1916 in Athy

1916 was a difficult year for the town of Athy.  The Great War had entered its third year and there was no sign of it ending.  The patriotic fervour and martial ardour that greeted the outbreak of war in 1914 had long since diffused.  The town had grown accustomed to regular reports of casualties from the western front and a number of Athy men had been invalided home.  The year began badly with torrential rains, the worst in memory occasioning the overflow of the Barrow and the flooding of many farms in the Athy area on New Year’s Day 1916. 

By that year over 1600 Athy men were serving in the war and the separation allowance paid to the families of soldiers was a significant bulwark against the endemic poverty of pre-war Athy.

Life in both Athy and Ireland however was itself not without incident.  The Easter Rising would erupt in Dublin in April 1916 and one Athy man, a young Irish volunteer Mark Wilson, would find himself at the heart of events serving in the Four Courts garrison. At the same time Sir Anthony Weldon, a fellow townsman from Kilmoroney House and veteran of the Boer War, was in command of the Limerick Military district.  His humane and sensitive treatment of the Irish Volunteers in Limerick in the aftermath of the Rising was much applauded at the time as no doubt his avowed beliefs as an Irish Home Ruler contributed to his benevolent approach.  He himself would not survive the war, dying at home in 1917 from the after effects of gas poisoning

1916 would mark for Michael Bowden of Athy his second year in captivity in Germany as a Prisoner of War.  The publication of his picture in the Saturday Herald newspaper on 10^th June 1916 with that of his brother in law John Byrne was of some comfort to his family, but he would never return home, dying in the camp on 7^th May 1918 without ever seeing a child born after his departure for France on the front in the late summer of 1914.

I have no doubt that Bowden and the many other Athy men imprisoned in Limburg would have derived great comfort from the masses they celebrated with Fr. James Crotty, the Dominican friar who had been Prior of the Dominican community in Athy for two years from April 1900 and whose parents left Athy for New Ross in 1867 shortly before Fr. Crotty's birth.

Some aspects of life continued as normal.  The South Kildare Agricultural Show which had been cancelled in August 1914 because of the outbreak of the war was held that summer and local vet, John Holland, received the prize for having the best three year old gelding in the show.  His son, John Vincent Holland, recently returned from working on the railways in Argentina and now an officer in the Leinster Regiments, would win greater acclaim on the Somme battlefield in September where his actions in leading a bombing party would see him awarded the Victoria Cross.  While local vet John Holland enjoyed his success, his former gardener, John Byrne, remained in captivity in Limburg where he would die as the war headed towards its conclusion in September 1918. 

The Hannon family from Ardreigh secured a prize at that same agricultural show for having the best gelding in the four year old category.  The grief and loss they suffered in 1915 when a son was killed would be compounded by the further loss of Lieutenant John Coulson Hannon in summer of 1916. 

1916 was also a defining year for the Kilkea born Ernest Shackleton.  On the day that the Irish volunteers struck for freedom in Dublin on Easter Monday Shackleton set out on an extraordinary 800 mile boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia with his Irish comrades Tom Crean and Tim McCarthy.

It was ultimately with the assistance of the Chilean Navy tugboat ‘Yelcho’ commanded by Commander Luis Pardo, that the rescue was effected on 30^th August 1916.  This dramatic event will be celebrated in Athy Heritage Centre Museum next Friday night, 7^th October, with a reception to be hosted by the Chilean naval attache to Ireland, Mr. Ronald Baasch.  The reception will be followed by a lecture, at 7.45pm by the distinguished Chilean navy historian, Dr. Fernando Wilson.  All are welcome to attend.

100 years on Athy and Ireland has been transformed and none more so in the prominence of women today in Irish life and society.  This has been particularly apparent in sport, with the extraordinary level of participation of young girls and women in our national game, Gaelic football.  It was particularly uplifting to see the County Kildare ladies football team take the Intermediate All-Ireland title in Croke Park last Sunday in front of a capacity crowd of 35,000 people and I extend my particular congratulations to the two representatives from Athy, Orlaith Moran and Niamh Mulhall on their wonderful achievement.

Address at concluding 1916 commemoration ceremony in Athy on 12 April 2016

Athy’s commemoration of the centenary of the 1916 Rising concluded on Sunday 17^th April with a formal ceremony at Emily Square.  The proceedings opened with the following address which I am reproducing as this week’s Eye on the Past.

‘In this the centenary year of the Easter Rising we come together to commemorate with pride and dignity the vision, courage and sacrifices that marked the events of Easter week 1916.  We do so in the knowledge that constitutional nationalism and armed rebellion which fused in the years following the Rising transformed Irish political life.  It led to the first Dáil, the War of Independence and regrettably the Civil War but independence in the face of military oppression by the largest empire in the world was an achievement of historical proportions. 

There are many conflicting interpretations of the Easter Rising and commemorating an armed Rebellion which occurred without the people’s support is always going to be challenging.  Questions may be asked about the legitimacy of the Easter Rising – but it is not for us to justify or condemn but to try to understand.

Insurrection was far from the minds of most Irish men and women at the start of the 20^th century.  In 1798 the United Irishmen inspired by the republican ideals of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution had raised the country in revolt.  Robert Emmet had led a revolt in 1803, the Young Islanders in 1848 and the Fenians in 1867 at a time of agrarian discontent.  All had failed. 

In 1914 the leaders of the Irish Volunteers were secretly organising for an armed revolt.  From the radical socialist James Connolly to the nationalist poet, Padraig Pearse, they were committed to changing Ireland’s political situation.  The execution of the 1916 leaders turned the tide of public opinion and led to a radically new direction for Irish Nationalists.  The effect of the Rising of Easter week 1916 termed by the Irish historian, Desmond Ryan, as – ‘one of the most arresting examples in all history of the triumph of failure’, was as Pearse foresaw to shake Ireland from her sleep of apathy.

Those who had little sympathy with the aspirations of the 1916 leaders while they lived began to change their minds after the executions in Kilmainham jail.  George Russell, the Irish poet better known as AE would write:-

                

                 “Their dream had left me numb and cold,

But yet my spirit rose in price,

Refashioning in burnished gold

The images of those who died

Or were shut in the penal cell.

Here’s to you, Pearse, your dream not mine,

But yet the thought for this you fell

Has turned life’s waters into wine.”

Athy in 1916 was a town which had made a huge contribution in terms of young men who volunteered to enlist to fight overseas in the 1914-18 war.  Another young man born in Russellstown was at that time working in Dublin and as a member of the Irish Volunteers he served under Comdt. Ned Daly in the Four Courts.  Mark Wilson was the only Athy man confirmed to have participated as a Volunteer in the Easter Rising.  Following the surrender ordered by the rebel leaders he was imprisoned in Stafford Detention Barracks.  Today we are privileged to have in attendance his son, also named Mark, who is here with other members of the Wilson family.

It was the bravery of men such as Mark Wilson which helped change the public’s attitude and in time led to the resurgence of Nationalist fervour culminating in the establishment of a Sinn Fein club in Athy in June 1917.  Chairman of that club was local shopkeeper Michael Dooley of Duke Street in whose honour the 1932 Housing Estate on Stradbally Road was named Dooley’s Terrace.  Others associated with the Nationalist cause included  Bapty Maher, Eamon Malone, Joe May, Dick Murphy, Christine Malone, William Mahon, P.P. Doyle, Michael May, Tom Corcoran, Joe Mullery, Julia Dooley, Alice Lambe, Hester Dooley and the O’Rourke and Lambe brothers.

If the Easter Rising was the seminal event in the establishment of the Irish State the involvement of these men and women from Athy in the struggle for independence was a significant continuation of the town’s previous participation in the national struggle which stretched back to the Confederate wars and the 1798 Rebellion.

In our final 1916 commemoration event here in Athy we acknowledge the significance of the contribution of Mark Wilson and others to the shaping of modern Ireland.  While not all of the ideals of the 1916 Proclamation have been realised today, nevertheless in this centenary year it is appropriate for us to acknowledge with pride the part played by the men and women of 1916 in furthering the cause of Irish freedom.’

Thanks to all those who contacted me regarding Athy’s 1966 Commemoration of the Rising.  I am still anxious to see if photographs of that event have been retained by anyone.