Stephen Bolger - Canal Boatmen

I spent an enjoyable few hours last week talking and listening to Stephen Bolger, an octogenarian heading into his 89th year. He has been a patient in St. Vincent's Hospital for a number of years but his memory retains a sharpness in relation to events of previous decades which prompts admiration and a slight little regret that I had not previously interviewed this grand old man.

Born on the 31st of August, 1905 Stephen may well lay claim to have been one of the few Athy people caught up in the Easter Rebellion in Dublin in 1916. He was then a young boy working on Jack Rooney's canal boat. Jack lived in Woodstock Street where Danny Kane's shop is now located. Stephen was one of three people on Rooney's boat that fateful week. Rooney, the skipper, steered the boat while another local man and Stephen took turns in leading the two horses which traced together, pulled the boat on the journey from Athy to Dublin. Passing through Vicarstown, Monasterevin, Rathangan, Robertstown, Hazelhatch and Clondalkin the boat was scheduled to berth at James's Street Harbour near the centre of the city.

The opening of hostilities on Easter Monday coincided with the arrival of Jack Rooney's boat in Inchicore and so it was that eleven year old Stephen Bolger found himself trapped in Dublin when the guns of rebellion blazed across the city sky. His memories are of the wild rumours which abounded with talk of killings in the city centre to rival the worst excesses of the 1798 rebellion. He did on occasions hear gunfire but he and his workmates were not allowed to move on from Inchicore and so Jack Rooney's boat and its cargo and crew spent almost a week there.

Stephen and his colleagues had to depend on the hospitality of some local Inchicore people during their enforced stay as they had rations only for the three days which they would normally expect to take for the return trip to Athy.

His memories of life and work on the Grand Canal is tinged with sadness as he recalled those Athy men who over the years died tragically while working on the waterways. Jack Rowan, brother of Mick Rowan presently living in Woodstock Street and son of Paddy Rowan, a noted Grand Canal boatman in his day, died at St. Mullins after falling into the twelfth lock. Jimmy Carey of Shrewleen Lane drowned at Levitstown on a trip from Carlow to Athy. Indeed the Grand Canal's boatmen were always somewhat wary of the rough waters of the Barrow navigation which they tended to avoid as much as possible as they did the Shannon navigation for the same reason. Their fears in this regard can be understood from the fact that the relatively smooth waters of the canal required only one horse to pull a canal boat while the Barrow navigation between Athy and Carlow might require four horses to pull a boat, especially when the river was in flood.
Corn and malt were some of the principal exports to Dublin from South Kildare while bricks from the local brick factory were also another common cargo of the day. On the return trip from Dublin barrels of Guinness were sure to be on board.

The horses used were what Stephen describes as "good heavy horses", Irish draught mares being particularly favoured. Each horse had a nose bag from which it could feed while walking on the canal tow path. It was extremely hard on the horses pulling boats, sometimes laden with 46 tonnes of cargo. Because of this each horse was fitted with a special collar which was "bridged", that is with a stitched hollow to keep it off the animals breast.

Stephen Bolger recalls many horses pulled into the Barrow by the sheer weight of the cargo combined with the force of the waters when the river was in flood. The Horse Bridge in Athy saw several horses pulled over the parapet as they made their way across the bridge to join the Grand Canal. Another danger point was the weir below the present Railway Bridge. The building of the Bridge in 1917 altered the position of the weir but prior to then many a horse was dragged over the weir by the sheer force of the rushing waters.

Stephen Bolger is a delightful man to listen to as he reminisces about life on the canal boats almost 80 years ago. The clarity with which he recalls the events of yesteryear is a testimony to a life of hard work and to times when "honest sweat and toil" was a badge of honour amongst working folk on the Grand Canal.

The Presbyterian Church

I recently received a very pleasant letter from a lady in Buckinghamshire, England, in which she related her links with Athy where she spent her summer holidays as a young girl. With a number of copy photographs of Athy scenes she also enclosed a copy of the report printed in 1856 by Athy printer M. Carey of Barrow Quay giving an account of monies received for the building of Athy's Presbyterian Church. The total donations came to £1,076.18.3 with £150 donated by the Belfast Church and Manse Fund. An interesting reference was to the sum of £70 collected by the Rev. Mr. Hall while in Scotland. The Minister in question was John Hall appointed to the newly established Presbyterian Ministry in Athy in September 1852.

The earliest reference to Presbyterianism in Athy referred to a grant to Rev. Dr. Thralkield for ministering in the town in April 1717 out of a special fund established seven years earlier by some wealthy Dubliners. The Ministry continued until 1798 when Rev. Nicholas Ashe was forced to leave the town because of his alleged personal links with those involved in the 1798 Rebellion. What happened to his congregation we cannot say but we do know that the Presbyterian Church was not again to have a presence in Athy until 1851.

It was the Duke of Leinster's anxiety to people his rich south Kildare farmlands with Scottish farm stewards which led to the resurgence of Presbyterianism in the area. Advertising in Scottish newspapers he offered farms and farmhouses to such Scottish families as would settle in Ireland. Throughout the early months of 1851 the last group of settlers to come to the area arrived in Athy which in previous centuries had witnessed similar arrivals from across the Irish Sea. By June of the same year several Scottish families had settled in the area including the Andersons, Campbells, Duncans, Duthies, Dicks, Frazers, Hosies, Roudens, Macks, Walls, Pennycooks, Simpsons and Weirs. All came from Pertshire and Eastern Scotland and brought with them the Presbyterian religion of their forefathers.

The earlier mentioned John Hall was appointed Minister and when the need arose in 1855 to build a Church he travelled to Scotland to seek donations. The Church was built by Mr. Gough, Contractor, under the supervision of David Taylor, Architect. The foundation stone was laid on Friday the 21st of September, 1855 by James Gibson Q.C., a Presbyterian Church Elder who was also Chairman of County Laois then called Queens County. On the same day John Chapperton, Robert Anderson, Benjemin Thompson and James Alexander were appointed as the Church Elders.

Of the sum of £1,076.18.3 collected £600 was paid to the Contractor for building the Church. An interesting reference shows the sum of £60 paid to Mr. Patrick Callaghan for 60 yew trees in the church yard. Some of these are still standing in the area reserved for Presbyterian burials in St. Michael's Cemetery.

Extra seating was provided in the Church in 1866 to accommodate the average Sunday attendance of upwards of 200 persons and within six years Athy had the second largest Presbyterian congregation in Southern Ireland. That same year the Manse which had previously been a herdsman cottage occupied by Benjamin Norman was re-built at a cost of £400. Rev. John Clarke was appointed Minister in 1874 and he was responsible for building a Lecture Hall in 1889 at the rere of the Church which cost £320. Rev. Clarke died in 1899 and his portrait presented by his widow to the local Church now stands in the Lecture Hall.

In 1946 extensive refurbishment of the interior of the Presbyterian Church was carried out by local Contractors Frank and Jim Brady. The Gallery at the back of the Church was removed and because of wartime shortage of timber the bench ends were cast in cement as was the pulpit. These surely represent a unique feature in an Irish Church today.

The Presbyterian congregation today is very much reduced with the descendants of some of the Scottish farming settlers of almost 150 years ago still providing the nucleus of its membership.

Methodist Church

Some weeks ago I wrote of St. Michael's Parish Church on the Carlow Road and its near neighbour across the River Barrow St. Dominic's Church. I had intended to deal in time with all the local Churches, both existing and those now gone and give the readers an appreciation of the rich diversity of our religious heritage. Other matters and events since intervened so that it is only now that I have an opportunity to deal with the story of the Methodist Church in Woodstock Street.

The Methodist movement originally began as an evangelising movement within the Church of England in the 18th century. Three Ministers of the Church of England brought about the Methodist revival in the early years, John Wesley, his brother Charles and George Whitfield, although it is John Wesley who is usually regarded as the founder of Methodism.

The first Methodist preacher to come to Ireland was Thomas Williams in 1747. A Methodist Minister was first appointed to Athy in 1790. In the absence of their own separate Church the local Methodists were initially closely associated with the Church of Ireland in Athy for religious observances. It was the break up of the local Quaker community in the second decade of the 19th century which led to the Methodist taking a lease of the former Quaker Meeting House in Meeting Lane. Located on the site of the present Dispensary, the Meeting House had originally been built in 1780 with the active support of Duke Street linen draper Thomas Chandlee who had arrived in Athy from Dublin in 1775. Married to Deborah Shackleton, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Shackleton of Ballytore, and sister of Mary Leadbetter of Ballytore Annals fame, Thomas Chandlee’s presence in the town lead to a revival of the Quaker community which was not however to last.

In the 1827 map of Athy prepared by the Duke of Leinster by Clarges Greene the building in Meeting Lane was still described as a Quaker Meeting House. Ten years later the Ordinance Survey map of the town described the same building as "a small house of worship formerly belonging to the Quakers and now to the Methodists." Around that time Athy was part of the Carlow Methodist Circuit and was to remain so until 1970 when it was included in the Portlaoise and Tullamore Circuits.

The success which accompanied the missionary works of itinerant Methodist preachers throughout the midlands during the 19th century led to the growth of Methodism in Athy. The former Quaker Meeting House by 1860 was no longer large enough for the members attending Sunday services and Sunday school. In 1867 Alexander Duncan, then in his second term as Chairman of Athy Town Commissioners and a resident of Tonlegee House, purchased a site for a new Church in Woodstock Street. The foundation stone was laid on the 12th of June, 1872 by his wife. Two years later on Friday the 12th of June, 1874 the new Church and Sunday School which cost £2,200 to construct was dedicated. The first Sunday service was held in the new Church two days later when Rev. G.T. Perks, President of the British Methodist Conference preached the sermon.

The Church is a stone building in the Gothic style with a tower. On either side of the Communion Table are two memorial tablets inserted in the east wall of the Church. One tablet commemorates Alexander Duncan who died on the 30th of September, 1887 while the other memorial is to his widow who died in 1907.

During the 1870's Sunday Service was attended by an average of 120 persons. Today the congregation has fallen dramatically in numbers and the once strong Methodist tradition in South Kildare, which developed after John Wesley's trip through the area in April 1789 is now on the wane.

For those in the Methodist Church following in the steps of John Wesley their continued separate existence in Athy is uncertain. Whatever the future may hold they can look back on an honourable past of men and women working in the service of God amongst the community in South Kildare.

Garda Joe Carty

In 1961 I was part of the local diaspora which each year saw the towns young men and women leave Athy to find work. That same year a young man from Belmullet, Co. Mayo, just six years out of the Garda Training College, was transferred to Athy. Joe Carty, who had previously served briefly in Carlow, Ballytore and Carrickmacross in Co. Monaghan was to spend the remainder of his Garda service in South Kildare.

When Joe arrived in Athy he reported to the local Barracks, then located in Duke Street in the premises now owned by Kavanaghs. The local Station Sergeant was my late father who had transferred from Castlecomer in 1945 so that his five young sons could attend the local Christian Brothers Secondary School in Athy.

Joe Carty joined in Athy a group of men, each of them with a record of service in the force which amply justified Joe's description as "the Station's young fella". Amongst the long serving members were Johnny McMahon, Jim Kelly and Mick Tuohy, all of whom spent practically their entire Garda service in Athy. Johnny McMahon was the doyen of traffic control in Athy and he is fondly remembered for his energetic direction of traffic as he stood in the centre of what we called Dallon's corner, perilously close to passing cars and lorries. Traffic lights have long since been installed at that point but somehow they seem less efficient and certainly less colourful than the well-liked Mayo man who retired in 1965. Jim Kelly and Mick Tuohy retired a few years after Joe Carty's arrival in Athy. In those days of course one never referred to the local members other than by their rank of Garda or Sergeant and even today as I head off into my second half century I am still referred to by the older residents of the town as Sergeant Taaffe's son. Other men serving when Joe Carty arrived in Athy were Maurice Shortt, now retired and living in Clane, Co. Kildare and Mick Cullinane, also retired and living in Rathcoole, Co. Dublin.

Those were the days of what we now almost nostalgically refer to as the old style Gardai who seemed to be on duty 24 hours a day. All night foot patrols were a feature of the early 1960's as they had been since the establishment of the Garda Siochana. Members also did Barrack orderly duty in their turn which of course meant that there was a Garda presence in the Barracks 24 hours a day.

It was the implementation of the Conroy Report of 1968 which radically changed the working conditions of the Gardai. Like most other workers they were thereafter to work eight hour shifts. An off-duty Garda was no longer required to be on call, thus putting an end to the practice well-known in every Garda home in the country of asking "Are you in?" before answering a knock at the front door.

Joe has served as a member of the Garda Siochana since November 1955 and in his time he has seen the transition from the days when members had to live in the town where they were stationed giving 24 hour coverage. Nowadays patrol cars and a relaxation of the rule relating to where Gardai can live has resulted in a marked change insofar as Garda presence is covered.

Joe who retired last week was the longest serving member in Athy and the last link with Johnny McMahon, Jim Kelly, Mick Tuohy and John Taaffe, the old timers who had welcomed the young Joe Carty to Athy in 1961.

Joe, a native of Co. Mayo, has made his home in Athy with his Cahirciveen born wife Margaret. They have two sons, Joseph who is a teacher and Christopher who graduates from Maynooth College later this year. In his 33 years in Athy Joe Carty has upheld the good name of the Garda Siochana and has served the community with honour and integrity. The quiet spoken Mayo man can truly say that he has performed his duties "without fear, favour, malice or ill-will".

I understand that Joe and Margaret will continue to live in Athy and to both of them is extended the good wishes of everyone in Athy and South Kildare for a long and happy retirement.

Mary Mullan - writer

I remember the first night of "The Clock Ticks Dusk". A play in three acts by local author Mary Mullan it was put on by Athy Social Club Players in St. John's Hall in 1955. I was a young fellow just out of short trousers and being allowed to get out of the house after dark was in itself a treat. Young as I was the thrill of seeing a local person's play produced on stage was something noteworthy. Of the Social Club plays I saw over the years only "The Clock Ticks Dusk" and the earlier production in the Town Hall of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" are all that I can recall with certainty.

Mary Mullan whose house is in the beautiful countryside adjoining Brackna Wood was the daughter of Willie and Catherine Fennin who lived on the family farm originally purchased by Willie's father, Tim Fennin, in 1858. Mary attended St. Mary's, Athy, then a private senior school operated by the Sisters of Mercy where the requirements of a liberal education did not necessitate the sitting of State examinations. Classes consisted of no more than 4 or 5 pupils. The Sisters of Mercy provided the entire teaching staff which included Sister Claire, the School Principal, who taught History and Geography, Sister Beuchmans who taught French, Sr. Joseph, the English teacher and Sr. Ursula, the Irish teacher.

When Mary Fennin decided to attend University she found to her dismay that Latin, a subject she had not studied, was an essential requirement for Matriculation. Undaunted she contacted Brother Dolan of the local Christian Brothers School who gave her grinds for five weeks after which she successfully met the entry requirements for University College Dublin.

When she got her Arts Degree with First Class Honours in Languages at nineteen years of age she was the youngest Arts graduate for many years. Obtaining a teaching post in Loretto College, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin she remained there for a number of years. It was while there that she met her future husband Dermot Mullan from Dungannon, Co. Tyrone. Marrying in 1945 she later returned to the family farm at Brackna on the death of her father.

Mary who had short stories and poetry published over many years continued her literary work while her children were growing up. Through her husband's involvement in the Castlemitchell Players and later the Social Club Players in Athy she became interested in drama. Her first play "The Clock Ticks Dust" was premiered on the 25th of April, 1955 and published the same year with many subsequent performances by amateur groups throughout the country. The original cast of the play produced by Ken Reynolds included Frances Fenlon, Sheila Lynch, Seamus Finnerty, Dermot Mullan, Nellie Fox, Patsy O'Neill, Mary Harrington and Tommy Walsh. A sequel "Where There Is Smoke" also written by Mary Mullan was performed by the Social Club Players in 1957.

Mary, whose husband Dermot has since died, began teaching in St. Brigid's School, Athy, in 1961 where initially she took night classes in French. Later appointed to a full-time post she taught French, English and Irish until her retirement two years ago. She still writes as she says "whenever the spirit moves me" but nowadays she is no longer producing work for the stage having reverted to her favoured medium, poetry.

As she sits at her writing desk she is faced by a portrait of her grandfather, Tim Fennin, the first member of the Fennin family to live at Brackna. His portrait painted in oils by Mr. Webber of Kellyville House links the present literary occupant of Brackna House with another literary person of that area Rev. Thomas Kelly, a former owner of Kellyville House. Looking out across the wood I am reminded of another literary connection. It was here that Patrick O'Kelly formerly of Kilcoo and author of "1798 Rebellion" and translator of Abbe Geoghegan's 'History of Ireland' and then a Captain in the United Irishmen assembled his men prior to a planned attack on Athy during the 1798 Rebellion.

Such are the connections made as I sat and talked to Mary Mullan last April and as she took down a treasured memento of her first play's production in Athy on the 25th of April, 1955 I marvelled at the coincidence that thirty nine years to the day after the curtain had been raised on "The Clock Ticks Dusk" she was sharing her memories with me in her house on the edge of Brackna Wood.

Sr. Dominic

On the 6th of November, 1933 Kathleen McHugh of Ballycorman, Ballylinan, a few miles outside Athy entered the local Convent of Mercy. On the 8th of May of the following year she made her first profession and received the name Sr. Mary Dominic Joseph. She then spent four years training as a nurse in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, before returning to Athy on the 14th of January, 1940 to work in the County Home which is now known as St. Vincent's Hospital. Sr. Dominic was to spend the next forty one years working there.

Initially an assistant to the ageing Sr. Angela, then matron of the County Home, Sr. Dominic was herself to be appointed to that position on the lst of April, 1957. One of her abiding memories of the 1940's and 1950's was the role played by the County Home in providing temporary accommodation for the homeless. In those days there were very few local authority housing schemes and privately owned rented accommodation was a common feature of town life. Evictions for non-payment of rent were not infrequent and it was to the County Home that dispossessed families were obliged to go for shelter. The strict separation of the sexes initiated on the opening of the County Home as a workhouse in 1844 ensured that husbands and wives, brothers and sisters were kept apart while living in the County Home.

Sr. Dominic remembers the ingenious use made of tea chests and butter boxes by families leaving the County Home to make a new life for themselves outside the institution. Tea chests and butter boxes fulfilled the dual roles of packing the few precious family possessions while later they served as table and chairs until times improved and furniture could be bought.

Tramps or vagrants who came to the County Home were always assured of kindness from Sr. Dominic. She was never known to turn away anyone deserving of assistance even if sometimes it took the help of the local Gardai to calm the boisterous and drunken behaviour of "the knights of the road" before they could be admitted to the County Home. The 'casuals' as they were called were invariably males who were required to do some work in return for their keep before they were discharged from the County Home. Usually they were employed in bringing turf to feed the open fires which heated the wards of the County Home. At other times they brought hot water in buckets from the boiler room to the various wards, all the while presenting Sr. Dominic with the additional problem of maintaining discipline in the female wards. On Saturday evenings special passes were available to the men living in the County Home who were able to walk into town where they had every opportunity to spend the half crown which they were allowed to retain out of their pensions. No such passes were however available to the women inmates. Drink was very cheap in those days and many a time the County Home wheelchair was despatched to town to wheel home the unfortunates who had indulged too well if not too wisely.

Another group who were regular visitors to the County Home were travellers who availed of it's maternity facilities for their confinements. In those days long before we became aware of politically correct language itinerants were called “tinkers” and to them the County Home was invariably referred to as 'the Spike'. When the time for the confinement came near the expectant mother went into the County Home while the rest of her extended family camped on the roadside nearby.

Sr. Dominic retired in 1981 and is today living in retirement in the Convent building in the grounds of St. Vincent's Hospital. She will be celebrating a very important birthday next February but wild horses would not drag out of me any indication of her age. She remains today as formidable as ever with a generous and charitable nature for which she is fondly remembered during her long association with the County Home.

Rock of Dunamaise

Athy's tranquil setting on the River Barrow gives no hint of its stormy past during the medieval period of Irish history. The town founded in the 12th century by Anglo Norman settlers was for a long time a focal point for conflict between the towns inhabitants and the native Irish. The natives referred to as "The Wild Irish" inhabited the lands on the western bank of the River Barrow and they attacked and burnt the then village of Athy on a number of occasions during the 14th century. The O'Mores of Leix were particularly antagonistic to the newly established village.

The conflict continued into the 16th century and in the intervening years the inhabitants of the village of Athy did what they could to protect their settlement from attack. In 1515 Henry VIII granted a Charter to the village or town of Athy allowing its inhabitants to levy taxes and tolls to finance the construction of town walls. These are the earliest references to town walls in Athy but it must be assumed that there were earlier fortified defences for a village which was so perilously located in an area surrounded by the dispossessed Irish.

Just a few miles west of Athy rises the lofty eminence of the Rock of Dunamase for centuries a symbol of power and strength in that area. Initially the Rock passed into the hands of Strongbow the Anglo Norman leader after his marriage to Aoife the daughter of Dermot MacMorrough. The Anglo Normans then adapted the Rock as a fortified stronghold and it was perhaps during their period of occupation that the substantial fortification of the Rock began with subsequent frequent additions over time.

The Annals of the Four Masters record the death in 1342 of Lisagh O'More, an individual whose achievements included the destruction of the Castle of Dunamase, the property of Roger de Mortimer, another Anglo Norman. There are numerous references to Dunamase down the years, a reflection of its importance in the locality of which it was such a dominent feature. The Anglo Norman occupation of the Rock varied over time in accordance with the nature and extent of their control in the area. The Bruce Invasion of 1315 and the Black Death of 1377 inevitably left their mark on the Dunamase dwellers and for periods it remained unoccupied.

The need to fortify Athy with town walls inevitably pointed to the necessity for similar defensive measures in County Laois and throughout the medieval period further development on the Rock of Dunamase confirmed its importance as a military fortification. It was only in 1538 that the O'Mores of Laois finally renounced their claim to the Rock of Dunamase as an ancient stronghold of the O'More clan. While history may have diminished the O'More influence the importance of the Rock of Dunamase did not wane until much later when castles as primary military strongholds became outdated. The degree to which the wars of the 1690's reduced the Rock of Dunamase is unknown but the dilapidated and ruinous ivy clad walls may reveal more of the Rock's history during the coming months.

An archaeological excavation conducted by Mr. B.J. Hodkinson on behalf of the Office of Public Works is presently underway and will hopefully provide greater insight into the history of the Rock and its inhabitants. A number of young archaeologists are to be found every day on the Rock carefully cleaning away the neglect and grime of centuries as part of an ambitious long term plan to conserve and restore the Rock of Dunamase. The intent is to make Dunamase more accessible to the public and to demonstrate the important part the Rock of Dunamase played in national and local history.

While the Rock of Dunamase will never again attain the status it once had for both the native Irish and the Anglo-Norman settlers its 20th Century restoration is an acknowledgment of its importance in Irish history.

Board of Guardians Protest 1887

During the Luggacurran Evictions which commenced in 1887 Athy Board of Guardians granted what they considered to be necessary outdoor relief to the evicted tenants. The cheques in payment were signed by the Board's Vice-Chairman Daniel Whelan of Barrowhouse. During a subsequent audit of the accounts the Auditor disallowed the payments and surcharged Mr. Whelan in the sum of £136. The Board of Guardians immediately met and agreed to recoup this money to Mr. Whelan and a cheque was drawn on the Board's account and signed by M.J. Minch, J.W. Dunne and James McLoughlin. All three men were subsequently sued for the recovery of the money by the Local Government Auditor at Athy Petty Sessions in January 1888. The case against them was dismissed. In June 1888 the entire Board of Guardians were dismissed by the Local Government Board and two Vice-Guardians were appointed in their place. Charles Fitzgerald D.C., Castlebar, Co. Mayo and William Burke J.P. of Headford, Co. Galway were each paid the sum of £250 a year out of the rates of the Union while acting as Vice- Guardians for Athy Union.

A public meeting was called for the Town Hall, Athy, on Monday the 25th of June at 7.00p.m. to protest against the action of the Local Government Board and to support the local Board of Guardians. On the following day a large crowd congregated in Emily Square shortly before 1.00p.m. About one hour previously the two newly appointed Vice-Guardians accompanied by Mr. Robinson, Local Government Board Inspector arrived at the Workhouse. A strong force of police under the command of County Inspector Locke had arrived in Athy on the morning train and with the local constabulary were put in charge of the Workhouse. The resident Magistrate, Mr. Kennedy, was also in attendance. The Workhouse Porter received strict instructions not to admit anybody to the building.

Shortly before 1.00 o'clock the dismissed Guardians formed into processional order outside the Town Hall and accompanied by about 1,000 of the townspeople marched to the Workhouse. They included J.W. Dunne, former Chairman, M.J. Minch, M. Hickey, T.P. Lacey,
James Dolan, P. Cleary, P. Walters, James McLoughlin, John McLoughlin, T. Orford, Richard Lawler, William Murphy, T. Dunny, Edward Neill, J. Toole, John Brennan, J. Julian, John Nowlan, Stephen Hayden, John Gannon, Michael Doyle, D. Whelan, Vice Chairman and Michael Treacy.

Also marching with the Guardians were two local Curates Rev. J. Staple C.C. and Rev. J. Carroll C.C. Arriving at the entrance gates to the Workhouse Mr. Dunne addressed the Porter who stood behind the closed locked gates
"As Chairman of the Board I demand admittance for myself and my brother Guardians. We are the elected Guardians and as such the representatives of the people."

Refused admission Mr. Dunne penned a note which read
"The Guardians having arrived to transact the business of the Board find the gates closed against them and in the charge of a force of police. Kindly explain the reason why. Signed J.W. Dunne, Chairman of the Board."

The Porter accepted the note and brought it to the Workhouse Master Mr. Hyland who in turn brought it before the Vice Guardians and the Local Government Inspector. A reply was penned and handed to the Master, it read
"Mr. Hyland is to inform the late Board of Guardians that the Vice-Guardians are at present engaged in transacting Union business and cannot therefore now authorise the admission to the Workhouse or Board Room of any persons who have not got legal business to transact."

The dismissed Guardians returned to the Town Hall where a protest meeting was held. They were to remain out of office until the next scheduled elections for Guardians to Athy Union.

Ger Moriarty

He first came to Athy in 1934 with M.G. Nolan who was opening a new drapery shop in Duke Street. Coming from Sheerans Drapery in Mountrath where he had been apprenticed after a Christian Brothers education in Mullingar Ger Moriarty was completing a journey which had first started in Lisscannor, Co. Clare. Born in that West Clare village his family settled in Ballinaleck, Co. Westmeath after his father resigned from the RIC in 1921.

Apprenticed to a general drapery in Mountrath in the late 1920's he lived in with no pay for two and a half years. Indeed for that apprenticeship he paid the shop owner £50, a huge sum in the 1920's from which you can gauge how highly prized drapery apprenticeships were in those postwar days. When he came out of his time he received a wage of £18 a year and as he says himself he felt like a millionaire. The hours were long with the shop opening at 8.30 a.m. and closing at 7.00 p.m. except on a Saturday when it was a 10.00 p.m. finish.

Next door was Nolans drapery shop of Mountrath and when M.G. Nolan decided to buy Jacksons shop in Duke Street, Athy, for his new drapery business he asked Ger to join him. M.G. Nolans which was to become an institution in the town was a general drapery with ladies wear upstairs. Initially the staff consisted of M.G., Ger and Kitty Nolan who was later to leave and be replaced by a Miss Hall and Mary Walton. Tommy Walsh later joined the staff as indeed did local girl Mary Harrington who with her friend, Breda Kennedy, died tragically in a traffic accident on the Dublin Road in 1959.

Ger remembers his former boss and friend M.G. with affection. He describes him as a man willing to help everyone and anyone but who as a salesman would be incapable of selling ice cream in hell. M.G. served for many years as a County Councillor and an Urban Councillor and was the father figure of the Fianna Fail party in Athy during the 1950's and the 1960's. Ger, very soon after his arrival in Athy, got involved with the Social Club players. In the early 1930's the Club had premises on the Carlow road where the tennis courts were located and at St. John's hall which they had acquired from the British Legion. With Bill Ryan, Tadgh Brennan, Tommy Walsh, Ken Reynolds, David Walsh, Paddy Flynn, Florrie and Jo Lawler, Kitty McLoughlin, Freddie and Molly Moore, May and Francis Fenlon and others, Ger spent many happy years with the Social Club players, an amateur drama group of considerable talent and skill.

The male members of the Club did not confine their socialising to the hall in St. John's Lane but over time found that they were repairing to the back room of Mulhall's public house adjoining Whites Castle. There they met on a few nights a week but especially on Friday nights when the affairs of State and town were discussed and analysed at length, good conversation and debate prevailing. Ger recalls the local curate who although a non-drinker always sat on a stool in the corner each Friday soaking in the atmosphere while enjoying the convivial surroundings and the craic.

Marrying a local girl, Lottie Brophy, daughter of a local publican in 1944 Ger continued working in M.G. Nolans for 30 years. He was a member of the local LDF during the second World War with local publican Tom Flood of Leinster Street in charge. Other officers of the LDF included Tim McCarthy of St. Patrick's Avenue, Norman Plewman and John Stafford then living in Emily Square. Stories of wartime escapades and Tom Flood's baby Ford car are recounted with relish and no doubt relief that not a single shot was fired in anger. However there was an occasion when a firearm was accidentally discharged in the local Garda barracks in Duke Street which then served as the headquarters of the LDF causing consternation amongst the ranks and no little concern as to how the incident could pass unnoticed by the superior officers. Apparently that difficulty was got over.

Ger opened his own drapery business in 1964 after acquiring a premises in Leinster Street from Mrs. Blanchfield. He retired from the business in 1992 and spends his well earned leisure in listening to music, a past-time which he shares with his son, Gerard, who is a teacher in Dublin. His daughter Fionnola is a nurse in London. 83 years of age on the 2nd of June Ger is a familiar figure at Ceoltas sessions in Clancys each Thursday night.

Athy Credit Union

On Friday, the 17th of March, 1968 a number of local people came together in a room at number 82 Leinster Street, Athy. This was a house which in the past was occupied by the Duke of Leinster's agent but which was then used as a centre of activity for the old folks committee. Those in attendance had come in response to public notices which advertised a talk by Michael O'Doherty of the Irish League of Credit Unions and posed the possibility of a Credit Union for Athy.

130 years previously writing in The Athy Literary Magazine of the 6th of March, 1838 a local man cited the need for a Mont de Piete in Athy. He explained that the Mont de Piete was an institution for lending small sums of money to the poor on the security of pledges. The necessary funds were raised by a loan consisting of £5 debentures bearing an interest of 6% which could at any time be converted into money. After paying interest one half of the surplus profits was expended in refunding the principal and the other half appropriated for charitable purposes.

Reference was made in that letter to the only other Mont de Piete opened by Matthew Barrington in Limerick as a fundraising venture for Barrington's Hospital. "So manifest are the evils of the present system of pawn broking that it is truly astonishing that Mont de Pietes have not sprung up around the country" wrote the Athy correspondent of 1838. A Local Loans Fund had been established in the town some time previously with offices in Emily Square in the house now occupied by the Fennin family. This was a financial institution operated on lines somewhat similar to that of the present Credit Union. It's purpose as it name implies was to lend money to local people and thereby keep them out of the clutches of the pawn brokers and the unofficial money lenders.

The Mont de Piete was not established in Athy but when the meeting opened at 82 Leinster Street, Athy, on Friday, the 17th of March, 1968 there was a general acceptance of the need to have a Credit Union in the town.

The first Board of Directors nominated that night were Donal Murphy, Jim O'Flaherty, Pat Fay, Richard Mulhall, Patsy O'Neill, Christy McMahon, Paddy Keane, Dermot Griffin, Jim McEvoy and John Quirke. Jim O'Flaherty, an employee of Athy Post Office, and married to local girl Carmel Glespen was elected first President. Jim later appointed Post Master in Greystones is now retired and lives in that County Wicklow seaside town. Donal Murphy of Sunnyside then working in Minch Nortons was elected vice-President. Jim McEvoy was appointed the first Manager/Treasurer with Patsy O'Neill as assistant and Paddy Keane, another Minch Norton's employee, as Secretary.

The next twelve months was spent in studying the operation of Credit Unions and visiting neighbouring offices to gain experience of practices and procedures relating to what essentially was an alternative banking system. On Friday the 31st of May, 1969 at 8.00 p.m. Athy Credit Union opened for business in a room in the Courthouse secured with the help of the then County Registrar and former local solicitor, Tadgh Brennan. At the end of the first year almost £5,000 had been lodged as savings.

The business or as it was termed in Credit Union circles "the movement" developed to the extent that a larger and more accessible premises was required. Towards the end of June 1971 number 3 Emily Row which had been once occupied by the town weight Master, James Dempsey, and later converted to a shop by Mr. and Mrs. Brophy was purchased by the Credit Union. Athy Credit Union still occupies 3 Emily Row which was refurbished and extended some years ago. Further growth has lead to the purchase of the adjoining premises and this will be incorporated into the Credit Union premises in time. The Chairman in this the Silver Jubilee of Athy Credit Union is John Dooley and Ger Quinn is vice-President, Noreen Day is Secretary and Peter Barry, Treasurer. The offices which operated for some years with voluntary staff is now managed by the full-time manager Noel Brennan, assisted by Susan Page and Ann Howe.

The achievements of the Credit Union in Athy is reflected in the service which it provides for it's members. If the correspondent in the Athy Literary Magazine of 1838 could look forward to today he would no doubt express himself more than satisfied with the efforts of the volunteers who worked to make Athy Credit Union so successful over the last twenty five years.

Manchester Irish (2)

Enjoying Sunday lunch in the Irish Heritage Centre in Manchester with members of the Kildare Association, I was very conscious of the importance of their links with their home County. The Kildare Arms cast in bronze in the Co-Operative Foundry in Athy and presented to the Kildare Association some months ago, has taken its place with the other County Association emblems which line the walls of the Centre.

Last week I mentioned the effervescent and delightful Sarah Allen, whose father Stephen Bolger and brothers Stephen and John live in Athy. Sarah arrived in Manchester from Athy in 1951 but returns "home", as she and indeed all Irish emigrants still refer to their home towns, every year. She is a volunteer with Irish Community Care based at 289 Cheetam Hill Road, Manchester, a charitable organisation which provides support, advice and comfort to Irish in need especially families and the elderly Irish. The Association has a full-time co-ordinator Sr. Elizabeth, and is funded in part by the Irish Government. Sarah tells harrowing and sad stories of Irish men who left Ireland before and after the War years now living alone and forgotten in dingy, squalid conditions in Manchester. As part of her voluntary work she makes weekly house visits on the aged and lonely Irish and occasionally is involved in making burial arrangements for those poor individuals who left their Irish homes in youth and with high hopes but who ended their lives penniless and alone.

On Sunday afternoon Sarah brought me under the "Fenian Arches" which were the site of the Fenian Ambush in 1867 which led to the public hangings of Allen, Larkin and O'Brien. Later on we visited the Martyrs Memorial in Moston Cemetery, now sadly defaced with paint thrown over the carvings on the celtic cross and the sculptured stone figures at the corners of the memorial damaged.

Not too far away from the most famous Irish Memorial in Manchester I saw the grave of an Athy woman, Eileen Berry, formerly Fennell who once lived in the Tan Yard at the back of Herteriches. Her father Jim was well known in Athy in the 1930's and with his wife Polly and his family he lived in a river house boat which he retrieved from the Barrow and placed on stilts in the Tan Yard. Jim worked occasionally on the canal boats and Eileen his only daughter went to England in the late 1930's to take up nursing. Jim and his wife and his two sons Seamus and Fintan were later to join her in Manchester. Eileen married Paddy Berry of Skerries, Athy, but was to die tragically at the age of 26 years and found a resting place in Moston Cemetery near to the Memorial to Allen, Larkin and O'Brien.

There are many other Athy men and women in Manchester some now in their golden years, all part of the great diaspora of the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. No visit to Manchester would be complete without calling on another Athy man whose popularity in the Irish and English pub scenes is legendry. Indeed Billy Cunningham is so well known that with his group called "The new Athoys" he has issued a number of musical tapes. Every Saturday and Sunday he is to be found in "The Wheat Sheaf" on Oldham Road where the Landlord is a Tuam woman of indeterminate age who has spent almost a lifetime in Manchester. Billy, whose brother Paul and sister Anne live in Athy, left the town in September 1954 after a spell in the Asbestos and I.V.I. factories and two years in the Irish Army. He even spent a couple of weeks on the canal boats where his strength and youthful energy was amply rewarded in loading boats at 13/6 a time. Billy who recently suffered a bout of serious illness is one of the most popular pub acts in Manchester.

The Kildare Irish in Manchester are a close knit community who have never forgotten their home towns or the experiences of their youth. In three days in the Lancashire city of Manchester I
learned more of life in Athy before and after the second World War than I had ever previously known. Meeting Kildare and other Irish people outside their own country is a sharing and bonding experience which leaves me aware of the loss we in Ireland have suffered through emigration.

Manchester Irish (1)

Some of the young boxers from the local Boxing Club in Athy travelled to Manchester last weekend at the invitation of the Kildare Association based in that city. The Boxing Tournament between St. Michael's, Athy, and a Manchester selection saw the Athy boys emerging victorious with John Paul Brennan of Greenhills winning the trophy for the best boxer. Tommy Sheehan, John Donovan, Pat Phelan and Jim Philips, all members of St. Michael's Boxing Club, will remember their trip to Manchester for many years.

The Kildare Association in Manchester . owes much to its Chairperson Eileen Brock, formerly Eileen O'Neill of Foxhill, who ably assisted by her husband John has brought together the County Kildare people living in that city. The Tournament held in the Grove, owned by Mayo man Michael Costello, himself a generous supporter of the Kildare Association was attended by a large crowd. Athy was particularly well represented. Brendan Hickey, now fifteen years out of Ireland and formerly of St. Joseph's Terrace, provided generous sponsorship for the Tournament. He is a very successful businessman in Manchester, employing almost 50 people in his heavy machinery business . His brother Willie was also there to cheer on the Athy lads, having taken a night off from his own Public House, The Royal Oak, Openshaw, which he has been running for two and a half years. The entire Athy contingent later returned to the Royal Oak to round off the night in style. With the guitar playing of Jimmy Aspel, nephew of Paddy Aspel from Kilcullen, the revellers did not leave the Royal Oak until well into the morning.

Another sponsor in attendance was Mary Lewis, formerly Mary "Babs" O'Brien of Canal Side, Athy, who with her husband Bill is very involved with the Bradford Irish Music Association. Mary teaches set dancing and recalls attending many feiseanna while a young girl in Athy with Freddie Farrell and his sister Mary and Maisie Dooley.

Also at the Grove was Philip Berry, formerly of Skerries, who arrived in Manchester three years ago. The ladies were very much to the fore and Sarah Allen, formerly Sarah Bolger of Plewman's Terrace, was there as was Bridie McCarron, formerly Bridie Mulpeter of Kildare Town. Bridie is P.R.O. of the Kildare Association and is married to the singer Paul McCarron, a Donegal man, who with his Cill Dara group is well known in Lancashire.

Another of the organisers on the night was Tony Connolly, formerly of Kilberry, who apart from being President of the Kildare Association also manages St. Edward's Club in Manchester. Tommy who came to England in 1945 played football for Rheban and returns to South Kildare a couple of times a year.

Two Carbury men who could not understand why the local Kildare papers were not available in the Irish World Heritage Centre in Manchester were Michael Melia and Larry Keenan. Larry, who was accompanied by his wife Babs is Treasurer of the Kildare Association. Apparently the Heritage Centre which played host to President Mary Robinson last month gets all the Irish provincial newspapers except the Nationalist and the Leinster Leader. What about it Mr. Editors?

I was to visit the Centre on Sunday where I was to meet again many members of the Kildare Association including Joan Sparrow, formerly Joan Dunne of the National Stud in Kildare. Her father was the late Bill Dunne, who as head lad at the Stud, looked after the great horse Tulyar before he was sold to the Americans. The house in which Joan lived as a young girl now houses the Equestrian Museum in the National Stud. She remembered Jim Nelson, later a publican in Leinster Street, Athy, and his good friend P.J. Prendergast, in the days before he achieved fame as a horse trainer, visiting the stud on many occasions. Joan, whose husband died some years ago, is an active member of the Kildare Association.

The Irish World Heritage Centre is located on Queens Road, Manchester. A fine building providing bar, dining and function room facilities it is soon to be replaced by one of the most prestigious developments yet seen in Manchester. The new complex to be located on a twelve acre site will incorporate a major trade centre, providing a showcase for Irish produce and crafts.

Workhouse celebrates 150 years

Last week in company with hundreds of others I visited St. Vincent's Hospital on the occasion of an Open Day celebrating its 150th Anniversary. A concelebrated Mass in the small Chapel attached to the Hospital was offered up for those past and present who passed through the gates of what was initially a Workhouse, later a County Home and today a Hospital.

As I stood within the narrow confines of the old Chapel images of destitute and hungry families ravaged by the potato famine crowded my memory. Those very walls which stood for 150 years had been witness to tales of misery, hunger and neglect which were the lot of Irish country folk when the Workhouse first opened its doors in 1844.

The corridors which later that same afternoon resounded to happy voices once echoed to the sounds of barefooted women and children whose only future lay within the precincts of the Workhouse. Their pinched starving faces were without laughter, their frightened hearts without hope as they shuffled along corridors which were now echoing to the sounds of people rejoicing and celebrating an Anniversary.

How many sad souls had given up all hope and entered the dreaded Workhouse in Athy we cannot now say. Full records are no longer available and those that exist conceal within their dusty covers painful memories that are now but names in columns. Across the Grand Canal a short distance from the present Hospital a neglected graveyard holds the remains of those who entered the Workhouse, never again to leave it. As in life their deaths were not marked by any ceremony. Their emaciated bodies were hurriedly carted across the road and over the Canal Bridge to be buried without the benefit of clergy in graves which would remain unmarked.

As the carefully prepared prayers were said in the Hospital Chapel, the ghosts of the past no doubt looked down on a world which they did not recognise. The Workhouse which in its early years provided minimum sustenance and care to the needy and the hungry was in time to change and to improve. The admission of the Sisters of Mercy as visitors and later as Nursing Sisters in the Workhouse ensured an overlay of compassion which up to then had been lacking. Improvements and modification to the harsh Workhouse regime gave us the County Home and later St. Vincent's Hospital. The ghosts of poverty and neglect were expurgated by many years of kindness and comfort afforded to the elderly men and women who have used the services of the County Home and St. Vincent's Hospital.

In celebrating 150 years it was a happy coincidence that two of the most enduring elements of the institution’s story played a significant part in those celebrations. The Sisters of Mercy came as nursing sisters to the Workhouse Infirmary in October 1873 and within a year following the death of the first Medical Officer Dr. Thomas Kynsey, a Castledermot man was appointed in his place. He was Dr. P.L. O'Neill, who was to be succeeded in time by his son Dr. Jeremiah, his grandson Dr. Joe and his great-grandson Dr. Giles. Today St. Vincent's Hospital has as Matron Sister Peg, a member of the Sisters of Mercy and Dr. Giles O'Neill as Medical Officer.

As I left the Hospital driving through the main gateways, I looked across the road towards the Workhouse graveyard. What were we celebrating I thought - was it the longevity of a building or a past which for so long remained hidden and unobserved. We had remembered on a Sunday in April 1994 those unremembered people who had gone before us and who once walked through the Workhouse gates in despair and hunger.

May they find the peace they never found on this earth.

Dominican Church

St. Dominic's Church, nestling on the western bank of the River Barrow almost within a stones throw of St. Michael's Church of Ireland, encompasses within its modernistic architectural features a history stretching back over 700 years.

Since the foundation of the original Dominican Monastery in 1253 by French speaking members of the Black Friars, the Dominicans have retained a presence amongst the people of Athy and district. This has been achieved despite a few enforced flights from the area during the time of the Penal Laws.

Occupying at different times a site on the East Bank of the Barrow near to the present Emily Square and a site on the then Convent Lane, now Kirwan’s Lane, the Dominicans are our most important link with the early years of the medieval village of Athy.

The history of the Dominicans in Athy mirrors the social, cultural and ecclesiastical history of the early village and subsequent town. The vicissitudes and hardships visited upon the Dominican Friars were the result of either the extreme poverty of the people they served or alternatively the result of punitive measures imposed nationally and executed locally by men whose religious allegiances differed from those of the Black Friars.

The suppression of the Monastery in 1539 secured the first breach in the Dominicans link with Athy. Not until 1603 did the Dominicans return to the market town on the River Barrow where it is believed they re-occupied their former Monastery. The Confederate wars of 1641-49 saw General Preston directing his canon against the Monastery levelling a substantial portion of the buildings before taking possession of what remained. The Prior, Thomas Bermingham and his colleagues however escaped capture.

The Cromwellian era of Thomas Cromwell followed and with it Athy's designation as one of fourteen Revenue Precincts in Ireland, each controlled by a Military Governor. This was to usher in a time of change and prosperity for the town as overseas settlers came to occupy local lands forfeited to the Crown.

It is from this period of conflict that Athy Dominicans gave two of its members to Ireland's martyrology. Fr. Raymond Moore, Prior of Athy at two different periods in the 17th century, was arrested and imprisoned in Dublin where he died in 1665. Earlier in 1649 the sub-Prior of Athy, Fr. Richard Overton, was seized and murdered by Cromwell's soldiers in Drogheda. The difficulties facing the members of the Dominican Order were accentuated by the State's Decree to banish all regular and secular clergy from Ireland by the 20th of November, 1678. However the local Friars stayed in the vicinity of Athy but fled the area during the Jacobite War of 1689/’91. They were to remain out of the area for almost 40 years. We know that in 1735 a solitary Dominican Fr. Christopher Coonan lived in the Athy area where he was in time to be joined by other members of the Order. By 1756 three Dominicans were living in a small Monastery which they had built in the area now known as Kirwan's Lane off Leinster Street.

The Dominicans later acquired Riversdale House, a private residence formerly owned by George Mansergh, located directly opposite the site of the original Monastery of the Black Friars. They have remained ever since. The original 18th century house was replaced in recent years by a modern building which adjoins and complements the modern Church built in 1965. Located at the end of what was Tan Yard Lane, now Convent Lane, the Dominican Church is an important example of modern ecclesiastical architecture housing works by such noted artists as George Campbell and Brid ni Rinn. With what was a revolutionary Church style for the 1960's which ignored the traditional cruciformed style, the Dominicans or Order of Friars Preachers, anciently referred to as the Black Friars, signalled their continuing missionary commitment as evangelists and preachers to the town of Athy.

St. Michaels Church of Ireland

For a provincial town of just over 5,000 souls Athy is well provided with Churches. On each of the four roads leading into the town Church spires are to be seen. The oldest is that of St. Michaels Church of Ireland on the Carlow Road built in 1840 to replace an earlier Church in Emily Square. Tradition has it that stone from the 13th century Dominican Monastery located on the west bank of the River Barrow was used in the building of the spire of St. Michaels. However it would seem on the evidence of the stonework that tradition once again is less than accurate.

The original Church located in the open area behind the Town Hall may have been erected in or around 1682, which date is to be found on the Church Bell now located on the Town Hall. Unfortunately while this gives us the date of the casting of the bell it does not necessarily allow us to assume that the Church building was erected that same year. If the Emily Square Church was in fact built in 1682 it raises the question as to where the Reformed Church Services were held following the suppression of the Dominican Monastery in 1539. An inventory of the Dominican properties in Athy in 1541 disclosed that their Church was in a ruined or despoiled state. It is unlikely therefore to have been used by the adherents of the Reformed Church unless of course it was put into repair.

The building of St. Michaels, then Church of England, on the Carlow Road, extended over a number of years in the period immediately prior to the Great Famine. The Rector at that time was Rev. Frederick Trench, remembered also as the last Sovereign of the old Borough of Athy which was abolished in 1840. A one time resident of Kilmoroney House Trench was to die tragically in 1860 when his coach collided with Prestons Gate, the last remains of the medieval town wall which stood at the end of Offaly Street. The death of the highly respected Rector resulted in the immediate demolition of Prestons Gate, an action which archaeologists and historians today regret. Interestingly enough in his Will Rev. Frederick Trench left money to fund a yearly donation of bread to the poor of Athy. Nowadays instead of bread, money is received from the fund each year for distribution to the poor of the town. A very fine marble pulpit in St. Michaels Church was erected in memory of Rev. Trench.

It would seem that the site of the Carlow Road Church was chosen because of its proximity to the town and its prominent position on one of the approach roads to Athy. The Church building itself was so positioned so as to present an avenue-like approach from the newly named Church Road. The Rector's Manse and the Park Keepers house were probably built at the same time. The stone wall around the People's Park with these buildings and the new Church represented a harmonious combination of stone and architecture which even after more than 150 years remains pleasing to the eye.

If St. Michaels Church of Ireland is the oldest Church in Athy its near neighbour, the Dominican Church, is the youngest.

Both St. Michaels and the Dominican Church face each other across the River Barrow, a constant reminder of the religious differences which in previous generations made strangers of our neighbours. Nowadays the "dumb waters" of the Barrow flow between both Churches, separating yet linking in almost silent prayer an urban community which has been home to Catholic, Reformed Church and Dissenter for centuries past.

American Civil War Letters - Margaret Prendergast

In 1986 Fordham University Press of New York city published the civil war letters of Peter Welsh, a Sergeant of the 28th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers under the title "Irish Green and Union Blue".

Welsh who was born in America of Irish parents in 1830 enlisted in the Massachusetts Volunteers in September 1862, almost five years after he had married an Irish girl Margaret Prendergast. Margaret was born in Athy in 1835 to Michael Prendergast and Mary Prendergast nee O'Toole. The Prendergast parents had seven children in all and Margaret emigrated from Athy in her teens to seek her future in the new world. Her sister Sarah, who married Michael Hoey of Bagenalstown, in St. Michael's Church, Athy, on the 6th of July, 1865 was also to emigrate to American after the birth of her first daughter Margaret. Her brother Francis had earlier gone to America in 1864. Two other sons of Michael and Mary Prendergast were James, of whom nothing is known and Patrick who married Catherine Lawler in Athy where they continued to live.

When her husband signed up to fight in the American Civil War Margaret went to live with her uncle James Gleeson in New York. During his time in the 4th Regiment of the Irish Brigade Peter wrote letters to his young wife which were preserved and handed down until eventually published in book form in 1986. The original letters were carefully preserved by Margaret in a Victorian red writing case and are today kept in the archives of the New York Historical Society.

Peter Welsh, who before enlisting was a carpenter, was wounded at Spotsylvania Courthouse on the 12th of May, 1864. He was brought to Carver Hospital in Washington where his wife Margaret immediately visited him. The Doctors advised that his injured arm should be amputated but Peter would not agree to a handicap which he felt would prevent him from ever working again as a carpenter. After surgery was performed to remove the bullet and some shattered bones, blood poisoning set in and Peter Welsh died on the 28th of May, 1864. Margaret immediately telegraphed her Uncle James Gleeson in New York with the said news "He is dead and will be in New York in morning". On the 1st of June, 1864 Peter Welsh was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens County, New York in the area now known to thousands of Irish emigrants as Woodside. A fine memorial was erected over his grave.

His wife Margaret who had no children survived him by 28 years. She never remarried and continued to draw the small pension to which she was entitled as a widow of a civil war soldier. It is believed that Margaret Welsh, nee Prendergast, made a number of trips to Athy after 1864 and we know that she was a sponsor at the baptism on the 6th of June, 1875 in St. Michael's Church, Athy, of Mary, daughter of her brother Patrick and his wife Catherine.

The letters which the Athy born woman carefully preserved provided the first published contemporary account of the American Civil War by an enlisted man of the Irish Brigade.

The name Prendergast is relatively common in the Athy area. The first of that name was Maurice de Prendergast, one of the leading Anglo Norman invaders to accompany Strongbow to Ireland who obtained extensive grants of land in the south and west of Ireland. The name which is often corrupted to Pender is derived from Prendergast a Parish in Premrokeshire, Wales, from where Maurice came.

Margaret Prendergast of Athy lies buried with her husband in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York.

Moroccan - Irish Rural Life

It is only when you visit foreign countries that you realise country life and living knows no boundaries. Last week I spent a few days travelling through Morocco in North West Africa. It was when I journeyed into the High Atlas mountains on the road to Marrakech and later to Essequire that I saw the similarities between rural life in Morocco today and what I have read of Irish rural life of another century. A region that got only three days rainfull last year is dry and barren but up in the hills can be seen small tilled areas with stalks of wheat standing starkly proud of its neighbour, each clearly defined in its own ground. As I journeyed inland I could see up to five or six men working in a field of not more than two acres, one using a reaping hook while others pulled the wheat stalks with their hands. In another small patch of ground torn from the rocks the solitary ploughman is tilling the soil using a wooden plough pulled by two donkeys.

Elsewhere on the road I see farm animals grazing on the untilled land which while untilled is regarded as commonage. Small herds of goat and sheep never more than perhaps 15 or so and occasionally two or three cows are constantly herded from sunrise to sunset by the children, the women or the old men. The animals scavenge among the rocks and sparse vegetation for anything edible while the patient herd sits almost motionless to protect the animals against wolves and to ensure that a neighbour's small strip of wheat or barley is not plundered. Later in the afternoon the womenfolk and the children are to be seen out in the cornfields weeding out the corn poppy and other weeds which are carefully gathered and brought home at the end of the day. The weeds and grasses culled from the cornfields form the stable diet of the animals, especially the donkeys and mules.

Donkeys can be seen untroubled by passing cars or buses walking on the road edge with their minders sitting side saddle, although there is no saddle, their two heels beating a rhythmic beat on the underbelly of the animals. On the road to Marrakech I passed through small market villages where the Moroccans come each week on market day to sell their farm produce. Many of the small shops which line the single street of each village are open only on that market day. To here the small farmer will travel with his produce carried in baskets on either side of the donkey, much like the Connemara man who up to a few years ago used the same mode of transport to bring home turf from the bog. The donkeys having been unburdened of their loads are put in a large walled area alongside the market place to patiently await their master's return. In one small village there were more than 600 donkeys to be seen standing motionless in the hot sun.

A Moroccan market is a glittering array of everything that man and nature can produce. One can almost visualise the market of Athy in the last century as the large baskets laden with eggs stand side by side with vegetables and other root crops. Bargaining goes on all day and as every tourist to Morocco has learned to his cost bargaining or more properly haggling is the life blood of the average Moroccan.

The colourful scenes of the Moroccan market and Moroccan rural life gave a hint of what life was like in rural Ireland in the last century. The wider community coming together on market day bring life and vibrancy to the otherwise quiet town or village. The market square takes on a buzz and a life which will not be recaptured for another week. The merchants are busy as the men and women from the outlying districts stock up with shop goods, having earlier disposed of their own produce, either in the market or to the same merchant in whose shop they now stand. The village or town market was once as equally important to the commercial and social life of rural Ireland. It was here that the town and country met, here on the days before mass media communication news was passed around. Above all market day was a day to buy and sell, the link in the chain of local economic life which had lasted for hundreds of years. In Morocco today the market is still important in the lives of the rural communities. In that respect it differs from Ireland.

Country life in Morocco mirrors in so many ways life in rural Ireland in the early part of the 19th century. The small holdings of the Irish of that day gave little opportunity for other than subsistence living. The cow and the pig were reared on the scraps and edible weeds of the day and sold in time to pay the rent. The children of the Irish cottagers, like their Moroccan counterparts today, herded their few animals during the day. The older members of the extended family gave a hand in herding or butter making. The harshness of life was tempered by the knowledge that everybody shared the same burdens, everyone lived in communities where to be poor was a pledge of honour, especially when one fulfilled his or her obligations to ones extended family.

Brother Seamus Glespen

The future Cardinal and Primate of all Ireland, Tomas O'Fiaich, writing in Irish in Christus Rex in 1958 noted
"ever since Leon O'Broin published his biography of Parnell much of the most effective historical writing in this country is being done through Irish. To support this view Art O'Griofa by Sean O'Luing and Emmet by Leon O'Broin have been published and now we have Br. MacGiolla Easpaig's book as incomparable evidence. Not only does he write well and even better than those who write in English but he breaks new ground that they had never ever reached".

His reference was to Athy man Seamus Glespen, in religion Brother James Norbert Glespen, a member of the Irish Christian Brothers. Glespen's book which drew such high praise was a biography of Thomas Russell of 1798 fame which he had written and published in Irish under the title "Tomas Ruiseil".

Seamus Glespen was born in Athy on the 30th of January, 1920. His father John Glespen was a coachbuilder whose premises were located at Duke Street in the premises now occupied by the Golden Grill. His mother was once a well known singer who had performed in operatic roles with the Dublin Operatic Society and the D'Olyly Carte Company in London. Seamus attended the local Christian Brothers Primary School and later transferred to the O'Brien Institute in Marino for his Secondary education. From there he entered the Brothers Juniorate in Baldoyle in 1936 and on Christmas Day 1937 he made his first profession of vows. After a period in Marino, Dublin, he transferred to Portlaoise in 1943 where he stayed for two years before moving to Drogheda where he was appointed Principal of the Primary School. At Christmas 1945 he made his final profession.

It was while in Drogheda that he began his University studies which he was to complete in University College Galway. Having obtained a First Class Honours Degree he was again on the move to Belfast where he taught in St. James's Grammer School in Barrack Street.

He was to spend 16 years in Belfast during which time he served as Secretary to the Ulster Colleges G.A.A. Council. A fluent Irish speaker he spent some time each year in Ranafest, an Irish speaking area in North West Donegal.

While in Belfast he wrote and had published a booklet "Grattan and his Times" for A level students. He also started his research on the United Irishman Thomas Russell as part of his M.A. studies. Awarded an M.A. First Class Honours in 1955 for his treatise on Russell he continued to work on the extended biography which was published in 1957.

This was the only biography published on Russell who was born in Mallow, Co. Cork and served as an Officer in the British Army in India. Later appointed Librarian to the Linenhall Library in Belfast Russell was captured and hanged in 1803. It was of Russell that Florence Wilson wrote the immortal lines

"For the man that they hanged at Downpatrick Jail,
Was the man from God knows where".

Tomas O'Fiaich in his review of Glespen's book remarked
"It is a long time since a historical work gave me as much satisfaction as this book. If the author had the opportunity now to undertake the story of 1798 in the North he should not be reluctant to attempt it. He is the most able man for the job and there is a great need for this book".

Brother Glespen transferred to Stoke-on-Trent in 1968 and one year later to Blackpool College where he remained for six years. Following the withdrawal of the Christian Brothers from Blackpool he went to St. Anselus College, Birkenhead in 1975. Within a year he was struck down with leukaemia but he continued his school work until 1980 when he was hospitalised for the last time. He died on the 28th of July, 1980.

His sister Carmel who married Jim Flaherty, an official in the local Post Office, now lives in Greystones.

Luggacurran Evictions

On Tuesday the 22nd of March, 1887 the evictions on the Luggacurran Estate commenced. Some months previously the tenants at a public meeting decided to seek reductions in the rents payable to the Marquis of Lansdowne who owned vast tracts of land in County Laois and County Kerry. When their demands were not met Luggacurran tenants adopted the Plan of Campaign and withheld their rents. Lord Lansdowne reacted by seeking to evict his tenants.

On the first day of the evictions William O'Brien, the Nationalist leader, arrived in Luggacurran. A deputation from the Athy branch of the Irish National League met the organisation's national Secretary who travelled by road from Portlaoise. Headed by Rev. John Staples, C.C.. Timothy Byrne, Town Commissioner and Frank Fitzgerald, Branch Secretary, the deputation presented O'Brien with a formal address from the Athy branch.

After the presentation O'Brien walked towards Denis Kilbride's house. Kilbride, who was a Poor Law Guardian and a tenant of Lord Lansdowne with holdings of over 850 acres was the first to be evicted. The emergency men who were to carry out the evictions arrived with ladders, crow-bars and hatchets. Anticipating their arrival the local people had cut down trees on the avenue leading to Kilbride's house forcing the police and emergency men to travel across the fields.

The large house was secured against entry and the emergency men having unsuccessfully tried all the doors and windows were forced to go up on the roof. In a short time a large opening was made through which entry was made. Once inside the obstructions were removed and at 3.00p.m., after about four hours work, the eviction was completed and the house secured. During this time William O'Brien arrived at the house with a large following but no resistance was offered to the police or to the emergency men, some of whom were left in the house to guard against re-entry by the Kilbride family.

The police then withdrew to Luggacurran village, the greater number of them marching on to Athy where they were billeted in the Town Hall for the duration of the evictions. Immediately after the first eviction the local people held a public meeting in the village where they were addressed by William O'Brien and the local curate, Rev. John Maher, who was the leader of the Land League Campaign in Luggacurran.

On the following day the evictions resumed at 11.30 a.m. On this occasion nine families the heads of which were labourers or sub-tenants of Denis Kilbride were forced out of their homes. The first house visited was that of Thomas Kelly who lived with his wife and three children in the Gate Lodge leading to Kilbride's house. The emergency men numbering between 30 and 40 were accompanied by almost 200 policemen. Two of the Kelly children had been sent away while the youngest aged 2 years had taken refuge with her parents in the back room of the house. Most of their furniture being removed the Kellys resisted the attempts to evict them while Mrs. Kelly sat on top of a table refusing to move. Mrs. Denis Kilbride felt compelled to talk to Mr. & Mrs. Kelly after which they left their house. The fire in the grate was then put out and a couple of emergency men and a police guard were left in charge of the Lodge.

The Sheriff went to the next cottage where John Ryan, his wife and seven children lived. The family left quietly and their furniture was moved out onto the road.

Mick Lawler's house was next visited and Lawler, his wife and young children the youngest only one month old, were turned out. Thomas Reddy, his wife and five children with his 85 year old brother and 83 year old woman were next evicted. By evening time the Conroy family, the Cranny family and the Rigney family had also been evicted.

So ended the first day of the Luggacurran Evictions which were to continue until June 1889.

Cinema in Athy

An eight sided perforated aluminium disc with the words "Athy Picture Palace Limited" on one side and stamped "9d" and the number "244" on the reverse is the only memento I have of the early days of cinematography in Athy.

Nicholas O'Rourke-Glynn, the former Manager of a travelling show called "Peppers Ghost" is generally acknowledged to have held the first Magic Lantern shows in Athy on a regular basis. Travelling showmen had called to Athy on and off and gave displays of their wonder machine in the Town Hall but the first resident proprietor of the Lantern Shows was O'Rourke-Glynn who settled in Athy in 1916.

Early purpose built commercial cinemas were confined to the larger cities and it was not until about 1925 that the then Captain Hosie established Athy's Picture Palace. It was located in Offaly Street on the site of a former Malt House and the site of the present Mount Offaly Press. Billy Kelly, an electrician in Duthie Larges in Leinster Street was the projectionist. Captain Hosie, an English Army Officer, later to be promoted to the rank of Colonel is now best remembered for establishing the foundry business known as "the I.V.I." in the mid-1930's.

The Picture Palace was in time sold to a Mr. Holmes of Portlaoise and he in turn sold it on to the Roscrea Cinema Company. Difficulties with the local Urban Council which was the licensing authority led to the closing of the cinema for almost twelve months during the 1940's. When it re-opened it was to a renewed lease of life and an eager audience which each night made its way up Offaly Street to view the very latest cinematic offerings.

Growing up in that same street throughout the 1950's I can recall the activity coming up to opening time as the picture goers made their way to the darkened palace of fantasy. In those days one went to the "pictures" - movies were an invention of a later period and did not then form part of our vocabulary.

Kitty Webster's sweet shop on the corner of Butlers Row did a good business with the picture goers. Even in those leisurely days, ever alive to commercial opportunities there was a break in the programme to enable the audience to stock up with the latest offerings of Cleeves toffee, ice-cream and fruit. No popcorn or canned drinks in those days. The more energetic, unwilling to join the queue at the cinema shop made the short journey to Kitty Websters. In time however the picture house proprietors ensured a greater turnover at the cinema shop by the simple expedient of not allowing anybody out once the pictures had started. It is a wonder we never questioned this arbitrary restriction on our freedom. Maybe it was the knowledge that any objection to the practice might lead to ones exclusion from the picture house - a fate not to be envied in pre-television provincial Ireland.

I can still recall the pangs of withdrawal symptoms when with a few young friends we were barred from attending our normal Sunday afternoon offerings of the latest Hopalong Cassidy episode. Our crime, the stoning of the picture house Manager when he unluckily came into our line of fire during a pitch battle with a neighbouring gang on Church Road. Having suffered for four or five weeks we had no option but to proffer our abject apologies before we were again allowed to spend our modest pocket-money in "Bob's Picture House".

The opening of the Grove Cinema in 1957 saw Athy with two cinemas where before it had only one picture house. The terminology had changed, the comfort and standards expected were improved and in time the old favourite in Offaly Street was to close its doors for the last time. Even the Grove Cinema has now gone, the building standing in mute testimony to the changing times when every house is now a picture house where the very latest movies can be viewed in the comfort of ones home. A far cry from the heydays of the Picture Palace.

Hester May

Women's role in Irish history has never been satisfactorily or adequately acknowledged. In a society where women were denied a vote until 1918 this oversight is easily understood. The tendency to write of mens involvement in times past is one which even I regretfully have unwittingly or otherwise failed to arrest. Today I make some amends for my omission and it is fitting that the subject of this article should be a lady who over the years I have had the privilege of interviewing on several occasions.

In her 92nd year and as sprightly and alert as most persons 40 years younger Mrs. Hester May lives today with her daughter Sheila in St. Patrick's Avenue. As the daughter of Michael Dooley of 41 Duke Street, Athy, whose name is remembered in the Housing Estate on the Stradbally Road, she had an early introduction to the politics of Irish Independence. Her parents house and shop was a well known "haunt" of republican activists and was raided on many occasions by the local R.I.C. and the Black and Tans. At an early age Hester joined the Cumann na mBan which was organised locally by Miss Moloney. Her eldest sister Kathleen, who was later to marry Eamon Malone of Dunbrin, Commander of the Carlow Brigade I.R.A., left Athy to work in the Post Office in Dublin. Hester joined Kathleen in Dublin in 1919 and before long she was interviewed for a job with Piaras Beaslai, who was Editor of An t-Oglagh and head of publicity for the I.R.A. She was to act as his Secretary for a number of years and when he went to America she worked for J.J. 'Ginger' O'Connell who was director of training for the I.R.A. She also worked for Oscar Traynor who was Officer Commanding the Dublin Brigade and the leader of the attack on the Custom House in May 1921.

Her offices were located at No. 14 North Great Georges Street but raids by the Black and Tans often meant frequent unplanned moves to safer offices such as those in the Plaza Hotel near the present Barrys Hotel. She met all the great Irish leaders of the day and remembers particularly Michael Collins and Eamon DeValera. Another frequent visitor to Piaras Beaslai's office was Emmet Dalton, a member of the G.H.Q. staff of the I.R.A. who was with Michael Collins when he was ambushed and killed at Beal na Blath. Her impressions of Dalton, who was previously a member of the British Army, are not entirely favourable.

While working in Dublin she returned as often as possible to her native Athy and despite the difficulties at the time found romance with a local man living in Woodstock Street. Almost inevitably that man, Joe May, was involved in the Republican movement and had been a regular visitor to the Dooley household at 41 Duke Street. Joe was arrested in November 1920 by the Black and Tans and brought to the Curragh Camp where he was detained for three weeks before transferring to Arbour Hill and later still to Ballykinler Camp. He was not released until November 1921. One of Mrs. May's most treasured mementos of that period is an autograph book kept by her late husband and signed by a number of his fellow prisoners in Ballykinler Camp. A fellow inmate at the time was another Athy man, "Bapty" Maher.

Hester Dooley's involvement in the Republican movement extended up to the end of the Civil War in May 1923 when she returned to Athy to marry Joe May. They settled down in their home town where Joe was appointed to take charge of the former Union Workhouse which the Irish Government designated as a County Home. He was to continue working there until his untimely death in 1961 at the age of 63 years.

Hester May's involvement in the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War are not well known. She has lived in Athy since returning from Dublin over 70 years ago and has only recently retired as Registrar of Births Marriages and Deaths for this area. The younger generations of Athy people have largely remained unaware of Hester Dooley, the young girl from Athy who crossed paths with the men and women whose lives and experiences are part of the history of our country.

Macra na Feirme - Brother Joe Quinn

Last weekend I attended two celebrations of service to our community. One was the well publicised corporate celebrations of Macra na Feirme's Golden Jubilee. Amongst those honoured was Paddy Keogh of Kilcoo whose involvement in Athy's first farmers club and the national organisation which developed from it was acknowledged and commemorated by the presentation to him of a replica of the sundial earlier unveiled in Emily Square by President Mary Robinson.

Macra's celebrations acknowledged the organisations debt to the foresight of the local men who founded Athy's club. Foremost amongst them was Stephen Cullinan, a young Galway born agricultural instructor then teaching in the local Technical School. The more one reads and hears about Stephen Cullinan the more one appreciates what an extraordinary man he was. His tragic early death in 1951 undoubtedly deprived Macra and Irish farming generally of a talent which was difficulty to replace.

The second celebration was that of Brother Joe Quinn's Diamond Jubilee as a member of the Irish Christian Brothers. His life, like that of his brothers in religion was spent out of the glare of press and publicity but yet his achievements as an educator and a fosterer of Irish sporting traditions was recognised by many persons who came from all corners of Ireland to pay tribute to the 76 year old Christian Brother.

Brother Quinn entered the Christian Brothers novitiate on the 10th of January 1934 and in September 1939 as the war clouds were descending over Europe he travelled to take up duty in Tuam, Co. Galway. The milestones in his life are measured in terms of hurling and football finals and like a drunk who will direct a lost traveller using public houses as points of reference, Brother Quinn uses the September activities in Croke Park as his personal yard stick. But on Final days in Croke Park the young Joe Quinn was required to follow his Superiors bidding of walking alone "into the countryside", the only acceptable recreation available to Christian Brothers. For a young man reared on a daily diet of Gaelic football such deprivations were part of the personal sacrifices expected of a Christian Brother. However in 1945 he succeeded in obtaining a coveted ticket for the All Ireland football final. Fate dealt him another hand however and his commitment and resolve was tested when he received instructions to transfer to Doneraile, Co. Cork on the Saturday before the Final.

One can picture his dismay and disappointment as he embarked on the train journey out of Kingsbridge Station as the excited football followers streamed into Dublin. It was with a heavy heart that he let his prized stand ticket flow on the breeze as he threw it out of the train approaching Doneraile. He was later to attend his first All Ireland Final in 1947 and I doubt if he has missed one since.

However it is not as a follower of football that we remember Brother Quinn. It is as a man representative of that great band of men - the Irish Christian Brothers - who have given of their all for the youth of this country. Brother Joe Quinn's involvement in basketball in Athy is well known. Sine he came to Athy in 1978 he has encouraged the development of the game to the point where it is now an important sporting activity in the South Kildare area.

On the Friday before President Mary Robinson came to Athy for the Macra celebrations the colleagues and friends of Brother Quinn joined him in his celebration of life and service to communities throughout Ireland. A service which in the best traditions of the Christian Brothers saw him make many personal sacrifices for the education and welfare of the young people in his charge.

The weekend celebrations of Macra na Feirme and Brother Joe Quinn were a public recognition of service to our community and to the jubilairians, Golden and Diamond, Macra and Brother Joe, we extend good wishes for the future and gratitude for the past.

Sean MacFheorais

Isn’t it strange how often we tend to overlook local men and women who have made a substantial or meaningful contribution to Irish life. Take for instance Sean Mac Fheorais, a local man whose published works in our native language are perhaps unfamiliar to most of us. Sean, whose first book of Irish poetry “Gearrcoigh na hOiche” was published in 1954 had his second book “Leargas” published in 1964. In the intervening period his poetry appeared in many literary magazines including ‘Poetry Ireland’ and ‘Cyphers’.

In 1984 he received what I understand was the very first invitation from his native town to return to Athy to read his poetry. Scheduled to appear on 17th March, 1984 he tragically died one month before he could fulfil the engagement which he was eagerly anticipating.

Sean Mac Fheorais was born in Ballintubbert in 1915, the second son of a blacksmith. His father was to die nine months after his last son, Joe, was born in May 1919. Sean, with his brother Joe Bermingham, was educated in Ballyadams National School and later still in the O’Brien Institute, Marino, Dublin. At the age of 16 years he joined the Christian Brothers Novitiate and in time qualified as a teacher, but left the Brothers before taking his final vows. It was while in the O’Brien Institute that Sean developed his great love for the Irish language which was further encouraged while he was a member of the Christian Brothers. He taught for some years at Carrigallen National School, Co. Leitrim, later in Paulstown, Co. Kilkenny and from 1955 until 1979 in Finglas, Dublin, eventually becoming Principal of St. Margaret’s Primary School in that North Dublin suburb.

A frequent competitor in the annual Oireachtais competition he won many Oireachtais prizes for his poetry. He also received a number of awards from Radio Eireann for his literary works. In 1954 his first book of Irish poetry, “Gearrcoig na hOiche” was published and his second volume “Leargas - Danta Fada” in 1964. His best known work is the long poem, “Oiche na Airnean”.

Tá rian on chreidhim go láidir ar a chuid filíochtá - an dán ‘Ionam’ is fear is dócha a thaispeánann an t-omós a bhí aige do Dhia. Éinne a dhein an Ardteistimeireacht le blianta anuas cuimhneoidh sé no sí ar an dán álainn sin ‘M’ Uncáil’ ina léiríonn sé dúinn an cion agus an meas a bhí aige ar a Uncáil.

The last poem on which he was working at the time of his untimely death was about his native town of Athy. He intended to give the first public reading of that poem in Ath Í on 17th March, 1984. He was not to hear the tributes of his neighbours children for Sean Mac Fheorais passed away at 69 years of age before he could return to Athy. He was survived by his wife and six children and his brother, Joe Bermingham.

Sean Mac Fheorais is included in the Dictionary of Irish Authors, a three volume work first compiled by Brian Cleeve in 1971. His memory is one we should remember and cherish as the son of a blacksmith from “our place” whose poetry lives on in his published works.

O'Rourke Glynns

“O’Rourke Glynn’s Corner” was a well known landmark until recent years. Newcomers to the town probably never heard of the place or if they did remain blissfully unaware of it’s location. However, they can take consolation from the knowledge that not many of the locals would be able to pinpoint the location of other once well known landmarks such as “Nouds Corner” or “Glespen’s Coach Works”. Many of us will remember Ernest O’Rourke Glynn who died in 1976 as a man big of stature with a voice reminiscent of a Shakespearean actor. The eldest son of Nicholas and Florence O’Rourke Glynn who came to Athy in 1916 Ernest had a presence and a majestic voice which instantly suggested a theatrical background.

His maternal grandparents who had no previous theatrical experience purchased in 1896 “Peppers Ghost” a touring show which had been travelling throughout Ireland and England for the previous 20 years. A report in the Leinster Leader of 7th March, 1896 gave an account of the show’s performance in the Town Hall, Athy. The variety entertainment included songs, feats, ventriloquism and spectroscopic scenes.

The new owners, the Reid Metcalfes, employed a young Irish man, Nicholas O’Rourke Glynn, as manager of the touring company and he was in time to marry their daughter Florence. Still touring with “Peppers Ghost” in 1916 the company came to Athy for six weeks during the lenten period. Rebellion in Dublin and unrest throughout the country prompted Nicholas and Florence O’Rourke Glynn to stay in Athy and in time they acquired the Corner House at the junction of Duke Street and Woodstock Street.

Opening the “Theatrical Stores and Scenic Studios” as well as a photographic studio the business flourished and their eldest son, Ernest, was to be joined by a sister Florence, brother Nicholas and a younger sister Peggy. The theatrical stores supplied costumes for amateur and professional groups throughout Ireland. The wicker baskets lined with jute in which the costumes were stored and transported were a familiar sight as they came and went through the local railway station.

A trained artist Nicholas O’Rourke Glynn painted scenery to order and his scenic studios located in the Corner House was a wonderland of paint and colour where snow scenes shared space with forest glades and interior scenes of palatial palaces.

As a commercial photographer he was employed by owners of the local big houses to record and photograph all the great occasions. The Weldons of Kilmoroney and the Geoghegans of Bert House were to possess many fine examples of Nicholas O’Rourke Glynn’s early photographic work.

With his previous theatrical experience Nicholas O’Rourke Glynn became very involved in theatre in Athy. He produced many shows in the Town Hall and was instrumental in holding a Gaelic League Concert in Athy every St. Patrick’s night for many years. One of the pioneers of cinematography in Ireland he put on magic lantern shows in Athy’s Town Hall in the early years and later still film shows long before Athy had it’s own cinema.

Nicholas, born in 1864, made his last stage appearance in George Du Maurier’s play “Trilby” in 1937 in a role which required him to die on stage. Exactly one year later and at precisely the time of his stage death, he was to pass away at 73 years of age. His wife, Florence, who was considerably younger, died 4 years later at the age of 48.

Florrie Pender - St. Josephs School

I had occasion to call to the girls primary school Scoil Mhicil Naofa some weeks ago to meet the newly appointed Principal. In keeping with the tradition long associated with the Mercy Sisters I was brought to the Staff Room for a cup of tea and a bun and who should I meet there but somebody I remember when I was a nipper attending St. Joseph's Boys School at Rathstewart. It was Mrs. Florence Pender still hale and hearty and of indeterminate age. Woe betide anyone who would be so foolish as to ask the question which must inevitably spring to mind.

There are few memories we retain of our very young days but of those still cherished inevitably our early school days figure prominently. I have snatches of memories relating to my three year stay in St. Joseph's Boys School where I was before transferring at seven years of age to the Christian Brothers School. Sr. Brendan, Mrs. Lucy Alcock and Mrs. Pender are prominent in my recollections of St. Joseph's School. Mrs. Alcock was regarded by all the young boys as a surrogate mother and how kindly she reciprocated the trust and friendship lavished on her by the youngsters. Sr. Brendan was of course everyone's vision of the kindly nun. She prepared us all for our First Communion with dextrous use of the scissors which hung from her belt. The skilful art of receiving communion on the tongue in those pre Vatican Two days was rehearsed and rehearsed by Sr. Brendan passing up the line of boys, each obediently sticking out his tongue to be touched with the scissors held in the hands of the diminutive Kerry nun.

Mrs. Pender who is apt to describe herself as being as well known as a "beggars ass" worked occasionally in the Convent and was to replace Lucy Alcock when the latter retired. Her father, Denis Prendergast, who lived in Mount Hawkins also worked for the nuns and drove their horse carriage. This was a feature of transport in Athy up to the 1950's as the nuns were brought to the Railway Station or travelled with the carriage curtains drawn to St. Vincent's Hospital. Florrie Prendergast married William Pender and in so doing changed her name as she herself laughing describes by cutting the "gast" out.

After almost 45 years of service she is still to be found in the Staff Room of Scoil Mhichil Naofa catering for the needs of today's teachers.

St. Joseph's School no longer stands at the side of what was the main entrance gate to the Convent of Mercy off the Rathstewart Road. Demolished in 1964 to make way for St. Michael's new Parish Church the entire area has changed beyond recognition.

Also demolished at that time was the large finely carved Celtic Cross which once stood in the grounds of St. Michael's Church and which was clearly visible as one passed on the Monasterevin Road. Captured many times in photographs as far back as the Lawrence photographs of the 1890's the Cross was erected to commemorate Fr. Thomas Greene, former Parish Curate who played a major part in raising funds locally for the construction of the Convent for the Sisters of Mercy. I wonder where that memorial Cross put up with the contributions of the local people can now be found? It should be restored as a fitting tribute to Fr. Greene and to the people of Athy who before, during and after the Great Famine made many sacrifices so that the town could have a Convent of Mercy.

However I digress, but maybe not. The physical changes in the area around the Parish Church as we knew it in the 1950's mirror the changes which time has wrought on the people we knew at that time. The youngsters who played in the school yard of St. Joseph's School are now scattered far and wide. Of the teachers only Sr. Finbar is still with us while Florrie Pender continues her involvement with the Sisters of Mercy junior school. Times have changed but some things never change.