Kevin Meany, Sr. Xavier, Kitty McLoughlin

I have often found over the years that the summer holidays are almost always a time of sudden unexpected deaths. So many times I have returned from a holiday to find that someone known to me has passed away unexpectedly, and almost always to find the funeral has taken place. This summer has been no different in that regard. Within the last few weeks three local people with whom I have had contact over the years have died and in each case while I was away from Athy.

Kevin Meany of St. Patrick's Avenue I had known since I was a young fellow eagerly perusing the shelves of the local library in search of the latest unread detective novel. In those days my voracious appetite for reading was easily satisfied and a weekly novel coupled with my daily diet of comics was the extent of my young aspirations for literary appreciation. The local library of the 1950's was a small affair compared to the information emporium it is today. It too was based in the Town Hall but in a small room which I must say to my young eyes seemed then more than adequate to meet the town's thirst for knowledge. After all it took me ages to decide what book to borrow from the packed shelves which were to be found at the top of the darkened stairs which led from the street directly opposite Mrs. Meehan's chemist shop. The staircase may not indeed have been dark at all but since the local Freemasons Lodge met in a room at the top of the same stairs you can appreciate how a young fellow fed on stories of the secret and "demonic" activities of the brotherhood might well feel that the stairs too was a dark and sinister place.

But not so the library room. On arrival you were greeted by Kevin Meany, the friendly and knowledgable man who delighted in talking and sharing his love and knowledge of books and bookmen. Maybe it was Kevin's interest in local history which was passed on to me. Certainly I can recall that it was Kevin who first brought to my attention the book, written in 1847 on the 1798 Rebellion by local man Patrick O'Kelly. Kevin's interest in Athy extended far beyond local history and it was he who restarted the Gaelic League in the late 1940's.

When I left Athy and "emigrated" to Naas to work for Kildare County Council I often met Kevin on his frequent visits to St. Mary's, the one time tubercular hospital but by then the headquarters of the Council. He was always an engaging conversationalist and my deep regret is that Kevin was one of many that I had not interviewed before he passed away.

Someone I had talked to was Sr. Xavier Cosgrave who died a few short weeks after I had written about her in Eye on the Past. As one of the "Galway nuns" she had been a frequent caller on my mother, who was also from the West of Ireland, and had expended much energy in attempting to teach my brother Tony how to play the piano. Neither I think benefited from the experience.

I remember the last time we met when St. Xavier, in good spirits, talked to me of her years in Athy. Indeed feeling that she may have unburdened herself of too much personal detail she spent a restless night before phoning me the following morning to urge caution. She need not have worried and was more than happy with the article when it appeared. Sr. Xavier died shortly after one of her former pupils, Kitty McLaughlin had herself passed away. Kitty had been a long time officer of Athy Urban District Council and former member of Athy Social Club and had helped me in many ways in preparing previous articles. She had been in the first ever class taken by St. Xavier in the Convent of Mercy in 1935 and had recalled for me her classmates of that time. Little did she know that she was to die shortly before her teacher, unexpectedly and much missed by her many friends in Athy.

Kevin, Kitty and Sr. Xavier all died in recent weeks when the summer heat was energising the land and reinvigorating spent limbs recovering from the cold and rain of last winter. Their passing saddened me.

May they rest in peace.

Sr. Xavier

She came to Athy in the year of the Eucharistic Congress to take up the Principalship of Churchtown National School. Delia Cosgrave was but 25 years of age but the Galway girl having spent four years in University College Galway was well qualified to replace the previous Principal the formidable Bridget Darby. Delia obtained lodgings in the home of Mrs. Cox at 26 Duke Street where she soon made friends with the daughters of the house Rita, Mossie, Thelma and Millie. The last named was later to marry Newcombe Empey's son and their son is soon to become the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin.

Athy appeared a depressing place to the spirited West of Ireland girl who had spent her early years on a dairy farm in Dangan on the outskirts of Galway city. However her friendship with Maureen Lawless, the first lay teacher in the Convent Secondary School in Athy and Sheila Hickey of Kilberry who was the newly appointed Principal of Barrowhouse National School ensured a happy social scene. Late night dances n the Town Hall were then grand affairs unlike the cheerless, colourless events of today. Musical evenings in Cox's with Mrs. Cox on piano accompanying Mr. Gill, a local Post Office worker and fellow lodger, and Mossie Cox, two vocalists of quality are remembered with nostalgia.

For the good friends, Delia Cosgrave and Sheila Hickey both Principals of local schools, the religious life beckoned and so it was that in 1935 encouraged by their friend Maureen Lawless they both decided to enter the local Convent of Mercy. One last trip awaited them this time to Twickenham for the annual international rugby game. So it was that Delia Cosgrave, Sheila Hickey and their companions Tess Morrin, a local V.E.C. teacher and Paddy Broderick N.T. in Wolfhill travelled by boat to London in February 1935. A last dance in the Irish Club in London before the return trip was followed by what must have been a most unusual sight as Delia Cosgrave distributed her jewellery and money amongst her friends as the train pulled into Athy Station. Awaiting her was Paddy Murphy's hackney car to bring her straight away to the door of the Convent of Mercy. So it was that Delia Cosgrave on the 11th February 1935 started her postulancy which was to end with her final profession as Sr. Xavier six and a half years later.

Having retired as Principal of Churchtown she was replaced by Paddy Dooley, later our local T.D. Pupils remembered from the rural school over 60 years ago include Jim Connors and his sisters Ellen and Mary and Pat Fennin. Also remembered are Lily and Nellie Dillon whose mother was the school caretaker. As a qualified teacher Sr. Xavier was immediately deployed in teaching the sixth class in St. Michael's National School and as her class passed on into St. Mary's Secondary School she also transferred with them. She was to remain as their class teacher until they sat their Leaving Cert. five years later.

Amongst the pupils in her first Convent class were Kitty McLaughlin, Kay and Nan O'Brien, Sheila May and Anna Fennin, Mary O'Brien, Maureen Walsh, Sydney Gannon, Jo Mulhall, Jo Lawler, Vera Cross, Essie Slator, Vera Bellew, Mary Jo Coogan and Brid Bergin. Her friend Sheila Hickey was to enter the Athy Convent in June 1935 taking Sr. Michael as her name in religion. Sr. Xavier was soon to be joined in the Convent by her own sisters Margaret who took the name Sr. Rose and Agnes whom we all know as Sr. Paul. Margaret had been a teacher in Galway V.E.C. before entering the Convent and while in U.C.G. had captained the College Camogie team. Agnes was a Clerk in the General Post Office in Dublin for a number of years before answering the call to the religious life.

St. Mary's School which had been a private Secondary School from 1922 and whose pupils did not sit the State exams became a grant aided secondary school in 1934. In fact it was an all Irish School until 1948 or thereabouts and it was there that the Cosgrave sisters from Galway taught until the 1960's.

Sr. Rose passed away some years ago but Sr. Xavier now in her 89th year retains an absorbing interest in the town where she has lived for the last 64 years. Sr. Paul, also retired, is still very much involved in her art work and especially with Athy Art Group with whom she is travelling to the Burren in Co. Clare on a painting expedition next weekend.

It is sometimes difficult to unravel the paths which led so many young women to join the Sisters of Mercy Convent in Athy in the years before the Second World War. Even more so when those paths started in Counties on the Western seaboard as in the case of the Cosgrave sisters or for the late Sr. Brendan in Co. Kerry. The advertisement placed by the local Parish Priest Fr. McDonnell in the national newspapers in 1932 seeking a Principal for the two teacher school in Churchtown brought Delia Cosgrave to a town about which she knew nothing. She could not then have envisaged that the rest of her life was to be spent in Athy which her late father felt was too far away from her home in Dangan, Galway. Three of the Cosgrave sisters were to come to the "far away" place, seldom heard of in Galway where they devoted their lives to the people of Athy. We are grateful for the work done in Athy by Sr. Xavier, Sr. Rose and Sr. Paul and for what the Sisters of Mercy have achieved in our town since they first arrived in 1852.