State Minister visits to Athy Museum Society

Last week’s visit by the Minister for State in the Department of Heritage and Local Government to the Shackleton Museum was a welcome acknowledgement of the importance of the museum redevelopment project. Work on redeveloping the museum will begin early next year and on completion will provide a very important addition to the cultural landscape of Athy. The Shackleton Museum, with the Community Library and the Arts Centre in Woodstock Street, comprise a cultural infrastructure for the town of Athy which will hugely contribute to the future growth and development of the South Kildare town. It is a major achievement for the Directors of the Heritage Company that 3.1 million euros has already been committed to the project. Both the Irish government and Kildare County Council have come together to make this finance available and the Heritage Company will shortly announce fundraising initiatives to raise the balance of the money. The Minister for State, Malcolm Noonan, arrived in Athy at 10am and after brief introductory remarks was shown through the Town Hall building by Grainne Keane, Architect and Ronan O’Flaherty of the Museum Design Team to walk through the proposed layout of the Shackleton Museum. Following the building tour, the Minister announced that the government intends to commence discussions on signing the Antarctic Treaty. This was very welcome news as at every Shackleton Autumn School for the last 20 years the question of Ireland’s involvement in the Antarctic Treaty has been raised. Presentations on the issue have in the past been made to government ministers, but unfortunately due to changes in government Ireland has not yet become a signatory to the Treaty. With the Minister’s announcement the long-awaited decision of the Irish government will hopefully see the Antarctic Treaty signed and might we expect the signing to coincide with the centenary commemoration of Ernest Shackleton’s death on 5th January next year? As the Minister for State met locals in the back square last week, crowded around Emily Square, both front and back, were the Tuesday market stalls. The colourful scene was the subject of complementary remarks by the Minister who appreciated the social value of the weekly influx of traders and dealers to our town’s square. Athy’s ancient market rights go back to 1515 when King Henry VIII gave the Town Provost the right to hold a market in a place chosen by the Duke of Leinster. The area subsequently known as Market Square and now Emily Square was chosen as the market site. In later years Athy Town Commissioners and subsequently Athy Urban District Council acquired the market rights as successor to the Town Provost and the Borough Council and by the same succession rights the market rights are now held by Kildare County Council. Despite the Minister’s engaging and welcoming words regarding Tuesday’s market, the market scene presented as an untidy and somewhat shambolic one. I know the former Urban District Council were asked some years ago to consider drafting market bylaws to regulate casual trading in the town. A possible legal obstacle presented itself at that time when a case was taken in the High Court against Kilkenny Borough Council’s attempt to regulate the market in their city. However, that case concluded with a decision favourable to the Borough Council. The High Court decision was subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court, but that Court affirmed the earlier decision which would seem to clear the way for local authorities throughout Ireland to implement the terms of the Casual Trading Act of 1995. With plans to redevelop Emily Square now is the time for the Council to consider passing market bylaws which would help improve the appearance of the town’s Tuesday market. Some local authorities in the UK provide stands and canopies which they set out on market days and rent to stall holders. This is something Kildare County Council might consider as a means of improving the town market. I talked to two stallholders last week and both of them expressed support for a similar scheme in Athy. One a trader from the South East explained how a 5am start was necessary to ensure that she gained her usual pitch before locals parked their cars in the square. If as happens in many other towns car parking was prohibited from midnight on market day life would be so much easier for the stall holders and market byelaws would be more acceptable to them. Markets should be colourful, interesting events and Kildare County council could do much to ensure that Athy’s weekly market is a vibrant addition to the commercial life of the town. The reordering of Emily Square which is at the planning stage cannot be regarded as completed unless and until Kildare County Council take steps to regulate and improve the market. The market can be an important part of the regeneration of the town’s centre which hopefully should benefit hugely from the opening of the outer relief road. Incidentally, the Tuesday market is not the only authorised town market. In the latter part of the 19th century Athy Town Commissioners approved the holding of a second weekly market every Saturday in the town square. Some years ago what was called a farmers market was held on Sundays in the square. Regrettably, it ceased after a few years but in outlying towns farmers markets/craft markets have become a familiar feature of Irish provincial town life. I wonder if the local Enterprise Centre or the town’s promoters team would look at the possibility of organising a similar type of market every Saturday in the town centre?

Athy references in 'A timeline of the War of Independence in County Kildare'

Within the past week the Kildare Decade of Commemoration Committee published a 128-page booklet titled ‘A Timeline of the War of Independence in County Kildare 1919-1922’. It details local incidents as well as some national events to help readers understand the history of those turbulent years. 1919 References to Athy and South Kildare commenced with an entry for 5th January which noted that a large Sinn Féin meeting took place in the Market Square. This occurred 16 days before the Soloheadbeg ambush which is generally regarded as the start of the War of Independence. Art O’Connor, who was elected as M.P. for South Kildare in the December 1918 elections, was welcomed to Athy on 6th April following his release from jail. The large crowd in attendance was addressed by Kevin O’Higgins who had been elected in 1918 as M.P. for Queens County. Public support for those who died during the 1916 Rising was the subject of a poster campaign in Athy, Castledermot, Ballitore and Moone. The poster campaign sought to have Easter Monday observed as a national holiday in memory of those who died in 1916. On 12th May Lady Weldon of Kilmoroney House presided at the formation meeting of a branch of ‘Comrades of the Great War’ held in Athy. Local teacher J.J. O’Byrne, Secretary of Athy Sinn Féin Club, was released from jail on 7th June. He had been arrested on 16th August the previous year for reading the Sinn Féin manifesto in the town square. On July 19th Sinn Féin member John Hayden of Offaly Street arrived back home following his release from jail. Met by Sinn Féin supporters who paraded through the town, those supporters clashed with demobbed World War I soldiers, resulting in rioting in the streets of Athy. Days later the ex-soldiers attacked Bapty Maher’s bicycle shop in Duke Street and destroyed a banner hanging across the street from Bridget Darby’s house in Leinster Street. Eamon Malone of Dunbrin was arrested on November 18th. Malone would later be Commander of the Carlow Kildare Brigade and would marry Kathleen Dooley, whose father Michael Dooley of Duke Street was chairman of Athy’s Sinn Féin Club. Malone was sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour and would later lead a hunger strike in Mountjoy Jail. 1920 Ballitore R.I.C. Barracks, which had been evacuated in early March, was destroyed by fire on the night of the 3rd of April. Eamon Malone was welcomed back to Athy on 29th April following his release from jail after 12 days on hunger strike. A crowd estimated at 3,000 was in Market Square to greet Malone and were addressed by Art O’Connor, T.D. for South Kildare. The Customs and Excise Office in Athy was raided by the I.R.A. on the night of 19th May and numerous tax documents removed. On 21st June Castledermot R.I.C. Barracks and Courthouse was burned by the I.R.A. during which operation one I.R.A. man was injured. On 25th August the first Sinn Féin court was held in Athy. Around the same time Fintan Brennan, then living in Monasterevin, was arrested, charged and subsequently imprisoned for three years for possession of rifles. Fintan would later come to live in Athy where he was the District Court officer and a local G.A.A. official who became president of the Leinster Council G.A.A. in the 1940s. 1921 In January 25 prisoners were transferred from the Curragh to Ballylinlar internment camp in County Down. Included amongst them was Bapty Maher of Athy. R.I.C. Sergeant Joseph Hughes, a native of Wolfhill, was shot while onn patrol in Maynooth on 21st February. He died the following day and business premises in Athy were closed by the R.I.C. as his funeral passed through the town. Fairs and markets were proclaimed in Castledermot following damage to roads and bridges in the area. Patrick Moran, who had once worked as a barman in Athy was hanged in Mountjoy on 14th March, as was Frank Flood, whose brother Tom would later live in Athy and represent Athy’s Fine Gael party on Athy’s U.D.C. A curfew was ordered from 9pm to 5am in Athy and the Tuesday market was prohibited due to I.R.A. trenching of local roads and damaging of bridges. The R.I.C. raided the offices of Athy U.D.C. and removed Council minute books and other documents. The Barrowhouse ambush of 16th May resulted in the deaths of William Connor and James Lacey. Three days later R.I.C. Constable Edward Doran, a native of Cardenton, Athy, died of his wounds following an ambush in Kinnity, County Offaly on 17th May. The local I.R.A. attacked the R.I.C. Barracks in Athy which was located in the former cavalry barracks at Barrack Lane. On 22nd and 23rd December houses belonging to Mr. Verschoyle in Kilberry were destroyed by fire and a fire on Christmas Eve destroyed the band room of what was described as ‘Athy War Piper’s Band’. On 10th March 1922 the R.I.C. Barracks at Athy was evacuated. Lieutenant General J.J. O’Connell’s Secretary, Hester Dooley, who would later marry Joe May, was the only woman present as the Curragh camp was taken over by the Irish army following the evacuation of British forces. You can collect a free copy of ‘A Timeline of the War of Independence in County Kildare 1919-1922’ in the local library.

Kildare Senior Hurling Final 29 Nov., 1964, Athy and Eir Og

The game of hurling has over the years had a limited degree of success in Athy. The first Senior County Final in which the Athy club played was against Clane in 1909. Athy’s footballing club members had to wait until 1924 to contest their first senior football County Final. The immediate post-Civil War period was a barren period for many clubs as players emigrated in the face of mass unemployment and sometimes blatant discrimination against those who had taken the anti-treaty side. Matters improved insofar as Athy’s hurlers were concerned in the latter years of the 1920s. The 1928 Senior Hurling Final was contested by Johnstown Bridge and Athy and a year later Athy lost by 1 point in the 1929 final against McDonagh. The 1930s was the Athy Gaelic Football Club’s most successful decade with the club winning county football finals in 1933, 1934 and 1937. The Club’s hurlers won the Hurling Senior Final in 1936 defeating Broadford on the score of 6-1 to 3-1. Broadford was to exact revenge when winning against Athy in the 1961 final. Two years previously Athy lost the County Hurling Final to McDonaghs by a losing margin of 2 goals and 5 points, yet were declared the county champions after lodging an objection. Three years after losing the 1961 County Final to Broadford the Athy hurlers played yet again, this time losing to Éire Óg on a score of 5-9 to 2-6. The members of that 1964 team showed how dependent the game of hurling in Athy was on players whose skills were nurtured and developed in the traditional hurling counties. The team’s composition also showed the importance of local industry and commerce in bringing together players whose hurling skills were so important in keeping alive the ancient Irish game in a county not readily regarded as a hurling county. The team which togged out in the County Senior Hurling Final in Newbridge on 29th November 1964 included four native Athy players. In goal was the legendary Dan Foley, while on the half back line was John Dooley, whose father was the principal mover in the revival of hurling in Athy in the 1950s. Ted Wynne, better known as a footballer, lined out on the half forward line and in front of him was Hugh McDonnell. The team substitutes included Jim Malone, Tommy Kirwan and Teddy Kelly who made up the remainder of the Athy/South Kildare natives. The other team members came from as far afield as Cork, Galway, Limerick, Tipperary and nearby Kilkenny and Laois. In the full back line were Tom Heskins from Cork, an employee of Minch Nortons, Willie Coogan from Kilkenny, a barman in Purcells and Liam O’Connor from Limerick. The half back line included, in addition to the earlier mentioned John Dooley, Gus O’Shea from Cork who was a local bank official and Claud Goff from Kilkenny, manager of Bachelor’s pea factory. The mid-field pairing were two Gardai Mick Cullinane from Kilkenny and Padraig Harte from Galway. Ted Wynne in the half forwards was partnered with John Breen, a bank official from Cork and Tipperary man Stephen Nash, a fitter in Bord na Mona. The full forwards were Mick Dempsey of Laois, a barman in Paddy Lambes with Billy Wilkinson of Kilkenny who worked in the sugar company and Athy’s Hugh McDonnell. Apart from the earlier mentioned substitutes there was also Tom Harte from Galway and Thomas O’Connor from Limerick. The team was trained by the team captain Claud Goff, whose brother Oliver won All Ireland medals with both Kilkenny and Wexford. The Athy team were defeated and it was often claimed that this defeat was due to the absence of their best player, Tom O’Donnell, a bank official who normally played centrefield. He failed to turn up for the final without telling his team mates or the team mentors beforehand. It turned out that Tom was that same day playing in the Tipperary County Senior Football final. This was the Athy club’s last appearance in a County Senior Hurling Final, although it won intermediate, minor and junior championship finals in the 1980s and 1990s. Nowadays it appears that the hurling club is separate from the football club which to a neutral observer seems a most extraordinary state of affairs. Now that Athy Gaelic Football Club is about to embark on a major development scheme which would give the club an extra playing pitch and a juvenile pitch, perhaps it is time for the hurlers and the footballers to come together as one Gaelic Athletic Association club for the town of Athy. During the recent football match against Clare I saw several players falling over while trying to pick up a ground ball. I was reminded of that classy footballer Kieran O’Malley who played for Kildare from 1957 to 1962. He was the first player whom I witnessed chipping a ground ball into his hands without stooping over it. It’s a skill that could usefully be learned by today’s players.

Commemorating William Connor and James Lacey, victims of the Barrowhouse Ambush 16 May 1921

The Barrowhouse chapel bell rang out at 4 o’clock on the afternoon of 16th May last. It was around that time 100 years ago that two young men from Shanganaghmore lay dead on the ditch side of the road at Barrowhouse. William Connor and James Lacey were just 26 years of age when they joined James’s brother Joe, Paddy Dooley, Joe Maher, Mick Maher, Jack O’Brien and Joe Ryan in an attack on RIC men travelling on bicycles on the road from Ballylinan. That same chapel bell which had summoned William and James and their family members to Sunday Mass was now reminding a new generation of Barrowhouse folk of the two young local men buried in the same grave next to the local school they had attended as young boys. At 4 o’clock also, Connor family members lay a wreath at the ambush site, while a descendent of the Lacey family performed a similar task at the grave of the two Barrowhouse freedom fighters. These were the arrangements made by the local Barrowhouse committee in the light of Covid restrictions. Plans are in place to construct a redesigned memorial at the ambush site and to publish a detailed account of the Barrowhouse ambush of 16th May 1921. The Nationalist newspaper of 28th May 1921 under the heading ‘The Last Post’ gave an account of what it described as ‘the last act of the sad scene of the grim tragedy that was enacted on Monday week at Barrowhouse’. The writer described Connor and Lacey as young men ‘fired with the spirit of patriotism ….. reared together, school mates together, play mates together ….. the friendship and intimacy of youth blossomed into the knowing comradeship of manhood and then – even in death united and buried in the one grave.’ Requiem Mass for the dead was celebrated at 11 o’clock that Thursday morning, 19th May 1921 by Rev. J. Nolan, curate St. Michael’s Athy, assisted by Rev. M. Ryan CC Kilmead and Rev. M O’Rourke CC Athy, with other priests from Athy, Castledermot, Moone and the Dominican Fr. John O’Sullivan in the choir. When the Mass was finished the two coffins were carried by I.R.A. Volunteers to the nearby grave and lowered into the double grave. The last post was sounded by a trumpeter, followed by three volleys fired over the grave by members of the Carlow Kildare brigade. The Barrowhouse group in charge of the ambush centenary commemoration is to be congratulated for its efforts to remember with dignity and pride the sacrifices of William Conner and James Lacey. Sunday 21st May also saw another commemoration when the National Commemoration Day to mark the Great Famine was held. Again because of Covid restrictions this year’s commemoration, following on the first formal State commemoration held in Skibereen, Co. Cork in 2009, was marked on Sunday by the President of Ireland in a ceremony in the grounds of Áras an Uachtaráin. Here in Athy we have joined for the last number of years the National Famine Day Commemoration by holding a service of remembrance in St. Mary’s Cemetery opposite St. Vincent’s Hospital. This cemetery served the needs of Athy’s Workhouse which was opened in January 1844, just a year or more before the Great Famine started. It was in St. Mary’s Cemetery that the victims of the famine who died either in the Workhouse or in the nearby Fever Hospital were buried in unmarked graves. The Workhouse records maintained at national level allowed me some years ago to calculate that 1,205 Workhouse/Fever Hospital inmates died during the years of the famine. This year because of Covid restrictions the local memorial service for the famine dead could not be held. The deaths of over one million Irish men, women and children during the Great Famine had a lasting depressive impact on the Irish people. As we emerge from decades of memory loss relating to the famine, we should embrace with thoughtfulness and with understanding the hardship suffered by so many Irish families just a few generations ago. In the famine cemetery of St. Mary’s there also lies those forgotten men and women who were the subject of the recent Mother and Babies Home Report. I wrote in a previous Eye on the Past of the work which has commenced to identify all those who died in the Workhouse and the later renamed County Home. I wrote a letter to the Mayor of County Kildare in March of this year asking for Kildare County Council to provide funding for the design and construction of a suitable memorial to honour those who died in Athy’s Workhouse/Fever Hospital and who were buried in unmarked graves. It is quite extraordinary to find that there appears to be no extant record of the names of those who died and are buried in St. Mary’s. As a community we have a duty to honour and respect our dead, whether it is a life which ended in armed conflict or a life expired in the drab surroundings of a Victorian workhouse or in an institution adopted by the Irish state and utilised by Irish society to further the culture of concealment and secrecy which was the hallmark of the first seven decades of the new Irish State.

War of Independence deaths in Kildare or of Kildare men elsewhere in Ireland [3]

The truce which came into effect on 11th July 1921 came approximately four months after the execution by the I.R.A. of Mrs. Mary Lindsey and her driver. The intervening four months saw 14 violent deaths in or about Co. Kildare. Nine days after St. Patrick’s Day Edward Leslie, an R.I.C. man died in the Military Hospital on the Curragh of gunshot wounds sustained in an IRA ambush at Scramogue, Roscommon three days earlier. On 29th March members of the Monaghan IRA Brigade were responsible for shooting dead, during the course of a raid for arms, 60-year-old William Fleming and his 24 year old son, both of whom farmed a small holding of 20 acres. It was one of the many indefensible actions by the I.R.A. during the War of Independence. There is no record of violent deaths in Co. Kildare during April 1921, but in the rest of the country 140 persons were killed on both sides of the armed conflict. Included in that number was Arthur Vicars, the first honorary secretary of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society who was shot by the I.R.A. at his home at Kilmorna House, Listowel on 14th April. Vicars, who had served as the Ulster King of Arms from 1893 to 1907, had resigned that position following the theft from Dublin Castle of the Irish Crown jewels. It is now believed that the thief was Frank Shackleton, brother of the polar explorer, Ernest Shackleton. It was claimed by the Kerry No. 1 I.R.A. Brigade that Vicars was a spy, thereby seeking to justify his killing and the burning of his house. Included amongst the five women who suffered violent deaths in April 1921 was Catherine Carroll, a 36-year-old single woman who lived in a rural part of north Co. Monaghan with her disabled brother and her elderly mother. Eoin O’Duffy who would later serve as Commissioner of the Garda Siochana until sacked by Éamon de Valera, ordered her execution for alleged spying. On 3rd May Jack O’Sullivan who lived in Kill died while a prisoner in Ballykilner internment camp. He was a member of Kill Company Kildare I.R.A. Brigade and had been arrested following the ambush at Kill the previous August. He was buried in St. Corbans, Naas. Two days after O’Sullivan’s death John Hickey, a 44-year-old farmer of Newtown, Kildare, was found dead on the far side of a trench dug on the road near Newtown. He had suffered a fractured skull, how it was not known. On 16th May 1921 the War of Independence found its first two victims in the Athy area. James Lacey and William Connor, both 26 years of age and from Shanganaghmore, Barrowhouse, were shot and killed during an ambush at Barrowhouse. Both were members of the B. Company 5th Battalion Carlow Kildare Brigade which was based in Athy. With six other Volunteers they prepared to ambush R.I.C. men cycling from Ballylinan R.I.C. Barracks to the nearby R.I.C. Barracks in Grangemellon. I have written previously of the Barrowhouse ambush and most recently in Eye on the Past No. 1371 published on 9th April 2019. The five R.I.C. constables lead by Sergeant John McKale apparently saw a man with a gun in his hand running across a field towards a ditch near the road on which they were cycling. The R.I.C. men took cover and when shots rang out, they returned fire. When the ambush party retreated the R.I.C. found the bodies of the two I.R.A. Volunteers. As was a common feature following attacks on the R.I.C. or the Crown Forces there were reprisals in the Barrowhouse area that night resulting in the burning of Patrick Lynch’s home and workshop and the house of Mary Malone. The neighbouring farm of Martin Lyons was also attacked, resulting in the destruction of a threshing machine and a large quantity of straw and hay. The following day Albert Carter from Carbery who joined the R.I.C. just four months earlier was killed when ambushed in Letterkenny. That same day several R.I.C. constables on cycle patrol were attacked in Kinnity, Co. Offaly. One constable was killed outright and a second wounded. The wounded R.I.C. man was Edward Doran of Cardenton, Athy who died on 19th May. Four further violent deaths were recorded in Co. Kildare between 5th and 17th June. Just four days before the truce Bridget Doran, aged 34 years and her stepson, aged 11 years were burned to death after two men, believed to be I.R.A. Volunteers, during a robbery sprinkled paraffin around the store over which the Doran family lived. No one ever admitted involvement in the shameful and horrendous deaths which occurred at Moorefield, Newbridge. The final Co. Kildare related killing occurred on 8th July when Jack Rossiter, a 57-year-old groom who worked at Maddenstown Lodge, was shot and killed during an I.R.A. attack on the Dublin Cork train in which he was travelling. I understand that Connor and Lacy, both of whom were killed at the Barrowhouse ambush, will be commemorated when covid restrictions are lifted. The information for this and the two previous articles on this subject mainly comes from the superb publication ‘The Dead of the Irish Revolution’ by Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin. A copy of this remarkable book should be in every Irish home.

Irish Traditional Music and Athy

Irish traditional music, whether songs in Irish or English, instrumental music or dance music, has been passed on from generation to generation. Here in Athy, the Anglo-Norman town on the river Barrow we are proud to claim as our own William Beauford who made several contributions to the first book on Irish music published in Ireland. Joseph Walker’s ‘Historical Memoirs of Irish Bards’, published in 1786, included four articles by the Athy resident Beauford. Walker, a 24-year-old clerk in the Irish Treasury, was described by Nicholas Carolan in his 1990 O’Riada Memorial lecture as ‘a literary dilettante of English descent’. Beauford, like Walker, was apparently of English descent and a member of the Royal Irish Academy and over the years had contributed several papers on different aspects of Irish culture and archaeology. He was, I believe, a teacher in a classical school in Athy and may have been attached to the school operated by Rev. Nicholas Ashe who was elected Sovereign of Athy in 1797. The 19th century Irish scholar Eugene O’Curry was highly critical of the Athy man’s contributions to Walker’s book, claiming that Beauford ‘was an unscrupulous person ….. who pawned his pretended knowledge of facts on the well intentioned but credulous Walker.’ Apparently Beauford’s views on the evolution of the Irish harp were based on an insufficient knowledge of the Irish language which led to analysis based on an incorrect interpretation of some ancient Irish scripts. One of the many mistakes subsequently revealed in Walker’s pioneering work was the claim the Irish harp was improved by the Jesuit Robert Nugent, who for a time lived in Kilkea Castle when that castle was leased to the Jesuit order. This somewhat tenuous link between an Irish traditional musical instrument and South Kildare regrettably was not correct so we must come closer to our own time for links between South Kildare and Irish traditional music. Uilleann pipers with family roots in counties Wicklow and Wexford were frequent visitors to Athy and amongst their numbers were members of the Cash family. John Cash who died in 1909 was an influential uilleann piper whose fame is captured in the song ‘Cash the Piper’. His son James and other Cash cousins were also noted pipers and many of us will recall a family relation, Bill Cash, who lived with us in Offaly Street in the 1950s. Perhaps Athy’s most noteworthy connection with the Irish piping tradition comes from the visits of the Doran brothers from nearby County Wicklow to the town. Johnny and Felix Doran often played the uilleann pipes on the approach road to Geraldine Park on big match days. Their visits to Athy were never complete without calling on local uilleann piper Neddy Whelan at his forge in Kilmoroney. John Doran’s uilleann pipe playing was regarded as masterful and thanks to the late Kevin Danaher we can today listen to Johnny Doran on the CD, ‘The Bunch of Keys’. Johnny is forever linked with Athy for it was in our own St. Vincent’s Hospital that he passed away on 19th January 1950. While he was a patient in the hospital he was visited by his fellow piper Willie Clancy and it was in St. Vincent’s Hospital that Johnny Doran played the uilleann pipes for the last time. His brother Felix died in England in 1972. The greatest uilleann piper of our generation, the County Kildare born Liam Óg O’Flynn, lived in south Kildare for many years and played a number of concerts in Athy locally during the annual Shackleton Autumn School. Athy native and resident Brian Hughes is today regarded as one of Ireland’s finest uilleann pipers as befits a musician who received his early training in the Pipers Club, Henrietta Street, Dublin. The uilleann pipes belong to the bagpipe family and here in south Kildare there is a long history of pipe bands. St. Brigid’s Pipe Band organised by local publican John Bailey of Stanhope Street was one early pipe band founded before World War I. It was followed years later by the Churchtown Pipe Band and later again by the Kilberry Pipe band. Perhaps the most famous pipe band in this part of the county was the Narraghmore Pipe Band. Today the bagpiping tradition continues with the St. Brigid’s Pipe Band, formed in recent years by Richard Bracken. The tradition of uilleann piping is today very much alive in the Athy area, with excellent pipers such as Toss Quinn and Joe Byrne and not forgetting Seamus Byrne and Ciaran O’Carroll. The weekly session in Clancys now going for 50 years or so, is Athy’s unique contribution to the Irish traditional music scene. That weekly session brings together a great number of musicians whose musical predecessors in the 1940s and later gave us Cully’s Ceili Band from Levitstown and the Ardellis Ceile Band, originally based in Fontstown. The recent re-establishment of a Comhaltas Ceoltoírí branch in Athy is a welcome development in a town historically referred to as a garrison town and one whose allegiances were not always seen as fully aligned with Irish traditional cultural values.

Wr of Independence deaths in Kildare or of Kildare men elsewhere in Ireland [2]

During the period of civil unrest extending from the Easter Rising of 1916 to the end of 1921, 2850 Irish men, women and children were killed as a result of what the historians Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin describe as political violence. In the previous Eye on the Past I dealt with the County Kildare casualties of conflict, ending the with death of Wolfhill native Joseph Hughes, a sergeant in the R.I.C. who was killed while patrolling near St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Maynooth on 22nd February 1921. That same day there were nine other men killed. The I.R.A. were responsible for killing five R.I.C. officers in counties Kildare, Cork, Donegal, Wexford and Kerry as well as three English soldiers stationed in Strand Barracks, Limerick and an alleged spy in Co. Cork. The sole I.R.A. casualty on 23rd February was Michael Looney from the rebel county who died of septicaemia a week after being shot in the leg by Crown Forces. Between 23rd February and 10th March 1921 a total of 94 men were killed, for the most part I.R.A. Volunteers and members of the R.I.C. or the Crown Forces. A number of innocent bystanders were tragically killed during that brief period, including James Hayden, a 35-year-old farmer from Rathanna, Carlow who was shot by a North Staffordshire regiment soldier while standing with a group of men outside his local church. That same day Henry Guy, a 25-year-old ex-service man who lived in Baldoyle was shot and killed when two lorries of auxiliaries pulled up at Sutton Cross and opened fire on men who were playing pitch and toss. In both incidences it was claimed that the men who were unarmed disobeyed an order to halt. No soldiers were disciplined as a result of the shootings. It is of interest to note that two retired soldiers are currently being prosecuted in the north of Ireland for shooting dead I.R.A. commander Joe McCann in 1972 because the State Prosecutor claims ‘the killing was not justified as Mr. McCann was running away when he was shot.’ On 7th March Michael O’Callaghan who had served as mayor of Limerick in 1920 was shot and killed in his own house. That same night George Clancy, the then Mayor of Limerick was also killed. In their book, ‘The Dead of the Irish Revolution’ the authors O’Halpin and Ó Corráin comment that the killing of O’Callaghan and Clancy was believed to be the work of an auxiliary named George Nathan. This auxiliary would later join the republican side during the Spanish Civil war and would command a Marseillaise battalion. Kit Conway and a group of fifty Irish Volunteers joined Nathan’s battalion when he was recognised as a former black and tan. Nathan was confronted as regards his involvement in the killing of the Limerick mayors but he denied any involvement. Apparently his denial was accepted by the Irish Spanish Civil War Volunteers, even if not by I.R.A. Volunteers active in 1921. Nathan was killed rallying his battalion members in the Brunet salient north of Madrid in July 1937. On 11th March 1921 ten persons were killed. I.R.A. members accounted for six of that number, with two R.I.C. casualties. The remaining deaths were that of Mrs. Mary Lindsay and her chauffeur James Clarke. The killing of Mrs. Lindsey was one of the most controversial events of the War of Independence. Several writers have claimed she was from county Kildare but the late Tim Sheehan who published his book ‘Lady Hostage’ in 1990 confirmed that she was born Mary Georgina Rawson in county Mayo. The Rawson name was a prominent name in south Kildare in the early years of the 19th century and earlier. There may well have been a family connection between Mrs. Lindsay and Thomas Rawson, the controversial Glasealy and later Cardenton resident whose involvement in the 1798 Rebellion has been the subject of previous Eyes on the Past. Mrs. Lindsey was executed along with her chauffeur by the I.R.A. after both had been kidnapped and held hostage for several days. Mrs. Lindsay had learned on 28th January 1921 of an ambush planned by the I.R.A. and had informed the authorities in Ballincollig barracks Cork, as well as the local Catholic curate, with a request that the I.R.A. call off the ambush. The priest told the I.R.A. commander and the ambush party but he was not believed and the Crown Forces succeeded in surrounding the I.R.A. men. Eight I.R.A. men were captured and one of whom died of his wounds. Five of the I.R.A. men captured at the Dripsey ambush site were charged before a military court in Cork on 8th February and were sentenced to death. Two other I.R.A. men were to be tried later. Twenty days after the Dripsey ambush Mrs. Lindsay’s home was burned to the ground and herself and her driver were taken prisoner by the I.R.A. The Cork I.R.A. command offered to trade their lives for the lives of the five I.R.A. men awaiting execution. There was no response to that I.R.A. offer. The five men, John Lions (aged 26), Timothy McCarthy (aged 21), Thomas O’Brien (aged 21), Daniel O’Callaghan (aged 23) and Patrick O’Mahony (aged 24) were executed in the military barracks Cork on 28th February. Also executed with them was Sean Allen (aged 24), convicted of possessing a revolver and a booklet entitled ‘Night Fighting’. Of the two I.R.A. men whose trial had been delayed one was sentenced to death, but this was later commuted to 25 years in jail, while the other I.R.A. man’s injuries were such that his trial never took place. Mrs. Lindsay and her driver were executed by the I.R.A. and buried in an unmarked grave which has not been traced to this day. She was one of 98 women killed during the War of Independence. Their deaths and especially that of the elderly widow Mrs. Lindsay provoked a backlash and aroused a lot of criticism within the ranks of the I.R.A. ………………………..TO BE CONTINUED

Lions Club Everest Challenge / Pauper burials in St. Mary's Cemetery

The second part of the story of Kildare connected persons killed during the War of Independence is put aside until next week. Instead, I want to write of the unremembered deaths of men, women and children in Athy’s workhouse and the frightful position facing so many families as we prepare to exit the Coronavirus lockdown regime. Countless families, young and old, have suffered emotionally and financially during the long drawn-out months of the Coronavirus pandemic. The financial measures put in place by the government has helped to alleviate some family difficulties but as the country reopens the full impact of the pandemic will be felt. We have already seen in the UK and in this country the closure of long-established retail outlets and it is to be expected that many Irish businesses shuttered for months past will find themselves unable to reopen their doors. Employees will lose their jobs and their families will find themselves facing financial chaos, exacerbated by the unrelenting need to meet mortgage and other recurring payments. The State will of course provide financial help, minimal as it may be, but not of sufficient level to dispel the despair and anxiety which will mark the lives of so many families in the post Covid world. I had previously signalled the sterling work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and that organisation’s unparalleled attempt to alleviate the deprivation of families in need. Theirs is an almost insurmountable task and one which can only be successfully completed by and with the generosity of members of the local community. This Saturday, 1st May at 10.00 a.m. Athy Lions Club’s President Brian Dooley will start his Everest challenge to help raise funds for the St. Vincent de Paul Society and Pieta House. The challenge facing Brian is a huge one and will make enormous demands on his physical and mental wellbeing over the many hours and days it will take him to complete the task. He has made this commitment as his personal contribution to alerting all of us to the pressing needs of so many within our community. Many families need our help now and so many more families can be expected to join the growing pool of families in need in the not-too-distant future. If you can help with a donation, however large or small, please do so by clicking on the website at www.idonate.ie/athylionsclubeverestchallenge or perhaps visit the Everest challenge site at Athy Rugby Club starting on 1st May and make a cash contribution there. I have written previously of Athy’s Workhouse, in light of the recent Mother and Baby Homes Commissions report, conscious of how those who died in the Workhouse and the later County Home are unremembered. Forgotten not just in folk memory but also apparently unrecorded in any extant paper record of burials in the pauper’s graveyard, St. Marys. The price paid by those who entered the Workhouse, women separated from their men folk, children separated from their parents, saw them lose their dignity and their individuality. The loss of these two personal attributes in so many is a shameful indictment of the institutional life as lived in workhouses and county homes for almost 120 years. My research, first published in ‘Lest we Forget – Kildare and the Great Famine’ in 1995 showed that 1,205 died in Athy’s Workhouse and the adjoining Fever Hospital during the Great Famine. How many more died in the subsequent years of the Workhouse and in the County Home after 1922 we do not know? What we do know is that many of them, presumably the majority, were buried in St. Mary’s cemetery across the road from the present St. Vincent’s Hospital. I say the majority because ongoing research shows that a few workhouse inmates were buried in St. Michael’s cemetery. This has shown up in research which Clem Roche and Michael Donovan have agreed to undertake to identify all those who died in the local Workhouse and the County Home and who now lie in unmarked graves in St. Mary’s cemetery. Kildare’s County Mayor who recently issued an apology on behalf of Kildare County Council in the wake of the Mother and Baby Homes Commissions report has received a request for Kildare County Council to fund the design, construction, and erection of a suitable memorial in St. Mary’s cemetery to remember those who died in Athy’s Workhouse and the County Home after 1844. I am hopeful that the Council will respond positively and that likewise the local community will be generous in supporting the Lions Club’s Everest challenge and so help the local St. Vincent de Paul Society and Pieta House to meet the challenges facing many families today.

War of Independence deaths in Kildare or of Kildare men elsewhere in Ireland [1]

The first deaths of participants in the Irish War of Independence occurred three days before the start of the Easter Rising. On 21st April a car on the way to Tralee drove off the pier at Ballykissane, Killorglin. The driver, Tom McInerny, was the only survivor of the four Irish Volunteers who had been on their way to set up a radio transmitter to keep Tralee Volunteers in contact with the German arms ship, Aud. Twenty year old Cornelius Keating, 37 year old Charles Monaghan and 30 year old Daniel Sheehan were drowned. Theirs were the first of the almost 2,350 deaths recorded during the period April 1916 to December 1921 –commonly known as the War of Independence period. In the week which commenced with the deaths at Ballykissane a further 238 deaths were recorded. This of course was the week of the Easter Rising. Amongst the early deaths was that of James Duffy, a County Kildare man, a private in the Royal Irish Regiment. He was shot and killed while marching from Richmond barracks to Dublin Castle via Kilmainham. The troops were fired on by Volunteers led by Eamon Ceannt who had taken over the South Dublin Union. Amongst Ceannt’s men was W.T. Cosgrove, the future Taoiseach, whose father Thomas was a native of Castledermot. Another casualty of the South Dublin Union battle was nurse Margaret Kehoe from Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow who was shot and killed on the same day as Duffy. A day later Denis Kelly from County Kildare, a 43 year old ticket checker with the Great Southern and Western Railway Company was shot and killed while working at the North Wall. Another Kildare man, 42 year old Edward Murphy, the Court crier for Judge Lenihan, also died on 25th April having been shot the previous day in the vicinity of St. Stephen’s Green. On 26th April, George Geoghegan, a Kildare native and a member of the Irish Citizen Army was shot and killed as an I.C.A. contingent led by Captain Sean Connolly took over the City Hall. He is commemorated with three other victims, Sean Connolly, Sean O’Reilly and Louis Byrne in a plaque erected at City Hall by the National Graves Association. As the first week of the revolution came to an end it was marked by the death of yet another County Kildare native. Francis Salmon, a native of Straffan, was just 17 years of age when he was shot dead while standing at the door of his employer’s house at 50 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay in Dublin. The young sales assistant was the youngest Kildare county native to die during the 1916 Rising. On the same day as the first of the Easter Rising leaders, Padraig Pearse, Thomas Clarke and Thomas McDonagh were executed in Kilmainham jail, a 50 year old labourer’s widow died in mysterious circumstances. County Kildare born Margaret McGuinness, a widow, lived at 27 Pembroke Cottages, Dublin and her death is generally accepted to have been as a result of political violence. There is no question surrounding the killing of Prosperous born Michael Kavanagh, a 35 year old carter who was married with 7 children. He was bringing luggage to the Shelbourne Hotel on the first day of the Rising when his cart was seized by members of the Irish Citizens Army to make a barricade. Kavanagh was trying to retrieve the cart when he was shot in the head. He died on 17th May. Almost three years were to pass before the next County Kildare casualty of the Irish War of Independence. On the 13th of February 1919 Patrick Gavin, a 45 year old labourer from Maddenstown, was driving cattle to the Newbridge fair when he was challenged by an English soldier on sentry duty at Brownstown pumping station. It was claimed he was challenged by the sentry and reacted by threatening the sentry who shot him. The soldier was subsequently court martialled but escaped any punishment. One of the rare incidences of armed conflict within the county of Kildare during the War of Independence resulted in the killing of R.I.C. constable Patrick Haverty, a 40 year old Galway man. He was killed during the ambush at Greenhills, Kill on 21st August 1920. The ambush led by Tom Harris, the future Fianna Fáil T.D. was the first such action in County Kildare and resulted also in the death of R.I.C. sergeant Patrick O’Reilly who succumbed to his injuries ten days later. Further R.I.C. casualties in the county occurred on 19th February 1921 when Thomas Bradshaw, a 24 year old policeman from Tipperary, shot himself in Monasterevin R.I.C. Barracks. Just over two weeks later Harold Stiff, a Londoner who had joined the R.I.C. a few months earlier, committed suicide in the Maynooth R.I.C. barracks. On 21st February 1921 R.I.C. sergeant Joseph Hughes, a 35 year old former postman from Wolfhill, was shot while patrolling in Maynooth. He died the following day and the local press reported that his funeral was attended by an immense crowd while passing through Athy where all shops were closed with ‘police with reversed arms marched behind the coffin.’ Information for this article has been extracted mainly from ‘The Dead of the Irish Revolution’ by Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin. ……. TO BE CONTINUED

Shopkeepers Shows 1963 and 1964

Over the years Athy has been home to many festivals, two of which came to my attention as I sorted papers collected, laid aside and forgotten until today. Two xeroxed programmes for the Shopkeepers Show put on as part of Athy’s parish festival in 1963 and 1964 allowed me to recall the names and faces of those who took part in those shows, many of whom are no longer with us. I did not see those shows as I had left Athy in January 1961 but the programmes are a reminder of the active community spirit which prevailed at that time. The festival was the idea of Fr. Joseph Corbett, then a young curate in St. Michael’s parish. He asked the industrial and commercial groups in the town to put on variety shows in the Social Club, St. John’s Lane to raise funds for the new parish church then under construction. The Shopkeepers Show followed or was followed on by shows put on by workers in the Wallboard factory, the I.V.I. Foundry, the Asbestos factory and the local garages. The Shopkeepers Show for 24th March 1963 started with an opening chorus immediately followed by a vocal quartet featuring Maureen Ryan, Helen Walsh, Dettie Kehoe and her sister Sheila. Next up was the wonderful theatrical artiste, Ernest O’Rourke Glynn with a recitation of ‘the Exiles Return’, followed by Maureen Ryan with a vocal rendition of ‘Mother Ireland’. Irish dancing saw Hazel Darling, Deirdre Hughes and Noeleen Murphy take the stage. A comic turn by Wag O’Keeffe and Michael Dempsey was followed by a medley of songs involving male and female members of the show. These included Dinah Donnelly, Mary Conlon and some of the earlier mentioned ladies, together with Ian Antwell, Charlie Prendergast, Michael Noonan, Sean O’Connor, Des McHugh, Paddy Dillon, Kevin Timmons and Alex Kelly. A highlight of the show must have been the duet between Charlie Prendergast and Maureen Ryan, followed by another duet, this time involving Maureen Ryan, partnered with Cecily Brady. All three were singers with exceptional voices. For emerging rock and roll fans there was what must have been a mighty ear full from Brendan Ward, P.J. Hyland, John Murphy, Jerry Byrne and Peter Bowden. The 1963 show came to an end with another piece of comedy dialogue between Wag O’Keeffe and Michael Dempsey, followed by the male voice choir with a number of songs. The Shopkeepers Show must have been well received for the following year their show was put on over two nights, 11th and 13th March 1964. Many of the same performers took part but participants not previously mentioned included John Hillard, Dolly Hyland, Phyllis Coughlan, Ann Dooley, Brian O’Hara, all of whom performed in the one act play ‘Love and Acid Drops’ by Seamus Burke. Margot Higginson and Mary Tuohy featured in an extract from ‘The Merry Widow’, while Carmel Hickey, Esther Bannon, Kathleen Kelly, Carmel Hickey and Patricia Mahon formed the ladies chorus. The compere for both shows was Kevin Timmons with musical accompanist for the first show by Molly O’Brien who was joined the following year by John Corcoran. The Parish Festival ran for 1963 and 1964 and perhaps other years as well. I would like to hear from anyone with information on the shows and I would also welcome the opportunity of viewing and perhaps photocopying any programmes printed for any and all of the shows put on by the local companies as part of the Athy Parish Festival. FRANK TAAFFE The photograph shows the cast of what I believe was the Shopkeepers Show of 1963.

Woodstock Castle as reported in the Dublin Penny Journal / Ben Taaffe

The Dublin Penny Journal was founded in 1831 by Caesar Otway who was later joined by George Petrie and John O’Donovan. In its early life the Journal published original articles of Irish interest which were regarded as being of a high scholarly standard. In 1833 the Journal was taken over by a new owner. Barbara Hayley, in her essay ‘On periodicals as the voice of 19th century Ireland’ in her jointly edited book 300 Years of Irish Periodicals, accused the new owner of having turned the Journal into “a cheap and snippety ragbag of extracts.” She may have a point, but to a reader hunting for local history The Dublin Penny Journal can yield fine historical nuggets. In its issue of 14th March 1835 it gave an account of Woodstock Castle, Athy from which the following is taken: “From its vicinity Woodstock Castle has partaken of nearly all the changes that befell Athy. Standing on the Western bank of the River Barrow it was designed to command the principle ford on this part of the river in conjunction with White’s Castle situated on the opposite bank – the ford lying between… Tradition assigns the building of the Castle to the year 1290 and that a descendant of the Earl of Pembroke was its first master. Antiquaries with more reason are inclined to attribute the castle’s construction to Thomas Fitzgerald, Lord of Offaly and afterwards seventh Earl of Kildare who, on marrying Dorothea, the daughter of Anthony O’Moore of Leix, received in dower the manors of Woodstock and Rheban. The plan of the building was originally a regular square, in after times an addition was made to it of a square tower joining the south side and built in uniformity with the front facing the river. The walls are of great thickness…. The mullioned windows are much admired and were elegantly executed… A fine arched gateway and part of the outer court-wall yet remain… The ford which the castle commanded and from which Athy derives its name was called Athelehac or anciently Athlegar, the ford towards the west; also Ath-trodan or the Cattle Ford. It was here the great battle was fought in the third century between the people of Munster and those of Leix under Laviseagh Cean Mordha. In 1642 the Marquis of Ormond took Woodstock from the rebels and subsequently in 1647 Owen Roe O’Neill surprised it and put the garrison to the sword. His victory however was of short duration for Lord Inchiquin compelled him in a little time after to surrender it and Athy. The lordship of Woodstock and Castlemitchell was set by the Earl of Kildare to Daniel Hutchinson, alderman, for 99 years from May the 1st 1657 at 100 guineas the first 41 years yearly, and 200 guineas a year during the remainder of the lease, with six fat wethers or £3.” In the cavalier manner of The Dublin Penny Journal, I’ll now move from six fat castrated rams – those curious wethers – to another unrelated snippet. Confined to our 5k limit for the past few months, many of us have discovered laneways and byways in our town that we never much noticed before. But one young member of my family has been discovering Athy for the first time. Early in 2020 we welcomed a new grandson, and like most grandparents last year, we visited the new family member more often on screen than in person. When the first lockdown arrived last March he was an eight-week old Dubliner; by the time he could visit Athy again it was already high summer. This year began differently. The small fellow was here on a short Christmas break when the latest lockdown closed his creche, and so he stayed on a little longer. And longer, and longer. The toddler is now an expert on the People’s Park and the loveliest stretches of the River Barrow. This week we’ll finally have to say goodbye to the smallest Taaffe as he and his parents move home to Munster and to his re-opened creche. The Eye on the Past might be written a little quicker without the childminding duties, but like so many families, we’ll be looking forward to a summer reunion. There is a real danger the smallest Taaffe may turn out a Corkman one day, but it’s a lucky Corkman who took his first steps in Athy.

A Virtual Tour of Athy [2]

This week we continue our virtual tour of Athy, beginning at the town hall in Emily Square. Built 300 years ago as a market house, courthouse and borough offices, the building’s courtroom hosted many trials presided over by John Toler, later ennobled as Lord Norbury, but better known in his time as the hanging judge. Wolfe Tone, as a barrister on the Leinster circuit, appeared on a few occasions at trials in Athy. Between the Town Hall and the River Barrow one can see the colonnaded building which was opened in 1852 as a corn exchange and now serves as the town’s courthouse. Nearby is the sundial donated by Macra na Feirme in 1994 to commemorate Athy’s part in its founding 50 years previously. At the side of the Shackleton Museum is the much-admired statue of the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton by the celebrated sculptor Mark Richards. In the middle of Emily Square is a 1798 monument erected some years ago to commemorate the brave men and women from this area who fought and those who died during the rebellion. Several local men were imprisoned in the White’s Castle jail, which is just ahead of us. Patrick O’Kelly, a local man who wrote his account of the 98 Rebellion, recounted how 7 young men from South Kildare were marched over Cromaboo bridge to be hanged on the banks of the Grand Canal. Beheaded, their heads were displayed on Cromaboo bridge, which was built two years previously. Robert Emmet’s rebellion five years later saw another Athy resident, Nicholas Grey of Rockfield House, arrested and detained in the White’s Castle jail. He had been commissioned by Emmet to lead the Kildare men into Dublin. Gray was eventually released, having been transferred to a Dublin prison and allowed to leave Ireland to live out the rest of his life in America. White’s Castle, built in 1417 to house a garrison to protect the bridge of Athy, was adapted for use as a prison following the removal of the soldiers to a newly built barracks in the 1720s. It continued to be used as a jail until about 1830 and for the next 60 years or more served as a police barracks. We now cross Cromaboo bridge, named for the war cry of the Fitzgeralds. It has been standing since 1796, a much shorter time than the castle ruins we see to our right in the distance. Woodstock Castle, the first stone building in the medieval village of Athy, has remained unoccupied since the middle of the 17th century. Edmund Rice Square is on our right, so named in 1996 to commemorate the Christian Brothers whose schools were located off St John’s Lane. St John’s was the original name, first used in Anglo-Norman times, and is the only street name of that period which is still in use. On our left, through the archway, was the site of the Kellyite meeting house of the early 19th century. Rev. Thomas Kelly, still remembered as one of Ireland’s finest hymnologists, was the founder of a breakaway group from the Church of Ireland called the Kellyites. He had 40 or so followers in Athy as well as meeting houses in Portarlington, Waterford, Wexford and Dublin. The Kellyites as a dissenting group faded away after Kelly died in 1855. Duke Street, with Leinster Street, is the main shopping street of Athy. In Duke Street we can see several fine examples of jostle stones, a reminder of the horse and carriage days. The jostle stones are at the side of the archway entrances to former stables and were designed to jostle the carriage wheels into position as the carriages entered the archway so as not to cause damage to the walls. As we pass up Duke Street on our left is Convent Lane, with the former Dominican Church at the end. Now the town’s library, the building when opened in 1965 represented a remarkable addition to modern Irish architecture and includes artwork by Brid Ni Rinn and George Campbell. Further on Duke Street on our left is Crown House, which once enjoyed the patronage of judges attending the quarter sessions in Athy. Adjoining the Crown House was the town’s cockpit, which was a popular venue until cockfighting was made illegal in 1849. The cockpit was restored many years ago. Crown House was from where Stephen Cullinan, founder of Macra na Feirme, first published the Farmers’ Journal. Just ahead of us on the road to Stradbally, which we reach by travelling on Woodstock Street, formerly called Barrack Street, is the site of the former cavalry barracks, built in the 1720s. The barracks is long gone but as we turn into Woodstock Street we can see on our left an archway which once formed an entrance to one of the barrack buildings. If we continued towards Stradbally we would pass on our right St Vincent’s Hospital, first opened in January 1844 as Athy’s workhouse. During the Great Famine the workhouse, built to accommodate 600 persons, catered for over 1500 men, women and children, necessitating the opening of two auxiliary workhouses in the town. Sadly, 1250 deaths were recorded in the workhouse during the four years of the Famine, and those unfortunate people are buried in the nearby St Mary’s Cemetery, known locally as the pauper’s graveyard. Now we continue our journey by William Street to Augustus bridge, named after one of the Duke of Leinster’s sons. We are crossing the Grand Canal, which was extended to Athy in 1791. The Grand Canal, like the railway of 1846, brought prosperity to Athy and allowed it to develop as one of Leinster’s great market towns. Facing the canal harbour is the former Canal Hotel where travellers stayed overnight so as to catch the Dublin-bound boat which left Athy at 5 o’clock in the morning to reach Dublin 13 hours later. We have now reached the end of our tour of Athy, which was once Co. Kildare’s principal town. The South Kildare town is traversed by rail, river and canal, and is endowed with many buildings of merit. The laneways and byways of Athy, its secret places and hidden corners, all have their own stories to tell, but those stories are for another day.

A Virtual Tour of Athy [1]

This week’s Eye is the first half of my script for a virtual tour of Athy, broadcast on local radio last Thursday. The second part of the tour will follow next week. We’re on the road to sweet Athy, approaching the South Kildare town from the Kilcullen direction. Our first stop on the outskirts of the town, which was founded as an Anglo-Norman village in the 12th century, is at Gallows Hill. Up to the 18th century every Irish town had a gallows on the town’s outskirts at a time when hanging was the penalty for many crimes, even as petty as stealing goods with a value of 5 shillings. Just beyond, on the left hand side, we have what may be a unique sporting complex in an Irish provincial town. Here, the local GAA club, the rugby club, tennis club and soccer club sit cheek by jowl in the former showgrounds. The GAA grounds of Geraldine Park hosted the 1906 All-Ireland Football Final, which was played on the 31 October 1907. Two years later the 1908 All-Ireland Hurling Final was played here on the 27th of June 1909. Sporting activities were not on the minds of the Commissioners for Education in Ireland when they financed the building of a Model School and Agricultural School, which building we pass shortly on the right hand side. The building was opened in 1850, and was designed by the Yorkshire-born architect Frederick Darley. It was acquired by Kildare County Council some years ago and is now planned to be developed as a Food, Drinks and Skills Innovation Hub. Frederick Darley, who designed the King’s Inns building in Dublin, as well as the RDS building in Ballsbridge, was also the architect for the Presbyterian church just beyond the Model School on the left hand side. This church of finely crafted stonework was built to serve the religious needs of the Presbyterian families from Perthshire in Scotland who came to South Kildare in the immediate post-Famine period following an invitation from the Duke of Leinster, who offered them farms in this area. As we approach the railway bridge we pass on the right St Michael’s Cemetery, with the ruins of a small medieval church. This may have been the first parish church in the medieval village of Athy, built as it was outside the town walls at a time when the French-speaking Dominicans and the Trinitarians provided church services for the Norman settlers only. Resting just inside the front wall of St Michael’s Cemetery is the late Paddy Johnson who lived in a small terraced house which, with its neighbouring houses, was torn down to accommodate the construction of the railway line to Athy and Carlow in 1846. His neighbours all emigrated to America where it is said they settled in an area which they called Bothar Buí after their old Athy address. Paddy Johnson remained in Athy and when he died it is claimed that he was buried in what was once his own backyard. Breasting the railway bridge we get a panoramic view of Athy east of the river Barrow. This was the scene which greeted the young Ernest Shackleton when he was brought into town and one which was familiar to Thomas LeFroy, the onetime boyfriend of Jane Austen, who for some time attended a classical school in Athy. The railway station on our left, through which the first train passed on Monday 3rd August 1846, was the work of the Great Leinster and Munster Railway Company, and in front of the station is the People’s Park. This handsome public park was a gift of the town’s landlord, the Duke of Leinster, early in the 19th century. Proceeding down Leinster Street we are reminded that the principal streets of the town are named after the Duke of Leinster’s family. The second Duke, William, Duke of Leinster, is recalled in the street names Leinster Street, Duke Street and William Street, which are the main streets of the town of Athy and a fine example of the linear street pattern common to Anglo-Norman settlements. Halfway down Leinster Street we pass on the left a fine bricked three-storey building, now a pub, and known previously as the Railway Hotel. A previous owner was Tom Flood, a War of Independence veteran whose brother, Frank, was hanged in Mountjoy on 14th March 1921. Another Athy man, Patrick Moran, who prior to the 1916 Rising worked for a time in Glynn’s pub on Duke Street, was also hanged in Mountjoy Jail on the same day as Frank Flood. Passing by Meeting Lane on the left reminds us of the Quaker meeting house which, when opened in 1780, gave the lane its name. Athy had an active Quaker community several years before Ballitore was founded, but regrettably that fine group who did so much for the Irish people during the Great Famine no longer have a presence in Athy. We now reach the centre of the town, with a crossroads leading to Monasterevin on the right, Carlow on the left, and Kilkenny straight ahead. To our left is Emily Square, named for Emily, wife of the Duke of Leinster and mother of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Lord Edward was a member of parliament for Athy borough for some years. The town hall, built in the 1720s to the southside of the town square, houses today the Shackleton museum, and it is where the annual Shackleton Autumn School takes place.

Poverty in 19th century Athy and later

When I wrote some years ago of the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 and its deadly impact on the people of Athy and district, I had little thought that the world was soon to face into another pandemic. COVID-19 has already brought so many changes in society – and not only a huge loss of lives but also, sadly, loss of employment that has led to family deprivation on a scale never before experienced by the current generations. Reading the minute books of Athy Town Commissioners of the 19th century, and press reports from that time, confirms that poverty and social deprivation were once all too common features of life in Athy. Three years before the start of the Great Famine, Athy’s Town Commissioners wrote to a Mr Bunbury seeking to have the brickyards continue working throughout the year “to assist in employing the poor” (the name “Bunbury” is currently in use with reference to Bunbury Bridge – what, I wonder, is the connection?). In December 1848 the Town Commissioners considered using (not employing ) “paupers from the workhouse to sweep the street.” It was a suggestion which would repeatedly arise at future meetings of the Town Commissioners, and it had little to do with offering help to the poor. It was, rather, an attempt by the Commissioners to save public funds. The Board of Guardians of the local workhouse were not willing to cooperate and so the Commissioners in 1849 appointed two local men, supplied with wheelbarrows, to clean the streets. The men were appointed as “scavengers”, a rather impolite term which would not be acceptable to use nowadays. Three years after the Great Famine saw the first mention in the official records of flooding at Rathstewart. This was a perennial problem which was always described as causing “distress for the poor people”. Poverty was widespread in the town of Athy in the 19th century, and the Athy Loan Fund gave what was described as a “liberal donation” of £30 for the “labouring poor of Athy” in 1856. The Town Commissioners gave a less liberal donation of £1 to purchase seeds for distribution amongst the poor. Poverty, coupled with the constant presence of soldiers in the local cavalry barracks and the nearby Curragh camp, gave rise to what the Town Commissioners described as “the scandal of public prostitution in Athy.” The Town Clerk, Henry Sheil, was required in 1858 to publish the following public notice in the town: “Caution to persons keeping any place of public resort within the town for the sale of refreshments of any kind who knowingly supplies any common prostitute or resorting therein to assemble and continue in his premises after this notice will be prosecuted according to the law.” The notice did not have the desired effect, so the following year Thomas Roberts was appointed for the purpose of prosecuting public prostitutes and street beggars for which he was paid a salary of 4 shillings per week, and two shillings and sixpence for each conviction of a prostitute. Another indication of the widespread poverty in Irish society of the 1850s was the Athy Town Commissioners’ request to the local magistrates “to try and sentence vagrant beggars to fines or imprisonment who shall be found standing at doors or loitering about.” Ten years later the Town Commissioners were still concerned by the presence of vagrants and prostitutes in the town, and decided to appoint a man “to take care that all vagrants and beggars shall be kept out of Athy and all prostitutes shall be brought before a magistrate.” The parsimonious Commissioners next wrote to the Board of Guardians in charge of the local workhouse seeking recoupment of this man’s wages “as his work greatly lessened the cost of nightly paupers in the workhouse.” The final years of the 19th century were marked by several outbreaks of typhoid fever in Athy town, leading to many deaths. The outbreaks were caused by contaminated drinking water in the town’s public water pumps. For several years the medical officer of health, Dr Kilbride, had complained of the dangers presented to the poor people of the town who relied on the public water pumps for drinking water. The Ratepayers’ Association, whose members no doubt had their own private wells, resisted the attempt to provide the town with a piped water supply. It eventually arrived in 1906, but not before many of those living in the unsanitary hovels of the laneways and courtyards of Athy had lost their lives. Nearer to our time was the report in January 1915 that “there are about 60 children attending national school in Athy who are unable by reason of lack of food to take full advantage of the education provided.” About 36 of these children were provided with breakfast by the Sisters of Mercy. The Urban District Council, as successors to the Town Commissioners, provided a grant of £18 in 1923 to fund a midday meal for 96 children in the convent school. The early years of the Irish Free State were very difficult, with little employment and disastrous harvests in 1923 and 1924. By 1926 the local convent school provided meals for poor children consisting of bread and syrup, leading the Urban Council to provide extra funds so that a more substantial meal could be served. Today COVID-19 has brought huge social challenges, one of which is the plight of families left without an income. Athy Lions’ Club has agreed to organise a fundraising event over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend to help the local St Vincent de Paul Society to assist local families in need. More about this at a later date.

Mother and Baby Homes Commission references to Athy's County Home

The recently-published Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation Report has been the subject of much comment and criticism. Running to 2865 pages, the report tells the story of Mother and Baby Homes between 1922 and 1998, in accordance with its terms of reference. The Commission, chaired by Judge Yvonne Murphy, acknowledges that the experiences of women and children in the 1920s were vastly different from the experiences of the 1990s, and that the institutions under investigation were very different in 1998 than they were in 1922. The Commission recognised that Ireland was a harsh environment for many during the early decades of the newly established Irish Free State, and women in particular suffered serious discrimination. Women who gave birth outside marriage were subjected to particularly harsh treatment. The report makes the important and clearly correct claim that “responsibility for that harsh treatment rests mainly with the fathers of their children and their own immediate families,” while “it was supported or contributed to and condoned by the institutions of the State and the Churches.” The institutions investigated include a variety of Mother and Child Homes as well as County Homes in Cork, Stranolar and Thomastown. The Commission found that County Homes offered worse physical conditions than the majority of the Mother and Baby Homes and that in addition mothers in County Homes had to carry out “onerous and unpleasant work for which they were not paid.” County Homes were successors to the workhouses and provided accommodation for the poor and the elderly, as well as single mothers and their children. The County Home in Athy, although not fully investigated by the Commission, is referenced several times in the report. It quotes a report of 1927 which claimed that the majority of the County Homes were in poor condition, reflecting the lack of investment prior to 1920. In Athy’s County Home, for instance, the bedside lockers provided “were simply tables made in the Home, each with a small drawer closed by a wooden catch sufficient to hold small personal items.” Unmarried mothers in the Home were noted as having “no privacy or personal space.” As early as 1927 the Commissioners for the Relief of the Sick and Destitute Poor recommended that the County Homes be reserved for the aged and the chronic sick and that unmarried mothers and their children should be removed to special homes. This recommendation was followed up by the Department of Local Government and Public Health, but without success. In 1926 772 unmarried mothers lived in Ireland’s County Homes. Their numbers were reduced to 582 by 1942. The newly established Department of Health returned to this issue in the 1950s when it made a sustained effort to have unmarried mothers and children removed from County Homes. However, the County Boards of Health, administered by the County Councils, failed to respond and would continue to use the County Homes not only to accommodate the aged and infirm but also to provide emergency accommodation for families and unmarried mothers from poor backgrounds. A 1953 report concerning Athy’s County Home reported that it had “a fleeting population of families admitted because of eviction, unemployment, illness of one or both parents or some other causes of break in family life.” County Managers exercised executive control of the County Homes, and they decided whether expectant mothers were sent to County Homes or to Mother and Baby Homes. Apparently a woman’s family background was considered by the Boards of Health and the County Managers when deciding whether to send a woman to a Mother and Baby Home or to a County Home. Until the maternity unit attached to St Vincent’s Hospital was closed in 1986, unmarried mothers continued to give birth in what was Athy’s former County Home. However, unlike the County Home days, neither mother nor baby remained in the hospital after birth. The situation was different in the years after Irish independence. Unmarried mothers, generally from poor backgrounds, were confined in the County Home and on many occasions their babies remained in the County Home when the mothers left. The children abandoned in Athy’s County Home were of sufficient numbers to require a school to be maintained on the premises until the 1940s. Thereafter, the schoolgoing children from the County Home attended local national schools, marching each morning to school wearing their distinctive County Home clothing. The Commission reports how the Athy County Home had a separate nursery in 1952, but that two years later it was gone. That year, the County Home housed 24 children, from infants to early teens, who slept in the adult dormitories. The sleeping arrangements were adversely commented on by the Department of Health’s inspector, who expressed concern about young boys sleeping in dormitories “with some kindly old men” but where it might be expected there were also “degenerates and the subnormal.” Strangely, there was no concern expressed for the young girls’ sleeping arrangements. The 1952 report on Athy’s County Home noted that “mothers do the household work. There appears to be three or four women, all unmarried mothers, working daily in the laundry… none are paid… the washing for the whole institution is done here… other mothers work as ward attendants, nursery attendants, and one looks after the nurses. There are in the Home women admitted as unmarried mothers whose children have been boarded out. They are employed according to their capacity but not paid.” While the inspector’s report did not criticise the facilities in the County Home, it was critical of the conditions in which the unmarried mothers lived, with particular reference to long hours worked and unpaid labour. The most damning evidence of the draconian work required in Athy’s County Home in 1952 was given in the inspector’s observation of one nine-week-old baby which “appeared healthy, clean and well catered for. She was however lying in her cradle with a half-emptied bottle of milk beside her. I suggested that she should be lap fed – the excuse offered was that the child’s mother would never get her work done if she had to spend so much time feeding her baby.” The practice of requiring unmarried mothers, or indeed anyone in receipt of public assistance, to do unpaid work ended with the passing of the Health Act of 1953. The first paid attendant was employed in Athy’s County Home in 1952 a few years after it was recorded that the County Home’s staff consisted of three nurses and three members of the Sisters of Mercy. Children abandoned in the County Homes were sometimes boarded out once they reached nine months of age, while their mothers were expected to remain in the County Homes carrying out unpaid work for two years after giving birth. It is uncertain if any infants were boarded out from Athy’s County Home, but several young boys were boarded out at nine years of age or older. Regrettably, the practice of boarding out children left some of those children abused and isolated. The passing of the Adoption Act 1953 and the Unmarried Mothers’ Allowance paid from 1973 brought an end to the abandonment of infants in County Homes. Children at risk are now boarded out or fostered under arrangements made by TUSLA. Their arrangements are better financed and monitored than the unacceptable practices which saw young boys and girls from Ireland’s County Homes boarded out, many to be ill-treated and used as slave labour. The rebuilding of Athy’s County Home commenced in 1966, long after the practice of admitting and retaining children of unmarried mothers in that institution had ended. The building work took three years to complete and on 3rd April 1969 the newly-named St Vincent’s Hospital was opened. Workhouse, County Home, St Vincent’s Hospital - each marked a step away from the misery and hunger of the Famine years, but that slow improvement was almost crippled by the shameful, harsh discrimination suffered by women in the first half of the last century. The journey continues into the 21st century, but with vast improvements in both institutional care and society’s attitudes to the most vulnerable. The Commission’s report on Mother and Baby Homes is a hugely comprehensive account of a shameful period in our nation’s history, and its findings have been unfairly criticised. Its finding that blame rests with absent fathers, unsympathetic families and Irish society generally, as well as Church and State, must leave us all ashamed of our country’s grim, joyless history.

Athy's protected structures

The public advertisement in the local newspapers last week of the proposed development of a Food, Drinks & Skills Innovation Hub at the former Model School on the Dublin Road is very welcome news for Athy. Coming so soon after confirmation that work on the Outer Relief Road is on schedule to begin towards the end of this year, it represents a huge vote of confidence in the future of the town. The Model School building was built in 1851-2 to house both a Model School and an agricultural school. Built on a site provided by the Duke of Leinster, the school was opened in August 1852. It served the dual purpose of providing schooling for local children on a non-denominational basis while also providing preliminary training for candidate teachers who had been selected by the Commissioners of National Education and who attended the school as boarders for six months. The Model School complex also included an agricultural training college to which was attached a substantial farm. The college closed within a few years and the farmlands were subsequently auctioned. The non-denominational aspect of the early school was undermined by the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy in the town in 1852, followed by the opening of the Christian Brothers schools in 1861. The building, constructed in the Tudor style, was destroyed by fire some years ago and was subsequently acquired by Kildare County Council. The building was designed by Frederick Darley, an Irish-based architect with an international reputation who is also believed to have been the architect of the local courthouse; the Presbyterian church and former manse on the Dublin Road; and the Methodist church on Woodstock Street. Darley, who came to Ireland from Yorkshire, designed the King’s Inns buildings at Henrietta Street, Dublin, as well as the Royal Dublin Society’s headquarters in Ballsbridge. His work in Athy stemmed from the patronage of the Duke of Leinster, who engaged Darley to remodel his residence at Kilkea Castle. The number of buildings in Athy linked with Darley is quite remarkable and represents a unique architectural legacy for an Irish provincial town. The County Council advertisement was required under planning legislation as the Model School is included in the Council’s Record of Protected Structures. Buildings recorded as protected structures are so listed because the county councillors, advised by experts, have identified those buildings as having special architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, scientific, social or technical merit. Owners of such properties must protect them, for if the County Council feels that a protected structure is endangered, the Council can serve a notice on the owner requiring remedial work to be carried out to protect the building. Failure to comply with such a request allows the County Council to carry out any necessary work to save the building and to subsequently recover the cost of such work from the owner. In addition to these maintenance requirements, planning permission is required for any work to be carried out on a protected structure which might materially affect its character. The responsibility imposed on property owners whose buildings are declared to be protected structures are onerous, and there are few private owners who would willingly take on the responsibility of owning a protected structure. However owners have little choice in the matter when the County Council declares a building to be a protected structure. The Athy Town Development Plan which is currently up for review has a large list of local protected structures. These range from a mid-nineteenth century coach house on Church Road to an early nineteenth century two-storey house on the same road. Pubs on the main streets make up many of the listed protected structures in Athy representing, as many of them do, structures dating back to 1800 or thereabouts. Several buildings are included on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as well as being on the County Council record of protected structures. That inventory aims to promote an appreciation of architectural heritage by systematically recording the built heritage on a nationwide basis. These include Cromaboo Bridge, St Vincent’s Hospital and the gazebo at the rear of the Allied Irish Bank. Another building listed as a protected structure is White’s Castle, which is included in the Record of Monuments and Places - a list of historical sites first compiled under the National Monuments Acts and maintained by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Regrettably, the opportunity to declare the castle a national monument – one which was presented to our late TD Joe Bermingham when he was Minister of State at the Office of Public Works in the 1970s - was not availed of by the Castlemitchell man. If the Minister of State had made the decision to declare White’s Castle a national monument, the future of the most important building in Athy would have been assured. Kildare County Council is seeking submissions or observations on the proposed Food Hub development in the former Model School and is complying with the law relating to protected structures under the planning and development Acts. The proposed development should be welcomed by everyone in this area and hopefully the project will progress without undue delay. With daffodils appearing in my garden I’m reminded that the Daffodil Day annual collection taken up on behalf of the Irish Cancer Society has had to be cancelled yet again. However, anyone wishing to donate to this worthy cause can send their donations to Rainsford Hendy at Woodlawn, Timolin, Ballytore. Rainsford has organised the Daffodil Day collection in Athy for the last 34 years.

Athy Farmers Club

Athy, with its rich agricultural hinterland, has on many occasions been at the forefront of efforts to further the interest of local farmers and the agricultural industry. Many of us are familiar with the part played by Stephen Cullinan, a teacher in Athy’s Vocational School, who helped found Macra na Feirme in 1944. That organisation was established following the development of Young Farmers’ Clubs in Athy, Kilmallock and Mooncoin. Macra na Feirme’s first summer gathering was held in Athy in July 1946. The following year, Macra’s headquarters was opened in the Town Hall, Athy by the then president of Ireland, Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh. Athy would remain the headquarters of the association for the next twelve years. Stephen Cullinan also started The Irish Farmers’ Journal in 1948 with the financial assistance of, amongst others, two South Kildare farmers, John Greene and Paddy Keough. Macra na Feirme led the discussions which resulted in the founding of the National Farmers’ Association in 1955, whose first president was the South Kildare farmer Dr Juan Greene. An even earlier farming organisation with associations with Athy was the National Ploughing Association founded by J.J. Bergin of Maybrook in 1931. J.J. Bergin and Stephen Cullinan were following a lead first set by farmers from the South Kildare area who had founded the Athy Farmers’ Club in December 1865. In February of that year the Town Commissioners had thanked the Duke of Leinster for his offer to make “an assembly room of the old record court.” The founding meeting of the Farmers’ Club is likely to have been held in that Town Hall first floor room, and in the same building where the Macra na Feirme headquarters would be located. The objects of the Farmers’ Club were “the bringing of farmers of the neighbourhood into more general communication and obtaining the best information in matters of interest to the agriculturalist by newspapers, agricultural publications, reports of markets and lectures.” The club members included Robert Anderson of Castlemitchell, John McCullock and William McCullock, both of Sawyer’s Wood, members of two of the seventeen families who had arrived in Athy from Perthshire, Scotland in and around 1852 to take up the Duke of Leinster’s offers of farms in South Kildare. President of the club in its first year was the Marquis of Kildare who was succeeded in that position the following year by his father the Duke of Leinster. The vice-presidents were W.D. Webber of Kellyville and W.R. Bulwer of Barrowford. The energetic committee which arranged a number of lectures during 1886 included Matthew Minch, Athy; Thomas Robertson of Oakfield, Narraghmore; John Greene of Millbrook and James Alexander of Spring Lodge. The club operated a Reading Room which was opened to members every Tuesday and Saturday and on fair days from 8am to 8pm, “when fire and lights will be provided,” and on other days (except Sunday) from 10am to 5pm. The Reading Room was located on the premises of Michael Carey of Barrow Quay, proprietor of a printing works which printed the first annual report of the Athy Farmers’ Club for 1866. Michael Carey’s premises are now occupied by the Emigrant Restaurant. The lectures were printed initially by Hodges Smith and Co., Dublin, but thereafter by the Irish Farmers’ Gazette Office in Bachelors Walk, Dublin. The Gazette’s proprietor was Edward Purden, who generously undertook to print free of charge 250 copies of every lecture for distribution to the club members. During its first year of operation the club arranged nine lectures dealing with a range of agricultural topics including “the cattle plaque,” “banking accommodation to farmers” and “railway management in Ireland with respect to the agricultural interests of Ireland.” At the club’s first AGM held in the clubrooms at Barrow Quay on Tuesday 18th December 1886, the chairman Sir Anthony Weldon stated that “the Athy Farmers’ Club has set a good example to all the farming communities in Ireland and which we are glad to say is being followed by several districts in the country.” Tributes were paid at the AGM to the club’s Secretary, Rev. R.W. Bagot of Fontstown Glebe, who by his work earned for himself “the lasting gratitude of the farmers not only of Athy but of the entire country of Kildare.” At the conclusion of the AGM approximately fifty members of the club adjourned to Kavanagh’s hotel for the club’s first annual dinner. The printed report of the AGM and the subsequent dinner records “the Rev. Mr Bagot having said Grace, the good things provided were amply done justice to and the cloth having been removed, decanters and glasses were placed.” What followed was a plethora of toasts starting with “the Queen”, which toast was “drank enthusiastically,” following which “a worthy magistrate in a splendid tenor voice sang the national anthem, the entire company joining in the choruses.” Toast upon toast followed, all of which were drunk with enthusiasm. “The Prince and Princess of Wales and all the Royal Family” was followed by “the Lord Lieutenant and prosperity to Ireland,” while “the Army and Navy” came before “the agricultural societies of Ireland,” soon followed by a toast to “Athy Farmers’ Club.” Rev Bagot, in responding to the latter toast, expressed satisfaction that neither religion nor political differences had arisen in the club. In fact, the club rules expressly noted “all religious and political questions shall be strictly avoided at all meetings of the club.” The toasts continued with a tribute to the gentlemen who read papers at club meetings, while a toast to the “Kildare and Queen’s County Hunt’ was received with rapture. Another two toasts, by which time the diners were no doubt enjoying themselves, were to “the trade and commerce of Athy” and to “the press,” which in terms of the local press had only one member, namely The Leinster Express. The evening ended with a toast to the chairman, Sir Anthony Weldon and to “the ladies.” No doubt there were many such nights, and that camaraderie - along with the lectures and advice and support to farming neighbours – helped ensure the long success of farmers’ clubs. The farmers who first organised at local level in 1856 - and at national level in later generations – helped build confident and effective farming communities throughout Ireland.

Fundraising for new Convent of Mercy in the 1840s

The Museum Standards Programme for Ireland was established by the Heritage Council some years ago to promote professional standards in the care of collections in Irish museums and galleries. Last week this national organisation announced the names of museums throughout Ireland which had achieved full or partial accreditation, and in the case of four museums, which had maintained their full museum accreditation first achieved some years ago. Amongst these four museums was Athy Shackleton Museum, which shared equal billing with Fota House Museum, Cork; the Hunt Museum, Limerick; and the Medieval Museum in Waterford. Our local museum’s achievement is enormous given the rank and status of the other three museums and the financial resources available to each of them. In terms of available finance, the Shackleton Museum cannot compete with Fota House, the Hunt Museum or the Medieval Museum. However, in terms of the commitment and dedication exhibited by the museum’s staff, volunteers and Board of Directors, the wealth of the Athy museum cannot be overstated. The museum’s manager is Margaret Walshe, assisted by Sinead Cullen and museum volunteer Clem Roche, who have done a wonderful job of helping visitors to enjoy the Shackleton Museum. The museum, which started in a small way in 1983, has helped to create a sense of place for Athy folk and has given us a greater understanding and appreciation of our town’s past. Well done to Margaret Walshe and her team for maintaining such high standards to have merited full museum accreditation for Athy Shackleton Museum. If the museum is an important part of our town’s cultural heritage, so too are the buildings and monuments - some old, many more recent - which form a backdrop to Athy’s townscape. One such monument was removed during the replacement of the 150-year-old Catholic church of St Michael’s in the last months of 1960. The fine Celtic cross which had stood for almost ninety years in front of the main entrance to St Michael’s church was erected in 1873. It was the gift of the people of Athy and neighbourhood in honour of Fr Thomas Greene, a former curate in the parish of St. Michael’s. Fr Greene arrived in Athy on 12 May 1843, just nine days afar his ordination in Maynooth. He would spent the next eighteen years of his priesthood serving the people of Athy before moving in 1862 to become parish priest of Skerries. It was in Skerries that he died in 1871, aged fifty-two years. I have in the past credited Fr Greene as the leader in the movement which led to the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy to open a school in Athy in 1852. From Fr Greene’s own account, as included in the Convent of Mercy annals, the idea of opening a convent in Athy originated with a Miss Goold of Leinster Street. This was some time prior to the Great Famine, and Miss Goold was supported by a Mrs Fitzgerald and her daughter Ann of Geraldine Lodge. Clerical support was afforded by Rev Patrick Byrne, who I understand was a curate in Athy, but unfortunately I have been unable to positively identify him. Fr Byrne’s sudden death, followed soon thereafter by the death of Ann Fitzgerald, interrupted Miss Goold’s plans. However, in her will Ann Fitzgerald left the sum of £100 for the founding of a convent in Athy, in addition to which her father, Colonel Fitzgerald offered £50, as did her sister Elizabeth Fitzgerald. Patrick Maher of Kilrush, who would prove to be the most generous benefactor of the Sisters of Mercy in Athy also pledged a sum of £50. As a result, the local people met in the parish church in the spring of 1843, following which it was agreed to take up weekly collections in the town to finance the building of a convent for the Sisters of Mercy. The general management of what was called ‘the convent collection’ was entrusted to Fr John Gaffney just a few months before he left Athy to join the Jesuit order. With Fr Greene’s arrival in the parish, responsibility for managing the convent collection fell to him. The weekly collection continued during the first two years of the Great Famine but was stopped as the worst effects of Black 47 began to be felt. Collecting resumed in 1848, but the hardships suffered by the local people during the Great Famine were such that Fr Greene and his fellow curate Fr John Harold were obliged to take up collections every Saturday in Leinster Street and Duke Street. The local fundraising proved insufficient, and eventually Archbishop Cullen and the Superioress of the Mercy Convent in Baggot Street, Dublin were obliged to provide funds to allow the convent building to be completed. Fr Greene’s involvement in St Michael’s parish during his eighteen years as a curate was clearing cherished by the local parishioners, for when he died in 1871 the people of Athy and neighbourhood collected funds to erect a Celtic cross in his memory. He was the only curate, or indeed parish priest, of St Michael’s who was honoured in this way. The cross was erected in 1873 and two further priests of the parish were subsequently honoured by having their names inscribed on the base of the Celtic cross. The first was Fr James Doyle, who served as a curate in Athy between 1862 and 1879, and as the parish priest for the following thirteen years. He died aged fifty-eight years in 1892. He was replaced as parish priest by Fr James Germaine, later Canon and Archdeacon, who served as parish priest of St Michael’s for thirteen years, dying in 1905. His name was also inscribed on the base of the Celtic cross. The cross was removed in 1960 and brought to a quarry in Co. Wicklow, where it has been stored ever since. I understand plans are afoot to have the damaged Celtic cross repaired and restored in a prominent position in front of St Michael’s parish church. Its restoration will be a fitting reminder of the huge contribution made not only by Fr Thomas Greene, but by all the other priests who have served in the parish of St Michael’s over the years.

Turf Development Board/Bord na Mona

The recent announcement of the cessation of peat extraction by Bord na Mona highlights the important part ancient boglands have played in creating jobs in south Kildare. As early as the final year of the Great Famine the bog at Kilberry was the location of a manufacturing process which produced chemicals from peat. Kilberry was also associated with briquette making as early as 1855 when an English entrepreneur opened a briquette factory there. However, the process of using air-dried peat for compression by machinery proved unsuccessful and the factory soon closed. A Bog Commission established by the House of Commons considered between 1804 and 1813 the developmenet potential of bogs in Ireland and “the practicability of draining and cultivating them, and the best means of effecting the same.” The Commission was set up as it was believed that upwards of one-seventh of Irish land which was bogland might usefully be brought into use for agricultural purposes. Glassealy resident Thomas Rawson had made this case in his book “The Satistical Survey of County Kildare”. Amongst the Commissioners appointed was Henry Hamilton, an agent for the Duke of Leinster, who owned the largest land holding in the County of Kildare. The Bog Commission submitted four reports to Parliament, but because of private property rights these reports made little difference to the development of Irish bogs. However, the surveys carried out on behalf of the Commission and the maps prepared by their various surveyors were to prove of use to the Turf Development Board when it was established in 1934. In south Kildare in the early part of the 19th century one local initiative saw the growing of flax in boglands supported by grants from the Irish Linen Board. Place names in Athy which reflect that early 19th century flax industry are “Bleach Yard” and ‘The Bleach.” Rev. Thomas Kelly, the Ballintubbert native and founder of the religious group “the Kellyites”, was involved in setting up a weaving shed in Athy which he referenced in his published pamphlet “Some account of James Byrne of Kilberry addressed principally to the Roman Catholic Inhabitants of Athy and its Neighbourhood.” Following the setting up of the Turf Development Board, the first bog considered for development for machine-produced turf was the Kilberry bog. The bog, which was in private ownership between the Earl of Drogheda, the Irish Land commission and some private owners, was acquired by the Turf Board in 1936. However, following its acqusition it was decided that Kilberry bog would be used for the production of peat moss rather than machinery turf. The production of peat moss in Kilberry was to start in 1939 but the Turf Board reversed its decision a year later and decided to concentrate its peat moss operation in Turraun, Co. Offaly. Hand-won turf continued to be harvested in Kilberry but this work was discontinued after a few years as the local peat moss provided poor fuel material. In the final year of World War II, Todd Andrews of the Turf Development Board travelled to Sweden following a Board decision approved by the wartime Department of Supplies to use Kilberry for the production of peat moss. It was there that Andrews met Konrad Peterson, a Latvian who took part in the 1905 revolution against Russia and who had been a student in Dublin during the 1916 Rising. Peterson was invited to manage the new Kilberry factory, which he did on taking up employment in 1946. Work on building the factory commenced in the latter part of that year. Peterson remained in charge of the Kilberry plant until 1958, when he transferred to the experimental station in Newbridge. He died in 1981 and is buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery, where I attended a ceremony a few years ago organised by the Latvian Ambassador to Ireland to honour a man who is highly regarded in his native country as a Latvian patriot. The Turf Development Board became Bord na Mona in 1946 and the following year peat moss production started in Kilberry. Wihin a few years the Kilberry factory was supplying markets in America, Britain and the Channel Islands. In the mid 1960s Bord na Mona began to market peat moss for horticultural purposes and that marketing campaign was enhanced by the Board’s decision some years earlier to market peat moss under the brand name ‘Shamrock.” In 1964 another peat moss factory was opeened in Cuil na Mona near Portlaoise, where Athy man Jimmy Dooley was manager for a number of years before retiring as Chief Executive of Bord na Mona’s Horticultural Product Division in 2004. In August 1974 the Kilberry factory was destroyed by fire and had to be rebuilt. Twenty years later a new bark processiong plant was installed in Kilberry. This followed a campaign by conservationists to reduce the use of peat and instead use alternative material. In time the Kilberry works was used to store and compost grain and green waste for use in producing horticultural growth material. Many local men and women have worked for Bord na Mona over the years. For Leaving Certificate students of the 1940s and 1950s, Bord na Mona, with the ESB and county councils offered the most sought-after opportunities for employment not otherwise available in rural areas. Today, Kilberry is the centre of a vibrant rural community whose work life is inextricably linked to the past, and hopefully continuing, success of the Kilberry peat factory.