Castledermot

Driving recently towards Castledermot I passed along a road which in medieval days and earlier was possibly a trackway through thickly wooded countryside. I was prompted to reflect on how the fortunes of the town I had just left and the town I was approaching had changed over the centuries. John MacKenna in what I believe was his first published work ‘Castledermot and Kilkea – a social history’ in the final paragraph wrote ‘The present village of Castledermot is very old …..before Diarmuid established his hermitage on the Lir bank there were people in the area.’ The late Tadgh Hayden, who wrote and prepared the souvenir brochure for Castledermot’s An Tostal in 1953, claimed that Diarmuid, the hermit, came to the area in or about 500 A.D. and built a beehive shaped cell and a small church in the neighbourhood of the present round tower. The book of the Four Masters on the other hand had Diarmuid’s grandfather killed about the year 800 A.D. which prompted John MacKenna to believe that the religious collective which was later to become the Norman town of Tristledermot and finally Castledermot was founded in 823. Whether it is 500 A.D. or 300 years later Diarmuid’s monastery was part of Ireland’s golden age of religious foundations. It’s importance as a religious settlement can be surmised from the fact that the Vikings who normally travelled by water attacked the monastery and in doing so moved so far inland. A hog backed Viking gravestone decorated with crosses, the only such one in Ireland, is all that remains to remind us of the Viking attack on the monastery nearly 1200 years ago. The importance of Diarmuid’s monastery was further affirmed as the place of burial of Cormac O’Cuilleanain, King of Munster and bishop of Cashel, who was killed during the battle of Ballaghmoone in 907. The Anglo Normans who arrived in Ireland in 1169 recognised the importance of the religious settlement in the rural area, which by then included a round tower built for defensive purposes following the earlier Viking raid. Strongbow gave the area around the present Castledermot to de Ridellesford and the area around Kilkea to de Lacy. The subsequent building of Kilkea Castle and the Castle of Tristledermot strengthened the Norman influence in this area and for a time the village of Tristledermot was one of the most important rural settlements in the Norman’s Irish world. It was in Tristledermot, later corrupted to Castledermot by English speaking settlers that the first Irish parliament was held in 1264. Attended by 26 knights the Irish parliament would be held in Tristledermot on ten further occasions between 1269 and 1404. The Tristledermot settlement, like the neighbouring Norman settlement at the Ford of Ae (Athy), attracted not one but two religious houses. The Crouched Friars came in 1210 and the only physical reminder of their time in the area is the present St. John’s tower. The Franciscans founded a monastery in Tristledermot in or around 1300 and the substantial remains of what is today referred to as ‘The Abbey’ is what remains of that monastery. The village of Tristledermot was surrounded by strong defensive walls, the only portion of which remain today are what are called ‘the Carlow gate’. That gate was one of four gates which were in the Norman village walls and through which Edward Bruce and his Scottish troops marched when they attacked and destroyed much of Castledermot in 1316. The Confederate Wars also saw the Cromwellian army attack and destroy Castledermot for the second time in 1615. The village would never again regain the prominent position it had enjoyed in the social and economic life of south Kildare. The subsequent decline of the once powerful settlement of Tristledermot coincided with the emergence of neighbouring Athy as the most prominent urban settlement in south Kildare. The latter’s position on the navigable River Barrow gave it a huge advantage over its near neighbour at a time when travel by road was well nigh impossible. It was an advantage which in the 17th and 18th centuries saw Athy emerge as a developing market town. The opening of the Grand Canal to Athy in 1792 and the extension of the railway line to Carlow through Athy in 1846 copper fastened Athy’s claim to be the leading town in the south of the county. Unlike Athy Castledermot has been the subject of several publications over the years, including those earlier mentioned by Tadgh Hayden and John MacKenna. Reverend Warburton wrote a guide to St. James’s Church in 1968, while Eamon Kane’s book ‘Diseart Diarmada’ published in 2015 deals extensively with the early history of the village of Castledermot. One other interesting book was that published in 1919 under the title of ‘Dysert Diarmada; or Irish place-names’, it’s author being described as ‘an Irish CC’. Can anyone help me to identify the author in question.

Eamon Kane's Diseart Diarmada

It was Thomas Hardy who wrote: ‘It is better to know a little bit of the world remarkably well than to know a great part remarkably little.’  I was prompted to remember these words on reading Eamon Kane’s recently published book, ‘Diseart Diarmada - Castledermot’. Eamon displays a passion for his own place in his historical account right through the early medieval period to the post medieval period of the village once known as Tristledermot, later Diseart Diarmada and today Castledermot. 

The history of this ancient village, far more important in its day than the neighbouring village of Athy, can be readily understood when we view the ancient ruins which are today to be found in Castledermot.  That Castledermot was a settlement of importance can be gauged by the remains of the Franciscan Monastery and the remaining remnants of the town walls known as Carlow Gate.  St. John’s Tower, the only remains of the priory of the Crouched Friars of 1210, stands proud to remind us of the importance of Castledermot as an ecclesiastical centre which extended even further back than the 13^th century.  The Romanesque doorway now fronting St. James’s Church is the only remains of the Church of St. Diarmuid founded in the 6^th century.  The 10^th century granite crosses of Castledermot get particular attention in Eamon’s book, as does the neighbouring High Cross of Moone.  Indeed Eamon’s detailed description and explanation of the motif and iconography of these wonderful examples of early medieval ecclesiastical sculpture is more than sufficient reason to buy the book.

Eamon, whom I described at the launch of the book as a true Irishman, a proud Gaelgoir and a man of impeachable Republican principles, was not afraid to voice his views when dealing with the Castledermot charter school, the first of its kind in Ireland.  The school opened in 1734 with the intention ‘that the children of the Popish and other poor natives of the kingdom may be instructed in the English tongue and in the principles of true religion and loyalty.’  It closed in 1831 which prompted Eamon to describe its closure as ‘another failed attempt at the conquest of Ireland.’ 

This is the fourth publication in 100 years dealing with the village of Castledermot and it is the most comprehensive account to date, the worth of which will be appreciated by anyone interested in local history.

The recent announcement of the intended retirement of Jack Wall as one of our local T.D.’s no doubt gave cause for much discussion as to his likely successor.  A member of the Oireachtas since 1992 when following a lengthy period as chairman of Kildare County G.A.A. Board he was nominated to the Senate.  He was subsequently elected to the Dáil in 1997, having been elected as an Athy Urban District Councillor three years previously.  Currently he is chairman of the Labour Parliamentary Party.  It was Joan Bruton, current leader of the Labour Party who referring to politics as ‘a tough and rough business’ acknowledged that Jack Wall was ‘one of politics true gentlemen who sought always to represent the true interests of the people of South Kildare.’ 

Jack and myself during my short political career were on opposite sides of the party political divide and we did not always agree on how the best interests of Athy should be advanced.   However, I can readily agree with Joan Bruton’s assessment of the Castledermot man who crossed Athy to set up home in Castlemitchell after spending a time following his marriage to Ann in the house in which I now live.  I wish Jack well in his retirement and mindful that his cherished wife Ann is no longer with him express the hope that old age will come to him in the company of his many friends.

Finally this week I want to end with the mystery of a World War I medal found some years ago in a drain in Guinness’s brewery in Dublin.  The medal had been awarded to Athy born Thomas Lawler who was killed in action in Flanders on 12^th November 1915.  He had enlisted in Carlow, joining the Royal Engineers, but a note which I made some years ago, long before the medal was brought to my attention, indicates that at the time he enlisted in Carlow he was living in Dublin.  His war medal was recently presented to the local Heritage Centre and the presenter, himself a Dublin man, believed that a number of Thomas Lawler’s brothers had also enlisted to fight in World War I.  Can anyone help me identify Thomas Lawler’s family and where they lived?

George Graham of Castledermot and New Zealand

A recent enquiry from New Zealand as to the author of a poem “ My home town in Kildare” required some research which failed to answer the authorship question but nevertheless threw up other material, the results of which now forms the basis for this article.  But firstly the poem, the first stanza of which read

            “Tonight I am sadly thinking, I don't have much more time

            For I am almost eighty and my health is in decline

            I think of a place that's far away, old friends and neighbours there

            I wonder if they remember me, in my home town in Kildare.”

The initial enquiry was made on  behalf of a native of Castledermot, now living in New Zealand and naturally enough my thoughts turned to two men from around that area, each of whom published  a book of poetry. “Many Moods in Many Metres” by Thomas Greene of Maganey was published postumously in Dublin in 1902.  He had died the previous year aged 58 years.  However, references in the Kildare poem to “the forty hours procession” and to “benediction after Mass” were unlikely to be the work of a member of the Church of Ireland so Thomas Greene was ruled out.  For much the same reason, George Henry Graham, a native of Castledermot was also disregarded.  He was a Methodist whose book of poetry “Lest we Forget” was printed by R.T. White of Fleet Street, Dublin, when I cannot say, but sometime after 1894. 

George Graham was an interesting man whose ancestors were in charge of the Post Office in Castledermot for upwards of a 100 years or so before finally losing that position after George's father committed suicide in February 1857.  George Henry who was born in the year of Catholic Emancipation 1829, for a long time harboured a desire to emigrate to Australia but following his father's death, he thought hard of leaving his mother.  He had two sisters, Elizabeth who married Samuel Cope of Castledermot and Sarah who married Richard Giltrap of Elverstown.  His mother, Mary Ann died in 1859 but even then, George for some reason or other postponed his plans to emigrate.  We know that he married Ann Marie Brown of Plunketstown and the following lines in his poem“That Old Churchyard” indicate that when in November 1866 George and his wife set sail for New Zealand on the ship “Himalaya” , they left behind in the churchyard in Castledermot the remains of their three young children.

            “Within that Church, those vows were made.

            Which sweetly during life

            With Anna's lot bound up my own

            And made us man and wife,

            Our children, three short gleams of bliss

            Shed on our hearts, on high

            Their spirits fled, their little forms

            Within that churchyard lie”

George and Anna Graham reached New Zealand in February 1867 and they settled in Waimate which is about ten kilometres inland and almost halfway between Christ Church, Dunedain and Queenstown.  Nowadays, Waimate is a small town with a population of about 2,700 served by approximately 50 shops but when the Graham's arrived they were amongst the first settlers in the area.  George Graham carried on farming and three years later he was appointed Clerk of the Magistrates Court. He had been involved in Court work while in Ireland, exactly in what capacity I have not found out. He appears to have undertaken many different roles while in New Zealand and apart from farming and working as a Court Clerk, he also worked as a Newspaper Reporter and was appointed a  Justice of the Peace. However, it is in his role as an advocate of the Temperance Movement that he is best remembered in present day New Zealand.

He is commonly regarded as the father of Temperance work in Waimate where he took a leading role in the first Temperance meeting held in the town at Christmas 1868. His lifelong involvement in the Temperance Movement was an interesting and very commendable change from his young days in Castledermot where,  like most young men of his time, he took drink.  But even before he embarked on the “Himalaya” George Henry Graham was committed to the Temperance Movement and indeed spent a lot of his time while on board the ship travelling to New Zealand encouraging fellow passengers to sign Temperance pledges.    As a Methodist lay preacher and a temperance reform advocate, Graham was an accomplished public speaker and a regular contributor in print for the cause of temperance principles.

His wife, Anna Marie died in 1873 leaving him with a son George and a daughter Ann Marie, both of whom were born in New Zealand.  The young Ann Marie died aged 21 years while George (Junior) achieved fame as one of a team of three men who were the first to reach the summit of Mount Cook in New Zealand.

George Henry was Mayor of Waimate in 1891 and 1892 and in 1894 he returned for his first and only visit to Ireland. That visit was the subject of a poem which he titled “Once more I have seen thee” in which he wrote of the joy and sadness on  reliving scenes from the past

            “Once more have I seen thee, old Ireland

            And wandered along thy dear shore

            My glad feet have trod

            The rich verdant sod

            Of thy hills, plains and valleys once more.

Graham returned to New Zealand where he was elected Mayor of Waimate for the third  time in 1894.  In addition to this role, he at various times acted as Secretary of the Public Library Committee and indeed he was the first secretary of that committee when appointed in 1882.  He was also secretary to the High  School Board of Governors from its inception in 1883 until his death and for 25 years was Treasurer of the local Masonic Lodge.

George Henry  Graham died on 25^th February 1911 at the age of 82 years.  On the day of his death,  flags were flown at half mast and business premises in Waimate closed for the funeral.  At that funeral, the  Masonic Lodge attended in full, regalia and the Masonic Service was performed.  He was survived by his second wife Louisa and his son George. His obituary in the New Zealand press noted that“his liberalism was always of the sound, progressive, humanitarian kind.  His Irish brogue knew how to flatter whilst it preached and the not displeased subject of his shafts would remain smiling though rebuked.  He was a man liked by Catholics and Protestants alike”.

His brother William Graham who remained in Castledermot died in December 1891 unmarried  aged 71 years.  However, the links between the Grahams and the Cope's which were first  forged with the marriage of George's sister Elizabeth to Samuel Cope in the 1860's were renewed when Jeanette Graham, grand-daughter of George Henry Graham, herself a New Zealander married Samuel Cope of Knocknagee, Castledermot in 1934. Sadly within three years of their marrige, 41 year old Samuel Cope died. His widow later returned to live in New Zealand.

Castledermot born, Samuel Henry Graham is today remembered in the New Zealand town of Waimate where Graham Street in the centre of the town is named after him.

Paddy Byrne - Castledermot

Our local sporting heroes of yesteryear are seldom if ever recalled at a time when unprecedented publicity is given in the Irish media to the English soccer league and its players. Have you ever wondered why it is that so much newsprint is given over to games involving English soccer clubs. Every young Irish lad and lassie is able to recount the deeds of Beckham and company. We no longer take pride in the sporting achievements of our own but instead seek vicarious pleasure in the activities of the soap opera which is now English premier league football. I was reminded of this while attending a function a few weeks ago when I was introduced to a lady who was originally from Castledermot. I normally associate places with famous people from the past and on that occasion I referred to Castledermot as the home of the great Paddy Byrne. Paddy was one of South Kildare’s most famous Gaelic footballers who plied his skills in the years leading up to the beginning of the Second World War. Paddy Byrne like all the other great sportsmen of his time is only remembered today in the record books of the GAA. In his day however Paddy was a remarkably skillful footballer who played not only for his native county but also for Leinster. To my surprise my mention of Paddy Byrne’s name brought a smile to my fellow guest’s face and the response “he was my father”. I have to say that I was delighted to meet her and to add to my store of knowledge of this once great sporting hero whose exploits brought pride and distinction to his village of Castledermot. Gaelic football in Castledermot has a history which stretches back to 1889 when a Gaelic Football Club was founded with the local curate, Fr. T. Ryan as the Club’s first President. This was just five years after the G.A.A. had been established following a meeting in Hayes’s Hotel, Thurles in November 1884. The onset of World War One had a debilitating affect on Gaelic games in South Kildare and both the Castledermot and Athy Clubs went into decline around that time. The Athy Club reformed as the Young Emmets and reached the 1923 Senior County Final with the assistance of at least one Castledermot player. That was Tom Forrestal whom I had the honour of meeting and interviewing in 1990. Naas trounced Athy on that occasion on the scoreline of 2 goals 5 points to no score. Maybe this hammering encouraged Tom and his Castledermot mates to reform the local club which had disbanded some years previously. In any event, 1925 was a significant year for Gaelic football in Castledermot for the new club enlisted as a member a 21 year old local man who had not played competitive football before. Paddy Byrne was destined to become Castledermot’s and indeed South Kildare’s most famous Gaelic footballer. Paddy was chosen for the County Junior team in 1927 and won a Leinster Junior medal when Kildare defeated Offaly in that year’s Leinster final. In the semi-final Kildare defeated their old opponents Kerry before succumbing to Cavan in the final. Cavan was to feature largely in Paddy Byrne’s sporting disappointments throughout his career. At club level Paddy won an Intermediate County final medal in 1928 when Castledermot overcame the might of Carbury. As a result the Club was promoted to senior level where it competed without success before being re-graded in 1931. The following year Paddy Byrne and his colleagues on the Castledermot team won their second Intermediate football final. Paddy was first selected to play on the County Senior team in 1929 where he joined Paddy Martin, an Ellistown man who also played with Castledermot. Martin had been a county player since 1923 and he continued to play for Kildare up to and including the 1936 Leinster Final which was lost to Laois. As far as I can find out Paddy Byrne’s first game with the County Senior team was the 1929 National Football League Final played in Croke Park and which Kerry won by 1-7 to 2-3. Paddy Byrne was a regular team player on the Kildare County Senior team for the following nine years. During that time he played in four Leinster Finals, winning medals in 1930, 1931 and 1935. The only Leinster Final in which Paddy Byrne played and lost was the 1936 Final when our neighbours Laois beat us on the score of 3-3 to 0-8. Paddy scored four points that day, but all to no avail as the Laois goal tally proved too much on the day. Following Kildare’s success in the 1930 Leinster Final Paddy and his colleagues played and lost the All-Ireland semi-final to Monaghan on 24th August of that year. The following year Kildare again came out of Leinster, beat Cavan in the semi-final and qualified to meet Kerry in the All-Ireland Final. Paddy Martin and Paddy Byrne, Castledermot players, were joined on the Kildare team for the All Ireland Final by a young player from Kilberry by the name of Paddy Myles. Myles had played brilliantly for Kildare juniors when winning the 1931 Leinster Junior title and the senior team mentors picked him to play his first senior County game in that years All Ireland Final. Kildare lost the final to Kerry by three points and while Paddy Byrne and Paddy Martin would continue with their County footballing careers, the All Ireland Final of 1931 was Paddy Myles’ one and only time to play with the Kildare senior team. The disappointment of the 1931 Final was forgotten by the time the Kildare County team blazed a successful trail through the early rounds of the 1935 championship. Again Paddy Byrne was in the Kildare forward line and contributed four points in the Leinster Final defeat of Louth. Cuddy Chanders, Paul Matthews and Tommy Mulhall of the Athy Gaelic Football Club were on the team that day, as they were when Kildare defeated Mayo in the All Ireland Semi-Final. Kildare was expected to win the All Ireland against the under-rated Cavan team and so travel as All Ireland champions to New York the following year. Cuddy Chanders, against whom no goal had been scored during the championship, was sensationally dropped for the final and the replacement goalie as might be expected in all the best melodramas let in three goals and Kildare lost the 1935 final by two points. Paddy Byrne had lost his second All Ireland. The lack of All Ireland success was in some way compensated for by Paddy’s success with the Leinster Provincial team on which he played from 1932 to 1937. He won Railway Cup medals in 1932, 1933 and again in 1935. No other Gaelic footballer from the South of the County has ever achieved such success. When Paddy retired as a player in 1938 he continued as an executive member of the Castledermot Club. Indeed he served several spells as Secretary of the Club and in later years as Vice President. Paddy Byrne, Gaelic footballer, described in the newspaper reports prior to the 1935 All Ireland Finals as “the most accurate forward in Ireland” died in 1990 aged 86 years. His feats on the football field are all but forgotten today but his achievements will live on in the record books of the Gaelic Athletic Association and whenever great players are mentioned the name of Paddy Byrne of Castledermot will always be recalled with pride.