Volunteerism in Athy

Volunteerism is alive and well in south Kildare. That has always been the case for as long as I can remember. Voluntary groups worked to give us a swimming pool in the early 1960s and a much-improved Gaelic games grounds at Geraldine a decade earlier. The local rugby club and the various soccer clubs in Athy have also benefited from the work of their members and volunteers over the years. There is an impressive array of work still being done by local volunteers in present day Athy. The Athy Recreational Community Centre, formerly Dreamland Ballroom, is managed by a committee chaired by Ann Cunningham and over a long number of years they have kept the doors of that centre open for a mixed variety of community activities. Ann and her colleagues are doing a service for the community in the same way as are members of committees working anywhere in the town for a multiplicity of organisations. Another aspect of volunteerism is the unusual and generally rare adventurous tasks undertaken by individuals or groups to raise funds for worthy causes. Over the next few weeks three separate acts of volunteerism for charitable purposes will take place. The first features the local man who in 2021 climbed the iron stairs on the outside wall of Athy’s rugby club 2812 times over three days to reach the equivalent height of the worlds highest mountain, Mount Everest. This was a stupendous achievement by Brian Dooley and the sponsorship he earned on that occasion all went to local charities. Brian is again on the volunteering warpath and this time he intends to walk the marathon distance using the walkway around the perimeter of the playing field at Geraldine Park which over a hundred years ago hosted both hurling and football All Ireland finals. Walking 26.2 miles would not present any major difficulty for a reasonably fit young man. However, Brian’s marathon journey will be made as he walks backwards. Having trained for a number of weeks Brian is reasonably confident that all going well he will complete the backward walk in 10 hours. He starts his marathon on Saturday 16th March at 6 o’clock in the morning. The days event is dedicated to his mother Josie, the second anniversary of whose death takes place on the same day. The funds collected will be donated to Athy Gaelic Football Club, St. Michael’s Parish heating fund and Athy Lions Club. Brian would welcome people to join him on the day and he invites those who have lost loved ones to join in what for him is a pilgrimage of remembrance. An unusual feature will be a memorial wall positioned at the start of the walk where anyone wishing to participate can place a photograph of a lost loved one. Donations can be made on the day. So come along on Saturday to walk, to talk, to remember and most of all to donate. Six days later on March 22nd the pupils of the local Gaelscoil are undertaking a sponsored walk to raise funds for Athy Lions Club and to make a presentation to our Parish Priest, Fr. Liam Rigney, whose house was recently damaged by fire. I am told the junior pupils will each walk 2.5kms, while the senior pupils will walk 5kms. It has been calculated that the entire school pupils’ participation when added together will measure the same distance as that from Malin Head in Donegal to Mizen Head in west Cork. Donations and sponsorship can be made through any of the school students or teachers, and I am told that the school’s website includes a QR code which one can scan to donate. The third charitable event, this time for the Irish Cancer Society and Athy Lions Club, involves Mary Feely climbing to first base camp on Mount Everest. Mary and her husband Rod will start the climb on Holy Thursday, setting off from Lukla, Nepal to reach the base camp approximately 8 days later. Mary has been a volunteer driver for the Cancer Society for several years and decided to celebrate what she described as a ‘roundy’ birthday by challenging herself to walk all the way up 17,500 feet for the Irish Cancer Society and Athy Lions Club because of her involvement with both groups. See Mary’s fund raising page on iDonate.ie. The young pupils of Athy’s Gael Scoil and both Mary Feely and Brian Dooley have shown tremendous spirit and good will in undertaking their different challenges. Their involvement as volunteers to raise funds for charitable purposes is highly commendable and deserving of the support of the community at large.

Athy's local history

Athy Museum Society, founded in 1983, will shortly disappear from the local scene when arrangements already agreed with Kildare County Council to take over the running of the Shackleton Museum are implemented. Athy History Society, founded a few years ago, will take its place in promoting the study of the history of Athy and its people. Our local history was for many many years an unknown subject even to those who like myself attended secondary school here in the town. We learned of battles and Kings, revolutions, and Famine deaths but seldom, if ever, did we hear any mention of Athy’s involvement in national events. This is surprising given Athy’s importance at different periods of its history as a fortress town, a garrison town and for centuries up to the mid-19th century, the largest and most important town in county Kildare. Founded as a settlement by the Anglo Normans in or about the last decade of the 12th century the newly established village formed part of the manor of Woodstock. As the village developed, helped by the founding of two monasteries on opposite sides of the River Barrow, it became a fortress as part of the defensive measures put in place by the Anglo Normans. Woodstock Castle on the west bank of the River Barrow provided little protection for the villagers as the ‘warlike Irish’ lived amongst the woods which were located on the same river side. Attacks on the village of Athy resulted in its destruction on several occasions but the settlers, confident of their military superiority, persisted in regrouping and rebuilding. Athy’s importance as a fortress on the Marches of Kildare was determined by the closeness of the southern part of the Pale. This led to the placing of a garrison in the village and for many centuries right up to the Crimean War period Athy earned for itself the sobriquet ‘Garrison Athy’. Indeed, as a young pupil in the local Christian Brothers school I can recall a Christian Brother annoyed at his class for some reason or other telling his pupils ‘you’re nothing but soldiers’ sons’. At the time I assumed it was something to do with the nearby Curragh Camp but now methinks it was a throwback to the garrison town nickname of the past. The village originally established in the shadow of Woodstock Castle proved so difficult to defend against the marauding Irish that it was relocated towards the end of the Middle Ages across the River Barrow to the more easily defended east bank. The White Castle and the bridge of Athy afforded a substantial defence which allowed further development of the settlement. The Confederate Wars of the 1640s in which the now town of Athy played a significant part, ended in victory for the Parliamentary forces. It led to a fresh influx of what we would now describe as ‘economic migrants’ who came across the Irish Sea to take up residence in the developing town. Athy’s history thereafter is that of a developing market town and one which enjoyed a good measure of prosperity over many years. It was however a prosperity enjoyed by a minority who lived in close proximity, if not quite side by side, with poverty-stricken people. It was also a period punctuated by heart rendering events which caused enormous hardship and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of local people. I’m referring to the 1798 Rebellion and the Great Famine of the 1840s. These were two national events which as a pupil of the local school I learned without hearing of any mention of Athy. This, despite the work of Patrick O’Kelly, formerly of Kilcoo, who wrote of the 1798 Rebellion in his book published in the 1840s. He gave a detailed account of events in and around Athy during the Rebellion including the hanging of six young local men. Initially imprisoned in Whites Castle they were marched across Crom a Boo bridge, which was built two years previously, and brought to the recently opened Canal harbour where the six were hanged. Two were beheaded and their heads hung on the very bridge which you and I probably pass over many times every week. The events of 1798 and the tragic deaths in the local Workhouse during the Great Famine were largely overlooked by subsequent generations. These national events formed part of our local school history lessons, but the local involvement was ignored or forgotten. As a result, we lost for a time important elements of Athy’s story and it was due to the research of several locals that our past was recovered. Indeed, it was due to the good work of some local historians that the people of Athy have been able to remember and honour the 1798 rebels with a memorial in Emily Square. Similar good research work resulted in the erection of the magnificent World War I memorial in St. Michael’s Cemetery honouring the men from Athy who died during the 1914-18 War. St. Mary’s Cemetery, located a short distance from the old Workhouse building, contains the remains of the 1200 or so unfortunate men, women and children who died in the Workhouse during the Great Famine. Athy’s Workhouse was never alluded to in any local school history lessons when many references were made to Skibbereen and other places on the west coast during the Great Famine. As a result of local research, we now know the depth of misery which marked the lives of workhouse inmates during the Famine. Each year on a Sunday in May we gather in St. Mary’s Cemetery to remember our Famine dead, while we await Kildare County Council’s implementation of a decision to erect a memorial in their memory. Athy History Society, some of whose members have been researching our local history, are anxious to bring together more persons who share interest in our town’s history. The local History Society will host a meeting in the Community Arts Centre, Woodstock Street on Tuesday, 12th March at 7.30p.m. to greet and enrol all and any persons wishing to join the Society. A short lecture on Athy’s history will be followed by refreshments and an opportunity to meet and greet.

Athy's Musical Heritage

The recent announcement that Johnny Marr, the musician and songwriter, will play a concert in the A.R.C.H. in Athy on 25 June next has generated great excitement in Athy. Having first found fame as a guitarist and co-songwriter of The Smiths, he has enjoyed a successful solo career over the last 35 years. I have written previously of the music tradition in Athy, and the songs and ballads associated with the town. Those that spring to mind include ‘Lanigan’s Ball’, ‘Johnny I Hardly Knew You’ and ‘Tuberara’. A song that had escaped my notice until now is ‘Kathleen O’Regan’. It was composed in or about 1815 by John Whitaker and was first sung by a Mr. Webb at provincial theatres throughout England. The words were written by a Mr. Donne and an early review described the song as follows:- ‘the air is flowing and connected, and bears a stamp of originality not common in the vocal trifles of the day. The words are not destitute of merit; though the less we say of their wit, humour and poetry, the more Mr. Donne ought to be obliged to us.’ And so wrote an anonymous correspondent in the Monthly magazine in 1815 where it also confirmed that the song sheet could be purchased for one shilling and six pence. By 1st June 1815 ‘The Vocal’ magazine (a monthly publication) was listing in its own words ‘Choice, favourite, popular and celebrated songs in the English language, with those in all the new pieces, now singing and lately sung at Theatres Royal and minor places of amusement.’ The first song listed was the newly composed ‘Kathleen O’Regan’. It wasn’t long before the song crossed the Irish Sea and as early as April 1816 it was being performed in Dublin by a Mr. Webb. He performed it in conjunction with a play called ‘Botheration or a Ten Years Blunder’ which was described as a two act farce which had first been performed in May 1798 in Dublin. Amongst the songs that Webb sang associated with the play were ‘Get a Gone, Sir, None of your Blarney’ and the now mentioned “Sweet Kathleen O’Regan, the pride of Athy.” The song clearly had some lasting popularity as it featured in a number of publications featuring songs and ballads over the next half century. Dick & Fitzgerald, publishers New York, released in 1864 ‘The Arkansas Traveller’ songbook which featured the song, as it did in the “Vocal Library” published in 1822 which at the time was described as the largest collection of English, Scottish and Irish songs published in a single volume. Its inspiration or link to Athy is unknown, although it does strike me that the reference in the third verse where the lovestruck young man described how ‘war drove me on to where the battle was raging’ might suggest some origins in or links to the Napoleonic wars which had concluded the same month as the publication of the song. On the 18th June 1815 the Irish born Duke of Wellington, at the Battle of Waterloo, led the British forces to victory over Napoleon’s French army on the Belgian battlefield. Unlike many songs composed over two centuries ago the words appeared to have remained unchanged through all the various publications in which it appeared, and I reproduce here a ballad sheet from the mid-19th century. I must confess a personal interest in the ballad as my own late mother was herself a ‘Kathleen O’Regan’ from Ballykilleen, Cloonfad, Co. Mayo, but not the ‘Sweet Kathleen O’Regan, the pride of Athy’.

Athy Show Programme 1953

The County Kildare Agricultural Show which was an annual event in the Showgrounds, Athy has not been held for the last few years. I understand that it will not be held this year due to an insufficient number of volunteers on the organising committee. It’s a huge disappointment given the initial success of the show which was organised in the 1950s and later by Athy Show Society. The history of the Athy Show goes back many decades before that. An earlier disruption of the annual show schedule led to the reorganisation of the Society, with Leonard Craig as the Society’s new Secretary. I don’t have to hand any information of when the organising occurred, but before me is the 1953 Athy Show programme. That year’s show was held at Athy Showgrounds on Thursday, 9th July from 10am to 6pm. The Show Society’s Secretary in 1953 was Ivan Bergin of Maybrook, whose father J.J. Bergin, founder of the National Ploughing Association, was one of the 14 vice presidents of the society. The Society’s President was the Marquess of Kildare, while the local parish priest, Archdeacon McDonnell, was the sole patron. The Chairman was Michael Byrne, veterinary surgeon, with Charles Chambers and Michael Cunningham as joint Treasurers. The executive committee of the Athy Show Society consisted of 26 members representing a roll call of the most prominent business people in the town. Members of the Show Society made up 3 pages of the 1953 programme, amounting to almost 120 names headed by local industrial firms including Irish Wallboard Ltd. and I.V.I. Foundry. Notable names included amongst the membership listed were the Duchess of Westminister and Prince Aly Khan, while service during World War II no doubt accounted for two Lieutenant Colonels and several Majors who were also listed. Advertisements in that programme of 71 years ago threw up some interesting names of businesses and individuals which will probably not be familiar to the present generation. The Leinster Arms Hotel ‘fully licensed and with garage accommodation’ was managed by Miss P. Anglim. Hers is a name I have never before come across. Duthie Large Ltd. were main dealers for Ferguson tractors, as well as Massey Harris Bailers and Combines, while nearby neighbours Corcoran & Co. of Carlow were self-declared ‘champions for 125 years’ in the production of mineral waters. M. O’Brien advertised the Nags Head, Athy described as a ‘wholesale and family grocer, tea, wine, spirit and provision merchant’ while acting as official licensee to the Athy Show. Glespen Brothers Athy were ‘land and road trailer manufacturers’, while R.H. Meredith of Ballintubbert was agent for Claas Combines in counties Kildare, Carlow, Leix and North Kildare. Jacksons of 58 Leinster St., Athy were authorised distributors for Aga cookers, as well as advertising the Hillman Minx saloon for £550, a convertible coupe for £625 and the Commer Utility for £580. They described these models as ‘nippy in traffic and easy to park, with superlative riding comfort over all surfaces.’ Jacksons were also authorised dealers for Aga cookers, while J. Fleming’s sawmills looked after everyone’s needs in terms of gates, ladders and hay carts. The earlier mentioned I.V.I. Foundry was part of Industrial Vehicles (Ireland) Ltd. which were main Morris dealers, while Maxwells Garage were main dealers for Volkswagon cars and vans. John O’Gorman had his main Ford and Fordson dealership in Crookstown, while Shaw & Sons Ltd., ‘Agents for all makes of radio and electrical appliances’ were even then the leading retail drapers in Athy. Michael Anthony, The Square, Athy, Auctioneer and Valuer, was contactable by phone at Athy 16. The industrial exhibition which formed part of the Athy Show included the following Athy businesses: Burtown Nurseries, Shaw & Sons Ltd., Mr. M. Kelly of Leinster Street, Jackson Brothers, I.V.I. Foundry, Doyle Brothers, Irish Wallboard, Messrs Hutchinson & Hay who were Electrical Appliance Dealers, Willie Large of Rheban Castle exhibiting rowing and motor boats, Duthie Larges, R.H. Meredith, Pearsons Luggacurran, Glespen Brothers, John O’Gorman and Patrick Hennessy of Bray garage. The show and the industrial exhibition ended with a show dance in a marquee in the Showgrounds that same night, with music provided by Brose Walsh, with catering by Miss C. Lawlor of Portarlington. Admission twelve shillings and six pence, while the programme itself cost one shilling. What was originally called ‘The Athy Show’ evolved over time to become the County Kildare Agricultural Show. It’s rather a pity that the annual show which was an enjoyable part of the town’s summer events is on hold while awaiting another possible revival. Let’s hope that this happens in time for next year’s show. Honor McCulloch, a benefactor and friend of Athy Heritage Centre and the Shackleton Museum, died during the past week. Honor first contacted me several years ago regarding her willingness to donate a vintage motor car to the Heritage Centre. The car was then on loan to a Transport Museum in England. We corresponded and eventually met resulting in the vintage car being brought across the Irish Sea to be permanently exhibited in Athy’s Heritage Centre. Honor soon thereafter came to live in Athy and made many welcome contributions to the development of the Centre. I intend to write at a later date of Honor’s role in the development of the Heritage Centre/Museum and her timeless work in maintaining St. John’s Cemetery here in Edmund Rice Square.

Boyd's Shoe Shop and its founder Jim Boyd

The journey from Killeshandra, Co. Cavan to the South Kildare village of Castledermot was made by Jim Boyd almost 90 years ago. Jim, who had served his apprenticeship in a drapery/shoe shop in Cootehill, was joining Copes of Castledermot, then one of the biggest employers in the south of the shortgrass county. A few years later Jim took up employment with Shaws in its Duke Street premises where the legendary Sam Shaw was in charge. For the next four or five years the County Cavan man had charge of the busy shoe department in Shaws at a time when late shop openings on Saturday nights were a feature of the commercial life of the market town of Athy. With a population which had remained fairly constant over the previous 100 years Athy in the 1930s was a busy town, with a wide range of independent shops. Jim Boyd seized the opportunity to open his own shoe shop at No. 37 Duke Street. The premises had at different times housed a sweet shop, a bakery and a tailors business. For the next 85 years or so it would be a shoe shop in that part of Duke Street which in its earlier years had as neighbours a wide variety of businesses. Across the street was Lily and Teresa Kanes’ sweet shop, Jim Fennin’s grocery shop, Brophy’s public house and Finbar Purcell’s butcher shop, with Conroy’s public house at the corner of Green Alley. On the same side of the street as Jim Boyd’s shoe shop were to be found Sam Wards, P.P. Doyles pawn shop, Molly Bradley’s sweet shop, Mrs. Farrell’s tea rooms and on the corner of Woodstock Street the unforgettable Ernest O’Rourke Glynn’s shop. Jim Boyd carried on a successful business for many years. As with all other shop owners of that time the proprietors and their families lived over the shops which lined the main streets of Athy. Jim died in 1986 and his wife, formerly Elizabeth Harris from Mountmellick, whom he married two years after he opened his shop, died in 1995. Their son Basil, who had joined his father in the shoe shop in 1961 carried on the business and his recent announcement of the impending closure of Boyd’s shoe shop will bring an end to the oldest business in this part of Duke Street. Although Basil was born in No. 37 Duke Street, like so many other local shopkeepers, he stopped living over the shop many years ago. The change in recent years in living patterns within the centre of Irish towns has had an impact on the vitality of provincial town centres. It has led to a substantial under use of badly needed living accommodation which government agencies and local authorities have failed to deal with. Basil Boyd has witnessed, as we all have, the gradual decline in the commercial strength of our town which fifty years or so ago was regarded as one of the most successful market towns in Leinster. Local shops attracted customers, whose custom and loyalty was retained by the judicious availability of credit and family account books. I well remember my own parents having credit accounts in Jim Fennin’s grocery shop, in Shaws, as well as M.G. Nolans where I presume payments were made on a monthly basis as my father’s wages were paid. There were no credit cards in those days, nor did many have bank accounts. Credit Unions were still in the future, while few people had any access to business with the three local banks which once graced Athy’s main streets. Strangely with a population more than fifty per cent smaller than it is today, Athy of yesteryear was a thriving and busy town. Local shop businesses did well, yet today with a much larger population the empty shop premises which marks one’s journey through the towns main streets speak of changing times. Centralisation, so beloved of governments past and present, saw the quite recent loss of Town Councils throughout Ireland. In our Irish provincial world centralisation saw the loss of rural Post Offices and rural Garda Stations. Here in Athy we lost the Chamber of Commerce while the development of major food chains led to the closure of independent grocery shops on our main streets. Local public house numbers have dramatically declined due to a tightening of the drink driving laws and perhaps a reluctance by family members to commit themselves to a job which requires an extraordinary time commitment. Our main streets are changing and with the soon to close Boyd’s shoe shop in Duke Street another memory of a once thriving Athy business will soon be lost. To Basil, his wife Norma, who coincidentally like Basil’s mother comes from Mountmellick, and their daughter Orla all of us extend good wishes for the future and heartfelt thanks for 85 years of service to the townspeople of Athy.

Remembering John Alcock, John Murphy and George Taaffe

It was early last week that news reached us from the far side of the world of the death of John Alcock in New Zealand. It was soon followed by news of the passing of John Murphy in Australia. Both men were part of the great migration of men folk which was a sad part of life in Athy and its rural hinterland during the decades which followed the economic war of the 1930s. Despite the vast distances they travelled to make new lives they retained fond memories of Athy and its people. I first met John Alcock in March 2020 when approaching his 90th birthday he travelled with his daughter to visit his home town. It was a nostalgic visit for a man who had first emigrated to England in 1949 and who 6 years later moved to New Zealand. His sister Sheila and brother George also emigrated to New Zealand. John, who lived in the North Island of New Zealand, was a near neighbour and friend of Athy man Aidan Tierney, formerly of Belview. It was Aidan who passed on the news of the death of John who was the subject of Eye on the Past No. 1421. I had not met John Murphy in person but his frequent presence on the Athy and district Facebook page spoke of a man who had retained an interest and indeed an appreciation of his South Kildare background. He kept up to date with the news from Athy on Facebook, as well as his long-standing friendship with Aiden McHugh who on his visits to Australia always sought out John. John, who was originally from Prussellstown, emigrated to Australia in the early 1970s from Butlers Row with his wife May and four children after retiring from the Irish Army. Towards the end of last week my older brother George passed away at 88 years of age. George was one of those fortunate young Athy men who in the 1950s found employment in their own country. After attending the Christian Brothers School here in Athy he was called to St. Patrick’s training college in Drumcondra to train as a National school teacher. I didn’t know until recent years that in doing so he was following in his father’s footsteps. My father apparently did not continue his teacher training as his command of Irish was weak and so he left St. Patrick’s and joined the Gardai. A native of Moyne in County Longford his career in An Garda Siochana resulted in several transfers around Ireland and his last move to Athy from nearby Castlecomer allowed his five sons attend a secondary school where none was then available in the Kilkenny mining town. George, who taught for a few years in Moone National School under the principalship of W.G. Doyle and later Joe May, later moved to his father’s home place in County Longford to take up the principalship of Moyne National School. In the meantime George married local Moone girl Eileen Kelly, who with their five children survive him. George, who retired over twenty-five years ago as Principal of Dromard National School, was buried in his father’s home townland nearly 50 years after his father was laid to rest in Athy. The celebrant of the funeral mass for George spoke of the ‘Master’s’ contribution to the local communities of Moyne and Legga and I smiled as I heard of the teaching profession being described as a ‘secondary priesthood’. No wonder I smiled, being aware as I was of some of the escapades involving the young unmarried George and his best friend here in Athy, the late Reggie Rowan. George was a big fellow and a good footballer in his youth, but my abiding memory is of a family story which recounted the day George playing in midfield caught the ball at the start of the second half of a game in Geraldine Park and immediately put the opposing team on the attack by kicking the ball in the wrong direction. The two Johns and George were of a generation of Athy folk whose numbers are sadly being depleted week by week. All three have now found their last resting place far from the town in which they grew up, taking with them memories which we can never recover.

'The Black and Tans 1920/'21' and 'The World War 1 Dead of Co. Kildare'

Two important books arrived on my desk in the last week, both of them with listings of men who served our neighbouring country at a time when Ireland was an unwilling part of the British empire. The first book was Jim Herlihy’s latest publication, ‘The Black and Tans 1920 – 1921’, which added to his impressive list of previously published works makes him the outstanding author of policing before and during Ireland’s War of Independence. Subtitled ‘A complete Alphabetical List, Short History and Genealogical Guide’, the book is a complete listing of the 7,684 men who enlisted in the Royal Irish Constabulary Special Reserve, or as they were better known the Black and Tans. The Black and Tans were recruited to compensate for the shortfall in R.I.C. members, resulting from the IRA campaign against the police which forced so many policemen to resign. Between 6th January 1920 and 7th July the following year 7,684 men were recruited in Britain and brought to Ireland to join the R.I.C. Special Reserve. Amongst their numbers were 381 native Irishmen, including 9 from County Kildare, 6 from County Laois and 5 from County Carlow. The Black and Tans, so called because they dressed in black trousers and tan tunics, were initially trained in the R.I.C. Depot at Phoenix Park, but later in the Hare Park Camp on the Curragh before ending up in September of 1920 in Gormanstown Camp, Co. Meath. On completion of their one month training the R.I.C. Special Reserve were transferred to R.I.C. Barracks around the country. Athy, while not regarded as an active rebel town, had a small number of Black and Tans stationed in the old Cavalry Barracks at Woodstock Street. While recruiting for the Special Reserves stopped on 7th July 1921 the members of that force only began to leave Ireland in January of the following year. At least one member of the Black and Tans who was based in Athy remained in the town or later returned, which I do not know, for he married a local girl. The story of the Black and Tans is one which we Irish remember as one of killings and atrocities by men who were a law unto themselves. Jim Herlihy’s book is a comprehensive listing of the men who during the 18 months they were in Ireland suffered 143 casualties. During their time in Ireland they earned the outrage of Irish men and women who regarded them as terrorists. The second book published by the County Kildare Decade of Commemoration Committee is titled ‘Remembrance: The World War 1 Dead of Co. Kildare’. Compiled by Karel Kiely, James Durney and Mario Corrigan it lists the 753 men and 1 woman from the County of Kildare who served and died during World War I. The research for this book has uncovered 9 Athy men not previously identified who died during the war. Three of them were from Offaly Street, two brothers James and Thomas Connell and Joseph Breen. As a young lad growing up in Offaly Street I remember the brothers Mick and Johnny Connell lived in Crampton House opposite what is now the Credit Union in Offaly Street, while another brother Lar lived in Stanhope Street. They were the brothers of the two World War 1 soldiers, James who died on 17th April 1915 and Thomas who died on 9th September 1916. Further up Offaly Street during my youth lived Tom Breen and his family, whose daughter Nan died within the last year or two while she was still living in the family home. Tom’s brother Joseph, a soldier in the Royal Army Service Corps, died aged 32 years, less than two weeks before the end of the war. He was born in Janeville and his younger brother Tom at the time of his brother’s death was living with his grandmother Julia Bradley in Offaly Street. Two other soldiers of whom I was not previously aware are identified as William Dooley of Castlemitchell and his namesake whose brother James Dooley lived at Rathstewart Cottage, Athy. Other Athy soldiers who died in the war but whom I was unaware of until they were included in the new book were 22-year-old Christopher Doran of St. John’s Lane, 33-year-old Michael Davis of Kelly’s Lane and later Chapel Hill, Patrick O’Mara of Chapel Hill, and the Vigors brothers, Arthur and Charles, whose father Charles Vigors was a shopkeeper in Market Square in the 1890s and later. The book lists the deaths of 120 men born in Athy, by far the highest number of any town in the county, the next highest being the Curragh with 67 and Naas with 64. An additional 19 names must be added to Athy’s World War I casualty list, representing men not born in the town but who lived there either when they enlisted or sometime earlier. For many years it was believed that they were on the wrong side of history, that is until Kevin Myers, John MacKenna and later Clem Roche and others wrote of Athy’s men’s sacrifices with pride and gratitude. Here in Athy we arranged the first Armistice Day Sunday Service nearly 30 years ago as part of a weekend of remembrance which featured a seminar in the Town Hall, with lectures by Con Costello, Pat Casey, Kevin Myers, Josephine Cashman and Jane Leonard, followed by a performance of ‘The Fallen’, a voice play of the Great War by John MacKenna. This was the first awakening of an important part of our town’s story and one which now finds another retelling of part of that story in the new book ‘Remembrance: The World War I Dead of Co. Kildare’. Congratulations to Karel Kiely and her colleagues James Durney and Mario Corrigan for a magnificent new publication on Kildare’s World War I dead.

St. Vincent de Paul Society and Athy Lions Club Presidents Everest challenges

During twelve months of lockdown we have witnessed a catastrophic change in the commercial life of our town and district. Local businesses have suffered badly, and business owners and workers alike have felt the financial repercussions of a local economy which is closed down. Families which have always managed to face up to life’s trials now find themselves facing an ever more uncertain future. There is an increasing number of families and individuals experiencing financial difficulties who, for perhaps the first time, have to rely on the charity of others. In Athy we are very fortunate to have an active branch of the St Vincent de Paul Society which, for more than 100 years, has been helping local families and individuals in need. Historically that help was availed of by those whose poverty was the result of long-term unemployment. Today, the Vincent de Paul Society is called upon to help those no longer able to cope financially as a result of the Covid lockdown. Reliance on the Vincent de Paul Society is a new experience for many. Their needs are all the greater as the psychological impact of the national lockdown is felt by parents and children alike. The local branch of the St Vincent de Paul Society is made up of a small number of men and women who quietly and discreetly help local people in need. The demands on their time and on the resources of the local branch are in normal times quite high. However, with the ongoing Covid lockdown demands for help have increased enormously. More money than ever before is required to meet the urgent needs of those in want. Athy Lions Club, recognising the crisis facing many people in Athy and district, have decided to organise a fundraising event to help the St Vincent de Paul Society. Called the Everest Challenge, it will feature an attempt by the Lions Club president, 45-year old Brian Dooley, to ascend 39,340 steps representing the height of Mount Everest. The world’s highest mountain is located on the crest of the great Himalayas of Southern Asia, between Nepal and Tibet. It was believed to be 29,028 feet high when first climbed by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. However, a recent American survey found that it is 29,035 feet high. The extra seven feet will mean a little extra work for Athy Lions president, who will not only walk up 39,340 steps but also descend the same number of steps. He will get no credit for steps descended, but will find a little relief going down before facing into another upward advance. The challenge will start on Saturday, 1st May and continue the next day and into a third day, if necessary, until the target is reached. As I write this Eye, Brian Dooley is practising his stairclimbing techniques to ensure the fitness levels necessary to keep climbing for eight hours on the opening day, and on each day thereafter. It will all take place on the Athy Rugby Club fire escape, which is a sturdy metal stairs, ten feet four inches high, with fourteen steps. The Lions Club president is undertaking this challenge in return for donations which will be divided between Athy St Vincent de Paul Society and Pieta House, which provides counselling to people who are in suicidal distress. Donations can be made online at www.idonate.ie/athylionsclubeverestchallenge or at the Everest Challenge site on any of the days the intrepid Brian Dooley is “stepping it out”. I would hazard a guess that there is not another Lions Club president in Ireland who could match our Lions president’s vision and stamina. If and when Brian successfully makes the 39,340 upward steps, and reaches the summit of the virtual Everest, it will mark an extraordinary personal effort by him. We will all wish him well on the day, or days, of the climb beginning on the 1st of May. In the meantime, remember the two charities which will benefit: St Vincent de Paul Society, Athy and Pieta House. Your donations, no matter how small, will help both organisations continue to offer assistance to all those in need during these difficult times.

Athy's Town Hall and its redevelopment as Shackleton Museum

The ongoing redevelopment of Athy’s Town Hall seems to have puzzled some local residents who were unaware of the plans for the Shackleton Museum. This lack of knowledge probably owes much to the ever increasing lack of support for print journalism as the story of the museum has featured several times over the years in the local newspapers. Athy’s Town Hall like Whites Castle is an iconic building whose importance as part of the town’s built heritage has not always been appreciated. The Nationalist newspaper reported on the 7th November 1980 that “Athy Urban District Council have passed a motion to demolish the building and replace it with a modern structure”. This had followed the Council members consideration some years earlier of a motion to demolish the Town Hall so as to provide extra car parking facilities in the town centre. Happily, the building which was admittedly in a sad state of semi dereliction at that time was saved following the intervention of the local branch of An Taisce. A subsequent Community Employment Scheme helped restore the building which continued to be used for a time as the town’s Council offices, the local Fire Brigade station and later still as the town library. The local Museum Society, which was founded in 1983, was allowed to occupy in or about 1985 what was once the caretaker’s living quarters in the Town Hall. With the subsequent departure of the Fire Station to newly built facilities at Woodstock Street, the Museum Society took over the entire ground floor of the Town Hall. Further expansion of the Museum then designated as a Heritage Centre followed with the transfer of the Town Library to the magnificent former Dominican Church. The growing national and international success of the Shackleton Autumn School organised by volunteers working from the Heritage Centre sparked the idea of a Museum dedicated to one of the world’s most famous polar explorers Ernest Shackleton who was born in nearby Kilkea. The work which is now being undertaken at the Town Hall is the final stage of several years of planning to give the town of Athy a Museum of national importance. Building work which will last until mid-2025 will give us quite an extraordinary architectural addition to the town’s built heritage. Athy Museum Society first formed in 1983 and which later established Athy Heritage Company Limited to operate the Heritage Centre will be soon dissolved. It is intended to call a public meeting open to all persons interested in Athy’s history and local history generally to formalise the setting up of Athy’s History Society. Details of that meeting, venue and the date will be published shortly. The current members of the Board of Directors of Athy Heritage Company Limited, all of whom are volunteers will, with two exceptions, resign from the Board in the very near future. The new Board of Directors will be nominated by Kildare County Council and thereafter the Shackleton Museum will be effectively operated subject to the control of the County’s Local Authority. There have been many persons who over the years volunteered their time and expertise to the running of the original Museum and the Heritage Centre. It would perhaps be invidious to name names for fear of leaving out anyone who contributed at any time over the last forty years to the museum’s success. However, a heartfelt thanks must go to everybody in Athy and elsewhere who have made a contribution to the ongoing success of the Heritage Centre/Shackleton Museum and the Shackleton Autumn School. With the resignation of all but two of the current Board of Directors, I too will be stepping down as Chairman of the Board. It has taken forty years to get the museum story to this point almost as long as it took to get the outer relief road which opened last year. Writing of one iconic building in our town I have to acknowledge that the most important building in Athy, having regard to its links with past historical events and its location in the heart of the town, is Whites Castle. While it continues in private ownership there is no indication that there are plans in place to protect and conserve the building structure. Having regard to its current condition concern must be expressed at the possibility of losing Athy’s most widely known and distinctive building. I am reminded of the comments made by the Kildare County Council C.E.O. at the recent opening of the new library in Naas when she described the Naas Town Hall as ‘an iconic building at the heart of Naas being given a new use while preserving its history and heritage.’ If there is any other building in the entire county of Kildare fitting that description it is surely Athy’s Whites Castle. I have sought over many years to interest the former Athy Town Council and Kildare County Council in acquiring Whites Castle. Placing it in public ownership offers the best possibility of conserving the building and allowing it to be developed and used for the benefit of the public. Now that local authorities have greater responsibility than ever before for matters of culture and heritage, surely Kildare County Council should now seriously consider what it can do to ensure the future of the 600-year-old building at the heart of our town. The history lecture series in the Community Arts Centre, Woodstock Street recommences on Tuesday, 13th February at 8.00 p.m. with a lecture by Adrian Kane whose book on Trade Unions was recently published. Adrian, who is an officer with S.I.P.T.U., is a native of Athy and has been based and working in Cork for a number of years. His father Paddy was an active community worker during his lifetime here in Athy and one of the founding members of Athy Credit Union. Admission is free to what promises to be a stimulating evening.

St. Michael's Church Register 1753 and the last years of Penal Laws

Some time in the 1970’s while I was living in Dublin, I was contacted by a local man who had in his possession a church register for St. Michael’s, Athy. He explained how he had rescued it when the old St. Michael’s Church was being demolished in 1960. How or in what circumstances the register needed to be rescued was never satisfactorily explained to me but fortunately I was able to ensure its subsequent return to the Parish. I had the opportunity of examining the register in which the first entry was made in August 1753. The laws forbidding Catholics from exercising their religion was still on the Statute Books as were a multiplicity of enactments which restricted Catholics from receiving education, entering a profession or holding public office. Following the passing of an Act in 1696 banishing all priests from Ireland, a list of all priests were required to be compiled on a county basis. That Act was apparently not strictly enforced, for eight years later priests who were still in the country were required to report to their local Clerk of the Peace. Every catholic priest had to give his name, address, age, his parish, date and place of ordination and the name of the Bishop who ordained him. At Athy Quarter Sessions in 1704, Fr. John Fitzsimons reported himself as the Parish Priest of Athy since 1697, having been ordained in 1673 by Archbishop Oliver Plunkett. A State of Popery Report of 1731 recorded “Mass house” in Athy which had been built during the reign of King George I between 1714 and 1727. The Report noted that “it had two priests while there was no popish school in the town”. At the same time, Castledermot had three Mass houses, four priests, two of whom lived as farmers and three “popish schools”. The neighbouring village of Castledermot had more facilities for Catholics than the town of Athy which might suggest a majority of non catholic overseas settlers in the one time fortress town on the river Barrow. The building of a Catholic church in Athy in the early years of the 18th Century might indicate that local enforcement of the penal laws was somewhat relaxed. The return of the Dominicans to Athy in 1743 after an absence of several decades supports that view. Nevertheless, the local Parish Priest who may have been Fr. Daniel Fitzpatrick ensured that the Parish Church was built off a side street in the town. The church which was torched and destroyed in the aftermath of the 1798 Rebellion was built in what is now known as Chapel Lane. Despite the lack of strict enforcement of the penal laws, the Dublin Castle authorities still required Catholic activities to be monitored. A letter sent by Mr. J. Jackson, a member of Athy Corporation, to the Dublin Castle authorities in March 1673 noted that “he could not find that there is or has been any popish priests or regular clergy in this corporation”. He then went on to explain that “the priest lives in the Queens county about two miles from the town”. Jackson did not mention the existence of the Mass house which would tend to show that the penal laws were not strictly enforced at that time. I wonder whether the limited religious toleration had evaporated by 1758 when the following entry was made in the earlier mentioned Catholic register of St. Michael’s. One entry in the register for 1758 was made on January 26th with the next entry on December 3rd which was preceded by the note which explained that the blank was “occasioned by the prosecution against the Reverend Mr. Callaghan”. I have a note of a Fr. Callaghan as a Curate in Athy in 1758 but have no further information about him. I have not discovered the nature of the prosecution against Fr. Callaghan but assume it related in some way to a breach of the penal laws. Fr. Daniel Fitzpatrick was Parish Priest at that time and he was succeeded in 1758 by Canon James Nele. In Athy during Fr. Fitzpatrick’s time as Parish Priest, two other religious groups were subjected to the same penal law codes as the Catholic’s. Rev. Dr. Thralkield and Rev. Robert Rutherford were ministering in and around Athy on behalf of the Presbyterian church while for about 31 years prior to 1751 Rev. John McGachin was the local Presbyterian Minister. The Society of Friends known as Quakers also had a presence in Athy as early as 1672 and like Catholics and Presbyterians were subjected to the provisions of the penal laws. The Quakers formed a commercially active group in the town but it would take several decades before a Catholic commercial middle class emerged in Athy. The enforcement of the penal laws and their effect on religious practice and Irish society generally in the 18th Century is difficult to unravel. What we do know is that religion took second place to politics after the passing of the Repeal Act of 1793 and the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 with the emergence of a Catholic middle class.

Recent deaths of Athy folks

The holiday period saw so many of our local community members pass to the other side. The sadness of their passing was heightened when contrasted with the happiness and good will which marked the holiday season. The slow funeral processions to the local cemeteries took on an even more sombre appearance than usual as the coffined remains passed by shops festooned with Christmas decorations. It was a time for reflection and a time to honour the memory of loved ones, colleagues, friends, neighbours and acquaintances whose lives on this earth had come to an end. Adam Coyle was a young man whose life was cut short of the biblical three score and ten. The turn out for his funeral was perhaps one of the largest seen in St. Michael’s Church of Ireland for some years past. May Neill, formerly May Breen of Offaly Street, lived a long-cherished life, dying just a few short years after her older sister Nan O’Rourke. Both were part of the wonderful Offaly Street neighbourhood community which provided the background to my youthful days in the street once known as Preston’s Gate. Martin Phillips passed away the week before Christmas, having fought an unsuccessful battle against a debilitating illness. I last met Martin at the official opening of the Outer Relief Road. As always Martin, despite knowing that the end was near, spoke with good cheer, exchanging laughter and good-humoured comments with myself and others. His was a courage which spoke volumes for the good life he led with an involvement in the Parish Church, the local G.A.A. Club, Irish traditional music and many other community based activities. The eulogy delivered from the church lectern by his son Martin was particularly moving and exceptional in its content and composition. Martin’s passing was soon followed by the deaths of Frank Breen and John Bracken. I first got to know Frank many years ago at a time when he worked in Peerless Rugs. He came to Athy from the northern part of Ireland and his good humour endeared him to everyone with whom he came in contact. John Bracken, whose brother Richard has done so much to revive the pipe band tradition in south Kildare, was a quiet man whose life was marked by courtesy and kindness. Just a week before Christmas day I was shocked to learn of the sudden death of Paddy Hayden, formerly of St. Patrick’s Avenue. I hadn’t met Paddy following his retirement from Tegral until approximately six months ago when on meeting in Duke Street Paddy told me of his interest in finding out why Éamon de Valera arrived in Athy to visit Ushers who then lived in Aughaboura. He said he witnessed de Valera making that visit on two occasions in the 1960s when Paddy was a young fellow living in nearby St. Patrick’s Avenue. I last met Paddy two days before he died when we discussed again the unexplained de Valera visits to Athy. Paddy’s father, after whom he was named, was a member of the local branch of the Irish Volunteers during the War of Independence. I have previously written of Paddy senior and his brother John who was also a member of the Volunteers and who was imprisoned in Portlaoise Prison following his arrest by the R.I.C. at his home in Offaly Street. Others who died during the pre and post-Christmas period included Kathleen Fenner, James Quigley, Paddy Kelly, Joe Delaney, James Fitzpatrick, Frank Gregory, Mary Mannion and Philip Maher. All were members of our local community whose passing brought sadness to many homes over the Christmas season. As I began to write this week’s Eye I learned of the death of Emma Carbery, daughter of my school mate Jerry Carbery. Emma was a young wife and mother who was actively involved in the community and her popularity was evidenced by the large numbers who attended her funeral Mass. Within days of Emma’s passing she was joined in death by Anthony Lynch, Donal Chambers and Mary O’Rourke. Mary supported her husband Dom over many years to achieve great success for the local St. Michael’s Boxing Club and was by his side when he was elected President of the Irish Amateur Boxing Association some years ago. The incomprehensibly complex relationships within a community cast their threads wide, and it is only as those threads unravel that we begin to value and appreciate the importance of the links which bring us together as a community. The passing of so many members of our local community in the weeks before and after the festive season of Christmas brought sorrowful loss not only to families and family relations but to the wider community. My sympathies to the families and relations of those who have gone from us in those past few weeks.

Launch of 'Pictorial History of Catholic Education in Athy'

Long forgotten memories of my school days in the Christian Brothers School off St. John’s Lane were recalled when I attended the launch in Ardscoil na Tríonóide of a pictorial history of Catholic secondary education in Athy on Thursday evening last. I attended school at a time when unemployment was rife, wages were low and free secondary education was unknown. The three roomed secondary school off St. John’s Lane was more than sufficiently large to accommodate the pupils who walked up the iron staircase for the daily classes. We had to make that journey six days a week as school attendance at secondary level in the 1950s required a half day in the classroom on Saturdays. Those Saturday morning classes were somewhat offset by sporting activities on Wednesday afternoons when we played Gaelic football in Geraldine Park. Gaelic football was the only sporting activity facilitated and encouraged by the Christian Brothers. How different from the present-day secondary school, Ardscoil na Tríonóide, a combination of the former Christian Brothers boys’ school and the Sisters of Mercy girls school. Today the sporting activities offered by Ardscoil na Tríonóide include soccer, rugby, camogie, basketball, badminton, athletics and of course Gaelic football and hurling. I was quite astonished by the breadth of extra-curricular activities available to today’s secondary students. The size of the educational campus at the Ardscoil is related to the announcement made in 1967 by the then Minister for Education, Donagh O’Malley of free education for all. Up to then the small three roomed secondary school in Athy was more than adequate to cater for the number of boys undergoing secondary education. Similar facilities for girls were provided by the Sisters of Mercy at Mount St. Marys. The amalgamation of the boys’ and girls’ secondary schools and the growth and demand for secondary education in Athy and district has created student numbers of approximately 850 in the present-day classrooms with staff numbers of approximately 80. These figures are a far cry from the numbers in both the boys’ and girls’ secondary school when I sat my Leaving Certificate Examination in 1960. The Christian Brothers school had four teachers – two Christian Brothers and two lay teachers, one of whom was the much-admired Liam Ryan, a teacher who encouraged and inspired his pupils. I recall how proud we young students were in 1958 when under the leadership of our classmate, Mick O’Neill, we founded our own new club, Cara, later re-named Aontas Ogra. It was for several years our only club activity during our school years and pales into insignificance in comparison to the school club activities of present-day students. Book club, craft club, computer club, chess club, cinealtas club and social justice club are just a few of the school club activities involving today’s students of Ardscoil na Tríonóide. The pictorial history of Ardscoil na Tríonóide is quite a magnificent publication recording in photographs and in words elements of the stories from two secondary schools which came together in 2007 as Ardscoil na Tríonóide. The editors of the book, teachers Sean Ryan and Andrew Behan have done a fine job in producing the book, ‘Through the Lens of Learning’. I was particularly moved by the contribution of a former pupil, Jamie Merrin, who started his secondary schooling in August 2011. As he explained it was a major step for him as he has Down Syndrome, but as his older brother was in Ardscoil na Tríonóide he wanted to attend there. He described his time in the secondary school as the ‘best years of my life. The help and support I received was outstanding. I always felt I was part of the team and class and this is something which was very important to me.’ No better tribute can be paid to the teachers and the staff at Ardscoil na Tríonóide than Jamie Merrin’s claim that ‘every member of the school community is cherished and respected.’ On the launch night we heard from a number of speakers, including the present principal Imelda Whelan. The Sisters of Mercy were represented by Sr. Concepta accompanied by her colleague, Sister Colette King and it was particularly relevant that Sr. Concepta addressed the audience and spoke of the contribution of the Sisters of Mercy to education in Athy. Sadly, there was no representative from the Christian Brothers at the launch but those of us who benefitted from the work of the Sisters of Mercy or the Christian Brothers as educationalists will never forget how in difficult times they afforded us the opportunities to better ourselves. The book will be available for sale in local shops and would be an ideal Christmas present for the thousands of past pupils who passed through the doors of the school.

Athy's Women Shed

Lunchtime on Thursday gave me an opportunity to visit local exhibitions by two talented artists whose work has benefited from grants provided by Kildare County Council under the Council’s Heritage Scheme and the Creative Arts Scheme. My first port of call was to the local library to see Marie Hopkins’ depiction of five element of Athy’s built heritage. Marie has created in acrylic a unique display showing the Town Hall, the Courthouse, the Methodist Church, Whites Castle and the former Dominican Church, now our town library. Her work highlighted what I imagine would generally be accepted by many as architecturally the more important buildings in Athy. We pass them by every day, seldom, if ever, giving a thought to the workmanship of the masons of past years whose talents and skills are mirrored in the buildings they built. My next visit was to Athy Arts Centre located in the town’s Methodist Church, which is one of the buildings captured in Marie Hopkins’ earlier mentioned exhibition. I was expecting to review the paintings produced by participants in the Brigid 1500 Art Project which was led by local artist Cathy Callan. Cathy is one of several superb artists living and working in the South Kildare area. On arrival in the Arts Centre I was met not only by the work of the Brigid 1500 Art Project participants as well as several excellent pictures by Cathy herself, but also by the sight and sounds of a Christmas fair organised by Athy Women’s Shed group. The tables were choc a bloc with Christmassy fare, but my attention was diverted to a discussion taking place in the centre/church led by Eilish Langton, Creative Art Organiser. On stage was the artist Cathy Callan taking questions about her art, during which she explained how in good weather she likes to paint outside as drawing and painting directly from life are experiences she treasures. The jolly women in the former classroom of the Methodist Church were enjoying themselves as they manned their Christmas stalls. I decided there and then to write of the Women’s Shed in this week’s Eye and asked if some background information could be emailed to me. Low and behold within a few hours Breda Gavagan, Chairperson of Athy’s Women’s Shed, sent me an extensive note and it is from here that I give over this week’s Eye to Breda Gavagan and her group. ‘The Athy Women's Shed was founded with just five members in February 2022 in a community house in Townspark. The goal of the shed is to reduce isolation among women. especially after Covid. It provides a safe, inclusive space for women to learn and connect through sharing stories, experiences and knowledge. There are currently 40 members, the shed operates on a Tuesday morning for 3 hours (11am-2pm). Members come from Athy and the surrounding areas, some come from as far afield as Carlow and Kildare town. The membership is currently closed. Activities include creative arts and crafts projects, horticulture, healthy food made easy cookery classes, jewellery making classes, ceramics, basket weaving, dragon boating, walking club, aqua aerobics, and women's health demonstrations and talks. The Chill Out Choir is also part of the Women Shed and they sing coming up to Christmas in Cloverlodge Nursing Home, St. Vincents Day Care Centre, Whitewater Shopping Centre Newbridge, etc. We collaborate with other groups such as Creative Places Athy for art projects, the community education programme, Kildare Sports Partnership and the Athy Alternative Project. Since we started, we have packed in a lot, we participated in two St. Patrick’s Day Parades, a Bring and Share for International Women’s Day, and two Dragon boat days on the River Barrow, one of which was with the Naas Men’s Shed, a Breast Cancer Awareness talk, two trips to Bloom in the Phoenix Park and the Shackleton Needs a New Hat project, which raised funds for the Athy Family Resource Centre. We visited the Dail which was organised through Senator Mark Wall and the Seanad, which was recorded on the minutes of the Seanad, which will forever be in the history of Ireland. Four committee members met President Michael Higgins and his wife Sabina at a Garden Party in Áras an Uachtaráin, organised for individuals who have dedicated their lives to make a positive impact in their communities. We have given back to the community by donating knitted blankets to St. Vincent’s Hospital Athy and St. Brigid's Hospice in the Curragh. We did a Fundraising day for the Ukraine Appeal with The Irish Red Cross. For our mental health and well-being, we have run Yoga workshops with Margareta Kal and Sound Healing and meditation with Kiera Geoghan. We have done a boat trip in Kilkenny with Cliff Reid, a tour of Kilkenny Castle, the Shackleton Museum tour, the Military Museum tour in the Curragh, a tour of the Natural History Museum and the National Gallery of Ireland, both in Dublin, and historical walks around Athy town. We participated in the Healthy Eating course run by Healthy Ireland. We collaborated with several artists such as Cathy Callan, Claire Murphy, Nasrim Golden and Orla Mc Donagh on projects. We have created our manifesto with artist Nasrim Golden and some of our art with Cathy Callan was displayed at Electric Picnic. We participated in our first event with the Kildare yarn bombers during the June Fest in Newbridge. We participated in the Brigid 1500 project with artist Cathy Callan, a year-long project that ended with an exhibition which is currently on view in the Athy Community Arts Centre.’ The members of the Women’s Shed are to be congratulated for their impressive work in encouraging the exchange of experiences, knowledge and friendship.

Poverty in Athy of old and Athy's Workhouse

With Christmas time fast approaching our thoughts turn to festive celebrations. Sadly, the festive season offers no respite from the daily struggle facing many households. The local St. Vincent de Paul Society which tries to help out families in need throughout the year, makes extra special efforts to bring some comfort to many at Christmas time. Last weekend the local Lions Club held it’s annual food appeal collecting funds to enable the St. Vincent de Paul Society to offer some extra help to needy families during the Christmas period. Athy, despite its impressive history as a market town of regional importance, a position which it held up to fifty years ago, was always home to a substantial number of poor families living in the laneways and alleyways of pre-slum clearance days. The two roomed and one roomed hovels built by private landlords in the 18th and 19th centuries were still part of Athy’s townscape up to the mid-1930s. It was the Slum Clearance Programmes of the third decade of the last century which did away with many of the town’s unfit and unhealthy slum dwellings. It is quite revealing to look back at Athy of 1846 and to see the enormous progress the town had made following the opening of the Canal in 1792 and the expected opening of the railway line to Athy the following year. Athy had adopted the commercial sophistication of a prosperous market town with an impressive number of craft persons trading in the town. Bakers, blacksmiths, boot and shoemakers, butchers, carpenters, saddlers, tailors with a tin plate worker and a tanner spoke of a thriving commercial town life existing side by side with many for whom the prospect of work was limited to seasonal farm work or summer work in the local brick yards. Athy’s economic lifeline in the early years of the 19th century were its fairs and markets, with its weekly market of particular importance. There was substantial unemployment in all Irish provincial towns during the 19th century and here in Athy with a history as a fortified garrison town inevitably the lure of army life saw many Athy men enlisting in the English army. The Crimean War saw many Athy men joining up, while the Boer War and especially the First World War saw high numbers enlisting. The unemployed men enlisted during times when State aid was not yet in place to assist the unemployed. Indeed, in the absence of State involvement the philanthropy of what was identified as the ‘gentry and clergy’ of the time established a dispensary system in Athy in 1818 to meet the medical needs of the poor. Those same people would later help fund the building of a fever hospital at a time when cholera outbreaks presented great risks for the general public and not just those living in unfit houses bereft of sewerage facilities and served by streetside water pumps supplying contaminated drinking water. A letter published in the Athy Literary Magazine in March 1838 claimed that Athy was ‘completely neglected ….. sickness and starvation visited alike the able bodies and the aged poor.’ The Workhouse in Athy planned to accommodate 360 adults and 240 children was opened on 9th January 1844. Within a few years two auxiliary workhouses had to be opened to accommodate the 1528 starving men, women and children who towards the end of the Great Famine sought shelter and food within the high walls of the Workhouse. Nowadays we do not have the same level of poverty as that witnessed by our predecessors of earlier centuries. What we have is deprivation and in many cases hunger which can only be helped by neighbours or community members coming together and working through charitable organisations such as the St. Vincent de Paul. If you missed the opportunity to make a donation during the Lions Club Food Appeal, you can still drop your contributions into the local St. Vincent de Paul shop in William Street. While writing of the Workhouse I was reminded that it is now almost four years since the then chairman of Kildare County Council agreed to my request for a suitable memorial to be erected in St. Mary’s Cemetery to honour the memory of the more than 1200 unfortunate Workhouse inmates who died during the Great Famine. A recent report in this newspaper would seem to indicate that any memorial to be erected was intended to highlight the deaths of women and children in the Workhouse which one Councillor seems to regard as a Mother and Child Home. Athy’s Workhouse, later the County Home, was never part of the Mother and Child Home regime. It was the Workhouse where sick and hungry men women and children from Athy and district died. The memory of the Famine dead who now lie in unmarked graves in St. Marys cemetery should never be forgotten. A stand-alone Famine memorial should be put in place without further delay.

The Death of Manager

The news of Margaret Walsh’s sad death was an unexpected blow to her family and friends and those of us associated with the Athy Heritage Centre/Shackleton Museum where Margaret was Manager for the last 19 years or so. I interviewed Margaret and several other candidates for that position, not having met her or known her previously. She was a very private person but at the same time she was someone who endeared herself to the Museum visitors and especially those who came each year to the annual Shackleton Autumn School. That event held over an October weekend since 2001 was I believe in its fourth year when Margaret joined the Heritage Centre. For the years that followed Margaret became the contact person for the Irish and overseas visitors who travelled to Athy for the Autumn School. The high regard those visitors had for Margaret was borne out by many messages of sympathy received from America, Norway and our near neighbour the UK following her death. Margaret, who was ill for the past two years, tried valiantly to keep to the high work standards she had set for herself in previous years. Her work in securing official Museum status for Athy Heritage Centre in 2016 was of the highest quality and enabled the Heritage Centre to move ahead of many other local centres/museums. It is tragic that Margaret passed away the same week as the building contractor moved into Athy’s Town Hall to start the long-awaited development of the Shackleton Museum. Margaret was part of the team that worked so hard over several years to secure the successful transition of the local Heritage Centre to become a museum of national, if not, international importance. The Shackleton Museum when opened will represent the third stage of a development which started with the opening of a one room local museum which was manned voluntarily for three hours every Sunday. Forty years have now passed since that first Sunday opening. The subsequent opening of the Heritage Centre in the Town Hall by Minister Charlie McCreevy in June 1998 followed on the appointment of the Centre’s first Manager in November of the previous year. Mark McLoughlin from Kildare town was the Centre’s first mManager and he remained in that position until January 2001. Margaret O’Riordan was next to take up the roll as Heritage Centre Manager and it was during her tenure that the Shackleton Autumn School was started. Margaret O’Riordan left to join the staff of University College Galway in early 2004 and following interviews the same year Margaret Walsh from Monasterevin took over as Manager. Managing the Heritage Centre with limited funds and very few staff was a difficult job. However, Margaret and her staff together with the Board members, all of whom were and still are volunteers, did an excellent job over many years. The success which is today marked by the multi-million euro redevelopment of the Town Hall building owes much to the work of everyone involved in the Heritage Centre project over many years. Margaret Walsh’s contribution and dedication was acknowledged and recognised by the staff members, Board members, volunteers and Shackleton Autumn School attendees who attended her funeral Mass in Monasterevin and later walked with the funeral cortege to Margaret’s last place of rest with her deceased parents. Margaret was the public face of the Shackleton Autumn School and she built a rapport with the many visitors to the annual October event which was reflected in the many messages of sympathy received from abroad and throughout Ireland following her death. Once such message from Northern Ireland read:- ‘For almost 20 years we have been regular attenders at the Shackleton Autumn School and Margaret was always our friendly gateway to the weekend. She dealt with all our queries and bookings in a calm, efficient, friendly and familiar manner and always made us so welcome when we arrived for the weekend.’ Another annual visitor writing from England wrote to me. ‘The Autumn School will not seem the same without Margaret; she was a special lady.’ Margaret fell ill approximately two years ago but being the private person she was she sought to continue working. Just the day before the last Shackleton Autumn School was to start, she received an urgent call to return to hospital but despite her worsening condition she insisted on attending for work the following day with the opening of the Autumn School. The next day at the school dinner I shared a table with Margaret and there was little hint of what lay ahead as we talked of the Museum redevelopment work which was to start the following week. Margaret would not live to see the commencement of the work. She had played her part as did many others in fulfilling a dream which in time to come will make Athy and the Shackleton Museum an important part of the worldwide polar network. Margaret will be sadly missed by us all. Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam.

The Role of History Societies in retrieving County Kildare's lost history

When I was growing up in Athy in the 1950s history was a school subject, loathed by some, studied by many, even if disliked, as a necessary subject which faced us as we sat our Intermediate or Leaving Certificate examinations. If truth be told our history lessons were dull affairs as we learned of battles in Europe and the oft told tales of Irish rebellions and Irish martyrs. The only text book available in those days was that written by Hayden & Noonan, University professors in Dublin, which was published in the 1930s or thereabouts. All Irish history finished insofar as secondary school students were concerned with the execution of the leaders of the 1916 rebellion. There was no local Athy element in any of the history lessons delivered in the local Christian Brothers School. After we bounded up the iron stairs to the three classrooms on the first floor of the school building, we learned of the Great Famine and its devastating affect on the people of West Cork and the counties on the western seaboard. No mention however of Athy’s Workhouse or of the more than 1,200 lifeless bodies carted from the Workhouse across the nearby canal bridge to be buried in unmarked graves in St. Mary’s Cemetery. The famine dead of the Athy Poor Law Union were never part of our history school lessons. A similar loss of community memory saw the events and hangings here in Athy during the 1798 Rebellion ignored for many generations. Another aspect of the town’s story which was similarly forgotten was the involvement of Athy men in the First World War. It is only in recent decades that Ireland’s and South Kildare’s local histories have been retrieved. For this we must acknowledge the extraordinary growth in the formation of local history societies in recent years. Here in South Kildare we have history societies in Athy, in Castledermot and in Ballitore, while there are few, if any, towns or villages throughout Ireland without similar voluntary groups seeking to unearth their local histories. The oldest such society in County Kildare is the Kildare Archaeological Society founded in 1891. Its first president was the Duke of Leinster. In the intervening years the Society has published a journal containing articles relating to the history and archaeology of County Kildare. In addition, the Society initially met three times a year, twice for lectures and once for an excursion to a place of archaeological interest in the county. The society now continues to hold outings, generally six or seven per year, while the Journal is published every second year. The 2022-2023 Journal was launched a few weeks ago at the society’s annual dinner held in nearby Kilkea Castle. That annual event was planned for the former home of Lord Walter Fitzgerald, who it is generally accepted was the moving force in the founding of the Kildare Archaeological Society. The current President of the Society is Siobhan McNulty of Athy whose maternal grandfather was the legendary Tom Moore of Offaly Street. Tom was for more than half a century secretary of Rheban Gaelic Football Club, which with his brother John and others helped establish in 1929. Siobhan’s paternal grandfather was Peter McNulty whose involvement in the War of Independence as a member of Frank Aiken’s Flying Column was little known until a few years ago. Sadly his contribution during the War of Independence, like that of so many others, was not known or acknowledged during his lifetime. Siobhan McNulty’s election to the Presidency of the Kildare Archaeological Society was the first time an Athy person holds that position. Interesting to note that the Athy connection was highlighted in the Society’s recently published Journal with a photograph of Athy’s courthouse on its front cover. The photograph was taken by local photographer Peadar Doogue, whose photographic work over many years has shown him to be a photographer of the highest standard. Membership of the Kildare Archaeological Society is open to everyone and especially anyone wanting to learn more about the history and archaeology of County Kildare. Persons wishing to join the Society should contact its membership secretary, Mr. G. Connolly, Newington House, Christianstown, Co. Kildare. The final history lecture for this year was held in the Community Arts Centre on Tuesday last. Thanks to Dr. Sharon Greene for a very interesting talk on Stephen Le Scrope who died during a plague outbreak in Castledermot during the 15th century. The story of his connection with Castledermot supported the view that the medieval walled town of Castledermot, the location of early meetings, now regarded as the first Irish Parliaments, was in many respects a more important outpost than its near neighbour, Athy. Our town, situated on the Marches of Kildare, was primarily a fortress town, garrisoned as the first line of defence to protect those living within the Pale. Our town’s past, whether socially or militarily, provides us with stories which need to be recorded and passed on. Unlike the history lessons of my generation there is a wealth of information now available to us thanks in many ways to the growing interest in local history and the formation of local history societies throughout Ireland.

Work starts next week on the Shackleton Museum

The contractor appointed to undertake the development of the Shackleton Museum will start work within the next week. It is expected that the construction work and the fitting out of the museum will take approximately one and a half years. The internal modifications and external alterations to the Town Hall building will be the third time that the building has undergone changes over the last 300 years. The first market house built in or about 1720 contained on the ground floor level an open arcaded structure intended for use by market dealers during Athy’s market days. The first floor housed the offices of the Borough Council and the courtroom where the Petty Sessions and Quarter Sessions were held. That small courtroom was where Wolfe Tone as a newly qualified barrister attended the Athy Quarter Sessions. It was also the courtroom where the notorious hanging judge, Lord Norbury, sat on a few occasions. The original relatively small Town Hall was extended at a later unknown date to occupy a larger footprint between the houses in the front square and the Church of England church at its rear. Early at the start of the 20th century an additional storey was added to the front of the town hall and a Lawrence photograph taken some time before 1900 shows the town hall façade before it was the subject of that work. The Town Hall, which the members of Athy Urban District Council considered demolishing in the 1970s in order to provide extra car parking in the town centre, survived largely due to the efforts of the local branch of An Taisce. That organisation helped save one of the most important buildings in the town at a time when strange decisions were being taken by local Councils throughout Ireland. Athy is fortunate to have a town centre which is graced by a large open square in front of the 18th century Town Hall. Another quite unusual and architecturally beautiful building is the Courthouse located in the back square. Erected a few years after the devastating famine of the 1840s it served for a very short time as the town’s corn exchange. It now houses the town’s District Court and the quarterly Circuit Court. The Courthouse and the Town Hall, both within a short distance of each other, present a superb reminder of the value and importance of Athy’s built heritage. It is expected that while work on the Town Hall proceeds a start will soon be made on regenerating Emily Square as part of a public realm improvement scheme. What is proposed, is not to my knowledge finally decided. When it comes we must expect a re-designed town plaza which hopefully will add appreciatively to our enjoyment of our town centre. During the week I had an unexpected telephone call from a businessman well known nationally whom I had never met. He questioned me about the commercial life of the town and expressed a view that with the opening of the bypass an opportunity now presents itself for businesses on the main streets to grow. He wanted to know how the local Chamber of Commerce was doing and was surprised to learn that Athy, like other towns in County Kildare, no longer had a local Chamber of Commerce. His surprise at that news later prompted me to question why the local commercial interest in the town do not come together to agree on coordinated action for improving businesses in Athy. The town needs a positive and proactive input from the shopkeepers of the town and there is surely amongst the young shopkeepers of Leinster Street and Duke Street the will, the energy and the initiative to recover Athy’s long lost title of ‘the best market town in Leinster’. The local Lions Club book fair scheduled for the A.R.C.H. (formerly Dreamland ballroom) on next Saturday, 18th November, is yet another praiseworthy initiative by the Club, which recently organised the never to be forgotten concert in St. Michael’s Parish Church. The Lions Club, with a small but energetic membership, has been responsible for organising a number of events which have attracted a lot of support from the local community, while adding enormously to the recreational and cultural life of the town. The success of the Lions Club is a reminder of what the business people of Athy could achieve if they came together to act cooperatively for the benefit of the town. The Book Fair will host a number of book dealers from around the country, with a stock of books of all types from the rare and expensive to the out of print, as well as interesting books of lower value. The Lions Club book shop will have a stall dedicated to the sale of children’s books, while copies of my own books, including Volume IV of Eye on Athy’s Past, will also be on sale that day.

Two book launches and the Opening of Athy's Outer Relief Road

Two book launches and one road opening. That was the week that was! Or so it seemed until I started to write this week’s Eye on the Past. The first book launch was that of Adrian Kane which the Cork based SIPTU officer had arranged for the Teachers Club in Dublin. Adrian, the youngest son of the late Paddy and Ruby Kane of Avondale Drive, has written a book which examines the current state of Trade Unionism, the reason for the decline of the Trade Union Movement and how the movement can be revitalised. Launched by Eoin O’Broin, the Sinn Fein T.D. and housing spokesman, it brought together what anyone of liberal tendencies might described as agents of collective activism. It was an interesting evening with speeches by Trade Unionists who acknowledged the difficulties facing Trade Unions as they seek to attract young workers in the fight to protect the hard-earned rights of workers. The second book launch took place in Newbridge’s Keadeen Hotel a few days later. ‘Who Said Love Honour and Carry Water’ was the intriguing title of a book written by John Hynes in which he told the story of his involvement in completing Group Water Supply Schemes in all but four counties of the Republic over a 45 year period from 1968. John has written a detailed account of his involvement in Ireland’s Group Water Supply Schemes which like the Rural Electrification Scheme, started almost twenty years previously, brought huge benefits for rural folk. The successful completion of so many group water schemes was a major factor in the improvement of rural households and the easing of hardships for thousands of rural women folk. It brought about a transformation which was especially welcomed by the women folk and no doubt helped nurture the confidence and self-reliance which has become the hallmark of country folk. The successful completion of so many Group Water Supply Schemes required a business approach coupled with a cooperative community involvement. John’s accounts of his contacts with local community groups goes far to explain why engagement with the men and women forming the Group Scheme Committees were essential ingredients for success. His is an interesting story which in latter years was marred by an unidentified and unresolved problem between John’s company and some senior officials in the Department of Local Government. The mysterious stand-off effectively brought John’s involvement in Ireland Group Water Schemes to a premature end. Here in County Kildare the seventy-seven Group Schemes finalised by John’s company included Narraghmore, Barrowhouse, Clongorey, Kilkea and Leinster Lodge. The book is a good read with important details of one man’s contribution to the improvement of life in rural Ireland in the days before the Celtic tiger rose from its slumber. Before the second book launch the Outer Relief Road, which officials now call the Southern Distributor Road, was opened by the Taoiseach. The new relief road has caught the public’s favourable attention and is clearly seen as a most welcome addition to the town’s roads infrastructure. An unexpected bonus is the pathways which link the Blueway, the Barrow towpaths and the pathways on the new road. The Blueway, which for the immediate future ends in Athy, will see the development of a Blueway hub in or around the former Dominican grounds. If and when it’s constructed, the hub will enhance Athy’s attraction as a waterway’s town. A number of events happening this month include Dr. Sharon Greene’s lecture on Tuesday, 14th November at 8pm in the Community Arts Centre organised by Athy’s Historical Society. The lecture comes two days after another event organised by members of the Society. This is the annual commemorative event in St. Michael’s Cemetery on Remembrance Sunday, 12th November at 3pm to honour the Athy service men and women who died in World War I. On Remembrance Sunday we continue to remember not only the World War I victims but also all Athy men and women who died in war wherever and whenever they occurred. It’s a ceremony which has helped develop over the years the local community’s awareness and acceptance of the difficulties experienced by so many local families in the aftermath of the 1914-18 war. On Saturday, 11th November the World War I dead from Castledermot and district will be remembered with the unveiling of a memorial in the grounds of Scoil Diarmada. The much-awaited Lions Club Book Fair will be held in the ARCH Centre on the Kilkenny Road on Saturday, 18th November commencing at 10am and finishing at 4pm. There will be a stand offering children’s books, old and new, for sale together with a number of book dealers with a variety of interesting books for sale. The fair will offer a wonderful opportunity to get your Christmas presents well in advance of the festive season.

Athy's streetscape as noted in 1782

On the 8th August 1782 the Irish Antiquarian Austin Cooper, following a visit to Athy, wrote “Athy is a small town situated on the River Barrow over which there is a plain bridge of arches with a low square castle on the east side. Here is a Market House, church and county Courthouse, nothing remarkable in elegance of building. On the north west side of the town is a plain horse barracks and near it another old castle”. The Market House referred to was the still unaltered building erected in or around 1720 which served not only as a Market House but also as the Borough Councils administrative centre or Town Hall as well as the towns Courtroom. The plain bridge mentioned by Cooper was replaced fourteen years later by the present Crom a Boo Bridge with its classical Palladian features. Constructed of cut limestone, the five arch bridge was but a few hundred yards from its near neighbour, “the horse bridge” which was built in 1791 to allow horses pulling canal boats to cross from the canal towpath to the left bank of the River Barrow. On the Castlecomer Road leading out of Athy another new bridge was built over the Grand Canal, the third bridge in the town where once there had been but one bridge. The opening of the Grand Canal to Athy in March 1791 and the building of the Horse bridge and Augustus Bridge brought in its wake huge benefits for the commercial life of the town. The Canal was the first planned major intervention in the town’s streetscape which up to then had been dominated by streets and roads laid down in medieval times. John Roque’s maps of Athy dated 1756 and 1768 were the earliest records of the town’s street patterns and later cartographers were to record the arrival of the canal and later still that of the railway. The opening of the railway line from Dublin to Carlow in August 1846 was only the second ever major planned alteration to the centuries old towns streetscape. Houses at Bothair Bui had to be demolished to allow the railway line and Athy’s fourth bridge to be built. The medieval linear main streets of the town by the mid part of the 19th century featured bridges over the railway line, the River Barrow and the Grand Canal. From the earliest medieval times the navigable River Barrow was the principal, and at most times the only link between the early settlers in Athy and the outside world. The bridge on the Barrow and the fortified building on its eastern side were garrisoned to protect the river crossing from the warlike Irish on the west side of the Marches of Kildare. The Grand Canal facilitated the development of Athy as a market town in peaceful times while the railway line to Athy and beyond was the final confirmation of Athy’s position as a progressive market town. The story and the symbolism of the Athy bridges are fascinating indicators that river, canal and railway each in turn brought immeasurable benefits to the ancient town at different times in its life. Today, 31st October, the third major infrastructural change in the town’s streetscape will be officially opened. The outer relief road is intended to relieve traffic congestion and lessen traffic delays on Athy’s main streets with the expected removal of heavy vehicles from the town’s centre. The new roadway should make a seismatic change in the volume of traffic passing down Duke Street and Leinster Street and when it does, it will bring with it a gradual but steady improvement in the town centres footfall. On Tuesday, 14th November, the Arts Centre in Woodstock Street will be the venue for a Lecture by Dr. Sharon Greene titled ‘Shakespeare, Scrope and Castledermot’. Did you know that a Shakespeare character died in Castledermot? Stephen Le Scrope lived during the late 14th century, the third son of a prominent English family was depicted briefly in one of Shakespeare’s history plays. Sharon, who will tell Le Scrope’s story, is the former editor of Archaeology Ireland and has made a huge contribution to the protection and preservation of many archaeological sites and artefacts in the South Kildare area. The lecture starts at 8p.m. with free admission. That same week Athy Lions Club’s second Book Fair will be held in the Arch on the Kilkenny Road on Saturday, 18th November opening at 10.00 a.m. Further details about the Book Fair next week.

Shackleton Autumn School 2023 (Part 2)

The Shackleton Autumn School is just two days away as I began to write this week’s Eye on the Past. It has been a particularly busy week, with a huge amount of work finalising arrangements for the arrival of lecturers and visitors from overseas. This year the Autumn School celebrates 23 years in existence, during which time it has grown from strength to strength. The first Autumn School was planned and arranged with the help of Bob Headland who was then working in the Scots Polar Institute in Cambridge. The Polar Institute, based in the university city of Cambridge, was established to further understanding of the polar regions through research and publications and Bob was the Curator of the Institute when I contacted him in 1999. He generously guided my first faltering steps in organising the first Autumn School, named after the Kilkea-born explorer, Ernest Shackleton. Bob has attended every one of the Autumn Schools since then, apart from the Covid period schools which were held on Zoom. Alexandra Shackleton, granddaughter of Ernest Shackleton, attended the second Autumn School in 2001 and has been present every year since then. The success of the Shackleton Autumn School at international level is something that is perhaps not readily appreciated. In truth, the provincial town in the south of the county of Kildare has been established as the location of one of the most popular annual polar events held anywhere in the world. The continued success of the Autumn School which operates as an ‘offspring’ of the Shackleton Museum, is due to the work of a small committee comprising Kevin Kenny of Naas, Mark McClean of Wexford and Seamus Taaffe of Athy. They took on the task of organising the annual school some years ago and with the assistance of the museum staff have improved on the original Autumn School model, making it one of the great events in the Kildare County tourism calendar. At the opening of the Autumn School on the Friday evening of 20th October I will have the great honour of announcing that funding for the redevelopment of the Shackleton Museum is in place and that work on the redevelopment of the museum will commence shortly. That work will on completion give the town a first-class museum designed to attract a lot of visitors from overseas. It is a major coup for Athy and one which I could not have envisaged when founding the Athy Museum Society in 1983. The purpose of the society was to open a local museum highlighting the town’s story, its people and its history. My discovery of Shackleton’s birthplace in nearby Kilkea prompted the telling of his story with a panel or two in that local museum devoted to Shackleton. The Autumn School followed much later and the success of the school prompted the thought of a museum dedicated to the polar explorer given the tourism possibilities that could create. Kildare County Council through it’s then executive Peter Carey, recognising the cultural and tourism opportunities involved, played a major part in securing the Shackleton statue and the cabin in which the polar explorer died. The drive for a dedicated Shackleton Museum would not have been possible without the County Council’s backing and Kildare County Council has now agreed to take over the financing and management of the Shackleton Museum when it reopens. This will ensure the financial stability which the museum will require for the future. The volunteers who have been part of the museum project stretching back over forty years have helped to create a wonderful cultural asset, with the possibility of adding to the commercial well-being of the town through tourism and visitors generally. Shortly the present Board of Directors of the Shackleton Museum will gather for the last time and resign as directors in order to allow Kildare County Council to appoint a new Board. I will be vacating my position as chairman of the Board, happy in the belief and knowledge that the dream I had forty years ago of a museum in Athy will be in good hands when Kildare County Council take over. If I had dreams in the past, I also had nightmares and that of the loss of Whites Castle is my recurring nightmare. The development of Whites Castle as a town/Fitzgerald Museum is my next dream. What better way to make Athy a tourist destination rather than a stopover on the way to Kilkenny or elsewhere than having two museums of different interests, one telling the Shackleton story, the other outlining the story of a historic town with a rich past. I am afraid I don’t have forty years left in me to fulfil that dream. It must however come for Whites Castle can never be allowed to fall into dereliction. The Castle and Crom a Boo bridge are the acknowledged symbols of Athy and must be protected, preserved and eventually used for the benefit of the people of Athy.

Shackleton Autumn School 2023 (Part 1)

As summer greens turn to winter browns it is only natural that our thoughts turn to the festive season in December. However, there has been one fixture on the town’s calendar for the last twenty-three years and that is the Shackleton Autumn School which returns on the weekend of the 20th – 22nd October. With the Museum at the Town Hall closed for renovations for the next 18 months the Autumn School has found itself a new home in the Abbey, formerly the Convent of Mercy, Athy. It’s an exciting departure for the Shackleton Autum School as it has a greater range of facilities and spaces available to the attendees and lecturers than in the old Town Hall. After piloting the Autumn School through two years of online events during Covid the Autumn School returned with its best ever attendance last year and the committee hopes that the attendance at this year’s Autumn School will surpass those record numbers in 2022. The committee have worked hard to put in place a programme for the local primary and secondary schools and students will participate in a number of workshops on Friday, 20th October involving the sculptor Mark Richards who created the superb Shackleton statue in the back square. Mike Robinson, the Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society will lead a workshop on climate change. Primary school students will be immersed in the polar world with presentations and workshops involving representatives of the U.K Antarctic Heritage Trust who will share with the students a virtual reality experience giving the students the opportunity to experience an Antarctic base 80 years ago. Donald Lamont of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust will address the students on the recent discovery of Shackleton’s ship ‘Endurance’. Finally Hugh Turner, the grand-nephew of the explorer Apsley Cherry Garrard, author of the polar classic – The Worst Journey in the World - will speak to students about what it is like to be a polar explorer. The Autumn school itself will be launched at 7.30p.m. in The Abbey on Friday, 20th October and all our welcome to attend. As ever we can expect attendees from all over the world including the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Australia and even Singapore. Attendees will be treated to a variety of lectures which include the Scottish pilot Doug Cochrane who will speak about his time flying in the Antarctic followed by the Norwegian archaeologist Synnove Strosvag who will talk about explorers and how they break down barriers in life. The distinguished Antarctic historian Dr. Michael Rosove who will speak of the hundred years that have passed since the first biography of Shackleton was published. Nick Cox, a 30 year veteran of both the Arctic and the Antarctic, will talk about the development of polar clothing and equipment, while the Autum School is delighted to welcome back Mensun Bound, one of the discoverers of The Endurance who will talk about the history of Shackleton’s most famous ship. Other lectures will include Caitlin Brandon on Dr Alexander Macklin who as well as participating on two of Shackleton’s expeditions attended upon Shackleton on his death bed. There are a number of side events which the committee have been able to develop this year given the additional space available in the Abbey including a polar market hall which will host a variety of sellers of polar books, arts and crafts. Everyone is welcome to attend the polar market hall to see the interesting items for sale. The most important part of the weekend for many of the participants and local people is the social side of the Autumn School and as ever O’Brien’s pub in Emily Square will be an important focal point for those attending. The Autumn School is pleased to be associated with the Athy Lions Club hosting of ‘South, Always South’ in St. Michael’s Parish Church Athy at 7.30pm on Sunday 22nd October. This is the story in music, words and pictures of Ernest Shackleton’s life, his Endurance expedition and his extraordinary legacy. It is composed and performed by Brian Hughes (Uilleann piper and whistle) with the County Kildare Orchestra, scripted and narrated by John MacKenna and conducted by Lorcan Daly. All proceeds of the performance will be going to Athy Lions Club and it will be a wonderful opportunity to enjoy local artists in a local setting and tickets can be brought from Winkles newsagents or any Lions Club member or from the offices of Taaffe & Co. Solicitors.