Dominicans are a tangible link with medieval Athy

The Nationalist and Leinster Times of 10 August 1957 under the headline The Dominican Athy Foundation read:

“On Sunday, August 11th, the Catholic population of Athy and District will jubilantly join in celebrating the seventh centenary of the coming to Athy of the Dominican Fathers.
At present, a beautiful wrought iron centenary memorial gate is being erected at the main entrance to the Dominican grounds and at either side of it a handsome wall of cut stone is being constructed. The gate will have two plaques, one bearing the crest of the Dominican Order and the other the Irish title Naomh Dominic.” I remember when the cut stone wall was being built by the late John Murphy of St Michael’s Terrace. Working alone over many weeks, he created what was a beautiful monument to the stonemason’s skill.

Reading the newspaper account of 50 years ago, I was struck by the way in which references were made to “the Catholic population of Athy”, highlighting the apparent exclusivity of the celebrations planned for the Dominicans. Now as we approach the celebration of the 750th anniversary of the Dominican connection with Athy, no-one would dream of claiming, or indeed assuming, that the celebrations are not to be shared with and by the members of other churches.

The somewhat unsophisticated attitude of those days was further brought home to me when, on the same page, I read a report which opened with the line “a 64 year old man of the itinerant tribe … appeared at Portarlington Court on Wednesday”.

How about that for political correctness in the 1950s! The following week’s paper carried a front page account of the 1957 celebrations, which began in heat and sunshine but ended in a downpour. One of the highlights of that day was the talk given by Rev JP Cullins, OP of St Mary’s, Tallaght on the history of the Dominican Order. He made the point that while the Dominicans came to Ireland in the wake of the Norman knights in the 12th century, it was not their purpose to enlarge or help consolidate the Anglo-Norman conquest.

Rather, the Dominican Order which had been founded by St Dominic, who died at Bologna in Northern Italy just 30 years previously, came to Ireland to preach the word of God.The Order of Preachers was the name conferred on the Dominicans by the Pope at a time in 1216 when a Council of the Church had already deplored the lack of preaching everywhere. The Dominican Order was commissioned by the Holy See to take the whole world as its mission and help the hard-pressed secular priests, wherever they were to be found.When the Dominicans came to Athy, it was little more than a tiny village on a river crossing, with a newly-built castle at its centre and a nearby Trinitarian monastery. The medieval village developed during the 13th and 14th century around the two religious foundations of the Trinitarians and the Dominicans. This development continued despite the departure of the Trinitarians sometime before the Reformation and the temporary displacement of the Dominicans in the aftermath of Henry VIII’s dispute with the Catholic Church.The continuing Dominican presence in Athy for 750 years gives us the most tangible link with the early medieval years of our town.

It is a link which is historically important and one which we all hope will continue long into the future.

It is interesting to note that the Dominican Priory in Athy is distinguished in being the only one in the Irish Dominican province which is dedicated to the founder of the Order of St Dominic. The celebrations in 1957 were attended by members of Athy Urban District Council, the Knights of Malta and St Michael’s and St Joseph’s bands, all of whom greeted the provincial of the Dominican Order on the Dublin Road entrance to the town. The Dominican graves in St Michael’s Cemetery were visited before a procession wound its way to St Dominic’s Church, where the celebrations were held. At the entrance to the Dominican grounds, an archway depicting on the one side St Dominic and on the other Pope Pius XII had been erected and in the church grounds an outdoor altar had been constructed.Locals involved in the arrangements 50 years ago included Tom Fleming, described in the newspaper account as “an indefatigable Dominican worker”, who led a team of volunteers in erecting the decorated archway and the outdoor altar. Others involved and named in the newspaper account were Tom Hughes, Michael McHugh, Martin Eaton, Billy Nolan, C Dunne, MG Nolan, Gerard Tully and Frank O’Brien. Miss Mary Keogh, Mrs G Tully and Miss Burley were responsible for decorating the altar.

Another memory I have of a great Dominican occasion was the unveiling of the statue of St Dominic in the grounds of the Dominican Priory in August 1955. The statue located in front of Riversdale House was presented by George Farrell of Spring Lodge.

Made by a French firm, it stood five-and-a-half feet high and was mounted on a pedestal standing on two circular steps.

The unveiling was performed by Fr JE Garde, Dominican Provincial, with honours rendered by a detachment of the FCA under Captain JJ Stafford and Lieutenant P Dooley. The 750th anniversary celebrations of the Dominicans in Athy will commence on Friday 5 October at 7pm, when a civic reception will be given in the municipal offices in Rathstewart for the Dominicans by Athy Town Council.

This will be followed on Saturday by a number of events starting with a music and dance celebration in Emily Square at 3pm. At 6pm, a plaque will be unveiled at Convent Lane to mark the 750th anniversary and this will be followed at 6.15pm by a Mass celebrated by the Dominican community in the Dominican Church. Later on, following the Mass, there will be a reception in the GAA Centre.

On Sunday 7 October at 3pm in the town hall, a lecture will be given by the noted Dominican historian, Fr Hugh Fenning, on the history of the Dominicans and their connection with Athy. Later that evening at 8pm in the Dominican Church, a concert showcasing local singers and musicians will take place in what has been described as a celebratory concert commemorating the link between the Dominican Order and the town of Athy.

Athy Heritage Centre will hold an exhibition on the Friars Preachers in Athy from Thursday 4 to Friday 12 October and the Heritage Centre will be open during the weekend of 5 to 7 October.

All the events listed above are free and everyone is welcome to join in the townspeople’s celebration of the Dominican’s 750th anniversary.

However, if you plan to attend the reception in the GAA Centre on Saturday evening, the Dominicans would like you to pick up a ticket for each person in your party at the Dominican Office. The tickets are free, but the ticketing system is to allow them to make adequate arrangements for the numbers attending.

The Irish White Cross and the Black and Tans

The Irish White Cross was founded to bring help The information regarding the family circumstances of Connor and Lacey was supplied to the committee by PJ Walker, who was the national school teacher in Barrowhouse. The central committee of the Irish White Cross subsequently forwarded to Athy’s town clerk a cheque for £50, which was to be divided between Mrs Margaret Connor and James Lacey. It is not clear whether this was the only aid paid to the families of the two young men killed in the Barrowhouse Ambush.

The local committee held a church gate collection in Athy on Sunday 7 August 1921 and those involved, apart from the earlier mentioned committee members, were John A Butler, Peter P Timmons, Michael J Egan, John Bradley and urban councillor Thomas O’Rourke. It is interesting to note the level of support for what was essentially a Sinn Féin organisation (although I wonder if Canon Mackey was aware of this connection). The results of the church gate collection in Athy were: Barrowhouse Church, £14.13.0; Dominican Church, £29.13.4; and Parish Church, £105.2.2.

The three collection points for the Parish Church were designated “Parochial House Gate”, “Fr Nolan’s Gate” and “Front Gate” and £60.15.8, £38.1.6 and £6.5.0 were collected at each during the four Sunday Masses which were held at 7am, 8am, 10am and 12 noon. A total of £149.8.6 was forwarded by the committee secretary Joseph Lawler to the White Cross in Dublin and a further £187 was subsequently collected by way of house to house collections and private donations. The largest donation of £5 was received from the Duke of Leinster and William J Fennell of Burtown House.

An entry in the minute book of the White Cross Committee meeting held in the urban district council offices on 19 September 1921 speaks volumes of the unhealthy religious divisions which were then part of Irish provincial life. “Collectors shall be appointed to collect subscriptions in Athy and District from the non- Catholic portion of the community.” David Walsh, who was one of those appointed to do this, later reported that the sum of £13.18.0 had been collected.

Ellen Lynch, whose brother had already received assistance from the committee, applied on 13 September 1921 for “£50 to purchase clothing for herself, sister and nephew which were lost when her brother’s house was burned on 17 May last by the Crown Forces.”

Her claim was recommended to the central committee in Dublin, following which an engineer, PH McCarthy, was appointed to visit the Lynch’s in Barrowhouse to finalise the family’s claim.

Another beneficiary was Mrs Jane Bradbury of Woodstock Street, who received an allowance of 25/= a week from the Dependents Fund. I have been unable to find out the circumstances which gave rise to this payment, but perhaps some of my readers can help me here.

Patrick Keating of Barrowhouse applied for £63.5.0 compensation for clothing and furniture destroyed by crown forces when his house was also burned following the Barrowhouse ambush. The local committee, however, was not satisfied as to the extent of his loss and were unwilling to consider his claim after discovering that he had made a collection in the town for the same purpose, from which he realised £17.

A total of £1.3 million was distributed nationally on behalf of the Irish White Cross to assist Republicans and their families, who suffered financial hardships through involvement in the War of Independence, and also to aid Catholic workers expelled from employment in Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland.

The last entry in the minute book maintained by the Athy White Cross Committee was dated 9 December 1921. The central committee issued a report for the period to 31 August 1922 in which it is noted that a total of £125.15.0 was paid out in relief in the Athy area. This was a very small amount and reflects the minimal activity by crown forces and Republican activists in this area during the Irish War of Independence.

Something rotten in the borough of Athy

An enquiry concerning the first Catholic to be appointed town clerk of Athy sent me revisiting material I extracted from the minute books of Athy Borough Council, Athy Town Commissioners and Athy Urban District Council almost 30 years ago. Jimmy O’ Higgins was the acting town clerk who facilitated my research at a time when I was still living in Dublin by permitting me generous access to the council records. I remember trawling through those leather-bound minute books for months on end, deciphering as best I could the handwriting of the many clerks who over the centuries had the duty of keeping the council records. It was an extremely difficult task but nevertheless a rewarding one for the wealth of information obtained which helped to put flesh on the skeleton which up to then made up my knowledge of Athy, its people and their common history.

The lady who called to me during the week had a grandmother whose only brother she claimed was the first Catholic town clerk of Athy. His name was Patrick Hickey. The years he held the position were not known, but perhaps uniquely he subsequently became a Christian Brother.

Patrick Hickey, she said, was later viceprovincial of the Christian Brothers order in Australia and died in Bath, England, where he is buried. By strange coincidence, I had been visiting Bath just two days previously so on a number of fronts my interest was aroused by the enquiry.

The first local authority for the town of Athy was that established under Henry VIII’s charter of 1515 and revamped as Athy Borough Council by virtue of King James’s charter 98 years later. Controlled by successive earls of Kildare and later on their elevation to the dukedom of Leinster by the premier duke in Ireland, Athy Borough Council was what was known as “a rotten borough”. It was so termed because the franchise was vested in 12 burgesses nominated by the head of the Leinster family and seldom, if ever, did any of these burgess office holders reside in the town over which they exercised completed control. The borough council was abolished with many other Irish “rotten boroughs” in 1840.

The first elected Athy local authority was comprised of 21 locals sworn in as town commissioners in July 1847. I never fail to be surprised when reading through the list of the first town commissioners to find the names of the parish priest and the Church of Ireland rector amongst the commission members, as well as no less than three local doctors. The first town clerk appointed was Henry Sheill and the commissioners retained an office in his house at Leinster Street for several years until the Duke of Leinster made available what was the old Record Court as offices for the town commissioners. This he did in 1865 and the room given to the council was located on the south-east wing of the town hall at ground floor level. The commissioners swapped rooms with the Mechanics Institute 22 years later and so ended up in the small room in the south west side of the town hall directly opposite the caretaker’s apartment, where the council offices remained until new offices were provided at Rathstewart.

Reading through the extracts I took from the council minute books, I was pleasantly surprised to find how strong were the elected members when dealing with perceived inefficiencies on the part of council officials. Henry Sheill resigned after 23 years service, as did John Roberts, the town inspector of nuisances, when the commissioners resolved “that in future should the public pumps not be kept in proper order the month’s salary of the town clerk and the inspector of nuisances be stopped”. Following Sheills’s departure, the town clerkship became vacant on three occasions over the following nine years, ending with the appointment of Patrick Hickey as town clerk on the 5 May 1879 at a salary of £20 a year. Given the information I received last week, this is undoubtedly the man described to me as the first Catholic appointed as town clerk of Athy. Given the text of the following resolution passed by Athy town commissioners in April 1865, it is quite likely that all the previous holders of the offices were non- Catholics. After all, were they likely to be otherwise if the elected members were moved to send this motion to the House of Commons in London:

“We, the town commissioners of the ancient and loyal town of Athy, feeling in common with our fellow countrymen the insulting and degrading tendencies of the obnoxious oaths and declarations which are still required to be taken by Catholics and Protestants in order to qualify them for the acceptance of municipal office, most earnestly pray that your Honourable house will take into consideration that such oaths had their origin in a period of gross bigotry and persecution. In an age of enlightenment like the present and now more than 30 years after Catholic Emancipation, your petitioners earnestly entreat that these obnoxious oaths may be erased from the statute books”.

Patrick Hickey, whom I believe lived in Emily Square, resigned as town clerk in 1882 presumably to enter the Christian Brothers. His subsequent career is not known to me but hopefully some more research will help to complete the story of the man who, it is claimed, was the first catholic to occupy the town clerkship of Athy town.

A number of intriguing entries in the council minute books make interesting reading and gives some flavour of life and conditions in Athy of 150 years ago. In August 1856, two commissioners, Mark Cross and Henry Hannon, were asked to wait on the magistrates “relative to the scandal of public prostitution” in the town. The problems caused by the ladies of the night was still exercising the minds of the town commissioners two years later when they caused to have public notices posted throughout the town with the following warning:

“Caution to persons keeping any place of public resort within the town for the sale of refreshments of any kind who knowingly supplies any common prostitute or resorting therein to assemble and continue in his premises after this notice will be prosecuted according to law”.

Nine months later, Thomas Roberts was appointed assistant to John Roberts for the purpose of prosecuting public prostitutes and street beggars at a salary of four shillings per week with a bounty of two shillings and six pence for each prostitute convicted. I am afraid the unfortunate Mr Roberts was unable to collect many half crowns after the local magistrates stated “that in prosecuting a prostitute, a man should also charge them with an offence to him rather than to summons her alone as it requires his evidence with that of Mr Roberts to ensure a conviction”.

In August 1868, Pat Walker, who had previously worked for the town commissioners as a road sweeper (officially called a “scavenger”), was appointed to a position, the title which was not given but which merited him being provided with a coat and a hat. He was “to remove off the streets, and when necessary bring them before the magistrates, all vagrants, beggars and prostitutes, to ring the bell whenever required, to keep order in the market and to assist the bailiff in hindering forestalling in the purchase of fowl”, all of which he undertook to do for the wage of six shillings a week.

Business obviously was not sufficient to keep him in his new position as within 12 months he was back to his old job as “town scavenger” earning four shillings a week. However, this job merited in addition to the coat and hat already supplied to him a new pair of trousers and a waist coat all courtesy of the Town Commissioners.

From town clerks to Christian Brothers, scavengers, vagrants and prostitutes, it’s amazing what can turn up amongst the dusty records of Irish municipal government.

Where is the memorial to the People’s Revolution?

Last year, the town council, and in particular its then chairman, Richard Daly, paid a long overdue tribute to the men of this town who died in the First World War. The council commissioned and erected on the facade of the 18th century town hall a plaque commemorating the 219 or so men from Athy and district who never had the opportunity of returning from service overseas to walk again the streets of their home town. They were a part of our history which remained neglected for decades, but an even more serious omission is the complete absence of anything in the town to recall the local men and women who before, during and after the 1798 Rebellion bore the brunt of the oppressive measures taken to quell what was effectively a people’s revolution. The ‘missing’ Memorial is in fact in safe keeping and has been for the last nine years, for it was commissioned and delivered in 1998 in time for its expected erection as part of the Irish nation’s year-long commemoration of the ’98 Rebellion. Regretfully, the Memorial, which was consigned to the town council’s stores, has languished there for so long that I sometimes wonder if it is being held in readiness for the 300th anniversary.

The late Lena Boylan of Celbridge, a wonderful local historian who was always ready and willing to share her extensive knowledge of Irish history, passed on to me some years before she died copies of some letters received by the Duke of Leinster during the Rebellion period. One such letter which I re-read with interest this week was written by Thomas Rawson on 13 June 1799, apparently in response to the duke’s demand that he step down as a burgess of Athy Borough Council. In the opening lines of the letter, Rawson, who up to the previous year lived in Glassealy House but moved to Cardenton after his home was burned by Irish rebels, referred to the duke’s call on him to resign.

There had been many complaints about Rawson’s behaviour during the ’98 Rebellion and the duke’s cousin, Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine House was particularly scathing in his criticism of Rawson, whom he once famously described as ‘a man of the lowest order, the offal of a dung hill’. Fitzgerald had particular reason to dislike Rawson. The cavalry troop of which Fitzgerald was captain was disbanded for alleged dis-loyalty, while Rawson headed up the newly-formed Loyalist Infantry Corps, which was less than gentle in its treatment of locals suspected of having arms or pikes. Rawson was also involved in public floggings, of which William Farrell of Carlow gave the following account.

‘The triangles were set up in the public streets of Athy ... there was no ceremony in choosing victims, the first to hand done well enough ... they were stripped naked, tied to the triangle and their flesh cut without mercy.’

The earlier mentioned Thomas Fitzgerald, writing in December 1802, pinpointed Rawson as the ring leader of the floggings in Athy, claiming that the Glassealy man

‘had every person tortured and stripped as his cannibal will directed. He would seat himself in a chair in the centre of a ring formed around the triangle, the miserable victims kneeling under the triangles until they would be spotted over with the blood of the others.’

It is no wonder then that the Duke of Leinster whose own son, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, was one of the ’98 leaders felt obliged to request Rawson to resign as a member of Athy Borough Council. The grounds for the request seemed to relate to Rawson’s involvement in erecting structures on the bridge of Athy without the permission of the duke, who was landlord of the town. However, the expected resignation did not materialise. Instead, Rawson defended himself with a spirited explanation of his actions which any neutral would find more than reasonable given the circumstances of the time. In doing so, Rawson gave an interesting account of some of the measures taken by the local loyalists in preparing to defend themselves against the Irish rebels. He wrote :

'This history of any and every barrier in the town of Athy is simply this and the truth can be proved by thousands. When Campbell commanded this garrison, he caused barriers of hogs heads, sods and earth to be made on the different approaches and on the centre of the bridge - he was ordered to evacuate the town and it was left for a long time to the sole protection of the yeomanry - weak and threatened as the town then was, a large body of rebels having the next night approached within 100 perches of it, I considered it absolutely necessary to put up temporary gates and a pailing at an expense of upwards of 50 pounds out of my own pocket - the town was protected. In November last, Captain Nicholson and a company of the Cork City Militia were sent here, he saw the sod work going to decay, he applied to General Dundas and by the general’s special directions (the inhabitants at large having subscribed a larger sum) strong walls of lime and stone were added to my gates - two large piers and a strong wall and platform were erected on the centre of the bridge under the direction of Captain Nicholson. In the beginning of May last, General Dundas inspected the Athy Infantry. New-made pikes had been recently found in the back house of a rebel captain of the town, several new schemes of insurrection were discovered for which many have since been convicted by court martial - the large house in the Market Square was occupied by a noted rebel from the County of Carlow and it appearing to the general that the barrier on the bridge could be commanded from the house, he was pleased to approve of the building of a second wall to cover the men ... I had temporary walls ran up, merely doubling the former barrier, and recollecting that for four months last summer we had lain on the flag-way on the bridge in the open air with stones for our pillows - I covered the walls with a temporary skid of boards which are not even nailed on.’

Rawson’s account of the bridge fortifications gave an interesting insight into the measures taken by the loyalists during the rebellion and suggest, as I have previously claimed, that the town of Athy consisted of the English town on the east banks of the Barrow and the Irish town on the opposite side.

The bridge fortifications referred to by Rawson could only provide protection from attack by Irish rebels who lived in and around the Irish town and particularly in the area known to many of the older generation as ‘Beggars End’.

Apart from the floggings on the streets of Athy, 1798 witnessed the public execution in June of seven young local men who had been imprisoned for a while in the lock-up in White’s Castle. Six of these young men were from Narraghmore, the seventh a Curragh man.

Another hitherto forgotten local massacre was referred to by Colonel Campbell, who commanded the 9th Dragoon stationed in the Military Barracks in Athy. In a letter he wrote on 2 June 1798, advising of troop movements against a body of rebels in Cloney Bog, Campbell reported:

‘The troops moved in three columns, the right by the east of the bog, the centre by the Monasterevin Road and the left by Ballintub-bert ... the left column passed the lawn at Bert and meeting with enemy on the way drew it and being closely pursued about 100 of them were killed’.

These accounts of what happened in and around Athy, all contemporary with the events they described, are good and sufficient reason for our present generation to commemorate the men of ’98 with a suitable monument in our town. There must be no further shilly-shallying about the matter. The monument created by Brid ni Rinn should be erected in a prominent position in the centre of Athy without any further delay.

If, as expected, the ’98 Monument is erected in Emily Square in front of the town hall, it will provide a fitting companion for the memorial erected last year to our townsmen who died fighting in France, Flanders, Gallipoli and other distance places during the 1914-18 War.

Fr Patrick Doyle and the story of an Irish prison break

Many years ago I came across a book of essays written by Fr. Patrick Doyle, the Parish Priest of Naas. 'Gleanings from Dawn to Dusk' was the title so far as I can remember, but unfortunately I cannot now find the book to confirm the title. It was not however the Naas pastor's only foray into book publishing. At the height of the War of Irish Independence a 36-page booklet was published with the somewhat lengthy title, 'In Maryboro and Mountjoy, the Prison Experience and Prison Breaking of an Irish Volunteer.' The author was not named, the only indication given was that it had been penned by 'an Irish priest'.

The booklet was printed by An t'Oglach, the official periodical of the Volunteers. It was only a few weeks on sale in some Dublin shops when a bookseller was imprisoned for three months for offering what the authorities regarded as seditious material for sale. The remaining copies of the booklet were seized and destroyed, which is why only a few rare copies of 'In Maryboro and Mountjoy' have survived to this day.

A second edition appeared in America sometime afterwards, this time under the title 'The Escape from Mountjoy' with the subtitle 'And Other Prison Experiences of an Irish Volunteer' and the author given as 'The Rector of an Irish College'. The Rector in question was Fr Patrick J Doyle and the college was Knockbeg College Carlow. The American edition, which I have before me, claims to be a first edition but in fact it followed the earlier Dublin edition. Reprinted by The Friends of Irish Freedom Inc. with an address at 280 Broadway, New York, the booklet dealt with the prison experiences of Laois man Padraic Fleming.

Fr Doyle in his statement made to the Bureau of Military History in 1952 explained how he first met Fleming. Knockbeg College was a safe haven for volunteers on the run and following a prison breakout from Mountjoy in March 1919 Fr. Doyle was advised to expect an important visitor. This is how he recalled the visitors arrival.

'About midday on that day I saw a car driving rapidly down the college avenue. I went down to the hall door to meet it and saw a lady stepping from the car. Before this I had not the pleasure of knowing this distinguished lady. While she was introducing herself to me as Mrs. Gavan Duffy I observed another lady in the back of the car attired in a luxurious fur coat, with fashionable toque and struggling desperately with a complication of rugs. Finally the rugs were cast aside and a tall gaunt figure stepped from the car, the upper part of which was wrapped in the fur coat and the rest in male attire and then I was introduced to the man who became one of my greatest friends, Padraic Fleming'.

Fleming was a native of the Swan, that part of Laois, which, during the War of Independence, came under the jurisdiction of the Kilkenny IRA Brigade. His brother Eamon who had been a pupil of Thomas McDonagh, one of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation, was a captain in the Dublin Volunteers. It was Eamon Fleming who came down to Laois on Good Friday 1916 with a dispatch from Padraig Pearse asking the local volunteers to be ready for the Rising and to destroy the railway tracks at Colt so that British troops could not travel from the south to Dublin.

It is claimed that the first shots of the Easter Rebellion were in fact fired at Colt during that particular operation. Padraic Fleming was the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the Kilkenny Brigade which was centred on Castlecomer and included The Swan. Following the Easter Rebellion Fleming was questioned by the RIC and before long he was arrested at Kinsale in County Cork and court martialled. Charged with possession of seditious literature and attempting to procure arms he was convicted and sent to Maryboro Jail Prison for five years.

In September 1917 Irish Republican prisoners initiated a policy of agitating for treatment as political prisoners. Following Thomas Ashe's death on 25 September the prisoners' demands were largely met except in the case of Padraic Fleming and two other prisoners serving sentences of penal servitude in Maryboro Prison. Fleming thereafter refused to submit to the prison authorities and his subsequent degrading treatment was the subject of Fr. Doyle's booklet. After spending some time on hunger strike Fleming was released under the ‘Cat and Mouse’ Act on 20 November 1917. He continued his involvement with the Volunteers until he was re-arrested in May 1918, with many other leading Republicans during 'The German Plot' scare.

Imprisoned again in Maryboro Prison, the impasse between himself and the authorities continued, resulting in the Laois man being put into iron manacles and a body belt by which his manacled wrists and upper arms were tightly strapped to his body.

He again went on hunger strike and while he was hospitalised the prison authorities constructed a special cell to confine Fleming who was regarded as a most troublesome prisoner, and who although restrained still required two wardens to constantly monitor him 24 hours a day. Between periods in hospital, the punishment cell and the specially built cell Padraic Fleming spent 7 months in Maryboro Prison on this his second term of imprisonment, having spent 9 months there during his previous incarceration.

On 1 January 1919 Padraic Fleming was transferred to Mountjoy Jail where shortly afterwards he was elected Commandant of the Irish political prisoners. A campaign of non co-operation was again initiated under Fleming's leadership, while at the same time plans were put in place for a mass breakout from Mountjoy Jail. The escape took place on 29 March 1919 when twenty Irish Volunteers including Padraic Fleming and Piaras Beaslai escaped over the prison walls using a rope ladder. Soon thereafter Fleming arrived in Knockbeg College where he remained for several weeks, slowly regaining his health, thanks to Fr Doyle and his brother, Dr L Doyle of Carlow who took care of his medical needs.

Towards the end of the summer 1919 Michael Collins arranged for Padraic Fleming to join Eamon de Valera in America where he would spend almost the next two years organising branches of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic. He travelled to America via Wales where he spent some time with his sister who was married and living in Loyd George's country.

He was not long back in Ireland when the Treaty and the anti-Treaty split took place. He took the anti-Treaty side and was twice imprisoned in Kilkenny Jail, on each occasion managing to escape only to be recaptured and imprisoned in Kilmainham. He was eventually released under the General Amnesty of 1925. Interestingly his brother Eamon took the Treaty side.

In civilian life, Padraic Fleming worked as a director of the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes before setting up Flemings Fireclays at the Swan with his brothers. He married Marguerite Farrelly and was survived by his widow and four children, John Mitchell, Thomas Davis, Mary and Catherine when he died on 5 December 1952. His burial in the family plot at Clough was attended by President Sean T O’Ceallaigh and many leaders of Church and State. The graveside oration was given by Thomas O'Deirg, the Minister for Lands.

Fr Patrick Doyle who wrote of Padraic Fleming's prison exploits did so not only for their propaganda value, but also for their historical value. ' wrote Fr Doyle in 1952. ‘I went to Dublin and had a talk with Michael Collins about the matter. He said the story must be told and sI insisted that it was a national duty to put it on record, but Padraic pleaded his absolute incapacity to commit the story to writing'o the collaboration with Padraic Fleming began.’

Fr Doyle’s booklet is an important piece of historical work, detailing as it does the prison experiences of a man who Judge James Comerford of New York described in his own account of his Kilkenny IRA days published in 1978 as 'a man who left behind him in the annals of the IRA a record of personal courage, by his defiance of British Rule, that belongs to the classic struggle of people in all countries who have fought for their freedom.'

It was Fr Patrick Doyle, the parish priest whom once I regarded as austere and authoritarian, who recorded for posterity the prison exploits of Padraic Fleming. The austerity of old age successfully concealed the courage of the younger priest who did what he could to help the cause of Irish Freedom during the difficult years which ended with the Treaty.

Parish priest with a political pedigree

An old style Parish Priest, authoritarian if not out-right dictatorial in his dealings with the laity was the impression I had of Fr Patrick J Doyle. He was the parish priest of Naas when I arrived to work in the County Council Offices many years ago. Not that I had any personal dealings with the elderly priest, but his general demeanour was what one would expect of men appointed to take charges of Catholic parishes in those far off days. He was of the same mould as Fr Steen whom I remembered as parish priest of Athy around the same time. Neither men would strike one as friendly individuals with whom you could with ease have a conversation. Those were the views I held until recently but following some research in the Bureau of Military History I have reason to revisit my impressions of the late parish priest of Naas, Fr Patrick J Doyle.

What I now know of Fr Doyle creates for me an entirely different view of the man who in old age appeared so unapproachable. The future parish priest of the county town of Naas was in his younger days an active republican who befriended and knew many of the great Irish leaders of the day. In his contribution to the Bureau of Military History which he titled, An Anthology of Fugitive Memories, Fr Doyle, whose brother was a doctor practising in Carlow, recounted his memories of Michael Collins, Gearoid O’Sullivan, Kevin O’Higgins and Padraic Fleming, all of whom he counted among his friends.

When Rebellion broke out in Dublin in Easter 1916 Fr Doyle was Rector of Knockbeg College in Carlow. Gearoid O’Sullivan, a county Cork man who graduated with an MA from UCD in 1915, fought in the GPO the following year. He was interned in Frongoch and following his release was engaged by Fr Doyle to give Irish classes in the Carlow College. While there he continued his involvement with the Volunteers. Before long O’Sullivan was appointed OC of the 1st Battalion Carlow Kildare Brigade which was centred in Carlow town, but included also Bagenalstown and Leighlin-bridge. This, according to Fr Doyle, ‘entailed an enormous amount of work in enlisting and training volunteers in the area where there had been very little volunteer activity up to that time.’ The active co-operation of the college director Fr Doyle made it possible for O’Sullivan to be so involved in the local Volunteer movement. When O’Sullivan was subsequently tried for making a seditious speech in his hometown of Skibbereen Fr Doyle travelled south to give a character reference for him. It was to no avail however as O’Sullivan was found guilty and sent to prison. On his subsequent release he resumed his teaching job in Knockbeg College, all the time retaining an active involvement with the Volunteers until he was summoned to Dublin by Michael Collins to become the Adjutant General of the Volunteers. On creation of the National Army Gearoid O’Sullivan was appointed Adjutant General of the Irish Forces. At the same time Michael Collins wanted to appoint Fr Doyle as chaplain to the Army but the Kildare and Leighlin Bishop Dr Foley refused the request. It would appear that Dr Foley, a Redmondite, did not take kindly to the politics of Collins and his colleagues.

Two other men who were befriended by Fr Doyle while he was rector of Knockbeg College were Padraic Fleming of The Swan and Kevin O’Higgins of Stradbally. Both men would take opposite sides in the Civil War, but in 1919 they were on the run and each found refuge in Knockbeg College. Kevin O’Higgins had been a student at Knockbeg following his earlier removal from Maynooth College for breaking a no-smoking rule. As a newly elected TD for Laois he was involved in organising the National Loan initiated by Michael Collins as Minister for Finance. He travelled extensively on this promotion work, all the time attempting to evade the RIC and military who were on the lookout for him.

Knockbeg College became ‘a safe house’ for O’Higgins, with the active cooperation of Fr Patrick Doyle. It was while staying in the College that O’Higgins met his future wife Brigid Cole. At their wedding, attended by De Valera and many other of the leaders of the day at which Rory O’Connor was best man, Fr. Doyle gave the toast ‘The men of 1916 dead and living’ which he ended with the words, ‘to the long life and happiness of the beloved living and to the full culmination of their dearest wish, the liberty, the untrammelled liberty of Ireland.’

Kevin O’Higgins and Fr Doyle remained friends until the last, a friendship which was brought to a close when the young Stradbally man was assassinated on 10th July 1927. As Minister for Home Affairs Kevin O’Higgins had sanctioned the execution of his best man Rory O’Connor following the shooting dead of Sean Hales, a member of the Dail. He was the second member of the O’Higgins family of Stradbally to be assassinated.

During the Civil War his elderly father, a medical doctor practising in the Laois village, had been shot dead in his home in front of his wife by murderers who were never identified. Fr Doyle was summoned from Naas to attended the mortally wounded Kevin O’Higgins, but before he reached Dublin O’Higgins had died. The next morning the former College Rector celebrated requiem mass in the O’Higgins family home at Cross Avenue, Blackrock.

It was through Gearoid O’Sullivan that Fr Doyle became acquainted with Michael Collins. He met Collins on several occasions in Dublin and also in Naas. By now Fr Doyle had transferred to Naas where he would become part of the intelligent network working for Collins. One of the most important men in that network was Sergeant Jeremiah Maher, an RIG man who was secretary to the Naasbased RIG County Inspector. Maher passed extremely valuable intelligence to Michael Collins and occasionally Fr Doyle was the intermediary passing documents between Sergeant Maher and Michael Collins.

Fr Doyle played a small yet significant part in preventing an expected promulgation issuing from the Vatican condemning the Irish Liberation Movement. The British Foreign Office had apparently convinced the Vatican of the necessity of issuing the condemnation, but the unexpected arrival in Rome of Archbishop Mannix, the former President of Maynooth College when Fr Doyle was visiting the eternal city brought the two clerical Republicans together. Patrick Doyle was a student for the priesthood in Maynooth when Dr Mannix was the college president and so both knew each other quite well. Fr Doyle with George Gavin Duffy, the Dail representative in Rome, met Dr Mannix and at their urgings the Archbishop in a private audience with the Pope outlined to the Pontiff the true state of affairs in Ireland as a result of which the expected Vatican condemnation was withheld.

Fr Doyle took the Treaty side following the Treaty debate in Dail Eireann and invited Michael Collins, Kevin O’Higgins and others to speak at a public meeting in Naas on Easter Sunday 1921. Following the meeting a public banquet was held in the Town Hall where Fr Doyle and Collins were seated alongside each other. Collins and the Naas cleric last met when Collins was on a tour of army posts and following his inspection of Naas Military Barracks the Irish Army chief of staff called on Fr Doyle at his house in the Sallins Road.

Soon thereafter Michael Collins was killed and when his body was brought by boat to the North Wall. Fr Doyle was requested by the army authorities to be present to receive the remains. He was to have participated in the requiem mass in the Pro Cathedral as Deacon but the church authorities, for whatever reason, vetoed the army’s request for Fr Doyle’s involvement.

One of the other great friendships forged by Fr Patrick J Doyle during the War of Independence was with Padraic Fleming of The Swan.

Next week I will deal with the Laois man who escaped from Mountjoy and the part played by Fr Doyle, later parish priest of Naas, in publicising Fleming’s prison experiences.

Sr Carmel Fallon’s legacy

Last February on the occasion of her birthday I had intended to write of a gracious lady, small of stature but big of heart, who has had an extraordinary impact on the lives of many people who for one reason or another are seriously physically handicapped. However the best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

Carmel Fallon was born two months before Pearse and Connolly marched up O’Connell Street and seized the General Post office. Kilcreest, Loughrea in County Galway was her birthplace but I see that the Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland gives the place name as Kilchrist, a parish about three miles south west of Loughrea.

She entered the Athy Convent in August 1935. It was a great period for vocations, both for the priesthood and the many religious orders, branches of which were once to be found in almost every town in Ireland. Economically it was a difficult time for the Irish people. The economic war which resulted from De Valera’s withholding of the annuities claimed by Great Britain under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 would have another few years to run.

The number of young women who entered the Athy Convent of Mercy, especially from the western counties, has always intrigued me. County Galway, particularly, was for decades a ready source of postulants for the Sisters of Mercy, why I have never been able to answer. 19-year-old Carmel Fallon travelled to Athy in August 1935 to the south Kildare town which was still in the grip of an unemployment crisis following its unsuccessful bid for Ireland’s first sugar factory.

Just a few weeks before she arrived Fr Michael Browne, a Dominican friar and a future cardinal of the church, gave the annual retreat to the Athy Sisters of Mercy. His brother, Maurice, had been a curate in Athy for a few years previously but transferred to Bray around this time.

The young Galway girl was one of several girls who joined the Athy convent around the same time. Indeed their numbers were such that it was found necessary to enlarge the novitiate in the local convent. Sr Mary Carmel took her triennial vows on 16 February 1938 and three years later pronounced her final vows. With her on that latter day was another young nun who will be remembered by many of my readers, Sr Michael Hickey.

Sr Carmel attended Carysfort College in Dublin to train as a primary school teacher and on completion of her training returned to the convent primary school. She spent her teaching years in the old St Michael’s School and in later years with the junior infant boys. Apart from classroom teaching Sr Carmel was also involved in tutoring pupils in both violin playing and singing and prepared many students for school concerts.

Fundraising for the new primary school which opened on 23 October 1958 was another activity in which Sr Carmel and many of the other local nuns were involved. Sales of work, school concerts, jumble sales and concerts in the Town Hall were organised and overseen by Sr Carmel and her colleagues in a prolonged effort to accumulate the local contribution of £18,666 which the Department of Education required to be paid for the new school, which was estimated would cost £112,000 to build. Does anyone remember the show Bits and Piecesput on in the town hall in May 1957 by the Oblate Boys Club of Inchicore under its director Tim O’Leary? It was a great success and the same Tim O’Leary who was a brother of Sisters Joseph and Bernard would be involved in several other fundraising activities for the new school.

Many of the sisters, including Sr Carmel, were involved in preparing the primary school pupils for a production of their operetta The Boy Mozart, again a school fundraising venture which was put on in the town hall in May 1956. An entry in the convent annals notes with disappointment “the support by the people was not commensurate with the labour”.

Sr Carmel, with Sr Michael Hickey, was instrumental in securing a remedial class for young pupils attending St Michaels primary school who needed additional help. Initially volunteers were engaged to help out but persistent lobbying of the Department of Education eventually resulted in sanction for a remedial class in the local school. It is of interest to note that Athy Lions Club donated a prefab for the remedial class. Sr Carmel was also responsible for enlisting for the first time the services of a psychologist for St Michael’s School. Twelve years before retiring from teaching in 1980, Sr Carmel, with Sisters Dolores and Alphonsus, set up a club for young girls. She continued to work with the girls club, even while undergoing a diploma course in community care in Maynooth College. It was however for the setting up and helping to develop the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) in Athy and nationally that Sr Carmel is now best known.

The IWA as a national organisation was formed some 40 years ago at a time when services for people with limited mobility was practically non-existent. With the intention of better integrating people with disabilities into their local community Sr Carmel, together with Sisters Alphonsus and Dolores, encouraged the members of the girls club to visit the disabled in their own homes. Social evenings, home visits and day outings for the disabled, all promoted by Sr Carmel and her helpers, eventually led to the formation of an IWA branch in Athy in 1969. The local branch grew as socials were held in Mount St Mary’s, annual Christmas dinners were arranged and summer holidays were spent in boarding schools belonging to the Sisters of Mercy. None of this work could have been achieved without the help of the day volunteers, both male and female, who from the very start devoted their time and energies to helping Sr Carmel in her twin aims of providing much needed services for the disabled, while at the same time integrating them more fully into the local community.

The Athy IWA was eventually able to provide full day activity service for the disabled within the south Kildare catchment area when Teach Emmanuel was opened on a site in the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital. This facility represented a part-nership between the Health Board and Athy IWA and confirmed Sr Carmel’s admirable record of achievement since arriving in Athy over 70 years ago.

In 1992 Sr Carmel was appointed President of the IWA national organisation. It now caters for a membership of over 20,000 and her appointment as national president was a timely and well-earned acknowledgement of her pioneering role in the development of services for the disabled in county Kildare. Sr Carmel retired from that position in 2002 but still retains an interest in the work of the Wheelchair Association at local level. She is often to be seen at Teach Emmanuel which is a permanent monument to the energetic and innovative work of the diminutive nun from county Galway.

In the past I have had occasion to mention the community related work of different member of the Sisters of Mercy here in Athy. Sr Carmel, Sr Consilio, Sr Dominic, Sr Joseph are but some of the Mercy Sisters who have done trojan work amongst the people of the area as part of the Mercy mission to the people of Athy.

The legacy of the Mercy Sisters will live on, long after the religious order founded by Mother Catherine McAuley has ceased to exist

Pipe bands past and Holy Communions long ago

Athy has enjoyed a musical tradition extending over many decades, a tradition which gave it a succession of town bands. The earliest reference I have come across to a band in the town was in the early 1880s, when the then recently formed Catholic Young Men Society had a brass band. There had been many more local bands in the intervening years with pipe bands, fife and drum bands and brass all bands making use of the musical talents in the area.

Some weeks ago, I was given a photograph of St. Dominic’s Fife and Drum Band, which I understand was founded soon after the end of World War II. The members of the band practised in a shed at the back of Johnny Lynch’s house in Nelson Street. I have no other information about the band and would welcome hearing from anyone who can help me in that regard. The photograph with this article shows some of the band members and they have been identified, reading from left at the back, as Christy Lamon of Plewman’s Terrace, Jack Corcoran of Dooley’s Terrace, unidentified, Paddy Kavanagh of St Joseph’s Terrace and behind him his son Paddy “Twin” Power of the Dock. The next two men and the two men standing one in front of the other on the extreme right have not been identified. In the front row, from left, the first person is unidentified. The second young man is either Paddy Scott of Dooley’s Terrace or Brendan Murphy of Offaly Street, then Tom Perse of Blackparks, Mick “Bottler” Carroll of the Dock, Paddy Perse, brother of Tom Perse, Martin Cunningham of Levitstown and Noel Quinn of St John’s Lane. There has been great difficulty in identifying some of those photographed and, as always, I would welcome confirmation or correction of any name given by me.

The second photograph comes courtesy of Agnes Bergin. It’s possibly a first communion or a confirmation class photograph. The young boys are very well dressed and many of them sported badges which were common on the occasions of First Communion or Confirmations. The presence of three young women (presumably teachers) would confirm that the boys were not attending the Christian Brothers School, thereby suggesting it was a First Communion photograph. First Communion was taken while youngsters were still in St. Joseph’s School.

The only boy I can positively identify sitting sixth from left in the front row is Michael Kelly of Geraldine. Given that he is now approximately 86 years old, I figure the photo-graph was taken in or about 1930. It is probably too long ago for anyone to be able to identify others in the photograph. However, if you can do so, I would welcome hearing from you.

Sean Lemass and the opening of the Asbestos factory

Last week’s announcement of the resiting of the Tegral factory to a green field site on the Monasterevin Road comes 70 years after the official opening of what was called the Asbestos factory by Sean Lemass, the-then minister for industry and commerce. The choice of Athy as a site for the Asbestos factory owed much to the efforts of MP Minch, managing director of Minch Nortons and his brother Sydney Minch, who had been elected a TD for County Kildare in the 1932 general election.

As a candidate for the Cumann na Gaedheal party, he was re-elected in 1933 and again in 1937 for the revised Carlow/ Kildare constituency, before eventually losing his seat in 1938. MP Minch had previously attempted to have a sugar factory located in Athy and to that end led a deputation of local dignitaries to Holland to put the case for the South Kildare town. The year was 1925 and, when the announcement for the new sugar factory was made, Carlow won out to the huge disappointment of Athy folk.

When the Asbestos factory was first mooted, Athy was one of several locations canvassed as suitable sites. It is claimed that Carlow, which secured the sugar factory just a decade earlier, offered the promoters of the new project a free site and an undertaking from the local authority not to charge rates for the first three years. No wonder, therefore, that the acting chairman of Athy Urban District Council, William Mahon, in proposing a toast to the Minch family on the day of the factory’s opening, praised the part played by Matt Minch and his brother Sydney in bringing a major industry to the town.

The official opening of the Asbestos factory took place on Monday 31 May 1937, just a few months after the Eoin O’Duffy led Blueshirts left for Spain to support Franco and the nationalist rebels. Prior to the opening, the factory had been in production for about three weeks, with 75 men employed on three eight-hour shifts producing asbestos corrugated sheeting and asbestos cement sheeting and slating. Intended to cover 50,000 square feet, the factory was built on a 12-acre field known locally as Mullery’s field and it also embraced the site of the small terraced houses known as Tay Lane, which had been demolished in advance of the factory construction work. The construction of the factory was not fully completed when the official opening took place.

Sean Lemass, who was appointed to the first Fianna Fáil government in 1932 at 33 years of age, had fought in the GPO in 1916. After the 1921 Treaty, he took the Republican side and fought in the Four Courts during the Civil War. Following this, he was captured and interned in the Curragh and Mountjoy Jail until December 1923. Elected to the Dáil in 1925, he was appointed minister for industry and commerce in De Valera’s first government and retained that position in every subsequent government led by De Valera until he succeeded Dev as Taoiseach in 1959.

The one-time freedom fighter was met on his arrival in Athy with a guard of honour of the local gardaí under Superintendent Bergin, drawn up at the entrance to the town hall. There, he was presented with an address of welcome on behalf of the people of Athy and the local council by William Mahon, vice-chairman of Athy Urban District Council. The long-time chairman of the urban council, Patrick Dooley of Duke Street, had died the previous 7 May. Dooley had occupied the position of chairman of the council since 1929 and the Council at its AGM in June 1937 would elect William Mahon as its chairman. Patrick Dooley, whose son Paddy would later be elected a TD for the Kildare constituency, as well as becoming chairman of Athy Urban District Council on several occasions between 1953 and 1978, was an important link with the local Old IRA and would have been well known to Sean Lemass.

Following the address of welcome, Lemass was driven to the Asbestos factory where, on arrival, he passed through the workmen drawn up on either side of the factory entrance. He was greeted by the chairman of Asbestos Cement Limited, MP Minch of Rockfield House, who had been instrumental in securing the Asbestos factory for Athy. It is claimed that a chance meeting between Minch and H Osterberg of Denmark following the passing of the Cement Actin 1933 ultimately led to the opening of the Asbestos factory in Athy.

The Cement Act followed the earlier introduction of import duty on cement and encouraged the setting up of an Irishbased cement industry. Like the earlier development of the sugar beet industry in Ireland, which led the Irish government to arrange with a Belgium syndicate to open a beet factory in Carlow in 1926, the cement industry would require Danish expertise. Asbestos Cement Limited was formed in April 1936 with MP Minch as chairman and as directors H Osterberg, managing director of Irish Cement Ltd, MF Parkhill of Charles Tennant & Co, a Dublin-based company which was the major importer of cement to Ireland, NM Jensen of Tunnel Cement Ltd, and Carlow man FG Thompson, whose firm built the new factory in Mullery’s field.

Minister Lemass, after meeting the company directors, was shown around the factory by the factory manager WE Cornish, who was described as a shrewd energetic Welshman. Prior to coming to Athy, he had been employed by Tunnel Asbestos Cement in the manufacture of asbestos cement goods. At the conclusion of the tour, Lemass started the factory machinery and was presented by Mr Osterberg with a solid silver paper weight bearing the monogram of the firm. The factory was blessed by Canon McDonnell, the local parish priest.

Sean Lemass addressed the crowd of about 500 people from the factory steps after he formally opened the factory. “On your behalf, citizens of Athy,” concluded the minister, “I wish to congratulate those who planned, financed and made possible this enterprise and express the hope that you will never have reason to regret the part they took in establishing it.”

At a luncheon which was given afterwards in the factory, presided over by MP Minch, speeches were made by M Jensen, who proposed a toast of Irish industries, HT O’Rourke (whom I have not been able to identify), Sydney Minch TD, who proposed a toast “to the Press”, and RJ Donaghy of the Leinster Leader. William Mahon in proposing a toast of thanks to MP Minch highlighted the part played by the Minch family in promoting the industrial and social life of Athy and South Kildare over many years. MF Parkhill also spoke and praised the work of the contractor FG Thompson of Carlow, whom, he said, “found many obstacles in his way on the site, but surmounted them and built a factory of which we are all proud.” Seam Lemass in his speech after lunch spoke of “the wider plans entertained by the company’s directors and shareholders”.

This was believed not only to be a reference to the company’s plans when at full capacity to employ over 150 people but also to the government’s expectations that the success of the Asbestos factory “was going to spread itself in many other quarters”.

The factory, work on which had commenced in April 1936, was completed at a cost of £60,000, with a further £30,000 spent on the purchase and installation of machinery. The machinery would achieve maximum capacity in 1946 and in 1976 the name Asbestos Cement Limited was changed to Tegral Building Products Ltd. Ten years later, a pulping plant was installed for the manufacturer of non-asbestos products.

With the building of the Asbestos factory in 1936, the town of Athy which for so many centuries was part of the Fitzgerald family estate became an important element in the drive for Irish industrialisation. That the factory remains strong to this day and plans to move to a more expansive site on the outskirts of Athy is a tribute to all those who have worked there over the last 70 years. The Fitzgeralds may no longer hold sway in Athy, where the largest employer is Tegral, so perhaps it is fitting that the Fitzgerald Dower House at 6 South Leinster Street, Dublin is today the head office of the Tegral group of companies.

Of county managers and sporting success

The first county manager I came across was the legendary Matt Macken. He was the Carlow/Kildare county manager when I got my first job as a clerical officer with Kildare County Council in St Mary’s Naas. He was the nearest thing to God and he received as much obsequious treat-ment from the Council staff as you might expect the Pope to receive today. Well I remember if he appeared in the hallway of the Council offices, mere clerical officers such as myself ducked out of view in much the same way as servants did in the days of the big houses.

My next encounter with that heady level of administrative excellence was when I went to Kells as town clerk. My first day on the job coincided with the monthly meeting of the urban council, which the county manager in those days always attended. Denis Candy was the manager’s name and he too came from Athy, the scion of a well-known Athy family.

Belying his name, he was not all sweetness. Indeed, Denis Candy was a difficult man to get on with at the best of times but, given my lowly position in the ranks, I just had to knuckle under and get on with the job. Legendary are the stories told of Denis Candy’s time in County Meath, equalled only by those told of my next county manager, George Cannon of Monaghan. I have written before of George Cannon, a man small in terms of physique but an intellectual giant who stood apart from his colleagues as much for his waspish contrariness as for the individual streak which marked his daily activities.

Denis Candy, as I have said earlier, was an Athy man and strangely and perhaps uniquely the South Kildare town has given us three county managers since the first County Management Act of 1940. Apart from Denis Candy there was Jack Taaffe, the now retired county manager for Westmeath and John Keyes, presently occupying the premier local government position in the county of Cavan.

John is the son of the late Jackie and Liz Keyes of William Street. Jackie Keyes was office manager in the Asbestos factory in the 1950s and was one of three Keyes brothers who worked for the same company. Jackie’s brothers, Billy and Tommy, worked in the Asbestos company’s head office in Dublin. Their father, William Keyes, was local postman and in the days before footballing of all kinds held sway, was a cricketer of note who played for Athy Cricket Club. Indeed, the Keyes’ involvement in the game of cricket passed from father William to his sons and Jackie Keyes was an excellent cricketer in his younger days. Apart from the three sons, William and his wife, the former Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, had four daughters, Katie, Margaret, Angie and Mamie, all of whom married, uniting in marriage the Rowan, Ryan, Prendergast and McNamara families.

John Keyes, who now holds the reins of municipal power in County Cavan, started his education in the local Christian Brothers School. He was a member of the under-15 school team which won the 1967 Leinster College Championship. Athy CBS played what was the country final against Portlarlington in Mullingar and emerged winners, courtesy of two goals scored by Christy Delahunt. The final saw the country winners, Athy CBS, pitched against St Declan’s, the Dublin City winners in the provincial final played on the GAA pitch in Naas. Athy won, with the Stapleton brothers, Dan and Martin, between them amassing a wealth of scores to ensure Athy’s victory. That year also saw the young footballer, John Keyes, take up association football with Athy Soccer Club, where he played on the under-15 team before graduating to the seniors, where he achieved more success. He was a member of the Athy soccer team which won the Sheeran Cup in 1972. John played on the Athy team with the likes of Cha Chanders and Vincent Gray, who later had a stint with Shamrock Rovers and Limerick City and he recalls one of the more memorable football occasions outside the cup final of 1972 as the last soccer game of what was Cha Chanders long footballing career.

John went to university in Dublin, from where in time he graduated from UCD with an engineering degree. While in university, he played rugby, the game at which his father and his uncle Billy had won Provincial Towns Cup medals with Athy. He was a member of the Anderson cupwinning team of the 1972/73 season and played on the Athy team which competed for the Provincial Towns Cup in the 1975/ 76 season. The photograph of that team shows John sixth from the left at the back row with his father Jackie, then the president of Athy Rugby Club on the extreme left of the same row.

John’s biggest regret is that he transferred from the Athy Club to play senior rugby with Monkstown in Dublin soon thereafter and missed out on the Provincial Towns Cup victories which came Athy’s way in the latter part of the 1970s. John retired from rugby playing following a serious injury in 1981, but continued his involvement in the game as a coach.

The Keyes family name goes back several generations in Athy and over the decades from William onwards the Keyes name has graced the cricket pitch, the rugby pitch, the soccer pitch and the Gaelic playing field. Sport played an important part in the life of at least three generations of the Keyes family, but perhaps none had a more varied sporting career than John Keyes. The holder of winning medals in Gaelic football, association football and rugby, his is a record to be envied. His sporting achievements are in a sense mirrored by the successes in his professional life.

Graduating as an engineer from UCD, he first worked for Dublin Corporation in the mid-1980s, transferring in 1991 to Offaly County Council as a senior executive engineer. He spent 12 years in County Offaly becoming the director of community enterprise and planning in 1999, before taking up the appointment of county manager in Cavan in 2004.

The drive which gave John his successful sporting and professional career may owe something to his spirited grandmother Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, who married the postman William Keyes. It was she who in the early 1930s opened the shop at the corner of William Street and Shrewleen Lane which proved so important after William suffered a stroke a few years later. Elizabeth died in 1963, but the Keyes’ shop was a readily identifiable landmark during the ’40s and ’50s and continued in business right up to the early 1960s, coinciding with the opening of Dreamland Ballroom on the Kilkenny road.

It is a wonderful achievement for a former Christian Brothers schoolboy to climb the highest rung on the local government ladder and for Athy to boast no less than three county managers is a great tribute to the town and to our local schools.

A week of celebration and achievements

Two local men at opposite ends of the age spectrum come to mind this week as I prepare to write this week’s Eye on the Past. The victory of young Athy man, Roy Sheehan, in the European Championships held in Dublin marked a new high in terms of sporting success for Athy. We have never had a sporting achievement on this scale before and the reception given to the young boxer on Tuesday night on his return home was a wonderful tribute, not only to him but to all those involved over the years in the running of St Michael’s Boxing Club. St Michael’s is one of the most successful boxing clubs in Ireland in recent years in terms of Irish national titles secured by club members. The people of Athy can be justifiably proud of the many achievements of St Michael’s Boxing Club to date and especially of the latest success of club member Roy Sheehan.

To achieve so much at such a young age is an indication not only of Roy’s talent, but also of the dedication and commitment which he has invested in that talent over the years. The active sporting life of a boxer is relatively short, but Roy Sheehan has already secured for himself a place in the sporting annals of Athy which will forever be remembered.

By contrast, the other man whom I want to mention has had a long innings on the local political stage and on 1 July celebrated the 40th anniversary of his election to Athy Urban District Council. Frank English was first elected to the local council in 1967 and since then he has successfully contested six further elections. In that first election 40 years ago, those elected with Frank to the urban council were Jim McEvoy, Mick Rowan, Tom Carbery, Jack McKenna, MG Nolan, Paddy Dooley, Joe Deegan and Enda Kinsella. Competition for the nine council seats was quite intense, with 19 candidates putting themselves before the electorate. The unsuccessful candidates included Jim Bolger, Ann Brennan, Michael Cunningham, Patrick Doyle, James Fleming, John Foley, Paddy Lawler, Tom Moore, Frank Whelan and Ted Wynne.

Frank served on the council for nine years before becoming council chairman at the age of 35 years, leading the Nationalist to claim that “he is Athy’s youngest chairman ever”. He succeeded Megan Maguire, Megan having been the first woman to be elected to the position of first citizen of the town since the establishment of municipal government in Athy under Henry VIII’s charter of 1515.

Frank’s long service as a councillor still has some way to go to match that of Thomas Plewman, who in 1911, when he reached 70 years of age, celebrated 45 years as a member of Athy Town Commissioners, the predecessors to Athy Urban District Council and Athy Town Council. Plewman, who was born in 1842 in Kilcoo, was elected to the town commission in 1866, replacing his father who was first elected 24 years earlier. Thomas Plewman continued on as a member of the council for another nine years and the Plewman family association with the council which had extended over 78 continuous years ended in 1920 when Thomas Plewman resigned. By my reckoning, Frank has another 38 years to go before equalling the Plewman record, but maybe one of the young English family members might be prepared to emulate their father’s record of service and stand for election when Frank eventually steps down.

During the coming week, his fellow councillors will mark Frank’s 40 years as a councillor with a function in the council chamber. In January 1993, Frank was the recipient of a presentation by his council colleagues to mark his 27 years on the council and I have before me a copy of a press report of that presentation which appeared in the Carlow Kildare Post. Headed Frank’s 27!, it included a photograph of the then council chairman Kieran Dooley presenting a crystal decanter to Frank, who described himself as “an ordinary honest to God individual whose hobbies are politics and swiming”. Interestingly, Kieran Dooley’s father Paddy was a member of the council when Frank was first elected and indeed Frank owes his involvement in local politics to Paddy Dooley and MG Nolan, who approached him more than 40 years ago to stand as a Fianna F·il candidate in the local elections.

Frank was also involved during the past week in the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Aontas Ogra, the youth organisation which for so long has been associated with its long-time leader, Billy Browne. Some of Ogra’s founder members joined with the large numbers who crowded into the former Dreamland Ballroom last Thursday night to celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary, and among them was Michael O’Neill, who travelled across from the English Midlands. Michael was the founder of Aontas Cara, as it was then called, and Frank English and Pat Flinter recalled the early life of the organisation which has remained a constant in the social calendar for the youngsters of Athy for the last five decades.

The occasion was marked with the publication of a book recording in photographs, many of those who as young people were involved in Aontas Ogra over the years. The celebration was a lovely occasion and Billy Browne who in the past has been honoured by the Lions Club and the Urban District Council for his unstinting contribution to the youth affairs in Athy was given due recognition by those in attendance.

Eddie Wall, whom I last met at our class reunion a few years ago, has written to me from England concerning the recent death of Maureen Dunphy, formerly of the Bleach. Eddie writes: “Just a month ago I attended here in Luton the funeral of Maureen Twitchen, née Dunphy, formerly of the Bleach, Athy. Maureen emigrated to England when she was 17 years of age.

Her sister Margaret and brothers John and Eamon would also leave Athy to settle in England. I went to school in Athy with Eamon and John and I met Maureen for the first time in the 1970s when we both worked with the Chrysler Truck Company in Luton. She married Sean Twitchen from Kildare Town and involved herself in the local community and the Church of St Martin de Porres here in Luton. A keen gardener, she won prizes for the most beautiful garden in her area on several occasions. She was a wonderful person who will be sadly missed by her husband Sean, her son John and grandchild. I will miss her warm hello and big smile and the times we shared together reminiscing about the old town of Athy which we called home”.

I am sure many of the readers will remember the Dunphy family of Bleach and I remember Eamon and John Dunphy, both of whom attended the local Christian Brothers School before emigrating to England almost 50 years ago.

I end this article by congratulating Roy Sheehan, Frank English and Aontas Ogra in a week which has seen celebrations marking achievements of which all of us can be immensely proud.

The Shopkeepers from the Red Hills

History, in all its manifestations, has held me enthralled for as long as I can remember. Many books on the subject have been bought by me over the years, some of which I must confess have not held my interest beyond a few pages. Other books thankfully have taken me on a journey of discovery, rewarding me in equal measure in terms of knowledge and enjoyment. One such book I came across some weeks ago. It was written and published by a Vincent Cleary and it tells the story of the Cleary family of Kildare. Beginning his account of the farming Cleary’s of Red Hills, Kildare whom he claims “emerged in the 1660’s from the cosmic smoke of Cromwell’s rampage”, the author gives an interesting and at times an amusing description of the various branches of the Cleary family. This is one of the better family histories I have come across.

Vincent Cleary, about whom there is no information available, writes with a deft hand, all the time informing us, yet seldom failing to please with his stylish prose. The general practice of parents in naming children after forbearers prompted Cleary to complain

“while family loyalty is admirable, the parsimony with Christian names when litanies were available is infuriating. The clusters of contemporaneous Daniels, Johns and others, all living within the same few square miles makes the task of identifying them as individuals sometimes impossible.”

Describing his own forbearers, the farmer Cleary’s of Knocknagallagh on the slopes of the Red Hills, he has this to say.

“Many aspects of their life were primitive. Drooping moustaches and bristling beards were the fashion. Shaving was rare and painful. Washing only affected the exposed parts of the body”.

The book is full of such wonderfully succinct passages which capture in a moment the images created by the writer’s admirable penmanship.

The Cleary’s, like many other Irish families of the time, suffered the loss of a family member during the first World War. Eugene Cleary died on the Somme in 1916 and Vincent Cleary writes “80 years passed before any member of his family located and visited Eugene’s grave”. His brother Kevin, a shopkeeper in Monasterevin with whom the Cleary family story in this book ends, “always bought a poppy and laid it gently on the counter out of sight of customers. It was done furtively because rabid nationalism was abroad and to display anything but animosity to everything British was to invite trouble”. It was a similar scene played out so many times in Athy by family members remembering loved ones lost in France or Flanders during the 1914-18 War. The Cleary family suffered a double blow with the loss of Eugene’s brother, Alfred, a seaman who went missing in 1923. He was listed on the “Register of Merchant Seamen Missing or Dead” but his fate remains unknown.

The Cleary story ends with Kevin Cleary, shopkeeper, hackney man and undertaker of Monasterevin who died in 1974. Vincent Cleary’s book is a well written account of almost 300 years of a farming family from Red Hills who became shopkeepers, prompting the book title “The Shopkeepers from the Red Hills”. I would urge anyone interested in family history to buy this book and even if your interests do not extend to that genre of local history, get the book anyway for you will enjoy the writing of Vincent Cleary.

During the week I was contacted by a reader who has in his possession a Sampler, worked by a Margaret Barrett at Levetstown in 1844. He is anxious to find out something about the presumably young lady who produced the embroidered piece of material displaying stitching skills in the years before the Great Famine. The richly decorated Sampler has the following quotation.

“O virgin mother ever meek
In our behalf to Jesus speak
That from our hearts all sin effaced
We may through you be mild and chaste”

The colourful work is completed with the following details.

“Margaret Barrett’s Sampler worked at Levetstown school – 27th January 1844.”

The present owner who has had the Sampler for many years made enquiries at our local Levitstown School without any success. It strikes me that Levetstown, spelled with an “e” rather than an “i”, might indicate a location other than the South Kildare townland. If anyone can help to unravel the mystery of Margaret Barrett I would welcome hearing from them.

Another reader passed onto me this week details relating to merchant seaman Stephen Glespen of Duke Street, Athy who was lost at sea on 15th June 1942. He was 26 years of age and the son of John P. and Agnes Glespen of Duke Street. The Glespen family will be remembered by the older generation but I had not previously known of the loss of a family member during World War II. He was remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial near the Tower of London. Can anyone who remembers Stephen Glespen give me some information on the seaman from Athy who lost his life when the SS Thurso sank in June 1942?

It’s a coincidence that recently I received information concerning two Athy men whose fathers were members of the R.I.C. based in Athy. John Patrick Murphy was born in Barrack Street in 1903. His father John was an R.I.C. constable based in the former military barracks in Barrack Lane and his mother was Mary Ryan. John Patrick attended the De La Salle novitiate in Castletown at 16 years of age and remained a De La Salle brother until his death in England in 1990. I first came across him perhaps 10 or more years ago when the late Tim O’Sullivan who had attended the De La Salle School in Waterford spoke of his teacher Brother Murphy of Athy who was responsible for Gaelic games in the school. During the late 1920’s and early 1930’s Brother Murphy bought school teams to Athy to play football with the local G.A.A. team. I wonder if there are any members of Brother Murphy’s family still living in Athy?

Following an article I wrote on White’s Castle last year I received a letter from Cheshire in England telling me that the writer’s grandfather was born in that early 15th century town house. Again the parent was a member of the R.I.C. whose barracks was located in the Castle up to about 1894. James Clandillon had joined the R.I.C. sometime between 1835 and 1840 and served in Roscrea before transferring to Athy where my correspondence grandfather, John George Clandillon, was born in White’s Castle in 1871.

To have been born in a castle which figured so prominently in the Confederate Wars of the 1640’s and the Rebellion of 1798 is a unique claim. The different stories which go to make up family histories are in themselves unique and give us a rare insight into the lives of those who once graced the streets of “our own place”.

The past is truly a foreign country

I was reminded this week of a book I read many years ago, with the intriguing title Three Lives. It was the book’s title, rather than its contents, which came to mind as I reflected on the happenings of a week that saw three unconnected lives touching my consciousness in different ways. While the men involved never met or knew eachother, they had shared youthful experiences which were common to those born in Ireland in the late 30s or early 40s. These were difficult times, created in part by the economic war of the 1930s, but prolonged and exacerbated by the Second World War. Poverty was everywhere. Not the genteel poverty of today, but the raw uninhibited poverty of an age when children went hungry and families often had to rely on their own remedies to cope with illness because there wasn’t any money to pay a doctor.

As childhood gave way to adulthood, many young boys and girls had to forgo the chance of further education and take up menial dead-end jobs in order to help the family finances. Even for those fortunate enough not to have to do so, the prospect of a job after leaving school was never more than hopeful. These were my thoughts when last week three hitherto unconnected lives became linked, two in death and the third by association with a period in our country’s history where all three shared in the difficulties created by a lack of opportunity.

My brother-in-law, Thomas Spellman, just two months short of his 65th birthday, died alone in his apartment in Neasden in North London. A Connemara man who spent his teenage years shooting and fishing in the fields and lakes of Connemara, he became an expert falconer by dint of his association with the late Ronald Stevens of Fermoyle Lodge. He grew up in the Ireland of the 1940s and ’50s and, as might be expected, wanted to widen his horizons when he reached his majority. Emigration, especially to America, was the normal route taken by young Connemara folk, but Thomas Spellman followed his older brother to London. He settled in Neasden and it was there more than 40 years later that he passed away. He was part of several generations of Irish folk for whom the emigrant boat offered the only prospect of escape from the economically backward and church-dominated society that was post-war Ireland.

John B Keane in his book, Self Portrait, recounted his journey as an emigrant to England in the early 1950s and his account simply but vividly captures the scene at the mail-boat. “Dun Laoghaire for the first time was a heart-breaking experience - the goodbyes to husbands going back after Christmas, chubby-faced boys and girls leaving home for the first time, bewilderment written all over them, hard-faced old stagers who never let on but who felt it the worst of all because they knew only too well what lay before them.”

Thomas Spellman made his life in London, a city cosmopolitan in nature but for all that a lonely city at the edges where so many Irish men and women of my generation and older are still to be found. He died last week, a relatively young man, in the same city he had emigrated to in the early 1960s, far removed from the sights, sounds and smells of Connemara where he was born and had spent his youth.

Joining him in death that same week was another child of the hungry ’40s, Mickser Murray of Athy. Mickser never seized the opportunity to rise above the despair and despondency which once characterised life in Ireland. It is often claimed that our best young people took to the emigrant boats, making their mark in America or Great Britain, where the opportunity to do so did not arise in Ireland. Mickser, I believe, was born in the Barrack Yard, that early 18th century building complex, now no more, which once filled the Athy skyline with its near neighbour, Woodstock Castle. I knew Mickser quite well and felt keenly the many missed opportunities he felt unable to seize which might have allowed him to have a better life. He did not take the emigrant boat, lacking maybe the drive or the initiative, even perhaps the desperation that drove others to make a new life for themselves across the sea. Mickser met a sad death last week in Carlow, after spending some time homeless in our neighbouring town.

Like Thomas Spellman, he was born in an age when dreams of a Celtic Tiger were unknown. Theirs was a generation where privilege was measured in terms of ability to get employment in your own country and where the majority were in those terms underprivileged.

But an even greater loss of privilege was to befall so many of the young Irish men and women of that period. For many of them, indeed the majority of them, the right to an education was denied for one reason or another. I recall many school mates of mine who left school to take up messenger boy jobs, simply because their families needed the small wages which such work offered. Young boys just over 13 years of age decamped from school even before reaching the minimum school leaving age so that an extra few shillings could be added to the family coffers at the end of each week.

I was reminded of this last Tuesday when I enquired of a local who was sitting at Barrow Quay how he had done in his recent university examinations. Retired a few years ago, I knew he had undertaken what for him was a huge leap into the unknown by first sitting his Leaving Certificate examinations and then enrolling in a degree course in University College, Maynooth. He was of the same generation of Thomas Spellman and Mickser Murray, but in his case he was obliged to leave school at 13 years of age after his father died leaving a widow and three young children. As the eldest of the family, my friend had no option but to go out to work and forgo whatever ambitions he might have had for his future education. He was one of the more lucky ones. He did not have to emigrate and managed to have a job in his home town throughout his working life, retiring a few years ago at 65 years of age. Recovering the lost educational opportunities of over 50 years ago is a wonderful personal achievement for him and one that tells another side of the story of those Irish men and women of an earlier generation.

The emigrant, the unfortunate who spent his last years living rough and the scholar of advanced years shared early years in a country that was socially and economically deprived. Their lives never connected but their stories tell us all that was wrong in an independent state which for decades failed to provide the opportunities that we have now come to expect as our right. Thomas Spellman had to leave his beloved Connemara and spend his life working in London. Mickser Murray slipped through the education and welfare nets which might have given him a more meaningful life, while my retired friend is only now reliving the dreams that should have been his over 50 years ago.

The Ireland of today is surely unrecognisable from the country into which we were born.

Great sporting moments from our history

The extraordinary event - TriAthy 2007 has come and gone. Never before has Athy played host to such a huge gathering of sportsmen, over 700 in all, who swam, cycled and ran their way to the finishing line at Barrow Quay. Athy has seen many major sporting events in its time, from All Ireland football and hurling finals played in Geraldine Park to National Ploughing championships run off at Russellstown, but never, I believe, have so many participants been involved in a single event such as took place last weekend. It was a magnificent spectacle, organised on the day with extraordinary precision and fulsome congratulations are due to the organisers who included local man Arthur Lynch. Emily Square in the centre of the town proved its worth yet again, providing as it did welcome space for competitors and bikes alike on a scale which few other towns in Ireland could match. All in all TriAthy was a resounding success and hopefully it will become an annual event in the sporting and social calendar of Athy.

Sporting activity has been a prominent feature of life in Athy for many decades. However, it wasn’t so apparent to a visitor who in 1884 wrote of his time spent in the town of Athy. “There was little sport about Athy.” There may well have been little inducement for sport in those given the social unrest due to Land League activities and chronic unemployment in the area.

We must go back even further than 1884 to find a record of sports in which the locals were actively involved. Cockfighting was one such sport and it retained its popularity amongst the local people right up to the 1920’s. A cockpit was located in Duke Street and hosted regular cock fights up to the middle of the 19th century when the medieval “sport” was made illegal. However, cockfighting still retained a large following in the area up to the 1920’s and beyond.

Another more acceptable form of sport which was popular in Athy over the years was handball. Athy once boasted two handball alleys, one located in Leinster Street, the other in Barrack Lane. The Estate Map of Athy prepared for the Duke of Leinster in 1827 showed both handball courts, the Barrack Lane court lying adjacent to the Military Barracks which had been built in the 1730’s. Clearly the court had been provided primarily for the use of the soldiers, while the Leinster Street court was presumably a commercial venture lying behind one of the local public houses. The Barrack Lane Court survived up to the 1970’s and in fact was replaced by a newly built court provided by the Urban District Council which however remained unused and was demolished after a few years.

Some of the local handballing champions from the past included John Delaney, Tom Aldridge, George Robinson, Jack Delaney, Bill Aldridge, Jim Foley and George Ryan. The last named won a junior All Ireland title in 1946 and so far as I know he was the last All Ireland champion to play out of Athy Handball Club.

Cycling was another sport which caught the publics imagination, even if it did not necessarily involve many locals as active participants. The sport developed in the 1890’s soon after J.P. Dunlop developed the pneumatic tyre. Local cyclists whose names figured prominently in the sport in its early years included C.W. Taylor of Forest Farm, Harry and Bob Large of Rheban, Andy Bergin and his brother J.J. Bergin of Maybrook.

Archery and rowing were two other sports which once figured on the sporting calendar for Athy. I have come across references to archery contests in the Peoples Park in the 1860’s or thereabouts, while around the same time the annual Athy regatta was a prominent local venture. The rowing boats used the same river course taken by the swimmers in the triathlon event last weekend and so popular was the sport that the regatta became and remained a regular event for many years.

Pat Bell in his book on 150 years of cricket in Kildare acknowledged that “Athy can justifiably lay claim to be the oldest cricket club in Kildare. There was a club in the town in 1870 which went by the name of Offaly Cricket Club whose Honorary Secretary was J.F. MacDonald of the Rectory. Two years later Athy Cricket Club was formed but sharing the same secretary”. I have in front of me John Lawrence’s Handbook of Cricket in Ireland for 1872/73, an annual then in its 8th issue which gave a detailed account of the Irish Cricket Club and their activities during the year. For the Athy Cricket Club the following entry appears.

“In 1872 the club played 3 matches, won 1 and lost 2. This club did not play any matches till very late in the season. The first was against the Portarlington, played on the Athy ground, and won by the home club. The return was played on the Portarlington ground, and won by the Portarlington. Both of these matches were played on very wet days. The third match was played against an eleven got up by Sir A.C. Weldon, and played on his domain at Kilmorony, in which the Athy suffered another defeat.”

The other Athy Club, Offaly Cricket Club, is noted merely with an entry as to its Honorary Secretary, H.P. MacDonald, The Rectory, Athy, who was the local Church of Ireland Curate.

In 1895 Athy Cricket Club won the Leinster Intermediate Cup with a team comprised of H.P. Hannon, A.K. Pennycook, H. Eckford, J.A. Duncan, T.J. Whelan, J. O’Neill, W. Keyes, H. O’Neill, A. Hutton and P. O’Neill. Victory in the Intermediate Cup was again secured by Athy Cricket Club in 1896. The sport continued to be played all over South Kildare up to the end of the 1930’s with teams from Ardreigh, Bert, Castlemitchell and Kilkea in addition to the Athy town team. A brief revival of cricket in Athy in the 1980’s saw Athy Cricket Club gain victories in the Midland Plate of 1990 and the Griffin Hawe Cup three years later. Today cricket, like cockfighting, and handball, is no longer an active sport in the Athy area.

To return to the triathlon of last weekend, the high number of participants made me think of the great sporting events which Athy has hosted over the decades. The All Ireland Football Final of 1906 played in Geraldine Park, between Kickhams of Dublin and Fermoy of Cork was obviously an important sporting event as was the Hurling Final of 1908, played in the same venue between Thurles of Tipperary and Kickhams of Dublin on 27th June 1909. It was a great privilege then to host an All Ireland Final as it was last weekend to provide the venue for the most successful triathlon event every held in this country. Here’s hoping TriAthy will become an annual event in the town’s sporting calendar.

Nowadays sporting activities rely on the provision of facilities which were not available decades ago. I can remember togging out at the side of playing fields in Narraghmore, Rheban and Castlemitchell before football matches in the late 1950’s. Inclement weather or otherwise, it made no difference as we struggled to shield our “modesty” which in those innocent days seemed more important than warding off the downpours which always appeared to accompany our visits to outlying rural football pitches. Recently I attended a birthday celebration for a good friend in St. Laurence’s G.A.A. Club and I marvelled at the wonderful facilities now available in the recently opened community complex. It’s a great credit to the people of Narraghmore, Ballitore, Fontstown and the other rural areas which now make up the St. Laurence’s Club. The truly magnificent club house together with several playing fields provide ample evidence of the success of the club which was formed 50 years ago when the G.A.A. clubs of Ballitore and Narraghmore came together. Congratulations to everyone associated with St. Laurence’s G.A.A. Club, not forgetting the good lady whose birthday party prompted my first visit to their new sporting complex.