Gertie Healy

Last week Gertie Healy was laid to rest in St. Michael’s Cemetery.  She had been absent from her usual place at 12 o’clock Sunday mass for a number of weeks but it was only following her passing that I learned she had been seriously ill.  Her final farewell in the church where she attended mass for so many years was marked by what may have been a unique contribution by her brother Joe and her sister Carmel.

Carmel, who is married to Brendan Kehoe formerly of Offaly Street, played the organ accompaniment for her brother Joe singing at Gertie’s funeral mass.  It was a wonderful example of filial love and personalised a service which on too many occasions in the past has been marked by inappropriate and overwrought eulogies of doubtful accuracy. 

Joe May’s singing was a pleasure to hear.  His is a voice of character which was shown at its best with his interpretation of ‘The Prayer’, a song made famous by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli.  I understand it was at Gertie’s request that ‘The Prayer’ was sung and its moving words added to the reverence of the occasion:-

            ‘I pray you’ll be our eyes, and watch us where we go

            And teach us to be wise, in times when we don’t know

            Let this be our prayer, when we lose our way

            Lead us to the place, guide us with your grace

            To a place, where we’ll be safe.’

As members of the local community we walked behind the hearse as Gertie made her final journey to St. Michael’s Cemetery.  It’s a journey which has been made thousands of times over the years, ever since the first Parish Church, now in ruins, was erected outside the walls of the medieval village of Athy.  The new St. Michael’s Cemetery laid out in fields which once adjoined the Glebe lands and the towns ancient fairgreen is steadily filling up.  Since it was first opened 50 years ago St. Michael’s new cemetery has received the remains of men folk and women folk well known to us all.  It shows on its tombstones familiar names which in a few decades will be lost to later generations.  I am often reminded of the fleeting nature of fame and fortune when, walking through old St. Michael’s Cemetery, I read without recognition the names etched on the scattered tombstones.  Names once familiar in this area are no longer represented in the Athy of today.  With them has gone the shared memories of a past community, memories which can never again be recovered.

I mentioned in last week’s article the Forgotten People project initiated by the Local History Federations and with Gertie Healy’s passing last week I was reminded yet again of that part of our history which for so long was neglected and overlooked.  Gertie’s parents, Joe May and Hester Dooley, were part of the mainstream of Irish republicanism and in the years following the 1916 Rising they risked their freedom and, if truth be known, their very lives in pursuit of ideals first championed by the United Irishmen of 1798.

Gertie’s father was imprisoned for several months during the War of Independence in Ballykinler Camp, Co. Down, while her mother underwent much privation and difficulties while working as secretary to Piaras Béaslaí and later General Ginger O’Connell.  As a young fellow growing up in Athy in the 1950s I knew nothing of the part Joe May and Hester Dooley and others from Athy played in that War of Independence.  That omission has been in part remedied but much yet remains to be uncovered and acknowledged.

Gertie Healy in her last months faced her illness with a courage which was reminiscent of that displayed by her parents so many decades ago.  Gertie’s family cared for her at home during her last illness and the musical contribution by her brother Joe and sister Carmel at the funeral mass was a fitting tribute to a wonderful lady whose adult nursing life was spent amongst the elderly patients of St. Vincent’s Hospital.

Colm McNulty, formerly of this parish but now living and teaching in Wellington, New Zealand is the author of a recently published book ‘A Brotherhood so Splendid’.  It tells the story of the teachers and former pupils of Wellington College where Colm now teaches, who enlisted to fight in the First World War.  Copies are available for sale in the Gem and if you are interested in an interesting and imaginative mixture of history and dialogue this is a book you should get.

Armistice Day and some Athy's Men's Involvement in World War I

This year’s Armistice Day, 11^th November, coincides with Remembrance Day and so uniquely we can commemorate at 11 o’clock on the 11^th day of the 11^th month the ending of the First World War.  At the same time we can remember those unfortunate men from Athy and district who, encouraged by civic and church leaders, enlisted to fight on foreign soil.  Many of them never again saw their families or friends back home in Athy.  Many more would find a last resting place in unknown and unmarked graves.  Few local families were left untouched by the carnage of the First World War.  I was reminded of this during the week while looking over notes taken over the years of Athy families whose men folk enlisted during the 1914-18 war.

The Carey family of Shruileen Lane were for generations employed on the Grand Canal and the Barrow Navigation.  John Carey was just 16 years of age when he enlisted in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in December 1908.  He was called up from the Army Reserves at the beginning of the war in August 1914.  Three years earlier he had married local girl Margaret Bowden, whose brother Michael, a postman attached to Athy Post Office, had also enlisted at the start of the war.  John Carey was wounded during the second battle of Ypres in 1915 and was discharged from the Army on health grounds in November 1915.  John later lived in St. Dominic’s Park where he died in 1966, aged 73 years. 

His brother James, who also served in the Dublin Fusiliers and survived the war, drowned in the Grand Canal in February 1924, aged 37 years.  John’s brother in law Michael Bowden was living at the Dry Docks, Athy when he first enlisted in the British Army in 1906.  By the time the First World War started he was employed as a postman in the local Post Office and was also a member of the Reserve Forces.  Recalled to the colours he joined the 1^st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers and arrived in France in August 1914.  Michael was captured at Le Cateau on 26^th August 1914 and imprisoned in Limburg prison of war camp where he died in May 1918, aged 29 years.  He is buried in Germany. 

John Carey’s sister Mary married local man Patrick Day on the 1^st day of December 1907.  One and a half years earlier he had joined the Leinster Regiment and subsequently transferred to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.  He served in Gallipoli in 1915 and in France from June 1916.  Captured by the Germans he was a prisoner of war from March 1918, but unlike Michael Bowden survived to return to Athy at the end of the war.  He died in May 1966. 

The interlinking family connections widened when John Carey’s daughter Mary married an Irish Army soldier Patrick Roche from Ennis, Co. Clare.  Patrick’s father was Michael Roche, who at 19 years of age joined the British Army in October 1914.  He was discharged due to ill health two years later but would subsequently join the Irish Free State Army in April 1922.  Promoted to the rank of sergeant and attached to the 1^st  Western Division he was to die tragically on 25^th August 1922.  While patrolling near Ballymullen Barracks, Tralee, Co. Kerry a carelessly handled grenade exploded killing Michael and the officer in charge of the platoon, Lieutenant Timothy McMahon. 

Army service and especially war service during the 1914-18 conflict linked the Carey, Bowden, Day and Roche families.  Within those families at least 5 members enlisted and 2 were to die, one in Germany, the second surviving the killing fields of France and Flanders only to die in the country of his birth during the Irish Civil War.

Many more as yet unidentified Athy families gave sons, brothers and husbands to the war which was believed would end all wars.  On Sunday next, 11^th November at 10.45 a.m. St. Michael’s Cemetery will be the gathering point for those wishing to observe a minute’s silence as the clock strikes the eleventh hour.  The graves of the six soldiers who died at home in Athy during the 1914-18 war will be the scene of the now annual commemoration ceremony which will follow.  This will represent a change from previous years commemorations, bringing the ceremony back from 3.00 in the afternoon to start at 10.45  in the morning.

If any member of your family was involved in the First World War the St. Michael’s Cemetery Commemoration on November 11^th affords an ideal opportunity to remember and pay respect to their memory.  The organisers would welcome hearing from anyone with information on Athy families whose menfolk enlisted during the 1914-18 war.  If you can help in that regard the staff in the Heritage Centre would like to hear from you.