South Kildare Unionist Meeting - 17 April 1893

On the evening of Friday, April 7th 1893 Sir Anthony Weldon travelled by horse and carriage from his home at Kilmoroney House. He was accompanied by his son Captain A. Weldon. Sometime earlier, Lord Mayo had set off from Naas while Canon Bagot journeyed from his home at the Rectory in Fontstown. Their destination was the Town Hall in Athy where they were to meet up with many of the local landed gentry, several Minister’s of the Church of Ireland and a couple of local shop keepers. The Dean of Kildare was there as well as Rev. Mr. Brendar, Rev. Dean Meeke, Rev. R. Meredith, Rev. S. P. Smithwick and Rev. Mr. Follis. They were joined by J. H. Dunne, W. McCulloch, R. McCulloch, Sir. Erasmus Borrowes, R. Anderson, F. Farrell, R. Lumley, W.P. St. John, G. Patterson, W. Dunne, W. Pender, George Gilmore, W. Webber, F.M. Carroll, Captain E. Dease, T. Anderson, T. Greer, A. Harvey, A. Lowes, G. Carroll, R. McMahon, W. A. Cooper and F. Scott amongst others.

The occasion was a meeting of the South Kildare Unionists who came together to protest against the Home Rule Bill which had been introduced in the House of Commons by W. E. Gladstone just three months previously. This was the second time that a Home Rule Bill was brought before the English Parliament. Seven years previously a Bill which proposed a measure of self Government for the Irish was also introduced in the House of Commons by Gladstone where it was defeated. Undaunted, the Liberal Leader re-introduced his second Home Rule Bill in January 1893 with the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party. The Bill proposed that Ireland would have a two tier Legislature with restricted powers to make laws and control of its own taxes, other than Customs and Excise. Strongly resisted in the House of Commons, the proposals caused alarm amongst the Unionist population and the meeting held in the Town Hall, Athy was but one of several meetings throughout the country convened in opposition to Home Rule for Ireland.

The Chairman of the Athy meeting was Sir Anthony Weldon while his son Captain Weldon acted as secretary. At the start of the meeting two letters of support received from Arthur Balfour and Lord Randolf Churchill were read aloud by the meeting’s secretary. Balfour who had been Chief Secretary for Ireland for four years up to 1891 and would later be a Conservative Prime Minister of Britain was known as “Bloody Balfour” after the Mitchelstown massacre of 1887 where Policemen fired on a local meeting. In his letter written from Newtownards on the 5th April 1893, Balfour expressed gratification on hearing of the Unionists meeting in Athy. He continued, “I feel assured that the more the effects of this Bill are realised throughout Ireland, the more clearly it will seen by men of every shade of political and religious conviction that Home Rule in this shape will bring with it nothing but financial and agricultural disaster to every class in Ireland”.(Twenty years later as an elderly member of the British cabinet, Balfour would support Lloyd George’s abortive Home Rule proposals, and in 1921 Balfour supported the Anglo Irish Treaty)

Lord Randolf Churchill who was to die the following year wrote from 40 Grosvenor Square, London apologising for his inability to accept Anthony Weldon’s invitation to the meeting and conveyed his best wishes in bringing home to the agricultural community the importance of “the present crisis”. Churchill who was leader of a radical group within the Tory party was strongly opposed to Irish Home Rule and during the debate on the first Home Rule Bill in 1886 he had encouraged Orange extremists in Ulster with the catch phrase “Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right”. Letters of apology for non attendance were received from the Duke of Leinster, Lord Walter Fitzgerald, Major R. H. Moore, Laurence Dunne, Lord Seaton, the Rector of Athy Rev. E. H. Waller, Major Blacken and William Young.

Captain Dease proposed a Motion “that we desire to express our continued and unswerving loyalty to the throne and thereby pledge ourselves to maintain by every means in our power the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland”. In support of this motion, Dease said “Home Rule meant Home ruin …., the men who would govern the country if Home Rule were in operation were not men whom they could trust to administer the finances of the country…... The so called patriots have put a check on Irish prosperity. They have set class against class. They have banished forever the old feeling that had existed between Landlord and Tenant….. They have increased ten fold that religious bitterness which had been fast dying out…The Irish Unionists should endeavour by all means to frustrate this Bill which must be dangerous to the interests of religion… and would bring misery to hundreds of happy homes and ruin and disaster to our beloved country”.

Captain Deases contribution was received with loud applause and Captain Weldon who followed him in seconding the motion claimed that “a grave crisis in the history and fortunes of this beloved country are imminent…. Mr. Gladstone claims that if the Bill passes, there will be a plethora of money in Ireland… No doubt there would be a plethora in the pockets of some gentlemen who some time ago had nothing but their wits to depend upon until they were raised metaphorically and literally out of the gutter by the man whom they afterwards hounded to death”. [The reference here was to Parnell and it drew a loud and sustained “here here”].

Mr. T. Anderson, Justice of the Peace moved a second motion “that the financial arrangements proposed in the Bill would lead to commercial insecurity and general withdrawal of capital from Ireland.”. Speaking as a tenant farmer, he felt that the Home Rule Bill if passed would have disastrous consequences for the tenant farmers of Ireland. William Dunne, also a Justice of the Peace seconded Anderson’s motion and claimed that under Home Rule, they would lose all the assistance which England gave to Ireland for Education, for improving the breed of horses and cattle and for the purchase of land etc.

The Earl of Mayo in supporting the motion asked how could “the future Nationalist Demagogue Parliament match the financial assistance which the Imperial Government now gave to farmers in Ireland…. How could they allow the country to be administered by men who had everything to gain and nothing to lose by becoming the Directors of Irish Finances except the coats and breeches that covered their skins”. [This last comment drew loud applause and laughter from his audience].

Canon Bagot moved a third motion “that we cordially approve the action which has been taken by the Irish Unionist Alliance in awakening the country to the gravity of the present crisis…. and we agree to form a branch of the Unionists Alliance in South Kildare”. This motion was seconded by Mr. R. Farrell and supported by Mr. T. W. Carroll and like the previous motions was unanimously passed.

Sir Anthony Weldon was then elected Chairman of the local committee of the South Kildare Unionists Alliance and Mr. Carroll from Moone was elected its secretary. It was agreed that a petition from the Unionists of South Kildare protesting against the Home Rule Bill be presented to the Parliament in London.

The second Home Rule Bill was strongly resisted in the House of Commons and was only forced through after many difficulties. In September, 1893 it came before the House of Lords where it was rejected. A third Home Rule Bill was introduced in the House of Commons by Mr. Asquith in 1912. It again met with strong opposition from the Unionists but eventually got through the Commons in January 1913. It was later defeated in the House of Lords but due to legislative changes made two years previously, the House of Lords could only delay its implementation. The Home Rule Bill was signed into law on the 18th September 1914 but by agreement with the Irish Parliamentary Party, it was suspended for the duration of World War 1. It was later superceded by the Government of Ireland Act, 1920.

The Athy meeting of the 7th April 1893 was attended by a typical cross section of members of Southern Irish Unionism. Farmers and Anglicans formed a majority element of Irish Unionism and while numerically small, nevertheless claimed to represent the majority of the Irish people when putting forward its opposition to Home Rule. The decline in the finances and influence of the landed gentry in Southern Ireland coupled with the development of militant unionism in Northern Ireland led to a decline in the influence and strength of Southern Unionists. The Town Hall in Athy accommodated many protest meetings in its time but the meeting held on Friday, 7th April 1893 was one of the last occasions when the Southern Unionists cause was highlighted locally.

St. Dominic's Death

In last weeks Eye on the Past I wrote of the contribution of the Sisters of Mercy to the development of St. Vincent’s Hospital and its earlier transition from Workhouse to County Home. After I had penned that piece I travelled overseas to spend a few days between bookshops and the various research libraries which are almost always guaranteed to provide long sought answers to so many questions concerning our history and particularly the Irish Diaspora. On my return I learned of the death of that great lady, Sr. Dominic McHugh, former Matron of St. Vincent’s Hospital whose funeral to St. Michael’s Cemetery took place on Monday, 20th May.

I had the privilege of interviewing Sr. Dominic on several occasions, each time coming away with a better appreciation and understanding of the wonderful contribution made over the years by the Sisters of Mercy for the benefit of Athy and its people. Sr. Dominic spent most of her adult life amongst the patients and inmates of the County Home. In so describing them I am drawing a distinction between those ill people for whom St. Vincent’s provided a happy refuge at the end of their days and the able-bodied but improvident who had occasional recourse to the County Home for shelter and a bite to eat. It was the latter who provided Sr. Dominic with the opportunity to practice the mercy and charity with which lay people come to expect from the order of nuns established by Blessed Catherine McAuley.

It was November 1937 when the young Kathleen McHugh from Ballycorman in Ballylinan entered the Convent of Mercy in Athy. The 1930’s was one of the great periods for recruitment for religious orders in Ireland and the young Ballylinan girl was joined other young Irish girls, some from as far away as County Mayo, when she became a member of the local Convent. She made her first profession in May of the following year, receiving the name Sr. Mary Dominic. After four years training as a Nurse in the Mater Hospital Dublin Sr. Mary Dominic or Sr. Dominic as she was generally known, returned to Athy to work in the local hospital. January 14th, 1940 was the date she took up duties in St. Vincent’s as assistant to the Matron Sr. Angela. When Dr. Joe O’Neill replaced his father Dr. Jeremiah O’Neill as Medical Officer to the County Home in 1952 the day nursing staff was comprised solely of Sisters of Mercy from the local Convent. Those were, Sr. Vincent who was the Matron, Sr. Dominic, Sr. Brigid, Sr. Paschal, Sr. Ignatius, Sr. Patrick and Sr. Finbar. The night nursing staff comprised Mrs. Flanagan and Miss McDonagh.

Sr. Dominic succeeded Sr. Vincent as Matron in 1957 and remained in that position for the following 24 years. Health services were then organised on a county basis and Kildare County Council allowed the big-hearted nun a free hand in the running of the County Home. Sr. Dominic was an extremely kind person with a soft spot for the under privileged. Knights of the road and persons temporarily down on their luck always found comfort and solace within the confines of St. Vincent’s Hospital. Legion are the stories recounted over the years concerning Sr. Dominic’s many acts of kindness. A breakfast reception provided for a traveler’s wedding, furniture handed out to those in need and jobs found for unemployed young people were just some of the many instances of Sr. Dominic’s charity. She had an engaging manner and despite her busy schedule found the time to exchange kind works with everyone she met. As one local said to me today, “Sr. Dominic had a place in her heart for everyone”. This was perhaps best exemplified in the support she gave Sr. Consilio when the young County Cork born nun established the first Cuan Mhuire in Athy. Her support for Sr. Consilio never wavered over the years.

The eldest of six children of James and Margaret McHugh of Ballycorman, Ballylinan, Co. Laois Sr. Dominic took pride in her families links with Luggacurran and its historic past. She often spoke of the Luggacurran evictions when her forbearers, the McHughs, like so many other Irish families, were evicted from their farm holdings.

On retiring from St. Vincent’s Hospital in 1981 Sr. Dominic continued to live in the Convent located within the grounds of the Hospital. This allowed her to maintain her daily routine of visiting the patients as well as serving as the sacristan in the hospital Chapel. Each year she undertook fundraising activities each year to assist in sending handicapped children to Lourdes and many local children had the benefit and experience of a pilgrimage to that sacred place due to Sr. Dominic’s untiring charitable work.

She had three sisters of which one, Mary Ann McHugh who lived in 98 Woodstock Street died 11 years ago. Her surviving sisters are Brigid who lives in Woodstock Street and Sr. Eileen, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph’s who has lived in Australia for over 60 years. Sr. Eileen returned to Ireland for a short visit towards the end of last year to meet her sisters and her brothers, Rich McHugh who lives at Luggacurran and John McHugh of Fallaghmore.

Sr. Dominic was a larger-than-life figure whose achievements were publicly recognised when she was the recipient of a Person of the Year Award in 1990. It was an honour she fully deserved. I’m told that during the homily at the funeral Mass on Monday, two women walked across the transept of St. Michael’s Church and placed a hand-written poem on Sr. Dominic’s coffin. It was a touching and original tribute to a Sister of Mercy who during her long life exemplified the virtues and graces which many of us long to possess. Sr. Dominic was a shining example of all that is good in life and those of us who were privileged to know her will always cherish her memory.

The last Sister of Mercy in St. Vincents Hospital

A piece of history played out a few weeks ago passed unnoticed so far as most of us were concerned. St. Vincent’s Hospital, once known as the County Home and even before that as the Workhouse or the Poorhouse, was the venue as Sr. Catherine of the Sisters of Mercy retired after many years of personal service to the patients of that institution. Her retirement was a noteworthy event in its own right, but made all the more so when we realised that with her departure the last link between St. Vincent’s Hospital and the Sisters of Mercy was relinquished. It was in 1880 that the religious order founded by Mother Catherine McAuley some years previously were invited by the Board of Guardians to take over the running of the infirmary attached to the Workhouse. The nuns who had arrived in Athy in 1851 had been regular visitors to the Workhouse and were to be found there most Sundays ministering to the needs of the unfortunate inmates. Their good work soon came to the attention of the Board of Guardians who had been running the Workhouse since it opened in 1844. The Workhouse regime was harsh, separating husbands from wives and parents from children. At night-time the inmates were locked in their wards and responsibility for their care passed to long-term female inmates who without training or nursing experience had to look after their fellow inmates. Nursing then was of the most rudimentary type and it was not until the end of the 19th century that a properly trained nursing staff began to be available to Irish workhouses.

In the meantime the Sisters of Mercy had developed their own programme of weekly visits to the workhouse which eventually culminated in the invitation extended to them in 1873 to provide nursing sisters for the dark Victorian building which was Athy’s workhouse infirmary. With the foundation of the Irish Free State the Workhouse was designated as a county home and the Sisters of Mercy were by then in charge of the one time workhouse which provided care facilities for the elderly of County Kildare.

Sr. Catherine who retired on 31st March was the last of a long line of Sisters of Mercy who over a period of 130 years or so served the long-term and short-term patients who lived out their years in St. Vincent’s Hospital, Athy. She was born Mary Ann McGee to County Wexford parents and entered the Convent of Mercy in September 1955. Professed three years later she trained as a nurse in the Mater Hospital and did her maternity nursing in St. Finbar’s Hospital, Cork. Sr. Catherine spent the next 18 years working in St. Vincent’s Hospital until 1981 when she left for the Missions in Kenya. She was to remain in Kenya for ten years working as a nursing sister in the Machakos Diocese and in the Mata Hospital, Nairobi. On completion of her ten years abroad she returned to St. Vincent’s Hospital where she remained until her recent retirement.

As I write this article I do not have a list of all the Sisters of Mercy who served in St. Vincent’s from the time it was a Workhouse until the recent retirement of Sr. Catherine. I hope such a list can be compiled and indeed a similar listing of all the lay people who served in that institution should also be prepared. In any event we have the names of most of the doctors and the matrons who over 160 years ministered to the needs of the patients and inmates.

In relation to the medical staff the name O’Neill crops up with quite extraordinary regularity. The present holder of the title of medical officer to St. Vincent’s Hospital is Dr. Giles O’Neill who succeeded his father, Dr. Joe O’Neill in that post. The O’Neill family connections with what is now St. Vincent’s Hospital go back long before Dr. Joe’s time. It was his grandfather, Dr. P.L. O’Neill who was the first member of the family to be appointed Medical Officer to the then Workhouse. It was a position to which he was appointed in 1874 following the death of Dr. Thomas Kynsey who had been Medical Officer for the previous 31 years. Dr. P.L. O’Neill was replaced by his own son Dr. Jeremiah O’Neill in 1897. Four consecutive generations of the O’Neill family have held the position of Medical Officer and their combined service to date amounts to over 126 years.

During that time several members of the Sisters of Mercy were matrons of St. Vincent’s. The last religious to occupy that position was Sr. Peig Rice who retired a few years ago. Her time as matron was marked by an improvement in the patient care facilities, due in part to better financing of the health services and in part to generous voluntary contributions to the Patient Comfort Fund. Sr. Peig replaced the legendary Sr. Dominic who retired in 1981 after 41 years service in St. Vincent’s Hospital. She was in charge during the latter years of the institution’s life as a County Home and in the early years of its re-birth as St. Vincent’s Hospital. Legion are the stories told and retold of the mighty Sr. Dominic whose 24 years as matron of St. Vincent’s was marked by good natured generosity and charity extended to many down-and-outs who sought refuge and comfort within the hospital. A McHugh from Ballycorman, Ballylinan whose forebearers lost their lands during the Luggacurran Evictions of the 1880’s, Sr. Dominic joined the Sisters of Mercy in Athy in 1933. After her profession and on completion of her training as a nurse she returned in 1940 to St. Vincent’s Hospital where she was appointed Matron in 1957 in succession to Sr. Angela. The Sisters of Mercy who were matrons in the earlier decades of the 20th century cannot as yet be identified with certainty. Little is known of Sr. Angela or of Sr. Vincent, another matron drawn from the ranks of the Sisters of Mercy.

In 1994 the sesquicentennial of the hospital was celebrated. Just eight years later St. Vincent’s Hospital no longer has a member of the Sisters of Mercy on its staff. The proud achievement of the religious order in tending to the sick and poor of our area is now a matter of history. With the retirement of Sr. Catherine, the curtain has finally come down on another aspect of the work of the Sisters of Mercy in Athy. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude and to Sr. Catherine goes our best wishes for a happy retirement.

Death of Willie Carroll / Christy Myles / Walter Hurley / Ann Kelly / Jim Moran

Last week I attended the launch of the Kildare Tourism Task Force Report which was headlined as A Framework For Action. The Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy T.D. did the honours by way of a video link which brought together Maynooth in the north of the county and Athy, its most southerly county town. The Chairman for the afternoon was the newly appointed Town Manager for Athy, Willie Carroll. He did his task with aplomb and commendable style as he had done for several years while Director of Community and Enterprise Services with Kildare County Council. We talked before and after the formal part of the afternoons activities, discussing our community’s need to regenerate and reactivate itself in the pursuit of what may euphemistically be called the community good.

Coming as he did with background experience of community development it wasn’t difficult to realise that Willie Carroll as the newly appointed Town Manager saw his new posting as one offering an exceptional opportunity to influence the future of Athy and its hinterland. I had met him on several occasions in the past but last week was the first time we had talked since his appointment as Town Manager for Athy. I was deeply impressed by his openness, his commitment and the ease with which he brought together the different strands of his experiences as he identified the issues which needed to be tackled to guarantee Athy’s future prosperity.

You will then understand my dismay when on reaching my office this morning I received a phone call to tell me that Willie Carroll, at 47 years of age died suddenly during the night. I was dumbfounded by the news and immensely saddened to think that such a promising career was cut short so abruptly. Willie Carroll’s passing is a huge set-back for Athy and our sympathies go to his wife and family.

The past week has been a week of funerals. Christy Myles, at 80 years of age, passed away and his passing brought to mind his relation Paddy Myles, now long dead but who in his young days played football before graduating to refereeing. He wasn’t the best referee around, but did his best, so I always felt, until one Sunday afternoon when he refereed a match between Athy and its near neighbour Castlemitchell. In the ’50’s and ‘60’s when these two teams met they always did so with great hostility and their competitive encounters gave a new meaning to the term “grudge match”. Anyway, Paddy Myles was refereeing an Athy/Castlemitchell game one Sunday afternoon in Geraldine Park and yours truly was playing centerfield for Athy. For once I was doing a reasonably good job, and when half time came my opposite number was taken off and replaced by another whose footballing skills were less prominent than his talent at throwing the odd off the ball punch. I was duly treated to an avalanche [well maybe I exaggerate] of elbows, straight lefts and thumps, sufficient to draw the anger of the saintliest pacifist. Of course they were always aimed to land when Paddy Myles’ back was turned. The smouldering fuse eventually gave way but instead of retaliating I marched up to Paddy the referee, and verbally lambasted him for his failure to see what was happening and then proceeded to walk off the pitch. Whether intentionally or otherwise I cannot say, my exit coincided with the last few minutes of the game and as victory was already secured my departure had no effect on the final outcome. Such were the memories I recalled of Paddy Myles when I learned of the death of his relation Christy Myles last week.

Walter Hurley also passed away last week after a long life lived at Rathstewart where his family had resided since 1920. The Hurley name has been synonymous with Athy ever since the early years of the last century when Walter’s father Hugh Hurley served as an engineer with the Urban District Council.

Rathstewart last week also witnessed the death of Ann Kelly whose son Edmund was one of the many with whom I attended school so many years ago. I met Edmund at his mother’s funeral and despite the years which have galloped past since we last met he was instantly recognisable. Isn’t it strange how some people never seem to change from decade to decade while others go through mutations every few years. I remember Edmund Kelly so well because he was the envy of everyone in my class when on 13th April 1958 he left school for the last time to take up a job as a trainee telegraph boy with the Post Office in Naas. I can still recall the jab of jealously I felt then, knowing that Edmund was released from the tedium of school into the adult world where he would have his own money with no restrictions on what he did or when he chose to do it. Life seemed so simple then! Edmund emigrated to London in 1966 and joined the Metropolitan Police Force from which he is now retired. He will be back in Athy next September for the class reunion of those who shared their young lives as pupils of the Christian Brothers school in St. John’s Lane.

In September 1995 I had a most welcome visitor from Luton in England. He was Jim Moran, commonly called “the Piper” Moran, whom I now know was on his last visit to his home town of Athy. On that occasion he brought me a photograph of a pipe band, a copy of which I already possessed, but what I did not have then was the names of those captured in the old photograph. The pipe band was St. Brigid’s whose image was captured forever as the band members stood with pride in the field at the rear of the Malt House in Rathstewart in 1919 after winning a Feis competition in Portlaoise. Jim Moran was the youngest member of that pipe band which was active up to 1924 or thereabouts. Willie Hutchinson and Jim Moran were in September 1995 the last survivors of St. Brigid’s Pipe Band and last week Jim passed away, a few years after William Hutchinson had died.

Jim “Piper” Moran who would have been 95 years old on 2nd June next was married with three sons when he travelled to England in 1959 for what was intended as a short holiday. While there he was encouraged to do a few days work in the local factory and found to his amazement that he earned more in those days than he had ever done in Athy. He decided to stay in England and his wife and family soon joined him in the town of Luton where he was to live for the next 43 years. While he was fit and able to do so Jim made a trip home every year to Kilberry and Athy and I know he loved to renew old acquaintances and relive memories of times past. His remains were brought home for burial in Kilberry Cemetery, thus completing the circle of emigration and repatriation with which so many Irish families of the 1940’s and 1950’s were so familiar.

My thanks to the readers who took the trouble to write to me during the week with their memories of the Verschoyle’s of Ardreigh and Kilberry. Apparently no-one knew the first name of the man who lived at Ardreigh House for over 20 years. He was known simply as “Mr. Verschoyle”. I wonder what happened his furniture and effects when he died in 1956. Were they auctioned, and if so can anyone identify any items or artifacts belonged to Verschoyle which are still in the Athy area?

Verschoyle (Part II)

Verschoyle was a name familiar in the Kilberry area of Athy for 200 years or more up to the middle of the last century. They were Landlords with substantial holdings of land in that area and it would appear that the first of the Verschoyle’s to be associated with South Kildare was James Verschoyle, Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. He was appointed Dean in 1794 and held that position until he was raised to the Bishopric of Kilalla in 1810. While he was the Dean of St. Patrick’s, he came into possession of lands at Kilberry just outside the town of Athy which formerly belonged to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. How or in what way ownership passed from St. Patrick’s to the Dean I cannot say, but in any event the lands thereafter formed part of the property of successive generations of the Verschoyle family.

The Bishop’s son, Robert Verschoyle lived at Abbeyfarm, Kilberry with his wife Catherine and their six children. He died in London in 1866 and he is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery as is his wife Catherine who died sixteen years later. As a young woman, Catherine was featured in a book published in 1839 entitled “Heaths Book of Beauty”. Of their three sons, only one, Henry William survived to adulthood. Henry, born in 1835 obtained a Commission in the Grenadier Guards and served in the Crimean War of 1854/55 and carried the regimental colours at the Battles of Alma, Balaklava and Inkerman. He was wounded during the siege of Sebastopol in 1855. Henry married in December 1856 and continued to live at Kilberry and at 6 Wilton Crescent in London. He was an accomplished artist and photographer and a large collection of his photographic works are held in the Hulton Collection in London.

On retiring from the Grenadier Guards with the rank of Colonel, Henry Verschoyle became a sailor of note and owned a racing cutter named “Vanguard”, with which he won the Queens Cup at the Cowes Regatta in 1870. Just two days later the Kilberry based yachtsman collapsed and died while participating in another race at the same Regatta. Henry and his wife Clara had three daughters and two sons, the eldest of whom Arthur lived in Kilberry and also at 6 Wilton Place, London. Arthur Verschoyle married twice and had one son Terry, born in 1894 by his first wife who herself died in 1899. His only son died in 1912 and Arthur himself died at Brighton in 1937.

Abbey Farm, Kilberry appears to have been home at different times, not only to the descendants of Robert Verschoyle but also to those of his first cousin John James Verschoyle who was employed as a land agent. It was John James Verschoyle who is reputed to have planted trees along the roadway from Athy to Kilberry. When John died in 1894, his estate included a farm at Kilberry which he had leased from Arthur Verschoyle.

His eldest son John Stuart Verschoyle was a great favourite of the local people and when he was ordained for the Church of England, he allowed the lands at Kilberry, to which he was entitled on the death of his father, to pass to his younger brother William. John Stuart Verschoyle was an important figure in literary London at the turn of the 19th Century. He edited the “Fortnightly Review” with the better known writer Frank Harris who was one of George Bernard Shaw’s biographers.

William Henry Verschoyle’s occupancy of the Kilberry lands coincided with the Land troubles of the 1880’s and like the Weldon’s of Kilmoroney and Lord Landsdowne of Luggacurran, he was the target of local Land League agitation. Threatening letters were sent to Verschoyle and he was the subject of at least one assassination attempt. The police in Athy wrote to him on the 24th April 1881 advising him of plans to shoot his Bailiff, John Gilmore and to assassinate Verschoyle on his next visit to the town of Athy. Gilmore was given police protection while Verschoyle stayed away from the area for a while. He certainly deemed it prudent to do so after the following notice was fixed to the entrance gates at Abbey Farm. “I am obliged to make this known in public that you are going to be shot dead as sure as a revolver is available and your name is Verschoyle”.

In 1881, Athy not only had a branch of the Land League but also an active branch of the Ladies Land League whose president was Mrs. M. Doyle. Much of the Land League activity in South Kildare centered on opposition to the Leinster Lease which the Duke of Leinster sought to impose on his tenants. Tenants who signed the Leinster Lease found that many of the provisions of the Land Acts which would benefit them were excluded under the terms of the Leinster Lease. Sir Anthony Weldon whose tenants occupied lands in the Ballylinan area and Henry Verschoyle, landlord in the Kilberry area together with the Duke of Leinster bore the brunt of the opposition whipped up by the local Land League. All sections of the local community were involved in the Land League and even young children were encouraged to take part. Mrs. Cantwell, Secretary of the Ladies League in Athy, whose husband John was imprisoned for his involvement in the Land League, reported on the 8th October 1881 that she had “enrolled seventeen children in the juvenile branch of the League”.

No surprise was likely to be expressed by Messrs. Verschoyle or Weldon when placards were posted around Athy and District in September 1881 which read,
“Men of Kildare, be on your guard. No surrender. Sign no new Lease or agreement. Let the Commissioners settle the judicial rents. Have nothing to do with agents, bailiffs, valuers or land agents. Refer them to the Land League”.

However, none of the local landlords came to any harm during the Land League agitation in South Kildare and William Henry Verschoyle was soon able to return to his farm in Kilberry.


He married, firstly, Frances Hamilton by whom he had three sons and a daughter. Two of his sons William and Francis were killed in France during World War 1. Their mother Frances Verschoyle died in 1924 and two years later William Verschoyle married for the second time. His new wife, the novelist, Winnifred Letts wrote the charming book “Knockmaroon” which was illustrated by her step-daughter Kathleen Verschoyle. William Henry Verschoyle died in 1943 and is buried at Rathcoole, Co. Dublin. His widow Winnifred died in 1972. William’s surviving son George was ordained for the Church of Ireland and he served as a curate in a number of Parishes up to 1954 when he died. Following the death of William Verschoyle in 1943, the lands at Kilberry were sold and the Land Commission allocated various parcels of the Verschoyle lands to local farmers. The Abbey Farm residence and the farm of land adjoining it were acquired by Walter Stacey, a Gorey man who had been employed as a land steward by William Verschoyle from 1930 to 1943. The Verschoyle families are no longer represented in the Kilberry area while Abbey Farm is now the home of Mr. & Mrs. Ernie Stacey.

500th Edition of Eye on the Past

This week I had intended to complete the story of the Verschoyles of Kilberry, land owners of the last century whose lands extended over the area once occupied by the followers of St. Baire whose name gave us the anglicised placename, Kilberry. So much for my intentions. But you will no doubt forgive me if I instead indulge myself somewhat this week. After all this is the 500th edition of the Eye on the Past and as such worthy of some recognition, even if only by myself!

Eye on the Past No. 1 appeared in the Nationalist and Leinster Times on 25th September 1992, just two weeks before the Kildare Nationalist first arrived on the newsagent stands. The last paragraph of that first article promised that “Eye on the Past will each week deal with a topic of interest from the history of South Kildare where we will delve into the rich vein of local history which remains to be discovered and related in future articles.”

I wonder if I wrote that piece more in hope than in any real expectation that I could unravel the hidden stories of this part of County Kildare. After all, little or nothing had been previously put in print in relation to our local history. The one exception was Michael “Crutch” Malone’s “Annals of Athy”, published in the early 1930’s. Strangely I was to come across some years ago Malone’s manuscript notes for the Annals which had been incorporated into one of the many minute books of the Athy Urban District Council. Sadly those same volumes were water damaged during the time they were stored in the then dilapidated Town Hall in the years before that building was handsomely restored.

Whatever my expectations when I wrote that first article in 1992 I have to say that the intervening years have proved to me that there is an enormous interest in local history. Indeed it’s an interest which is growing apace fed on the burgeoning diet of books and booklets which are published every year on every aspect of Irish local history. To my shame I have not yet completed my oft promised History of Athy and as I write this article the manuscript of the town’s story on which I worked on and off for so many years still lies within the deep recesses of my desk. I must return to it again someday soon, if only to ensure that no-one else will be held responsible for my errors of omission or interpretation.

The public’s response to the Eye on the Past series has always been encouraging and nowhere is that more evident than in the many kindnesses shown to me over the years by those whom I have been privileged to interview. There have been many happy occasions when the interviewees have shared with me stories, some of which unfortunately could not be reproduced in print for one reason or another. There have been sad moments too, occasioned by memories of times past and events of another age. People’s memories of the hard times are not always recalled with nostalgia. There can sometimes be a trace of bitterness and of regret that the opportunities to work in one’s own town or country were not available when young men wanted to live out their lives with their own families. The result was a steady stream of emigration from the town of Athy - the same town which over the centuries had itself welcomed overseas settlers who were to make their home in the Anglo-Norman town on the River Barrow.

The story of Athy is a fascinating one. It’s a story of conquest and settlement, development and decline, but above all a history of a townspeople of different creeds and sometimes of different nationalities who over time found a common ground in their desire to develop and sustain an urban community. Local history for all its diversity can be broken down into the lives of the people who live, work and play in any one place, and Athy affords someone like myself a unique opportunity to delve into and record events and people. I have often wondered at the range of interest evidenced in the lives of the most humble of persons. Their life stories carry within them the nuggets from which local history is fashioned. I have been very fortunate in meeting and listening over the years to many men and women whose experiences of times past have provided an interesting and informative infill to my own generalised background knowledge of life in Athy in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Even more welcome was the opportunity to talk to those whose life experiences went back into earlier decades of the 20th century.

In the ten years I have been penning the Eye on the Past the cultural life of Athy has been enhanced by the opening of a heritage centre in the early 18th century Town Hall. More than anything else that centre was the realisation of a dream which originated in a meeting held in early 1983, attended by the likes of the late Pat Mulhall and the late Bertie Doyle with the then County Manager, Gerry Ward. It was Gerry Ward’s support for the newly established Athy Museum Society and his agreement to re-locate the local museum in a small room in the Town Hall which ultimately lead to the drive to have Athy designated as a heritage town. The Urban Council made the formal submission to An Bord Failte for the much sought heritage status and the funding which would follow. The town’s story stretching back to the 12th century provided an ideal historical framework to support that application. Almost inevitably, Bord Failte approval was received, ultimately resulting in the refurbishing of the ground floor of the Town Hall as a new heritage centre for Athy. We are extremely lucky to have such a fine facility as the Heritage Centre and with the ever increasing interest in local history, there is always an opportunity for local people to contribute in one way or another to the continuing success of the Centre.

I hope those faithful readers who each week read Eye on the Past have enjoyed the first 500 articles. I have certainly enjoyed researching and writing them. My thanks go to the many men and women who over the last ten years or so have given of their time to share their experiences with me and ultimately with the readers of the Kildare Nationalist. One final thank you and its to the lady who ten years ago while a reporter covering the Athy area asked me to write what was a new series for her Eye on Athy page. Barbara Sheridan is now news editor of the newspaper and it’s Barbara you have to blame if my weekly meanderings are not to your liking. By the way, if you would like to read the articles in book form, you can still get Eye on Athy’s Past - Vol. 2 which has articles published in the Kildare Nationalist between June 1995 and April 1997. Volume I is out of print but whatever copies are available can be obtained in the local book shops and in the local Heritage Centre.

Verschoyle (Part 1)

The name Verschoyle is remembered in connection with land ownership in the Kilberry area of Athy. Today the only reminder of the extensive land holdings which were once in the Verschoyle name are the shooting rights which are reserved to members the same family. On the other side of Athy at Ardreigh, there lived up to 1956 a man whom I and many others believed was a retired English Army Officer. He was, or so I always thought, a retired Army General and while he lived behind the closed gates of Ardreigh House, nothing was ever said or done to alter that perception.

The man in question was Ainslie Verschoyle. The eldest son of Robert and Gertrude Verschoyle he was born in England in 1875. As a young man, he was involved in a number of different business enterprises including the operation of a fleet of carriages in the university town of Oxford. A well travelled man, he once operated a Hotel in the South of France, while another of his innovative businesses was organising trekking parties in the Rocky Mountains. Verschoyle was also involved in motor racing when that sport was still in its infancy. It was an interest he retained until the end of his days and one which allowed him to indulge his passion for driving sports cars.

Those who recall Verschoyle of Ardreigh House invariably mention the man in the context of sports cars and gun dogs. Indeed, he was heavily involved in gun dog trials and founded the Irish Fields Trial Association of which he was president until he died. An excellent trainer of gun dogs, he won many trophies in field trials which for many years were held on his lands at Athy. Shooting and fishing were part of his sporting repertoire and I can recall a story told to me many years ago of the master of Ardreigh House as Verschoyle was commonly known. The gate lodge was home to the Bolger’s and one day when one of their chickens encroached on Verschoyle’s lawn, it was swiftly dispatched with a well aimed shot from the front door of Ardreigh House followed by the bellowed instructions “Bolger, there’s chicken soup on the lawn”.

There was also a romantic and sentimental side to the man as evidenced in a story recounted to me some years ago by Manchester based Sarah Allen who as a young girl lived with her grandmother at Ardreigh. Mrs. Lawler worked as a cook for Ainslie Verschoyle and occasionally her young grand daughter Sarah was sent into Athy to collect a newspaper. Sarah still recalled over fifty years later the one and only occasion she walked through the front door of Ardreigh House, when invited to do so following one newspaper trip to town. She recalled the luxury of walking on carpets for the very first time in her life and Verschoyle’s gentle demeanor as he brought her into the dining room beyond the hall to show her his late wife’s harp. It stood in a corner of the room, a poignant reminder of his late wife Eleanor whom he had married in 1903, the year of the Gordon Bennett Race.

Ainslie Verschoyle and his wife Eleanor had no children and when Mrs. Verschoyle died in 1925 at their home in the Pyrennes, her husband Ainslie returned to England. When exactly he returned to Ireland I cannot say but the information available to me at present would indicate that Ainslie Verschoyle moved to Ardreigh House in the early 1930’s. There he was to live for over twenty years in the splendid surroundings of a house which had been built in the final years of the Great Famine, for the Haughton’s who were a Quaker family.

I have not traced any records of Ainslie Verschoyle’s supposed Military Service and given his business interests in so many country’s while he was still a young man, it is likely that he had no connection at all with the British Army. In that respect, he was different than his only brother Henry who served as a Colonel in the Royal Army Service Corps and who died in 1967 aged 80 years. Ainslie Verschoyle had three sisters Catherine Eleanor and Lucy, only one of whom appear to have married. He died on 1st March 1956 and Ardreigh House was subsequently purchased by Georgie Farrell , a man who in his time acquired and sold many of the big houses in this area.

On the Northern side of Athy lies Kilberry, once home to another Verschoyle family who were cousins of Ainslie Verschoyle. Ainslie’s grandfather Joseph Verschoyle was brother of Robert Verschoyle of Kilberry and both were sons of James Verschoyle, Bishop of Kilalla who died in 1834. The Kilberry lands came into the possession of the Verschoyle’s while James Verschoyle was Dean of St. Patrick’s in Dublin. He had been appointed Dean four years before the Year of Rebellion 1798 and was eventually raised to the Bishopric of Kilalla in 1810.

The Bishop’s son, Robert Verschoyle who was born in 1792 and who qualified as a Barrister in 1818 lived for most of the year in Kilberry but during the London season he was based at 116 Eaton Square, London. The Kilberry residence of the Verschoyle’s was known as Abbey Farm, built it was believed, on the site of a ruined Abbey. Winnifred Letts, the poet, playwright and fiction writer who married William Henry Verschoyle in 1926 wrote eloquently of rural Leinster and her book of reminiscences titled “Knockmaroon” published in 1933 has a wistful charm which owes much to the long standing Verschoyle links with the Kilberry area. She wrote of Abbey Farm as being
“surrounded by little stumps of castles, one in the farmyard proudly rules the hay rick. Another, Castle Reddy, in a field, was its legends of buried treasure and of the old La Rede Family……… just by the avenue gates lies the old Churchyard and the ivy buried nave of the Church of St. Baire which has become “Berry” in these days. Ruins of the Abbey stand close to the house”.

Next week I will continue the story of the Verschoyle families and their connections with Kilberry.

Corporal Anthony Ovington - Royal Dublin Fusiliers

Recently Clem Ryan, a history teacher in Scoil Mhuire came to me with a number of letters which came into his possession some years ago. He was anxious to trace the owners of the letters and his best efforts in that regard had proved less than successful. Two of those letters concern a young man named Anthony Ovington who died in France on 13 November 1916. A Corporal in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers he was born at Woodfield, Co. Wicklow and was apparently known to his friends and acquaintances as Tony. One of the letters is a copy of the original and is dated 9 December [presumably 1916]. It was from a fellow soldier who served in France with Tony Ovington and was addressed to Mrs. Ovington, whether Tony’s mother or wife, I do not know. The letter writer was Sgt. T. Priest who was apparently well known to the Ovington family. In his letter of 9 December Priest refers to Mrs. Ovington's letter of seven days previously and continues.

“I regret to say I have bad news for you about poor Tony. It was only yesterday I heard definitely the very sad news that he was dead. Until then I hoped that he might be only wounded and in hospital but alas my hopes were not realized. Tony and I went into action on the 13th November and I came out of it without a scratch, but poor Tony was knocked out. I don’t know how I came out of it safely. It was a perfect hell. I am feeling awfully lonely after Tony and indeed so is everyone in the company. He was loved and admired by all for his simple and jovial manner, but none of them can miss him as I do as he was a true and faithful comrade, but we must all die sooner or later and I think there is no one more prepared for death than a person going into battle. I have no doubt that poor Tony is quite happy now. Needless to say Mrs. Ovington you and your family have my deepest sympathy in the irreparable loss which you have sustained in the death of dear Tony.”

The second letter, also from Sgt. Priest, is an original letter dated 12 January 1917 and sent from “Somewhere in France” to those whom he addressed as “My dear fellas”. After acknowledging a letter received from them Sgt. Priest continued.

“I know that Tony has been reported as missing but he is now reported as killed on the 13th November. Well you would like to hear something about the battle. I cannot tell you very much. It commenced about 6.00 a.m. on the morning of the 13th November and was practically over the next day. I saw Tony immediately after the start but I never saw him afterwards although I searched the ground we had captured two or three days after the attack but I could not find him. One fellow states he saw Tony dead on the German front lines in a dugout. His pay book and identification disc have been sent into the orderly room which shows that he must have been found and buried. Yes we were expecting that the attack was coming off but did not know the exact date until the day before it actually came off. Tony was not with the machine guns in the attack. Any letters you have sent to him will probably be returned to you by Head Quarters if the address of the sender is known. Yes, if I get back to Ireland I shall certainly call to see you”.

He concludes with a reference to his friends father, mother, brothers and sisters before signing off as “your sincere friend”.

The battle referred to, in which Tony Ovington died, was the Battle of Ancre which started on Monday, 13 November 1916. Part of the extended Somme battlefield the engagement at Ancre resulted in the capture of Beaucourt. On the same day as Tony Ovington died upwards of 360 German soldiers of the 62nd Regiment were buried alive when a 30,000 lb. mine was detonated by the British at Hawthorn Crater. On 13 November James Dunne, the 20 year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Dunne of 3 Offaly Street, Athy like Tony Ovington a member of the 10th Batallion Dublin Fusiliers was also killed on the Somme. [I believe James had a brother and one sister who later became a nun]. The bodies of Tony Ovington and James Dunne were never identified and their names are recorded on the Thiepval Memorial in France. This Memorial to the missing of the Somme, records the names of more than 72,000 men who died on the Somme up to 20 March 1918 and who have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.

Sergeant Priest whose letters would indicate a friendship with the family of Tony Ovington, was from Knockroe in Co. Roscommon. How Priest and Ovington came to know each other becomes apparent when their regimental numbers are checked. Priest had the Regimental Number 25462 while Tony Ovington had the next number 25463. Both men had obviously enlisted on the same day. Was this the first time they met or were they workmates who decided to enlist together? Probably Tony Ovington, on weekend leave home from the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Barracks in Naas or elsewhere was at one time or another accompanied by his friend Thomas Priest who later corresponded with the Ovington family when the 10th Battalion went overseas.

Thomas Priest, the kindly Sergeant who survived the battle of Ancre in which his friend Tony Ovington died, was killed in action in France on Sunday, 11 February 1917. He never did get the opportunity to return to Ireland or to re-visit his friend’s family. Priest is buried in Ancre Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel near the Somme which was enlarged after the Armistic of 1918. The majority of those buried in that cemetery died on 1 July, 3 September or 13 November 1916 and of the 2540 graves, 1335 contain the remains of unidentified soldiers. It is possible, that the two Irishmen, Tony Ovington and Thomas Priest, two friends who died within three months of each other, may have been reunited in death in the cemetery of Ancre on the Somme?

Who were the Ovington family and where did they live? I would be delighted to get any information which would help to give us a better understanding of the young man and his friend Thomas Priest who died more than 85 years ago. The letters passed on to me by Clem Ryan will be returned to the descendants of Tony Ovington if they wish to contact me. Otherwise they will be retained in the Heritage Centre where so many relics and mementos of the Great War are kept for display and for future research purposes.

As I mentioned in the book published last year on Athy Urban District Council, that Council ordered that a list be compiled of Athy men who enlisted to fight in World War I and those killed or wounded in action. The list if compiled cannot be traced and I have tried for sometime to put together details of those men. I would welcome any information from any source to allow a comprehensive record of Athy’s involvement in World War I to be put together.

St. John's Lane / Mrs. Peg English

There has been a huge response to the recent Eye on the Past dealing with the forthcoming class re-union for those with whom I spent many happy school days up to 1960. Sadly at least two former classmates mentioned in that article have passed away, while the whereabouts of a few more have yet to be traced. I am looking forward to hearing from anyone who can help to track down those former pupils of the Christian Brothers School in St. John’s Lane, no matter how far they have moved away from the banks of the River Barrow.

Mention of St. John’s Lane recalls for me the many many times I passed up and down that same lane for upwards of 12 years while attending the Primary School and afterwards the Secondary School in the 1950’s and the ‘60’s. It’s many years since I walked up or down what remains of St. John’s Lane since the car park was laid out and the public space thereby created was named Edmund Rice Square. The Town Council’s decision to charge an hourly rate to use the car park which rate payers’ monies provided in the first instance prompted many, including myself, to move up St. John’s Lane to find an alternative parking space.

It’s over 40 years, since as a pedestrian, I used that same stretch of laneway, passing what was once the Christian Brother’s Monastery on the way to the gated entrance of the school yard. As a teenager, living in an era when there was respect for the institutions of Church and State I always blessed myself when passing a Church and that included the Christian Brother’s Monastery in St. John’s Lane. Would you believe that after the lapse of almost 40 years while recently walking past what was once the doorway to the Christian Brother’s Monastery, but now a private house, my right hand instinctively began to make the sign of the cross. I chuckled and ruefully acknowledged that a habit developed in youth is difficult to lay aside and marveled how it was triggered by walking past a building which was familiar to me so many years ago.

St. John’s Lane now starts and ends, depending on your direction, at the corner of where St. John’s Cemetery joins Edmund Rice Square. At one time the lane turned at that point and bounded by buildings on both sides headed in a straight line to meet Duke Street at a point directly opposite Herterich’s Pork Butchers. As one walked down the lane on leaving the Christian Brothers School, Carbery’s Carpentry and Joinery Works was immediately on the right, with St. John’s Cemetery on the left. At the turn, Carbery’s private house was on the left, with an entrance to their building yard directly in front as one faced the River Barrow. Turning right and heading towards Duke Street the first building on the left belonged to the Defence Forces and housed the local L.D.F. Centre. Immediately adjoining that was Vernal’s forge and beyond the forge the side of Mrs. Haslam’s house which faced out onto the small square fronting Duke Street. [Has anyone ever seen a photograph of that same square? I have searched for years for a reproduction of a scene which was once so familiar to thousands of young school goers, but as yet without any success]. On the right hand side of St. John’s Lane as you turned the corner and headed towards Duke Street was a high wall shielding a yard at the rear of Shaws and beyond it one small house occupied by the English family immediately before Shaws shop, which if I’m correct, extended to just two shop windows on that side of the lane.

Mrs. Peg English lived in that small house with her children, Frank, Ann and Tommy. The latter was named after his father who was known to everybody in Athy as Tommy “Buggy” rather than Tommy English as he was born. Tommy “Buggy” was reared by the Buggy family and the name stuck, particularly during Tommy’s time as a fine Gaelic footballer with the local club in the early 1940’s. He was a member of the Athy senior team which won the Kildare County Senior Championships in 1942. Like many others from Athy he emigrated to England in the late 1940’s to work on the building construction sites. His wife Peg and his young family continued to live in St. John’s Lane and theirs was the only house on that part of St. John’s Lane during the 1950’s.

The history of emigration from the town of Athy in the 1940’s is the story of men like Paddy “Gussler” Croake of St. John’s Lane, John “Parnell” Rochford, Johnny Day, Denis “Bunny” Chanders, his brother William “Skinner” Chanders and many others who found work overseas where none was to be had in their hometown. Some returned to Athy in later years, but many others like Peter Twomey of Barrack Yard who died in Luton in his 90th year spent the remainder of their lives amongst the sometimes inhospitable atmosphere of English towns. The Irish in those days were favoured for the hard rough building work which was shunned by men born on the English mainland, even if the boarding houses of Bradford and Leeds like many other English towns oftentimes bore evidence of the discrimination which allowed “No Irish need apply” signs to proliferate. But that’s a story for another day.

Peg English, the one time resident of St. John’s Lane died last week and her passing revived for me memories of the time when I passed her door four times a day going to and coming from school. I got to know Peg English after she moved to St. Patrick’s Avenue, because of my friendship with her eldest son Frank. She and her sister Kitty O’Mara, who died some years ago, were members of an old Athy family and in sharp contrast to the oft repeated claim that Athy is a settlers town of West Brits, Peg English was an Irish Republican and a staunch and unflinching supporter of the political party born out of the anti-Treaty side following the Civil War. She was a lady of indomitable spirit who loved a cigarette, even though she knew it was bad for a constitution already weakened by the debilitating effects of asthma. As a fellow sufferer, but a non-smoker, I often gently chided her about her smoking habit, but in truth it provided a comfort and a form of relaxation which her age and spirit entitled her to have. I was reminded of my own father, a non-smoker throughout his working life, who on retiring liked nothing more than to drag on a cigarette with an awkwardness which clearly demonstrated previous decades of abstinence.

The funeral Mass for Peg English was celebrated by a family friend, Fr. John Paul Sheridan who nine years ago left the Athy parish after a curacy of three years to return to the Ferns dioceses. With Peggy English’s death passed the last link with that part of St. John’s Lane which was so familiar to me during the 1950’s. Carbery’s, Vernal’s and the Christian Brothers Monastery and School have long departed and the small house which was home to the English family now forms part of Shaw’s Department Store. Edmund Rice Square today has no visible evidence of that period in our lives and memories alone hold the fading reflections of youthful school trips down St. John’s Lane.

Education in Athy in 18th Century

During the reign of Charles II, Parliament enacted that “all schoolteachers should take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and be licensed by the Ordinary”. Intended to place education under the control of the Established Church, the Act served to deprive Irish Catholics of educational opportunities within their own country. One legislative loophole, which allowed the children of wealthy Catholic families to be educated abroad, was closed during the reign of William III. At the same time the Church of Ireland authorities pressed for stricter compliance with the Act of 1537 which required their clergy to establish and maintain parish schools.

Until the 1790’s the working class children of Athy received no formal education. The Established Church did not have a parish school in the town while no Catholic teacher was licensed to teach his co-religionists. The children of well-to-do families were able to attend fee paying private schools. Athy is recorded as having such a school as early as 1670. About that time Isaac Dalton operated a Latin school in the town which in 1717 had John Garnet as headmaster.

The following contemporary account is taken from the Autobiography of Pole Cosby of Stradbally, Queens County :

“In 1716 when we came over from England my father got one, the Rev. Mr. West, to live in the house to be my Tutor, and so I was in the house learning Latin from Mr. West till Witsontide 1717, and then my father finding me not improve, he sent me to one Mr. John Garnet who kept the Latin School in Athy, and was just then come to Athy, and succeeded Mr. Issac Dalton who had kept school there for about 40 years. I lodged at said Mr. Daltons who used to examine and instruct me after school time. I lodged with him till 1718 when Mr. Garnet married and went to housekeeping, and then I went and lodged with him and continued with him while I stayed in Athy, the chief of my schoolfellows whilst I was here at school were Thomas Keightin (Keating) son of Col. Thos. K. of Narraghmore, Robert Pinsent now a Minister, Jr. Doyle now a Minister, and Schoolmaster of Athy, Emerson Peirce son of Col. H.P. of Seskin in ye county of Wicklow, Warner Westenra, Billy, Dick, and Ben Fish of Toberogan, Joe Ash now of Ashfield in the County of Meath and Dillon his brother, Saywell Stubber’s brother Meredith, Hector and Billy Vaughan of Golden Grove, Charly Willington of ye Kings County, Cox. Billy Welldon, and Geo. Welldon brother of Arthur Welldon of Rahin, Dick Nuttall and Joe his brother, Billy and Tom Bunbury of y County Carlow and Harry Bunbury who married Miss Pinsent, Harry Ecklin, bro. to Sir Arthur, Joseph Paul of Rathmore in the County Carlow, Elias and Weaver Best, Hutty Barnet, Ned Armstrong, who married Miss Holmes, John Short of Grange in the Q.C, six sons, all Gerald Fitzgerald sons of Coolenoule in the Q.C., Noll Grace of Skehanagh and two or three of his brothers, Ned and Murray Lyndon, James Lewis, Nehemiah Laban, John King now a Minister, Frank Cosby of Vicarstown, Tom and Ralph Pilsworth, Graham Bradford, Ben Bradford, Tom Thompson now a Minister, John Bradford, Arthur Newburg son of Col. N. of Ballyheys in the county of Cavan, Thomas Brook grandson to Ben. Burton the Banker.

While I was at the school of Athy I did constantly learn to write the first year, of one Mr. Milam and after of one Mr. Ternan Rourke. I also learnt to dance one quarter of one Mr. Michael Commons, afterwards he married at Ballymannus, and another quarter of one Mr. Gold. Whilst I was at this school I frequently used to go (to Coz. Meredith at Shrowland, and the widow Lewis of Tullgory) of a Saturday and stay till Monday, and used often come home to my prejudice as to learning.”

In the 1781/82 Parliamentary session an Act was passed permitting Catholic teachers to teach in local schools. However, the inevitable sting in the tail provided that Catholics could not teach their co-religionists unless they were licensed by clergy of the Established Church. Understandably Catholics were reluctant to seek the necessary permission while the Established Church clergy were equally reluctant to accede to such requests when made. This restriction was finally removed about 10 years later thereby paving the way for the introduction of Catholic Schools for the first time since the Reformation.

Depositions taken in May 1798 during the rebellion of that year included references to James Delahunty, Schoolmaster, Athy and James Robinson, Schoolmaster, Foxhill. Their Irish names and their involvement with the United Irishmen suggest Catholic backgrounds. If this is correct then it probably indicates that Athy had a Catholic School at that time, whether a free or a fee paying school we cannot now say.

In 1791 the town had a boarding school for boys provided by a Mr. Ashe. One of the pupils that year was Thomas Lefroy, a future local Chief Justice of Ireland. Another pupil was his brother, Ben Lefroy born in 1782 who married a Miss La Nouse from County Cavan and settled at Cardenton House, Athy, which remained in the family until 1946. In 1793 Anthologica Hibernica referred to the existence in Athy of a public school for the classics with a teaching salary of £40 a year paid by the Duke of Leinster, Athy Borough Council and representatives of the Weldon family. The Select Committee in the House of Commons on Foundation Schools set up in 1857 investigated the alleged endowment of this school. It reported :-

“No such school exists or as far as the Assistant Commissioner could learn, ever did exist.”

In the Minute Book of the Athy Borough Corporation for June 24th 1779, there appears the following entry:

“That it was agreed to give £15 a year to a schoolmaster, for the said Borough, which is to be ratified by an act of assembly of the said Borough.”

The Corporation’s Minute Book does not indicate that the necessary confirmation was ever made and perhaps more conclusive is the fact that no payment was ever made on foot of the decision. In Rawson’s Statistical Survey of County Kildare, published in 1807, Athy is credited with having a Classical School and two female Boarding Schools. No evidence has been found to support Rawson’s claim for the two Boarding Schools, but since he was an Athy resident it may be assumed that this information was accurate.

Sisters of Mercy Mission to Australia

There are many links between Australia and our home town of Athy, not all of which have been identified to date. Prisoners from the town jail forged many of those earlier connections but it was the 1860’s which provided the most enduring link between this part of Ireland and Australia. In 1861 Fr. Andrew Quinn, then Parish Priest of Athy asked Mother Teresa Maher of the local Convent of Mercy for nuns willing to volunteer for missionary work in Australia. The Parish Priest, a native of west Wicklow was the brother of two Australian-based Bishops, Dr. James Quinn of the dioceses of Brisbane and Dr. Matthew Quinn of the dioceses of Bathurst and it was for Brisbane that the nuns were sought.

Mother Teresa was first cousin of Dr. Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin and daughter of Patrick Maher of Kilrush. Born in 1820 she arrived in Athy from the Mercy Convent in Carlow in 1855 with Sr. Xavier Downey to take charge of the local convent following the departure of Mother Vincent Whitty who was the first Superior of Athy’s Sisters of Mercy. Mother Teresa agreed to receive and train in the Athy Convent young ladies for the Australian mission and the first girl to enter the convent for that purpose was from Portarlington, County Laois. Catherine Flanagan, born on 1st September 1844, the daughter of Denis and Mary Flanagan entered Athy Convent on 10th August 1861, was received into the Mercy Order on 11th February of the following year and professed on 21st February 1864. Her name in religion was Sr. Rose and she left Athy for the Brisbane mission arriving there on 11th November 1865. She died in Brisbane on 1st July 1879.

On 2nd November 1866 five more young Irish women arrived in Brisbane, Australia having journeyed from the Convent of Mercy in Athy. Sr. Columba was born Honoria Griffin on 10th March 1840 in Ballintubbert, Co. Roscommon to John and Elizabeth Griffin. She entered the Athy Convent on 24th February 1865, receiving the habit of the Sisters of Mercy on 10th September of the same year and was professed in Brisbane in 1868. Margaret Bergan, daughter of Edward and Catherine Bergin of Portlaoise was born on 6th February 1842 and entered the Athy Convent on 2nd July 1865. She was received on 28th December of the same year and professed as Sr. Julianna in Brisbane on 31st March 1869. Julia Quirke, a native of Clashmore, Co. Waterford born on 5th October 1843 to Thomas and Julia Quirke, took the name Sr. Regis when she entered the Athy Convent on 31st August 1865. Another passenger on the long boat trip to Australia which ended in Brisbane on 2nd November 1866 was Sr. Borgia, otherwise Jane Byrne of Arron Quay, Dublin. Born on 16th September 1843 to Thomas and Mary Byrne, she entered the Convent at Athy on 8th September 1865 and her profession took place in Brisbane on 31st March 1869. She lived until 1928.

Within another two years five young postulants set out from the Convent of Mercy in Athy to travel to Brisbane. They journeyed on the Zealandia which left England on 24th April 1868. Mary-Ann Hartley, born to John and Katherine Hartley of Youghal, Cork on 24th July 1845 entered the Athy Convent on 21st November 1866 where she received the Mercy habit on 21st May the following year. She left the Mercy Order without being professed after her arrival in Australia, as did her companion Elizabeth Friary of Templemichael, Co. Longford. Elizabeth who was born on 25th July 1847 to Andrew and Mary Friary had joined the Mercy Order in Athy on 15th February 1867. She was to leave the Sisters of Mercy in January 1873 without apparently having been professed.

Two other postulants on that trip were Sr. Cecilia and Sr. Lignori, the former from Dysart, Co. Louth where she was born to Thomas and Bridget Carney on 26th June 1846. Sr. Lignori was a native of Nenagh, Co. Tipperary where she was born on 15th January 1848, the daughter of William and Mary-Ann Kealy. Like Sr. Cecilia she had joined the Athy Convent of Mercy during the Famine years. Sr. Cecilia died in Brisbane in 1889, while Sr. Lignori lived for another 33 years, dying on 13th May 1923.

The fifth postulant to travel on the ship which arrived in Australia on 4th July 1868 was Sr. Mary Patrick who had entered the Athy Convent on 8th June 1866. The daughter of James and Elizabeth Potter of Killashee, Co. Longford, Sr. Mary Patrick was professed in Brisbane on 6th July 1869. Sister Patrick joined the staff of All Hallows School in Brisbane after a few years in Australia and she was to be associated with that school for the next 50 years. In 1879 she was elected Superior of the Sisters of Mercy Congregation and was re-elected to that office on several occasions until her death in 1927. In all she was Superior for 30 years and assistant to the Superior for another 18 years. Under her guidance and leadership the Sisters of Mercy Congregation in Brisbane, Australia grew to over 500 and she was instrumental in establishing Mercy convents and schools in many outlying areas of Queensland. Another of her many achievements was the establishment of Mater Hospitals in Australia.

The five postulants who arrived in Australia in July 1868 were the last missionaries to leave the Convent of Mercy Athy for the dioceses of Brisbane. Difficulties arose between the Sisters of Mercy and Bishop James Quinn which may have affected the continuation of the Brisbane Mission Scheme initiated in 1861. Mother Vincent Whitty who was the first Superior of the Convent of Mercy when it opened in 1852 had been replaced by Mother Teresa Maher. Eight years later Mother Vincent left Ireland for the Australian missions and was accompanied on the sea trip to the Southern hemisphere by Dr. James Quinn. She was to share with Bishop Quinn responsibility for establishing the Catholic system of education in the then developing colony of Queensland. However difficulties soon arose between the Bishop and Mother Vincent. The Bishop who had been appointed to the Queensland Episcopacy in 1858 wished to bring the Catholic schools established by the Sisters of Mercy under the control of the Queensland Board of Education. Mother Vincent feared that such a move would lead to a dilution of the schools’ religious ethos. She resisted Bishop Quinn’s plans and this resulted in a disharmonious relationship between the Bishop and the Sisters of Mercy, news of which soon percolated back to the Convent in Athy.

Further conflict arose following Bishop Quinn’s attempt to extend his Episcopal authority over the Mercy Convents in his dioceses so as to supersede the Rule of the Foundress of the Order of Mercy. A number of diocesan priests also fell foul of Bishop James Quinn and six Irish priests left the Brisbane dioceses in 1867 following which news of the ongoing disharmony in the Brisbane diocese reached Ireland. The last Missionaries from the Convent of Mercy Athy left for Queensland the following year.

The story of the nuns and postulants who left Athy for the Australian Missions between 1865 and 1868 needs further research, particularly in the Brisbane archives of the Sisters of Mercy. For the moment their story can only be touched on to give us a glimpse of the extraordinary courage and determination of the young religious females of 140 years ago.

St. Joseph's School Roll Book

I recently had the opportunity to inspect the roll book of St. Joseph’s School for 1946 and was pleasantly surprised to find that on 13th May of that year two young lads started their first day in school. They were the only pupils enrolled that particular day. Frank English and myself were unaware until now that our paths had crossed at such an early age for it was the two Frank’s who stepped over the threshold of St. Joseph’s for the first time on that day 56 years ago. For one it was the day after his 4th birthday, while the other young fellow had taken a little longer to ease himself out of nappies! I won’t tell you which of us was the precocious one.

Those of us who went through St. Joseph’s School, the Christian Brothers primary school and later the secondary school may have a little difficulty in immediately recognising the name “Frank” English because in those far off days my good friend was universally known as “Harry” English. Frank or Harry and myself were just two of the many young lads who over the following 14 years or so came together as school colleagues in an educational system which for many ended before those 14 years had expired. All of us had gone from the Christian Brothers secondary school in St. John’s Lane by the end of 1960. Over the years there were many names and many faces which came and went, some disappearing on the tide of emigration. Others sadly passed away long before they had reached their prime. No matter how long or how short the period we shared together as schoolboys, the bonds of friendship created survived the advancing years. Some of us have not met for over 40 years. Others can be seen among the familiar surroundings of our hometown on a regular basis.

This year quite a lot of those old school pals who spent so many years together as young fellows will reach the grand age of six score. Whisper it softly for my still youthful mind finds it hard to fathom the physical cruelties of the galloping years which so ungallantly outstrip my zest for life. So what’s all this about then I hear you ask? Simply the advancing years have sounded a bugle call to remind a couple of former school pals to get together and arrange a reunion of those with whom we shared our young school days between 1946 and 1960.

Brendan McKenna, now retired and enjoying his hard earned pension, together with Seamus Ryan still working and living in China, and Michael Robinson, he of the hedonistic lifestyle in Australia, have joined with Frank English and myself to organise a reunion scheduled for Athy next September. The intention is to get everyone back to Athy for the weekend of 20th to 22nd September to meet, talk, eat, drink and make merry. It will be our first time to meet since we all left school and given the grey streaks lining the more hirsute amongst us it will probably be our first and last such meeting.

A list of those with whom we attended school, whether in St. Joseph’s, the National or Secondary School is understandably incomplete, but the most recent head count identifies 59 former school colleagues. Addresses have been found for most of them but there are a few whose whereabouts are not yet known. I would like to hear from anyone who knows the current whereabouts of Peter Allen, formerly of Meeting Lane, Des Byrne formerly of Moone, Eamon Dunphy formerly of the Bleach and Joe Gordan from the Dublin Road. My classmates will recall Theo Kavanagh of the Bleeding Horse but I am looking for his current address, as well as that of Johnny Mulhall, formerly of Geraldine Road and Frank Power whose father was a bank official. Jim Vincent, formerly of Woodstock Street and Christy Southwell are two others I would like to contact. What about Brian Fitzsimons, Leo Dempsey, Paddy Maher or Paddy O’Keeffe? One last name is that of Colin Seabrook who spent some time in Athy in the 1950’s.

If anyone out there can help locate any of the above or indeed if you remember sharing a classroom with Frank English or any of the others mentioned, give me a call or drop me a line. We want to make sure that as many as possible will have the opportunity to attend the reunion which will start on Friday, 20th September with a reception and get-together in the Leinster Arms Hotel. The first night will be given over to the men only with a buffet reception and drinks, accompanied by music from the 1950’s and 1960’s.

The Heritage Centre will host a school photographic exhibition over that weekend and on Saturday afternoon a presentation in the Town Council Chambers will be followed by a reception in Scoil Eoin, Rathstewart. Later that evening a dinner will be held in Kilkea Golf Club Restauant for the past pupils, together with their wives and partners. It is hoped to have as special guests on that night some of our old teachers. On Sunday a service of thanksgiving will be conducted in the old school yard in St. John’s, followed by a tree planting ceremony in Edmund Rice Square. The weekend proceedings will close with a buffet reception on Sunday afternoon.

You would expect someone like myself who writes of times past every week to remember the names of all the teachers who taught me over the years. Fortunately I can always rely on the likes of Teddy Kelly or John Mealy to recall the detail which I can never seem to remember, and both of them confirm our teachers in St. Joseph’s School as Sr. Bernadette, Sr. Brendan and Sr. Alberta. In the Primary School we had Brother Candy who was replaced by Brother Sullivan, then Brother O’Laughlin or Loughran, with Brother O’Flaherty in sixth class. There is confusion about the 4th or 5th class teachers as some recall Brother Smith, others Bob Martin, neither of which taught me so far as I can recall.

Secondary school, which in the 1950’s consisted of three classrooms at the top of the metal staircase leading from the St. John’s Lane school yard was easier to remember. The teaching staff consisted of two Christian Brothers, the school Principal Brother Burke and his colleague Brother Keogh, commonly known as “Johnny Boris” with Paddy Riordan, then a young man from Cork and the legendary Bill Ryan. Today’s secondary school re-located some years ago to Rathstewart and now restyled Scoil Eoin has 23 teachers on its staff.

At least forty two years have passed since the young fellows who joined St. Joseph’s School in 1946 passed out of the Irish education system. Hopefully next September we can all come together to renew old acquaintances and catch up on the years which have slipped away in the meantime.

Alice Myles

“If you can get your stockings on in the morning, then you know you’re alright.” Words of empirical wisdom from a woman who has lived for 96 years and who celebrated her birthday last week with a night out with her extended family. Alice Myles was born in 1906, the second child of Daniel Lacey, a carpenter from Ballintubbert, and Ellen Donohue, a seamstress from Tankardstown. Dan worked for Hosies of Coursetown, while Ellen served her time as a seamstress with Murphy’s Commercial House in Emily Square. Alice and her younger sister Helen Conway who is living in Inch just outside Athy have a combined age of 189 years. Longevity is clearly a family trait, as evidenced by the fact that their other sister Mary was 96 years of age when she passed away three years ago.

I met Alice Myles last week in the comfortable house which has been her home for the past 17 years. She moved there from “Woodlands” which was one half of the old Fever Hospital on the Stradbally road and where she had lived with her late husband and family for many years. Alice who was born at Farmerstown attended the Sisters of Mercy School in Athy until she was 16 years of age. Her school days coincided with the War of Independence and that dark period in our history when the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries terrorised so many local Irish communities. She remembers the days of fear following the killing of William Connors and Jim Lacey at Barrowhouse on 16th May, 1921.

On leaving school she took up employment as a child minder with Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Minch at Cardenton. There she was to remain for five years, caring for the Minch’s only child Claire, recalling one occasion when she brought Claire to the birthday party held for Joe O’Neill, then the very young son of the local doctor, Jeremiah O’Neill. The Minch’s had two other indoor staff, Molly Keogh of Rheban who was the family cook and Margaret Moloney of Coursetown who was the parlor maid. Alice remembers attending dances in the mid 1920’s with her friend and work colleague Molly Keogh at Churchtown National School, and also an occasional cross roads dance at Kilcrow. This was a time long before laws were passed to regulate and control public dancing in Ireland.

A period of four years was spent by Alice as a child’s nanny for the Browne’s of Dun Laoghaire before she returned to marry her childhood sweetheart William Myles who was chauffeur and general worker with Matt Minch of Rockfield House. Alice and Bill lived in a tied house [now demolished] at Rockfield, one of several small cottages provided by the Minch’s for their workmen. It was here that the Myles family lived until about 1952 when they moved to “Woodlands” on the Stradbally road. Times were hard during the 1930’s and the 1940’s but especially so during Bill Myles’ prolonged illnesses in the early 1940’s. There was little money to pay the food bills and what was available was invariably passed across the counter of Miss Murphy’s small grocery shop in William Street. It was around that period that Bill Myles was admitted to Kildare District Hospital where he remained for many weeks in a serious condition. Alice recalls cycling from Athy to Kildare several times to visit her husband, a journey which caused her little thought as the bicycle was the only reliable mode of transport in those war years. Bill Myles who spent his entire working life with the Minch’s of Rockfield House died in 1975, aged 73 years.

Alice and Bill Myles had eight children, the eldest Betty who recently retired from a stockbroking firm in New York where she has lived since 1965. Paschal lives in London, as does his brother Oliver who is married to Maura Keeffe of Convent View. The other sons of the family are Paul, who is also living in England, Cyril who lives in Tankardstown and Noel, the youngest of the family who lives in Athy and works in Minch Nortons. Also in Athy are Martha who married Jack Kenny of Dunbrin and Helen who married Joe Phillips of Tankardstown. Helen will be remembered as the assistant in Mrs. Hughes’ shop in Leinster Street where she worked for over forty years until the business closed two years ago.

Alice Myles’ memories of her years in Dublin include Croke Park on All Ireland day, 31st September 1928 when she watched Kildare beat Cavan by one point to become the first holders of the Sam Maguire Cup. [While on the subject of the 1928 final can anyone tell me whether Paddy Fitzpatrick who at one time captained the Rheban football team played for Kildare in that final?]. The first scheduled airplane flight out of Dublin was also recalled by Alice who had a view of the plane as she stood on O’Connell Bridge. With a little bit of prompting from her grand-daughter, Alice also included amongst her Dublin memories the occasion where she went out with Paddy Moloney, whose son and namesake has fronted the musical group The Chieftans since its formation.

Alice’s recall of the 1928 All Ireland final is indicative of her abiding interest in Gaelic football, an interest which was crowned by the selection of her youngest son Noel and that of her nephew Ned Conway for the Kildare County senior team. Ned, son of her younger sister Helen, played for Kildare in 1954, while Noel whom she proudly acknowledges was a very good player, appeared in a Lily White jersey between 1973 and 1976. Indeed Noel was a member of the Kildare senior team which lost heavily to Dublin in the 1975 Leinster final, thereby disappointingly failing to add to the under-21 Leinster final medal which he had won with the county team in 1967.

The Myles family moved to “Woodlands” which was one part of the old Fever Hospital in or about 1952. Their neighbours in the other half of the building which was built in 1841 out of funds collected locally in Athy town were the Moylad sisters, Bridget, Sarah and Annie who had originated from the Kildangan area. Mention of the old Fever Hospital prompted Alice to recall the death of her uncle Johnny Donoghue while a patient in the Fever Hospital at the turn of the last century. Another uncle, Paddy Donohue, a private in the Royal Irish Regiment and a native of Coolroe, died of wounds in France on 31st May 1915. He was one of the many Athy men who perished during the 1914/1918 War. His brother, Tom Donohue, died as a young boy some years previously when he fell into the River Barrow at Levitstown.

Alice who is an extraordinary youthful 96 years of age travelled extensively once her family was reared. She has been to the United States on no less than 12 occasions, her last trip undertaken when she was 88 years of age. England, Lourdes, the Holy Land and even The Bahamas have all been visited by Alice, who with some reluctance now acknowledges that she will probably not go on any more overseas trips.

It was a real pleasure to talk and listen to Alice Myles who has seen her native town of Athy rise from the poverty and misery of the early decades of the last century. Her memories of times passed are tinged with some sad memories, but are also overlaid with a great deal of happiness shared with her children and grand-children who form a large but close-knit family group of which she is justifiably proud.

Afforestation in South Kildare

Sawyerswood, Brackney Wood, Blackwood, Rathconnell Wood, the last remains of the vast woods which in medieval times and earlier cloaked the Irish countryside, or are they a more recent addition to the Irish landscape? Undoubtedly they are ancient woods, but how old we do not know. Perhaps they were planted with the help of bounties paid by the Dublin Society towards the end of the 18th century. In 1783 over 65,000 trees were propagated in Ireland under the Dublin Society Scheme, and seven years later the number of trees propagated with the assistance of bounties increased to over 3,750,000. The bounties offered for tree planting were paid out of funds made available by the Irish Parliament. This scheme unfortunately was discontinued following the passing of the Act of Union.

Kildare County Council which was set up following the enactment of the Local Government Act of 1898 was one of the first Local Authorities in Ireland to take up the question of afforestation. In 1906 the Council then, as now, based in the county capital of Naas sought to compliment the State forestry efforts by adopting a county based afforestation programme which was intended to be funded by the Council itself. The County Council tried to secure two sites regarded as suitable for experimental tree planting at Brackney [known locally as Brackna], just three miles outside Athy on the Stradbally road and at Kingswood Bog Common, a place which I have not been able to locate. The latter commons consisted of almost 600 acres but because of claims in relation to ancient grazing rights made by local farmers the County Council were not able to pursue their plans for tree planting in that area. This left Brackney then covered in scrub and extending to about 100 acres which was owned by Lord Gough. He was willing to vest the property in the County Council but nevertheless protracted negotiation took place before the deal was finalised in 1907. The County Council, despite having indicated that it would fund the scheme itself, then approached the Department for financial assistance towards the cost of the afforestation scheme and succeeded in securing a grant of £500, subject however to the County Council providing a similar sum from its own resources. The Council agreed to proceed on that basis and a rate of half a penny in the pound over the entire county was struck which brought in a total of £677=3=2. The County Committee of Agriculture gave a grant of £75 towards the Scheme, and Lord Gough made a contribution of £235 which was the price which the County Council had agreed to pay for the land. Thus a tree planting fund of £1,487=3=2 was available to the County Council.

Kildare County Council had at its disposal the expertise of a forestry expert, Mr. A.C. Forbes who worked for the Department and on his advice it was decided to clear and plant ten acres of the ground in Brackney every year so that in ten years time the entire 100 acres would be under wood. The cost of clearing the scrub land and planting it with trees was estimated to cost £100 each year with little or no expense arising thereafter. A mixture of European Larch, Beech, Austrian and Corsican Pines, Douglas and Silver firs were planted in December 1907, but by June of the following year Mr. Forbes had to report that while the trees were on the whole doing well, upwards of two thirds of the European Larch had died.

The success of the scheme led to the Duke of Leinster giving as a free gift to the County Council, Corballis Hill near Ballitore for the purpose of afforestation and a further 30 acres were acquired for planning at Pollardstown. Kildare County Council having led the way in county based afforestation programmes handed over responsibility for the scheme to the County Committee of Agriculture. Brackney Wood as we know it today clearly owes its continued existence as a forest to the County Council Scheme which started 95 years ago. Even before the County Council acquired the 100 acre site it was known as Brackney Wood, a fact which is confirmed by a perusal of the earliest Ordnance Survey maps for the county. Quite clearly the scrub land which was revitalised under the County Council Tree Planting Scheme of 1907 was only then being restored to its former wooded state which had endured for centuries previously.

Some weeks ago I got a phone call from Professor Fox of University College Cork who was making enquiries about Canon Richard Bagot, one time Rector of Fontstown. The Reverend Canon, whose father and grandfather in their day also had the living of Fontstown Parish, was a pioneer of dairy reform in 19th century Ireland. In fact he established the first creamery in Ireland in Hospital, Co. Limerick and published a handbook on creameries and a further book entitled “Easy Lessons in Dairying”. Cannon Bagot who died in 1894 at the relatively young age of 65 years is one of the great men of another generation whose contribution to Irish life is now almost forgotten. Some of you may remember his daughters, Elizabeth and Olivia, two elderly spinsters who lived at Shamrock Lodge on the Kildare Road into the 1950’s. I hope to write of Cannon Richard Bagot and the Bagot family in a future article but in the meantime today’s National newspapers bring news of another local person who has created a piece of history insofar as Athy is concerned.

Clare O’Flaherty who was born in Athy to Jim O’Flaherty and Carmel Glespen, formerly of Duke Street, has just been named as the new Irish Ambassador to Finland. She is the first Athy-born person to achieve such an important post within the Department of Foreign Affairs. Our congratulations go to Clare, whose sister Colette is a senior member of the National Library staff in Dublin and whose parents Jim and Carmel are living in Greystones, Co. Wicklow. Jim will be remembered as an official in the local Post Office for many years and a founder member of the Credit Union office in Athy before leaving to become Post Master in Greystones in the late 1960’s.

Yates Family and Tobacco Growing in South Kildare

It started with a photograph from the 1940’s which showed a number of farm workers harvesting tobacco leaves on a South Kildare farm. What an unusual sight you might think and certainly one not normally to be seen outside those countries where warm climates afford the ideal growing conditions for growing tobacco plants. But this was during the hard economic days of the Second World War when Ireland’s merchant navy was beset by belligerent U-boats and dangerous cross Atlantic trips were justifiable only when the cargo was life giving food products. Tobacco, that noxious weed so beloved of film stars and star gazers alike, in those distant days, was a luxury item which found little space in the holds of ships which then crossed and re-crossed the war torn seas and oceans of the world. It was the resulting shortage of tobacco leaves which saw a number of enterprising farmers in South Kildare undertake the growing of a crop which was previously foreign to our soil.

But let me return to the reason why the photo was shown to me in the first place. I was intrigued by the story of a young Church of Ireland family who left Ballincarrig, Co. Offaly at the start of the 1900’s and came to these parts of County Kildare to take over three separate farms. The young men and their sisters all bore the name Yates and to Grangemellon House arrived Jonathan Yates and his sisters Phoebe and Sarah. The last named was the only member of the triumvirate to marry when in 1915 she wed Jack McCullagh of Sawyerswood, both of whom later emigrated to Canada. Her brother Jonathan, a single man had died two years previously and he was buried in Kilberry where his sister Phoebe was to join him in January 1924. When the Yates’ came to Grangemellon, their brother Tom took up the tenancy of a farm at Lipstown, Narraghmore and it was from there that Tom Yates came to Grangemellon following the death of his brother Jonathan in 1913. The photograph mentioned at the start of this article captured a scene on Tom Yates farm in Grangemellon approximately 30 years later.

Another brother, William Yates came from County Offaly as the tenant of a farm at Ballycullane and it was he who patented in 1908, the Yates hay lifter, a model of which is to be seen in the local Heritage Centre in the Town Hall. William married a Miss Jackson and later moved to Leinster Lodge which he sold on retiring in the late 1930’s. Two other male members of the County Offaly Yates family were James, a civil servant who moved to Belfast and Henry a Minister in the Church of Ireland who later became Archdeacon of Killaloe.

Why was it that three branches of the Yates family set up homes in South Kildare at the turn of the last Century? Was it an extension of the policy first put in place by the Duke of Leinster in the 1850’s to strengthen the established Church in South Kildare by giving farm tenancies to members of that Church or was it merely a co-incidence that most of the best farmlands in South Kildare passed from one Church of Ireland tenant to another? The question raises issues which could form the basis of an interesting study of the relationship between land succession and religious adherences in South Kildare during the later half of the 19th Century and the first half of the 20th Century. Howsoever the various Yates family members from County Offaly came to live in close proximity to each other in South Kildare, the unfolding history of their lives saw Ballycullane passing out of their hands when William Yates left for Leinster Lodge. The Lipstown Narraghmore lands initially farmed by Tom Yates subsequently passed to his eldest son Garret. He it was who eventually sold on those lands to Willie Fennin leaving the Grangemellon holdings as the only farmland still in the ownership of the Yates family. It was Tommy Yates Junior who took over Grangemellon from his father in 1961. He was the youngest member of the five children of Tom Yates and Annette Hewitt of County Longford who married in 1926. Of Tom’s three sisters, Freda is a retired School Teacher, Sheila is married to Billy Shaw of Carlow while Joan who married Dan Connolly of Ballyfoyle has passed away.

The farm at Grangemellon has an imposing residence. Grangemellon House was built probably in the middle of the 18th Century. The farm land was a mixed farm of about 200 acres with cattle, sheep and tillage requiring a workforce of five or six men in the 1930’s and a complement of six horses. Tobacco growing in the early 1940’s was perhaps one on the more unusual farming activities of the time. Tom Yates Senior propagated tobacco plants in glass protected hot beds of which he had about twenty during those years. The plants grown from seed were bedded in clay enriched with horse manure and when strong enough, the plants were sold on to neighbouring farmers. As well as propagating tobacco plants, the Yates farm was also involved in growing and harvesting tobacco leaves. The young plants were transplanted to drills of about 36 inches wide and during the growing season they were treated in much the same way as tomato plants. When the tobacco plants reached maturity, their leaves were harvested and drawn into the tobacco house. In the photograph accompanying this article, the leaves are shown hanging from the frame of a horse drawn dray. When the frames were full, the dray was returned to the tobacco house where the frames and the hanging leaves were lifted off and left to hang in a wood lined drying room. Coal braziers were lit to dry the leaves and when that primary drying process was finished, the leaves were sold onto Greene’s of Kilkea Lodge where they underwent further drying. It was there that the Excise men graded the tobacco leaves for the purpose of quantifying the duty payable. The finished plant was then sold onto the factories to provide the raw material for the Irish Tobacco Industry.

Tom Yates Junior who married Shirley Armstrong from Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim some years after she came to work in Shaw’s of Athy is with his son Bruce, the present occupiers of Grangemellon Farm. Tom has seen many changes in his time and recalls the farming emergency of 1947 when the weather caused a national crisis and threatened that years harvest. The mixed farming of earlier years has given way to agricultural specialization while the combustion engine signaled the death knell of both the farm labourer and the farm horse alike. Times have changed but the unfolding story of life on an Irish farm is a never ending one where memories of tobacco growing days in the 1940’s provide a unique insight into the ingenuity and foresight of the men who worked the soil.