Launch of David Butler's book 'Tom Crean, Irish Antarctic Hero'

Kildare Town Library last Saturday afternoon was the setting for the launch of Kildare native, David Butler’s new graphic novel – ‘Tom Crean: Irish Antarctic Hero’. With text by Michael Smith (the author of the iconic biography of Tom Crean – ‘An Unsung Hero’) and lettering by Louise McSharry, it is published by the O’Brien Press. Butler, who previously illustrated the novel, ‘Shackleton: the Voyage of the James Caird’, spoke at the launch of his novel of his inspiration drawn from the life stories of Ernest Shackleton and Tom Crean. The graphic novel is a medium with which I am not terribly familiar. As a young fellow I eagerly perused the shelves of my local library in search of the latest unread detective novel. In my youth my voracious appetite for reading was easily satisfied and a weekly novel coupled with my daily diet of comics was the extent of my young aspirations for literary appreciation. The local library of the 1950's was a small affair compared to the information emporiums they are today. The Athy library, then based in a small room in the Town Hall, was to my young eyes more than adequate to meet the town's thirst for knowledge. After all it took me ages to decide what book to borrow from the packed shelves which were to be found at the top of the darkened stairs which led from the street directly opposite Mrs. Meehan's chemist shop. The staircase may not indeed have been dark at all but since the local Freemasons Lodge met in a room at the top of the same stairs you can appreciate how a young fellow fed on stories of the secret and "demonic" activities of the brotherhood might well feel that the stairs too was a dark and sinister place. The modern library in Kildare, like that in Athy, is a bright welcoming space and while the book launch was being held there was a buzz about the place as many young children sought out reading materials for the week. Ivan O’Brien, the Managing Director of the O’Brien Press, who published the book, spoke about his publishing house’s own journey into first publishing graphic novels fifteen years ago. It was to him a different way of telling a story and trying to find a perfect balance between text and graphics. He paid tribute to both David Butler and Michael Smith in distilling the story of Tom Crean’s life into a graphic novel, while at the same time maintaining a pace which would engage readers of all ages. He told the audience that books were competing with other media and in reading a graphic novel you are effectively creating a cinema in your own head. The book was launched by Kevin Kenny, a Naas native, who has been prominent in the development of the Shackleton Museum in Athy over the last twenty years. Kevin reminded the audience of the many Kildare connections to Tom Crean’s Polar story, including of course that of Ernest Shackleton who served alongside Crean on Captain Scott’s 1901-1904 Discovery expedition to the Antarctic. Kevin pointed out another Kildare connection to the polar narrative. In 1899 the Naas born Royal Naval Officer John de Robeck was in the running to be appointed leader of the Discovery expedition. Sir Clements Markham, then President of the Royal Geographical Society who was instrumental in organising the expedition, had shortlisted de Robeck describing him as ‘hard as nails, lots of nerve, an excellent mess mate’. However Captain Robert Falcon Scott was appointed and among the men he would take to the Antarctic would be the young merchant marine officer Ernest Shackleton for his first trip to the polar regions. De Robeck would go on to have a distinguished career in the Royal Navy and was a prominent naval commander at the Gallipoli landings in Turkey in 1915 during World War I. In tandem with the book launch at the Library in Kildare there was a fine carefully curated exhibition of early photography on display, with the title ‘All the Queen’s Men and All the Queen’s Women: the portrait photographs of camp photographer James Frankham Church of the Curragh Camp 1858-1898’. Curated by Michael Rowley, Curragh based himself, it provides a fascinating insight into early Victorian photography and life around the Curragh Camp in the early Victorian period. It is well worth a visit and runs at the Kildare Library until 30th May while David Butler’s Tom Crean: Irish Antarctic Hero’ is now available in bookshops.

Duthie Larges and Jack Murphy

The urban streetscape of the town of Athy is ever changing. I was reminded of this recently when I came across some ephemeral items which related to Duthie Large & Co. Ltd. They were issued by the company in the early 1900s to promote its business. Shown here are two of these attractive pieces, probably issued at the height of the Edwardian period. The plain undecorated reverse sides are for use as ink blotters. For those of a younger ‘ink blotters’ may be a bit of a mystery. Blotting paper is a thick paper especially made to absorb excess ink when writing with a fountain pen. For my generation the ink pot was accompanied by a fountain pen and a blotter was always close at hand. I am often struck, when receiving correspondence from my peers, of the quality of the penmanship from people who are now well into their eighties. The ‘blotter’ would have been handed out free to customers of the business, and presumably the company ordered these ink blotters in bulk. The blotters were printed in New York and the two examples illustrated here are under the titles ‘When the Airship Flies’ and ‘When the polite man gives up his seat’. Duthie Larges had an extensive premises fronting onto Leinster Street, as well as commodious buildings extending back up Chapel Lane. An early article published in the Nationalist just before Christmas 1900 described Christmas shopping in Athy, writing of the company as doing ‘a big business in the foundry and ironworks trade’, they have in stock a great variety of every class of agricultural implements. They also have on hand all classes of machinery and agricultural implements which would well repay inspection by the farming community’. I was fortunate in the early years of the ‘Eye on the Past’ to interview Jack Murphy of Convent View, Athy who spent much of his working life in Duthie Larges. When I interviewed Jack, almost 30 years ago, he was already in his 10th decade. Jack first started working for Duthie Larges as a bicycle mechanic in or about 1919. After a while he moved to work with Jackson Brothers when they started their garage and bicycle business on Leinster Street. He lost a finger as a result of an accident at work and to add insult to injury it also cost him his job, resulting in his ultimate return to Duthie Larges. In the 1920s and onwards Duthie Larges was an important employer in South Kildare at a time when the only alternative to such employment was in brick yards or Minch Nortons. The busy workshops turned out machinery and farm equipment while the supply and repair of bicycles was an activity as busy, even if not as lucrative as the modern-day sale and repair of motor vehicles. A moulding department, carpentry shop, garage and bicycle shops were some of the main departments to be found in Duthie Larges in those days. Skills abounded with bicycle mechanics, garage mechanics, blacksmiths and pattern moulders working side by side in the huge Duthie Large complex. Prior to the coming to Athy of the Asbestos Factory in 1936 Duthie Larges was the largest employer in the Athy area. Perhaps a lesser-known fact of the history of the firm is that Duthie Larges cast in iron the Garda Station plaques which were placed above the entrance doors of each new Garda Station after 1922. The plaque, derived from the cap badge of the Garda Siochana, was designed by John Francis Maxwell, an art teacher in the Blackrock and Dun Laoghaire Technical School, while Herbert Painting, the assistant principal of Athy Technical School and a teacher of art, made the mould from which the castings were made. By the time Jack left his work bench, retiring in 1979, neither the Large nor Duthie families were still involved in the business, even though the name remained a landmark on the commercial scene of Athy until its closure in the early 1980s The next time you see a vintage tractor, or a piece of antique farming equipment, cast a quick look and you might be rewarded with the sight of an old Duthie Large badge proudly displayed.