form and their work will, I hope, be suitably archived so that future generations can understand and appreciate the people and the times which have gone before. Later in the evening I paid a visit to Bradbury’s restaurant where Colm Walsh had arranged a celebration of the life and work of Athy born Chris Neil. An internationally renowned record producer, Chris was born at No. 5 Lower St. Joseph’s Terrace from where his family emigrated to Manchester. The night took the format of a public interview conducted by Chris McKenna and performances of Chris Neil’s more famous works by local artists. Carmel Day was the musical director on the night. Maureen Moran, Steve Nicolls, Levi Maher, Chris Swayne, Justin Kelly, Carmel Day, CarolAnne Haskins, Shane Sullivan and the beautiful Noise Choir all performed. Later that evening a ‘Made of Athy’ plaque was unveiled by Chris outside O’Brien’s pub in Emily Square. The Castlemitchell Community Hall was the venue for the Moneen Players presentation of Dylan Thomas’s radio drama ‘Under Milkwood’. The players are associates of Athy Musical and Dramatic Society and sixteen of them were on stage as they voiced with the help of two narrators the thoughts and dreams of the inhabitants of a small Welsh fishing village. It was a commendable performance by all involved under the direction of David Walsh whose father Tommy, I as a young lad, had the opportunity of watching on stage on several occasions during Social Club Players performances in the Social Club in St. John’s Lane and the Town Hall. One of the most engaging performances was on the Saturday morning after Culture Night when actors from Kill and further afield with the assistance of re-enactors from Monasterevin enacted the trial of the County Kildare patriot John Devoy. Scripted by Brian McCabe, the Fenian Devoy was arrested and brought to the courtroom on the fourth floor of Lawlor’s Hotel in Naas. The trial took place in a courtroom which had been removed from a disused Courthouse in Wales and re-assembled in Naas. The audience sat facing the Judge and enjoyed the performance which allowed us a glimpse of the Devoy family story which started at the Heath just outside Athy before Devoy family members moved to Kill in the early part of the 19th Century. The play and its setting provided an unusual and a most enjoyable morning for audience and performers alike. The next day I attended the unveiling of the ‘Squires’ Gannon statue in Kildare’s Town Square. Kildare won its last All Ireland Championship final in 1928, the first year the Sam Maguire Cup was presented to the winning team captain. Crafted by the master artist, Mark Richards, the statute was commissioned by Kildare County Council. The Council was also responsible for commissioning a few years ago the statue of the Polar explorer, Ernest Shackleton, executed by Mark Richards, which stands in Emily Square. The unveiling ceremony was quite an impressive and enjoyable affair and the booklet handed out to everyone attending was a real bonus. There were no Athy players on the 1928 team but the 1935 Kildare All Ireland final team was captained by Athy player Paul Matthews who lined out with club colleague, Tommy Mulhall and Castledermot players Paddy Martin and Paddy Byrne. They should also have had Patrick (Cuddy) Chanders of Athy playing in goals during that final. Kildare lost that day to Cavan and we still wait for an Athy Club player to win an All-Ireland Senior Championship medal on the field of play. The events of Culture Night and the days immediately afterwards afforded a wonderful opportunity of acknowledging the contribution made by so may to the cultural life of our towns and villages. I wonder if its not now time to extend the single cultural night to become a cultural week allowing events to be spread over seven days. This would have the benefit of allowing greater participation at events which is not possible when so many events are scheduled for one night as in Athy last Friday.