Athy Golf Club / Jim O'Flaherty

On Saturday, 11^th November the local Golf Club will hold the 2006 Captains Dinner in it's relatively new Club House at Geraldine .  The Captain this year is Ger Ennis.  A low handicap golfer, he was honoured to be elected as the Club Captain  during the Club's centenary celebration which commenced earlier this year with the holding of a Club Committee meeting in the offices of Athy Town Council.  That meeting was a symbolic re-enactment of the first public meeting held in the Urban District Council offices in the Town Hall, Athy on the 30^th January 1906 when the plans for the setting up of a Golf Club in Athy were first given a public airing.  The meeting one hundred years ago was called by John Corcoran acting in consort with a number of local men. Because the records of Athy Golf  Club have been lost, we cannot positively identify the other men involved but it would seem that they probably included M. J. Minch of Rockfield House, Rev. William Duggan a curate in St. Michael's Parish Church and Patrick Lynch who lived in the Abbey in Emily Square. 

The formative years of the Golf Club were marked by the early retirement of it's first captain and the enforced resignation of it's second captain all within the space of approximately eighteen months.  The Club quickly regrouped and continued to develop even if somewhat slowly for the first few decades of its existence. 

Golf in the early part of the 20^th Century was the preserve of the well heeled members of society and even the onset of the First World War which saw the enlistment of hundreds of local working class men had no appreciable effect on the local Golf Club.  However, the enlistment of club member such as Dr. John L. Kilbride and Dr. Eugene Minch must have had some impact given the small membership of the club at that time.  The remaining club members according to the report of the Irish White Cross played their part in the war effort by putting on amateur shows for  hospitalised soldiers. 

The course at Geraldine was constantly undergoing improvements but  even as these improvements were put into place, the club suffered a decline in membership to the extent that it's continuing existence was in doubt.  At a time when financial rectitude did not condone the borrowing of money, whether small or large, the club found itself with an overdraft.  The monies owed to one of the local banks was quite small but those in charge of the clubs affairs were sufficiently alarmed to question whether Athy Golf Club could continue to operate.  That crisis was referred to by Dr. John Kilbride in April 1938 on the occasion of a presentation to Dan Rice, retiring Headmaster of the Model School, a founder member of Athy Golf Club and for many years the Honorary Treasurer of the club.  “Some years ago when it looked as if the Golf Club would have to close down, Dan Rice was the person responsible for securing for it a new lease of life” claimed Dr. Kilbride.

The financial storm was weathered and the subsequent history of Athy Golf Club was one of  continuing success.  That success was ultimately marked with the extension of the original nine hole course to become an 18 hole course and the erection of a modern clubhouse with restaurant facilities.  It is a matter of record that the eighteen hole course came about as a result of a conversation between the clubs landlord Brian Tobin and the club's President, Denis O'Donovan in September 1990.  This followed an earlier unsuccessful attempt to provide a nine hole extension to the course for which the Club purchased land which was later resold. Denis relates in an article he wrote for the centenary history of the club how they met on the 4^th September 1990 as Denis was playing the old 8^th hole and Brian was working in the adjoining field. The conversation came around to the “possibility of extending the course to eighteen holes” which could only be done with the agreement of the landowner who himself was a member of the Athy club.  Ten days later Brian advised his willingness to provide additional land for the course extension subject to agreement on appropriate terms.  The rest is history and is retold in the centenary history book which I understand will be launched at the Captain's Dinner on November 11^th.

Denis O'Donovan's role in the development of the eighteen hole course and the building of the new clubhouse cannot be overstated.  Denis has played a key role in the centenary celebrations of the club and in particular worked tirelessly for three or more years extracting newspaper reports of the clubs activities dating back to 1906, which in the absence of Club records were used when compiling the centenary history of the club.  Denis came to Athy from  Limerick in 1960 to work in the local asbestos factory believing that his time in Athy was to be of a short duration before he continued on to Dundalk.  He finished his working life in Athy, retiring in 1995.  A member of the Golf Club since 1960 he has served on the Golf Club committee and is a former Club President and Club Captain. 

The membership of Athy Golf Club has increased enormously over the years.  From the initial 15 or so men who made up  the Club Membership in 1906, it has grown to approximately nine hundred and ninety members today.  Perhaps one of the more significant changes over the years was the recent admission of females as full members of the Club. Another significant change, albeit one which came about gradually as Irish society prospered, was the welcome shift in the publics perception of golf and golf club membership as the preserve of the well off members of the local community.  Athy Golf Club has a membership from all walks of life and is all the better for that. 

Tonight (Wednesday) a talk will be given in the Town Hall, Athy starting at 8.00 p.m.by Zoltan Zinn Collis, a survivor of the Holocaust whose book,“Final Witness – My journey from the Holocaust to Ireland”  has recently been published.  Zoltan has an amazing story to tell and one which deserves to be heard.  The name Collis is that of his adopted parents who were William Robert Collis and his wife.  Robert Collis, as he was generally known, was one of three remarkable brothers born in Dublin all of who wrote books of commendable merit. John Stewart Collis, twin brother of Robert served in the First World War and during the Second World War was a farm worker who subsequently wrote of his experiences.  His books which are highly recommended include,“While Following the Plough” and “The Worm Forgives the Plough” both of which  deal with mans relationship with the soil.  I first came across these books when they were recommended to me by a writer friend who in many ways is a kindred spirit of John Stewart Collis.  I had earlier come across Robert Collis' autobiography “The Silver Fleece” written some time before the Second World War and also a play of his with the never to be forgotten title “Marrowbone Lane” which was specially written for the Marrowbone Lane Fund  founded to  combat  T.B..  Robert was a paediatrician who entered Belsen in 1945 with a Red Cross  team where he found the young boy, Zoltan Zinn whom he would take back with him to Ireland. The third Collis brother was Maurice who spent many years in India and whose writing was largely devoted to oriental topics.

The three Collis brothers were remarkable men of letters.  John Stewart the Philosopher, Maurice the Orientalist and Robert the paediatrician and concerned medical activist have left an  honourable legacy both in literature and in the arts.

Finally, I read of the recent death at 90 years of age of Jim O'Flaherty of Greystones.  Jim was for a long time  an official with the post office here in Athy. It was here that he met and married Carrie Glespen of Duke Street.  He was a founder member of Athy Credit Union Limited and indeed was  elected first President of the Credit Union by his fellow Directors following the inaugural meeting   held at 82 Leinster Street on the 17^th May 1968.  It's remarkable to consider that in it's first year of operation savings in the Credit Union amounted to “almost” £5,000.   Nowadays Credit Union savings are measured in millions and ensures that the objective of the Credit Union “to save together for the purpose of helping one another” remains a key element in its service to the community.  Jim O'Flaherty and those other men and women who were involved in the setting up of the Credit Union will aways be remembered.

                

Frank Taaffe                           

Athy Golf Club - Foundation Meeting - Erskine Childers Links with Athy

On Tuesday 18^th April the committee of Athy Golf Club will meet in the Town Council Chambers in Rathstewart as part of the club’s celebration of the centenary of it’s foundation.  It was 30^th January 1906 that the first meeting of what was to be the future of Athy Golf Club was held in the offices of Athy Urban District Council in the Town Hall.  That meeting was called by a number of local men who had been involved in helping to establish the Royal Leinster Golf Club at Gotham, Maganey just seven years previously.  Amongst those were Patrick Lynch who lived in The Abbey at Emily Square when the Leinster club, which catered for Athy and Carlow, was founded but who had moved to Monasterevin by 1906.  Another involved was the local Catholic curate, Rev. William Duggan, who like Lynch was a founding member of the Leinster Club seven years previously.  Indeed, Duggan, Lynch and H.K. Twomey, a solicitor in Athy with a practice in Emily Square, were all committee members of the Royal Leinster Golf Club.  Matthew J. Minch of Rockfield House was also believed to have been involved in calling the meeting which led to the setting up of Athy Golf Club.  Minch, like his father Matthew J. who died in 1898, was a member of the local Council and of the Board of Guardians.  He had been elected a Member of Parliament as an anti-Parnellite candidate in 1892 and subsequently re-elected, unopposed, in 1895 and 1900.

The invitations for that first meeting arranged for the Council offices in the Town Hall issued under the name of local auctioneer, John Corcoran.  The attendances recorded in the local newspaper included, in addition to those already mentioned, the Parish Priest, Canon Joseph O’Keeffe, the Church of Ireland Rector, Rev. Edward Waller, the manager of the Hibernian Bank, H.F. Lesmond, John A. Duncan of Tonlegee House, Dr. John Kilbride, Dan Carbery, P.J. Murphy, W.G. Murphy, J.F Wright, Charles Collins and R. Anderson.  The attendance was a cross section of the commercial, farming and merchant classes of the area, with the added advantage of clerical support from the two mainstream religions, Catholics and Church of Ireland.

The Parish Priest, Canon Joseph O’Keeffe who had served as a curate in Athy for many years, had returned to the town as Parish Priest the previous May following the death of Canon Germaine.  Rev. Edward Waller came to Athy as Rector in 1891 and would leave in 1913 on his appointment as Dean of Kildare and Canon of Christ Church Cathedral.  Waller was a friend of Erskine Childers from the time when he was Rector of Annamoe at the entrance to the Glendalough Estate of the Bartons where Childers spent his boyhood.  He was Childers’ oldest Irish friend and was with him when he was shot by firing squad at Beggar’s Bush Barracks on 24^th November, 1922.  Rev. Waller never forgot the awful sadness of Childers last morning as he walked out into the yard of the Barracks and shook hands with the members of the firing squad who would within minutes shoot him dead.  The prison commander at the Beggars Bush Barracks, Sam Irwin, was later to say “I cursed the fates, the frailty of the leaders, the stupidity of man or whatever it was, that brought the country to this pitch of barbarity”.

Another interesting local connection with Erskine Childers is that the junior member of his defence team was Conor Maguire who was later to be Attorney General and Chief Justice.  His son is Dr. Brian Maguire.  Childers was court martialled in Portobello Barracks and his legal team comprised Michael Commyn, S.C., Patrick Lynch, K.C. and Conor Maguire instructed by John Wood, Solicitor.  The same legal team appeared for Childers in the High Court when an application for Habeas Corpus was made and when that application, which lasted from Monday through to Thursday, was rejected on Thursday, 23^rd November Childers was moved to Beggars Bush Barracks.  An appeal was immediately lodged with the Court of Appeal but despite that the authorities decided to go ahead with his execution on Friday, 24^th November.  His execution while an appeal was still pending was an inhumane travesty of justice and his good friend, the Reverend Edward Waller, would remember until his own death in 1938 the tears shed by the men whose duty it was to execute Childers that Friday morning.

Dr. John Kilbride, whose father Dr. James Kilbride was Medical Officer of Health for Athy, would later succeed his father in that position.  It was Dr. James Kilbride who campaigned over a long period to get the Urban District Council of Athy to have the unsanitary and unhealthy public wells of the town replaced with a piped water supply system.  His early efforts in that regard were met with opposition from the Ratepayers Protection Association.  At one stage Dr. James, having castigated the Town Council for their neglect which led to a number of deaths from typhoid fever, felt obliged to tender his resignation after he was “unjustly and insolently” attacked by some members of the Council.  His resignation was not accepted and he subsequently succeeded in having an improved water supply system put in place for the town.

His son, Dr. John Kilbride, one of the founding members of Athy Golf Club, enlisted in the British Army during the 1914-18 war and on his return and following the death of his father in September 1925 became Medical Officer of Health for Athy.  He was to the forefront of the Slum Clearance Programme started in the early 1930’s which led to the transformation of the town and in that he was continuing a campaign first started by his father, Dr. James, who in November 1906 reported to the Urban District Council on the “unsanitary housing of the working classes in Athy”.  Dr. John Kilbride would eventually retire to live in Tramore in the early 1960’s having become the last surviving member of the small group who came together in January 1906 to set up a golf club in Athy.  [I wonder what connection, if any, did Dr. James and Dr. John have with Surgeon Lieutenant Commander T.J. Kilbride who died on 14^th May 1924 and who is buried in St. Michael’s?].

John A. Duncan of Tonlegee House was chairman of Athy Urban District Council and proprietor of Duncans (now Shaws) of Duke Street.  A Methodist, his father was Alexander Duncan, the moving force in the building of the Methodist Church and Sunday School in Barrack Street which was dedicated in June 1874.  Alexander Duncan was a Home Ruler and a successful businessman and while his son John also became involved in local politics, he lacked his father’s business acumen.  The long established Duncan business went into decline and on being purchased by Sam Shaw in time developed to become part of “Shaws Almost Nationwide”.

Dan Carbery, who was born in 1865, was the son of a carpenter of the same name whose family was evicted from his holding at Luggacurran on 30^th May 1889.  The Carberys were one of 87 families evicted from the Luggacurran estate of Lord Landsdowne in the first wave of evictions between 22^nd March and 23^rd April 1887 and the second evictions between 28^th May and 31^st May 1889.  Daniel Carbery Senior brought his family to Athy where four years later he died aged 53 years.  His two sons, Dan and John, set up the business of D. & J. Carbery Building Contractors the following year but within two years John Carbery died.  Dan Carbery retained the running of the Athy branch of the business, while another brother, Peter, took over the running of the Carlow branch.  Dan Carbery attended the meeting in the Urban District Council offices in January 1906 and would remain a member of the club until his death in February 1949, aged 83 years. 

P.J. Murphy of Emily Square was, I believe, the proprietor of the Commercial House which is now Supermacs.  He lived in Prospect House on the Carlow Road and was a member of Athy Urban District Council.  It is surely no coincidence that of the small number of men (no women) who attended the inaugural meeting of the Golf Club on 30^th January 1906, no fewer than four were Urban Councillors.  Matthew J. Minch, Daniel Carbery, John A. Duncan and P.J. Murphy were all members of the newly constituted Urban District Council which met for the first time on 2^nd April 1900.

The Hibernian Bank Manager, H.F. Lesmond who also attended the 1906 meeting, was to become the second captain of the new Golf Club following the resignation of Patrick Lynch of Monasterevin from that position in October 1906.  Lesmond himself was to step down as Club Captain the following March when news of his arrest for embezzlement became public.  I have not positively identified the following men who also attended the first meeting in January 1906:-  R. Anderson, W.G. Murphy, J.F. Wright and Charles Collins.  On 18^th April the town chamber will again play host to golfing enthusiasts as it did that January evening one hundred years ago.  I wonder will the current club committee members dress up in  top hats and tails as did their predecessors?

Athy Golf Club

Next year the centenary of Athy’s Golf Club will be celebrated,  that is the centenary of the second Golf Club established by and for Athy folk.  Just a few years previous to 1906 a Golf Club had been founded to cater for both Athy and Carlow town and the first course was developed at Gotham, Maganey, just a short distance away on the Carlow side of the Maganey Railway Station.  The year was 1899 and the prime movers in setting up that club were Patrick Lynch who lived in The Abbey in Emily Square and Dr. Frank Brannan who lived in Kilkea Lodge.  Both were experienced golfers, Brannan having played in Greystones where he served as Club Secretary in 1896 and the following year.  Lynch was a founder member of Bundoran Golf Club which opened in 1894 and was its Club Secretary two years later.

Both Brannan and Lynch issued invitations in Athy and Carlow for a meeting in the Club House Hotel, Carlow on 18^th May 1899 following which the Royal Leinster Golf Club was formed.  A nine hole course was laid out by the Bray Golf Club professional, R. Larkin, on lands owned by a Mr. Conlan.  The first committee of the new club included Fr. William Duggan, C.C., Athy and H.K. Twomey, Solicitor, Athy.  For whatever reason the club was re-named Carlow Golf Club at the A.G.M. held in June 1902 and this may well have been due to a fall off in support by those in the Athy area.  Certainly the motion to change the club name was passed unanimously and it would appear that the few Athy members still in the club at that time stayed away from the A.G.M.

Another four years was to pass before Athy was to have its own golf club.  The Irish Field of 2^nd October 1909 in a feature on Golf Clubs of Ireland referred to Athy’s Golf Club as having been founded following the calling of a meeting by John Corcoran. In fact the meeting was called by P.J. Corcoran who carried on a local auctioneering business in Emily Square in the premises now occupied by Joe McDonnell.  He issued a circular for a meeting for the Urban Council Offices in the Town Hall on Tuesday, 30^th January 1906.

Strangely a report of that meeting carried in the Leinster Leader of 3^rd February makes no reference to Corcoran when listing the names of those who attended.  The formation of a Golf Club was proposed by the local curate, Fr. William Duggan, and seconded by P.J. Murphy who was an Urban Councillor and proprietor of the Commercial House in Emily Square.  A sub-committee was set up to make enquiries regarding suitable grounds for development as a course and a further meeting was arranged for the following Monday night.  The speed with which the new club got off the ground was extraordinary and by the following meeting suitable grounds had been identified and a decision was made to lease lands at Geraldine.  That meeting was attended by Patrick Lynch, formerly of The Abbey and co-founder of the Carlow/Athy Club in 1899 who by then was living in Monasterevin.  He made his expertise available to the Club Committee, but did not otherwise take any active part in the new club.

On 14^th May a lease was signed for the lands at Geraldine between the landowner, Mrs. Kate O’Neill, and the Trustees of Athy Golf Club, Matthew J. Minch of Rockfield and Canon O’Keeffe, the local Parish Priest.  Minch, who, at a young age had been Chairman of Athy Town Commissioners and of the Athy Board of Guardians was elected Member of Parliament for South Kildare as an anti-Parnellite in 1892.  He was subsequently re-elected unopposed in 1895 and 1900.  Canon O’Keeffe has been appointed Parish Priest in May of the previous year following the death of his predecessor Canon Germaine.  O’Keeffe had previously served as a curate in the parish and would remain in Athy for four years before transferring to Rathfarnham in May 1909.

Kate O’Neill was the widow of Dr. P.L. O’Neill and one of her sons, Dr. Jeremiah O’Neill, was medical officer for the Workhouse, as it was then called, where he replaced his father who had held the position since 1874.  Mrs. O’Neill, who lived in Geraldine House, leased for a term of fifteen years four fields which were identified as New Orchard, Far Seasons, Fox Covert and Slang, on which the golf course was marked out.  An indication of the uncertainty surrounding the new venture was a stipulation that the Golf Club Trustees, Minch and O’Keeffe, could surrender the lease at the end of the third, the sixth, the ninth or the twelfth year of the agreed term.  It was never necessary to exercise that right as Athy’s Golf Club in its early years at least, went from strength to strength.

The first Club House or Pavilion as it was called was opened on 16^th August 1906 by the Club President, Sir Anthony Weldon of Kilmoroney House.  Sir Weldon had commanded the troops in Limerick during Easter week 1916 and would die of the effects of gas poisoning during the First World War.  The first Club Captain was H.F. Lesmond, Manager of the Hibernian Bank.  Lesmond was quite a good golfer and he set the amateur course record for the Athy course in October 1906.  He was to set another record a few months later after his re-election as Club Captain when he was arrested and charged with embezzlement and falsification of accounts of the local bank.  By a rather sad and strange coincidence he was brought before Thomas Anderson J.P. to be charged.  Anderson was a fellow member of the Athy Golf Club.  As a result of these events an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Club was held, following which Dr. Jeremiah O’Neill was appointed Club Captain.

The extended O’Neill family has had links with Athy Golf Club from its very foundation.  Mrs. Kate O’Neill leased the lands for the course, her son Dr. Jeremiah was Captain soon afterwards and her grandson, also a doctor and bearing his father’s name, Jeremiah, figures in one of the more interesting stories concerning a past club member.

Dr. Jeremiah who was born just two years before the founding of Athy Golf Club served in the British Army Medical Corps in Malaya during World War II.  He was captured by the Japanese and imprisoned for three and a half years in a small cell reputedly 7ft. long by 4ft. wide.  Some years after his release, on a visit to his home town, he was playing a round of golf with Sean O’Connor and his brother-in-law Joe Carbery when O’Connor remarked to him “you haven’t played this course too often”.  With a wry chuckle Dr. Jeremiah replied, “I played it every single day for three and a half years and you know not once was I able to drive the short six hole over the river”.  In solitary confinement for long periods of his captivity the good doctor had maintained his spirits by revisiting in his minds eye games played in his youth on the course which was carved out from part of the O’Neill farm at Geraldine.  His story is one which deserves to be told in more detail at another time and I hope to return to it again.

In the meantime a centenary history of Athy Golf Club is in preparation but I understand the Minute Books carefully maintained over the years, but last seen in the early 1990’s, have vanished.  Is there anyone out there who may have an idea where the precious records of the past 100 years of golfing history in Athy are to be found.  I would like to hear from you if you could throw any light on the subject.

Eye on the Past 714

Last week the Carlton Abbey Hotel was the venue for a pleasant event organised by the local troop of the Order of Malta. Reference to them as troops conjures up military images but historically the reference is not too far off the mark. Founded as a military order prior to the Crusades as the Knights of Malta to shelter and protect pilgrims travelling on the continent the Knights of Malta have long discarded any pretentions to militarism and now enjoy a well earned reputation as a voluntary medical organisation under the name of Order of Malta.

The Order of Malta came to Athy in the early 1950’s. I heard a reference last week to 1950 as the foundation date but what I do know is that the late Eamon McCauley was the prime mover in setting up the Order of Malta in Athy. Reference to Knights brings to mind images of secret religious organisations which of course the Knights of Malta are not. There are no connections between the Knights of Malta and the Knights of Columbanus, or indeed any other Knights for that matter.

The gathering in the hotel was primarily to make a presentation to the current leader of the local Order of Malta on the completion of thirty years service. The recipient of the presentation and of the kind words expressed by several senior members of the organisation at national and regional level was George Robinson or to give him his rank in the Order of Malta, First Lieutenant George Robinson. He is known by everyone as “Bargy”, but from where that nick-name came or what it means is a mystery to most of us.

Master of Ceremonies on the night was Bargy’s son George who did a first class job. I am always in admiration of the ability of young people today who unlike my generation are extremely confident public speakers. I can recall the fear and dread with which I once faced the prospect of making a speech in public. I now realise it was an unnatural response which was born out of a lack of confidence which seemed to be part of the makeup of those of us who lived through the discouraging decade of the 1950’s. Compared to the confident able young people of later generations, we were not at the races as the expression goes.

Bargy’s record of service with the Order of Malta required a degree of commitment and dedication of enormous proportions which were outlined by the various speakers, one of whom was Pat O’Rourke, another Order of Malta member who will himself in the not too distant future also have thirty years service in the organisation.

The local community is all the better for having the commitment of persons like Bargy Robinson and Pat O’Rourke at its disposal. Congratulations to Bargy on the recognition afforded to him.

This past week I have been immersed in the history of Athy Golf Club, so much so that the stuff is threatening to pour out of my ears. You will understand then why it is that I devote the rest of this Eye on the Past to a man who for many years was an important part of the golfing story which is Athy’s Golf Club. Sean O’Connor was from Labasheeda in County Clare, a place name unknown to me. He came to live in Athy in or around 1950, soon after marrying his wife Mary who was a chemist in the town. He was a young Lieutenant in the Irish Army based on the Curragh Camp. Soon after joining Athy Golf Club he figured amongst the prizewinners when he came second in the competition with a handicap of 22. Winner of a prize put up by some clerical members of the club later in the summer of 1950, Sean O’Connor was described in the local press as “one of the most promising beginners in the club”.

The following year Lieutenant O’Connor, partnering a Captain Lavelle, won an army fourball played in the Curragh Links, by which time his handicap had been reduced to 18. He again hit the headlines a month later when coming second with a score of 67 net in the Collins Cup which was a Curragh Camp competition open to members of the Irish Army and “associates of General Michael Collins”. The latter reference is an interesting one and prompts the question as to how and why associates of the late Michael Collins were identified for inclusion in an Army competition. O’Connor’s score was reported as “the best of any Army competitor, and all the more noteworthy when it was considered that he is only a short time playing golf.”

By 1953 O’Connor, now promoted to Captain, had reduced his handicap to 12 and was a consistent tournament winner on his home course in Athy. He practiced golf a lot, taking his game very seriously and always trying to lower his golf handicap as much as possible. He was a 7 handicapper the following year and by 1956 had become a 4 handicap golfer. Sean O’Connor’s ability at the game of golf allowed him to feature high up in all the golf competitions in which he competed. In August 1957 he went around the 9 hole course in Athy in 38 shots to equal the feat of local golf professional Phil Lawlor achieved just two weeks previously.

His greatest golfing achievements came first in 1964 when he was runner-up in the Irish Army Golf Championship, finishing one shot behind the winner, and thirteen years later when he won the Irish Senior Championship. A two day event played over 36 holes for golfers over 55 years of age Sean O’Connor, by now promoted to Commandant, lead by two strokes after the first days play with a round of 75. He carded a 77 on the second day to finish three strokes ahead of the second place player and so became the only Athy Golf Club member ever to win a national golf title.

Sean, who for several years was treasurer of Athy Golf Club, was elected club captain in 1958 and four years later with a 3 handicap was described in the local press as “Athy’s No. 1 golf player”. He served as president of Athy Golf Club in 1963 and 1964, but perhaps his most important role within the club was that of course manager. It was a job he took very seriously. I can remember sometime in the mid 1960’s at a time when I liked to potter around the course on my own hitting a number of golf balls (which one could do in those days) I came to the 9th hole and stayed there for a while chipping balls onto the green. I was oblivious (or so I still claim) to the notice facing the clubhouse which informed all and sundry that practice was forbidden on the 9th hole. As I chipped away Sean strode from the clubhouse and in the direct manner for which he was well known let me know in no uncertain terms that what I was doing was wrong and not, I can assure you, in terms of my golf swing. Shell shocked, for that was the effect the military man had on any luckless chap who had the misfortune to cross his path, I slunk away, never forgetting the tongue lashing I got from the Commandant.

Sean O’Connor devoted a lot of his spare time to Athy Golf Club. It was a voluntary commitment, much the same as the commitment of men such as George Robinson and Pat O’Rourke to the Order of Malta.

We, in the local community, are all the better for that commitment.

Eye on the Past 731

On Saturday, 11th November the local Golf Club will hold the 2006 Captains Dinner in it's relatively new Club House at Geraldine . The Captain this year is Ger Ennis. A low handicap golfer, he was honoured to be elected as the Club Captain during the Club's centenary celebration which commenced earlier this year with the holding of a Club Committee meeting in the offices of Athy Town Council. That meeting was a symbolic re-enactment of the first public meeting held in the Urban District Council offices in the Town Hall, Athy on the 30th January 1906 when the plans for the setting up of a Golf Club in Athy were first given a public airing. The meeting one hundred years ago was called by John Corcoran acting in consort with a number of local men. Because the records of Athy Golf Club have been lost, we cannot positively identify the other men involved but it would seem that they probably included M. J. Minch of Rockfield House, Rev. William Duggan a curate in St. Michael's Parish Church and Patrick Lynch who lived in the Abbey in Emily Square.

The formative years of the Golf Club were marked by the early retirement of it's first captain and the enforced resignation of it's second captain all within the space of approximately eighteen months. The Club quickly regrouped and continued to develop even if somewhat slowly for the first few decades of its existence.

Golf in the early part of the 20th Century was the preserve of the well heeled members of society and even the onset of the First World War which saw the enlistment of hundreds of local working class men had no appreciable effect on the local Golf Club. However, the enlistment of club member such as Dr. John L. Kilbride and Dr. Eugene Minch must have had some impact given the small membership of the club at that time. The remaining club members according to the report of the Irish White Cross played their part in the war effort by putting on amateur shows for hospitalised soldiers.

The course at Geraldine was constantly undergoing improvements but even as these improvements were put into place, the club suffered a decline in membership to the extent that it's continuing existence was in doubt. At a time when financial rectitude did not condone the borrowing of money, whether small or large, the club found itself with an overdraft. The monies owed to one of the local banks was quite small but those in charge of the clubs affairs were sufficiently alarmed to question whether Athy Golf Club could continue to operate. That crisis was referred to by Dr. John Kilbride in April 1938 on the occasion of a presentation to Dan Rice, retiring Headmaster of the Model School, a founder member of Athy Golf Club and for many years the Honorary Treasurer of the club. “Some years ago when it looked as if the Golf Club would have to close down, Dan Rice was the person responsible for securing for it a new lease of life” claimed Dr. Kilbride.

The financial storm was weathered and the subsequent history of Athy Golf Club was one of continuing success. That success was ultimately marked with the extension of the original nine hole course to become an 18 hole course and the erection of a modern clubhouse with restaurant facilities. It is a matter of record that the eighteen hole course came about as a result of a conversation between the clubs landlord Brian Tobin and the club's President, Denis O'Donovan in September 1990. This followed an earlier unsuccessful attempt to provide a nine hole extension to the course for which the Club purchased land which was later resold. Denis relates in an article he wrote for the centenary history of the club how they met on the 4th September 1990 as Denis was playing the old 8th hole and Brian was working in the adjoining field. The conversation came around to the “possibility of extending the course to eighteen holes” which could only be done with the agreement of the landowner who himself was a member of the Athy club. Ten days later Brian advised his willingness to provide additional land for the course extension subject to agreement on appropriate terms. The rest is history and is retold in the centenary history book which I understand will be launched at the Captain's Dinner on November 11th.

Denis O'Donovan's role in the development of the eighteen hole course and the building of the new clubhouse cannot be overstated. Denis has played a key role in the centenary celebrations of the club and in particular worked tirelessly for three or more years extracting newspaper reports of the clubs activities dating back to 1906, which in the absence of Club records were used when compiling the centenary history of the club. Denis came to Athy from Limerick in 1960 to work in the local asbestos factory believing that his time in Athy was to be of a short duration before he continued on to Dundalk. He finished his working life in Athy, retiring in 1995. A member of the Golf Club since 1960 he has served on the Golf Club committee and is a former Club President and Club Captain.

The membership of Athy Golf Club has increased enormously over the years. From the initial 15 or so men who made up the Club Membership in 1906, it has grown to approximately nine hundred and ninety members today. Perhaps one of the more significant changes over the years was the recent admission of females as full members of the Club. Another significant change, albeit one which came about gradually as Irish society prospered, was the welcome shift in the publics perception of golf and golf club membership as the preserve of the well off members of the local community. Athy Golf Club has a membership from all walks of life and is all the better for that.
Tonight (Wednesday) a talk will be given in the Town Hall, Athy starting at 8.00 p.m.by Zoltan Zinn Collis, a survivor of the Holocaust whose book,“Final Witness – My journey from the Holocaust to Ireland” has recently been published. Zoltan has an amazing story to tell and one which deserves to be heard. The name Collis is that of his adopted parents who were William Robert Collis and his wife. Robert Collis, as he was generally known, was one of three remarkable brothers born in Dublin all of who wrote books of commendable merit. John Stewart Collis, twin brother of Robert served in the First World War and during the Second World War was a farm worker who subsequently wrote of his experiences. His books which are highly recommended include,“While Following the Plough” and “The Worm Forgives the Plough” both of which deal with mans relationship with the soil. I first came across these books when they were recommended to me by a writer friend who in many ways is a kindred spirit of John Stewart Collis. I had earlier come across Robert Collis' autobiography “The Silver Fleece” written some time before the Second World War and also a play of his with the never to be forgotten title “Marrowbone Lane” which was specially written for the Marrowbone Lane Fund founded to combat T.B.. Robert was a paediatrician who entered Belsen in 1945 with a Red Cross team where he found the young boy, Zoltan Zinn whom he would take back with him to Ireland. The third Collis brother was Maurice who spent many years in India and whose writing was largely devoted to oriental topics.

The three Collis brothers were remarkable men of letters. John Stewart the Philosopher, Maurice the Orientalist and Robert the paediatrician and concerned medical activist have left an honourable legacy both in literature and in the arts.

Finally, I read of the recent death at 90 years of age of Jim O'Flaherty of Greystones. Jim was for a long time an official with the post office here in Athy. It was here that he met and married Carrie Glespen of Duke Street. He was a founder member of Athy Credit Union Limited and indeed was elected first President of the Credit Union by his fellow Directors following the inaugural meeting held at 82 Leinster Street on the 17th May 1968. It's remarkable to consider that in it's first year of operation savings in the Credit Union amounted to “almost” £5,000. Nowadays Credit Union savings are measured in millions and ensures that the objective of the Credit Union “to save together for the purpose of helping one another” remains a key element in its service to the community. Jim O'Flaherty and those other men and women who were involved in the setting up of the Credit Union will aways be remembered.