People's Park Athy

The Peoples Park in Athy owes its existence to a past Duke of Leinster. The Kildare Observer of 9th February 1887 reporting on the death of the 4th Duke, Charles William, who had succeeded to the title in 1874, claimed that he had given the Peoples Park to the people of Athy. In fact the Peoples Park was in existence long before Charles William became Duke. The Leinster Express of 15th September 1860 reported on the revival of the Kildare, Queens County and Carlow Horticultural Show after the lapse of 7 or 8 years. It was held in the Peoples Park. Strangely this is the earliest reference I have found to the Peoples Park among the various research notes I accumulated after consulting the Minute Books of the Town Commissioners and various local newspapers accessed many years ago. I am sure a more up to date examination of the newspapers for a decade or so before 1860 would help to accurately identify when the park was provided for the people of Athy. I am satisfied that the third Duke of Leinster, Augustus Frederick, who died in 1874 was the benefactor who created the Peoples Park. He was the same man whom it was claimed in 1836 ‘built a mansion for the Roman Catholic clergy of Athy.’ The ‘mansion’ is the current Parish Priest’s house which interestingly was built for all the clergy to live in community. Michael Carey’s diary of the last century records that the first stone of what he called ‘the Priest’s house’ was laid on 2nd July 1829. The third Duke of Leinster was very generous with regard to contributions to the people and town of Athy. He had a corn exchange built in the town, the foundation of which was laid in July 1855. The building described as one of the most beautiful small buildings in County Kildare was found not to be suitable as a corn exchange due to poor ventilation and poor lighting and was subsequently adapted for use as a courthouse. I have yet to discover the significance of the stone finials which are striking features alongside the dramatic tall granite chimney stacks of the mid-19th century building. Two developments, approximately 16 years apart, might give us some indication of when the park was created. The first development was the building of St. Michael’s Church at the top of Offaly Street which was dedicated in 1841. The church is located on an axis with Church Road and presents a dramatic view of the church steeple, the building of which commenced in August 1856. This lends me to believe that Church Road, or Crib Road as we once called it, may have been laid out and constructed around the same time. The railway line had been extended to Athy in 1846, when the entrance road from Leinster Street was developed to allow access to the railway station. It is possible the road may have been extended further to meet up with Offaly Street. If this was done before the Church steeple was built in 1856 it represents a remarkable coincidence which allowed the earlier road and the later steeple to create the dramatic axial view of St. Michael’s steeple. I tend to believe that the steeple built in 1856 around the same time as the Church of Ireland rectory was part of a development which saw the construction of Church Road and the enclosure of the grounds which were laid out as the Peoples Park. The walls which enclose the Peoples Park are similar in all respects with the wall enclosing the rectory and the wall all the way down to Offaly Street. The Kildare Observer of 19th February 1887 described the Peoples Park as ‘a public park ….. flanked by a row of trees, a boulevard in fact which is most luxuriant and of great natural beauty ….. with trees of 30 years growth.’ This description would tend to support my belief that the Peoples Park was developed in or around 1856. The same newspaper reported on 20th September 1902 how two rare fir trees planted and railed to mark the coronation of King Edward were torn up overnight. On Coronation Day female members of the Duke of Leinster’s family had planned to plant the two trees, but due to their absence the trees were planted by Lady Weldon of Kilmoroney and the local rector’s wife, Mrs. H.W. Waller. The park, estimated to consist of five acres (pre swimming pool and subsequent car park development) was maintained by the Duke of Leinster’s estate for 150 years of thereabouts. The park keepers house built at one end of the park was sold some years ago when the Urban District Council acquired title to the park. Athy’s Peoples Park developed by Augustus Frederick, Duke of Leinster can be seen as his contribution to the movement for town parks in the mid-19th century. Parks for the recreation of all classes were part of a mid-19th century English movement anxious to improve public health measures for the workers and the unemployed who lived for the most part in unsanitary unfit housing. It was a significant contribution to 19th century town life coming as it did almost 100 years after the great age of landscaped gardens built and developed for the aristocracy. Our park today included a children’s playground which continues to remain unfenced, leaving the area which should be restricted to young children and their parents open to dogs and as I observed recently adults drinking cans of beer. Perhaps the Council might consider the desirability of installing protective fencing.

Walking Tour of Athy East of the Barrow

It is not too often that you get the opportunity to walk around familiar and not so familiar parts of Athy with an enthusiastic group anxious to hear some of the history of their own place. Last week was one such occasion when a small group set off at 7.15p.m. first stepping across the former High Street to enter into the narrow confines of Garter Lane. How it got its name I can only guess but I have always presumed that Garter Lane was a corruption of Carter Lane, a name which acknowledged the large number of its one time resident Carters. However the existence of a Garter Lane in Waterford raises the possibility that the name may indeed have nothing to do with the honourable carting occupation.

Anyway our saunter down Garter Lane brought us by the site of Youells Turbine Shed where the first electricity supply for Athy was produced in the early part of the century. Further on we came on the line of the medieval town wall which terminated at the banks of the River Barrow and which we were to follow over the early stages of our walk.

Facing us as we crossed the former Kildare Road, previously known as Cotters Lane, now Stanhope Street, was St. Michael's Parish Church built in 1964 to replace an earlier Church erected on the same site. That Church had stood for over 150 years and was the venue of the first Church Mission given in an Irish Church in 1842. Passing by Miss Goold's house now occupied by the Parish Priest we paused to bring into focus the Convent of Mercy established in 1851.

The small houses in Chapel Lane, the walls of which were standing until recently, are no longer to be seen but on the far side of the road can be found the high stone wall which shields from view the site of the first Catholic Church built in Athy in post-Reformation days. The thatched roof building erected in or around 1740 was burnt in 1800 allegedly as a result of an altercation between a militia man and a local curate during the 1798 Rebellion. Whatever the truth of the claim first made by Patrick O'Kelly in his book "1798 Rebellion" the then Parish Priest Canon Keegan obtained compensation of £288 for the damaged Church and having collected locally an additional £1,700 he built the sturdy St. Michael's Church in 1803 on grounds which up to then had been swamp land.

Crossing the former High Street the small group passed into Meeting House Lane to hear the story of the Quaker settlement established in Athy in 1672. The construction of the Quaker Meeting House in 1780 gave us the name "Meeting House Lane" which name we have retained even though the Quakers departed from Athy in the early part of the 19th century. The local Methodist Community subsequently took over the Quaker Meeting House and the building since modified continues today to be used as a local Dispensary. No trace can be seen of the twelve houses which once stood on Garden Lane and where Peter Fitzsimons buses are now parked. The houses in Meeting Lane were built in 1913 as part of the first Council housing scheme in Athy and the entire terrace cost the sum of £704.10.0 to build. On our right the foundry of Matt and Mick McHugh is long gone as are the houses on Connolly Lane which stretched back behind Emily Row towards the Credit Union Office. The three storey house at the corner of Meeting Lane was the location of the Parish School operated by the local Rector in 1827.

Turning left into Offaly Street we pass over the site of Prestons Gate, the last remains of the medieval town wall in Athy which were removed in 1860. Then up past the former Picture Palace known to my generation as "Bob's Cinema", previously a malthouse and now a printers office.

St. Michael's Church of Ireland stands at the top of Offaly Street as it has since 1840. Its interior has memorials to some of the local dead of World War I and to Captain George Weldon the first Officer killed in the Boer War. The Weldon's were not always a lucky lot!

A trip up the "Crib Road" gives an opportunity to explain how the protective iron crib once placed around the newly planted roadside trees gave Church Road the name by which it was generally known to locals. Through the trees and looking up the avenue towards Kevin Maher's house we can see the remains of one of the prison cell blocks built in 1830 to replace the jail in Whites Castle. On our right the beautiful Rectory which Rev. Crampton tells me was built by Rev. F.S. Trench and presented by him to the Parish.

The night is drawing in as we walk through the People's Park and what a pleasure it is to do so. Laid out over 200 years ago it is a wonderful facility and maybe there is truth in the claim that the Duke of Leinster's family brought back a young tree from every foreign country they visited which they later planted in the Peoples Park.