Athy's local history

Athy Museum Society, founded in 1983, will shortly disappear from the local scene when arrangements already agreed with Kildare County Council to take over the running of the Shackleton Museum are implemented. Athy History Society, founded a few years ago, will take its place in promoting the study of the history of Athy and its people. Our local history was for many many years an unknown subject even to those who like myself attended secondary school here in the town. We learned of battles and Kings, revolutions, and Famine deaths but seldom, if ever, did we hear any mention of Athy’s involvement in national events. This is surprising given Athy’s importance at different periods of its history as a fortress town, a garrison town and for centuries up to the mid-19th century, the largest and most important town in county Kildare. Founded as a settlement by the Anglo Normans in or about the last decade of the 12th century the newly established village formed part of the manor of Woodstock. As the village developed, helped by the founding of two monasteries on opposite sides of the River Barrow, it became a fortress as part of the defensive measures put in place by the Anglo Normans. Woodstock Castle on the west bank of the River Barrow provided little protection for the villagers as the ‘warlike Irish’ lived amongst the woods which were located on the same river side. Attacks on the village of Athy resulted in its destruction on several occasions but the settlers, confident of their military superiority, persisted in regrouping and rebuilding. Athy’s importance as a fortress on the Marches of Kildare was determined by the closeness of the southern part of the Pale. This led to the placing of a garrison in the village and for many centuries right up to the Crimean War period Athy earned for itself the sobriquet ‘Garrison Athy’. Indeed, as a young pupil in the local Christian Brothers school I can recall a Christian Brother annoyed at his class for some reason or other telling his pupils ‘you’re nothing but soldiers’ sons’. At the time I assumed it was something to do with the nearby Curragh Camp but now methinks it was a throwback to the garrison town nickname of the past. The village originally established in the shadow of Woodstock Castle proved so difficult to defend against the marauding Irish that it was relocated towards the end of the Middle Ages across the River Barrow to the more easily defended east bank. The White Castle and the bridge of Athy afforded a substantial defence which allowed further development of the settlement. The Confederate Wars of the 1640s in which the now town of Athy played a significant part, ended in victory for the Parliamentary forces. It led to a fresh influx of what we would now describe as ‘economic migrants’ who came across the Irish Sea to take up residence in the developing town. Athy’s history thereafter is that of a developing market town and one which enjoyed a good measure of prosperity over many years. It was however a prosperity enjoyed by a minority who lived in close proximity, if not quite side by side, with poverty-stricken people. It was also a period punctuated by heart rendering events which caused enormous hardship and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of local people. I’m referring to the 1798 Rebellion and the Great Famine of the 1840s. These were two national events which as a pupil of the local school I learned without hearing of any mention of Athy. This, despite the work of Patrick O’Kelly, formerly of Kilcoo, who wrote of the 1798 Rebellion in his book published in the 1840s. He gave a detailed account of events in and around Athy during the Rebellion including the hanging of six young local men. Initially imprisoned in Whites Castle they were marched across Crom a Boo bridge, which was built two years previously, and brought to the recently opened Canal harbour where the six were hanged. Two were beheaded and their heads hung on the very bridge which you and I probably pass over many times every week. The events of 1798 and the tragic deaths in the local Workhouse during the Great Famine were largely overlooked by subsequent generations. These national events formed part of our local school history lessons, but the local involvement was ignored or forgotten. As a result, we lost for a time important elements of Athy’s story and it was due to the research of several locals that our past was recovered. Indeed, it was due to the good work of some local historians that the people of Athy have been able to remember and honour the 1798 rebels with a memorial in Emily Square. Similar good research work resulted in the erection of the magnificent World War I memorial in St. Michael’s Cemetery honouring the men from Athy who died during the 1914-18 War. St. Mary’s Cemetery, located a short distance from the old Workhouse building, contains the remains of the 1200 or so unfortunate men, women and children who died in the Workhouse during the Great Famine. Athy’s Workhouse was never alluded to in any local school history lessons when many references were made to Skibbereen and other places on the west coast during the Great Famine. As a result of local research, we now know the depth of misery which marked the lives of workhouse inmates during the Famine. Each year on a Sunday in May we gather in St. Mary’s Cemetery to remember our Famine dead, while we await Kildare County Council’s implementation of a decision to erect a memorial in their memory. Athy History Society, some of whose members have been researching our local history, are anxious to bring together more persons who share interest in our town’s history. The local History Society will host a meeting in the Community Arts Centre, Woodstock Street on Tuesday, 12th March at 7.30p.m. to greet and enrol all and any persons wishing to join the Society. A short lecture on Athy’s history will be followed by refreshments and an opportunity to meet and greet.