It’s that time of year again. No, not Christmas, rather the time set aside by people around the world to remember those lost in the carnage of World War I. Here in Athy we have more reason than others to remember that awful time over eighty years ago when young men rushed or walked to their deaths across the muddy ground which was Flanders fields.
Those young men came from rural or small town backgrounds and joined the British Army in their hundreds for reasons which we can never satisfactorily explain. Was it the prospect of wearing a smart uniform which first caught their attention? Was it the opportunity of shedding the perennial unemployment status which drove the Athy men into the recruiting station in Leinster Street? Perhaps the opportunity to go overseas, even in war time, was to many who had never gone further than the nearest village the reason they enlisted in such numbers. Maybe the answer is to be found in all of these possibilities, coupled with a manly and courageous response to a call for arms in aid of beleaguered Belgium.
For whatever reason almost half a million Irishmen fought in World War I at a time when their own country was nearing the end of it’s 800 years of subjugation to English Rule. Indeed some historians would claim that many of those men joined up in the belief that Home Rule would be granted to a thirty-two county Ireland at the end of the hostilities.
All of this fades into insignificance when we review the high number of Irishmen, believed to be in excess of 36,000 who died during the Great War. The effect their deaths had on communities throughout Ireland has never been properly assessed, but even now it may be claimed that this country is still unable to divest itself of the social problems which followed in the wake of that War.
For the town of Athy and District the loss of 188 men over the period 1914 to 1918 could only have had a most depressing effect on the psyche of the area. Accentuating this was the large number of badly injured men, pensioned off after the war, who remained for decades a constant reminder of those terrible days.
It is difficult to grasp the enormity of the losses suffered by some families whose fathers, husbands or brothers were never to return alive or dead. Their bodies were never recovered, being buried as they lay in the mud of Flanders or France. The families they had left behind in Athy were never to have the consolation of mourning at the graveside of their loved ones.
During the War the uniformed postboy who delivered telegrams at one time or other came to every street and lane in Athy. In his hand was invariably clutched the dreaded message which informed the next of kin of another death on a European battlefield. Sadly several local families received the awful news not once, but twice. Last April I received a letter from 90 year old Mae Vagts of Washington, U.S.A., daughter of Edward Stafford of Butlers Row. She recalled her father who had enlisted in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, leaving his house for the last time to walk to the railway station in Athy where he was joining other local men on the first leg of a journey which would end in France. Edward was killed in action on 24th September, 1914, leaving a widow and three young children, Mae, George and Tommy. Strangely his son Tommy died on the same day as his father 74 years later. Mrs. Stafford later re-married Paddy Shaughnessy and their son Danny died within the last year.
The telegram which was delivered to Butler’s Row announcing Edward Stafford’s death was to be followed by a second telegram when his brother Thomas, a lance corporal in the Dublin Fusiliers was also killed in France on 6th September, 1916. The Heydon family in Churchtown also lost two sons, Patrick, killed in France on 4th September, 1914 and Aloysius killed on 27th November, 1917. Brothers John Hannon and Norman Leslie Hannon of Ardreigh House also died in the War. Norman was 20 years of age when he was killed at Festubert on 16th May, 1915 while John was 24 years old when he died on 18th August, 1916.
On three separate occasions the messenger of death came to the houses of two local families during the Great War. Mr. And Mrs. Kelly of Mount Hawkins suffered the loss of son Owen on 3rd May, 1915 and 20 days later the loss of their other son John. A third son Dennis died of his wounds in France on 3rd September, 1918.
Jack and Margaret Curtis of Rockfield like the Kellys of Mount Hawkins also lost three sons in the War. Patrick was killed in France on 5th November, 1914 while his brother John was killed in action on 9th January, 1917 and his brother Lawrence died of his wounds on 4th December, 1917. Just before Christmas 1995 I received a letter from their niece, Mrs. J. Watts of Northold in Middlesex who as a young girl had worked in Hutchinsons Hotel in Leinster Street. She is a reader of “Eye on the Past” and in the course of a very nice letter thanked me for remembering the young men from Athy who died in the Great War. “You are the first person to mention them” she wrote which I felt was a somewhat sad indictment of the local townspeoples’ neglect of an important part of their own history.
On Sunday, 9th November a small group of local men and women gathered in St. Michael’s Cemetery to remember those forgotten men from Athy who died so young and so tragically during the 1914/18 War. In doing so they were publicly recalling the worst days in the history of warfare and possibly the most tragic four years in the long history of our Town. At the same time they helped recover from oblivion the memory of those local men who died in previous wars, especially the 1914/18 War. Their generous action serves to remind the people of Athy that Nationalists of whatever hue do no disservice to what they believe in by remembering their own dead.
Thursday, October 16, 1997
Thursday, October 9, 1997
George Lammon
Bartle George Lanham was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on 12th September, 1876. Almost 76 years later he died in Athy, Co. Kildare, known to his neighbours and friends as George Lamon. The transformation in his surname was not due to any conscious decision on his part or that of his parents, but probably reflected an Irish persons transcription of a geordies name. To the unpracticed ear Lanham had all the intonation and resonance of the name Lamon and so it was that the Lanham family which came to Ireland sometime after 1876 came to be known as Lamon. George’s parents were William Lanham and Sarah Kennedy. They lived at Gun Terrace, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and why and when they came to Ireland we cannot as yet say. Their youngest son John was born in Mountrath, Co. Laois and they also had a daughter Mary, but her place of birth is not known. What we do know is that when the Lanham children were still young the family moved to Athy where the parents William and Sarah died within a few years.
Their young daughter Mary was then brought out to America and she was never again to see her two brothers. A photo of her in a Nurse’s uniform taken sometime around the turn of the century is the only record of her that has survived. It was a photograph taken in Belview Hospital, New York and by then her name was changed to Mary Lamon Dockery. This may be a clue to the name of her adopted parents.
Her brothers George and John were fostered by a Mrs. Byrne of the Flags just over the bridge at Upper William Street. She was obviously very kind and good to them and provided for them in every way until they were old enough to fend for themselves. First to go was George who had enlisted in the British Army and served in South Africa during the Boer War. He returned unscathed to Athy where he married Lizzy Mulhall, an Aunt of “Cuddy” Chanders. Lizzy was to die while still a young woman, leaving George with their young son Paddy. Paddy was in time to train as a carpenter in Doyle Brothers where he had as his master Paddy Keogh of Woodstock Street. He subsequently took up employment with the Board of Works and died in 1971.
George who by now was employed by Athy District Council later married Mary Quinn and they had two children, George who recently retired from Tegral Building Products and Mary who is married and living in London since 1951.
George’s brother John enlisted in the British Army during the Great War and afterwards returned to Athy where he was to die in the 1930’s from the after affects of Malaria. He had five children, Paddy, Christy, John, Mary and Elizabeth.
In the meantime George became a leading member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. A non-smoker and a non-drinker from his middle years onwards he developed an abiding interest in fishing and was regarded locally as a superb master of that craft.
Employed by the local Urban District Council he regularly featured in minutes of that Body where many references can be found to George Lamon who was employed as a weigh man in the Market in Emily Square. Each year George and his colleague John Farrell were supplied with what was referred to in the Minutes as “sleeved vests”. In later years George was responsible for the water supply to the town and was the nominated “key man” with special responsibility for turning on and off the water as required. George continued working with the Urban District Council until 1951 when he died.
His son George Lamon who now lives in Pairc Bhride has a unique position in the annals of industrial employment in Athy. Just recently retired after 50 years service in the Asbestos and Tegral factories, George is the longest serving member of that factory since it opened in 1936. The explanation for this lies in the “subterfuge” exercised by George when in 1947 he first applied to join the Asbestos factory as a juvenile worker. In those days and indeed I understand up to the early 1960’s the Asbestos factory took on workers aged fifteen years upwards. Termed “juvenile workers” they worked less hours and received less pay than their adult colleagues. On reaching eighteen years of age they worked the same hours but for less pay and only achieved parity with adult employees on attaining twenty-one years of age.
George who attended Athy Christian Brothers School with Mossy Reilly, John Anderson, Stan Mullery, Hugh Kerrigan and Jackie Hayes left in the middle of his first year in Secondary School when aged thirteen and a half years to join the Asbestos factory. He told his prospective employers that he was fifteen years of age and was put into the moulding section where he worked under foreman Frank Gibbons and chargehand Dan Meaney. His true age was not known to his employers until he had to go out on sick leave in 1966. In his long period in the Asbestos factory he worked under all of the Managers, including the Welshman Ned Cornish, his successor Charlie Stephens, Jens Preisler, Brian Taylor and the present Manager, Denis Mullins. When he retired in August of this year George did so as chargehand, to which position he had been appointed in 1969.
George is married to Betty McCormack, originally from Dun Laoghaire whom he met at a marquee dance in Naas in the early 1960’s. Married in July 1966 they have six children, all of whom I understand spell their name with a double “M”. Their eldest son George is in America, while Frank and Gerard are working locally with son Paul, a legal student in UCD. Their eldest daughter Teresa is in Cathal Brugha College in Dublin while Ann is presently in the Leaving Certificate class in Scoil Mhuire.
George who was reared in Upper William Street has lived in Pairc Bhride since marrying. His leisure time was devoted to Athy Soccer Club with whom he played for the seconds and occasionally the first team in the early 1950’s. Local men on the soccer teams in those days included “Cha” Chanders, Ger “Scratch” Robinson, Jimmy O’Donnell, “Onie” Walsh and occasionally Danny Flood who was to win a Leinster Senior Championship medal with Kildare in 1956. Two men who also played with George in those days were Tom Bohana and T.J. Byrne, both of whom cycled from Carlow to Athy for the soccer games. T.J. Byrne went on in later years to manage the Royal Show Band in the 1960’s.
George and Betty are a delightful couple to meet and the soft-spoken woman from Dun Laoghaire speaks warmly of the kind and neighbourly people she has met in Athy over the last 30 years. “Athy people are always friendly and will always speak to you” she says. For George Lamon the journey from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Athy is part of his family history. As he looks back on a lifetime spent in Athy, George the third generation Lanham, knows that for himself and his own children Athy is the place which they will always call home.
Their young daughter Mary was then brought out to America and she was never again to see her two brothers. A photo of her in a Nurse’s uniform taken sometime around the turn of the century is the only record of her that has survived. It was a photograph taken in Belview Hospital, New York and by then her name was changed to Mary Lamon Dockery. This may be a clue to the name of her adopted parents.
Her brothers George and John were fostered by a Mrs. Byrne of the Flags just over the bridge at Upper William Street. She was obviously very kind and good to them and provided for them in every way until they were old enough to fend for themselves. First to go was George who had enlisted in the British Army and served in South Africa during the Boer War. He returned unscathed to Athy where he married Lizzy Mulhall, an Aunt of “Cuddy” Chanders. Lizzy was to die while still a young woman, leaving George with their young son Paddy. Paddy was in time to train as a carpenter in Doyle Brothers where he had as his master Paddy Keogh of Woodstock Street. He subsequently took up employment with the Board of Works and died in 1971.
George who by now was employed by Athy District Council later married Mary Quinn and they had two children, George who recently retired from Tegral Building Products and Mary who is married and living in London since 1951.
George’s brother John enlisted in the British Army during the Great War and afterwards returned to Athy where he was to die in the 1930’s from the after affects of Malaria. He had five children, Paddy, Christy, John, Mary and Elizabeth.
In the meantime George became a leading member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. A non-smoker and a non-drinker from his middle years onwards he developed an abiding interest in fishing and was regarded locally as a superb master of that craft.
Employed by the local Urban District Council he regularly featured in minutes of that Body where many references can be found to George Lamon who was employed as a weigh man in the Market in Emily Square. Each year George and his colleague John Farrell were supplied with what was referred to in the Minutes as “sleeved vests”. In later years George was responsible for the water supply to the town and was the nominated “key man” with special responsibility for turning on and off the water as required. George continued working with the Urban District Council until 1951 when he died.
His son George Lamon who now lives in Pairc Bhride has a unique position in the annals of industrial employment in Athy. Just recently retired after 50 years service in the Asbestos and Tegral factories, George is the longest serving member of that factory since it opened in 1936. The explanation for this lies in the “subterfuge” exercised by George when in 1947 he first applied to join the Asbestos factory as a juvenile worker. In those days and indeed I understand up to the early 1960’s the Asbestos factory took on workers aged fifteen years upwards. Termed “juvenile workers” they worked less hours and received less pay than their adult colleagues. On reaching eighteen years of age they worked the same hours but for less pay and only achieved parity with adult employees on attaining twenty-one years of age.
George who attended Athy Christian Brothers School with Mossy Reilly, John Anderson, Stan Mullery, Hugh Kerrigan and Jackie Hayes left in the middle of his first year in Secondary School when aged thirteen and a half years to join the Asbestos factory. He told his prospective employers that he was fifteen years of age and was put into the moulding section where he worked under foreman Frank Gibbons and chargehand Dan Meaney. His true age was not known to his employers until he had to go out on sick leave in 1966. In his long period in the Asbestos factory he worked under all of the Managers, including the Welshman Ned Cornish, his successor Charlie Stephens, Jens Preisler, Brian Taylor and the present Manager, Denis Mullins. When he retired in August of this year George did so as chargehand, to which position he had been appointed in 1969.
George is married to Betty McCormack, originally from Dun Laoghaire whom he met at a marquee dance in Naas in the early 1960’s. Married in July 1966 they have six children, all of whom I understand spell their name with a double “M”. Their eldest son George is in America, while Frank and Gerard are working locally with son Paul, a legal student in UCD. Their eldest daughter Teresa is in Cathal Brugha College in Dublin while Ann is presently in the Leaving Certificate class in Scoil Mhuire.
George who was reared in Upper William Street has lived in Pairc Bhride since marrying. His leisure time was devoted to Athy Soccer Club with whom he played for the seconds and occasionally the first team in the early 1950’s. Local men on the soccer teams in those days included “Cha” Chanders, Ger “Scratch” Robinson, Jimmy O’Donnell, “Onie” Walsh and occasionally Danny Flood who was to win a Leinster Senior Championship medal with Kildare in 1956. Two men who also played with George in those days were Tom Bohana and T.J. Byrne, both of whom cycled from Carlow to Athy for the soccer games. T.J. Byrne went on in later years to manage the Royal Show Band in the 1960’s.
George and Betty are a delightful couple to meet and the soft-spoken woman from Dun Laoghaire speaks warmly of the kind and neighbourly people she has met in Athy over the last 30 years. “Athy people are always friendly and will always speak to you” she says. For George Lamon the journey from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Athy is part of his family history. As he looks back on a lifetime spent in Athy, George the third generation Lanham, knows that for himself and his own children Athy is the place which they will always call home.
Thursday, October 2, 1997
Ned Ward
Yet another long established business in Athy has closed down. The door was shut for the last time last week on the betting shop business first opened by the late Ned Ward fifty years ago. It was in 1947 that Ned extended this business empire when he opened the small betting shop at No. 2 Woodstock what is now Harry Bachelor’s house. Ned who was a native of Portarlington had first arrived in Athy within a year or two of his marrying Elizabeth Murphy of St. Michael’s Terrace. Her father was a renowned stone mason as indeed had been other members of the Murphy family for generations past. Indeed I can recall Elizabeth’s brother Joe Murphy also of St. Michael’s Terrace building the fine cut stone entrance at St. Dominic’s Church in 1957. This was possibly one of the last pieces of stone work he undertook in the Athy area.
Before coming to Athy Ned Ward operated three butcher shops in Portarlington, Castlecomer and in the Cornmarket, Dublin. These were sold off in time and when Ned and Elizabeth came to Athy with their newly born child May, Ned opened up a butcher shop in Athy in what is now Fred’s Fashions.
The Civil War had just ended and the local men who had served in France and Flanders and survived the Great War had returned to live in Athy. For most of these men life in the town meant unemployment as in common with the rest of provincial Ireland Athy struggled to come to terms with the political and economic freedom of the newly established Irish Free State. The local brickyards with one exception had closed down and the long established firm of Hannons Millers of Ardreigh and in Athy had also ceased business. It was not a good time to open up a butchers shop in Athy.
Ned Ward’s business however was to prosper and he was in time to open up another butcher shop in Stanhope Street next to the corner shop which is now occupied by Lehanes. The growing family which by now included Dympna and Sam lived in No. 35 Duke Street.
Apart from his involvement in business Ned actively concerned himself with the social life of Athy. Possessed of a very fine tenor voice he sang in the local Dominican choir and on the stage with Agnes Glespen of Duke Street who was a well known contralto. Agnes was a daughter of Patrick Whelan a draper of Leinster Street who in her early days was a member of the Dublin Grand Opera Society and later still of the D’Oyly Carte Company in London. She married John Glespen who had a coach building business at 19 Duke Street and one of their sons was the late Brother Seamus Norbert Glespen who published in 1957 the first full length biography of the 1798 patriot Thomas Russell.
One of the Ned Ward’s life long interests was the local soccer club which was first started during the period of the Barrow drainage scheme in the mid 1920’s. The club did not prosper then and was to shut down soon after the men employed on the scheme had left Athy. It was not until 1948 that another attempt was made to revive the club and one of those involved in that attempt was Ned Ward. He
remained a constant supporter of the local club for the rest of this life earning for himself the title of “grandfather of soccer in Athy”.
In 1947 Ned opened his first betting shop at No. 2 Woodstock Street. By now the Ward family included Dominic who died tragically in the early 1960’s while an officer in British army, Stella and Noelle both of whom live in Dublin and Brendan now living in England. The Ward businesses included a greengrocer shop in Duke Street but in time the butcher shops were closed and the betting shop was re-located to No. 36 Duke Street. Mrs. Elizabeth Ward died in 1957 and thereafter Ned wound down his business interests.
My memory of Ned Ward in the late 1950’s is of his card playing skills which were always to be seen on the night of the big 25 tournament which ran each year in a number of venues in the town but centred in St. John’s Hall. It was organised by the local church fundraising committee in which my father was involved and the 25 tournament was his particular responsibility each year. There was always a card table sequestered for the serious poker players of which Ned was one and throughout the night large amounts of money passed to and fro across the table with a practised regularity. Ned like his companions was a superb poker player and a frequent card player in the local CYMS club where he continued to be a member until his death in 1971.
The Ward family suffered the tragic loss of their second eldest child Tommy in February 1938. Tommy who was born in 1927 crept out of bed early that fateful evening to play cowboys and indians with his friends. His father Ned met him in St. John’s Lane and sent him back home little realising that Tommy would scamper past 35 Duke Street to have one last encounter with his young friends at the canal lock. He was drowned that evening in the canal lock having fallen in when crossing the canal gates. Tommy was to have made his confirmation that following May.
Ned’s daughter Dympna who married Brendan O’Flaherty continued to live in 36 Duke Street. Brendan was from Dublin and came to Athy when he took up employment in Bord Na Mona. He was a playing member of the local soccer club for many years and in later life was an officer and a member of the club’s committee. The eldest Ward daughter May married Bobby Bachelor brother of Harry of Woodstock Street and the late Michael who was a jockey of note. May, Dympna and Stella possessed fine singing voices and May and Dympna especially were involved in the local musical societies in the 1940’s and later. Indeed in the photographs I have seen of musical stage presentations on the town hall in the 1940’s the Ward sisters have been ever present. Theirs was a musical tradition stretching back to their father which continues today with the daughter of their brother Brendan who is a concert pianist in London.
With the closure of the betting shop in Duke Street the business concern started by Ned Ward over 70 years ago have now passed into memory. The man from Portarlington left his mark on his adopted town not least in the wonderful musical legacy in which we all shared down the years. The Ward family name continues to conjure up for each of us memories of times past long after the legendary Ned Ward had passed away.
Before coming to Athy Ned Ward operated three butcher shops in Portarlington, Castlecomer and in the Cornmarket, Dublin. These were sold off in time and when Ned and Elizabeth came to Athy with their newly born child May, Ned opened up a butcher shop in Athy in what is now Fred’s Fashions.
The Civil War had just ended and the local men who had served in France and Flanders and survived the Great War had returned to live in Athy. For most of these men life in the town meant unemployment as in common with the rest of provincial Ireland Athy struggled to come to terms with the political and economic freedom of the newly established Irish Free State. The local brickyards with one exception had closed down and the long established firm of Hannons Millers of Ardreigh and in Athy had also ceased business. It was not a good time to open up a butchers shop in Athy.
Ned Ward’s business however was to prosper and he was in time to open up another butcher shop in Stanhope Street next to the corner shop which is now occupied by Lehanes. The growing family which by now included Dympna and Sam lived in No. 35 Duke Street.
Apart from his involvement in business Ned actively concerned himself with the social life of Athy. Possessed of a very fine tenor voice he sang in the local Dominican choir and on the stage with Agnes Glespen of Duke Street who was a well known contralto. Agnes was a daughter of Patrick Whelan a draper of Leinster Street who in her early days was a member of the Dublin Grand Opera Society and later still of the D’Oyly Carte Company in London. She married John Glespen who had a coach building business at 19 Duke Street and one of their sons was the late Brother Seamus Norbert Glespen who published in 1957 the first full length biography of the 1798 patriot Thomas Russell.
One of the Ned Ward’s life long interests was the local soccer club which was first started during the period of the Barrow drainage scheme in the mid 1920’s. The club did not prosper then and was to shut down soon after the men employed on the scheme had left Athy. It was not until 1948 that another attempt was made to revive the club and one of those involved in that attempt was Ned Ward. He
remained a constant supporter of the local club for the rest of this life earning for himself the title of “grandfather of soccer in Athy”.
In 1947 Ned opened his first betting shop at No. 2 Woodstock Street. By now the Ward family included Dominic who died tragically in the early 1960’s while an officer in British army, Stella and Noelle both of whom live in Dublin and Brendan now living in England. The Ward businesses included a greengrocer shop in Duke Street but in time the butcher shops were closed and the betting shop was re-located to No. 36 Duke Street. Mrs. Elizabeth Ward died in 1957 and thereafter Ned wound down his business interests.
My memory of Ned Ward in the late 1950’s is of his card playing skills which were always to be seen on the night of the big 25 tournament which ran each year in a number of venues in the town but centred in St. John’s Hall. It was organised by the local church fundraising committee in which my father was involved and the 25 tournament was his particular responsibility each year. There was always a card table sequestered for the serious poker players of which Ned was one and throughout the night large amounts of money passed to and fro across the table with a practised regularity. Ned like his companions was a superb poker player and a frequent card player in the local CYMS club where he continued to be a member until his death in 1971.
The Ward family suffered the tragic loss of their second eldest child Tommy in February 1938. Tommy who was born in 1927 crept out of bed early that fateful evening to play cowboys and indians with his friends. His father Ned met him in St. John’s Lane and sent him back home little realising that Tommy would scamper past 35 Duke Street to have one last encounter with his young friends at the canal lock. He was drowned that evening in the canal lock having fallen in when crossing the canal gates. Tommy was to have made his confirmation that following May.
Ned’s daughter Dympna who married Brendan O’Flaherty continued to live in 36 Duke Street. Brendan was from Dublin and came to Athy when he took up employment in Bord Na Mona. He was a playing member of the local soccer club for many years and in later life was an officer and a member of the club’s committee. The eldest Ward daughter May married Bobby Bachelor brother of Harry of Woodstock Street and the late Michael who was a jockey of note. May, Dympna and Stella possessed fine singing voices and May and Dympna especially were involved in the local musical societies in the 1940’s and later. Indeed in the photographs I have seen of musical stage presentations on the town hall in the 1940’s the Ward sisters have been ever present. Theirs was a musical tradition stretching back to their father which continues today with the daughter of their brother Brendan who is a concert pianist in London.
With the closure of the betting shop in Duke Street the business concern started by Ned Ward over 70 years ago have now passed into memory. The man from Portarlington left his mark on his adopted town not least in the wonderful musical legacy in which we all shared down the years. The Ward family name continues to conjure up for each of us memories of times past long after the legendary Ned Ward had passed away.
Thursday, September 25, 1997
Eddie Delahunt
Eddie Delahunt now in his 72nd year enjoys his retirement in St. Joseph’s Terrace after a most interesting and varied work career stretching back nearly sixty years. Son of local postman the late Patsy Delahunt and Kathleen Wright of Castledermot Eddie or ““Neddy”” as he is generally known took up his first job with Flemings sawmills after leaving school. Jim Fleming was a sawmiller whose timber yard and sawmills were located off Chapel Lane immediately to the rear of what was Hickey’s pub now known as Lanagan’s Well. He spent the first eight years of his long working life with Jim in what was one of the last sawmills in the town. How many people remember Blanchfields sawmills at the top of Leinster Street which in its time was one of the largest and most extensive in the area. It was Flemings sawmills however which is perhaps best remembered today as it remained in business up to the 1960’s.
“Neddy” had five brothers and sisters one of whom Paddy, died at a very young age. His sister Kathleen known to everybody as “Tal” married Paddy Davis of Plewman’s Terrace and they now live in Luton, England. His sister Bridie married Martin Short while Lila married Eamon Bambrick and lives in the adjoining County Laois. His remaining brother Billy is the well known caretaker of the Courthouse and lives in St. Patrick’s Avenue.
After eight years with Flemings sawmills “Neddy” crossed to the other side of Chapel Lane where he began to work with Duthie Large’s. They were very substantial employers in Athy with agricultural equipment sale and repairs, foundry works and bicycle sales and repairs. Spending three years with this old established firm “Neddy” next joined the Asbestos factory where another three years were to pass before a machinery shut down and cost him his job. In the years immediately following the second World War electricity cut backs were an inevitable consequence of the Nation’s limited fuel supplies. Manufacturing concerns such as the asbestos factory in Athy without adequate electricity supply had no option but to shut down a number of machines leaving men off with no real prospect of alternative employment.
Neddy was one of the lucky ones and was able to escape the beckoning emigrant ship which offered the only real escape for most of the unemployed local men and women of the time. He later started work in Bowaters newly opened factory in Barrowford and was to stay there until it closed down in the mid 1970’s. He eventually retired in 1990 on reaching his 65th year after working for eight years in Canada Dry.
Looking back over his working life it is remarkable to note that so many of his past employers no longer provide employment in Athy. Flemings sawmills is now long closed and the Wallboard factory as Bowaters was known closed down with devastating affect for the Athy people in 1977. Duthie Larges so long a landmark in Athy was to close in the mid 1980’s years after the foundry and repair shops had closed down. It is a salutary lesson to realise how inexorably and how quickly change is noted in the employment patterns of an Irish provincial town. The only constants on the employment scene in Athy over the last 60 years have been Minch Nortons and Tegral formerly the Asbestos factory. But even they have changed as increased mechanisation leads to greater productivity and fewer workers.
“Neddy” married Kathleen Walsh of Nelson Street in 1947 and they had eight children. Throughout his working life “Neddy” has been known for his unswerving loyalty to the Labour party whose political fortunes he has helped shape since the days of the late Bill Norton. His first involvement was on the day of his confirmation when he joined the welcoming party for Bill Norton then a local TD. “Neddy”’s father Patsy was secretary of the Labour party in Athy and at a very young age “Neddy” was pressed into service to deliver notices for party meetings. He was to formally join the Labour party on reaching his majority and has continued to play his part in the party which Bill Norton dominated for so many years in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
“Neddy” remembers the Labour party members in Athy who kept faith with their party through thick and thin. Jack and Mark Dalton and “Sticker” Ryan all of Foxhill, Jim Maher of Geraldine, Bill Cranny, Paddy Rowan, Lar Doyle, Bill Hoare, Mick Rowan and John McEvoy another postman like Patsy Delahunt who also lived in St. Joseph’s Terrace. Labour party public representatives recalled include Chevitt Doyle, UDC, Jim Fleming, UDC of sawmill fame, Tom Fleming, UDC, John Norman, UDC and possibly the most famous of all, the legendary Tom Carbery a member of the local Urban Council and a member of Kildare County Council. Tom did a lot of good work for the people of Athy and in the opinion of many people was one of the best public representatives in the Labour party.
Neddy’s involvement in politics paralleled his work for the local community. He was a member of the swimming pool committee which collected the local contribution required to build the swimming pool in the People’s park. In his younger days he was a useful gaelic footballer playing for Athy in the minor championship finals of 1942 and 1943. To his great regret Athy were beaten in both finals. He also played for St. Joseph’s in the street league competitions of the early 1940’s. St. Joseph’s had the unique record of playing at every final during the four years of the street league competition winning in the last two years but losing out in the previous years to Barrack Street and to Starlights.
Heavily committed to St. Joseph’s social club founded to help families living in the terrace “Neddy” was later to become a committee member of the group which built The Marian Shrine in 1954. In fact “Neddy” is the only surviving member of that committee. Strongly committed both in politics and to the community Neddy has made a major contribution over the years to the life of Athy where he was born 72 years ago.
Last Saturday Neddy and Kathleen were guests of honour at a surprise party held in the local GAA Centre to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. There was a huge attendance of friends and neighbours all gathered together to celebrate with the happy couple. It was a proud day for Neddy and Kathleen both of whom have lived all of their lives in Athy. There to join with their parents were their children Patrick, Katie who is married to Emmanuel Kennedy, Christy a former Urban Councillor, Christine married in Newbridge, Eamon, Bridie married and living in Ballina, Co. Mayo, Gerard and Caroline married to Colm Walsh.
May I add my congratulations and best wishes to Neddy and Kathleen.
“Neddy” had five brothers and sisters one of whom Paddy, died at a very young age. His sister Kathleen known to everybody as “Tal” married Paddy Davis of Plewman’s Terrace and they now live in Luton, England. His sister Bridie married Martin Short while Lila married Eamon Bambrick and lives in the adjoining County Laois. His remaining brother Billy is the well known caretaker of the Courthouse and lives in St. Patrick’s Avenue.
After eight years with Flemings sawmills “Neddy” crossed to the other side of Chapel Lane where he began to work with Duthie Large’s. They were very substantial employers in Athy with agricultural equipment sale and repairs, foundry works and bicycle sales and repairs. Spending three years with this old established firm “Neddy” next joined the Asbestos factory where another three years were to pass before a machinery shut down and cost him his job. In the years immediately following the second World War electricity cut backs were an inevitable consequence of the Nation’s limited fuel supplies. Manufacturing concerns such as the asbestos factory in Athy without adequate electricity supply had no option but to shut down a number of machines leaving men off with no real prospect of alternative employment.
Neddy was one of the lucky ones and was able to escape the beckoning emigrant ship which offered the only real escape for most of the unemployed local men and women of the time. He later started work in Bowaters newly opened factory in Barrowford and was to stay there until it closed down in the mid 1970’s. He eventually retired in 1990 on reaching his 65th year after working for eight years in Canada Dry.
Looking back over his working life it is remarkable to note that so many of his past employers no longer provide employment in Athy. Flemings sawmills is now long closed and the Wallboard factory as Bowaters was known closed down with devastating affect for the Athy people in 1977. Duthie Larges so long a landmark in Athy was to close in the mid 1980’s years after the foundry and repair shops had closed down. It is a salutary lesson to realise how inexorably and how quickly change is noted in the employment patterns of an Irish provincial town. The only constants on the employment scene in Athy over the last 60 years have been Minch Nortons and Tegral formerly the Asbestos factory. But even they have changed as increased mechanisation leads to greater productivity and fewer workers.
“Neddy” married Kathleen Walsh of Nelson Street in 1947 and they had eight children. Throughout his working life “Neddy” has been known for his unswerving loyalty to the Labour party whose political fortunes he has helped shape since the days of the late Bill Norton. His first involvement was on the day of his confirmation when he joined the welcoming party for Bill Norton then a local TD. “Neddy”’s father Patsy was secretary of the Labour party in Athy and at a very young age “Neddy” was pressed into service to deliver notices for party meetings. He was to formally join the Labour party on reaching his majority and has continued to play his part in the party which Bill Norton dominated for so many years in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
“Neddy” remembers the Labour party members in Athy who kept faith with their party through thick and thin. Jack and Mark Dalton and “Sticker” Ryan all of Foxhill, Jim Maher of Geraldine, Bill Cranny, Paddy Rowan, Lar Doyle, Bill Hoare, Mick Rowan and John McEvoy another postman like Patsy Delahunt who also lived in St. Joseph’s Terrace. Labour party public representatives recalled include Chevitt Doyle, UDC, Jim Fleming, UDC of sawmill fame, Tom Fleming, UDC, John Norman, UDC and possibly the most famous of all, the legendary Tom Carbery a member of the local Urban Council and a member of Kildare County Council. Tom did a lot of good work for the people of Athy and in the opinion of many people was one of the best public representatives in the Labour party.
Neddy’s involvement in politics paralleled his work for the local community. He was a member of the swimming pool committee which collected the local contribution required to build the swimming pool in the People’s park. In his younger days he was a useful gaelic footballer playing for Athy in the minor championship finals of 1942 and 1943. To his great regret Athy were beaten in both finals. He also played for St. Joseph’s in the street league competitions of the early 1940’s. St. Joseph’s had the unique record of playing at every final during the four years of the street league competition winning in the last two years but losing out in the previous years to Barrack Street and to Starlights.
Heavily committed to St. Joseph’s social club founded to help families living in the terrace “Neddy” was later to become a committee member of the group which built The Marian Shrine in 1954. In fact “Neddy” is the only surviving member of that committee. Strongly committed both in politics and to the community Neddy has made a major contribution over the years to the life of Athy where he was born 72 years ago.
Last Saturday Neddy and Kathleen were guests of honour at a surprise party held in the local GAA Centre to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. There was a huge attendance of friends and neighbours all gathered together to celebrate with the happy couple. It was a proud day for Neddy and Kathleen both of whom have lived all of their lives in Athy. There to join with their parents were their children Patrick, Katie who is married to Emmanuel Kennedy, Christy a former Urban Councillor, Christine married in Newbridge, Eamon, Bridie married and living in Ballina, Co. Mayo, Gerard and Caroline married to Colm Walsh.
May I add my congratulations and best wishes to Neddy and Kathleen.
Thursday, September 18, 1997
Fire Brigade
One of the many happy memories I have of the late 1950’s in Athy is that of the Fireman’s competitions which were held in the back square. In those simple pre television days the sight of Tom Langton with Christy “Bluebeard” Dunne and their colleagues running to connect water hoses to the Fire Brigade pump and then knocking down a target with a jet of water was always assured to generate a cheering response from the bystanders. These were the men who manned Athy’s Fire Brigade and they pushed back the advancing years every time they bent themselves to be faster at their tasks than their neighbouring fire brigade personnel.
Their names came flooding back to me as I talked last week to “Neddie” Delahunt who joined the Fire Brigade in 1957. As a youngster of 32 years “Neddie” was the junior in an eight man team which was headed up by Bob Webster of Offaly Street. Bob was the station officer and he lived in Offaly Street almost opposite the cinema where at one time he had been manager. Bob was a brother of Fireman Jack Webster who lived in Butler’s Row. Both had been painters and decorators in their time and indeed Jack continued as such long after his brother Bob took on the management of the local cinema.
The station sub officer was Matt McHugh of McDonnell Drive who had operated the foundry in Meeting Lane with his brother Mick of St. Michael’s Terrace. Mick was also a fireman and the McHughs were the second set of brothers in the local Fire Brigade.
The men who stick out in my memory more than anyone else were the earlier mentioned Tom Langton and Christy “Bluebeard” Dunne. Tom’s laughing face with the fireman’s helmet jauntily pushed back on his head is fixed in my memory. He was a most popular man who lived then in one of the small houses, now gone, near Jacob’s present shop in Leinster Street. In his day job Tom was a postman and both Tom and his wife Marie are remembered as wonderful ballroom dancers.
I knew “Bluebeard” better than I did any of the other fireman as like myself he was a member of the CYMS. While I played snooker under the watchful eye of Mattie Brennan in the hall in St. John’s “Bluebeard” was inside in the card room playing cards with the likes of Ned Cranny and Tom Moore. Several years were to pass before I was able to join them at the card table and a sharper shrewder card player I cannot recall. He had an uncanny instinct for “seeing” the bluff in a game of poker and a never unfailing knack of increasing the ante on anyone who waivered. He was a great friend of the CYMS and enlivened the place with his quick wit which was sharpened in the smoke filled room in St. John’s Lane. Christy worked in the Asbestos factory and was to pass away long before his time as did his colleagues Jack Webster, Tom Langton and Mick McHugh.
When Jack Webster died his son Tom replaced him in the Fire Brigade. Tom was a good friend of mine during our young days in Offaly Street and is now station officer in Athlone where he has lived for many years. By a happy coincidence Jack’s widow Cecilia Webster who lived for so long in Butler’s Row at a time when it was a terrace of small houses has recently returned there to live in one of the beautiful houses built for the local Council.
Christy Dunne Junior joined his father as a member of Athy Fire Brigade and when Christy “Bluebeard” died his place was taken by his second son Tim. He is now the full time station officer based in Athy. Another man who later joined the local Fire Brigade was the late Jack Webster’s son Robbie.
“Neddie” Delahunt recalls the days when the local firefighting equipment consisted of a trailer pump which was hauled to each fire by either Mick Finn’s or Mick Rowan’s lorry. It was not until 1959 or thereabouts that Kildare County Council purchased the first purpose built fire tender for Athy and it was around the same time that the ground floor of the Town Hall was used as the Fire Station. Prior to that the trailer pump was kept in the Council yard at Meeting Lane.
The ready availability of Finn’s or Rowan’s lorry could not always be guaranteed and Neddie recalls one occasion which the volunteer firemen were never to forget. Responding quickly to the fire siren they togged out and stood ready with the trailer pump awaiting the arrival of one of the lorries. As they waited on the Square the saw the Curragh fire tender race through the town on the way to the fire in Ballylinan. Another one and a half hours were to pass as they waited in vain for their transport to arrive. The Athy firemen were marooned that day and stood crestfallen and somewhat bemused as their Curragh colleagues later passed through Athy on their way home from the fire. It was soon afterwards that Athy got its first fire tender.
The local fire brigade has a very proud record of service to the local community. Whether called upon to attend at fires, road traffic accidents or to render assistance in any situation the fire brigade personnel always perform their duties with enormous dedication and skill.
Their names came flooding back to me as I talked last week to “Neddie” Delahunt who joined the Fire Brigade in 1957. As a youngster of 32 years “Neddie” was the junior in an eight man team which was headed up by Bob Webster of Offaly Street. Bob was the station officer and he lived in Offaly Street almost opposite the cinema where at one time he had been manager. Bob was a brother of Fireman Jack Webster who lived in Butler’s Row. Both had been painters and decorators in their time and indeed Jack continued as such long after his brother Bob took on the management of the local cinema.
The station sub officer was Matt McHugh of McDonnell Drive who had operated the foundry in Meeting Lane with his brother Mick of St. Michael’s Terrace. Mick was also a fireman and the McHughs were the second set of brothers in the local Fire Brigade.
The men who stick out in my memory more than anyone else were the earlier mentioned Tom Langton and Christy “Bluebeard” Dunne. Tom’s laughing face with the fireman’s helmet jauntily pushed back on his head is fixed in my memory. He was a most popular man who lived then in one of the small houses, now gone, near Jacob’s present shop in Leinster Street. In his day job Tom was a postman and both Tom and his wife Marie are remembered as wonderful ballroom dancers.
I knew “Bluebeard” better than I did any of the other fireman as like myself he was a member of the CYMS. While I played snooker under the watchful eye of Mattie Brennan in the hall in St. John’s “Bluebeard” was inside in the card room playing cards with the likes of Ned Cranny and Tom Moore. Several years were to pass before I was able to join them at the card table and a sharper shrewder card player I cannot recall. He had an uncanny instinct for “seeing” the bluff in a game of poker and a never unfailing knack of increasing the ante on anyone who waivered. He was a great friend of the CYMS and enlivened the place with his quick wit which was sharpened in the smoke filled room in St. John’s Lane. Christy worked in the Asbestos factory and was to pass away long before his time as did his colleagues Jack Webster, Tom Langton and Mick McHugh.
When Jack Webster died his son Tom replaced him in the Fire Brigade. Tom was a good friend of mine during our young days in Offaly Street and is now station officer in Athlone where he has lived for many years. By a happy coincidence Jack’s widow Cecilia Webster who lived for so long in Butler’s Row at a time when it was a terrace of small houses has recently returned there to live in one of the beautiful houses built for the local Council.
Christy Dunne Junior joined his father as a member of Athy Fire Brigade and when Christy “Bluebeard” died his place was taken by his second son Tim. He is now the full time station officer based in Athy. Another man who later joined the local Fire Brigade was the late Jack Webster’s son Robbie.
“Neddie” Delahunt recalls the days when the local firefighting equipment consisted of a trailer pump which was hauled to each fire by either Mick Finn’s or Mick Rowan’s lorry. It was not until 1959 or thereabouts that Kildare County Council purchased the first purpose built fire tender for Athy and it was around the same time that the ground floor of the Town Hall was used as the Fire Station. Prior to that the trailer pump was kept in the Council yard at Meeting Lane.
The ready availability of Finn’s or Rowan’s lorry could not always be guaranteed and Neddie recalls one occasion which the volunteer firemen were never to forget. Responding quickly to the fire siren they togged out and stood ready with the trailer pump awaiting the arrival of one of the lorries. As they waited on the Square the saw the Curragh fire tender race through the town on the way to the fire in Ballylinan. Another one and a half hours were to pass as they waited in vain for their transport to arrive. The Athy firemen were marooned that day and stood crestfallen and somewhat bemused as their Curragh colleagues later passed through Athy on their way home from the fire. It was soon afterwards that Athy got its first fire tender.
The local fire brigade has a very proud record of service to the local community. Whether called upon to attend at fires, road traffic accidents or to render assistance in any situation the fire brigade personnel always perform their duties with enormous dedication and skill.
Thursday, September 11, 1997
Plewmans Terrace
Sixty-one years after the houses at Plewman’s Terrace were built it is surprising to find so many members of the original families of the Terrace still living there. The first tenant of No. 12 was Christy Rochford, who with his wife Katie had five children. Sons Paddy and Christy are still living there while their sisters Katie, Bridie and Ena are married and living in England.
Christy’s brother Jack lived next door, having also transferred in November 1936 from the small cottages at Canal Side. Jack was a footballer of note and was better known in Athy as “Bird Ratchie”. He was on the Athy team which won the Kildare Senior Football Championship in 1937 and 1942. The only surviving members of the 1937 team are Johnny McEvoy, formerly of St. Joseph’s Terrace now living in Dublin and Barney Dunne, still going strong in Duke Street. Jack played on the County Senior team in 1939 with two of his Club mates, Tommy Mulhall and Johnny McEvoy. He later went to live in Dublin, leaving in No. 13 his sister “Mame” who reared her nephew John Minahan. John, late of the Evening Standard, is a photographer of world renown whose most recent book of photographs “Shadows from the Pale” featured people and scenes from Athy.
Appointed tenant of No. 14 in 1936 was Billy Walsh who worked as an outdoor assistant for McHugh’s Chemist. He was married to Mary-Ann Chanders, a sister of Cuddy Chanders, whose name is still associated with the All Ireland Football Final of 1935. This was the last occasion Kildare featured in the Senior Football Final. Billy and Mary had three children, Noel recently retired from Minch Nortons and still living in No. 14, May who has since died and Ann married to Noel Wright who lives in No. 24.
The original tenant of No. 15 was C. Cummins of the Bleach. I don’t have any knowledge of him, but “Sconny” Connell lived there before Stephen Bolger was appointed tenant on transfer from Dooley’s Terrace. In his younger days Stephen was a boatman on the Grand Canal. When he was eleven years of age he was one of the crew of Jack Rooney’s Canal Boat which set off from the Canal basin in Athy for Dublin. Jack Rooney who lived in Woodstock Street steered the boat, while Stephen and another crewman took turns in leading the two horses, which traced together, pulled the boat on the journey from Athy to Dublin. The outbreak of the Easter Rising of 1916 coincided with the arrival of Rooney’s Boat at Inchicore where boat and crew were obliged to wait for a week until the Rebellion was over. Stephen died last year and the house is now occupied by his Grand-son, Sean Bolger.
William Day of Canal Side was allocated No. 16 Plewman’s Terrace in October 1936. What connection he had with the next tenant “Major” Toomey is uncertain. The “Major” was in the Irish Army and married Molly Day whom I understand was from James’ Place. Was she perhaps a daughter or a niece of the original tenant, William Day? Their two children are now believed to be in England. The house is now occupied by Mary Mulhall, the widow of Paddy “Whack” Mulhall.
Mary Brien of Canal Side was the original tenant of No. 17 and her niece Angela Brien is now in the house. Another Canal Side tenant Pat Morrin was given the key to No. 18. A canal boat worker, Pat who was married to Mary Nolan, a sister of Katie Kelly of The Bleach, later worked in England. Their daughter Winifred who married Jim Byrne of Leixlip now lives in her father’s house. The other six members of the family, John, May, Kathleen, June, Paddy and Sheila all emigrated to England. Kathleen and her husband, John Murphy, formerly of Offaly Street return each year to Athy.
Hannah Campion’s house at No. 19 is one of the few terraced houses which has not remained in the same family. Mick Kane and family now live there. Hannah’s daughter Molly married a Moran of Meeting Lane and her two sons emigrated to England.
Tom Holligan, a widower, lived in No. 20 with his daughter Nan, both of whom are now deceased. Catherine Byrne, daughter of Winifred Byrne of No. 18, now lives there with her husband, Patsy Campion. Next door was Matt Kennedy, another former Canal Side tenant who died unmarried and apparently unremembered. Paddy and Lil Murphy later lived there with Lil’s sister, but they too have passed on. It is now owned by Mrs. Redmond.
James Byrne, known locally as “Shopboy” lived in No. 22 and his daughter Agnes married Pat Carthy. The family nickname has passed down the generations to James’ Grand-son.
The second last terraced house in the area, previously known as Beggar’s End was given by Athy Urban Council to T. Power. The initial “T.” hides from us the knowledge of whether the tenant was male or female and now no-one can tell me of the Power family. Biddy Davis is remembered as living here with her daughter Maria who married Christy Donnelly of Rockfield and her son Paddy who married Patsy Delahunt’s daughter, “Tal”.
Another tenant allocated No. 24 and noted in the Council records simply as “J. Lambe” is not recalled. Winnie Ryan later lived there with her children Patsy, Johnny, Toss and Maire, the last of whom married one of the Keyes of William Street. Toss Ryan was a very good footballer who played in two County Championship Finals for Athy in 1941 and 1942, winning a senior medal in the latter year with his friend and neighbour, “Bird” Rochford. Toss was one of several Athy Club players who figured on the County Kildare Senior Team in the early 1940’s. He later emigrated to England where he died. Noel Wright, married to Ann Walsh, formerly of No. 14 now lives in the last house in the Terrace.
Family and kinship have been the focus of many scholarly sociological studies in the past. I have often felt that a similar study of Athy would be an interesting addition to the literature of the town I was reminded of this when recently reviewing the names of the first tenants appointed to the then newly built houses on the Kilkenny Road in November 1936. The twenty four house scheme was later called Plewman’s Terrace in recognition of the long service of Thomas Plewman as a Member and Chairman of Athy Urban District Council.. Plewman’s Terrace was one of several new housing schemes provided in the 1930’s specifically to accommodate families who required to be re-housed from the old lanes and alleyways of the town.
Once such area cleared of substandard housing was Canal Side from where twelve families were re-housed in Plewman’s Terrace. The previous year Mullery’s field bordering on the canal side houses was chosen as the site for the new asbestos factory. Presumably the demolition of these houses and the consequent site clearance facilitated the factory layout. Another area from where many of the new tenants were relocated was Blackparks.
The first tenants of Plewman’s Terrace moved into their houses before Christmas 1936. Martin Timpson of the Bleach was tenant of number 1. Nicknamed “Nashie”, he worked on Plewman’s farm and was married to “Polly” Byrne. Their son Martin worked as a Porter in the Hibernian Bank, another son Al in Minch’s Terrace and a daughter Julia was married in England. All are now dead and the house is now occupied by Kieran Bergin whose grandfather was one of the original tenants in Plewman’s Terrace.
Martin Doogue of Blackparks was appointed tenant of number 2 but apparently moved out in the early stage to number 11. “Essie” Power is remembered as living in number 2 and her daughter Kitty lives there today with her own daughter Eithne and son in law Johnny Moore. Kitty’s late husband, “Rambler” Byrne worked in Doyle’s pawn shop and other members of the family who lived in number 2 were her brothers Paddy who worked in Plewman’s and Andy both of whom have since died. Her sister May is married and living abroad.
Pat Leonard of Upper William Street was tenant of number 3 where he lived with his wife Katie and six children. Pat worked in Minch Nortons and of his six children, Mary who married Jack Murphy of St. Joseph’s Terrace is still happily with us. Jack, Stephen, Jimmy and Maggie died unmarried at relatively young ages while Paddy the only married son is also deceased. The house is now occupied by the Kelly family who have connections with the terrace but this is one of the few houses in Plewman’s Terrace where is there is no continuing link with the original tenant of 61 years ago.
The tenancy of number 4 went to Christopher Lammon of Blackparks who was married to Chrissie Kelly. Christopher worked in the Asbestos factory before emigrating to England. Their eldest son John, known locally as “Big John” also worked for a while in the Asbestos factory and has since died. Christopher married Lily Prendergast of Gouleyduff while Jim, Martin and “Sonny” emigrated to England. The remaining members of the family also took the emigrant boat but subsequently returned. Mary married John Neill of Offaly Street while Bridie married Jimmy O’Leary but later returned to live in number 4. In number 5 lived Elizabeth Lammon who was mother of Christopher her next door neighbour. Elizabeth’s other children included “Babe” Lammon who married Tom Morrin and their son Billy is now living in number 5. Another daughter was Lizzie who went to England to work and who is still remembered in the terrace for the wireless set she brought home for her mother. Everyone in Plewman’s Terrace crowded into number 5 to hear the news on Lizzie’s wireless, at a time when it was the only one on the terrace.
Darby Delaney of Blackparks was allocated number 6. He was a tailor who married Nanny Daly and their children included Paddy and Mary who went abroad, and Biddy who is now in Cork. Other family members included Annie Whelan of Pairc Bhride and Betty who now lives in the house in the Bleach to which the Delaney Family subsequently transferred. Kitty Scully, mother of Noel Scully now lives in number 6.
The Urban Council allocated number 7 Plewman’s Terrace to Charles Delaney although I am assured his correct name was Christy. A farm worker in Minch’s, Christy married “Mag” Bolger and their four children are all still living in the Athy area. Sarah who married Matt Davis lives in number 7 while her sister Mary who married P.J. O’Rourke lives in Geraldine. Nan married Mick Hopkins who worked in Cunninghams Pub in William Street and now lives in Ballylinan. Not far away is Christy who married Maura Maher from Monasterevin and after spending some years in England, they are now living in Gouleyduff.
The Urban Council’s Minute book discloses that J. Bolger junior was appointed tenant of number 8 Plewman’s Terrace. His full name was Johnny “Nailer” Bolger who worked for a while in England before joining D. & J. Carbery’s, Building Contractors. He married Molly Delaney of Ballylinan and of their eight children, all but three were living in Athy. Sadie who married Jim Moore of Dooley’s Terrace died last year, while Patsy, John and Kate are in England. Josie who recently retired from St. Vincent’s hospital still lives in number 8 while her brother Frank is in Forest Park and her sister Rita Ward lives in Castle Park.
James Grant of Blackparks lived next door and his son Peter is still living there today. James worked in Minch’s and he and his wife Bridget had five children, four of whom sadly were to die at a very young age in the 1940’s. James “Twinnie” Byrne lived next door to the Grants. Described as a small man and a dandy dresser, “Twinnie” married Marie Leonard who was a sister of Pat Leonard in number 3. Their daughter Julia married Paddy Rochford who worked in Minch Nortons and their only son Pat, today lives in number 10 and like his father is employed in Minch’s.
Number 11 Minch’s Terrace was originally allocated to Willie Holligan of the Bleach but for as long as anyone can remember Joseph Doogue lived there. Joseph had been appointed Tenant of number 2 but presumably he transferred to the higher numbered house at an early date. He worked with the Barrow Drainage and was married to Nan Timpson, sister of Martin Timpson who lived in number 1 Plewman’s Terrace. Their daughter, Sheila Bergin is now living in the house.
Christy’s brother Jack lived next door, having also transferred in November 1936 from the small cottages at Canal Side. Jack was a footballer of note and was better known in Athy as “Bird Ratchie”. He was on the Athy team which won the Kildare Senior Football Championship in 1937 and 1942. The only surviving members of the 1937 team are Johnny McEvoy, formerly of St. Joseph’s Terrace now living in Dublin and Barney Dunne, still going strong in Duke Street. Jack played on the County Senior team in 1939 with two of his Club mates, Tommy Mulhall and Johnny McEvoy. He later went to live in Dublin, leaving in No. 13 his sister “Mame” who reared her nephew John Minahan. John, late of the Evening Standard, is a photographer of world renown whose most recent book of photographs “Shadows from the Pale” featured people and scenes from Athy.
Appointed tenant of No. 14 in 1936 was Billy Walsh who worked as an outdoor assistant for McHugh’s Chemist. He was married to Mary-Ann Chanders, a sister of Cuddy Chanders, whose name is still associated with the All Ireland Football Final of 1935. This was the last occasion Kildare featured in the Senior Football Final. Billy and Mary had three children, Noel recently retired from Minch Nortons and still living in No. 14, May who has since died and Ann married to Noel Wright who lives in No. 24.
The original tenant of No. 15 was C. Cummins of the Bleach. I don’t have any knowledge of him, but “Sconny” Connell lived there before Stephen Bolger was appointed tenant on transfer from Dooley’s Terrace. In his younger days Stephen was a boatman on the Grand Canal. When he was eleven years of age he was one of the crew of Jack Rooney’s Canal Boat which set off from the Canal basin in Athy for Dublin. Jack Rooney who lived in Woodstock Street steered the boat, while Stephen and another crewman took turns in leading the two horses, which traced together, pulled the boat on the journey from Athy to Dublin. The outbreak of the Easter Rising of 1916 coincided with the arrival of Rooney’s Boat at Inchicore where boat and crew were obliged to wait for a week until the Rebellion was over. Stephen died last year and the house is now occupied by his Grand-son, Sean Bolger.
William Day of Canal Side was allocated No. 16 Plewman’s Terrace in October 1936. What connection he had with the next tenant “Major” Toomey is uncertain. The “Major” was in the Irish Army and married Molly Day whom I understand was from James’ Place. Was she perhaps a daughter or a niece of the original tenant, William Day? Their two children are now believed to be in England. The house is now occupied by Mary Mulhall, the widow of Paddy “Whack” Mulhall.
Mary Brien of Canal Side was the original tenant of No. 17 and her niece Angela Brien is now in the house. Another Canal Side tenant Pat Morrin was given the key to No. 18. A canal boat worker, Pat who was married to Mary Nolan, a sister of Katie Kelly of The Bleach, later worked in England. Their daughter Winifred who married Jim Byrne of Leixlip now lives in her father’s house. The other six members of the family, John, May, Kathleen, June, Paddy and Sheila all emigrated to England. Kathleen and her husband, John Murphy, formerly of Offaly Street return each year to Athy.
Hannah Campion’s house at No. 19 is one of the few terraced houses which has not remained in the same family. Mick Kane and family now live there. Hannah’s daughter Molly married a Moran of Meeting Lane and her two sons emigrated to England.
Tom Holligan, a widower, lived in No. 20 with his daughter Nan, both of whom are now deceased. Catherine Byrne, daughter of Winifred Byrne of No. 18, now lives there with her husband, Patsy Campion. Next door was Matt Kennedy, another former Canal Side tenant who died unmarried and apparently unremembered. Paddy and Lil Murphy later lived there with Lil’s sister, but they too have passed on. It is now owned by Mrs. Redmond.
James Byrne, known locally as “Shopboy” lived in No. 22 and his daughter Agnes married Pat Carthy. The family nickname has passed down the generations to James’ Grand-son.
The second last terraced house in the area, previously known as Beggar’s End was given by Athy Urban Council to T. Power. The initial “T.” hides from us the knowledge of whether the tenant was male or female and now no-one can tell me of the Power family. Biddy Davis is remembered as living here with her daughter Maria who married Christy Donnelly of Rockfield and her son Paddy who married Patsy Delahunt’s daughter, “Tal”.
Another tenant allocated No. 24 and noted in the Council records simply as “J. Lambe” is not recalled. Winnie Ryan later lived there with her children Patsy, Johnny, Toss and Maire, the last of whom married one of the Keyes of William Street. Toss Ryan was a very good footballer who played in two County Championship Finals for Athy in 1941 and 1942, winning a senior medal in the latter year with his friend and neighbour, “Bird” Rochford. Toss was one of several Athy Club players who figured on the County Kildare Senior Team in the early 1940’s. He later emigrated to England where he died. Noel Wright, married to Ann Walsh, formerly of No. 14 now lives in the last house in the Terrace.
Family and kinship have been the focus of many scholarly sociological studies in the past. I have often felt that a similar study of Athy would be an interesting addition to the literature of the town I was reminded of this when recently reviewing the names of the first tenants appointed to the then newly built houses on the Kilkenny Road in November 1936. The twenty four house scheme was later called Plewman’s Terrace in recognition of the long service of Thomas Plewman as a Member and Chairman of Athy Urban District Council.. Plewman’s Terrace was one of several new housing schemes provided in the 1930’s specifically to accommodate families who required to be re-housed from the old lanes and alleyways of the town.
Once such area cleared of substandard housing was Canal Side from where twelve families were re-housed in Plewman’s Terrace. The previous year Mullery’s field bordering on the canal side houses was chosen as the site for the new asbestos factory. Presumably the demolition of these houses and the consequent site clearance facilitated the factory layout. Another area from where many of the new tenants were relocated was Blackparks.
The first tenants of Plewman’s Terrace moved into their houses before Christmas 1936. Martin Timpson of the Bleach was tenant of number 1. Nicknamed “Nashie”, he worked on Plewman’s farm and was married to “Polly” Byrne. Their son Martin worked as a Porter in the Hibernian Bank, another son Al in Minch’s Terrace and a daughter Julia was married in England. All are now dead and the house is now occupied by Kieran Bergin whose grandfather was one of the original tenants in Plewman’s Terrace.
Martin Doogue of Blackparks was appointed tenant of number 2 but apparently moved out in the early stage to number 11. “Essie” Power is remembered as living in number 2 and her daughter Kitty lives there today with her own daughter Eithne and son in law Johnny Moore. Kitty’s late husband, “Rambler” Byrne worked in Doyle’s pawn shop and other members of the family who lived in number 2 were her brothers Paddy who worked in Plewman’s and Andy both of whom have since died. Her sister May is married and living abroad.
Pat Leonard of Upper William Street was tenant of number 3 where he lived with his wife Katie and six children. Pat worked in Minch Nortons and of his six children, Mary who married Jack Murphy of St. Joseph’s Terrace is still happily with us. Jack, Stephen, Jimmy and Maggie died unmarried at relatively young ages while Paddy the only married son is also deceased. The house is now occupied by the Kelly family who have connections with the terrace but this is one of the few houses in Plewman’s Terrace where is there is no continuing link with the original tenant of 61 years ago.
The tenancy of number 4 went to Christopher Lammon of Blackparks who was married to Chrissie Kelly. Christopher worked in the Asbestos factory before emigrating to England. Their eldest son John, known locally as “Big John” also worked for a while in the Asbestos factory and has since died. Christopher married Lily Prendergast of Gouleyduff while Jim, Martin and “Sonny” emigrated to England. The remaining members of the family also took the emigrant boat but subsequently returned. Mary married John Neill of Offaly Street while Bridie married Jimmy O’Leary but later returned to live in number 4. In number 5 lived Elizabeth Lammon who was mother of Christopher her next door neighbour. Elizabeth’s other children included “Babe” Lammon who married Tom Morrin and their son Billy is now living in number 5. Another daughter was Lizzie who went to England to work and who is still remembered in the terrace for the wireless set she brought home for her mother. Everyone in Plewman’s Terrace crowded into number 5 to hear the news on Lizzie’s wireless, at a time when it was the only one on the terrace.
Darby Delaney of Blackparks was allocated number 6. He was a tailor who married Nanny Daly and their children included Paddy and Mary who went abroad, and Biddy who is now in Cork. Other family members included Annie Whelan of Pairc Bhride and Betty who now lives in the house in the Bleach to which the Delaney Family subsequently transferred. Kitty Scully, mother of Noel Scully now lives in number 6.
The Urban Council allocated number 7 Plewman’s Terrace to Charles Delaney although I am assured his correct name was Christy. A farm worker in Minch’s, Christy married “Mag” Bolger and their four children are all still living in the Athy area. Sarah who married Matt Davis lives in number 7 while her sister Mary who married P.J. O’Rourke lives in Geraldine. Nan married Mick Hopkins who worked in Cunninghams Pub in William Street and now lives in Ballylinan. Not far away is Christy who married Maura Maher from Monasterevin and after spending some years in England, they are now living in Gouleyduff.
The Urban Council’s Minute book discloses that J. Bolger junior was appointed tenant of number 8 Plewman’s Terrace. His full name was Johnny “Nailer” Bolger who worked for a while in England before joining D. & J. Carbery’s, Building Contractors. He married Molly Delaney of Ballylinan and of their eight children, all but three were living in Athy. Sadie who married Jim Moore of Dooley’s Terrace died last year, while Patsy, John and Kate are in England. Josie who recently retired from St. Vincent’s hospital still lives in number 8 while her brother Frank is in Forest Park and her sister Rita Ward lives in Castle Park.
James Grant of Blackparks lived next door and his son Peter is still living there today. James worked in Minch’s and he and his wife Bridget had five children, four of whom sadly were to die at a very young age in the 1940’s. James “Twinnie” Byrne lived next door to the Grants. Described as a small man and a dandy dresser, “Twinnie” married Marie Leonard who was a sister of Pat Leonard in number 3. Their daughter Julia married Paddy Rochford who worked in Minch Nortons and their only son Pat, today lives in number 10 and like his father is employed in Minch’s.
Number 11 Minch’s Terrace was originally allocated to Willie Holligan of the Bleach but for as long as anyone can remember Joseph Doogue lived there. Joseph had been appointed Tenant of number 2 but presumably he transferred to the higher numbered house at an early date. He worked with the Barrow Drainage and was married to Nan Timpson, sister of Martin Timpson who lived in number 1 Plewman’s Terrace. Their daughter, Sheila Bergin is now living in the house.
Thursday, September 4, 1997
Derry and St. Colmcille
Last weekend I visited Derry and completed a journey of pilgrimage which I had first embarked upon earlier this Summer. My visit to Derry followed on an earlier trip to the Island of Iona and the common link was St. Columba or St. Columcille as he is known in Ireland.
The recorded history of the city located on the river Foyle goes back to 546 when a Monastery was established there by Columba who was later to leave Ireland to found a monastic settlement in Iona. The Town and later city of Derry was to develop from Columba’s first Monastery which was known as the Black Church. Derry takes its name from the Irish “Doire” which means “place of the oaks” after the oak forests which were once to be found in the area. Nowadays the name Derry is synonymous with Bloody Sunday, Apprentice Boy marches and perhaps most significantly the seige of Derry which still serves to excite some minds even though more than three hundred years have passed since the Jacobites and Williamites squared up to each other.
I had never before visited Derry but this year’s 1400 Anniversary commemoration of the death of St. Columba afforded the opportunity to see at first hand the city known “so well” in song and so readily identifiable from countless years of television coverage.
The first call was to St. Columba’s Church known as the Long Tower church which although only built in the 1780’s is believed to occupy the site of Columba’s 6th century church . Overlooking the Bogside, the Church is itself overlooked by part of the walls of Derry and the nearby Apprentice boys headquarters. This strange almost eerie juxta positioning, enlivens ones interest in the neo Renaissance style church which was the first catholic church built in Derry after the Reformation. It remains largely unchanged despite the liturgical renewal of Vatican 11 and a certain pride is taken in what is locally referred to as “the commendable restraint exercised following Vatican Council” . The elaborate use of carrara marble throughout the church coupled with the most extensive central gallery I have seen in any Irish Church lends a uniquely appealing aspect to this ecclesiastical treasure. It was here that I came across the first of many links between Derry and Athy as I gazed upon a picture to the left of the baptistry door which serves as a Memorial to the Dominican’s who once had a Monastery in Derry as they also had in Athy.
The next stop was St. Columbs Anglican Cathedral which when built in 1633 was the first specifically Protestant Cathedral built in Ireland following the Reformation. It was one of the new buildings in the City of Derry which was then being laid out on the directions of the Trades Guilds of London. These Guilds as part of the plantation of Ulster were granted the county and the settlement on the River Foyle which in honour of this association was renamed Londonderry.
It was in the Cathedral chancel that I found the next link with my home town when I read the opened pages of the Irish War Memorials laid out in a specially constructed oak case. There amongst the names of the Irish killed in World War 1, I were two Athy men, Edward Stafford Private Dublin Royal Fusiliers died of wounds in France, September 24th 1914 and Thomas Stafford, Lance Corporal, Royal Dublin Fusiliers killed in action in France, 6th September 1916. Strange how it is that in a city synonymous with bigotry and an unquestioning adherence to divisive traditions that these once young men from what could only be regarded as a republican town were still being remembered.
In the Cathedral porch is a metal plinth on which sits a large cannon ball about sixteen inches in diameter which was reputedly fired into the besieged city of Derry in 1689 carrying with it terms for surrender. It was apparently presented to the Cathedral by the Apprentice boys of Derry just before the Great Famine.
The Cathedral bearing Columba’s name is festooned with regimental flags and colours and these with the siege cannonball speaks not of a peaceful Columban heritage but rather of battles and conflicts and emnity between people who in the case of Derry must still serve out their days as one community.
It was with these thoughts that I moved on with my companions to the Guild Hall to meet the Deputy Mayor of Derry. Alderman Miller D.U.P. Member welcomed us to the City of Londonderry whose Guild Hall or Townhall has been bombed on several occasions over the last twenty years. Even the obviously pleasant man with the welcoming words for his “southern neighbours” was himself once the subject of an assassination attack. He survived and was now in a time of a fragile peace extending a hand of friendship to visitors to his city. It was here that I found yet another link with Athy when I noted the name of one of the members of the Irish Society who presented the Guild Hall to the City of Derry at the end of the last Century. It was Sir T. Bowater a name which will be familiar to many of those who worked in the Bowater Wallboard Factory in Athy during the 50’s and 60’s.
There are many contradictions in a City which prides itself on its links with St. Columba. Not least is the almost fastidious observance of traditions which seem to contradict the Christain legacy of the man who was credited with founding Derry or if you prefer Londonderry.
The Columban trail is not confined to the Northern City but extends into neighbouring County Donegal. It was here on the last day of my visit that I ended my pilgrimage to the sites associated with St. Columba. On the shores of Gartan Lough is the Colmcille Heritage Centre which tells the story of the Saint and his association with the area. Not far away is Gartan, some ten miles west of Letterkenny where he was reputed to have been born in 521.
When Columba died, 77 years later on the Island of Iona, he had achieved an importance in the Church which he was never to lose. Ireland’s greatest missionary and his followers have given us the most important illuminated manuscripts in the Christain World. The Book of Durrow, the Book of Lindisfarne and the Book of Kells, all works of Columban missionaries represent, the supreme achievement of Celtic Christian Art.
From the shores of Lough Gartan in Donegal to the Island of Iona off Scotland, the Columban trail afforded me in a unique insight into Saint Columba and his legacy. In the City of Derry, it brought me in to touch with a different type of legacy, the reality of which threatens the very people who inhabit what was the site of the saints first Monastery.
The recorded history of the city located on the river Foyle goes back to 546 when a Monastery was established there by Columba who was later to leave Ireland to found a monastic settlement in Iona. The Town and later city of Derry was to develop from Columba’s first Monastery which was known as the Black Church. Derry takes its name from the Irish “Doire” which means “place of the oaks” after the oak forests which were once to be found in the area. Nowadays the name Derry is synonymous with Bloody Sunday, Apprentice Boy marches and perhaps most significantly the seige of Derry which still serves to excite some minds even though more than three hundred years have passed since the Jacobites and Williamites squared up to each other.
I had never before visited Derry but this year’s 1400 Anniversary commemoration of the death of St. Columba afforded the opportunity to see at first hand the city known “so well” in song and so readily identifiable from countless years of television coverage.
The first call was to St. Columba’s Church known as the Long Tower church which although only built in the 1780’s is believed to occupy the site of Columba’s 6th century church . Overlooking the Bogside, the Church is itself overlooked by part of the walls of Derry and the nearby Apprentice boys headquarters. This strange almost eerie juxta positioning, enlivens ones interest in the neo Renaissance style church which was the first catholic church built in Derry after the Reformation. It remains largely unchanged despite the liturgical renewal of Vatican 11 and a certain pride is taken in what is locally referred to as “the commendable restraint exercised following Vatican Council” . The elaborate use of carrara marble throughout the church coupled with the most extensive central gallery I have seen in any Irish Church lends a uniquely appealing aspect to this ecclesiastical treasure. It was here that I came across the first of many links between Derry and Athy as I gazed upon a picture to the left of the baptistry door which serves as a Memorial to the Dominican’s who once had a Monastery in Derry as they also had in Athy.
The next stop was St. Columbs Anglican Cathedral which when built in 1633 was the first specifically Protestant Cathedral built in Ireland following the Reformation. It was one of the new buildings in the City of Derry which was then being laid out on the directions of the Trades Guilds of London. These Guilds as part of the plantation of Ulster were granted the county and the settlement on the River Foyle which in honour of this association was renamed Londonderry.
It was in the Cathedral chancel that I found the next link with my home town when I read the opened pages of the Irish War Memorials laid out in a specially constructed oak case. There amongst the names of the Irish killed in World War 1, I were two Athy men, Edward Stafford Private Dublin Royal Fusiliers died of wounds in France, September 24th 1914 and Thomas Stafford, Lance Corporal, Royal Dublin Fusiliers killed in action in France, 6th September 1916. Strange how it is that in a city synonymous with bigotry and an unquestioning adherence to divisive traditions that these once young men from what could only be regarded as a republican town were still being remembered.
In the Cathedral porch is a metal plinth on which sits a large cannon ball about sixteen inches in diameter which was reputedly fired into the besieged city of Derry in 1689 carrying with it terms for surrender. It was apparently presented to the Cathedral by the Apprentice boys of Derry just before the Great Famine.
The Cathedral bearing Columba’s name is festooned with regimental flags and colours and these with the siege cannonball speaks not of a peaceful Columban heritage but rather of battles and conflicts and emnity between people who in the case of Derry must still serve out their days as one community.
It was with these thoughts that I moved on with my companions to the Guild Hall to meet the Deputy Mayor of Derry. Alderman Miller D.U.P. Member welcomed us to the City of Londonderry whose Guild Hall or Townhall has been bombed on several occasions over the last twenty years. Even the obviously pleasant man with the welcoming words for his “southern neighbours” was himself once the subject of an assassination attack. He survived and was now in a time of a fragile peace extending a hand of friendship to visitors to his city. It was here that I found yet another link with Athy when I noted the name of one of the members of the Irish Society who presented the Guild Hall to the City of Derry at the end of the last Century. It was Sir T. Bowater a name which will be familiar to many of those who worked in the Bowater Wallboard Factory in Athy during the 50’s and 60’s.
There are many contradictions in a City which prides itself on its links with St. Columba. Not least is the almost fastidious observance of traditions which seem to contradict the Christain legacy of the man who was credited with founding Derry or if you prefer Londonderry.
The Columban trail is not confined to the Northern City but extends into neighbouring County Donegal. It was here on the last day of my visit that I ended my pilgrimage to the sites associated with St. Columba. On the shores of Gartan Lough is the Colmcille Heritage Centre which tells the story of the Saint and his association with the area. Not far away is Gartan, some ten miles west of Letterkenny where he was reputed to have been born in 521.
When Columba died, 77 years later on the Island of Iona, he had achieved an importance in the Church which he was never to lose. Ireland’s greatest missionary and his followers have given us the most important illuminated manuscripts in the Christain World. The Book of Durrow, the Book of Lindisfarne and the Book of Kells, all works of Columban missionaries represent, the supreme achievement of Celtic Christian Art.
From the shores of Lough Gartan in Donegal to the Island of Iona off Scotland, the Columban trail afforded me in a unique insight into Saint Columba and his legacy. In the City of Derry, it brought me in to touch with a different type of legacy, the reality of which threatens the very people who inhabit what was the site of the saints first Monastery.
Thursday, August 28, 1997
Library's in Athy
On 14th November, 1863 an unidentified correspondent writing from Athy referred to the “large swamp around the rooms of the lamented corn exchange building bounded on the West by the sweet Barrow, on the East by the dock and the Literary Mechanic’s reading room, on the South by that part of Emily Square familiarly known as Dirty Row and on the North by public houses and a public bridewell”.
The reading room mentioned in the letter was part of the Athy Mechanic’s Institute formed in 1853 from the nucleus of the Athy Literary and Scientific Institute which in turn was founded in Athy four years earlier. There all the Irish and English papers were available to the Institute members. A small lending library was another of the Institute’s facilities and this was possibly the first library of it’s kind in the town. It was not a public library as such as the facilities were confined to members of the Mechanics Institute of whom there were 21 in 1854 rising to 91 members three years later.
The first public library in the town appears to have opened in the Town Hall on 1st December, 1927. It was operated by Kildare County Council who in February of that year had agreed to extend the County Library service to Athy on the Urban Council relinquishing it’s powers under the Public Libraries Acts. I cannot find any reference to a public library operated before then by the Urban Council and can only assume that they had not exercised any of their powers under those Acts.
A local Library Committee was formed in June 1927 which was largely comprised of local clerics of all denominations in Athy. The local Parish Priest Canon Mackey and his three Curates Fr. J. Ryan, Fr. M. Browne and Fr. M. Kinnane were nominated to the Committee, as were Rev. K. Dunlop, Church of Ireland and Rev. D. Meek of the local Presbyterian Church. Lay members of the committee included Michael “Crutch” Malone, Sydney Minch, P.J. Murphy and James Foley, all members of the Athy Urban District Council, with James Lawler, Town Clerk as the Library Secretary. Controversy raised it’s head even before the Committee had it’s first meeting when Canon Mackey and his Curate Fr. Kinnane declined to accept their nominations “for reasons obvious to the Council”. Apparently the Canon had taken exception to a discussion in the local Council Chamber in February 1926 which prompted his resignation from the local technical instruction committee. I have been unable to find out what gave rise to this action, but perhaps some of my older readers can throw some light on the matter. Interestingly the two other local Curates remained on as members of the Library Committee despite the resignation of their Parish Priest. Later additions to the Library Committee included T.C. O’Gorman, F. Jackson, Dr. J. O’Neill, Dr. J. Kilbride and Fintan Brennan. The offer of a room in the Town Hall for the Mechanic’s Institute was declined by the Library Committee and instead the Committee agreed to store books in a room in the same building which was then being used by Fintan Brennan, the District Court Clerk. Fintan’s usual offices in the Courthouse were then out of commission due to the burning of the Courthouse some years previously. Fr. Brown was elected Chairman of the Library Committee which by now included Miss Bagot, Miss Lalor and Mr. J. Malone of Stanhope St. Mr. B. Bramley of Emily Square was appointed librarian, a position he was to retain even after he took up employment as Water and Sewage Inspector for Athy Urban District Council in September 1928.
The local Curate and Chairman of the Committee, Fr. M. Browne with T.C. O’Gorman who was manager of the Hibernian Bank and P.J. Murphy, draper of Emily Square were asked to look over books in the County Repository Newbridge to select “suitable titles for Athy folk.”
The newly appointed librarian was to report the receipt of the chosen books on 30th November which he described as “a very choice and varied selection and should be a boon to the book lovers of Athy and District”. The library opened on Thursday, 1st December, 1927 when 24 readers joined. Initially it opened one evening a week from 7.00pm to 9.00pm but before the end of the first month with 160 members enrolled the Committee extended the opening hours to two evenings a week. I wonder whether the Catholic Curate who chaired the Library Committee was Maurice Browne who in later years was himself to achieve a certain literary fame as a writer of such excellent works as “The Big Sycamore” and “In Monavella”. Certainly Maurice Browne, the writer, was a Curate in Athy in the mid-1930’s but I wonder whether he was also there in 1927 or was it a namesake of his who chaired the Library Committee. I would like to hear from anyone who can help me on this.
I have nothing but wonderful memories of the local library and Kevin Meaney who was the branch librarian in the late 1950’s. For how many years he acted as librarian I do not know, but Kevin’s love of books and knowledge of writers was always gladly shared with the library users. The magnificent library which now occupies part of the beautiful 18th century Town Hall building is a monument to Kevin Meaney and the many people who over the years worked in the library services in Athy. One of those people was Madge Cafferty who last month retired after 23 years service as branch librarian in Athy. Madge I understand was appointed after Kevin Meaney retired and she oversaw the transfer of the library from it’s original room in the Town Hall to a larger premises in the rear section of the Courthouse building. There the library was to remain for many years until the final move back to the Town Hall following it’s refurbishment under a FAS Scheme in 1992.
The present library occupies not only the small room which once housed Kevin Meaney’s library of the 1950’s, but also the ballroom which was the scene of so many soirees down the years. The quiet but cheerful ambiance of the graceful building provides a perfect backdrop to the library which the general public, both young and old, are now using in increasing numbers.
I have been a member of the library for many years and I am delighted to acknowledge that the courtesy and efficiency of the library staff continues to be as good as it was under the late Kevin Meaney. Madge Cafferty has played an important part in continuing that tradition of excellent public service. She has got to know many people during her period as branch librarian and many in turn have learned to respect the quiet helpful lady who has dealt with their queries and questions concerning books and authors over the last 23 years. We wish her every happiness in her retirement.
The reading room mentioned in the letter was part of the Athy Mechanic’s Institute formed in 1853 from the nucleus of the Athy Literary and Scientific Institute which in turn was founded in Athy four years earlier. There all the Irish and English papers were available to the Institute members. A small lending library was another of the Institute’s facilities and this was possibly the first library of it’s kind in the town. It was not a public library as such as the facilities were confined to members of the Mechanics Institute of whom there were 21 in 1854 rising to 91 members three years later.
The first public library in the town appears to have opened in the Town Hall on 1st December, 1927. It was operated by Kildare County Council who in February of that year had agreed to extend the County Library service to Athy on the Urban Council relinquishing it’s powers under the Public Libraries Acts. I cannot find any reference to a public library operated before then by the Urban Council and can only assume that they had not exercised any of their powers under those Acts.
A local Library Committee was formed in June 1927 which was largely comprised of local clerics of all denominations in Athy. The local Parish Priest Canon Mackey and his three Curates Fr. J. Ryan, Fr. M. Browne and Fr. M. Kinnane were nominated to the Committee, as were Rev. K. Dunlop, Church of Ireland and Rev. D. Meek of the local Presbyterian Church. Lay members of the committee included Michael “Crutch” Malone, Sydney Minch, P.J. Murphy and James Foley, all members of the Athy Urban District Council, with James Lawler, Town Clerk as the Library Secretary. Controversy raised it’s head even before the Committee had it’s first meeting when Canon Mackey and his Curate Fr. Kinnane declined to accept their nominations “for reasons obvious to the Council”. Apparently the Canon had taken exception to a discussion in the local Council Chamber in February 1926 which prompted his resignation from the local technical instruction committee. I have been unable to find out what gave rise to this action, but perhaps some of my older readers can throw some light on the matter. Interestingly the two other local Curates remained on as members of the Library Committee despite the resignation of their Parish Priest. Later additions to the Library Committee included T.C. O’Gorman, F. Jackson, Dr. J. O’Neill, Dr. J. Kilbride and Fintan Brennan. The offer of a room in the Town Hall for the Mechanic’s Institute was declined by the Library Committee and instead the Committee agreed to store books in a room in the same building which was then being used by Fintan Brennan, the District Court Clerk. Fintan’s usual offices in the Courthouse were then out of commission due to the burning of the Courthouse some years previously. Fr. Brown was elected Chairman of the Library Committee which by now included Miss Bagot, Miss Lalor and Mr. J. Malone of Stanhope St. Mr. B. Bramley of Emily Square was appointed librarian, a position he was to retain even after he took up employment as Water and Sewage Inspector for Athy Urban District Council in September 1928.
The local Curate and Chairman of the Committee, Fr. M. Browne with T.C. O’Gorman who was manager of the Hibernian Bank and P.J. Murphy, draper of Emily Square were asked to look over books in the County Repository Newbridge to select “suitable titles for Athy folk.”
The newly appointed librarian was to report the receipt of the chosen books on 30th November which he described as “a very choice and varied selection and should be a boon to the book lovers of Athy and District”. The library opened on Thursday, 1st December, 1927 when 24 readers joined. Initially it opened one evening a week from 7.00pm to 9.00pm but before the end of the first month with 160 members enrolled the Committee extended the opening hours to two evenings a week. I wonder whether the Catholic Curate who chaired the Library Committee was Maurice Browne who in later years was himself to achieve a certain literary fame as a writer of such excellent works as “The Big Sycamore” and “In Monavella”. Certainly Maurice Browne, the writer, was a Curate in Athy in the mid-1930’s but I wonder whether he was also there in 1927 or was it a namesake of his who chaired the Library Committee. I would like to hear from anyone who can help me on this.
I have nothing but wonderful memories of the local library and Kevin Meaney who was the branch librarian in the late 1950’s. For how many years he acted as librarian I do not know, but Kevin’s love of books and knowledge of writers was always gladly shared with the library users. The magnificent library which now occupies part of the beautiful 18th century Town Hall building is a monument to Kevin Meaney and the many people who over the years worked in the library services in Athy. One of those people was Madge Cafferty who last month retired after 23 years service as branch librarian in Athy. Madge I understand was appointed after Kevin Meaney retired and she oversaw the transfer of the library from it’s original room in the Town Hall to a larger premises in the rear section of the Courthouse building. There the library was to remain for many years until the final move back to the Town Hall following it’s refurbishment under a FAS Scheme in 1992.
The present library occupies not only the small room which once housed Kevin Meaney’s library of the 1950’s, but also the ballroom which was the scene of so many soirees down the years. The quiet but cheerful ambiance of the graceful building provides a perfect backdrop to the library which the general public, both young and old, are now using in increasing numbers.
I have been a member of the library for many years and I am delighted to acknowledge that the courtesy and efficiency of the library staff continues to be as good as it was under the late Kevin Meaney. Madge Cafferty has played an important part in continuing that tradition of excellent public service. She has got to know many people during her period as branch librarian and many in turn have learned to respect the quiet helpful lady who has dealt with their queries and questions concerning books and authors over the last 23 years. We wish her every happiness in her retirement.
Thursday, August 21, 1997
Athy's Heritage Centre and the Inner Relief Road
An interesting struggle is taking place at the moment. Unknown to most people its existence is perhaps not even realised by those closest to the issues involved. On one side is the Heritage Town Development which holds out so much promise for Athy’s participation in the National Programme for Tourism Development. In the opposing camps are the plans for the proposed Inner Relief Road for Athy.
Athy once a strategic Town on the Medieval Marches of County Kildare was chosen as one of the Heritage Towns of Ireland for a number of reasons. The richness of its 800 year old history was of course a pre-requisite for any initial consideration. What marked Athy out from the many other Historic Towns in Ireland which sought Heritage Status was its character, its layout and the wealth of its Architectural Heritage.
The sedentary pace of development in Athy over the years ensured that important elements of the building fabric and the layout of the Town had survived until now. Much the same can be said for Galway City where a tasteful and sympathetic development of its surviving building heritage is now taking place. The question posed for us by the Inner Relief Road proposal is whether the benefits claimed for this short to term traffic relieving measure justifies the loss of so many of the elements which gave Athy its Heritage Town Status.
The distinctiveness of the layout of Athy stems partly from medieval influences on the Towns Development. This has given us a linear type pattern of settlement with a Main Street running from one end of the Town to the other with various minor side streets. The dissection of that main street by three almost parallel corridors, a railway line, a river and a canal adds further to the distinctiveness of the towns layout.
Within the town itself, there are many important urban spaces. Emily Square both front and rear is a fine example and constitutes an important Architectural composition normally found only in planned towns of a much later vintage than twelfth century Athy.
The question we must ask ourselves is whether we are justified in changing the distinctive layout of Athy to facilitate the traffic relieving measures which admittedly might well be the most economic solution to our present traffic problems. There are a number of other matters apart from finance to be looked at when arriving at any decision. Will the Inner Relief Road provide those of us who work and live in the town with a safe and as good an environment as would follow the re-routing of through traffic on an outer Relief Road? I think not and those who support the Inner Relief Road should consider the effect on people and on the environment of creating a huge traffic island out the heart of the town.
There are of course financial reasons why the shortest and most direct route should be chosen to divert traffic from Leinster Street and Duke Street. If financial considerations alone were to decide the issue, the Inner Relief Road would proceed immediately. But even more important than money matters in this case are the environmental effects, the safety considerations and the future development possibilities for the centre of the town. Put a new traffic route through the centre of Athy and you will have of necessity restrict - the nature and scope of urban development that can thereafter take place there. If on the other hand you rid the town centre of the stifling influence of through traffic you are then free to develop the important shopping and living elements of provincial urban life in a manner which ensures us a healthy and attractive lifestyle.
I started off this article by referring to the covert struggle presently taking place. The struggle is a real one especially as the Heritage Centre which will be the flagship of Athy’s Heritage status will soon be opened in the Town Hall. It will form a focal point in the previously mentioned architectural composition we all know as Emily Square. That is of course unless the Inner Relief Road ploughs through the centre of Athy in which case the Heritage Centre will be a prime example of bureaucratic foolishness stuck in a traffic island between two parallel roadways. How else could one describe a monument to an Urban Heritage which will be destroyed and lost to us forever if the Inner Relief Road is built.
Incidentally, who is pushing this Inner Relief Road on the people of Athy and by doing so, apparently dis-regarding the feelings of the local people, not to mind the other issues which are raised. Is it the County Manager? or the County Engineer? or from whom does the impetus for the prolonged offensive in favour of the Inner Relief Road come from?
I mentioned the subject of the Heritage Centre today because the Heritage Company of which I am a Member is now seeking contributions from the local community and from local businesses towards the cost of completing work on the Centre. I would not suggest anyone give a penny towards the project unless I was confident that the road project which could destroy so much of our built heritage will not go ahead as planned. I am hopeful that common sense will prevail and that Athy will get an Outer Relief Road thereby ensuring the survival of the distinctiveness and individuality of the Town.
The Heritage Centre represents an opportunity for all of us to invest in the future of Athy. Corporate contributions of £5,000.00 are being received as well as individual contributions up to £1,000.00 or more if desired. While writing of Heritage matters and Athy’s importance and a distinctive and attractive Anglo Norman Irish Town, we should realise that people outside of Athy have perhaps a better appreciation of the towns status. Members of the Cork Historical Society and more recently members of Thomond Historical Society have visited Athy and have commented favourably on what they have seen.
On the 11th October, the Federation of Local History Societies of Ireland will hold its Annual General Meeting in Athy. This is an important annual get together of all local History Societies throughout the country and represents an enormous boost for Athy’s claim to be truly a Heritage Town.
Athy once a strategic Town on the Medieval Marches of County Kildare was chosen as one of the Heritage Towns of Ireland for a number of reasons. The richness of its 800 year old history was of course a pre-requisite for any initial consideration. What marked Athy out from the many other Historic Towns in Ireland which sought Heritage Status was its character, its layout and the wealth of its Architectural Heritage.
The sedentary pace of development in Athy over the years ensured that important elements of the building fabric and the layout of the Town had survived until now. Much the same can be said for Galway City where a tasteful and sympathetic development of its surviving building heritage is now taking place. The question posed for us by the Inner Relief Road proposal is whether the benefits claimed for this short to term traffic relieving measure justifies the loss of so many of the elements which gave Athy its Heritage Town Status.
The distinctiveness of the layout of Athy stems partly from medieval influences on the Towns Development. This has given us a linear type pattern of settlement with a Main Street running from one end of the Town to the other with various minor side streets. The dissection of that main street by three almost parallel corridors, a railway line, a river and a canal adds further to the distinctiveness of the towns layout.
Within the town itself, there are many important urban spaces. Emily Square both front and rear is a fine example and constitutes an important Architectural composition normally found only in planned towns of a much later vintage than twelfth century Athy.
The question we must ask ourselves is whether we are justified in changing the distinctive layout of Athy to facilitate the traffic relieving measures which admittedly might well be the most economic solution to our present traffic problems. There are a number of other matters apart from finance to be looked at when arriving at any decision. Will the Inner Relief Road provide those of us who work and live in the town with a safe and as good an environment as would follow the re-routing of through traffic on an outer Relief Road? I think not and those who support the Inner Relief Road should consider the effect on people and on the environment of creating a huge traffic island out the heart of the town.
There are of course financial reasons why the shortest and most direct route should be chosen to divert traffic from Leinster Street and Duke Street. If financial considerations alone were to decide the issue, the Inner Relief Road would proceed immediately. But even more important than money matters in this case are the environmental effects, the safety considerations and the future development possibilities for the centre of the town. Put a new traffic route through the centre of Athy and you will have of necessity restrict - the nature and scope of urban development that can thereafter take place there. If on the other hand you rid the town centre of the stifling influence of through traffic you are then free to develop the important shopping and living elements of provincial urban life in a manner which ensures us a healthy and attractive lifestyle.
I started off this article by referring to the covert struggle presently taking place. The struggle is a real one especially as the Heritage Centre which will be the flagship of Athy’s Heritage status will soon be opened in the Town Hall. It will form a focal point in the previously mentioned architectural composition we all know as Emily Square. That is of course unless the Inner Relief Road ploughs through the centre of Athy in which case the Heritage Centre will be a prime example of bureaucratic foolishness stuck in a traffic island between two parallel roadways. How else could one describe a monument to an Urban Heritage which will be destroyed and lost to us forever if the Inner Relief Road is built.
Incidentally, who is pushing this Inner Relief Road on the people of Athy and by doing so, apparently dis-regarding the feelings of the local people, not to mind the other issues which are raised. Is it the County Manager? or the County Engineer? or from whom does the impetus for the prolonged offensive in favour of the Inner Relief Road come from?
I mentioned the subject of the Heritage Centre today because the Heritage Company of which I am a Member is now seeking contributions from the local community and from local businesses towards the cost of completing work on the Centre. I would not suggest anyone give a penny towards the project unless I was confident that the road project which could destroy so much of our built heritage will not go ahead as planned. I am hopeful that common sense will prevail and that Athy will get an Outer Relief Road thereby ensuring the survival of the distinctiveness and individuality of the Town.
The Heritage Centre represents an opportunity for all of us to invest in the future of Athy. Corporate contributions of £5,000.00 are being received as well as individual contributions up to £1,000.00 or more if desired. While writing of Heritage matters and Athy’s importance and a distinctive and attractive Anglo Norman Irish Town, we should realise that people outside of Athy have perhaps a better appreciation of the towns status. Members of the Cork Historical Society and more recently members of Thomond Historical Society have visited Athy and have commented favourably on what they have seen.
On the 11th October, the Federation of Local History Societies of Ireland will hold its Annual General Meeting in Athy. This is an important annual get together of all local History Societies throughout the country and represents an enormous boost for Athy’s claim to be truly a Heritage Town.
Thursday, August 14, 1997
China and Seamus Ryan
It is almost four decades since our younger and more agile legs raced up the iron staircase of the Christian Brothers Schools in St. John’s Lane. In the intervening years the former classmates have scattered throughout the world and have never since come together again as a group. Regretfully the premature passing of the late Gerry Byrne made that an impossibility from an early date.
Last week however I caught up with one classmate whom I had not met since a celebration some years to honour the memory of his father and great teacher, Bill Ryan. The classmate was Seamus Ryan, now a medical doctor practising in the International Medical Center in Beijing, capital of China. I was on a visit to the Middle Kingdom as China was termed by the explorer Marco Polo, and of course used the opportunity to renew acquaintances with Seamus. Contact was first made through another classmate, Michael Robinson, formerly of McDonnell Drive, and now of Australia who keeps in regular contact with Athy.
Seamus has spent almost 12 months in China after a number of years in the Middle East. Originally following in the footsteps of his father Bill, Seamus qualified as a teacher, but embarked on a medical career after further studies in Dublin. Working amongst the people of the World’s oldest living civilisation provides Seamus with many fascinating contrasts.
Culturally and ideologically China is a world apart from Ireland. With the largest population of any country in the World, China, despite it’s efforts at population control still accounts for every fourth child born today. This puts tremendous demands on a country where the arable land accounts for only 15% of the entire country. The Chinese Government have imposed very strict regulations with regard to birth control. Married couples are allowed to have one child only. Exceptions are made in the country areas where there is a need for labour to work the land. For that reason rural couples whose first child is a girl can have a second child, but no more. Strict penalties are imposed against those breaking the Government Rules on birth control, including heavy fines and the loss of employment.
In a country which is slowly changing from a socialist to a market economy, the standard of living is improving, but understandably still lags far behind Western countries. The average yearly income for city dwellers is approx. £380, while in the country area the figure is closer to £180 a year.
The grand scale of the Chinese world can be imagined when locals refer to cities of one million population as being of moderate size. The larger cities have populations of approx. fourteen million or so and there are several cities of that proportion. Public transport is not yet up to Western standards, but this is of little consequence in a country where the bicycle is much in use. The bicycle rush hour in Beijing or Shanghai is something awesome to behold as thousands of cyclists travel along the designated bicycle lanes in a seemingly unbroken pattern of wheels. Traffic movement on the roads is another unusual element of Chinese life which almost seems to mirror the Chinese peoples attitude to life itself. For them, unnecessary confrontation is always to be avoided and as you watch the traffic weave in and out avoiding pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike, you begin to understand how it is that so many people can live together in such harmony. Traffic moves purposely yet slowly as the people and machines untangle themselves without great difficulty and always with the greatest of grace and apparent ease. The traffic police manning the junctions are immaculately turned out, always standing to attention, never lounging, while directing the traffic with smart synchronised movements of both hands, reminiscent of the most carefully choreographed performance.
It’s the rural life of China which gives someone from the rich heartland of Ireland the greatest surprise. Every tiny piece of arable land is cultivated. Even in the most mountainous region bordering on the Yangstze River small patches of land have been carved out of the hills and brought into productions. These stepped areas confirm the industry and energy of the Chinese and the pressing need for food production in their country. Nowhere is left untilled. Small patches of soil clinging to a rockface bear the evidence of mans hand and natures bounty in a rich harvest of crops. People, whether toiling in the fields or on these mountainous patches of soil, for they are no more than that, do so without machinery, constantly bending and lifting. That their efforts produce sufficient food for the more than one billion Chinese on the mainland is a lesson for the more richly endowed countries of the world.
All farming land is owned by the State, but in contract to the communist communal system of a few years ago, individuals can now lease or rent arable land. With such a high population and so little land suitable for cultivation, it is not surprising to find that each farmer and his family works less than half an acre, depending on the number of able bodied persons in that family. In turn, the farmers have to sell a quota of their grain to the State, but are free to dispose of the rest of their crop as they see fit.
One aspect of Chinese life which is disturbing concerns the numbers executed each year for apparently minor crimes. More persons were executed in China last year than in the rest of the entire World. Upwards of 4,500 executions were logged, although many more deaths are suspected, although unproven. China has the highest number of capital offences than any other country and many persons are executed each year for offences as minor as theft and even hooliganism.
The Communist Party which governs the country through the Central Committee does not tolerate anything which might subvert the country’s interest. Recently two Tibetans who had merely compiled a list of Tibetan political prisoners were sentenced to long jail terms for alleged espionage. Similarly one of the student leaders of the 1987 Tianaman Square Rally who was originally sentenced to four years imprisonment was last year re-sentenced to another eleven years on other charges arising out of the same Rally. These are some of the disquitening features of life in China today where an Athy man works among the Beijing community.
On his days off Seamus Ryan can visit the Grand Canal which links the capital Beijing with outlying regions, no doubt thinking of the similarly named corridor of water which links his native Athy with Dublin. The name of the two canalways is their only similarity as the Chinese Grand Canal is of massive proportions, extending over 1,800 km. in length. It was built over 1,500 years ago, confirmation if such was required of the existence of a well developed society in early China.
The old Christian Brothers School in St. John’s Lane is represented in many parts of the World today, but surely Seamus Ryan’s posting in Beijing provides the most unusual contrast, socially and culturally with our own country.
Last week however I caught up with one classmate whom I had not met since a celebration some years to honour the memory of his father and great teacher, Bill Ryan. The classmate was Seamus Ryan, now a medical doctor practising in the International Medical Center in Beijing, capital of China. I was on a visit to the Middle Kingdom as China was termed by the explorer Marco Polo, and of course used the opportunity to renew acquaintances with Seamus. Contact was first made through another classmate, Michael Robinson, formerly of McDonnell Drive, and now of Australia who keeps in regular contact with Athy.
Seamus has spent almost 12 months in China after a number of years in the Middle East. Originally following in the footsteps of his father Bill, Seamus qualified as a teacher, but embarked on a medical career after further studies in Dublin. Working amongst the people of the World’s oldest living civilisation provides Seamus with many fascinating contrasts.
Culturally and ideologically China is a world apart from Ireland. With the largest population of any country in the World, China, despite it’s efforts at population control still accounts for every fourth child born today. This puts tremendous demands on a country where the arable land accounts for only 15% of the entire country. The Chinese Government have imposed very strict regulations with regard to birth control. Married couples are allowed to have one child only. Exceptions are made in the country areas where there is a need for labour to work the land. For that reason rural couples whose first child is a girl can have a second child, but no more. Strict penalties are imposed against those breaking the Government Rules on birth control, including heavy fines and the loss of employment.
In a country which is slowly changing from a socialist to a market economy, the standard of living is improving, but understandably still lags far behind Western countries. The average yearly income for city dwellers is approx. £380, while in the country area the figure is closer to £180 a year.
The grand scale of the Chinese world can be imagined when locals refer to cities of one million population as being of moderate size. The larger cities have populations of approx. fourteen million or so and there are several cities of that proportion. Public transport is not yet up to Western standards, but this is of little consequence in a country where the bicycle is much in use. The bicycle rush hour in Beijing or Shanghai is something awesome to behold as thousands of cyclists travel along the designated bicycle lanes in a seemingly unbroken pattern of wheels. Traffic movement on the roads is another unusual element of Chinese life which almost seems to mirror the Chinese peoples attitude to life itself. For them, unnecessary confrontation is always to be avoided and as you watch the traffic weave in and out avoiding pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike, you begin to understand how it is that so many people can live together in such harmony. Traffic moves purposely yet slowly as the people and machines untangle themselves without great difficulty and always with the greatest of grace and apparent ease. The traffic police manning the junctions are immaculately turned out, always standing to attention, never lounging, while directing the traffic with smart synchronised movements of both hands, reminiscent of the most carefully choreographed performance.
It’s the rural life of China which gives someone from the rich heartland of Ireland the greatest surprise. Every tiny piece of arable land is cultivated. Even in the most mountainous region bordering on the Yangstze River small patches of land have been carved out of the hills and brought into productions. These stepped areas confirm the industry and energy of the Chinese and the pressing need for food production in their country. Nowhere is left untilled. Small patches of soil clinging to a rockface bear the evidence of mans hand and natures bounty in a rich harvest of crops. People, whether toiling in the fields or on these mountainous patches of soil, for they are no more than that, do so without machinery, constantly bending and lifting. That their efforts produce sufficient food for the more than one billion Chinese on the mainland is a lesson for the more richly endowed countries of the world.
All farming land is owned by the State, but in contract to the communist communal system of a few years ago, individuals can now lease or rent arable land. With such a high population and so little land suitable for cultivation, it is not surprising to find that each farmer and his family works less than half an acre, depending on the number of able bodied persons in that family. In turn, the farmers have to sell a quota of their grain to the State, but are free to dispose of the rest of their crop as they see fit.
One aspect of Chinese life which is disturbing concerns the numbers executed each year for apparently minor crimes. More persons were executed in China last year than in the rest of the entire World. Upwards of 4,500 executions were logged, although many more deaths are suspected, although unproven. China has the highest number of capital offences than any other country and many persons are executed each year for offences as minor as theft and even hooliganism.
The Communist Party which governs the country through the Central Committee does not tolerate anything which might subvert the country’s interest. Recently two Tibetans who had merely compiled a list of Tibetan political prisoners were sentenced to long jail terms for alleged espionage. Similarly one of the student leaders of the 1987 Tianaman Square Rally who was originally sentenced to four years imprisonment was last year re-sentenced to another eleven years on other charges arising out of the same Rally. These are some of the disquitening features of life in China today where an Athy man works among the Beijing community.
On his days off Seamus Ryan can visit the Grand Canal which links the capital Beijing with outlying regions, no doubt thinking of the similarly named corridor of water which links his native Athy with Dublin. The name of the two canalways is their only similarity as the Chinese Grand Canal is of massive proportions, extending over 1,800 km. in length. It was built over 1,500 years ago, confirmation if such was required of the existence of a well developed society in early China.
The old Christian Brothers School in St. John’s Lane is represented in many parts of the World today, but surely Seamus Ryan’s posting in Beijing provides the most unusual contrast, socially and culturally with our own country.
Thursday, August 7, 1997
Whites Castle
White’s castle has stood as a sentinel on the river Barrow at Athy for at least four centuries. In it’s time it has been a garrison for troops, a prison, a constabulary barracks and now a private residence. It easy to forget the significance of a such a building that is so much a part of our everyday lives. There may have been an structure on the site as early as 1297 when David Fitz le feure was held in the ‘ward of Athy’.
The castle as it presently stands was first built in 1417 by Sir John Talbot to protect the bridge at this important crossing point. In 1422 William Scryvener was appointed constable, a position he was to hold until at least 1426. Athy has always been a very important part of the early Anglo-Norman settlement of Leinster and its strategic role was enhanced by the addition of a fortified tower to the bridge. The government in Dublin noted in 1431 that it considered that Athy was the ‘greatest fortalice and a key town’. By 1505 the castle was beginning to show its age and the 8th Earl of Kildare set about its refurbishment along with that of his other castles at Rathvillly and Castledermot.
The primary purpose of the castle was to protect the bridge but it also served as part of a chain of defences along the Leix-Kildare border particularly from the 15th century onwards. Few doubted the strategic importance of the town. Patrick Finglas, Baron of the Exchequer for Ireland, writing in 1515 in ‘The Decay of Ireland’ believed it necessary that an English captain should have been given control of both White’s and Woodstock castle in order to form a bulwark against the predatory incursions of the native O’More’s of Leix into south Kildare. They had been responsible for the burning of the town of Athy at least four times in the 14th century.
It would appear that originally White’s was not the only tower on the bridge at Athy. In 1516 the Prior of the monastery of St Thomas the Martyr of Athy granted to the Gerald, the Earl of Kildare a castle on the western side of the bridge at Athy. This tower was still evident on the bridge in the late 16th century when Athy was represented on Mercator’s map of the Leix-Offaly plantation.
Maintenance and upkeep of the castle was always an consideration given the importance of the castle. Lord Leonard Grey wrote to Thomas Cromwell in 1536 informing him that materials and masons were being provided for the re-edification and fortification on the castle. The repairs continued through the summer months of June and July. The castle was still being referred to as the ‘new castle’ when Giles Cornewell leased land near the bridge in 1569.
In 1598 James FitzPiers was in charge of the garrison in the castle. The privy council was informed that FitzPiers, formerly a sheriff of County Kildare had broken into rebellion. He refused to surrender the castle and when finally he abandoned its command he broke down the bridge in his retreat.
The castle was to play a prominent role in the confederate wars where the competing Royalist and Confederate armies frequently vied for it’s and the town’s control. The era of the castles final great prominence came in the aftermath of the 1798 rebellion when it served as the prison for the captured rebels. A large extension was built onto the castle’s north face in 1802 to improve the town gaol as it then was. But conditions remained primitive. As a prison the castle had little to recommend it. An prison inspectors report for 1824 stated that White’s castle was ‘without exception the worst county jail I have met with, in point of accommodation having neither yards, pumps, hospital, chapel or proper day rooms’.
The old prison had nine cells and three small kitchens and the prisoners principal diet was bread and water. In the new gaol, built on the Carlow road in 1830,the prisoners were employed in stone breaking, mat making and oakum picking. The Governor was a Mr. Drill who had the assistance of three turnkeys to supervise the prisoners. He was later succeeded by Edward Carter who was governor when the prison closed in 1859.
After its closure as a prison the castle was used as a barracks for the Royal Irish Constabulary until the turn of the century. Today it serves a private residence.
The castle as it presently stands was first built in 1417 by Sir John Talbot to protect the bridge at this important crossing point. In 1422 William Scryvener was appointed constable, a position he was to hold until at least 1426. Athy has always been a very important part of the early Anglo-Norman settlement of Leinster and its strategic role was enhanced by the addition of a fortified tower to the bridge. The government in Dublin noted in 1431 that it considered that Athy was the ‘greatest fortalice and a key town’. By 1505 the castle was beginning to show its age and the 8th Earl of Kildare set about its refurbishment along with that of his other castles at Rathvillly and Castledermot.
The primary purpose of the castle was to protect the bridge but it also served as part of a chain of defences along the Leix-Kildare border particularly from the 15th century onwards. Few doubted the strategic importance of the town. Patrick Finglas, Baron of the Exchequer for Ireland, writing in 1515 in ‘The Decay of Ireland’ believed it necessary that an English captain should have been given control of both White’s and Woodstock castle in order to form a bulwark against the predatory incursions of the native O’More’s of Leix into south Kildare. They had been responsible for the burning of the town of Athy at least four times in the 14th century.
It would appear that originally White’s was not the only tower on the bridge at Athy. In 1516 the Prior of the monastery of St Thomas the Martyr of Athy granted to the Gerald, the Earl of Kildare a castle on the western side of the bridge at Athy. This tower was still evident on the bridge in the late 16th century when Athy was represented on Mercator’s map of the Leix-Offaly plantation.
Maintenance and upkeep of the castle was always an consideration given the importance of the castle. Lord Leonard Grey wrote to Thomas Cromwell in 1536 informing him that materials and masons were being provided for the re-edification and fortification on the castle. The repairs continued through the summer months of June and July. The castle was still being referred to as the ‘new castle’ when Giles Cornewell leased land near the bridge in 1569.
In 1598 James FitzPiers was in charge of the garrison in the castle. The privy council was informed that FitzPiers, formerly a sheriff of County Kildare had broken into rebellion. He refused to surrender the castle and when finally he abandoned its command he broke down the bridge in his retreat.
The castle was to play a prominent role in the confederate wars where the competing Royalist and Confederate armies frequently vied for it’s and the town’s control. The era of the castles final great prominence came in the aftermath of the 1798 rebellion when it served as the prison for the captured rebels. A large extension was built onto the castle’s north face in 1802 to improve the town gaol as it then was. But conditions remained primitive. As a prison the castle had little to recommend it. An prison inspectors report for 1824 stated that White’s castle was ‘without exception the worst county jail I have met with, in point of accommodation having neither yards, pumps, hospital, chapel or proper day rooms’.
The old prison had nine cells and three small kitchens and the prisoners principal diet was bread and water. In the new gaol, built on the Carlow road in 1830,the prisoners were employed in stone breaking, mat making and oakum picking. The Governor was a Mr. Drill who had the assistance of three turnkeys to supervise the prisoners. He was later succeeded by Edward Carter who was governor when the prison closed in 1859.
After its closure as a prison the castle was used as a barracks for the Royal Irish Constabulary until the turn of the century. Today it serves a private residence.
Thursday, July 31, 1997
Business Houses of 1937 Continued
Last week I started to list the various business houses in Athy which in 1937 advertised in the Ballylinan Carnival programme of that year. One of those was the publican and grocery Louis O’Mara who is still remembered in Athy even many years after he died.
Louis of 67 Leinster Street offered a wide range of services including tea, wine, spirit, hardware provisions and coal. His son Michael who was in Athy for a visit recently now runs a very successful public house in Drumcondra known as The Red Parrot.
The L & N Tea Company was in 1937 advertising its stamp collecting scheme which ensured future discounts for its customers. This mind you was in the days long before Green Shield stamps came on the scene. No address is given for the L & N as it was known locally, but most locals will remember it being next to Andersons on the corner of Leinster Street and Emily Square.
Michael Kelly of Leinster Street another grocer and spirit merchant had his premises at the corner of Meeting Lane and Leinster Street in what is now Murphys. He also had a timber and grain Stores and sold hardware seeds and manures. Who knew A.P. Nolan of Leinster Street buyer of corn, wool and most agricultural products who stocked the famous Lepit gas cartridges which he assured us was a safe, sure and cheap method of killing rabbits, rats etc. John J. Collins, Chemist of 15 Duke Street occupied what is now Blooms Flower Shop. 1937 was the year Collins assistant Tim O’Sullivan arrived in Athy from his native Kerry. Tim now retired is living in Church Road. Shaw & Sons Limited another advertiser of 60 years ago still retains its role as a leading supplier of household, drapery, shoes and hardware goods. Duthie Large & Company, main Ford dealers and agents for all leading makes of agricultural machinery are no more and their extensive shop and garage premises in Leinster Street is now given over to a number of different businesses. Their near neighbours Jackson Brothers Limited of Leinster Street advertised as “the best house for family” encouraged all to “get an iron horse and have your own electricity”. I wonder what sort of contraption was referred to there?
D. Meehan was another chemist practising in Emily Square in what is now Mulhalls while A.B. Finn was a butcher in Leinster Street. His premises is now a betting shop. It must have been encouraging for his customers to read that “scarlet ox tongue was always in stock”. Other businesses noted in the carnival programme but now gone was that of publican Michael Hughes of 5 William Street and M. Wall, Ladies and Gents Hairdresser of 17 Duke Street. The latter claimed his as the “most hygienic and smartest saloon in the district”. The Leinster Arms Hotel managed by Miss K Darcy was then a high class family and commercial hotel while Joseph Rigney undertakers was one of the few enterprises which has survived over the years.
James Reid & Son of Market Square, Athy grocery and wines has long changed hands as has Mansfields of Duke Street and Purcells Bros. Butchers of Duke Street. Mansfields was the place for hats, coats, costumes, and ladies apparel occupying the substantial premises now known as Griffin Hawes. McHughs Medical Hall and Loughmans Bennettsbridge are still operating but not so Athy Co-Operative Agricultural Society or Morris Brothers the Satisfaction House described as drapers and shoe warehousemen. Does anyone remember the Morris Brothers whose boast was “Morris sells it for less”.?
Another name not familiar to me is that of Thomas O’Gorman, grocer and publican of Duke Street. Next door to the post office was E. Carroll wine and spirit merchant while Martin Brophy was at the canal side. Names familiar even today included Doyle Brothers established in 1883, Michael Conroy grocery of 70 Leinster Street, EP Mulhall, Publican Hardware and Arms Dealer of Barrow Bridge House and Purcell Brothers, grocers and publicans of William Street.
While the names are familiar none of the businesses have survived.
Newcome Empey 10 Leinster Street, house sign and ornamental painter, HJ Prole 35 Leinster Street, tailor and outfitter, boot and shoe warehouse, David Walsh, Leinster Street, Grocer, Publican and hardware are like their near neighbours P O’Brien, the Railway Bar no longer part of the business life of Athy as we near the second millennium.
It is amazing what changes have occurred over the last 60 years and less. The names over the shop doors are changing with alarming regularity and the younger generation cannot hope to know the men women who were an important part of the business life of the town such short years ago.
Louis of 67 Leinster Street offered a wide range of services including tea, wine, spirit, hardware provisions and coal. His son Michael who was in Athy for a visit recently now runs a very successful public house in Drumcondra known as The Red Parrot.
The L & N Tea Company was in 1937 advertising its stamp collecting scheme which ensured future discounts for its customers. This mind you was in the days long before Green Shield stamps came on the scene. No address is given for the L & N as it was known locally, but most locals will remember it being next to Andersons on the corner of Leinster Street and Emily Square.
Michael Kelly of Leinster Street another grocer and spirit merchant had his premises at the corner of Meeting Lane and Leinster Street in what is now Murphys. He also had a timber and grain Stores and sold hardware seeds and manures. Who knew A.P. Nolan of Leinster Street buyer of corn, wool and most agricultural products who stocked the famous Lepit gas cartridges which he assured us was a safe, sure and cheap method of killing rabbits, rats etc. John J. Collins, Chemist of 15 Duke Street occupied what is now Blooms Flower Shop. 1937 was the year Collins assistant Tim O’Sullivan arrived in Athy from his native Kerry. Tim now retired is living in Church Road. Shaw & Sons Limited another advertiser of 60 years ago still retains its role as a leading supplier of household, drapery, shoes and hardware goods. Duthie Large & Company, main Ford dealers and agents for all leading makes of agricultural machinery are no more and their extensive shop and garage premises in Leinster Street is now given over to a number of different businesses. Their near neighbours Jackson Brothers Limited of Leinster Street advertised as “the best house for family” encouraged all to “get an iron horse and have your own electricity”. I wonder what sort of contraption was referred to there?
D. Meehan was another chemist practising in Emily Square in what is now Mulhalls while A.B. Finn was a butcher in Leinster Street. His premises is now a betting shop. It must have been encouraging for his customers to read that “scarlet ox tongue was always in stock”. Other businesses noted in the carnival programme but now gone was that of publican Michael Hughes of 5 William Street and M. Wall, Ladies and Gents Hairdresser of 17 Duke Street. The latter claimed his as the “most hygienic and smartest saloon in the district”. The Leinster Arms Hotel managed by Miss K Darcy was then a high class family and commercial hotel while Joseph Rigney undertakers was one of the few enterprises which has survived over the years.
James Reid & Son of Market Square, Athy grocery and wines has long changed hands as has Mansfields of Duke Street and Purcells Bros. Butchers of Duke Street. Mansfields was the place for hats, coats, costumes, and ladies apparel occupying the substantial premises now known as Griffin Hawes. McHughs Medical Hall and Loughmans Bennettsbridge are still operating but not so Athy Co-Operative Agricultural Society or Morris Brothers the Satisfaction House described as drapers and shoe warehousemen. Does anyone remember the Morris Brothers whose boast was “Morris sells it for less”.?
Another name not familiar to me is that of Thomas O’Gorman, grocer and publican of Duke Street. Next door to the post office was E. Carroll wine and spirit merchant while Martin Brophy was at the canal side. Names familiar even today included Doyle Brothers established in 1883, Michael Conroy grocery of 70 Leinster Street, EP Mulhall, Publican Hardware and Arms Dealer of Barrow Bridge House and Purcell Brothers, grocers and publicans of William Street.
While the names are familiar none of the businesses have survived.
Newcome Empey 10 Leinster Street, house sign and ornamental painter, HJ Prole 35 Leinster Street, tailor and outfitter, boot and shoe warehouse, David Walsh, Leinster Street, Grocer, Publican and hardware are like their near neighbours P O’Brien, the Railway Bar no longer part of the business life of Athy as we near the second millennium.
It is amazing what changes have occurred over the last 60 years and less. The names over the shop doors are changing with alarming regularity and the younger generation cannot hope to know the men women who were an important part of the business life of the town such short years ago.
Thursday, July 24, 1997
Ballylinan Carnival 1937 and Athy Business Houses of that Year
Do your remember the Carnival held in Ballylinan from August 15th to 29th in 1937. As best I can find out it was the third annual carnival held to raise funds for the primary school opened in the village in 1935. The school which cost £5,600.00 was built on a site provided by John Hovenden and for a number of years the local PP Reverend J. Killian had encouraged the carnival committee in its efforts to reduce the parish debt.
In 1937 McDonalds Amusements occupied the carnival grounds where the most popular attractions were the dodgems, the chairoplanes, the swing boats and the hobby horses. On the first Sunday the No. 3 Army Band gave an outdoor recital while a drilling and gymnastics display featured soldiers from the Curragh Camp. A miniature nine hold golf course was specially laid out for the duration of the carnival while for most people the chief attraction of the fortnight was the nightly carnival dance. This surprisingly enough was held in the new primary school
where each night the Adelaide Melody Band under the directorship of Vincent Rogers held sway from 9 to midnight. The nightly ceili featuring the Ballylinan Ceili Band was held in what was described as the Ballylinan Club. A whist drive and a children’s sports were other notable features during the carnival fortnight.
The Ceili band members who performed every night from 9 to 12 included Joseph Byrne, James Daly, James Brennan, Pat Kaye, J. Loveday, D. Murphy, Joseph Kelly and Thomas Kirwan. John Farrell was responsible for what was described as a touring troupe of more than twenty men and women who performed exactly what I cannot say. The Chairman of the carnival committee was John Murphy with Laurence Dunne, as secretary and Thomas Roche and Mary Bambrick as treasurers. Unusual for events of this kind a very comprehensive programme was issued which as you can imagine was well supported by local businesses through advertising.
Looking through the advertisements 60 years later is like making a tour of the pre war town of Athy which is largely un-recognisable to the present generation. One of the most eye catching advertisements was that inserted by John Farrell, Licensed Carrier, Ballylinan and Athy who exorted his readers to “send it by Farrell”. John apparently made daily trips to Dublin where he had a depot at 10 and 12 Mary’s Abbey.
Cunninghams of William Street advertised their lounge/bar as well as their groceries, provision and hardware. The proprietor was Michael Cunningham later a County Councillor and an Urban Councillor whose premises are now known as the “Canal Bar”. M.A. James of Duke Street had stationery, fancy goods, pipes and cigarettes for sale in a shop which is now no more. Nolans of 6 Duke Street and 27 Leinster Street were drapers offering gents and ladies clothing in addition to furniture and radios. Most of us will recall M.G. Nolan’s premises in Duke Street which is now Moores Chemist shop. I had not realised that Nolans either M.G. or his Mountrath based brother had another shop in Leinster Street in what is now Tom Manley’s.
John Anderson of Market House, family grocer, tea, wine and spirit merchant is one of the businesses sixty years ago still going strong. Andersons, however no longer boast a grocery section while William Crawley’s grocery and bakery in William Street another advertiser in 1937 is long gone. Such is also the fate of D & J Carbery Limited Building Contractors of the Joinery Works, St. John’s and A. J. Mape of Duke Street who had a millinery, mantels and drapery warehouse with dressmaking as a specialty.
Thomas Flood another family grocery, tea, wine and spirit merchant owned the Railway Hotel in Leinster Street. The beautiful brick building is now owned by Margaret Kane. Those attending the Ballylinan Carnival were exorted to visit Thomas Dowling, tea, wine and spirit merchant of Offaly Street “for courtesy, civility, value and attention”. Tom also supplied coal at keenest prices from the premises which remains the only licensed premises in Offaly Street. Tom a Naas man returned to his native town in the 1950’s when he sold his business to the legendary John W. Kehoe. The Commercial House recently revamped and now Supermacs was in 1937 owned by Murphys who had traded as general drapers for over sixty years. Their advertisement referred to the range of goods which were available there including boots and shoes, furniture and bedding, Irish tweeds and linen.
An interesting advertisement which I had not seen elsewhere before was for castings in cast iron, brass and aluminum. Matt McHugh & Sons of Meeting Lane also offered to repair all classes of machinery with hay bogies, ring rollers and plough fittings being a specialty. McHughs foundry has been silent for many years as has that of Tom McHugh his brother which was located in Janeville Lane.
Next week I shall continue my perusal of the advertisements of 60 years ago in the Ballylinan Carnival programme.
In 1937 McDonalds Amusements occupied the carnival grounds where the most popular attractions were the dodgems, the chairoplanes, the swing boats and the hobby horses. On the first Sunday the No. 3 Army Band gave an outdoor recital while a drilling and gymnastics display featured soldiers from the Curragh Camp. A miniature nine hold golf course was specially laid out for the duration of the carnival while for most people the chief attraction of the fortnight was the nightly carnival dance. This surprisingly enough was held in the new primary school
where each night the Adelaide Melody Band under the directorship of Vincent Rogers held sway from 9 to midnight. The nightly ceili featuring the Ballylinan Ceili Band was held in what was described as the Ballylinan Club. A whist drive and a children’s sports were other notable features during the carnival fortnight.
The Ceili band members who performed every night from 9 to 12 included Joseph Byrne, James Daly, James Brennan, Pat Kaye, J. Loveday, D. Murphy, Joseph Kelly and Thomas Kirwan. John Farrell was responsible for what was described as a touring troupe of more than twenty men and women who performed exactly what I cannot say. The Chairman of the carnival committee was John Murphy with Laurence Dunne, as secretary and Thomas Roche and Mary Bambrick as treasurers. Unusual for events of this kind a very comprehensive programme was issued which as you can imagine was well supported by local businesses through advertising.
Looking through the advertisements 60 years later is like making a tour of the pre war town of Athy which is largely un-recognisable to the present generation. One of the most eye catching advertisements was that inserted by John Farrell, Licensed Carrier, Ballylinan and Athy who exorted his readers to “send it by Farrell”. John apparently made daily trips to Dublin where he had a depot at 10 and 12 Mary’s Abbey.
Cunninghams of William Street advertised their lounge/bar as well as their groceries, provision and hardware. The proprietor was Michael Cunningham later a County Councillor and an Urban Councillor whose premises are now known as the “Canal Bar”. M.A. James of Duke Street had stationery, fancy goods, pipes and cigarettes for sale in a shop which is now no more. Nolans of 6 Duke Street and 27 Leinster Street were drapers offering gents and ladies clothing in addition to furniture and radios. Most of us will recall M.G. Nolan’s premises in Duke Street which is now Moores Chemist shop. I had not realised that Nolans either M.G. or his Mountrath based brother had another shop in Leinster Street in what is now Tom Manley’s.
John Anderson of Market House, family grocer, tea, wine and spirit merchant is one of the businesses sixty years ago still going strong. Andersons, however no longer boast a grocery section while William Crawley’s grocery and bakery in William Street another advertiser in 1937 is long gone. Such is also the fate of D & J Carbery Limited Building Contractors of the Joinery Works, St. John’s and A. J. Mape of Duke Street who had a millinery, mantels and drapery warehouse with dressmaking as a specialty.
Thomas Flood another family grocery, tea, wine and spirit merchant owned the Railway Hotel in Leinster Street. The beautiful brick building is now owned by Margaret Kane. Those attending the Ballylinan Carnival were exorted to visit Thomas Dowling, tea, wine and spirit merchant of Offaly Street “for courtesy, civility, value and attention”. Tom also supplied coal at keenest prices from the premises which remains the only licensed premises in Offaly Street. Tom a Naas man returned to his native town in the 1950’s when he sold his business to the legendary John W. Kehoe. The Commercial House recently revamped and now Supermacs was in 1937 owned by Murphys who had traded as general drapers for over sixty years. Their advertisement referred to the range of goods which were available there including boots and shoes, furniture and bedding, Irish tweeds and linen.
An interesting advertisement which I had not seen elsewhere before was for castings in cast iron, brass and aluminum. Matt McHugh & Sons of Meeting Lane also offered to repair all classes of machinery with hay bogies, ring rollers and plough fittings being a specialty. McHughs foundry has been silent for many years as has that of Tom McHugh his brother which was located in Janeville Lane.
Next week I shall continue my perusal of the advertisements of 60 years ago in the Ballylinan Carnival programme.
Thursday, July 17, 1997
Select Vestry - Glebe House
The select vestry of St. Michael’s Athy met on Tuesday 24th October 1824 for the purpose of appointing overseers to inspect the public houses of the parish. The same meeting decided to adjourn until Tuesday 2nd November consideration of the need to enlarge the parish Church which was then located in Market Square. The Minutes of the meeting recorded that in consequence of the great increase in parishioners and the want of seats in the church it was imperative that the Church wardens plan and estimate the cost of extending the existing church but so as to “respect the rights of the present occupiers of pews”.
The adjourned meeting on 2nd November 1824 decided to borrow the sum of £300 from the Board of First Fruits to be repaid by tithes levied on the parish to finance an extension of the church and the provision of new pews. Strangely enough it was also decided to put the new pews up for auction to the highest bidder with the proceeds thereof being applied to liquidating the church debt. A subsequent select vestry minute entry for 1830 showed that the Parish of St. Michael’s was required to borrow the sum of £500 for the Church extension and new pews. Despite their efforts a further select vestry meeting on the 30th July 1833 considered the necessity of erecting a new parish church and a deputation consisting of Reverend Frederick Trench, James Goodwin, Robert Molloy, Reverend Charles Bristow and Dr. George Barker was appointed to meet the Duke of Leinster to seek a suitable site.
In 1835 a petition was submitted to the Duke of Leinster seeking to change the site of the proposed new church to Janeville. There is no record of where the original site was to be located. At the same time a vote of thanks was passed with the Duke of Leinster for his “princely and significant contribution towards the building of the new church in Athy and also for his liberal present of a most eligible site”. The church was opened in 1840.
In 1859 Reverend Trench the one time Curate of Athy but promoted to the Rectorship in 1848 decided to build a Glebe House or Rectory and applied to the Duke of Leinster for a site near the church. The Rectory was designed by Deane and Woodword a well known firm of architects based in Dublin. While Trench as the Rector of Athy was required under the Appropriate Act to finance the provision of a Glebe house he pleaded inability to do so and sought to take out a mortgage to finance the building works.
The building contractor of the Glebe house on what was later known as Church Road was Mark Cross of Emily Square a man about whom I have previously written in connection with the building of small terraced houses in Janeville Lane and Connolly’s Lane. As Reverend Trench’s plans for the Glebe house were being approved the town Jail erected just thirty years previously on the Carlow Road was being vacated. The prisoners and staff were transferred to the County Jail in Naas. Sections of the relatively new jail building in Athy were demolished during the building of the glebe house and the cut stone from the jail was used in its building.
Before the glebe house was completed Frederick Trench the last sovereign of the Borough Council of Athy which had been abolished in 1840 died. On Tuesday the 16th October 1860 as Reverend Trench who resided at Kilmoroney drove in his gig to Athy accompanied by a servant the horse took fright and careered down Offaly Street in the direction of Emily Square. The horse and gig crashed into the medieval gateway known as Preston’s gate situated at the end of Offaly Street. Both Trench and his man servant were thrown from the gig and received serious injuries and on Friday 23rd November the Rector died aged 74 years.
The Leinster Express named Preston’s gate as the cause of many previous accidents involving eleven deaths and lead a campaign to have the gate removed. On the 10th November 1860 the editor of that paper reported to its readers “Preston’s Gate, Athy - this relic of ancient times is about to be numbered amongst the things that were. On last Monday several workmen were employed in throwing it down and ere another week runs round its removal will have taken place. Had it been removed years gone by it would have prevented the many accidents which its obstruction in the way of entrance to the town by the Carlow Road had so often taken place and none so much to be deplored as the late one which occasioned the upset to the Reverend Mr. Trench and his servant the lives of whom are greatly endangered. Its removal will give general satisfaction to the townspeople”.
So passed one of the last and most visible remains of the medieval town of Athy. Fortunately a French draftsman, George Victor De Noyer had recorded in water colour this ancient monument while he was engaged on ordnance survey work in Athy in 1844.
Reverend Trench’s successor Reverend Henry McDonald was responsible for completing the glebe house and was its first occupant. Described as being in the Victorian gothic style the glebe house as it was originally called and rectory as it is now known is an important part of Athy’s built heritage.
The adjourned meeting on 2nd November 1824 decided to borrow the sum of £300 from the Board of First Fruits to be repaid by tithes levied on the parish to finance an extension of the church and the provision of new pews. Strangely enough it was also decided to put the new pews up for auction to the highest bidder with the proceeds thereof being applied to liquidating the church debt. A subsequent select vestry minute entry for 1830 showed that the Parish of St. Michael’s was required to borrow the sum of £500 for the Church extension and new pews. Despite their efforts a further select vestry meeting on the 30th July 1833 considered the necessity of erecting a new parish church and a deputation consisting of Reverend Frederick Trench, James Goodwin, Robert Molloy, Reverend Charles Bristow and Dr. George Barker was appointed to meet the Duke of Leinster to seek a suitable site.
In 1835 a petition was submitted to the Duke of Leinster seeking to change the site of the proposed new church to Janeville. There is no record of where the original site was to be located. At the same time a vote of thanks was passed with the Duke of Leinster for his “princely and significant contribution towards the building of the new church in Athy and also for his liberal present of a most eligible site”. The church was opened in 1840.
In 1859 Reverend Trench the one time Curate of Athy but promoted to the Rectorship in 1848 decided to build a Glebe House or Rectory and applied to the Duke of Leinster for a site near the church. The Rectory was designed by Deane and Woodword a well known firm of architects based in Dublin. While Trench as the Rector of Athy was required under the Appropriate Act to finance the provision of a Glebe house he pleaded inability to do so and sought to take out a mortgage to finance the building works.
The building contractor of the Glebe house on what was later known as Church Road was Mark Cross of Emily Square a man about whom I have previously written in connection with the building of small terraced houses in Janeville Lane and Connolly’s Lane. As Reverend Trench’s plans for the Glebe house were being approved the town Jail erected just thirty years previously on the Carlow Road was being vacated. The prisoners and staff were transferred to the County Jail in Naas. Sections of the relatively new jail building in Athy were demolished during the building of the glebe house and the cut stone from the jail was used in its building.
Before the glebe house was completed Frederick Trench the last sovereign of the Borough Council of Athy which had been abolished in 1840 died. On Tuesday the 16th October 1860 as Reverend Trench who resided at Kilmoroney drove in his gig to Athy accompanied by a servant the horse took fright and careered down Offaly Street in the direction of Emily Square. The horse and gig crashed into the medieval gateway known as Preston’s gate situated at the end of Offaly Street. Both Trench and his man servant were thrown from the gig and received serious injuries and on Friday 23rd November the Rector died aged 74 years.
The Leinster Express named Preston’s gate as the cause of many previous accidents involving eleven deaths and lead a campaign to have the gate removed. On the 10th November 1860 the editor of that paper reported to its readers “Preston’s Gate, Athy - this relic of ancient times is about to be numbered amongst the things that were. On last Monday several workmen were employed in throwing it down and ere another week runs round its removal will have taken place. Had it been removed years gone by it would have prevented the many accidents which its obstruction in the way of entrance to the town by the Carlow Road had so often taken place and none so much to be deplored as the late one which occasioned the upset to the Reverend Mr. Trench and his servant the lives of whom are greatly endangered. Its removal will give general satisfaction to the townspeople”.
So passed one of the last and most visible remains of the medieval town of Athy. Fortunately a French draftsman, George Victor De Noyer had recorded in water colour this ancient monument while he was engaged on ordnance survey work in Athy in 1844.
Reverend Trench’s successor Reverend Henry McDonald was responsible for completing the glebe house and was its first occupant. Described as being in the Victorian gothic style the glebe house as it was originally called and rectory as it is now known is an important part of Athy’s built heritage.
Thursday, July 10, 1997
Betty May
Betty May returned to Athy in July for a few weeks holidays. It was her second trip home to the place of her birth since she emigrated to America in 1949. Betty’s parents, Michael and Julia May, lived in St. Martin’s Terrace and it was with D. & J. Carberys, Building Contractors of St. John’s Lane that Michael worked as a carpenter. He died a short time before Betty made her first return trip in 1969 and her mother, who was then ailing, was to pass away in 1972.
After 49 years in America the sights and sounds of Athy were surprisingly familiar to the woman who as a young girl attended the local Convent school before graduating to Molly Bradley’s shop in Duke Street. “The shops are the same” she declared. “Only the names over the doors have changed.” Names once familiar and now no more tripped off her tongue with speed and accuracy belying the years spent so far overseas. O’Rourke-Glynn, Bradley, Cross, Whelan, Willis, Mansfield, Glespen, Hepburn, Nolan, Farrell, Collins, Townsend, Deegan and Youell conjured up images of another
generation when Betty was a young woman.
The 1940’s was the heyday of the social club in St. John’s Lane and Betty remembered her then young colleagues in the Lawn Tennis, Table Tennis and Drama sections of the Club. Jo and Florrie Lawler, Teresa Corcoran, Freddie Moore, Vera Cross, May and Dympna Ward, Agnes Doyle, Kay O’Brien, May Fenelon and Kitty McLoughlin were just some of the many names she recalled.
She had heard in America of a photograph exhibited in the local Museum room of the Townhall showing the cast of the social club players in Lennox Robinson’s play, “The Far Off Hills.” Betty played the part of “Ducky” in that play which was put on in the Townhall in April 1947. Others in the cast included the father and son combination Dave and Tommy Walsh, Liam Ryan, Tadgh Brennan, Ken Reynolds, Cahill Kennedy, May Fenelon, Jo Lawler, Agnes Doyle and Kitty McLoughlin. The closure of the Museum room to facilitate the building of the Heritage Centre made it difficult to locate the photograph and unfortunately it was not found before Betty had left for America.
She was one of ten children, most of whom took the emigration trail to America. First to go was her eldest brother Jim, who in 1946 went out to his Uncle Bill Bradley in New York where he took up employment as a baker. Jim was a popular member of the Musical Society in Athy and is remembered for his portrayal of Carmen Marinda on the Townhall stage. The “Brazilian Bombshell”, as Marinda was popularly known, was readily recognised as the performer who went through her song and dance routine with outsized bananas on her head, garnished with other fruits. Jim remained in New York where he died almost five years ago.
His Uncle Bill Bradley was one of four brothers who left Athy in the 1920’s for America. Their brother Patsy Bradley owned a public house in Leinster Street, but was to end his days as a baker in the County Home. The Bradleys in turn had been brought out to America by their mother’s brother, Tom King and three of the Bradley brothers, Tom, Jim and Jack lived in St. Louis. Bill Bradley was Vice President of a store in New York City, while his brother Tom was the owner of the Shamrock Bar and Restaurant in St. Louis. Jack’s wife and children later returned to Athy where they lived with her sister Betty Mulhall who had a shop in Woodstock Street.
A year after the eldest May son emigrated to America the second son Sean also took the boat at Cobh for the New World. Sean had been a member of the local C.Y.M. Society and a shoemaker who worked with his cousin Tom May at No. 1 Woodstock Street. He married Irene MacNamara of Stanhope Street and both lived in St. Louis where Sean died earlier this year.
In 1948 it was Bettys turn to give up her job in Molly Bradley’s shop and head westward. As a young girl of 22 years she joined her brothers and uncles in St. Louis, knowing that she might never again see her family in Ireland. The employment situation in this country just three years after the end of the Second World War was quite hopeless. There was little new industrial development and virtually no worthwhile employment prospects for the younger generation. It is no wonder then that Betty and thousands more like her were part of the great exodus which started in the provincial towns of Ireland in the 1940’s and ended in the industrial towns of England or the seemingly more exotic cities of America. Betty was never again to see her father who died a year before she returned to Ireland in 1969.
Other members of the May family also emigrated to America, including Betty’s sisters Maureen, Joan and Judy, all of whom were to return to Ireland where they married and settled down. Her brother Christy who had worked as a carpenter with his father left for America in 1952 where he remained until he died three years ago. Of the remaining members of the May family, her brother Patrick is in Tomard, Ann is in Kingsgrove and Derry, the youngest of the family and the one I best remember is running the famous Chez Hans Restaurant in Cashel with her husband.
Betty, now a cheerful grandmother, married Don Muckerman and has two children and six grandchildren. Her husband Don served as a navigator on no less than 35 missions over Germany during World War II and luckily survived, despite being shot down. A near neighbour of hers in St. Louis is Kay Walsh, formerly of Athy, whose mother was Molly Walsh of Barrack Street. It was lovely to meet Betty May on this trip, one I hope of many more she will have the opportunity and energy to make in the years to come.
After 49 years in America the sights and sounds of Athy were surprisingly familiar to the woman who as a young girl attended the local Convent school before graduating to Molly Bradley’s shop in Duke Street. “The shops are the same” she declared. “Only the names over the doors have changed.” Names once familiar and now no more tripped off her tongue with speed and accuracy belying the years spent so far overseas. O’Rourke-Glynn, Bradley, Cross, Whelan, Willis, Mansfield, Glespen, Hepburn, Nolan, Farrell, Collins, Townsend, Deegan and Youell conjured up images of another
generation when Betty was a young woman.
The 1940’s was the heyday of the social club in St. John’s Lane and Betty remembered her then young colleagues in the Lawn Tennis, Table Tennis and Drama sections of the Club. Jo and Florrie Lawler, Teresa Corcoran, Freddie Moore, Vera Cross, May and Dympna Ward, Agnes Doyle, Kay O’Brien, May Fenelon and Kitty McLoughlin were just some of the many names she recalled.
She had heard in America of a photograph exhibited in the local Museum room of the Townhall showing the cast of the social club players in Lennox Robinson’s play, “The Far Off Hills.” Betty played the part of “Ducky” in that play which was put on in the Townhall in April 1947. Others in the cast included the father and son combination Dave and Tommy Walsh, Liam Ryan, Tadgh Brennan, Ken Reynolds, Cahill Kennedy, May Fenelon, Jo Lawler, Agnes Doyle and Kitty McLoughlin. The closure of the Museum room to facilitate the building of the Heritage Centre made it difficult to locate the photograph and unfortunately it was not found before Betty had left for America.
She was one of ten children, most of whom took the emigration trail to America. First to go was her eldest brother Jim, who in 1946 went out to his Uncle Bill Bradley in New York where he took up employment as a baker. Jim was a popular member of the Musical Society in Athy and is remembered for his portrayal of Carmen Marinda on the Townhall stage. The “Brazilian Bombshell”, as Marinda was popularly known, was readily recognised as the performer who went through her song and dance routine with outsized bananas on her head, garnished with other fruits. Jim remained in New York where he died almost five years ago.
His Uncle Bill Bradley was one of four brothers who left Athy in the 1920’s for America. Their brother Patsy Bradley owned a public house in Leinster Street, but was to end his days as a baker in the County Home. The Bradleys in turn had been brought out to America by their mother’s brother, Tom King and three of the Bradley brothers, Tom, Jim and Jack lived in St. Louis. Bill Bradley was Vice President of a store in New York City, while his brother Tom was the owner of the Shamrock Bar and Restaurant in St. Louis. Jack’s wife and children later returned to Athy where they lived with her sister Betty Mulhall who had a shop in Woodstock Street.
A year after the eldest May son emigrated to America the second son Sean also took the boat at Cobh for the New World. Sean had been a member of the local C.Y.M. Society and a shoemaker who worked with his cousin Tom May at No. 1 Woodstock Street. He married Irene MacNamara of Stanhope Street and both lived in St. Louis where Sean died earlier this year.
In 1948 it was Bettys turn to give up her job in Molly Bradley’s shop and head westward. As a young girl of 22 years she joined her brothers and uncles in St. Louis, knowing that she might never again see her family in Ireland. The employment situation in this country just three years after the end of the Second World War was quite hopeless. There was little new industrial development and virtually no worthwhile employment prospects for the younger generation. It is no wonder then that Betty and thousands more like her were part of the great exodus which started in the provincial towns of Ireland in the 1940’s and ended in the industrial towns of England or the seemingly more exotic cities of America. Betty was never again to see her father who died a year before she returned to Ireland in 1969.
Other members of the May family also emigrated to America, including Betty’s sisters Maureen, Joan and Judy, all of whom were to return to Ireland where they married and settled down. Her brother Christy who had worked as a carpenter with his father left for America in 1952 where he remained until he died three years ago. Of the remaining members of the May family, her brother Patrick is in Tomard, Ann is in Kingsgrove and Derry, the youngest of the family and the one I best remember is running the famous Chez Hans Restaurant in Cashel with her husband.
Betty, now a cheerful grandmother, married Don Muckerman and has two children and six grandchildren. Her husband Don served as a navigator on no less than 35 missions over Germany during World War II and luckily survived, despite being shot down. A near neighbour of hers in St. Louis is Kay Walsh, formerly of Athy, whose mother was Molly Walsh of Barrack Street. It was lovely to meet Betty May on this trip, one I hope of many more she will have the opportunity and energy to make in the years to come.
Thursday, July 3, 1997
Athy's Workhouse
A few years ago attempts were made to retain part of St. Vincent’s Hospital as a Famine Museum. Despite the active cooperation of the Eastern Health Board, nothing came of the suggestion. Today the former workhouse remains a silent testimony to the many helpless people who passed through it’s doors since January 1844.
The poor who entered the Athy Workhouse were not allowed to succumb to idleness and all bodied inmates were put to work. Generally this consisted of stone breaking, although at Athy Workhouse paupers were also required to help on the Workhouse lands which in 1853 totalled 34 acres.
In October 1853 the Workhouse master summoned four paupers at Athy Petty Sessions for refusing to work and for disobeying his orders. They were sentenced by the local Magistrates to one months imprisonment with hard labour. Criminal prosecution of “vagrants” as the wandering poor were called was a common action taken by both Athy Town Commissioners and Athy Board of Guardians at different times during the second half of the 19th century.
Understandably the Workhouse contributed to the town’s problems in terms of unwanted vagrants and a local citizen was moved to write in a local newspaper in February 1862 “Athy’s rate payers have their doors constantly besieged by troops of beggars in every grade of wretchedness.” On 24th June, 1886 ten poor men and women admitted to the Workhouse on the previous evening were prosecuted at Athy Petty Sessions for vagrancy. Four of them were sentenced to two weeks imprisonment with hard labour.
In 1906 the Workhouse Clerk reported that a large number of vagrants were coming to the Workhouse. “Twenty five this week, forty five last week and forty seven the previous week”. Mr. Minch, a member of the Board of Guardians and a local resident in Athy, claimed that at one time upwards of 1,500 vagrants visited Athy Workhouse in one year but immediately the Board of Guardians instituted criminal prosecutions, the numbers fell to 500. It was also noted that a number of vagrants arrested in the locality of the Workhouse had notebooks containing the names and addresses of the good Workhouses and those which should be avoided, an early example of an Irish Tourist Guide perhaps! Clearly despite the efforts of the Board of Guardians the knights of the road were attracted to Athy Workhouse. Perhaps it was the meat dinners which the Board of Guardians first authorised for the Workhouse inmates Christmas Dinner in 1859 and for Easter Sundays from 1862 which were the big attraction.
Foundlings were another group cared for within the Workhouse and over the years many young babies abandoned at birth were to live out their early lives there. Names were generally attributed to these babies by reference to the Saints’ Day on which they were found and sometimes also the place where first seen. A child found wrapped in hay was names Hays, while another infant found in the Peoples’ Park was given the surname Parker. A boarding out system for children was introduced in 1862, thereby ensuring that as far as possible those youngsters would not spend all their formative years within the grim surroundings of the local Workhouse.
Schools were opened in Athy Workhouse in 1844. On the 16th of July, 1896 the Commissioners of National Instruction reported on Athy Workhouse School which by then was under the charge of the Sisters of Mercy. “The School is in a high state of efficiency and the course of instruction is carried out by the Sisters in charge with earnestness, zeal and ability. The girls of second and higher grade received instruction in shirt making, dressmaking, underclothing, knitting and darning and the use of the sewing machine”.
A further report on the Workhouse School in 1907 noted that “the pupils are making satisfactory progress. Oral English, Arithmetic and Drawing will require increased attention; kindergarten occupation for a large number of infants attending are urgently required.” The Workhouse Schools continued to operate until the 1940’s when the children then remaining in the Workhouse were sent to the local primary schools in the town.
Today the former Workhouse revamped and refurbished over the years is now a geriatric hospital. The wandering poor and abandoned children are no longer to be found there. To a generation which has lived in the shadow of a comprehensive health and welfare system it is sometimes difficult to realise the difficulties experienced in the early years of the workhouse system. Next year will see the winding down of the Great Famine Commemoration events and it is hoped that Athy will remember in an appropriate way the people of the South Kildare area who died so tragically 150 years ago.
The former Workhouse graveyard adjoining the Grand Canal is presently in a sadly neglected state. Perhaps we should show a measure of respect for the dead by having this sacred ground tided up. After all the poor people who died in the Workhouse so many years ago deserve to have the dignity denied to them in life restored even if only in death.
The poor who entered the Athy Workhouse were not allowed to succumb to idleness and all bodied inmates were put to work. Generally this consisted of stone breaking, although at Athy Workhouse paupers were also required to help on the Workhouse lands which in 1853 totalled 34 acres.
In October 1853 the Workhouse master summoned four paupers at Athy Petty Sessions for refusing to work and for disobeying his orders. They were sentenced by the local Magistrates to one months imprisonment with hard labour. Criminal prosecution of “vagrants” as the wandering poor were called was a common action taken by both Athy Town Commissioners and Athy Board of Guardians at different times during the second half of the 19th century.
Understandably the Workhouse contributed to the town’s problems in terms of unwanted vagrants and a local citizen was moved to write in a local newspaper in February 1862 “Athy’s rate payers have their doors constantly besieged by troops of beggars in every grade of wretchedness.” On 24th June, 1886 ten poor men and women admitted to the Workhouse on the previous evening were prosecuted at Athy Petty Sessions for vagrancy. Four of them were sentenced to two weeks imprisonment with hard labour.
In 1906 the Workhouse Clerk reported that a large number of vagrants were coming to the Workhouse. “Twenty five this week, forty five last week and forty seven the previous week”. Mr. Minch, a member of the Board of Guardians and a local resident in Athy, claimed that at one time upwards of 1,500 vagrants visited Athy Workhouse in one year but immediately the Board of Guardians instituted criminal prosecutions, the numbers fell to 500. It was also noted that a number of vagrants arrested in the locality of the Workhouse had notebooks containing the names and addresses of the good Workhouses and those which should be avoided, an early example of an Irish Tourist Guide perhaps! Clearly despite the efforts of the Board of Guardians the knights of the road were attracted to Athy Workhouse. Perhaps it was the meat dinners which the Board of Guardians first authorised for the Workhouse inmates Christmas Dinner in 1859 and for Easter Sundays from 1862 which were the big attraction.
Foundlings were another group cared for within the Workhouse and over the years many young babies abandoned at birth were to live out their early lives there. Names were generally attributed to these babies by reference to the Saints’ Day on which they were found and sometimes also the place where first seen. A child found wrapped in hay was names Hays, while another infant found in the Peoples’ Park was given the surname Parker. A boarding out system for children was introduced in 1862, thereby ensuring that as far as possible those youngsters would not spend all their formative years within the grim surroundings of the local Workhouse.
Schools were opened in Athy Workhouse in 1844. On the 16th of July, 1896 the Commissioners of National Instruction reported on Athy Workhouse School which by then was under the charge of the Sisters of Mercy. “The School is in a high state of efficiency and the course of instruction is carried out by the Sisters in charge with earnestness, zeal and ability. The girls of second and higher grade received instruction in shirt making, dressmaking, underclothing, knitting and darning and the use of the sewing machine”.
A further report on the Workhouse School in 1907 noted that “the pupils are making satisfactory progress. Oral English, Arithmetic and Drawing will require increased attention; kindergarten occupation for a large number of infants attending are urgently required.” The Workhouse Schools continued to operate until the 1940’s when the children then remaining in the Workhouse were sent to the local primary schools in the town.
Today the former Workhouse revamped and refurbished over the years is now a geriatric hospital. The wandering poor and abandoned children are no longer to be found there. To a generation which has lived in the shadow of a comprehensive health and welfare system it is sometimes difficult to realise the difficulties experienced in the early years of the workhouse system. Next year will see the winding down of the Great Famine Commemoration events and it is hoped that Athy will remember in an appropriate way the people of the South Kildare area who died so tragically 150 years ago.
The former Workhouse graveyard adjoining the Grand Canal is presently in a sadly neglected state. Perhaps we should show a measure of respect for the dead by having this sacred ground tided up. After all the poor people who died in the Workhouse so many years ago deserve to have the dignity denied to them in life restored even if only in death.
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