Continuing Athy's 1916 rebellion commemorations

On Tuesday nights over the past three weeks Athy’s Community Arts Centre has been a mecca for anyone interested in local events surrounding the Easter Rebellion of 1916.  The series of lectures organised as part of Athy’s commemoration of the Easter Rising has witnessed talks by James Durney, historian in residence to Kildare County Council, Des Marnane, author and broadcaster from Tipperary and Padraig Yeates, author of several books on Dublin’s history.  The final lecture will be given this Tuesday, 12^th April, at 8.00 p.m. by Francis Devine.  His subject ‘From Lockout to Rising, the I.T.G.W.U., I.C.A., Liberty Hall in 1916’  promises to give a detailed account of Dublin’s working men’s involvement in the events of 1916.  Admission to the lecture is free.

The final event in the local commemoration programme takes place in Emily Square on Sunday, 17^th April at 3.00 p.m.  This will be our last opportunity to participate in the centenary events marking the 1916 Rising and to pay our respects to those men and women who played a part in that Rising.  The only Athy man whom it is confirmed participated as a Volunteer in the Easter Rising was Russellstown born Mark Wilson.  His son, also named Mark, together with members of his extended family, will attend the Emily Square ceremonies. 

Athy people can be justifiably proud of the part played by local townspeople in the post 1916 period as the history of emerging Irish nationhood developed.  I have in previous Eyes on the Past mentioned by name those men and women who participated in the struggle for Irish freedom.  Regrettably a comprehensive list of those involved is not available.  How I wish that someone of that generation was recording and noting the events and people of that time and so help to preserve an important part of our local history.  It is gratifying to note that great strides have been made in recent months to make available through the internet various records and documents relating to 1916 and the subsequent War of Independence.  From some of those records I have extracted the names of Athy men and women who were involved in the national struggle.

Christine Malone, with an address in April 1939 at 79 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin was noted as holding the rank of captain in Athy’s Cumann na mBan.  In the early 1980s I was privileged to meet Christine Malone who was then living in Convent View but unfortunately I knew nothing then of her War of Independence involvement.  It was long after her death that I became so aware and so missed the opportunity of learning so much of what has now been lost concerning the activities of the Cumann na mBan in Athy.  Other Cumann na mBan members recorded as attached to “A” Coy 5^th Battalion, Carlow Brigade I.R.A. were Mrs. Julia Dooley, St. Michael’s Terrace, Mrs. May, Woodstock Street and Alice Lambe, Upper William St.

The names of J.J. Bergin of Maybrook and Frank of O’Brien of Emily Square appear prominently in reports of meetings of the National Volunteers following their breakaway from the original Irish Volunteers.  The Athy Volunteers were perhaps the largest such group in County Kildare prior to the Volunteer split and were quite active as confirmed in the following press report of 19^th September 1914. 

‘On Sunday last Athy Volunteers held manoeuvres in the vicinity of the town.  Companys A and B were the white army, Companys C and D the blue enemy.  The latter were the attacking army and having crossed the Barrow towards the Queens County came in touch with the enemy at Bennettsbridge where a “battle” took place.  The Army Medical Nursing Corps displayed great proficiency in dressing “the wounded”.’

The report further noted that the men of Athy were progressing in the art of war.  Soon afterwards the Volunteers would split between the National Volunteers who followed John Redmond and the Irish Volunteers, a much smaller group, who resisted the call to fight in World War I.

A name not previously mentioned was that of Master Thomas Blanchfield who in June 1914 was recorded as the Commander of the Boys Corps of the Irish Volunteers.  This Corps was composed principally of boys from the Christian Brothers School in St. John’s Lane. Other names which I have taken from Cumann na mBan branch records are that of Kathleen Whelan of Ballylinan who was captain of the Ballylinan branch and Mary T. McKenna of Raheen, Ballylinan who was the branch treasurer.

The commemoration events throughout Ireland marking the centenary of the 1916 Rising have been photographed and recorded for posterity.  I wonder if photographs of the 50^th anniversary events in Athy attended by many of the survivors of the War of Independence are to be found today.  I recall seeing a photograph some years ago of some of those men [I can’t recall any women], parading in Emily Square to mark the 1916 Easter Rebellion.  Does anyone have any photographs of the 1966 commemoration in Athy which they would be willing to share?  If you have I would welcome the opportunity of scanning the photographs so that another piece of our local history can be recovered and retained. 

Don’t forget the lecture this Tuesday in Athy’s Community Arts Centre and the closing event of this centenary year’s commemoration in Emily Square on Sunday 17^th April at 3.00 p.m.

Continuing Athy's 1916 rebellion commemorations

The third lecture in the 1916 commemoration series takes place this Tuesday, 5^th April at 8.00 p.m. in the Community Arts Centre, Woodstock Street.  ‘Looters, Deserters and Crime in Dublin in 1916’ is the title of the talk to be given by Dublin author, Padraig Yeates.  Padraig has written several well received books on different aspects of Dublin’s history, the most recent of which was ‘A City in Civil War – Dublin 1921-24’ which was published last year.

A unique part of the evening’s entertainment will be the playing of the uileann pipes once owned by the 1916 executed leader Eamonn Ceannt.  The pipes have been in the ownership of a local man for almost 40 years or more and are a treasured reminder of the 1916 leader who was executed on 8^th May, 1916.  Ceannt’s uileann pipes will be played at the start of Tuesday’s lecture by Tos Quinn who is one of the legendary group of musicians who play traditional music in Clancy’s every Thursday night.  The musical interlude and the lecture promise to give us a very special night in Athy’s Community Arts Centre. 

The final lecture in the 1916 series will take place on Tuesday, 12^th April when Francis Devine, author and historian will speak on the topic ‘From Lockout to Rising, the I.T.G.W.U., I.C.A., Liberty Hall in 1916’.  Admission is free to all the lectures and to the other 1916 commemoration events which will be held in Athy during the next few weeks. 

The Heritage Centre stages ‘A step back in time’ exhibition on Saturday, 9^th April from 12noon to 4p.m.  This takes place in the Heritage Centre and also in Emily Square and will give a flavour of the sights and sounds of the year when the Rebellion broke out in our capital city.

On 14^th April local school children will display their art inspired by the events of 1916 in the Community Arts Centre at 7.30 p.m.  The exhibition will also feature the 1916 Proclamation which the people of Athy will be asked to sign in what I gather is a unique contribution to furthering the ideals of the leaders of the 1916 Rebellion.

The final event in Athy’s 1916 commemorations will be a solemn commemoration to be held in Emily Square on Sunday, 17^th April commencing at 3.00 p.m.  Here the 1916 Proclamation will be read after members of St. Michael’s O.N.E. and St. Brigid’s Pipe band have paraded through the town to the assembly point in Emily Square.  An ecumenical service will be held there following which a wreath will be laid at the Town Hall in memory of those men and women who participated in the Easter Rebellion.  It is hoped that a son of Mark Wilson, the Russellstown born man who was part of the Four Courts garrison during Easter week 1916 will join us on Sunday, 17^th April to lay the wreath.  The ceremony will conclude with the raising of the Tricolour and the sounding of the last post. 

Last week I wrote of the founding of the Sinn Fein Club here in Athy in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising and the execution of its leaders.  The Athy commemoration ceremonies honour not only those who took part in the 1916 Rebellion but also those who in the months and years after 1916 gave of their time and energies to secure the independence of our country.  That the task they had set themselves is not yet finished is no fault of those brave men and women who were members of the IRB, Cumann na mBan or later the reinvigorated Sinn Fein party which was founded as a non military organisation.

When one looks back over Athy’s long history we can see how different generations sought to break the link with England.  Armed conflicts searching back to the Confederate Wars and later still the 1798 Rebellion had Athy folk heavily involved.  The strength of that opposition was considerably weakened over successive generations as poverty and financial dependency compelled many young men to join the British Army.  The Crimean War and the Boer War saw Athy men serving overseas, while the 1914/’18 war saw local church and civic leaders play an active role in encouraging the young men of Athy to enlist in the British Army.

The cause of Irish nationalism reasserted itself in the post 1916 period and Athy through its patriotic men and women such as Bapty Maher, Richard Murphy, Joe May, Eamon Malone and Christine Moloney to name just a few played their part in the armed struggle which we describe as the War of Independence.

Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler's participation in 1916 rebellion

On Tuesday 29^th March the second lecture in the 1916 series will be given by Dr. Des Marnane in the Community Arts Centre at 8.00 p.m.  The subject ‘Saving the Honour of Tipp – Tipperary 1916’ promises to be an interesting insight into a provincial county’s reaction to the events of Easter 1916.  Admission to the lecture is free.

Last week I gave the background to the development of the Irish Nationalist movement in Athy in the years following the Easter Rising.  While the first branch of the Irish Volunteers in County Kildare was formed in Athy on 9^th May 1914 the Volunteers were divided when later in the year John Redmond sought to encourage the Volunteers to enlist in the British Army. The vast majority of the Volunteers here in Athy and elsewhere throughout the country followed Redmond who named the new group which split from the Irish Volunteers as the National Volunteers.  It would be some time before the now smaller group which retained the name Irish Volunteers could reassert itself. 

A military council comprising Tom Clarke, Padraic Pearse and others, all members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, while at the same time leaders of the Irish Volunteers, planned the Easter Rising.  This was done without the knowledge and consent of many of those with whom they shared leadership of the Irish Volunteers and in the ensuing confusion over countermanding orders, fewer Volunteers than expected turned out on Easter Monday 1916.

Two men who did turn out were Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler.  Mark Wilson was born in Russelstown, Athy in 1891 to Robert Wilson, a native of County Wicklow and Julianna Heffernan, formerly of Leinster Street, Athy.  By 1901 the Wilson family had moved to Dublin.  Mark, the eldest of five children, married Annie Stanley of Summerhill, Dublin on 3^rd August 1913.  She was a sister of Joe Stanley, the man who in 1916 printed the Proclamation, original copies of which are now selling for extraordinary sums of money.

Mark joined the 1^st Battalion Dublin Brigade Irish Volunteers and during the Easter Rebellion he was part of the Four Courts garrison under the command of Edward Daly.  Following the surrender of Edward Daly and his men Daly was tried and executed, while Wilson and his colleagues were detained in Richmond Barracks.  In a statement made in 1953 for the Bureau of Military History Patrick Cogan of Maynooth, referring to the Athy man while they were in custody, said ‘in the ranks in front of me was a volunteer in uniform.  When people shouted at us to keep our heads up he answered that they were never down.  He was a source of great encouragement ..... that volunteer was Mark Wilson, a native of Athy.’

The Athy man was later transferred to Stafford Detention Barracks in England where he was detained until December 1916.  On his release Wilson rejoined the Irish Volunteers and following the Treaty enlisted in the National Army.  He attained the rank of Captain before resigning from the Defence Forces in February 1929.  Mark Wilson died in December 1971 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

The other man with connections in South Kildare who fought in the 1916 Rising was Francis Lawler who lived in Castleroe, Maganey between 1918 and 1925.  Like Mark Wilson, Lawler joined the Irish Volunteers and was attached to the 1^st Battalion Dublin Brigade.  He was also a member of the Four Courts Garrison and was also imprisoned following the surrender of the Volunteers.  I have been unable to confirm if Lawler had connections with Castleroe, Maganey prior to 1916.  Following his release from prison in December 1916 Francis Lawler rejoined the Irish Volunteers and played a very active part while living in Castleroe in the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War. 

He served as an instructor/training officer at the I.R.A. camp in Ducketts Grove in 1921.  He joined the National Army in February 1922 and reached the rank of Captain.  It was while he was a Captain that he was involved in an unfortunate incident in Castledermot on 16^th June 1922.  That Friday morning four irregular troops took over the Sinn Fein hall in Castledermot which was the polling station for the general election agreed between Collins and De Valera in an attempt to ward off civil war.  Three Free State officers, Vice Comdt. Cosgrove, Adj. J. Lillis and Captain F. Lawler entered the building to find it occupied by John Dempsey, Thomas Dunne, Peter Brien and William Kinsella.  Captain Lawler in his evidence at the Coroner’s inquest claimed ‘I was the first to enter.  I had my revolver in my hand and was about to cock it when my thumb slipped off the cocking piece and the revolver went off.’

Thomas Dunne was mortally wounded.  Dr. Francis Brannan of Castledermot described the deceased whom he knew well as ‘a hard working respectable young fellow.’  The Coroner in summing up found that the shot which killed Thomas Dunne was not fired maliciously, despite evidence that Captain Lawler had fired three shots.

When we remember the men of 1916 we should not forget that tragedy often marked their activities not only during the Easter Rebellion but long afterwards.

Athy and the aftermath of the 1916 Rebellion

Last week in anticipation of the 1916 commemoration lectures which start this Tuesday, 22^nd March, in Athy Community Arts Centre I wrote of the activities in this area of Irish Volunteers from Portlaoise.  Despite the fact that many families in Athy and south Kildare were linked by service and by financial dependency on the British Army, the growth of Irish Nationalism in the years preceding the Easter Rising found a ready response in the town. 

On 9^th May 1914 a local branch of the Irish Volunteers was established in Athy.  Within two months Cumann na mBan had a branch in the town and on the 23^rd of August 1914 Fianna Eireann was set up in Athy.  Not since the days of the 1798 Rebellion had there been such a public display of Irish nationalism in the onetime garrison town.

The First World War and the subsequent split in the Irish Volunteers following John Redmond’s speech in Woodenbridge in September 1914 effectively put a halt to the emerging local Irish Nationalist movement.  The attention of church and civic leaders in Athy was concentrated on encouraging the recruitment of young men to join the colours and fight overseas.  Indeed in June 1915 Athy Urban District Council directed that a ‘roll of honour’ was to be compiled of the local men who had enlisted in the British Army.

It was no surprise to find that the Easter Rising, which commenced with the seizing of the Dublin G.P.O. on 24^th April 1916, was condemned by most public bodies in Ireland as well as by the Irish Hierarchy.  Athy’s Board of Guardians in May 1916 passed a resolution ‘condemning the revolution in Dublin’.  It was the subsequent execution of the leaders of the Easter Rising which led to a change in the public’s attitude.  Another contributory factor was Lloyd George’s Home Rule Bill which was accepted by the Ulster Unionists on condition that six northern counties were excluded. 

The public’s response to the release of the 1916 prisoners in December of that year provided further evidence of the growth of support for the Irish Nationalist cause.  Republican flags mysteriously appeared on telegraph poles in the South Kildare area following the release of the Irish prisoners from Frongoch and Lewes prisons.  On 18^th January 1917 a concert was held in Athy Town Hall to raise funds for the families of men ‘who without being charged were torn from their homes and interned’.  This coupled with the earlier display of republican flags was the first indication of the existence of a group of Sinn Fein supporters in Athy. 

In February 1917 Athy Hibernian players put on a play in the Town Hall and the subsequent press report gave the names of those involved whom it was stated stood to attention at the end of the performance for the singing of ‘A Nation Once Again’.  Those named were the first publically identified nationalist sympathisers in Athy and many of them figured prominently in the local Sinn Fein club which was formed in June 1917.  They included John Coleman, Joseph Murphy, Bapty Maher, Michael May, Joseph May, Joseph Whelan, W.G. Doyle, Tom Corcoran, Robert Webster, Jack Webster and C. Walsh.

On Thursday 19^th July 1917 Athy’s newly established Sinn Fein club organised a concert in the Town Hall in aid of the families of those killed in the Easter Rising.  The audience was addressed by Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Fein.  Following the concert rival parties of females shouting ‘up the rebels’ and ‘up the khaki’, the latter being British soldier dependents, paraded through the town displaying Republican flags and the Union Jack.  The local press reported on the subsequent scuffles during which a shop window in Duke Street was damaged. 

The strength of the local Sinn Fein club was made public when a report of its AGM held in May 1918 was published in the local papers.  One hundred members were present to elect Michael Dooley as President, William Mahon as Vice President, P.P. Doyle as treasurer and Joseph May as Secretary. 

South Kildare’s involvement on the rebel’s side in the 1916 Rising was marked by the presence of Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler, both of whom were part of the Four Courts garrison under Commandant Edward Daly.  Mark Wilson was born in Russelstown, while Frances Lawler lived in Castleroe, Maganey in the post 1916 period.  I am uncertain if he was a native of that area and I am awaiting confirmation as to his pre 1916 connections with Castleroe.

On Tuesday 22^nd March at 8.00 p.m. in Athy Community Arts Centre James Durney will give the first of the series of lectures organised as part of Athy’s 1916 commemoration.  The lecture commences at 8.00 p.m. and admission is free. 

Next week I intend to deal in some detail with Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler who fought with the rebels in 1916 and a third Athy man who was on the other side of the armed conflict in Dublin. 

Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler's participation in 1916 rebellion

On Tuesday 29^th March the second lecture in the 1916 series will be given by Dr. Des Marnane in the Community Arts Centre at 8.00 p.m.  The subject ‘Saving the Honour of Tipp – Tipperary 1916’ promises to be an interesting insight into a provincial county’s reaction to the events of Easter 1916.  Admission to the lecture is free.

Last week I gave the background to the development of the Irish Nationalist movement in Athy in the years following the Easter Rising.  While the first branch of the Irish Volunteers in County Kildare was formed in Athy on 9^th May 1914 the Volunteers were divided when later in the year John Redmond sought to encourage the Volunteers to enlist in the British Army. The vast majority of the Volunteers here in Athy and elsewhere throughout the country followed Redmond who named the new group which split from the Irish Volunteers as the National Volunteers.  It would be some time before the now smaller group which retained the name Irish Volunteers could reassert itself. 

A military council comprising Tom Clarke, Padraic Pearse and others, all members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, while at the same time leaders of the Irish Volunteers, planned the Easter Rising.  This was done without the knowledge and consent of many of those with whom they shared leadership of the Irish Volunteers and in the ensuing confusion over countermanding orders, fewer Volunteers than expected turned out on Easter Monday 1916.

Two men who did turn out were Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler.  Mark Wilson was born in Russelstown, Athy in 1891 to Robert Wilson, a native of County Wicklow and Julianna Heffernan, formerly of Leinster Street, Athy.  By 1901 the Wilson family had moved to Dublin.  Mark, the eldest of five children, married Annie Stanley of Summerhill, Dublin on 3^rd August 1913.  She was a sister of Joe Stanley, the man who in 1916 printed the Proclamation, original copies of which are now selling for extraordinary sums of money.

Mark joined the 1^st Battalion Dublin Brigade Irish Volunteers and during the Easter Rebellion he was part of the Four Courts garrison under the command of Edward Daly.  Following the surrender of Edward Daly and his men Daly was tried and executed, while Wilson and his colleagues were detained in Richmond Barracks.  In a statement made in 1953 for the Bureau of Military History Patrick Cogan of Maynooth, referring to the Athy man while they were in custody, said ‘in the ranks in front of me was a volunteer in uniform.  When people shouted at us to keep our heads up he answered that they were never down.  He was a source of great encouragement ..... that volunteer was Mark Wilson, a native of Athy.’

The Athy man was later transferred to Stafford Detention Barracks in England where he was detained until December 1916.  On his release Wilson rejoined the Irish Volunteers and following the Treaty enlisted in the National Army.  He attained the rank of Captain before resigning from the Defence Forces in February 1929.  Mark Wilson died in December 1971 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

The other man with connections in South Kildare who fought in the 1916 Rising was Francis Lawler who lived in Castleroe, Maganey between 1918 and 1925.  Like Mark Wilson, Lawler joined the Irish Volunteers and was attached to the 1^st Battalion Dublin Brigade.  He was also a member of the Four Courts Garrison and was also imprisoned following the surrender of the Volunteers.  I have been unable to confirm if Lawler had connections with Castleroe, Maganey prior to 1916.  Following his release from prison in December 1916 Francis Lawler rejoined the Irish Volunteers and played a very active part while living in Castleroe in the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War. 

He served as an instructor/training officer at the I.R.A. camp in Ducketts Grove in 1921.  He joined the National Army in February 1922 and reached the rank of Captain.  It was while he was a Captain that he was involved in an unfortunate incident in Castledermot on 16^th June 1922.  That Friday morning four irregular troops took over the Sinn Fein hall in Castledermot which was the polling station for the general election agreed between Collins and De Valera in an attempt to ward off civil war.  Three Free State officers, Vice Comdt. Cosgrove, Adj. J. Lillis and Captain F. Lawler entered the building to find it occupied by John Dempsey, Thomas Dunne, Peter Brien and William Kinsella.  Captain Lawler in his evidence at the Coroner’s inquest claimed ‘I was the first to enter.  I had my revolver in my hand and was about to cock it when my thumb slipped off the cocking piece and the revolver went off.’

Thomas Dunne was mortally wounded.  Dr. Francis Brannan of Castledermot described the deceased whom he knew well as ‘a hard working respectable young fellow.’  The Coroner in summing up found that the shot which killed Thomas Dunne was not fired maliciously, despite evidence that Captain Lawler had fired three shots.

When we remember the men of 1916 we should not forget that tragedy often marked their activities not only during the Easter Rebellion but long afterwards.

Athy and the 1916 Rebellion

On Tuesday, 22^nd March, Athy’s contribution to the 1916 Centenary commemorations will commence with an opening lecture in the Arts Centre to be given by Kildare author and historian James Durney.  His talk on the involvement of Kildare men and women in the Easter Rising in 1916 will be given under the title “Foremost and Ready – Kildare in 1916”.

This will be the first of a series of Lectures all of which will be delivered in the Arts Centre in Woodstock Street on each Tuesday between the 22^nd March and 12^th April.

 The lectures start at 8.00 p.m and there is no admission charge.

On Tuesday, 28^th March, the lecture “Saving the honour of Tipp - Tipperary in 1916” will be given by the well known author and broadcaster Dr. Des Marnane.  The following Tuesday, 5^th April, Padraig Yeates will deliver his talk on “Looters, Deserters and Crime in Dublin in 1916”.  Padraig is the author of several books on Dublin, the most recent of which “A City in Civil War – Dublin 1921-24” was published last year.  Padraig’s lecture will be preceded by a short recital on the uilleann pipes once owned and played by the 1916 leader Eamon Ceannt. The final lecture in the series will take place on Tuesday, 12^th April, when  Francis Devine, Trade Unionist and Author will speak on the topic “From Lockout to Rising, the I.T.G.W.U., I.C.A., Liberty Hall and 1916”.

Many other events are planned as part of the 1916 commemoration and details are included in the posters which are displayed throughout the town.

When we think of the Easter Rising, we usually associate it with Dublin and the G.P.O.  While the General Post Office was the centre of rebel activity,  elsewhere throughout the capital city that Easter Week there were areas of conflict which tragically resulted in the loss of lives.  Jacob’s factory was commandeered by Irish Volunteers under the command of Thomas McDonagh, while Eamon DeValera commanded the Volunteers who occupied Boland’s Mill on Grand Canal Street.  Other buildings occupied by the rebels included the South Dublin Union which is now St. James’s Hospital, the College of Surgeons, City Hall and buildings in the Church Street area.

The initial plans for the Rising provided for the Volunteers to hold Cork in the South, the Kerry Volunteers to join with their colleagues in Limerick while Volunteers in Clare and Galway were to hold the line of the Shannon to Athlone.  The failure to land arms from the Aud and the capture of Roger Casement led to Eoin MacNeill’s order cancelling the planned manoeuvres.  This resulted in confusion and the subsequent failure of many country based Volunteers to come out as originally planned.

That there was any rebel activity outside of Dublin during Easter Week 1916 was proof of the determination and courage of those involved.  In the area of Athy and South Kildare, the Irish Volunteers having broken away from Redmond’s National Volunteers were not particularly strong or active.  It was only after the execution of the 1916 leaders that the separatist movement gained strength in Athy.  Before then, however,  the Irish Republican Brotherhood had gained a foothold in neighbouring County Laois due to the active involvement of Patrick Ramsbottom. He was elected Captain of the Portlaoise Company of the Irish Volunteers in October 1914 after he returned to his native County following a period in Dublin.  While in Dublin he had contact with Tom Clarke.  Ramsbottom formed an I.R.B. circle in Portlaoise whose members effectively controlled the Irish Volunteers in that town.

Eamon Fleming from the Swan was an I.R.B. member based in Dublin and  he acted as a link person with the I.R.B. circle in Portlaoise.  He brought instructions from Padraig Pease to start the Rising in County Laois on Easter Sunday. The Laois Volunteers were instructed to destroy railway lines to prevent British troops coming from Waterford and Rosslare. The Waterford Dublin Railway line near Athy was to be destroyed as well as the Abbeyleix Portlaoise line at Colt Wood.

Eamon Fleming, Michael Gray and Michael Walsh, the last two from Portlaoise met near Athy at 7 p.m. on Easter Sunday.  They proceeded to cut down a telegraph pole and placed it across the railway line.  In the meantime, Volunteers led by Patrick Ramsbottom uprooted the railway line at Colt Wood and while doing so Ramsbottom fired three shots at a railway employee who happened to come across the saboteurs.  These may have been the first shots fired in the Easter rising of 1916.  The small group who came to Athy slept in a schoolhouse on Easter Sunday night and on the following morning made their way to Brady’s farm at Lalor’s Mills where they joined Patrick Ramsbottom’s group.

The Nationalist and Leinster Times carried the following Report on 29^th April 1916.

“On Easter Sunday night a farmer named Nolan who lived at Ardreigh, Athy when walking along the railway line there discovered that a telegraph pole had been cut down and placed across the rails.  He removed the obstruction and proceeded to a signal house where he reported the matter.  The outage must have been perpetrated between 8.00 and 9.30 as about the former hour the line was clear a train having passed.  At the time of the discovery a train was almost due.”

Patrick Ramsbottom, who was the main organiser of the Volunteers in Portlaoise prior to the Rising, was subsequently imprisoned in Ballykinlar Internment  Camp.  He later joined the Gardai and on retiring in 1953 joined Department of Education. He died in April 1965.  He was one of the many unsung heroes of the 1916 Rising. 

Athy and the aftermath of the 1916 rebellion

Last week in anticipation of the 1916 commemoration lectures which start this Tuesday, 22^nd March, in Athy Community Arts Centre I wrote of the activities in this area of Irish Volunteers from Portlaoise.  Despite the fact that many families in Athy and south Kildare were linked by service and by financial dependency on the British Army, the growth of Irish Nationalism in the years preceding the Easter Rising found a ready response in the town. 

On 9^th May 1914 a local branch of the Irish Volunteers was established in Athy.  Within two months Cumann na mBan had a branch in the town and on the 23^rd of August 1914 Fianna Eireann was set up in Athy.  Not since the days of the 1798 Rebellion had there been such a public display of Irish nationalism in the onetime garrison town.

The First World War and the subsequent split in the Irish Volunteers following John Redmond’s speech in Woodenbridge in September 1914 effectively put a halt to the emerging local Irish Nationalist movement.  The attention of church and civic leaders in Athy was concentrated on encouraging the recruitment of young men to join the colours and fight overseas.  Indeed in June 1915 Athy Urban District Council directed that a ‘roll of honour’ was to be compiled of the local men who had enlisted in the British Army.

It was no surprise to find that the Easter Rising, which commenced with the seizing of the Dublin G.P.O. on 24^th April 1916, was condemned by most public bodies in Ireland as well as by the Irish Hierarchy.  Athy’s Board of Guardians in May 1916 passed a resolution ‘condemning the revolution in Dublin’.  It was the subsequent execution of the leaders of the Easter Rising which led to a change in the public’s attitude.  Another contributory factor was Lloyd George’s Home Rule Bill which was accepted by the Ulster Unionists on condition that six northern counties were excluded. 

The public’s response to the release of the 1916 prisoners in December of that year provided further evidence of the growth of support for the Irish Nationalist cause.  Republican flags mysteriously appeared on telegraph poles in the South Kildare area following the release of the Irish prisoners from Frongoch and Lewes prisons.  On 18^th January 1917 a concert was held in Athy Town Hall to raise funds for the families of men ‘who without being charged were torn from their homes and interned’.  This coupled with the earlier display of republican flags was the first indication of the existence of a group of Sinn Fein supporters in Athy. 

In February 1917 Athy Hibernian players put on a play in the Town Hall and the subsequent press report gave the names of those involved whom it was stated stood to attention at the end of the performance for the singing of ‘A Nation Once Again’.  Those named were the first publically identified nationalist sympathisers in Athy and many of them figured prominently in the local Sinn Fein club which was formed in June 1917.  They included John Coleman, Joseph Murphy, Bapty Maher, Michael May, Joseph May, Joseph Whelan, W.G. Doyle, Tom Corcoran, Robert Webster, Jack Webster and C. Walsh.

On Thursday 19^th July 1917 Athy’s newly established Sinn Fein club organised a concert in the Town Hall in aid of the families of those killed in the Easter Rising.  The audience was addressed by Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Fein.  Following the concert rival parties of females shouting ‘up the rebels’ and ‘up the khaki’, the latter being British soldier dependents, paraded through the town displaying Republican flags and the Union Jack.  The local press reported on the subsequent scuffles during which a shop window in Duke Street was damaged. 

The strength of the local Sinn Fein club was made public when a report of its AGM held in May 1918 was published in the local papers.  One hundred members were present to elect Michael Dooley as President, William Mahon as Vice President, P.P. Doyle as treasurer and Joseph May as Secretary. 

South Kildare’s involvement on the rebel’s side in the 1916 Rising was marked by the presence of Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler, both of whom were part of the Four Courts garrison under Commandant Edward Daly.  Mark Wilson was born in Russelstown, while Frances Lawler lived in Castleroe, Maganey in the post 1916 period.  I am uncertain if he was a native of that area and I am awaiting confirmation as to his pre 1916 connections with Castleroe.

On Tuesday 22^nd March at 8.00 p.m. in Athy Community Arts Centre James Durney will give the first of the series of lectures organised as part of Athy’s 1916 commemoration.  The lecture commences at 8.00 p.m. and admission is free. 

Next week I intend to deal in some detail with Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler who fought with the rebels in 1916 and a third Athy man who was on the other side of the armed conflict in Dublin. 

Athy and 1916 rebellion

On Tuesday, 22^nd March, Athy’s contribution to the 1916 Centenary commemorations will commence with an opening lecture in the Arts Centre to be given by Kildare author and historian James Durney.  His talk on the involvement of Kildare men and women in the Easter Rising in 1916 will be given under the title “Foremost and Ready – Kildare in 1916”.

This will be the first of a series of Lectures all of which will be delivered in the Arts Centre in Woodstock Street on each Tuesday between the 22^nd March and 12^th April.

 The lectures start at 8.00 p.m and there is no admission charge.

On Tuesday, 28^th March, the lecture “Saving the honour of Tipp - Tipperary in 1916” will be given by the well known author and broadcaster Dr. Des Marnane.  The following Tuesday, 5^th April, Padraig Yeates will deliver his talk on “Looters, Deserters and Crime in Dublin in 1916”.  Padraig is the author of several books on Dublin, the most recent of which “A City in Civil War – Dublin 1921-24” was published last year.  Padraig’s lecture will be preceded by a short recital on the uilleann pipes once owned and played by the 1916 leader Eamon Ceannt. The final lecture in the series will take place on Tuesday, 12^th April, when  Francis Devine, Trade Unionist and Author will speak on the topic “From Lockout to Rising, the I.T.G.W.U., I.C.A., Liberty Hall and 1916”.

Many other events are planned as part of the 1916 commemoration and details are included in the posters which are displayed throughout the town.

When we think of the Easter Rising, we usually associate it with Dublin and the G.P.O.  While the General Post Office was the centre of rebel activity,  elsewhere throughout the capital city that Easter Week there were areas of conflict which tragically resulted in the loss of lives.  Jacob’s factory was commandeered by Irish Volunteers under the command of Thomas McDonagh, while Eamon DeValera commanded the Volunteers who occupied Boland’s Mill on Grand Canal Street.  Other buildings occupied by the rebels included the South Dublin Union which is now St. James’s Hospital, the College of Surgeons, City Hall and buildings in the Church Street area.

The initial plans for the Rising provided for the Volunteers to hold Cork in the South, the Kerry Volunteers to join with their colleagues in Limerick while Volunteers in Clare and Galway were to hold the line of the Shannon to Athlone.  The failure to land arms from the Aud and the capture of Roger Casement led to Eoin MacNeill’s order cancelling the planned manoeuvres.  This resulted in confusion and the subsequent failure of many country based Volunteers to come out as originally planned.

That there was any rebel activity outside of Dublin during Easter Week 1916 was proof of the determination and courage of those involved.  In the area of Athy and South Kildare, the Irish Volunteers having broken away from Redmond’s National Volunteers were not particularly strong or active.  It was only after the execution of the 1916 leaders that the separatist movement gained strength in Athy.  Before then, however,  the Irish Republican Brotherhood had gained a foothold in neighbouring County Laois due to the active involvement of Patrick Ramsbottom. He was elected Captain of the Portlaoise Company of the Irish Volunteers in October 1914 after he returned to his native County following a period in Dublin.  While in Dublin he had contact with Tom Clarke.  Ramsbottom formed an I.R.B. circle in Portlaoise whose members effectively controlled the Irish Volunteers in that town.

Eamon Fleming from the Swan was an I.R.B. member based in Dublin and  he acted as a link person with the I.R.B. circle in Portlaoise.  He brought instructions from Padraig Pease to start the Rising in County Laois on Easter Sunday. The Laois Volunteers were instructed to destroy railway lines to prevent British troops coming from Waterford and Rosslare. The Waterford Dublin Railway line near Athy was to be destroyed as well as the Abbeyleix Portlaoise line at Colt Wood.

Eamon Fleming, Michael Gray and Michael Walsh, the last two from Portlaoise met near Athy at 7 p.m. on Easter Sunday.  They proceeded to cut down a telegraph pole and placed it across the railway line.  In the meantime, Volunteers led by Patrick Ramsbottom uprooted the railway line at Colt Wood and while doing so Ramsbottom fired three shots at a railway employee who happened to come across the saboteurs.  These may have been the first shots fired in the Easter rising of 1916.  The small group who came to Athy slept in a schoolhouse on Easter Sunday night and on the following morning made their way to Brady’s farm at Lalor’s Mills where they joined Patrick Ramsbottom’s group.

The Nationalist and Leinster Times carried the following Report on 29^th April 1916.

“On Easter Sunday night a farmer named Nolan who lived at Ardreigh, Athy when walking along the railway line there discovered that a telegraph pole had been cut down and placed across the rails.  He removed the obstruction and proceeded to a signal house where he reported the matter.  The outage must have been perpetrated between 8.00 and 9.30 as about the former hour the line was clear a train having passed.  At the time of the discovery a train was almost due.”

Patrick Ramsbottom, who was the main organiser of the Volunteers in Portlaoise prior to the Rising, was subsequently imprisoned in Ballykinlar Internment  Camp.  He later joined the Gardai and on retiring in 1953 joined Department of Education. He died in April 1965.  He was one of the many unsung heroes of the 1916 Rising. 

1916 Rebellion and its Aftermath in South Kildare

The Easter Rebellion of 1916 is today regarded as one of the more important, if not the most important event in Irish history.  It was not always so.  When Pearse and his colleagues marched through Dublin and seized the G.P.O. and other buildings, they did so despite confusion amongst the ranks of the Irish Volunteers and lack of support from the general public.  The rebellion was initially condemned by most of the public bodies in Ireland, as well as by the Irish Hierarchy.  On Sunday, May 7^th, days after eight of the rebel  leaders had been executed, the Archbishop of Cashel, Dr. Harty, addressing the congregation in St. Michael’s Church in Tipperary was moved to say, “Our country has passed through a time of great sorrow and I am especially glad to find that the people of the whole Archdiocese of this town of Tipperary in particular, showed great common sense and great patriotic judgment and that they did not allow themselves to get mixed up in anything that was against the interests of the country.  We all know the people of Ireland at large do not want any revolutionary measures.”  On the following Friday, 12^th May, James Connolly and Sean McDiarmada were the last of the rebel leaders to be shot by firing squad in Kilmainham Jail.  With their deaths a total of fourteen men, including Thomas Kent at Victoria Barracks in Cork, had paid the ultimate penalty for their involvement in the rebellion.

The British Intelligent notes for 1916 stated:- “The main result of the Rebellion, so far as County Kildare was concerned, was the stoppage of recruiting ………before the rebellion recruiting was very fair and some districts decidedly credible, after the Rebellion it was distinctly bad.”  The reference here was to recruitment for the British Army to fight overseas in the 1914-18 War.

The minute book of Athy Urban District Council makes no reference whatsoever to the events in Dublin over Easter week but significantly just weeks previously on 3^rd April 1916 the Council by six votes to three passed the resolution “that we have absolute and entire confidence in Mr. John Redmond, the Irish leader and the Irish Parliamentary Party.”  Following the rebellion the Athy Board of Guardians on the proposal of Thomas J. Whelan, Chairman, seconded by T. McHugh, resolved:- “That we the members of Athy Board of Guardians, while condemning the recent revolution in Dublin, wish to record our opinion that a sufficiently deterrent example has been set by the executions already carried out and now that the country has settled down we are of the opinion that trial by civilian laws should be resumed and we appeal for clemency for our misguided fellow countrymen.”  At the same time the Naas Board of Guardians unanimously passed a resolution expressing strong condemnation of “the revolt against the legally constituted authority of the country”. 

The Leinster Leader of 6^th May, 1916 reported:-  “People met in the streets of the town and discussed the situation with all the seriousness which the situation warranted, and alarm was the prevailing feeling manifested.”  I have not found any reference to the involvement of Athy men or women with the Irish Volunteers in the Easter Rebellion in Dublin and there is no record of any military-type activity in the South Kildare area during that period.  William Keegan of Ballyroe Lodge, Athy was however involved in the Rising as a member of the Officer Training Corps attached to Trinity College Dublin.  One local wag has suggested that while there was no Athy men in the G.P.O. it is quite possible that given the high level of local recruits for the British Army from August 1914 onwards that there may have been several Athy men in British uniforms shooting into the G.P.O. 

The first evidence of republican activity in South Kildare was noticed when flags mysteriously appeared on telegraph poles in the area following the release of prisoners from Frongoch and from Lewes Prison in December 1916.  Local Sinn Fein sympathisers put on a concert in the Town Hall on 18^th January 1917 to raise funds for the family of men “who without being charged were torn from their homes and interned”.  The following month a local drama group called “Athy Hibernian Players” made their first stage appearance with the play, “The O’Carolans”, and significantly the players and audience stood to attention at the end of the performance for the singing of “A Nation Once Again”.  This was clearly a public identification with the Republican cause and the drama group included John Colman, Joseph Murphy, J.B. Maher, Michael May, Joseph May, Joseph Whelan, W.G. Doyle, T. Corcoran, Robert Webster, J. Webster and C. Walsh.

On Thursday, 19^th July 1917 the local Sinn Fein Club which had been established in June held a concert in the Town Hall in aid of the families of those killed during the Easter Rebellion.  Arthur Griffith, paying his first visit to Athy, addressed the audience.  Just days previously J.J. Bergin, a long time member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, announced he was a supporter of Sinn Fein and claimed that Sinn Fein was the only hope for Irish Nationalism.  Towards the end of 1917 the Pipers Band, organised by J.J. Bergin just before the commencement of the World War, became embroiled in controversy following the bands involvement in a local Sinn Fein Rally.  The band had always had use of the A.O.H. premises in Duke Street for band practice but were asked to move out when the local A.O.H. took exception to the bands involvement with Sinn Fein.  The secretary of the A.O.H., Peter P. Timmons, made clear the division between the A.O.H. and the developing Sinn Fein organisation when he wrote to the local newspaper:-  “The A.O.H. as a body refuses to be identified, even in the most remote degree with the republican lunacy.”

The threat of conscription in the early months of 1918 brought many more recruits into the ranks of Sinn Fein.  Not all however were imbued with the convictions of those who had started the organisation and as soon as the fear of conscription passed, so too did their involvement with Sinn Fein.  The organisation however continued to flourish and in June 1918 it held a public meeting in Emily Square to protest against the arrest of the Sinn Fein leaders.  Presiding at that meeting was Michael Dooley of Duke Street who was one of the principal organisers of Sinn Fein in the locality.  Another man who was to play a prominent part in Nationalist politics at local level was James Joseph O’Byrne of Duke Street.  A school teacher married with four children, he was arrested on 16^th August 1918 for the reading of a Sinn Fein statement at a public meeting in Emily Square the previous day.  The statement issued after the Cavan by-election victory under the name of Michael O’Flanagan, Vice President and Acting President of Sinn Fein, claimed that both sets of belligerents at the Versailles Peace Conference would have to support self determination for Ireland “which has at last emerged into the full sunlight of national consciousness and no power on earth can drive us back.”  The arresting officer, Sergeant Heffernan of the local R.I.C., at O’Byrne’s subsequent court martial in Maryborough gave evidence that on 15^th August he saw a group of men, numbering about 200 in Emily Square, addressed by J.J. O’Byrne who stood up on a chair.  For about fifteen minutes O’Byrne read from the statement which had been circulated by Sinn Fein headquarters in Dublin and which all local Sinn Fein organisations were required to read at public meetings throughout Ireland.  O’Byrne, who had come to Athy approximately two years previously to teach in the local Christian Brothers school, was sentenced to one year in jail.  Other men from Athy who were imprisoned for involvement with Sinn Fein during the War of Independence included J.B. Maher, Joe May and Eamon Malone.  J.B. Maher will be remembered as “Bapty” Maher who married a sister of the Irish patriot, Kevin Barry.  Joe May of Woodstock Street was imprisoned in Ballykinler Camp.  He later worked in St. Vincent’s Hospital and died in April 1961.  His wife, Hester, was a daughter of Michael Dooley of Duke Street, who was one of the principal organisers of Sinn Fein in this area during the War of Independence.  Another of his daughters married Eamon Malone who for a period was Officer in Command of the Carlow Kildare Brigade of the I.R.A.  Malone was imprisoned in Mountjoy Jail.

The names of those men from Athy who participated in the War of Independence have not to my knowledge been positively identified or recorded.  My own research over the past 20 years or so has identified the following but there may be many more whose names should also be included.

John and Paddy Hayden of Offaly Street

Joe May and Jack Bradley of Woodstock Street

Paddy Keeffe and Billy Browne of Ardreigh

Mick Carroll of Shrewleen Lane

Jack Delahunt of Chapel Hill

Mick Curtis of Castlemitchell

Peter Lamb of Blackparks

Jim Bradley and Joe Walsh of Barrack Street

Bill Nolan of St. Michael’s Terrace

Michael Dunne of Barrow Quay.

I have not included the names of the Barrowhouse or Ballylinan men, nor those from Kilmead, Kilcrow and elsewhere in South Kildare but will do so in a later article.

I end this article with the names of the men killed in action in this area during the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War.

John Byrne, Gracefield, Ballylinan - died in Luggacurran R.I.C. Barracks on 20^th April 1920

John Lacey and William Connor, Barrowhouse - killed at Barrowhouse on 16^th May 1921

Thomas Dunne, Carlow Gate, Castledermot - killed at Castledermot on 16^th June, 1922

Sylvester Sheppard, Monasterevin - killed at Levitstown on 4^th July 1922

Laurence Sweeney, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin - killed in Castledermot on 5^th July 1922

Edward Byrne, Hacketstown and Patrick Allison, Carlow and James Murphy of Baltinglass - killed at Graney on 24^th October 1922

I understand that on Sunday, 30^th April an Easter rebellion commemoration ceremony will take place in Emily Square at 3.00 p.m.  Last weeks article showed two photographs from the commemoration held in the same Square in 1966.  None of the veterans who were then on parade are alive today but we can do justice to their memory and those of the men of 1916 by recalling and celebrating their involvement in the cause which gave us the freedom we enjoy today.