The naming of Athy's streets

Emily Square named after Emily Duchess of Kildare is undergoing for the second time in recent years a major redevelopment. There is uncertainty as to how it will turn out, if the comments regarding the recent tree planted in the front of the square is anything to go by. Athy’s main streets all bear the names of an earlier Duke of Leinster’s family members. I am uncertain when the street names were changed, a process which was carried out by Athy’s Borough Council sometime before it was abolished in 1830. I am fairly confident that Augustus Bridge over the Canal built in 1790/91 was named after Augustus Fitzgerald, the first child of William, 2nd Duke of Leinster who officially opened the bridge. The 2nd Duke was to have his name forever remembered when the main streets running through Athy were renamed William Street, Duke Street and Leinster Street. When that was done, I can only speculate. Perhaps soon after his death in October 1804 when his earlier mentioned first son became Duke of Leinster. Duke Street was previously known as St. John’s Street while Leinster Street was called High Street. Interestingly, St. John’s Lane which was linked with St. John’s Street still retains its pre medieval name. Preston’s Gate was renamed Offaly Street as within the Fitzgerald extended family, the name Lord Offaly was a common feature since Gerald Fitzmaurice was succeeded in that title by Maurice Fitzgerald in the 13th Century. James, the 1st Duke of Leinster, was known as Lord Offaly before he was raised to the Dukedom. On the opposite side of the main street lies Stanhope Street, possibly named after the family name of the wife of the 2nd Duke. Athy’s Plaza is known as Emily Square in memory of Emily, Duchess of Kildare who married James, the 1st Duke of Leinster in 1747 when she was aged 15 years and 4 months. Emily was the goddaughter of George II. She was the second of seven surviving children of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond an illegitimate descendant of King Charles II. Her mother was Sarah, daughter of Earl Cadogan. James the 1st Duke of Leinster contracted to build Carton House before he married and when the work was incomplete as he brought his young English bride to Ireland, the couple lived for a few weeks at Leinster Lodge, Athy. During her married life, Emily also lived in Carton House, Frescati House in Blackrock and in Leinster House where the 1st Duke died in 1773. During their married life, Emily gave birth to 19 children including Edward Fitzgerald, the Irish Patriot. Emily’s last child of the 19 was generally believed to have been fathered by her lover, the children’s tutor William Ogilvie. When her husband died, Emily married Ogilvie the following year and had three more children with him. She died in London in March 1814. I am speculating when I put forward the 3rd Duke of Leinster as the person who with the cooperation of Athy Borough Council prompted the renaming of Athy’s main street and the town’s plaza. Emily was the 3rd Duke’s grandmother and there may have been a conscious effort to delete Lord Edward Fitzgerald from popular memory by highlighting the names of those who were faithful to the crown. I do not have documentary evidence to hand to back up my speculative claim as unfortunately I cannot presently access my archival records. However, I cannot recall any reference to street name changes in the Athy Borough minute books which I examined many years ago. Our local history was for centuries bound up with that of the Earls of Kildare and the Dukes of Leinster and as they were proprietors of our town, it was inevitable that the people’s allegiances followed those of the occupiers of the great castles of Kildare. Times have changed and Athy people are now more intensely aware of their history and appreciative of those local men and women who played their part in helping to secure some measure of freedom for our country. Should they be remembered by a further renaming of Athy’s streets? As I ask that question, I am reminded of an attempt some years ago by a member of Athy Urban District Council to have Emily Square renamed Mandela Square following Nelson Mandella’s release from a South African prison. Congratulations to David Daly on his election as Chairman of Athy Photographic Society. David, a dedicated and skilful photographer, is wished well as he heads up one of Athy’s important cultural societies.

County Home Athy

‘The first phase of the construction of the 92-bed nursing unit for St. Vincent’s Hospital Athy is set for early 2025’. So announced the HSE almost a year ago. The first phase of the construction work aims to deliver 48 beds with subsequent phases to follow. Detailed design work was, in February of last year, underway for the proposed nursing units. We were advised that efforts were focussed on finalising tender packages to be presented to the market for contractors’ selection. Construction activities for the project were then anticipated to commence in the first quarter of 2025. The last time additional accommodation was provided at the former County Home was in 1969, almost twenty years after an interdepartmental committee’s recommendations were adopted by the Irish Government. The committee set up in 1949 to examine the future of County Homes found that many of the former workhouses including Athy’s was still accommodating the chronically sick, the aged and mentally unstable while lacking appropriate accommodation. However, the report recognised that the old workhouse buildings could be refurbished to provide accommodation for the aged and chronically sick while the mentally unstable, unmarried mothers and their children should be accommodated in separate institutions. The Report’s recommendations were accepted by the government in 1951, but it was not until 1969 that Kildare County Council approved a scheme of improvement for Athy’s County Home by replacing patient accommodation then located on the ground floor and the first floor of the original workhouse building. The County Architect, Niall Meagher, was responsible for the planning, design and construction of the new buildings assisted by Eric Wallace, staff member in the County Architect’s Department working closely with the Department of Health Architect Cecil Dowdall. The administration of the project and commissioning, equipping and staffing of the new building involved the then Matron, Sr. Dominic. Work on the construction of the new building by Bantile Limited of Banagher commenced on the 27th July 1966 and took almost three years to complete. The new hospital buildings which cost €250,000 contained two hospital blocks for 100 female patients, three hospital blocks for 168 male patients and 14 maternity unit and delivery rooms. The new building was occupied on the 3rd April 1969, 125 years after the workhouse was first opened. In 1971 the newly established Eastern Health Board took over responsibility for the County Home and they named it St. Vincent’s Hospital. The first visiting committee of the Board under the chairmanship of Councillor Paddy Hickey met in the hospital on the 20th May 1971. The following year, the Department of Health gave approval for the construction of a new convent building, a nurses’ home and a mortuary. The Sisters of Mercy had retained a presence in the former workhouse since 1874 and on their first arrival they had occupied rooms at the back of the main building. Later they moved to the front of the building occupying rooms on the first floor and where they remained until they moved into the new convent. The contractors for the new building were Messrs. M. Turley and Co. and in late 1974 the work was completed with buildings officially opened on the 25th June 1975. In the 1940s, the County Home employed three Sisters of Mercy and three nurses and in 1952 the first attendants were employed. In 2002, despite a reduction in the number of patients in the hospital compared to 50 years previously, the staff employed included seventy-three nurses, ninety-seven attendants and ten administrative and support staff. The Sisters of Mercy who first arrived in Athy in 1851 to teach in the newly opened convent school soon arranged weekly visits to the workhouse and were eventually invited by the Board of Guardians in 1874 to provide nursing sisters for the workhouse. Thus commenced the Sisters of Mercy’s work in the workhouse, later the County Home and then St. Vincent’s Hospital. Several members of the Sisters of Mercy were appointed Matrons of the County Home/St. Vincent’s Hospital. Many of us will remember with fondness the legendary Sr. Dominic who was appointed Matron in 1957 and succeeded in that position by Sr. Peg in 1981. Sr. Peg was the last Sister of Mercy to be Matron and the last Sister of Mercy to work as a nurse in St. Vincent’s Hospital was Sr. Catherine who retired on the 31st March 2002. The dark forbidding building which George Wilkinson had designed in the 1840s has changed beyond recognition in the intervening years. The corridors which once echoed to the shuffling sounds of bare footed men, women and children, have been replaced by modern wards where the elderly and the sick are comforted and cared for with compassion and skill.

Big Wind of 1839

Storm Éowyn has come and gone, leaving behind a devastated countryside. So far as records show Éowyn was the biggest wind storm ever to cross this country and surpassed the generally accepted ‘Night of the Big Wind’ of 6th January 1839. The winds of 1839 brought a different type of devastation on the Irish people of that time. While there was less destruction of buildings than one might expect following the recent wind storm, the misery experienced as a result of electricity outages and the absence of water supply is shared by many thousands of households. On the Monday three days after the storm 240,000 houses remained without electricity, while about 109,000 customers were without water supply and a further 126,000 households were classified as ‘at risk’. The big winds of 1839 destroyed thousands of the poorly constructed dwellings occupied by cottagers and unemployed labourers. Fire was a particular hazard because of the prevalence of thatched roofs. In Loughrea it was reported that 103 houses were destroyed, of which 71 were burned to the ground. This was a common enough occurrence, particularly along the Western seaboard. Near Athenry in County Galway a house collapsed and went on fire, resulting in the tragic death of the mother of the house and four of her children. Subsequent reports in the local Press gave details of the wind storm destruction across the country. The ‘Galway Weekly Adviser’ claimed that Portarlington suffered more than any other town for its size. That same newspaper reported that large ricks of corn and hay were blown away a mile from the haggards and that rivers and lakes were full of corn and straw. The ‘Dublin Evening Post’ confirmed this when it reported that many farmers whose haggards were full with unthrashed corn the day before the storm found themselves without a sheaf of grain in the morning. While the ‘Clonmel Herald’ reported ‘upwards of 300 lives were lost in Ireland by the late hurricane’, it is generally accepted that this was an over estimation. The actual figures for those who died was nearer 100 and included 12 men of the Roundstone Coast Guard who were drowned during the storm. I cannot access my archival material at this time but so far as I can remember I never came across any Athy references in relation to the 1839 wind storm. There is no reason to believe Athy escaped the ravages of the storm, but the lack of reporting in the minute books of the Borough Council is surprising. Perhaps not so surprising when one considers the composition of the Council and its obvious lack of interest in the town. The 1839 wind storm came to the forefront when the English Chancellor Lloyd George introduced the Old Age Pension Act of 1908. This introduced a non-contributory pension of thirteen pounds a year for eligible persons aged 70 years and older. Many Irish applicants had no documental evidence of their date of birth as the registration of births, marriages and deaths did not become a statutory requirement until much later. Catholic Parish Priests were in many cases compiling baptismal records for several years prior to 1839 and if I remember correctly baptismal records in St. Michael’s, Athy, were compiled from some time in the middle of the 18th century. In the absence of such records the Old Age Pension Committees charged with implementing the Pension Act, decided that the claimants’ pension application would be approved if he or she remembered the night of the Big Wind. Last week’s storm, stronger than any previous storm, caused less structural damage than that of 1839. However, it created huge difficulties for so many households without electricity and without water. The electricity network team have been working hard since the storm and deserve our gratitude without criticism. The lady who tackled the Taoiseach some days ago in relation to the alleged failure of the electricity company would no doubt be surprised to read that in 1985 the Jansen Report on the ESB found that the semi-state body was overstaffed to the tune of 3,000 workers. I am not sure if the water treatment authority, Uisce Eireann, which failed to provide a safe and secure water service following the storm cannot be criticised. Surely every water treatment plant dependent on electricity should have a backup turbine system in place. The absence of turbines meant that with electricity cut off water could not be supplied. The remedy is straightforward. It is not only Uisce Eireann who fell down on the job for last week when writing of Athy’s Gaelic Football Club players who captained the Kildare county senior team I omitted to mention Colm Moran and David Hyland. Colm was captain of the Kildare county senior team in 1988 following Athy’s victory in the 1987 Kildare Championship final. David was captain of the Kildare senior team in 2020 and 2021. Colm and David were therefore the second and third Athy players to captain the senior county team, the previous player being Paul Matthews who captained the Kildare All-Ireland losing team of 1935. As mentioned in last week’s article Paul Matthews and Kevin Feeley, like myself, are not Athy natives, while Colm Moran and David Hyland are. They are therefore the first Athy natives to captain the Kildare senior football team for more than one game.