Lt. Col. Anthony Weldon

Anthony Weldon of Kilmoroney was commanding officer of the military forces stationed in Limerick during the Easter Rising.  Having joined the militia in 1885 he was subsequently appointed as an aide-de-camp to field marshal Viscount Lord Wolseley, Commander in Chief of the British forces from 1895 to 1900.  During the Boer War Anthony Weldon served on General Buller’s staff and took part in the relief of Ladysmith and military engagements at Colenso, Tugela Heights and several other centres of battle.  He was mentioned twice in despatches and was awarded the Distinguished Service medal.

 

On the death of his father in 1900 Anthony Weldon inherited the Weldon estate amounting to almost 2,800 acres in counties Kildare and Laois.  In keeping with a long-established family tradition he proved to be a considerate landlord and on his marriage in February 1902 his tenants presented him and his bride Winifred Varty Rogers with a silver salver.  Anthony Weldon lived in Kilmoroney House, a fine five bay house of grand proportions with a balustrade roof parapet remodelled in or about 1780 by Stewart Weldon.  The house was originally built around the mid 18^th century and was identified on Taylor and Skinners Map of Kildare in 1783 as ‘Sportland’.  Sir Anthony was very involved in local affairs in Athy, as was his wife Winifred who was responsible for founding the Athy branch of the Women’s Health Association in 1907.  He was the first President of Athy Golf Club and opened the club’s first pavilion in August 1906.

 

On the reorganisation of the British army Weldon was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and Commander of the 4^th Leinster battalion of the Leinster Regiment.  That battalion moved to Limerick in April 1916.  By all accounts Lt. Colonel Anthony Weldon dealt fairly and in an even-handed manner with the Volunteer rebels in Limerick.  He succeeded in having the local Volunteers hand over their arms following the unsuccessful rebellion in Dublin and ensured that all those arrested were treated with respect and dignity.  Michael Colivet, Commander of the Limerick Volunteers, wrote following Anthony Weldon’s death ‘Weldon was a very considerate man and Limerick was the only district where severe measures were not taken after Easter week’. 

 

In early 1917 the newly promoted Colonel Weldon went to France where he was wounded.  He subsequently suffered a stroke and was admitted to Dr. Wheeler’s Hospital for Officers in Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin.  He died in hospital on 29^th June 1917 aged 54 years. Colonel Weldon was buried in the Weldon family vault in St. John’s cemetery, that historic burial ground which once formed part of the first monastery founded in Athy in the early 13^th century.

 

As a member of Athy Board of Guardians Colonel Weldon while at home on leave in August 1916 said: ‘without the North Home Rule will be impossible.  The later rebellion ill judged and ill advised as it was, has opened the eyes of the people to the dangers of carrying arms which should never have been allowed ….. however I think out of ill may come some good as some measure of local government will be devised with the wish of the whole country which will bring peace to this unhappy country in the future.’

 

On Saturday 1^st July the Leinster Regiment Association will hold a wreath laying ceremony in St. John’s cemetery to make the centenary of Colonel Weldon’s death.  The event is one of several organised by the Association to mark the centenary anniversary of those Leinster Regiment members who died during the 1914-18 war.  It commences at 12.30p.m and the public are invited to attend.  A Leinster Regiment exhibition will be held in the Heritage Centre on the same day.

 

The involvement of men from Athy in the 1914-18 war has been well documented in recent years.  The death of 122 young men from the town while fighting overseas at a time when the town’s population was less than 4,000, created social issues which have lingered to this day.  After the death of Colonel Weldon, the Kilmoroney estate went into decline, resulting in the auction in 1934 of many valuable items accumulated over the years by generations of the Weldons.  Mrs. Winifred Weldon moved to Dublin that same year and 13 years later the Land Commission took over the Weldon lands and Kilmoroney House fell into ruin. 

 

Today as you travel on the road to Carlow you will notice on the right-hand side in the distance the crumbling remains of Kilmoroney House.  It is a roofless derelict shell standing outlined against the Laois skyline.  Its story and that of Sir Anthony Weldon is part of our shared history. 

Maurice Shortt and K.A.R.E.

It started with a phone call to the Garda Station, then located as it had been for decades in Duke Street, Athy.  The caller was Mary O’Donovan, a housewife from Newbridge and her call was put through to the Garda Sergeant, Maurice Shortt.  Fifty years later Maurice remembers the conversation he had with Mary O’Donovan and the request which led to the setting up of the K.A.R.E. branch in Athy.

 

Mary and her husband Dan were parents of a handicapped child who found that there were no facilities in the area to cater for their daughter.  Making contact with other parents in a similar situation and with the help of the County Medical Officer, Dr. Brendan O’Donnell, they formed the County Kildare Association of Parents and Friends of Handicapped Children.

 

The phone call to the Garda Station in 1967 arose from a desire to get a local parent’s consent to reproduce in a local newspaper a photograph of handicapped children to publicise the association’s work.  The request towards the end of the phone call was to ask Sergeant Shortt would he be interested in setting up a branch of the association in Athy.  The answer from the ever helpful Maurice was ‘yes’ and so began that great voluntary movement which over the years helped to transform the lives of so many. 

 

The first meeting of the future K.A.R.E. branch was organised by Maurice Shortt in the Leinster Arms Hotel.  He called upon many of his neighbours in Chanterlands and they responded, as did the people of Athy.  Pat Hannigan, Mary Walsh, John Maher, Kitty O’Higgins, Shirley Yates, Rene Kelly and Sean Cunnane are just a few of the names recalled as early members of K.A.R.E. who under the chairmanship of Maurice Shortt helped to develop much needed services for children with intellectual disabilities. 

 

Children were brought to classes organised in Newbridge and later in Carlow by volunteers who provided transport free of charge.  An early remedial class set up by the Sisters of Mercy in Scoil Mhichil Naofa under the supervision of Sr. Carmel Fallon was in danger of closing due to the transfer of a nun to the foreign missions.  A request to Athy’s K.A.R.E. ensured the continuation of that class with K.A.R.E. volunteers providing tutors and reading assistance for the children.  One of those volunteers was Rene Kelly, a near neighbour of Maurice Shortt, and it was Rene’s work with the children and her proven success which prompted the Department of Education to sanction a remedial class in the local school.  The class provided day schooling for children with learning difficulties from 5 to 13 years of age.  This led to the setting up of a similar remedial class in the Christian Brother’s School where another K.A.R.E. volunteer, Gerry Gilroy, was in charge.  The provision of school based facilities developed from the K.A.R.E. model allowed the association to change its services to better help people with an intellectual disability to play a part in their community.  At the same time supported employment was developed to help people get jobs in local companies.

 

As part of those changes a decision was taken to establish a hostel in the former Cunningham house at Shrewleen.  The original building was in time replaced by a newly built complex which was opened in 1992 as an Enterprise Centre.  The facility which now operates as a social drop in centre or a day care centre has a staff of nine, catering for approximately 20 persons who are intellectually challenged.

 

Athy Lions Club, another local voluntary group, funded the purchase of the prefab building in which the remedial class in Scoil Mhichil Naofa was held.  In March 1979 Athy Lions Club again came to the assistance of K.A.R.E. when it purchased and presented a minibus to the county organisation based in Newbridge.

 

Athy’s K.A.R.E. committee has been disbanded but the facilities in Athy will continue as they have in the past as part of the countywide organisation of K.A.R.E.  On Wednesday evening last volunteers and friends of K.A.R.E. came together in the Clanard Court Hotel to celebrate a voluntary commitment stretching back 50 years.  A presentation was made to Maurice Shortt, the man who took the phone call in 1967 and whose generous response to Mary O’Donovan’s request resulted in the setting up of Athy’s K.A.R.E. branch.  After 50 years of volunteering and commitment by so many men and women from the town of Athy and the surrounding district, Athy’s K.A.R.E. branch is no more.  Our community’s thanks goes to the many volunteers who played their part in the work of K.A.R.E. and a special thanks from me to Ita Smyth and Rene Kelly for giving me an insight into the realm of community volunteering.

Maurice Shortt and K.A.R.E.

It started with a phone call to the Garda Station, then located as it had been for decades in Duke Street, Athy.  The caller was Mary O’Donovan, a housewife from Newbridge and her call was put through to the Garda Sergeant, Maurice Shortt.  Fifty years later Maurice remembers the conversation he had with Mary O’Donovan and the request which led to the setting up of the K.A.R.E. branch in Athy.

 

Mary and her husband Dan were parents of a handicapped child who found that there were no facilities in the area to cater for their daughter.  Making contact with other parents in a similar situation and with the help of the County Medical Officer, Dr. Brendan O’Donnell, they formed the County Kildare Association of Parents and Friends of Handicapped Children.

 

The phone call to the Garda Station in 1967 arose from a desire to get a local parent’s consent to reproduce in a local newspaper a photograph of handicapped children to publicise the association’s work.  The request towards the end of the phone call was to ask Sergeant Shortt would he be interested in setting up a branch of the association in Athy.  The answer from the ever helpful Maurice was ‘yes’ and so began that great voluntary movement which over the years helped to transform the lives of so many. 

 

The first meeting of the future K.A.R.E. branch was organised by Maurice Shortt in the Leinster Arms Hotel.  He called upon many of his neighbours in Chanterlands and they responded, as did the people of Athy.  Pat Hannigan, Mary Walsh, John Maher, Kitty O’Higgins, Shirley Yates, Rene Kelly and Sean Cunnane are just a few of the names recalled as early members of K.A.R.E. who under the chairmanship of Maurice Shortt helped to develop much needed services for children with intellectual disabilities. 

 

Children were brought to classes organised in Newbridge and later in Carlow by volunteers who provided transport free of charge.  An early remedial class set up by the Sisters of Mercy in Scoil Mhichil Naofa under the supervision of Sr. Carmel Fallon was in danger of closing due to the transfer of a nun to the foreign missions.  A request to Athy’s K.A.R.E. ensured the continuation of that class with K.A.R.E. volunteers providing tutors and reading assistance for the children.  One of those volunteers was Rene Kelly, a near neighbour of Maurice Shortt, and it was Rene’s work with the children and her proven success which prompted the Department of Education to sanction a remedial class in the local school.  The class provided day schooling for children with learning difficulties from 5 to 13 years of age.  This led to the setting up of a similar remedial class in the Christian Brother’s School where another K.A.R.E. volunteer, Gerry Gilroy, was in charge.  The provision of school based facilities developed from the K.A.R.E. model allowed the association to change its services to better help people with an intellectual disability to play a part in their community.  At the same time supported employment was developed to help people get jobs in local companies.

 

As part of those changes a decision was taken to establish a hostel in the former Cunningham house at Shrewleen.  The original building was in time replaced by a newly built complex which was opened in 1992 as an Enterprise Centre.  The facility which now operates as a social drop in centre or a day care centre has a staff of nine, catering for approximately 20 persons who are intellectually challenged.

 

Athy Lions Club, another local voluntary group, funded the purchase of the prefab building in which the remedial class in Scoil Mhichil Naofa was held.  In March 1979 Athy Lions Club again came to the assistance of K.A.R.E. when it purchased and presented a minibus to the county organisation based in Newbridge.

 

Athy’s K.A.R.E. committee has been disbanded but the facilities in Athy will continue as they have in the past as part of the countywide organisation of K.A.R.E.  On Wednesday evening last volunteers and friends of K.A.R.E. came together in the Clanard Court Hotel to celebrate a voluntary commitment stretching back 50 years.  A presentation was made to Maurice Shortt, the man who took the phone call in 1967 and whose generous response to Mary O’Donovan’s request resulted in the setting up of Athy’s K.A.R.E. branch.  After 50 years of volunteering and commitment by so many men and women from the town of Athy and the surrounding district, Athy’s K.A.R.E. branch is no more.  Our community’s thanks goes to the many volunteers who played their part in the work of K.A.R.E. and a special thanks from me to Ita Smyth and Rene Kelly for giving me an insight into the realm of community volunteering.

Cyril Osborne

As a young lad growing up in Offaly Street my sporting activities were largely confined to the playing of Gaelic football, with an occasional clumsy foray into the classiest of all team sports,  hurling.  In those pre-television days sporting heroes were of the homegrown sort.  English soccer was no part of my sporting lexicon and even the home based equivalent seldom aroused any interest.  However, despite the operation of the G.A.A. ban the local rugby team always attracted some of my attention.  Was it I wonder a reflected interest stemming from the Irish rugby team which so far as I was aware was the only Irish sports team which embraced the 32 counties?  Whatever the reason this proud G.A.A. fellow was an interested follower of the local rugby team and being a young lad looked on the likes of Reggie Rowan, Jack Ryan and Cyril Osborne as some of my early sporting interests.  Reggie was a good friend of my brother George, while Jack had shared early school classes with me in the local Christian Brothers school. 

 

Cyril Osborne was one of the stars of the Athy Rugby Club during the second half of the 1950s.  His electrifying burst of speed at a time when rugby role models centered on the likes of Jack Kyle rather than ‘battering ram’ players of today gave the young Athy player a cache of young supporters and admirers.  I was one of those young fellows and in later years, long after Cyril retired from rugby and when I returned to Athy, I met the man who was not only a good rugby player but more importantly an exceptionally thoughtful and helpful person.

 

It was 35 years ago that I set up practice in the town where I had spent my formative years.  I did so after an absence of 21 years spent in Naas, Kells, Monaghan and Dublin and although I had qualified initially as a barrister and later as a solicitor I knew little or nothing of the practicalities or procedures which are an important part of any solicitor’s practice.  Cyril Osborne was of tremendous help to me in that regard.  I well remember my first day in Court.  I had no cases but Cyril with whom I was sitting passed me what I now know was a straight forward application and advised me how to address the Court.  His thoughtfulness for the newcomer was admirable and was displayed on many occasions in the following years whenever his advice was sought.  He was always generous with his advice and never once in the past 35 years had I ever any reason to question his common-sense approach to even the most complex issue.  He was for me, especially in my early years of practice, a valued mentor who was always ready and willing to help a colleague.

 

The practice of law requires not just a knowledge of the law but also a level of honesty, tact  and integrity which was the hallmark of the legal profession of times past.  Cyril’s father, Bob Osborne, qualified as a solicitor in 1915 and opened a practice joining with Robert Monks.  Bob Osborne subsequently bought out his partner and developed what was to become the largest legal practice in Athy.  Cyril, who qualified as a Solicitor in 1965, joined his father in the practice and Cyril in turn was joined by his son David who now carries on the practise as the third generation of the Osborne family. 

 

With the passing of Cyril Osborne, who was a former President of the Kildare Bar Association, the Athy legal profession has lost a colleague who gave of his best for his clients.  He did so with tact and discretion bringing to his role as a solicitor a wealth of knowledge and experience coupled with a sympathetic understanding of the needs of his clients.  Cyril was not only a colleague, but also a friend who was justifiably proud of his family’s involvement in the affairs of the town of Athy over the past 100 years.  Over 60 years ago Bob Osborne donated land on the Carlow Road for community use and I am conscious that a young Bob Osborne after he married lived for a few years in Ardreigh House where I am now writing this article. 

 

We will all miss Cyril Osborne.  Others may write of his contribution to Athy Rugby Club and Athy Golf Club but for me and my colleagues in Athy, in County Kildare, and in the neighbouring counties the memory will be of a gentleman who brought courtesy and integrity to his practice of the law.

 

Cyril is survived by his wife Maeve, his daughter Brona and his sons David and Alan and four grandchildren to whom our sympathies are extended.

 

Athy casualties at Messines 1917 / Cumann na mBan members Athy July 1927

In the third year of World War I Douglas Haig, Commander of the British Forces on the Western Front planned a military offensive in Flanders to commence on 7^th June 1917.  This offensive which lasted during June and July included the third Battle of Ypres (commonly called Passchendaele) and the Battle of Cambrai.  Ypres was a British held salient which projected into the German lines and Haig planned a full-scale offensive from there to divert attention from the French army which had suffered huge losses during the month of April.  Those French losses, amounting to 120,000 men in one five-day period, were deeply resented by the surviving French troops who mutinied and refused to attack the German lines.  Haig had planned his offensive strategy for some months and had Welsh miners excavate several tunnels under the German lines.  He realised that if an attack from the Ypres salient was to be successful it was necessary to secure the high ground dominating the area which was known as Messines – Wtyschaete Ridge. 

 

The tunnels dug by the Welsh miners were packed with explosives and at dawn on 7^th June the explosives were set off, producing a blast which we are told was heard in London.  The explosion was followed by British troops going over the top and using, amongst other forms of weaponry, poisonous gas canisters which were hurled into the German trenches.  The week-long battle at the Messines Ridge saw for the first time the 36^th Ulster Division and the 16^th Irish Division fighting alongside each other.  The German casualties at Messines were approximately 25,000, while the British Army casualties accounted for 17,000 men wounded and killed. 

 

Among the Irish causalities was Athy man Thomas Alcock, a member of the 1^st Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers and William King of Crookstown who was a private in the South Irish Horse.  William was the brother of Jim King and Tommy King who also served in the South Irish Horse.  Many years ago I was told by a family member that Tommy King later deserted from the army and dumped his uniform down a well at Burtown.  Was Tommy Alcock, I wonder, a brother of Frank Alcock who aged 20 years died of wounds in France on 4^th July 1916?  He had enlisted in the 2^nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers and in the 1911 Census was recorded as living in Woodstock Street.  Another possible member of the Alcock family, Richard Alcock, born in 1892 was noted in the Irish Military Service Pension Records as a member of the Volunteers during the Irish War of Independence. 

 

Clem Roche, whose book on Athy men killed in World War I, was recently published (copies can be purchased in the Heritage Centre) has embarked on a project with me to identify those local men and women who were involved in the Volunteer movement during the Irish War of Independence.  Clem has trawled through the I.R.A. pension records, the War of Independence medal records and statistics compiled by I.R.A. leaders in 1921 and 1922 and has identified many individuals, some whose involvement was confirmed by the award of an I.R.A. pension or a black and tan service medal.  Many others who may well have been active during that period, did not succeed in getting either a pension or a medal and consequently their involvement has not received the attention it deserves.  Clem has identified 33 local men whom he is satisfied were members of the Athy Company of the 5^th Battalion Carlow Kildare I.R.A. Brigade.  More names will undoubtedly be added as there are a few men generally believed to have been involved who are not included among the 33 already identified.

 

As we come to commemorate the Irish War of Independence it is important that those men and women from Athy who were actively involved should be remembered.  If any reader has any information about any local person involved in the Irish War of Independence I would welcome hearing from them.

 

The following list of Cumann na mBan members in Athy in July 1921 has recently come to hand.  I am familiar with some of those named, but others are unknown to me and I would welcome hearing from anybody who can help identify those involved. 

 

Julia Whelan, Kilmoroney

Kathleen McDonnell

Rose McDonnell

Mary Malone

Mrs. Julia Dooley, St. Michael’s Terrace

Mrs. May, Woodstock Street

Mrs. O’Neill, Newbridge

Alice Lambe, Upper William Street

Mrs. John Whelan, Ballylinan

Miss Murphy, Maganey

Christina Malone

 

Let me hear from you if you can help in the search to identify local patriots of almost 100 years ago. 

Helen Dreelan Matron St. Vincent's Hospital

A nursing career which includes six years spent as an outpost nurse in a nursing station catering for the people of Northern Newfoundland and Labrador comes to an end shortly when Helen Dreelan retires as matron of St. Vincent’s Hospital, Athy.  Helen came to the position in St. Vincent’s Hospital in 1999 and I met her soon afterwards as she was involved with a number of Athy Lions Club fundraising events.  Always helpful and never less than cheerful Helen brought a keen sense of shared responsibility and a wealth of experience to the profession of nursing management.

 

Helen qualified as a registered nurse in Dublin and later worked as a staff nurse in several different hospitals in the capital city.  She later took charge as head nurse of the urology unit in Galway University Hospital.  In 1987 she joined the Grenfell Regional Hospital services and spent the next six years as the nurse in charge in Mary’s Harbour nursing station in southern Labrador.  For the young Ballymore Eustace native, this was an extraordinary change of working environment as she worked in sub-arctic conditions where the temperature in winter times fell as low as minus thirty degrees.

 

The Grenfell Regional Health Board was established in 1981 to take over operational responsibility for the delivery of health care and social services in Northern Newfoundland and Labrador.  William Grenfell, an English doctor who first went to Newfoundland and Labrador in 1892 as part of the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, opened cottage hospitals in the villages scattered along the inhospitable coastline of Labrador.  Mary’s Harbour was one of the small coastal villages with a population of a couple of hundred people, situated in the south-east coast of Labrador.  In Labrador itself there are three ethnic groups, the Inuit, the native Americans and descendants of European origins.  The village of Mary’s Harbour has no roadwork to any of the other towns and villages on the Labrador coast.  The nearest village was a 25 min. boat ride or a 10 min. plane trip away.  Medical facilities in the sub-arctic environment of Labrador village of Mary’s Harbour were provided by head nurse Helen and another nurse whose day to day work was complemented by visits every four or six weeks by the District Medical Officer and the District Dentist. 

 

Winter on the coast of Labrador lasts from November to early May when temperatures can fall so sharply as to freeze rivers and sea alike.  Inshore cod fishing, which is the principal occupation of the coastal villagers in Labrador comes to a standstill in winter, resuming only in May each year.  The summer fishing season is short but busy and October sees the fishermen returning to Mary’s Harbour to prepare for the winter.  Life as an outpost nurse in the Labrador coastal village, as one can imagine, can be extremely challenging.  It was a challenge Helen Dreelan as a nurse from Ireland found simulating during her six years there.  She also found enormous job satisfaction in providing a comprehensive medical service for a scattered community whose lives are regulated by the harsh weather conditions which give a seemingly unending horizon of frozen lakes, snow and ice. 

 

Helen took up the position of matron of St. Vincent’s Hospital in 1999 and now, in addition to that role, is also Director of Nursing for the Kildare West Wicklow area.  St. Vincent’s Hospital which first opened as a workhouse in January 1844 has seen a large number of both lay and religious masters and matrons in its 173 years’ history.  Many of us will remember the legendary Sr. Dominic who for many years epitomised all that was good in Irish religious life and whose charity earned for her the respect and gratitude of many.

 

Plans for the building of a new 100 bed hospital unit has been developed and approved during Helen’s stewardship of St. Vincent’s Hospital.  That stewardship has also been marked by many improvements to both the existing building and to the system of care afforded to patients in St. Vincent’s Hospital.   As a nurse manager and matron of the hospital Helen Dreelan has demonstrated admirable management and leadership skills.  Looking back at the history of nursing in Ireland we tend to overlook the enormous contribution made by the religious orders to hospital management in the past.  Helen was the first lay person in recent years to take on the role of matron of St. Vincent’s Hospital and in remembering her contribution we should also acknowledge and recall the contribution of the Sisters of Mercy who first came to work in the former workhouse in the 1870s.

 

Our congratulations, best wishes and thanks to Helen Dreelan who will be retiring on 30^th June.

 

A tour of interesting parts of Athy and South Kildare

I adopted the role of an out of town visitor during the past week as I brought a Galway friend around some of the many interesting parts of south Kildare.  The starting point was Athy’s Heritage Centre where the first-time visitor was impressed by the range and quality of the various exhibitions.  He particularly liked the short films dealing with Andrew Delaney and World War 1, the Gordon Bennett Race of 1902 and the Shackleton ‘Endurance’ expedition of 1914.

 

A barge trip on the nearby river was promised for another day as we turned our attention to nearby Castledermot.  On the way we passed to look, from a distance, at Kilkea Castle, soon to re-open as a five-star hotel.  Once the home of the Wizard Earl of Kildare it also housed at different periods members of the Jesuit Society and the infamous ’98 informer Thomas Reynolds.  Just beyond the castle we passed Mullaghreelan where the Irish saint Laurence O’Toole, a former archbishop of Dublin, was born.

 

Castledermot has a host of interesting places, the best known of which is St. James Church with its round tower and high crosses.  These are visible reminders of the 9^th century monastery, while the Romanesque archway is believed to be the remains of a 12^th century church dedicated to St. Dermot.  The swearing stone and the hogback burial stone add imaginative interest to the scene, even if there may well be doubts as to the historic accuracy of both descriptions.

 

The substantial remains of the nearby Franciscan Friary founded in the 13^th century is all that was left following the Geraldine rebellion of the early 1500s.  It had survived attacks by the Scottish invaders led by Edward Bruce almost 200 years earlier.  Supressed by Henry VIII, as was Athy’s Dominican Friary in the 1540s, the Franciscan monastery became a vacant shell which contains today in the north transept the only example of a cadaver stone in County Kildare.

 

A stop over for refreshments at the Moone High Cross Inn brought me to the venue where the late Michael Delaney’s book on Kilkea was launched some years ago.  This is a real treasure of a country inn, its wall resplendent with photographs and artefacts telling the story of the surrounding area.  A short journey up the road us to the Moone High Cross.  It is located on the site of one of the early Columban foundations.  The Moone High Cross, one of the finest National monuments in Ireland, is believed to date from about 700 and its elaborate design prompts the belief that the monastery of Moone was well established when the cross was first erected and that the monastery may well have origins near the time of St. Colmcille who died in 597. 

 

A short detour to Bolton Abbey, the Cistercian Abbey established in 1977, brought with it a pleasant surprise.  We arrived just as five Cistercian monks began to chant their midday prayers.  Many centuries have passed since the same prayerful sounds were heard in nearby Moone and Castledermot and as I watched the elderly Cistercian monks at prayer I became more conscious of the strong ecclesiastical links which mark all areas of south Kildare.

 

We passed on to Ballitore, the one-time Quaker village, with a built heritage which speaks of prosperous times when Quaker business men were its most prominent residents.  Mary Leadbeater’s house, now the village library and museum, was the first port of call.  It is manned by the newly appointed librarian Pauline Fagan who tells me that she is one of the Birney clan of Kilcullen.  The Quaker museum gives an interesting insight into the lives of the village people of Ballitore of the 19^th century.  Their story was captured so well in the writings of Mary Leadbeater whose most famous publication, ‘The Annals of Ballitore’, recently reprinted by Kildare County Library, is for sale in the Ballitore library. 

 

A visit to the nearby Quaker cemetery to see the recently repaired grave monument for Mary Leadbeater was not possible as the uncontrolled growth of cow parsley at the entrance to the cemetery threatened a sensitive hay fever sufferer. The Shaker store and the Quaker meeting house are worth a visit if you visit Ballitore where Abraham Shackleton started a Quaker boarding school in 1726.  That same school building captured in an early photograph is no more but its most famous pupils, Napper Tandy, Edmund Burke and Paul Cullen are still remembered.  The last named, later to be the first Irish Cardinal of the Catholic Church, was born in Prospect House just a short distance from the village on the way to the town of Athy.

 

Time did not allow us to visit Killeen Cormac, just three miles north east of Ballitore.  This was a pagan burial place continued in use in Christian times from where ogham stones were removed and placed in our National museum.  Kileen Cormac is believed to be the burial place of King Cormac of Munster. 

 

My Galway visitor was very impressed with what he saw in a short trip around South Kildare and I must myself admit that I have a better appreciation of the interesting history and heritage of my own area.  Hopefully more visitors will be encouraged to visit the area when the planned Greenway comes into being and the Shackleton Museum plans for the Town Hall are finally realised. 

 

Athy men who served with the Anzacs during World War I

A week or so ago I had the privilege of meeting the Australian author Jeff Kildea who stopped off in Athy on his journey home following the launch of his latest book in Tullamore.  As I mentioned in a previous Eye Jeff’s great great grandmother as a young girl was sent to Australia under the Irish Workhouses Orphan Emigration Scheme at the end of the Great Famine.  Roseanna Fleming was from Ballyadams and thanks to the generosity of spirit of Jim Fleming, Jeff on his visit to Ballyadams was able to learn some of the background to that location’s history.

 

Visiting Ballyadams Catholic Church which with the nearby national school makes up the visible centre of the townland, our Australian visitor came across a reminder of his youthful Australian past.  There in front of the Church are buried a number of former parish priests of the parish of Ballyadams.  Amongst them lies the remains of Monsignor Walter Hurley who died at Ballyadams on 21^st June 1956.  Monsignor Hurley was at one time parish priest of Bondi Beach, Sydney and amongst his parishioners was a young Jeff Kildea.  Indeed I believe the Monsignor baptised Jeff Kildea, the man who visiting Athy and Ballyadams in April 2017 was not aware that his former parish priest lay buried before the parish church where his great great grandmother may have worshiped over 160 years ago.

 

This discovery by the Australian author of the splendid book ‘Anzacs and Ireland’ was one of the highlights of his visit which included a tour of the remaining blocks of the original Workhouse in Athy opened in January 1844. 

 

‘Anzacs and Ireland’ published by Cork University Press in 2007 provides an interesting and detailed account of New Zealand and Australian soldiers of World War 1 who spent time in Ireland during the 1916 Rising.   The Australian New Zealand connection with Ireland is based in many instances on a common genealogy and a shared heritage.  Soldiers from these two countries and Ireland fought alongside each other during World War I and Jeff Kildea’s book elaborates on the association between Anzac soldiers and Ireland during a difficult period in our history. 

 

Athy’s connection with the Anzacs was further clarified for me by data shared by Jackie Greene whose own relation was a member of the Anzacs.  Jackie, who researched the Irish Anzacs database provided by the University of New South Wales, discovered six Athy men who enlisted with the Anzacs during World War I. 

 

Two of those men enlisted but shortly thereafter were discharged.  They were George Cullen, aged 43 years, originally from Bray, Athy who enlisted in Sydney in April 1916.  Patrick Connor, whose brother had an address at Athy Post Office, also enlisted having previously served in the Royal Field Artillery in England.

 

Gallowshill born Thomas Smyth enlisted in New South Wales in February 1915 and served as an infantry soldier in Gallipoli and later with the Field Ambulance Brigade in France.  He survived the war, despite being wounded in April 1918 and returned to Australia.  Another enlistee in Australia was Andrew Short who also fought in Gallipoli and France.  I believe he was from the Castleroe Maganey area. 

 

Gerald Whelan, son of Thomas Whelan of William Street, enlisted in New South Wales in April 1915 and fought with the Anzacs on the Western Front.  He also survived the war, as did Charles Prendergast, another Athy man who unlike the other five men was married.  He had enlisted in Melbourne in September 1914.

 

Jeff Kildea in his book ‘Anzacs in Ireland’ wrote ‘the time is surely ripe to revive memories of the links between Australia’s soldiers and Ireland – links forged in battle at Gallipoli’.  Thanks to Jackie Greene’s research that link has now been made.

Athy's links with the Crimean War

Amongst my papers is a letter sent from Athy to Dublin on 4^th December 1857.  The letter sent, to a now unknown correspondent, was written by a man called John McElwain.  In the letter he requested various types of leather to be sent to him on the following Saturday evening’s goods train. 

 

He pointed out in the letter that it was most important that he had these goods before Monday as it was a fair day in Athy.  Furthermore he wrote that he was unable to come to Dublin himself as he was indisposed because of the illness of one of his children.  That is all I know about John McElwain and the location of his business in Athy is unknown to me.  Given the materials he was ordering from Dublin I presume he was some form of leather maker and possibly a saddler or harness maker.  What is more intriguing about the letter is the stationery upon which it is written.  At the head of the notepaper is an engraved headpiece of ‘Planting the standard on the Malakhoff September 8^th, 1855’.   The capture of the Malakhoff was a culminating action in the Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War in 1855.  This was a war fought between the forces of Britain and France as against the Russians.  On that day September 8^th 1855 13,000 Russians were killed and 10,000 of the allied soldiers.  It seemed curious to me that a shopkeeper in Athy was using a letter heading commemorating a battle fought in the far-flung Crimea two years previously. 

 

The Crimean War was one of the most important international events of the 19^th century and it was the focus of much attention in the Irish press at the time.  Many thousands of Irishmen served in the war and Irish women were represented by the Sisters of Mercy who travelled to Crimea in December 1854 to nurse the wounded British soldiers.  Their experiences were recorded in journals kept by Sr. Aloysius Doyle and Sr. Joseph Croke.  Sr. Doyle was from Old Kilcullen and had entered the Sisters of Mercy in Carlow in 1851.  She subsequently published her memoirs of her service in the Crimean War in 1896 to raise funds for charitable purposes.  Amongst the many Athy soldiers was Patrick Dowling who enlisted in the British Army on 14^th December 1849, giving his occupation on enlistment as a servant.  He joined the 17^th Lancers, a cavalry regiment, and fought in the War, receiving recognition for his involvement in the Battles of Alma, Balaclava and Sevastopol.  He was killed in the Charge of the Light Brigade on 25^th October 1854.  His Crimean war medal surfaced at Whyte's Auction house in Dublin in 2000.  I understand it was subsequently purchased by a Kildare man and perhaps one day it might find its way to Athy for display in the Athy Heritage Centre-Museum.

 

The landed class from the Athy area were also represented in the British Army at that time.  Henry William Verschoyle, the son of Robert Verschoyle who lived at Abbey Farm, Kilberry, Athy was one of six children of Robert Verschoyle and Catherine Verschoyle.  Henry was the only one of three sons who survived into adulthood.  Born in 1835 he was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards and served in the Crimean War with distinction having carried the regimental colours of his regiment at the Battles of Alma, Balaclava and was wounded during the Siege of Sevastopol in 1855 but survived the war.  Henry married in December 1856 and continued to live in Kilberry and at 6 Wilton Crescent in London.  He was an accomplished artist and photographer and a large collection of photographic works are held in the Hulton collection in London.  Retiring from the army with the rank of Colonel he spent much of his time sailing.  Indeed he won the Queens Cup at the Cowes Regatta in 1870 and just two days later died suddenly while participating in another race.

 

Another interesting local connection relates to the institution of the Victoria Cross medal by Queen Victoria at the end of the Crimean War in 1856.  The medal was instituted ‘for conspicuous bravery in the presence of the enemy’.  Uniquely the bronze medal is still cast from Russian guns captured at Sevastopol during the Crimean War.  It is regarded as the highest award for bravery and takes precedence over all other military medals.  The first Kildare man to win a Victoria Cross is remembered in Crookstown Cemetery.  Abraham Bolger, originally from Kilcullen, was awarded his Victoria Cross for his bravery during the Indian mutiny in 1857.  Unusually for a man who began his army service in the ranks Abraham rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and retired from the army in 1887.  He died on 23^rd January 1900 having resided for some time close to the Moate of Ardscull.

 

As to John McElwain, the shopkeeper in Athy whose letter triggered this Eye on the Past, we presume that he must have got his goods on time to ensure that he had a successful fair day!