Tri Athy / Tubberara Well Pilgrimage

‘Athy is a lovely town’.  The praise came from a young Dublin mother whose first visit to the town coincided with the Tri Athy event for 2009.  It was a claim which those of us living here are less inclined to make for many reasons, but perhaps mostly because familiarity naturally breeds contempt, or at least a lack of appreciation for what we see day in day out.  That same lack of appreciation cannot be applied to the Tidy Towns volunteers whom I saw working in Emily Square one of the evenings before the Tri Athy Saturday.  The historic market place was being swept, while the flower beds were being renewed and tidied to ensure that the finest public open space in County Kildare looked its best for Tri Athy competitors and spectators alike. 

The work the Tidy Towns committee members do throughout the year remains largely unnoticed but the running of the largest event ever held in the centre of Athy gave ample reason to remind all of us that these volunteers deserve our thanks and our support.  Their job will be so much easier when the Outer Relief Road, now called the Southern Distributor Route, is in place and all the through traffic is removed from the centre of the town.  This major development, so long awaited, has the potential of re-energising the commercial heart of what was once the greatest market town in the province of Leinster and the sooner it is in place the better for the town of Athy.

Tri Athy has proved to be a great success story, bringing over 2,500 competitors to the town for an event which requires and utilises the unique combination of river, road and a substantial centrally located public open space.  Combined with the organisational genius of Dubliner Brian Crinion and our own Arthur Lynch and others, Tri Athy has grown year on year to become the largest triathlon in Ireland and provides our town with a huge opportunity to gain for itself priceless public recognition.  All involved in Tri Athy are to be congratulated on an exceptionally well organised event.  No more than the Tidy Towns volunteers who worked on the evenings leading up to the event, the Tri organisers did Athy proud on the day.  The opportunity to extend the goodwill factor beyond the Saturday morning and afternoon activities came with Jack L’s concert in the grounds of Whites Castle on Saturday evening.  It proved to be a great occasion, with Jack and his musicians putting on a first rate show for an audience which was not quite as large as one might have expected.  Congratulations to Gabriel Dooley whose initiative brought us a great nights enjoyment which showcased one of Ireland’s finest performers in the person of Athy’s own Jack L.  Athy people certainly had a lot to be proud of over the Tri Athy weekend.

Sunday, 14^th June sees another local event taking place, which unlike Tri Athy has its roots and traditions extending back many centuries.  The Pattern Day associated with St. John’s day once saw people coming from far and wide to the Holy Well of Tubberara where according to an article in the Kildare Archaeological Society Journal of 1891 the pilgrims ‘drank the water, prayed and danced’.  Indeed the dancing and especially the drinking, which apparently was not confined to the well water, prompted the Catholic Church authorities in the early part of the 19^th century to prohibit the celebrations of the Pattern Day at Tubberara. 

Located on the eastern bank of the River Barrow about 1½ miles north of Athy town, Tubberara was the site of a church in ancient times.  The walls of the small church have long since collapsed and the raised ground now covered in clay indicates where those fallen stones now lie.  The well of Tubberara was originally of utilitarian benefit for the locals, who drew water for their daily needs.  In time however the well, as was common enough in rural Ireland, took on the attributes of a holy well.  There are about 3,000 holy wells in Ireland and like Tubberara and its associated Pattern Day most of them ceased to be places of pilgrimage after the Church authorities condemned what in the immediate post famine years were regarded as occasions for faction fights and drunken disorderly behaviour.  However, we are fortunate that the pilgrimage associated with Tubberara Well was documented by some writers before it was lost to public memory. 

In the Statistical Account or Parochial Survey of Ireland published in 1814 the local vicar, Rev. Thomas Kingsbury, reported ‘Tubberara Well, a holy well among the Roman Catholics, is considered by them under the patronage of St. John.  The Patron Day is 24^th June.  People come from far and near to drink the water, pray and dance.  Tubberara is derived from the Irish and probably signifies a holy well.’ 

The curate attached to St. Michael’s Church, Athy, Rev. J. Carroll, writing in the Kildare Archaeological Society Journal in 1891, noted :-  ‘A Church was built here in a most remote time ..... the well flows from the middle of it and sends forth a great flood of water ..... people come hither from far and near in olden times to drink the water and to pray.  St. John was the patron of the place and on his festival, 24^th June, a great concourse of pilgrims were usually present and this custom continued during the early part of the present century.’

The Parish Priest of Athy put an end to the Pattern Day Pilgrimage, apparently because what was once a religious festival degenerated into a social gathering involving drinking, dancing and almost inevitably fisticuffs.  The revival in recent years of the Pattern Day has seen a more sedate form of celebration taking place in the grounds of the ancient Church of Tubberara which is associated with St. John the Baptist, whose name once graced several places in the town of Athy.  St. John’s was the name given to the Trinitarian monastery established in the shadow of Woodstock Castle in the early 13^th century.  The principal street of the medieval village of Athy was called St. John’s Street (now Duke Street), while we retain the name St. John’s Lane for the laneway which once connected the main street of the medieval settlement with the monastery of St. Johns.

Next Sunday, 14^th June, the Pattern Day of St. John, traditionally held on 24^th June, will take place.  St. Vincent’s Hospital will be the gathering place with a 3.00 p.m. start for the walk via Cuan Mhuire to the holy well of Tubberara.  The pilgrimage walk will be taken at a leisurely pace and so no one should be deterred from taking part in what promises to be an enjoyable afternoon.  The tradition of pilgrimage to Tubberara goes back a long way in our local history and its continuance in this, the 21^st century, is a welcome reminder of our shared past and of the pride we should take as a community in the success of Tri Athy and the spirited volunteerism shown by the members of the local Tidy Towns Committee.

In my recent article on the Athy Farmers Club I gave the name of its first president as Juan Greene, when in fact the honour belonged to his father, Johnny Greene.  My thanks to the people who contacted me in relation to that particular article, which apparently brought back memories for so many.

The Carrolls of Van Diemen’s Land Part One

On the 26th of September 1839 Thomas Carroll of Russellstown, Athy and his wife Agnes left London on the ‘Thomas Laurie’, a 300 ton British barque travelling to Australia. On the way out the boat stopped at St. Jago, one of the Cape Vende islands in the Atlantic for four days to take on water, arriving at Circular Head, Van Diemen’s Land on 5th March 1840. The town of Stanley would be officially created two years later out of the Circular Head settlement and it was to Stanley that I travelled recently to find the place where the Carrolls settled and where a future Australian Prime Minister, Joseph Aloysius Lyons, was born.

Thomas and Agnes Carroll had with them on that long trip five children; Jane, 12 years old; Denis, 3 years younger; Patrick born in 1832; Thomas, 5 years old and Bridget who was just 6 months old when the ship berthed down under. Another daughter, Agnes, would later be born on 16th July 1842.

Thomas Carroll was 40 years old when he set out from his home town of Athy. The son of Patrick and Bridget Carroll, his brothers were Denis, who was a year older, Patrick and John. Thomas would seem to have been well educated and is believed to have worked on the construction of Stephenson’s first railway line in England. With the Carrolls on the ‘Thomas Laurie’ and also emigrating to Van Diemen’s Land were Joseph and Ellen Dooling, also of Russellstown.

The Carrolls were Catholics and Thomas, who was described as a shepherd and an agricultural worker, is believed to have been sponsored by the Van Diemen’s Land company, a pastoral organisation established by a group of Londoners in 1828 to farm in Van Diemen’s Land. His wife Agnes who was 35 years of age when she left Ireland was described as a dairy maid.

Two years after the Carrolls arrived Denis Carroll, older brother of Thomas, with his wife Ann and three children, Bridget, Thomas and William emigrated to New South Wales. Unfortunately Ann died during the voyage and Denis and his children subsequently made their way to Van Diemen’s Land to join Thomas and his family in the North West corner of the island.

Agnes Carroll died within five years of arriving in Van Diemen’s Land and her husband Thomas re-married within 17 months of her death. His second wife was Mary Ann Goodwin, the daughter of an English convict who was transported to Van Diemen’s Land in 1809. Mary Ann had been married previously and when she died in 1896 she left 14 children from four different marriages.

Thomas Carroll and his brother prospered in Van Diemen’s Land and eight years after arriving the younger of the Athy born brothers had leased an 80 acre farm in Circular Road and was employing five free and five bonded servants. By 1856 when the name Van Dieman’s Land was officially changed to Tasmania, Denis Carroll had purchased his own farm, while his brother Thomas was listed as a juror. This indicated that Thomas had an estate of £500 or more and in the State Electoral Role for the same year he is shown owning a farm and house at Forest Road.

Meanwhile the other Carroll brothers, Patrick and John, had emigrated westwards to America. John sailed to America on 28th December 1848, leaving behind in Athy his wife Catherine who was 34 years of age and their 3 children Letitia, Mary and Ellen. Less than three months later his brother Patrick set sail for America and is believed to have travelled to New Orleans. The Carroll family never heard of him again. In the meantime John Carroll arrived in St. Louis and he wrote to his wife Catherine on 3rd June 1849. The letter addressed to Catherine Carroll of Forest, Athy was the last communication the family ever received from him. In that letter, composed and written by an obviously well educated man, John Carroll wrote:-

‘Tell the Hickeys of Byrth that Mick was all the winter with his brother Thomas and the day before I got there he went to Illinois to his brother Pat. Thomas is alive and is living in Chile and has a thundering pair of horses and a good cow and heifer and a horse and farm of his own.’

He continued:-

‘Remember me to ..... Eleanor and Mrs. Lynch and John Byrne and family, John Whelan and family and your mother and all her sons in law and daughters in law and grandchildren ..... remember me to all the neighbours and friends and George Doyle in particular and poor Miley need not think I forgot him.’

Kate White in her book on Joseph Lyons, the Australian Prime Minister, wrote that John Carroll ‘after much trouble getting work moved to New York. By the time he finally wrote to his wife Catherine in June 1849 he had a job at Clyde in New York State. He sent home money and assurances that once he prospered he would send for her and the children. His letter ended poignantly:- “Adieu, dear wife, adieu. I have nothing more to relate to you but I still remain your ever loving husband ‘til death.” John was killed on the job several months later.’

Denis Carroll by the mid-1850s was prospering in Tasmania and he sponsored his brother’s widow Catherine and her three daughters to travel to Tasmania. They left Forest, Athy in 1857 and sailed on the ‘Sir W.F. Williams’ arriving in Hobart on 18th August of that year. The young girls who had been attending the newly opened convent school in Athy were Letitia aged 17 years, Mary aged 14 years and Ellen aged 11 years. One unsolved mystery surrounds John Carroll, a half brother of the girls who was regarded as the black sheep of the family. He was born in Athy in 1831 or thereabouts and always claimed that he was born ‘on the wrong side of the blanket.’ He married Elizabeth Holland from neighbouring County Laois and had a son Patrick, all of whom emigrated to Tasmania, sailing on the ship ‘Castlemaine’ which arrived in Tasmania on 23rd April 1867. John who was regarded as a carefree and irresponsible individual died in Stanley on 10th September 1902. It is not clear whether he was Catherine’s son or the son of her husband John from a previous relationship.

Three branches of the Carroll family of Forest, Athy settled in the North West of Tasmania in and around the area chosen by the Van Diemen’s Land company as the first European settlement. The town of Stanley is now the centre of the Circular Head region and nearby is Forrest where Denis and Thomas Carroll farmed. They had arrived in the Southern Hemisphere from Forest, Athy and they would give to that part of Tasmania where they eventually settled the name of their Irish townland. Not far from Stanley are two small villages with names which clearly indicate overseas links. Scotstown and Irishtown undoubtedly indicate the early presence of Scottish and Irish emigrants in that part of North West Tasmania not far from where the Carrolls of Forest or Russellstown, Athy settled on land which was once thought to be only fit to receive convicts. I will continue the story of the Carrolls next week.

Next Saturday Athy will be the venue for Tri Athy, the marathon event first run here in 2007 and which has emerged as the most important sporting event ever held in our town. It surpasses in importance and scale of operation even the two All Ireland finals which were held in Geraldine Park. Tri Athy promises to be an exciting event during which the River Barrow and that wonderful public space in the centre of Athy, Emily Square, will be the centre of activity as hundreds of athletes compete in swimming, cycling and running over courses extending 1500 metres, 40 kilometres and 10 kilometres respectively. Last year the event did not appear to receive the full support of the local people who by and large stayed away from viewing what was a great spectacle. With good weather promised for the weekend, hopefully the spectators will come out in their hundreds and share in the excitement of what is a truly national event.