Whites Castle and the early years of medieval Athy

Last week’s Kildare Nationalist carried a news item concerning White’s Castle and an announcement of the forthcoming auction of what was described as a 2.5 acre development site in the centre of Athy. It was an unusual coincidence which highlighted on the same paper two important elements of Athy’s past history, even if the development site description might not immediately signal any historical significance. But in fact the site located off Emily Square has a history which predates that of White’s Castle by over 150 years or more. The site was correctly identified in the notice as being located within the old ‘Abbey lands’, a reminder that a few years ago it was the site of the Abbey, a fine 18th century house which was pulled down overnight. The name came down to us over the years because it was the site of the first Dominican Abbey or Friary founded in 1257. The French speaking Anglo Normans who sailed up the river Barrow and opened settlements at various locations in the Barrow valley founded one of their most important settlements at the Ford of Ae. They built a fortified castle at Woodstock around which the medieval village of Athy developed. Within a few years the Crouched Friars founded a monastery on the west bank of the River Barrow in the area still known to this day as St. Johns. A few years later the Dominicans founded their monastery on the opposite bank of the river in the area which the auction notice called the ‘Abbey lands’. The Dominicans occupied their monastery until the Reformation when Henry VIII suppressed the Irish and English monasteries and sequestered the Abbey property which was leased to Martin Pelles, constable of the castle of Athy. The Abbey consisted of a church with a bell tower, a chapter house, dormitory, kitchen, rooms and two halls in addition to an open cloister, a cemetery, an orchard and a garden. The buildings were in time destroyed and levelled to the ground leaving only, I believe, traces underground. The Abbey site has an important story awaiting to be told and it is a story which can only be fully explained after a comprehensive archaeological survey of the site has been carried out. Following the Battle of Ardscull on 26th January 1316 when the Scottish troops under Edward Bruce defeated the Anglo Normans, the Book of Howth records that ‘of the Scot side were slain Lord Fergus Anderson, Lord Walter More and many others whose bodies were buried in the Abbey of the Friars Preachers Athy.’ Also buried there were the Dominican Friars who in the first 300 years of the Abbey’s existence lived, worshipped, and prayed in Athy’s Abbey. This important historical site needs to have an archaeological assessment and investigation carried out as a matter of urgency. White’s Castle recently purchased for the third time in recent years by a private individual without any interest being expressed by Kildare County Council, has been awarded funding under the Community Monuments Fund. I understand the purpose of the funding is to help protect the historical building and facilitate access to it by the general public. White’s Castle is an iconic building at the heart of our town which stands not alone but is twinned with the adjoining Crom a Boo bridge to provide a symbolic representation of the town’s ancient history. Picture Athy in your mind’s eye and almost certainly images of the castle and the bridge will come into view. For so long at the heart of town life in Athy the Castle, as a garrison fortress, as a prison and as a police barracks has witnessed the passing of so many different generations stretching back over 600 years. I had hoped that White’s Castle would again become an integral part of community life in Athy with its development as a heritage centre/museum to complement the Shackleton Museum in the former market house. I don’t know what plans the new owner has for the castle but the successful application for Community Monument funding is an encouraging sign that private enterprise might yet take up the challenge which Kildare County Council and Athy Town Council so abysmally failed to do in the past.

Medieval Athy

In last week’s Eye on the Past when referring to Woodstock Castle, I mentioned the relocation to the east side of the river Barrow of the Anglo-Norman village of Athy which was first established on the west bank. This followed a prolonged period during which the Irish chiefs, particularly the O’Mores of Laois, attacked the village which had grown up around Woodstock Castle. Sir John Talbot brought the war into the heartlands of the Irish beyond the River Barrow and having defeated them sought to protect the village from further attacks. We are told that Talbot repaired and mended the bridge of Athy and erected a new tower on the bridge to house a garrison. This tower is generally believed to have referred to White’s Castle and its from the date of the castle’s erection that the gradual evacuation of the medieval village on the west bank is believed to have commenced. Woodstock Castle was by then a Fitzgerald holding and with the adjoining prior of the Canon Regulars of the Holy Cross, commonly referred to as St. John’s Monastery, continued to be the nucleus of the medieval settlement which did extend across the river to where the Dominican Friary was located. In 1434 the citizens of Athy were given the right by virtue of a murage grant to levy customs on persons selling goods in the village to finance the construction of defensive walls. This is the first reference found to murage grants for Athy and it might tend to suggest that the settlement had begun to take shape in its new location on the east bank of the river. Henry VIII in 1515 granted a charter ‘for the greater safety and security of the town of Athy’ which the charter described as lying ‘on the frontiers of the March of our Irish enemies.’ It was not only the Irish who continued to cause problems for the settlers in Athy, for the Silken Thomas Rebellion in 1534 saw the Earl of Ossory attacking Athy and Rheban, destroying both. A little more than 60 years later another Anglo Norman, James FitzPiers rebelled, resulting in further plunder and mayhem in south Kildare. The rebel James was the son of Sir Piers FitzJames of Ardreigh Castle which was burned and destroyed by Feach McHugh’s followers in 1593, resulting in the massacre of FitzJames’ family and servants. The Battle of Kinsale in 1601 resulted in the defeat of the Irish and brought a fragile peace to the settlers’ town of Athy. In 1611 James I granted a new charter to Athy, which despite the earlier charters referenced to ‘the town of Athy’ was now called ‘the village of Athy.’ The new charter created the Borough of Athy which extended one half a mile in ‘a direct line from every side of the Castle commonly called the White Castle in the village.’ This would suggest that a settlement was now firmly relocated in the more easily defended east side of the river Barrow. However, the countryside was to witness the outbreak of war in 1641. The Confederate War which ended after eight years, saw considerable action in and around Athy, with the legendary Owen Roe O’Neill at one time in charge of the White and Woodstock castles. Following the Confederate War which saw Woodstock and the White Castle severely damaged, as was the Dominican Friary, Woodstock was left damaged and vacant. It would remain in splendid isolation on the west bank of the river Barrow until the building of Council houses in its vicinity in the 1930s and later. When the Kildare Archaeological Society members visited Athy recently to view Athy’s medieval buildings I mentioned the society’s visit to Woodstock in September 1892when the local curate, Fr. Carroll, spoke of a Woodstock Castle’s ‘outer court having a fine arch gateway to the north’ which he indicated ‘still remains as does part of the outer enclosure walls.’ Sadly neither features were to be seen during this year’s visit by the Kildare Archaeological Society members. Woodstock Castle with St. Michael’s Medieval Church are Athy’s most important medieval structures which deserve to be protected and preserved. Would Kildare County Council on behalf of the people of Athy consider seeking funding to protect and restore both buildings and at the same time taking all appropriate action to save the White’s Castle. Aughaboura bridge, erected during the Great Famine, was removed last week as part of the Outer Relief Road Project. The dressed stones of the bridge were put in place by a skilled stone mason, assisted by local labourers who found work during the construction of the railway line to Carlow which helped to keep their families out of the Workhouse during the Great Famine. It would be a very fitting tribute to the dead of the Great Famine for these dressed stones to be used for constructing a memorial to Athy’s famine dead who now lie in unmarked graves in St. Mary’s cemetery? FRANK TAAFFE

Medieval Athy

When the Anglo Normans settled in the area now known as south County Kildare their early settlements were to be found near to the River Barrow at Ardree, Athy and Rheban with an inland settlement at Ardscull.  These villages, populated by French speaking settlers, in time attracted Gaelic speaking Irish folk who occupied low class positions such as betaghs or villeins who served the manorial lords.  Today three of those once thriving settlements are no more having been consigned to history which describes them as ‘deserted villages’.

The exception is Athy.  Why did the medieval village of Athy prosper and develop into a town when the neighbouring villages died away?  Was it because of its location on an important crossing on the River Barrow and the fact that it was garrisoned as the first line of defence for those living within the Pale?  It was for that reason that the White Castle was built in 1417 to house a garrison to protect the bridge of Athy.

I have come to the conclusion that amongst the many reasons for the continued existence of Athy when other neighbouring villages died away was the part played by the granting of royal charters to Athy.  A charter was a royal writ confirming rights and privileges and the first of several charters granted to Athy was that of King Henry VIII in 1515.  It was granted to the village of Athy at the request of Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare ‘for the greatest safety of Athy which lies on the frontiers of the Marches of our Irish enemies’.  Those same Irish usually referred to in medieval texts as ‘the wild Irish’ attacked and burned the village of Athy on four occasions in the 14^th century. 

The 1515 Charter allowed the inhabitants of Athy ‘to build and strengthen the town with fosses and walls of stone and lime’.  The work was to be controlled by a Provost elected annually on the feast of St. Michael the Archangel (September 29^th) and financed by customs/tolls collected in the market allowed under the Charter to be held each Tuesday in the village.  This was the first reference to the local market which is still held every Tuesday in Emily Square which in times past was known as ‘Market Square’.  While the Charter of 1515 declared the Provost and the inhabitants of Athy to be a body incorporate there is no reference to the appointment or election of borough officials. 

In a letter written in 1552 by Ossory to Cromwell reference is made to ‘the gates of the Earl’s town of Athy’.  Further references in 1598 to Castledermot and Athy ‘as the only important towns of Kildare walled and now ruined’ confirm that the Charter of 1515 did result in the walling of Athy.  The town walls were constructed on the east side of the River Barrow and ran in a semi circular formation from the river across Preston’s Gate (now Offaly Street) across High Street (now Leinster Street) to Chapel Lane and from there via Stanhope Place to the river.  The last visible remains of the medieval walls were removed in 1860 when the gateway known as Preston’s Gate then leading into the street, also called Preston’s Gate, was pulled down.

In 1613 James I in an effort to further the plantation programme and to secure a Protestant Parliamentary majority created 46 new borough Councils in Ireland.  Amongst them was Athy Borough Council.  The 1613 Charter allowed for the appointment of a Sovereign and various borough officials.  It also provided for the appointment of 12 Burgesses who held office for life and who constituted the Borough Council with the right to nominate two Members of Parliament.  Interestingly the Charter also authorised Athy Borough to have a Guild of Merchants ‘to better serve for the success of the Borough’.

Catholics were excluded from membership of the borough, as were Presbyterians until 1780, and the first and only Catholics elected as a Burgess of Athy was Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine House who was elected in 1831.  Nine years later Athy Borough Council with a number of other so called ‘rotten Boroughs’ was abolished.

Recently I came across another Athy Charter granted in 1689 by the Catholic King James II.  Apparently it was never accepted by the borough masters of Athy following the defeat of James II two years later by William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne.  In a report of 1833 by the Commissioners of Municipal Corporations it was claimed that the Charter of 1689 was ‘founded upon a supposed forfeiture by a judgment of the Exchequer and has not been acted upon at least within the memory of any living person and the Charter of 1613 is the governing charter’. 

The charters granted to Athy helped to ensure the survival of the village while other neighbouring villages died.  This despite the undemocratic nature of the Borough Council’s composition which was not addressed until the Borough Council was abolished in 1840 and subsequently replaced by Town Commissioners elected by popular mandate.

Early Medieval Athy

The Development of Athy as a military stronghold at the beginning of the 15th Century followed 200 years of its development as a village settlement. This latter development reflected the failure of the anti Irish laws to force the hostile Irish into submission. The Anglo Norman authorities had looked with disfavour on the ever strengthening links between the Irish and the early settlers and it sought to maintain a division between the two by passing anti Irish laws from a very early date. The Parliament of 1297 convened by Sir John Wogan gave expression to the first Anti Irish decrees of the new Rulers.

“English men who have become degenerate in recent times dress themselves in Irish garments and having their heads half shaven, grow their hair from the back of the head which they call the “culan” confirming themselves to the Irish as well in garb as in countenance whereby it frequently happens that Englishmen reputed as Irishmen are slain, although the killing of Englishmen reputed as Irishmen are slain, although killing of Englishmen and of Irishmen requires different modes of punishment. And by such killing matter of enmity and rancour is generated amongst many. The kindred also, as well of the slayer as of the slain, are often by turns struck down as enemies. And therefore it is agreed and granted that all Englishmen in this land wear, at least in that part of the head which presents itself most to view, the mode and tonsure of Englishmen”.


An interesting account of the disabilities endured by the native Irish is given in a petition of the Irish Chief addressed to Pope John XXII in the latter part of 1317. In the petition the Chiefs complained that the English Courts in Ireland were not available to Irishmen except where the cause of action lay against them, and that the killing of an Irish person, whether lay or religious, by an Englishman was not punishable by the Courts. Even more offensive to the Chiefs was the assertion by the none Irish religious that it was “no more sin to kill an Irishman than a dog or any other brute. And in maintaining this heretical position some monks of theirs affirm boldly that if it should happen to them, as it does often happen, to kill an Irishman, they would not on that account refrain from saying mass, not even for a day”. The Statutes of Kilkenny 1366 were the most outstanding effort by the English rulers to regulate the relations of the Irish and the settlers in Ireland. The Statutes were at once an acknowledgment of the isolation and vulnerability of the strongly fortified Anglo Norman towns and an attempt to regulate their future development untainted by Irish influences. The Anglo Normans were forbidden to marry the Irish, to use Irish laws, or to receive Irishmen into their monasteries. They were enjoined to use English speech and to have English surnames under penalty of attainder. The statutes failed in their purpose because the Anglo Norman towns could not survive without commercial or social intercourse with the native Irish. However, the anti Irish measures did prove detrimental to the growth of the provincial towns. Laws forbidding the sale of corn, salt, iron and victuals to the Irish without a licence served to dampen the enterprise of the early 15th century town merchants while a 1431 Act forbidding them to frequent Irish fairs or markets attempted to cut them off from much needed and readily available sources of supply. While the use of the anti Irish laws fell into disrepute, Athy appears never to have lost its Anglo Norman influence, no doubt due to the oligarchic control of the town which was so typical of Anglo Norman towns of the time. This Anglo Norman influence is reflected in the numerous occasions on which the Irish saw fit to attack its inhabitants. The fact it was an Anglo Irish foundation without any prior Irish influence prompted the Irish to seek its destruction instead of its assimilation into Gaelic Ireland. The isolation of the manorial town of Athy and its proximity to the lands of the O’Mores undoubtedly created a special difficulties for the early Anglo Norman settlers. However their success in maintaining a clear division between themselves and the Irish can be measured by the non gaelic traditions and outlook to be found in the town of Athy long after other similar towns in Ireland had succumbed to Gaelic influences.

Medieval Athy

Two weeks ago in the Town Hall the local branch of An Taisce hosted a lecture given by Mr. John Bradley, a lecturer in medieval history at Maynooth College. The title of the lecture was the ‘Medieval town in Ireland’ with particular reference to the towns of County Kildare. Those who braved the elements on that wintry night enjoyed a comprehensive treatment of the origins, nature and form of the urban settlement in Ireland. It prompted me to reflect on Athy in the medieval period, as to the type of communal facilities or arrangements which existed in the town. Squalor and filth was an integral part of the street life of that period. Towns varied in their tolerance towards the keeping of dunghills outside houses. One writer noted -
‘Every house had a heap of refuse outside it, partly because many horses and pigs were kept in the towns, and partly because destruction of refuse by burning was not considered safe’.

Athy’s charter of 1515 is silent on such matters but it may be assumed that there existed some system for disposal of waste. One author writes of the period -
‘Street cleaning defeated the authorities of every medieval town. Despite regulations often repeated, householders persisted in dumping refuse and sewage in the streets, and allowing their animals and poultry to foul public thoroughfares at will. Few people concerned themselves if dead animals lay about unburied for days, and butchers who commonly did their slaughtering in the streets, allowed the blood and offal to drain away as best they could. The channel which ran down the middle of most streets became an open sewer, and on hot and humid days, it must have stunk abominably’.

In English towns for this period there survive some references to the disposal of refuse. In Cambridge in 1402 dung and filth was allowed to accumulate in heaps for up to seven days while in York in the late fourteenth century any accumulation that could be called a heap was prohibited. It is likely that in these English towns as in Athy there would have existed ‘carters’ or scavengers’ who would have removed such materials for a small sum. In the 12th of July, 1890 issue of the Kildare Observer it was reported that at the meeting of the Town Commissioners, the ‘scavenger’ who was normally required to be in attendance to preserve order in the town fair was not noticed. The reason apparently was the latest suit of clothes, paid for him by the Commissioners, was of a brown colour rather than the traditional red which had made it easy to distinguish him from other people at the fair. It was suggested and agreed, that the colour be altered and that a green suit would be used instead. The job of the scavenger was to keep the marketplace and the fair clean and free of all dirt or obstructions. His appointment might have been a consequence of the Town Commissioners meeting in September 1886 ‘when the dirty conditions of the streets of the town were once more discussed. It is really time that something should be done to remedy this crying evil.’

It would appear that the ‘scavenger’ was unable to perform his role adequately as the sheer volume of his work overwhelmed him. One anonymous writer, more cynical than most, was inspired to pen a piece entitled ‘Sweet Athy’ which he stated was inspired by the ‘present superfluity of mud and gas in Athy’.
“Sweet Athy! Loveliest village in Kildare,
Where muddy streets appear with mud so fair,
How often I wandered down thy street,
While lovely clinging slush adorned my feet.
Here nature holds her own with regal sway,
No wandering scavenger e’er mars the day,
And if per chance he comes to ply his art,
With shovel, brush and corporation cart.
Poetic soul he takes not all the dirt,
Fearing dame nature he per chance might hurt,
The better part he leaves upon the ground,
To be by passing footsteps spread around.”

But the Towns administration was not always dilatory in its treatment of such matters and where required reverted to law. From time to time the courts had to intervene in such matters. The Leinster Leader for the 13th February, 1904 reported that -
“At the Athy Petty Session on Tuesday a large number of parties were at the incidence of the Urban Council fined for creating obstructions by allowing heaps of manure to accumulate outside the doors on the streets at their residences. At this time the occupants of small houses sell whatever manure is accumulating in their back premises to the local shopkeepers and farmers. The manure has of course to be transferred to the streets where it is sometimes allowed to remain for days, constituting a source of danger and presenting a most unsightly appearance. It is a pity however that the real culprits, the purchasers, can apparently escape scot free. In one case disposed of on Tuesday the defendant, a delicate, sickly and indeed hungry-looking old woman who was in receipt of 1 shilling and 6 pence a week outdoor relief was ordered to pay in fines and costs exactly what she received for the manure, 2 shillings. Yet in the case it was shown that the purchaser had bought the manure fully a week before it was transferred to the street. Its failure to remove it resulting in the unfortunate woman who sold it being punished in a manner almost beyond bearing. Neglect of this description is certainly a crime.”

Today happily such problems are a thing of the past.