Rev. Frederick Trench and the Oxford Movement

Preparing to conduct a tour through some parts of the history of Athy for Heritage Week I re-read some of the notes I wrote over the years to remind myself of people and events which have long gone from memory.  When reading those notes I was reminded of the impact that the Oxford Movement of the 1830s had on the Established Church in Ireland.  Here in Athy the local rector was Rev. Frederick Trench, whose wife was Lady Helena Perceval, daughter of the first Lord Arden, an older brother of Spencer Perceval, the British Prime Minister who was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812. 

 

The Trench’s lived in Kilmoroney House from 1834.  Rev. Frederick was described in H. Montgomery’s biography of George Alfred Lefroy, Bishop of Calcutta, as one of the old fashioned evangelical clergy deeply versed in bible and prayer book.  A frequent visitor to Kilmoroney House was Sir William Heathcote who was married to Lady Caroline Perceval, sister of Helena Trench.  Sir William was a friend and a patron of clergyman and poet John Keble, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement and through him Rev. Trench met John Keble and later Edward Pusey, the clergyman and Oxford professor who with John Henry Newman, later a cardinal of the Catholic church, were the acknowledged leaders of that high church movement.  Rev. Trench’s high church practices as a supporter of the Oxford Movement was not to the liking of at least one of his parishioners.  Michael Carey wrote in October 1851:  ‘The Rev. Trench has taken down all the emblems from his popish window and made an apology to his congregation ….. he stated to the congregation that he had not the slightest notion of Puseyism or popery’.

 

Rev. Trench died tragically in 1860 after his carriage careered down Offaly Street, struck the medieval gate known as Preston’s Gate, turned over and tossed both himself and his driver to the ground.  The rector died of his injuries on 23^rd November aged 74 years.  The medieval gate which had been the scene of many previous accidents was immediately removed by the Town Commissioners workmen.  Rev. Trench’s parishioners subsequently donated a fine marble pulpit in memory of their rector which is to be found in St. Michael’s Church of Ireland at the top of Offaly Street.

 

Crom a Boo bridge, built in 1796, provides with nearby Whites Castle the iconic image of our town which is recognised far and wide.  Over its arched pathways passed the prisoners who in 1798 were hanged in the ‘croppy acre’ alongside the Grand Canal basin.  It was in June 1798 that seven young local men were tried by Court martial, convicted and hanged for alleged involvement in the killing of John Jeffries of Narraghmore.  Jeffries who with his family had fled to Athy for safety later returned to his burnt-out home in Narraghmore to retrieve some personal belongings.  While there he was killed.  The seven young men convicted of his murder were marched from the prison cells in Whites Castle over Crom a Boo bridge, accompanied by members of the Waterford Militia.  We are told in Patrick O’Kelly’s account of the 1798 Rebellion that two of the seven were beheaded and their heads placed on Whites Castle as a deterrent to would be insurgents.  As you pass Whites Castle look at the Geraldine family coat of arms embedded in the Castle wall which in 1798 was deliberately damaged by a yeoman in revenge for Lord Edward Fitzgerald’s participation in the Rising.

 

St. Michael’s Catholic Church, consecrated in 1964, replaced an earlier church built in 1808.  The site for that church described as ‘marshy ground’ was donated by the Duke of Leinster.  It replaced an earlier thatched church located in Chapel Lane which was torched and burned to the ground on 7^th March 1800 in the aftermath of the 1798 Rebellion. 

 

Rev. James Hall, an English cleric who travelled through what he described as the ‘interior and least known parts’ of Ireland published his book of travels in 1813.  He visited the Roman Catholic Church in Athy where near the door on the right hand as he entered there was written in large capitals, ‘COME UNTO ME, ALL YE THAT LABOUR AND ARE HEAVILY LADEN, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST’.  On the other ‘BLESSED IS HE THAT HEARETH, AND WATCHETH AT THE POST OF WISDOM’S GATES’.  When he entered the church he found both men and women lying flat on their faces on the floor repeating certain prayers and now and then with fervent ejaculations turning up their eyes.  ‘I observed one man walk, on his bare knees, from the door up to the altar, though the floor was extremely rough, the chapel being new, and not quite finished.’  Rev. Hall noted that Roman Catholic chapels in Ireland ‘like the churches in Russia have neither seats nor pews of any kind’.                                        

 

Athy Heritage Centre and Heritage Week 2017

It was in 1983 that Athy Museum Society was formed with the stated objective of developing a local museum here in Athy.  Since then the Society’s volunteers, with the financial support and good will of the former Town Council and currently Kildare County Council, together with several private benefactors have made a huge contribution to the cultural heritage of our historic town.  The local Heritage Centre which has been developed over the years since 1983 has provided a focal point for people’s growing interest in the town’s past. 

 

Our local history is something that all of us have become more aware of in the last 30 years or more.  Recalling my school days in the local Christian Brothers School in the 1950s the only mention I ever heard or read of Athy related to it being the place where the River Barrow and the Grand Canal met.  History lessons touching on the 1798 Rebellion, the Great Famine or any of the many Irish or overseas wars in which so many young Athy men were involved, never disclosed any Athy links or connections.  We now know that Athy was connected in so many ways with many of the great events in the nation’s history.  Athy’s history represents in miniature the history of Ireland and the story of the town is bound up with our nation’s history. 

 

Athy Museum Society has done much to highlight the hidden stories and the forgotten people of Athy’s past. This was particularly important given that the contribution made by so many local men and women to the fabric of life in the past was overlooked and lost to succeeding generations.  The Eye on the Past series which has been appearing each week in your local newspaper for almost 25 years has sought to create an interest in and an understanding of the events and the people of Athy and the part they played in the town’s history.  The interest generated in our local history as evidenced by the queries I receive and the information shared with me each week confirms that the people of Athy are proud of their town.  Pride of place is understandably something normally attributable to one’s place of birth, but Athy, the Anglo Norman town, later the settler’s town, is today home to a lot of people who like myself are not natives of Athy.  Our interest in the history of Athy is not in any way diminished by being born elsewhere, which in my case happened 19 miles down the road in Castlecomer. 

 

Several people having expressed an interest in coming together to further their interest in local history, arrangements have been made for a meeting to be held in the Heritage Centre on Tuesday, 5^th September at 7.30 p.m.  Its purpose is to consider setting up a local history society, which if formed will give interested persons an opportunity to learn more of the town’s history, to encourage research and arrange lectures and field trips.  The setting up of a local history society can been seen as a further contribution to the town’s regeneration plan which was initiated by a group originally established two years ago by Athy Lion’s Club.  The contribution which a local history society can make to the cultural heritage of the area and thus to the well being of the town’s people is something readily recognised in the regeneration plan. 

 

Heritage ‘Week’ started on Saturday last and ends on Sunday 27^th.  Here in Athy there are a number of events including a walking tour through Athy’s history on today, 22^nd.  Starting at 7.00 p.m. from in front of the Town Hall the walk will present an overview of some of the more extraordinary individuals and events associated with the town’s history.  The guide will be yours truly.

 

The Heritage Centre has organised a Museum treasure hunt and further details of this free event can be obtained from the Heritage Centre.  On Sunday 27^th August at 3.00 p.m. there will be a talk in the Heritage Centre on the incredible voyage of the James Caird.  This voyage was one of the greatest seafaring feats of all time led by the Kilkea-born Ernest Shackleton, accompanied by crew members, half of whom were Irish.  On the same day at 7.00 p.m. there will be a guided walking tour of medieval Athy starting from the Heritage Centre at 2.00 p.m.

 

All of the events during Heritage ‘Week’ are free and they give a unique opportunity for anyone interested to savour elements of our town’s history. 

 

Municipal Reform and Anti Tithe activities

Under the headline “Athy Anti Tithe Meeting”, the Leinster Express of the 20^th May 1836 reported. “For several days in the town of Athy and surrounding country, unusual exertions were made to assemble the people for the double purpose of extinguished the tithe and obtaining corporate reform.   Every little politician might be seen running about looking brim-full of something important while the following proclamation looked down from every wall and signpost in the town”.

 

“NOTICE – There will be a meeting held in this town on Tuesday, 24^th May in the market square at two o’clock to petition parliament for corporate reform and the speedy and total extinction of the tithe”. 

 

Tithe was a payment due to the church, nominally one tenth of ones earnings, which after the Reformation proved unpopular with Catholic’s as the tithe was paid solely for the benefit of the Anglican church.  Daniel O’Connell supported by the catholic clergy campaigned for its abolition.  O’Connell’s successful campaign for Catholic Emancipation encouraged the local people to seek changes in the tithe system while municipal reform and the appointment of Catholics to public office was another long term complaint of the catholic population.  Under the Reform Act of 1793, membership of local authorities such as Athy Borough Council were nominally open to Catholics but none of the many borough councils in Ireland had chosen to enlarge the franchise. 

 

The push for reform with regard to tithe’s and municipal corporations started with what is called the tithe war which erupted in Graiguenamanagh in County Kilkenny in November 1830.  There the Tithe Proctor distrained the cattle of the local priest who with the approval of his bishop organised a resistance movement which soon spread throughout the midlands.  There were several violent incidents involving tithe protestors and British soldiers which resulted in deaths and injuries.   The most infamous incident occurred in Rathcormack when the Archdeacon of Cloyne attempted to collect a £2 tithe from a local widow.  The Archdeacon accompanied by soldiers entered the widow’s cottage by a back window and in the resulting conflict 19 locals were killed and 35 injured.

 

Events in Athy by all accounts were less troublesome.  The Leinster Express Report continued “Tuesday, 24^th was market day – and the first indication of the great meeting  was Mr. Holmes Biggam accompanied by a dozen urchins ……labouring hard to roll together some logs to form a rostrum in the potato and pig market …….on the logs was placed a solitary chair….. behind rolled the river barrow and before stood the church.  Although it was announced, the people should meet at 2 o’clock, 3 came on and no appearance except Pat Doran of Castlemitchell House….  At last the committee issued from the Inn and took possession of the platform.  On it we noticed Rev. John Lawler Parish Priest, Messrs. Biggam, G. Evans, James Perrin, S. Eves Miller, T. Dunne farmer, T. Peppard, T. Connors shop keeper, Mr. Keating publican, M. Commons corn buyer, J. Kelly Nicholastown horse dealer and Matthew Lawler with a few others.  Mr. Eves took the chair and referring to a previous meeting regretted that nothing had been done for them since.  They would now he claimed teach the Lords  a lesson and that the abominable tithe should be totally abolished”.

 

The widespread opposition to tithes eventually secured the passage of the Tithe Rentcharge of 1838 which satisfied those opposed to tithes as it became a charge on rent payable by the head landlord.

 

Municipal Reform was already in hand when the Athy meeting took place in March 1838.  The previous year a Bill was introduced in the House of Commons and enacted five years later following an enquiry into the conduct of municipal corporations in Ireland. It found, as in Athy, that the existing Borough Councils were corrupt bastions of Protestantism and so fifty eight of those boroughs including Athy’s Borough Council, were abolished in 1840. The enquiry reported in relation to Athy that while the town charter provided for all the inhabitants of the town to be the commonality of the borough, the local people were excluded from the corporation and that no evidence could be found of any application for the freedom of the corporation to which every person born in the town was entitled.  It also reported “there is not or has been in modern times any Roman Catholic a freeman except Colonel Fitzgerald who was admitted to his freedom in 1831”.

 

The Parish Priest who joined the anti tithe platform in May 1936 would later stand for election to the Town Commissioners which replaced the Borough Council in 1842.  Elected with the Parish Priest at that first ever Council election was the local Rector Rev. Frederick Trench.  Neither clergymen stood for election after their initial foray into local politics.  

 

Athy Dragon Boat Club

Athy’s Heritage Centre was the venue for a crowded gathering of dragon boaters and friends on Friday evening last when ‘The Big Barrow Splash Family Day’ was announced. Hosted by Athy Dragon Boat Club, the reception in the Centre was perhaps the liveliest event ever to be held in what was the town’s former butter market.  It was a joyful occasion which allowed the Dragon Boat Club to celebrate its growing success after six years in being.

 

It was in June 2011 that Aiden McHugh, then leader of Barrow Line Canoe Club, which he founded in the mid 1980’s, read a feature in a local newspaper of a dragon boat race scheduled for Carlow. He encouraged Rosemary O’Sullivan, a member of the Canoe Club, to bring together seventeen of her female friends, whether canoe members or not, to make up Athy’s first dragon boat team.  Sufficient numbers having come forward, the team trained for two weeks in Canadian canoes as a dragon boat was not available.  That first female team called the ‘Barrowline Babes’ just missed the final of the Carlow event by 0.06 of a second but full of determination decided to enter for another dragon boat race in Dublin City Docks.  By then the team was a mix of female and male rowers and the team name was changed to ‘Barrowline Bandits’.  Success was achieved at the Dublin race with the young Athy team winning the first of what would be many gold cups.

 

The newcomers to the sport attracted the attention of the Irish Dragon Boat Association and officials of the association, having inspected the facilities in Athy, held the first dragon boat regatta here in May 2012.  That year and the following year another Athy team ‘Crom a Boo’ won the first prize at the Athy Regatta and followed up with wins also in Carlow and Dublin.    Just three years after the founding of Athy Dragon Boat Club and two years after the town’s first regatta, the annual event was attracting fifteen teams each comprising of eighteen members.

 

The next big development in local dragon boat racing came with the arrival of a team from Kendra Civil Engineering. That team, consisting of local men employed by Dan Curtis’s company, won a number of dragon boat races in 2014 and the following three years.  Indeed, the Kendra team is today regarded as perhaps one of the most successful dragon boat racing teams in Ireland.

 

Hundreds of young people have been introduced to their local River Barrow through the Dragon Boat Club and the Athy Canoe Club which is still going strong.  Both clubs owe their existence to Aiden McHugh whose dynamic leadership has not only given us two of the most vibrant river based clubs in Athy but also a Gymnastics Club and a local sign language Association.  Aiden has stepped down from the Canoe Club and the Gymnastics Club but is still very much involved in sign language development and the local Dragon Boat Club. 

 

The first dragon boat purchased by the Athy club was facilitated by Aiden McHugh and the local canoe club and is now housed in a temporary facility near the former Dominican Church.  Hopefully Kildare County Council will ensure that both the Canoe Club and the Dragon Boat Club will have suitable permanent facilities so that local people, young and old alike, can make maximum of a tremendous river facility which unfortunately those of my age failed to enjoy in years gone by.

 

Returning to the reception in the Heritage Centre, the involvement of so many, young and not so young, speaks volumes for the continuing future success of water sport activities in the town.  Particular congratulations must go to the various parties who have sponsored the Dragon Boat Club’s activities in the last six years and in that the regard the outstanding contributor is Dan Curtis of Kendra Civil Engineering. His contribution to the sport earned special mention at the reception as did the contribution of Aiden McHugh who was the recipient of a special presentation.

 

A great night was enjoyed by the many who attended with a promise that ‘The Big Barrow Splash Family Day’ on Sunday, 13^th August starting at 11.00 a.m. will be a fun day for all the family.

Athy’s 1916 Remembrance Committee will shortly publish a booklet concerning the 1916 Centenary events held in the Town during March and April last year.  It was felt that the opportunity should also be taken to include in the booklet photographs of the 50^th Anniversary commemoration which was held in Emily Square in 1966.  If you know of the existence of any photographs of that event, I would welcome hearing from you.

Kilkea Castle and some of its occupants

A few weeks ago I wrote of my visit with a west of Ireland friend to places in and around south Kildare which I claimed could make an interesting trip as part of Ireland’s Ancient East.  The recent announcement of the proposed re-opening of Kilkea Castle provides another reason to visit this area.  With Whites Castle and Woodstock Castle the Castle at Kilkea forms a unique trio of medieval buildings which at different times were in the ownership of the FitzGerald family, Earls of Kildare and Dukes of Leinster.

 

Kilkea Castle is often claimed as the oldest inhabited castle in Ireland and certainly its part in Irish history stretching back to the 12^th century brings us face to face with many of the great events of the past.  Silken Thomas’s rebellion following the imprisonment of his father Garret Óg, 9^th Earl of Kildare in the tower of London, resulted in the execution of the young man and five of his uncles and the confiscation of the Earl’s lands.  Thomas’s half-brother Gerald had the title and the land restored to him 15 years later and on his return to Ireland from the Continent Gerald took up residence in Kilkea Castle.  Because of his interest in the occult arts he was called the Wizard Earl of Kildare, of whom much has been written in terms of local folklore. 

 

What is perhaps little known is that a Jesuit community was in occupation of Kilkea Castle for 12 years up to 1646.  The widow of the 14^th Earl of Kildare, herself a devout catholic, permitted Fr. Robert Nugent, Superior of the Jesuit Order, to take over the castle and it was here that Cardinal Rinuccini, the papal nuncio, was entertained during the Confederate wars.

 

After the Confederate wars Kilkea Castle was home to many different families who for the most part were unconnected to the Earls of Kildare.  Perhaps the most interesting of those Kilkea residents was Thomas Reynolds whose wife’s sister was married to Wolfe Tone.  Reynolds, a Dublin silk merchant, was friendly with Lord Edward FitzGerald, the one-time member of parliament for the borough of Athy who was leader of the United Irishmen in County Kildare.  He brought Reynolds into the organisation and indeed Reynolds became a colonel in the Army of the United Irishmen.  Regrettably Reynolds turned out to be an informer, a claim which his son unsuccessful attempted to dispute in his biography of Thomas Reynolds, published in 1838.  Subsequent tenants of Kilkea Castle were the Caulfield family who were also occupiers of extensive lands in the Grangemellon area.  A member of the Caulfield family was one of those involved as trustees of Catholic church property for the parish of St. Michael’s Athy in the early post Catholic emancipation period.

 

Kilkea castle after almost 200 years without a FitzGerald in residence once again became a family residence for members of the Duke of Leinster’s family.  However, the once extensive Leinster estates passed into the ownership of an English financier, Sir Harry Mallaby-Deeley.  During the life of the 6^th Duke of Leinster his third son, Lord Edward, while his two older brothers were still alive, disposed of his reversionary rights for a relatively small sum to Mallaby-Deeley.  He did so believing that he had little prospect of succeeding to the title and to the Leinster estates.  However, Desmond FitzGerald, the eldest son of the Duke was killed while serving as an officer in World War 1 and the Duke’s second son Maurice died in February 1920.  When the sixth Duke of Leinster died in 1922 the former bankrupt Edward, described by many as a rakish womaniser, became the 7^th Duke of Leinster.  The tenanted lands belonging to the Leinster estates having been sold under the Wyndham Land Act to tenant farmers, the demesne lands at Carton and Kilkea were all that remained and they passed to Mallaby-Deeley.  He allowed members of the FitzGerald family, but not the improvident 7^th Duke, to live in Carton House until it was sold in 1948.

 

The 7^th Duke’s uncle, Lord Walter FitzGerald and Walter’s two sisters, lived in Kilkea Castle from 1889.  It was there that Lord Walter, one of the founders of the Kildare Archaeological Society, died in 1923.  The FitzGerald sisters continued living in Kilkea and after World War II the castle was occupied by the Marquess of Kildare.  In the mid-1960s he went to live in England and the castle was sold in 1965 to William Cade.  Edward the 7^th Duke who married four times, lived in England on an annual allowance from Mallaby-Deeley.  He died in 1976. 

 

The re-opening of Kilkea Castle as a hotel is to be applauded, bringing as it does the story of the great house of Leinster to our time.  It offers too a wonderful addition to the story of our neighbourhood, bringing with it the history of a great family, some of whose members are remembered today in the street names of our town.

An 18th century gold ring and reflections on Athy of that time

A gentleman’s gold wedding ring was gifted to the local Heritage Centre during the last week by Maisie Sale.  Her late husband Ken was a good friend of the local Museum Society and played a big part in setting up the first museum room, then located in St. Mary’s convent school almost 33 years ago.  Ken found the ring in a field where Mansfield Grove houses were later built.  The ring is inscribed ‘G.S. January 10 1733’.  It comes from a time when following the end of the Williamite wars the developing town of Athy began to attract a fresh influx of English settlers.  Athy was always a settler’s town, but the relative calm and stability which followed the Williamite wars provided the stimulus for growth which was to be a feature of life in Athy in the 18^th century.

 

Commercial activity, rather than manufacture, provided the basis for the town development.  As a market town with a rich agricultural hinterland Athy was ideally located to benefit from road improvements in the first half of the 18^th century.  Until 1720 the River Barrow afforded the only link with the sea ports of New Ross and Waterford.  However, that river link was sufficient to establish Athy as an important regional market centre at a time when roads were of the most primitive type.

 

In 1727 the first Turnpike Road Act was passed.  Turnpike roads were built and maintained by local business people and landlords who derived an income from tolls collected from traffic using the roads.  Athy had a turnpike road running through the town, with three turnpike gates.  One gate was located on the Dublin Road on the town side of St. Michael’s Cemetery, while a second turnpike gate was in a position across St. John’s Street (now Duke Street) at its junction with Green Alley.  The third turnpike gate and the last gate to remain in position was on the Castlecomer Road at Beggar’s End, approximately 700 yards from Whites Castle. 

 

Athy had been home to settlers from England since its foundation and it continued to attract settlers up to the early part of the 18^th century.  They brought with them the expertise which was to provide the foundation for the commercial and later the manufacturing development of the town.  Athy was also home to the native Irish Catholics against whom religious restrictions were enforced up to the middle of the 18^th century.  The Dominicans who fled from Athy in 1698 were still absent when the gold ring was inscribed.  Ten years would pass before the Dominicans felt safe to return to the town but even then a local man, John Jackson, could write to Dublin Castle in March 1743 and claim ‘I cannot find that there is or has been any popish priests or regular clergy in this corporation’.  The Parish Priest at the time was Fr. Daniel Fitzpatrick who lived outside the town in County Laois.  Other dissenting groups included the Presbyterians, whose Minister for 31 years from 1720 was Rev. John McGachin.  The Quakers had a relatively strong presence in Athy in 1733, even though a purpose built Quaker meeting house was not constructed until 1780.

 

Being a self-sufficient community, Athy in 1733 had its own bakers, masons, tailors, shoe makers, nail makers and a host of other craftsmen required to meet local needs, amongst whom was local gunsmith John Davisson.  Athy was also an assizes town where serious crime was tried.  After the assizes held in the town in August 1722 the following proclamation was published and posted in a broadside format throughout the South Kildare area.  ‘The Grand Jury at a general assize and general gaol delivery held at Athy the first day of August 1722 did present Toby Byrne of Narraghmore Yeoman to be a tory robber and rapparee out in arms and on his keeping and not amenable to law.’ 

 

In 1756 the town population was 1779, almost treble the figure of 100 years previously.  Athy’s transition from village to town was marked by the erection in or about 1720 of a large building in the centre of the town.  It served not only as a town hall, but also as a courthouse and market house.  Around the same time a military barracks was erected on the edge of the town to house the garrison previously billeted in Whites Castle. 

 

Athy was a corporate town governed by an elected sovereign and burgesses since the granting of its second charter in 1613.  Five years after the date on the wedding ring the local Borough Council held a meeting to disenfranchise Graham Bradford who had been convicted in the local Court of perjury and transported to America.

 

The gold ring reminds us of a time lost in history and the importance of written records which allow us to look back at times past and people who have gone before us.

 

Sisters of Mercy Athy

Successive generations of young Athy people have benefited from the educational work of the Sisters of Mercy since Mother Vincent Whitty and her two companions travelled from the Baggot St. convent in Dublin to take charge of the new Mercy convent in Athy in October 1852. Mother Vincent was later to bring the educational mission of the Sisters of Mercy to Australia, where she was joined by several nuns and postulants from the Athy Convent including Sr. Mary Potter who had entered the Athy Convent in June 1866.  This was the same Sr. Mary who 13 years later was appointed Superior of the Australian congregation, a position she held until her death in 1927.  Both Mother Vincent Whitty and Sr. Mary Potter, with Bishop James Quinn of Brisbane [a brother of the Athy Parish Priest Fr. Andrew Quinn], were the founders of the Catholic education system in the Brisbane diocese of Australia. 

 

Despite the fact that the local Athy people had been collecting funds for a convent building since the spring of 1843, the Sisters of Mercy in Baggot St. had to advance £300 to the local fund to allow the new convent to be completed.  When the convent building was completed in October 1852 there was no school building as such and the nuns and the children used the local Parish Church as a school throughout the winter months.  That changed the following year when Sr. Teresa Maher, formerly of Kilrush who had entered the Dublin noviciate, was sent to replace Mother Whitty in Athy.  The Carlow Sisters of Mercy sent two sisters of Teresa Maher to the Athy convent, while their father Patrick Maher gave £10,000 to build school rooms for the young Athy pupils. 

 

The years immediately following the Great Famine were marked by social and educational deprivation and it was in this environment that the Sisters of Mercy worked to provide a basic education for every child.  The welfare of the children and their families were also catered for by the Sisters of Mercy who arrived in Athy at a time when the town was home to poverty, deprivation and disease.  Much has changed in the intervening years and the poverty and slum dwellings of yesteryear are no longer even a memory. 

 

Apart from attending to the educational needs of the local children, the Sisters of Mercy also provided nursing services in the workhouse, now St. Vincent’s Hospital.  House visitations to the sick and elderly and especially to the poorer families of the area was other important element of the work of the Sisters of Mercy who were known as ‘walking sisters’.  We can never hope to know the extent and range of assistance provided quietly and without fuss by the Sisters of Mercy over many decades for the most needy members of our local community. 

The following photograph was taken at the Sisters of Mercy Convent Athy in May 1961.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back [left to right]:     Sr. Aidan, Sr. Enda, Sr. Teresa, Sr. Alphonsus, Sr. Immaculata, Sr. Philomena, Sr. Bernard and Sr. Rosarii.

 

Front [left to right]:     Sr. Assumpta, Sr. Michael, Sr. Margaret, Sr. Carmel and Sr. Benignus.

 

Edward Grainger Army Surgeon

Edward Grainger, a surgeon in Birmingham, published in 1815 an account of his working life under the title ‘Medical and Surgical Remarks, including a description of a simple and effective method of removing polypi from the uterus, tonsils from the throat, etc.’  The book was a compilation of surgical procedures Grainger carried out throughout his career.

 

As a young man he had been the regimental surgeon attached to a regiment at dragoons stationed at the Barracks, Athy in 1798.  As was the custom at the time each cavalry regiment had a surgeon who ranked as a captain and an assistant surgeon who had the status of Lieutenant, though neither surgeon outside of their medical responsibility exercised any military command.  Their principal role was to provide medical care to the troopers serving with the regiment, as well as advising the commanding officer on matters concerning the health of the regiment’s men.

 

In the tumultuous year of 1798 Grainger was stationed in Athy as the principal surgeon and his assistant surgeon was a man called Spencer.  Grainger struck up a friendship with Dr. Johnson, a physician in the town.  Grainger’s colleague Spencer assisted Johnson in treating a patient outside the town when they were induced to visit a man in a neighbouring cabin who was lying there with what was described as ‘a bad leg’.  It was clear to Spencer that the amputation of this man’s leg was necessary.  Grainger was asked to perform the operation.  Grainger left a vivid description of the scene that met him the next day.  ‘I never shall forget the scene.  In a dark hole, with no more light than could be admitted through an aperture in a wall of 6 inches square, on some straw, on the bare earth, there was extended the most squalid, wretched figure, that I ever met in my sight. 

 

Near his wretched straw was a fire formed of Kilkenny coal, which ignites without a flame.  The bluish livid light which was thrown from this fire and the spectre before me, enabled me to discover the skeleton of a leg thrust out of the straw, naked, denuded of all vessels, and muscles, and skin, as are bones collected in a charnel house’.

 

Grainger does not state what was the nature of the illness suffered by this poor unfortunate creature, but his more fulsome description of the condition of the leg would indicate that there was some extreme form of infection in the leg that Grainger was quite certain threatened the life of the patient.  He went on to write ‘this poor man was ordered some porter and wine, and nourishing food, for to have amputated the limb in  his then weak state, would have been to doom him to certain death. As soon as he could bear the operation I amputated the limb above the knee’. 

 

This was in the days before anaesthesia and antiseptic surgery. Joseph Lister, the distinguished British surgeon who pioneered antiseptic surgery recorded the amputations he carried out in the years 1864-1866 and noted that almost half his patients died after surgery.  Miraculously Grainger’s patient survived.  Grainger was curious as to how long the man had suffered with his leg and wrote, ‘I learned from the man that this leg had always been cold, and took to swell.  That he knew nothing of the cause of the present disease; that it swelled and became inflamed, and then became as if it were dead; that the soft parts gradually waste away.  So firmly was he and all his friends convinced the disease arose from witchcraft, that he had never applied for any medical assistance before the request of Dr. Johnson, who was accidentally riding by, to see him.  This was the sum of all I could collect from this man or his relations, who were the most ignorant poor creatures that I had met with.’

 

After his army service Grainger returned to England.  His eldest son, also named Edward, trained as a surgeon under his father and established a distinguished anatomy school in Southwark, London in 1819.  Much of the success of Grainger’s anatomy school was attributed to the fact that Grainger had no problem in getting corpses from ‘resurrection men’ or body snatchers, as they were commonly known.  The grisly trade of body snatchers would reach its apogee in Edinburgh in the 1820s with the arrest and execution of the Irish body snatchers William Burke and William Hare.  Sadly, for Grainger he would see his protégé and eldest son Edward die of consumption at the age of only 27, while his younger son Richard Grainger would go on to have an even more distinguished medical career than his father or his elder brother, culminating in his election to the Royal Society in London in 1846. 

 

Bill Ryan Teacher - John Macdougald Doctor

This week I am writing of two men, a generation apart, both of whom made a huge contribution to the local community here in Athy.  While both lived for many years in the town, neither were natives of Athy.  Bill Ryan, a native of County Tipperary, was a teacher for many years in the secondary school of the local Christian Brothers.  Dr. John Macdougald, a native of Dublin, came to Athy in 1974 and having practiced here as a General Practitioner for the last 43 years, retired from his medical practice last week. 

 

Bill Ryan died at the relatively young age of 67 forty years ago and the anniversary of his death occurs on 5^th July.  He taught me in the local Christian Brothers School for 5 or 6 years until I finished my Leaving Certificate in the summer of 1960.  Of all the teachers I had, apart from the legendary Sr. Brendan of my junior school, Bill Ryan, or ‘Mr. Ryan’ as he was always addressed, was the best.  He instilled a love of history and literature in a class of young boys whose interest during their teenage years were understandably centred on sports and girls.  An avid Fianna Fail supporter, whose allegiance to De Valera was never in question, Bill Ryan brought politics and Irish social history to life for young enquiring minds.  He did so without once betraying his responsibility as a teacher by unfair or partisan portrayal of Irish political life or character. 

 

Strangely, although he was a Tipperary man, I can never recall Bill Ryan referring to his native county’s many successes on the hurling field.  Sport apparently played little part in his life but outside of school hours he was a dedicated member of the Social Club’s Dramatic Society.  He featured in many of the plays performed in the St. John’s Lane Social Club and in the local Town Hall during the 1940s and the 1950s.  But it was as a teacher that I remember with fondness the man from Tipperary.  I can still visualise him standing at the top of the class talking to us about events reported in the national newspaper of the day, with one hand clinking the loose change in his trousers pocket.

 

He earned the respect and gratitude of his pupils, for he treated us as young adults who had a right to know and to understand what was happening in the world.  His standing among the pupils of the Christian Brothers School can be gauged by the fact that of all the teachers he did not have a nickname.  He was simply ‘Mr. Ryan’.  He was a first class teacher who was highly effective in forming young minds in the pursuit of knowledge.  He died just a few years after he retired and now that I am at an age which was denied to him I am saddened to think that such a good man did not live to enjoy very many years of retirement with his wife Noreen. 

 

To Dr. John Macdougald I wish many years of happy retirement after so many years of devoted service to his patients in Athy and district.  I use the term ‘devoted service’ as I have never come across a doctor, or indeed a member of any other profession, who has given of himself or herself with such courtesy and dedication as has John Macdougald.  Many are the stories I have heard over the years of patients visited by Dr. John following up to enquire how an earlier diagnosed health problem was progressing.  The house calls were made by a man who shared a genuine concern for his patients and who always went that extra mile to reassure the concerned patient.  As a general medical practitioner John Macdougald is an exceptionally kind doctor who brought compassion, care and consideration to his practice of medicine, qualities which are sometimes wanting in a profession which is occasionally unfairly criticised. 

 

He served his patients and the wider community in a manner which has drawn unstinted praise from the general public.  No wonder then that when news of his retirement became public several persons contacted me to speak of his kindness and thoughtfulness.  John now starts on a well deserved retirement and good wishes are extended to him and to his wife Carol as they begin a new phase of life together. 

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.