Rev. Samuel Cotton (Part 1)

Samuel George Cotton was born at 2 St. George’s Place, Bray in 1823. His father was a well-known Dublin Surgeon. Cotton was educated privately and attended Trinity College Divinity School, before being ordained a Deacon in Christ Church Cathedral Dublin in August 1847. He was appointed curate to the Athy Parish and was first noted as reading at St. Michael’s Church on the 29th September 1847 when he read to a congregation of two hundred and seventy in the morning and preached to seventy parishioners in the evening. The Preachers book for St. Michael’s shows his final homily for the Athy Parishioners was delivered on the evening of the 2nd July 1848. Two weeks earlier, he was ordained a Vicar in Tuam Cathedral and shortly thereafter was appointed Vicar of Kilberry Parish in succession to Rev. William Warburton. Rev. Cotton’s early years in Kilberry were uncontroversial even if his opinions of parishioners and Kilberry natives alike, which he wrote in his Visiting Book in 1853, painted a character likely to fall foul of third parties. He visited his Kilberry parishioners in their homes during a period of four months commencing April 1853 making notes on individual parishioners. These notes were generally critical of his parishioners, one of whom he described as ‘a great humbug of note if anything a Romanist.’ Another was described as ‘a great drunkard, never been to church nor seen at communion.’ It was interesting to note the number of parishioners whom he described as former Roman Catholics. It was not long before the Rev. Cotton fell out with many of his parishioners which resulted in the following letter issuing on behalf of his dissatisfied parishioners to the Archbishop of Dublin. ‘May it please your Grace, we the undersigned parishioners of Kilberry Parish humbly request that your Grace will be kind enough to cause an enquiry to be made into the conduct of the Rev. S. G. Cotton, Vicar of this parish. His almost total neglect of the parish during weekdays, he more than once neglected to attend the church on Sunday and consequently the parishioners were obliged to return home without church service.’ There were further complaints in the letter which was signed by A.G. Judge and George J. Phipps as well as ten church wardens. The letter was supported by Lord Downes of Bert House who wrote to the Archbishop on the 7th April 1855 claiming that the conduct of the Rev. S.G. Cotton had for some time past been of an extraordinary nature and that many of his parishioners had ceased to attend his church. The Archbishop is not recorded as having dealt with the parishioners’ complaints and what was described in the Leinster Express as ‘The Church and the Kilberry Controversy’ continued into the following year with many letters from Rev. Cotton featuring in the newspaper. In March 1857, Rev. Cotton found himself before the Magistrates at Athy Petty Sessions charged with assault and facing a civil claim for wages due to the former sexton of Kilberry Church. The Magistrates found in favour of the Plaintiff and awarded a Decree for nine shillings and ten pence including costs against Rev. Cotton. The evidence in relation to the assault charge concerned the former sexton, a female who satisfied the court that Rev. Cotton pulled a chair from under her and attempted to pull her out of the local school. The Vicar received the first of many convictions which he would receive during his clerical career with a fine of one pound and two shillings and six pence costs. Rev. Cotton then went to war against the Leinster Express which reported the Petty Sessions hearing claiming that the newspaper was biased in its reporting Many letters from the cleric were dealt with by the Leinster Express Editor who on one occasion wrote ‘Mr. Cotton appears to think we entertain an unkind disposition towards him and that we have used language calculated to do him injury. We must disclaim any such feeling …. while we have every right to express our dissent from his views’. The Rev. Vicar’s letters continued and were published in the Leinster Express. The Editor was then moved to write ‘it is a matter of much regret to us that our columns should be so frequently occupied with this Rev. gentleman’s affairs, and it is with difficulty that we can maintain the proper bounds of newspaper discussion. In our last edition Mr. Lefroy an old and respected Magistrate was accused by Mr. Cotton of bias in the discharge of his duties and has deemed it necessary to repel in indignant terms the imputation.’ Rev. Cotton also fell out with Rev. F.S. Trench, Rector of Athy whom he had called upon to intervene in the row between the Kilberry Parishioners and himself. Rev. Trench apparently did not intervene and subsequently was the subject of a letter of complaint from his Kilberry counterpart. A further complaint from Messrs Judge and Phipps that monies collected for the local church were misused by Rev. Cotton was the subject of an enquiry by two former church wardens. They were satisfied that all monies collected since 1847 had been distributed in the same way as Rev. Cotton’s predecessor Rev. Warburton. The second part of Rev. Cotton’s extraordinary story will appear next week.

Athy's Social Club Players

Last week I wrote of the many vacant, sometimes derelict shop premises on Athy’s main streets and questioned why Kildare County Council had not put in place some form of financial incentives such as a rates or property tax abatement scheme to encourage the occupation and use of vacant premises. I was delighted to read in the same newspaper an advertisement by Kildare County Council announcing a Commercial Rates Incentive Grants Scheme whereby a business premises vacant for at least two years can get a three-year grant to encourage the reoccupation of a vacant premises. This is a good start to the planned regeneration of Athy’s main street, but only if the Enterprise Department of the same Council works hand in hand with prospective independent shop owners who are interested in re-occupying existing vacant premises. My article last week commenced with the question if one could remember the differences of life in Athy in the 1950s and today. It was during the course of my own memory recall that I remembered the town’s Social Club Players. They were a dramatic group based in the Social Club in St. John’s Lane. My first memory of the Social Club Players stems from a performance in the Town Hall to which I was brought by my brother Jack in February 1953 when I was not yet 11 years old. I cannot remember any details of the play. All I can recall after 72 years was where we were sitting, approximately halfway down the hall on the right hand side. The subsequent press report on the play ‘The Barretts of Wimpole Street’ described it as ‘the Society’s most ambitious production to date.’ Veteran actors such as Liam Ryan, Tadhg Brennan, Tommy Walsh, Ken Reynolds, Tom Fox, Florrie Lawler, May Fenelon and Nellie Fox impressed the newspaper reporter immensely in their various roles. The Social Club Players’ first production, so far as I am aware, was ‘Cupboard Love’, performed in the Town Hall in April 1943. I have originals or copies of 16 programmes of plays put on by the Social Club Players between 1943 and 1959. How many programs I am missing I cannot say, but if there is anyone out there who has Social Club Players programmes I would welcome the opportunity of getting photocopies of same. Looking through the programmes I have, it is sad to think that all of the men and women who performed on the local stage so many years ago are no longer with us. Jo Lawler, May Fenelon, Claire Moore, Maureen Walsh, Florrie Lawler, Christy Burke, Nellie Fox, Frances Fenelon, Kitty McLaughlin, May Ward and Betty May were the actresses who participated in several of the Society’s productions over the years. The actors included Liam Ryan, Tadhg Brennan, Pat Mulhall, Ken Reynolds, D.S. Walsh, Freddie Moore, Tommy Walsh, Tommy Fleming, Johnny Mee, Tommy Doyle, Joe Martin, John Dolan, James O’Doherty, Tom Fox, Fergus Hayden and Patsy O’Neill. These were the men and women who gave of their time and talents to entertain their fellow community members over a 16-year period. Their legacy was captured in programmes and photographs of cast members of various plays in which they participated. The plays included ‘Cupboard Love’ (April 1943), ‘Paul Twyning’ (December 1943), ‘Look at the Heffernans’ (March 1945), ‘The Far Off Hills’ (April 1947), ‘They got what they wanted’ (1948), ‘The Righteous are Bold’ (1949), ‘The White Steed’ (April 1950), ‘The White Headed Boy’ (January 1951), ‘The Shop at Sly Corner’ (1952), ‘The Barretts of Wimpole Street’ (February 1953), ‘The Far Off Hills’ (1954), ‘The Righteous are Bold’ (1954) , ‘The Clock Ticks Dusk’ (1955), ‘Twenty Years Awooing’ (1955-’56), ‘The Devil came from Dublin’ (1956), ‘My Wife’s Family’ (1956), ‘The Devil came from Dublin’ (November 1956), ‘Mungo’s Mansion’ (March 1958), ‘The Turn of the Wheel’ (February 1959). I was intrigued to come across a copy of the Society’s accounts for ‘Look at the Heffernans’ which was performed in the Town Hall in March 1945. The sum of thirteen shillings and six pence was paid to John Eaton for ‘bill posting and bell’. This was a time when local events and shows were publicised by the local bell man who walked through the main streets ringing a bell and announcing, as in this case, the upcoming performance of the Society’s play. I have listed the actors and actresses of the Social Club Players so that any future local historian/researcher can easily access what I hope can be regarded as a local archive devoted to the forgotten people of Athy. For the same reason I set out the plays which the Social Club Players put on in the Town Hall insofar as I can verify them between 1943 and 1959. I wonder if there could be a revival of the theatrical tradition of the past which was once such an important part of the social fabric of Athy? The recent death of Kieran Hickey brought back memories of over sixty years ago when I joined Kildare County Council as a clerical officer. On joining the Council I learned that Kieran and Joe Gavin, both of whom were clerical officers like myself, were attending the final year of a three year B. Comm. degree course at nighttime in U.C.D. Motivated by what they were doing I attended the same degree course the following year with the benefit of a ‘lift to Dublin’ after work and bussing to the Naas Road to ‘thumb’ a lift back to Naas after the lectures. My brother Jack, who was also a clerical officer in Kildare County Council at the time, on seeing my involvement with U.C.D. decided to study for various diplomas. The studies stood Joe, Kieran and my brother Jack in good stead as all ended up at the top of their professions, Joe Gavin as County Manager in Monaghan, Jack Taaffe as County Manager in Westmeath and Kieran Hickey as C.E.O. of the Eastern Health Board. Many of the people I worked with in Kildare County Council over five years in the 1960s are now dead. Like the members of Athy Social Club Players they are the forgotten people of an earlier generation whose memories deserve remembrance by later generations.

Athy business life in the 1950s compared to today

Do you remember Athy of the 1950s? How does it compare to Athy of 2025? Despite the fact that the town’s population has more than doubled in the meantime, Athy’s commercial life has deteriorated to a disappointing level. I cannot recall any vacant shop premises in Athy in the 1950s. On Offaly Street where I lived there were a number of shops, all of which are now closed. Kehoe’s Public House has not opened for several years, while Kitty Webster’s and Mona Sylvester’s sweet shops, both closed for years, have now been redeveloped as apartments. The cinema on the same street, once so popular many years ago, is no more. Public houses, of which there was so many in the town, have closed up and like Michael Noonan’s in Stanhope Street and Barney Dunne’s in Duke Street are forlorn reminders of happy days. In the 1920s, there were forty or more licenced premises in Athy catering for a population of about 4,000 people. Today with the population of 10,000 or more, the public houses still serving the public come to less than ten. The explanation may in part lie in the operation of Off Licences and the strict application of drink driving legislation. The grocery shops in the 1950s have disappeared following the emergence of Supermarkets and the subsequent centralisation of the grocery trade. Do you remember the shop assistants of seventy years ago who dressed in their light brown shop coats took your order and presented the groceries on the counter? Groceries which included sugar, flour and many other food stuffs had to be weighed and bagged earlier in the day by the shop assistant. Here today in Athy, the entire groceries trade once spread over 20 or more shops is now centred on four supermarkets. In many cases the former grocery shop premises today lie vacant in some cases for many years past given the towns streetscape a sad impression of dereliction. How much worse our main streets would be if we did not have today so many hairdressing businesses, nail bars, coffee shops and restaurants which were not to be found in Athy of the 1950s. Today our main streets have a surfeit of empty shop premises which creates a bad image for the town once regarded as the best market town in Leinster. Saturday evening shopping in the 1950s was a boom time for local shops as the country people came, particularly to Shaws, which remained opened until late that evening. Shaws created a huge footfall in the 1950s which benefitted other shops in the town. Its influence in that regard is today less apparent given the present-day high volume of car ownership and local shoppers’ willingness to drive to other towns to do their shopping. The 1950s was a really good time for the shoppers of Athy. Theft from shops was a rare crime those days, while the local Gardai were busy raiding pubs for after hour drinking and prosecuting cyclists for using their bikes without lights after sunset. It was a simple way of life but one which was marked by poverty for many families in the absence of employment. The result in emigration, principally to Britain, saw young families without fathers for months on end. It was not just fathers who left their home town but also boys and girls who could not get gainful employment at home. The boys had a better chance than the girls in obtaining gainful employment locally as the boys, even before their fourteenth birthday, were able to take up employment in the Asbestos factory or the IVI Foundry. The present drabness of the town’s main streets and side streets prompts me to ask what, if anything, is being done or planned by the appropriate authorities to improve Athy’s streetscape? I am conscious as a taxpayer, a rate payer and a property tax payer that Kildare County Council should be more proactive in tackling the issue of vacant and sometimes derelict shop premises in the town. Financial incentives such as rates and property tax abatement schemes may be required to encourage the opening of more independent shops. Having written the above on Wednesday morning, I found the following on Facebook some hours later: ‘Kildare County Council have been awarded €998,800 under the Department of Rural and Community Development Fund to revitalise the famous Athy Christian Brother’s School into a state-of-the-art centre for circular economy and regenerative business activity.’ I understand that the Grant is the result of an initiative by Councillor Brian Dooley who some months ago approached the owners of the building and the local Enterprise Department of Kildare County Council regarding the purchase of the school to be used for apprentice training. The reference to ‘a state-of-the art centre for circular economy’ puzzles me as I don’t understand what it means. However, given its context I am sure that it is intended to help the ancient town of Athy which for too long has been exposed to unwelcome commercial and economic deprivation. We need more independent shops along our main streets and hopefully the announcement of the Community Development Grant can be the start of a new era for the regeneration of business in Athy.