Frank English

Several people have contacted me over the last few days looking for copies of the tribute paid to Frank English at his funeral mass last week.  One individual asked that it be published as an Eye and I am taking the opportunity of doing so this week, despite the fact that some of the material may be duplicating what appeared in last week’s article. 

‘With the death of Frank English Athy has lost a good man and I have lost a good friend.  A family man, a Town Councillor, a community activist and a Fianna Fáil politician, Frank gave of his best for the town of his birth.  For Frank was an Athy man, born, educated and worked all his life in the town which he grew to love so much and the people of Athy grew to love Frank for he was of a local family with a background similar to so many other families in the town.  His grandfather served in the 1^st World War, while his father had to take the emigrant boat to England in 1948.  These were common experiences for many families as we grew up in Athy and it was against this background of shared experiences that made Frank’s involvement in politics and community affairs so uniquely relevant.  For 42 years he served the people of Athy as an Urban Councillor and tried all he could within the limits of the inadequate Local Government system to help improve the town of Athy and the lives of the people who lived here. 

Outside of the Town Council he served on the Community Council and was a founder member of Athy Credit Union and of Aontas Ogra.  A long time member of the Vocational Educational Committee he was at one time a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a member of the Parish Choir, served in the Knights of Malta and in recent years taught many hundreds of young children to swim.   An avid G.A.A. supporter he followed his beloved Lilywhites with unchallenged enthusiasm and gave freely of his time for the local football club.

His contribution to the town of Athy is beyond measure and he has left us a legacy of community service which we will always treasure.

Frank participated in politics with a sense of purpose, reserving his political allegiance for the party founded by Eamon de Valera.  However, he never allowed political differences to mar his relationships with others.  He was a devoted and energetic member of the Fianna Fáil party and in that respect followed a path first set out by his mother Peg.  She was his greater supporter, that is until the daughter of a onetime Labour Councillor from Westport, Mary O’Grady, came from the west and captured his heart.  It was then that Frank English added another dimension to his energetic commitment as a politician and a community activist. 

For it was as a family man that Frank achieved his greatest success.  Nothing could compare to the satisfaction of bringing into the world five children, all of whom grew up to bring honour on themselves and on their parents.  That above all is Franks and Marys greatest legacy, but for Frank who was justifiably proud of his children and his grandchildren, it brought him enormous satisfaction and contentment that Conor, Cathal, Gráinne, Tomás and Ciarán were able to have the educational and work opportunities which were not available to him in the Ireland of the 1950s.

I will remember Frank as a friend.  We both attended school for the first time on 12^th May 1946.  We shared a classroom for the next 12 years or so, Frank leaving school after his Inter Cert, while I continued on for a bit longer.  We holidayed together for several years until the demands of married life put a temporary stay on our trips abroad.  In 1962 we first went overseas together, thumbing our way around France, staying in hostels and experiencing the delights of Paris.  Over the next few years we visited London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels and quite a few other places, some more exotic than others, but all offering a unique insight for two relatively inexperienced young men from provincial Ireland.

In more recent years we resumed our journeys and enjoyed together the sights and sounds of New York, indeed so much so that a return visit was necessary some time later.  These visits abroad provided Frank and myself with great memories and forge bonds of friendship between us which have only now been broken with Frank’s passing.

His was a friendship I treasured, for Frank above all was a considerate and courteous man whose zest for life was fashioned from an appreciation of the difficulties we all face, week in week out.  Indeed Frank was a friend to many, for his friendly outgoing nature combined with his innate courtesy, good humour and consideration for others, marked him as a man apart. 

Frank and I went to the west of Ireland to find wives.  He to Westport, myself to Connemara.  As a result both of us have strong links with Connaught and last night, mindful of the great number of people who came to Church Road to pay tribute to Frank, I thought of Padraic Colum’s poem, ‘A Connachtman’.  I re-read the poem this morning and felt that with some changes to the placenames mentioned to take account of Frank’s Kildare connections it was appropriate for the man we are honouring today.

            It’s my fear that my wake won’t be quiet,

            Nor my wake house a silent place;

            For who would keep back the hundreds

            Who would touch my breast and my face?

            For the good men were always my friends,

            From Kilcullen back into Kildare;

            In strength, in sport, and in spending,

            I was foremost at the fair;

            In music, in song, and in friendship,

            In contests by night and by day,

            By all who knew it was given to me

            That I bore the branch away.

            The old men will have their stories

            Of all the deeds in my days,

            And the young men will stand by the coffin,

            And be sure and clear in my praise.

The hundreds who turned up to attend Frank’s wake, the hundreds who turned up for the removal of his remains to St. Michael’s Church and the great crowd here this morning confirm, if confirmation was needed, that the people of Athy and those further afield who knew Frank, are in the words of Padraic Colum sure and clear in their praise of a great man.

I will miss him.  We will all miss him.  

Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.’

Frank English

With the death of Frank English we have lost a good man and I have lost a good friend.

Ours was a friendship which had its origin in St. Joseph’s boys school which both of us first attended on the same day.  It was the 12^th of May 1946, my 4^th birthday, when I was brought to infant school for the first time, the same day chosen by Frank’s parents to bring their 4½ year old eldest son to school.  Sr. Benignus, faced with the need to differentiate between the two Franks, decided to call my future pal ‘Harry’, a name by which he was known by all his contemporaries until well into his teen years.  He had been christened Henry Francis English after his grandfather, but his mother Peg preferred to call him Frank and so presented a dilemma for Sr. Benignus which lead to his temporary re-naming.  We shared the same class for the next 12 or 13 years until Frank left school after his Inter Cert. to work in Minch Norton’s laboratory.

Soon after I went to work in Kildare County Council we joined up for holidays abroad, starting with a memorable trip to France in the summer of 1962.  We thumbed our way from Cherbourg to Paris and up through Normandy, two inexperienced Irish lads whose time in the Parisian city was to provide an education in life, as well as a talking point for years to come.  In those days hostelling was the only possible way of meeting our accommodation needs and meeting and greeting similar age groups from the Continent and from America was an education in itself.  We spent another holiday in London enjoying the domestic delights of an Earls Court hostel, with the eye boggling delights of the early 1960s central London scene.  We were ready for the world, or so we thought, but nothing prepared us for the charms of Berlin and Amsterdam which were our last holiday destinations while we both enjoyed the single life.  The Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie were but a year or so in place when we arrived in the German capital via Brussels and Hanover.  Crossing into east Berlin to see the contrast between the bleak soviet controlled part of the city and the western ‘Free’ was an unforgettable experience.

Married life put an end, temporarily at least, to our gallivanting but we did manage once children had stopped appearing to make acquaintenances with New York on two occasions.  Sharing a room over the famous McSorley’s Ale House was an experience which we had hoped to recreate again.  It is not to be. 

Frank was an extraordinary likeable man whose consideration for others was unlimited.  His family shared with many Athy families common experiences going back over the generations.  His grandfather Henry Francis English, although born in Kilkea, lived in Athy and like so many others in the town served in the British Army.  He later became a hackney driver and was tragically killed in a road traffic accident on the Dublin Road.  Frank’s grandmother had earlier died during the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918.  Frank’s father Tommy trained as a barber but the economic difficulties of post war Ireland forced him as it did so many others in Athy to emigrate in the late 1940s to seek work in England.  Military service overseas during World War 1 and the emigrant trail were common features in the lives of many Athy families when Frank and I were going to school.

It was against that background of shared experiences that made Frank’s involvement in politics and community activities uniquely relevant.  He was an Athy man – the town where he was born, reared, schooled and worked was for him the centre of his political and community life.  He was a founder member of Athy Credit Union and of Aontas Ogra, as well as being a one time active member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Knights of Malta and the choir of St. Michaels Parish Church.  In more recent years he was a member of Athy Community Council and a swimming coach who gave swimming lessons to hundreds of children from Athy and the surrounding area.  It was as a public representative for 42 years that he is possibly best known.  First elected to Athy Urban District Council in 1967 as a Fianna Fáil Councillor he successfully contested eight local elections until he stepped down as a Councillor last year.  He served as the Chairman of the Council on four, if not five occasions and proved himself an able and conscientious member of that body. 

I was his colleague on the Council for some years and came to see at first hand how he sought to get results by consultation and agreement rather than by headline seeking contributions in the Council Chamber.  We did not always agree on how effective the Council was and I can remember one occasion when he took grave exception to my criticism of the Council which he as a Councillor felt was a personal reflection on himself.  Frank tried as best he could within the limits of the inadequate Local Government system to improve the town of Athy and he never gave up on that objective. 

The political passion which ruled Frank’s entire life was to see him champion the cause of the party founded by Eamon de Valera in 1926.  Fianna Fáil was Frank’s second home.  His mother Peg was a passionate Fianna Fáil supporter and no doubt she was largely responsible for his unquestioning and unquenchable allegiance to the party which when Frank was first elected as a councillor was still being lead by Eamon de Valera.  He was proud of his party membership and the party was proud of him. The young lad who in 1967 joined the then doyens of the local Fianna Fáil party M.G. Nolan and Paddy Dooley on the local Council would 42 years later step down as a Councillor having in the interim become the father of the Council and indeed the father of the local Fianna Fáil Cumann.

His contribution to the community life of his hometown was enormous and over the decades he made a difference to the lives of many people.  But most important of all was his good nature, exemplified in his courtesy and his consideration for others.  His affability allowed him to meet and greet friends and strangers alike with a pleasant word and a smile.  Frank never allowed political differences to intrude into his personal relationships with others and he never allowed differences of opinion to mar those same relationships.

In his role as a Peace Commissioner he called to my offices on a regular basis to sign documents and always partook of a cup of coffee and the opportunity to have a chat.  His easy going manner made him a great favourite and nothing pleased him more than recounting the details of Kildare’s latest, if sometimes scarce, football successes.  For Frank was an avid supporter of Gaelic football and followed the Lilywhites from venue to venue.  It was I think one of his greatest disappointments that he had not played football in his young days, but made up for that by his wholehearted support for the County team and for the local G.A.A. Club in Geraldine Park.

His legacy of dedicated service for the people of Athy is second only to his most cherished legacy.  He has left behind his wife Mary and his five children, Conor, Cathal, Gráinne, Tomás and Ciarán, all of whom have brought honour and respect to the family name.  He was justifiably proud of Mary and their children and as I visited him in hospital during the last weeks of his life I came to understand and appreciate that he had passed on to his children some of those exceptional qualities which had endeared Frank to those who knew him. 

Frank was a family man, a community activist and a Fianna Fáil politician who gave of his best for the town of his birth.  He has left us a legacy of dedicated service for the people of Athy and the most cherished legacy of all, the family of whom he was justifiably proud.

Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam.

Woodstock Castle, Sean Cunnane, Frank English

The National Monuments Committee of Kildare County Council made a journey to Athy last week during which the Committee members and Council officials visited Woodstock Castle.  The ancient stones of this neglected building have withstood wind, storm and rain for more than 600 years and during the first 200 years of its life, even more destructive elements such as arrow, lead shot and cannonball.

I was put in mind of how the stout walls of Woodstock Castle have resisted the depredations of man and beast and the unwelcoming elements as I stood outside its protective shuttering explaining its importance in terms of local, regional and national history.

     

To the disinterested passer by Woodstock Castle may seem to be an uninteresting pile, but hidden within its thick walls are stories of intrigue and rebellion.  It was here that the disaffected native Irish sought to inflict punishment on the Anglo Norman settlers for their audacity in taking over land which had been theirs.  It was there that the followers of Silken Thomas plotted and planned what would turn out to be an unsuccessful rebellion, while a century later Owen Roe O’Neill, the Confederate leader, had used Woodstock as his base after seizing the town of Athy. 

The importance of Woodstock Castle in the history of Athy and South Kildare has not yet been fully assessed, but clearly the Anglo Norman Castle contains within its scarred walls stories and legends of the early years of the village of Athy which once boasted a monastery and a priory and survived constant attacks from the disaffected natives of the surrounding countryside.  It’s a story which must await another day.

Last week two men with whom I have shared many experiences over the years began to wind down their last weeks as public representatives for the modern town which grew out of the building of Woodstock Castle on the western bank of the River Barrow.  Sean Cunnane, a Mayo man, who in the early 1960s settled in Athy, a National School teacher by profession and my next door neighbour, has been a Town Councillor for 15 years.  Party political labels are unnecessary at Town Council level where a shared interest in the common good of the local community is the basis for any desire to be elected as a public representative.  Sean has been a fine public representative for his adopted town, bringing to his representative role experience, common sense and above all a grasp of the importance of community action in addressing the shortcomings in our present local government system.  I wish him well in his retirement from the Town Council.

The second retiree is a man with whom I have been honoured to have shared a friendship since long before he became a member of the Town Council.  Frank English is not a ‘blow in’ like Sean Cunnane  or myself.  He is a true Athyenian whose family connections go back generations and given his surname his forebearers may well have been a party to the original settlers who sailed up the Barrow over 800 years ago. 

Frank first stood for election for what was then the Athy Urban District Council in 1967.  I well remember that election for as a newly appointed Town Clerk for Kells in County Meath with just 4 weeks experience of the job I was responsible for the elections in that Meath town and the subsequent election count.  It was a daunting task for one so young and inexperienced, but perhaps not so daunting as the role which faced Frank English in his home town as he put his name before the electorate for the first time.  In 1967 he shared an election platform with the likes of Michael G. Nolan, Paddy Dooley, Jack McKenna, Tom Carbery and Michael Cunningham, all of whom were experienced local politicians of many years standing.  The election held in June resulted in the election of Jack McKenna, Joe Deegan, Jim McEvoy, M.G. Nolan, Frank English, Tom Carbery, Enda Kinsella, Mick Rowan and Paddy Dooley.  Since then Frank has contested 7 further elections, each time retaining the confidence of the local people who have returned him as a Councillor for a record 42 years.

His length of service in Athy Town Council is unique in these modern times.  However, in the 19^th century during the days of Athy Town Commissioners an even longer period of municipal service was commenced by Thomas Plewman who was first elected to the Town Commissioners in 1866.  He replaced his father, also named Thomas, who had been elected to the newly formed Town Commissioners in 1847 as the Great Famine was still at its height.  Thomas Plewman, the son, first elected in 1866, was continuously re-elected to the Town Commissioners and from 1900 to the Urban District Council until he retired on 3^rd May 1920.  He had contested his last election on 15^th January of that year, only to retire months later when the Urban District Council decided to change the times of Council meetings previously held during the day to 7 o’clock in the evening.  So ended 54 years of public service by Thomas Plewman and 73 years continuous service by Thomas and his father. 

Frank English’s service of 42 years in more modern times is unlikely to be equalled in the South Kildare town, but the unique record of the Plewman family might be challenged as Frank passes to his son Conor the challenge of representing the people of Athy following this weeks local elections. 

Athy’s streetscape, festooned with election posters, is a far cry from the election experience of 1967 when Frank English first canvassed for votes.  The printing presses of today are busy as each candidate seeks the advantage of every available pillar, post and pole to display carefully posed photographs.  Modern elections almost have the appearance of a beauty contest rather than as one might expect in local elections a contest based on local issues and personalities.  Even worse perhaps is the unremitting and farfetched pronouncements of candidates on national issues as if election to the Town Council gives them a say in how those issues are to be decided. 

The role of the Town Councillor is one which was readily understood and well practiced by Sean Cunnane and Frank English.  If only all of those elected shared that understanding minds could be concentrated on helping to resolve the issues affecting Athy’s social, commercial and industrial progress. 

Sean Cunnane and Frank English, to paraphrase the words of a former Taoiseach, ‘have done this town some service.’

The late Frank English

With the death of Frank English we have lost a good man and I have lost a good friend.

Ours was a friendship which had its origin in St. Joseph’s boys school which both of us first attended on the same day. It was the 12th of May 1946, my 4th birthday, when I was brought to infant school for the first time, the same day chosen by Frank’s parents to bring their 4½ year old eldest son to school. Sr. Benignus, faced with the need to differentiate between the two Franks, decided to call my future pal ‘Harry’, a name by which he was known by all his contemporaries until well into his teen years. He had been christened Henry Francis English after his grandfather, but his mother Peg preferred to call him Frank and so presented a dilemma for Sr. Benignus which lead to his temporary re-naming. We shared the same class for the next 12 or 13 years until Frank left school after his Inter Cert. to work in Minch Norton’s laboratory.

Soon after I went to work in Kildare County Council we joined up for holidays abroad, starting with a memorable trip to France in the summer of 1962. We thumbed our way from Cherbourg to Paris and up through Normandy, two inexperienced Irish lads whose time in the Parisian city was to provide an education in life, as well as a talking point for years to come. In those days hostelling was the only possible way of meeting our accommodation needs and meeting and greeting similar age groups from the Continent and from America was an education in itself. We spent another holiday in London enjoying the domestic delights of an Earls Court hostel, with the eye boggling delights of the early 1960s central London scene. We were ready for the world, or so we thought, but nothing prepared us for the charms of Berlin and Amsterdam which were our last holiday destinations while we both enjoyed the single life. The Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie were but a year or so in place when we arrived in the German capital via Brussels and Hanover. Crossing into east Berlin to see the contrast between the bleak soviet controlled part of the city and the western ‘Free’ was an unforgettable experience.

Married life put an end, temporarily at least, to our gallivanting but we did manage once children had stopped appearing to make acquaintenances with New York on two occasions. Sharing a room over the famous McSorley’s Ale House was an experience which we had hoped to recreate again. It is not to be.

Frank was an extraordinary likeable man whose consideration for others was unlimited. His family shared with many Athy families common experiences going back over the generations. His grandfather Henry Francis English, although born in Kilkea, lived in Athy and like so many others in the town served in the British Army. He later became a hackney driver and was tragically killed in a road traffic accident on the Dublin Road. Frank’s grandmother had earlier died during the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918. Frank’s father Tommy trained as a barber but the economic difficulties of post war Ireland forced him as it did so many others in Athy to emigrate in the late 1940s to seek work in England. Military service overseas during World War 1 and the emigrant trail were common features in the lives of many Athy families when Frank and I were going to school.

It was against that background of shared experiences that made Frank’s involvement in politics and community activities uniquely relevant. He was an Athy man – the town where he was born, reared, schooled and worked was for him the centre of his political and community life. He was a founder member of Athy Credit Union and of Aontas Ogra, as well as being a one time active member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Knights of Malta and the choir of St. Michaels Parish Church. In more recent years he was a member of Athy Community Council and a swimming coach who gave swimming lessons to hundreds of children from Athy and the surrounding area. It was as a public representative for 42 years that he is possibly best known. First elected to Athy Urban District Council in 1967 as a Fianna Fáil Councillor he successfully contested eight local elections until he stepped down as a Councillor last year. He served as the Chairman of the Council on four, if not five occasions and proved himself an able and conscientious member of that body.

I was his colleague on the Council for some years and came to see at first hand how he sought to get results by consultation and agreement rather than by headline seeking contributions in the Council Chamber. We did not always agree on how effective the Council was and I can remember one occasion when he took grave exception to my criticism of the Council which he as a Councillor felt was a personal reflection on himself. Frank tried as best he could within the limits of the inadequate Local Government system to improve the town of Athy and he never gave up on that objective.

The political passion which ruled Frank’s entire life was to see him champion the cause of the party founded by Eamon de Valera in 1926. Fianna Fáil was Frank’s second home. His mother Peg was a passionate Fianna Fáil supporter and no doubt she was largely responsible for his unquestioning and unquenchable allegiance to the party which when Frank was first elected as a councillor was still being lead by Eamon de Valera. He was proud of his party membership and the party was proud of him. The young lad who in 1967 joined the then doyens of the local Fianna Fáil party M.G. Nolan and Paddy Dooley on the local Council would 42 years later step down as a Councillor having in the interim become the father of the Council and indeed the father of the local Fianna Fáil Cumann.

His contribution to the community life of his hometown was enormous and over the decades he made a difference to the lives of many people. But most important of all was his good nature, exemplified in his courtesy and his consideration for others. His affability allowed him to meet and greet friends and strangers alike with a pleasant word and a smile. Frank never allowed political differences to intrude into his personal relationships with others and he never allowed differences of opinion to mar those same relationships.

In his role as a Peace Commissioner he called to my offices on a regular basis to sign documents and always partook of a cup of coffee and the opportunity to have a chat. His easy going manner made him a great favourite and nothing pleased him more than recounting the details of Kildare’s latest, if sometimes scarce, football successes. For Frank was an avid supporter of Gaelic football and followed the Lilywhites from venue to venue. It was I think one of his greatest disappointments that he had not played football in his young days, but made up for that by his wholehearted support for the County team and for the local G.A.A. Club in Geraldine Park.

His legacy of dedicated service for the people of Athy is second only to his most cherished legacy. He has left behind his wife Mary and his five children, Conor, Cathal, Gráinne, Tomás and Ciarán, all of whom have brought honour and respect to the family name. He was justifiably proud of Mary and their children and as I visited him in hospital during the last weeks of his life I came to understand and appreciate that he had passed on to his children some of those exceptional qualities which had endeared Frank to those who knew him.

Frank was a family man, a community activist and a Fianna Fáil politician who gave of his best for the town of his birth. He has left us a legacy of dedicated service for the people of Athy and the most cherished legacy of all, the family of whom he was justifiably proud.

Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam.