A most generous gift to the town of Athy

This week’s Eye on the Past is given over to two persons who, with associations going back many years with the ancient town on the River Barrow, have within the last few days recognised in their different ways the town of Athy and its people.

Honor McCulloch’s grandfather farmed a substantial holding at Sawyerswood at the turn of the 20th century and his son, William Ringwood McCulloch, was 15 years of age when the Gordon Bennett Race took place in Ireland in 1903. Athy was the centre of the figure eight course which brought the international competitors towards the neighbouring towns of Kilcullen, Carlow, Kildare and Portlaoise, with each circuit requiring them to drive through the streets of Athy twice.

The importance of the 1903 Gordon Bennett Race has been highlighted in the audio-visual display in the local Heritage Centre and the 15year-old William McCulloch was never to forget the excitement of that famous race day. His daughter Honor has written, “he was so enthralled with these cars which were still something of a novelty in the early 1900s that cars became a lifelong interest.” That interest was nurtured by a working career which started in Edinburgh when he joined his father’s first cousin, WG Maxwell in the Westfield Autocar Company.

He would eventually succeed Maxwell as chairman of Westfield. In 1934, William McCulloch, while taking part in a shoot at Crawford Priory in Fife, Scotland, noticed a circular saw in a farm building driven by an engine that he recognised once powered an Arrol Johnston motor car.

The owner was Lord Cochrane, who had purchased the Arrol Johnston in 1902 and who had driven it for almost 15 years before it was laid up. The engine had been removed and used to power a circular saw which was quickly spotted by the eagle-eyed car enthusiast from Athy, who by then was based in Edinburgh. Thereafter, the search was on for the rest of the car, which was found dumped in the corner of a nearby field.

After protracted negotiations, Lord Cochrane allowed William McCulloch to restore the car and work on the restoration began in 1935. Three years were to pass before the Arrol Johnston was again ready for the road and it took part in the Empire Exhibition Rally between Glasgow and Edinburgh under the ownership of Lord Cochrane.

The car did not complete the journey on that occasion, in all probability due to the mechanical unpredictability of the Arrol Johnston, which once prompted the Veteran’s Motor magazine to note: “Even in 1899, this contrivance had an air of hippomobile antiquity”. William Ringwood McCulloch was later to purchase the car from Lord Cochrane and he drove it in several Scottish vintage car rallies between 1945 and 1955. His daughter Honor brought the car to England in 1965, where it was fully restored for the second time in its relatively short life before successfully completing the London to Brighton run five years later.

On that occasion, it was driven by Brian Bell, grandson of the late Robert J Bell, auctioneer and prominent member of Carlow Rowing Club.

Honor McCulloch, who lives in England, has in the past donated several items to Athy Heritage Centre. Her past generosity little prepared me for the gift she is now about to make to Athy Heritage Centre. The Arrol Johnston car which her late father so carefully restored over 70 years ago and which was on exhibition in the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, England, from 1993 to 2000 is now to be donated to Athy Heritage Centre.

I believe there is only one other similar car in this country and how fitting it is for Athy to have such an important motor car to display as part of its Gordon Bennett Race exhibition. The Arrol Johnston, which will be arriving in Athy on the morning of Thursday, 8 May, will be a fitting memorial to the memory of Athy man William Ringwood McCulloch and testimony to the generosity of his daughter Honor. Pending some necessary reconstruction work in the centre, the car will be housed in Maxwell Showrooms until it can be transferred to the Heritage Centre.William Watts, whose formative years were spent in Athy, invited me to the launch of his memoirs in the Long Room in Trinity College on Tuesday night last. The former provost of Trinity College had a distinguished academic career. An honours graduate in French and German, he also took a first class honours degree in natural sciences and to become professor of botany in 1956.

Elected provost of Trinity for a ten-year term in 1981, he was also president of the Royal Irish Academy, chairman of the Central Admissions Office in Galway and former secretary and later chairman of An Taisce. All of this in addition to his membership of various hospital boards and chairmanship of the Dublin Dental Hospital. Born in Upper Mayor Street, East Wall in Dublin, the youngest of three children, his father William who worked with the Office of Public Works was assigned to the Barrow Drainage Scheme, the headquarters of which was in Athy.

Bill Watts, born in 1931, was brought to Athy within days of his birth by his mother Bessie to join his brother David and sister Bertha. He devotes a chapter in his new book to his memoirs of Athy in the 1930s. He writes: “My memories of Athy centre on our experience of family life and the society of its small Protestant community.

Protestants in a town, about five families of us with children of the same age, played games together. We met to play rounders and cricket in summer and at parties in one another’s house for birthdays and Christmas. We played traditional games at Halloween like snapping at apples on the string and bobbing to get apples out of buckets by biting. We loved hide and seek games about the barns and sheds attached to several of our houses.

At Christmas, there were parish parties and games in the Church of Ireland Hall with dipping into bran tubs and dressings and making up for plays.” Later on he writes of the weekly market, which is still a colourful part of the commercial life of Athy. ”The town had a weekly market in the Square. Farmers’ wives came with pony and trap to sell eggs and farm-made butter. Not many people had cars then and the difficulties of the war years kept cars off the road. Fuel was in short supply and Dad made a small business of buying and felling trees for sale as firewood. I got to use the slasher to chop small branches. Locals brought coal fragments from the small colliery at Castlecomer and mixed them with cement to make ‘colm balls’. They glowed splendidly. Later in the war I became an expert at lighting fires with wet turf, which was all that was available at times.”

The religious diversity found in Irish provincial towns of the time brought with it a hint of bigotry, which Bill Watts recounts in his book.

“We did experience some bigotry, most Protestants kept their heads down, but it was easy to feel that we were not seen as really belonging in the country. I have often noticed that well-to-do middle class Protestants are found to deny that anything unpleasant ever happened, but your position on the social ladder in small rural communities rather determined things. At the bottom, you could have unpleasant experiences.

Coming home from school, a piece of doggerel was often shouted at me. ‘Protestant dog leapt over the hob, ating fish on a Friday’. I am glad that Bishop Walter Empey, about the same age of myself, remembered similar boyhood experiences in County Carlow, so it was not a unique experience. It is important to record the truth, even if unpalatable by today’s standards, but it is also important to record that my other memories of Athy are good and full of the richness of remembered boyhood.”

Athy Town Council a few years ago gave a civic reception to Bill Watts to acknowledge his achievements. It was, I know, a gesture very much appreciated by him and he concludes his memoirs of Athy by referring to his “good memories of the town”.

Athy 75

Most of us are familiar with the Gordon Bennett Race of 1903 and its association with Athy but few amongst us know little or anything about the town's later involvement in motor sport. The Athy 75 was an annual motor cycle road race organised by Athy Motor Cycle and Car Club during the years 1925 to 1930. The inaugural race took place on Saturday, the 16th of May, 1925 over a 9 mile course with the starting point at Taylors just beyond Russellstown Cross on the main Dublin Road. The course ran via the Moat of Ardscull to Fonstown Cross and from there to Booleigh Cross with a left hand turn towards Athy. Another left hand turn at Tullygorey Cross brought the riders back to Russellstown Cross and the Dublin Road. The competitors set off individually at intervals with the high powered machines last. Practise on the course took place at 6.00 o'clock in the morning with the Race starting at 3.00p.m.

The winner of the inaugural race was D. McCrea on a 349 cc OK Bradshaw motor bike which he successfully manoeuvred around the seventy five mile course without mishap despite the heavy rain fall that day. In sixth place in that race was Henry Tyrrell-Smith, the Dublin motor cyclist who was to win the 350 cc T.T. Race in the Isle of Man in 1930.

McCrea also won the second Athy 75 which took place on Saturday 29th May 1926. Participating that day for the first time was a youthful Stanley Woods who set the fastest lap record at 66.14 mph on his Norton motor bike. When the following years race took place on Saturday, the 21st of May, 1927 the organisers had to cater for a much larger entry due to its growing popularity. The winner on that occasion was E. Dawson riding a 172 cc machine at an average speed of 46 mph. Despite the absence of rain the riders had difficulty in moving through the course due to strong winds which reduced the average lap speed. Ernie Nott riding a Rudge Norton motor cycle had the fastest lap speed of 60.39 mph. He was an English driver who was to achieve considerable fame during the 1930's.

When the fourth race set off on the 12th of May, 1928 there were 44 riders in the line up, the largest entry ever. The rain which on some previous years had created dangerous driving conditions was mercifully absent but the heat wave which engulfed the Irish country-side for three weeks prior to the race left parts of the course in a very dusty condition. This caused it's own problems for the motor cyclists who managed to complete the race without mishap. The race was won by H. Adair riding a 348 cc Rex Acme at an average speed of 54 mph.

Local riders who participated in the Athy 75 Races included William Hosie, and the three Taylor brothers - Bill, Charlie and Arthur. They were sons of C.W. Taylor who was Chairman of The Athy Motor Cycle and Car Club. Another local rider was Hugh Coogan of Mullaghamast who rode a 2 stroke Scotch Squirrel.

Saturday, the 18th of May, 1929 saw 48 riders lined up at the starting point opposite Taylors. Weather conditions were good but again the dusty roads caused problems for most riders but not for Stanley Woods who was then Ireland's greatest motor cyclist. He won the race on his 490 cc Norton averaging a record breaking 69.25 mph over the seventy five mile course. He also set a new lap record of 70.60 mph and both speed records were to remain as the highest achieved on the Athy course. The Race was marred by the death of a young Naas man, Henry Francis Sargent who was employed in Jacksons bicycle shop in Leinster Street, Athy. Under the name "Sonny Boy" he entered the Race riding a low powered motor cycle but on the second lap of the course he crashed at the Moat of Ardscull and was killed.

The last Athy 75 took place on the 24th of May, 1930 when 34 riders participated. The race was completed despite another unfortunate accident which marred the event, the winner being J.J. Byrne of Dublin who rode his 346 cc AJS at an average speed of 65.5 mph. On the third lap of the race twenty-three year old Peter Mooney of Manor Street, Dublin, collided with the roadside bank at Fonstown Cross and was killed. A second rider R.W. Kennan who was following Mooney also crashed and was injured. Again the dusty road conditions were blamed leading the Athy Club members under the Chairman C.W. Taylor to consider the future of The Athy 75. The Committee reluctantly decided that because of the fatalities suffered they would no longer organise the race. So ended Athy 75, one of the earliest motor cycle road races in Ireland.

Gordon Bennett Race

The first Gordon Bennett Motor Race took place in France in 1900. For this and the next two years the starting point was Paris finishing in Bordeaux in 1901 and Vienna in 1902. James Gordon Bennett, proprietor of the New York Herald, had offered a Cup for a motor race in 1899 and thereafter the race organised by the Automobile Club de France bore his name.

When the British driver S.F. Edge won the 1902 Race the following year's Race had to be held in the British Isles. A speed limit of 12 m.p.h. applied in Britain and there was much opposition to cars which were seen as "slaughtering stinking engines of iniquity" driving men, women, children and animals off the road. The British Automobile Club looked to Ireland as a possible venue for the race and a number of members came across in 1902 to check out the roads. A second group led by S.F. Edge then followed and a course centred on Athy was finally chosen.

The total distance to be covered was 327.5 miles with four laps of a circuit taking in Ballyshannon, Kilcullen, Kildare, Monasterevan, Stradbally and Athy alternating with three laps of a smaller circuit taking in Kilcullen, Carlow and Athy.

The Race organisers immediately set about reassuring the public about road safety and highlighted the benefits of holding the Race in Ireland. Every Council and public figure in the country was canvassed for support and religious scruples were recognised by arranging to hold the Race on a weekday. It was necessary to change the law to permit the Race cars to exceed the 12 m.p.h. speed limit and to allow the Race organisers to carry out road repairs on the Athy circuit which would otherwise be the responsibility of the County Councils of Kildare, Carlow and Laois.

A number of sharp bends were improved, road gullies were removed, hedges cut and parts of the course were dust proofed at a cost of £1,200. All of this work was carried out under the guidance of the Automobile Club and many locals were gainfully employed for weeks before the Race getting the Athy Circuit ready for the big day.

The Race was to take place on Thursday, the 2nd of July, 1903 with twelve competitors representing Germany, France, England and U.S.A. The circuits were closed for the duration of the Race and upwards of 7,000 policemen were brought into the area to patrol the roads. The local hotels and many enterprising farmers who provided land for tents and viewing purposes were to benefit financially from the huge crowds which descended on South Kildare. The excitement generated by the international motor race can be imagined when it is realised that less than 12 months previously there were only two cars in Athy owned by Mr. Hurley, Engineer and Sir. Anthony Weldon.

The starting point was at Ballyshannon where a grandstand was provided to accommodate 1,000 spectators. Special trains were provided to bring thousands of spectators to Athy and other towns on the circuit but subsequent criticism of the railway company would seem to indicate dissatisfaction with it’s arrangements. A large campsite was located at Ardscull. There were race controls at seven locations on the circuit including Athy in which town the drivers were obliged to stop for 15 minutes or so. This was to ensure greater safety on that part of the course between Athy and Kilcullen which formed part of the two circuits.

The car drivers who were the 1903 equivalent of modern day pop stars were provided with accommodation in the Athy area. The British team of S.F. Edge, Charles Jarrott and J. W. Stocks stayed with the Large family in Rheban, supposedly because the Larges had the only bathroom with an indoor flush toilet in the area. The real reason was probably Harry Large's involvement in cycle racing in Ireland and England which had brought him in contact with Edge, the British car driver. The American team stayed in Timolin Rectory. The Leinster Arms Hotel played host to the German team of Jenatzy, De Caters and Keene who were to drive Mercedes cars. The French team were accommodated on a ship in Dublin Harbour.

Prior to the Race start each car was weighed in Naas to ensure compliance with the maximum weight conditions of the Automobile Club. Several of the competitors were required to strip non essential equipment from their cars to met the Race organisers requirements.

On Thursday, the 2nd of July the first car driven by Edge left the starting line at Ballyshannon at 7.00a.m. The other cars left at 7 minute intervals to ensure maximum safety on the course and to reduce the possibility of cars meeting up with each other on the narrow Irish roads.

When passing through towns and villages regarded as neutralised zones for safety reasons the cars were required to keep within the 12 m.p.h. speed limit while they were preceded by cyclists acting as pilots. In Athy, where each car passed through twice on each full circuit, cars were required to stop for up to 15 minutes on arrival.

Edge, the winner of the 1902 Race, had particular reason to remember Athy. During the Race he changed his car tyres on seven occasions and in Athy buckets of water were thrown over his tyres to cool them and help keep them on the wheel rims. He was later to be disqualified on account of this assistance.

Jarrott, driving a Napier car for Britain, crashed between Stradbally and Athy and rumours of his death and that of his mechanic soon reached Athy. The bystanders and race organisers were relieved to be later advised that neither party was seriously injured although they took no further part in the Race. Indeed, the only casualty was a young boy in Kildare town who was fatally injured by a car not involved in the Race.

Of the twelve cars which started the Race only five completed the course with the German Jenatzy driving a Mercedes the winner in a time of 6 hours 39 minutes and an average speed of 49.2. m.p.h. French drivers filled the next three places with Britains S.F. Edge in fifth place but later disqualified.

Even after 90 years reference is still made to the Gordon Bennett Race as if it was an occasion enjoyed within living memory. Next weekend sees the 90th anniversary celebration of Ireland's and Athy's greatest ever sporting event. Gordon Bennett is a name now synonymous in Irish minds with the Athy circuit and the 1903 Race. The proprietor of the New York Herald could hardly have envisaged how his motor racing Cup presented in 1899 would ensure Athy's place in the history of International motor racing.