Kevin Feely Footballer

The announcement of the Athy Gaelic footballer, Kevin Feely, as the County Kildare Senior captain for 2025 is so far as I can ascertain only the second occasion that a player from the South Kildare town was captained the Senior County team. We have to go back as far as the Kildare All Ireland Final losing team of 1933 to identify the last Athy player who captained the County team. He was Paul Matthews, employed as a local bar man in Andersons, who came to Athy from County Cavan. On that All Ireland Final Day, Paul who like Kevin played centre field was joined on the County team by another Athy player Tommy Mulhall. On the substitute bench that day was Barney Dunne, Jim Fox and Cuddy Chanders. Cuddy had been sensationally dropped for the final by it is said the County Board executives who overconfident of victory gave the goalkeeping role to a Naas player. Cuddy was restored as goalkeeper for later league matches but the controversial decision marked a dark period in the relationship between Tim Clarke’s County Board and the Athy Club. Strange isn’t it to reflect that the two Athy County Captains came not from the short grass county but in Paul Matthews case from Ardee, Co. Louth and in the case of the present holder of the title, Kevin Feely who was born in Brussels. However, Kevin has links to County Kildare of which I have only now become aware as his paternal grandfather Roddie Feely Snr. was born in The Curragh. Other great footballers who played for Athy and County Kildare Seniors include George Comerford, a Clare man stationed as a Garda in Athy and who captained the Athy Club team to win the 1937 Championship. The 1937 County Final was played on the 17th July of the following year. The delay resulted from the Athy Club’s elimination at the quarter final stage following a walkover granted to Raheens. Athy appealed and the replay was ordered which took place on the 1st May 1938 which Athy won. The Final winning team was captained by George Comerford. George had won Dublin Championship titles with the Garda team in 1933, 1934 and 1935. He transferred to the Athy club in or around 1936 and played for the County Senior team on five occasions between March 1938 and February 1939. Comerford, who won a provincial medal with Munster, was regarded as one of the finest footballers of his time but I cannot find out whether following his captaincy of his 1937 Championship team if he took over the captaincy of the Kildare Senior team. Other Athy players who have featured in the County Team Seniors in the past include the legendary Mick Carolan, Danny Flood and Tommy Mulhall. Mick Foley was of course the only club member to receive an All Star Award during his time as a County Senior player. There were many other Athy players who played on the Senior County Team but their stories are for another day. To return to Kevin Feely, apart from the honour of captaining the County Senior Team this year, he was also recently declared as the County Footballer of the year. This is a well deserved honour for the young player whose style of play reminded me so much of the legendary Mick O’Connell. His superb overhead catching of the ball and his subsequent distribution is so typical of the legendary Mick O’Connell who played his football in the 1950’s. Kevin’s talents as a Gaelic footballer were put to good use when I saw him recently on TG4 as one of three analysts discussing a recent club championship semi- final. He spoke easily, convincingly and with ease as he outlined the involvement of the two teams and the tactics they employed. His was a television performance par excellance and I expect to see him on the principal channel before too long. As to the County Senior Team Panel for 2025 with Kevin Feely are Athy Club players Niall Kelly, James McGrath and David Hyland. I wish them well and hope that the County can have some measure of success in this year’s Championship. I was surprised to get notice on Facebook of Athy G.F.C. function in a local pub when announcements of players of the year in different grades were to be made. I thought it was strange that the Clubhouse was not used for the night until I realised that for some time past the Club Licence which would allow alcohol to be served was not renewed. Whatever about the alcohol element, it is a pity that a fine Clubhouse which Bobby Miller and others were responsible for building is no long longer part of the club members social scene. It is something that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency as the Clubhouse is the heart of the Club. As I wrote this article, I became aware that Kevin Feely and his fiancée Patriona Bolger married just before Christmas. I take the opportunity of wishing them many years of happiness. Finally, congratulations to Claudia Reeves for the very successful film festival which was held last weekend. The Athy Film Club which she started some time ago is a wonderful addition to Athy’s Cultural scene.

Private James Barber of Athy and his part in the Zulu War

Early on the morning of 11th January 1879 British and colonial forces crossed the Buffalo river into Zululand (part of modern day South Africa) at Rorke’s Drift. This marked the commencement of what became known as the Anglo Zulu War between the British empire and the Zulu nation. From the British perspective the purpose of the invasion of Zululand was to protect the settlers in Natal and Cape Colony but in reality the grounds for the invasion were concocted by the British Colonial authorities in order to advance their territorial ambitions in the kingdom of the Zulus. The British Forces were a combination of regular British troops, colonial volunteers and native levies. One of the British army regiments comprising these forces was the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Regiment of foot which recruited in Brecon, South Wales where a regimental depot had been established in 1873. While now regarded as a Welsh regiment, in reality, like much of the British army, almost twenty percent of its number would have been Irish men. Amongst their number was Private James Barber who WAS born in Athy in 1849. He was the son of Michael Barber and Catherine Byrne and it is likely that his father was a recent resident in Athy and possibly even stationed in the Barracks in Woodstock Street as a soldier. It was an inauspicious time to be born in Athy. 1849 marked the last year of the Great Famine and while Athy had suffered none of the losses of the population as suffered on the Western Seaboard in the South of Ireland, deaths in the Athy Workhouse were approximately 1,205 men, women and children. The losses caused by the Famine were compounded by an outbreak of cholera in the town in June 1849. By 29th September of that year, 27 cholera cases were recorded and 11 local cholera victims had died. A temporary cholera hospital was opened in the town and funds intended for the relief of the Famine had to be diverted to deal with the cholera epidemic which would remain a threat to the public health until the following year. Barber must have been a fairly sturdy youth as he survived childhood, bearing in mind that in the year of his birth life expectancy in Ireland fell to just 14 years, having been 38 years in the early 1840s prior to the Famine. His army service record showed that prior to his enlistment in the British Army he served in the Kildare Rifles which were established in 1855 as successor to the Kildare Militia. His first period of service abroad with the 24th Foot found him in India from 1868-1873. After a number of years back in England the Regiment was despatched to Southern Africa in 1877 where it took part in campaigns against the Gaikas and other South African tribes. Fate was to be kind to James Barber. On the 22nd January while the 1st Battalion of the 24th Foot and one company of the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Foot stayed in the main camp in Isandlwana, the balance of the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Foot left the camp with the overall commander of the campaign, Lord Chelmsford to search for the Zulu army. Later that day a Zulu army of more than 20,000 warriors overwhelmed the British camp killing over 2,000 British troops, volunteers and native troops. Having left the camp that morning at 4am Barber returned at 7.45pm to find the camp overrun and every man dead. The battle of Isandlwana was followed by the more famous action at Rorkes Drift where about 150 men, many of them Irish, held off a Zulu force of 3,000 men for two nights. That action was immortalised in the 1964 movie ‘Zulu’. Ultimately by a force of arms and employment of artillery and machine guns the Zulu nation was overwhelmed by the invading forces by July of 1879. The Zulu King, Cetshwayo, went into exile but became such a celebrity internationally that he visited with Queen Victoria in London. Barber continued his service with the 24th Foot with further periods of foreign service in India from 1880-1886 and in Bermuda from 1886-1888. He spent much of his life after the army in Staffordshire where he died on 14th June 1925. He had four children with his wife Emma, being Bernard, Margaret, James and Arthur. His son Bernard followed him into the army, serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1912-1915 with service on the Western Front in France but it appears that the Barber family never returned to Ireland.