Last Sunday the
death of three Athy persons who in these changing times were readily identified
with what I call “old Athy” was announced.
The distinction is drawn with the new generation of persons living in
Athy, people who have no previous connections with the town but who
nevertheless make a welcome and valuable addition to the social fabric of our town.
Michael Sullivan
was the youngest of the three at 76 years of age. A native of Athy, he had suffered from ill
health for many years past but despite this he retained a keen interest in his
local community and the events and people of the past. His interest was apparent in his regular
letters to me in connection with this column.
He was one of several readers who wrote to me on a regular basis
regarding articles which interested him or to bring to my attention, persons or
events from the past which might form the basis of a future article. Michael’s contributions was always
appreciated and were extremely helpful in drawing my attention to interesting
facts of local interest of which I might otherwise not have known.
Like so many of
his peers, Michael had to emigrate in the early 1950’s and for 20 years or so
he worked in England. The tricolour
which was placed on his coffin spoke volumes of his allegiances to a country
which disappointed so many of his generation in their quest for employment in
their own place.
Kathleen Byrne was
of an older generation than Michael and for her, life in the early decades of
the Free State were harder than for most.
Hers was a hardship shared with
her neighbours in Athy which she briefly referred to when I met her some time
ago. Her story was typical of Athy in
the 1930’s and later and told of summer times spent working in country fields as
part of the daily struggle for life in provincial Ireland. Those years she told me were years of genuine
hardship for most people and may not be readily appreciated by the present generation
facing an economic recession cushioned by State agencies of one kind or
another. Regrettably, Kathleen Byrne did
not want to revisit those unpleasant days of hardship and so I lost an
important opportunity to record the recollections of a lady who had so much to tell of a time which is fast disappearing from folk memory.
Ned Wynne would
have been 93 years old next month. I have written some years ago of this gentle
courteous man who was the quintessential Athy man. He was an iconic figure
easily and readily identified with our town.
In fact he was not a native of Athy but came here from the neighbouring
village of Ballylinan 71 years ago. His
was a life measured out in terms of family life and family events centred on
Athy which coupled with his work as the local shoemaker made him an iconic
figure in the human landscape of the town.
Looking back over
the years, there are few persons who stand out as the human faces of the town
which has always been home to settlers of one kind or another. Ned Wynne was one such person and the small
front room in Leinster Street where he worked was a place of pilgrimage for
those revisiting their home town as well as the locals who dropped in
unannounced for a chat.
My late father and
Ned Wynne were good friends. Theirs was
a friendship forged over the years in which they shared a common bond with young
families attending the local school and playing football with the local G.A.A.
Club. Members of the Gardai in the
1950’s and 1960’s spent most of their time on foot patrols in the town and on
Saturday nights, being a late closing night to facilitate local farmers and
their workers, the local Sergeant could always be expected to find Ned Wynne
working away in number 63 Leinster
Street. The weekly chat was welcomed by
both men and indeed it was a practice continued at less frequent intervals by
my brother George after my father died.
Ned Wynne was one
of Athy’s best known persons and certainly was one of the town’s most respected
and well liked citizens. His passing
signals the end of an era. The era of
local craftsmen had begun to disappear many decades ago as the harness maker,
the blacksmith and the carriage maker closed their workshops leaving only the
shoemaker as the last remaining craftsman still plying his skill. But even those days were numbered and Ned
Wynne for many years was the last leather craftsman at work at his trade in the
town of Athy.
His funeral was
marked by a guard of honour provided by members of Athy G.F.C. where he was
Club President and by a second guard of honour provided by Ballylinan
G.F.C. It was fitting that both clubs
honoured in this way a man whose footballing skills brought him a Laois Intermediate
Championship medal won in 1938 with Ballylinan and some years later a Kildare
Senior Championship medal which he won with Athy.
Michael, Kathleen and
Ned died the same day and their funerals to St. Michael’s Cemetery on Tuesday prompted
me to think what Athy may have experienced during the influenza epidemic at the
end of the First World War. Then three
or four funerals a day was a common feature for a few weeks as young and old
alike succumbed to the debilitating effects of the Spanish Flu. Last Tuesday was a sad day as the town of
Athy bid farewell to three of its older citizens all of whom in their own way
had made their contribution to the local community and all of whom left
grieving relations and friends to remember them. Ar dheis De go raibh siad.
