Education in Athy in the 19th Century

The Model School which was intended to provide non-denominational education for the Athy area was frustrated in its efforts in this regard from the very start and within a few years it joined the other schools in Athy in catering exclusively for particular religious denomination. The agricultural school which formed part of the Model School complex ran into financial difficulties which led to its closure in 1880. Pupils of that school had received training in the most up to date farming methods and techniques on the farm attached to the School. Originally with a farm of 19.5 acres it was extended to 64 acres in 1855 but the cost of maintaining the agricultural school was excessive and despite the best efforts of the local farmers the school closed down. The lands were auctioned in September 1880. In 1866 the Sisters of Mercy, who had arrived in Athy 14 years earlier, came into possession of two houses in William Street adjoining Minch Nortons Malt Houses. They were adapted for use as classrooms for infant boys and girls and continued to be used as such until 1882. A lay teachers, Mrs. Tormey, taught classes there while Sisters of Mercy provided religious instructions for the young children. The School was known locally as the Turnpike School because it was located on what was known years previously as the Turnpike Road. On the closing of the school in 1882 the children transferred to the Convent schools in Stanhope Place. In 1869 the Sisters of Mercy built a three roomed schoolhouse for infant boys at the end of their garden plot in front of the Convent for the sum of £600. St. Joseph’s was to continue in use as an infant’s school up to 1960 when it was demolished during building work for the new church. Located at the North West corner of the Church grounds and facing onto Rathstewart, it was to hold fond memories for several generations of Athy men whose first experience of school life was in the small one storey building close by the Moneen River. The erection of St. Joseph’s enabled the Sisters of Mercy to expand their secondary school into the rooms vacated by the infants. Further growth in the numbers attending for secondary education resulted in the building of St. Mary’s Secondary School in 1884. This new building, connected with the existing Convent, was blessed by Very Rev. James Doyle, P.P. in July 1884. Meanwhile the Classical and Boarding School located in Emily Square in 1856 closed and in 1870 Slater’s Directory listed only one private school, that of Edward Aiken in Duke Street. On 3 April 1886 the local Catholic clergy and upwards of 700 townspeople signed a petition addressed to the Chief Secretary John Morley requesting that the needs of the local Convent and Christian Brothers Schools be catered for in the event of any changes in the financing of the Model Schools. It was claimed in the petition that £300,000 had been expended on the Model School in Athy which then catered for only 50 pupils, while the other local schools received no state subvention. By 1893 the Convent School building programme which commenced in August 1844 was advanced one stage further with the construction of St. Michael’s Primary Girls School. This School, the foundation stone for which was laid on 26th June, 1892 by the Archbishop of Dublin, was officially opened by Dr. Walsh on 13th August, 1893. Built at a cost of £2,662 the new School had accommodation for 640 pupils. A government grant accounted for £1,316.10.9 of the cost with £658.5.8 being contributed locally. The remaining £687.2.7 was borrowed and cleared by 1922. The Irish Education Acts of 1892/93 which provided for free education in elementary schools and for compulsory attendance copperfastened the denominational system of education initiated by the Catholic Church’s opposition to the Model School system of education. Athy’s Model School which had originally commenced as a nondenominational school lost its Catholic pupils to the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers. Thereafter it was to be staffed solely by non-Catholic teachers with pupil numbers far less than when it first opened in 1852. The educational separation of Catholic and Protestant children was a sad reminder of the social and religious differences which had their roots in previous centuries.

St. Laurence's Football Club

The important part that the Gaelic Athletic Association plays in community life, whether urban or rural, was emphasised for me when I attended a recent book launch in the St. Laurence’s GAA complex. Club members and local residents came together in a display of common identity, the focal point of which was the GAA complex lying at the heart of the local community. I was intrigued to discover that St. Laurence’s GAA Club was founded following a meeting in the National School in Crookstown in February 1957. The meeting was called by the then Parish Priest of Narraghmore, Fr. Joseph Young. A County Cavan man, he had been ordained a few months before the 1916 Rising and after spending 25 years as a curate in Aughrim Street, Dublin was appointed Parish Priest of Narraghmore in 1949. He would serve in that rural parish for the following 9 years before moving to Seville Place, Dublin where he died three days before Christmas 1959. It is somewhat of a mystery why he called the meeting for Crookstown National School as the parish of Narraghmore was already home to two GAA Clubs. Ballytore GAA Club and Narraghmore GAA Club were in existence at that time and indeed I can remember lining out for the Athy minor team against the Narraghmore team in or about 1959. We played in a field in Narraghmore which masqueraded as a GAA pitch and togged out at the side of a ditch. That was a common enough feature of football matches played at that time in rural venues. It is claimed by some that Fr. Young sought to follow the generally accepted policy of the early GAA by seeking to have a club based on the geographical area of the Catholic parish. This had given the GAA in its early years one club per parish, even at a time when the relationship between the Catholic Church and the GAA was not always a harmonious one. Local folklore has us to believe that the relationship between the Narraghmore club and the Ballytore club in the mid-1950s was not good, prompting the local Parish Priest to establish a parish-based club which was called St. Laurence’s. Fr. Young was elected President of the new club which shortly thereafter saw the disbandment of the existing clubs in Narraghmore and Ballytore which merged with the new St. Laurence’s. St. Laurence’s has become one of the more advanced clubs in the county since its foundation and has provided its members with first class playing facilities and an excellent club premises. This has been due to the high calibre of local leadership which has helped to make this rural GAA club an important force in the social and cultural life of the locality. Just a week or so before the book launch in St. Laurence’s John Joe Walsh, President of the Club, died. John Joe, a Mayo man, whose family migrated from the western county with a number of other families in 1956, served for many years as Secretary of St. Laurence’s Club, followed by an extended period as the Club’s Chairman. He was one of the many men and women who over the years provided local leadership which was so vital for the continuing success of the club. John Joe held the unique distinction of being the first footballer from the St. Laurence’s Club to be selected for the County Kildare senior football team. Other players from the area had previously played with the Kildare seniors, including Peter Waters and Jimmy Byrne, both of whom featured on the Kildare team which played Cavan in the 1935 All Ireland Football Final. As I mentioned at the book launch Athy GAA followers still complain of the Kildare County selectors decision to drop the regular county team goalkeeper ‘Cuddy’ Chanders of Athy for the All-Ireland Final. Kildare lost that day after going into the All-Ireland Final as the overwhelming favourites to win the game. Claiming, as I do, that I am a Kilkenny man exiled in Kildare, the story of John Joe Walsh’s arrival in Narraghmore in 1956 and his dedicated service to the local GAA club over many years reminds me that irrespective of club membership we tend to maintain allegiances to the county of our birth. The importance of a GAA club lies in the sense of identity which pulling on the club jersey or supporting the team on the side lines gives us. All GAA clubs are community-based clubs which provide a focal point for communities and help reinforce the sense of place which we all have for the town, the village or the rural community in which we live. That was the sense I experienced in St. Laurence’s last week. Gaelic football and hurling matches inspire passion and sometimes controversy, while the local GAA club holds special importance, not only for its members but also for the wider community, especially in rural areas. The members of St. Laurence’s GAA Club can be justifiably proud of the wonderful facilities which the club now provides, not only for club members but also for the wider local community. The book launch in St. Laurence’s was local man Tom O’Connell’s ‘A Life’s Harvest – Stories from the home place Loraine’. The book is a useful contribution to our understanding of the difficulties, the hardship and the joys of life in rural Ireland in the decades following the economic war of the 1930s. The book should be available to buy in your nearest book shop.

Athy's Soccer Club

In August 1970 Athy AFC, which had been founded 22 years earlier, won its first major soccer trophy when the club’s team defeated Newbridge Rangers in the final of the Ardenode Cup. John Keyes who played that day was 17 years of age and had been selected to play in the final in place of the injured Ernest Henderson. Last week the teammates who won the Ardenode Cup in 1970 and again in 1972 and 1973 came together in Pat Dunnes for a 50th anniversary re-union. It was an evening for meeting old friends and reminiscing on the glory days of Athy’s young soccer club when youthful limbs and high energy levels provided the necessary ingredients for success on the playing field. John, who travelled from Tullamore to attend the function last week, later wrote how for many growing up in Athy in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s soccer dominated their dreams and ambitions. The 1966 World Cup was the springboard which propelled what was previously called the garrison game to the forefront of sport in Ireland. The English players such as Bobby Charlton, Gordon Banks and Bobby Moore were the footballing heroes of the time and the Athy youngsters involved in the local soccer street league enjoyed playing the game of their heroes. I remember many of the Athy A.F.C. club officials of that time, including George Lammon, Frankie Aldridge, Jim Dargan and Brendan O’Flaherty. The soccer pitch at the Showgrounds is today named after Frankie Aldridge who for as long as I can remember encouraged and supported the playing of soccer in Athy. Aldridge Park was previously used by Athy’s hockey club, but when that club went out of existence the ground was leased to the newly formed soccer club. The first soccer match on the Athy grounds was played between Athy and Carlow, with the home team winning by 4 goals to 3. That first Athy team comprised Cuddy Chanders, M. O’Donnell, T. Kiely, J. Walsh, B. O’Flaherty, J. O’Sullivan, G. Kelly, J. O’Donnell, L. Pawelvsych, J. Davis and B. Chanders. It was following in the steps of these pioneering soccer players that the young men of 1970, ’72 and ’73 achieved success in the Ardenode Cup. The gathering in Pat Dunnes brought together many of the players of 50 years ago, but sadly Ambrose Martin, John Barry, George Chatfield, Johnny Hickey, Denis Chanders, Tony Byrne and Walter Clancy are no longer with us. Enjoying the evening were Pat Leahy, John Keyes, Morgan Gray, Cha Chanders, Seamus Clandillon, Noel Myles, Ernest Henderson, Pat Lammon, Colm O’Sullivan, Stephen Bolger, John Bolger and Jack Loughman. Only two past players, Vincent Gray and Joe Foley, were unable to attend the 50th anniversary of Athy A.F.C.’s first major footballing success. John Keyes, in reminiscing about his playing days, identified the street league organised by Jim Dargan, Brendan O’Flaherty and Niall Smith as the means by which excellent players such as Brendan Shortt, Peter Thompkins, P.J. Cooney, Enda Condron, Vincent Gray, Joe Foley, Gerry O’Sullivan, George Chatfield and many others emerged. John acknowledged how soccer brought together young fellows from different backgrounds in the weekly pilgrimage to the Showgrounds which helped each of them improve their personal development and quality of life. Once moment which stood out for John and his teammates was the parade through Athy with the Ardenode Cup following the 1970 victory. The Club’s success that year led to the founding of the Athy and District Association Football Council, representative of Athy AFC and eight newly formed schoolboy clubs. Under the direction of local school teacher Michael Reen and the club’s then secretary Aidan Prendergast, FAI coaching for schoolboy players was organised. It would lead to success in the Sheehan Cup in 1975. Over the 75 years of its existence the club has been helped and guided by many including Matt Tynan who was the club’s first president. Ned Ward, Mick McEvoy, Mick Corr, Mick O’Shea and Bob Kelly are others who come to mind. As a teenager I remember watching Brian O’Hara and Denis Smyth playing with Joe Aldridge, Gordan Prole and Vinny Smith. That was in the days of the G.A.A. Ban when one kept an eye on the soccer matches from the embankment on the adjoining G.A.A. grounds. The aforementioned Denis Smyth was secretary of the club for many years when he took over the position from the club’s first secretary Danny O’Brien. The get together in Paddy Dunnes was a most enjoyable event and brought back treasured memories for the players of the past. I will leave the last word to John Keyes who was the subject of a previous Eye following his retirement as County Manager in Cavan:- ‘The victory in 1970 gave Athy AFC its first cup success, ensuring the club’s place in Athy’s sporting history.’

Launch of Tom O'Connell book 'A Life's Harvest: Stories from the Homeplace Loraine''

It has been a sad week, with so many deaths among friends and folks I have known for a long time past. The journey to St. Michael’s Cemetery was repeated several times as neighbours and friends paid their final respects. The Irish funeral is one of the great traditions of Irish life and unlike similar occasions on the far side of the Irish Sea it demonstrates strong community bonds which unite us in a common identity. ‘Boy’ Prendergast, Anne Prendergast (no relation) and Sean Loughman left us last week and we walked in the funeral processions to St. Michael’s Cemetery remembering and recalling the different qualities they shared socially and through work with the community at large. The new cemetery at St. Michael’s is fast filling up. It opened in or around 1965 and since then has received the remains of many friends, many school mates and several Taaffe family members. They are all remembered while their generations are still represented amongst the living. In another generation or two the identity of those named on the grave memorials will be lost to memory. Writing as I have been for the last 30 years or so on the forgotten people who once walked the streets of Athy I cannot but realise how fragile is human memory. Many men and women who years ago were so much a part of their local community are no longer remembered. Athy, despite recent giant steps in population growth, is still small enough to sustain a sense of community. I was reminded of this when attending the local Arts Centre during the week. ‘Stories from a Small Town’, based on contributions by Athy and Castledermot folk compiled by author John MacKenna was recorded before an interested audience for later broadcast on KFM. The stories gave a glimpse of past lives as lived in south Kildare and provided an interesting insight into times which have changed so much in the last few decades. On next Saturday 22nd April a book launch will take place in St. Lawrence’s GAA clubhouse at 8pm. Tom O’Connell, a native of south Kildare, has written a book based on his late father’s shared memories captured in recorded interviews in the last year of his long life. ‘A Life’s Harvest – Stories from the Home Place Loraine’ is a personal memory of a life lived in rural Ireland. It’s an oral history of one man’s experiences in the extended south Kildare community where he lived and worked. It’s a fascinating story of farming families and how the ways of the recent past have changed. A farming life is revealed as John Connell’s memories are explored and exposed to give us a deeper understanding of a sense of community. The book will be launched by the local TD and Minister for State Martin Hayden, while the MC on the night will be some fellow by the name of Frank Taaffe. I was very interested to find that Tom O’Connell had included in his book a number of interviews carried out by the late Willie Kelly in the south Kildare area prior to his death in 2002. Willie was a man who sought to record the cultural and social history of the people of his local area and his research has helped in no small way to preserve the rural heritage of south Kildare. It’s a task which has been shared with other relatively recent publications such as Michael Delaney’s ‘The Time of our Lives’, Colm Flynn’s ‘A Tie to the Land’, ‘Kilmead, A Local History’ by Geraldine Deegan and others, ‘The Parish of Narraghmore’ by Fr. J. Young P.P. and ‘Kilmead 1798-1998’. Indeed the venue for the book launch on Saturday has itself been the subject of one of the better GAA club histories published in recent years. Local history is alive and well in the hearts and minds of the people of south Kildare and Tom O’Connell’s first venture into publishing will be a welcome addition to our understanding of rural life as once lived in this part of the green country. Athy’s Art Centre which has become an important part, indeed an essential part of the cultural reawakening of Athy and south Kildare, hosts an interesting talk on Tuesday 25th April. Colm Walsh, the originator of the now famous ‘Made in Athy’ plaque project, will give a talk on Athy’s contribution to the world of music. Under the title ‘The Local Families who changed music forever’, he will relate the stories of four families from Athy who made an important contribution to the development of modern music. Colm’s talk will deal with emigration from Athy in the mid-1950s and the subsequent rise of musicians such as The Stone Roses, the Smiths, the Buzzcocks and many other international music stars. The evening will feature rare interviews, archived performances and many interesting if surprising stories. Athy’s Art Centre is the place to be on Tuesday 25th at 8pm, while St. Lawrences GFC will be focus of our attention on Saturday 22nd, also at 8pm. Both events are free of charge.

Report of Visit to Wallboard Factory 1951

The following interesting Report of an excursion to the Wallboard Factory in Athy was sent to me by Mick Robinson a schoolmate who is now based in Australia. Mick was unable to tell me where it was first published but I believe it may have appeared in a newsletter or journal of the Society of Irish Foresters which was founded in 1942. “On Saturday the 13th October 1951 occurred one of the most interesting and enjoyable of our short excursions when our Society visited the Wallboard factory in Athy at the invitation of the Irish Wallboard Co. Ltd. Mr. Shackleton accompanied by the senior members of his staff received the Society on the factory grounds. Each member was given a typed hand-out explaining the various processes in the manufacture of wallboard. Then the party was organised into small groups and shown over the factory. It is interesting to know that the wallboard manufacture was started on 15th May 1951 when the Bowater Corporation purchased a controlling interest in the Company which had been successfully manufacturing strawboard since 1949. Inadequate supplies of straw sounded the death knell of that industry. The turnover of Wallboard manufacture was far sighted, enterprising, and courageous and today this factory employing 180 men and with machinery more than £500,00 is producing 150 tons of wallboard per week; the Company hopes to reach the 200 ton mark shortly. With an English export market and an ever increasing demand the company has every reason to be optimistic and proud of its achievements so far. The first casual glance around the factory was one of amazement at the enormous quantity of logs stacked so neatly in the factory yard. Equally surprising was the speed and efficiency with which the logs were converted into chips in the chipper machine and then conveyed by a belt arrangement into the factory proper where the process really commenced. Inside the factory members showed great interest in the very up to date machinery which pulped, churned, rolled and in a relatively short space of time turned out beautifully polished wallboard. The efficiency and meticulousness with which samples were tested in the laboratory was noted with admiration and it was not surprising that wallboard is becoming more popular every day. It was evident to all that a uniformly high quality board must result when such careful checking is carried out. It was interesting to learn that a wide range of species can be used in the process. The following classification indicates the relative importance and suitability of the various species used;- CLASS A – (Can be used 100% for Board manufacture) Sitka and Norway Spruce, Douglas and Silver Fir, Scots, Austrian and Corsican Pine, European and Japanese Larch, Willow, Aspen, Poplar. CLASS B- (Can be used 50% with Class A) Alder. CLASS C & D – (Can be used 25% with Class A) Sycamore, Ash, Beech and Birch. The wood should be fresh, sound, free of all rot and reasonably straight, knots, limbs and irregularities must be trimmed off and the logs cut squarely at the ends. The logs must not be shorter than 3½ feet nor longer than 15 feet while the diameter must not exceed 7 inches nor be less than 2 inches. The Company pays the following prices per ton for material delivered to the mill :- £4 Os. Od. for distance up to 60 miles. £4 5s. Od. for distance up to 60/80 miles. £4 10s. 0d. for distance over 80 miles. The significance of the above details was not lost on the members and the far reaching effects of this bold venture were the subject of lively discussion. Its revolutionary effect on the forest economics was fully appreciated and it was clear to all that because coarse timber and small thinnings were eminently suitable the stock of commercial timber in the country would not be adversely affected, in fact it would be conserved to a certain degree. It was fully realised that a steady market for forest thinnings had at last been established. In addition many labour shortage problems have been solved in remote forests since the Wallboard Company has undertaken the felling and extraction of thinnings. It was particularly gratifying to the foresters, the growers of the raw material, to see that such a beautifully finished product could be produced from the hitherto almost unsaleable small thinnings. They realised that this closer utilisation of timber would have the effect of increasing the value of our young plantations and poor quality old plantations as well as the low quality class sites generally. These and many other aspects were discussed enthusiastically and it was heartening to hear that forest thinnings are ideal for the process. It was satisfactory also to hear that the factory uses 40 tons of turf daily in the huge steam boilers and the employment created indirectly must be considerable on this account. The factory staff entertained the members to tea in Bradbury’s Café in Athy when the tour of the factory had ended. The gay spirit which pervaded the tour generally heightened as the crowd mingling freely, chatted gaily and renewed old friendships at the running buffet. After the pleasant meal Mr. McEvoy thanked the Factory Officials on behalf of the Society for their kindness in providing such an interesting and well organised excursion. Mr. Shackleton replying on behalf of the firm stated that it was a pleasure to meet such an enthusiastic body and to note the interest shown in all that had happened.” Sadly the Wallboard factory is one of the several industrial businesses lost to Athy in recent years.

Lions Club first Book Fair / Remembering Ellen Kearney, Dr. Thomas O'Higgins and his son Kevin

The week past has seen Athy’s first bookfair held in the ARCH on the Kilkenny Road and the last of the Winter series of historical lectures in the local Arts Centre. The bookfair was a great success with bookdealers very pleased and I think surprised at the numbers who came by to view and in many cases to buy books. The local Lions Club which organised the event will consider holding another bookfair in October and hopefully make the Athy fair a biannual event in March and October each year. I was astonished to learn of attendees who travelled from as far away as Galway and Leitrim for the bookfair and all those attending either to buy or sell books expressed themselves well pleased with their Athy experience. A special thanks must go to the management committee of the ARCH for the use of the hall and to the president of Athy Gaelic Football Club, Henry Howard for the arrangements he personally oversaw regarding the loan of tables. Thanks also to Seanie Bolger of Athy AFC who helped the Lions Club at short notice by delivering extra tables to accommodate the bookdealers who had not booked in advance. It was a fine community effort spearheaded by Athy Lions Club. The Winter history lecture series concluded on Wednesday evening with another good attendance to hear Marc Guernan’s talk on “Medieval Athy”. His followed the previous month’s lecture by David Walsh, when a full house listened to his talk on “Athy and World War I in Twenty Objects”. The lecture series has attracted appreciative and increasing large audiences since the first lecture last September and it is planned to open the second year series with a lecture in September. The Arts Centre has been particularly busy in recent months following its re-opening with the ending of covid restrictions. The day following Marc Guernan’s lecture there was a full house for the Gordon Giltrap concert. The legendary artist received a great reception on the night and his performance was later highly praised on social media. The Arts Centre is developing as a cultural mecca for Athy and South Kildare and is fully deserving of the support it is getting from Athy folk. Just a few weeks ago I wrote an Eye on the restored Thomas O’Connell roadside memorial near Maganey. I posed a question as to who was the good, generous woman, “Mrs. Kearney” who had a memorial cross for the late IRA leader, cast in the Duthie Large foundry in Athy for installing at the road side where he lost his life on the 31st of August 1924. Michael Dempsey from Castledermot followed up my question and with the help of Bernie Walsh genealogist from Carlow discovered much background information on Mrs Kearney. She was born Ellen Townsend at Lower Tomard, Carlow in or about 1877 and was working as a nurse in the Carlow asylum when in 1911 she married Thomas Kearney, a keeper in the same institution. It is not known if the couple had any children. Mrs Kearney was living in Brown Street, Carlow when she died aged 83 years in 1959. Her involvement with the IRA and the Cumann na mBan is still unclear but given the donation she made in 1924 we can safely assume that she was a supporter of the Republican Movement, if not an active participant during the revolutionary years. Any more information anyone can give on Mrs Kearney and her Republican Movement involvement would be greatly appreciated. In the meantime thanks to Michael Dempsey and Bernie Walsh for the information obtained to date. Travelling back to Athy following a Court appearance in Portlaoise today I intended to stop at the O’Higgins Memorial in Stradbally but found it was inaccessible while it was being cleaned. Was there I wonder any remembrance ceremony to mark the assassination in his Stradbally home of Dr. Thomas O’Higgins by anti treaty men on the night of the 10th of February 1923. The killing of the doctor whose son, Kevin was Minister for Home Affairs was undoubtedly led by local men. Only one man, Martin Byrne of Fallowbeg in Luggacurran was arrested and despite O’Higgins’s daughter, Patricia have identified him he was freed by a military Court. Just over four years later the doctor’s son, Kevin O’Higgins was assassinated on the 10th of July 1927 by republicans later named as Tim Gaughan, Archie Doyle and Bill Gannon. They were never charged with his assassination as their identity only became known fifty eight years later. As the Decade of Commemoration comes to a close I hope that we will remember all the men and women, Republican and treaty supporters alike who were involved in the tragic happenings during Ireland’s revolutionary years.

Athy Today compared to Athy of Yesteryear

I was asked recently what changes have taken place in Athy over the years. It was a question which made me think because for someone like myself who spends his working days in the town, the changes, imperceptible as they may be, pass for the most part unnoticed. How does Athy of today compare to the town as it was sixty years ago, or in the time when the Great Western and Southern Railway Guide of 1856 noted ‘few towns in Ireland are more auspiciously situated than the town of Athy’. Seven years later Thomas Lacey in his book of travels published under the title ‘Sights and Scenes in our Fatherland’ claimed that Athy was ‘a handsome regular town’. There is no question but Athy is attractively sited on the banks of the river Barrow, a waterway which is complemented by the manmade canal gracing the western side of the historic town. There is no doubt that the town centre plaza, backgrounded by the early 18th century Town Hall, gives Athy a handsome appearance which cannot be matched by any other town in County Kildare. The side streets, spreading out from the town’s main street, which latter street is recognised by archaeologists and historians as a fine example of an Anglo Norman linear type street, helped create the compact urban settlement of earlier years. That compactness was lost with the extension of the town beyond its medieval boundaries and the more recent housing developments on its outskirts. The town’s centre streetscape has not changed to any great degree in the last 100 years. While many building facades have been modified and business names have disappeared, the buildings themselves for the most part still stand, as high or as low as they were a century ago. But it is not only buildings that make a town – the life of a town comes from its people and here in Athy we can proudly claim that ours is a family friendly town. This was the unqualified view of the many persons and families who in recent years came to live in Athy. The town’s population has increased hugely in the last 25 years and the general opinion of the many new members of our community whom I have met expressed themselves as very happy living in Athy. Their only complaint is the inadequacy of the shopping experience in a town which 60 years ago was one of the best shopping towns in Leinster. There are certainly changes which have emerged over the past decade or more and they are confirmed by the number of vacant shops on our main streets. Offaly Street, the street in which I lived as a youngster, was then home to a pub, two sweet shops and a cinema, all of which are now closed up. Athy has changed, even as its streetscape remains largely unchanged. But in many ways it has changed for the better. The 1930s saw the setting up of a Distress Committee headed up by the Town Clerk and the local District Court Clerk to help families affected by flooding on the river Barrow. Flooding was an annual occurrence which particularly caused problems for families in St. Joseph’s Terrace and required the provision of a boating service to allow those families to get to the shops and attend Sunday Mass. Before the opening of the I.V.I. Foundry and the Cement factory in the 1930s emigration from Athy bled the town of many young men and women. The same St. Joseph’s Terrace witnessed an extremely high level of emigration during that decade. Athy had similarly suffered a high loss of men folk to emigration in the mid-1920s, so much so that the local GAA club had difficulty fielding a senior football team. Times have changed. The scars of emigration no longer mark our community’s life. The local men and women no longer take the mail boat. Now we welcome families to Athy, many of whom find it possible to live in the town while working in Dublin and elsewhere. This has helped to create for Athy a sense of a satellite town with all the advantages and disadvantages this brings. A major change which we tend to overlook arose with the departure of the Christian Brothers, the closure of the Mercy Convent and the departure of the Dominicans from the town. The loss of the Dominicans after so many centuries of service stretching back to the early medieval years was an unwelcome change for many locals. The loss of the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy, both of whom brought education to generations of young Athy folk, was in a way a recognition of the improvements in the Irish education system. Yes, Athy has changed over the years, but remains as a 19th century writer noted ‘a handsome town’.

Book town Hay on Wye and Athy's Lions Club Book Shop

Hay-on-Wye, a Welsh village just a step or two within the Welsh English border, is a book lovers paradise. The late Richard Booth opened his first second hand book shop in the village of Hay in 1962. He went on to open a number of other book shops in Hay and was joined there by other second hand book dealers to create the world’s best known book town. I first visited Hay-on-Wye in the early 1980s when the Welsh town with a population of about 2,000 was home to upwards of 30 second hand book shops. One of those shops was the town’s former cinema which was fitted out by Richard Booth to make what was then one of the world's largest second hand book shops. Today the cinema book shop is still in business, offering a huge variety of books for sale as do the twenty or so other book shops still located around the town of Hay-on-Wye. Amazon and other online book dealers have of course restricted the growth of book towns such as Hay-on-Wye in Wales and Wigtown in Scotland. Nevertheless both continue to thrive and Hay-on-Wye especially so during the annual Hay Festival of Literature which was founded in 1988. I was reminded of the importance of book shops in the development of our personal cultural lives when I read the headlines in the London Times on Monday ‘Return of book shops is a novel idea’. ‘A record 142 book shops opened in France last year, notably in small provincial towns’, reported the Times. Apparently there has been a steady growth in book shop openings over the past decade, a trend which has been attributed to anti-Amazon activism and demographic changes that have led city dwellers to settle in the provinces. Here in Athy we have witnessed an enormous growth in population with the town numbers increasing by over 150% in recent years. The current population of 10,000 or so far exceeds the population figures which were more or less static for more than a century, hovering as it did in or around 4,000. This increase has not brought with it the additional services which one might expect. One such missing service is a book shop and the absence of a cultural mecca for readers prompted the local Lions Club some years ago to open the Lions second hand book shop in Duke Street. It provides a wonderful service for book readers but Athy still needs a dedicated book shop offering for sale the latest publications from Irish and overseas publishers. Athy cannot hope to emulate the success of Hay-on-Wye or even Scotland’s Wigtown, but the town’s reading public presently served by an excellent town library surely deserves the opening of a new book shop. The local Lions Club which with the help of its honorary Lions Club member Alice Rowan, opens the second hand book shop five days a week, has now planned the first National Book Fair for Athy on Saturday 25th March. Opening at 10am in the A.R.C.H. on the Kilkenny Road the fair will bring together a number of book dealers offering an interesting and varying collection of books for sale. There will be one book stall devoted to books published on different aspects of Athy’s history. It offers a unique opportunity for those who came to live in Athy in recent years to learn more about the south Kildare town which they now call home. The Shackleton Museum will also have a stall at the book fair offering for sale a mixture of local and polar exploration titles, including the recently published ‘An Antarctic Affair’ by Fergus O’Gorman. A few days later Marc Guernon will give the next lecture in the Lecture Series organised by Athy’s Historical Society in the Arts Centre in Woodstock Street. Marc, who is an archaeologist and a gifted artist, will describe and illustrate some of the hidden elements of the medieval landscape of Athy which have long remained hidden. It promises to be an interesting overview of the medieval town of Athy, which because of its location played an important part in many aspects of Ireland’s medieval history. Admission is free to the lecture which starts at 8pm on Tuesday 28th March in the Arts Centre. Writing of books I must mention the book launch planned for St. Lawrence’s G.A.A. clubhouse on Saturday, 22nd April at 8pm. The book ‘A Life’s Harvest: Stories from the Home Place Loraine’ written by Tom O’Connell, a native of nearby Loraine Fontstown, is his late father’s stories of life in rural Ireland. More about this book launch nearer the event.

Heuston Station / Remembering Eamon Walsh / Noel and Carmel Reddy

I don’t know how many times I have passed through Heuston Station, Dublin but as I exited the station last week I noticed for perhaps the first time on the top of the Corinthian pillars the lettering ‘Vic vii ….. 1844’. This referred to Queen Victoria, then in the eight year of her reign, and the date 1844 I presume refers to what was the expected date of completion of work on the railway station. The building was not however completed until November 1848 due to a stonemason strike. The Great Southern and Western railway line to Athy and to Carlow was opened on 3rd August 1846 during the second year of the Great Famine. Not many, if any, of the 1,200 or so poor unfortunates who died in Athy’s Workhouse during the Famine ever had the means to travel by rail to Dublin. Railway travel was extremely expensive in those early rail days, even if the rail companies sought to engage with the poor by providing third class carriages which were open to the elements. In those days few from Athy and south Kildare ever got the opportunity to see the splendid new railway station which has been described as having the appearance of a great Renaissance House. Every time we pass through what was once called Kingsbridge Station, we can treasure the thought that the great figures of Irish history were frequent users of that same station. Charles Stewart Parnell set out from Kingsbridge Station for that fateful open-air meeting in Creggs, Co. Roscommon in September 1891 which was his last public appearance in Ireland. He would die on 3rd October after returning home to Brighton following that meeting which he had attended despite his doctor’s warning that he was not fit to travel. Padraig Pearse used the same station on many occasions when travelling to Rossmuc, Connemara where his holiday cottage was located. Reflecting on the 1844 date made me realise what great advances were in hand in Ireland at that time as various railway companies pressed on with their plans to extend railway lines across the Irish countryside. But if there were advances there was also great hardship endured on a regular basis by a majority of the people of Ireland. That same year the Athy Workhouse was opened on 9th January and the first inmates include 6 men, 15 women, 13 boys, 5 girls and 2 infants. The workhouse and the two ancillary workhouses which were opened during the height of the Great Famine would at one time in 1848 accommodate 1,254 impoverished men, women and children. It was almost three years since I wrote to the then Chairman of Kildare County Council, Councillor Mark Stafford, asking for the Council to erect a memorial to Athy’s famine dead who were buried in unmarked graves at St. Mary’s cemetery just across the road from the former Workhouse. Mark very kindly agreed to put the request to the Council and I believe the Council agreed to erect a memorial. Subsequent correspondence passed between the County Council and the HSE regarding ownership of the cemetery. Imagine my surprise to read recently that the promised memorial is now being mentioned as a memorial for the mothers and babies who died in the County Home. The County Home which was not a mother and babies home but primarily a place for the elderly and the infirm, is now being regarded as part of the Mother and Babies Home regime. It was never that and the County Council should not lose sight of the famine dead from Athy and the surrounding areas whose sad lives ended in a workhouse and whose remains were left in the ground at St. Mary’s without any recognition or identification. We need to remember our famine dead, and I hope Kildare County Council will do that by erecting a suitable famine memorial in St. Mary’s before too long. During the last few days the town lost two of its well loved and highly regarded members with the passing of Noel Reddy and Eamonn Walsh. By a strange coincidence both Noel and Eamonn were porters in the Bank of Ireland and the Allied Irish Bank respectively and both came from families with generational old connections with Athy and south Kildare. Indeed, Eamonn’s father Eddie Walsh was the porter in the Provincial Bank for 41 years and on his retirement was replaced by Eamonn who served in the same position for 34 years. Noel was an ever-optimistic supporter of Kildare in the county’s quest for an All-Ireland senior football title, while Eamonn was a musician who graced the musical scene for many decades as a member of the Spotlights and other groups with which he was associated over the years. Eamonn was the subject of an Eye on the Past No. 549. Noel’s death followed the death of his wife Carmel just a few weeks earlier. Carmel was an energetic and valuable contributor to many community-based activities, and I will remember the important role she played as secretary of Athy’s Development Group in furthering the call for an outer relief road instead of the inner relief road planned by Kildare County Council. It’s sad that she did not live to see the opening of the new road which she and many other local men and women campaigned for over many years. Like the forgotten famine dead, the true record of more recent events such as the campaign for the outer relief road and the famine memorial fade from memory as new narratives tend to give us a different and not necessarily true account of the past.

Whites Castle and the early years of medieval Athy

Last week’s Kildare Nationalist carried a news item concerning White’s Castle and an announcement of the forthcoming auction of what was described as a 2.5 acre development site in the centre of Athy. It was an unusual coincidence which highlighted on the same paper two important elements of Athy’s past history, even if the development site description might not immediately signal any historical significance. But in fact the site located off Emily Square has a history which predates that of White’s Castle by over 150 years or more. The site was correctly identified in the notice as being located within the old ‘Abbey lands’, a reminder that a few years ago it was the site of the Abbey, a fine 18th century house which was pulled down overnight. The name came down to us over the years because it was the site of the first Dominican Abbey or Friary founded in 1257. The French speaking Anglo Normans who sailed up the river Barrow and opened settlements at various locations in the Barrow valley founded one of their most important settlements at the Ford of Ae. They built a fortified castle at Woodstock around which the medieval village of Athy developed. Within a few years the Crouched Friars founded a monastery on the west bank of the River Barrow in the area still known to this day as St. Johns. A few years later the Dominicans founded their monastery on the opposite bank of the river in the area which the auction notice called the ‘Abbey lands’. The Dominicans occupied their monastery until the Reformation when Henry VIII suppressed the Irish and English monasteries and sequestered the Abbey property which was leased to Martin Pelles, constable of the castle of Athy. The Abbey consisted of a church with a bell tower, a chapter house, dormitory, kitchen, rooms and two halls in addition to an open cloister, a cemetery, an orchard and a garden. The buildings were in time destroyed and levelled to the ground leaving only, I believe, traces underground. The Abbey site has an important story awaiting to be told and it is a story which can only be fully explained after a comprehensive archaeological survey of the site has been carried out. Following the Battle of Ardscull on 26th January 1316 when the Scottish troops under Edward Bruce defeated the Anglo Normans, the Book of Howth records that ‘of the Scot side were slain Lord Fergus Anderson, Lord Walter More and many others whose bodies were buried in the Abbey of the Friars Preachers Athy.’ Also buried there were the Dominican Friars who in the first 300 years of the Abbey’s existence lived, worshipped, and prayed in Athy’s Abbey. This important historical site needs to have an archaeological assessment and investigation carried out as a matter of urgency. White’s Castle recently purchased for the third time in recent years by a private individual without any interest being expressed by Kildare County Council, has been awarded funding under the Community Monuments Fund. I understand the purpose of the funding is to help protect the historical building and facilitate access to it by the general public. White’s Castle is an iconic building at the heart of our town which stands not alone but is twinned with the adjoining Crom a Boo bridge to provide a symbolic representation of the town’s ancient history. Picture Athy in your mind’s eye and almost certainly images of the castle and the bridge will come into view. For so long at the heart of town life in Athy the Castle, as a garrison fortress, as a prison and as a police barracks has witnessed the passing of so many different generations stretching back over 600 years. I had hoped that White’s Castle would again become an integral part of community life in Athy with its development as a heritage centre/museum to complement the Shackleton Museum in the former market house. I don’t know what plans the new owner has for the castle but the successful application for Community Monument funding is an encouraging sign that private enterprise might yet take up the challenge which Kildare County Council and Athy Town Council so abysmally failed to do in the past.

Roadside Memorial for Thomas O'Connell, Carlow Kildare I.R.A. Brigade

It’s almost twenty years ago in Eye on the Past No. 600 I wrote of roadside memorials in and around Athy and mentioned a particular memorial which unknowingly I passed on many occasions. I wrote: ‘Indeed on first becoming aware of its existence some months ago I kept a careful look out for it when I drove to or from Carlow. I could not find the memorial until yesterday when returning to Athy I stopped my car near Maganey and walked the narrow road, keeping a watchful eye on the speeding cars which threatened at every bend to put a premature end to my search. Eventually I found the memorial on the side of the road where Tommy O’Connell, Officer commanding the Carlow Kildare I.R.A. Brigade was killed in a road traffic accident on 31st August 1924.’ The memorial was hidden from view by a generous growth of briars and I returned some time later to cut back the briars and reveal the inscription on the stone base into which a metal cross had been set. The inscription read:- ‘Mrs. Kearney presented this memorial cross to the staff of the I.R.A. Carlow Brigade to be erected where their gallant O.C. accidentally lost his life on 31st August 1924.’ Tommy O’Connell had succeeded Eamon Malone of Barrowhouse as Officer commanding the Carlow Brigade. He was previously Vice O.C. of the Brigade, comprising six battalions of which the fifth battalion area included Athy, Kilkea, Castledermot, Ballylinan and Barrowhouse. When the Civil War broke out he took the anti-treaty side and was subsequently captured and imprisoned but having escaped from prison went on the run for some time. Some months after I cut the briars surrounding the O’Connell memorial I was disappointed to find that the metal cross had been broken and was nowhere to be seen. I mentioned that in a subsequent Eye on the Past but there seemed little prospect of recovering the missing cross. Fast forward to three months ago when Jerry O’Toole from Kilbride, Carlow who having read my articles on Tommy O’Connell phoned me enquiring where the roadside memorial was located. Jerry told me that his late mother had a photograph of Tommy O’Connell in her home and that his father and two uncles had served in the I.R.A. under O’Connell. I gave Jerry directions to the memorial and he found it hidden behind briars and hedging. Last week Jerry phoned me again. Having enquired locally he discovered that the cross had been broken during hedge cutting arranged by the County Council but luckily enough the broken cross was kept safe by a local farmer. It turns out that the local farmer’s late father and grandfather had attended Tommy O’Connell at the accident scene in 1924. Jerry O’Toole had the memorial cross restored, the roadside memorial repainted and the surrounding hedging cut back so allowing the memorial to the former I.R.A. leader to be visible to everyone passing the scene of the accident of almost 99 years ago. An interesting fact which Jerry discovered when replacing the cross is that it was made in the foundry of Duthie Larges of Athy. Tommy O’Connell was buried at Monasteroris, Edenderry on 2nd September 1924 and as his funeral passed through Athy the Nationalist and Leinster Times noted ‘the windows in Athy were shuttered all day on Monday in token of sympathy and great numbers joined the funeral cortege as it passed through the town on its way to Edenderry.’ Jerry O’Toole has also discovered that Tommy O’Connell’s mother gave his address as c/o Mrs. Kearney, Brown Street, Carlow when she applied for a service pension. This was presumably the same Mrs. Kearney who presented the memorial cross which Duthie Larges made in their Athy foundry. Can any of my readers identify the late Mrs. Kearney and the part she may have played during the revolutionary years. Jerry O’Toole is deserving of great praise for his work in restoring the O’Connell monument and the photographs which he has copied to me and in which I reproduce here are those of the late Tommy O’Connell and the memorial at Maganey as it is today.

Poverty in Athy and the Work of Athy Lions Club

The population of Athy has increased substantially over the last 20 years or so. For over one hundred years previously the local community numbers were always around 4,000 and generally somewhat lower than that. Athy, we were told, was a prosperous market town with more than 40 pubs/grocery shops and was often described as the leading market town in Leinster. Hidden behind the main streets of the town however were many two roomed cottages let by private landlords who in the absence of any local authority housing schemes controlled the availability of housing in the town. In the census of 1901 Athy returned a population of 3,599. The majority of the local people lived in the most primitive conditions. A report prepared by the local medical officer claimed that little effort was made to keep the laneways in the town in a sanitary condition. His report continued: ‘the state of the back yards is also a danger to health ….. large accumulations of manure heaps and other refuse matters are in proximity to the houses ….. and the back yards where these accumulations exist are very small and confined and undrained and in many instances pigs are kept in them. A considerable number of houses have no back yard accommodation whatsoever.’ What part did these poor living conditions and the poverty which they indicated play in encouraging so many young Athy men to enlist in the British Army during World War I? A report in the Nationalist and Leinster Times on 9th June 1917 claimed: ‘In Ireland workers when deprived of employment have only one recourse – to join the army, a mild form of conscription is accordingly enforced in this country at the present time.’ True to tell there was widespread poverty in Athy at that time. Employment opportunities were limited to the local brickyards and seasonal work on neighbouring farms. The merchants of the town were by all accounts well off, but amongst them were a number of kind hearted individuals who came together every week to further the work of the local St. Vincent de Paul Society in helping local families in need. This generosity of spirit, which in the early years of 1900 was found in the members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, was many generations later to witness a resurgence with the foundation of Athy’s Lions Club. Today the Lions Club and the St. Vincent de Paul Society continued to work voluntarily for the betterment of those individuals and families who find themselves experiencing financial difficulties. The Lions Club, which is a member of the largest worldwide charitable organisation, was founded following a meeting in the Leinster Arms Hotel in June 1971. The first President of the Lions Club was the late Des McHugh, a pharmacist from Duke Street and with him at that first meeting was a large number of businesspeople and professionals. It was then an all-male organisation, which in recent years has welcomed female members. Indeed, the current membership of Athy Lions Club shows a majority of female members who have brought a refreshing vigour and enthusiasm to the work of the club. Over the years Athy Lions Club has been involved in many fundraising projects where all the funds collected are used for local charitable purposes. Cycle rallies, family walks, St. Stephen’s Day run, charity auctions, concerts and not to forget the annual Christmas Food Appeal are but some of the many events organised by the Lions Club. Amongst the many unique projects undertaken by the Lions Club there are two which stand out. In 1982 the Club in conjunction with St. Michael’s Parish, then led by the Parish Priest Canon Owen Sweeney, jointly purchased Dreamland Ballroom for use as a community facility. Now known as A.R.C.H. (Athy Recreational Community Hall), the parish interest in the hall has in recent times been transferred to the Lions Club and the A.R.C.H. continues to be managed by a voluntary committee on behalf of the Lions Club. The other major project undertaken by the Lions Club was the development of a sheltered housing scheme in the grounds of St. Vincent’s Hospital. The Lions Club initiated this housing project in consultation with the Eastern Health Board, which resulted in the construction of ten houses which were made available for elderly persons. The work of the Lions Club, like that of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, seldom receives publicity as their work is done quietly and discreetly. It would be remiss of me however not to pay tribute to two of the founder members of the Lions Club who with 52 years as members continue to attend the monthly meetings of the club and participate in Lions events. Michael Dwyer and Gerry Cleary are the members in question, who a few years ago were recipients of the Melvin Jones award for services to their community. Membership of the Lions Club is open to any person wishing to serve the people of Athy in a voluntary capacity. If you would like to offer your help to the Lions Club, whether as a member attending monthly meetings or as a volunteer for organised events, can I invite you to contact the current Lions Club President Brian Dooley on Ph: (086)137-8612. Don’t forget the lecture tonight [Tuesday] in the Arts Centre, Woodstock Street. David Walsh’s illustrated talk on ‘Athy and the Great War in Twenty Objects’.

Civil War in County Kildare (Part 2)

The Civil War which had commenced with the attack on the Four Courts saw continuing action in and around Athy. On 29th November 1922 the railway bridge in Athy was damaged by anti-treaty forces. The Irish Free State was formally established by the passing of legislation in the British House of Commons on 6th December and on the same day James Kenny of Dunbrin was arrested by National Army troops. Two days later four Republican prisoners, Dick Barrett, Rory O’Connor, Joe McKelvey and Liam Mellowes were executed in Mountjoy jail. On Christmas Eve the property of James Murphy, an Athy farmer, was extensively damaged. Subsequent attacks on the property of farmers John Bergin of Maybrook and Michael Mara, both of whom were members of the Kildare Farmers Union, satisfied the authorities that the local farm labourers dispute was the cause. On the first day of the new year 1923 18-year-old National Army soldier Thomas McEvoy was accidentally shot dead at Graney crossroads, just a few weeks after four of his colleagues were killed at the same location in an ambush by anti-treaty forces. The new year was ushered in with an attack on the railway companies’ office in Athy and an arson attack on the farm buildings of Frank Plewman of Woodstock. 19year old Christopher Sweeney from Nelson Street Athy was shot dead during an ambush by anti-treaty republicans at O’Connell Street Waterford on 5th January. A week later armed men attacked and damaged a dwellinghouse at Lipstown, Narraghmore, the property of Thomas Yates of Grangemellon. This was undoubtedly the result of the local farm labourers dispute which also saw sheds and crops burned at Belview, the property of Stephen Telford and a thatched cottage at Cloney, the property of Patrick Kelly. The farm labourers dispute with the Kildare Farmers Union was the principal reason for the malicious damage caused in and around the south Kildare area at this time. Thomas Hickey, Milltown House, was another victim in that dispute when barley and straw was burned overnight on January 26th. Two days later Christy Supple, secretary of the Athy branch of the Transport Union was arrested and lodged in Carlow Military Barracks. His mother Mary died suddenly in the Union Office in Duke Street 18 days later but Christy was refused parole to attend her funeral. Anti-treaty men raided Jacksons shop in Leinster Street on 2nd February and took a quantity of goods and on the following day James Kelly of Youngstown had a consignment of porter seized by what is believed to be the same raiders. The farm labourers dispute saw further malicious damage, this time to the property of Denis Morrin, farmer of Ballyroe. On the day following Tom Barry’s call for a truce which was rejected by his colleague Liam Lynch, Dr. Thomas O’Higgins, father of the Free State government minister Kevin O’Higgins, was shot and killed by anti-treaty raiders in his home at Stradbally. Armed men raised the Bank of Ireland in Athy on 21st February, while further attacks on local farmers saw the destruction of Mrs. Hayden’s house at Brownstown and damage to Hannon’s store in Athy. On March 2nd and 3rd anti-treaty forces attacked several properties in Athy, resulting in the destruction of equipment at the railway station, the Post Office, the Civic Guards barracks, as well as the shop premises of John W. Coote and Shaws. Cars were stolen from the Leinster Arms Hotel yard, Maxwells of Duke Street and Duthie Larges. At the same time hay and other crops the property of Margaret Hayden of Churchtown were destroyed. It is believed that this damage was caused by men involved in the farm labourers dispute which had entered its sixteenth week. Christy Supple, local secretary of the Transport Union and leader of the farm labourers dispute and an Urban District Councillor for Athy, was released from jail on 22nd March. Six days later there was an unsuccessful gun attack on a National Army sentry at the Town Hall. The farm labourers strike continued and on the last day of March at a public meeting held in Emily Square presided over by the ITGWU General Secretary, William O’Brien, it was claimed that upwards of 300 farm labourers were locked out by members of the Kildare Farmers Union. Civil War activities in the south Kildare area lessened as the year progressed, but on 23rd April attempts were made to disrupt rail travel when wires were cut at Athy Railway station. This was followed a few days later with the arrest of 7 Athy men who were lodged in Carlow Military Barracks. By this time almost 12,000 anti-treaty supporters had been interned by order of the Free State government and amongst them were several Athy men Paddy McNamara and his brother. In June 1923 Athy Urban District Council workers, including the weight master, refused to weigh wool delivered by local farmers. The now infrequent raids by anti-treaty forces recommenced with a raid on the railway goods store in Athy where the property of Thomas Bergin, merchant of Duke Street, was stolen. A sense of normality was evidenced when the local press announced the formation of a branch of Cumann na nGaedhael in Athy. Peter P. Doyle, formerly of Athy’s Sinn Fein Club, was elected president. A few weeks later General Sir W.B. Hickie, president of the Legion of Ex Service Men in Ireland, visited the local British legion hall. Where I wonder was that hall as the legion hall later remembered as the Social Club premises was built in 1925/’26. Many lives were lost during the Civil War and communities were traumatised by the killing and the wanton destruction which left a legacy of bitterness for years thereafter. On Tuesday 28th March at 8pm the Arts Centre will host a lecture by David Walsh titled ‘Athy and World War I in Twenty Objects’. It’s a story of an earlier worldwide conflict which had a huge impact on families in Athy. Admission Free.

Superintendent Martin Walker and Athy Garda Siochana of Old

On Friday I travelled to Newbridge to join the retirement get together for Superintendent Martin Walker who is stepping down after 40 years’ service in the Garda Siochana. On my journey I was prompted to remember the Gardai who served in Athy during my teenage years. Some of my older readers will remember Johnny McMahon, Mick Tuohy, Jim Kelly, Michael O’Connell, all men who in the 1950s were on the brink of retirement. From various parts of the country, including Mayo, Kerry and Clare they lived amongst the community they served as ‘Guardians of the Peace’. In those days Gardai were required to live in the area in which they were stationed and they were effectively on duty 24 hours a day. They and the young Gardai who were transferred for a few years to Athy were required to perform barrack orderly duties in their turn. This meant being on duty in the Garda Station for 24 continuous hours as the Barrack Orderly slept in the barracks overnight. As a result, the Garda Station was manned 24 hours a day and this, together with the daily patrolling of the streets by the Gardai, helped create an excellent relationship between the Garda Siochana and the community they served. I can remember my father who was senior sergeant in the Barracks going on patrol almost every night of the week. The Garda presence on the streets, whether day or night, was seen as an important way of fulfilling one of the Garda roles in Irish society, that of crime prevention. That with crime detection and the maintenance of public order were the core principals of police work. Today crime prevention and crime detection remain the central objectives of Irish policing but unfortunately the old established role of the patrolling Garda is no longer observed. Irish society has changed, and crime has become more widespread and complex than ever before in the last 50 years or so. To meet the new demands posed by the criminal world the Garda Siochana’s role has had to adapt and change. The man on the beat was replaced by the patrol car, now covering a wider area than the foot patrols of a previous time. Many Garda barracks are no longer manned 24 hours a day and the relationship between the policemen and the community at large has deteriorated dramatically. It was Conor Brady, later editor of the Irish Times, who in his early history of the Garda Siochana wrote that the community/Garda relationship ‘has been deteriorating steadily’. This was written a few years after the Conroy report on policing was published in 1970. The implementation of that report and the subsequent adoption of many new measures improved in many ways the working of the police and certainly benefitted its members in terms of working conditions. The 8-hour day for Gardai was introduced and the requirement for Gardai to live in the areas where stationed was abolished. Unfortunately Garda numbers were not increased sufficiently to provide 24 hour cover and many Garda stations throughout the country were closed. Street patrols became a feature of the past, adding further to the deterioration of the Garda/community relationship. That relationship was very important in terms of crime prevention and just as important was the requirement that Gardai live in their station district. With the abolition of the residential requirement, many Gardai understandably opted to live outside their district and not be part of the community where they worked. This was a loss to Garda intelligence which is so important for both crime prevention and crime detention. The net result was the fracturing of the good relationship which had been built up during the early years of the Garda Siochana between local communities and the Gardai. Public goodwill is an essential requirement if the Garda Siochana are to operate at their most effective. To gain and retain the full support of the community Gardai must be involved on a daily basis with the members of the community. By and large our only contact now with the Gardai is when we are approached by officers involved in crime detection or some other element of law enforcement. These are not relationship building contacts and may explain why many would regard their relationship with the Gardai as strained. Today in Athy which has a population of about 10,000 we have four sergeants and a number of Gardai who are grouped between detectives and road traffic corps, with one community Garda. The latter as the name implies is the Garda liaison officer with the Athy people. The detective gardai and the road traffic corps Gardai are part of the police crime detection service. What is lacking is adequate numbers to back up the community Gardai who by virtue of his working relationship with the community is the only Garda whom we can say is part of the crime prevention team. More community Gardai are required. With the retirement of Superintendent Martin Walker who was the superintendent in charge of this area, the Garda Siochana has lost one of the finest police officers it was my privilege to have known for several years. Many a time we were on opposite sides in District Court hearings, but I always found him to be an officer who presented evidence with impartiality and fairness. I wish him many happy years of retirement.

Traditional Music in Clancys and Death of Seamus Byrne, Uilleann Piper

Just a day or two after a former classmate of mine died I called into the traditional Irish music session in Clancys. It was there I last saw Seamus Byrne playing the uilleann pipes, accompanying a host of other traditional musicians, including my late colleague Tos Quinn. My visit was a pilgrimage of sorts to recall and remember the wonderful musicians who like Seamus had graced the music room over the years. It was 56 years ago that Tony Byrne, a Donegal fiddle player from Glencolumcille, with Neddy Whelan from Barrowhouse and a young Seamus Byrne came together to play the first music session in Clancys. They were welcomed by the club’s proprietors Jim and Maureen Clancy and those early sessions were held in the small bar. Pub conversations and pub noise generally did not provide the most ideal background for the musicians at play which prompted Jim and Maureen to clear a storeroom for the exclusive use of the musicians. That room is still in use for the Thursday evening Irish traditional music sessions. I first wrote of the Clancy sessions approximately 25 years ago following a visit to hear the musicians, including Seamus Byrne and Tos Quinn who were continuing a piping tradition which stretched back through Willie Clancy and Leo Rowsome to the legendary County Kildare piper William Kelly. I also mentioned Tony Byrne who came from Donegal in 1954 as principal of Ballyadams primary school. With them that night was Neddy Whelan, then an elderly man, a notable banjo player who was then playing the thin whistle, accompanied by the banjo master extraordinaire Martin Cooney. Sad to think that on my visit last week so many of the musicians of 25 years ago are no longer with us. The sessions however continue having earned the right to be regarded as Ireland’s longest running weekly Irish traditional music session. The present-day importance of the Clancy sessions is surely confirmed by the wide representation from outlining towns as the musicians from Athy were joined on Thursday last by musicians from Carlow, Abbeyleix, Newbridge, Baltinglass and Ballymount. On Saturday morning 15 members of the Clancy sessions came together at the Parish Church in Ballylinan for the burial of their friend and fellow musician Seamus Byrne. The outstanding piper Joe Byrne led off with a beautiful rendition of ‘Tabhair Dom do Lámh’ accompanied by his colleagues. During the communion the uilleann pipers Conor O’Carroll and Joe Byrne, again accompanied by the other musicians, played Seamus Byrne’s favorite tune ‘For Ireland’s sake I won’t tell her name’ and as the coffin was taken from the church three jigs were played by Joe Byrne with a wonderful expression of the young piper’s skill. At the graveside the Clancy session musicians took leave of their fellow musician and friend Seamus Byrne by playing a set of Seamus’s favourite jigs. We were reminded by Fr. Shelly of Seamus Byrne’s love of Irish traditional piping and how he followed his father, also a piper, who had died when Seamus was just a few days old. Seamus’s first piping lessons were on his father’s uilleann pipes which were repaired by Leo Rowsome and it was the famous Dublin based piper Rowsome who initially taught Seamus. Tos Quinn and Seamus Byrne were for so long leading members of the Clancy sessions, and it was Seamus who for many years was the unofficial fear an tí. He called the tunes and whenever unknown musicians joined the sessions always made them welcome and invited them to play. Uilleann piping has seen a resurgence in recent years, due in large measure to the setting up of Na Piobairi Uilleann in 1968. Here in Athy we are privileged to have a number of uilleann pipers and amongst them two of exceptional ability. Brian Hughes has given us many wonderful recordings of his uilleann piping and whistle playing and most recently Joe Byrne has produced his first piping CD. Seamus Byrne and Tos Quinn, two very good uilleann pipers, with the recently deceased Roddy Geoghegan for so long members of the Clancy music session are no longer with us. The sessions are now attracting a wide range of instrument players and the places of Seamus and Tos have now passed to uilleann pipers Conor O’Carroll and Joe Byrne. This traditional music session, like other sessions around the country, displays a great variety of instruments and a degree of musical competency which is delightful to hear. The Clancy music sessions are very much a part of the cultural reawakening of a town which over its lifetime at different stages underwent economic and social decline. Music is at the heart of that cultural movement and the session players are not alone in helping to recapture the spirit of this age. I was reminded of this during the 12 o’clock mass on Sunday having listened to the parish choir which was in splendid voice, admirably led by Anne-Maria Heskin whose solo singing was quite superb. Athy is the centre of our lives and the contribution that Irish traditional musicians such as the late Seamus Byrne and other musicians and singers make to the enjoyment and betterment of our community life cannot be underestimated.

Civil War in County Kildare (part)

Just a day or two after a former classmate of mine died I called into the traditional Irish music session in Clancys. It was there I last saw Seamus Byrne playing the uilleann pipes, accompanying a host of other traditional musicians, including my late colleague Tos Quinn. My visit was a pilgrimage of sorts to recall and remember the wonderful musicians who like Seamus had graced the music room over the years. It was 56 years ago that Tony Byrne, a Donegal fiddle player from Glencolumcille, with Neddy Whelan from Barrowhouse and a young Seamus Byrne came together to play the first music session in Clancys. They were welcomed by the club’s proprietors Jim and Maureen Clancy and those early sessions were held in the small bar. Pub conversations and pub noise generally did not provide the most ideal background for the musicians at play which prompted Jim and Maureen to clear a storeroom for the exclusive use of the musicians. That room is still in use for the Thursday evening Irish traditional music sessions. I first wrote of the Clancy sessions approximately 25 years ago following a visit to hear the musicians, including Seamus Byrne and Tos Quinn who were continuing a piping tradition which stretched back through Willie Clancy and Leo Rowsome to the legendary County Kildare piper William Kelly. I also mentioned Tony Byrne who came from Donegal in 1954 as principal of Ballyadams primary school. With them that night was Neddy Whelan, then an elderly man, a notable banjo player who was then playing the thin whistle, accompanied by the banjo master extraordinaire Martin Cooney. Sad to think that on my visit last week so many of the musicians of 25 years ago are no longer with us. The sessions however continue having earned the right to be regarded as Ireland’s longest running weekly Irish traditional music session. The present-day importance of the Clancy sessions is surely confirmed by the wide representation from outlining towns as the musicians from Athy were joined on Thursday last by musicians from Carlow, Abbeyleix, Newbridge, Baltinglass and Ballymount. On Saturday morning 15 members of the Clancy sessions came together at the Parish Church in Ballylinan for the burial of their friend and fellow musician Seamus Byrne. The outstanding piper Joe Byrne led off with a beautiful rendition of ‘Tabhair Dom do Lámh’ accompanied by his colleagues. During the communion the uilleann pipers Conor O’Carroll and Joe Byrne, again accompanied by the other musicians, played Seamus Byrne’s favorite tune ‘For Ireland’s sake I won’t tell her name’ and as the coffin was taken from the church three jigs were played by Joe Byrne with a wonderful expression of the young piper’s skill. At the graveside the Clancy session musicians took leave of their fellow musician and friend Seamus Byrne by playing a set of Seamus’s favourite jigs. We were reminded by Fr. Shelly of Seamus Byrne’s love of Irish traditional piping and how he followed his father, also a piper, who had died when Seamus was just a few days old. Seamus’s first piping lessons were on his father’s uilleann pipes which were repaired by Leo Rowsome and it was the famous Dublin based piper Rowsome who initially taught Seamus. Tos Quinn and Seamus Byrne were for so long leading members of the Clancy sessions, and it was Seamus who for many years was the unofficial fear an tí. He called the tunes and whenever unknown musicians joined the sessions always made them welcome and invited them to play. Uilleann piping has seen a resurgence in recent years, due in large measure to the setting up of Na Piobairi Uilleann in 1968. Here in Athy we are privileged to have a number of uilleann pipers and amongst them two of exceptional ability. Brian Hughes has given us many wonderful recordings of his uilleann piping and whistle playing and most recently Joe Byrne has produced his first piping CD. Seamus Byrne and Tos Quinn, two very good uilleann pipers, with the recently deceased Roddy Geoghegan for so long members of the Clancy music session are no longer with us. The sessions are now attracting a wide range of instrument players and the places of Seamus and Tos have now passed to uilleann pipers Conor O’Carroll and Joe Byrne. This traditional music session, like other sessions around the country, displays a great variety of instruments and a degree of musical competency which is delightful to hear. The Clancy music sessions are very much a part of the cultural reawakening of a town which over its lifetime at different stages underwent economic and social decline. Music is at the heart of that cultural movement and the session players are not alone in helping to recapture the spirit of this age. I was reminded of this during the 12 o’clock mass on Sunday having listened to the parish choir which was in splendid voice, admirably led by Anne-Maria Heskin whose solo singing was quite superb. Athy is the centre of our lives and the contribution that Irish traditional musicians such as the late Seamus Byrne and other musicians and singers make to the enjoyment and betterment of our community life cannot be underestimated.

Athy Rugby Club Players of the Past including Jack Doyle

Sports clubs in Athy did well in 2022. To the successes of the soccer players of Clonmullin AFC and the underage players of Athy GFC can now be added the recent achievement of the senior rugby players of Athy Rugby Club. Weeks ago the rugby team won the Hosie Cup, last won by the club 36 years ago. Competition wise the Rugby Club has gone through a relatively lean period in recent years. Founded, it is believed in 1880, the club won the Provincial Towns Cup in 1938, 1940, 1978, 1981, 1983 and 1984 and were winners of many other trophies over the years. Winning the Hosie Cup for 2022 was important for the club which had made great strides in recent years by extending the club’s playing facilities and opening rugby playing opportunities for youngsters and females. In the earlier years of the club’s history Athy Rugby Club had several players who won junior provincial caps. So far as I am aware the first Athy players to be honoured in this way were Jerry O’Neill and Robert Anderson in the 1920s and Dan Carbery in the early 1930s. The club’s successes in the 1938 and 1940 Towns Cup saw several club players gain junior provincial caps for the province. These included Norman Plewman, Des McHugh, Laurence Curran and they were followed in later years by many other players, including Cyril Osborne and Jack Ryan. John Minch of Athy, who played for a time with the local club, won five international caps playing for Ireland in 1912, while his brother Sydney was a reserve. Paddy Lawler who won many international caps playing for Ireland, came to Athy after his international playing career ended and played rugby with the Athy club. Another player who won four international caps for Ireland in 1921 was J.J. Bermingham, who following his short international career played for the Athy club. And of course, the present international Joey Carbery lived in Athy for many years and played for the Athy club, as did his Munster teammate Jeremy Loughman. Perhaps one of the more interesting players who played for Athy Rugby Club was Jack Doyle, known to generations of Athy folk as ‘Skurt’ Doyle. Jack as a young man joined the British Army and served in Alexandria, Malta and India. He played Gaelic football with Athy before enlisting and during his army career participated in many sports. He won the British army novice cruiser weight championship and came second in a marathon run over the Egyptian desert. He was also quite a useful cricket player and joined officers in regimental cricket matches. The first World War saw Jack Doyle, his brother Patrick and stepbrother Andrew Reilly serving overseas. The Doyle brothers were captured following the Battle of Mons and spent the rest of the conflict as prisoners of war. Jack on his release returned to his army base in England and during that time he played soccer on an English army team with first division team players Dickie Bond of Bradford City and Steve Bloomer of Derby County. After his discharge from the army in 1919 Jack returned to Athy and resumed his Gaelic football career with Athy GFC. His ability as a Gaelic footballer was recognised and he served as goalkeeper for Kildare senior county team from 1920 to 1922 and last played for Kildare in Croke Park in April 1922. He later took up rugby playing and was a member of the Athy Towns cup finalist losing teams of 1928, 1929 and 1930. Of the 1928 final a local newspaper noted ‘of the forwards the veteran Doyle who could be a father to any of the players, was without doubt the best.’ Jack continued to play rugby with Athy until 1934 when he retired, aged approximately 50 years. After that he continued his involvement with the local rugby club and with the Gaelic football club as a team trainer. The legendary Jack Doyle, better known and remembered as ‘Skurt’ Doyle died on 18th July 1953 aged 69 years. He made a remarkable contribution to Athy’s Rugby Club and the Athy Gaelic Football Club both as a player and as a team trainer. The sporting complex off the Dublin Road which houses Athy Rugby Club, the Gaelic Football Club, Athy’s Soccer Club, the Tennis Club and Badminton Club all on grounds formerly owned by the County Showground Committee is impressive for the extent and range of its facilities. Athy can surely claim to be the sporting capital of County Kildare in terms of its playing grounds and indoor sporting facilities. The town’s successes in the soccer, rugby and Gaelic football during 2022 are a source of great pride for the townspeople of Athy. The lecture series in Athy’s Arts Centre restarts after the Christmas break with an illustrated talk on ‘Athy and the Norman Invasion’ to be delivered by Clem Roche on Tuesday, 31st January at 8pm. Admission free.

Books reviewed. No Middle Ground - the Civil War in Kerry, Owen O'Shea, History of the Quakers of Limerick 1655-1900, Hiram Wood

‘Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested, that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.’ So wrote the English philosopher and Statesman Francis Bacon who served as Attorney General and later as Chancellor of England under King James I. With Christmas just passing over the horizon of memory I look back over an all too short holiday period when I immersed myself in reading many books keeping in mind Bacon’s advice, while recalling just two of those books. ‘No Middle Ground – the Civil War in Kerry’ was written by Kerry native Owen O’Shea who is the media, communications, and customer relations officer with Kerry County Council. Published by Merrion Press, O’Shea’s book is the best account I have read of the bitter and violent events in the Kerry kingdom during 1922/’23. The writer’s research allowed him to deal with the atrocities which marked the Civil War in Kerry with convincing detail. Names are given, individuals involved are named, with an objectivity and impartiality which is commendable. Of interest to Athy readers was the involvement of Eddie Flood, one of six Dublin brothers who fought in the War of Independence. He was a brother of Frank Flood who was executed in Mountjoy jail in March 1921 and the younger brother of Tom Flood who was captured and imprisoned following the burning of the Custom House two months later. Tom Flood came to live in Athy in 1927 after he purchased the Railway Hotel in Leinster Street. Tom was a Fine Gael Urban Councillor for Athy when he died in October 1950. Tom’s brother Eddie was a captain in the Free State Army under the now notoriously regarded Major General Paddy O’Daly. O’Daly, or Daly as he was then known, and his Dublin troops were responsible for many of the atrocities committed by Free State forces in Kerry during the Civil War. Eddie Flood’s involvement in the Ballyseedy massacre is recorded by O’Shea, while a Military Court of Enquiry established by Richard Mulcahy, Minister for Defence, found Flood guilty of involvement in a horrific attack on two young women who were believed to have been friendly with members of the British crown forces during the War of Independence. Eddie Flood emigrated to Australia sometime after the Civil War where he died in 1951. Interestingly his twin brother Peter who also served in the Free State army, later joined the Marist Order and served as a Marist Brother in China for many years. The Civil War has been the subject of several books over many years, with Dorothy McArdle’s ‘Tragedies in Kerry’, the first somewhat partial account of a sorry chapter in our history which was published in 1924. Eoin O’Shea’s book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the revolutionary Kerry story. Another book which I read over the Christmas holiday was Hiram Woods ‘History of the Quakers of Limerick 1655-1900’. This book is a significant addition to our understanding of the religious group which emerged during the English Civil War which in Ireland resulted in the Cromwellian settlement of the mid-17th century. Many of the early members of the Quakers, correctly known as the Religious Society of Friends, were Cromwellian soldiers who settled in Ireland. The first Quakers arrived in Limerick in the summer of 1655 just sixteen years before a Quaker meeting was settled in Athy. Quakers are unique among Christians in not having clergy, consecrated buildings or sacraments. They refuse to swear oaths or bear arms and consequently are opposed to war and violence. In the post Reformation period Quakers, like their Catholic neighbours and other dissenters, suffered prosecution and restrictions. They played a hugely significant part in providing relief for distressed Irish families during the Great Famine. Their work in that regard is documented in ‘Transactions of the Central Relief Committee of the Society of Friends during the Famine in Ireland in 1846 and 1847’. Two interesting references in Hiram Woods book relate to Quaker figures in the nearby village of Ballitore. Abraham Shackleton started a religious controversy after claiming that the God of the Old Testament could not be a loving God as he intervened in violent wars. Shackleton was disowned by the Quaker community yet appears to have remained allied with them for the rest of his life. The Quaker writer Mary Leadbeater’s daughter Lydia, according to Woods, was in love with the Irish writer Gerald Griffin, who after publishing his most famous novel ‘The Collegians’ joined the Irish Christian Brothers. These interesting insights and the book generally give its readers an overview of a religious group which prepares its members for their own way to God and salvation.

Ribbon man activity in and around Athy

Two hundred years ago Athy, like many other parts of Ireland, was the scene of ribbon men type activity. The so called Ribbon Society was an agrarian secret society formed in opposition to the Irish landlords system. Their members got the name ribbon men from the green ribbon worn about the neck as they went about their nocturnal activities. It is uncertain whether ribbonism was organised in the South Kildare area or whether the various ribbon like actions were uncoordinated activities of unrelated local groups. Following the suppression of the 1798 Revolutionaries and the Emmett insurrectionist five years later the Irish countryside remained relatively peaceful for a decade or two. Overseas visitors felt sufficiently encouraged to visit Ireland and one such visitor was Rev. James Hall, a Church of England Minister who arrived in Ireland in 1813. He visited Athy having travelled from Dublin by the canal boat which berthed overnight at Cloneybeg. Travelling into Athy he first visited the Catholic chapel of St. Michael’s on the Monasterevin Road the building of which had started some years previously. In those days the Church of England adherents worshipped in churches while dissenters and the unreformed Catholic Church were designated as worshipping in chapels. Rev. Hall describes the Catholic Chapel as quite new but not yet finished. It had no seats or pews which he claimed was a common feature in Irish Roman Catholic chapels of the time. When he visited the Church of England church at the rear of the Town Hall he described it as “small and very ill attended”. He wrote “indeed as I afterwards found the Established clergy in this as well as many other parts of the country get their money for doing little better than nothing”. Athy was a poor town having suffered the loss of tanyards and the winding down of the local distilleries and breweries. Unemployment and wretched living conditions nourished the seeds of social discontent and criminality in the area. Thomas Rawson, captain of the Athy local yeomanry constantly reminded the officials in Dublin Castle of the need for vigilance for it was claimed by another local “the system of swearing in the lower classes is going forward”. Following the arrest of a number of men in Kildare the ever vigilant Thomas Rawson wrote to Dublin Castle in January 1814 requesting additional troops for Athy “as the Protestant minds of Athy are in great alarm”. The Dublin Castle authorities sent a company of infantry to join the 6th Dragoons and the members of the Clare militia who were already stationed in the town. Shortly afterwards Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine House forwarded a number of resolutions to Dublin Castle which had been passed at meetings of the local people of Athy in July 1814. The resolutions noted that “the towns people were annoyed at the idle, wicked and ill founded reports which were allowed to be circulated day after day following the Kildare’s men arrest”. In addition to the usual garrison Fitzgerald claimed a field officer party of the 6th Dragoons marched in while all night guards and sentries were posted at all the entrances to the town of Athy. This Fitzgerald said was unnecessary and only served to keep Athy in a state of alarm for upwards of ten days. The extra troops were removed from the town and around the same time the Peace Preservation Force (forerunners of today’s An Garda Siochana) was established. Its members took the place of the local yeomanry which was abolished. Within a year a number of incidents in or around Athy were the first indication of the resurgence of ribbon men activity in South Kildare. Attacks on the homes and buildings of local farmers were noted with concern and Thomas Rawson was again to the forefront in informing the Dublin Castle authorities of ribbon men activity in and around Athy. He informed the authorities in December 1822 of a meeting “in Murphy’s public house in Athy on Saturday, 21st of December at which there were 12 men who agreed to take up arms”. Rawson’s information was apparently correct for in a short time thereafter the farmhouse of a mill owner located within two miles of Athy was attacked by 15 men. The farmers servant was viciously assaulted and the dwellinghouse extensively damaged. Further reports noted the houghing of cattle belonging to the Duke of Leinster’s agent and that of Reverend Charles Bristow, the local Church of England curate. A local man Patrick Brady who was transported to Australia for stealing pigs in early 1825 wrote an account of the ribbon men activity in South Kildare. He claimed that William Murphy publican swore in men to take the life of Captain Lefroy. He named them as James Hutchinson, Thomas Ging, Michael Ryder, James Anderson, Daniel Bryan and Terry Neil. He further claimed that a committee calling themselves the Knights of St. Patrick’s met quarterly at Murphy’s public house and that their object was an uprising all over Ireland in 1825. What action the authorities took on foot of this letter is unclear but the successful prosecution of several local men for cattle houghing apparently had a salutary effect on the local ribbon men. The following years gave rise to only sporadic outbursts of ribbon men type activity such as the burning of the Athy residence of the Chief Constable Dolman in 1825 for which two local men, King and Hutchinson were arrested.

World War I refugees in Monaghan

Recent large-scale objections in Dublin to the State’s continuing efforts to accommodate Ukrainian refugees reminded me of similar opposition mounted by many persons in Oughterard a few years ago. That west of Ireland community successfully stopped plans to use a nearby hotel as a refugee centre, even though the hotel had been vacant for several years. I was surprised by their action and by that of the Dubliners, remembering how many communities throughout Ireland acted speedily and with commendable charity to help families who fled their homeland at the start of World War I. I first became aware of the help given to Belgian refugees in 1914 when I lived in Monaghan town in the late 1960s during my time there as town clerk. One of the many roles performed by a town clerk is to manage council housing estates of which there were many in Monaghan at that time, with names honouring noteworthy persons of the past. One housing scheme stood out, simply because its name clearly had no connection with either Irish personages of past importance or the commonly known Monaghan place names. I knew the estate as Belgium Square, but in fact its correct name was Belgian Square. Intrigued as how the name arose I approached Paddy Turley, the long serving editor of the local newspaper ‘The Monaghan Standard’ to be told the full story behind the naming of Belgian Square. A call went out at the start of World War I for Irish local authorities to accommodate Belgian refugees fleeing from German troops advancing into Belgium. One of the many Councils who responded to the call was Monaghan Urban District Council. The Council members hosted a meeting in the local courthouse, following which a Belgium refugee committee was formed. This followed a decision of the Urban Council two years previously to convert the then vacant Monaghan Military Barracks, the former home of the Monaghan Militia, into Council houses or as they were known in those days ‘artisan houses’. In addition to the Barracks conversion the Council also agreed to build 16 three-bedroom cottages on what had been the military barracks parade ground. The cottages were nearing completion in October 1914 when the Belgium refugee crisis arose. In what might be seen as an extraordinary generous act, Monaghan Urban District Council decided to make a number of the newly built cottages available to accommodate refugees. The ‘Northern Standard’ reported as follows:- ‘The party of Belgian refugees allocated to Monaghan arrived here on Friday morning by the 9.50 train from Belfast. News of their coming had got through the town and there was quite a large crowd present at the station, and prominently displayed in the button hole or on the breasts of practically every person were the Belgian colours.’ The local refugee committee provided the families with furniture and food and a collection was later taken up at all churches in Monaghan parish on behalf of the refugees. The Belgian refugees had a very good relationship with the local people in Monaghan, so much so that at an Urban District Council meeting in 1915 the Council members agreed to call the newly called housing scheme ‘Belgium Square’. This is a name I remember, although a wall plaque at the entrance to the square, has the name Belgian Square. Monaghan Urban District Council’s response to the refugee crisis of 1914 was replicated in other parts of Ireland at a time when many young Irish men had enlisted to fight in the war. About 3,000 Belgian refugees came to Ireland in the last months of 1914 where they were accommodated in Workhouses in Ardee, Dunshaughlin, Balrothery and I believe several families found shelter in Naas and Celbridge. The Celbridge Workhouse accommodated 36 Belgian refugees from October 1914 until the spring of the following year when they were transferred to the Workhouse in Dunshaughlin. The refugees accommodated in Monaghan, with one or two exceptions, returned to their homeland at the end of World War I. However, Belgian Square Monaghan was to house up to 20 Catholic families who fled from Belfast during the anti-Catholic riots of the early 1920s. Kildare County Council officials have been engaged in finding accommodation for refugees for the past year and Athy today hosts several individual refugee families. The difficulties faced by these families, uprooted from their homes and separated from their own communities, is difficult to imagine. They can only look to us for help and unlike those communities who had turned their backs on refugees, the people of Athy, will I am sure, welcome the displaced families from Ukraine and other war torn countries into our community. 2022 will shortly pass, leaving behind memories of happy days, but also less happy memories which are an inevitable part of our daily lives. Lets look forward to a new year with a promise of happiness and good health for all. Happy Christmas to all readers of Eye on the Past.

St. Vincent de Paul Society Athy

The local conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society is the oldest voluntary organisation in Athy. While I don’t have a record of when the Athy conference was founded, I have come across references to it in local newspapers as long ago as 110 years ago. At the start of the last century adults of working age in Athy had limited opportunities for full time or even part time employment. The brickyards, of which there were many in this area, provided mostly summertime work for both men and women. The farmers in this area also provided seasonal employment for agricultural labourers, but there were no jobs available for the majority of the adult males of the town. Families living in the privately rented houses which lined the alleyways of Athy were extremely poor. The houses they occupied were generally two roomed cottages which the Urban District Council of a generation later would demolish under the Slum Clearance Programmes of the 1930s. The then St. Vincent de Paul Society members in Athy provided comfort and financial assistance for the many needy families in the town as the charitable organisation continues to do so to this day. An entry in the minute book of the local Urban District Council for 21st February 1933 can give us some understanding and appreciation of the difficulties facing many Athy families at that time. The minute book reads: ‘A special meeting of Athy Urban District Council was held to meet a deputation from the local St. Vincent de Paul Society to discuss the stress prevailing among the poor of Athy caused by the bad weather. The Vincent de Paul Society was represented by T.J. Brennan, Dan Carbery and Fintan Brennan. It was agreed to set up a Distress Committee consisting of the members of the Urban District Council and representatives of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. The town clerk and Fintan Brennan were appointed secretaries of the committee.’ Last week the local Lions Club held its annual food appeal to help the St. Vincent de Paul Society here in Athy and the generous response of so many was acknowledged by the Lions Club President Brian Dooley. The family needs which the St. Vincent de Paul Society seek to meet can at times seem overwhelming, but the continuous generosity of the local people is of great help to the society. Many thought that the harsh times of the past had gone, but the Ukrainian war and the difficulties created by inflation have created enormous problems for many families within our own community. Families, many of whom never expected to have to call on St. Vincent de Paul Society for help, are now experiencing great financial difficulties. For more than 177 years local conferences of the St. Vincent de Paul Society throughout Ireland have been helping the less fortunate in Irish society. Sad to say their services are needed even more today than ever before. Last year St. Vincent de Paul Societies throughout Ireland gave assistance amounting to almost one hundred million euro to families in need. The escalating cost of rent, food, electricity, and fuel is affecting us all but having a devasting effect on families surviving on inadequate pensions or income. The Mission Statement of the Society of the St. Vincent de Paul shows that it is a Christian voluntary organisation, working with people experiencing poverty and disadvantage. Inspired by their principal founder Frederic Ozanam and their patron St. Vincent de Paul, the Society members seek to respond to calls for help in a non-judgemental and dignified manner. No work of charity is alien to the Society members, but they cannot continue their good work without the contribution of those within our community who are in the position to do so. The Society members are always open to applications from persons in need and they are committed to respecting the dignity of those they assist and fostering self-respect. The Society is also committed to identifying the root causes of poverty and social exclusion and in solidarity with people experiencing poverty and disadvantage, to advocate and work for the changes required to create a more just and caring society. The Lions Club Food Appeal in aid of St. Vincent de Paul has already passed and the collection at church services on Sunday will have taken place before this article appears. However, there is still an opportunity for anybody who was not in a position to contribute to the Lions Club collection or to the church collections to make donations at the St. Vincent de Paul shop in William Street, Athy or to send donations directly to the St. Vincent de Paul headquarters in Dublin, which contributions I understand will be redirected to the local conference here in Athy. Christmas is a terrible time to be poor. With your help the Athy conference of St. Vincent de Paul Society can reach out to the local parents and children in need and help them share in the enjoyment of the Christmas season.