General Review of Athy in History

The Cork Historical and Archaeological Society will be paying a visit to Athy on 5th June. This follows on an earlier visit by the Military History Society of Ireland who stopped briefly in Athy on one of its weekend outings.

The Cork Group have expressed an interest in the history of Anglo Norman Athy, the 12th century settlement which has latterly began to reclaim some of its prominence and importance in the historical context.

Living in the town tends to cause us to ignore the many qualities which strangers readily recognise. The juxtaposition of Whites Castle on the Bridge of Athy, with Woodstock Castle on the Western bank of the River Barrow clearly indicate an important settlement in Medieval times. The imposing Town Hall, an early 18th century building providing a backdrop to the central town square is evidence of the commercial development which marked Athy apart as a Market town.

The various stages of the early village and later town development saw it pass through many interesting phases. The early manorial settlement of the 12th and 13th century saw the village develop around the Castle of Woodstock. This was on the West Bank of the River Barrow, and it was there that the first early 13th century Monastery was also located. Founded by the Trinitarians at the area now known as St. John's it was soon succeeded by a Dominican Monastery build on the East Bank of the River in 1253.

Because of the proximity of the wild Irish in Leix and their tendency to attack the village of Athy the town as it developed did so on the East Bank of the River. This made it easier for those in the town to defend themselves and in time a bridge was built with a Castle garrisoned to defend it. Whites Castle still stands today like a lonely sentinel protecting as it has done since 1417 the passage over the Bridge of Athy.

It was the presence of this Castle which allowed the town to develop in the area now known as Emily Square, Leinster Street etc. Of course in those early days the only street names were High Street for the principal street in the town and Market Street where the markets were held. The town or village continued to grow over the years, by and large populated by settlers from the English mainland.

The cosmopolitan nature of the towns population was in time to be reflected in the large number of mainstream religions to be found in Athy. Roman Catholic, United Church of England and Ireland, Methodist, Presbyterian, all had a presence and their Churches are to be found located at the four corners of the town. Marginal religious groups also played a significant role in life in Athy and the Kellyites, Quakers and Plymouth Brethren at one time or another were to be found in Athy.

I have often referred to the rich tapestry of life in Athy in the 18th and 19th centuries, but truly it was then a vibrant community and a leading player in the commercial life of the Irish midlands.

I'm not at all sure that in Athy we have ever appreciated the wealth of history which has bedrocked our towns advancement into the 20th century. Ours is a fine example of a linear type Anglo Norman settlement nearly 800 years old. The architectural remains of our past, represented by Whites Castle and Woodstock Castle are vitally important to our understanding of that past and crucial to our development of Athy Heritage status.

Unfortunately Woodstock Castle remains a forgotten relic of our past, ignored by our Town Council which has done nothing over the years to ensure its preservation and protection from further dereliction. A recent visit to the site indicates that the Castle walls have been breached and further damage is being caused on a weekly basis to this priceless part of historical heritage.

Whites Castle looks to be in urgent need of repair as cracks appear in the outer wall. If either Castle should cease to be a landmark, then we will have failed in our responsibility to preserve what cannons could not dislodge in years gone by. Why not add your voice to those who are calling on our local town Council to act promptly to protect Woodstock Castle and Whites Castle. There are not many towns in Ireland which can boast two castles of such importance and we should take an interest in seeing that those charged with responsibility for civic affairs in Athy extend their interest to the preservation of these two Castles.

Incidentally An Taisce will be holding a meeting in the Community Service Centre, Stanhope Place on Thursday the 4th of May at 8.00 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Michael McFadden

It is an extraordinary coincidence which finds three unrelated families residing in Athy who have links with the travelling shows or fit ups which were once so popular in Ireland. I have previously written of the O'Rourke-Glynns and Peppers Ghost. Today it is the turn of Michael McFadden a member of that great show family, the McFaddens.

Michael's grandparents operated the Belfast Hippodrome over 100 years ago. James McFadden, his grandfather, was a violinist and his grandmother Catherine the business woman who ran the Hippodrome for many years. Artists were brought to Belfast from abroad for the weekly shows produced on the Hippodrome stage and strange to relate one of those acts were John and James Duffy who were later to establish the famous Duffys Circus. The Hippodrome in time was to close and the McFaddens took to the road crossing and re-crossing the 32 counties with the McFadden Variety Roadshow.

Michael's father married Catherine Hayes, daughter of the owner of Hayes Roadshow and both continued to travel with the McFaddens Road Show. With the usual mixture of variety acts followed by a second half film show road shows were popular in every town and village in Ireland. Travelling by caravan pulled by horses in the early years and later by motorised power the road shows generally stayed a week in each area. Michael's Uncle, Jack McFadden, in keeping with the travelling show tradition married another show person and their sons were Jimmy, Henry, Teddy and George McFadden of the famous McFadden Shows of recent times.

Michael's grandmother died in 1938 at a time when his father had temporarily retired from show business to live in Limerick City. Michael attended school in Limerick until 1942 by which time he had learned to play the violin. The McFadden family again took to the variety road show circuit by joining the Hayes Road Show owned by Mr. McFadden's father-in-law. For a year young Michael followed the nomadic life, moving with his family and the travelling show from one venue to another. Every Monday it was a new town and a different school for Michael whose education continued while he was on the road. At the same time he played a violin solo at each nightly performance.

In 1943 the Hayes Road Show set up in Ballylinan, Co. Laois and when the tent stakes were pulled a week later the McFadden's family caravan stayed behind. The time had come to settle down and Athy was the chosen town. There was no previous family link with Athy but a small house was rented in Blackparks on the Kilkenny Road and the caravan was sold off to Jimmy Lannigan in Ballybough.

Michael's father was signed up by Paddy Gibbons of Barrack Street to work in England where workmen were scarce during the World War. After a few years the McFadden family moved to James' Place which was nearer to town and just off the Kilkenny Road. While living in Blackparks the musically talented young Michael availed of the opportunity to play violin with the Hughes brothers of Rosebran. They were noted musicians in the traditional style and they imparted their enthusiasm for music and the playing of music to young Michael McFadden. In time Michael was to master in addition to the violin the guitar, trombone and piano accordion. He joined the Levitstown Ceile Band playing the piano accordion and sharing a platform with Jimmy and Paddy Hughes, Tom Fingleton and Mrs. Culley. It was to be the first of many musical combinations with which Michael was involved.

Later he joined the Sorrento Dance Band when it was reformed by Paudence Murphy in 1951. Paudence was Band Leader with Michael on piano accordion and vocals, Paudence and Andy Murphy on saxophone and Dinny Pender on drums. Michael ever the musical virtuoso went on to play the bass guitar when the emergence of Beatles and their music necessitated a shift in musical presentation.

For eleven years into the 1980's Michael and Eamon Walsh played together under the name The Sapphires. It was the emergence of the sing along sessions in lounge bars, especially Malachy Corcorans in Leinster Street, now Kanes, which gave Michael the opportunity to develop as a solo artist. The piano accordion remains the main stay of the latter part of Michael’s musical career which is still going strong.

The show man's son born outside Listowel Co. Kerry on the 27th of June, 1932 while the McFadden Show was on the road surely has show business in his blood. From the McFaddens of the Hippodrome of Belfast to Michael McFadden of Athy there are but three generations, all show business people entertaining others in the best show business tradition.

May Lalor

As a young fellow I remember the almost jesuistical response of my father to a book written by an American lady in which she portrayed life in rural Ireland and particularly Athy in the 1950's. The writer parodied unnamed individuals who were readily recognisable by the local people. The shock and horror felt by many in the tight knit community of Athy did not stop those wanting to read the book from doing so. My father apparently borrowed the book but I recall that he put it on the top of the kitchen dresser out of reach of prying hands, for what reason I cannot now fathom. It was after all a harmless, yet funny account, of the Irish and their endearing qualities.

All this is by way of introduction to May Lalor, a wonderfully vivacious raconteur whom I had the pleasure of meeting some weeks ago. Mother of Councillor Reggie Lalor her late husband was the owner of what old timers still refer to as Reid Lalor's Bar and Grocery in Leinster Street. Michael Lalor whom she married in 1932 had purchased the premises from his sister whose late husband was Christy Reid, hence the name Reid Lalor.

When the Lalors operated the business the grocery occupied what is now the lounge bar of Ryans while the pub was next door adjoining Garter Lane and Mulhalls premises. Jack Hearns of Geraldine worked in the bar while Miss Norman of Whites Castle took charge of the grocery shop. Jack originally worked with Michael Lalor's brother who had betting offices in Naas and Athy. The local office was in Garter Lane at the rear of Michael Lalor's pub. When it closed down Jack went to work as a barman for Michael Lalor and eventually retired from the same job at the end of his working life. Miss Norman, whom I always remembered as a very old lady, worked in the grocery shop and lived in nearby Whites Castle. Her mother and her brother Jim, a bookmakers clerk in O'Meara's Betting Office in Emily Square lived with her in the Castle but by the 1950’s she lived there alone.

Mrs. Lalor recalled the names of the shopkeepers who were her neighbours for many years. Proles Menshop was next door in a premises which was previously owned by Cootes. The Cootes, a Scottish couple with no family ran the shop in the early 1930's when it was a menswear shop which also stocked cigarettes and tobacco. Miss Norman worked in Cootes for a while. Murphy's Commercial House was next door to Proles with Michael Anthony Auctioneer next to Mrs. Carolan's corner shop. Corcorans Auctioneers previously carried on business in the premises later occupied by Michael Anthony.

Across the road in what is now the former Irish Permanent Building Society Building was the L. & N. Stores which was previously McLoughlin's public house. Next door and around the corner in Emily Square was O'Meara's public house and beyond it Georgie O'Meara's Betting Office. Past the arch in what is now Hickeys was the butcher shop of Pip Murphy who lived next door with his sisters Gypsy, Nan and Zilla. Another of the Murphy sisters had married a Mr. Stirling who had a pub in Barrow Quay at the turn of the century.

May Lalor remembers the dances in the Town Hall during the 1920's which she describes as "the best dances in the County, people came from everywhere to Athy". The Nurses Dance, the Golf Club Dance and the Rugby Club Dance, all annual events, were all-night affairs, ending with the dawn.

I'll end with the description written by the American lady not so many years ago of the "double shop, pub to the left, grocery to the right" easily recognisable as Lalors of the 1950's.
"Inside was the hushed atmosphere that prevails in all the shops, a charge attentiveness which occurs because shopping is the breath of life, the only social activity of many of the country people. The smallest transaction has dignity and formality, the slightest word is weighted".

Times have changed. The dignity and formality of another age is almost unrecognisable in the hurly burly of modern life but the memories of those gentle days are still treasured by May Lalor.

The Lost Village - John MacKenna's book

Ten years ago John MacKenna published his second book "The Lost Village". A portrait of life in Castledermot in 1925 it was successfully launched in the local Church Hall to an audience enthraled at the prospect of a local son's venture into the literary world.

In the intervening years John MacKenna's literary star has soared. Now a highly acclaimed writer and winner of the Irish Times Fiction Award, his early venture into social history has now been reprinted by New Island Books. Available to a wider readership than was possible with the first limited edition "The Lost Village" offers an unsentimental peep into the lives of village people 70 years ago.

I am not using the words "peep" in any uncomplimentary sense but merely to convey the almost fleeting looks which the writer allows us to take at incidents and people of the day. Each short piece allows us to taste without quite swallowing. We are never permitted to become too enwraped in any one element of the story before we are whisked almost briskly, if not abruptly, into the next. This is not by way of criticism for I feel that John MacKenna's sure literary touch is evidenced even in this early work.

Football, the District Court, the Garda Siochana and Local Elections figure prominently in the narrative which brings us through a twelve month cycle in the life of Castledermot. I smiled at the many references to the County Kildare footballers, knowing the author's almost fanatical feel for the game at County level. How sorely his patience must have been tried in Clones last week as he watched, as he always does, the Lily Whites always cajoling, ever supporting, always unembarrassingly rich in his use of language designed to scold even if not to permanently mark.

"The Lost Village" is a fun book, one to dip into a will and to be transported back into a world which if not always innocent certainly seemed to lack the deception and deceit of latter day Ireland. Although one must acknowledge that even in those days collecting money from Unemployment Insurance while working was not unknown as evidenced by MacKenna's account of one Castledermot Court case. Strangely as I read that Court case I was puzzled as to whether the author was taking a little licence as I suspect he was when recounting the shooting incident at Ardreigh. However, I must acknowledge that after consulting an appropriate reference book I can only confess that his account was not only possible but more than likely accurate. I still however hold fast to my suspicion that the Ardreigh shooting incident is a colourful piece of fiction.

Whether the book is in part social history or a mix of history and fiction it nevertheless works recreating an interesting landscape for the reader to survey. The account of events in the local Court on the third Wednesday in October raised a chuckle. As MacKenna recounts it "George Jackson, the owner of a garage in Carlow, was being summoned by Guard Halloran in a technical case. Jackson had allowed a load of Mex petrol to be delivered in one of his lorries to Cope's without the lorry being licensed under the Trade Act to carry such a consignment.

"Jasus, they've little to be doin' with their time", a man at the back of the Court whispered to the woman beside him. She nodded."

It reminded me of a case I read about in another newspaper recently where a young fellow was successfully prosecuted and fined for snorting at a member of the Garda Siochana. I would love to have a sneak preview of how the social historians of 70 years hence will relate this "terrible crime".

John MacKenna's book published at £4.95 by New Island Books is now available in the bookshops and deserves your readership. If nothing else it gives you an opportunity of reading what was happening in South Kildare in 1925 before "other families came, new shops opened" and before the community of 1925 became "part of a Lost Village".

It is a lovely book, go out and buy it.

Jack Murphy

He must surely be one of the front runners for the unique claim of oldest man in Athy. I realise that is a dangerous suggestion to make particularly given the proximity of St. Vincent's Hospital but I do believe the honour belongs to Jack Murphy. Recently I had the privilege of meeting and talking with Jack, now well ensconced in his 10th decade and still happily married after 62 years. His wife Margaret, originally from Crookstown, has been a particularly kind friend of the local Museum Society and some years ago donated to the Museum original documents relating to her late father Andrew Delaney who died in the First World War.

Jack and Margaret married in 1933, a year after the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. At that time Jack worked for Duthie Larges in Leinster Street where he had started as a bicycle mechanic in or about 1919. He worked alongside Paddy Mullery for eight and a half years before moving to Jackson Brothers when they started their garage and bicycle business in Leinster Street. He lost a finger as a result of an accident at work and to add insult to injury it also cost him his job. A move back to Duthie Larges saw him working alongside Joe Brophy, Dinny Bergin, Jim Eaton and Jim Kenny who is retired and living in McDonnell Drive.

In the 1920's and onwards the firm of Duthie Larges was an important employer in South Kildare at a time when the only alternative industrial employment was in the brick yards or Minch Nortons. Their busy workshops turned out machinery and farm equipment while the supply and repair of bicycles was an activity as busy even if not as lucrative as the modern day sale and repair of motor cars. A moulding department, carpentry shop, garage and bicycle shop were some of the main departments to be found in Duthie Larges in those days. Skills abounded with bicycle mechanics, garage mechanics, blacksmiths and pattern moulders working side by side in the huge Duthie Large complex.

It is difficult to imagine nowadays but petrol pumps were once sited on the footpaths of the main streets of the town in Duke Street and in Leinster Street. Duthie Larges and Jacksons had petrol pumps in Leinster Street as had Tommy Stynes while Maxwell had petrol pumps in Duke Street, opposite the old Garda Barracks. No need in those leisurely days for pedestrian crossings!

Jack remembers attending the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin with his good friend Paddy Kelly and he proudly wears a souvenir badge of that Eucharist. Coincidentally he lives in Convent View where the houses have on their facades a crest reminiscent, if not an actual replica, of the 1932 Congress medal. Sitting in the living room of his house in Convent View he recalls with remarkable clarity his young days when he lived with his parents in a small house, one of three at the end of the present Plewman's Terrace.

Jack's parents moved from the Kilkenny Road, or Blackparks as it was called, to Mount Hawkins then a wonderland of small laneways and alleys with names now forgotten - New Row, Kelly's Lane, Carrs Court and Porters Row.

Jack's grandfather Pat Dempsey lived in Chapel Hill and was gardener to the Sisters of Mercy. He still vividly remembers the day his Grandfather died in the Convent garden while in the company of his then 8 year old grandson. 84 years later the sadness and pain of that day still grips Jack as he recalls how he watched his grandfather die.

He moved to Chapel Hill into his late grandfather's house with his parents and brothers Paddy and Andy around 1912. Paddy and Andy were later to become hackney men having gained experience with a namesake but no relation Dick Murphy who had a hackney business at William Street. Paddy was to set up his own hackney business at Offaly Street along side Dowlings pub, later Kehoes and now McHughs before emigrating to England.

Jack never left Athy spending a lifetime in Duthie Larges from where he retired in 1979. By the time Jack left his workbench neither a Large nor a Duthie were involved in the business, even though the name has remained a familiar one in the commercial life of Athy.

Jack Kelly

Jack Kelly would have been 77 years old next month, 7 years past the allotted three score and ten if the grim reaper had not called him home last week. He was one of the few surviving members of the now defunct Churchtown Pipe Band. Churchtown and Castlemitchell were areas noted for music at the turn of the century as indeed were many rural areas in Ireland in the days before the advent of radio and television. Every town had its marching band and Athy boasted two in the Barrack Street Fife and Drum Band and the Leinster Street Band. The Churchtown Pipe Band started some time in the 1920's.

Some of the original members of the Band included the three Byrne brothers, John, Christy and Jerry and the brothers Paddy and Johnny Wright who were born in the shadow of Curraclone Church. Ned Hyland of Portlaoise cycled over to Churchtown for band practices where he joined his colleagues Johnny Luttrell from Athy, George Moore from Rheban, Paddy Moloney, Joe Fennelly and Willie Hutchinson. Willie, now over 90 years of age and living in Kilberry is the last surviving member of the original Churchtown band. With the death of Jack Kelly the only member of the Churchtown Pipe Band of later days still with us is Jim Connor who lives in England.

The Band room was conveniently located opposite The Bleeding Horse, once a favoured hostelry for those travelling on the Athy/Portlaoise Road. With the emergence of Athy's L.D.F. Band in the 1940's the Churchtown Pipe Band went into decline. It fell to Jerry Byrne of Kilcrow and Johnny Wright to keep the tradition of pipe playing alive in the Churchtown area. Jerry was an expert at tuning the pipes and skilled in the art of teaching others to play that most difficult of traditional instruments. Johnny Wright took charge of band bookings and entered the band in the various competitions in which it proved so successful over the years.

Jack Kelly, who in his young days learned to play the accordion was taught to play the fiddle by Jerry Byrne and later mastered the tin whistle before joining the Churchtown Pipe Band where he learned to play the bagpipes. He was to continue with the Band until its eventual demise in the 1950's. Music was an important part of his leisure activities and his musical talents were passed on to his son Jimmy and his grandson Sean who at 13 years of age recently won the County Kildare Scor final for fiddle playing.

Jack was justifiably proud of Sean's success, displaying the same sense of pride with which he recounted stories of his native place and of his time in the now defunct I.V.I. Foundry. He spent 31 years there as a metal moulder and proudly showed me the watch which he received after 25 years service. The work ethic was firmly entrenched in the character of men such as Jack Kelly who was born in the last year of the Great War. When he left school he worked in P.P. Doyle's brick yard and even 50 years later he could still recall with ease the skills and practices of the long lost brick making tradition. Sourers, middlers, wheelers, upstitchers, moulders and off-bearers are no longer part of the industrial language of the day but to Jack Kelly they represented brickyard men with whom he shared work experiences so many years ago.

Jack played with no less than four local bands, all of which are now long gone. Kilberry Fife and Drum Band and Kilberry Pipe Band were two in which he featured in his young days. He also joined for a very short period the Barrack Street Fife and Drum Band before becoming a member of the Churchtown Pipe Band. He recounts a story how as a young 17 or 18 year old playing with the Barrack Street Band and marching into Athy behind the Churchtown Pipe Band he threw his fife and beret into Flinters Field and left the Parade, recognising that his allegiance was with the Churchtown Band which he was later to join.

Jack was proud of his family, his work, his music and of his own place all of which helped him make a good journey through life.

Great Famine

This year marks the 150th Anniversary of the first year of the Irish Famine which is acknowledged was the greatest social catastrophe in Irish history.

The blight which affected the potato crop of 1845 was not widespread. The area around Athy where there was a less dependency on the potato than in other areas appears to have escaped the worst excesses of that first year of what later became known as The Great Famine.

The Workhouse which had opened in Athy in January of the previous year did not show any marked increase in inmate numbers in the first year of the Famine. As the Workhouse was the only place where people in need could receive assistance it is clear that the destitution in Athy and district as a result of the partial potato failure of 1845 was perhaps no worse than in other years.

Not so the affects of the potato blight on the crops in the following year. Early reports from the Athy area confirmed that the disease had appeared in crops in all parts of the Poor Law Union, an area which included Monasterevin, Kildangan, Ballytore, Athy and parts of County Laois. The loss of the crop in 1846 had a devastating affect on the people throughout the island of Ireland, especially those living in the west of Ireland. Even in Athy and South Kildare families unable to feed themselves overcame their reluctance to enter the Workhouse. Daily the numbers coming to the Workhouse door increased so that by December 1846 there were more than 700 inmates.

On entering the Workhouse the men were separated from the women, the women separated from their children. Their clothes were taken from them and they were given rough Workhouse uniforms before being segregated into separate dormitories for men, women and children. At mealtimes they took up their rations which they ate in silence. During the day the men were put to work breaking stones or picking oakum.

Many died from fever and malnutrition. In the week ended 9th January 1847, 17 poor inmates of Athy Workhouse died. Two weeks later 19 more people were recorded as having died in the space of one week. At the end of the famine period 1,205 men, women and children had died in Athy Workhouse and the adjoining Fever Hospital. As in life their deaths were not marked by any ceremony. Their emaciated bodies were hurriedly brought by handcart across the Stradbally road and over the Canal bridge to be buried without the benefit of clergy in graves which would remain unmarked.

Two auxiliary Workhouses were opened in the town at Barrack Street and in a Canal store at Nelson Street in 1847 to cater for the large number of people crowding into the Workhouse. A Soup Kitchen operated by a local Relief Committee was opened in Athy on the 6th of June 1847. On one day 3,088 people from Athy and the surrounding countryside got rations at the food kitchen. It closed on the 15th of August when the Board of Guardians who operated the Workhouse were allowed for the first time to give help to the starving people in their own homes. In the Athy Workhouse area an average of 3,410 persons received assistance each day from the Board of Guardians. Oral tradition relates that some hungry people survived by eating Praiseach which grew in abundance in fields where the Ashville houses are now located.

The failure of the 1848 potato crop led to further hardship such that at one stage almost 1,300 people were living in the local Workhouses. We don't know how many local people died during the Famine. We only know of the 1,205 who died in the Workhouse and the Fever Hospital in the town. How many more died in their own homes or on the side of the road we cannot now say.

The Great Famine had a devastating effect on our country. It shattered the confidence of the Irish people and accelerated the flow of families from our island. The horror of that period is beyond imagination but in this the 150th Anniversary year we have an opportunity of remembering those who suffered and died during the Great Famine while understanding and helping those who today similarly suffer in Rowanda and other famine areas of the world. For how can we ever again ignore scenes such as those recorded by Canon O'Rourke, Parish Priest of Maynooth who in his history of the Famine described people wandering through the Irish countryside in search of food, people dying of hunger in their cabins and people refused admission to the Workhouses who lay down on the road outside to die of hunger and fever.

We must never forget these people and as the inheritors of a legacy of famine we should never turn our back on the victims of hunger.

Books on the Great Famine

In this the 150th Anniversary of the first year of the Great Famine understandably there is great interest in that sad event which represented the greatest social catastrophe in Irish history. Many new publications relating to the Famine are currently on the bookshelves and many more are expected during the year. I am prompted to write this item this week because of the many requests I have received, especially from school-children involved in school projects for information on the Great Famine.

For a detailed account of the period it would be difficult to overlook Cecil Woodham Smith’s book “The Great Hunger”, first published in 1962 and now reprinted in paperback form. An early book published by Brown & Nolan in 1956 was “The Great Famine” edited by Dudley Edwards and Desmond Williams, both of UCD. It consisted of a series of chapters written on various topics relating to the Famine by academics in the Irish Universities. An even earlier publication was Canon O’Rourke’s “The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847”, first published in 1875 and reprinted several times thereafter. Canon O’Rourke was parish priest of Maynooth and his pioneering work was a valuable social document prepared as it had been with the assistance and co-operation of people who had lived through the Famine.

Books recently produced include John O’Connor’s paperback publication entitled “The Workhouses of Ireland” which is of relevance to an understanding of that most feared of pauper institutions. Another new paperback is “The Great Irish Famine”, published to coincide with the Radio Eireann Thomas Davis series of lectures on the same topic. Christine Kinealy has written a scholarly work published last year by Gill and MacMillan under the title “This Great Calamity - The Irish Famine 1845-52”. It takes a more analytical look at the Great Famine than the other books mentioned and as such might not be regarded as one for the general reader. Two other books still in the bookshops which would certainly appeal to the average reader are “Famine Diary” by Gerald Keegan and “A Farewell to Famine” by Jim Rees.

Keegan’s book is in fact a fictionalised diary account of a journey endured by Irish refugees aboard a coffin ship as they journey to the new World. Jim Rees’ book deals with the people from Wicklow and Wexford who, led by Fr. Thomas Hore, travelled across the Atlantic to set up homes in America. It is an interesting insight into the experiences of famine emigration. The last book I will mention, again in paperback, is “The Famine in Ireland” by Mary E. Daly, published by the Dublin Historical Association in 1986 and still available in the bookshops. This gives a useful concise outline of the famine period.

A number of other publications on the famine are planned for publication throughout the year including what I believe is a book of essays on the famine in County Kildare. This I believe will come out in June or July.

There is no doubt as to the importance of what we commonly refer to as the Great Famine in Irish History. It shattered the confidence of the Irish people and accelerated the flow of Irish people from our islands. The devastation it left in its wake is beyond imagination but in this the 150th anniversary year we have an opportunity of learning more of the hardships endured by those who lived or died in those dreadful times.

Last week two men who had shared their experiences with me and of whom I have written previously passed away. Paddy Kehoe who played a significant role in the early development of Macra na Feirme and who was a close friend of Stephen Cullinan, died at an advanced age. Billy Cunningham who left Athy in 1954 and settled in Manchester and whom I met in “The White Sheaf” on Oldham Road this time last year died after a long illness. One of the great pleasures on writing a weekly article on the past is the opportunity it affords me of meeting and listening to men and women whose experiences of life in Athy are always interesting, always enlightening and never without a touch of humour. As a corollary to this there are also the sad moments such as last weekend when two men who had shared their experiences and thoughts with me died. May they rest in peace.

Booklet on Quakerism in Ballitore

Kildare Heritage Project set up some time ago to computerise all genealogical records relating to Co. Kildare has produced an interesting booklet on the Quakers of Ballytore. The work of a number of young people on a FÀS Employment Scheme, the booklet brings the reader through a brief review of the sites and the historical figures associated with Quakerism in the South Kildare village. Starting with a note on the history and development of Quakerism in Ireland we are told that the Quakers were the first large religious organisation to allow women to preach. Whether in furtherance of gender equality or not I do not know but the members were also not prepared to remove their hats in female company. The wonderful eccentricity of what is here described as their “plain dull clothes” marked them as a people apart. Mary Leadbetter’s long poem entitled “A view of Ballytore taken from Mount Bleak,” written in 1801 is reproduced by mercifully only its first 23 lines. Mary, better known as a prose writer and biographer of village life in Ballytore during and after the 1798 Rebellion is perhaps one of Ballytore’s principal claims to fame. There is no doubt at all about the place of Ballytore School in Irish history. The school where such diverse characters as Edmund Burke, Henry Grattan, Napper Tandy and the future Cardinal Paul Cullen were educated was founded by Mary Leadbetter’s grandfather, Abraham Shackleton, in 1726. It closed down in 1836 but the importance of that small provincial school lived on not only in folk memory but in the writings of statesmen who had shared their early school days with the Masters of Ballytore.

The meeting house which still stands remains today a place of meeting for members of the Society of Friends who come from far and near on the first and third Sundays of each month. Many of the buildings identified with the Quaker settlement are still to be found in the village of Ballytore. One can sense the history of the place as you pass from the Mill at Griese Bank and the adjoining house, home of Abraham Shackleton, the last Shackleton headmaster of Ballytore along the road to the Meeting House. Across the fields can be seen Fuller’s Court and Ballytore House, built by descendants of John Barcroft and Abel Strettle, the original settlers of Ballytore. The home of William and Mary Leadbetter in the Square is now the site of building activity as yet another FÀS sponsored scheme helps to revive another important element of the heritage of the Quaker village. All these buildings get mention in the heritage project booklet but surprisingly the last resting place of the local Quaker families is apparently overlooked. Their graveyard, once surrounded by what was described by Mary Leadbetter as “rising hills encompassed round, fair hills which rear the golden brow and smile upon the vale below”, is now sharing the view with a newly erected bungalow. The family names of those buried are a roll call of the Quaker movement in Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries. Shackleton, Chandlee, Webb, Haughton and Leadbetter are but some of the names discernible on the tombstones in this eerie place of grace where the bones of those who gave life to Ballytore now repose. Those involved in the production of this small booklet are to be congratulated on their efforts. The re-awakening of our forgotten past is always welcome, no more so than in this year of remembrance for the Great Famine from which time the Quakers of England and Ireland are owed a debt which can never be repaid by the people of Ireland.

Athy Workhouse after the Great Famine

The number of inmates in Athy Workhouse fell dramatically after the ending of the Great Famine. At the height of the Famine almost 1,400 men, women and children were housed in the Poor House. The fall in numbers was largely due to the introduction of a system of outdoor relief which allowed poor families to obtain Indian meal without becoming inmates of the local Workhouse. Another reason was the high level of emigration from the South Kildare area in the years following the Famine. In 1855 there were 516 inmates in the Workhouse and six years later the numbers had dropped to 296. Thereafter there were seasonal fluctuations in the inmate population of Athy Workhouse with the highest number usually registered in January and February of each year when employment was unavailable and the weather was at its worst. In February 1862 the inmates totalled 392, an increase of almost 100 since the previous December. Poverty in the town of Athy was a cause of concern. On the 10th of January, 1863 it was reported that the mortality rate in Athy from various causes had been unusually high - six persons having died on Old Christmas Day. The extensive use by the poor and the labouring classes of a cheap American bacon was considered to be the cause of these deaths. That same month the Board of Guardians, as part of its outdoor relief scheme, employed an extra thirty local men to dig the Workhouse lands for one shilling per day each.

In the first quarter of 1863 there were 107 cases of fever reported in Athy. The Fever Hospital had been built in 1836 at a cost of £300 with monies collected by the local townspeople for a Mr. Keating of Market Square whose shop premises had been destroyed by fire. A respected and obviously well-liked individual, Keating donated the money for the building of a Fever Hospital in Athy. Officially designated a District Fever Hospital under the Fever (Ireland) Act 1847, the Athy Hospital remained independent of the Board of Guardians until 1854. In that year it was put on the Union which meant that the Poor Law Union of Athy was in part, at least, responsible for its running costs. The Board of Guardians fulfilled their obligations in this regard by agreeing to pay the sum of one shilling per day for each Workhouse patient maintained in the Fever Hospital.

Early in 1846 the Board of Guardians were required to equip Hospitals and Dispensaries for the sick poor. A voluntary dispensary committee had been operating in Athy since 1818 and it now became a sub-committee of the Board of Guardians. A small Infirmary was provided within the Workhouse to meet the responsibility of the Board of Guardians with regard to medical services for the poor. It was to this Infirmary that the Sisters of Mercy came as nursing sisters in October 1873.

The Sisters of Mercy from the local Convent apparently began to visit patients in the Infirmary on Sundays and over time they built up a relationship and an understanding with the patients. This encouraged the Board of Guardians to approach the Sisters of Mercy to take over the running of the Infirmary. The nuns agreed to do so and by March 1880, they were looking after the needs of 89 patients in the Workhouse Infirmary. In November 1885 John McLoughlin, a member of the Board of Guardians, referred to the time
"when the Board was a hostile camp composed of rabid Tories with a strong mixture of brutal Whigs... we may feel justifiably proud of what has been done. Look to the Chapel, look to the officers of the House and compare them to the officers of twenty-five years ago when we had not a Catholic officer at all and see how we have sanctified the place with the holy women introduced into the House instead of drunken nurses as in olden days".
His comments met with the approval of his fellow Guardians.

In June 1886 the Workhouse advertised for a Midwife to be employed in the Infirmary at five shillings per case attended. While the Sisters of Mercy continued to work in the Infirmary during daylight hours, there were no qualified Nurses employed to look after the patients at night time. This was the era of pauper nursing when female inmates were locked into the Hospital Wards with the patients at night and were required, as best they could, to look after them. This situation did not change until August 1897 when the Board of Guardians agreed to appoint a trained Night Nurse at a time when there were up to 80 patients in the Infirmary.

Athy Workhouse and the Great Famine

This year marks the 150th Anniversary of the onset of the Great Famine which ravaged our country over a four year period. As school children all of us learned of the hardships and casualties suffered by the Irish people as a result of the failure of the potato crop and what we understood was the inadequate response of the Government of the day.

The history books made no reference to the effects of the famine in Co. Kildare and this might lead us to believe that the famine was centred in the West and South of Ireland only. This was not so as evidenced from the limited contemporary records which are still available to us. The Workhouse in Athy which opened on the 9th of January, 1844 was built to accommodate 360 adults and 240 children. By the 7th of October, 1845 the inmates totalled 390 men, women and children and within two months as the potato famine worsened that number had increased to 615. It was always believed that Athy was spared the worst excesses of the famine but a local constabulary report of 18th of September, 1846 noted that "the inhabitants of Athy have pawned everything and cannot bear it much longer."

On the 26th of December, 1846 the number of Workhouse inmates in Athy totalled 732 of which 65 persons were in the Infirmary and 482 were children under 15 years of age. The Workhouse returns for the four months to the 1st of May, 1847 show that 174 inmates had died in the Workhouse in that period. Local tradition relates that "priseach" which grew in the fields in the present Ashville area provided a source of nourishment for the hungry townspeople during the famine. The Irish Relief Association provided a boiler for a soup kitchen operated in the town by the Local Church of Ireland Curate Rev. Thomas Jameson. Indian meal was imported from America through Cork Harbour and food depots were established throughout the country in areas accessible by Canal. Athy was the location of one such depot which was opened on 1 June, 1847.

Meal was supplied to individuals in 2lb. bags consisting of a mix of one quarter oatmeal and three quarters Indian meal. The local relief committee was not allowed to give out meal free of charge unless the Workhouse was full in keeping with the provisions of the Poor Relief Act. This Act dictated that relief was available only for inmates of the Workhouses.

Despite the availability of the Soup Kitchen in Athy and the reluctance of local men and women to enter the Workhouse the number of Workhouse inmates showed a substantial increase in the final year of the famine period. In the first week of 1849 the number of registered inmates was 1,399 and during that week 13 poor people died in the Workhouse.

The overcrowding in the Poorhouse which was built to accommodate 600 persons was alleviated by the opening of two auxiliary workhouses in Athy. One was located in Barrack Street occupying a row of five terraced houses immediately adjoining the former residence of the local Catholic Curate. A store belonging to the Grand Canal Company was used as the second auxiliary Workhouse.

A substantial number of the Workhouse children under fifteen years of age were orphans or abandoned by parents who could no longer feed them. As they were an unwelcome expense on the rate payers of South Kildare the Board of Guardians which who controlled the Athy Workhouse welcomed the Orphan Emigration Scheme launched in March 1848. This Scheme provided for the free transportation to Australia of girls between the ages of 14 and 18 years who were inmates of Irish Workhouses.

We have an account of 20 young girls who were sent out from the Athy Workhouse to Australia in February 1849 as part of the Orphan Emigration Scheme. A meeting was held in Narraghmore School prior to the girls being transported to Australia where it was explained by a member of the Athy Board of Guardians that a number of families from the Narraghmore area were inmates in Athy Workhouse for the previous two or three years. The terms of the Orphan Emigration Scheme were outlined as a result of which it was agreed to finance the operation of the scheme in relation to the Narraghmore inmates.

History is silent as to what happened to those local girls when they arrived in Australia nearly 150 years ago.

Jack McKenna

He was born on the 27th of January, 1908. A railway man’s child he was to spend his entire working life on the Irish railways. Now long retired and living in Castledermot Jack MacKenna looks back on a life full of incidents and memories that flood the mind’s eye.

His father Tom MacKenna who was a foreman on the Great Southern and Western Railway, was stationed at Ballybrophy when Jack was born. Within months the family moved to Carlow but tragedy struck when Jack’s mother died when he was about eight months old. Tom MacKenna and his four young children moved to Athy where Tom was to remain for the rest of his long life. With the extension of the railway to the Wolfhill collieries in 1918 a railway man’s cottage was built at the Carlow road crossing gates and it was here that the MacKenna family lived for many years.

While attending the Christian Brothers School in Athy Jack joined Fianna Eireann, the youth group within the Irish Republican Movement. Other members at that time included Peter Toomey of Meeting Lane, Andy and Mick Lawler of Leinster Street, George and Larry Heffernan and Denis Candy. Tom Maher of Stanhope Street was the drill master and the young boys used a field in the area of the present St. Joseph’s Terrace for drilling. Paddy Gibbons of Barrack Street was in overall charge.

During the War of Independence Jack succeeded in spiriting away the gun of a Black and Tan who was pushed through the window of Jacksons shop in Leinster Street. This gun was later handed over to the local volunteers resulting in the award of an IRA medal in later years to Jack MacKenna, surely one of the youngest such recipients.

Jack recalls the part played by the Lambe brothers of William Street and the O’Rourke brothers of Canal Side in the War of Independence. He regards Frank Lambe as an outstanding Local leader. Frank and his brother Peter were later to emigrate to America. Leo Davis and John Hayden were two other men who played a prominent part in the War of Independence and both were imprisoned in Mountjoy for their involvement.

When he was seventeen years of age Jack entered the services of the Great Southern and Western Railway and worked in Carlow, Roscrea and Thurles before returning to Athy Railway Station in or about 1935. By then his brother Tom had joined the Gardai while his sister Kathleen had married Cavan man Andy Smith who had come to Athy to work in Mrs. O’Meara’s pub in Leinster Street. Andy, a great GAA stalwart, was to acquire his own premises located opposite the Leinster Arms Hotel where he carried on a successful business for many years.

Jack married Tuam born school teacher Una Bray and moved to Castledermot where she taught in the local national school. By now he was foreman at Athy railway station as was his father Tom before him. As local secretary of the Railway Union it was inevitable that Jack would become involved with the Labour Party then under the leadership of County Kildare Dail Deputy Bill Norton. Jack stood for election as a Labour candidate to Kildare County Council and Athy Urban District Council and served many years as both a County Councillor and an Urban Councillor. Difficulties with local Labour party activists resulted in Jack standing as an independent candidate in subsequent elections. In all he served three terms as a County Councillor.

As a foreman on the railway Jack worked with many interesting characters over the years but few matched in his esteem the legendary Joe Murphy, a railway signal man who lived in Offaly Street. Joe, a staunch GAA man and Fianna Fail supporter, was one of the great characters of the 40’s and 50’s in Athy whose presence enlivened many gatherings.

Jack recalls with a chuckle an occasion when a young Albert Reynolds, newly promoted as District Superintendent Clerk in Longford, arrived at Athy station one Monday morning shortly before 6 o’clock. None of the local railway staff had yet arrived. Joe Murphy who arrived late did not take too kindly to the young official’s rebuke and responded with a stinging reply before walking to the signal man’s box without a care in the world. The fact that Joe was a personal friend of Frank Lemass, then General Manager of C.I.E., no doubt afforded him protection from over zealous railway officials.

Jack’s wife died soon after he retired from the railway and he subsequently married Debbie McEvoy. His eldest son Jarleth is a Doctor in America, his daughter Dolores School Principal in Dublin while his son John is the well known writer and dramatist whose latest book of short stories will be published in April. Jack MacKenna retains a lively interest in Irish history and brings to his remembrance of days past an uncanny recall of names and events of which are unknown to the present generation.

Medieval Grave Slabs in St. Michaels Athy

In 1986 the Athy Museum Society in conjunction with FAS carried out a survey of Old St. Michael's Cemetery. In the course of the work two medieval grave slabs were unearthed. There are few such slabs in Ireland and the discovery in St. Michael's Cemetery was important in terms of the medieval architecture of the town. Their very existence indicates that medieval Athy was a settlement of importance as it is accepted that elaborate commemoration in monumental form was afforded only to people of power and wealth.

The first slab is the upper portion of a trapezoidal shaped slab with bevelled edges fashioned from limestone, decorated with a centrally placed doubly incised fleur-de-lis cross. There is a lozenge centrally placed within the fleur-de-lis. The slab has no inscription.

The second slab is the lower portion of a trapezoidal grave slab with a pointed terminal again fashioned from limestone. It was carved in relief and decorated with a central ridge terminating in a single fleur-de-lis. The edges are raised and concavely chamfered. This slab is also without inscription.

The ruined Church of St. Michael is situated within the graveyard. It consists of a plain rectangular building of uncoursed mixed rubble construction. Internally there is no evidence of the division of the Church into nave and chancel. Much of the structure has been badly damaged with only a few of the original features surviving. The parallel sided medieval doorway lacking its arch which is in the south wall of the Church is not believed to be part of the original St. Michaels.

The earliest reference to the Church dates from 1297 when records disclose that "Thomas Grennam robbed the Church of St. Michael of six pecks of oats". A further reference to the Church in 1311 relates that John Poukoc and Alice Heyne were charged with entering St. Michaels and stealing goods including silver, textiles and foodstuffs from various chests. They were later acquitted of the offences. The Church was described as being in good repair in 1615 and 1630 but by 1657 the Kildare Inquisition found the Church to be "out of repair". Subscriptions for repairing the Church were collected in 1677 and it is assumed that St. Michaels continued to be used until a new Church was built in the town centre in the early 18th century.

The St. Michael's grave slabs have a common trapezoidal form and a similar motif but significantly one slab is incised while the other slab is decorated in relief. The de Keteller grave slab in St. Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, is similar in form and decoration to the incised slab in St.Michael's which suggests it may be of late 13th century origin. There are similarities between the second grave slab and the so called Crusader Tomb in St. Nicholas' Church in Galway which might indicate an early 14th century date for this Athy burial monument.

It is assumed that the original location of the grave slabs was within the medieval Church at St. Michael's as burial within a Church was a privilege reserved to the rich and powerful members of society down to the 17th century. The likelihood is that the slabs which do not have an inscription were intended to commemorate leading members of the local community and even perhaps members of the St. Michael family who were the original occupiers of the Castles at Rheban and Woodstock.

Another possibility is that the grave slabs commemorated some of those who fell in the 1315 Battle of Ardscull. Tradition relates that Raymond Le Gros and Sir William Prendergast on the English side and the Scots Sir Fergus Andressan and Sir Walter Murray were buried in St. Michaels.

Are they the grave slabs of unknown warriors or medieval Lords of Athy? We shall never know.

Sorrento Dance Band

As a young fellow living in Offaly Street in the 1950's I can recall the great sense of pride felt on hearing a Radio Eireann broadcast which featured a musical contribution from the local Sorrento Dance Band.

The band was started in 1946 by Paudence Murphy whose parents lived across the road from our house. His father Paddy, a hackney driver, and his mother Mary had nine children of which the eldest was Paudence. At one time or another most of the other members of the family featured in the band. The band's first engagement was in the local cinema in Offaly Street where the proprietors prompted by a recently imposed entertainment tax introduced live music as a means of avoiding the tax. Paudence Murphy on saxophone, John Murphy on drums and Jim Dargan on guitar played every night for six weeks of that first engagement using the opportunity to perfect their musical skills. The cinema was generally empty until minutes before the start of the evenings film thereby affording Paudence and his band members the ideal conditions for practising their music. One regular who always arrived early was Paddy Behan of St. Joseph's Terrace who sat throughout the band's limited repertoire always waiting for his favourite "Roses from the South" to be played.

Bookings for Sunday night dances from 8.00p.m to 12.00 midnight in the local Town Hall soon followed. The Sorrento augmented its personnel with the addition of Paddy Keenan on accordion, Gabriel O'Brien on saxophone and Joe Hayden on banjo. Practice makes perfect they say and the long sessions in the local cinema and the Town Hall bookings soon paid off with the band getting its first major break playing in the Gym of the Curragh on St. Patrick's Night 1947 before 1,500 patrons. In 1949 the band went temporarily out of business. In the meantime Paudence played with a number of Dublin bands before returning to Athy to join Joe O'Neill's famous Stardust band.

In 1950 the Sorrento was reformed with Andy Murphy, a cousin of the leader on tenor sax and clarinet, his namesake Andy Murphy a brother of Paudence on drums, Michael McFadden on accordion and vocals and doubling up as M.C. Over the years the band's personnel grew. Brendan Murphy, a trumpet player, joined his brothers Paudence and Andy. By now Andy was also playing trumpet while Michael McFadden had added the trombone to his repertoire. Dinny Pender played the drums. At other times another cousin John Murphy played alto sax with his brother Stephen Murphy on piano and Tim Farrell on tenor sax and vocals. In the mid 1950's the Sorrento went for the big band sound with two trombonists and two trumpeters.

Female vocalists who joined the all male band at various times included Paudence's sister Ena as well as Mary Fleming, Pattie Carey and Mary Dargan. The 1950's was the heyday of the show dances, the Firemans Ball and the carnival marquee dances, all of which featured the Sorrento Dance Band at one time or another.

In the late 1950's Casey Dempsey joined the Band and he invariably brought the house down with his impressions of Maggie Barry. Eamon Walsh joined the Band in 1962 and other members during the 1960’s included Mrs. McCormack of Portlaoise on piano, Tom Quinlivan from Kildare on piano, Teddy Fleming on trumpet, Brendan Doran on drums and yet again Paddy Keenan, this time on drums.

Possibly the highlight of the band members’ career was the 1961 opening of Dreamland Ballroom when they played relief to the legendry Victor Sylvester and his orchestra. I remember that night when with about 3,500 others I crammed into the new hall paying my admission money to the future Taoiseach Albert Reynolds. The Sorrento Band played the first two hours or so and then the stage revolved bringing into view the finest dance orchestra in these islands to replace our local heros the Sorrento Dance Band. This so far as I can recall was the first and only time the revolving stage was used in Dreamland Ballroom. The band played for another year finishing in 1962. Paudence Murphy regrouped the band in 1963 with George Robinson on accordion, George’s uncle, also George Robinson, on drums and at various times Tony Cardiff, Joe Newman and John Haskins on guitar. The band was active until 1968 when Paudence retired from the dance hall scene and emigrated to England. He was the eldest of the Murphy family, all the members of which had emigrated to England before himself.

Paudence is now retired and living in London. The Sorrento Dance Band was part of the great musical tradition of the town which gave us over the years many street bands and some excellent musical combinations

Stephen O'Brien

Athy is noted for its extraordinary large number of public houses. At one time most of the local publicans were grocers and spirit merchants. They combined the dual roles with the front portion of their shops meeting the housewives grocery needs while in the back portion almost always dark and secluded, pints and spirits were served to the menfolk. "Monsie" Purcells and Clancys were two of the most recent grocery and spirit merchants to give up the uneven struggle of combining two so diametrically opposed businesses in a world where specialisation is the norm.

To Frank O'Brien goes the distinction of being the last of the old style grocer and spirit merchants in Athy. As you enter through the outer door you come upon a scene similar to that which greeted past generations of Athy people. The names on the boxes lining the shelves may be different but you feel almost imperceptibly the homeliness of an almost lost heritage which has been retained here, albeit perhaps temporarily, for the present generation to savour. The small grocery counter has witnessed many transactions in its time but the one constant is the O'Brien who serves you from behind that same counter.

The O'Brien name was first put over the door in 1874 when Frank's grandfather Stephen O'Brien, a Kilkenny man, bought the business from James Leahy. Leahy was a member of Athy Town Commissioners who was elected an M.P. for County Kildare in 1880. His nomination for that election did not initially find favour with Charles Stewart Parnell who confided in his right hand man Andrew J. Kettle that Leahy was "too fat and would fall asleep in the House of Commons". Parnell's misgivings were somehow allayed and Leahy went on to win the nomination and the subsequent election and to represent Athy and South Kildare for many years.

Stephen O'Brien was a Home Ruler who quickly became involved in local affairs and it is no surprise to find that he was a member of the Election Committee appointed to support Leahy's candidature in the 1880 Parliamentary Elections. He was also a member of the welcoming Committee which greeted Charles Stewart Parnell when he attended a meeting at Athy on the 27th of March, 1880, only two days after his arrival home from an American tour.

Like a number of other Home Rulers and Land League supporters in the town Stephen O'Brien was to find himself out of favour with the authorities when with a number of other local publicans he was prosecuted for refusing to serve in his pub R.I.C. men and others who supported the Government cause. This form of boycotting was an important plank of the Land League Campaign as it gathered momentum in South Kildare in the 1880's under the leadership of local Land League Secretary John Cantwell.

In 1894 Stephen O'Brien was noted as a member of Athy C.Y.M.S. while in 1898 he was appointed by the Commissioners of National Education as one of five members of the local school attendance committee. The other members were M.J. Minch, M.P.; Stephen Telford, Town Commissioner; Thomas Whelan, Town Commissioner and John A. Duncan J.P. In 1907 he was appointed Vice-President of the local football and hurling club. The G.A.A. Club was incidentally a sub-section of Athy C.Y.M.S., a clear indication of the power and influence of the Catholic Young Mens Society at that time. In the same year he was carrying on a mineral water manufacturing business in Emily Square. This business lasted up to the end of the First World War and his grandson, the present licensee Frank O'Brien, is the proud possessor of a vintage bottle of O'Brien's mineral water. Stephen O'Brien's active involvement in the local community also saw him appointed to a Committee set up in the town in 1914 to deal with cases of distress arising as a consequence of World War I. Stephen died in 1919 at the age of 76 years.

Frank O'Brien today carries on the business purchased by his Grandfather in 1874. The three storey, three bay building which houses the bar and grocery has an excellent Ionic shop front with heavy engaged columns. It is a landmark in the centre of our town, well known to visitors and townspeople alike, where the O'Brien family have lived and worked for 121 years.

History Repeating Itself - Athy's Circuit Court

History has a habit of repeating itself. This is a truism which is easily accepted when one considers the old saying “study the past for we are heirs to the wisdom of the past”. That we do not always benefit from the events of the past is clearly shown by the headlong rush by Government into World War II twenty-one years after the end of the “war to end all wars”. Up to 1858, Athy, once the principal town of Co. Kildare, shared the Summer Assizes with Naas, then emerging as an urban settlement rival to its south Kildare neighbour. In that year however a decision was taken by the Chancellor’s Office to transfer all sittings of the Summer Assizes to Naas to the total exclusion of Athy.

The consternation felt by the Athy residents and business folk found a ready target in the person of the Duke of Leinster whom it was felt had not done enough to ensure Athy’s continuation as an Assize town. The efforts of the locals however were in vain and no further change was made in the revamped court system. Within a few years Athy was to suffer another body blow when the relatively new town jail opened on the Carlow Road in 1830 was closed and all its inmates transferred to Naas jail. This form of mid-19th century centralisation had a dramatic effect on the respective county towns of Naas and Athy. Thereafter Naas was to be the favourite location for all new county agencies formed during the remainder of the century. Kildare Co. Council, founded in 1898, was to locate its administrative headquarters in Naas while the county hospital was also to be found there. No doubt there were logical geographical reasons why so much authority was centred in Naas. But whether it should have been done to the exclusion of other urban areas in the county is questionable.

What is even more questionable is the current proposal of the Circuit Court Review Group to discontinue sittings of the Circuit Court in Athy. This is where history may be repeating itself, replicating the decision of 1859 relating to the Summer Assizes. The Circuit Court, which is the court of First Instance for serious crime and substantial compensation claims sits in Athy on four occasions each year. This conforms to the old Circuit practice of the last century when barristers went out on circuit around the country to deal with cases in various provincial towns.

Of course the District Court, which deals with minor crime and smaller compensation claims, will continue to be held in Athy Courthouse every two weeks but what guarantee can we have that even this facility will be allowed to remain in Athy given that the offices of the District Court Clerk serving Athy District Court were moved to Carlow some years ago. Older readers will recall when Fintan Brennan was the resident District Court Clerk with offices on the top floor of the courthouse building. I remember him for the good reason that I spent a lot of time staying out of his sight after I had etched my name on the granite plinths of the courthouse door in 1955. The name and the accompanying date are in view every time I step into the court to remind me of a summer’s day 40 years ago when it was obviously too wet to set out on an orchard robbing expedition. But to return to the proposal to transfer the Circuit Court from Athy to Naas one wonders for whose benefit such a move is suggested. Obviously litigants and witnesses from the south of the county will be considerably inconvenienced if they have to travel to Naas for court sittings. I can find no discernible benefit likely to flow from the implementation of the proposal.

Its a matter of civic pride that Athy retains its status as a Circuit Court venue. After all the courts are part of the fabric of any large provincial town and to remove this important strand could start an unravelling process, the end result of which would be diminution of services available to the people of Athy.

Dr. Don Rodrique de Vere

The 1930's in Athy as elsewhere were hard times. "There was not a shilling about" is one common claim. The weekly markets in the town were a hive of activity to where the local farmers brought their produce to sell in an attempt to off-set the worst effects of the economic war.

The Tuesday market was as always the more colourful of the weekly markets with clothing and haberdashery stalls offering a wide variety of goods. Amongst the Tuesday market stalls in 1935 there appeared a man who by his colour and appearance marked him out as a foreigner. He was believed to be of Indian extraction and the temporary stall which he set up that first morning displayed a bewildering array of bottles, potions and medicines. The stranger who described himself as a herb specialist was known as “Doctor” Don Rodrique de Vere. His appearance excited curiosity as did his loud proclamations as to the efficacy of his specially prepared potions designed to cure the most stubborn of ills.

The response which the new market trader encountered in Athy encouraged him to prolong his stay and he set up home in a disused shed at the rear of Garter Lane. He continued to sell his potions and herbs earning the approval of the local people for whom home remedies handed down from generation to generation were more highly regarded than a visit to a local Doctor for conventional medicine.

A Doctor he was not but nevertheless the well-spoken articulate Indian was always referred to as Dr. Don Rodrique de Vere. His background was unknown but it is believed that he was a former medical student who, for whatever reason, had given up his medical studies.

His success in Athy prompted a search for a permanent address and he secured the tenancy of No. 22 Blackparks, the last house in a row of single storey terraced houses on the Kilkenny Road which have since been demolished. By now a well known character in the town the Black Doctor as he was commonly called was the subject of a ballad composed by local Balladeer Moses Rowe of Churchtown, part of which read:-

"He searched all round for a house in the town
and then he secured one quite near,
Where he took his place with the men of his race,
Dr. Don Rodrique de Vere."

Erecting a sign over the door of his small house proclaiming to all and sundry that he was a "Herb Specialist" the Black Doctor soon built up a substantial clientele. His fame spread beyond the immediate area of Athy and soon he purchased a motor bike with a side car which he ingeniously covered in to give the appearance of a bubble-like car. An impressive dresser he always wore a Panama hat and gaiters which with an off-white suit and a double watch chain to match his gold tooth marked him as a man apart.

His success with potions and lotions almost inevitably brought him into contact with those unfortunate women who for one reason or another wanted a concoction to induce a miscarriage. This was at a time before Public Health Schemes were in place. Poor people, especially those unable to pay for medical treatment, were left to their own devices and in the absence of any health education or information concerning birth control it was almost inevitable that the services of a herb specialist such as the Black Doctor would be called upon.

This was to be his downfall. In time he was arrested and charged with assisting in procuring an abortion and on his subsequent conviction he was sentenced to imprisonment. After his release from jail he returned to his small house in Blackpark but by then the women folk had turned against the Black Doctor. He was shunned by the local people and confining himself indoors he did not venture out even to replenish his bucket of drinking water from the nearby pump. Instead he availed of the rain barrel in his yard and in time he contacted lead poison, requiring his admission to Naas Hospital where he died in or about 1945. I have been unable to trace his last resting place.

Dr. Don Rodrique de Vere is often mentioned by the older people of the town as a colourful character who is remembered with fondness and whose eventual fall from grace is overlooked in the backward glance at times past.

Zolton Zinn Collis and Belsen

On the 15th of April, 1945 British Troops entered Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany. Emaciated corpses lay everywhere. The living lay with the dead. Up to 60,000 men, women and children had been crowded into the Camp which had been built to accommodate 9,000.

The doctors from the British Army together with Army and Red Cross nurses set to work. It took them four and a half weeks to clear the Concentration Camp and to create a vast Hospital holding 17,000 patients out of a nearby German Army Compound. Amongst them was an Irish born doctor, Robert Collis, a childrens physician who had responsibility for the 500 or more children in the Camp. Despite his best efforts more than 100 of these children died soon after liberation. The majority of the children who were affected with typhus or tuberculosis were in time reunited with their relatives. However a small number of children remained unclaimed and amongst them was a brother and sister Edith and Zolton Zinn, aged seven years and five years respectively.

The Zinn family had lived in the foothills of Tatra Mountain in former Czechoslovakia not far from the village of Gerlachov. Arrested by the Germans they and hundreds more were transported by cattle trucks to Belsen. In the ensuing confusion Adolf Zinn was separated from his wife and children and was never seen again. The youngest Zinn child, a babe in arms, died on the train journey to Belsen. Despite the atrocious conditions in Belsen Concentration Camp Mrs. Zinn and her children survived for a while only for the mother to die in the arms of her seven year old daughter Edith as the British soldiers entered the Camp. The tragedy of her death was all the more acute given that help was then at hand. When she died her name died with her never again to be known to her children to whom she was simply called Mother. Within a short while her eldest son Aladar also died leaving Edith and Zolton alone in the world.

Dr. Robert Collis wrote of his experiences in the Belsen Camp in his book "Straight On - Journey to Belsen and the Road Home" in which he related this description of the young bedridden Zolton Zinn
"he lay moaning to himself in a corner. He was but five years old. His side made him cry nearly all the time and his big brown lovely eyes were full of pain. He never spoke. It nearly broke our hearts to look at him."

When his work in Belsen was finished Dr. Collis decided to bring to Ireland seven of the young children who remained in the Camp without family or friends. Edith and Zolton Zinn were among those seven who on arrival in Ireland were nicknamed "the Belsen children".

Zolton Zinn was seven years of age when he arrived in Ireland in 1947 having spent some time recuperating in Malmo, Sweden. Suffering from T.B. he was initially hospitalised in Fairy Hill Hospital, Howth, Dublin before joining his sister Edith in the home of Dr. Robert Collis at Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin. Irish adoption laws did not permit Dr. Collis, a Protestant, to adopt Slovakian children but in all other respects Edith and Zolton were part of the Collis family and adopted the Collis name.

Zolton Zinn Collis as he is known today has lived in Athy for the past fifteen years having first come to the area to work as a Chef in Kilkea Castle. As a survivor of the Holocaust. Zolton who until recently did not speak of his experiences has now had his personal recollections included in a recent book by Mary Rose Doorly entitled "Hidden Memories". The horror and sadness of his story is tempered by his quite extraordinary attitude which does not curry sympathy or seek undue publicity. The Nazi savagery which destroyed his family had understandably left him haunted by the images of the past. Images such as that of his distraught mother resisting a German solder's attempt to wrest the tiny corpse of her dead baby from her arms during a short stop-over on the train journey to Belsen are typical of the flashbacks which come to his mind after the elapse of almost fifty years.

"I can never forget" he says as he ponders aloud the words of an Israeli Prime Minister who declared "Only the dead can forgive, we have no right to forgive on their behalf". For Zolton the question raises issues which he cannot as yet answer.

The tolerance and forgiveness with which he was imbued during his school days in Newtown, the Quaker boarding school in Waterford, have stood him in good stead as he wrestles with the memories of his past. For Newtown he reserves the highest accolade as having brought the greatest influence to bear on his life.

"We should all learn from the past but not live in the past - we should forgive but not forget" are the words of the man who takes pride in the fact that he is a survivor. He is left with his memories of a time which should never again be repeated and of a family and a country which can never again be his. His losses are more than one man should bear but Zolton Zinn Collis is a survivor who has fashioned for himself a life made bearable by an attitude of forgiveness and tolerance. "After all", he says "I owe it to those who did not survive".

Jane Austen and Athy

Jane Austen, born at the Rectory in Steventon, Hampshire in 1775 never visited Athy on the River Barrow but her name is linked with the town through her youthful association with one Thomas Lefroy.

Lefroy with his younger brother, Ben, were boarders in a school operated by a Mr. Ashe in Athy in 1791. Thomas was to enter Trinity College the following year from where he graduated with a B.A. degree in 1795. That same year he spent the summer months in Hampshire, England and became friendly with Jane Austen, daughter of Rev. George Austen. It was during that time that Jane began work on the major novel later published as “Pride and Prejudice” but which she completed in 1797 under the title “First Impressions”.

Thomas Lefroy paid court to Jane Austen but the strength of their romantic attachment did not survive the difficulties likely to be encountered by a marriage between the wealthy Lefroy heir and the Rector’s daughter with no fortune. Lefroy returned to Ireland where he was called to the Bar in Easter term 1797 but did not commence practice as a lawyer until 1800. In the meantime he managed to improve his financial situation by marrying Jane, only daughter and heiress of Jeffrey Paul of Silver Spring, Co. Wexford in 1791 at Abergavenny, Wales.

“Pride and Prejudice” which was eventually published in 1831 was Jane Austen’s outstanding literary success. It is a story of foolish and disagreeable people seen through the eyes of Elizabeth Bennett who is in fact Jane herself. The character Fitzwilliam Darcy is reputably modelled on that of Thomas Lefroy with whom she fell in love during the summer of 1795. While the characters in the book do eventually marry, Jane Austen herself remained unmarried and she died in Winchester in 1817 at the early age of 42 years.

Lefroy meanwhile had embarked on a very lucrative practise at the Irish Bar, receiving the year before Jane Austen’s death the Silk Gown of King’s Counsel and two years later attained the office of King’s Sergeant. Refusing many offers of judicial appointment he was elected an M.P. for Trinity College in 1830.

In 1837 Lefroy commenced the building of a mansion at Carriglas, Co. Longford which still remains in the Lefroy family. In 1842 he accepted a judicial appointment and the most famous trial in which he was subsequently involved was that of John Mitchell, the Young Irelander held in Green Street Courthouse, Dublin in May 1848. Mitchell was sentenced to 14 years transportation.

In 1852 Thomas Lefroy, former pupil of Ashe’s school in Athy, was appointed Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. Already 76 years of age at the time of his appointment he continued to sit on the bench until he was 90 years old. In 1856 an attempt was made in the House of Commons to retire Lefroy and other elderly Judges whom it was alleged were “incompetent through age and infirmity from discharging their duties”.

Many more years were to elapse before Lefroy left the bench. He survived another attempt to have his appointment terminated when it was pointed out in the House of Commons that he had not missed a single court sitting in 25 years except in 1847 when he was struck down by low fever. Political change in England in 1866 prompted Lefroy’s resignation at the age of 90 years when he retired to Bray, Co. Wicklow, retaining at the same time his country seat at Carriglas, Co. Longford and his townhouse in Leeson Street, Dublin.

On the 4th of May, 1869 Thomas Lefroy died, 52 years after Jane Austen had passed away and 78 years after he had left the boarding school in Athy. His brother Ben Lefroy who also attended school in Athy married and settled in Cardenton House, Athy which remained in the Lefroy family until 1946.

When next you read Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” remember Thomas Lefroy, who as a teenager walked the streets of our town long before he became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, but just a few short years before he met Jane Austen and became the character Fitzwilliam Darcy in one of English literature’s greatest masterpieces.

Review of 1994 Articles

Writing a weekly column can be a tortuous experience, especially when you meet a disgruntled reader who, because you have gone into print, feels obliged to set you straight on some matter or other. It is then you must accept the inevitable, yet unproven claim that what you wrote was wrong. “You’re wrong, my grandmother told me that the Quaker Meeting House was at the end of our yard,” was one reader’s response to an article I wrote some years ago after a most detailed and careful examination of all the records relating to that 18th century building. Such research was quite worthless when faced with granny’s claim of 40 years ago. “Dúirt bean liom gur dúirt bean léi” is, in some quarters, apparently, a more acceptable basis for establishing historical claims than any canter through the public record repositories.

On the other hand, there is the response from the many, many readers who enjoy a look back and the writer’s attempt to bring the past into the present. For them, the effort is worthwhile and the appreciation expressed is more than adequate compensation for the writer.

During the past year, I have been continuously amazed at the co-operation of those approached by me for interviews. I can only recall one failure when a reluctance to speak “on the record” meant that a potentially generous nugget of local knowledge and lore had to remain untapped, destined never to find its way into the public domain. More is the pity but the kindness of the many people who gave of their time and knowledge so unstintingly and so generously fuelled the desire to continue the search to tell the people’s history of the locality.

For all of us, whether we went to school and perhaps even university for those lucky enough to get there, history seemed to centre around battles and the reign of kings and queens. This history of our place and the story of the people apparently never merited more than a brief or cursory reference in the annals. But it is the townspeople and the country folk living out their lives at work and at play to whom we must turn if we are to fell the pulse of the locality and re-create times past.

The Mary Carrs, Florrie Penders, Tosh Doyles and Ger Moriartys of this world are the stuff of life to which we can relate and through their experiences share in the past which would otherwise be beyond our ken. To those men and women whom some would call “the ordinary people” but whom I regard as “extraordinary people”, we are indebted for their contributions to the history of life of our locality.

Looking back over the 52 articles which have appeared since Christmas 1993, there are some which have given me more satisfaction than others. To chat to a legendary figure like Mrs. Hester May was a privilege, knowing her involvement in the War of Independence. During the year the events of that period provided articles on Tom Flood and Eamon Malone, two men whose involvement in the fight for Irish freedom should never be forgotten. Other Athy men who fought a different struggle during the First World War were again remembered in November when detailed research during the year gave an opportunity for a reassessment of Athy’s contribution to that conflict. I fear that as a community we have, up to now, never fully realised the impact World War I had on south Kildare in general, and Athy in particular. There is recently a growing understanding of the social and economic effects which a lost generation had on those who were left behind. We should never feel that the men of World War I are any less deserving of our thoughts and admiration than those men who served Ireland well during the period to 1923.

To unearth nuggets of history never before mined by other hands is a rare occurrence. The unfolding story of Athy Workhouse and its link with the Luggacurran evictions might not necessarily fall into that category but next week’s article on Jane Austen and her Athy connections is one which surely does.

To everyone who has co-operated in the telling of our town’s story may I say a big thank you. The story is not finished and in its future telling it will be of necessity to call upon many of you to help me put together the jigsaw of lore and fact which makes up the story of Athy and its people.

Happy Christmas to you all.

Housing Conditions in Athy - 1932

In May 1932 Dr. John Kilbride, local Medical Officer for Health carried out a survey into the housing conditions in Athy. In his subsequent report to the Urban Council he stated that there were 1292 townspeople living in 323 houses of not more than two rooms each. These houses were for the most part without the most basic sanitary accommodation, nearly all were in a poor state of repair and many were situated in "airless and sun-starved slums."

Dr. Kilbride, whose Uncle Denis Kilbride was one of the many thrown out of their homesteads during the Luggacurran Evictions, found that none of the earlier described two-roomed houses were vacant. "Directly one is vacated there are several applicants for it and it is straightaway re-occupied - and under those wretched conditions families are being starved and children reared."

As the towns Medical Officer for Health, Dr. Kilbride was obviously concerned about the consequential adverse affects of such housing conditions and he posed the rhetorical question "How, we must ask ourselves, can children be brought up properly under these conditions". In his view the bad housing was responsible for what he referred to as "the moral shortcomings and the physical ill health that is at present in the town."

There then followed an analysis of the sub-standard housing stock in the town. Starting with Barrack Street he mentioned one house of two rooms in which eleven persons including married couples lived. On Canal Side were four houses with no yard, one of which housed ten persons and another six persons. New Row had four houses in which families of ten, nine, eight and eight lived, each family huddled together in two small rooms. Rathstewart had two houses each with only one room and no yard.

Further on in his Report Dr. Kilbride in a general comment on the prevailing state of affairs in the town described Athy as "an agricultural community and conditions at present do not supply a demand for all available labour in the town. The present tendency is for the people to move from the country into the town - changing from the healthy open air existence to the unsanitary closed in urban conditions."

He considered the Council to be partially at fault for building houses "while leaving the existing hovels still open for occupation". He urged that in any future scheme that the Council consider building houses in "open avenues off the main roads where children can play without being in danger of motor traffic".

Ending his Report Dr. Kilbride gave a detailed breakdown of the sub-standard houses in the town mentioning placenames which have now passed into folk memory. The areas on the east side of the town included such names as Garden Lane, Kellys Lane and New Row while substandard houses were also to be found in Offaly Street, Leinster Street, Janeville Place, Meeting Lane, Mount Hawkins and Rathstewart.

On the west side of Athy the housing problems were apparently more acute and some of the addresses now long gone included New Gardens, Higginsons Lane, Turnpike and James's Place. Other areas identified and still mapped included Nelson Street, Shrewleen Lane, Plewman's Row, Blackparks, Canal Side, St. John's Lane, Convent View, Woodstock Street and Barrack Street.

The Urban Council anticipating Dr. Kilbride's Report had earlier initiated a Slum Clearance Programme and on completion of the St. Patrick's Avenue houses in 1930 had commenced the closure of the worst slums in the town. In 1933 the Urban Council completed work on 56 houses in Dooley's Terrace, 20 houses in Lower St. Joseph's Terrace and 17 houses in Upper St. Joseph's Terrace. Athy brick was used in the building of these houses as it was during the huge housing programme carried out between 1935 and 1937. Houses in Convent View, Plewman's Terrace, Geraldine Road, Minches Terrace and No.'s 15 -42 Upper St. Joseph's Terrace were to be the Council's final response to the 18th and 19th century unsanitary hovels demolished during the Slum Clearance Programme. No further houses were to be built by the Council until 1950 but under its extensive housing programme initiated in 1930 it had managed to rid Athy of the worst excesses noted in Dr. Kilbride's Report.

The First Council Houses in Athy

In the census of 1901 Athy returned a population of 3,599. The majority of the local people lived in the most primitive conditions. A Report prepared in 1900 indicated that little effort was made to keep the lanes of the town in a sanitary condition. It was common to see slop water and liquid filth lying in stagnant pools about all the laneways, in the crevices of the cobbles and in the depression of the surface channels. The Report continued
"The state of the backyards is also a danger to the health of the inhabitants, large accumulation of manure heaps and other refuse matter are in close proximity to the dwellings and are apparently only removed at long intervals. What tends to make these manure heaps a grave danger to the public health is the fact that the backyards where these accumulations exist are very small and confined, are undrained and in many instances pigs are kept in them. A considerable number of houses have also no backyard accommodation whatsoever."

On 15th February 1909 Athy U.D.C. adopted Part III of the Housing Act 1890 and immediately appointed a Housing Committee which held its first meeting on 26th February. The Committee divided into two groups to select suitable housing sites on both sides of the River Barrow.

A number of local sites were recommended and approved at a Council meeting on 22 March 1909. A subsequent failure to acquire the properties by agreement resulted in the holding of an Arbitration Inquiry in the Town Hall following the making of a compulsory acquisition Order by the Council. Advertisements were placed in the National Press offering prizes of 5 guineas for the best plans for houses suitable for labourers to cost £100, £150 and £200 each. The £100 house was to be one or two storey, the dearer houses to be two storied. James F. Reade C.E. won the prize with his design. On 29th July 1910 it was agreed by the Urban Council members to erect 11 of what was termed the "better class houses" in the Matthews Lane/Pound Field Site (now St. Michael's Terrace), with 4 of what they deemed "labourers houses" in Meeting Lane and 5 better class houses in Nicholas Keating's Field at Woodstock Street.

A year was to pass before the Council advertised and received tenders for its housing programme which in the meantime had been increased to 21 houses. The Matthew's Lane/Pound Field Site was to have 10 houses, with 5 in Meeting Lane and 6 in a new site in Woodstock Street - John Kelly's field. The Athy branch of the Town Tenants League was now pressing the Urban Council to proceed with more speed while the local St. Vincent de Paul Society through its President Mr. M.W. Roche was equally anxious for some measures to alleviate the overcrowded unsanitary conditions in the town. The housing contract was awarded to H.A. Hamilton of Thomas Street, Waterford but he withdrew in May 1912 following prolonged delay in commencing the work due to a disagreement between the Local Government Board and the Urban Council.

The problem centred around a Local Government directive that each house be provided with a privy and ashpit rather than a water closet as sought by the local Council. The Councils opposition centred around the systematic attention which dry closets needed
"and which is very unlikely to be given in such cottages and even where a tenant would have every desire to give such attention there is no way whereby he could ensure the continuous supply of dry earth or bog mull without which these closets would certainly become a dangerous public nuisance."

The Local Government Board won the day resulting in a revision of the house plans to provide back entrances. With Hamiltons withdrawal the Council again advertised for contractors on 26th June 1912. Three contractors were successful. D. & J. Carbery, Athy, obtained the Matthew's Lane/Pound Field contract for 10 houses at £2,544.7.11. Michael Sweeney was to build 6 houses at Woodstock Street for £1,264.2.10 while D. Toomey, Leinster Street, Athy, was to receive £704.10.0 for building 5 houses at Meeting Lane. The Contracts completed their work in March/April 1913.

An additional house was built on the Leinster Street side of what is now St. Michael's Terrace making in all 22 houses. In his report to the Council the Town Clerk indicated that there were 33 applicants for the newly built houses, a surprisingly low number having regard to the primitive housing conditions in the town.

In last weeks article I referred to Dillons Butchers shop in Leinster Street. It was located in Galbraiths premises and not Hylands as stated.

Mary Carr

She is generally to be found every Friday cycling the few miles from her home at Quarry Farm to the town of Athy. Nothing unusual in that except that the cyclist will be a youthful 87 years on the 11th of January next.

Mrs. Mary Carr born in Ardreigh in 1908 spent her young years near Ardreigh Mills where her father John Healy worked. That huge complex originally built by Alfred Haughton shortly after the Great Famine was in the ownership of the Hannon family at the turn of this century. Mary, an only child, was born in a small house on the left hand side of the main Athy/Carlow Road near the bottom of Ardreigh Hill. The house and the neighbouring houses are now long gone leaving no discernable trace.

Ardreigh Mills produced the once famous Lily White brand of flour, a name so well known that it was applied to the all white clad Kildare Senior Football Team during the period of it’s great rivalry with Kerry in the 1920’s. Some of the mill workers in the years before the First World War included Phil Horan and Larry Cullen, both of Foxhill, Tom Nolan, Jack Howard, Jack Kelly, Paddy Mitchell and Dan Kelly, all of Ardreigh and Tom O'Hara and Luke Kelly of Athy town. Many more men now forgotten worked in the Mills where Jack Dalton was in charge of the Mill engine. Jack who died aged 91 years some years ago was the last surviving member of the Ardreigh Mill staff.

When Mary's father John Healy was promoted to the position of miller the family took up residence in the Mill cottage directly opposite Ardreigh Mills. This cottage is now owned by Charlie and Bernie Mackey. Across from it and facing the tow path to Athy was the Travellers cottage, so called because it was home to the salesman who travelled throughout the adjoining counties selling the Mill’s Products. Holder of that position during Mary's young days was Eddie Webster, father of Kitty Webster and Pattie Webster who for many years operated a sweet shop at the corner of Butlers Row and Offaly Street.

Further up the Canal was the Lock House where another Webster family lived. They were not related to their namesakes in the Travellers cottage. "Websters Lock" was the name then given to Ardreigh Lock which in time was to be known to another generation as "Quinns Lock".

Mary went to school in Athy walking by the canal tow path each day. A subsequent move to the Gate Lodge attached to Ardreigh House where the Hannon family lived was of short duration. Mary's mother believed that the Gate Lodge was haunted, relying on her extraordinary experiences of delph and items of furniture moving in the night as evidence of a ghostly presence. A speedy return to the Millers Cottage resulted.

It was while living in the Millers Cottage that Mary's mother died in 1920. When Ardreigh Mills closed in 1926 John Healy and his daughter Mary departed for Milltown Mills, an oatmeal mill owned by the Hickey family. She left school when as she says "they began to teach Irish in the schools". This was in 1923 following the setting up of the Irish Free State and within a year Mary went to work as a housekeeper with John P. Dillon's family at Barrow Quay. As a young fellow I scoured the countryside for empty bottles to sell for coppers to John Dillon, always referred to as "Chopsie" Dillon. The nickname was common currency but no one seemed to know from where it came. Long after the good man had died I discovered that the original "Chopsie" Dillon was a butcher and a bachelor who lived with his three sisters in Leinster Street. He had a butchers stall in Leinster Street, where Galbraiths is located. "Chopsie" was no relation to John P. Dillon of Barrow Quay but when he died the nickname was passed on to his namesake who thereafter was known by no other name.

After nine years with the Dillon family of Barrow Quay Mary married Patrick Carr who worked as a farm labourer for Willie Hosie of Coursetown and later for Peter P. Doyle. Mary Carr was the mother of five young children when her husband died in June 1946, ten months after her own father John Healy had died. She returned to work as a housekeeper and remarkably at almost 87 years of age she still works occasionally for one of her original clients.

Mrs. Mary Carr despite the loss of her father and husband within the space of ten months 48 years ago has retained a cheerful happy outlook on life with a vitality and energy which belies her 87 years.