Athy's Tuesday Market and the making of Market Bye Laws

Now that work on Athy’s plaza is finished, Kildare County Council are preparing to make bye-laws in relation to the control, regulation, supervision and designation of casual trading in the town. For more than 500 years a market has been held in Athy every Tuesday by virtue of a charter granted by King Henry VIII in 1515. The place for holding the market was determined by the Earl of Kildare, while the village Provost was required to regulate the market. We look upon the former Market Square, now Emily Square, as the site of the market, but in fact the Earl’s initial choice was somewhere in the vicinity of Woodstock Castle where the medieval village of Athy was located in the 16th century. It was only in the latter years of the 17th century that the village of Athy moved to the eastern side of the River Barrow following continuous attacks by the Irish on the Woodstock settlement. White’s Castle was built to protect the River Barrow crossing and the new market square was developed, possibly at the same time as the Market House was built. The Tuesday market transferred across the river and we can presume that the then Earl of Kildare approved the move. The power of the Provost to regulate the market passed to his successor, the Town Sovereign, and subsequently to the Mayor of Athy Borough Council, then to the Chairman of Athy Town Commissioners, the Chairman of Athy Urban District Council and more recently the Mayor of Athy Municipal Council. The Casual Trading Act 1995 gives extensive powers to a County Council to provide for the control and regulation of casual trading. It also provides for the extinguishment of ancient market rights if certain conditions are met by the County Council. The County Council can extinguish the market right but only if alternative facilities are provided for the traders in the vicinity of the existing market right. The Council must also provide in the new market place sufficient accommodation for all the stall holders who were previously catered for under the market right. Only then can the Council enact bye-laws which the stall holders must comply with. The major question which Kildare County Council must answer is whether the return of the market to the newly designated plaza is appropriate. The map which accompanied the public notice issued by Kildare County Council in relation to the market bye-laws showed eleven pitches in the plaza and eight pitches on Barrow Quay. These numbers were considerably less than those used by the traders before work on the plaza started. The Casual Trading Act only allows the market right to be extinguished by the Council if the alternative market site is in the same vicinity, and after facilities offered reasonably correspond in all respects to the previous market size. The alternative site, cited in the Council’s draft bye-laws, using the back Square and the Barrow Quay would not meet the requirements of the Casual Trading Act. However, land to the south side of the Courthouse, formerly the grounds of ‘The Abbey’, would be a suitable site for the Tuesday market. This site, if acquired by the Council, would allow the market to continue every Tuesday and the site could also be used for car parking every other day. That latter point is important, bearing in mind the loss of car parking due to the development of the plaza. Additional parking will also be required when the Shackleton Museum opens. Kildare County Council should move to acquire this plot of ground, whether by compulsory purchase order or otherwise, as it is uniquely located in the centre of the town. The market, at present, is not a very attractive one. I’m reminded of what the authorities in Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex did to make the weekly market more attractive by providing stalls and awnings for the traders, which the Council set up the evening before each market. I understand that the traders pay a small fee for renting the Council’s equipment and the colourful scene provided a pleasant backdrop to the market. I appeal to Kildare County Council not to endanger the town’s plaza and allow it to be a pleasant meeting point for locals and visitors alike seven days a week. The alternative site which I have suggested for the market meets with all the requirements of the Casual Trading Act. It would be foolish for the Council not to seize the opportunity to protect the town’s market, even if it continues not as a market right but as an ordinary market. Personally, I am in favour of the continuation of the Tuesday market in Athy in a casual trading area selected by the Council nearer to Emily Square, even if the present market right is extinguished. This would allow the Council to regulate the new designated casual trading area. The passing of casual trading bye-laws will be an opportunity for Kildare County Council to make the market much more attractive, not least by providing standard colourful stalls and awnings for the traders to use. What I do not want to happen is to witness the death of the Tuesday market. Now is the time for senior Council officials and the public representatives to show vision and courage.

Shackleton Museum receives visitors from the Falkland Islands

The first overseas visitors to arrive at the Shackleton Museum did so last week. These visitors were from the Falkland Islands situated a few hundred miles off the eastern coast of Argentina. Their trip required a flight from Port Stanley, capital of the Falklands to Ascension Island and from there to Brize Norton in the UK. The visitors were four young students, winners of a school essay competition in which they were required to write of the Irish Polar Explorer, Ernest Shackleton. The four young students, Ruby Marsh, Alice May Curtis, Benjamin Goodwin and Theo Young were accompanied by Emma Brook, Falkland College Manager and Sandra Alazia outreach assistant with the Falkland Island Museum. The Shackleton Museum, which is currently being fitted out, was specially opened for the Falkland visitors where they were greeted by the museum curator, Aline Fitzgerald and two directors of the museum board. I was among a number of others who were also invited to give us our first glimpse of what awaits those visiting the museum after its official opening on the 10th of October. As someone who is familiar with the previous history and use of the Town Hall stretching back over 70 years or more I was very impressed with the design and workmanship which has left us with an extraordinary fine interior, a mixture of the old and the new. The impressive early 18th Century building has been transformed internally and restored externally to give a magnificent backdrop to our newly developed Town Plaza. Work on fitting out the museum with exhibits was not completed on the day of our visit and indeed Sven Habermann of Conservation Letterfrack and his team were scheduled to be on site this week and for sometime thereafter to complete the task. However there was sufficient evidence in the exhibits already in place to confirm that Athy’s Shackleton Museum will be of national and international importance. The subject of Shackleton’s life and achievements have gained an importance in the last few decades and with it has brought recognition of Athy’s importance in the telling of his story. I doubt if anyone visiting the museum when it opens will be disappointed with the range of exhibits and participatory media. . The Falklands students and the adults who accompanied them were very impressed by what they saw in the former Town Hall. Thanks must go to the museum curator for making arrangements to allow the overseas visitors and a few others the privilege of seeing at first hand the early development of the world’s most important Ernest Shackleton Museum. The management of the museum is now controlled by a board of five members on behalf of Kildare County Council. The curator, who was appointed some months ago, served in the same position for several years in the 1916 museum in Dublin’s GPO in O’Connell Street. As mentioned earlier the official opening of the museum will take place on October, 10th but I am uncertain as to whether the museum will be open to the public before then. Good luck to everyone involved with the Shackleton Museum which comes to us as a result of a public meeting which set up Athy’s Museum Society forty two years ago. Let’s hope that the acquisition, preservation and subsequent development of White’s Castle as a Fitzgerald and Town Museum does not take as long. I have had some feedback from last week’s Eye on the Past on the adoption of Market Byelaws with a small number of people agreeing with my suggestion as to the best way of protecting and developing the Tuesday market. My suggestion involved the protection of the town’s newly developed Plaza to facilitate its use seven days per week by visitors and locals alike. To do this will involve the expense of acquiring the Abbey grounds but incurring that expense will give Athy the advantage of replacing the lost carparking in Emily Square and meeting the additional carparking required for the Shackleton Museum visitors. I would hope that Kildare County Council would see the advantage of doing so and thereby ensuring adequate Athy centre parking facilities and the preservation of a Tuesday market.

Richard Daly

He is a man who has made a difference. Not just in relation to his teaching role but also as regards the Athy community which he joined in 1977 as a young inexperienced teacher. Richard Daly joined the Technical School on the Carlow Road, then under the principalship of John J. Doyle, as an English and Mathematics teacher. Having graduated from University College Cork, he joined the many other graduates who sought employment in the Irish Vocational Education system which was then controlled by County Councils. It was a time when applicants for teaching positions had to travel the counties canvassing support from County Councillors who voted on teacher appointments. It must have been a demeaning exercise undertaken by young men and women of that time. Since the removal of responsibility for vocational education from County Councils to Training Boards, teacher appointments are made strictly on merit. The Vocational School on the Carlow Road was opened in 1939 and it replaced the part-time school which was located in what older readers will remember as the Catholic Young Men’s Society building on the corner of Stanhope Street and Stanhope Place. T.C. Walsh was Principal of the Carlow Road school when it opened and he remained the Principal for the following ten years. He was replaced by Tom O’Donnell. Nicholas Walsh was Principal in 1976 before transferring to Castledermot and John J. Doyle was Principal for the following seventeen years. The young Richard Daly, who came from County Tipperary to join the Vocational School staff seventeen years earlier and who held the Vice-Principalship from 1987, was then appointed Principal. Richard, who will retire on the 1st September, has been the longest serving Principal of the Athy School having served in that position for 32 years. In that time he has overseen huge changes. Plans for the stand-alone school were approved by the Department of Education in 1999, but delays prompted the Principal, Richard Daly, to arrange six years later for a well-publicised class to be taught in the ten-acre field which was intended as the site of the new school. The Principal took the class himself and expressed the hope that the Government would take notice of how the Athy Vocational School had been neglected by successive Government Ministers. In February 2008 the now unhappy Principal approached Derek Mooney of R.T.E. regarding the delay in building the long promised new school. The subsequent publicity on Mooney’s R.T.E. programme appears to have had an effect. Two years later the new school was officially opened by the Minister for Education, Mary Coughlan. ‘Athy College’, as the new school is now called, had pupil numbers of approximately 100 when it opened. Today it has in or about 700 pupils and approximately 80 staff. An extension to the school to accommodate an additional 200 pupils has been approved by the Department of Education. The College, under the guidance and leadership of Richard Daly, now caters for thirty-three different nationalities. It is a secular school where pupils, regardless of income, nationality or religion, can obtain a first-class education. Athy College has been welcoming students and teachers from Japan since January 2016. This unique relationship between Athy College and Japanese schools is due in large measure to Richard Daly who throughout his principalship has displayed enormous initiative and courage to advance his school’s standing. During his principalship, Richard Daly has extended the reach of the school far beyond that of the school pupils to the general public of Athy. Athy Film Society, organised by Claudia Reeves, holds regular film nights in the school theatre, thanks to the foresight of Richard Daly. Richard is particularly proud, and rightly so, of the part he and his team of volunteers play in the annual Darkness into Light event which is held in May each year to raise funds for Pieta House. Richard started this event ten years ago having failed, due to personal circumstances, to attend the Naas Darkness into Light event which he had done for years previously. Richard has the same team with him for the annual walk which include Pat Byrne, Tom Kelly, Jimmy Byrne, Sean O’Mahony, Frank Dobbyn and Patricia Berry. Sadly another valued member of the Darkness into Light team, Diarmaid Flynn, died in January 2024. I had quite forgotten until I did some research that Richard was a County Councillor and an Athy Urban District Councillor from 2004 to 2014. His political career started when with others he founded Young Fine Gael. He was elected as the first President of that Association and for two years was a member of the Fine Gael National Executive. He has long stepped aside from active involvement in National politics but still retains friendships and contacts with many of the political leaders of the past. Involved in Athy’s community initiatives over the years, Richard firmly believes that as school Principal it is part of his responsibility to be active in the town affairs. It’s an involvement he intends to continue. Richard formally retires on the 1st September and on his retirement he will be remembered as the most energetic and innovative Principal of a school which won the Trinity College 21st Century School of Distinction Award in 2018 and again in 2020. Many Athy College pupils have become pioneers in education and society. From music to media, academia to agriculture, many Athy College pupils of the past have won national acclaim. The Tipperary man, with a ready smile which so easily becomes a hearty laugh, is wished a long and happy retirement. I was delighted to see and hear on Facebook the twenty or so members of Athy's Comhaltas playing on the main gig rig at Wexford Fleadh Cheoil. Their appearance was a wonderful tribute to Jim Kelly and others who are providing teaching lessons for many young people interested in Irish music.

Henry Hosie and Irish Aviation

I have made reference in previous Eye on the Pasts to Henry Hosie, founder of Industrial Vehicles Ireland Limited known locally as I.V.I. in or about 1932 with Freddie Thompson of Carlow. His other commercial venture was the opening of Athy Picture Palace in Offaly Street some years earlier. He was then known as Captain Hosie having joined the English army in response to Kitchener’s call for recruits at the start of World War 1. He was sent to France in 1914 and was invalided back to Ireland in 1916. He later returned to army duties and was based in Scotland where he became Officer in Charge of machinery at the Scottish area forage Department. He was promoted to the rank of Captain during that time. He also served in World War II and was promoted to the rank of Major. In 1947 he relinquished his commission having passed the age limit for reserves and was granted the rank of Colonel. He was known thereafter as Colonel Hosie. His son Terence, who served in the Royal Engineers was killed in action in Italy on the 23rd November 1941 aged 26 year Following my references to Henry Hosie in previous Eye on the Pasts, I received a few years ago a very detailed email from a John King of London in relation to Hosie’s involvement with Irish Aviation and the part he played in the attempt to establish an airline company providing flights from Dublin to England. Hosie joined the Irish Aero Club which was formed in 1928 and four years later, he was responsible for organising an Irish Aero Club’s event in Cardenton, Athy. In the afternoon of Sunday, 14th August 1932, aeroplanes arrived for the first time in Athy landing in a field owned by the Minch family. Several hundred attended including the Lord Mayor of Dublin, the legendary Alfie Byrne, who had been flown from Baldonnel by the Chief Instructor of the Aero Club. There were three planes at the event which was reported as follows by the Kildare Observer, “ There were several events including crazy flying and the balloon bursting competition” …. The report noted “An amusing and exciting interlude when an old woman was seen to enter one of the planes and while the pilot (Captain Hosie) was getting his helmet adjusted, the machine was seen to stagger across the field and rise off the ground missing the hedge by inches. The spectators were then treated to an exhibition of crazy flying and after one or two attempts, the machine was brought back to terra firma”. On the 23rd September 1932, the weekly magazine “Flight” noted that Hosie’s company had been appointed agent in Ireland for the de Havilland company in Ireland. Three days later, Hosie was elected to the management committee of the Irish Aero Club. In March of the following year, he wrote on I.V.I. headed notepaper to the Department of Industry and Commerce enquiring about the availability of Collinstown, a disused pre-war military aerodrome, for use as commercial air service. The reply from the Department was not helpful . For several weeks from April 1933, Hosie was busy trying to make arrangements for the airline company Midland and Scottish to use the aerodrome at Cobh. The Cork Evening Echo recorded how Captain Hosie and the chief instructor of the Irish Aero Club played a flying visit to Cobh in one of the Club’s Gypsy Moth aircraft which landed at Ballincollig at 10.00 a.m. having left Athy at little over one and a half hours earlier. The newspaper report indicated that Hosie had arrived in Cork to inspect possible sites for a southern airport. He made a further visit to Cork, flying again to Ballincollig with officials from the UK to inspect possible sites for a Cork airport. They inspected sites at Ballincollig, Lakelands and near Cobh and had discussions with the Cork City Manager, Philip Monahan. Following this latest visit, Hosie was described in the Nationalist and Leinster Times as “well known in County Kildare and an esteemed Athy resident” asserting “that he deserved much credit for his work in the interest of aviation in Ireland”. That same month, Hosie was elected to the committee of the Irish Aero Club. By July 1933, Hosie was instrumental in completing arrangements for the Midland and Scottish Airline Company to open a twice daily air service from Cork to Dublin with a link to Brittain. The flight which lasted one hour and fifteen minutes cost one pound ten shillings on the 15th August 1933. This was the first attempt by an Irish citizen to give the country a regular air service. Not long afterwards, Hosie’s influence in the developing Irish air service began to be eclipsed by fellow member of the Irish Aero Club and Solicitor, Sean Ó’hUadhaigh. The latter had important political contacts which Hosie did not have. Ó’hUadhaigh would become Chairman of the Aero Club in 1935 and Chairman of Aer Lingus when it was formed in 1936. Hosie appears to have thereafter given more attention to his I.V.I. business for in August 1933, following correspondence in the Evening Herald regarding the value of pneumatic tyres to farm carts, he wrote a letter supporting the use of such tyres claiming that there had been no improvement for farm carts for the previous fifty years. Within four months, the Irish Times reported that rubber tyred farm carts were being built by the I.V.I. Company in Athy. He later disposed of his interest in the Athy Picture Palace to Holmes of Portlaoise who in turn sold out to the Roscrea Cinema company. The early years of the I.V.I. seemed to have concentrated on the supply of industrial vehicles and would appear to have developed the foundry business during the early years of the second world war. Colonel Hosie, who was a very important employer in Athy, died on the 26th October 1967.

Athy's Wallboard factory

One of my earliest memories is of walking with my older brothers to the huge fire which broke out at the Wallboard factory in April 1949. I was a month short of my seventh birthday when like so many other Athy folk we all gathered on the roadside at Barrowford to watch ricks of straw on fire. The Athy Fire Station master made the following entry in the station records; ‘I received a call to fire at Wallboard Factory on 14th April 1949. All members of the Brigade were present. When we arrived we discovered three ricks of straw on fire. We remained working until Saturday 16th May. The Curragh and Carlow Brigades were also there.’ A later entry for the month of May listed as fire members R. Webster, P. Delahunt, Thomas Fleming, Jas Fleming, J. Webster, P. Cowman and P. Doyle who attended a fire at Mrs. Quinn’s house in St. John’s Lane. The Wallboard Mills were located on a 17 acre site approximately one mile north of Athy. Irish Wallboard Co. Ltd. had been formed in 1939 to manufacture hardboard from straw but did not commence production until 1949. Two years later it began to use native timber as the basic raw material for the manufacture of the oil tempered hardboard which was marketed under the trade name ‘Lignatex’. The Irish company had become closely associated with the Bowater organisation in 1950. The timber used in the manufacturing process consisted of forest thinning, while steam power was generated by machine won turf supplied by Bord na Mona. Over 12,000 tons of turf was used each year while 3 or 4 weeks turf supply was always kept in reserve. A major expansion programme in 1957 increased the mill’s production capacity by almost 60% and a further expansion scheme, completed in 1966, trebled the capacity of the Wallboard factory in the space of fifteen years. A report in the Nationalist and Leinster Times of 15th January 1949 noted that while equipment installation work in the new factory was nearing completion two local men, Pat Doyle and Ed Hicks, spent some days at Clondalkin Paper Mills studying the working of the various machines in preparation for their duties at Athy’s new factory. I am uncertain as to whether the factory was in production when the fire started on 14th April 1949. Despite that early setback, with the use of timber rather than straw, and the expansion programmes initiated in 1957 the factory was able to produce 60 million square feet of board annually. Two thirds of the factory output was exported. A press report of the 1960s outlined the steps taken at the Wallboard factory to ensure the production of a high-quality product. The factory laboratory where samples from every part of the production process were tested was managed by Jim Flanagan, assisted by John Murphy, Terry Doyle and many others. Three quality controllers were constantly sampling during every stage of the manufacturing process. This was a responsibility of Pat Daly, John Murphy and Michael Ahern, while Kevin McNulty kept an eye on the quality of the turf and the finished board. In the chemical mixing department Arthur Kavanagh was employed in the preparation of approximately ten tons of aluminium sulphate solution each week. Another laboratory man was George Robinson who assisted the chief chemist Jim Flanagan in research and development. The first manager of the Wallboard factory was Richard Shackleton, while the initial production managers employed were Swedish, the fifth production manager was Andy Coughlan whom I understand was a former RAF flight engineer. With many other local factories the Wallboard staff participated in the annual parochial variety festivals which were initiated by the local curate, Fr. Joe Corbett. In 1964 the Wallboard Variety Show was reported in the local press as ‘a pleasant and colourful presentation which won loud applause from the audience.’ The performers included Ena, Joan and Frances Coughlan, Connie Stafford, M. Dooley, P. Dunleavy, N. Wright, M. Holohan, K. McNulty, T. Dooley, S. Fanning, P.J. Loughman, Tim Ryan, M. Rainsford, F. Ryan, S. Finnerty, B. Finnerty and B. Robinson. The laughter, songs and work stopped in December 1978 when the Wallboard factory closed down. Approximately 220 workers were made redundant when production of wallboard transferred to Sweden where it is today still carried on. When corresponding with my good friend Liam Kenny, doyen of Kildare local historians, I invariably refer to Athy as being in the deep south of the county. For a change this Eye comes from the deep south of the island of Ireland to where I have travelled to greet my latest grandchild, Hannah Rose, born just a few days ago in Cork city. Hannah was the name of her maternal great grandmother who was born and reared in Doneraile, Co. Cork. The circle has now been completed.

A look back over the past 1500 Eyes on the Past

It is close on 29 years ago that I penned my first Eye on the Past. This week the 1500th article is printed and I want to take the opportunity to reflect on past articles, the people and events that formed the subject of those articles and to acknowledge the help given to me by so many people over the years. The first article was a short piece of approximately 400 words in which I mentioned the publics growing interest in local history and the opening of what I referred to as “the new vastly improved library service in the Town Hall”. Subsequent articles grew in wordage to 800 words then 1,200 words and that latter figure was maintained until the Kildare Nationalist changed to tabloid form. Prior to my first article I had been researching the history of Athy and 29 years later that research is still ongoing and my long promised history of the town is still not ready for publication. As a “blow in” to Athy from just down the road in Castlecomer but having all my remembered youthful life experiences here in Athy it is understandable that my interest in history should be centred on Athy. It was an interest first encouraged by my teachers in the local Christian Brothers school, especially the late Bill Ryan who was a gentleman, a scholar and an encourager. While I was out of Athy for 22 years my interest in history saw me researching Athy’s past. That research opened up many unknown and some forgotten elements of the town’s story. Even while I had attended the local secondary school and studied history for my Leaving Certificate I had never encountered any significant references to Athy’s involvement in Irish national events. Nothing was ever related to me or my school mates of how the Great Famine affected the local people. We learned of the famine tragedies of the West and the South West of Ireland such as that reported in the United Irishmen newspaper of the 19th of February 1848 which quoting a correspondent of the Mayo Constitution claiming “we had been informed that within the last week upwards of 20 deaths have taken place from starvation in Ballintubbert”. We now know that our local workhouse was the last place of residence for hundreds of local men, women and children who died during the famine and whose remains were brought by cart across Lennons Bridge to be buried in paupers graves in St. Mary’s cemetery. As students we never learned of the young men from Athy who enlisted to fight overseas in World War or the great number of those men whose broken bodies disappeared into the blood-soaked soil of France and Flanders. I had never heard of John Vincent Holland whose act of bravery during that same war resulted in him being awarded the Victoria Cross. These were some of the towns past stories which had escaped the memory of later generations, and which were awaiting to be discovered, for without these stories and the many other stories of local events and local men and women our community’s shared past would be incomplete. In my first article I wrote “Eye on the Past will each week deal with a topic of interest from the history of South Kildare when we will delve into the rich vein of local history which remains to be discovered”. I didn’t know then what an overwhelming rich vein of history awaited to be discovered. I have been fortunate to be contacted personally, by phone, by letter and in more recent times via email by hundreds of persons interested in Athy’s history. Many have sought information of ancestors who once lived in the town or South Kildare while others had generously shared memories and knowledge of past events with me. Eithne Wall who first joined my office in 1982 has typed, with very few exceptions, the Eyes since 1992 and Noreen Day has provided the proof reading necessary to correct my mistakes. The availability of the Eyes on the Past on the internet has led to enquiries from many countries particularly America, Australia, New Zealand and as might be expected Great Britain. Those enquiries have brought home to me how generations of Athy folk can spread throughout the world and how information regarding the past of such a small town as Athy can be gleaned from sources throughout the globe. Our local history mirrors in many ways the national events of the time and we can get a better understanding of our country’s own history by knowing the history of the generations who have gone before us. I am pleased to acknowledge that today Athy people have a better understanding of their own history and this is reflected in a cultural reawakening which was not readily observable a few decades ago. We have a proud history whether it is recounting the men, women and events of the War of Independence or the story of those who went to war overseas during 1914/18. Part of that history is knowing that an international figure such as Polar Explorer Ernest Shackleton was born in nearby Kilkea and undoubtedly walked the same streets we walk today. But above all our towns history is the story of the local men and women, many of whom lived in the back streets and alleyways in Athy in houses which were demolished during the slum clearance programmes of the 1930’s. They were the workers in the brickyards and the foundries and the farm labourers who with their wives and children gave life to the Anglo Norman town founded over 800 years ago. I was privileged to have been able to share some of their stories even if at times I might have unintentionally offended someone’s delicate sensibilities. Yes, there had been a few occasions over the past 29 years when someone has objected to something I wrote or made a point of seeking a correction when none was justified. I remember one reader who sought to correct my research findings regarding the location of the Quaker Meeting House in Meeting Lane on the basis that her mother told her it was elsewhere. I couldn’t persuade her otherwise or indeed ameliorate the fury of the woman who felt I had insulted the former tenants of the soldiers houses in the Bleach by reciting the accommodation details as outlined in the War Office files of the 1920s. However it was not all conflict. The readers have been more than complimentary and I am ever grateful for the continued help afforded to me by so many with my research. A special thanks to one individual who has been writing to me for years with the most beautiful handwriting always drawing my attention to items or persons of interest. He has constantly provided me with additional information but always on the strict understanding that his name is never mentioned. I started off by stating my intention to reflect on past articles but my pen has galloped away without doing what I intended. I hope you have enjoyed the past 1,500 Eyes on the Past and here is hoping that time will be given to me to write some more Eyes and more importantly finish and publish my long promised history of Athy.

When Athy was the largest town in County Kildare

In 1841 Athy had the largest population of any town in County Kildare. With 4,980 persons living within the town boundaries, it exceeded the population of Naas by over 300. Newbridge was only a sizeable village with a population of 1,177 while nearby Portlaoise fell short of Athy’s population with 3,702 inhabitants. Ten years later Athy’s population had increased to 5,263 as a result of the workhouse numbers which masked an actual fall in the towns native population over the course of the Great Famine. Naas in the meantime had begun to match Athy in terms of population numbers with 5,184 inhabitants. Both towns were to show substantial population losses by 1911 when Athy was recorded with 3,535 inhabitants with Naas overtaking Athy as the largest town in the County with 3,842. In fact, the first time Naas showed a higher population figure than Athy was in 1871 with approximately 100 more residents than the South Kildare town. The ups and downs of urban population figures no doubt were reflected in the range and extent of local commercial activity. Here in Athy, we have witnessed even within the past two or three years several businesses which have changed hands or gone out of business. As I write this article, I can only recall two local business still operating in Athy as they were 100 years ago. Indeed, O’Brien’s of Emily Square was the name over the shop as early as two or three decades before the new century arrived, while Doyle’s of Woodstock Street opened many years later. Both pubs operated at a time when Athy with less than half the population it has today, was home to 44 public houses. One of their commercial colleagues at that time was A. Duncan & Son, Drapers and Outfitters of Duke Street which business was bought out by Sam Shaw in or about 1914 and which business is still the anchor tenant in Athy’s main shopping street. Many other firms now long forgotten once traded in our town. Who remembers James Reid & Son, Family Grocers and Publicans of Leinster Street or William Triston, Solicitor of Duke Street. Both carried on business in Athy in 1916 as did Henry Hannon & Sons, Millers of Duke Street and Columb Geraghty, Grocer and Publican of Market Square. Thomas Lumley merchant tailor worked in his workshop in Athy until he retired on the 23th July 1917. Amongst those who continued in business for some time after that were P.J. Corcoran, principal of the Athy Auctioneering Company and Daniel Toomey, Builder and Contractor. Many of today’s older generation will recall Glespens Carriage Builders who carried on business in 1917 and much later. In the 1950’s Glespens occupied premises in Duke Street but has anyone heard of John P. Glespen who in 1917 advertised himself as “Carriage Builder and Designer, Wheelwright, Harness Maker and Motor Car and Cycle Agent” with premises in Nelson Street and Offaly Street. Edward Vernal was plying his trade as a General Smith and Horseshoer in Leinster Street in 1907. The Vernal forge was located in St. John’s Lane immediately behind Mrs. Haslem’s house when I was attending the Christian Brothers School in the 1950’s John Blanchfield operated out of 26 Leinster Street as a pork butcher and sausage maker in 1916. Was he, I wonder, related to the saw milling Blanchfield family at the top end of Leinster Street. A business not previously known to me was that of the Miley Brothers who had the General Supply Store in Duke Street in 1916. Names still remembered today and found over business premises in Athy over 100 years ago include Duthies of Leinster Street. W.T. Duthie, Watchmaker, Jeweller and Optician had been in business for several years prior to 1917 and his son, Albert, would later take over the business. On the far side of Crom a Boo Bridge in 1917 was the Grocery Tea, Wine and Spirits Stores of Cantwell’s of Duke Street while George Dillon of 19 Leinster Street advertised Spiced Beef as a speciality to order. Michael Murphy carried on business in the Commercial House facing the Market Square as a Clothier, Hatter offering “ boots and shoes in great variety”. Around the corner in Stanhope Street was another Murphy, this time with the forename Patrick who ran a General Grocery and Provision Business. David Walsh, Family Grocer, Hardware, Seed and General Merchant “with a variety of Guns and Ammunition always in stock” had his premises at the corner of Chapel Lane and Leinster Street. Other businesses in Athy in the early years of the 20th century included Athy Gas Company, Hibernian Bank, Duthie Large Foundry and Iron Works, Leinster Arms Hotel, D&J Carbery Builders and Athy Tile and Brick Company. These firms are no longer in Athy and their absence reminds us that the ever changing needs of new generations require new and improved commercial outlets to serve their needs. 100 years ago the market town of Athy with a population of less that 4,000 boasted of 44 public houses. Today our main streets show a monopoly of hairdressing salons, betting shops, charity shops and fast food outlets. Times indeed are a changing.

Athy in the 1840s

The worst effects of the famine which had ravaged Ireland following the failure of the potato crop in 1845 had abated by the time 1853 arrived. William Byrne was then station master in Athy, a position he held for the previous four years and where he would remain for the next six years. Athy boasted many trades in 1853, including a Fack and Hook Maker, a trade practiced by Michael Cushian who found himself on the wrong side of the law on assault charges. Julia Bradley, dressmaker, was summoned by her mistress, Mrs. O’Neill, for leaving her indentures without fulfilling her term. She was ordered by the Court to return to her ‘master’, otherwise she would be jailed for the remainder of her apprenticeship. Also in trouble were the four paupers brought before the local petty sessions by the Master of the workhouse for refusing to work and disobeying the Master’s orders. They each got one month’s imprisonment with hard labour. Early in the year eight locals were summoned by order of the Town Commissioners for exhibiting turf for sale in a place other than that designated for such sales by the town fathers. Athy resident Mrs. Walsh was one of sixty passengers who drowned when the steamer, ‘Queen Victoria’, sank in Dublin Bay on Tuesday 15th February of that year. Forty passengers survived, including her husband. The Presbyterian families who had arrived the previous year from Perthshire Scotland to take up tenancies of the Duke of Leinster’s lands in the Athy area, gave public notice that their meeting house was a place of religious worship and registered for solemnising marriages. Controversy arose when the vacant position of Coroner for South Kildare prompted an advertisement to be inserted in the Leinster Express expressing ‘regret that the election of Coroner has endeavoured to be made a political and religious question’. The contest was between James Butler who although an Anglican had the support of the Roman Catholic voters and Dr. Carter, another Anglican, who was eventually appointed. Two years after the abolition of Athy Borough Council the newly elected Town Commissioners for Athy, numbering 21 in all, whose numbers included the Catholic Parish Priest Fr. John Lawler and the Anglican Rector, Rev. Frederick Trench, agreed to have a certain number of Catholics and Protestants as Town Commissioners and to have a Catholic and Protestant chairman on alternate years. Michael Lawler, who was Chairman of the Town Commissioners in 1853, wrote to the press in July 1858 stating that ‘we have never deviated from our original compact’. Michael Lawler was one of the 21 Town Commissioners who was sworn into office before Lord Downes and John Butler on 18th February 1842 at a ceremony held in Athy’s Courthouse which was then part of the Town Hall. During his long service as a Town Commissioner he was elected Chairman on three occasions, 1853, 1876 and 1890. Lawler who died on 20th October 1900 and was buried in Barrowhouse, started in business in Athy in and around 1840. He had a licenced premises in Leinster Street immediately adjoining Whites Castle which was subsequently purchased by Edward T. Mulhall in November 1900 for £500. Edward Mulhall was described in the press reports of the time as having worked in Lawlers licenced premises as ‘the foreman and manager’. Michael Lawler gave what the local press described as ‘a sumptuous entertainment to upwards of 60 persons on the advent of his inauguration to the chairmanship of the Town Commissioners. The dinner was given in a spacious room in Mr. Lawler’s private residence.’ Michael Lawler lived at Park House in Duke Street which was later acquired by McHugh’s chemist. Alexander Duncan, a local trader, in a speech to the dinner guests said ‘those gentlemen who had but lately seen the town, could not well appreciate the progress it had made in the last 20 years. If they were to know the sanitary conditions then and compare it with the present appearance, they would in the fullest acceptance of the word admit that Athy had progressed.’ Four months later an extraordinary meeting of Athy Dispensary Committee was held to consider the medical officers report regarding the filthy state of the town. It was an issue which Michael Lawler returned to the following October when he claimed ‘Athy is a different town to what it was 21 years ago. Then the streets were in ruts, the homes were falling, the best streets were interspersed with thatched houses ….. now we have a flourishing town ….. the houses and establishments second to none to any inland town in Ireland.’ Twenty years later an editorial in the Leinster Express under the heading ‘The water supply of Athy’ noted ‘we are now paying for our past neglect and for the carelessness of former generations ….. the water we have been consuming all our lives turns out to be polluted ….. our dwellings have been constructed without any regard to the health of the inhabitants ….. the sanitary conditions of the town are very bad.’ The editorial noted that a special meeting of the sanitary committee had been convened for that day to consider whether a pure water supply could be brought from a distance into the town by means of pipes. Thirty years were to elapse before a piped water supply was provided for the people of Athy. By comparison fifty-five years have passed since Athy’s outer relief road was first suggested in a consultants report presented to Athy U.D.C.