Betty O'Donnell's 100th birthday

Today we celebrate the 100th birthday of Betty O’Donnell, whose birthday occurs on 29th August. Betty, like myself and like so many others now living in Athy, is not a native of the South Kildare town. She has lived here for 76 years, having first arrived in Athy just a few years after the end of the 2nd World War to take over a business with her late husband Jimmy. Betty was always associated with ‘The Gem’, a readily identifiable news agency, stationery and book shop adjoining the Garda Siochana station which was located on Duke Street at that time. ‘The Gem’, under the management of Betty and her daughter Una, continued in business until it closed in March 2020. Betty, formerly Betty Prendergast, a native of Carlow, first arrived in Athy as the young bride of Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim native Jimmy O’Donnell. Her father, Thomas, some years previously had bought the premises for his widowed sister, Bridget (‘Biddy’) Gavin, when she returned from America. She operated a sweet shop and an ice cream parlour, which on fair days became tea rooms. Operating the business successfully for a number of years Bridget felt it was time to close up the shop when Tom Bradbury opened up his tea rooms in Leinster Street. It was then that Betty and her husband Jimmy were invited to take over the business, which they did, just as the important newspaper agency of Mrs. James at 12 Duke Street became available to them. The tea rooms were soon discontinued and ‘The Gem’ became a fulltime stationery and news agency so beloved of the people of Athy. Betty was sadly widowed in 1971 when her beloved husband Jimmy died suddenly at the young age of 52 years. With eight children to support, the youngest aged 5 years old, Betty continued to operate the business. Behind Betty’s cheerfulness there lay a resourcefulness and an innate strength which allowed her to make a success of the business. Always good natured, Betty managed over the decades to involve herself in the social and community life of the town. Elected Lady Captain and later Lady President of Athy Golf Club, she managed both honorary positions with distinction. Up until recent years she still retained an active involvement in bridge playing as a member of the Geraldine Bridge Club and the bridge club associated with Athy’s Golf Club. Her bridge partner for many years was her near neighbour in Chanterlands, Moya Wall, to whom belated birthday wishes are also sent, although Moya has quite a few years to wait for the President’s cheque to arrive! Betty, who was driving her car up to quite recently, has proved to be a great friend of this column over the years. Her interest in Athy’s history is matched by an extensive background knowledge of Athy people and Athy events of the past. She proved invaluable to me in suggesting persons, events and topics for previous Eyes on the Past. It was Betty who first drew my attention to the forgotten roadside memorial to Tommy O’Connell, former Commanding Officer of the Carlow/Kildare Brigade. Tommy was killed in a road traffic accident on the Carlow Road near Maganey on 31st August, 1924. He had worked in Betty’s father’s furniture manufacturing workshop prior to and during the War of Independence. The memorial, hidden from public view for many years, was rediscovered by myself, but unfortunately soon thereafter was damaged as a result of a road traffic accident. Due to the good work of Jerry O’Toole it has now been fully restored and continues to serve as a fitting tribute to a brave Irish republican. Betty O’Donnell’s name is synonymous with that of ‘The Gem’. Both are part of the living lore of a community which treasures not only those native to Athy, but the many who like Betty and myself came as strangers to live in the South Kildare town. Best wishes to Betty O’Donnell on her 100th birthday and very sincere thanks to the cheerful and chatty Betty whose presence enlivened every gathering of which she was a part.

Investing in Athy's cultural past

A recent report commissioned by Historic England, the public body which promotes and protects that country’s historic environment, confirmed that the best way to boost a town’s ailing economy is to invest in its cultural past. It found that wherever heritage and cultural history are linked to the works of new artistic communities, business growth is the result. In an interview with the Observer newspaper the chairman of the UK Government Culture and Heritage Capital Programme said: ‘The report demonstrates that the heritage which surrounds us has a positive significant effect on boosting local pride and it makes people feel good – 93% of people agree that local heritage raises their quality of life.’ I was struck by his words as I thought of two major elements of Athy’s built heritage. Woodstock Castle and the White Castle are Athy’s crowning features, with the White Castle being to the forefront because of its prominent location in the very centre of our town. Yet the local people and the local government agencies with responsibility for Athy have shown scant interest in the preservation, protection and future use of the castle. There is a long and disappointing history in relation to the castle ever since it was first put up for sale by the Doyle family. That was approximately 35 years ago and since then the castle has appeared on the property market for sale without any serious interest in acquiring the 15th century building being displayed by the State or local government agencies. The most disappointing aspect of this failure was the lack of appreciation of the importance of the White Castle in terms of the town’s-built heritage, but also in terms of its links with the important historical events of the past. The White Castle forms an important link with our historic past. For that reason alone it deserves to remain part of our community story. However, the case for its preservation is strengthened by its unique and prominent position in the town centre. Imagine if you will that a demolition crew started the removal of the White Castle from Athy’s townscape. It’s not a thought to be considered. For yet as a community if we do not act to protect to preserve this unique feature we will eventually arrive at a situation where it will be too late to save the White Castle. For those interested in working to save the White Castle I intend to register Athy’s Civic Trust Company for the purpose of taking ownership, in time, of the town’s-built heritage on behalf of the people of Athy. The Trust would also apply for charitable status and be in a position to try and obtain State grants allocated for the protection of our built heritage. All of this is preliminary work without any definite knowledge if the White Castle can be acquired or if funding from State agencies or local government agencies can be committed to the project. The expectation is that funding will be available at some time in the future, but less certain is how and when the possibility of acquiring the castle will arise. There is now an opportunity for the people of Athy to express their interest in maintaining the White Castle as a unique aspect of the town’s streetscape. Athy’s Historical Society will call a meeting for the local Community Arts Centre within the next few weeks to which anyone interested is invited to attend. Our community must give voice and support to the White Castle project for if we do not future generations will question why we failed to take up the torch.

Maisie Candy

The history of the 800-year-old town of Athy is the story of a community growing from the closeknit village of yesteryear to the more loosely connected life of a modern day sprawling urban centre. Where once both young and old alike knew everyone and every place within the town, nowadays there are limits to our local knowledge as the population increases and new housing estates are developed on the outskirts of the town. It has become more difficult to contain the unified community life which once characterised the town’s earlier existence and so almost inevitably we find communities emerging in areas which lack the cohesion and common purpose of a strong urban community. That was the opening paragraph to an Eye on the Past which I wrote in July 2008. I went on to praise the Castlemitchell and Churchtown community’s strength which developed and sustained over the years, had made it one of the premier rural communities in County Kildare. One of the community leaders in Castlemitchell and Churchtown during her time as Principal of Churchtown National School and later in retirement, was Maisie Candy whose death was announced last week. Maisie was an extraordinary, energetic and kind woman who more than anyone else personified the community spirit of Castlemitchell/Churchtown. She always highlighted the importance of community involvement and helped maintain by her leadership and involvement the community spirit which gave recognition to Castlemitchell/Churchtown as an active and vibrant community. That involvement saw Maisie initiating two important projects for the Castlemitchell area. The unveiling of the 1798 monument during the bicentenary of the 1798 Rebellion was one such initiative of hers. Another which I know was very close to her heart was the revival of the annual pilgrimage to the Holy Well at Toberara. In 1979 Maisie and the children of Churchtown National School compiled a detailed account of local brickyards in the south Kildare area and wrote a detailed description of the handmade brickmaking techniques of the late 19th century. That work was reproduced in the recently published book ‘Brickmaking in Ireland’, written by the retired conservation architect, Susan Rowantree and published by Wordwell. Another very important project initiated by Maisie and completed by the children of Churchtown National School was an investigation and listing of local field names in and around Castlemitchell. Local history and local folklore were the abiding interests of Maisie and as a native daughter of Castlemitchell she was always willing to share her knowledge with others. In that regard she was most generous. An Irish language enthusiast, she was a member of the committee set up by Athy’s Chamber of Commerce in 1994 to help restore interest in the everyday use of the Irish language. Athy’s ‘Glor na nGael’ was in its time one of the most successful organisations in the town. ‘Seachtain na nGailge’ was organised annually to encourage local shopkeepers to make use of the Irish language by advertising in Irish and speaking Irish during that one week in the year. All of this was a revival of the Gaelic League of ninety years or more earlier which had flourished for a few years under the guidance of Bridget Darby who like Maisie was principal of Churchtown National School and Michael Dooley, shopkeeper of Duke Street and one time president of Athy’s Sinn Féin Club. The later revived Gaelic League of the early 1960s was headed up by Paddy Walsh, a native speaker from Ring, with the help of Kevin Meaney, Mick Kelleher, Peadar O’Murchu, Maisie Candy and others. Athy’s Chamber of Commerce Irish language initiative led to the setting up of the first Gaelscoil in December 2004. The following November the Gaelscoil moved from the Aontas Ogra premises adjoining the former Dreamland Ballroom to Athy’s soccer clubhouse. There it remained until the Gaelscoil at Rathstewart was built. All of this stemmed from the work of many people, including Kathleen Robinson, David Murphy and Maisie Candy. Maisie was also to the forefront in promoting concerts and drama in the local Castlemitchell hall. She was a renaissance woman whose allegiance to Castlemitchell/Churchtown was forged by ties of birth but whose lifelong efforts to encourage a strong community spirit was the hallmark of a generous person who could truly be described as a passionate community activist. Our sympathies on Maisie’s passing go to her daughters Brid, Catherine, Eilis, her son Sean and her extended family and friends.

Letters from Athy and Athy natives

While browsing in a bookshop recently I came across a recent publication titled “Letters of note”. It is a compilation, by Sean Usher, as he describes it of the “World’s Most Entertaining, Inspiring and Unusual Letters”. Included was a letter by Patrick Hitler to US President Franklin Roosevelt on March, 3rd 1942 seeking permission to enlist in the US Navy. Patrick of course was the nephew of Aldolf Hitler and his mother Bridget was from the Athy area. This interesting collection made me reflect on the importance of the letters as repositories of our collective histories. Often these letters are written by townspeople who are far from our shores and sometimes at war. One such letter was published in the Leinster Leader on the 23rd of June 1900 from an unnamed correspondent from Athy who was fighting in the Boer War in South Africa. Described in the paper as “an Athy Yeoman” he was serving in the 74th Dublin Company of the Imperial Yeomanry, a mounted volunteer unit. Writing from Stellenbosch Camp on the 28th of May 1900 he described the town of Colesberg. The town comprised of about 6,000 inhabitants (which was a little bit bigger than Athy at the time) and of which “half of the people in it are rebels and the other half are loyalists”. Perhaps with the view to ingratiating themselves with the locals the troops hosted an ’entertainment’ one night. The Athy cavalryman was first up singing “The Heart Bowed Down” and then gave an encore with the song “Terence’s farewell to Kathleen”. In concluding the letter he wrote: ‘The officers brought our company on a mountain climbing expedition last week. We rode about 14 miles, and then left our horses at the base, where we proceeded on foot with our rifles. The mountains are full of buck, a sort of deer. We brought back four, from which we dined very well. I am rather pressed for time, so I must conclude with the hope that all home are well. Tell all the boys in Athy that I was enquiring for them, and also the girls. Your affectionate brother.’ Postal services and their provision have been a source of controversy in the past and I was intrigued to come across a debate in the Dail on the 15th of April 1975 between Dr. Conor Cruise O’Brien, the then Minister for Post and Telegraphs, and Paddy Power TD over the provision of a post box in Ballyroe, Athy. Power was bemoaning the lack of a post box in Ballyroe and was asking was “the Minister aware that the residents of the Ballyroe area have to travel three and a half miles to post a letter and does he not think that they deserve better facilities than that?”. The Minister replied “the facilities provided are equivalent to those provided generally and those which in the past have been provided for small rural districts and thinly populated areas like this. The exchange continued but Power was unsuccessful in his submissions to the Minister who when Patrick Power posed his final question “would the Minister not consider to have one postal official travel three miles a day rather than have a certain number of people from Ballyroe travelling three miles to Athy”. The Minister answered simply ‘no’ and there the exchange ended. Ballyroe to this day does not have a postbox. The cholera outbreak of 1832 might have escaped my notice had I not come across correspondence (held in the National Archives) regarding meetings held in the Athy Courthouse (at that time in the Town Hall) where the inhabitants had gathered to nominate a Board of Health to deal with the threat of cholera which had broken out in the town. The letter from the townspeople who had gathered also requested that the central Board of Health in Dublin would provide them with a medical practitioner. This request was supported by a letter from Thomas Fitzgerald, the High Sheriff of County Kildare who resided in Geraldine, Athy. It appeared from the correspondence that the outbreak was attributable to a man who died in the town having travelled over from Portarlington. I often think of the Irish scholar and antiquarian- John O’Donovan who visited Athy in November 1837 and remained in the town for a period of 10 days. His research into local place names and the collection of local historic material was detailed in a series of letters he sent back to the historical department of the ordinance survey of Ireland. Writing from Athy on the 22nd of November 1837 he described the weather as being “very unfavourable to our researchers”. But none the less he detailed the antiquarian remains in Athy which he found consisting of the old Parish Church of St. Michael’s and St. John’s, the Castle of Woodstock and the South East Gate (known as Preston’s Gate) which itself would be demolished by the Town Council of 1860 after an accident involving the Church of Ireland rector, Reverend Frederick Trench from Kilmoroney. There is no doubt that the modern reliance on emails and texts is to the detriment of historians, given the disposal nature of these communications. What letters, if any, from the 21st Century will survive for the historians of the future to peruse?

Athy's Market Rights 1515 and 1907

People on social media during the past week raised concerns about Athy’s Tuesday market. Their concerns were raised in the light of the planned redevelopment of Emily Square or as Kildare County Council would tell us “the improvement of the public realm”. Athy’s Tuesday market came into existence following the granting of a charter by King Henry VIII in 1515. The charter written in latin specified that the market was to be held every Tuesday in a place chosen by Gerald Earl of Kildare at whose request the charter was granted. The same charter granted borough status to the medieval village of Athy and provided for the annual election of a town provost whose modern day equivalent would be the mayor. The primary purpose of the charter was to fund the erection of walls around the medieval village and so provide greater security for the villagers whom we are told “lived in the frontiers of the Irish enemy”. The continuation of the market five hundred and twenty nine years later is wonderful to behold but the present market traders, many of whom have been coming to Athy for over forty years, are concerned as to how they will be catered for when Emily Square is closed during the redevelopment work. During the 18th century the market place was identified as the area immediately in front of the Town Hall which had been built in or around 1720. Immediately behind the Town Hall was St. Michael’s Church of Ireland Church which was demolished following the opening of the new St. Michael’s Church at the top of Offaly Street in 1840. The area between the old church and the nearby river barrow was marshland which would tend to indicate that the market place chosen by the Earl of Kildare was the area now known as Emily Square. Interestingly, Athy Urban District Council adopted market bye laws in July 1907 in which twelve market places in Athy were designated. These included markets for specific agricultural produce which were allocated to the market square, markets in the west and south side of the courthouse and the calf market on the east side of the courthouse. The market for second hand clothes was sited between the Barrow bridge and the south side of the chains on the Barrow Quay while the turf market was located opposite the chains on Barrow Quay. This would tend to show that the market right first established in 1515 by decision of the Urban District Council in 1907 had been extended beyond its original location in the market square. These bye laws were published in local newspapers on the 1st July 1907 and in addition to setting out regulations for the operation of the markets, they also reimposed market tolls on goods sold in the market and also reaffirmed Tuesday as the town market day. This latter declaration was probably deemed necessary because the Commissioners on Municipal Corporations in Ireland Report which followed a public enquiry in Athy on the 3rd and 4th October 1833 stated “Tuesday and Saturday in each week are the market days” . Strangely, Athy Town Commissioners at its meeting on the 2nd August 1852 agreed that “a second market be established in Athy on every Saturday to commence on the 1st September 1852”. The Tuesday market is a market right created by charter which cannot be extinguished by non mere use unlike the Saturday market where the right to hold same has long disappeared and cannot now be revived. The right to hold the Tuesday market under the 1515 charter was given to the Provost of Athy and he was succeeded in time by the heads of subsequent local authorities resulting in Kildare County Council having ownership of the market right and effectively control of the Tuesday Market. Under The Casual Trading Act 1995, Kildare County Council can extinguish the market but only for the purposes of relocating it to a different area. It is not suggested that this be done as the redeveloped Emily Square would be the ideal location for a revamped Tuesday Market. I have written on several occasions over the years calling on Athy U.D.C. and Kildare County Council to adopt casual trading bye laws, the purpose of which would be to improve the market and make it more attractive for locals and visitors alike. In providing even on a temporary basis a different location for the exercise of the market right, the County Council must ensure that the new location provides facilities reasonably corresponding in size etc. to those currently provided. The work on the Emily Square development is, I understand, to start next September. In the meantime, the traders entitled to benefit from the market rights of 1515 wonder what arrangements are to be made in terms of temporary market relocation when the “public realm” development is ongoing.

Prostitution in Athy in the mid-19th century

Despite the fact that over 1,200 inmates of the local Workhouse died during the Great Famine I have been unable to find any references to these deaths in the Minute Books of Athy Town Commissioners. Indeed, references to the Great Famine was not found anywhere in the Town Commissioners’ Minute Books. The recently elected Town Commissioners had busied themselves in attempts to remove the turnpike gate on the Castlecomer Road. At a meeting in Kennedy’s Hotel on 27th April 1846 the Town Commissioners and the local farmers agreed to the removal of the turnpike gate, resulting in the free passage of goods in and out of Athy. Seven years later Alexander Duncan in a speech at the inauguration dinner for the Commissioners new chairman, Michael Lawler, referred to the progress Athy had made in the previous 20 years. However, one area in which complaints were still raised by some members of the local society related to the presence on the streets of Athy of the world’s oldest profession. As a garrison town with a cavalry barracks at Woodstock it was inevitable that the issue would be a source of concern for the Town Fathers. The first mention of prostitution in the Minute Books of the Athy Commissioners was recorded on 11 August 1856 when the Commissioners appointed Mr. Cross and H. Hannon to wait on the local magistrates relative to the scandal of public prostituting in the town. On 2nd August 1858 the Commissioners had a public notice posted throughout the town. ‘Caution to persons keeping any place of public resort within the town for the sale of refreshments of any kind who knowingly supplies any common prostitute or resorting therein to assemble and continue in his premises after this notice will be prosecuted according to law. BY ORDER HENRY SHEILL TOWN CLERK.’ On 2nd May 1859 Thomas Roberts was appointed assistant to the Inspector of Nuisances for the purpose of prosecuting public prostitutes and street beggars for which he was to be paid four shillings per week with an additional two shillings and six pence for each conviction of a prostitute. Roberts brought a number of local prostitutes before the magistrates the following June, but all the cases were dismissed as the magistrate considered the method of paying Roberts two shillings and six pence for each conviction ‘injudicious.’ Thereafter Mr. Roberts efforts were largely confined to dealing with the vagrant beggars which the Town Commissioners on 1st September 1860 noted were to be found standing at doors or loitering about obstructing the public. The Town Commissioners’ attempt to rid the town of prostitutes was by all accounts less provocative, and certainly more law abiding than the measures adopted by Father Thomas Lawler, the local Parish Priest. On 1st August 1829 Fr. Lawler had three ‘bad women’ stripped and chained. Their offences were not stated, nor was the extent of the stripping or nature of their chaining detailed. However, it is reasonably safe to assume that the three ‘bad women’ were members of the profession which always proliferated in towns such as Athy where army barracks were located. Father Lawler, who had been ordained to the priesthood in 1816, was appointed P.P. of St. Michael’s Athy in 1825, a position he held until his death on 15th June 1835. He was only forty-four years of age when he died. On 8th January 1862 the Commissioners posted the following notice throughout Athy. ‘Whereas it had been brought under the notice of the Commissioners a nuisance existing within the township viz vagrants constantly begging on the public street and at private doors. I hereby direct that in all cases where the law is violated same vagrants be summoned before the Justice. ROBERT MOLLOY CHAIRMAN.’ Apparently the vagrants, beggars and prostitutes took little heed of such stern exhortations as we find the Town Commissioners on 6th July 1868 resolving ‘to appoint a man to take care that all vagrants and beggars be kept out of the town and all prostitutes shall be brought before a magistrate and at once be dealt with summarily.’ The level of prostitution in Athy in the middle of the last century can be appreciated on examining the records of the local magistrate’s court which during a three week period in 1856 recorded six convictions for prostitution in the town. The local people were not altogether happy with the situation as evidenced by a report in the Leinster Express of a hearing of the magistrate’s Court in Athy in June 1859. The evidence adduced in court indicated that upwards of 30 persons had followed ‘one of the frail sisterhood’ from 10.00 p.m. to 3.00 o’clock in the morning as a result of which Margaret McCann charged William Cullen, Robert McNally, John Brown, William Brennan and James Aldridge with throwing stones at her. Apparently the defendants had ordered her to leave town ‘or else they would throw her into the River Barrow.’ Even if there was little subsequent change in the habits of the ladies of the night, Athy was in 1857 to show progress in another aspect of town life which will be dealt with in a later Eye on the Past.

Our streets are slowly dying / Athy Brickyards

‘Brickmaking in Ireland’ written by Susan Roundtree and published recently by Wordwell, is a comprehensive record of where clay bricks were made in Ireland and how this locally made indigenous material shaped the character of Irish buildings for more than four centuries. Maisie Candy, who with her pupils in Churchtown National School, produced a short-written account of brick making in the Churchtown locality, identified thirteen brickyards in the Churchtown area at the beginning of the 20th century. These were Morrin’s of Ballyroe, Keegans of Ballyroe, Foley’s of Brownstone, Doyle’s of Churchtown, Donlon’s of Shean, two on Heydens’ farm at Brownstone, Lawler’s of Churchtown, Heyden’s of Churchtown, Hosies of Coursetown, Doyle’s, Maxwell’s and Harris’s of Malthouse. George Wilkinson, architect, in the first year of the Great Famine wrote of how bricks of good quality were being made in the Athy area and sent by canal boat to Dublin. Athy’s handmade bricks are today to be found in the Dublin suburbs, particularly Rathmines and Rathgar and in Guinness’s malthouse and hop stores. The earliest ordnance survey map of 1827 shows brickworks around Athy. These included three separate brickyards in Milltown and three brickyards in the adjoining townland of Cardington. George Kinahan, geologist, in his papers 1883-1889 refers to the first-class facing brick, 9inches x 4 ½ inches x 3 inches made by Webster Company of Athy. This is a name I have never previously met with in connection with brickmaking in South Kildare. The Geological Survey of Ireland database recorded the location of eight brickmaking factories in the Athy area. Courtown West, Blackford, Barrowford which was linked by tramway to the Athy Brickworks, three at Milltown and two at Cardington. Perhaps the best known brick factory was the Athy Brick and Tile factory which was opened at Barrowford on Thursday, 8th June 1893. Bricks stamped ‘Athy Brick and Tile Co.’ were produced by machinery initially for building works on the Curragh Army Camp and subsequently for the Dublin market. The factory had its own railway line siding from about 1900 which allowed the bricks to be brought by train using the Dublin Waterford line. The brickmaking industry faced severe competitive difficulties in the early decades of the 20th century. Concrete was increasingly used for building construction and bricks, more expensive to produce, were gradually confined to facing and decorative uses. The closure of the brickyards in South Kildare began as early as the 1890s, while Athy Brick & Tile Co., the last brickyard still operating, was experiencing difficulties in the 1920s, if not earlier. It had fallen into decline following the start of World War I and its railway siding was removed in the last year of the war. Its machine-made brick was still in demand but Athy’s Urban District Council’s building programme in 1932 was the subject of a request by the Council’s architect, Mr. Heaney, that Dolphin Barn brick be used instead of Athy brick which he indicated was not available in sufficient numbers. The Council understandably directed that only Athy brick was to be used. Five years later Councillor Tom Carbery failed to get his fellow Councillors to support his motion not to use Athy brick for any local housing schemes unless the brickyard proprietor P.P. O’Doyle paid union wages to his workers. Peter P. Doyle, as Secretary of Athy Tile & Brick Co., had attempted to revive the brickmaking industry in South Kildare in the 1920s and was helped in this by the local Council’s Slum Clearance Programme which saw the construction of houses at Dooley’s Terrace and St. Joseph’s Terrace. However, this was to change in the mid-1930s. On 20th January 1936 at a meeting of Athy Urban District Council the members considered a letter received from P.P. Doyle of Woodstock Street who was then the Managing Director of the Athy Tile & Brick Co. In that letter Mr. Doyle referred to an architect’s report regarding dry rot in the floors of houses recently built at St. Patrick’s Avenue. He pointed out that the boards laid in concrete was proof of the unsuitable of concrete for building purposes. He went on to claim that the houses erected in brick at the Bleach over ten years previously had given every satisfaction. He continued: ‘We have supplied Athy bricks to the Christian Brothers, Messrs Guinness’s, the Great Southern Railway branch in Athy which is a classic in architecture.’ He quoted the architect William H. Byrne who used Athy brick in the Hibernian Bank Athy and always found first quality bricks very satisfactory. Messrs Bradbury and Evans architects, also quoted by Doyle, claimed that ‘Athy bricks are harder and better burned than any other bricks used in Dublin and that their appearance in our opinion is vastly superior.’ Mr. Doyle’s letter was read by the Town Clerk without any comment being made by the Councillors who were present at the meeting. Clearly if the local brick factory could not get support from the town’s Urban District Councillors it's future was dim. And so it was. Athy Tile & Brick Co., the last surviving brick factory in South Kildare, closed soon afterwards. The brickmaking industry in South Kildare was for many men, women and young boys for decades in the 19th century and into the 20th century the only employment available in the area, apart from seasonal agricultural labouring. The brickmaking men and women and young boys who worked as bankers, middlers, sourers, upstrikers, off bearers, wheelers, catchers and burners are like their job titles long forgotten.

Cabin from R.Y.S. Quest in which Shackleton died

A significant milestone will be reached next week in the redevelopment of Athy’s eighteenth century Town Hall with the arrival of the most important artefact of the Shackleton Museum. That artefact is the ships cabin from R.Y.S Quest, the ship which carried Ernest Shackleton’s last expedition to the Antarctic and the very cabin in which he died on the 4th January 1922. The cabin was acquired by the Museum in 2016 following a tip off by Eugene Furlong of Cork who became aware of it’s existence in 2008 and first visited it in 2014. The cabin had been removed from the Quest in the early 1920’s and used as a garden shed by a Norwegian family who had it in their ownership for many years. Having been advised by Eugene Furlong of the cabin’s existence the Shackleton Museum Board made approaches, with Eugene’s assistance, to the owner to buy the cabin. Agreement was reached following lengthy negotiations on a price for which I must admit, the Museum did not have the funds. Kildare County Council came to their rescue and paid the full contract price following which we were able through the generous support of DFDS, a shipping company, to have the cabin brought to Letterfrack, Co. Galway for restoration. A benefactor from Naas also covered the cost of the pre-transport costs in Norway. Over the last number of years the cabin has been undergoing careful restoration and conservation under the guidance of Sven Habermann of Conservation Letterfrack, who also carry out work for many state institutions such as the National Museum, the National Gallery and the National Library. The story of its restoration featured in an excellent documentary made by Moondance Productions which first aired on RTE on the 4th January 2022 and later on the BBC. The focus of the documentary was Sven Habermann, the German born conservator who through the lens of the documentary film maker told the story of his meticulous research into the cabin’s history and careful restoration of the cabin over the last number of years. The results of this work was revealed at the very end of the documentary where a very emotional Alexandra Shackleton, granddaughter of the Explorer, saw the cabin for the first time, as it would have been on the night that Shackleton died. We are very fortunate that a number of recordings of interviews with members of the crew including Dr. Leonard Hussey and Dr. Alexander Macklin relation to the last hours of Shackleton’s life have survived. They describe a man struggling with ill health but still anxious to pursue the adventures of his youth. Very movingly Dr. Hussey, relates how Shackleton found it difficult to sleep on the night he died and sought the soothing sound of music, through Hussey’s banjo playing, of some traditional lullabies to help him to sleep. With Shackleton’s death, the heart went out of his expedition and many months later the crew on the ship returned to the United Kingdom and notably the ship Quest was sold to a Norwegian shipping company. The cabin itself was removed from the ship shortly thereafter as its location on the ships deck was not conducive to the whaling and sealing operations of it’s new owners. The ship would stay at sea for almost 40 more years. In 1928 it took party in the search for survivors of the airship Italia which was lost in the Arctic. She transported the members of the 1930 British Arctic Air Route expedition north when she was described as a ‘broad-beamed, tubby little ship, decks stacked with gear’. The ship was again in the cold regions in 1935 for the British Greenland expedition and this was followed by service in World War Two as a minesweeper and light cargo vessel. It's long life of service came to an end when the ship sank on the 5th May 1962 after being hold by ice. All the crew survived the sinking The ship has been back in the news recently with its re-discovery on the ocean floor off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The remains of the 38m long two masted schooner were located by a team led by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. It is mostly intact lying in 390m of water but if you want to a true relic of that noble little ship, it’s cabin, the place of Shackleton’s death with be a focal point of the new Shackleton Museum opening in Athy in June 2025.

Remembering Henry Howard / Paul Cunningham

This week saw the passing of two Athy men who were associated in my mind with Gaelic football. They died within a day of each other. Henry Howard was President of Athy Gaelic Football Club for many years past. Geraldine Park was his second home and for as long as I can remember Henry devoted his time and energy to the local G.A.A. Club. He was a wonderfully helpful man who met and greeted everyone with a cheerful word or two. He was especially helpful to me while I was organising the recent book fairs on behalf of Athy Lions Club. I got to know Henry and his wife Patricia during the long drawn out campaign to stop the Inner Relief Road planned for construction through the centre of our town. Both were very active members of the development group which consist of concerned residents of the town who worked tirelessly to get the Outer Relief Road built instead of the proposed Inner Relief Road. They were part of the several teams which went from door-to-door canvassing support for a plebiscite of the local people and attended public meetings held over a period of many years in various venues throughout the town. Henry Howard and his wife Patricia were unremitting in their support for what eventually turned out to be a wonderful addition to the road network serving the people of Athy. Henry’s wake was held in the Gaelic Football Club premises where he had spent many years of his long life volunteering on a daily basis. His was a labour of love for the Athy Gaelic Football Club was, as I wrote earlier, his second home. He was elected President of the club approximately 16 years ago and I must claim some indirect involvement in his presidential election. As a member of Athy Gaelic Football Club I attended Annul General Meetings for many years following my return to Athy in 1982. It was at an Annual General Meeting sometime in the mid to late 1980s that I questioned the appropriateness of electing year after year a member of the local Catholic clergy as the club President. It was, I explained, an unnecessary throwback to a time in our history when community leadership understandably came from the educated clergy, but the time had come for lay members to take charge. Looking back over the years since the founding of the Geraldine Club the only clergy man justifiably elected to the presidential position was the local curate and exceptional footballer, Fr. Frank Mitchell. In any event my intervention at that A.G.M. resulted in the election of Tim O’Sullivan as the Club President and in later years the election of Henry Howard. Henry’s passing is a great loss to the Geraldine Club which over the years has benefitted from his involvement and that of so many other men and latterly women. Paul Cunningham for several years was a classmate of mine in the local Christian Brothers School during the 1950s. He left school at an early age but I can still picture in my minds eye Paul’s excellence as a Gaelic footballer. I am reminded of the only time in my school days when the local Christian Brothers School participated in the Leinster Colleges championship. Brother Brett, the Superior, had visions of our Wednesday afternoon football practice in Geraldine Park, resulting in an appearance at Croke Park for the Leinster School Finals. The Athy school team played Moate College on their grounds and we were defeated very heavily. My memory of that day is of Paul Cunningham’s high fielding of the ball, ala Mick O’Connell of Kerry, but his brilliance was not sufficient to save Athy C.B.S. from a humiliating defeat. Paul was chosen for the Kildare County Minor panel and played for a time with Athy G.F.C. and later with Rheban. He emigrated at a young age to London and there he played with Round Towers and Dr. Crokes. I understand he played with Dr. Crokes in a tournament game in Croke Park and during his London playing days was awarded Player of the Year Award. Paul did not achieve the footballing success of his late father Jim ‘Tarman’ Cunningham who won county championship medals with the Athy senior team in 1933 and 1934. The 1930s was the most successful decade for Gaelic footballing in Athy and ‘Tarman’ had with him on the winning teams the likes of Barney Dunne, Paul Matthews and Tommy Mulhall. A further championship title success was achieved in 1937 but by then ‘Tarman’, like his son Paul decades later, had emigrated to England. Our sympathies go to the family and friends of Henry Howard and Paul Cunningham.

Johanna Lyons Artist

The part played by the local Community Arts Centre in promoting the Arts and cultural awareness within our community may not be apparent to many. It was something which struck me as I reviewed the events and exhibitions planned for the Woodstock Street Centre during the month of June. I was particularly pleased to see notice of an exhibition by local girl Johanna Lyons which started in the Community Arts Centre on Thursday, 13th June and which continues to the end of the following week. I have known Johanna for many years and during the long period she has been practising and perfecting her skill as an artist. From a very rudimentary, in effect a very basic start to her artistic career she has by dint of commitment and hard work become an artist of merit whose work I am privileged to have in my own personal collection. Johanna who was born in the Curragh came to Athy over forty years ago and now lives in Castle Park. She first attended art classes under Pascal Fitzpatrick in VTOS at a time when the Training Centre was located in the original Model School on the Dublin Road. She later attended Ormond College in Kilkenny and the combination of the two courses set her on an artistic path which she has travelled ever since. She works mostly in oil and produces work which can be regarded as excellent. Her Exhibition in the Athy Community Arts Centre is I believe her second Exhibition and promises to give us a rare insight into the work of a genuinely talented artist whose work has improved immeasurably over the years. This Exhibition which opened last Thursday continues this week. The picture with this weeks Eye on the Past is one of Johanna’s paintings which is privately owned but will hopefully be included in the Exhibition. Johanna Lyons’s solo Exhibition will be followed on Thursday, 20th June by an Exhibition of work by well known female artist including Elizabeth Cope, Eileen McDonagh, Ciara O’Keeffe, Emily Rainsford and Cathy Callan. This is just one of several events which will be held in the Athy Community Arts Centre and the Town Library in the week of the Johnny Marr Concert which will take place in the former Dreamland Ballroom. All the events over a two week period are supported by Kildare County Council and the Athy Community Arts Centre in conjunction with Athy Photographic Society and promises to deliver a wonderful backdrop to the revival of dance hall days memories which will flow from the Johnny Marr concert in Athy’s former dancing mecca. An interesting addition to Athy’s written word is the Made of Athy Guide and map which will be launched in the Athy Community Arts Centre on Friday following the Marr Concert the previous day. A musical event which will form part of the guide launch will be a performance by Castledermot resident, Chris Swaine who is presently compiling an album of original songs. Chris whose musical genre has been described as somewhere between country and soft rock has previously performed in the Community Arts Centre. He will be joined by Athy’s own Carmel Day for a concert in the Centre before the end of the year. In the meantime, do visit the Johanna Lyons Exhibition in the Athy Community Arts Centre and show your support for a local artist who can justifiably be proud of her work.

Athy's Photographic Society

Athy Photographic Society, founded in the early 1980s, is one of the most active and successful societies in the town. Over the years it’s members have held annual photographic exhibitions, produced an annual calendar, while engaged in training to improve their photographic skills. The Society has grown through a number of rebirths in the forty or so years since it’s foundation. The early photographic pioneers were George Robinson, Gerry Lynch, Mary Cunningham and Pat O’Rourke and it is the last named who remains a committed member of the society to this day. Early meetings were held in Jim McEvoy’s pub and later in the Leinster Arms Hotel. The first photographic exhibition was held in the same hotel in or about 1985. It’s now an annual event which over the years has graced venues such as Smuggler’s pub in Duke Street, the Dominican Hall, Athy’s Vocational School, the town library and the Heritage Centre. John Minihan, Athy’s most famous photographer, was the subject of an exhibition early in the society’s life. A few years ago John returned to Athy to give a talk on his work to members of the society and their supporters in the Community College. Over the years the society was renewed and strengthened with the arrival of new members such as Tom Kirwan, Con Doyle, Denis O’Donovan, Jack Brogan, Brendan Hughes, Vincent O’Connor, P.J. Ryan and Peadar Doogue. Unfortunately, I do not have the names of all those who joined the society during the various revival periods of the society. The success of the annual exhibition encouraged the society members to produce an annual calendar, the first of which appeared in or about 2007. Sponsored and supported by local businesses the calendar has proved to be a wonderful keepsake for locals and especially for Athy folk living overseas. Today the photographic society is flourishing and it’s members have rooms in the community hub in the former Mount St. Marys secondary school building. Several members of the society have won national and international awards over the years. The first major success was achieved by James Mahon, current chairman of the society, who was awarded an Excellence in International Artistic Photography by the F.I.A.B. That award was also won by Ned Mahon, another Athy club member. The Jack Brogan Cup, in honour of one of the former members of the society, is awarded to the photographer of the year. Last year that prize went to Elena Doyle. Others who have achieved success at national events include Clodagh Doyle, Pat O’Rourke, Noel Kelly, Suzanne Behan and Brendan Hughes. The society’s most recent exhibition was in the town library during last year’s Culture Night. ‘The Prado on the Barrow’ exhibition featured works by the Athy Photographic Society members. The members borrowed an idea from the Spanish Art Museum in Madrid by recreating and photographing some of the classic paintings in the Prado collection. The paintings recreated and photographed for the exhibition included works by El Greco, William Leech, Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh and several other great masters. It proved to be a fascinating exhibition, combining fine photography, exceptional costume arrangement and design. The next exhibition by the society is scheduled for Wednesday, 19th June when again it will be held in the local community library. It will show the work of three international photographers with connections to Athy. These are award winning John Minihan and John Maher, whose pictures of the Outer Hebrides featured on BBC 1 recently. John’s parents emigrated from Athy in the 1950s and John is perhaps better known as a founder member of the Manchester band, ‘The Buzzcocks’. The third exhibitor is Kieran Tully, formerly of William Street and now based in New York where he has gained fame for his imaginative bold photographs of that city’s streetscapes. Past members of the Athy Photographic Society include P.J. Ryan and Peadar Doogue. P.J. is regarded as one of the foremost wildlife photographers and I am privileged to have in my collection a series of twelve wildlife photographs taken by P.J. which were exhibited in the Heritage Centre some years ago. P.J. is a superb photographer, as is Peadar Doogue whose photographic work features frequently on Facebook. The Athy Photographic Society is one of Athy’s most innovative and successful community organisations. It has achieved great success over the years and with an ever increasing membership the society’s work in recording the people and events of our time will provide a unique archive for future generations.

Ernest Shackleton was Irish

I have been marvelling at the restoration works being carried out by Kildare County Council on the Town Hall in Emily Square, Athy. For much of my life it has been a dark grey presence in the centre of Town. I have been pleasantly surprised by the lightness of colour of its stonework since it was cleaned and repointed over the last number of months. Is brings a lightness and airiness to the square which I could not have foreseen and the re-ordering of Emily Square over the next twelve months will give Athy a civic space to be proud of. When the Museum re-opens at the end of next summer it will be a draw for international visitors. I was reminded of this when two stalwarts of the Shackleton Museum, Kevin Kenny of Naas and Seamus Taaffe of this town were invited to lecture at the Royal Geographical Society in London this month. The occasion was the Shackleton 150th Anniversary conference. Kevin Kenny delivered the opening address on the evening of Friday, 17th May where he spoke to a rapt audience with a whistlestop tour of the life of Shackleton. The weekend was punctuated by a variety of interesting talks on all matters relating to Shackleton Antarctic Experience. The next contribution from Athy was from Seamus Taaffe who gave a lecture titled ‘Shackleton, the Irish perspective’. This was a useful corrective to the narrative often foisted on visitors that Shackleton was British or English. It often forgotten that the Shackleton family have been established in the South Kildare area since the early 18th Century. The first of the number to arrive here was Abraham Shackleton who came from Yorkshire as a private tutor in 1725. Such was his successes in education that he established his own school in the Quaker Village of Ballytore in 1726. Among its pupils was the renowned Parliamentarian Edmund Burke remembered for his writing and particularly for his pamphlet “Reflections of the Revolution of France”. Napper Tandy, the revolutionary founder of the United Irishman was also a pupil. It was he who inspired the famous ballad “The Wearing of the Green” and many of us will recall the wonderful rendition of that self same ballad by Jack L, of this town, at the unveiling of the Shackleton statute in Athy on the 31st August 2016. The significance of that date being that it marked the centenary to the day of the rescue of Shackleton’s men from Elephant Island where they had been stranded for many months after abandoning their ship Endurance on the Ice. While Shackleton himself would spend the first ten years of his life in Ireland, the first four years were spent in Kilkea area which surely had a formative influence on him. His Irish identity was important to him and his siblings to the point that his youngest sister Gladys who was born in London was often teased by the rest of the family as being a ‘Sassenach’ as the rest of them were all Irish born. When Shackleton rose to worldwide prominence in the advent of his expedition to the Antarctica in 1909, his Irishness was to the forefront in the ensuing public acclaim. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Home stories, whose mother was Irish, reflected on the tension between Ireland and the United Kingdom at that time. In his speech in 1909 he stated “Shackleton is an Irishman. As a fellow Irishman, I take pride in that thought. These are times when antagonism between the Islands, may even cause you to have hard thoughts on the gallant race who are our neighbours. When such a time comes, think of what you have on the other side. Think of that flag flapping yonder on the snowfield planted there by an Irishman.” It is interesting to note that whenever Shackleton was obliged to register his details as a crew member on a sailing ship or otherwise, he always recorded his nationality as Irish. In 1911 when he was residing in London, in completing the Census Form, he described his nationality as ‘Irish’ and his place of birth as ‘Athy, Co, Kildare, Ireland’. Their Irish heritage remained important to Shackleton’s siblings and at different stages of their lives, they all made their way back to Ireland. His sister Helen spent three months in Ireland in the Summer of 1908 visiting some of her old haunts in the Kilkea/Moone area. Shackleton’s eldest sister Kathleen also returned to Ireland in 1925 for a number of months where she toured the country and painted the portraits of many of the most significant members of Irish society including the poet W.B. Yeats and the President Douglas Hyde. Eleanor Hope Shackleton spent much of her life nursing in Canada and the UK and also served in the Great War in Salonica and France. She visited Ireland after her retirement as a nurse at the age of 78, in 1959. She was last of the Shackleton’s to return to Athy where she visited Kilkea House where she had been born. She would die a year later

Books published which listed the dead of War of Independence and Civil War

The Decade of Commemoration has witnessed the publishing of a number of very interesting books on our recent history. County Councils throughout the Republic have done an excellent job in highlighting the stories which inform us of the revolutionary years and a number of historians have earned our admiration and respect for works they published. What had been absent for decades since the ending of the War of Independence and the Civil War were the life details of those men and women who played a part, prominent or otherwise, in the fight for National freedom. The late Padraig O’Farrell first published his “Whose Who in the Irish War of Independence 1916-1921” in 1980 and followed it up with a revised edition entitled “Whose Who in the War of Independence and Civil War 1916-1923” seventeen years later. The Last Post first published in 1932 and since republished in enlarged editions several times detailed the stories of Irish Republican dead from 1916. In more recent times, Ray Bateson has published “They died by Pearse’s side”, “Memorials of the Easter Rising” , “Deansgrange Cemetery and Easter Rising” and “The Rising Dead RIC and DMP”. His published works are a wonderful mine of information and first class works of reference. Closer to home are the two publications which came to us courtesy of the Kildare County Decade of Commemoration Committee. James Durney’s “Stand you now for Ireland’s Cause” is a comprehensive biographical dictionary of Kildare Republican Activists 1913-1923. It was followed last year by Karel Kiely’s Biographical list of Republican Women Activists in County Kildare 1913-1923. Clare Historian, Padraig Og O’Ruairc has written “The Disappeared” a detailed account of forced disappearances in Ireland between 1798 and 1998. His book identifies all the known victims of abduction and secret killings which were part of the violent political conflict in Ireland over two hundred years. Conor Dodd has written a first class account of fatalities of the War of Independence and the Civil War who found a last resting place in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. Conor, who is a historian for Dublin Cemeteries explores in his book “Casualties of Conflict” , the lives and deaths of over three hundred men, women and children who died during the national conflicts. Historians throughout the country have added to our knowledge of the many who died during the course of the national struggle. Following perhaps the work of the early mentioned Ray Bateson, Galway man Ronan Gearoid O’Domhnaill is the author of “Gone but not Forgotten – Historic Graves of Kerry” and “Gone the Way of Truth- Historic Graves of Galway”. As the titles indicate the works are not confined to the revolutionary years of the early 20th century but cover all periods in Ireland’s History. Donegal’s republican dead 1900-2000 are detailed in Brian Anderson’s recently published book “Gone but Not Forgotten”. It outlines in great detail the lives of the forty two republican volunteers with Donegal connections who died during republican campaigns of the 20th Century. Barry Keane’s book “Corks Revolutionary Dead 1916-1923” examines the major incidents in Cork during that period and details the more than 700 men, women and children who were killed in the Rebel County. The list of those who died is comprehensive and includes not only volunteers but also British Army, RIC and Civilians. Dr. Tim Horgan’s book “Dying for the Cause Kerry’s Republican Dead” is a well researched account of those killed in the Kingdom and whose lives are now to be remembered forever. “The dead of the Irish Revolution” by Eunan O’Halpin and Daithi O’Corrain is perhaps the most comprehensive account of all the deaths during the Irish Revolution years. It charts all of those who died starting with Cornelius Keating, Charles Monaghan and Daniel Sheehan who drowned when their car went off Ballykissane Pier on the 21st April 1916. The last entry dated the 21st December 1921 records the accidental shooting of Michael McCrann a 19 year old IRA Volunteer in the Guardroom of Gilhooly Hall, Sligo. Organising deaths chronically, the book records all casualties whether civilian, police, military or volunteer. It is a magnificent work by the two University historians. My intention in writing this article was to highlight the work of a Carlow man, Colum O’Ruairc, who has to date produced two volumes of what is intended to be six volumes dealing with the Irish Republican dead. The first volume 1916-1919 and second volume 1920 has been published as part of a project which Colum declares is “steadfastly neutral historically and politically”. He has produced two excellent books which outline not just the Republicans who died but also the incidents in which they were involved. The books are notable for the quality and variety of photographs which are featured, many of which I have never seen before. The late great GAA man, Jimmy Wren, produced two superb books around the time of the Centenary Celebrations of the 1916 Rising. He researched and published the full list of those who were part of the G.P.O. Garrison in Easter Week and followed up with a book on the members of the garrison in the Four Courts and the Mendicity Institution. University based historians as well as local historians such as Colm Ruairc and the others mentioned in this article have added enormously to our knowledge of the participants and victims of the Revolutionary years.

How local elections have changed

We know local elections are near when the election posters appear on every available pole on the approach roads to town. But of course, the rural landscape cannot escape the explosion of coloured photographs which are also to be found high above the country hedgerows. Their appeal is a simple one – Vote For Me. And yet there are so many ‘Mes’ to be catered for, so many ‘Mes’ with unending promises charged to deflect our vote to one candidate or other. I went through two local election campaigns, the first almost 40 years ago. That first election campaign in 1985 saw all the candidates from the same party provided with canvass cards featuring all the party candidates. There were no individual canvass cards. It all seemed, on the surface at least, a peaceful acceptance of the value of team effort with the notion of letting the best person win. Local Government elections are to national politics what local history is to national history. One does not exist without the other. So, often it is success at the local level of democracy that compels an emerging local politician to step up onto the national stage. Here in south Kildare there are three examples of that type of transfer from the local to the national in the careers of Athy man Paddy Dooley, Castlemitchell native Joe Bermingham and Castledermot man Jack Wall. They were County Councillors and Town Councillors before being elected to the Dail. Not all Council candidates aspire to follow their footsteps and many, indeed the vast majority, are content to devote their time to the local authority. There is enormous free for all atmosphere about the present day election canvassing. The candidates have their own canvass cards, their own election posters and call to voter’s houses, sometimes alone, and sometimes with a few supporters to seek the all-important vote. This individualistic exercise can be a punishing ordeal for the candidates but perhaps even more so for potential voters who are likely to be confused by the priority lists which each of the candidates present. It is difficult to recognise on reading the many and varied priorities and promises wherein lies the job of a County Councillor. A County Councillor’s role is that he or she is part of the policy making arm of the Council sharing reserved functions with executive functions exercised by the Chief Executive Officer, who used to be called the County Manager. The County Councillors are responsible for adopting the Council’s annual budget, Bye Laws, Development plans etc. with a general overview of the Council’s affairs. The functions of the County Council have changed enormously since the time I worked in Kildare County Council many many years ago. Nowadays policy focused committees known as Strategic Policy Committees set up for various Council functions give Councillors better opportunities of developing a significant role in the policy development area. That is good because the Councillors with local knowledge are best placed to help develop policies and strategies which are best for their local communities. Having been elected by voting members of the local community, Councillors have an important role in the democratic process to represent the peoples interests and to articulate local needs and interests. They are an important part of the civic leadership of the community and as such occupy a vital representational role as regards the functions of the County Council. It is intriguing and, to somebody who understands the role of a County Councillor, mystifying to read of the priorities/promises offered by candidates in the forthcoming election. Ranging from crime prevention, mental health initiatives, improved home care facilities, supporting farmers and helping to get medical cards and social welfare benefits. One gets the impression that the job of a County Councillor is not seen by the vast majority of the candidates, including sitting Councillors, as policy making and effective provision of local services but rather as a means to help with matters unconnected with County Council business. There are many people who are functionally illiterate and who need help to meet the growing detailed and exacting requirements for State applications of any kind, but that assistance should be provided by State sponsored Citizen Advice Centres in every town. While no such service exists one appreciates why County Councillors are called upon to help, but I certainly find it questionable why so many people with the ability to make their own applications feel it necessary to call on County Councillors. To have County Councillors employed in this way is wasteful and inappropriate. For democracy to work, we need good candidates from all walks of life to give voice to the peoples needs in a Local Government system which is far too centralised. The power and authority of County Councils in this country is more restricted than any other Local Government system in Europe. Central Governments control of County Councils is exercised by the Department of Local Government through strict administrative, financial and technical control. So should we vote in the Local Government elections? Of course we should. Whatever the shortcomings in the Irish Local Government system or in the Councillors who represent us, it is vitally important that we exercise our voting rights. It is a right previous generations did not enjoy and a right which must be treasured and valued as an essential part of our democracy.

Alfred Haughton of Ardreigh House

Almost 35 years ago while working on the restoration of Ardreigh House as a family home workmen came across the names of what I assumed were the original men who had built the house. Those men wrote their names on floor joists between the basement and the first floor with the year 1850. This led me to believe that just a year after the Great Famine that left over one million Irish dead Alfred Haughton, a Quaker from Carlow, had built the house on the site of the medieval Ardreigh Castle overlooking the deserted medieval village of Ardreigh. Alfred Haughton also wrote his name on the wall of what was later to be the dining room before he had it decorated with favoured Victorian wallpaper of the time. Alfred was a son of Samuel Haughton and his third wife, Henrietta Osborne. The Haughton family were mill owners in Carlow and I have always assumed that the Ardreigh Mill which Ardreigh House overlooked was built the same time as the house. However, some notes written by Alfred Haughton in 1835 raised the question of whether the Ardreigh Mill, and indeed Ardreigh House, was built much earlier than the 1850s. A directory for Athy in 1846 showed amongst the ‘nobility, gentry and clergy’ Alfred Haughton of Ardreigh. This might tend to support the belief that both the mill and the house were built earlier than I had originally thought. 1835 was an eventful year for the Haughtons as recorded by Alfred in his review of the year. Just six years previously ‘an Act for the relief of his Majesty’s Roman Catholic subjects’ was passed in the Westminster Parliament and having received the Royal assent allowed Catholics to enter Parliament and have access to a variety of State and military positions. The Royal Commission of Enquiry, established in 1833 under the Chairmanship of the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, reported two years later that upwards of 75% of the labourers in Ireland were without regular employment. Three years later the Athy Literary Magazine carried a letter which claimed that Athy had ‘able bodied labourers at our corners, hoards of beggars at our doors, disease and famine in the hovels of the poor’. Athy was a town where wealth and abject poverty lived side by side and the Peace Preservation Force of the time would have had little impact on crime prevention. Was it to protect those inside houses such as Ardreigh House that windows were provided with strong wooden window shutters with iron bars to keep the shutters closed from the inside? Alfred Haughton in his 1835 writing refers to an intrusion into his home in Ardreigh. ‘In the spring of the year a ruffian came into my house at night and would have killed me but the Omnipotent enabled me to trust in him and gave me courage and firmness.’ The intruder was later identified as local Athy man Henry Rainsford whom the local newspapers reported was charged and convicted on 9th July 1835 at the Kildare assizes. He was sentenced to death by hanging. Later the death sentence was commuted to transportation for life. Henry Rainsford was transported to New South Wales, Australia on the ship ‘Hive’ which left Cobh on 24th August 1835 with 250 convicts on board. He left behind his wife Bridget and two children, Elizabeth aged 4 years and John, a one-year-old baby. The ship ran aground when entering Jervis Bay south of Sydney during the night of December 9th after a journey of almost three and a half months. With the loss of one crew member the rest of the crew and the convicts reached the shore and eventually arrived at their destination in New South Wales on Christmas Eve. Today Ardreigh House still has the original window shutters and the iron bars which were not sufficient to protect Alfred Haughton 189 years ago. Even closer to our time Ardreigh House, like several other similar houses in South Kildare, was raided for arms by the I.R.A. during the War of Independence. Alfred Haughton died in 1858 and Ardreigh Mill and Ardreigh House were subsequently purchased by the Hannon family who like the Haughtons were mill owners in Carlow and elsewhere. What happened Henry Rainsford I do not yet know but the story of his wife Bridget and his two young children who were left behind in Athy will hopefully be told at another time.

Aidan Higgins, Irish writer and Mick Degan, Athy man mentioned in Hibbins' novel 'Dog Days'

It was fifty-eight years ago that I first came across the writings of Aidan Higgins when his second book ‘Langrishe Go Down’ was published to critical acclaim. Born in Celbridge in 1927 his first book ‘Felo de Se’, a short story collection, was his introduction as a new Irish writer who would emerge six years later to be described by Fintan O’Toole as ‘the coming literary man, not just in Ireland but throughout Europe.’ I was a member of a small committee led by the writer Neil Donnelly which organised the weekend literary celebration ‘Aidan Higgins at 80’ in St. Raphael’s, Celbridge over a May weekend in 2007. It was a weekend graced by the presence and active participation of such great writers as Dermot Healy, Fintan O’Toole, John Banville, poet Derek Mahon and the American novelist Annie Proulx. Athy was represented by the world class photographer John Minihan, several of whose photographic images illustrated the weekend programme. It was a rare opportunity to meet Aidan Higgins and to talk to the writer whom I had first met many years previously during a reading at a literary festival. I was interested in following up a claim made to me following the publication in 1998 of his book, ‘Dog Days’ which gives an account of life in Dublin while Higgins was living in nearby Brittas, Co. Wicklow. My informant had then claimed that a native son of Athy featured in Aidan Higgins’s ‘Dog Days’. He named Mick Deegan, whose brothers Joe and Jack were well known to the people of Athy, while another brother in Donegal, Monsignor Patrick Deegan, was perhaps less well known in the South Kildare town. Mick Deegan had a small shop on the corner of Avoca Road in Dublin where he had a thriving business. He was described by Seamus Dowling in his recent memoirs ‘Flowers that Bloometh’ as a colourful personality who was rarely seen without the butt of a cigarette hanging from the side of his lip. Seamus, who is the bridge correspondent for the Irish Times, described Mick Deegan as ‘a small, squat figure with a neck so big he could not get shirts to fit him in the usual retail outlets who knew his customers and had a brief chat – benign gossip – with everyone of them. He would douse a cigarette when he saw his wife coming across the road, where they lived.’ Aidan Higgins in his book ‘Dog Days’ wrote of Deegan. ‘Customers came in for loaves of Boland’s bread and bottles of Lucan Dairy and Mick serves them absently, lost in the dream where Glen Rock is hitting the rails at White City or coming drugged from the No. 2 box. His big redfaced son is in the Gardai. His shop smells like a country shop in the country of my childhook (King’s in Celbride) when everything alarmed me. Mick looks dead-beat. He lights up a fag, covers his puffy face with a soft stubby hand, the index finger darkly stained. MAN HELD FOR PUB MURDER declares the Evening Press headline. The Ballymore Eustace haulier John Lawlor had been shot dead by the Provos in Timmon’s public house in Essex Street one lunchtime: summoned there by the hit-man ordered to “execute” him and shot with as little compunction as the killer would have given a mad dog; Lawlor sipping the coldest pint he was ever to swallow. Mick heaves a heavy sigh, licks his fingers, turns a page.’ Aidan Higgins confirmed to me that the Mick referenced in ‘Dog Days’ was indeed Mick Deegan, the man whom however he did not know was from the same county as himself. The ‘Aidan Higgins at 80’ celebration was a great success, largely due to the work of Neil Donnelly. It was also a well-deserved tribute to an Irish writer whom John Banville described as ‘a major figure in Irish writing in the 20th century, a link between the high modernists Joyce and Beckett and the more restrained generation of writers that followed him.’ Aidan Higgins died in December 2015 and as I finished writing this piece I have on my desk the sixty page publication which was produced for the 80th birthday celebration under the title ‘A Trade Recondite as Falconry’ which was Aidan Higgins’s definition of creative writing.

Athy's Catholic Churches

Ten years ago I wrote the following opening paragraph for my article celebrating the 40th anniversary of the opening of St. Michael’s Parish Church. ‘The new Parish Church of St. Michaels at Athy was blessed and opened on Sunday by his Grace Most Rev. Dr. John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin.’ That was the opening line of the report in the Nationalist and Leinster Times of Friday, 24th April 1964, recorded the result of an eleven-year campaign by the people of Athy to replace the Church which has stood on the same site since 1808. The new Church, designed in the Lombardic Romanesque style with a seating capacity of 1,100, replaced an earlier Church which in the words of John Gartland, Consulting Engineer ‘suffered all the defects and all the disadvantages of a building erected a few years after the 1798 Rebellion.’ I am writing this week’s article on the morning of Friday, 19th April, exactly sixty years to the day when the late Archbishop of Dublin blessed and opened what was the latest in a series of parish churches serving the community of Athy. I believe that the first Parish Church in the medieval village of Athy was the ‘Crickeen’, located in St. Michael’s Cemetery. Partially restored recently the ‘Crickeen’ was built outside the Anglo-Norman medieval village to serve the needs of the Irish betagh or villeins. Inside the village the French speaking settlers who shared the same Catholic religion with the native Irish, had a monastery on the West bank of the River Barrow and a Dominican Friary on the opposite side of the river. The Reformation of the 1540s witnessed the closure of the Dominican Friary, the Monastery next to Woodstock Castle having been previously vacated, while the small Parish Church is believed to have been closed or appropriated for Protestant services. The medieval village centred around Woodstock Castle on the west bank of the River Barrow was in time relocated to the more easily defended east side of the river. It was there that in the mid-17th century a church was built in what we now know as the back square for the Anglican church community. It would be some time in the following century before a small church for the Catholic faithful was discreetly built off Chapel Lane. That church was burned down on the night of 7th March 1800 at a time when conflict during and following the 1798 Rebellion saw several Catholic churches destroyed. The then Parish Priest, Fr. Maurice Keegan, who served in Athy from 1789-1825, lodged a malicious damage claim with Dublin Castle and received compensation of three hundred pounds. For almost eight years the Catholic parishioners of Athy were without a church and Mass was celebrated for a time in the town centre square under a temporary canopy erected on the side of the Town Hall. A new church was finally built in 1808 on part of what was known as Clonmullin commonage. The site was formally granted by the Duke of Leinster to Thomas Fitzgerald of Geraldine Lodge, Thomas Dunne of Leinster Lodge and Michael Cahill of Athy as Trustees on behalf of St. Michael’s Parish. The sum of two thousand pounds was spent on building the church which continued to be used until its demolition in 1960. My readers of a certain age will remember that church which was built in the traditional cruciform style with three galleries. They will remember the silver collection at the door of the main gallery over the nave, while a copper collection was sufficient for entry to either of the two side galleries. I served Mass for several years in old St. Michael’s Church and well remember Fr. John McLoughlin who was the senior curate under Archdeacon Patrick McDonnell. It was Fr. McLoughlin who in 1952 announced the setting up of a fundraising committee comprised of local men and women who over the following ten years or more collected almost ninety-three thousand pounds for the building of the new church. The new St. Michael’s Parish Church was built at a cost of approximately two hundred thousand pounds and opened on the 19th of April 1964, long after Fr. McLoughlin and Archdeacon McDonnell had left us. An interesting feature of the old church, demolished in 1960, was the church organ donated while Monsignor Andrew Quinn was Parish Priest. He served in Athy from 1853-1879, while his two brothers served as Bishops in Australia. The church organ, donated by a Quinn family member, was not retained for the new church and I am not aware what happened to it. Retained and used in the new church was the marble pulpit gifted by local parishioners in 1904 to mark the Golden Jubilee of Canon James Germaine’s ordination. The Canon was Parish Priest in St. Michael’s from 1892-1905. Also retained and reused were the altar rails which were the gift of Count O’Loughlin, a Kilkenny man, who made his fortune in Australia. Following his death his estate presented the railings to his relation, Canon Edward Mackey, who was Parish Priest from 1909-1928. Various other items were donated for the new church by the men’s and women’s sodalities, as well as employees of the Wallboard factory and staff of Athy Railway Station. Mrs. John Owens of Nicholastown donated the windows in the church nave, while a shrine to St. Joseph was donated by Tony Byrne of London and formerly of St. Joseph’s Terrace. Can anyone give me any information on Tony Byrne? Fifty years after the opening of St. Michael’s Church, its Golden Jubilee was celebrated. This April marks the sixtieth anniversary of that happy and historic event. It is a happy coincidence that one of my secretaries who has been working with me since 1982 shares a birthday with our Parish Church. Wishing my secretary, who shall remain nameless, a Happy Birthday. The previously announced meeting of Athy History Society which was to be held in the Community Arts Centre will now take place in the Town Library on Thursday 9th May at 7pm.

Change from Heritage Company to Shackleton Museum

Road closures were the subject of some angry comments on Facebook during the past week. They coincided with the publication of a notice regarding the closure of Offaly Street for a number of weeks to facilitate work on the redevelopment of the Town Hall. However, the comments related to the half day closure of part of the Carlow Road during the running of the Athy Race last Sunday. It is rather a pity that the event which attracted a lot of runners gave rise to these comments. The event was by all accounts very successful and hopefully the organisers will have learned the value of earning and retaining community support by giving appropriate advance notice of race routes, times, etc. As to the lengthy closure to traffic of Offaly Street I can only claim that it’s a sacrifice which will be well rewarded when work on the Shackleton Museum is completed. It is anticipated that the Museum should be ready for opening in the summer of 2025. Within the next few weeks work will start on assembling the glass iceberg shaped extension to the rear of the Town Hall. Before that work commences the ship’s cabin in which the Kilkea-born Polar explorer Ernest Shackleton died, will be brought from Letterfrack, Co. Galway and positioned on the first floor of the Town Hall building. It will be transported in a protective casing which will remain in place until building work in the Town Hall is completed. Another important exhibit which in time will be moved into the building is a full scale replica of the James Caird boat which the three Irishmen, Shackleton, Tom Crean and Tim McCarthy with three other companions travelled over 800 miles across the Weddell Sea in the first stage of a heroic and successful attempt to save the lives of 22 of their companions who were marooned on Elephant Island. On Monday evening, 15th April, the last meeting of the current directors of the Shackleton Museum was held in the Clanard Court Hotel. What had started out 41 years ago as a local Museum Society with ambitions to open a small local museum in Athy has evolved as a museum of national, if not international importance. Many of those volunteers in the early years of the Museum Society have passed on. Amongst them were the late Pat Mulhall, Bertie Doyle, Ken Sales, Noreen Ryan and Tommy Pender who are remembered with gratitude and fondness for the part they played in a magnificent local project. Kildare County Council will hereafter take over the management and control of the Shackleton Museum, thereby ensuring its financial viability and stability which could not be guaranteed long term by volunteers. To all those men and women who have given of their time, expertise and energy to making Athy Heritage Centre and later the Shackleton Museum a rousing success I extend my heartfelt thanks. Side by side with the Shackleton Museum stands the Shackleton Autumn School, now in its 24th year, which has made a huge contribution to the acceptance at international level of the Shackleton interest in Athy. The voluntary committee members who have organised the Autumn School in recent years and made it the most popular annual Polar event anywhere in the world will continue to do so. What is being created amongst the hallowed walls of Athy’s 18th century Town Hall is a reminder to all of us of what can be achieved when ambition, initiative and will to do come together in locals willing to work to improve their own place. I wrote recently of the neglectful, almost derelict state of many buildings on our high street and bemoaned the absence of a local association ready to tackle the resulting problems. The success of the Shackleton Museum demonstrates what can be achieved by local people coming together. Is it too much to hope that people in business in Athy would come together to help rescue, before it is too late, the commercial heart of our proud town? The next meeting of the newly formed Athy’s History Society will be held in the local Community Arts Centre on Thursday, 9th May commencing at 7.30pm. The meeting will elect officers of the society for the coming year and a discussion will take place on the future of both Whites Castle and Woodstock Castle. The appointment of the Bishop of Achonry, Paul Dempsey, as second auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, alongside Bishop Donal Dunne, is wonderful news for Athy where Bishop Dempsey grew up. We can look forward to Athy youngsters being confirmed by a man who as a young boy attended our local schools. He will be following in the footsteps of Cardinal Paul Cullen who was born in Prospect House near Ballitore and who performed confirmations in Athy, although he attended the Quaker School in Ballitore at a time when there were then no schools in Athy such as we have today.

'How We Danced', an engaging show by Kevin O'Neill

Have you supported or attended any of the recent events in Athy’s Community Arts Centre? It is a question I put to many acquaintances as I attempt to gauge the level of support for the Arts Centre which has been run by volunteers for more than fifteen years. Last year the Community Arts Centre was open for two hundred and fifty days showcasing a variety of concerts, events and exhibitions. Last week Athy’s History Society hosted an unusual lecture/musical event as part of it’s winter series of lectures. “How We Danced” was the title of Kevin O’Neill’s engaging lecture which he interspersed with musical performances. The evening event was a celebration of local pride and identity which was hugely enjoyed by a capacity audience. Kevin, a master of many musical instruments and our own Joe Byrne opened the evening’s proceedings with both playing marching tunes on bagpipes as they paraded through the hall to the stage. It was a treat to see two first class musicians who at various times during the evening played bagpipes, violin, tin whistle and saxophone. Athy’s musical tradition gave Athy from the 1880’s onwards, marching bands, the first of which I have noted was the C.Y.M.S. Band. That band appears not to have lasted for very long. It’s successors, the Leinster Street Fife and Drum band and the Barrack Street Band were representatives of two different sides of Irish political life during the Home Rule period. Folklore would have us believe that the ex-soldier members of the Barrack Street Band fought many a battle on Crom-a-boo Bridge with the Leinster Street Band members. Memories of the legendary Casey Dempsey were revived when the Dempsey Ceili Band comprising Casey’s nephew Patsy, his two nieces Mary and Liz and Patsy’s wife Paula played on stage. Kevin spoke of the Ceili band era when Molly Cully’s Ceili Band from Levitstown blazed a trail, later travelled by the Gallowglass and the Ardellis Ceili bands. Kevin spoke of the South Kildare pipe band tradition which gave us pipe bands in Castledermot, Narraghmore, Kilberry, Churchtown, Castlemitchell and Athy. Dances in the Town Hall and from the mid 1930’s in the Social Club in St. John’s Lane featured performances by Earnest O’Rourke Glynn’s Cabaret Band. I have for many years searched without success for a record made by Ernest in a Dublin studio in the 1930’s. Another band of the early 1940’s was Mona Sylvester’s Ivy League Band. I recall Sylvester’s Sweet Shop in Emily Row presided over by Mona and her elderly mother. The Ivy Band was gone by the 1950’s, however, Mona played a significant part in the musical training of Joe O’Neill who would go on to lead the Stardust Band for many years. A songster of a later period, her voice was heard during Kevin O’Neill’s talk was the late Maisie Dooley. Maisie’s record of Irish Ballads was released in America and thanks to Bill Giltrap the record, purchased in Boston many years ago, was played to the Arts Centre audience. He was also able to play for the interested audience a hitherto unknown record made by the St. Joseph’s Fife and Drum Band in or around 1954. That youth band and it’s successor, the St. Joseph’s Brass and Reed Band was founded and trained by Joe O’Neill and his associates from St. Joseph’s Terrace. As Athy’s musical story extended into the 1940’s and 1950’s, that story was taken up by Joe O’Neill’s Stardust Band, Padden’s Murphy’s Sorrento Orchestra and Alex Kelly and the Four Aces. The band members while working locally in day jobs travelled the length and breadth of Ireland fulfilling dancehall engagements several days a week. On the opening night of Dreamland Ballroom, the Sorrento Orchestra was the support act for Victor Sylvesters Orchestra. On stage at the Community Arts Centre, Paddens Murphy’s son Paul and Joe O’Neill’s son Kevin played duets and solos on saxophones reminding us of their late fathers contribution to a never to be forgotten local musical tradition. The nights entertainment ended with a roll call of local showbands of the 1960s and the 1970’s with pride of place going to the Adelaide Showband whose members comprising John Kelly , Pat O’Keeffe, John Scully, John Lawler, Robert Eston, Denis Chanders and Jim Leigh are remembered with affection. “How We Danced” was a wonderful night of music and reminiscences provided and presented by Kevin O’Neill whose father Joe contributed so much musically and otherwise to the town “he loved so well”. The Irish Patchwork Society’s national exhibition which takes place every two years will this year be on display in Athy’s Community Arts Centre from the 6th to the 20th April. It will showcase the creativity and talent of the Society’s members from all around Ireland and abroad. This years exhibition theme “A Common Thread”- St. Brigid “ challenges the patchwork society members to explore what it is about Brigid that continues to resonate with people across the world. Admission to the Exhibition is free.

Business decline in Athy

Glassealy resident, Thomas Rawson, wrote in 1807 ‘the extensive town of Athy ….. holds out much invitation to English capital and English industry ….. (yet) it is full of unemployed inhabitants. Athy is neglected, is in poverty’. Thirty-one years later an unidentified correspondent writing in the Athy Literary Magazine of March 1838 castigated ‘the spiritless and inept beings that form the more elevated circle (here in Athy)’. He continued ‘those persons who should be active in conceiving measures for the amelioration and adopting useful schemes for the improvement and comforts of the distressed and hard working poor never think at all about them ….. there is not a town in Ireland so completely neglected as Athy in every particular.’ I was reminded of these two references when I began to reflect on the present state of Athy’s main shopping streets. The heart of Athy is being carved out as we watch business after business close doors. It’s not just in Athy for the same problem is being experienced by so many other Irish provincial towns. Irish social and community habits have and are changing and this is nowhere more apparent than in the very Irish community practice of meeting friends and neighbours in a local public house. The local public house business is going through decades of change which has witnessed the closure of many town and country pubs. It’s a sobering thought to recall the pubs lost on the west side of Crom a Boo bridge. What was Michael Cunningham’s pub, near to Augustus Bridge, closed it’s doors over two decades ago, while the pub at the corner of Green Alley, last known as ‘The Goalpost’ closed more recently. Further down Duke Street the Dublin Bar shut it’s doors over sixty years ago, while on the opposite side of the road the legendary Barney Dunne’s pub closed after his death in 2007. With the loss of these four pubs Athy’s high street on the west side of Crom a Boo bridge is left with four public houses. Doyles and Dunnes in Woodstock Street, The Duke on Duke Street and the Auld Shebeen on Upper William Street. They are the sole representatives of a once thriving public house business on the west side of the River Barrow. Across the bridge built 220 years ago for horse and carriage traffic, but still meeting the demands of modern-day traffic, the second leg of Athy’s high street, Leinster Street shows the scars of closed public houses. What was once Mulhalls public house in the shadows of White Castle, is now used exclusively for weekend functions, while directly opposite is a newly opened coffee shop which once housed McCauley’s public house. Around the corner in Barrow Quay was ‘Chopsie’ Dillon’s pub, formerly Stirlings, more recently The Emigrant, now closed. In Emily Square two of the most prominent Athy pubs, O’Briens and Andersons are still to the good, as is Ann’s Place, formerly Lalors opposite the closed Duthies Jewellers and Watchmakers. Off the main street on Offaly Street, what was once Dowlings pub, later John W. Kehoes pub, has been closed for some years. On the opposite side of Leinster Street in Stanhope Street the once thriving Michael Noonans public house is vacant and sadly showing its age. Progressing up Leinster Street Des Noonan’s pub is no more, having suffered the same fate as Jim Nelson’s pub next door. Jim had moved to another premises further up Leinster Street, but those premises too are also now gone. The most famous pub in Athy, Bapty Mahers, has been closed for several years. McLaughlins public house is no more while Kanes, formerly Floods, is no longer open for business. A very substantial public house at the corner of Meeting Lane, most recently Murphy’s The Oasis, has been closed for several years and like so many closed business premises on the main streets of Athy is showing its age. Opposite Murphys was the Cock Robin pub which no longer operates. Breretons and McGoverns and Brian Smiths further up Leinster Street have closed their doors in recent times, while Nortons, Clancys and McEvoys at the corner of Mount Hawkins show a resilience in the face of changing social habits and increasing awareness of the legal restrictions on drinking and driving. The vacant public house premises in Athy present a sad appearance in the heart of our town and one which might conjure up images suggested by Rawson and that unidentified correspondent of almost 200 years ago. It is not just the public houses which have closed. So many other business premises have closed their doors presenting a picture of a decrepit and ill kept streetscape which speaks of developing neglect and dereliction. The problem of empty business premises is not confined to Athy. It is a national problem, clearly evidenced as we travel through Irish provincial towns. There is an urgent need to address the business decline in provincial Ireland. Here in Athy the government and its local government partner, Kildare County Council, must make available incentives to help the business life of town centres to thrive once again. For some time I have questioned the value of prohibitive car parking charges and the pressing need for more car parking spaces. Shoppers need to be encouraged to increase the footfall in town centres. Not enough is being done to bring back life to the commercial heart of Athy’s town centre. The absence of a local Chamber of Commerce or a town development association is something that needs to be addressed if further closure of local businesses in Athy is to be stopped and new business encouraged to set up in the heart of the town which was once described as the best market town in Leinster.

Republican Female Activists from Athy mentioned in 'Rebel Hearts' by Karl Kiely

‘Rebel Hearts’, a biographical list of Republican women activists from County Kildare during the period 1913-1923 was published recently by the County Kildare Decade of Commemoration Committee. Written by the County Kildare archivist Karl Kiely, it is another outstanding contribution to our understanding of the county’s early 20th century revolutionary period. In the Foreword to the work which owes much to Karl’s research amongst the pension and medal applications in the military archives there is a significant and for me a proud claim that the first County Kildare branch of Cumann na mBan was formed in Athy. This followed the founding of Athy’s Sinn Fein Club, whose chairman was the Duke Street shopkeeper Michael Dooley. The book records details of the Athy women who either as Cumann na mBan members or Republican sympathisers furthered the struggle for Irish independence. Mary Anne Brennan was the officer commanding the Maganey Cumann na mBan and following her marriage to Monasterevin Republican Fintan Brennan, both came to live in Athy. Fintan was the District Court Clerk for the District Courts in Athy, Castledermot and Monasterevin and served for a period as President of the Leinster G.A.A. Council. Mary Anne, who died in 1960, is buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery. Alice Lambe was a sister of I.R.A. members Frank and Peter Lambe who lived at Upper William Street. Alice, who worked as a dressmaker, was treasurer of Athy’s Cumann na mBan. She later married James Cowman and was living at No. 7 Bleach Cottages when she died in 1959. Mary Heffernan who was born in Leinster Street, Athy, operated the Prince of Wales Hotel in Newbridge, which during the War of Independence was a venue for meetings of Republican activists and a safe haven for Republicans on the run. Bridget Darby, with an address in Leinster Street, served as principal of Churchtown National School. A member of Athy Cumann na mBan she was also active in the Irish Language Movement and served as secretary of the local Gaelic League branch. Miss Darby, as she was always called, served for many years as a member of Athy Urban District Council and Kildare County Council. Her house at Leinster Street and Bapty Maher’s cycle shop in Duke Street were attacked and damaged by rampaging local ex-British soldiers in July 1919. Mary Hayden of Maganey was a member of Moone Cumann na mBan. She married Garda Michael Darcy in Castledermot in 1932 and died in England 43 years later. The Dooley family of Athy provided more members of the local Cumann na mBan than any other family. Mother of the family was the former Julia Bradley, who like her daughters Hester, Katherine and Julia, was a member of Athy’s Cumann na mBan. Julia Bradley married Michael Dooley, a one-time farmer and later shopkeeper of Duke Street, who was the first Chairman of Athy’s Sinn Fein Club. Her daughter Hester married Joe May who had been imprisoned in Arbour Hill and Ballykinler Internment Camp in 1921. Hester had a distinguished career, serving as Secretary to Oscar Traynor, Officer Commanding Dublin Brigade and later worked for the Director of I.R.A. Intelligence, Colonel J.J. O’Connell. Her sister Julia, known as ‘Gypsy’, also a member of Athy’s Cumann na mBan, later married Bill O’Neill whose father I believe was Station Master here in Athy. Her sister Katherine married Eamon Malone, one-time Commanding Officer of the Carlow Kildare I.R.A. Brigade. The Dooley name is recalled today in the name of the housing estate Dooley’s Terrace, named in honour of Michael Dooley, father of Hester, ‘Gypsy’, and Katherine. A short distance from Dooley’s Terrace another great Irish Republican is remembered in the name Malone Terrace, named after Eamon Malone, husband of Katherine Dooley. The Dooley name remains prominent today in local Athy affairs following the election to Kildare County Council of Brian Dooley, great grandson of the Sinn Fein chairman Michael Dooley. Another extended family connection was made when Cumann na mBan member Julia Bradley, sister of Republican activists John and James Bradley, married Michael May, a founding member of Athy Sinn Fein Club. Michael was a brother of Joe May who married the earlier mentioned Hester Dooley. Also connected was the Republican activist Margaret Byrne, whose husband was Thomas May, a shoemaker based in Woodstock Street, and who were the parents of the brothers Joe and Michael May. Sisters Kathleen and Rose McDonnell were members of the Cumann na mBan in Athy. Unfortunately there is no available information about the McDonnell sisters. Perhaps one of the most intriguing records of a Cumann na mBan member is that relating to Sara Curran, who was a native of Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny. She moved to Athy with her husband a few years after marrying the R.I.C. Constable Francis Murphy. They lived in Townparks and Sara was a member of the Barrowhouse Cumann na mBan. Captain of the Cumann na mBan in Athy was Christina Malone, a native of Barrowhouse and sister of Eamon Malone who for a period served as Officer Commanding the Carlow/Kildare I.R.A. Brigade. Soon after I returned to Athy in 1982 after an absence of 21 years I made the acquaintance of Christina Phelan, as she then was, who lived in No. 1 Convent View. She died in 1987 and to my subsequent embarrassment and regret, despite meeting her several times, I did not realise her connection with Eamon Malone or her leadership of Athy’s Cumann na mBan. It was one of my great regrets that I missed the opportunity of interviewing Christina Phelan. ‘Rebel Hearts’ is a role of honour of women from the County of Kildare who played a part in the struggle for Irish independence. It is sad to relate that while many of these women lived in the same community as ourselves we knew nothing of their involvement in helping to create the freedom we enjoy today. Karl Kiely’s book will help to open our thoughts and our hearts to those brave women who served the emerging Republic with courage and with little expectation of recognition for their contributions.