Death of Rev. Francois Murenzi / Jimmy Doyle / CBS Class Reunion

This week the Church of Ireland in Athy suffered the tragic loss of its recently appointed pastor, Reverend François Murenzi.  Everywhere in town this week there was a measurable sense of heartfelt sorrow for the young man of religion who tragically died following a car accident.  For his wife and young children it is a personal tragedy of immeasurable proportions.  For the local Church of Ireland community it is a serious blow comparable to that suffered by a previous generation whose Rector, Rev. F.S. Trench died following an accident in Offaly Street in November 1860.  It was Reverend Trench who had the rectory in Church Road built and the first major refurbishment of that fine building was undertaken by the Church Body shortly before Rev. Murenzi’s introduction as Bishop’s Curate of Athy on the 18^th of July this year.  The sad coincidences which mark the deaths of Rev. François Murenzi and that of one of his predecessors Rev. F.S. Trench are a reminder of the strong links which bind us together as one community, especially so in times of tragedy such as this.  May he rest in peace.

Just a few short weeks ago a school colleague of mine passed away following a long illness.  Jimmy Doyle, like myself, attended the Christian Brothers School here in Athy and from school Jimmy left to join the army where he spent a number of years.  Later on he worked in the I.V.I. Foundry in Leinster Street.  As I wrote that last sentence I wondered if there was any need for me to indicate where the factory was located.  It closed down about 15 years ago, perhaps even less, yet today there are no visible traces left of what was once an extensive factory premises.  [I’m sure many of the younger generation don’t even know what the I.V.I. was]  Jimmy Doyle left the I.V.I. in 1966 or thereabouts following the death of his father Andrew who had been employed by Kildare County Council.  The late Mossy O’Sullivan, Engineer in charge of South Kildare, took Jimmy onto the County Council payroll in place of his father Andrew and Jimmy remained with the Council until he retired earlier this year.  He ended up as a road ganger under current road engineer, Dave O’Flaherty, whom I understand has been in that position with Kildare County Council for the past 28 years.  Jimmy married Rose McCarthy and is survived by her and his sister Mary who lives in Limerick.  His brothers Pat and “Thrush” Doyle predeceased Jimmy.  May he rest in peace.

The Christian Brothers School which Jimmy and I attended was also the alma mater of 15 young classmates who comprised the 1966/1967 Leaving Certificate class.  I understand they will be having a Class Reunion dinner in Tonlegee House on Saturday, 29^th November where they will be joined by their former teachers, Brother Dalton, Mick Hannon and Mick Kelleher.  Tom Doyle of Ballyshannon is one of the principal organisers of the event and he tells me that Martin Miller, formerly of Burtown, will be there, as will local builder Jim Lawler and Matt Page, formerly of Bray and now a teacher living in Kilmallock in County Limerick.  Not too far from him is Kevin Ryan, Vice President of Limerick University who will be joining John Fingleton, now of Portlaoise and John Fitzpatrick, formerly of Geraldine and now living in Dublin.  Michael Perse, an E.S.B. official living in Kill went to the C.B.S. from the Coneyboro, while Frank Fingleton made the daily trip from St. Joseph’s Terrace and on this occasion will travel from his home in Balbriggan in Co. Dublin.  With them will be Joe McNamara of Stanhope Street, now an E.S.B. official in Portlaoise and John Kelly, son of the late Alex Kelly who is a teacher in North Kildare.  Tony Murphy of Ballylinan will have a short journey to make, as will Christy McKenna, formerly of McDonnell Drive who now lives in Castledermot.  Paschal O’Flaherty, whose father Jim worked in the Post Office before moving as Post Master to Greystones, is now in Limerick and will join his former class mates on the 29^th.  Missing will be Paschal Stynes, formerly of Leinster Street.  He is a doctor based in Australia and understandably is not expected to be able to make the trip on this occasion.

It is nice to see the Christian Brothers Alumni keeping in touch, and perhaps just as important, given the times in which we live, by coming together with their former teachers, giving lie to the oft repeated claims made against the religious orders in Ireland.

News of a rowing regatta organised by Athy Rowing Club prompted a search through the archives for the last reported reference to a similar event in Athy.  Just eight years after the ending of the Great Famine the Athy Regatta was revived after a lapse of some years.  It took place on Friday, 15^th August 1856 with six races.  The highlight of the Regatta was the competition for the Silver Challenge Cup, confined to two oared boats, the property of persons living at least 12 months in the town of Athy to be rowed and steered by local residents.  The Regatta continued each year until 1861, when it was believed, for whatever reasons, that it was not to be held again.  This was particularly upsetting to two locals, Daniel Cobbe and Francis Dillon who had won the Silver Challenge Cup, renamed the Corporation Challenge Cup the previous year, and demanded the right to challenge all comers to a race on the River Barrow.  They apparently made arrangements for a boat race which they duly won, thereby claiming the Challenge Cup for the second year.  Faced with the same official reluctance to hold the Regatta in 1862, Cobbe and Dillon again issued a public challenge and succeeded for the third time in a race against two other local lads, Delaney and Keeffe.  Cobbe and Dillon then claimed the right to keep the Corporation Challenge Cup, having won it three times in succession thus bringing to an end the Athy Regatta Races.  I wonder what happened the silver cup which Cobbe and Dillon retained?

I end this week by recalling the invitation which issued from the Select Vestry of the Athy Union of Parishes for the introduction of the Reverend François Murenzi by the Archbishop of Dublin at St. Michael’s Church, Athy on Friday, 18^th July last.  How tragic it is to realise that the expectation and joy of that summer day has given way in just four months to grief and sorrow.  Our deepest sympathy goes to the family of the late Reverend François Murenzi and to the Church of Ireland members of our local community.

Fund Raising for and Building of St. Michael's Parish Church

It was 1952 when the senior curate in Athy, Fr. John McLaughlin, addressed what the local newspapers described as “a well attended and representative meeting” of parishioners in the Christian Brothers School one Friday night.  It was the first night of a campaign which would continue for over 20 years to give Athy a new Parish Church.  Fr. McLaughlin or “Fr. Mac” as he was affectionately known came to Athy in the summer of 1948, a senior curate to the ailing Archdeacon McDonnell.  It was not long before Fr. Mac gave proof of his rare business acumen and genius for organising.  This was not surprising, given that his sibling was Thomas McLaughlin who as a young engineer left Ireland in December 1922 to work with the German firm of Siemens Sehuckert.  Thomas McLaughlin recognised that electricity was the key to Ireland’s economic development and he it was who suggested and developed the Shannon Electrical Scheme which was completed in 1929.

Fr. Mac was a former I.R.A. man who fought in the Irish War of Independence and I have before me a press report of April 1950 which under the headline of “1,000 Veterans Parade Athy” described how Fr. McLaughlin addressed veterans drawn from eight midland counties who had arrived in Athy for the Easter Parade organised by the County Kildare Old I.R.A. Association.  He welcomed them as men who had fought for Irish freedom, but claimed that they had failed miserably in not handing on to their children the splendid tradition of faith and fatherland for which they fought and which was passed on to them by their parents.

Two years later when addressing the public meeting in the Christian Brothers School Fr. McLaughlin indicated that £60,000.00 was required to build a new parish church.  The foundations he claimed could be laid within two years and the church completed by the end of 1956.  He spoke of the old Parish Church situated in Chapel Lane which was torched following the 1798 Rebellion and of the difficulties experienced by the local clergy in the years immediately thereafter in procuring alternative suitable premises in which to say Mass.  Eventually a site was obtained from the Duke of Leinster in the area known as “the Slough of Athy” which was marshy ground forming part of what was once the commonage of Clonmullin.  It was there the new Parish Church of St. Michael’s was built in 1808 and it was still in use when Fr. McLaughlin spoke at the meeting in the Christian Brothers School 144 years later.

As far back as 1908 consideration was given to replacing the early 19^th century Parish Church and following a partial roof collapse in 1937 the issue became even more urgent.  It was around then that Fr. McDonnell, later Archdeacon McDonnell, arrived as the new Parish Priest.  In 1951 architects carried out a detailed examination of the church structure which confirmed that urgent remedial work was required which for substantial expenditure would only serve to postpone for a comparatively short time the issue of building a new church.

Fr. McLaughlin acted immediately.  Consulting Engineers were engaged to make trial holes at a number of sites in the town to consider their suitability as a location for a new church.  The Abbey at the rear of Emily Square, the site of the first Dominican Friary in the 13^th century, was one of those locations, the others being the Old Mill site at Duke Street, a field at Greenhills, the Maltings in Stanhope Street and the grounds of the existing Parish Church.

In the meantime a weekly Parish Draw was inaugurated which attracted support from 2,700 parishioners and contributed almost £100 per week to the Church Building Fund.  The planned Giving Campaign, which is still ongoing, was inaugurated a few years later and with a combination of many other fundraising events the funds required to build the Church were painstakingly accumulated over many years.

On 24^th September, 1960 the Parish Church of St. Michael’s which had served the people of Athy for over 150 years was vacated for the last time.  Immediately work began on demolishing the old structure to make room for the new Parish Church which by then was estimated to cost £150,000.  Also demolished was St. Joseph’s School where generations of Athy boys had started their schooling under the tutelage of the Sisters of Mercy.  The C.Y.M.S. rooms were next to be leveled to the ground, as were the adjoining buildings which had been used as part of St. Mary’s Secondary School.  The first sod on the site of the new church was turned by Fr. Vincent Steen, Parish Priest, on 29^th September 1960 and on 15^th October the following year Archbishop John Charles McQuaid laid the foundation stone of the new St. Michael’s Church. 

On Sunday, 19^th April 1964 the new Parish Church of St. Michael’s was blessed and opened by the Archbishop of Dublin.  The Parish Priest, Fr. Vincent Steen, celebrated the High Mass on the day of the opening, assisted by local man Fr. Paddy Finn and by Fr. Seamus Conway.  The Parish Curates, Fr. Frank Mitchell and Fr. Joe Corbett assisted the Archbishop while the Master of Ceremonies for the day was their colleague Fr. Philip Dennehy who is now our Parish Priest.

Built at a cost of approximately £200,000 it had taken the main contractors, Messrs C. Creedon & Sons of Newmarket, Dublin, three and a half years to complete the new Church.  The architects were Richard Guy and Patrick V. Moloney of Dublin.  Approximately £90,000 had been collected within the parish for the Church Building Fund before the official opening, leaving the balance to be gathered over the following years. 

Designed in the Lombardic Romanesque style the Church had a seating capacity for 1,100, which capacity was subsequently reduced following changes to the layout of the Church interior.  The Church generally is constructed in brickwork, facing bricks being used as finishes to both the internal and external wall surfaces, with reconstructed stone dressings to window and door surrounds, eave bands and string courses. 

In the new church the windows of the transept had been donated by Mrs. J. Owens, Nicholastown, the windows of the nave by the Men’s Sacred Heart Sodality and the baptistery windows by the Women’s Sacred Heart Sodality.  The Tabernacle was donated by the employees of Bowaters Wallboard Mills, the sanctuary lamps by Athy C.I.E. station employees, the altar crucifix by the men employed on the building of the church and St. Joseph’s Shrine by a Mr. Byrne of Willesden, London.  [Can anyone tell me what was Mr. Byrne’s connection with Athy]  Incidentally Fr. McLaughlin, who 12 years previously organised the first meeting which would give us a new Parish Church, left Athy in November 1957 to become Parish Priest of Celbridge. 

Architecturally the Parish Church of St. Michael’s, Athy has its detractors, the common complaint being its size which many feel lacks scale, while its style is not to everyone’s likening.  Probably the fourth Catholic Parish Church in the town, St. Michael’s is the proud inheritor of a tradition extending back beyond the Penal Law decades and the pre-Reformation period when the first St. Michael’s Church served the medieval village of Ath Í.

19th century Schism in Callan

‘During the course of this year most Rev. Dr. Moran Bishop of Ossory applied for a branch of the community for Callan Co. Kilkenny’. Behind that simple entry in the Annals of the Sisters of Mercy, Athy which was made in 1872 is the story of a 19th century schism which divided the people of Callan for almost a decade. The Parish Priest of Callan since 1863 was Fr. Robert O’Keeffe who had succeeded in bringing the Christian Brothers to his parish to provide schooling for young boys. He then turned his attention to the need for educational facilities for local girls and extended an invitation to the Sisters of the Sacred Heart to come to Callan. Dr. Walsh, the Bishop of Ossory, whose permission to open a girls school was sought, delayed his decision. The Bishop eventually refused to allow the nuns to open a school in Callan, despite Fr. O’Keeffe having expended a considerable amount of money in refurbishing a building for use by the nuns. The ensuing animosity between the Parish Priest and the Bishop resulted in defamation proceedings taken by Fr. O’Keeffe against Bishop Walsh. Those proceedings were settled out of court but the parties would continue to be in dispute. The Parish Priest next fell out with his two curates as a result of statements made by them from the parish church pulpit during Sunday Mass. Those statements concerning Fr. O’Keeffe’s dispute with the Bishop were not withdrawn when requested by the Parish Priest, leading to further defamation proceedings against the Bishop. Fr. O’Keeffe lost his case but then issued a fresh set of proceedings against the two curates which he won in the courts. As a result Fr. O’Keeffe was suspended by his Bishop and as the row escalated the two curates were withdrawn from the parish church and directed to say Mass only in the nearby Augustinian friary. The Callan parishioners were divided between supporters of Fr. O’Keeffe and supporters of the Bishop and the curates. The local and national Press reported fisticuffs and running battles on the streets of Callan between the rival groups of supporters. Cardinal Paul Cullen sought to intervene but to no avail. The Ballytore born Cardinal had no option but to formally issue an edict declaring that Fr. O’Keeffe was no longer the Parish Priest of Callan and that parishioners were not to attend his Masses in the parish church. As a result Fr. O’Keeffe issued his third set of defamation proceedings, this time against Cardinal Cullen. The case was heard over ten days in May 1873 in the Court of Queen’s Bench, Dublin and resulted in a victory for the Plaintiff Fr. O’Keeffe. However the damages awarded against Cardinal Cullen were one farthing. Long before the trial took place Cardinal Cullen’s nephew, Dr. Patrick Moran, was appointed Bishop of Ossory. Following his consecration in March 1872 he tried, as had his predecessor Bishop Walsh, to take possession of the parish church in Callan. He failed and during one of the many street rows between the opposing factions a young man was killed. His death had a sobering effect on many of Fr. O’Keeffe’s supporters, some of whom no longer continued to support him. It was following the young man’s death that Bishop Moran approached the Sisters of Mercy in Athy to open a convent in Callan. Five nuns, Sisters Magdalen O’Grady Dillon, Michael of the Sacred Heart Maher, Joseph Magdalen Rice, Stanislaus Joseph Meehan and Raphael Joseph Cummins left the Athy Convent to form the first Sisters of Mercy Community in Callan. The Athy Convent Annals noted ‘the (Callan) convent had been a private residence with spacious grounds and a good garden attached. The nuns had difficulties due to a schism in the parish in which the Parish Priest was the chief party concerned. Happily after some time things were peaceably adjusted and everything settled down to their normal condition.’ In fact it was some years before the Callan dispute was resolved and not before Fr. O’Keeffe’s opponents attacked and destroyed the Parochial House adjoining the parish church where the Parish Priest had continued to live. This happened in 1875 while the Sisters of Mercy lived close by in the former Callan Lodge. Police arrested many of the rioters who were later charged and convicted. Their legal defence team was led by Isaac Butt M.P. who succeeded in having the charges reduced resulting in fines rather than imprisonment. This court case appears to have marked the beginning of the end of the dispute between Fr. O’Keeffe and his clerical superiors. In the summer of 1879 Fr. O’Keeffe left Callan to live with a relation in Thomastown. He is believed to have apologised to Bishop Moran for the scandal he caused before he died in February 1881. The Callan Sisters of Mercy led by Sr. Michael Maher, whose own sibling Mother Theresa Maher was superior of the Athy Convent, won the hearts of the local people and helped to heal the lingering wounds of the Callan schism.

Catholic Clergy Associate with St. Michael's Parish Athy

The earliest record we have of a catholic clergyman in Athy is that relating to Fr. John Fitzsimons who was ordained in 1673 by Bishop Oliver Plunkett and who was noted as the Parish Priest of Athy in 1697. That same year Fr. Henry Dalton was recorded as the Parish Priest of nearby Castledermot. He may have succeeded Fr. Michael Dullroy who was noted as officiating in Castledermot in 1630. An earlier appointee to take charge of a south Kildare parish was Fr. Morris Dowling who was appointed to Narraghmore parish by papal provision in 1624. Over the years there have been many priests associated with St. Michael’s parish Athy. The names of the Parish Priests have been recorded since Fr. Fitzsimons’ time but regrettably many of the curates associated with the parish have not been noted at local level. Many of those unremembered curates may have had interesting life stories which we cannot now hope to discover. What I wonder would Fr. Andrew Colgan, ordained in 1835 and appointed a few years later, have had to say of his Parish Priest Fr. John Lalor who was appointed as Athy’s Parish Priest in 1835? Fr. Colgan wrote to the Archbishop’s Secretary not long after his arrival in Athy claiming that no curate would stay in St. Michaels under what he called the Parish Priest’s tyrannical treatment. Apparently Fr. Lalor had not shared the October collection with his curate, leaving Fr. Colgan unable to meet his financial obligations. He was not to know that before he arrived in Athy Fr. Lalor on hearing of his appointment wrote to Archbishops House that he was ‘well aware of Fr. Colgan’s peculiarities.’ He begged the Archbishop ‘not to inflict this chastisement on me’. Fr. Colgan, believing he was to join the Pro Cathedral staff on New Year’s Day 1840 following his letter of complaint, wrote a thank you letter to the Archbishop’s Secretary. However the records show that he was sent to Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow and later to a succession of curacies and chaplaincies, never gaining appointment as a Parish Priest. Another interesting individual was Fr. Thomas Pope who was ordained in 1833 and immediately appointed as curate in St. Michael’s Athy, where he served for five years. Little is known of his time in Athy, but apparently he left to join a Jesuit novitiate in Belgium. By October 1838 he was on his way back to Ireland and from Liverpool wrote to Archibishop’s House indicating he was not able to persevere in the Jesuit novitiate. ‘I do not know what to do as I fear I will be met with scorn on my return’ he wrote. He need not have feared for he was appointed to St. Marys and was eventually appointed Parish Priest of St. Lawrences and a Canon of the church. Fr. John Lalor was Parish Priest in Athy from 1835 to 1859 and presided over the parish during the Great Famine and the subsequent arrival of the Sisters of Mercy in the town. According to the Annals of the Sisters of Mercy it was local curate Fr. Michael Byrne, with the help of some local lay people, who first mooted the idea of bringing the Sisters of Mercy to Athy. Fr. Byrne’s sudden death put the idea on hold for some time until Fr. Thomas Greene arrived in Athy in 1844. Fr. Greene who remained in Athy until 1862 spearheaded the local campaign which led to the opening of the Sisters of Mercy convent schools in the town. Fr. Greene has been described as a ‘distinguished literary man’ who used the pen name John Harold. I have been unable to discover any of his writings but strangely a fellow curate of his in Athy between 1844 and 1850 was Fr. John Harold who was ordained in Maynooth in 1844. Another curate who served in the parish of St. Michaels under Fr. Lalor was Fr. John O’Rourke, author of the ‘History of the Great Famine of 1847’. He spent a year as a curate in Castledermot immediately following his ordination before coming to Athy parish in 1851 and leaving a year later. Another clerical author who served as a curate in Athy was Fr. Maurice Browne, the author of ‘In Monavello’ and ‘The Big Sycamore’. Fr. Browne served as a curate under Canon Mackey and later Canon McDonnell between 1925 and 1935.

Athy's Band Tradition

Athy’s documented musical legacy stretches back to the 1880s with an extant account which records the existence of a band attached to the local branch of the Catholic Young Men’s Society. The first account I have found to a pipers band in Athy was a reference to St. Brigid’s Pipe Band based in the area of Bert and Kilberry. The band which was photographed in 1919 ceased to exist in or around 1922 when several band members joined the National Army and some others emigrated. The Churchtown Pipe Band emerged in the mid 1930s and I believe the band featured on 2RN, as present day Radio Eireann was then called. The band ceased to function when the local L.S.F. Piper’s Band was formed during World War II. The local pipe band tradition continued with the revival of the Churchtown Pipe Band which operated for a number of years up to about 7 or 8 years ago. Richard Bracken, a member of that band, formed another pipers band which I am glad to say is still going strong. In the early years of the last century the Leinster Street Fife and Drum Band, commonly regarded as the Irish Volunteer’s Band, were very active. On the far side of the town the Barrack Street Band largely comprised of demobbed World War I soldiers continued a musical tradition associated with the original cavalry barracks at Woodstock. In more modern times young bands were formed which gave many local youngsters their first opportunity to develop musicianship. Many of those youngsters later joined the Irish Army School of Music, while many more became part of the show band scene of the 1960s and later. St. Dominic’s Band, of which I have little information and no photograph, was I believe based in the Woodstock area. St. Joseph’s Terrace and more particularly Joe O’Neill, Jim Fleming and Kevin Fingleton from that terrace gave us the well remembered St. Joseph’s Fife and Drum Band of the 1950s. Another band, also based at St. Joseph’s Terrace, was the brass band, which I believe also was named St. Josephs. The two photographs with this Eye are of the Fife and Drum Band and the Brass Band, both based in St. Joseph’s Terrace. There is an urgent need to record as fully as possible Athy’s musical past. I would be delighted to hear from any reader who can help complete the stories of the bands and the musicians of Athy and south Kildare.

Dominican Choir Athy

When the Dominicans departed from Athy on 22nd November 2015 they left us with a historical legacy stretching back to the early days of the foundation of the Anglo Norman village of Ath Ae. They also left their church, consecrated in 1965 and acclaimed as a strikingly original design, which is now in use as the local community library. Amongst many other reminders we have of the past Dominican presence amongst us is the Dominican choir. Strange as it may seem the choir which served the now closed Dominican Church is still in existence, retaining its original name, while participating at 10.30 Sunday morning mass in the Parish Church. The choirmaster is Anne Marie Heskins who also fulfils the same role for the Parish choir which sings at the midday mass on Sundays in St. Michaels. The photo which accompanies this Eye is of the Dominican choir in 1957 with their choir master, the late John Neavyn. 1957 was an important year for the Dominican choir as it participated in the celebrations for the seventh hundred anniversary of the arrival of the Dominicans in the village founded on the banks of the River Barrow. It was a year marked by many celebrations involving religious and civic leaders in the town. Athy Urban District Councillors involved that year were Tom Carbery, M.J. Tynan, James Fleming, Michael Cunningham, Joseph Deegan, Paddy Dooley, Tom Moore, M.G. Nolan and Eddie Purcell. The acting Provincial of the Dominican Order, Fr. R.M. Harrington who had served in Athy between 1935 and 1938, was the guest of honour for the centenary celebrations in August 1957. On arrival in Athy Fr. Harrington first visited the graves of Dominican priests buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery. Then his car, flanked by a guard of honour provided by the local Knights of Malta and preceded by St. Dominic’s Band and by St. Joseph’s Fife and Drum Band, drove down Leinster Street and Duke Street to arrive at St. Dominic’s Church. After Solemn High Mass which was broadcast over a public address system to the large crowd outside the church the Acting Provincial proceeded to the newly erected wrought iron memorial gate which he blessed. The gate and the adjoining cut stone walls were the gift of George Farrell of Spring Lodge. At a subsequent lunch in the Leinster Arms Hotel M.G. Nolan, Chairman of Athy U.D.C., addressed the guests and the Acting Town Clerk, Jimmy Higgins, read an address on behalf of the Council and the people of Athy. Unfortunately the Annals or Chronicles of the Athy Dominicans were not written up between 1949 and 1958 and so a historic day went unrecorded. The prior in 1957 was Fr. W. Colgan and so far as I can ascertain the other Dominicans then in Athy were Fathers Augustine Dowling, Alphonsus Curran, Louis O’Sullivan and Ceslaus Morrissey. The Dominican Choir of 63 years ago is a reminder of a different age when the local Christian Brothers could record in their Annals: ‘Six boys sat the Leaving Certificate examination while eighteen boys sat the Intermediate examinations. The primary school pupil numbers justified the employment of a seventh teacher but because of accommodation limits the Department approved the employment of six teachers.’ 1957 was the year the local Councillor Paddy Dooley was elected to the Dail and that same year his mother Julia, a former Cumann na mBan member, died. The County Medical Officer, Dr. Brendan O’Donnell, reported to the Council on the 85 unfit houses still accommodating families in Athy. 1957 and the 1950s were simpler and frugal times. The photograph of the young girls of the Dominican choir evokes memories of those simpler yet happy days.

Social Club Players Athy

Sixty six years ago the Irish Independent in an article on Athy mentioned that the people of the town ‘are friendly hospitable heart warming folk’. It expressed the view that Athy was a place in step with the times and that the key to its success was the local Social Club which provided a recreational centre for men and women. It not only provided recreational facilities but also served as a cultural outlet for Athy and the surrounding district. The Club began as the South Kildare Lawn Tennis Club with a pavilion and tennis courts in an area of what is now Chanterlands on the Carlow Road. The land was previously owned by Bob Osborne, solicitor and I believe he made the site available free of charge for the new tennis club. In 1939 with the help and cooperation of Major Tynan of Monasterevin and two locals, Sidney Minch and H.G. Donnelly, solicitor the tennis club was able to buy the Legion Hall in St. John’s Lane for £200. The Hall had been built in or around 1926 as a meeting place for the World War I soldiers. The tennis club on the Carlow Road continued for several years and indeed I can remember it sometime in the early 1950s when Mattie Brennan of Offaly Street was the caretaker. In the meantime the former Legion Hall became the centre of the Social Club’s activities. The Club members carried out improvements to the hall to provide a snooker room and a card room, as well as a badminton court. However, the most important part of the Social Club’s activities resulted from the founding of a dramatic group known as the Social Club Players in 1943. I believe the dramatic group’s first stage presentation was in April 1943 when ‘Cupboard Love’, a comedy in three acts by Bernard Duffy was put on for two nights in the Town Hall. Directed by Fr. Morgan Crowe, a curate in St. Michael’s Parish Church it featured many of the club stalwarts whose names would appear in many productions over the years. Liam Ryan, Bella Blanchfield, Florrie Lawler, Tadgh Brennan, Mollie Moore, Paddy Flynn, Rosaleen Timmons, Ger Moriarty and D.S. Walsh. Others who appeared with the Social Club Players in subsequent plays included Pat Mulhall, Ken Reynolds, Jo Lawler, May Fenelon, Tommy Walsh, Jimmy Doyle, Betty May. There are many more names listed in the 19 play programmes I have covering the period April 1943 to February 1959. Space does not permit me to list all the actors and indeed I’m not satisfied that I have details of all the plays put on by the Social Club Players. The Social Club Players were adjudged the best dramatic group in rural Ireland at the Father Mathew Feis in 1949 following their performance of Frank Carney’s play ‘The Righteous are Bold’. The cast were Liam Ryan Freddie Moore, Ken Reynolds, Mary Fenelon, Jo Lawler, Joseph Martin, Tadgh Brennan, Tommy Walsh, Claire Moore and Eileen Darcy. Newspaper reviews of the play noted that ‘the high success of the play was a grand tribute to the producer, Jack McGowran of the Abbey theatre and the stage management of Pat Mulhall.’ The Social Club Player’s success was repeated in 1958 when they won the Fr. Mathew Cup with their stage production of ‘Mungo’s Mansion’. The actors on that occasion were Patsy O’Neill, Jo Lawler, Tom Fox, Kitty McLoughlin, Tommy Walsh, Joe Martin, Gerry McDonagh, Dermot Mullen, Mary Harrington and Tom Fox. The photograph shows these actors with some other members of the Social Club and the Fr. Mathew Cup. The first play I ever saw was the ‘Barretts of Wimpole Street’ put on by the Social Club Players in the Town Hall in February 1953. I was just a nipper, brought to the play by my eldest brother Jack. I can’t remember much of that play but it’s a youthful cherished memory of my first sight of the Social Club Players who were a hugely important group which the Irish Independent of 1954 noted ‘enabled Athy to write a headline for many another town and village in the country, one that is well worth copying.’ Within the past week Jody Fennelly and Nan O’Rourke died. Nan, the last of the old time residents of Offaly Street, lived in the house where the Breen family lived for many years. She was a well remembered and well liked part of my growing up in Offaly Street. Jody was a pleasant good natured man whose passion for Gaelic football, the County team and the Athy G.F.C. were unparalleled. Both will be sadly missed and sympathy is extended to Jody’s family and to Nan’s son Gerry and his family.

Fintan Brennan's record of local events during the War of Independence

On 8th October 1969 Fintan Brennan, retired District Court Clerk, interviewed Paddy Cosgrove at his home in Castledermot regarding the activities of the C Company 5th Battalion Carlow Kildare Brigade during the War of Independence. C Company was based in Castledermot, while the B Company was centred in Kilrush and the A Company in Athy. Fintan, a member of the G Company Monasterevin, was arrested and imprisoned during the War of Independence following a raid by British Army soldiers and R.I.C. men which resulted in the seizure of arms and equipment in Monasterevin. Fintan was sentenced to 5 years penal servitude and his colleague, Hugh McNally, received a 10 year sentence. Fintan’s notes of his interview with Paddy Cosgrove acknowledged that the Castledermot I.R.A. Company was the most active company in south Kildare. Under the leadership of Paddy Cosgrove, who was later Vice Officer Commanding Carlow Kildare Brigade, the Castledermot Company engaged in harassing British troops and the R.I.C. by trenching roads, felling trees across roads and cutting telephone and telegraph lines. Some bridges were destroyed, while the I.R.A. men were frequently involved in raiding farm houses for arms as well as raiding trains and post offices for mail. Early in 1920 many rural R.I.C. barracks were vacated as the local constabulary retreated to the larger towns. On Easter Sunday, 3rd April, the I.R.A. throughout Ireland attacked many of those vacant barracks. The barracks at Luggacurran, a small single storey building, was one of several vacant R.I.C. barracks attacked that night. I.R.A. volunteer John Byrne of Gracefield was killed during the attack, while Peter Hunt of the Kilcruise I.R.A. Company suffered injuries. It took a later I.R.A. attack in May 1920 to destroy the R.I.C. barracks in Luggacurran. On 16th April Grangemellon R.I.C. Barracks was attacked and burned by the I.R.A. Unfortunately I have not been able to find out if this was an action of the Castledermot I.R.A. Company or their colleagues of the Athy A Company. Fintan Brennan noted that the Castledermot Company set a standard for chivalry which was seldom reciprocated by British troops. Paddy Cosgrove received instructions to destroy the local R.I.C. barracks when it was vacated by the constabulary. However when the I.R.A. men arrived at the barracks on 20th July they discovered that the sergeant’s wife and children were still in residence. Arrangements were immediately made to have the family re-housed locally and the I.R.A. men removed the family’s furniture before setting the barracks alight. During that operation one of the local Volunteers was badly burned following a premature explosion but for the prompt action of Paddy Cosgrove would possibly have lost his life. The injured man, together with Paddy Cosgrove who was also injured when saving his colleague, were brought to the Workhouse in Athy [now St. Vincent’s Hospital]. Paddy remembered with gratitude that the official who received the injured man and detained him in hospital for some time assisted the I.R.A. cause by recording the patient’s admission two days earlier so as to defeat R.I.C. enquiries. It’s possible that Fintan Brennan’s sister, Mrs. K. Heffernan, was the workhouse official who helped the I.R.A. on the night of 20th July. She was elected Matron of the Workhouse in 1907 and later married Peter Heffernan who was the Workhouse master. He subsequently lost his job and moved to Glasgow where he was joined by his wife after about a year. He died soon afterwards following an accident and his widow returned to Ireland to be reappointed Matron of Athy Workhouse in June 1917. The Courthouse in Castledermot was also burned down by the local I.R.A. Company on 20th July. A similar fate befell the Courthouse in Athy four days earlier. However it was an individual member of Athy’s A Company who started the fire which destroyed the building. Strangely he was later court-martialled and punished for his actions by the officers of the local I.R.A. Company. The following officers of C Company Castledermot were recorded by Fintan Brennan following his interview:- Paddy Cosgrove, Vice O.C. Carlow Kildare Brigade; Ned Malone, Company Captain; Matt Pender, 1st Lt.; Michael Kavanagh, 2nd Lt.; Johnny Wall, Adj. and Paddy Kavanagh who was also Comdt. of the 5th Batallion Carlow Kildare Brigade. Unfortunately Fintan Brennan did not record the names of the men who under the leadership of Paddy Cosgrove played their part in the fight for independence. Can any of my readers identify the men who were members of the C Company in Castledermot?

The plague village of Eyam

The great plague of London in 1665 was until this year the last substantial epidemic in England. London had three major epidemics, of what later came to be known as the Black Death, between 1563 and 1665. Central government and local authorities tried to control the spread of the plague in 1665 by isolating those affected and restricting the movement of others. It was the destruction of large parts of London during the Great Fire of September 1665 which finally relieved London of the conditions which helped to spread the Black Death. The last visitation of the plague on the mainland of England occurred in the Derbyshire village of Eyam in September 1665. I visited Eyam two years ago, travelling from the Welsh border town of Hay on Wye through the beautiful English Peak District. Eyam is located in the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District and will forever be associated with the plague of 1665/’66 which claimed over 259 lives during a period of self-imposed quarantine. Eyam is a beautiful and historic place which today is known as the Plague Village. Its story is one of community heroism and effective leadership by two clergymen – the 26-year-old Rector of Eyam, Rev. William Mompresson and his predecessor Rev. Thomas Stanley. The latter, a staunch Puritan, had served in the parish for 16 years but resigned on the passing of the Act of Uniformity and the introduction of the new Book of Common Prayer. When the first plague death occurred in the village the two clerics called a public meeting to decide on future action. The villager’s decision would make Eyam one of the most famous villages in the annals of English social history. The plague arrived in the village when a box of clothes was delivered from London to the village tailor. The infected clothing caused the death of the tailor and his death on 6th September was the first of 259 deaths in the village over the next thirteen months. In a village with a population of approximately 350 this was an extraordinary high death rate. The reason it was so high was because the villagers, guided by their rector and his predecessor, agreed to impost a ‘cordon sanitaire’ around the village. They agreed to isolate themselves in the village to prevent the spread of the plague beyond Eyam. The quarantine was effective as no deaths occurred outside the village. The villagers had to be fed and as the village was not self sufficient it fell to the Earl of Devonshire who lived nearby in Chatsworth House to provide food. It was brought to dropping zones on the village boundary, ensuring that no person entered the village itself. It says much for the honour of the villagers of Eyam that having agreed to isolate themselves there were only two persons known to have left the village during the period of the plague. When I visited Eyam the first port of call was the parish church of St. Lawrence which dates from 1350 with many additions since then. I was intrigued to find in the grounds of the church a magnificent 8th century Celtic cross which one time may have been a wayside preaching cross. A little to the left of the Celtic cross was the tomb of Catherine, wife of Rev. Mompresson, who died of the plague on 15th August 1666. Hers is the only known plague grave in the parish churchyard as plague victims were buried by family and neighbours in gardens and nearby fields. Most of those graves were unmarked and are now unknown. The tragic events of 1665/’66 are remembered in present day Eyam where the community celebrates the heroic stance of a previous generation on the last Sunday in August which is designated Plague Sunday. The late John Clifford, Eyam’s local historian, whose wife Francine I had the pleasure of meeting, first wrote his account of Eyam’s plague in 1989. He recounted the tragic loss of local families, highlighting the seven members of the Hancock family who died. The once scattered headstones which marked the Hancock graves have been gathered together and are now in the care of the National Trust. The community isolation of the Eyam villagers was intended, not to protect the local people, but to prevent the plague escaping to outlying areas. The villagers sacrificed themselves for the sake of others. Today we are asked to self-isolate to protect ourselves, our families and our communities. What we are required to do is little compared to the extraordinary self-sacrifice of the Eyam villagers.

John Alcock of Athy and North Island New Zealand

He left Athy 71 years ago determined to make a better life for himself. Now at 90 years of age John Alcock last week returned to the town of his birth travelling from his home in the North Island of New Zealand. Before he started on the long journey his near neighbour Aiden Tierney, formerly of Belview, Athy, suggested that he call on Frank Taaffe, as ‘he will no doubt be interested in talking to you’. John, accompanied by his daughter Margaret, were spending eight days in Athy and fortunately I had the pleasure of meeting both of them before the virus crisis put me into self-imposed isolation. John Alcock, at 90 years of age, presents with the physique of a man decades younger and given his journey from the far side of the world, is clearly an adventurous individual. He is the last surviving member of the sons and daughters born to George and Mary Alcock of No. 1 Dooley’s Terrace. George was a military policeman attached to the Free State Army who like his Alcock brothers and cousins was better known locally by his nickname. George was known as ‘Highlander’, how or why I have been unable to find out. Other extended Alcock family members had nicknames which equally defied explanation, ‘Lang’, ‘Boar’ and ‘Cack’ were just some of the colourful nicknames which were once part of the local’s vocabulary. John had eight brothers and sisters, but two of his sisters, Brid and Margaret, died young. His father died in February 1947, aged 48 years of age, by which time John had been working for four years in the moulding department of the local Asbestos factory. He left school at 13 years of age and when I met him last week he remembered with fondness his teachers, Brother Ryan, Brother Heffernan and Brother Keane, as well as a lay teacher who like most adults of that time was remembered only by his nickname, which in his case was ‘Lattie’. Amongst those with whom John worked in the moulding department over 70 years ago were ‘Whack’ Connell, Johnny Corcoran, Francis Cahill, ‘Sloth’ Kavanagh, Shelly Kelly and Ger Robinson. Two years after his father’s death John took the emigrant boat to England, a journey which all of his siblings were to repeat at different times. John worked as a bricklayer in London and in 1955, responding to a New Zealand government newspaper advertisement he took up employment in that country. He feels he was lucky to have been accepted, because during his interview in New Zealand House, London he got the distinct impression that the New Zealand authorities were not too keen on accepting Irish men or women. He has lived in New Zealand since then, apart from some time spent working in Australia. His brother George and sister Sheila also emigrated to New Zealand, while his sister Mollie, who served in the Royal Air Force, died last year aged 95 years having spent many years in India, Suez Canal and Canada. John married Betty Maureen Gallichan and they had a family of four girls and one son. Sadly his wife Betty died last year and today John lives in Kawerau in the Bay of Plenty on the North Island. I was interested to learn of any changes in Athy as seen by John but his youthful memories of over 70 years or more prompted the reply ‘my Athy is spoiled’. His memories of Athy were not so much the buildings or the streetscape but rather his neighbours in Dooley’s Terrace, the orchards which different generations of young boys raided, and youthful rabbiting exploits on the fields in the edge of the town. The changes, he noted with deep regret, were those resulting from the deaths of friends and neighbours he once knew. His journey back to Athy was a pilgrimage of remembrance, tracing his youthful steps through the town he left 71 years ago. It was a great surprise and an honour for me to meet John Alcock, one of the many hundreds of young Athy men and women who over the years left the town of their birth to better themselves. An earlier generation which included Frank and Thomas Alcock left Athy to join comrades in the battlefields of World War I. Frank and Thomas, both privates in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, died in that war, while their nephew John after a long and happy life in New Zealand returned to Athy to relive cherished memories of the past. I was saddened to learn of the death of my near neighbour Frank Brennan of Coneyboro. Frank, a retired postman, was a courteous and well-liked individual when I had the pleasure of exchanging greetings and chat on many occasions as he took his daily walk around Ardreigh. Sympathy is extended to his wife Kathleen, his sons and his daughter.

1641 depositions relating to Athy

The Rising of 1641 started in Ulster on 22nd October. It was prompted by concerns regarding freedom of religion for Catholics and property rights stemming from the growing anti-Catholic drive of the English parliament. The Rising saw attacks by Catholics on Protestants and reprisals by Protestants on Catholics resulting in widespread sectarian massacres. The native Irish people of Islandmagee of County Antrim were massacred following the mass murder of Ulster plantation settlers before the insurgences turned south and captured Dundalk on 31st October. In early December the old English Catholic gentry of the Pale fearing a backlash against all Catholics joined their co-religionists in rebellion which quickly spread throughout Ireland. Accounts of the 1641 Rising which drew on depositions collected from Protestant survivors of the war fed into the theory that the Rising was a premeditated plot engineered by Catholic interests to exterminate the non-Catholic population. The 1641 depositions were taken by Commissioners appointed by the Lord Justices of Ireland in December 1641 to record the testimony of those ‘robbed and despoiled’ during the Rising and a later commission recorded the number of persons ‘murdered by the rebels’. The accounts collected by the Commissioners prompted the passing of the Adventurers Act by the English parliament in February 1642 which sought to finance the cost of supressing the 1641 Rising by subscriptions paid by English adventurers in return for land taken from the rebels. This was followed by the Cromwellian Land Settlement Act of 1652 which was passed to meet the cost of Cromwell’s campaign in Ireland by authorising the confiscation of Irish lands for distribution amongst adventurers and soldiers. Three commissioners came to Athy in April 1642 to take depositions from victims of the 1641 Rising. Due to a combination of unsuitable conditions and the high proportion of deponents who had not prepared a written statement of their losses beforehand, the commissioners recordkeeping was less than impressive. One of the first persons to be examined in Athy was Hugh Conway who gave an account of the killing of John Taylor about one mile from Athy in what he described as a field close to a windmill. Margaret Rawson of Inch gave an account of three score rebels breaking into her house and taking household goods, cattle and corn. Mary Cox of Athy had a similar story, her losses amounting to £250 resulting from the theft of corn, three horses and various household goods. Richard Hyatt, a merchant of Athy, had his house broken up by about 60 rebels, including one man unnamed who was later hanged. James Pearse, a cooper from Athy, claimed that he had to flee for safety with many of his protestant neighbours to the castle of Athy which was then in the possession of John Murphy, ‘a zealous and honest protestant’. He recounted how before Easter 1642 the rebels flocked to the town of Athy and how he and his protestants neighbours set on fire their own houses located near the castle. The castle was besieged several times by the soldiers of Colonel Fitzgerald of Ballyshannon who had earlier taken possession of Sir Robert Meredith’s house in Cloney. It was perhaps the earlier mentioned John Murphy who gave evidence before the Commissioners on 21st May 1642, describing himself as a merchant and ‘an Irish protestant all my life’. He swore the following to be rebels, John Harris (butcher of Athy), Gerald Fitzgerald of Brownstown, Thomas Jacob, Carlow, George Walker’s son of Athy, Edward Nugent of Kilkea, Roger Kelly of Athy ‘who was lately executed’, Edward Moore (broguemaker) of Athy and Nicholas Mulhall (merchant) of Athy. Ann Tope, widow of the late Gerald Tope of Athy, swore that she was deprived of several properties including lands attached to the Abbey of Athy on which there were approximately 40 years lease still to run. Like so many others examined by the commissioners she was unable to say who had caused her losses. Other Athy residents recorded as making Dispositions included William Beck (butcher), Robert Pickles (servant), Edward Hickman (merchant) and John Wade (spurrier). The latter alleged that three different companies of rebels robbed and murdered the people of the town of Athy. He mentioned the killing of Richard Barter and Thomas the thatcher, whose body was mutilated after he was hanged, but reserved his deepest anger for Patrick Doran of Athy who with his daughter Ann Doran stole Wade’s chest of linen, some pewter and a salted hog and brought them to Doran’s own house. The 1641 Depositions taken from largely Protestant eyewitnesses to events following the outbreak of rebellion in Ulster in 1641 gave in many cases detailed accounts of tragic happenings throughout Ireland. Some of the Depositions however were fanciful and were used by Sir John Temple whose ‘History of the Irish rebellion’ gave lurid and exaggerated accounts of massacres by both Catholic rebels and Protestant settlers. His book encouraged mutual distrust amongst Irish people of different religions which took many many years to disappear.

Fr. Philip Pollock and Athy's Dominican Church

Athy’s Architectural Heritage got a tremendous boost when St. Dominic’s Church was opened on 17th March 1965. The National Press in the following days mentioned the revolutionary style of Ireland’s newest church describing the church located on the west bank of the River Barrow in Athy as ‘unique in Ireland’. The Irish Times of 18th March claimed ‘yesterday Athy took its place amongst the most up to date towns of the world when its ultra-modern Dominican church was blessed and opened.’ The unusual features of the church were complimented by the artwork of George Campbell who executed the Stations of the Cross and the stained-glass windows and the crucifix executed by Kildare artist, Bríd Ní Rinn. The man responsible for the new church was the prior of St. Dominic’s, Fr. Philip Pollock. The only son of Belfast parents he was born on 14th March 1914 and educated in St. Malachys Belfast and the Dominican College, Newbridge. He entered the Dominicans in Tallaght in 1931 and spent some time in Angelica University, Rome before his ordination in 1938. He initially served as a Dominican priest in Cork and later in Dundalk before volunteering to become a chaplain during World War II. As a chaplain to the R.A.F. he served in England, North Africa, Sicily and Italy and his war experiences were later recounted in his best-selling book, ‘Wings on the Cross’. After the war Fr. Pollock returned to Dundalk and was later transferred to Limerick where he served as prior for a time. It was there that he first met the Limerick architect, John Thompson when both men were involved in the design and construction of a chapel dedicated to St. Martin de Porres. It was an association which would be renewed when Fr. Pollock came to Athy and set about planning a new church to replace the small traditional building which served as the Dominican Church for 150 years or so. The new Dominican Church in Athy was a monument to Fr. Pollock’s indefatigable spirt and organisational ability. He travelled abroad to view modern churches and in conjunction with the architect John Thompson chose an architectural style which was new for Ireland. He worked tirelessly to collect funds for the new church and made many fundraising trips to America. Fr. Pollock was a noted preacher and like his fellow Dominicans he preached parish missions, church novenas and retreats, travelling throughout Ireland and sometimes to Great Britain to preach the gospel. On 19th June 1972 Fr. Pollock was elected prior for the third time in 11 years. His sister, Mother Ephram of the Dominican Order was at the same time Mother Prioress of the Dominican convent in Wicklow. In July 1975 Fr. Pollock transferred to the Waterford Dominican priory and was replaced by Fr. Leo Clandillon who returned from Australia to take up the position. Three months later Fr. Pollock came back to Athy to receive a presentation from the people of the town. The organising committee under the chairmanship of Bill Fenlon, presented him with a new car, a Ford Escort, fully insured for a year. He was also presented a silver tankard on behalf of the ladies of St. Dominic’s Altar Society. The next day at lunch in the priory Fr. Leo Clandillon presented him with a cheque on behalf of the Dominican community. On Monday 2nd January 1978 Fr. Pollock attended a wedding at St. Dominic’s Church, Athy. He did not attend the reception afterwards as he felt unwell and instead travelled to Bangor to stay with his sister. Eleven days later Fr. Pollock died suddenly in his sister’s house. The great preacher was now silent. His remains were brought to Waterford for burial, stopping off at Athy on Sunday 15th January. His coffin was placed in front of the high altar in St. Dominics and a short prayer service was conducted by the prior, Fr. Leo Clandillon. The church was full to capacity and as the remains were carried from the church to the hearse for the onward journey to Waterford the congregation sang ‘Nearer my God to thee’. The next day Fr. Pollock was buried in the Dominican plot in St. Otteran’s cemetery, Waterford. He died two months short of his 64th birthday. Fr. Pollock was a man of many talents who during his short life used those talents to the full. His legacy to the town of Athy, where he served for 14 years, is the much-admired church building now used as a community library which will always be his monument

The case of Kate Connor of Athy

The Evening Herald of 2nd May 1919 under the front-page headline ‘A Child’s Religion’ and the subtitle ‘A Mother’s Dying Wish’ reported on an appeal by Kate Connor of Athy against an earlier judgment of the Master of the Rolls. Kate of Higgins Lane (locally we have always referred to it as Higginson’s Lane) applied to be appointed guardian of her 8-year-old granddaughter Josephine Connor whose mother Mary died in Dublin in July 1918. Mary had been brought up as a catholic and was of that religion when she went to live with Arthur and Margaret Strong, stationers of 32 Charlotte Street, Dublin with her 2-month-old child in 1910. In November 1912 Mary Connor was received into the Church of Ireland and thereafter attended Church of Ireland services and brought up her child in that religion. However, before Mary died, she was received back into the Catholic church and it was claimed by the priest who attended at her death bed that she expressed a wish for her child to be reared as a catholic. Mr. and Mrs. Strong insisted that the child who was still living with them should be reared by them and brought up as a member of the Church of Ireland. The grandmother living in Athy applied to the Court for the right to take the child into her care and to rear her as a catholic. The Master of the Rolls ruled against the grandmother in a judgment of February 1919 holding that in all the circumstances the child ‘would not be made more happy or profitable by the proposed change’. The Court of Appeal heard Mrs. Connor’s appeal in May 1919. Evidence was given that the grandmother was a charwoman and certified to be a respectful person while Fr. O’Rourke of St. Michael’s parish Athy testified she was a fit and proper person to be appointed guardian of the child. The Master of the Rolls had held that ‘the proposed move from the comparatively genteel and comfortable surroundings of a stationer’s shop in Dublin to the very humble house of a charwoman would not be for the advantage of the child either physically or morally.’ Further the Master in giving judgment said ‘I cannot give any consideration at all to the very laudable desire of the applicant to bring the child up in her own religion. She has no rights in this respect at all and I have to deal with the case as if one religion was as good as another.’ The Lord Chief Justice wondered if the mother’s conversion resulted from proselytising. His judicial colleague, the Lord Chancellor, who expressed little confidence in people who were proselytisers pointed out that the young mother was eight years with the Strongs ‘and her family never interfered, if any proselytising was going on.’ Counsel for the grandmother claimed that the wishes of the deceased mother should be paramount. Against that the Court were of the view that not a word of evidence had been brought against the good character of Mr. and Mrs. Strong who had acted ‘charitably and in the best spirit’. Evidence was given that the young mother, Mary Connor, was occasionally supported by her brother John who was described as a demobbed soldier. On the third day of the appeal hearing the Court, consisting of the Lord Chancellor, Lord Justice Ronan and Lord Justice O’Connor, reserved its decision. The Court of Appeal, with Lord Justice O’Connor dissenting by a majority decision, affirmed the judgment of the Master of the Rolls and dismissed the grandmother’s appeal. The young girl, Josephine, was therefore allowed to remain in the care of Mr. and Mrs. Strong. Whatever happened to the young girl Josephine Connor? Higgins Lane or Higginson’s Lane has long disappeared from Athy’s streetscape but the legal case of 101 years ago provides an interesting insight into the religious divisions which marked Irish society in the days before the emergence of the Irish Free State. Sarah Bradshaw’s partner has contacted me in an attempt to find an Athy girl (name unknown) who with her sister attended the VEC school in Crumlin Road, Dublin in or about 1977. She would have been about 17 years old at the time. The Athy girl’s mother had died some time previously and three daughters, including the two girls who attended Crumlin Road school, were sent to the Islandbridge home operated by the Sisters of Mercy. I understand Sarah Bradshaw came to Athy quite recently to search for her school friend of 40 years ago but understandably did not succeed in meeting her. Could you help her make contact?

Offaly Street residents of old

A typographical error in the opening paragraph of the recent article on Athy’s diaspora unfortunately referred to the late Willie Doody as Willie Dooley. Both family names are well known in Athy and I have treasured memories stretching back decades of the Doody and Dooley families. Willie Doody died in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire on 25th January 2020 just a little more than a month after his sister Theresa passed away in Clapham, London. Theresa and her brother were just two of the many Athy natives who over the years made new lives for themselves in post-war Britain. Passing down Offaly Street during the week I was prompted to recall the families who lived on that street during the fifty years my parents called No. 6 and later No. 5 Offaly Street as home. No more than any other part of Athy town the Offaly Street community was badly affected by emigration over the years. Offaly Street, once alive with young families, saw many of those families emigrate. The list of the emigrees includes Mary Sunderland, Stan, Pat and Kevin Breen, Joe Eaton and his sister Lily, Matt McHugh, Christy Evans and Paddy Day. To the list must be added John Neill, the entire Murphy family, John and Andy Webster and the Collingwood family. The list of former neighbours who took the emigrant boat grows larger when those living in Janeville Lane are included. John, Andy and Mick Walsh, Jim and Maisie Fox, Nellie Hyland, Owen ‘Thrush’ Kelly, his mother and sister, Peter Bennett, Paddy Hubbock and the members of the Doody family. And who can forget the Aldridges of Janeville Place. Five brothers, George, Tommy, Joe, Jimmy and Ned, together with their sisters Bridget and Ellen left Athy for Britain where they were later joined by their brother Frank. The Irish vernacular style shop windows which are a feature of three houses, No. 6, No. 7 and No. 8 Offaly Street, remind us of a time when a private developer had visions of extending the retail life of Athy along Preston’s Gate and away from the town centre. Whether these premises ever operated as shops is not known and if they did, it is quite likely they had a short life span. I had never heard of anyone who remembered any of the three houses being used as shops which like all the other houses on that side of Offaly Street were at one time owned and rented out by Myles Whelan. Many will remember Kehoe’s pub which older generations will recall was previously known as Dowlings. For Offaly Street youngsters the most important shop in the street was Webster’s sweet shop. Pattie and Kitty Webster continued the business which their mother had run for many years. It was the place where slabs of toffee could be bought and where youngsters who had joined the teenage world could buy a single Woodbine cigarette. Further down the street in what was officially Emily Row one would make an occasional foray into Miss Sylvester’s sweet shop, but only occasionally for it was not opened as regularly as Kitty Websters. A local shop which had closed before I became aware of my Offaly Street surroundings was that operated by the Dempsey brothers. One of the brothers, Jim Dempsey, I remember as the man who had charge of the weighing scales at the back of the Town Hall. The one-time shop was closed for several years before the Brophy family brought it back into operation. Moore Brothers on the corner of Emily Square where Michael and Eddie Moore held sway backed one end of our street, while almost but not quite at the other end the Picture Palace cinema was Athy’s most cherished cultural outlet for decades. The picture house managed by Bob Webster in the 1950s and later created a large footfall on Offaly Street every evening as cinema goers flocked in those pre television days to what was known locally as ‘Bobs’. Times have changed. The Picture Palace is closed up, as is nearby Kehoe’s pub. Along the street Kitty Webster’s sweet shop and Sylvesters are ghostly reminders of times past. The loss of so many young men and women who once lived in Offaly Street, Butlers Row and Janeville Place and the closure of the once vibrant businesses in Offaly Street led to the slow decline of a once proud and vibrant local street community.

The Birth and Early Years of Sinn Fein

It was in April 1907 that the political grouping known as Sinn Féin emerged from a combination of the Dungannon clubs founded two years earlier by Bulmer Hobson and Cumann na nGaedheal founded in 1900 by Arthur Griffith. ‘Ourselves alone’, the English translation of the name Sinn Féin, was a constitutional organisation which sought to achieve political freedom for the island of Ireland and the Irish people. Its first appearance on a ballot paper was in a February 1908 by-election when its candidate, Charles Dolan, was defeated. The postponement of Home Rule until the end of World War I and the Easter Rising erroneously called by the English authorities ‘The Sinn Féin Rising’ gave the organisation a prominence in Irish political life it had not previously experienced. Sinn Féin Clubs sprung up throughout Ireland and here in Athy the Sinn Féin Club was founded in 1917. In February 1917 Count Plunkett, father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the executed 1916 leaders, was returned as the first Sinn Féin Member of Parliament for the north Roscommon constituency. Three months later south Longford returned another Sinn Féin member, as did Kilkenny city in August 1917. In October 1917 Eamonn de Valera was elected president of Sinn Féin and he witnessed the huge growth of the organisation following the anti-conscription campaign of 1918 and the arrest of many Sinn Féin leaders during the German plot episode. The General Election of December 1918 saw the election of 73 Sinn Féin members and the decimation of the long established Irish Parliamentary Party lead by John Redmond which returned with only 7 members of parliament. The Sinn Féin members who refused to sit in the House of Commons met in Dublin as the first Dail and in the ensuing War of Independence acknowledged the Irish Republican Army as the army of the Dail. It was not until 1920 that the name I.R.A. was commonly given to the armed force which had emerged from the Irish Volunteers founded in November 1913. The Anglo-Irish Treaty led to the breakup of the Sinn Féin party and the I.R.A. In the Free State elections of June 1922 the anti-treaty candidates won 36 seats as against 58 seats won by pro-treaty candidates. The anti treatyites, retaining the name Sinn Féin, refused to enter the Dail. They soon lost support in subsequent local elections and de Valera as President of the organisation sought to change the policy of abstention provided the oath of allegiance was removed. He failed to get majority support for this proposal and in March 1926 de Valera resigned as President of Sinn Féin. Two months later the Fianna Fáil party was founded following a meeting in the La Scala Theatre Dublin. In November 1925 the I.R.A. withdrew its allegiance from the de Valera led Sinn Féin organisation by establishing its own Army Council. It was no longer formally linked to any political party, however many of the new Fianna Fáil party members were still members of the I.R.A. The June 1927 elections saw many I.R.A. officers resigning from the I.R.A. when they stood as Fianna Fáil candidates in that election. The government party, Cumann na nGaedheal, the name adopted in early 1923, unwittingly brought the Fianna Fáil party, largely comprised of former anti-treaty gunmen and supporters into constitutional politics. Following the assassination of minister Kevin O’Higgins, the government passed a law excluding from the Dail any T.D. who refused to take the oath of allegiance. The former I.R.A. members, now members of Fianna Fáil led by de Valera, decided to enter the Dail and sign the Dail register ‘as a formality without taking any oath to the King of England’. We are told that some of them were armed as they took their places in the Dail chamber. The Fianna Fáil party won the 1932 and the 1933 general elections and immediately set about implementing the country’s biggest ever housing programme as part of the Slum Clearance Programmes of the 1930s. It also took action against former comrades who were still members of the I.R.A. and who had early in 1931 executed two of its own members and killed a Garda Superintendent in Tipperary. The I.R.A. had been declared illegal by the Cumann na nGaedheal government in 1931, but the Fianna Fáil government on first entering office in 1932 lifted the ban. However, in 1936 when the I.R.A. refused to disarm and following a number of violent incidents the Fianna Fáil government, much to the dismay of de Valera’s old I.R.A. comrades, banned the I.R.A. The electoral success of the current Sinn Féin party has echoes of the 1918 General Election and its aftermath. However, the hope is that the future political path of Sinn Féin may not be as rocky as that experienced by de Valera and his party when they first embraced constitutional politics.

Willie Doody and Mick Murphy

Last Sunday’s Parish newsletter included amongst the list of the dead two Athy men who died in England. Seventy year old Willie Doody died a short time after his older sister Teresa passed away in London. The previous week the remains of Mick Murphy formerly of Convent View who also died in England were brought back for burial in Athy’s St. Michael’s cemetery. Weeks earlier the ashes of his namesake, Ena Murphy formerly of Offaly Street who died some months ago in England were brought back to Athy for burial in the same cemetery. An old school mate of mine Johnny Mulhall formerly of Geraldine who spent many decades in England died there recently and his remains were also brought back for burial in his native town. Like every other Irish provincial town Athy has seldom been able to meet the employment needs of its young people. The dismal state of the Irish economy in the post World War II period and the protracted economic crisis of the 1950’s did not allow the creation of sufficient jobs for Irish workers. The inevitable movement away from friends and family saw many take the emigrant boat to Britain. Mick Murphy, Ena Murphy and many members of the Doody family were part of that diaspora. Now as the years advance the one time youngsters to whom the streets and buildings of Athy were so familiar are rapidly decreasing in numbers. Very soon Athy’s diaspora of the post war period will be lost to memory. They left many years ago the town where they were born, reared and schooled but they never forgot those they left behind. To read of the death of somebody in England “formerly of Athy” is to remind those of us who remained of the economic backwater which was Ireland of the 1950’s and the 1960’s. Many young men and women and indeed several entire families left Athy to make a new life, usually in Britain but occasionally in America. Young people left Ireland in droves in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Britain offered employment and hope of a better life but those who emigrated were understandably anxious to retain close links with family and friends in Ireland. In many cases however the loss of contact led to a fracturing of the social relations between emigrants and those they left behind. The Doody family, children of Paddy and Kathleen lived in Janeville Lane, at the back of Offaly Street in the 1950’s. There were thirteen children in the Doody family and the eldest son, Paddy shared a first communion photograph with myself, Willie Moore, Teddy Kelly and Basil White. Paddy left school at an early age, as did many of my classmates in the immediate post war years, and emigrated to Britain. Many of Paddy Doody’s siblings also emigrated and at one time there were ten Doody brothers and sisters in Britain, most of them living in and around Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. Ena Murphy who died in England and whose ashes were returned for burial in her hometown was the daughter of Paddy and Polly Murphy of Offaly Street. There were nine children in the family, all of whom at various times emigrated to England. The last to do so was the oldest Paddens who left Athy after the Wallboard factory, where he worked, closed down. Paddens will be remembered as the leader of Sorrento Dance Band. Five members of the Murphy family have since died in England and the remains of three have been returned to Athy for burial in St. Michael’s cemetery. The return of the exile is sadly in many cases only achieved after death as happened recently for the late Mick Murphy and the late Johnny Mulhall. Emigration which has been a feature of life in rural and provincial Ireland for centuries lessened the bond between families, neighbours and friends. It also deprived our country of the talent and energy of generations of Irish men and women who could not find employment in their own town or country. One local factory which 84 years ago opened its doors to create employment in Athy is Tegral. During the week Paddy Kelly, Managing Director of Tegral Building Products made a presentation in Clanard Court Hotel to announce the change of the company’s name to Etex Ireland Limited as part of the Belgium company Etex. The original factory opened in 1936 changed its name to Tegral Building Products in 1973 and now its 151 employees will be a part of the worldwide Etex Company which employs approximately 12,500. The Canal side factory has been an important part of the industrial life of Athy for generations, during which time it has given many young persons the opportunity to work in their own town.

Paul Dempsey former C.B.S. Athy pupil and new Bishop of Achonry and other notable clerics

It was announced last week that Fr. Paul Dempsey, Parish Priest of Newbridge and former pupil of the Christian Brothers School Athy is to be appointed Bishop of Achonry. Having mentioned in recent Eyes on the Past the number of past pupils of my old school who have illustrious careers I wonder if there has been any previous Episcopal appointment amongst the one-time youngsters of Athy’s local schools or families connected with Athy. There have been a number of clerics who held high office including Monsignor William Murphy, Rector of the Irish College in Rome who died in 1905. He was a brother of ‘Pip’ Murphy who had a butcher shop in Emily Square and his sisters included ‘Gypsy’ Murphy who also lived in the Square. Monsignor Murphy is today commemorated with a marble tablet on the wall of the Church of Sant Agata Dei Goti in Rome. Another local man who headed up a clerical college was Monsignor Patrick Boylan of Barrowhouse. He was a noted scholar and theologian and the author of several books and was Vice President of Maynooth College from 1922-1934. He was Parish Priest of Dun Laoghaire for 40 years and retired from that position shortly before he died in November 1974. His father was principal teacher in Barrowhouse National School and his mother also taught in the same school. During my time as a local councillor and while I was chairman of Athy Urban District Council the Council honoured Walter Empey, then Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath and Kildare and later Archbishop of Dublin. Although born in Dublin his grandfather was a well remembered resident of Athy who carried on business as a painting contractor from his premises in Leinster Street. A prince of the Catholic Church with a connection with Athy, this time through his brother Fr. Maurice Browne who served as a curate in Athy, was Cardinal Michael Browne. Cardinal Browne visited Athy soon after he was appointed a Cardinal in 1962 when he called on his fellow priests in the local Dominican monastery. This was almost three decades after Fr. Michael Browne, then a Dominican priest, had given the annual retreat in the local Sister of Mercy Convent in Athy. Another local link with Bishops of the Catholic Church was provided by Dr. Andrew Quinn, Parish Priest of Athy from 1853 to 1879. His brother James was the first Bishop of Brisbane in Australia whom he helped to encourage a number of nuns and novices from Athy’s Convent of Mercy to travel to Australia to open a Sisters of Mercy Novitiate in Brisbane. Another brother of Athy’s Parish Priest was Bishop Matthew Quinn who was appointed the first Bishop of Bathurst Australia in 1865. A noteworthy member of the Catholic priesthood was Fr. John Miley, a native of Narraghmore who was a friend and travelling companion of Daniel O’Connell on O’Connell’s last trip to Rome. Fr. Miley was with O’Connell when he died and in accordance with O’Connell’s wishes he took the casket containing his heart to Rome before accompanying the liberator’s remains back to Ireland. Fr. Miley delivered the funeral oration for Daniel O’Connell in the Pro Cathedral Dublin. The Narraghmore-born priest who attended the Quaker School in Ballitore was appointed rector of the Irish College in Paris in 1849 and later became Parish Priest of Bray where he died. I understand Fr. Dempsey’s parents came to live in Athy from Carlow when the future Bishop was 7 years of age. He attended the local boy’s primary school and later Scoil Eoin before entering St. Patrick’s seminary in Carlow. Paul was the youngest of four children of Tony and Berry Dempsey who lived in Milltown just outside Athy. Both parents died in 1994. Fr. Dempsey’s father Tony was employed in Shaw’s Hardware shop in Duke Street and later operated a small shop in St. Vincent’s Hospital. Paul sat his Leaving Certificate in 1988 and I believe that amongst his classmates was my own son Francis. I cannot find a record of any past pupil of Athy’s local schools who served as a Bishop of the Catholic or Anglican churches prior to the announcement of Fr. Dempsey’s appointment. However, it is quite possible that former pupils of Athy’s Model School did serve in such a position and if so I would welcome hearing of them. Athy and south Kildare have over the years witnessed many young local men and women entering the religious life. The Christian churches, Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist have all welcomed and benefitted from those new entrants amongst whom was the future Bishop of Achonry Paul Dempsey.