In October 1929 Athy Urban District Council under the Chairmanship of Patrick Dooley, Proprietor of a bakery in Leinster Street, sought to advance it’s plans for additional Council housing in the town with the appointment of Mr. D. Heaney of Thurles as it’s Architect. At the same time the Council’s Housing Committee consisting of Patrick Dooley, Francis Jackson, Tom Carbery and Brigid Darby were asked to carry out an inspection of the town and to report back to a full meeting of the Council with recommendations regarding suitable housing sites. They subsequently advised the Council to acquire what was known as the Gaol field on the Carlow Road consisting of approximately 2 acres and 26 perches then owned by Miss Kilbride. The site was subsequently purchased by the Council and in January 1930 Mr. Strahan, Housing Inspector with the Department of Local Government visited Athy and accompanied by the Town Clerk John W. Lawler did a house to house inspection of the town and found 316 houses unfit for habitation and 72 houses considerably below normal standards but which could be made fit.
Despite receiving a report that the towns water supply scheme was inadequate to meet the demands of businesses in Athy the Council pressed ahead with it’s housing Plans and on 2nd March passed a Motion proposed by Michael Malone, Publican of Woodstock Street, Athy and seconded by Tom Carbery, Carpenter of St. Martin’s Terrace :- “When advertising for the building of houses in Athy that local labour be employed and local housing labour wages be paid and also that all doors, windows and window frames and cement blocks be made in Athy.”
The following month Athy Urban District Council advertised for tenders to build 36 houses in the Gaol field and local firm D. & J. Carbery of St. John’s, Athy were employed. Work on what was the Council’s third housing scheme commenced on 30th June with Captain H.B. Foy of 7 Percy Place, Dublin employed as Clerk of Works at a salary of 5 guineas a week. In October 1930 the Council Minute Book recorded the Architect’s Report on the progress of the houses under construction in what was referred to as “St. Patrick’s Avenue, Carlow Road”. Strangely this was the first and only reference to the naming of the Gaol field housing site after the country’s patron saint and no record exists of the Councils decision to use that name. While the houses were still in the course of construction the Council agreed to have electricity and Liffey ranges installed. The local electrician J. Hutchinson of Leinster Street was employed to put electric lights in the 36 houses for which he was to receive £175.00. The possible installation of baths in 12 of the houses was also considered but deferred until tenants were appointed and their views canvassed on the issue. Subsequently the provision of “flush lavatories” in all of the new houses was agreed and this work was completed in September 1931 some months after the tenants had gone into occupation.
In January 1931 the Clerk of Works reported that 10 plasterers, 10 carpenters and 16 labourers were employed on the building works. The final cost for the 36 houses amounted to £11,366.10 or £315 per house. A.L. Spiers of Burtown was subsequently engaged by the Council to provide lime and plane trees for the Avenue, and at the same time similar trees were to be planted by him at Rathstewart, Woodstock Street and St. Michael’s Terrace.
The day before St. Patrick’s Day 1931 the Urban Councillors meeting in their Chamber in the Town Hall considered the Applications received for tenancies of the newly built houses in St. Patrick’s Avenue. Reviewing the names and addresses of those allocated houses on the Avenue it is noteworthy that 17 of the original tenants were not from Athy. One of the successful Applicants was from Blackpool, England, another from Enniskillen in Northern Ireland while no less than four Dublin residents were successful in their Applications to be re-housed in Athy. The geographical spread of the remaining non-Athy applicants showed addresses in Kildare Town, Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, Leixlip, Newbridge, Portarlington, Clonmel, Cobh, Birr, Ballinasloe, Maryborough and Ballickmoyler, Co. Carlow.
It is little wonder that the following July the Department of Local Government was moved to write to Athy Urban District Council suggesting that :- “You should endeavour to let the Council houses in the best interests of the public health of the District as they do not seem to have been let to families living in unsanitary districts.” It must be said in defence of the local Council that the people of Athy living in what the Department described as “unsanitary conditions” did not apply for the vacant tenancies, presumably because they would not have been able to afford the rent. The Council had decided on the sum of 6/3 per week as the minimum rent necessary to repay the monies borrowed from the Local Loans Fund.
The Urban Council itself recognised the impoverished conditions of the time when on 30th November, 1931 it passed a Motion calling on the Government for “payment of a special Grant for Athy out of the £250,000 fund for the relief of unemployment, as there is no part of County Kildare suffering so much on account of the grave unemployment due to the beet collapse year and the serious agricultural depression prevailing”.
The Motion referred to local workers depending mainly on agriculture for employment and that “an abnormally large number of workers and their families are congregated in the Athy Urban District.” The unemployed Barrow workers of Athy sent a deputation to a Council meeting complaining that undue preference was given to Laois men for employment on the Barrow Drainage Scheme. Further deputations were later received from the unemployed of the town regarding the inadequacy of home help which was given in the form of tickets and vouchers rather than cash.
Just before the St. Patrick’s Avenue houses were completed two local men were believed to have died of starvation and the Local Council called upon the Minister for Local Government to hold a sworn enquiry “in the interests of the poor of the town” into the cause of their deaths and the manner in which home help was administered in the area. The events leading up to that enquiry and it’s outcome will be dealt with in a future Eye on the Past.
Whatever the difficulties of 70 years ago in Athy they have now passed out a memory and the future of the town is one of great expectation. The future development of Athy and an assessment of what lies ahead will be addressed in a lecture by Ian Lumley to be held in the Town Hall on Thursday, 27th April at 8.00pm. Mr. Lumley has made a study of Irish Towns for a forthcoming book and his illustrated talk will surely be of interest to everyone living in South Kildare.
The financial difficulties faced by many people at that time was reflected in the number of tenants who after a short time in the new houses gave up their tenancies.
Thursday, March 30, 2000
Thursday, March 23, 2000
Borough of Ardreigh
The century’s old roadway which runs through the cutting at Ardreigh bringing traffic to and from Carlow will soon be no more. Kildare County Council has announced that work will start in the Summer on the new roadway which will run at the rear of Ardreigh Cemetery.
Ardreigh is and remains an ancient place. At one time it was even more important than the medieval village of its near neighbour Athy. It was itself a village, the lands and area having being granted by Strongbow to Thomas Le Fleming, one of the many Norman adventurers who came to Ireland in 1169. The grantee Fleming was in all probability Thomas of Flanders for whom Hugh de Lacy built a Castle in1182 by the waters of the River Barrow. The Castle was probably a Motte located on the high ground at Ardreigh and more likely than not in the area now occupied by Ardreigh House. It was here that Thomas Le Fleming or perhaps his successor Milo de Stanton established a borough similar to that later established in Athy. It was the same de Stanton who in or about 1200 gave “the Church at Ardria” to St. Thomas’s Abbey, Dublin the advowson of which the Bishop of Glendalough later gave to the same Abbey. Very soon after the initial gift by de Stanton, Archbishop Henri de Loundres assigned Ardreigh Church to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. The stones of the Church of Ardreigh just visible below the ground and lying within the cemetery of the same name are the only remains of the twelfth century Ardreigh settlement.
In 1318 King Edward II allowed a weekly market to be held at Ardreigh which was then in the ownership of Milo de Poer. In 1303, an Inquisition was held to value the property of Ralph de Manton late Treasurer of Scotland who had died some time previously. It found that amongst other property, de Manton held a farm at Ardreigh, Athy but that his Steward John Tonjours sold most of the stock on it and converted the sale proceeds to his own use.
The borough of Ardreigh continued into the fourteenth Century as the register of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, Dublin makes reference to Nicholas Fitz Austin Provost of Ardreigh borough. The earliest extant reference to a Provost in Athy followed the chartering of the village of Athy by King Henry V111 in 1515 over a century after the earlier mentioned reference to the Ardreigh Provost. Does this perhaps indicate that the early medieval Settlement in Ardreigh was more substantial and of greater importance that that at Athy?
When the borough of Ardreigh went into decline one cannot say with certainty. Clearly the adjoining settlement of Athy continued to grow and the granting of Athy’s charter in 1515 might indicate the earlier demise of the borough of Ardreigh.
Following the rebellion of Silken Thomas in 1534, the Earl of Kildare’s property was attained and not restored until 1554 when Queen Mary granted to Gerald 11th Earl of Kildare his ancestors honours and estates. The Earls allegiance was perhaps unnecessarily subjected to continual examination and in 1575, he was arrested on a charge of treason. Amongst the allegations against him were that he colluded with the O’Connors, O’Mores and the Keatings who were then in revolt and allowed them to attack and destroy castles in Co. Kildare including that of William FitzGerald of Ardreigh. The Earl who was imprisoned for two years was eventually released after it was found that the allegations against him were exaggerated.
Before long, the castle of Ardreigh was again in the limelight when reports reached Dublin Castle of its destruction following an unexpected attack. Walter FitzGerald who was married to a daughter of Feagh MacHugh O’Byrne of Wicklow was banned by Sir Piers FitzGerald the high sheriff of the County from entering County Kildare. Some claim that the ban was imposed because of his marriage to a daughter of an Irish Rebel while others give the cause as the outlaw activity of Walter who was otherwise known as “the swarthy” FitzGerald. Although a son of Maurice FitzGerald of Glassealy and a relative of the Earl of Kildare who in turn was related to Sir Pier’s FitzGerald, Walter “the swarthy” exacted a terrible revenge on his distant cousin.
On St. Patrick’s day 1593, Sir Pier’s and his wife Elinor a daughter of Sir Maurice FitzGerald of Lackagh whose effigy lies in St. Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare were living in Ardreigh Castle with two of their daughters, Ann and Catherine. The castle in contemporary records was described as being “a little castle that was but thatched with straw or sedge”. Walter “the swarthy” accompanied by his brothers in law, Felim and Redmond sons of Fiach MacHugh O’Byrne with their followers attacked Ardreigh Castle and set it alight. We are told that all the occupants of the small castle perished in the flames including Sir Pier’s, his wife Elinor and their two daughters.
The FitzGerald’s were survived by their son, James who was married and aged 30 years when Ardreigh Castle was destroyed. He was later appointed High Sheriff of County Kildare and Sheriff of County Carlow in which latter capacity in 1597 he accompanied the Lord Deputy on an expedition against the O’Byrne’s. James FitzGerald later rebelled against the crown and when on the 12th May 1599 the Earl’s of Essex and Ormonde met at Athy with their armies ready to pass into Laois, FitzGerald pulled down the Bridge of Athy and garrisoned White’s Castle in order to hinder the Earl’s horsemen. He later however, capitulated and surrendered to the Earl of Essex.
Ardreigh Castle was not rebuilt after the fire of 1593 and a Report of a Commission established in 1626 to enquire into the Estate of Philip Bushen, late of Grangemellon made no reference to Ardreigh Castle but rather to Ardreigh Mill and Weir, clear evidence of the changing face of Medieval Ireland.
The Urban Archaeology survey carried out some years ago in County Kildare by John Bradley, Andrew Halpin and Heather King noted that “Archaeology is concerned with the past of ordinary people --- with the life and death of communities ancestral to our own”. It would be appropriate if during the roadworks to be carried out at Ardreigh later this year, some elements of the hidden past of the borough and the Church of Ardreigh which existed on this ancient site over 800 years ago were revealed.
Ardreigh is and remains an ancient place. At one time it was even more important than the medieval village of its near neighbour Athy. It was itself a village, the lands and area having being granted by Strongbow to Thomas Le Fleming, one of the many Norman adventurers who came to Ireland in 1169. The grantee Fleming was in all probability Thomas of Flanders for whom Hugh de Lacy built a Castle in1182 by the waters of the River Barrow. The Castle was probably a Motte located on the high ground at Ardreigh and more likely than not in the area now occupied by Ardreigh House. It was here that Thomas Le Fleming or perhaps his successor Milo de Stanton established a borough similar to that later established in Athy. It was the same de Stanton who in or about 1200 gave “the Church at Ardria” to St. Thomas’s Abbey, Dublin the advowson of which the Bishop of Glendalough later gave to the same Abbey. Very soon after the initial gift by de Stanton, Archbishop Henri de Loundres assigned Ardreigh Church to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. The stones of the Church of Ardreigh just visible below the ground and lying within the cemetery of the same name are the only remains of the twelfth century Ardreigh settlement.
In 1318 King Edward II allowed a weekly market to be held at Ardreigh which was then in the ownership of Milo de Poer. In 1303, an Inquisition was held to value the property of Ralph de Manton late Treasurer of Scotland who had died some time previously. It found that amongst other property, de Manton held a farm at Ardreigh, Athy but that his Steward John Tonjours sold most of the stock on it and converted the sale proceeds to his own use.
The borough of Ardreigh continued into the fourteenth Century as the register of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, Dublin makes reference to Nicholas Fitz Austin Provost of Ardreigh borough. The earliest extant reference to a Provost in Athy followed the chartering of the village of Athy by King Henry V111 in 1515 over a century after the earlier mentioned reference to the Ardreigh Provost. Does this perhaps indicate that the early medieval Settlement in Ardreigh was more substantial and of greater importance that that at Athy?
When the borough of Ardreigh went into decline one cannot say with certainty. Clearly the adjoining settlement of Athy continued to grow and the granting of Athy’s charter in 1515 might indicate the earlier demise of the borough of Ardreigh.
Following the rebellion of Silken Thomas in 1534, the Earl of Kildare’s property was attained and not restored until 1554 when Queen Mary granted to Gerald 11th Earl of Kildare his ancestors honours and estates. The Earls allegiance was perhaps unnecessarily subjected to continual examination and in 1575, he was arrested on a charge of treason. Amongst the allegations against him were that he colluded with the O’Connors, O’Mores and the Keatings who were then in revolt and allowed them to attack and destroy castles in Co. Kildare including that of William FitzGerald of Ardreigh. The Earl who was imprisoned for two years was eventually released after it was found that the allegations against him were exaggerated.
Before long, the castle of Ardreigh was again in the limelight when reports reached Dublin Castle of its destruction following an unexpected attack. Walter FitzGerald who was married to a daughter of Feagh MacHugh O’Byrne of Wicklow was banned by Sir Piers FitzGerald the high sheriff of the County from entering County Kildare. Some claim that the ban was imposed because of his marriage to a daughter of an Irish Rebel while others give the cause as the outlaw activity of Walter who was otherwise known as “the swarthy” FitzGerald. Although a son of Maurice FitzGerald of Glassealy and a relative of the Earl of Kildare who in turn was related to Sir Pier’s FitzGerald, Walter “the swarthy” exacted a terrible revenge on his distant cousin.
On St. Patrick’s day 1593, Sir Pier’s and his wife Elinor a daughter of Sir Maurice FitzGerald of Lackagh whose effigy lies in St. Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare were living in Ardreigh Castle with two of their daughters, Ann and Catherine. The castle in contemporary records was described as being “a little castle that was but thatched with straw or sedge”. Walter “the swarthy” accompanied by his brothers in law, Felim and Redmond sons of Fiach MacHugh O’Byrne with their followers attacked Ardreigh Castle and set it alight. We are told that all the occupants of the small castle perished in the flames including Sir Pier’s, his wife Elinor and their two daughters.
The FitzGerald’s were survived by their son, James who was married and aged 30 years when Ardreigh Castle was destroyed. He was later appointed High Sheriff of County Kildare and Sheriff of County Carlow in which latter capacity in 1597 he accompanied the Lord Deputy on an expedition against the O’Byrne’s. James FitzGerald later rebelled against the crown and when on the 12th May 1599 the Earl’s of Essex and Ormonde met at Athy with their armies ready to pass into Laois, FitzGerald pulled down the Bridge of Athy and garrisoned White’s Castle in order to hinder the Earl’s horsemen. He later however, capitulated and surrendered to the Earl of Essex.
Ardreigh Castle was not rebuilt after the fire of 1593 and a Report of a Commission established in 1626 to enquire into the Estate of Philip Bushen, late of Grangemellon made no reference to Ardreigh Castle but rather to Ardreigh Mill and Weir, clear evidence of the changing face of Medieval Ireland.
The Urban Archaeology survey carried out some years ago in County Kildare by John Bradley, Andrew Halpin and Heather King noted that “Archaeology is concerned with the past of ordinary people --- with the life and death of communities ancestral to our own”. It would be appropriate if during the roadworks to be carried out at Ardreigh later this year, some elements of the hidden past of the borough and the Church of Ardreigh which existed on this ancient site over 800 years ago were revealed.
Thursday, March 16, 2000
U.D.C. Centenary Celebrations
Athy Urban District Council had a splendid celebration of its Centenary last weekend to coincide with its first ever meeting of the Council on the 2nd April 1900. The current Council Chairman and First Citizen of the town, Frank English did an excellent job of hosting the gathering, firstly in the Council’s Chamber and later in the Leinster Arms Hotel which had witnessed many previous events associated not only with the Urban Council but also with its predecessors Athy Town Commissioners and Athy Borough Council. I have to admit to some disappointment however with the performance of some elected representatives who, when their turn came to speak in the Council Chamber on this historic occasion, prefaced their perfunctory remarks with an apologetic disclaimer “I have nothing prepared.” This, despite having being told well in advance that each of the Councillors who were elected last year to represent their constituents would be asked to make a contribution on the occasion of the special meeting arranged for the Council’s Centenary Celebration.
You know nothing seems to change when it comes to the business of the local Council. That is your business and mine - our business which we entrust to the Councillor’s to deal with in our best interests. Little or no preparation is seemingly ever given by some Councillor’s to the matters they have to deal with at Council meetings. However, this does not deter them from saying their tuppence worth but as you can expect, its never likely to make any worthwhile contribution to the business in hand.
Really I should not cast aspersions on the good men whose job it is to guide the town’s destiny over the next five years or so but, their performance last weekend, with some exceptions, left me saddened. Even more so when I consider the shambles which has developed around the local demand for a plebiscite on the new road plans for the town. “No, you can’t have a plebiscite” So spoke the Council official who gave dire warning of surcharges to be imposed on any Councillors who had the temerity to stand up for the rights of the local people. We who live in Athy and whose future and indeed, whose past, are rooted in the bricks and mortar of this place, can only wonder at the power that officials can exercise over the rights of the natives. We may live in Athy, we may regard this historic town as our place but, our voices are silenced by the words of officials who, to paraphrase Robin Day’s famous description during John Knott’s interview some years ago “Are transient officials, here today, gone tomorrow”. Makes you wonder about the state of democracy in this little island of ours.
My support for the right of the local people to have a say in the future road development plans for the town by way of a plebiscite or referendum received a welcome boost when I recently perused the Urban District Council’s own records. The first Urban District Council under the Chairmanship of Matthew P. Minch of Rockfield House, held a referendum of the local people of Athy when plans were first mooted for the development of a water supply scheme for the town. One would have thought that the town people, whose only supply of water came from a number of contaminated public wells, would have eagerly seized the opportunity to ensure access to a healthy and wholesome water supply. Amongst the Urban Council of the day there was disagreement on this very important issue and the most vociferous opponent of the proposal was local publican and future author of “The Annals of Athy” Michael or “Crutch” Malone of Woodstock Street. His objection to the scheme would appear to have been based on the likely rates increase which would have resulted. The Council of the day in their wisdom, decided to have a referendum of the local rate payers and ballot papers were distributed on a Friday and collected the following Monday in which two questions were asked.
“1. Are you in favour of a water supply for the town of Athy?
2. If you are do you approve of Mr. Reades Modubeagh Water Scheme?”
The ballot papers, when collected and counted, showed that an overwhelming majority of the rate payers were not in favour of the Scheme. The result reviewed in hindsight was surprising but at least it was democratic and it recognised the right of the local people to participate in local government.
We have come a long way since but in some ways we have fossilised as today the elected representatives of our town spurn the request of the local people for a referendum on whether the Inner Relief Road proposal should go ahead. Their failure to accede to the legitimate and reasonable request clearly demonstrates that local government in Ireland, hyped by successive governments and ministers as based on democracy and partnership is nothing but a sham. The present Minister spoke last week of the need to strengthen the link between local government and local communities but, truly Athy stands as living proof that local government does not always serve the local community and that democracy and local government do not co-exist in our midst.
The Urban Council will have met to discuss yet again, the Town Development Plan with its Inner Relief Road proposal before this appears and may well have decided the issue in the same way as it was decided nine years and sixteen years ago. For you see the much vaunted hype about the Development Plan and the Inner Relief Road is an issue which comes up for review every five years or so and there is nothing to suggest that a decision by the Council to include the Inner Relief Road in the Development yet again will bring that particular piece of tarmacadamed lunacy any closer than it has been for the last twenty years.
The by-pass road for Athy has a better prospect of being put in place and much more quickly than the Inner Relief Road if only the town fathers would read the signs and follow the common sense route for the future development of the town. If some of them haven’t the time to prepare a few suitable words to celebrate the Centenary of local government in our town, then its hardly likely that they will have the foresight to look to the future and assess what needs to be done now to enable the commercial and residential elements of our town develop in a complementary and harmonious way.
You know nothing seems to change when it comes to the business of the local Council. That is your business and mine - our business which we entrust to the Councillor’s to deal with in our best interests. Little or no preparation is seemingly ever given by some Councillor’s to the matters they have to deal with at Council meetings. However, this does not deter them from saying their tuppence worth but as you can expect, its never likely to make any worthwhile contribution to the business in hand.
Really I should not cast aspersions on the good men whose job it is to guide the town’s destiny over the next five years or so but, their performance last weekend, with some exceptions, left me saddened. Even more so when I consider the shambles which has developed around the local demand for a plebiscite on the new road plans for the town. “No, you can’t have a plebiscite” So spoke the Council official who gave dire warning of surcharges to be imposed on any Councillors who had the temerity to stand up for the rights of the local people. We who live in Athy and whose future and indeed, whose past, are rooted in the bricks and mortar of this place, can only wonder at the power that officials can exercise over the rights of the natives. We may live in Athy, we may regard this historic town as our place but, our voices are silenced by the words of officials who, to paraphrase Robin Day’s famous description during John Knott’s interview some years ago “Are transient officials, here today, gone tomorrow”. Makes you wonder about the state of democracy in this little island of ours.
My support for the right of the local people to have a say in the future road development plans for the town by way of a plebiscite or referendum received a welcome boost when I recently perused the Urban District Council’s own records. The first Urban District Council under the Chairmanship of Matthew P. Minch of Rockfield House, held a referendum of the local people of Athy when plans were first mooted for the development of a water supply scheme for the town. One would have thought that the town people, whose only supply of water came from a number of contaminated public wells, would have eagerly seized the opportunity to ensure access to a healthy and wholesome water supply. Amongst the Urban Council of the day there was disagreement on this very important issue and the most vociferous opponent of the proposal was local publican and future author of “The Annals of Athy” Michael or “Crutch” Malone of Woodstock Street. His objection to the scheme would appear to have been based on the likely rates increase which would have resulted. The Council of the day in their wisdom, decided to have a referendum of the local rate payers and ballot papers were distributed on a Friday and collected the following Monday in which two questions were asked.
“1. Are you in favour of a water supply for the town of Athy?
2. If you are do you approve of Mr. Reades Modubeagh Water Scheme?”
The ballot papers, when collected and counted, showed that an overwhelming majority of the rate payers were not in favour of the Scheme. The result reviewed in hindsight was surprising but at least it was democratic and it recognised the right of the local people to participate in local government.
We have come a long way since but in some ways we have fossilised as today the elected representatives of our town spurn the request of the local people for a referendum on whether the Inner Relief Road proposal should go ahead. Their failure to accede to the legitimate and reasonable request clearly demonstrates that local government in Ireland, hyped by successive governments and ministers as based on democracy and partnership is nothing but a sham. The present Minister spoke last week of the need to strengthen the link between local government and local communities but, truly Athy stands as living proof that local government does not always serve the local community and that democracy and local government do not co-exist in our midst.
The Urban Council will have met to discuss yet again, the Town Development Plan with its Inner Relief Road proposal before this appears and may well have decided the issue in the same way as it was decided nine years and sixteen years ago. For you see the much vaunted hype about the Development Plan and the Inner Relief Road is an issue which comes up for review every five years or so and there is nothing to suggest that a decision by the Council to include the Inner Relief Road in the Development yet again will bring that particular piece of tarmacadamed lunacy any closer than it has been for the last twenty years.
The by-pass road for Athy has a better prospect of being put in place and much more quickly than the Inner Relief Road if only the town fathers would read the signs and follow the common sense route for the future development of the town. If some of them haven’t the time to prepare a few suitable words to celebrate the Centenary of local government in our town, then its hardly likely that they will have the foresight to look to the future and assess what needs to be done now to enable the commercial and residential elements of our town develop in a complementary and harmonious way.
Thursday, March 9, 2000
April/May 1915 - World War I
This week the people of Dublin have as their greatest worry the sorry state of public transport in the Capital, while their neighbours in County Kildare share worries and concerns of even more mundane nature. Eighty five years ago both shared a common cause of concern as the Great War which had been confidently expected to end before Christmas 1914 rumbled on, with no sign of any early conclusion. In the town of Athy which had seen so many young men succumb to the blandishments of the local recruiting officer, concern was deeply felt amongst the families living in the lanes and alleyways of the ancient town. That concern was not misplaced.
Between 21st April and 31st May, 1915 twenty-seven men from the town of Athy were killed on the battlefields of the First World War. In the same period approximately 108 men from the town were wounded.
It is a startling figure when you consider that they died over a 35 day period. Some days were worse than others. Four were killed on 26th April. Three men lost their lives on both 30th April and 25th April. The remainders of those who died did so during the month of May 1915, the bloodiest month for Athy in all the four years of the Great War.
War had raged in Europe since August 1914 but the opposing armies entrenched and facing each other across the battle lines of France and Belgium were stalemated. The Allies planned to break the deadlock with an attack on Turkey by means of an assault at Gallipoli in the South-West of the country. On 25th April the steam collier the River Clyde stood off the shores of Gallipoli. Within its hold among many regiments was the 1st Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, whose home barracks was at Naas. The regiments consisted mainly of men drawn from Dublin City and the County of Kildare.
That same morning, its sister Battalion, the 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was formed up in the trenches near the town of Ypres in Belgium. Both battalions were to attack enemy positions later that same day.
At daybreak the men of Kildare in the Dublin Fusiliers cooped up in the hold of the River Clyde launched themselves onto the Beach at Cape Helles in Gallipoli. They were met by the devastating fire power of the Turkish Army who, forewarned of the proposed landing, had brought up reinforcements. One Officer wrote :-
`The boats came in, they were met by a perfect tornado of fire, many men were killed and wounded in the boats, and wounded men were knocked over into the water and drowned, but they kept on, and the survivors jumped into the water in some cases up to their necks, and got ashore; but the slaughter was terrific’.
The men from Athy were lucky, although many were wounded, none would die that day. Five days later in defending the beachhead from a ferocious counter-attack by the Turks, John Farrell, Christopher Hanlon and Larry Kelly, all from Athy, were killed.
On that same day as the River Clyde steamed into Cape Helles the men of the first battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers marched in the early hours of the morning to the outskirts of the Belgian town of Ypres. The march by the heavily armed men was an extraordinary achievement. They struggled on the cobbled Belgian roads in the dark, burdened with all the trapping of an infantryman but still managed to march 30 miles to reach their intended positions. At 6.30am with the morning still shrouded in mist, the men of the Dublin Fusiliers left their trenches with the objective of capturing the town of St. Julien. Advancing in parade ground fashion towards the German trenches they were mowed down by the intense German machine gun fire. The Dublin Fusiliers suffered 510 casualties that morning.
Among the dead were Athy men William Supple, Moses Doyle, and Martin Halloran. Martin Halloran was a Sergeant with the Dublin Fusiliers. The Kildare Observer on the 10th July, 1915 published a description of the fighting at St. Julien by James Rogers, a soldier from Naas. Rogers who was severely wounded himself reported that Sergeant Halloran who had served in the regiment before the war had both his legs blown off by a shell during the German bombardment.
On the following day the German artillery went into action. In the ensuing bombardment Joseph Byrne, James Dillon, Christopher Power and Patrick Tierney, all from Athy were killed. Owen Kelly from Mount Hawkins, Athy was seriously wounded in this action and died of his wounds in a French Hospital on the 3rd May. His brother John Kelly serving with the Leinster Regiment in France would be killed in action almost three weeks later. The loss for the Kelly family at home in Athy would be compounded by the death in action of another of their sons, Denis Kelly of the Leinster Regiment. Denis died on 30th September, 1918, six weeks before the Great War came to an end.
It is difficult for us nowadays to imagine the devastation and loss felt at the time by parents and families in Athy as news of local mens’ deaths in April and May of 1915 filtered back to the town. What is certain is that the initial enthusiasm that had existed for enlisting in the Army quickly dissipated.
Frank Laird, an officer in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who was wounded in Gallipoli found himself on a recruiting drive in Kildare in 1916. Recruitment meetings were regularly held in Naas, Athy and Castledermot. He described the meetings as being large with imposing platforms of speakers. However, they met with little success. He did not feel aggrieved at this lack of success. As Laird put it :-
`To do Kildare justice it should be said that many parts, such as Naas and Athy in particular had already sent a noble proportion of volunteers to the front’.
The social and economic life of Athy did not easily recover from the losses suffered during the four years of the First World War. Indeed it might well be claimed with some justification that the consequences of the loss of so many local men effected successive generations to the extent that the social equilibrium of the town has never recovered. It’s an interesting thesis and one to which I propose to return at another time.
Between 21st April and 31st May, 1915 twenty-seven men from the town of Athy were killed on the battlefields of the First World War. In the same period approximately 108 men from the town were wounded.
It is a startling figure when you consider that they died over a 35 day period. Some days were worse than others. Four were killed on 26th April. Three men lost their lives on both 30th April and 25th April. The remainders of those who died did so during the month of May 1915, the bloodiest month for Athy in all the four years of the Great War.
War had raged in Europe since August 1914 but the opposing armies entrenched and facing each other across the battle lines of France and Belgium were stalemated. The Allies planned to break the deadlock with an attack on Turkey by means of an assault at Gallipoli in the South-West of the country. On 25th April the steam collier the River Clyde stood off the shores of Gallipoli. Within its hold among many regiments was the 1st Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, whose home barracks was at Naas. The regiments consisted mainly of men drawn from Dublin City and the County of Kildare.
That same morning, its sister Battalion, the 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was formed up in the trenches near the town of Ypres in Belgium. Both battalions were to attack enemy positions later that same day.
At daybreak the men of Kildare in the Dublin Fusiliers cooped up in the hold of the River Clyde launched themselves onto the Beach at Cape Helles in Gallipoli. They were met by the devastating fire power of the Turkish Army who, forewarned of the proposed landing, had brought up reinforcements. One Officer wrote :-
`The boats came in, they were met by a perfect tornado of fire, many men were killed and wounded in the boats, and wounded men were knocked over into the water and drowned, but they kept on, and the survivors jumped into the water in some cases up to their necks, and got ashore; but the slaughter was terrific’.
The men from Athy were lucky, although many were wounded, none would die that day. Five days later in defending the beachhead from a ferocious counter-attack by the Turks, John Farrell, Christopher Hanlon and Larry Kelly, all from Athy, were killed.
On that same day as the River Clyde steamed into Cape Helles the men of the first battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers marched in the early hours of the morning to the outskirts of the Belgian town of Ypres. The march by the heavily armed men was an extraordinary achievement. They struggled on the cobbled Belgian roads in the dark, burdened with all the trapping of an infantryman but still managed to march 30 miles to reach their intended positions. At 6.30am with the morning still shrouded in mist, the men of the Dublin Fusiliers left their trenches with the objective of capturing the town of St. Julien. Advancing in parade ground fashion towards the German trenches they were mowed down by the intense German machine gun fire. The Dublin Fusiliers suffered 510 casualties that morning.
Among the dead were Athy men William Supple, Moses Doyle, and Martin Halloran. Martin Halloran was a Sergeant with the Dublin Fusiliers. The Kildare Observer on the 10th July, 1915 published a description of the fighting at St. Julien by James Rogers, a soldier from Naas. Rogers who was severely wounded himself reported that Sergeant Halloran who had served in the regiment before the war had both his legs blown off by a shell during the German bombardment.
On the following day the German artillery went into action. In the ensuing bombardment Joseph Byrne, James Dillon, Christopher Power and Patrick Tierney, all from Athy were killed. Owen Kelly from Mount Hawkins, Athy was seriously wounded in this action and died of his wounds in a French Hospital on the 3rd May. His brother John Kelly serving with the Leinster Regiment in France would be killed in action almost three weeks later. The loss for the Kelly family at home in Athy would be compounded by the death in action of another of their sons, Denis Kelly of the Leinster Regiment. Denis died on 30th September, 1918, six weeks before the Great War came to an end.
It is difficult for us nowadays to imagine the devastation and loss felt at the time by parents and families in Athy as news of local mens’ deaths in April and May of 1915 filtered back to the town. What is certain is that the initial enthusiasm that had existed for enlisting in the Army quickly dissipated.
Frank Laird, an officer in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who was wounded in Gallipoli found himself on a recruiting drive in Kildare in 1916. Recruitment meetings were regularly held in Naas, Athy and Castledermot. He described the meetings as being large with imposing platforms of speakers. However, they met with little success. He did not feel aggrieved at this lack of success. As Laird put it :-
`To do Kildare justice it should be said that many parts, such as Naas and Athy in particular had already sent a noble proportion of volunteers to the front’.
The social and economic life of Athy did not easily recover from the losses suffered during the four years of the First World War. Indeed it might well be claimed with some justification that the consequences of the loss of so many local men effected successive generations to the extent that the social equilibrium of the town has never recovered. It’s an interesting thesis and one to which I propose to return at another time.
Thursday, March 2, 2000
Female Councillors and Athy U.D.C.
The first woman elected as a member of Athy Urban District Council was Miss Brigid Darby of Leinster Street, a National School teacher. Her name first appeared in the Minute Book of the Town Council when in November 1918 the Council passed a vote of thanks to Miss Darby and her colleague Miss Murphy “for their unselfish attention bestowed without hope of monetary reward and irrespective of class or creed on our afflicted townspeople during the present terrible influenza epidemic.” This was typical of the woman, of whom it was said when the unemployment money for Athy failed to arrive on one occasion and the poor of the town were left to face the following week without the means of buying food, went down to the office and paid in the amount required for the towns weekly dole payout.
Brigid Darby was an active secretary of the Gaelic League in Athy up to the mid-1920’s and almost inevitably found herself allied with the Fianna Fail party for whom she stood as a candidate in the Urban Council elections of 1928. She was duly elected and holds the distinction of being the first woman to sit on any of the corporate bodies having charge of the towns affairs since Athy was first chartered in 1515. She paid a very active part in the affairs of the town during her term of office as an Urban Councillor and she was re-elected for a further term of office in 1936. On that latter Council she was joined by Mrs. S. Doyle of The Bleach and when Miss Darby stood down at the August 1942 Election Mrs. Doyle was re-elected and also elected for the first time on that occasion was the third ever woman Councillor, Mrs. B. Whelan of Holmcroft.
Brigid Darby was also a member of Kildare County Council and many of it’s subsidiary bodies such as the County Board of Health, the Vocational Education Committee and the County Committee of Agriculture. She became a Director of the Tourist Development Association and was elected in the late 1930’s to the governing body of the National University of Ireland. She stood for the Dail in three occasions, each time failing to secure election. However, the 4,000 preference votes she obtained on her last attempt was sufficient to secure two Dail seats in County Kildare for the Fianna Fail party.
A firm believer in womens rights she was a prominent voice on the Urban Council during her period of office and the minutes of the Council meetings record her concern for the poor and underprivileged of Athy. Brigid Darby after her retirement as principal of Churchtown National School continued to live in Leinster Street until her death in April 1958.
The Urban Council elected in 1948 consisted of males only and so it remained in the elections of 1950, 1955, 1960 and 1967. It was not until 1974 that Mrs. Megan Maguire, wife of the local G.P., Dr. Brian Maguire was first elected to the Urban Council. Born in Manchester of Welsh parents, Megan a graduate of London University and a qualified social worker came to Athy with her husband in 1958. She was very involved in a number of community projects in the town and in 1966 she one of those responsible for the formation of the Care of the Elderly Committee. On the basis of her involvement in community matters Megan offered herself as an independent candidate in the local elections of 1974. She topped the poll and in June 1975 was elected by the members of the Urban Council as their Chairperson. To Megan Maguire fell the honour of being the first woman Chairperson of Athy Urban District Council and the first woman to be elected first citizen of the town since the town was incorporated by Henry VIII in 1515. Megan received the “Person of the Year Award” in 1976 for her voluntary services to Athy community and to the travelling people. Re-elected to the Council in 1979 she served from 1975 to 1985 and was joined for that second term by Mrs. Lenore O’Rourke-Glynn who was herself re-elected in 1985. Lenore served as Chairperson of the Urban District Council in 1986 but did not seek re-election in 1992. She is now an Assistant Secretary of the Irish Nursing Organisation and a Member of a number of important government agencies.
On Saturday 1st April, Athy Urban District Council will celebrate its centenary. The Urban Council was not of course the first Town Council but rather a refinement of what had gone before. The first Council for the town of Athy was established in 1515 by Henry VIII whose charter authorised the appointment of a Town Provost. Elected annually on the feast of St. Michael, the Arch angel, the Town Provost was to utilise the tolls collected on goods sold within the town boundaries for the purpose of building and maintaining the town walls. Incidentally, that same charter of 1515 gave to the townspeople the right to hold a town market every Tuesday, a right which is still exercised, but now by traders none of whom are residents of the town. A further Charter granted in 1613 by King James replaced the Provost with a Town Sovereign, although with somewhat similar powers. He was to head up a Borough Council consisting of twelve Burgesses all of whom were nominated for life by the town’s Landlord, the Duke of Leinster. It was not until the abolition of the Borough Council in 1840 and its replacement a few years later by a popularly elected Town Commissioner that Local Government as we know it today first emerged.
The function and role of the Town Commissioners were very limited and it was not until the setting up of the Urban District Council with extensive powers in 1900 that a potentially powerful tool of Local Government was first put in place. The Council’s affairs are managed by nine elected councillors with an executive headed up by the County Manager. The powers and functions of the councillors are reserved functions which only they can exercise while the County Manager has executive functions, the exercise of which is his perogative, by and large, free of the councillors control. The respective roles of the elected members and the County Manager can be broadly related to that of a Board of Directors and a Chief Executive. The elected Members determine policy and the level of funding while the County Manager deals with the day to day functions of the Council.
Local Government as an expression of the right of local people to have a say in how they are governed is only as good as those elected to safeguard the publics interest. Local Government in Athy has by and large being well served over the last 100 years even if the Council’s decisions or lack of them has at times created the illusion rather than the reality of Local Government.
Brigid Darby was an active secretary of the Gaelic League in Athy up to the mid-1920’s and almost inevitably found herself allied with the Fianna Fail party for whom she stood as a candidate in the Urban Council elections of 1928. She was duly elected and holds the distinction of being the first woman to sit on any of the corporate bodies having charge of the towns affairs since Athy was first chartered in 1515. She paid a very active part in the affairs of the town during her term of office as an Urban Councillor and she was re-elected for a further term of office in 1936. On that latter Council she was joined by Mrs. S. Doyle of The Bleach and when Miss Darby stood down at the August 1942 Election Mrs. Doyle was re-elected and also elected for the first time on that occasion was the third ever woman Councillor, Mrs. B. Whelan of Holmcroft.
Brigid Darby was also a member of Kildare County Council and many of it’s subsidiary bodies such as the County Board of Health, the Vocational Education Committee and the County Committee of Agriculture. She became a Director of the Tourist Development Association and was elected in the late 1930’s to the governing body of the National University of Ireland. She stood for the Dail in three occasions, each time failing to secure election. However, the 4,000 preference votes she obtained on her last attempt was sufficient to secure two Dail seats in County Kildare for the Fianna Fail party.
A firm believer in womens rights she was a prominent voice on the Urban Council during her period of office and the minutes of the Council meetings record her concern for the poor and underprivileged of Athy. Brigid Darby after her retirement as principal of Churchtown National School continued to live in Leinster Street until her death in April 1958.
The Urban Council elected in 1948 consisted of males only and so it remained in the elections of 1950, 1955, 1960 and 1967. It was not until 1974 that Mrs. Megan Maguire, wife of the local G.P., Dr. Brian Maguire was first elected to the Urban Council. Born in Manchester of Welsh parents, Megan a graduate of London University and a qualified social worker came to Athy with her husband in 1958. She was very involved in a number of community projects in the town and in 1966 she one of those responsible for the formation of the Care of the Elderly Committee. On the basis of her involvement in community matters Megan offered herself as an independent candidate in the local elections of 1974. She topped the poll and in June 1975 was elected by the members of the Urban Council as their Chairperson. To Megan Maguire fell the honour of being the first woman Chairperson of Athy Urban District Council and the first woman to be elected first citizen of the town since the town was incorporated by Henry VIII in 1515. Megan received the “Person of the Year Award” in 1976 for her voluntary services to Athy community and to the travelling people. Re-elected to the Council in 1979 she served from 1975 to 1985 and was joined for that second term by Mrs. Lenore O’Rourke-Glynn who was herself re-elected in 1985. Lenore served as Chairperson of the Urban District Council in 1986 but did not seek re-election in 1992. She is now an Assistant Secretary of the Irish Nursing Organisation and a Member of a number of important government agencies.
On Saturday 1st April, Athy Urban District Council will celebrate its centenary. The Urban Council was not of course the first Town Council but rather a refinement of what had gone before. The first Council for the town of Athy was established in 1515 by Henry VIII whose charter authorised the appointment of a Town Provost. Elected annually on the feast of St. Michael, the Arch angel, the Town Provost was to utilise the tolls collected on goods sold within the town boundaries for the purpose of building and maintaining the town walls. Incidentally, that same charter of 1515 gave to the townspeople the right to hold a town market every Tuesday, a right which is still exercised, but now by traders none of whom are residents of the town. A further Charter granted in 1613 by King James replaced the Provost with a Town Sovereign, although with somewhat similar powers. He was to head up a Borough Council consisting of twelve Burgesses all of whom were nominated for life by the town’s Landlord, the Duke of Leinster. It was not until the abolition of the Borough Council in 1840 and its replacement a few years later by a popularly elected Town Commissioner that Local Government as we know it today first emerged.
The function and role of the Town Commissioners were very limited and it was not until the setting up of the Urban District Council with extensive powers in 1900 that a potentially powerful tool of Local Government was first put in place. The Council’s affairs are managed by nine elected councillors with an executive headed up by the County Manager. The powers and functions of the councillors are reserved functions which only they can exercise while the County Manager has executive functions, the exercise of which is his perogative, by and large, free of the councillors control. The respective roles of the elected members and the County Manager can be broadly related to that of a Board of Directors and a Chief Executive. The elected Members determine policy and the level of funding while the County Manager deals with the day to day functions of the Council.
Local Government as an expression of the right of local people to have a say in how they are governed is only as good as those elected to safeguard the publics interest. Local Government in Athy has by and large being well served over the last 100 years even if the Council’s decisions or lack of them has at times created the illusion rather than the reality of Local Government.
Female Councillors and Athy U.D.C.
The first woman elected as a member of Athy Urban District Council was Miss Brigid Darby of Leinster Street, a National School teacher. Her name first appeared in the Minute Book of the Town Council when in November 1918 the Council passed a vote of thanks to Miss Darby and her colleague Miss Murphy “for their unselfish attention bestowed without hope of monetary reward and irrespective of class or creed on our afflicted townspeople during the present terrible influenza epidemic.” This was typical of the woman, of whom it was said when the unemployment money for Athy failed to arrive on one occasion and the poor of the town were left to face the following week without the means of buying food, went down to the office and paid in the amount required for the towns weekly dole payout.
Brigid Darby was an active secretary of the Gaelic League in Athy up to the mid-1920’s and almost inevitably found herself allied with the Fianna Fail party for whom she stood as a candidate in the Urban Council elections of 1928. She was duly elected and holds the distinction of being the first woman to sit on any of the corporate bodies having charge of the towns affairs since Athy was first chartered in 1515. She paid a very active part in the affairs of the town during her term of office as an Urban Councillor and she was re-elected for a further term of office in 1936. On that latter Council she was joined by Mrs. S. Doyle of The Bleach and when Miss Darby stood down at the August 1942 Election Mrs. Doyle was re-elected and also elected for the first time on that occasion was the third ever woman Councillor, Mrs. B. Whelan of Holmcroft.
Brigid Darby was also a member of Kildare County Council and many of it’s subsidiary bodies such as the County Board of Health, the Vocational Education Committee and the County Committee of Agriculture. She became a Director of the Tourist Development Association and was elected in the late 1930’s to the governing body of the National University of Ireland. She stood for the Dail in three occasions, each time failing to secure election. However, the 4,000 preference votes she obtained on her last attempt was sufficient to secure two Dail seats in County Kildare for the Fianna Fail party.
A firm believer in womens rights she was a prominent voice on the Urban Council during her period of office and the minutes of the Council meetings record her concern for the poor and underprivileged of Athy. Brigid Darby after her retirement as principal of Churchtown National School continued to live in Leinster Street until her death in April 1958.
The Urban Council elected in 1948 consisted of males only and so it remained in the elections of 1950, 1955, 1960 and 1967. It was not until 1974 that Mrs. Megan Maguire, wife of the local G.P., Dr. Brian Maguire was first elected to the Urban Council. Born in Manchester of Welsh parents, Megan a graduate of London University and a qualified social worker came to Athy with her husband in 1958. She was very involved in a number of community projects in the town and in 1966 she one of those responsible for the formation of the Care of the Elderly Committee. On the basis of her involvement in community matters Megan offered herself as an independent candidate in the local elections of 1974. She topped the poll and in June 1975 was elected by the members of the Urban Council as their Chairperson. To Megan Maguire fell the honour of being the first woman Chairperson of Athy Urban District Council and the first woman to be elected first citizen of the town since the town was incorporated by Henry VIII in 1515. Megan received the “Person of the Year Award” in 1976 for her voluntary services to Athy community and to the travelling people. Re-elected to the Council in 1979 she served from 1975 to 1985 and was joined for that second term by Mrs. Lenore O’Rourke-Glynn who was herself re-elected in 1985. Lenore served as Chairperson of the Urban District Council in 1986 but did not seek re-election in 1992. She is now an Assistant Secretary of the Irish Nursing Organisation and a Member of a number of important government agencies.
On Saturday 1st April, Athy Urban District Council will celebrate its centenary. The Urban Council was not of course the first Town Council but rather a refinement of what had gone before. The first Council for the town of Athy was established in 1515 by Henry VIII whose charter authorised the appointment of a Town Provost. Elected annually on the feast of St. Michael, the Arch angel, the Town Provost was to utilise the tolls collected on goods sold within the town boundaries for the purpose of building and maintaining the town walls. Incidentally, that same charter of 1515 gave to the townspeople the right to hold a town market every Tuesday, a right which is still exercised, but now by traders none of whom are residents of the town. A further Charter granted in 1613 by King James replaced the Provost with a Town Sovereign, although with somewhat similar powers. He was to head up a Borough Council consisting of twelve Burgesses all of whom were nominated for life by the town’s Landlord, the Duke of Leinster. It was not until the abolition of the Borough Council in 1840 and its replacement a few years later by a popularly elected Town Commissioner that Local Government as we know it today first emerged.
The function and role of the Town Commissioners were very limited and it was not until the setting up of the Urban District Council with extensive powers in 1900 that a potentially powerful tool of Local Government was first put in place. The Council’s affairs are managed by nine elected councillors with an executive headed up by the County Manager. The powers and functions of the councillors are reserved functions which only they can exercise while the County Manager has executive functions, the exercise of which is his perogative, by and large, free of the councillors control. The respective roles of the elected members and the County Manager can be broadly related to that of a Board of Directors and a Chief Executive. The elected Members determine policy and the level of funding while the County Manager deals with the day to day functions of the Council.
Local Government as an expression of the right of local people to have a say in how they are governed is only as good as those elected to safeguard the publics interest. Local Government in Athy has by and large being well served over the last 100 years even if the Council’s decisions or lack of them has at times created the illusion rather than the reality of Local Government.
Brigid Darby was an active secretary of the Gaelic League in Athy up to the mid-1920’s and almost inevitably found herself allied with the Fianna Fail party for whom she stood as a candidate in the Urban Council elections of 1928. She was duly elected and holds the distinction of being the first woman to sit on any of the corporate bodies having charge of the towns affairs since Athy was first chartered in 1515. She paid a very active part in the affairs of the town during her term of office as an Urban Councillor and she was re-elected for a further term of office in 1936. On that latter Council she was joined by Mrs. S. Doyle of The Bleach and when Miss Darby stood down at the August 1942 Election Mrs. Doyle was re-elected and also elected for the first time on that occasion was the third ever woman Councillor, Mrs. B. Whelan of Holmcroft.
Brigid Darby was also a member of Kildare County Council and many of it’s subsidiary bodies such as the County Board of Health, the Vocational Education Committee and the County Committee of Agriculture. She became a Director of the Tourist Development Association and was elected in the late 1930’s to the governing body of the National University of Ireland. She stood for the Dail in three occasions, each time failing to secure election. However, the 4,000 preference votes she obtained on her last attempt was sufficient to secure two Dail seats in County Kildare for the Fianna Fail party.
A firm believer in womens rights she was a prominent voice on the Urban Council during her period of office and the minutes of the Council meetings record her concern for the poor and underprivileged of Athy. Brigid Darby after her retirement as principal of Churchtown National School continued to live in Leinster Street until her death in April 1958.
The Urban Council elected in 1948 consisted of males only and so it remained in the elections of 1950, 1955, 1960 and 1967. It was not until 1974 that Mrs. Megan Maguire, wife of the local G.P., Dr. Brian Maguire was first elected to the Urban Council. Born in Manchester of Welsh parents, Megan a graduate of London University and a qualified social worker came to Athy with her husband in 1958. She was very involved in a number of community projects in the town and in 1966 she one of those responsible for the formation of the Care of the Elderly Committee. On the basis of her involvement in community matters Megan offered herself as an independent candidate in the local elections of 1974. She topped the poll and in June 1975 was elected by the members of the Urban Council as their Chairperson. To Megan Maguire fell the honour of being the first woman Chairperson of Athy Urban District Council and the first woman to be elected first citizen of the town since the town was incorporated by Henry VIII in 1515. Megan received the “Person of the Year Award” in 1976 for her voluntary services to Athy community and to the travelling people. Re-elected to the Council in 1979 she served from 1975 to 1985 and was joined for that second term by Mrs. Lenore O’Rourke-Glynn who was herself re-elected in 1985. Lenore served as Chairperson of the Urban District Council in 1986 but did not seek re-election in 1992. She is now an Assistant Secretary of the Irish Nursing Organisation and a Member of a number of important government agencies.
On Saturday 1st April, Athy Urban District Council will celebrate its centenary. The Urban Council was not of course the first Town Council but rather a refinement of what had gone before. The first Council for the town of Athy was established in 1515 by Henry VIII whose charter authorised the appointment of a Town Provost. Elected annually on the feast of St. Michael, the Arch angel, the Town Provost was to utilise the tolls collected on goods sold within the town boundaries for the purpose of building and maintaining the town walls. Incidentally, that same charter of 1515 gave to the townspeople the right to hold a town market every Tuesday, a right which is still exercised, but now by traders none of whom are residents of the town. A further Charter granted in 1613 by King James replaced the Provost with a Town Sovereign, although with somewhat similar powers. He was to head up a Borough Council consisting of twelve Burgesses all of whom were nominated for life by the town’s Landlord, the Duke of Leinster. It was not until the abolition of the Borough Council in 1840 and its replacement a few years later by a popularly elected Town Commissioner that Local Government as we know it today first emerged.
The function and role of the Town Commissioners were very limited and it was not until the setting up of the Urban District Council with extensive powers in 1900 that a potentially powerful tool of Local Government was first put in place. The Council’s affairs are managed by nine elected councillors with an executive headed up by the County Manager. The powers and functions of the councillors are reserved functions which only they can exercise while the County Manager has executive functions, the exercise of which is his perogative, by and large, free of the councillors control. The respective roles of the elected members and the County Manager can be broadly related to that of a Board of Directors and a Chief Executive. The elected Members determine policy and the level of funding while the County Manager deals with the day to day functions of the Council.
Local Government as an expression of the right of local people to have a say in how they are governed is only as good as those elected to safeguard the publics interest. Local Government in Athy has by and large being well served over the last 100 years even if the Council’s decisions or lack of them has at times created the illusion rather than the reality of Local Government.
Thursday, February 24, 2000
Dr. Kilbrides Campaign for Better Class Housing in Athy
On 3rd November, 1906 Dr. James Kilbride, the Medical Officer of Health reported to Athy Urban Council on the sanitary condition of what he termed “the houses of the working classes in Athy”.
“The floors in many houses are lower that the laneway in front and the fall of the yard is to the back door, consequently the floors are wet and sodden in rainy weather and frequently are flooded. In the yards are underground drains and they are found choked in most recent cases and quite ineffective. In less that a dozen cases was there found any sanitary accommodation ….. in some rooms the only light admitted is through a few [sometimes only one] small pane of glass found in the wall, sufficient light or air cannot find entrance to these rooms ….. there are many houses in more than one lane that if the poor people had other houses to go to should be closed as unfit for human habitation in their present condition ….. there is no main sewer in the west end of the town beyond Keating’s Lane ….. the Order of the Council with regard to the removal of manure heaps is not in force. In some yards there were accumulations for the greater part of the year.”
Having started work on the first water supply scheme for Athy just one month previously the Urban Councillors probably felt justified in leaving Dr. Kilbride’s report aside without taking any action. Instead the Council renewed its efforts to persuade the Inspector General of the R.I.C to have the local Police Barracks restored to the centre of the town as it was felt the old Military Barracks at Barrack Lane to where the R.I.C were re-located was too far away. Their efforts were in vain and the local Police were to continue to occupy the Military Barracks until the emergence of the Irish Free State.
Dr. Kilbride’s concern for the public health of the town found support in Lady Weldon of Kilmoroney who was instrumental in the formation in November 1907 of an Athy Branch of the Women’s Health Association. A Tuberculosis Committee was also formed and a series of health lectures organised for the town. In December 1907 a Tuberculosis Exhibition was held in the Town Hall at which members of the Tuberculosis Committee were on hand to explain the various exhibits to the general public who were summoned to attend by the local bellman. On 24th July, 1908 Lady Aberdeen, the Viceroy’s wife visited Athy to formally launch the newly established Women’s National Health Association in the town. The Leinster Street band met her at the Railway Station and paraded before her to the Town Hall. There she was presented with an address of welcome which referred to the formation of an Association “which is fervently hoped will tend to stem the ravages of a terrible disease that now annually claims such an appalling number of victims”.
The following year the Council appointed a Committee to recommend a scheme of houses under the Housing of the Working Classes Act. This Committee when it met on 26th February split into two groups to select suitable sites for housing in the east and the west urban areas of Athy. Within a month sites had been selected and the Council agreed to build three different classes of houses to be let at rents ranging from two shillings to 3/6 per week. The selected sites were at Matthew’s Lane [off Leinster Street], Meeting Lane and Woodstock Street. Public advertisements for plans suitable for housing in Athy elicited ten submissions and James F. Reade, already well known as the Architect of the towns Water Supply Scheme, won the five guineas prize for his designs.
By July 1910 The Council members were re-thinking their original housing plans and decided to build eleven “better class houses” on the Matthew’s Lane site, as well as five “better class houses” at Woodstock Street with five labourers houses at Meeting Lane. A public enquiry was held in the Town Hall on 15th February, 1911 under the auspices of J.F. MacCabe, a Local Government Inspector to consider the Council’s proposed compulsory purchase of lands for housing in the town. Following the enquiry advertisements were placed inviting tenders for the construction of twenty one houses, ten at Matthew’s Lane, five at Meeting Lane and six at Kelly’s field off Woodstock Street. The successful tender was received from H.A. Hamilton of Thomas St., Waterford, but when it was not acted upon after the elapse of ten months Mr. Hamilton withdrew his tender. The Council re-advertised on 26th of June, 1912, but not before Michael Malone, Secretary of Athy Town Tenants League had written to the Town Council protesting against “it’s inactivity in relation to house building”. Within a month Dr. James Kilbride had resigned as Medical Officer of Health due to health problems. His campaign for better housing for the people of Athy was reaching a successful conclusion as within four days of his resignation three builders submitted tenders for the three small housing schemes. D&J Carbery were to build ten houses at Matthew’s Lane for £2,544.7.11, Michael Sweeney of Portarlington six houses at Woodstock Street for £1,264.2.10 and D. Twomey of Leinster St. five houses at Meeting Lane for £704.10.
Work soon started on the first public housing scheme in Athy with the Council agreeing to build an additional house at Matthew’s Lane. By February 1913 the houses were ready for occupation and the Council members met in February to fix the rents which ranged from three shillings for Meeting Lane, four shillings for Woodstock Street and five shillings for Matthew’s Lane.
The following month the first Council tenants were appointed to the Matthew’s Lane houses which were renamed St. Michael’s Terrace, to the Meeting Lane houses and to the Woodstock Street houses which were renamed St. Martin’s Terrace.
In December 1913 the Town Clerk reported to the Council that 22 houses had been built as part of the towns first housing scheme. Despite the fact that these houses had been provided under the Houses of the Working Classes Act the Town Clerk was moved to say :- “the houses are all occupied principally by artisans. None of the tenants belong to the labouring classes”. Michael Malone at the same meeting acknowledged that the Council’s conscience in the matter of working class housing in Athy “was first awakened by a report by Dr. James Kilbride, late Medical Office of Health in 1906. In consequence of this report the Council took the matter up and appointed a Committee to examine the conditions of the houses and make recommendations. The Committee examined every house in Athy and prepared a lengthy report and recommended to the Council the immediate necessity of issuing notices under the Public Health Act to compel the landlords to deal with their houses properly in the ways recommended by Dr. Kilbride. The great majority ignored the notices and the Council at that time were not courageous enough to tackle the problem in the manner laid down in the Public Health Act. The Council were deterred by the threats of a few landlords that if they were compelled to spend money on the houses they would evict the tenants and close up the houses ….. private enterprise in house building has long since ceased in Athy …..”
The local people living in the unsanitary conditions outlined by Dr. Kilbride in his 1906 report had to wait for the housing initiative and Slum Clearance Programme which followed the general election of 1932 before they were re-housed out of the unhealthy slums which made up most of the town’s housing accommodation at the turn of the century. Dr. James Kilbride, for so long Medical Officer of Health for Athy and the man who spearheaded the drive to improve the sanitary conditions of Athy, died in 1925. He lived to see the town’s first piped water supply scheme and the construction of the first local authority houses in Athy.
“The floors in many houses are lower that the laneway in front and the fall of the yard is to the back door, consequently the floors are wet and sodden in rainy weather and frequently are flooded. In the yards are underground drains and they are found choked in most recent cases and quite ineffective. In less that a dozen cases was there found any sanitary accommodation ….. in some rooms the only light admitted is through a few [sometimes only one] small pane of glass found in the wall, sufficient light or air cannot find entrance to these rooms ….. there are many houses in more than one lane that if the poor people had other houses to go to should be closed as unfit for human habitation in their present condition ….. there is no main sewer in the west end of the town beyond Keating’s Lane ….. the Order of the Council with regard to the removal of manure heaps is not in force. In some yards there were accumulations for the greater part of the year.”
Having started work on the first water supply scheme for Athy just one month previously the Urban Councillors probably felt justified in leaving Dr. Kilbride’s report aside without taking any action. Instead the Council renewed its efforts to persuade the Inspector General of the R.I.C to have the local Police Barracks restored to the centre of the town as it was felt the old Military Barracks at Barrack Lane to where the R.I.C were re-located was too far away. Their efforts were in vain and the local Police were to continue to occupy the Military Barracks until the emergence of the Irish Free State.
Dr. Kilbride’s concern for the public health of the town found support in Lady Weldon of Kilmoroney who was instrumental in the formation in November 1907 of an Athy Branch of the Women’s Health Association. A Tuberculosis Committee was also formed and a series of health lectures organised for the town. In December 1907 a Tuberculosis Exhibition was held in the Town Hall at which members of the Tuberculosis Committee were on hand to explain the various exhibits to the general public who were summoned to attend by the local bellman. On 24th July, 1908 Lady Aberdeen, the Viceroy’s wife visited Athy to formally launch the newly established Women’s National Health Association in the town. The Leinster Street band met her at the Railway Station and paraded before her to the Town Hall. There she was presented with an address of welcome which referred to the formation of an Association “which is fervently hoped will tend to stem the ravages of a terrible disease that now annually claims such an appalling number of victims”.
The following year the Council appointed a Committee to recommend a scheme of houses under the Housing of the Working Classes Act. This Committee when it met on 26th February split into two groups to select suitable sites for housing in the east and the west urban areas of Athy. Within a month sites had been selected and the Council agreed to build three different classes of houses to be let at rents ranging from two shillings to 3/6 per week. The selected sites were at Matthew’s Lane [off Leinster Street], Meeting Lane and Woodstock Street. Public advertisements for plans suitable for housing in Athy elicited ten submissions and James F. Reade, already well known as the Architect of the towns Water Supply Scheme, won the five guineas prize for his designs.
By July 1910 The Council members were re-thinking their original housing plans and decided to build eleven “better class houses” on the Matthew’s Lane site, as well as five “better class houses” at Woodstock Street with five labourers houses at Meeting Lane. A public enquiry was held in the Town Hall on 15th February, 1911 under the auspices of J.F. MacCabe, a Local Government Inspector to consider the Council’s proposed compulsory purchase of lands for housing in the town. Following the enquiry advertisements were placed inviting tenders for the construction of twenty one houses, ten at Matthew’s Lane, five at Meeting Lane and six at Kelly’s field off Woodstock Street. The successful tender was received from H.A. Hamilton of Thomas St., Waterford, but when it was not acted upon after the elapse of ten months Mr. Hamilton withdrew his tender. The Council re-advertised on 26th of June, 1912, but not before Michael Malone, Secretary of Athy Town Tenants League had written to the Town Council protesting against “it’s inactivity in relation to house building”. Within a month Dr. James Kilbride had resigned as Medical Officer of Health due to health problems. His campaign for better housing for the people of Athy was reaching a successful conclusion as within four days of his resignation three builders submitted tenders for the three small housing schemes. D&J Carbery were to build ten houses at Matthew’s Lane for £2,544.7.11, Michael Sweeney of Portarlington six houses at Woodstock Street for £1,264.2.10 and D. Twomey of Leinster St. five houses at Meeting Lane for £704.10.
Work soon started on the first public housing scheme in Athy with the Council agreeing to build an additional house at Matthew’s Lane. By February 1913 the houses were ready for occupation and the Council members met in February to fix the rents which ranged from three shillings for Meeting Lane, four shillings for Woodstock Street and five shillings for Matthew’s Lane.
The following month the first Council tenants were appointed to the Matthew’s Lane houses which were renamed St. Michael’s Terrace, to the Meeting Lane houses and to the Woodstock Street houses which were renamed St. Martin’s Terrace.
In December 1913 the Town Clerk reported to the Council that 22 houses had been built as part of the towns first housing scheme. Despite the fact that these houses had been provided under the Houses of the Working Classes Act the Town Clerk was moved to say :- “the houses are all occupied principally by artisans. None of the tenants belong to the labouring classes”. Michael Malone at the same meeting acknowledged that the Council’s conscience in the matter of working class housing in Athy “was first awakened by a report by Dr. James Kilbride, late Medical Office of Health in 1906. In consequence of this report the Council took the matter up and appointed a Committee to examine the conditions of the houses and make recommendations. The Committee examined every house in Athy and prepared a lengthy report and recommended to the Council the immediate necessity of issuing notices under the Public Health Act to compel the landlords to deal with their houses properly in the ways recommended by Dr. Kilbride. The great majority ignored the notices and the Council at that time were not courageous enough to tackle the problem in the manner laid down in the Public Health Act. The Council were deterred by the threats of a few landlords that if they were compelled to spend money on the houses they would evict the tenants and close up the houses ….. private enterprise in house building has long since ceased in Athy …..”
The local people living in the unsanitary conditions outlined by Dr. Kilbride in his 1906 report had to wait for the housing initiative and Slum Clearance Programme which followed the general election of 1932 before they were re-housed out of the unhealthy slums which made up most of the town’s housing accommodation at the turn of the century. Dr. James Kilbride, for so long Medical Officer of Health for Athy and the man who spearheaded the drive to improve the sanitary conditions of Athy, died in 1925. He lived to see the town’s first piped water supply scheme and the construction of the first local authority houses in Athy.
Thursday, February 17, 2000
Athy First Water Supply Scheme
Athy was re-constituted as an Urban District Council under the Local Government Act, 1898 with effect from 1st April, 1900. The Members of the Town Commissioners, fifteen in all, remained on as Urban District Councillors under the Chairmanship of Matthew J. Minch M.P. Dr. James Kilbride as Medical Officer of Health for the area had consistently warned the Town Council of the need for a wholesome supply of water for the people of the town. On 20th October he wrote to the new Urban Council regarding the epidemic of gastro-enteritic in Athy which he felt was due to the impure water supply. At that time there were eight public wells to meet the needs of the locals and several of these were polluted. Dr. Kilbride who took samples of the local water and sent them to Sir Charles Cameron of Dublin for analysis could claim that “of the seventeen samples sent, not one could be classed as good potable water”.
The Local Government Board which had responsibility for all Local Authorities in Ireland at the time sent it’s Medical Inspector Dr. Edgar Flinn to Athy on 7th December, 1900 to report on the sanitary conditions of the town. What he found should have been a source of concern to the town fathers. “The present system of water supply to Athy cannot be regarded by any means as satisfactory. The main sources of supply are derived from pump wells situated within closely inhabited areas and from their filthy construction are liable to contamination ….. Athy has a population of about 5,000 people and the question of providing a supply of pure water for this large community is of most vital importance and should engage the serious and sustained attention of the Council”.
The Councillors subsequently received a proposal from Mr. James F. Reade, an Engineer from Kilkenny to take a water supply for the town from Modubeagh, but before proceeding decided to hold a referendum of the ratepayers on the issue. Ballot papers were distributed on Friday, 29th March 1901 and collected on the following Monday in which the following questions were put to the people.
1. Are you in favour of a water scheme for the town of Athy?
2. If you are, do you approve of Mr. Reade’s Modubeagh water scheme?
The ballot papers when counted proved a disappointment for Dr. Kilbride and the Local Government Board for while 190 ratepayers approved of the water scheme, 371 disapproved. The following May two deaths occurred due to typhoid fever, caused it was believed by the town’s contaminated water pumps. Dr. Kilbride was moved to castigate the Councillors for “neglecting their duty in not providing the people with pure water” after further cases of typhoid fever were later reported.
Some concerned ratepayers now petitioned the Local Government Board in relation to a water scheme and sewerage scheme for Athy. In reply the Urban Councillors responded that owing to the “adverse vote of the ratepayers nothing definite had been done towards providing a general water scheme, but that the Council had temporarily closed two of the eight sources of public water supply owing to their being unfit for drinking purposes”.
Again the Local Government Board sent down it’s Medical Officer, Dr. Edgar Flinn to Athy to hold another enquiry into the sanitary condition of the Town. As a result in November 1901 the Local Councillors agreed to adopt Mr. Reade’s Modubeagh Water Scheme, subject to Mr. Reade guaranteeing “it will not cost more than £7,000 when completed and fully equipped”. Mr. Reade confirmed his figure at £6,414.9.4.
In October 1902 plans for the proposed water scheme were received by the Urban Council. Councillor Michael Malone who was vehemently opposed to the water scheme sought to have the Council’s Application for Loan Approval rejected by the Local Government Board. Notwithstanding this a Bill to confirm the Provisional Order for Athy’s Water Works was read for the first time in the House of Commons in London on 6th May, 1903. There was no further development during 1903 and 1904 and two years were to pass before the Council passed a further Resolution “that the carrying out of the water scheme be deferred for the present owing to the unsatisfactory financial position of the Council”. Mr. Reade’s plans were returned to him and the disappointed man sued the Council for monies which were then due. He later withdrew the legal proceedings after receiving £48.17 shillings of the local ratepayers money. While protesting its inability to finance the water scheme the Council agreed to seek the views of the Local Ratepayers Protection Association on the water supply system for the town. The Association promptly replied that since the scheme was shelved “it was not necessary to offer any Opinion”.
The Local Government Board, frustrated at the failure of Athy Urban District Council to deal with the water supply crisis then wrote to the Town Clerk requiring his Council “to procure a supply of pure water for the town.” The letter received in August 1905 was not dealt with until 16th October when a Resolution was passed in line with the Board’s letter despite the opposition of Michael Malone and a few others.
Mr. Reade was again appointed as Engineer for the Scheme and tenders were invited for the construction of a service reservoir and the laying of 10 ¾ miles of 6inch to 3inch cast iron pipes, together with all ancillary works. Jeremiah Fitzpatrick and the Stanton Iron Works Company were the successful Contractors. Work on the Scheme commenced in October 1906 and was completed in April 1907.
Following the successful completion of Athy’s first piped water scheme the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association presented two troughs to the town in 1907, one to be erected in Woodstock Street opposite Higginsons’ Lane, the other in Leinster Street. At the same time the Duke of Leinster presented a fountain for the use of the people of Athy which was positioned to the front of Emily Square. On 20th July, 1908 the Council recorded its satisfaction with the services of James F. Reade, the Author and Engineer of the Athy Waterworks Scheme. “His work has given constant satisfaction and are of great benefit.”
Dr. Kilbride noted with quiet satisfaction that the provisions of a piped water supply from Modubeagh had a beneficial effect on the public health of the town. Nevertheless, he was not about to embark on the second leg of his social crusade, the provision of adequate housing for the “working classes” of the town.
The Local Government Board which had responsibility for all Local Authorities in Ireland at the time sent it’s Medical Inspector Dr. Edgar Flinn to Athy on 7th December, 1900 to report on the sanitary conditions of the town. What he found should have been a source of concern to the town fathers. “The present system of water supply to Athy cannot be regarded by any means as satisfactory. The main sources of supply are derived from pump wells situated within closely inhabited areas and from their filthy construction are liable to contamination ….. Athy has a population of about 5,000 people and the question of providing a supply of pure water for this large community is of most vital importance and should engage the serious and sustained attention of the Council”.
The Councillors subsequently received a proposal from Mr. James F. Reade, an Engineer from Kilkenny to take a water supply for the town from Modubeagh, but before proceeding decided to hold a referendum of the ratepayers on the issue. Ballot papers were distributed on Friday, 29th March 1901 and collected on the following Monday in which the following questions were put to the people.
1. Are you in favour of a water scheme for the town of Athy?
2. If you are, do you approve of Mr. Reade’s Modubeagh water scheme?
The ballot papers when counted proved a disappointment for Dr. Kilbride and the Local Government Board for while 190 ratepayers approved of the water scheme, 371 disapproved. The following May two deaths occurred due to typhoid fever, caused it was believed by the town’s contaminated water pumps. Dr. Kilbride was moved to castigate the Councillors for “neglecting their duty in not providing the people with pure water” after further cases of typhoid fever were later reported.
Some concerned ratepayers now petitioned the Local Government Board in relation to a water scheme and sewerage scheme for Athy. In reply the Urban Councillors responded that owing to the “adverse vote of the ratepayers nothing definite had been done towards providing a general water scheme, but that the Council had temporarily closed two of the eight sources of public water supply owing to their being unfit for drinking purposes”.
Again the Local Government Board sent down it’s Medical Officer, Dr. Edgar Flinn to Athy to hold another enquiry into the sanitary condition of the Town. As a result in November 1901 the Local Councillors agreed to adopt Mr. Reade’s Modubeagh Water Scheme, subject to Mr. Reade guaranteeing “it will not cost more than £7,000 when completed and fully equipped”. Mr. Reade confirmed his figure at £6,414.9.4.
In October 1902 plans for the proposed water scheme were received by the Urban Council. Councillor Michael Malone who was vehemently opposed to the water scheme sought to have the Council’s Application for Loan Approval rejected by the Local Government Board. Notwithstanding this a Bill to confirm the Provisional Order for Athy’s Water Works was read for the first time in the House of Commons in London on 6th May, 1903. There was no further development during 1903 and 1904 and two years were to pass before the Council passed a further Resolution “that the carrying out of the water scheme be deferred for the present owing to the unsatisfactory financial position of the Council”. Mr. Reade’s plans were returned to him and the disappointed man sued the Council for monies which were then due. He later withdrew the legal proceedings after receiving £48.17 shillings of the local ratepayers money. While protesting its inability to finance the water scheme the Council agreed to seek the views of the Local Ratepayers Protection Association on the water supply system for the town. The Association promptly replied that since the scheme was shelved “it was not necessary to offer any Opinion”.
The Local Government Board, frustrated at the failure of Athy Urban District Council to deal with the water supply crisis then wrote to the Town Clerk requiring his Council “to procure a supply of pure water for the town.” The letter received in August 1905 was not dealt with until 16th October when a Resolution was passed in line with the Board’s letter despite the opposition of Michael Malone and a few others.
Mr. Reade was again appointed as Engineer for the Scheme and tenders were invited for the construction of a service reservoir and the laying of 10 ¾ miles of 6inch to 3inch cast iron pipes, together with all ancillary works. Jeremiah Fitzpatrick and the Stanton Iron Works Company were the successful Contractors. Work on the Scheme commenced in October 1906 and was completed in April 1907.
Following the successful completion of Athy’s first piped water scheme the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association presented two troughs to the town in 1907, one to be erected in Woodstock Street opposite Higginsons’ Lane, the other in Leinster Street. At the same time the Duke of Leinster presented a fountain for the use of the people of Athy which was positioned to the front of Emily Square. On 20th July, 1908 the Council recorded its satisfaction with the services of James F. Reade, the Author and Engineer of the Athy Waterworks Scheme. “His work has given constant satisfaction and are of great benefit.”
Dr. Kilbride noted with quiet satisfaction that the provisions of a piped water supply from Modubeagh had a beneficial effect on the public health of the town. Nevertheless, he was not about to embark on the second leg of his social crusade, the provision of adequate housing for the “working classes” of the town.
Thursday, February 10, 2000
Judge Seamus Mahon
I can still vividly remember the first time I made an appearance as a Solicitor before a Judge in the local Courthouse. The avuncular sociable gentleman who presided over Athy District Court in those days was Judge Seamus Mahon who before his appointment to the Bench was a Solicitor in Tullamore. I was somewhat anxious despite the fact that I had spent my youth in Athy, perhaps because the setting was an unusual one for a local lad. I had spent twenty years out of Athy, the place where as a young fellow I had gone to school, played my football and did my courting, not necessarily in that order, before decamping for the inner regions of County Kildare, specifically Naas of the Kings.
For some people a Courtroom conjures up images of a world inhabited by Perry Mason and his ilk, complete with suave talk and witty repostes, which are so much a part of the American legal dramas. The reality of the Irish Court could not be further removed from the TV depiction of the American Courtroom scene. In the District Court the average Solicitor is burdened with nothing more lethal than a traffic violation or perhaps a public order offence. Not much scope in either for the devastating cross-examination or the telling aside with which TV legal dramas seem so handsomely endowed. Real life is always so much more mundane than anything ever subjected to the scrutiny of the camera, but nevertheless there is always the expectation and perhaps in some, the hope, that some scintilla of excitement might be instilled into the sparse legal proceedings of the Irish Courtroom.
To return to my first day in the Courtroom in Athy. I stood before Judge Seamus Mahon, who was an experienced and humane lawyer and the essence of kindness to the apologetic bumbling Solicitor who contrived on his debut to make his client not only feel guilty of the charge against him, but deserving also of the full measure of punishment which the law might impose. Judge Mahon however made allowances for the self conscious young Solicitor and contrived to save him and his bemused client from such an undeserving fate.
Seamus Mahon died recently, long after he had retired from the Bench. He was District Justice for Athy for approximately 14 years, during which time the Hole in the Wall gang and their younger compatriots the Crack in the Wall were alive and kicking in every sense of the word. The social problems posed by the members of these gangs were clearly identified, but somehow or other the authorities were not geared to dealing with them. It fell to the legal system to provide a deterrent against the continuation of anti social behaviour, and in the front line of that fight against crime was the local District Justice Seamus Mahon.
His understanding of the difficulties posed for victims of crime pre-dated the development of victim support groups, while those who stood charged with offences against persons or property were always assured of a fair hearing. This is as one would expect from a Judge of an Irish Court but somehow or other there always seemed to be an abundance of “fairness” when one argued or presented a case to the pleasant and even tempered man from the Midlands. Maybe it was his sociable qualities which made Seamus Mahon so willing to see the good in everyone, no matter in what circumstances they came before him. Such is the starkness of the Irish Legal System that those who appear before the Courts at the suit of the public prosecutor always seem stripped of their dignity and pride. Not so where those brought before Athy District Court were concerned for Judge Mahon had a convincingly pleasant manner which put litigants and witnesses alike at ease, thereby contributing hugely to the publics perception of the fairness and even handiness of the procedures at the local District Court.
Following Seamus Mahon’s recent passing fulsome and well deserved tributes were paid to his memory by Cyril Osborne on behalf of the local Solicitors, also by Superintendent Maurice Regan, the District Court Clerk and the presiding Judge Mary Martin. All acknowledged the generous spirit of the man whose demeanour on and off the bench endeared him to all with whom he came in contact.
I attended the removal of the remains to the Church of the Assumption in Tullamore and was charmed with the delightful interior features of the Church which was rebuilt following a fire some years ago. This was my first visit to Tullamore’s Parish Church and little did I know that within another few weeks I would return to it for yet another funeral. On the second occasion the funeral was for Peter Clancy Boyd, like Seamus Mahon a Tullamore man with links to the town of Athy. In Clancy’s case the connection went back forty years and first arose when his building company was employed to build a 36 house scheme for the local Urban District Council at Woodstock Street. This was the first of many building contracts which Clancy’s firm was to have with both Athy Urban District Council and Kildare County Council. The first contract was for the building of St. Dominic’s Park, one of the best housing schemes ever financed by the local Council. Peter Clancy or Clancy as he was known far and wide, was one of lifes gentlemen whose honesty and geniality belied a sharp business brain. He retired some years ago from the business he had founded and passed the reins of authority to his son Pat.
Mention of the Urban Council brings to mind that the centenary of the first meeting of the then newly constituted Urban District Council occurs on 2nd April next. The Chairman of the Council in 1900 was Matthew J. Minch M.P. who had occupied the same position on the Town Commissioners which preceded the Urban Council. One hundred years ago the town fathers were concerned with such “weighty” matters as the sale of unsalted butter in Athy’s butter market and the abatement of nuisances at the railway wall at the top of Leinster Street. The nature of the nuisance was not identified but the 15 members of the Council felt that the only solution was the removal of the wall with the two streets being brought to the same level. The wall remains in situ while the Councillors have long passed on. Over the next few weeks I will take a look back at the early years of the Urban Council and some of the controversies which engaged local politicians of a hundred years ago.
For some people a Courtroom conjures up images of a world inhabited by Perry Mason and his ilk, complete with suave talk and witty repostes, which are so much a part of the American legal dramas. The reality of the Irish Court could not be further removed from the TV depiction of the American Courtroom scene. In the District Court the average Solicitor is burdened with nothing more lethal than a traffic violation or perhaps a public order offence. Not much scope in either for the devastating cross-examination or the telling aside with which TV legal dramas seem so handsomely endowed. Real life is always so much more mundane than anything ever subjected to the scrutiny of the camera, but nevertheless there is always the expectation and perhaps in some, the hope, that some scintilla of excitement might be instilled into the sparse legal proceedings of the Irish Courtroom.
To return to my first day in the Courtroom in Athy. I stood before Judge Seamus Mahon, who was an experienced and humane lawyer and the essence of kindness to the apologetic bumbling Solicitor who contrived on his debut to make his client not only feel guilty of the charge against him, but deserving also of the full measure of punishment which the law might impose. Judge Mahon however made allowances for the self conscious young Solicitor and contrived to save him and his bemused client from such an undeserving fate.
Seamus Mahon died recently, long after he had retired from the Bench. He was District Justice for Athy for approximately 14 years, during which time the Hole in the Wall gang and their younger compatriots the Crack in the Wall were alive and kicking in every sense of the word. The social problems posed by the members of these gangs were clearly identified, but somehow or other the authorities were not geared to dealing with them. It fell to the legal system to provide a deterrent against the continuation of anti social behaviour, and in the front line of that fight against crime was the local District Justice Seamus Mahon.
His understanding of the difficulties posed for victims of crime pre-dated the development of victim support groups, while those who stood charged with offences against persons or property were always assured of a fair hearing. This is as one would expect from a Judge of an Irish Court but somehow or other there always seemed to be an abundance of “fairness” when one argued or presented a case to the pleasant and even tempered man from the Midlands. Maybe it was his sociable qualities which made Seamus Mahon so willing to see the good in everyone, no matter in what circumstances they came before him. Such is the starkness of the Irish Legal System that those who appear before the Courts at the suit of the public prosecutor always seem stripped of their dignity and pride. Not so where those brought before Athy District Court were concerned for Judge Mahon had a convincingly pleasant manner which put litigants and witnesses alike at ease, thereby contributing hugely to the publics perception of the fairness and even handiness of the procedures at the local District Court.
Following Seamus Mahon’s recent passing fulsome and well deserved tributes were paid to his memory by Cyril Osborne on behalf of the local Solicitors, also by Superintendent Maurice Regan, the District Court Clerk and the presiding Judge Mary Martin. All acknowledged the generous spirit of the man whose demeanour on and off the bench endeared him to all with whom he came in contact.
I attended the removal of the remains to the Church of the Assumption in Tullamore and was charmed with the delightful interior features of the Church which was rebuilt following a fire some years ago. This was my first visit to Tullamore’s Parish Church and little did I know that within another few weeks I would return to it for yet another funeral. On the second occasion the funeral was for Peter Clancy Boyd, like Seamus Mahon a Tullamore man with links to the town of Athy. In Clancy’s case the connection went back forty years and first arose when his building company was employed to build a 36 house scheme for the local Urban District Council at Woodstock Street. This was the first of many building contracts which Clancy’s firm was to have with both Athy Urban District Council and Kildare County Council. The first contract was for the building of St. Dominic’s Park, one of the best housing schemes ever financed by the local Council. Peter Clancy or Clancy as he was known far and wide, was one of lifes gentlemen whose honesty and geniality belied a sharp business brain. He retired some years ago from the business he had founded and passed the reins of authority to his son Pat.
Mention of the Urban Council brings to mind that the centenary of the first meeting of the then newly constituted Urban District Council occurs on 2nd April next. The Chairman of the Council in 1900 was Matthew J. Minch M.P. who had occupied the same position on the Town Commissioners which preceded the Urban Council. One hundred years ago the town fathers were concerned with such “weighty” matters as the sale of unsalted butter in Athy’s butter market and the abatement of nuisances at the railway wall at the top of Leinster Street. The nature of the nuisance was not identified but the 15 members of the Council felt that the only solution was the removal of the wall with the two streets being brought to the same level. The wall remains in situ while the Councillors have long passed on. Over the next few weeks I will take a look back at the early years of the Urban Council and some of the controversies which engaged local politicians of a hundred years ago.
Thursday, February 3, 2000
Jack L.
The past week has left its mark in so many different ways on the community of Athy. On Friday night we tuned into the Late Late Show on RTE to eye with the rest of Ireland the glamorous world of fashion as the supermodels paraded up and down the catwalk at The Point in Dublin. Amongst them was a local girl, Jane Bradbury, daughter of Jimmy and Kay Bradbury of Ardreigh. She has carved a niche for herself in the high-flying world of fashion. Good to see a local girl do so well.
On the following night quite a lot of Athy folk decamped to the same venue in the docklands of Dublin to attend a concert by the singer known as Jack L. The “L” hides the surname Loughman, Jack being the son of Sean and Rose Loughman of Bennetsbridge. Athy folk gave him great support for what was the biggest concert date of his career to date and how well he responded to the adulation and applause which greeted him as he came out on the stage. His was a virtuoso performance, at times teasing his audience while all the time holding them spellbound with the depth and range of his singing. I have to admit to feeling somewhat out of place when I encountered the first young feathered boa wearer in the foyer of The Point prior to the concert. Apparently, this was an artful take-off of the artist himself who, towards the end of his performance, brought his own feathered boa into use much to the delight of his audience.
I was seated about six rows from the front where apparently the really serious Jack L. aficionados were to be found. The serious looking female civil service type of indeterminate age who sat to my left was a model of discretion prior to Jack’s appearance on stage. Upon his arrival, her overcoat came off, her hands were thrust up in the air and kept there throughout the performance, clapping to the beat while her normally staid body swayed and bobbed to the music. To my right were two younger females, obviously from the northern part of the island, whose accents recognised no borders where good music was concerned. They too took to the restricted space between the seats with an abandon bordering on the reckless as they swayed this way and that, oblivious to the bemused look on the face of the “middle-aged” man who demurely kept his posterior on the seat he had secured for the night at no little expense.
No doubt about it, Jack L is good. The CDs released by him to date easily confirm that fact. What the CDs cannot however capture, is the verve and the gutsy performance which is all part of the live gig. He strutted, he grinned, he teased, he postured and then he exploded in a cacophony of sound with a performance which, from first to last, was a pleasure to see and later to remember. It was a truly great performance from the former Scoil Eoin student who, as far as I can recall, once filled the ranks of the chorus in a musical put on in the local school.
It was also great to see so many from Athy amongst the appreciative audience. Not many of us elder citizenry would normally have the opportunity to mingle among the hallowed portals of The Point and so the chance to cheer on Sean and Rose Loughman’s son on his big night out was not an opportunity to be missed.
A few days later, we had occasion as a local community to share again, this time in grief, the sad news which came to us from across the world. Four young men, who had earlier in the day, set off no doubt in good spirits to start a well earned break from peace-keeping duties in the Lebanon were to die tragically before the day was out. As the news filtered back, first to Dublin, and then to the local community in South Kildare there was a palpable sense of loss that ones so young should be cut down so tragically in their prime.
Not for the first time the entire area was plunged into sadness by the uncomprehending, yet fateful turn of events which left local families without loved ones. Athy, over the years has borne the scars of many unhappy such occurrences and only two weeks ago I recounted the dreadful accidents on the Monasterevin Road and Gallowshill which resulted in the loss of so many lives. To lose a family member is always a terrible experience but to lose a loved one unexpectedly and without warning is a particularly hard loss to bear. The entire community of Athy, so willing to share in the successes of others amongst them, share also in the sorrowful times when the strength of family and friends provide a buffer and comfort against the ravages of the unexpected.
The tragic deaths of Declan Deere, John Murphy, Mathew Lawlor and Brendan Fitzpatrick brought to mind the tradition of military service with which our town is long associated. It is a tradition which is continued to this day with so many local families having members serving in our National Army. The proximity of The Curragh Camp inevitably has played its part in promoting army recruitment in South Kildare but equally important is the tradition built over past generations which recognises Athy and South Kildare as important centres for army recruits. Sons and fathers have often taken the same career as did their grandfathers who during the 1914-1918 War enlisted in huge numbers. It is an honourable tradition which finds its full expression in the willingness of so many young men, and now women, from this area to dedicate their careers to military life.
As I wrote at the beginning of this piece, it has been a strange week for our community. From the dizzy heights of success on the fashion catwalk and the music stage at the start of the week, we soon descended into the depths of collective sorrow as the bodies of the four young soldiers were returned home for burial. Life goes on even if never quite as before but somehow as a community we move on with our lives tempered by the shared successes and the sorrows of community life.
On Thursday the 24th February, the South Kildare association of An Taisce will hold a meeting in the Community Services Centre, Stanhope Street, commencing at 8pm. An Taisce fulfils an important role in our community and anyone interested in protecting the environment and the building heritage of our area is welcome to attend.
On the following night quite a lot of Athy folk decamped to the same venue in the docklands of Dublin to attend a concert by the singer known as Jack L. The “L” hides the surname Loughman, Jack being the son of Sean and Rose Loughman of Bennetsbridge. Athy folk gave him great support for what was the biggest concert date of his career to date and how well he responded to the adulation and applause which greeted him as he came out on the stage. His was a virtuoso performance, at times teasing his audience while all the time holding them spellbound with the depth and range of his singing. I have to admit to feeling somewhat out of place when I encountered the first young feathered boa wearer in the foyer of The Point prior to the concert. Apparently, this was an artful take-off of the artist himself who, towards the end of his performance, brought his own feathered boa into use much to the delight of his audience.
I was seated about six rows from the front where apparently the really serious Jack L. aficionados were to be found. The serious looking female civil service type of indeterminate age who sat to my left was a model of discretion prior to Jack’s appearance on stage. Upon his arrival, her overcoat came off, her hands were thrust up in the air and kept there throughout the performance, clapping to the beat while her normally staid body swayed and bobbed to the music. To my right were two younger females, obviously from the northern part of the island, whose accents recognised no borders where good music was concerned. They too took to the restricted space between the seats with an abandon bordering on the reckless as they swayed this way and that, oblivious to the bemused look on the face of the “middle-aged” man who demurely kept his posterior on the seat he had secured for the night at no little expense.
No doubt about it, Jack L is good. The CDs released by him to date easily confirm that fact. What the CDs cannot however capture, is the verve and the gutsy performance which is all part of the live gig. He strutted, he grinned, he teased, he postured and then he exploded in a cacophony of sound with a performance which, from first to last, was a pleasure to see and later to remember. It was a truly great performance from the former Scoil Eoin student who, as far as I can recall, once filled the ranks of the chorus in a musical put on in the local school.
It was also great to see so many from Athy amongst the appreciative audience. Not many of us elder citizenry would normally have the opportunity to mingle among the hallowed portals of The Point and so the chance to cheer on Sean and Rose Loughman’s son on his big night out was not an opportunity to be missed.
A few days later, we had occasion as a local community to share again, this time in grief, the sad news which came to us from across the world. Four young men, who had earlier in the day, set off no doubt in good spirits to start a well earned break from peace-keeping duties in the Lebanon were to die tragically before the day was out. As the news filtered back, first to Dublin, and then to the local community in South Kildare there was a palpable sense of loss that ones so young should be cut down so tragically in their prime.
Not for the first time the entire area was plunged into sadness by the uncomprehending, yet fateful turn of events which left local families without loved ones. Athy, over the years has borne the scars of many unhappy such occurrences and only two weeks ago I recounted the dreadful accidents on the Monasterevin Road and Gallowshill which resulted in the loss of so many lives. To lose a family member is always a terrible experience but to lose a loved one unexpectedly and without warning is a particularly hard loss to bear. The entire community of Athy, so willing to share in the successes of others amongst them, share also in the sorrowful times when the strength of family and friends provide a buffer and comfort against the ravages of the unexpected.
The tragic deaths of Declan Deere, John Murphy, Mathew Lawlor and Brendan Fitzpatrick brought to mind the tradition of military service with which our town is long associated. It is a tradition which is continued to this day with so many local families having members serving in our National Army. The proximity of The Curragh Camp inevitably has played its part in promoting army recruitment in South Kildare but equally important is the tradition built over past generations which recognises Athy and South Kildare as important centres for army recruits. Sons and fathers have often taken the same career as did their grandfathers who during the 1914-1918 War enlisted in huge numbers. It is an honourable tradition which finds its full expression in the willingness of so many young men, and now women, from this area to dedicate their careers to military life.
As I wrote at the beginning of this piece, it has been a strange week for our community. From the dizzy heights of success on the fashion catwalk and the music stage at the start of the week, we soon descended into the depths of collective sorrow as the bodies of the four young soldiers were returned home for burial. Life goes on even if never quite as before but somehow as a community we move on with our lives tempered by the shared successes and the sorrows of community life.
On Thursday the 24th February, the South Kildare association of An Taisce will hold a meeting in the Community Services Centre, Stanhope Street, commencing at 8pm. An Taisce fulfils an important role in our community and anyone interested in protecting the environment and the building heritage of our area is welcome to attend.
Thursday, January 27, 2000
School pals from Athy C.B.S.
One of the greatest gifts enjoyed by anyone is that of friendships founded on shared experiences. For most of us our first friends were to be found among the ranks of our school mates, but where those friendships endure beyond the school gate and into adulthood the bond is all the more rewarding.
Looking back on my own classmates from the Christian Brothers old school in St. John’s Lane I find that the friendships which grew in youth act like an anchor in middle age, constantly bringing one back to the glorious days when the world was our oyster. Even yesterday as I got ready to leave my office I turned to the Athy on Line page on the Internet to read yet another piece from that computer wizard Mick Robinson, now living in Australia. Mick was a classmate of mine in the Christian Brothers and a star pupil who with lots of natural talent eschewed the slogging studious methods employed by untalented individuals like myself. His contribution to the Athy on Line page confirms his undoubted talents and belies Br. Keogh’s oft repeated claim:- “they’ll hang you yet Robinson”.
Mick was never overly concerned with the future prospect of such an event and lead a charmed and charming existence as a schoolboy full of devilment and good humour. I can recall an occasion at the height of winter in 1959 or thereabouts when Mick for a side bet of six old pence from each of his classmates went for a swim in the Canal lock. This was typical of the young Mike Robinson, clearly a budding entrepreneur whose horizons were not to be limited by the road signs leading out of Athy.
Another classmate and one I had the opportunity of meeting in 1998 in Beijing was Seamus Ryan, eldest son of Mrs. Noreen Ryan of Woodstock Street and the late Bill Ryan, school teacher extraordinaire. Seamus was called to teacher training on foot of his Leaving Certificate results, coming first in the class, and later qualified as a National Teacher. After a few years in the classroom Seamus returned to University and qualified as a Doctor. He is now head of the American Medical Centre in Beijing, China and thanks to the wizardry of the computers still keeps in touch with his classmates around the world.
Others with whom I shared the rough and tumble of life in the Christian Brothers school in the 1950’s included Kerry O’Sullivan, now a dentist in England. Pat Timpson, Lecturer, Sligo Regional College and Brendan McKenna, Managing Director of Abbott Laboratories also in Sligo are two of the class who did well in their own country. It wasn’t always easy for school leavers to find jobs in Ireland, especially in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s and the opportunity to attend University, now so common, was then restricted to a very few. Of my class only one person entered University as a day student following the Leaving Certificate. The rest like myself were not financially able to do so and the height of our ambition, assuming that you did not have enough honours to get teacher training, was to apply for a job in Guinness’, the County Council, the ESB or Bord na Mona. You might dream in those days of getting a job in the Banks but really for provincial “hicks” like ourselves, such exalted doors were not then opened. How times have changed!
Nowadays students finishing second level schooling can look to a more secure future than that which faced their counterparts of forty years ago. The secondary school is now but a step on the way to a further three years or so in University before taking up a job in Ireland. Forty years ago those of us who passed through the Christian Brothers School got jobs wherever and whenever they could be obtained. Our home town offered few job opportunities but amongst the lucky few were Teddy Kelly, Pat Flinter and Ted Wynne, all of whom then and still currently work within the Tegral Group of Companies. Of the Leaving Certificate Class of 1960 they were the only ones to get employment in their own home town at a time when travel was less easy than it is today. When I took up my first job with Kildare County Council in 1961 I stayed in digs in that town as the twenty-two mile journey to Naas was in those days regarded as too far a trip to undertake on a daily basis. Nowadays locals travel each day to Dublin and beyond to fill positions which are not available in Athy. How our horizons have broadened over the last forty years.
The common bond between the schoolmates of forty years ago was not just the town in which we lived, but rather the school which we attended. Our coming together each morning and the shared experiences of the classroom and the characters it spawned forged friendships which cannot ever be laid aside. Almost like prisoners of conscience incarcerated together for years on end we forged bonds which survived into adulthood [not that the school in St. John’s Lane was ever regarded by any of us as a penitentiary].
Just a few weeks ago one of my old classmates Hilary Drennan died, gone to join Fr. Jerry Byrne who passed away at a very young age, not long after we had left St. John’s for the last time. The surviving members of the class are to be found in Australia, China and America and throughout our own island in places as far apart as Cork and Sligo. The old school closed in 1984 with the opening of Scoil Eoin in Rathstewart and the last of the Christian Brothers who founded the school in 1861 left Athy in 1994. Nowadays the school, although still known as the Christian Brothers School is staffed by lay teachers and the increase in student numbers attending the school is matched by an academic record second to none.
On 18th March next Scoil Eoin will organise a Dinner Dance in the Dolmen Hotel, Carlow featuring a four course dinner and music by Marble City Sound. The event which is being billed as a Millennium Reunion Dinner Dance has been arranged by the Parents Council of Scoil Eoin in the hope of attracting those past pupils living abroad who may be returning for the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. The School Principal, Tony O’Rourke, would like to hear from any past pupil who would like to attend and he can be contacted at (0507) 38223. I don’t suppose my school mates from Australia or Beijing will be able to attend at such short notice but hopefully the class of 1960 might yet get together later this year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of our graduating from the St. John’s Lane Academy of Excellence.
Looking back on my own classmates from the Christian Brothers old school in St. John’s Lane I find that the friendships which grew in youth act like an anchor in middle age, constantly bringing one back to the glorious days when the world was our oyster. Even yesterday as I got ready to leave my office I turned to the Athy on Line page on the Internet to read yet another piece from that computer wizard Mick Robinson, now living in Australia. Mick was a classmate of mine in the Christian Brothers and a star pupil who with lots of natural talent eschewed the slogging studious methods employed by untalented individuals like myself. His contribution to the Athy on Line page confirms his undoubted talents and belies Br. Keogh’s oft repeated claim:- “they’ll hang you yet Robinson”.
Mick was never overly concerned with the future prospect of such an event and lead a charmed and charming existence as a schoolboy full of devilment and good humour. I can recall an occasion at the height of winter in 1959 or thereabouts when Mick for a side bet of six old pence from each of his classmates went for a swim in the Canal lock. This was typical of the young Mike Robinson, clearly a budding entrepreneur whose horizons were not to be limited by the road signs leading out of Athy.
Another classmate and one I had the opportunity of meeting in 1998 in Beijing was Seamus Ryan, eldest son of Mrs. Noreen Ryan of Woodstock Street and the late Bill Ryan, school teacher extraordinaire. Seamus was called to teacher training on foot of his Leaving Certificate results, coming first in the class, and later qualified as a National Teacher. After a few years in the classroom Seamus returned to University and qualified as a Doctor. He is now head of the American Medical Centre in Beijing, China and thanks to the wizardry of the computers still keeps in touch with his classmates around the world.
Others with whom I shared the rough and tumble of life in the Christian Brothers school in the 1950’s included Kerry O’Sullivan, now a dentist in England. Pat Timpson, Lecturer, Sligo Regional College and Brendan McKenna, Managing Director of Abbott Laboratories also in Sligo are two of the class who did well in their own country. It wasn’t always easy for school leavers to find jobs in Ireland, especially in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s and the opportunity to attend University, now so common, was then restricted to a very few. Of my class only one person entered University as a day student following the Leaving Certificate. The rest like myself were not financially able to do so and the height of our ambition, assuming that you did not have enough honours to get teacher training, was to apply for a job in Guinness’, the County Council, the ESB or Bord na Mona. You might dream in those days of getting a job in the Banks but really for provincial “hicks” like ourselves, such exalted doors were not then opened. How times have changed!
Nowadays students finishing second level schooling can look to a more secure future than that which faced their counterparts of forty years ago. The secondary school is now but a step on the way to a further three years or so in University before taking up a job in Ireland. Forty years ago those of us who passed through the Christian Brothers School got jobs wherever and whenever they could be obtained. Our home town offered few job opportunities but amongst the lucky few were Teddy Kelly, Pat Flinter and Ted Wynne, all of whom then and still currently work within the Tegral Group of Companies. Of the Leaving Certificate Class of 1960 they were the only ones to get employment in their own home town at a time when travel was less easy than it is today. When I took up my first job with Kildare County Council in 1961 I stayed in digs in that town as the twenty-two mile journey to Naas was in those days regarded as too far a trip to undertake on a daily basis. Nowadays locals travel each day to Dublin and beyond to fill positions which are not available in Athy. How our horizons have broadened over the last forty years.
The common bond between the schoolmates of forty years ago was not just the town in which we lived, but rather the school which we attended. Our coming together each morning and the shared experiences of the classroom and the characters it spawned forged friendships which cannot ever be laid aside. Almost like prisoners of conscience incarcerated together for years on end we forged bonds which survived into adulthood [not that the school in St. John’s Lane was ever regarded by any of us as a penitentiary].
Just a few weeks ago one of my old classmates Hilary Drennan died, gone to join Fr. Jerry Byrne who passed away at a very young age, not long after we had left St. John’s for the last time. The surviving members of the class are to be found in Australia, China and America and throughout our own island in places as far apart as Cork and Sligo. The old school closed in 1984 with the opening of Scoil Eoin in Rathstewart and the last of the Christian Brothers who founded the school in 1861 left Athy in 1994. Nowadays the school, although still known as the Christian Brothers School is staffed by lay teachers and the increase in student numbers attending the school is matched by an academic record second to none.
On 18th March next Scoil Eoin will organise a Dinner Dance in the Dolmen Hotel, Carlow featuring a four course dinner and music by Marble City Sound. The event which is being billed as a Millennium Reunion Dinner Dance has been arranged by the Parents Council of Scoil Eoin in the hope of attracting those past pupils living abroad who may be returning for the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. The School Principal, Tony O’Rourke, would like to hear from any past pupil who would like to attend and he can be contacted at (0507) 38223. I don’t suppose my school mates from Australia or Beijing will be able to attend at such short notice but hopefully the class of 1960 might yet get together later this year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of our graduating from the St. John’s Lane Academy of Excellence.
Thursday, January 20, 2000
Martin Joe Rigney
In a most eloquent eulogy spoken after he had received the remains of Martin Joe Rigney into the Parish Church of St. Michael’s, our Parish Priest, Fr. Philip Dennehy, referred to Martin Joe as a man woven into the fabric of the lives of the local people. As the funeral undertaker for Athy Martin Joe had dealt with thousands of funerals in a quiet and efficient manner, ensuring that the bereaved could mourn and grieve without the added burden that such occasions thrust upon families.
It was his father Joseph Rigney who started the undertaking business in 1919 at a time when the only other undertaker in the town was John Maher of Leinster Street. John’s mother is believed to have been the first undertaker in the town, having commenced business in or around 1872. Martin Joe began working with his father when he left the local Christian Brothers School in 1941 at 14 years of age. By then the undertaking business first started by Mrs. Maher from premises on the corner of Kirwan’s Lane had moved to 23 Leinster Street. It was to there that her son John, having married into Quigleys bar and shop had transferred the undertaking business. In 1941 that undertaking business was then being operated by John’s son, “Bapty” Maher.
In the early days the local undertaker made up coffins or had them made locally. For a long time this work was carried out in Blanchfields sawmills of Leinster Street. Other local carpenters involved from time to time were Tom Breen of Offaly St. and old Jim Fleming of Chapel Lane. Martin Joe Rigney who served his time to coffin making, continued to make coffins at his Blackparks premises up to some years ago. However, the manufacture of coffins in Dublin factories made it impractical and unnecessary to continue at local level with this part of the traditional undertaking business.
It is believed that the first funeral undertaken by Joseph Rigney in 1919 was that of a Mrs. Leonard of Blackparks. Martin Joe recalled with certainty that his first funeral in 1941 was that of old Dan Chambers whose remains were brought to Churchtown Cemetery. Martin Joe drove the hearse pulled by horses along the country road which in war time was completely devoid of vehicular traffic. He recalled for me some years ago that the first motorised hearse brought to Athy by the Rigney family was in 1936 but how during World War II, petrol rationing caused a revival of the use of the horse hearse. The horse pulled hearses were to remain a feature of funerals in Athy until 1950.
The horse hearse was an awesome sight as the horses strode out ahead of the mourners, each of the horses bearing funeral plumes. Black plumes were used for an adult deceased, while white plumes were reserved for young people and single ladies. Martin Joe recounted for me many stories about a popular local curate Fr. Ryan who could not understand how a lady from Shrewleen with four children but no husband could still merit white plumes on the funeral horses as her funeral wound its way through the town to St. Michael’s Cemetery. Fr. Ryan spent much energy and no little of his money in encouraging unmarried mothers to enter into the married state. The lack of money proffered by many as an excuse for staying single was invariably overcome by Fr. Ryan’s generosity, always accompanied by the plea, “You won’t forget me when you get work”. One local wag finding himself propelled somewhat quicker than he wished into marrying the mother of his child replied, “I won’t forget you Father, and I won’t forgive you either”.
Up to about 1950 funerals started at the house of the deceased and invariably went directly to the local cemetery. If you could pay 30 shillings to the priest then the coffin was allowed to be brought to the Church where it was placed inside the Church door. If you had enough money to pay for a sung Mass the coffin was allowed to rest before the altar. The majority of funerals went from the house directly to the cemetery accompanied by neighbours and friends with the local Sacristan James McNally in attendance to say the De Profundis at every cross roads on the way. This is believed to be the origin of today’s traditional stoppage at the town centre cross roads for funerals on the route to St. Michael’s Cemetery.
Funerals are for the Irish people an important part of local community interaction as evidenced by the large numbers which accompany remains to our local graveyard. The largest funeral ever in Athy was in 1986 following the tragic death of Marian Byrne, Martina Leonard, Declan Roche and Martin Flynn in a road traffic accident on the Monasterevin road. This was a particularly sad occasion reviving memories of another tragic accident at Gallowshill on St. Patrick’s Day in 1970 when Matt McHugh, his wife and child, together with Stan Mullery and his girlfriend were killed. No funeral was perhaps more poignant than that of the married couple from Woodstock Street who died within a day of each other in January 1946. Margaret Cassidy died on 11th January, 1946 aged 45 years and her husband William who was a local postman died the following day, aged 47 years. Both were brought for burial on the same day to St. Michael’s Cemetery. Another double funeral recalled by Martin Joe was that of National Bank Manager Patrick Foley who died on 15th February, 1945, the same day as his mother-in-law Eleanor Fitzgerald who had lived with him and his family in the Emily Square Bank premises.
One of the most difficult tasks to fall to a local undertaker is the removal of bodies taken from the local river or canal. The stretch of River Barrow from Vicarstown to Carlow has claimed many lives over the years, the last of which occurred only two weeks ago. Ambulance personnel are not used for such occasions and the duty falls on the local undertaker to convey the remains to Naas for post mortem.
The name “Martin Joe” identifies for everyone the man who was our local undertaker for almost 59 years. It is perhaps strange to relate that he intensely disliked the double appellation, preferring to be known as Martin or Joe, but never as “Martin Joe”. To locals, Martin was known as “red” Martin to distinguish him from his first cousin of the same name who was known locally as “black” Martin. The third generation of the Rigney family, Martin’s son Joe now carries on the undertaking business which his grand-father Joseph who died in 1952 started in Blackparks, one year after the ending of World War I.
On Wednesday, 9th February the Urban Development Group which has canvassed opposition to the Inner Relief Road will hold a meeting in the Town Hall at 8.00pm. The recent debate concerning the Dublin/Waterford road link has brought into sharp focus the merit of the Outer Relief Road Plans for Athy. Everyone is welcome to attend.
It was his father Joseph Rigney who started the undertaking business in 1919 at a time when the only other undertaker in the town was John Maher of Leinster Street. John’s mother is believed to have been the first undertaker in the town, having commenced business in or around 1872. Martin Joe began working with his father when he left the local Christian Brothers School in 1941 at 14 years of age. By then the undertaking business first started by Mrs. Maher from premises on the corner of Kirwan’s Lane had moved to 23 Leinster Street. It was to there that her son John, having married into Quigleys bar and shop had transferred the undertaking business. In 1941 that undertaking business was then being operated by John’s son, “Bapty” Maher.
In the early days the local undertaker made up coffins or had them made locally. For a long time this work was carried out in Blanchfields sawmills of Leinster Street. Other local carpenters involved from time to time were Tom Breen of Offaly St. and old Jim Fleming of Chapel Lane. Martin Joe Rigney who served his time to coffin making, continued to make coffins at his Blackparks premises up to some years ago. However, the manufacture of coffins in Dublin factories made it impractical and unnecessary to continue at local level with this part of the traditional undertaking business.
It is believed that the first funeral undertaken by Joseph Rigney in 1919 was that of a Mrs. Leonard of Blackparks. Martin Joe recalled with certainty that his first funeral in 1941 was that of old Dan Chambers whose remains were brought to Churchtown Cemetery. Martin Joe drove the hearse pulled by horses along the country road which in war time was completely devoid of vehicular traffic. He recalled for me some years ago that the first motorised hearse brought to Athy by the Rigney family was in 1936 but how during World War II, petrol rationing caused a revival of the use of the horse hearse. The horse pulled hearses were to remain a feature of funerals in Athy until 1950.
The horse hearse was an awesome sight as the horses strode out ahead of the mourners, each of the horses bearing funeral plumes. Black plumes were used for an adult deceased, while white plumes were reserved for young people and single ladies. Martin Joe recounted for me many stories about a popular local curate Fr. Ryan who could not understand how a lady from Shrewleen with four children but no husband could still merit white plumes on the funeral horses as her funeral wound its way through the town to St. Michael’s Cemetery. Fr. Ryan spent much energy and no little of his money in encouraging unmarried mothers to enter into the married state. The lack of money proffered by many as an excuse for staying single was invariably overcome by Fr. Ryan’s generosity, always accompanied by the plea, “You won’t forget me when you get work”. One local wag finding himself propelled somewhat quicker than he wished into marrying the mother of his child replied, “I won’t forget you Father, and I won’t forgive you either”.
Up to about 1950 funerals started at the house of the deceased and invariably went directly to the local cemetery. If you could pay 30 shillings to the priest then the coffin was allowed to be brought to the Church where it was placed inside the Church door. If you had enough money to pay for a sung Mass the coffin was allowed to rest before the altar. The majority of funerals went from the house directly to the cemetery accompanied by neighbours and friends with the local Sacristan James McNally in attendance to say the De Profundis at every cross roads on the way. This is believed to be the origin of today’s traditional stoppage at the town centre cross roads for funerals on the route to St. Michael’s Cemetery.
Funerals are for the Irish people an important part of local community interaction as evidenced by the large numbers which accompany remains to our local graveyard. The largest funeral ever in Athy was in 1986 following the tragic death of Marian Byrne, Martina Leonard, Declan Roche and Martin Flynn in a road traffic accident on the Monasterevin road. This was a particularly sad occasion reviving memories of another tragic accident at Gallowshill on St. Patrick’s Day in 1970 when Matt McHugh, his wife and child, together with Stan Mullery and his girlfriend were killed. No funeral was perhaps more poignant than that of the married couple from Woodstock Street who died within a day of each other in January 1946. Margaret Cassidy died on 11th January, 1946 aged 45 years and her husband William who was a local postman died the following day, aged 47 years. Both were brought for burial on the same day to St. Michael’s Cemetery. Another double funeral recalled by Martin Joe was that of National Bank Manager Patrick Foley who died on 15th February, 1945, the same day as his mother-in-law Eleanor Fitzgerald who had lived with him and his family in the Emily Square Bank premises.
One of the most difficult tasks to fall to a local undertaker is the removal of bodies taken from the local river or canal. The stretch of River Barrow from Vicarstown to Carlow has claimed many lives over the years, the last of which occurred only two weeks ago. Ambulance personnel are not used for such occasions and the duty falls on the local undertaker to convey the remains to Naas for post mortem.
The name “Martin Joe” identifies for everyone the man who was our local undertaker for almost 59 years. It is perhaps strange to relate that he intensely disliked the double appellation, preferring to be known as Martin or Joe, but never as “Martin Joe”. To locals, Martin was known as “red” Martin to distinguish him from his first cousin of the same name who was known locally as “black” Martin. The third generation of the Rigney family, Martin’s son Joe now carries on the undertaking business which his grand-father Joseph who died in 1952 started in Blackparks, one year after the ending of World War I.
On Wednesday, 9th February the Urban Development Group which has canvassed opposition to the Inner Relief Road will hold a meeting in the Town Hall at 8.00pm. The recent debate concerning the Dublin/Waterford road link has brought into sharp focus the merit of the Outer Relief Road Plans for Athy. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Thursday, January 13, 2000
Athy Courthouse
Two years ago the Irish Times carried a letter from a Dublin man who chastised those responsible for the neglected state of Athy Courthouse. The fine Jacobean style building was indeed in a sad state, and remains so to this day but not for much longer. The Department of Justice is now about to loosen the purse strings to rescue what is an important part of the architectural heritage of our town.
The building now known as the Courthouse was originally the towns Corn Exchange. The first reference I found to it was in the Leinster Express of 25th April, 1857 when that newspaper then published in Naas and Maryboro carried a report of a banquet in the Leinster Arms Hotel. The occasion was a celebration for the newly elected Member of Parliament, W.H.F. Cogan and the following weeks headlines noted that one guest refused to stand for the customary toast to the Duke of Leinster. As Landlord for the town of Athy the Duke was accustomed to receiving unsolicited and uncritical allegiance from the subservient townsfolk and the action of the unnamed man was the first occasion such a public act of defiance was noted. The reason was the Dukes family’s involvement in the proposed closure of the town jail on the Carlow Road. It eventually closed in 1859 when all the prisoners were transferred to the new jail in Naas.
At the same time the Duke of Leinster received the gratitude of all those assembled in the Leinster Arms Hotel for the new Corn Exchange, then under construction in the Square of Athy. Newspaper reports claimed that the Duke was providing for the town of Athy “as pretty a building as any in Ireland” to be used as a Corn Exchange. It was opened for business on Tuesday, 6th October 1857 but before long the same newspapers carried reports that “the ventilation of the building was very defective and the manner in which it is lighted was also objected to”.
The criticism was surprising given that the Architect employed by the Duke of Leinster was none other than Frederick Darley, one of Ireland’s foremost Architects. Darley is best known for designing the Kings Inn Library in Henrietta Street, Dublin as well as a number of buildings in Trinity College and the wrought iron conservatories in the Botanical Gardens, Glasnevin. He was at different times Ecclesiastical Commissioners Architect for the Archdioceses of Dublin, and Architect to the Board of National Education. While Architect for the Archdioceses he designed St. Michael’s Church which was built on the Carlow Road and dedicated in September 1841. It is highly likely that Athy’s Model School on the Dublin Road opened in 1850 was also the work of Darley who was Architect to the National Board of Education at the time.
Whether the ventilation and lighting problems was the cause of the subsequent closure of the Corn Exchange we cannot say but certainly within five years the building was lying idle. A letter in the Leinster Express of 14th November, 1863 referred to the “large swamp around the ruins of the lamented Exchange”. To add to the woes of the locals the Summer Assizes hitherto held alternatively between Athy and Naas were transferred on a permanent basis out of Athy in the summer of 1858. Up to then the Court was located on the first floor of the Town Hall which had been built by the County Kildare Grand Jury in the early part of the 18th century. The Courts held there included the quarterly Assizes, the Petty Sessions which dealt with minor crimes and the Town Commissioners Court at which matters arising under the Town Improvement Act were heard.
When the former Corn Exchange was adopted for use as the Towns Courthouse I cannot yet confirm, but it would seem to have been utilised for that purpose before the end of the 19th century. The Assizes eventually returned to Athy but during the War of Independence the fine stone building with its flamboyant curved gables, dramatic tall granite chimney stacks and elliptical arched colonnades was burnt to the ground. The local IRA who were attached to the Carlow/Kildare brigade were believed to be responsible. It was felt to be an act of reprisal for the death of John Byrne of Gracefield, Ballylinan who died during the burning of the Luggacurran RIC Barracks. However, the truth which was known to a few was perhaps less heroic. One of the local volunteers acting on his own initiative and without the approval of his superiors torched the Court building on 15th July, 1921. The man responsible was Bill Nolan of St. Michael’s Terrace and he was subsequently court martialled by the IRA for his youthful indiscretion. The Court Martial Report prepared by John Hayden and Michael Dunne recommended his suspension from the Brigade. The suspension was soon thereafter lifted and Bill returned as an active member of the local volunteers.
The Duke of Leinster subsequently lodged a claim for compensation with the Urban Council and was awarded £1,455. The Clerk of the Petty Sessions Thomas J. Bodley lodged a similar claim for the loss of books, stationery and office furniture and received the sum of £30. Kildare County Council also applied for compensation indicating on 7th January, 1924 that the delay in paying the award made to it in Court was holding up the rebuilding of the Courthouse. The Urban District Councillors at their monthly meetings made regular reference to what they described as “the unsanitary state of the ruined interior of the Courthouse” and at one such meeting directed the town surveyor to “have a proper barbed wire fence erected to enclose the ruins”. The earlier arrival in the town of the first contingent of the newly established Garda Station prompted the same Councillors to request Kildare County Council to erect a Barracks for the Civic Guards in the vicinity of the Courthouse when it was being reinstated. The request obviously fell on deaf ears!
The rebuilding of the Courthouse was apparently completed sometime in 1928 under the supervision of Foley and O’Sullivan Architects. For whatever reason the building contractor delayed in handing over the building to Kildare County Council, a matter regarded by the local Urban Council as “a cause of inconsiderable inconvenience”. When the Courthouse was eventually reopened it continued to house the District Court and the quarterly sessions of the Circuit Courts. The offices of the District Court Office were located on the first floor and the last person to hold that office in Athy was Fintan Brennan. Rather strangely the local Garda Sergeant acted as the District Court Officer during the occasional absence of Fintan Brennan and I recall my own father doing short stints of duty in the District Court Office. The Irish penchant for centralisation resulted in the loss of the local District Court Office and for a while threatened the very future of Circuit Court sittings in Athy. Circuit Court Criminal Trials are no longer held in Athy, locals being required to travel to Naas for such hearings. Maybe with the refurbishment of the Courthouse we can look forward to the return of many of the lost elements of Court life in Athy.
Last week in what could have been the last Court sitting in the old building a fine tribute was paid to Bill Delahunty, Courthouse Caretaker who died recently. Billy, a member of an old Athy family will be sadly missed. Another recent death which was that of Michael Drennan, with whom I shared many happy schooldays in the local Christian Brothers. Hilary, as he was known, died just a few days after his mother passed away. May they rest in peace.
The building now known as the Courthouse was originally the towns Corn Exchange. The first reference I found to it was in the Leinster Express of 25th April, 1857 when that newspaper then published in Naas and Maryboro carried a report of a banquet in the Leinster Arms Hotel. The occasion was a celebration for the newly elected Member of Parliament, W.H.F. Cogan and the following weeks headlines noted that one guest refused to stand for the customary toast to the Duke of Leinster. As Landlord for the town of Athy the Duke was accustomed to receiving unsolicited and uncritical allegiance from the subservient townsfolk and the action of the unnamed man was the first occasion such a public act of defiance was noted. The reason was the Dukes family’s involvement in the proposed closure of the town jail on the Carlow Road. It eventually closed in 1859 when all the prisoners were transferred to the new jail in Naas.
At the same time the Duke of Leinster received the gratitude of all those assembled in the Leinster Arms Hotel for the new Corn Exchange, then under construction in the Square of Athy. Newspaper reports claimed that the Duke was providing for the town of Athy “as pretty a building as any in Ireland” to be used as a Corn Exchange. It was opened for business on Tuesday, 6th October 1857 but before long the same newspapers carried reports that “the ventilation of the building was very defective and the manner in which it is lighted was also objected to”.
The criticism was surprising given that the Architect employed by the Duke of Leinster was none other than Frederick Darley, one of Ireland’s foremost Architects. Darley is best known for designing the Kings Inn Library in Henrietta Street, Dublin as well as a number of buildings in Trinity College and the wrought iron conservatories in the Botanical Gardens, Glasnevin. He was at different times Ecclesiastical Commissioners Architect for the Archdioceses of Dublin, and Architect to the Board of National Education. While Architect for the Archdioceses he designed St. Michael’s Church which was built on the Carlow Road and dedicated in September 1841. It is highly likely that Athy’s Model School on the Dublin Road opened in 1850 was also the work of Darley who was Architect to the National Board of Education at the time.
Whether the ventilation and lighting problems was the cause of the subsequent closure of the Corn Exchange we cannot say but certainly within five years the building was lying idle. A letter in the Leinster Express of 14th November, 1863 referred to the “large swamp around the ruins of the lamented Exchange”. To add to the woes of the locals the Summer Assizes hitherto held alternatively between Athy and Naas were transferred on a permanent basis out of Athy in the summer of 1858. Up to then the Court was located on the first floor of the Town Hall which had been built by the County Kildare Grand Jury in the early part of the 18th century. The Courts held there included the quarterly Assizes, the Petty Sessions which dealt with minor crimes and the Town Commissioners Court at which matters arising under the Town Improvement Act were heard.
When the former Corn Exchange was adopted for use as the Towns Courthouse I cannot yet confirm, but it would seem to have been utilised for that purpose before the end of the 19th century. The Assizes eventually returned to Athy but during the War of Independence the fine stone building with its flamboyant curved gables, dramatic tall granite chimney stacks and elliptical arched colonnades was burnt to the ground. The local IRA who were attached to the Carlow/Kildare brigade were believed to be responsible. It was felt to be an act of reprisal for the death of John Byrne of Gracefield, Ballylinan who died during the burning of the Luggacurran RIC Barracks. However, the truth which was known to a few was perhaps less heroic. One of the local volunteers acting on his own initiative and without the approval of his superiors torched the Court building on 15th July, 1921. The man responsible was Bill Nolan of St. Michael’s Terrace and he was subsequently court martialled by the IRA for his youthful indiscretion. The Court Martial Report prepared by John Hayden and Michael Dunne recommended his suspension from the Brigade. The suspension was soon thereafter lifted and Bill returned as an active member of the local volunteers.
The Duke of Leinster subsequently lodged a claim for compensation with the Urban Council and was awarded £1,455. The Clerk of the Petty Sessions Thomas J. Bodley lodged a similar claim for the loss of books, stationery and office furniture and received the sum of £30. Kildare County Council also applied for compensation indicating on 7th January, 1924 that the delay in paying the award made to it in Court was holding up the rebuilding of the Courthouse. The Urban District Councillors at their monthly meetings made regular reference to what they described as “the unsanitary state of the ruined interior of the Courthouse” and at one such meeting directed the town surveyor to “have a proper barbed wire fence erected to enclose the ruins”. The earlier arrival in the town of the first contingent of the newly established Garda Station prompted the same Councillors to request Kildare County Council to erect a Barracks for the Civic Guards in the vicinity of the Courthouse when it was being reinstated. The request obviously fell on deaf ears!
The rebuilding of the Courthouse was apparently completed sometime in 1928 under the supervision of Foley and O’Sullivan Architects. For whatever reason the building contractor delayed in handing over the building to Kildare County Council, a matter regarded by the local Urban Council as “a cause of inconsiderable inconvenience”. When the Courthouse was eventually reopened it continued to house the District Court and the quarterly sessions of the Circuit Courts. The offices of the District Court Office were located on the first floor and the last person to hold that office in Athy was Fintan Brennan. Rather strangely the local Garda Sergeant acted as the District Court Officer during the occasional absence of Fintan Brennan and I recall my own father doing short stints of duty in the District Court Office. The Irish penchant for centralisation resulted in the loss of the local District Court Office and for a while threatened the very future of Circuit Court sittings in Athy. Circuit Court Criminal Trials are no longer held in Athy, locals being required to travel to Naas for such hearings. Maybe with the refurbishment of the Courthouse we can look forward to the return of many of the lost elements of Court life in Athy.
Last week in what could have been the last Court sitting in the old building a fine tribute was paid to Bill Delahunty, Courthouse Caretaker who died recently. Billy, a member of an old Athy family will be sadly missed. Another recent death which was that of Michael Drennan, with whom I shared many happy schooldays in the local Christian Brothers. Hilary, as he was known, died just a few days after his mother passed away. May they rest in peace.
Thursday, January 6, 2000
'Daney' Walsh and the Leinster Street Public House
A lot of changes in the commercial life of Athy have been noticed during the past few years. Chief amongst them is the change in personnel owning and manning the various local public houses in the town. As I passed down Leinster Street last night I saw that the sign over one of the those establishments has changed yet again. Now known as “Next Door”, it houses an off-licence where in years past there was a grocery and public house.
The first reference to this premises I have so far come across relates to the pre-Famine days of 1843 when the Duke of Leinster granted a lease in favour of William Fogarty. The shop was described as being formally in the possession of Denis Fogarty, in all probability, the father of William. The next occupier was Michael Keating whom I have reason to believe was the owner of Clonmullin Mills which was destroyed in the mid 1860’s. In November of 1865 the Keating shop in Leinster Street was sold to Michael Rourke of Castlecomer for the sum of £560. Keating, unable to meet his debts was declared bankrupt and the shop premises was auctioned off. The lease was subsequently assigned to Edward Rourke, presumably the son of the aforementioned Michael Rourke. When mortgaging the property in 1880, Edward was described as a grocer but, when selling on in 1884 to James Nugent, the property itself was described as a licensed house and included 13 other houses. These were the small two-roomed one-storey houses which once stood at the side of Chapel Lane immediately behind the public house. Some of those houses were still occupied up to the early 1960’s and I can remember the Fleming Brothers Saw Mills located in the middle of the terrace in the late 1950’s.
On the 2nd September 1902, James Nugent sold on his interest in the licensed premises, stores, stabling and yard to David Walsh. Walsh had already been in possession of the property for some years a matter which was confirmed in the lease from Nugent. David Walsh, son of James Walsh, farmer and Margaret Devoy of Graiguenamahona, Abbeyleix, was born in 1860 and married Mary Lalor in 1888. His younger brother Edward Walsh was later to achieve sporting fame as a rugby international being capped for Ireland 7 times between 1887 and 1893. David’s wife, Mary Lalor, was a kinswoman of James Fintan Lalor the County Laois political essayist and his brother Peter Lalor, Trade Unionist and Speaker of the House of Parliament in Victoria, Australia. David and Elizabeth had a thriving business in Leinster Street. The youngest of their 5 children also named David was born in Athy in 1898. Their eldest son James joined the Civil Service becoming a senior auditor in Dublin where he died in 1962. Their second son Joseph died unmarried aged 40 years in the year of the Eucharistic Congress 1932. That same year Margaret Walsh, at the age of 38 years married Joseph Hickey from Narraghmore who had been working in Walsh’s public house cum grocery for many years. A younger sister died in infancy while the youngest member of the family, known locally as “Daney”, married Florence Darcy in 1924. Florence was from Roscommon and at the time of her marriage was working as was two of her sisters in the Leinster Arms Hotel, Athy.
Following the death of Margaret Walsh in 1948 her husband Joseph Hickey continued on the business in Leinster Street until his own death in 1964. There were no children of the marriage and the business which had been the Walsh family for over 70 years then passed into other hands. I remember Joseph Hickey, an old man, or so I thought, in the late 1950’s, and my memory is of his acknowledged expertise as a locksmith. He was the person to whom you referred if you needed a lock repaired or a key replaced. His stock of old locks and keys were kept in drawers around the shop which had once been the grocery part of the country pub cum grocery.
Dave or “Daney” Walsh, born in the centenary year of the ’98 Rebellion worked for a while in the family business and at other times for Minch Nortons. Following his marriage to Florence Darcy he lived in St. Patrick’s Avenue and the couple had 2 children, Mary born 1925 who died 4 years ago, and Tommy born 1927, who died last year. “Daney” and his son Tommy were members of Athy Social Club and “Daney” or “D.S.” as he was known on some occasions, was one of the leading men in the Social Club Players of the 1940’s. A photograph of the cast of “Cupboard Love” put on in the Town Hall in April 1943 shows D. S. Walsh amongst the Players. Another photograph of the Social Club Players five years later includes D. S. Walsh as one of the actors in “The Far Off Hills” together with his 20 year old son Tommy. By then “Daney” who was 49 years of age sadly had but two years to live. He died on the 26th November 1949 and is buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery with his wife Florence who died 20 years later.
The Walsh family involvement in amateur theatrics was continued on by “Daney’s” son Tommy who participated in almost all of the plays put on by the Social Club Players until their disbandment in the 1950’s. Tommy’s own son David has featured prominently in stage plays in South Kildare over the last 17 years and he is currently Chairman of Athy Musical and Dramatic Society. The third generation Walsh family member to be so involved, David is currently organising the staging of another play from the pen of local writer John MacKenna. I gather auditions are still being held so if there are any budding thespians out there willing to thread the boards, why not contact David Walsh at the offices of K.A.R.E.
I received a letter during the week from James Fitzpatrick of Kildare who spent an enjoyable 4 years as a postman in Athy from 1946 to 1950. James remember his colleagues in the post office including Patsy Delahunt who trained him on the town post, Tom Langton, Tom Donoghue, Mick McEvoy, Jim Kelly, Jim Keyes, Bill Corr, Danny O’Brien, Paddy Keenan and Harry Hegarty. He lodged with Mrs Keogh of St. Patrick’s Avenue and quenched his thirst in Jim Nelson’s of Leinster Street where he enjoyed the company of Mick O’Shea, Kevin Watchorn and Jim Dargan. James wrote to me following the recent piece on the late Frank Whelan to whom he was grateful for many lifts back to Athy in the mail lorry following weekends at his home in Kildare town. Now 75 years of age, James certainly seems to have enjoyed his years in Athy and as he wrote himself, “It’s lovely to recall the old days”.
The first reference to this premises I have so far come across relates to the pre-Famine days of 1843 when the Duke of Leinster granted a lease in favour of William Fogarty. The shop was described as being formally in the possession of Denis Fogarty, in all probability, the father of William. The next occupier was Michael Keating whom I have reason to believe was the owner of Clonmullin Mills which was destroyed in the mid 1860’s. In November of 1865 the Keating shop in Leinster Street was sold to Michael Rourke of Castlecomer for the sum of £560. Keating, unable to meet his debts was declared bankrupt and the shop premises was auctioned off. The lease was subsequently assigned to Edward Rourke, presumably the son of the aforementioned Michael Rourke. When mortgaging the property in 1880, Edward was described as a grocer but, when selling on in 1884 to James Nugent, the property itself was described as a licensed house and included 13 other houses. These were the small two-roomed one-storey houses which once stood at the side of Chapel Lane immediately behind the public house. Some of those houses were still occupied up to the early 1960’s and I can remember the Fleming Brothers Saw Mills located in the middle of the terrace in the late 1950’s.
On the 2nd September 1902, James Nugent sold on his interest in the licensed premises, stores, stabling and yard to David Walsh. Walsh had already been in possession of the property for some years a matter which was confirmed in the lease from Nugent. David Walsh, son of James Walsh, farmer and Margaret Devoy of Graiguenamahona, Abbeyleix, was born in 1860 and married Mary Lalor in 1888. His younger brother Edward Walsh was later to achieve sporting fame as a rugby international being capped for Ireland 7 times between 1887 and 1893. David’s wife, Mary Lalor, was a kinswoman of James Fintan Lalor the County Laois political essayist and his brother Peter Lalor, Trade Unionist and Speaker of the House of Parliament in Victoria, Australia. David and Elizabeth had a thriving business in Leinster Street. The youngest of their 5 children also named David was born in Athy in 1898. Their eldest son James joined the Civil Service becoming a senior auditor in Dublin where he died in 1962. Their second son Joseph died unmarried aged 40 years in the year of the Eucharistic Congress 1932. That same year Margaret Walsh, at the age of 38 years married Joseph Hickey from Narraghmore who had been working in Walsh’s public house cum grocery for many years. A younger sister died in infancy while the youngest member of the family, known locally as “Daney”, married Florence Darcy in 1924. Florence was from Roscommon and at the time of her marriage was working as was two of her sisters in the Leinster Arms Hotel, Athy.
Following the death of Margaret Walsh in 1948 her husband Joseph Hickey continued on the business in Leinster Street until his own death in 1964. There were no children of the marriage and the business which had been the Walsh family for over 70 years then passed into other hands. I remember Joseph Hickey, an old man, or so I thought, in the late 1950’s, and my memory is of his acknowledged expertise as a locksmith. He was the person to whom you referred if you needed a lock repaired or a key replaced. His stock of old locks and keys were kept in drawers around the shop which had once been the grocery part of the country pub cum grocery.
Dave or “Daney” Walsh, born in the centenary year of the ’98 Rebellion worked for a while in the family business and at other times for Minch Nortons. Following his marriage to Florence Darcy he lived in St. Patrick’s Avenue and the couple had 2 children, Mary born 1925 who died 4 years ago, and Tommy born 1927, who died last year. “Daney” and his son Tommy were members of Athy Social Club and “Daney” or “D.S.” as he was known on some occasions, was one of the leading men in the Social Club Players of the 1940’s. A photograph of the cast of “Cupboard Love” put on in the Town Hall in April 1943 shows D. S. Walsh amongst the Players. Another photograph of the Social Club Players five years later includes D. S. Walsh as one of the actors in “The Far Off Hills” together with his 20 year old son Tommy. By then “Daney” who was 49 years of age sadly had but two years to live. He died on the 26th November 1949 and is buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery with his wife Florence who died 20 years later.
The Walsh family involvement in amateur theatrics was continued on by “Daney’s” son Tommy who participated in almost all of the plays put on by the Social Club Players until their disbandment in the 1950’s. Tommy’s own son David has featured prominently in stage plays in South Kildare over the last 17 years and he is currently Chairman of Athy Musical and Dramatic Society. The third generation Walsh family member to be so involved, David is currently organising the staging of another play from the pen of local writer John MacKenna. I gather auditions are still being held so if there are any budding thespians out there willing to thread the boards, why not contact David Walsh at the offices of K.A.R.E.
I received a letter during the week from James Fitzpatrick of Kildare who spent an enjoyable 4 years as a postman in Athy from 1946 to 1950. James remember his colleagues in the post office including Patsy Delahunt who trained him on the town post, Tom Langton, Tom Donoghue, Mick McEvoy, Jim Kelly, Jim Keyes, Bill Corr, Danny O’Brien, Paddy Keenan and Harry Hegarty. He lodged with Mrs Keogh of St. Patrick’s Avenue and quenched his thirst in Jim Nelson’s of Leinster Street where he enjoyed the company of Mick O’Shea, Kevin Watchorn and Jim Dargan. James wrote to me following the recent piece on the late Frank Whelan to whom he was grateful for many lifts back to Athy in the mail lorry following weekends at his home in Kildare town. Now 75 years of age, James certainly seems to have enjoyed his years in Athy and as he wrote himself, “It’s lovely to recall the old days”.
Thursday, December 30, 1999
Tommy Keegan
Some time ago I spent an enjoyable evening reminiscing with Tommy Keegan whose family has been in the South Kildare area for generations past. The wealth of historical material gleaned from Tommy filled many pages, the true value of which has only now become apparent as I check his many references against other sources, both written and oral. Tommy’s knowledge of the hidden past of this locality is quite extraordinary, but not surprising, given his interest in local history and the Keegan family connection which goes back centuries.
At least three generations of the Keegans stretching back to Tommy’s Great Grandfather are buried in Fontstown cemetery. This is one of the oldest cemeteries in the area and likely to remain so unless further research confirms the existence of cemeteries on two sites which have come to my notice. The medieval Dominican Priory of Athy which was sited in the area known as the Abbey at the back of Offaly Street had a community graveyard which may have been located at the rear of the two houses on the Carlow side of the Credit Union Office. This is yet to be authenticated but there is some evidence to support the claim that the Dominican Cemetery was in that area. The second as yet unconfirmed medieval cemetery location is the small piece of ground lying between St. John’s Lane and McHugh’s Chemist in Duke Street. However, more about both possibilities at a later date.
A sprightly 76 year old Tommy Keegan was born in Foxhill. His father Daniel was a farmer and carpenter, a craft which has now been passed on to Tommy’s own son Joe. Daniel Keegan’s father was a blacksmith in Blackwood while his Uncle Martin Keegan was the owner of Keegan’s brickyard in Churchtown. Tommy attended the Christian Brothers School in Athy during the superiorship of Brother Dolan and had as classmates Gerry and Dinny Moloney, Tim Dunne, Kevin and John Hyland and Eddie and Charlie Moore. Later apprenticed to his father Daniel he worked in the family sawmills in Foxhill making a variety of items including cartwheels, hay bogeys and trailers. He was a member of the Barrow Vale Athletic Club in the 1940’s, competing, he admits, not too successfully in marathon running. I understand the Chairman of the Club was Alfie Coyle, a butcher employed in Fingletons of Leinster Street. Tommy’s reference to Barrow Vale Athletic Club was the first and only reference I have ever come across of this Club of almost sixty years ago.
One of the old traditions passed down to Tommy was that the famous ballad Lanigan’s Ball was written by Alec Roberts, a signal man on the railways who lived in Leinster Street in the premises now occupied by Sunderlands Hardware Shop. Colm O’Lochlainn in his “Irish Street Ballads” published in 1939 mentions a full music sheet of the song published in the 1870’s where the words were ascribed to “Mr. Gavan, the celebrated Galway poet”. Sean McMahon in his more recently published Poolbeg book of Irish Ballads describes Lanigan’s Ball as an “Athy Ballad dating from the ‘60’s of the last century and taken to have been based on an actual rough evening near the town”. Whatever the right of Alec Roberts to lay claim to the authorship of this famous ballad there seems no argument about his responsibility for composing a song about the Publicans of Athy at the turn of the last century. It ran :-
I’ll describe to you in a verse or two
The Publicans of Athy
We’ll take them one by one
From Mrs. Silke of the Railway Bar
To James Brophy of the Grand Canal
The first we have is Mrs. Silke
Some say she’s nice and
Some say she’s very grand
But it looks so suspicious
The Pump is so close up to her hand
The next we have is poor Paddy Kelly
Whose fortune lies upon a hare
Then we have the two Christian Brothers
Master James and Master John
Who if they had their will
Would send poor Kelly back again.
It continues on in this vein listing the publicans of the town and remarkably not a single public house remains in the ownership of any of the family names mentioned in the ballad.
Tommy Keegan’s connections through his ancestors with some of the historical figures of the past brings to the fore names as diverse as Michael Dwyer, the 1798 Rebel and Dan Donnelly, Ireland’s most famous pugilist. The Bailey Family of Killart, Athy were noted pipers as was Tommy’s Uncle John Keegan who died in or about 1941. An elderly Mrs. Bailey presented Dan Donnelly’s pipes to John Keegan who later passed them on to his friend and fellow piper, the famous Leo Rowsome.
Tommy claims that his Great Grandmother Kate was a sister of Michael Dwyer of Camara in the Glen of Immal, the revolutionary leader of 1798 fame. She married Willie Keegan of Russellstown, a member of a coach building family which lived in the house now occupied by the O’Sullivan family on the Dublin road. The Keegan families in Russellstown, Geraldine, Churchtown and Springhill were all related and the family tradition notes that one member of the extended Keegan family had a distillery and a beer house in the Shambles at Market Square, Athy many generations ago. Talking to Tommy about the history and traditions of our locality was an invigorating trawl through a mixture of genealogical facts and long forgotten folklore, all of which deserved a home secured by pen and ink for future perusal.
Writing of such matters while a flu epidemic rages through the countryside prompts me to ask my readers for help in recording the cures of folk medicine practised in this area in the days before advances in medical science made us all so dependent on antibiotics. The subject came up recently when I shared the celebration of New Years Night with a few friends, nearly all of whom had personal experiences or knowledge of local cures for various ailments. Folk medicine has always played an important part in the lives of Irish people and even today in South Kildare it continues to play a not insignificant part in dealing with certain ailments. I would like to hear from anyone who has any information on the subject of cures and folk medicine in the locality.
At least three generations of the Keegans stretching back to Tommy’s Great Grandfather are buried in Fontstown cemetery. This is one of the oldest cemeteries in the area and likely to remain so unless further research confirms the existence of cemeteries on two sites which have come to my notice. The medieval Dominican Priory of Athy which was sited in the area known as the Abbey at the back of Offaly Street had a community graveyard which may have been located at the rear of the two houses on the Carlow side of the Credit Union Office. This is yet to be authenticated but there is some evidence to support the claim that the Dominican Cemetery was in that area. The second as yet unconfirmed medieval cemetery location is the small piece of ground lying between St. John’s Lane and McHugh’s Chemist in Duke Street. However, more about both possibilities at a later date.
A sprightly 76 year old Tommy Keegan was born in Foxhill. His father Daniel was a farmer and carpenter, a craft which has now been passed on to Tommy’s own son Joe. Daniel Keegan’s father was a blacksmith in Blackwood while his Uncle Martin Keegan was the owner of Keegan’s brickyard in Churchtown. Tommy attended the Christian Brothers School in Athy during the superiorship of Brother Dolan and had as classmates Gerry and Dinny Moloney, Tim Dunne, Kevin and John Hyland and Eddie and Charlie Moore. Later apprenticed to his father Daniel he worked in the family sawmills in Foxhill making a variety of items including cartwheels, hay bogeys and trailers. He was a member of the Barrow Vale Athletic Club in the 1940’s, competing, he admits, not too successfully in marathon running. I understand the Chairman of the Club was Alfie Coyle, a butcher employed in Fingletons of Leinster Street. Tommy’s reference to Barrow Vale Athletic Club was the first and only reference I have ever come across of this Club of almost sixty years ago.
One of the old traditions passed down to Tommy was that the famous ballad Lanigan’s Ball was written by Alec Roberts, a signal man on the railways who lived in Leinster Street in the premises now occupied by Sunderlands Hardware Shop. Colm O’Lochlainn in his “Irish Street Ballads” published in 1939 mentions a full music sheet of the song published in the 1870’s where the words were ascribed to “Mr. Gavan, the celebrated Galway poet”. Sean McMahon in his more recently published Poolbeg book of Irish Ballads describes Lanigan’s Ball as an “Athy Ballad dating from the ‘60’s of the last century and taken to have been based on an actual rough evening near the town”. Whatever the right of Alec Roberts to lay claim to the authorship of this famous ballad there seems no argument about his responsibility for composing a song about the Publicans of Athy at the turn of the last century. It ran :-
I’ll describe to you in a verse or two
The Publicans of Athy
We’ll take them one by one
From Mrs. Silke of the Railway Bar
To James Brophy of the Grand Canal
The first we have is Mrs. Silke
Some say she’s nice and
Some say she’s very grand
But it looks so suspicious
The Pump is so close up to her hand
The next we have is poor Paddy Kelly
Whose fortune lies upon a hare
Then we have the two Christian Brothers
Master James and Master John
Who if they had their will
Would send poor Kelly back again.
It continues on in this vein listing the publicans of the town and remarkably not a single public house remains in the ownership of any of the family names mentioned in the ballad.
Tommy Keegan’s connections through his ancestors with some of the historical figures of the past brings to the fore names as diverse as Michael Dwyer, the 1798 Rebel and Dan Donnelly, Ireland’s most famous pugilist. The Bailey Family of Killart, Athy were noted pipers as was Tommy’s Uncle John Keegan who died in or about 1941. An elderly Mrs. Bailey presented Dan Donnelly’s pipes to John Keegan who later passed them on to his friend and fellow piper, the famous Leo Rowsome.
Tommy claims that his Great Grandmother Kate was a sister of Michael Dwyer of Camara in the Glen of Immal, the revolutionary leader of 1798 fame. She married Willie Keegan of Russellstown, a member of a coach building family which lived in the house now occupied by the O’Sullivan family on the Dublin road. The Keegan families in Russellstown, Geraldine, Churchtown and Springhill were all related and the family tradition notes that one member of the extended Keegan family had a distillery and a beer house in the Shambles at Market Square, Athy many generations ago. Talking to Tommy about the history and traditions of our locality was an invigorating trawl through a mixture of genealogical facts and long forgotten folklore, all of which deserved a home secured by pen and ink for future perusal.
Writing of such matters while a flu epidemic rages through the countryside prompts me to ask my readers for help in recording the cures of folk medicine practised in this area in the days before advances in medical science made us all so dependent on antibiotics. The subject came up recently when I shared the celebration of New Years Night with a few friends, nearly all of whom had personal experiences or knowledge of local cures for various ailments. Folk medicine has always played an important part in the lives of Irish people and even today in South Kildare it continues to play a not insignificant part in dealing with certain ailments. I would like to hear from anyone who has any information on the subject of cures and folk medicine in the locality.
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