Athy's sporting success in 2022

Grandfatherly duties brought me recently to the new pitches recently acquired and developed by Athy Gaelic Football Club. My granddaughter Eva had to be collected following a training session and I was left marvelling at the recent growth of female involvement in Gaelic football. Little did the Athy men of the 1937 championship winning team, whose photograph I am now looking at, imagine that the game nurtured by Michael Cusack and his colleagues would cater for sports loving young females a few generations later. Reportage of sporting activities fill a not inconsiderable number of pages in our daily and weekly newspapers as they bring us news of success and defeats in almost equal measure. For Gaelic football followers with allegiance to Athy Gaelic Football Club, the defeat of the club’s senior players in the County Championship Senior Semi-Final this year was a huge disappointment. Short of its key player, midfielder Kevin Feeley who was side-lined due to injury, the Athy team nevertheless were masters in an error strewn first half which saw them waste a series of good chances playing against their opponents Clane. The team eventually lost the opportunity to face Naas in the County Final to the disappointment of their faithful followers. It was a huge loss for the club members and the team, but football matches in the weeks following brought welcome success for the South Kildare club. There was a double measure of success on the same day in Newbridge when Athy’s minor team won the Minor B final playing St. Conleth’s Park. The early start time of 1.30pm saw the Cathal Kennedy led team defeat their Clane opponents on a score of 2-11 to 1-13. A few hours later, this time in the Hawkfield pitch in Newbridge, the Reserve A Football Final featured Athy and Naas. Playing was Athy’s second senior team and the young Cathal Kennedy, who had earlier won the man of the match award in the minor final, again featured prominently as Athy defeated Naas on penalties after extra time. Athy Gaelic Football Club, after the disappointment of the senior championship defeat, was now county champions at minor and Reserve A level. The club has also reached this year’s Under 14 years final and the Under 16 years final, both of which will be played sometime soon. The club’s successes is an excellent indication of the enthusiasm which marks the club’s football activities. I understand there are no less than three senior teams in the club, with an Under 20 years team, a minor team and various underage teams ranging from Under 16 years down as far as Under 7 years. The club officials include Henry Howard as President, Marty McEvoy as Chairman, James Robinson and Laura Kinahan Joint Secretaries and Tony Foley, Club Treasurer. The club founded, it is believed in 1887, has a proud history which sadly remains unwritten. The development it embarked upon five years ago to add two fully floodlit pitches to its existing Geraldine Park pitch, is now coming to a successful conclusion and promises to afford every possible opportunity to Athy G.F.C. to achieve more success in the future. If Athy Gaelic Football Club was recently achieving much success on the field of play, another local sporting club, Clonmullin Association Football Club, was doing likewise. The soccer club, formed in 1995 by the late Micheal O’Neill, Ger Connell and Micky Roycroft, recently became the KDFL Senior Division champions after defeating Athy AFC on the Clonmullin home pitch. It followed some weeks after the Clonmullin club had lost a three year home winning run when losing in somewhat controversial circumstances to Oliver Bond Celtic. The Clonmullin club’s ground was allocated to the club by Athy Urban District Council and with funding under the Sports Capital Programme a fine clubhouse was built approximately 10 years ago. There are two senior teams in the club, which was presided over for many years by my late Urban Council colleague, Paddy Wright. Indeed, Paddy played an important part in the club’s successful negotiation with the Urban District Council which ultimately resulted in the development of the club’s current soccer pitch in Clonmullin. On December 19, 1922, the largest mass execution during the Civil War took place at the Glass House military prison on the Curragh. Seven members of the Rathbride I.R.A. Column, Patrick Bagnall, Patrick Mangan, Fairgreen Kildare, Joseph Johnston, Station Road, Kildare, Bryan Moore, Patrick Nolan, Rathbride, Stephen White Abbey St, Kildare and James O’Connor, Bansha, Co. Tipperary, who had been captured in a dugout at a farmhouse in Mooresbridge on December 13th were summarily tried and sentenced to death. Their executions, coming only 11 days after the high-profile executions of anti-Treaty leaders Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Richard Barret and Joe McKelvey on December 8th in Mountjoy Prison marked a further escalation in the Free State Government’s execution policy which would ultimately end with 83 official executions by the end of May 1923. This Tuesday, 18th October at 8pm in the Arts Centre on Woodstock Street, Des Dalton will give a talk on the arrest, trial and execution of the Rathbride men during the Civil War. The lecture, which is part of the Autumn/Winter Lecture Series organised by the Arts Centre, is free.

Football Memories

Thurles was the place to be last Saturday. The occasion, yet another onslaught by Kildare footballers on the football pinnacle which is the culmination of a successful All-Ireland campaign. The last time we traversed that same mountain was a decade ago when a spirited and I believe a fortunate Corrib based team turned the tide of optimism which had swept Kildare into a receding tidal wave of regrets and dare I say it, recriminations. If the result in 1998 was disappointing, last Saturday’s final in the under 21 All Ireland championship offered the prospect of some belated consolation. It was a promise which seemed justified by a spirited first half display which saw the Lilywhites trailing the lads from the Kingdom by only 2 points. The slender lead was achieved with the aid of a strong wind, which having regard to the earlier match between Limerick and Cavan girls promised to give Kildare a badly needed boost in the second half. It was not to be as the footballing craft and experience of the South Westerners saw off the challenge of the short grass men all too easily. It was a huge disappointment for the ever faithful Kildare followers, but nevertheless some individual players on the Kildare panel showed ability which augers well for future success at this or at senior level.

I was particularly disappointed that Athy did not have a representative on the under 21 team or on the list of substitutes. Athy players have in the past figured prominently on Kildare county teams, although in more recent years the town’s representation has been somewhat meagre. Seamus Malone, the County Westmeath born republican and teacher who was responsible for reviving Gaelic football in Athy in the mid-1920’s would surely be disappointed if he had occasion to review the strength of Gaelic football today in the South Kildare town. Athy had a number of players on the 1935 Kildare team which contested that year’s All Ireland final against Cavan, including Paul Matthews who was the team captain. In the 1998 All Ireland football final our only representative was Christy Byrne, and in truth he came courtesy of Rheban Gaelic Football Club.

Mealy Auctioneers, from my home town of Castlecomer, have a forthcoming auction of sporting memorabilia, including quite an interesting collection of G.A.A. material. Included among the many single-sheeted G.A.A. programmes on offer is one for a game in Geraldine Park on 1st March 1959 between Kildare and Carlow. The match was preceded by a minor tournament game between Athy and Eire Óg in which I played. The senior county team that day had four Athy players, Danny Flood at full back, Mick Carolan, the centre half back, Brendan Kehoe played on the left half forward line and in front of him Mick Coughlan. This was just one year after Kildare’s famous victory over Wexford in the Leinster final of 1956. Why I wonder haven’t Athy players continued to make an impact on Kildare County teams? The records will show no Athy players on the 2008 under 21 All Ireland team and sad it is to remember that the town’s only playing member of the 1965 All Ireland winning under 21 team, Denis Wynne passed away a few years ago. We are short of sporting heroes in South Kildare and must look back over the decades to find names in which we can take pride.

The day after the disappointment of Thurles I met Ann Keevins, whose husband Seamus died in March. Seamus Keevins was a retired Garda Sergeant based in Ballycullane in County Wexford when he passed away. Football officiandos will remember him as a man who played Inter County football in each of the four provinces, having displayed his footballing talents on senior teams for Counties Sligo, Cavan, Waterford and Wexford. It was as a member of the Wexford team that he togged out against Kildare in Croke Park on Sunday, 22nd July 1956. The occasion was the Leinster Final which Kildare had not won for 21 years. Seamus Keevins lined out on the half back line and when he had to retire with two minutes to go to the end of the first half Wexford led by 1-6 to 1-5. Strangely he was replaced by a former Kildare player, J. Goff and in his absence during the second half Kildare went on to carve out a famous victory on the scoreline of 2-11 to 1-8. Mitchel Cogley of the Irish Independent wrote in the following Monday morning’s paper, ‘Kildare won because they consistently played the ball, Wexford lost because they persisted in playing the man’. Kildare were awarded 37 frees and the Monasterevin ace, Seamie Harrison, pointed 7 of them. Athy’s folk hero from that day was Danny Flood, then an army lieutenant who stood like a colossus in front of the square, guarding the Kildare goalkeeper Des Marron.

Seamus Keevins, when he retired as a player, involved himself in the promotion of Gaelic football in Wexford, a county perhaps better known for its hurling prowess. Meeting Ann Keevins helped me relive one of the few great sporting occasions Kildare county has enjoyed during the last 50 years or so. Indeed 1956 was a vintage year for Kildare football, for just a week before the senior final Kildare defeated the same County Wexford in the Leinster Junior Final. The importance of Gaelic games in our sporting heritage cannot be overstated and the part played by men such as Seamus Keevins in keeping Gaelic football to the forefront of the nation’s sporting activity should not be forgotten. Coincidentally Seamus’s eldest son Michael, now lives in County Kildare, where he is a Garda Sergeant attached to the Traffic Corps in Naas.

Billy Shaw, eldest brother of Trevor Shaw, died during the week and his funeral in the Methodist Church in Carlow was attended by a large crowd which could not be accommodated in the small church adjoining the majestic courthouse. Rev. Forsyth, a young man whom I believe comes from the Athlone area, presided over the service which saw the congregation give a fulsome and full throated engagement in the hymns, ‘To God be the Glory’ and ‘Safe in the Arms of Jesus’. The latter is not included in the Methodist Hymnal, and indeed neither came from the pen of Charles Wesley but otherwise the service was everything I imagined to be the legacy of that great preacher and evangelist John Wesley. No sermon was preached, but somehow or other the spirit of Wesley filled the simple church as the young Minister conducted the short service. I have often wondered why John Wesley, who visited Ireland on 21 occasion and who on his last trip journeyed from Portlaoise to Carlow, never preached in Athy. In a short account of Methodism in Athy written over 30 years ago it was stated that John Wesley ‘appears to have visited Athy on only one occasion on Saturday 24th April 1789’. I am not satisfied that Wesley did visit Athy and more is the pity if he did not.

Older people in the town always refer to the Methodist Church as ‘the Wesleyan and Methodist Church’ which may well have been its correct title at one time. However, with the reunion of Wesleyan Methodists the Primitive Methodists and the United Methodist churches in 1932 the church was properly called ‘the Methodist Church’. The followers of the movement started by John Wesley, his brother Charles and their friend George Whitefield, when they first came together in Oxford over 270 years ago to form what was known as ‘the Holy Club’ are decreasing, like many of the other mainstream churches. Recent research in England shows that church attendance is declining to such an extent that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will soon become financially unviable. A lack of funds from collection plates to support the church’s infrastructure including church upkeep and salaries will force church closures as ageing congregations die. It’s a problem facing churches in Ireland today and a problem which Athy, hosting five mainstream churches, will have to face up to over the next few years.

Billy Shaw was the son of the legendary Sam Shaw who opened Shaws third store in the former Duncans premises in Duke Street in 1915. He is survived by his widow, the former Sheila Yates of Grangemellon and his sons and daughters.

This sporting life in the 1930s

A scrapbook kept for over 30 years from the early 1930s provides the material for this week’s article. My attention was drawn to the many references in the book to sporting events involving Athy teams and sportsmen from the South Kildare town.

The first was a press report dated 5 April 1930 which, under the headline
Provincial Towns Cup Final, Athy v Wexford Wanderers, gave an account of the final played at Landsdowne Road in which the Athy team was W Keyes, TK Rossiter, GV Gibson, R McHugh, J Harvey, S McHugh, R Griffin, Jas Griffin, D Carbery, R Anderson, J Carbery, J Doyle, VM Gibson, T Maher and JB Maher.

The Athy team was playing that day in its second successful Provincial Towns Cup Final and at half time was behind by three points to nil. This, despite good play by S McHugh, his brother Des and full back W Keyes. Early in the second half, the Athy players made ground and R McHugh kicked ahead to put his team on the attack. Athy forwards, Griffin, Anderson and Griffin, were noted as ‘often prominent’. Despite good tackling by Keyes, the Wexford forward, Sheridan, went over for a try which remained unconverted. Persistent pressure by the Athy men led to a try by Carbery near the end, but again the kick at goal failed, to leave the final result six points to three in favour of Wexford Wanderers. Unfortunately, the press report does not clarify which of the Carbery brothers/cousins(?) scored the try for Athy.

A press photograph pasted into the scrap book showed the Athy rugby team which played and lost to Bective Rangers in what I believe was the same year, 1930. The names written by hand onto the photograph indicate some changes in personnel from the team which lost for the second year running the Provincial Towns Cup Final. I am interested in getting the full names of those on the rugby team and some background information on the individual players. If you can help, I would like to hear from you.

On Monday 26 May 1930, the Irish Independent carried a report of ‘The Athy 75’, a motor cycle race then in its sixth year, having been inaugurated in 1925. A handicap race, it attracted competitors from England and Ireland, all competing for the Dunlop Trophy, the Duthie Large Trophy and the Jackson and Melrose Trophy on offer for first, second and third placings over the 75-mile long course. The race, run off under the auspices of Athy Motorcycle and Car Club whose president was CW Taylor of Forest, started at Russellstown Cross and followed a roughly rectangular course taking in Fontstown Crossroads, Booleigh Crossroads and Tullagorey Crossroads before returning to Russellstown Cross. Under the headline Great Event with Thrilling Finish, the newspaper gave several column inches to the race, starting its report:“Seldom can there have been a race in which the finish was more in doubt right up to the moment the line was crossed than the motorcycle road race held by the Athy Motorcycle and Car Club Limited on Saturday afternoon last over a 9 _ mile circuit in the neighbourhood
of Athy. Until the winner actually flashed past the timing box, it was impossible to tell which one of at least four riders would secure the honour.

Almost from the first, as soon as the race had got properly going, one of the big handicapped men appeared to have the race well in hand, provided only he could keep going. Towards the middle of the race, he was regarded as a practical certainty. Then, however, it was noticed that he was being threatened from behind by two of the middle markers and then with only one more lap to go he pulled up at his pit with the engine obviously demanding attention.

His two pursuers roared through close together, hot on his now-slowing tracks but right behind them appeared a virtual scratch man travelling at a tremendous speed. One of these four was bound to win, but nobody could say which. It was a marvellous tussle and a wonderful bit of handicapping.”

A short separate piece reported the death of Peter Mooney of 72 Manor Street, Dublin, one of the race competitors who died from injuries received when his motor bike crashed at Fontstown Crossroads. He was the second competitor to die during the course of the Athy 75, as in the previous year Harry Sargeant of Naas, who worked locally in an Athy shop, was killed off his machine at the Moat of Ardscull.

Shortly after the 1930 race concluded, CW Taylor on behalf of the Athy Club indicated that the race would not be held again. I understand that an attempt was made around 1933 to revive the race, but without success and the following year Athy Motorcycle and Car Club ceased to exist. Whatever happened to the records of the club, which was once one of the most prominent car clubs in Ireland in its day?

I’d like to hear from anyone who has any memorabilia relating to the Athy Motorcycle and Car Club or the races, including the Athy 75 which the club organised between 1925 and 1930.

A week of celebration and achievements

Two local men at opposite ends of the age spectrum come to mind this week as I prepare to write this week’s Eye on the Past. The victory of young Athy man, Roy Sheehan, in the European Championships held in Dublin marked a new high in terms of sporting success for Athy. We have never had a sporting achievement on this scale before and the reception given to the young boxer on Tuesday night on his return home was a wonderful tribute, not only to him but to all those involved over the years in the running of St Michael’s Boxing Club. St Michael’s is one of the most successful boxing clubs in Ireland in recent years in terms of Irish national titles secured by club members. The people of Athy can be justifiably proud of the many achievements of St Michael’s Boxing Club to date and especially of the latest success of club member Roy Sheehan.

To achieve so much at such a young age is an indication not only of Roy’s talent, but also of the dedication and commitment which he has invested in that talent over the years. The active sporting life of a boxer is relatively short, but Roy Sheehan has already secured for himself a place in the sporting annals of Athy which will forever be remembered.

By contrast, the other man whom I want to mention has had a long innings on the local political stage and on 1 July celebrated the 40th anniversary of his election to Athy Urban District Council. Frank English was first elected to the local council in 1967 and since then he has successfully contested six further elections. In that first election 40 years ago, those elected with Frank to the urban council were Jim McEvoy, Mick Rowan, Tom Carbery, Jack McKenna, MG Nolan, Paddy Dooley, Joe Deegan and Enda Kinsella. Competition for the nine council seats was quite intense, with 19 candidates putting themselves before the electorate. The unsuccessful candidates included Jim Bolger, Ann Brennan, Michael Cunningham, Patrick Doyle, James Fleming, John Foley, Paddy Lawler, Tom Moore, Frank Whelan and Ted Wynne.

Frank served on the council for nine years before becoming council chairman at the age of 35 years, leading the Nationalist to claim that “he is Athy’s youngest chairman ever”. He succeeded Megan Maguire, Megan having been the first woman to be elected to the position of first citizen of the town since the establishment of municipal government in Athy under Henry VIII’s charter of 1515.

Frank’s long service as a councillor still has some way to go to match that of Thomas Plewman, who in 1911, when he reached 70 years of age, celebrated 45 years as a member of Athy Town Commissioners, the predecessors to Athy Urban District Council and Athy Town Council. Plewman, who was born in 1842 in Kilcoo, was elected to the town commission in 1866, replacing his father who was first elected 24 years earlier. Thomas Plewman continued on as a member of the council for another nine years and the Plewman family association with the council which had extended over 78 continuous years ended in 1920 when Thomas Plewman resigned. By my reckoning, Frank has another 38 years to go before equalling the Plewman record, but maybe one of the young English family members might be prepared to emulate their father’s record of service and stand for election when Frank eventually steps down.

During the coming week, his fellow councillors will mark Frank’s 40 years as a councillor with a function in the council chamber. In January 1993, Frank was the recipient of a presentation by his council colleagues to mark his 27 years on the council and I have before me a copy of a press report of that presentation which appeared in the Carlow Kildare Post. Headed Frank’s 27!, it included a photograph of the then council chairman Kieran Dooley presenting a crystal decanter to Frank, who described himself as “an ordinary honest to God individual whose hobbies are politics and swiming”. Interestingly, Kieran Dooley’s father Paddy was a member of the council when Frank was first elected and indeed Frank owes his involvement in local politics to Paddy Dooley and MG Nolan, who approached him more than 40 years ago to stand as a Fianna F·il candidate in the local elections.

Frank was also involved during the past week in the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Aontas Ogra, the youth organisation which for so long has been associated with its long-time leader, Billy Browne. Some of Ogra’s founder members joined with the large numbers who crowded into the former Dreamland Ballroom last Thursday night to celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary, and among them was Michael O’Neill, who travelled across from the English Midlands. Michael was the founder of Aontas Cara, as it was then called, and Frank English and Pat Flinter recalled the early life of the organisation which has remained a constant in the social calendar for the youngsters of Athy for the last five decades.

The occasion was marked with the publication of a book recording in photographs, many of those who as young people were involved in Aontas Ogra over the years. The celebration was a lovely occasion and Billy Browne who in the past has been honoured by the Lions Club and the Urban District Council for his unstinting contribution to the youth affairs in Athy was given due recognition by those in attendance.

Eddie Wall, whom I last met at our class reunion a few years ago, has written to me from England concerning the recent death of Maureen Dunphy, formerly of the Bleach. Eddie writes: “Just a month ago I attended here in Luton the funeral of Maureen Twitchen, née Dunphy, formerly of the Bleach, Athy. Maureen emigrated to England when she was 17 years of age.

Her sister Margaret and brothers John and Eamon would also leave Athy to settle in England. I went to school in Athy with Eamon and John and I met Maureen for the first time in the 1970s when we both worked with the Chrysler Truck Company in Luton. She married Sean Twitchen from Kildare Town and involved herself in the local community and the Church of St Martin de Porres here in Luton. A keen gardener, she won prizes for the most beautiful garden in her area on several occasions. She was a wonderful person who will be sadly missed by her husband Sean, her son John and grandchild. I will miss her warm hello and big smile and the times we shared together reminiscing about the old town of Athy which we called home”.

I am sure many of the readers will remember the Dunphy family of Bleach and I remember Eamon and John Dunphy, both of whom attended the local Christian Brothers School before emigrating to England almost 50 years ago.

I end this article by congratulating Roy Sheehan, Frank English and Aontas Ogra in a week which has seen celebrations marking achievements of which all of us can be immensely proud.

Great sporting moments from our history

The extraordinary event - TriAthy 2007 has come and gone. Never before has Athy played host to such a huge gathering of sportsmen, over 700 in all, who swam, cycled and ran their way to the finishing line at Barrow Quay. Athy has seen many major sporting events in its time, from All Ireland football and hurling finals played in Geraldine Park to National Ploughing championships run off at Russellstown, but never, I believe, have so many participants been involved in a single event such as took place last weekend. It was a magnificent spectacle, organised on the day with extraordinary precision and fulsome congratulations are due to the organisers who included local man Arthur Lynch. Emily Square in the centre of the town proved its worth yet again, providing as it did welcome space for competitors and bikes alike on a scale which few other towns in Ireland could match. All in all TriAthy was a resounding success and hopefully it will become an annual event in the sporting and social calendar of Athy.

Sporting activity has been a prominent feature of life in Athy for many decades. However, it wasn’t so apparent to a visitor who in 1884 wrote of his time spent in the town of Athy. “There was little sport about Athy.” There may well have been little inducement for sport in those given the social unrest due to Land League activities and chronic unemployment in the area.

We must go back even further than 1884 to find a record of sports in which the locals were actively involved. Cockfighting was one such sport and it retained its popularity amongst the local people right up to the 1920’s. A cockpit was located in Duke Street and hosted regular cock fights up to the middle of the 19th century when the medieval “sport” was made illegal. However, cockfighting still retained a large following in the area up to the 1920’s and beyond.

Another more acceptable form of sport which was popular in Athy over the years was handball. Athy once boasted two handball alleys, one located in Leinster Street, the other in Barrack Lane. The Estate Map of Athy prepared for the Duke of Leinster in 1827 showed both handball courts, the Barrack Lane court lying adjacent to the Military Barracks which had been built in the 1730’s. Clearly the court had been provided primarily for the use of the soldiers, while the Leinster Street court was presumably a commercial venture lying behind one of the local public houses. The Barrack Lane Court survived up to the 1970’s and in fact was replaced by a newly built court provided by the Urban District Council which however remained unused and was demolished after a few years.

Some of the local handballing champions from the past included John Delaney, Tom Aldridge, George Robinson, Jack Delaney, Bill Aldridge, Jim Foley and George Ryan. The last named won a junior All Ireland title in 1946 and so far as I know he was the last All Ireland champion to play out of Athy Handball Club.

Cycling was another sport which caught the publics imagination, even if it did not necessarily involve many locals as active participants. The sport developed in the 1890’s soon after J.P. Dunlop developed the pneumatic tyre. Local cyclists whose names figured prominently in the sport in its early years included C.W. Taylor of Forest Farm, Harry and Bob Large of Rheban, Andy Bergin and his brother J.J. Bergin of Maybrook.

Archery and rowing were two other sports which once figured on the sporting calendar for Athy. I have come across references to archery contests in the Peoples Park in the 1860’s or thereabouts, while around the same time the annual Athy regatta was a prominent local venture. The rowing boats used the same river course taken by the swimmers in the triathlon event last weekend and so popular was the sport that the regatta became and remained a regular event for many years.

Pat Bell in his book on 150 years of cricket in Kildare acknowledged that “Athy can justifiably lay claim to be the oldest cricket club in Kildare. There was a club in the town in 1870 which went by the name of Offaly Cricket Club whose Honorary Secretary was J.F. MacDonald of the Rectory. Two years later Athy Cricket Club was formed but sharing the same secretary”. I have in front of me John Lawrence’s Handbook of Cricket in Ireland for 1872/73, an annual then in its 8th issue which gave a detailed account of the Irish Cricket Club and their activities during the year. For the Athy Cricket Club the following entry appears.

“In 1872 the club played 3 matches, won 1 and lost 2. This club did not play any matches till very late in the season. The first was against the Portarlington, played on the Athy ground, and won by the home club. The return was played on the Portarlington ground, and won by the Portarlington. Both of these matches were played on very wet days. The third match was played against an eleven got up by Sir A.C. Weldon, and played on his domain at Kilmorony, in which the Athy suffered another defeat.”

The other Athy Club, Offaly Cricket Club, is noted merely with an entry as to its Honorary Secretary, H.P. MacDonald, The Rectory, Athy, who was the local Church of Ireland Curate.

In 1895 Athy Cricket Club won the Leinster Intermediate Cup with a team comprised of H.P. Hannon, A.K. Pennycook, H. Eckford, J.A. Duncan, T.J. Whelan, J. O’Neill, W. Keyes, H. O’Neill, A. Hutton and P. O’Neill. Victory in the Intermediate Cup was again secured by Athy Cricket Club in 1896. The sport continued to be played all over South Kildare up to the end of the 1930’s with teams from Ardreigh, Bert, Castlemitchell and Kilkea in addition to the Athy town team. A brief revival of cricket in Athy in the 1980’s saw Athy Cricket Club gain victories in the Midland Plate of 1990 and the Griffin Hawe Cup three years later. Today cricket, like cockfighting, and handball, is no longer an active sport in the Athy area.

To return to the triathlon of last weekend, the high number of participants made me think of the great sporting events which Athy has hosted over the decades. The All Ireland Football Final of 1906 played in Geraldine Park, between Kickhams of Dublin and Fermoy of Cork was obviously an important sporting event as was the Hurling Final of 1908, played in the same venue between Thurles of Tipperary and Kickhams of Dublin on 27th June 1909. It was a great privilege then to host an All Ireland Final as it was last weekend to provide the venue for the most successful triathlon event every held in this country. Here’s hoping TriAthy will become an annual event in the town’s sporting calendar.

Nowadays sporting activities rely on the provision of facilities which were not available decades ago. I can remember togging out at the side of playing fields in Narraghmore, Rheban and Castlemitchell before football matches in the late 1950’s. Inclement weather or otherwise, it made no difference as we struggled to shield our “modesty” which in those innocent days seemed more important than warding off the downpours which always appeared to accompany our visits to outlying rural football pitches. Recently I attended a birthday celebration for a good friend in St. Laurence’s G.A.A. Club and I marvelled at the wonderful facilities now available in the recently opened community complex. It’s a great credit to the people of Narraghmore, Ballitore, Fontstown and the other rural areas which now make up the St. Laurence’s Club. The truly magnificent club house together with several playing fields provide ample evidence of the success of the club which was formed 50 years ago when the G.A.A. clubs of Ballitore and Narraghmore came together. Congratulations to everyone associated with St. Laurence’s G.A.A. Club, not forgetting the good lady whose birthday party prompted my first visit to their new sporting complex.