White's Castle and the setting up of a Civic Trust

This evening, 24th September at 8.00 p.m. the Annual General Meeting of Athy Historical Society will take place in the Community Arts Centre. It will be followed immediately by a second meeting, open to all, to learn of the setting up of the Athy Civic Trust. The purpose of the Trust is to make advance preparations for the possibility of public ownership of the endangered built heritage of the town. That built heritage includes the White Castle, Woodstock Castle, the medieval church in St. Michael’s Cemetery, the Courthouse and several other important buildings. The White Castle is in private ownership, and we must respect the owner’s rights, while at the same time not losing sight of our ambitions to have this historic building held in public ownership. Woodstock Castle is presently in the ownership of Kildare County Council, but regrettably the Council has displayed little interest in protecting and preserving what is our oldest building dating back to the early medieval times. The County Council Executives have shown a remarkable lack of initiative and foresight over the years in response to the many opportunities presented to acquire the White Castle. It’s interesting to recall that in the 1950s the then owner of the White Castle, Miss Norman, offered to give the Castle to the Town Council in return for a Council house. The offer was the subject of several meetings which were attended by representatives from Bord Failte, but the offer came to nought. Since then, within the past 20 years, the Castle has come on the market on three occasions. Pressed to purchase it, Athy Urban District Council and later Kildare County Council, did nothing to procure the Castle for public ownership. The present owner has good intentions as regards the protection and preservation of the Castle, but the cost involved is maybe far greater than anticipated. My hope is that the Castle may eventually be transferred into public ownership, which is why Athy Historical Society is establishing the Athy Civic Trust so if needs be it can be in a position financially and otherwise to be one of three possible public ownership bodies, i.e. Civic Trust, Kildare County Council or Office of Public Works. Public ownership would allow the Castle to be developed as a town museum, highlighting its links with the Earls of Kildare and the Dukes of Leinster. It would be a great addition to the town’s attraction and with the Shackleton Museum could make Athy a tourist destination. The Civic Trust Memorandum of Association states that the main objectives for which the Trust is to be established are:- 1. To promote public awareness and appreciation of the architectural, cultural and historical heritage of Athy for the benefit of the public. 2. To encourage the conservation and use of the architectural, cultural and historical heritage of Athy. 3. To manage properties of architectural, cultural and historical heritage in Athy. 4. To participate with organisations active in the development of tourism in Athy. Seven persons will sign as subscribers the Articles of Association of the Civic Trust and these are:- Clem Roche, Chairman of Athy Historical Society; Seamus Taaffe, Solicitor and the five municipal councillors for Athy Municipal Council. The Trust will be a company limited by guarantee, limiting the subscribers’ liability in the event of liquidation of the Civic Trust to a payment of €1.00 each. Following the registration of the Civic Trust an application will be made to have it granted charitable status. It is also intended to set up a ‘Go Fund Me’ page in the name of the Athy Civic Trust. The setting up of the Trust will be discussed following the A.G.M. on Tuesday night and any questions in relation to the Trust will be dealt with by Seamus Taaffe, Solicitor as unfortunately due to illness I am not in a position to attend. The Civic Trust meeting is open to the general public. On October 1st John Alcock’s ashes will arrive in St. Michael’s Church for a memorial Mass at 1.00 p.m. His daughter Margaret Pugh will have travelled from the North Island of New Zealand where John had lived for many many years, having left Athy for London in 1949 and responding to a New Zealand government advertisement he took up employment in that country in 1955. His brother George and sister Sheila also emigrated to New Zealand. I met John for the first time a few years ago. He was then 90 years of age and had returned to his home town to recall treasured memories of his young years in the local Christian Brothers School and four years spent in the moulding department of the Asbestos Factory. His parents, George and Mary Alcock, lived in No. 1 Dooley’s Terrace. John had eight brothers and sisters but two of his sisters, Brid and Margaret, died young. His journey to Athy was a pilgrimage of remembrance and John recalled those young men and women he shared life experiences with, but who were no longer alive to meet the visitor from New Zealand. He recalled in particular his uncles, Frank and Thomas Alcock, who joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers during World War I and who died as young men in that War. Two years after that first visit John returned for what was his last visited to his beloved home town. He died some months ago and in accordance with his wishes, his ashes will be returned to his beloved home town to be buried with his parents and one of his brothers. I was saddened by the recent passing of Rainsford Hendy and Martin Mullins, both of whom made substantial contributions to the business and community life in South Kildare. Rainsford and I shared a common interest in the yearly Daffodil Day collection which he organised in Athy. His death at a time when I am availing of the services he and I supported is a reminder of the importance of involvement and supports for volunteerism within our community.

Whites Castle and Inner Relief Road following High Court Decision

The tricolour was raised over White’s Castle last weekend.  The last time a flag flew over the ancient fortress was the day the Royal Irish Constabulary vacated the castle and marched through the main street to take over the military barracks in Barrack Lane.  The flag flown that day was of course the Union Jack and the R.I.C. who had occupied the castle as the local R.I.C. Barracks for the previous fifty years or so were moving to the more comfortable and more commodious facilities afforded by the military barracks.  The military barracks had been built in the early part of the 18^th century to house a cavalry troop and it had lain largely unused following the withdrawal of English troops from the town at the end of the Crimean War.  The decision to move the R.I.C. from the town centre location was not met with favour and letters in the local Press of the time confirmed the townspeople’s opposition to the move.  It was felt that Barrack Lane was too far removed from the town and that the R.I.C. would not be able to provide from their new base sufficient patrols to service the main streets of the town.  The complaints went unanswered and the R.I.C. station remained in the old military barracks until the disbandment of the force in 1922.  I have seen a photograph of the take-over of the R.I.C. Barracks in Athy following the Treaty but interestingly enough the new Garda Siochana were not located there when they arrived in Athy in August 1922.

I had my first view of the interior of White’s Castle about two months ago and in that regard I was one of the many thousands of local persons who had never previously had the opportunity to view the interior of the building, which with the neighbouring bridge, is the iconic representation of our town.  The interest in the building as demonstrated by the many thousands who queued patiently last weekend to pass through the doors of White’s Castle owes much to the heightened interest awakened in recent years in our local history and the sense of pride of place which has resulted.

Plans for the future use of White’s Castle are for discussion between its new owner Gabriel Dooley and the Town Council and I hope, as I am sure all of you do, that our local representatives have the foresight to do whatever is necessary to ensure the future use of White’s Castle as a civic amenity for Athy. 

The saga of the Inner Relief Road continues in the High Court on the 14^th of this month.  You will recall that An Bord Pleanala held a six day public hearing on the issues involved, at which a number of expert witnesses retained by Kildare County Council gave evidence, as did a number of local objectors.  The Planning Board subsequently issued it’s decision and in so doing handed down a decision which for the first time in it’s history went against a County Council road scheme.

The County Manager took an executive decision to seek in the High Court a judicial review of the Board’s decision on the basis that the Board’s procedure in arriving at this decision was somewhat imperfect.  In doing so the County Manager did not seek the approval of the elected members of the Council but acted, as he was quite entitled to do so, by way of a managerial order.

The Council’s case includes a claim that while An Bord Pleanala found the Environmental Impact Statement prepared by Kildare County Council deficient in terms of alternative route proposals, the Board did not request the Council to submit such additional information as might have cured those deficiencies.  In not doing so the Council claims that An Bord Pleanala acted unfairly.  The Council also claims that the Board’s decision flew in the face of reason and common sense and was irrational.  I suppose I could make exactly the same response to the County Council claim that despite the fact that 60% of the traffic in Athy was local traffic, the remaining being “through traffic”, the construction of a bypass “would not solve in any way congestion on the main street”.

The admission that 40% of the traffic is “through traffic”, when for years we were told that the figure was 18% or thereabouts gives me grave reason to question the veracity of any information coming from official sources from within the local authority.  The 40% admission was literally dragged out of the Council at the oral hearing but even now the Council refuses to accept that the removal of the through traffic, including as it would all the lorries which daily pass up and down Duke Street and Leinster Street, would alleviate traffic congestion in the town centre.  The County Council’s claim in that regard are as absurd as it’s outdated and as of now, rejected road plan.

In response to submissions made by Kildare County Council An Bord Pleanala points to the fact that the necessity for the new road in the context of potential alternatives was central to the arguments put forward by both the County Council and the local objectors.  The submissions lodged by the various objectors were sent to Kildare County Council well in advance of the oral hearing and consequently the Council were well aware that the issue of alternative routes was one of the most contentious issues raised, especially by Athy Urban Development Group and also by this writer.

I understand that the Town Council within the past week met to consider the adoption of the Town Development Plan which will operate for the next five years.  Rather strangely, given that large portions of that development plan is based on the implementation of the Inner Relief Road project, the Council by a majority of six votes to three nevertheless decided to proceed with the plan as drafted.  If the High Court, following the hearing next week, rejects the County Council’s judicial review application, then all references to the Inner Relief Road will have to be removed from the Town Development Plan.  This will necessitate a major revision of the plan and further public consultation before its eventual adoption by the same elected representatives who last week rushed to judgment on the present development plan knowing that the High Court case was scheduled for hearing two weeks later.

In the meantime the Outer Relief Road still remains an objective in the Town Development Plan and I am told, although how reliably I cannot say, that Kildare County Council are moving ahead with the design work on that road and that the construction of the Outer Relief Road could commence in two years time.  There is no question but there is an urgent need to deal with Athy’s ongoing traffic problems but the solution to the problem lies not in the Inner Relief Road which would only create more traffic chaos in the town.

There is a common misconception that Kildare County Council is “appealing” An Bord Pleanala’s decision.  This is not so.  The decision of An Bord Pleanala is final insofar as the planning process is concerned.  What Kildare County Council is seeking to do is to have the Planning Board’s decision judicially reviewed by the High Court.  Judicial review is not an appeal from the decision already made but a review of the manner in which the  decision was made.  If the High Court finds in favour of Kildare County Council the Planning Board’s decision will be voided and the matter sent back to An Bord Pleanala to start all over again it’s review of the process in relation to the Athy Inner Relief Road.  Incidentally, Kildare County Council is only the second local authority to ever judicially review a decision of An Bord Pleanala in the thirty years of the Board’s existence.  Kilkenny County Council commenced a similar action in 1991 but later withdrew before the case came on for hearing.  This, however, is the first time a County Council has challenged a ruling by An Bord Pleanala over a road scheme.  The outcome of the High Court hearing will be awaited with much interest, not only in Athy but elsewhere throughout Ireland wherever local communities opposed the sometimes unacceptable decisions of local authorities which have done little to protect and nurture the principles of “local Government”.

Whites Castle

A castle for sale!  For perhaps the first time since it was built almost 600 years ago Whites Castle has come on the property market.  Recognised far and wide, the medieval building with the adjoining bridge is the familiar representation of the 800 year old town of Athy which developed around the earlier built Woodstock Castle.  A private residence for almost 100 years, the Castle when built in 1414 as a bridge tower was a much smaller building than it is today.  It was Lord Furnival, the Viceroy of Ireland, who recognising the importance of the only river crossing on the Barrow giving access to the O’Mores of Laois, arranged for the re-building of the bridge at Athy and the construction of a bridge tower to house a garrison.  The village of Athy comprising French speaking Anglo Normans had already suffered at the hands of the dispossessed Irish and none were more ferocious in their opposition to the foreigners in their midst than the O’Mores of Laois.  It was imperative therefore to keep the O’Mores at bay and hence the strengthening of the bridge and placing of a garrison there to protect those living within the village.  Furnival’s plan had a two fold purpose.  In protecting the inhabitants of Athy he was also providing the first line of defence for those English settlers who were living within the Pale. 

So it was that from an early age Athy was a garrison town, a description which it well merited well into the 20^th century.  By then English garrisons had vacated the Military Barracks in Barrack Lane and indeed had done so soon after the Crimean War.  Nevertheless the town which had been home for centuries to English soldiers would spawn its own military tradition and give more volunteer soldiers to the war effort of 1914-18 than any other town of similar size in Ireland.

By then of course the role of Whites Castle in the life of the town had changed, indeed had gone through several changes over the centuries.  A defensive fortress for the first 250 years of its life, it figured prominently in the military battles which were such a common feature of later medieval Ireland.  Nowhere was that involvement more pronounced than during the Confederate wars of 1641-1653, commonly regarded as the Irish Civil wars.  The protagonists were the Irish and the old English who at different stages made up the Confederates, the Royalists and finally the English Parliamentary Forces to whom we assign the un-military sounding name of the Puritans.  Athy, a little more than a village in modern terms but in 17^th century Ireland a substantial settlement of strategic importance, was seized by one side or the other at different times during the 12 year war.  Owen Roe O’Neill, leading the Confederates, captured Whites Castle and the adjoining Woodstock Castle in 1645 and held them for the next three years.  Towards the end of that period Anthony Preston, son of the former Confederate General, Thomas Preston, who had fallen out with O’Neill, approached Athy from the Carlow direction and attacked Whites Castle.  Unable to shoot his canon higher than the first floor of the castle which was surrounded on all sides by water, he instead turned his attention to the nearby Dominican Friary.  This he captured but O’Neill’s troops subsequently attacked Preston’s men and contemporary accounts tell us that “having gained the upper hand they cut them to pieces in the lawn, the gardens and the cloisters.  Those who escaped drowned in the River Barrow.”

Preston retreated to Carlow and later returned via the west bank of the River Barrow, intent on taking Woodstock Castle as he had already failed on two occasions to take Whites Castle.  In this he also failed and he retired to Carlow, leaving future generations of Athy people to identify as Preston’s Gate the medieval town gate which stood at Offaly Street up to 1860 and under which Preston passed on his retreat.  Whites Castle and the adjoining Woodstock Castle were seized by Royalist troops the following year and in August of 1649 Cromwell landed in Ireland.  As the old saying goes, the rest of history.

When a Military Barracks was built near to Woodstock Castle in 1730, Whites Castle became a town gaol and remained so for over 100 years.  Many were imprisoned there during the 1798 Rebellion and we have Patrick O’Kelly’s account of the six young local men taken from the gaol and marched across the Barrow Bridge to be hanged.  Afterwards their heads were placed on pikes on top of the Barrow Bridge as a warning to other would-be rebels.  We pass and re-pass over that same bridge today, little realising the horrible sight which greeted local people as they passed on their way in 1798.

The gaol was also the place of incarceration for Nicholas Grey and several more who were implicated in Emmet’s Rebellion of 1803.  Whites Castle was for many years regarded as the most primitive prison in Ireland and was the subject of several damning reports from the Inspector of Gaols.  The Castle was extended in 1808 or thereabouts and the new addition doubled the size of the original bridge tower.  If you stand in Edmund Rice Square and look across at the Castle you will see the division almost in the middle of the wall which indicates the extent of that extension.  In time a new prison was built on the Carlow Road and thereafter Whites Castle became the local police station. 

The Royal Irish Constabulary were housed in Whites Castle which was not only a barracks but also home to the policemen and their families for many decades.  Around 1894 the R.I.C. moved out of Whites Castle and were re-located in the vacant military barracks in Barrack Lane.  There was much local controversy about this decision as it was felt that the policemen needed to be based in the centre rather than the outskirts of the town.  However, the police authorities of the time ignored the pleas of the local people and the Town Commissioners in much the same way as the Department of Justice and the Garda Commissioner ignores the perennial request for 24 hour policing in the expanding Athy of today.

The Castle was called Whites Castle because of the colour of the stone used in its building, in contrast to the Black Castle which is believed was to be found in the area of the car park opposite St. Michael’s Parish Church.  It has had a varied and intriguing history, all the time at the centre of life in the medieval village of Athy and in the town which developed over the centuries.

Nothing better symbolises the strength and character of Athy and its people than the ancient castle which has stood like a sentinel guarding the bridge of Athy for almost 600 years.  It is part of our heritage, part of what we are and a familiar point of reference to those who for one reason or another have had to leave their home town of Athy to work and live away from family and home town friends.

One such family, most members of which left Athy many years ago, are the Fox family who lived in No. 3 Meeting Lane.  Several of the Fox brothers played Gaelic football for County Kildare and I am anxious to trace any surviving members of the family.  I understand that Dinny Fox, one of five Fox brothers, is living somewhere in Dublin.  If anyone can help put me in contact with Dinny Fox or any of his siblings I would be most grateful.

White's Castle for Sale

‘For Sale – a town castle with a chequered history but little used in recent years.’  If only the thick walls of that great fortress in the centre of Athy could talk, what tales they might tell of times past.  Whites Castle, or perhaps more correctly, the White Castle, is fast approaching its 600^th anniversary.  Despite its antiquity, it still lies many years, indeed many decades, behind the Dominican Order which in recent years celebrated the 750^th anniversary of its Athy foundation. 

The story of the White Castle is the story of Athy over the centuries.  It is a story littered with battles and sieges and death which once stalked the streets of Athy.  Ever since the castle was erected at the start of the 15^th century deaths by execution or otherwise have been directly or indirectly linked to the iconic building which for centuries has stood guard over the nearby Crom a Boo bridge. 

It figured prominently in the Confederate Wars of the 1640s as it did during the 1798 Rebellion.  Owen Roe O’Neill, famous in Irish history, held the White Castle for a time on behalf of the Confederates, only to relinquish it to the Royalists.  Over 150 years later Thomas Rawson, a member of Athy Borough Council, barricaded the bridge and manned the castle with militia men to safeguard, as he claimed, the Protestant loyalist residents of Athy.

From that same castle six young men from Narraghmore, together with a Trinity College graduate from the Curragh, were marched out in June 1798 to the recently opened canal basin where they were hanged.   They were executed as part of a campaign of terror waged against the local population by government militia during the lead up to the unsuccessful rebellion planned by the former Member of Parliament for Athy, Lord Edward Fitzgerald and other leaders of the United Irishmen. 

The prisoners incarcerated in the White Castle jail were subjected to conditions described in the Inspector General’s Report for 1824 as ‘without exception the worst County Jail I have met with, in point of accommodation having neither yards, pumps, hospital, chapel or proper day rooms’.   The castle had been used as a jail from the 1720s when the military, previously housed there, moved to a newly built military barracks at Woodstock.  After a new town jail was built in 1830 the castle was used as a police barracks.  Perhaps two of the most noteworthy prisoners to have been incarcerated in the White Castle Jail were Thomas Reynolds, the 1798 informer and Nicholas Gray who was appointed by Robert Emmet to lead the men of County Kildare to join Emmet’s Rebellion in Dublin in 1803.  The White Castle ended its most recent life as a private residence, initially occupied by the Norman family and later by the Doyle family.

The sale of the castle unfortunately comes at a time when the State coffers and by association, local authority finances are at a low ebb.  Nevertheless it is a unique opportunity for both Kildare County Council and Athy Town Council to come together to acquire a building which more than any other is an iconic representation of the town and its history.  There are few vistas to equal that of the bridge and the castle in terms of ease of recognition.   Both are a combination displaying strength and durability and as such truly reflect the innate qualities of our townspeople.  After all, Athy from its very foundation as a settler’s village was the subject of continuous attacks.  As the centuries passed and peace descended on the South Kildare settlement the townsmen enlisted in numbers to fight wars on alien soil.  This fighting spirit reached its height during the 1914-18 war when young men, often demoralised while at home, spilt their blood on the soil of lands as far apart as Gallipoli and Flanders.

The White Castle is part of our heritage – its history is the history of our town.  As such it behoves our local authorities at town and county level to use every resource at their disposal to acquire this important building for the people.  As a protected structure it would be very difficult for any private individual to adopt the building for commercial purposes.  The curtilage of the castle is also protected, so any development or use of that space which would not maintain the castle’s integrity is unlikely to be permitted.

I would hope that The Council’s of both Kildare county and Athy will take steps to ensure that the White Castle is taken into public ownership.  It would, I feel, be most suitable for use as a tourist office and a genealogical research centre for the entire county of Kildare.  Indeed it could also house a Local History studies section, as well as providing space for archival records of all types which need to be preserved for historical research.  The White Castle could be a unique centre for historical and genealogical research over a wide range of subjects covering the county of Kildare.  The opportunity to secure this irreplaceable part of our built heritage may never occur again.

Where is the memorial to the People’s Revolution?

Last year, the town council, and in particular its then chairman, Richard Daly, paid a long overdue tribute to the men of this town who died in the First World War. The council commissioned and erected on the facade of the 18th century town hall a plaque commemorating the 219 or so men from Athy and district who never had the opportunity of returning from service overseas to walk again the streets of their home town. They were a part of our history which remained neglected for decades, but an even more serious omission is the complete absence of anything in the town to recall the local men and women who before, during and after the 1798 Rebellion bore the brunt of the oppressive measures taken to quell what was effectively a people’s revolution. The ‘missing’ Memorial is in fact in safe keeping and has been for the last nine years, for it was commissioned and delivered in 1998 in time for its expected erection as part of the Irish nation’s year-long commemoration of the ’98 Rebellion. Regretfully, the Memorial, which was consigned to the town council’s stores, has languished there for so long that I sometimes wonder if it is being held in readiness for the 300th anniversary.

The late Lena Boylan of Celbridge, a wonderful local historian who was always ready and willing to share her extensive knowledge of Irish history, passed on to me some years before she died copies of some letters received by the Duke of Leinster during the Rebellion period. One such letter which I re-read with interest this week was written by Thomas Rawson on 13 June 1799, apparently in response to the duke’s demand that he step down as a burgess of Athy Borough Council. In the opening lines of the letter, Rawson, who up to the previous year lived in Glassealy House but moved to Cardenton after his home was burned by Irish rebels, referred to the duke’s call on him to resign.

There had been many complaints about Rawson’s behaviour during the ’98 Rebellion and the duke’s cousin, Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine House was particularly scathing in his criticism of Rawson, whom he once famously described as ‘a man of the lowest order, the offal of a dung hill’. Fitzgerald had particular reason to dislike Rawson. The cavalry troop of which Fitzgerald was captain was disbanded for alleged dis-loyalty, while Rawson headed up the newly-formed Loyalist Infantry Corps, which was less than gentle in its treatment of locals suspected of having arms or pikes. Rawson was also involved in public floggings, of which William Farrell of Carlow gave the following account.

‘The triangles were set up in the public streets of Athy ... there was no ceremony in choosing victims, the first to hand done well enough ... they were stripped naked, tied to the triangle and their flesh cut without mercy.’

The earlier mentioned Thomas Fitzgerald, writing in December 1802, pinpointed Rawson as the ring leader of the floggings in Athy, claiming that the Glassealy man

‘had every person tortured and stripped as his cannibal will directed. He would seat himself in a chair in the centre of a ring formed around the triangle, the miserable victims kneeling under the triangles until they would be spotted over with the blood of the others.’

It is no wonder then that the Duke of Leinster whose own son, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, was one of the ’98 leaders felt obliged to request Rawson to resign as a member of Athy Borough Council. The grounds for the request seemed to relate to Rawson’s involvement in erecting structures on the bridge of Athy without the permission of the duke, who was landlord of the town. However, the expected resignation did not materialise. Instead, Rawson defended himself with a spirited explanation of his actions which any neutral would find more than reasonable given the circumstances of the time. In doing so, Rawson gave an interesting account of some of the measures taken by the local loyalists in preparing to defend themselves against the Irish rebels. He wrote :

'This history of any and every barrier in the town of Athy is simply this and the truth can be proved by thousands. When Campbell commanded this garrison, he caused barriers of hogs heads, sods and earth to be made on the different approaches and on the centre of the bridge - he was ordered to evacuate the town and it was left for a long time to the sole protection of the yeomanry - weak and threatened as the town then was, a large body of rebels having the next night approached within 100 perches of it, I considered it absolutely necessary to put up temporary gates and a pailing at an expense of upwards of 50 pounds out of my own pocket - the town was protected. In November last, Captain Nicholson and a company of the Cork City Militia were sent here, he saw the sod work going to decay, he applied to General Dundas and by the general’s special directions (the inhabitants at large having subscribed a larger sum) strong walls of lime and stone were added to my gates - two large piers and a strong wall and platform were erected on the centre of the bridge under the direction of Captain Nicholson. In the beginning of May last, General Dundas inspected the Athy Infantry. New-made pikes had been recently found in the back house of a rebel captain of the town, several new schemes of insurrection were discovered for which many have since been convicted by court martial - the large house in the Market Square was occupied by a noted rebel from the County of Carlow and it appearing to the general that the barrier on the bridge could be commanded from the house, he was pleased to approve of the building of a second wall to cover the men ... I had temporary walls ran up, merely doubling the former barrier, and recollecting that for four months last summer we had lain on the flag-way on the bridge in the open air with stones for our pillows - I covered the walls with a temporary skid of boards which are not even nailed on.’

Rawson’s account of the bridge fortifications gave an interesting insight into the measures taken by the loyalists during the rebellion and suggest, as I have previously claimed, that the town of Athy consisted of the English town on the east banks of the Barrow and the Irish town on the opposite side.

The bridge fortifications referred to by Rawson could only provide protection from attack by Irish rebels who lived in and around the Irish town and particularly in the area known to many of the older generation as ‘Beggars End’.

Apart from the floggings on the streets of Athy, 1798 witnessed the public execution in June of seven young local men who had been imprisoned for a while in the lock-up in White’s Castle. Six of these young men were from Narraghmore, the seventh a Curragh man.

Another hitherto forgotten local massacre was referred to by Colonel Campbell, who commanded the 9th Dragoon stationed in the Military Barracks in Athy. In a letter he wrote on 2 June 1798, advising of troop movements against a body of rebels in Cloney Bog, Campbell reported:

‘The troops moved in three columns, the right by the east of the bog, the centre by the Monasterevin Road and the left by Ballintub-bert ... the left column passed the lawn at Bert and meeting with enemy on the way drew it and being closely pursued about 100 of them were killed’.

These accounts of what happened in and around Athy, all contemporary with the events they described, are good and sufficient reason for our present generation to commemorate the men of ’98 with a suitable monument in our town. There must be no further shilly-shallying about the matter. The monument created by Brid ni Rinn should be erected in a prominent position in the centre of Athy without any further delay.

If, as expected, the ’98 Monument is erected in Emily Square in front of the town hall, it will provide a fitting companion for the memorial erected last year to our townsmen who died fighting in France, Flanders, Gallipoli and other distance places during the 1914-18 War.

The Shopkeepers from the Red Hills

History, in all its manifestations, has held me enthralled for as long as I can remember. Many books on the subject have been bought by me over the years, some of which I must confess have not held my interest beyond a few pages. Other books thankfully have taken me on a journey of discovery, rewarding me in equal measure in terms of knowledge and enjoyment. One such book I came across some weeks ago. It was written and published by a Vincent Cleary and it tells the story of the Cleary family of Kildare. Beginning his account of the farming Cleary’s of Red Hills, Kildare whom he claims “emerged in the 1660’s from the cosmic smoke of Cromwell’s rampage”, the author gives an interesting and at times an amusing description of the various branches of the Cleary family. This is one of the better family histories I have come across.

Vincent Cleary, about whom there is no information available, writes with a deft hand, all the time informing us, yet seldom failing to please with his stylish prose. The general practice of parents in naming children after forbearers prompted Cleary to complain

“while family loyalty is admirable, the parsimony with Christian names when litanies were available is infuriating. The clusters of contemporaneous Daniels, Johns and others, all living within the same few square miles makes the task of identifying them as individuals sometimes impossible.”

Describing his own forbearers, the farmer Cleary’s of Knocknagallagh on the slopes of the Red Hills, he has this to say.

“Many aspects of their life were primitive. Drooping moustaches and bristling beards were the fashion. Shaving was rare and painful. Washing only affected the exposed parts of the body”.

The book is full of such wonderfully succinct passages which capture in a moment the images created by the writer’s admirable penmanship.

The Cleary’s, like many other Irish families of the time, suffered the loss of a family member during the first World War. Eugene Cleary died on the Somme in 1916 and Vincent Cleary writes “80 years passed before any member of his family located and visited Eugene’s grave”. His brother Kevin, a shopkeeper in Monasterevin with whom the Cleary family story in this book ends, “always bought a poppy and laid it gently on the counter out of sight of customers. It was done furtively because rabid nationalism was abroad and to display anything but animosity to everything British was to invite trouble”. It was a similar scene played out so many times in Athy by family members remembering loved ones lost in France or Flanders during the 1914-18 War. The Cleary family suffered a double blow with the loss of Eugene’s brother, Alfred, a seaman who went missing in 1923. He was listed on the “Register of Merchant Seamen Missing or Dead” but his fate remains unknown.

The Cleary story ends with Kevin Cleary, shopkeeper, hackney man and undertaker of Monasterevin who died in 1974. Vincent Cleary’s book is a well written account of almost 300 years of a farming family from Red Hills who became shopkeepers, prompting the book title “The Shopkeepers from the Red Hills”. I would urge anyone interested in family history to buy this book and even if your interests do not extend to that genre of local history, get the book anyway for you will enjoy the writing of Vincent Cleary.

During the week I was contacted by a reader who has in his possession a Sampler, worked by a Margaret Barrett at Levetstown in 1844. He is anxious to find out something about the presumably young lady who produced the embroidered piece of material displaying stitching skills in the years before the Great Famine. The richly decorated Sampler has the following quotation.

“O virgin mother ever meek
In our behalf to Jesus speak
That from our hearts all sin effaced
We may through you be mild and chaste”

The colourful work is completed with the following details.

“Margaret Barrett’s Sampler worked at Levetstown school – 27th January 1844.”

The present owner who has had the Sampler for many years made enquiries at our local Levitstown School without any success. It strikes me that Levetstown, spelled with an “e” rather than an “i”, might indicate a location other than the South Kildare townland. If anyone can help to unravel the mystery of Margaret Barrett I would welcome hearing from them.

Another reader passed onto me this week details relating to merchant seaman Stephen Glespen of Duke Street, Athy who was lost at sea on 15th June 1942. He was 26 years of age and the son of John P. and Agnes Glespen of Duke Street. The Glespen family will be remembered by the older generation but I had not previously known of the loss of a family member during World War II. He was remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial near the Tower of London. Can anyone who remembers Stephen Glespen give me some information on the seaman from Athy who lost his life when the SS Thurso sank in June 1942?

It’s a coincidence that recently I received information concerning two Athy men whose fathers were members of the R.I.C. based in Athy. John Patrick Murphy was born in Barrack Street in 1903. His father John was an R.I.C. constable based in the former military barracks in Barrack Lane and his mother was Mary Ryan. John Patrick attended the De La Salle novitiate in Castletown at 16 years of age and remained a De La Salle brother until his death in England in 1990. I first came across him perhaps 10 or more years ago when the late Tim O’Sullivan who had attended the De La Salle School in Waterford spoke of his teacher Brother Murphy of Athy who was responsible for Gaelic games in the school. During the late 1920’s and early 1930’s Brother Murphy bought school teams to Athy to play football with the local G.A.A. team. I wonder if there are any members of Brother Murphy’s family still living in Athy?

Following an article I wrote on White’s Castle last year I received a letter from Cheshire in England telling me that the writer’s grandfather was born in that early 15th century town house. Again the parent was a member of the R.I.C. whose barracks was located in the Castle up to about 1894. James Clandillon had joined the R.I.C. sometime between 1835 and 1840 and served in Roscrea before transferring to Athy where my correspondence grandfather, John George Clandillon, was born in White’s Castle in 1871.

To have been born in a castle which figured so prominently in the Confederate Wars of the 1640’s and the Rebellion of 1798 is a unique claim. The different stories which go to make up family histories are in themselves unique and give us a rare insight into the lives of those who once graced the streets of “our own place”.