Rev. Samuel Cotton (Part 1)

Samuel George Cotton was born at 2 St. George’s Place, Bray in 1823. His father was a well-known Dublin Surgeon. Cotton was educated privately and attended Trinity College Divinity School, before being ordained a Deacon in Christ Church Cathedral Dublin in August 1847. He was appointed curate to the Athy Parish and was first noted as reading at St. Michael’s Church on the 29th September 1847 when he read to a congregation of two hundred and seventy in the morning and preached to seventy parishioners in the evening. The Preachers book for St. Michael’s shows his final homily for the Athy Parishioners was delivered on the evening of the 2nd July 1848. Two weeks earlier, he was ordained a Vicar in Tuam Cathedral and shortly thereafter was appointed Vicar of Kilberry Parish in succession to Rev. William Warburton. Rev. Cotton’s early years in Kilberry were uncontroversial even if his opinions of parishioners and Kilberry natives alike, which he wrote in his Visiting Book in 1853, painted a character likely to fall foul of third parties. He visited his Kilberry parishioners in their homes during a period of four months commencing April 1853 making notes on individual parishioners. These notes were generally critical of his parishioners, one of whom he described as ‘a great humbug of note if anything a Romanist.’ Another was described as ‘a great drunkard, never been to church nor seen at communion.’ It was interesting to note the number of parishioners whom he described as former Roman Catholics. It was not long before the Rev. Cotton fell out with many of his parishioners which resulted in the following letter issuing on behalf of his dissatisfied parishioners to the Archbishop of Dublin. ‘May it please your Grace, we the undersigned parishioners of Kilberry Parish humbly request that your Grace will be kind enough to cause an enquiry to be made into the conduct of the Rev. S. G. Cotton, Vicar of this parish. His almost total neglect of the parish during weekdays, he more than once neglected to attend the church on Sunday and consequently the parishioners were obliged to return home without church service.’ There were further complaints in the letter which was signed by A.G. Judge and George J. Phipps as well as ten church wardens. The letter was supported by Lord Downes of Bert House who wrote to the Archbishop on the 7th April 1855 claiming that the conduct of the Rev. S.G. Cotton had for some time past been of an extraordinary nature and that many of his parishioners had ceased to attend his church. The Archbishop is not recorded as having dealt with the parishioners’ complaints and what was described in the Leinster Express as ‘The Church and the Kilberry Controversy’ continued into the following year with many letters from Rev. Cotton featuring in the newspaper. In March 1857, Rev. Cotton found himself before the Magistrates at Athy Petty Sessions charged with assault and facing a civil claim for wages due to the former sexton of Kilberry Church. The Magistrates found in favour of the Plaintiff and awarded a Decree for nine shillings and ten pence including costs against Rev. Cotton. The evidence in relation to the assault charge concerned the former sexton, a female who satisfied the court that Rev. Cotton pulled a chair from under her and attempted to pull her out of the local school. The Vicar received the first of many convictions which he would receive during his clerical career with a fine of one pound and two shillings and six pence costs. Rev. Cotton then went to war against the Leinster Express which reported the Petty Sessions hearing claiming that the newspaper was biased in its reporting Many letters from the cleric were dealt with by the Leinster Express Editor who on one occasion wrote ‘Mr. Cotton appears to think we entertain an unkind disposition towards him and that we have used language calculated to do him injury. We must disclaim any such feeling …. while we have every right to express our dissent from his views’. The Rev. Vicar’s letters continued and were published in the Leinster Express. The Editor was then moved to write ‘it is a matter of much regret to us that our columns should be so frequently occupied with this Rev. gentleman’s affairs, and it is with difficulty that we can maintain the proper bounds of newspaper discussion. In our last edition Mr. Lefroy an old and respected Magistrate was accused by Mr. Cotton of bias in the discharge of his duties and has deemed it necessary to repel in indignant terms the imputation.’ Rev. Cotton also fell out with Rev. F.S. Trench, Rector of Athy whom he had called upon to intervene in the row between the Kilberry Parishioners and himself. Rev. Trench apparently did not intervene and subsequently was the subject of a letter of complaint from his Kilberry counterpart. A further complaint from Messrs Judge and Phipps that monies collected for the local church were misused by Rev. Cotton was the subject of an enquiry by two former church wardens. They were satisfied that all monies collected since 1847 had been distributed in the same way as Rev. Cotton’s predecessor Rev. Warburton. The second part of Rev. Cotton’s extraordinary story will appear next week.

Athy's Social Club Players

Last week I wrote of the many vacant, sometimes derelict shop premises on Athy’s main streets and questioned why Kildare County Council had not put in place some form of financial incentives such as a rates or property tax abatement scheme to encourage the occupation and use of vacant premises. I was delighted to read in the same newspaper an advertisement by Kildare County Council announcing a Commercial Rates Incentive Grants Scheme whereby a business premises vacant for at least two years can get a three-year grant to encourage the reoccupation of a vacant premises. This is a good start to the planned regeneration of Athy’s main street, but only if the Enterprise Department of the same Council works hand in hand with prospective independent shop owners who are interested in re-occupying existing vacant premises. My article last week commenced with the question if one could remember the differences of life in Athy in the 1950s and today. It was during the course of my own memory recall that I remembered the town’s Social Club Players. They were a dramatic group based in the Social Club in St. John’s Lane. My first memory of the Social Club Players stems from a performance in the Town Hall to which I was brought by my brother Jack in February 1953 when I was not yet 11 years old. I cannot remember any details of the play. All I can recall after 72 years was where we were sitting, approximately halfway down the hall on the right hand side. The subsequent press report on the play ‘The Barretts of Wimpole Street’ described it as ‘the Society’s most ambitious production to date.’ Veteran actors such as Liam Ryan, Tadhg Brennan, Tommy Walsh, Ken Reynolds, Tom Fox, Florrie Lawler, May Fenelon and Nellie Fox impressed the newspaper reporter immensely in their various roles. The Social Club Players’ first production, so far as I am aware, was ‘Cupboard Love’, performed in the Town Hall in April 1943. I have originals or copies of 16 programmes of plays put on by the Social Club Players between 1943 and 1959. How many programs I am missing I cannot say, but if there is anyone out there who has Social Club Players programmes I would welcome the opportunity of getting photocopies of same. Looking through the programmes I have, it is sad to think that all of the men and women who performed on the local stage so many years ago are no longer with us. Jo Lawler, May Fenelon, Claire Moore, Maureen Walsh, Florrie Lawler, Christy Burke, Nellie Fox, Frances Fenelon, Kitty McLaughlin, May Ward and Betty May were the actresses who participated in several of the Society’s productions over the years. The actors included Liam Ryan, Tadhg Brennan, Pat Mulhall, Ken Reynolds, D.S. Walsh, Freddie Moore, Tommy Walsh, Tommy Fleming, Johnny Mee, Tommy Doyle, Joe Martin, John Dolan, James O’Doherty, Tom Fox, Fergus Hayden and Patsy O’Neill. These were the men and women who gave of their time and talents to entertain their fellow community members over a 16-year period. Their legacy was captured in programmes and photographs of cast members of various plays in which they participated. The plays included ‘Cupboard Love’ (April 1943), ‘Paul Twyning’ (December 1943), ‘Look at the Heffernans’ (March 1945), ‘The Far Off Hills’ (April 1947), ‘They got what they wanted’ (1948), ‘The Righteous are Bold’ (1949), ‘The White Steed’ (April 1950), ‘The White Headed Boy’ (January 1951), ‘The Shop at Sly Corner’ (1952), ‘The Barretts of Wimpole Street’ (February 1953), ‘The Far Off Hills’ (1954), ‘The Righteous are Bold’ (1954) , ‘The Clock Ticks Dusk’ (1955), ‘Twenty Years Awooing’ (1955-’56), ‘The Devil came from Dublin’ (1956), ‘My Wife’s Family’ (1956), ‘The Devil came from Dublin’ (November 1956), ‘Mungo’s Mansion’ (March 1958), ‘The Turn of the Wheel’ (February 1959). I was intrigued to come across a copy of the Society’s accounts for ‘Look at the Heffernans’ which was performed in the Town Hall in March 1945. The sum of thirteen shillings and six pence was paid to John Eaton for ‘bill posting and bell’. This was a time when local events and shows were publicised by the local bell man who walked through the main streets ringing a bell and announcing, as in this case, the upcoming performance of the Society’s play. I have listed the actors and actresses of the Social Club Players so that any future local historian/researcher can easily access what I hope can be regarded as a local archive devoted to the forgotten people of Athy. For the same reason I set out the plays which the Social Club Players put on in the Town Hall insofar as I can verify them between 1943 and 1959. I wonder if there could be a revival of the theatrical tradition of the past which was once such an important part of the social fabric of Athy? The recent death of Kieran Hickey brought back memories of over sixty years ago when I joined Kildare County Council as a clerical officer. On joining the Council I learned that Kieran and Joe Gavin, both of whom were clerical officers like myself, were attending the final year of a three year B. Comm. degree course at nighttime in U.C.D. Motivated by what they were doing I attended the same degree course the following year with the benefit of a ‘lift to Dublin’ after work and bussing to the Naas Road to ‘thumb’ a lift back to Naas after the lectures. My brother Jack, who was also a clerical officer in Kildare County Council at the time, on seeing my involvement with U.C.D. decided to study for various diplomas. The studies stood Joe, Kieran and my brother Jack in good stead as all ended up at the top of their professions, Joe Gavin as County Manager in Monaghan, Jack Taaffe as County Manager in Westmeath and Kieran Hickey as C.E.O. of the Eastern Health Board. Many of the people I worked with in Kildare County Council over five years in the 1960s are now dead. Like the members of Athy Social Club Players they are the forgotten people of an earlier generation whose memories deserve remembrance by later generations.

Athy business life in the 1950s compared to today

Do you remember Athy of the 1950s? How does it compare to Athy of 2025? Despite the fact that the town’s population has more than doubled in the meantime, Athy’s commercial life has deteriorated to a disappointing level. I cannot recall any vacant shop premises in Athy in the 1950s. On Offaly Street where I lived there were a number of shops, all of which are now closed. Kehoe’s Public House has not opened for several years, while Kitty Webster’s and Mona Sylvester’s sweet shops, both closed for years, have now been redeveloped as apartments. The cinema on the same street, once so popular many years ago, is no more. Public houses, of which there was so many in the town, have closed up and like Michael Noonan’s in Stanhope Street and Barney Dunne’s in Duke Street are forlorn reminders of happy days. In the 1920s, there were forty or more licenced premises in Athy catering for a population of about 4,000 people. Today with the population of 10,000 or more, the public houses still serving the public come to less than ten. The explanation may in part lie in the operation of Off Licences and the strict application of drink driving legislation. The grocery shops in the 1950s have disappeared following the emergence of Supermarkets and the subsequent centralisation of the grocery trade. Do you remember the shop assistants of seventy years ago who dressed in their light brown shop coats took your order and presented the groceries on the counter? Groceries which included sugar, flour and many other food stuffs had to be weighed and bagged earlier in the day by the shop assistant. Here today in Athy, the entire groceries trade once spread over 20 or more shops is now centred on four supermarkets. In many cases the former grocery shop premises today lie vacant in some cases for many years past given the towns streetscape a sad impression of dereliction. How much worse our main streets would be if we did not have today so many hairdressing businesses, nail bars, coffee shops and restaurants which were not to be found in Athy of the 1950s. Today our main streets have a surfeit of empty shop premises which creates a bad image for the town once regarded as the best market town in Leinster. Saturday evening shopping in the 1950s was a boom time for local shops as the country people came, particularly to Shaws, which remained opened until late that evening. Shaws created a huge footfall in the 1950s which benefitted other shops in the town. Its influence in that regard is today less apparent given the present-day high volume of car ownership and local shoppers’ willingness to drive to other towns to do their shopping. The 1950s was a really good time for the shoppers of Athy. Theft from shops was a rare crime those days, while the local Gardai were busy raiding pubs for after hour drinking and prosecuting cyclists for using their bikes without lights after sunset. It was a simple way of life but one which was marked by poverty for many families in the absence of employment. The result in emigration, principally to Britain, saw young families without fathers for months on end. It was not just fathers who left their home town but also boys and girls who could not get gainful employment at home. The boys had a better chance than the girls in obtaining gainful employment locally as the boys, even before their fourteenth birthday, were able to take up employment in the Asbestos factory or the IVI Foundry. The present drabness of the town’s main streets and side streets prompts me to ask what, if anything, is being done or planned by the appropriate authorities to improve Athy’s streetscape? I am conscious as a taxpayer, a rate payer and a property tax payer that Kildare County Council should be more proactive in tackling the issue of vacant and sometimes derelict shop premises in the town. Financial incentives such as rates and property tax abatement schemes may be required to encourage the opening of more independent shops. Having written the above on Wednesday morning, I found the following on Facebook some hours later: ‘Kildare County Council have been awarded €998,800 under the Department of Rural and Community Development Fund to revitalise the famous Athy Christian Brother’s School into a state-of-the-art centre for circular economy and regenerative business activity.’ I understand that the Grant is the result of an initiative by Councillor Brian Dooley who some months ago approached the owners of the building and the local Enterprise Department of Kildare County Council regarding the purchase of the school to be used for apprentice training. The reference to ‘a state-of-the art centre for circular economy’ puzzles me as I don’t understand what it means. However, given its context I am sure that it is intended to help the ancient town of Athy which for too long has been exposed to unwelcome commercial and economic deprivation. We need more independent shops along our main streets and hopefully the announcement of the Community Development Grant can be the start of a new era for the regeneration of business in Athy.

Athy Lions Book Shop

Athy Lions Club will host the first of this year’s Book Fairs on Saturday, 8th March commencing at 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. in the Athy Recreational Community Hall on the Kilkenny Road. Those of my age will know the venue as Dreamland Ballroom, home of happy youthful memories. We started the Book Fair just over two years ago as part of my ambition to make Athy a more friendly book town than it was when I was growing up in the 1950’s. I remember going to the small town library one evening every week. It was located in what was a tiny room in the Town Hall at the top of the stairs which were accessed through the door which today remains locked and positioned almost opposite the Chinese restaurant. How little traffic passed by the doorway is easily imagined given that you stepped onto the road as you left the library building. There were few children’s books available in those days and indeed in the absence of any books apart from school books in the Taaffe household, I haunted the local library seeking detective novels. It was memories of those days that prompted my suggestion to the Lions Club to offer free books to young children from the Lions Book Shop in the weeks leading up to last Christmas. It has now been decided to extend the free book scheme for the rest of this year. Children are encouraged with their parents to call to the Book Shop and pick up a book free of charge to bring home to read and to keep. I am very conscious that there are many children who like myself as a youngster did not have books to read at home and the whole purpose of the children’s free book scheme is to give these children the opportunity to make their lives richer by reading books. The Lions Bookshop has been operating for more than fifteen years. It was an attempt to replicate the small beginning of the book town of Hay-On-Wye, the Welsh town which the late Richard Booth re-energised when he opened his first bookshop. With a population of less than two thousand, it presently has twenty three second hand bookshops and prior to the internet, it had many more. It is still the centre of the second hand book world and is a wonderful place which I have been visiting every year for the last forty years. In the early weeks of the Lions Bookshop it opened on Saturdays only until I was approached by a lady offering her help in running the shop. Alice Rowan, who is now an Honorary Lions Club Member, has been the front of house person in the Bookshop from Tuesday to Saturday inclusive every week for the last fifteen years or so. As a volunteer, her services to the Lions Club and to the local community have brought huge benefits for both. Alice is one of the great community heroes who unasked has done so much for the people of Athy. I am very conscious that many of the children in our local community are unable either because of parental indifference or deprivation, to access books to read. Even the presence of a local library does not apparently encourage many such parents to allow their children to use the library facilities. A home without books is like a house without windows. Children learn to read and to see the world through the writings of others by being in the presence of books. That is why the Lions Club wants to assist the children of bookless homes to build their own small libraries by taking up the invitation to collect a book a month from the Lions Bookshop. I realise that many of the children who would benefit from the free book scheme may not call to the Lions Book Shop. Perhaps local teachers and indeed members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society might be in a good position to offer advice regarding the distribution of children’s books. If so, I would like to hear from either. Looking back over more than sixty years of reading, I find that my own reading habits have changed. The detective novels of almost seventy years ago have given way after a few years of limited, if any reading, to novels and short stories of Irish writers. I once collected all of what I refer to as the “Classical” Irish Novelists of the Irish literary scene such as Liam O’Flaherty, Sean O’Faolain, Francis Stuart and such like, whose works I still retain even though I no longer read fiction. Indeed, I haven’t done so for over forty years, my interests having passed on to Irish History, British Social History and English Politics. It was George Crabbe who wrote “My books have changed, I now prefer the truth To the light reading of unsettled youth”.

The naming of Athy's streets

Emily Square named after Emily Duchess of Kildare is undergoing for the second time in recent years a major redevelopment. There is uncertainty as to how it will turn out, if the comments regarding the recent tree planted in the front of the square is anything to go by. Athy’s main streets all bear the names of an earlier Duke of Leinster’s family members. I am uncertain when the street names were changed, a process which was carried out by Athy’s Borough Council sometime before it was abolished in 1830. I am fairly confident that Augustus Bridge over the Canal built in 1790/91 was named after Augustus Fitzgerald, the first child of William, 2nd Duke of Leinster who officially opened the bridge. The 2nd Duke was to have his name forever remembered when the main streets running through Athy were renamed William Street, Duke Street and Leinster Street. When that was done, I can only speculate. Perhaps soon after his death in October 1804 when his earlier mentioned first son became Duke of Leinster. Duke Street was previously known as St. John’s Street while Leinster Street was called High Street. Interestingly, St. John’s Lane which was linked with St. John’s Street still retains its pre medieval name. Preston’s Gate was renamed Offaly Street as within the Fitzgerald extended family, the name Lord Offaly was a common feature since Gerald Fitzmaurice was succeeded in that title by Maurice Fitzgerald in the 13th Century. James, the 1st Duke of Leinster, was known as Lord Offaly before he was raised to the Dukedom. On the opposite side of the main street lies Stanhope Street, possibly named after the family name of the wife of the 2nd Duke. Athy’s Plaza is known as Emily Square in memory of Emily, Duchess of Kildare who married James, the 1st Duke of Leinster in 1747 when she was aged 15 years and 4 months. Emily was the goddaughter of George II. She was the second of seven surviving children of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond an illegitimate descendant of King Charles II. Her mother was Sarah, daughter of Earl Cadogan. James the 1st Duke of Leinster contracted to build Carton House before he married and when the work was incomplete as he brought his young English bride to Ireland, the couple lived for a few weeks at Leinster Lodge, Athy. During her married life, Emily also lived in Carton House, Frescati House in Blackrock and in Leinster House where the 1st Duke died in 1773. During their married life, Emily gave birth to 19 children including Edward Fitzgerald, the Irish Patriot. Emily’s last child of the 19 was generally believed to have been fathered by her lover, the children’s tutor William Ogilvie. When her husband died, Emily married Ogilvie the following year and had three more children with him. She died in London in March 1814. I am speculating when I put forward the 3rd Duke of Leinster as the person who with the cooperation of Athy Borough Council prompted the renaming of Athy’s main street and the town’s plaza. Emily was the 3rd Duke’s grandmother and there may have been a conscious effort to delete Lord Edward Fitzgerald from popular memory by highlighting the names of those who were faithful to the crown. I do not have documentary evidence to hand to back up my speculative claim as unfortunately I cannot presently access my archival records. However, I cannot recall any reference to street name changes in the Athy Borough minute books which I examined many years ago. Our local history was for centuries bound up with that of the Earls of Kildare and the Dukes of Leinster and as they were proprietors of our town, it was inevitable that the people’s allegiances followed those of the occupiers of the great castles of Kildare. Times have changed and Athy people are now more intensely aware of their history and appreciative of those local men and women who played their part in helping to secure some measure of freedom for our country. Should they be remembered by a further renaming of Athy’s streets? As I ask that question, I am reminded of an attempt some years ago by a member of Athy Urban District Council to have Emily Square renamed Mandela Square following Nelson Mandella’s release from a South African prison. Congratulations to David Daly on his election as Chairman of Athy Photographic Society. David, a dedicated and skilful photographer, is wished well as he heads up one of Athy’s important cultural societies.

The naming of Athy's streets

Emily Square named after Emily Duchess of Kildare is undergoing for the second time in recent years a major redevelopment. There is uncertainty as to how it will turn out, if the comments regarding the recent tree planted in the front of the square is anything to go by. Athy’s main streets all bear the names of an earlier Duke of Leinster’s family members. I am uncertain when the street names were changed, a process which was carried out by Athy’s Borough Council sometime before it was abolished in 1830. I am fairly confident that Augustus Bridge over the Canal built in 1790/91 was named after Augustus Fitzgerald, the first child of William, 2nd Duke of Leinster who officially opened the bridge. The 2nd Duke was to have his name forever remembered when the main streets running through Athy were renamed William Street, Duke Street and Leinster Street. When that was done, I can only speculate. Perhaps soon after his death in October 1804 when his earlier mentioned first son became Duke of Leinster. Duke Street was previously known as St. John’s Street while Leinster Street was called High Street. Interestingly, St. John’s Lane which was linked with St. John’s Street still retains its pre medieval name. Preston’s Gate was renamed Offaly Street as within the Fitzgerald extended family, the name Lord Offaly was a common feature since Gerald Fitzmaurice was succeeded in that title by Maurice Fitzgerald in the 13th Century. James, the 1st Duke of Leinster, was known as Lord Offaly before he was raised to the Dukedom. On the opposite side of the main street lies Stanhope Street, possibly named after the family name of the wife of the 2nd Duke. Athy’s Plaza is known as Emily Square in memory of Emily, Duchess of Kildare who married James, the 1st Duke of Leinster in 1747 when she was aged 15 years and 4 months. Emily was the goddaughter of George II. She was the second of seven surviving children of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond an illegitimate descendant of King Charles II. Her mother was Sarah, daughter of Earl Cadogan. James the 1st Duke of Leinster contracted to build Carton House before he married and when the work was incomplete as he brought his young English bride to Ireland, the couple lived for a few weeks at Leinster Lodge, Athy. During her married life, Emily also lived in Carton House, Frescati House in Blackrock and in Leinster House where the 1st Duke died in 1773. During their married life, Emily gave birth to 19 children including Edward Fitzgerald, the Irish Patriot. Emily’s last child of the 19 was generally believed to have been fathered by her lover, the children’s tutor William Ogilvie. When her husband died, Emily married Ogilvie the following year and had three more children with him. She died in London in March 1814. I am speculating when I put forward the 3rd Duke of Leinster as the person who with the cooperation of Athy Borough Council prompted the renaming of Athy’s main street and the town’s plaza. Emily was the 3rd Duke’s grandmother and there may have been a conscious effort to delete Lord Edward Fitzgerald from popular memory by highlighting the names of those who were faithful to the crown. I do not have documentary evidence to hand to back up my speculative claim as unfortunately I cannot presently access my archival records. However, I cannot recall any reference to street name changes in the Athy Borough minute books which I examined many years ago. Our local history was for centuries bound up with that of the Earls of Kildare and the Dukes of Leinster and as they were proprietors of our town, it was inevitable that the people’s allegiances followed those of the occupiers of the great castles of Kildare. Times have changed and Athy people are now more intensely aware of their history and appreciative of those local men and women who played their part in helping to secure some measure of freedom for our country. Should they be remembered by a further renaming of Athy’s streets? As I ask that question, I am reminded of an attempt some years ago by a member of Athy Urban District Council to have Emily Square renamed Mandela Square following Nelson Mandella’s release from a South African prison.

County Home Athy

‘The first phase of the construction of the 92-bed nursing unit for St. Vincent’s Hospital Athy is set for early 2025’. So announced the HSE almost a year ago. The first phase of the construction work aims to deliver 48 beds with subsequent phases to follow. Detailed design work was, in February of last year, underway for the proposed nursing units. We were advised that efforts were focussed on finalising tender packages to be presented to the market for contractors’ selection. Construction activities for the project were then anticipated to commence in the first quarter of 2025. The last time additional accommodation was provided at the former County Home was in 1969, almost twenty years after an interdepartmental committee’s recommendations were adopted by the Irish Government. The committee set up in 1949 to examine the future of County Homes found that many of the former workhouses including Athy’s was still accommodating the chronically sick, the aged and mentally unstable while lacking appropriate accommodation. However, the report recognised that the old workhouse buildings could be refurbished to provide accommodation for the aged and chronically sick while the mentally unstable, unmarried mothers and their children should be accommodated in separate institutions. The Report’s recommendations were accepted by the government in 1951, but it was not until 1969 that Kildare County Council approved a scheme of improvement for Athy’s County Home by replacing patient accommodation then located on the ground floor and the first floor of the original workhouse building. The County Architect, Niall Meagher, was responsible for the planning, design and construction of the new buildings assisted by Eric Wallace, staff member in the County Architect’s Department working closely with the Department of Health Architect Cecil Dowdall. The administration of the project and commissioning, equipping and staffing of the new building involved the then Matron, Sr. Dominic. Work on the construction of the new building by Bantile Limited of Banagher commenced on the 27th July 1966 and took almost three years to complete. The new hospital buildings which cost €250,000 contained two hospital blocks for 100 female patients, three hospital blocks for 168 male patients and 14 maternity unit and delivery rooms. The new building was occupied on the 3rd April 1969, 125 years after the workhouse was first opened. In 1971 the newly established Eastern Health Board took over responsibility for the County Home and they named it St. Vincent’s Hospital. The first visiting committee of the Board under the chairmanship of Councillor Paddy Hickey met in the hospital on the 20th May 1971. The following year, the Department of Health gave approval for the construction of a new convent building, a nurses’ home and a mortuary. The Sisters of Mercy had retained a presence in the former workhouse since 1874 and on their first arrival they had occupied rooms at the back of the main building. Later they moved to the front of the building occupying rooms on the first floor and where they remained until they moved into the new convent. The contractors for the new building were Messrs. M. Turley and Co. and in late 1974 the work was completed with buildings officially opened on the 25th June 1975. In the 1940s, the County Home employed three Sisters of Mercy and three nurses and in 1952 the first attendants were employed. In 2002, despite a reduction in the number of patients in the hospital compared to 50 years previously, the staff employed included seventy-three nurses, ninety-seven attendants and ten administrative and support staff. The Sisters of Mercy who first arrived in Athy in 1851 to teach in the newly opened convent school soon arranged weekly visits to the workhouse and were eventually invited by the Board of Guardians in 1874 to provide nursing sisters for the workhouse. Thus commenced the Sisters of Mercy’s work in the workhouse, later the County Home and then St. Vincent’s Hospital. Several members of the Sisters of Mercy were appointed Matrons of the County Home/St. Vincent’s Hospital. Many of us will remember with fondness the legendary Sr. Dominic who was appointed Matron in 1957 and succeeded in that position by Sr. Peg in 1981. Sr. Peg was the last Sister of Mercy to be Matron and the last Sister of Mercy to work as a nurse in St. Vincent’s Hospital was Sr. Catherine who retired on the 31st March 2002. The dark forbidding building which George Wilkinson had designed in the 1840s has changed beyond recognition in the intervening years. The corridors which once echoed to the shuffling sounds of bare footed men, women and children, have been replaced by modern wards where the elderly and the sick are comforted and cared for with compassion and skill.

Big Wind of 1839

Storm Éowyn has come and gone, leaving behind a devastated countryside. So far as records show Éowyn was the biggest wind storm ever to cross this country and surpassed the generally accepted ‘Night of the Big Wind’ of 6th January 1839. The winds of 1839 brought a different type of devastation on the Irish people of that time. While there was less destruction of buildings than one might expect following the recent wind storm, the misery experienced as a result of electricity outages and the absence of water supply is shared by many thousands of households. On the Monday three days after the storm 240,000 houses remained without electricity, while about 109,000 customers were without water supply and a further 126,000 households were classified as ‘at risk’. The big winds of 1839 destroyed thousands of the poorly constructed dwellings occupied by cottagers and unemployed labourers. Fire was a particular hazard because of the prevalence of thatched roofs. In Loughrea it was reported that 103 houses were destroyed, of which 71 were burned to the ground. This was a common enough occurrence, particularly along the Western seaboard. Near Athenry in County Galway a house collapsed and went on fire, resulting in the tragic death of the mother of the house and four of her children. Subsequent reports in the local Press gave details of the wind storm destruction across the country. The ‘Galway Weekly Adviser’ claimed that Portarlington suffered more than any other town for its size. That same newspaper reported that large ricks of corn and hay were blown away a mile from the haggards and that rivers and lakes were full of corn and straw. The ‘Dublin Evening Post’ confirmed this when it reported that many farmers whose haggards were full with unthrashed corn the day before the storm found themselves without a sheaf of grain in the morning. While the ‘Clonmel Herald’ reported ‘upwards of 300 lives were lost in Ireland by the late hurricane’, it is generally accepted that this was an over estimation. The actual figures for those who died was nearer 100 and included 12 men of the Roundstone Coast Guard who were drowned during the storm. I cannot access my archival material at this time but so far as I can remember I never came across any Athy references in relation to the 1839 wind storm. There is no reason to believe Athy escaped the ravages of the storm, but the lack of reporting in the minute books of the Borough Council is surprising. Perhaps not so surprising when one considers the composition of the Council and its obvious lack of interest in the town. The 1839 wind storm came to the forefront when the English Chancellor Lloyd George introduced the Old Age Pension Act of 1908. This introduced a non-contributory pension of thirteen pounds a year for eligible persons aged 70 years and older. Many Irish applicants had no documental evidence of their date of birth as the registration of births, marriages and deaths did not become a statutory requirement until much later. Catholic Parish Priests were in many cases compiling baptismal records for several years prior to 1839 and if I remember correctly baptismal records in St. Michael’s, Athy, were compiled from some time in the middle of the 18th century. In the absence of such records the Old Age Pension Committees charged with implementing the Pension Act, decided that the claimants’ pension application would be approved if he or she remembered the night of the Big Wind. Last week’s storm, stronger than any previous storm, caused less structural damage than that of 1839. However, it created huge difficulties for so many households without electricity and without water. The electricity network team have been working hard since the storm and deserve our gratitude without criticism. The lady who tackled the Taoiseach some days ago in relation to the alleged failure of the electricity company would no doubt be surprised to read that in 1985 the Jansen Report on the ESB found that the semi-state body was overstaffed to the tune of 3,000 workers. I am not sure if the water treatment authority, Uisce Eireann, which failed to provide a safe and secure water service following the storm cannot be criticised. Surely every water treatment plant dependent on electricity should have a backup turbine system in place. The absence of turbines meant that with electricity cut off water could not be supplied. The remedy is straightforward. It is not only Uisce Eireann who fell down on the job for last week when writing of Athy’s Gaelic Football Club players who captained the Kildare county senior team I omitted to mention Colm Moran and David Hyland. Colm was captain of the Kildare county senior team in 1988 following Athy’s victory in the 1987 Kildare Championship final. David was captain of the Kildare senior team in 2020 and 2021. Colm and David were therefore the second and third Athy players to captain the senior county team, the previous player being Paul Matthews who captained the Kildare All-Ireland losing team of 1935. As mentioned in last week’s article Paul Matthews and Kevin Feeley, like myself, are not Athy natives, while Colm Moran and David Hyland are. They are therefore the first Athy natives to captain the Kildare senior football team for more than one game.

Kevin Feely Footballer

The announcement of the Athy Gaelic footballer, Kevin Feely, as the County Kildare Senior captain for 2025 is so far as I can ascertain only the second occasion that a player from the South Kildare town was captained the Senior County team. We have to go back as far as the Kildare All Ireland Final losing team of 1933 to identify the last Athy player who captained the County team. He was Paul Matthews, employed as a local bar man in Andersons, who came to Athy from County Cavan. On that All Ireland Final Day, Paul who like Kevin played centre field was joined on the County team by another Athy player Tommy Mulhall. On the substitute bench that day was Barney Dunne, Jim Fox and Cuddy Chanders. Cuddy had been sensationally dropped for the final by it is said the County Board executives who overconfident of victory gave the goalkeeping role to a Naas player. Cuddy was restored as goalkeeper for later league matches but the controversial decision marked a dark period in the relationship between Tim Clarke’s County Board and the Athy Club. Strange isn’t it to reflect that the two Athy County Captains came not from the short grass county but in Paul Matthews case from Ardee, Co. Louth and in the case of the present holder of the title, Kevin Feely who was born in Brussels. However, Kevin has links to County Kildare of which I have only now become aware as his paternal grandfather Roddie Feely Snr. was born in The Curragh. Other great footballers who played for Athy and County Kildare Seniors include George Comerford, a Clare man stationed as a Garda in Athy and who captained the Athy Club team to win the 1937 Championship. The 1937 County Final was played on the 17th July of the following year. The delay resulted from the Athy Club’s elimination at the quarter final stage following a walkover granted to Raheens. Athy appealed and the replay was ordered which took place on the 1st May 1938 which Athy won. The Final winning team was captained by George Comerford. George had won Dublin Championship titles with the Garda team in 1933, 1934 and 1935. He transferred to the Athy club in or around 1936 and played for the County Senior team on five occasions between March 1938 and February 1939. Comerford, who won a provincial medal with Munster, was regarded as one of the finest footballers of his time but I cannot find out whether following his captaincy of his 1937 Championship team if he took over the captaincy of the Kildare Senior team. Other Athy players who have featured in the County Team Seniors in the past include the legendary Mick Carolan, Danny Flood and Tommy Mulhall. Mick Foley was of course the only club member to receive an All Star Award during his time as a County Senior player. There were many other Athy players who played on the Senior County Team but their stories are for another day. To return to Kevin Feely, apart from the honour of captaining the County Senior Team this year, he was also recently declared as the County Footballer of the year. This is a well deserved honour for the young player whose style of play reminded me so much of the legendary Mick O’Connell. His superb overhead catching of the ball and his subsequent distribution is so typical of the legendary Mick O’Connell who played his football in the 1950’s. Kevin’s talents as a Gaelic footballer were put to good use when I saw him recently on TG4 as one of three analysts discussing a recent club championship semi- final. He spoke easily, convincingly and with ease as he outlined the involvement of the two teams and the tactics they employed. His was a television performance par excellance and I expect to see him on the principal channel before too long. As to the County Senior Team Panel for 2025 with Kevin Feely are Athy Club players Niall Kelly, James McGrath and David Hyland. I wish them well and hope that the County can have some measure of success in this year’s Championship. I was surprised to get notice on Facebook of Athy G.F.C. function in a local pub when announcements of players of the year in different grades were to be made. I thought it was strange that the Clubhouse was not used for the night until I realised that for some time past the Club Licence which would allow alcohol to be served was not renewed. Whatever about the alcohol element, it is a pity that a fine Clubhouse which Bobby Miller and others were responsible for building is no long longer part of the club members social scene. It is something that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency as the Clubhouse is the heart of the Club. As I wrote this article, I became aware that Kevin Feely and his fiancée Patriona Bolger married just before Christmas. I take the opportunity of wishing them many years of happiness. Finally, congratulations to Claudia Reeves for the very successful film festival which was held last weekend. The Athy Film Club which she started some time ago is a wonderful addition to Athy’s Cultural scene.

Private James Barber of Athy and his part in the Zulu War

Early on the morning of 11th January 1879 British and colonial forces crossed the Buffalo river into Zululand (part of modern day South Africa) at Rorke’s Drift. This marked the commencement of what became known as the Anglo Zulu War between the British empire and the Zulu nation. From the British perspective the purpose of the invasion of Zululand was to protect the settlers in Natal and Cape Colony but in reality the grounds for the invasion were concocted by the British Colonial authorities in order to advance their territorial ambitions in the kingdom of the Zulus. The British Forces were a combination of regular British troops, colonial volunteers and native levies. One of the British army regiments comprising these forces was the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Regiment of foot which recruited in Brecon, South Wales where a regimental depot had been established in 1873. While now regarded as a Welsh regiment, in reality, like much of the British army, almost twenty percent of its number would have been Irish men. Amongst their number was Private James Barber who WAS born in Athy in 1849. He was the son of Michael Barber and Catherine Byrne and it is likely that his father was a recent resident in Athy and possibly even stationed in the Barracks in Woodstock Street as a soldier. It was an inauspicious time to be born in Athy. 1849 marked the last year of the Great Famine and while Athy had suffered none of the losses of the population as suffered on the Western Seaboard in the South of Ireland, deaths in the Athy Workhouse were approximately 1,205 men, women and children. The losses caused by the Famine were compounded by an outbreak of cholera in the town in June 1849. By 29th September of that year, 27 cholera cases were recorded and 11 local cholera victims had died. A temporary cholera hospital was opened in the town and funds intended for the relief of the Famine had to be diverted to deal with the cholera epidemic which would remain a threat to the public health until the following year. Barber must have been a fairly sturdy youth as he survived childhood, bearing in mind that in the year of his birth life expectancy in Ireland fell to just 14 years, having been 38 years in the early 1840s prior to the Famine. His army service record showed that prior to his enlistment in the British Army he served in the Kildare Rifles which were established in 1855 as successor to the Kildare Militia. His first period of service abroad with the 24th Foot found him in India from 1868-1873. After a number of years back in England the Regiment was despatched to Southern Africa in 1877 where it took part in campaigns against the Gaikas and other South African tribes. Fate was to be kind to James Barber. On the 22nd January while the 1st Battalion of the 24th Foot and one company of the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Foot stayed in the main camp in Isandlwana, the balance of the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Foot left the camp with the overall commander of the campaign, Lord Chelmsford to search for the Zulu army. Later that day a Zulu army of more than 20,000 warriors overwhelmed the British camp killing over 2,000 British troops, volunteers and native troops. Having left the camp that morning at 4am Barber returned at 7.45pm to find the camp overrun and every man dead. The battle of Isandlwana was followed by the more famous action at Rorkes Drift where about 150 men, many of them Irish, held off a Zulu force of 3,000 men for two nights. That action was immortalised in the 1964 movie ‘Zulu’. Ultimately by a force of arms and employment of artillery and machine guns the Zulu nation was overwhelmed by the invading forces by July of 1879. The Zulu King, Cetshwayo, went into exile but became such a celebrity internationally that he visited with Queen Victoria in London. Barber continued his service with the 24th Foot with further periods of foreign service in India from 1880-1886 and in Bermuda from 1886-1888. He spent much of his life after the army in Staffordshire where he died on 14th June 1925. He had four children with his wife Emma, being Bernard, Margaret, James and Arthur. His son Bernard followed him into the army, serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1912-1915 with service on the Western Front in France but it appears that the Barber family never returned to Ireland.

Athy Photographic Society's Calendar 2024

For a historian there are many windows into the past. Sources such as letters, diaries, and newspapers give us good records of our predecessors, but for me photography can give a vivid and intimate link to the past that is difficult to replicate anywhere else. A simple image, whether in black and white or colour, gives us a direct connection to people or events long past. I was reminded of this with the recent opening of the exhibition ‘Here Comes Everybody’ at Arthouse which is described as an art gallery and exhibition space in 42a Leinster Street. It is part of an ongoing initiative as part of the Creative Places programme running in Athy. Though small, the exhibition was well presented with some fine reproductions of photographs of people and places in Athy over the last 80-100 years. Peering out from the photographs were faces of many people I had known in my youth who are now long gone, but their memory lives on in the photographic images which survive then. There was one thing lacking from the exhibition which I think could add to its interest. None of the images that I viewed were captioned and while I could happily identify many people and places from the photographs, from a historian’s point of view it would add immeasurably to the exhibition if there was some guide or captions to the images on display. It’s a worthwhile endeavour and the exhibition itself will run until the middle of January. It is intended that the venue will host further exhibitions and events throughout 2025. Athy Photographic Society, which from my reckoning is now running for almost forty years, has released their annual photographic calendar. The 2025 edition is an interesting digression from previous calendars as rather than just simply featuring images of the town and locality this year, rather imaginatively, the society have used local images to recreate twelve iconic music album covers. It was nice to see the juxtaposition between local people and local places paying homage to classic music albums. My musical heritage is grounded in the music of the ‘50s and ‘60s and so many of the album covers featured meant little to me but I particularly enjoyed the recreation of the British rock band Jethro Tull’s album cover, ‘Songs from the Woods’. One of the more curiously titled bands, their name derives from a pioneering English agriculturalist Jethro Tull who developed the horsedrawn seed drill in the early 18th century that revolutionised agriculture in providing farmers with a modern and economic method of sowing seeds in neat rows for tillage purposes. His master work on the subject ‘The New Horse Houghing Husbandry: or, An essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation’ was published in Dublin in 1731 and it was one of the earliest works on agriculture published in Ireland at the time. This invention had a huge impact on both the economic life and landscape of South Kildare surrounded as Athy is by some of the best tillage land in the country. This is reflected in a detailed report on the agriculture of Athy and district published in the Leinster Leader on 26th March 1898. Athy’s agricultural economy was prospering and it seemed to have avoided the agricultural depression which dogged much of the country at the time. The article focused on the mills run by Messrs H. Hannon and Sons. The reporter interviewed the manager of the mills, a Mr. Price, who treated the journalist to a detailed description of the milling process from the arrival of the raw product by barge on the Grand Canal to the final process of manufacturing. Mr Price paid particular tribute to the managing clerk, a Mr. Dobbin and mentioned that twenty men were employed in the three mills. The mills in Ardreigh and Prumplestown were focused on the manufacturing of flour, while the Athy Mills were solely devoted to the manufacture of Indian meal. Much of the land around the town at that time was devoted to the wheat growing industry. In 1897 the Prumplestown Mill produced 9,338 barrels of wheat which were manufactured into flour while the Ardreigh Mill produced 8,500 barrels of wheat which were manufactured into flours of various qualities with titles such as ‘Acme’, ‘Champion’, Rollo First’, ‘XL’, etc. The market for the produce was local and would have been sold in Carlow, Tullow, Baltinglass, Castledermot, Stradbally, Castlecomer, Monasterevin, Portarlington and Edenderry. Wheat from both mills was sold at one shilling and six pence per barrel. That price was apparently very good from a local farmers’ perspective insofar as it encouraged them to treble the area for wheat production the following year. Sadly this prosperity was not to last as by the early 1920’s imports of cheaper grain from the United States devastated the Irish grain industry to the point where none of the Hannon mills were operating by the late 1920s.

Pay parking and free parking for Christmas

For me Christmas is the season that marks the winding down of my working year. I look forward to the chance to rest and recuperate and catch up on those books which have eluded me during the year because of work and social commitments. Coupled with this quiet time is the chance to enjoy those long-established Christmas traditions. As a child, that was the opportunity to stand outside Duthie’s Jewellers Shop at No. 30 Leinster Street and gaze in wonder at the nodding Santa placed on the top shelf of the window display by Albert Duthie. And while that wonder did not outlive my teenage years, the nodding Santa was still a harbinger of the Christmas festivities and the school holidays to look forward to in eager anticipation. Our local authorities, be it the former Athy Town Council and Kildare County Council, have always been supportive of Christmas traditions such as the installation and funding of the Christmas lights all through the town which adds immeasurably to the season of good will. I am not quite sure how far back the Council’s endeavours in this regard go but certainly in Christmas 1962, the then Athy Urban District Council greed to provide an illuminated tree in Emily Square and contribute £120 (less the costs of the tree) towards the costs of the street illuminations which were provided by the Athy Illuminations Committee. Because of the current works in Emily Square, the Christmas tree has now been relocated to the back square near the Courthouse but still provides a lovely backdrop to the town during this festive season. I was more than disappointed to learn recently that another imbedded Christmas tradition had been dispensed with by Kildare County Council. During my time on Athy Town Council, I like many others was resistant to the idea of pay parking being introduced into the Town. While County Council Officials always dressed it up as a “traffic management measure”, I and many of my councillor colleagues were satisfied that it was a “revenue generating exercise”. Notwithstanding that, pay parking was introduced more than twenty years ago and I suspect that its benefits for traffic management are far more outweighed by its revenue gathering benefits for the County Council! One by-product of this regime was that for the four weeks around the Christmas period, pay parking was suspended in the town. This was an inducement to those who might do their shopping in towns such as Portlaoise, Naas, Newbridge and Carlow to stay in their hometown and contribute to local businesses at a very important time for local commerce. I was surprised and disappointed to understand that without any official announcement pay parking has not been suspended for the Christmas period. I understand that this was greeted very negatively by people in the town who voiced their dissent and disappointment to public representatives. I further understand that a limited exemption from pay parking in the afternoons between 2pm and 6pm in public car parks (only) has now been introduced belatedly but that is not good enough. Many people have been caught out by this limited exemption by being ticketed while parked on the street (and not in car parks), though why this distinction is necessary is unclear to me. Between the commercial rates paid by businesses in the town and the parking fees paid by the inhabitants of the town, there was no reason why a townwide suspension of paid parking should not be introduced over the four weeks of the festive period. It beholds our public representatives using their reserved function to ensure that this does not happen again in 2025. The town businesses need our support and any number of initiatives by Kildare County Council will not support those businesses if something as simple as pay parking cannot be suspended for a brief period. The encouragement of commercial development in the town requires a holistic approach and this will be compromised by a narrow-minded approach to prioritise revenue generation over town development. Let’s hope that a more forward-thinking approach to this issue is applied in December 2025. As many readers will know, I have been experiencing significant health challenges over the last six months which has unfortunately necessitated hospital visits and sometimes stays. I am hugely appreciative of the many cards, letters, emails and texts which I have received from people both far and wide enquiring after my welfare and I would like to thank people for those expressions of support, and I wish all of my readers a Happy and Peaceful Christmas.

Nicholas McDonogh

1822 was a tumultuous year in Ireland. A famine erupted in Munster and Connacht when the potato crop failed but it had nothing of the excess of mortality of the later Great Famine of 1845 to 1852. That same year also saw the introduction of the 1822 Constabulary Ireland Act which for the first time established a countrywide police force for the country. The Act established police in each of the four provinces with Chief Constables appointed by the administration in Dublin Castle. The First Chief Constable appointed to Athy was Nicholas McDonogh (1783-1864). We don’t know much about McDonogh’s time in Athy nor his service in the Town, but he was involved in a notorious shooting incident in November 1823 which, at the time, must have cast significant doubt over the authority of the Police in the town. Newspapers at the time reported that McDonogh was out ‘wildfowling’ near Stradbally with a friend by the name of Forbes. It was reported that when they were passing a local farmhouse, they were attacked by a large mastiff type dog which McDonogh in an act of self-protection shot dead. It appears that a farm labourer on hearing “the report of the gun and the yell of the expiring dog” rushed out to confront the shooter. Accounts differ as to what occurred next. The friends of the farm labourer would say that he went out to remonstrate with McDonogh over the shooting of the dog while Forbes claimed they were being pursued and threatened by the farm labourer. In any event, McDonogh raised his gun at the then unnamed farm labourer. The Farm labourer remonstrated and asked him not to fire his gun as he is merely seeking to see exactly what had happened with the dog. Notwithstanding this plea, McDonogh fired his gun hitting the man in the thigh and killing him. By this point another man appeared and incensed by the shooting of his companion pressed forward and in the words of the reporter cried out “villain you have murdered the man”. McDonogh then appeared to have fired a second time hitting the second man in his stomach who also died. Conscious, their actions would cause ructions in the locality they sought refuge in the house of a Mr. Montgomery where crowds soon gathered seeking to take Forbes and McDonogh prisoner. As matters were coming to a head, the Reverend Fr. Pelan, presumably a local catholic clergyman, arrived on the scene and urged calmness on the crowd. He negotiated for Forbes and McDonogh to give up their guns and under his protection conducted them to another house in Ballylinan. By this point events were moving fast. A party of soldiers from the 78th Foot , a Scottish infantry regiment, based in the barracks of Athy arrived in considerable force. Whether or not they had been summoned because of the shooting incident or whether they were just out on patrol is unknown but their presence immediately heightened tensions. The house in Ballylinan was attacked by a crowd. The Highland soldiers of the 78th Foot fired on the crowd but luckily no injuries were sustained. Before matters could descend into complete chaos, Mr. Clancy, the Chief Constable of the Stradbally Police arrived. A reporter wrote that Clancy “Upon reaching the village, he found not only that but every road leading to it thronged with the peasantry, infuriated to the last degree, and the act of pulling down the house in which the gentleman had taken refuge. Two of the Stradbally police were struck with stones as they passed – nevertheless – Mr. Clancy got off his horse and went among the outrageous populous. He soothed, threatened and pointed out the madness of their attacking armed men and the further loss of lives and consequent misery to many of their families, that there was likely to be the consequence of their doing so. He pledged himself no matter who the parties were who unfortunately killed the men, he would not stop until he lodged them in jail, after a considerable time spent in exertions of this kind, the peasantry became tranquil, threw away stones and other weapons they had provided, cleared a passage for him and showed every inclination to be guided entirely by his wishes, in fact, proved they only wanted some person to whom they could confide to secure and bring the prisoners to justice”. Clancy’s approach defused the situation and with two Constables he conducted the prisoners back to Stradbally. From there McDonogh and Forbes were committed to Portlaoise jail. Ultimately the two men would be tried and while I have been unable to establish the outcome of the trial of Mr. Forbes, McDonogh was convicted of manslaughter. The victims unnamed in the press report at the time were two brothers William and Joseph McDarby. McDonogh was sentenced to nine months imprisonment and rather extraordinarily after only serving four months in prison returned to his post as Chief Constable in Athy in 1824.

Winnifred Letts - Author

This Christmas the Athy Lions Club book shop, based in Duke Street, Athy, is offering two free books for any young boy or girl (of their choosing) as a Christmas gift from the Lions Club. You can call in to the Lions Club book shop at any time up to Christmas and collect your two free books. It’s a wonderful gesture from the Athy Lions Club, whose book shop has proved to be an important resource for the town over the last number of years. The members of the Athy Lions Club have made a huge contribution to the local community since it was established in 1971. Perhaps the most visible reminder of the club’s work is the Sheltered Housing Scheme in the grounds of St. Vincent’s Hospital. This was a project led by the Athy Lions Club and funded in part by government grants and fundraising locally by the Lions Club members. Christmas is the ideal time to gift books to your loved ones and particularly important for children to be encouraged to read from a very young age. We are very fortunate in this town to have a very fine public library in the old Dominican Church with a myriad of facilities available to young and old alike. Children’s literature is now very prominent in book shops, but that was not always the case. I was reminded of this when perusing a recent publication titled ‘Sing in the Quite Places of my Heart’ – the life works of W.M. Letts (1882-1972). Winifred Letts, a native of Salford, Lancashire, spent much of her life in Ireland and was distinguished as a writer of plays, poetry and prose. She probably first came to prominence with her poetry collections including ‘Songs of Leinster’ published in 1913, followed by ‘Halloween’ and ‘Poems of the War’ in 1916. Her war poems were inspired by her wartime service in a military hospital. In 1926 she married W.H.F. Verschoyle, a land agent who owned a farm in Kilberry and up to his death in 1943 she spent many of her summers, weekends and holidays in Kilberry. On 5th May 1932 she recorded in her diary her trip to Kilberry on her sixth wedding anniversary, ‘the birds are in fine song at Kilberry – chaff, mistle thrush, chaff finches and best joy of all, a pair of gold crest wrens very busy about the avenue singing and flitting and feeding all the time.’ She had a keen appreciation and love of nature which is recorded beautifully in Bairbe O’ Hogan’s new book just published by South Dublin Libraries. The book is a lovely record of a life joyfully lived through nature and through Letts’ own writings. She was a versatile writer who also had successful collaborations with Kathleen Verschoyle, the artist, who was her stepdaughter. One of their more attractive collaborations was a Cuala press print of St. Brigid with a poem by Letts (illustrated by Verschoyle), a copy of which I understand hangs in Government Buildings in Dublin at the present time. Kathleen also illustrated Lett’s memoir ‘Knockmaroon’ Her children’s books including titles such as ‘Diana Dethroned’ published in 1909, ‘Naughty Sophia’ (1912), ‘Pomonas Island’ (1931) and finally ‘The Gentle Mountain’ in 1938. She was not the first Kildare based writer to publish a children’s book. That accolade goes to the Ballitore based diarist Mary Leadbetter, who published in 1794 ‘Extracts and original anecdotes for the improvement of youth’, although anonymously which would have been quite common for women writers at the time. It is regarded as the earliest children’s book published by an Irish woman. After the death of her husband in 1947 Letts moved to Kent, but returned again to Ireland in 1953, spending the rest of her life in Killiney until her death in 1972. Letts is commemorated by a memorial plaque and sculpture at the Church of Ireland in Rathcoole, County Wicklow where she is buried with her husband. While there is no monument to her in Kilberry, there is a beautifully made stained glass window to the memory of her husband, W.H.F. Verschoyle in the Church of Ireland there. The local St. Vincent de Paul Society, aided by the Athy Lions Club, will be holding their annual Christmas Food Appeal at Pettitt’s Supervalu Athy from 9am to 8pm on Friday 6th December and from 9am to 5pm on Saturday 7th December. The people of the town have been hugely supportive of the appeal in the past and no doubt will be equally generous this festive season.

Dail Elections of the past and Paddy Dooley T.D.

In three days time we go to the polls in a General Election to elect the members to the 34th Dáil. It is an important part of the democratic process and the electors of Kildare South will return four TD’s to the Dáil. The first election in which I was able to vote in was the 1961 General Election which was held on a Wednesday, 4th October 1961. 1961 was an important year for me as that January I had left Athy to work in Naas in Kildare County Council. I stayed in digs in Naas but every weekend I returned to Athy for the comforts of hearth and home in 5 Offaly Street to my mother, Kathleen Taaffe and my father, John Taaffe, who was still serving as a Sergeant in the Garda Siochana in Athy. I invariably thumbed a lift from Naas to Athy as it was very much an accepted part of life for young people at the time. On many occasions I got a lift home from Naas from the late Paddy Dooley who was then a TD for Kildare. He was quiet and gentlemanly, to the point of shyness, who had been first elected to the Dáil for Fianna Fail in 1957. He was the son of Michael Dooley of Duke Street who played a significant role in the Republican Movement in Athy during the War of Independence and who later had the 1930’s housing scheme Michael Dooley’s Terrace named after him. Paddy Dooley first became involved in politics with his election to Athy Urban District Council in 1945 and remained on the Council up to and including 1974. One of my classmates in the Christian Brothers secondary school was his son, Enda Dooley and I can recall the superior of the Christian Brothers, Brother J. Brett, at the start of the morning classes extending congratulations to Enda Dooley on his father’s first election to the Dáil in 1957. I have always been fascinated by the minutiae and workings of elections both nationally and locally and my first experience of being involved in the election process, in a formal sense, was in Kells County Meath in 1967. It was a year in which my late friend, Frank English was standing for Athy Urban District Council while I had been newly appointed as a Town Clerk for Kells, County Meath just four weeks prior to the holding of the local elections. It was a daunting task for one such as myself, young and inexperienced but perhaps not so daunting as the role which Frank faced in his home town in putting his name before the electorate for the first time. Suffice to say that Frank was successful and went on to serve Athy on the Town Council for 42 years. It was the same Frank English who approached this uncommitted friend to join the Fianna Fail party. I did so without having a great ideological draw to the party of the Anti-treaty side while my natural allegiance was to Michael Collins and the men who supported the Anglo-Irish treaty. I cannot explain how my best friend exercised such an important influence in my choice of political party! The General Election of 1961 saw a changing of the guard to some extent. Fianna Fail was led by Sean Lemass, a veteran of the struggle for independence who took over from Eamon de Valera who had stepped back from the role as leader in 1959 to become President. Other members of the revolutionary generation departed from the Dáil prior to election including veterans of the 1916 Easter Rising such as Oscar Traynor and Richard Mulcahy. The county was then a single constituency and returned four successful candidates, Brendan Crinnion and Paddy Dooley for Fianna Fail, William Norton for Labour and Gerard Sweetman for Fine Gael. There was a later by-election in the county in 1964 occasioned by the death of William Norton who was succeeded by Terence Boylan for Fianna Fail. As a young man of 19 I wasn’t hugely focused or interested in politics in 1961 and I have stronger memories of the opening of the Dreamland Ballroom on the Kilkenny road, Athy in the Summer of 1961 and I recall travelling from Naas to the opening night of the Dreamland Ballroom courtesy of Carmel Fitzpatrick’s trusted Ford Prefect accompanied by several girls from the County Council offices. But whatever our concerns, young or old, participation in the democratic process is an important part of life and two of my grandchildren will be voting on Friday in the General Election for the first time, an important milestone for them both as adults and as citizens of this nation.

Athy - a very prosperous and flourishing town

The weekend of 8th November was a busy few days for Athy. The 24th Shackleton Autumn School welcomed visitors from all over the world, including such countries as Brazil, Germany, France, United States, Britain, New Zealand and Norway. Visitors to the town were effusive about the town and its people. All were universal in their praise for the town and the welcoming nature of it’s people. These qualities are something that we as townspeople should be capitalizing on. Next year will see the 25th year of the Autumn School and also the opening of the new Shackleton Museum. It is an ideal opportunity to consider expanding the Autumn School to a townwide festival. Places, such as Kilkenny, have maximised the opportunities these events provide, such as the Kilkenny Cat Laughs Festival and Kilkenomics over the last number of decades and it is something that we in Athy need to give serious consideration to. We as a community need to be innovative with the opportunities presented by events such as the Shackleton Autumn School. Why not curate an outdoor exhibition throughout the town telling the story of Shackleton’s life? Why not host activities focused on the river, a nod to Shackleton’s early career as a merchant mariner. The Autumn School itself is not solely focused on delivering lectures on polar history to polar aficionados. This year, at its venue, in The Abbey, 6th year history students of Ardscoil na Tríonóide were treated to a presentation by Philip Curtis of the Map House from London of the mapping of Antarctica. As in previous years the distinguished sculptor, Mark Richards, the creator of the Shackleton statue, delivered a master class on art to Leaving Certificate art students from Ardscoil na Tríonóide also. Third-class students from Scoil Mhichil Naofa enjoyed talks on Antarctic wildlife and polar explorers. The highlight for many was an immersive experience in a cold room set to minus 30 degrees to give them an experience of Antarctic temperatures. It was lovely to see the joy and delight on the faces of those young children coming out of the minus 30 degrees environment to the more ambient temperature of a November morning in Athy. Other weekend events included a walk around Medieval Athy guided by Marc Guernon while further afield Kilkea native, Sharon Greene, brought visitors to Ballitore and Kilkea. Others enjoyed or endured a swim in the River Griese with Jonathan Shackleton, while the Kildare Partnership organised a ‘Pole to Pole’ walk on the Barrow Blueway. Of course, visitors have been coming to the town for centuries. Thomas Lacy of Wexford, who published in 1863 his impressions of his journey around Ireland in the years immediately following the Great Famine, came to Athy in the autumn of 1855 by railway from Carlow. He found Athy to be a handsome regular town for its size and a very prosperous and flourishing one. Much of what he observed has little changed. He noted Market Square, which is now named Emily Square, as being surrounded with ‘good houses and handsome shops.’ He noted the construction of a new corn exchange (now the Courthouse) and that the principal market was held in the town on Saturdays, and he noted that it was ‘well supplied and very well attended.’ Many of my generation will remember the weighing scales at the rear of the Town Hall. Lacy was impressed by the arrangements in the market way and described ‘a weighing machine has been established where corn, potatoes and other articles are weighed at one half penny per sack and sworn weighing masters are in attendance by whom printed tickets of the weights are given to those who may require them.’ This system was to ensure fairness for both market sellers and market buyers so that nobody could adulterate their products by lying about the weight of a product being sold. He also visited the Model School which was only opened in 1850, writing that ‘the walls were furnished and appropriately decorated with all the newest and best maps of various sizes and with wonderous illustrations of animals, beasts, birds and fish.’ The weekend of the Autumn School also saw the bi-annual Lions Club Book Fair in A.R.C.H. which I am told went off very well and the book sellers will return with more rarities for us all in March next year, the date of which will be confirmed later.

Opening of Athy Picture Palace 20th October, 1924

In one of my earlier articles I wrote about the Athy Picture Palace, the first purpose built cinema opened in Offaly Street on the site of a former Malt House by Captain Hosie. I had always understood that the Picture Palace had opened in or around 1925 but I was pleased to find on the website www.earlyirishcinema.com that the Athy Picture Palace had a Grand Opening performance on Monday, 20th October 1924 where cinema goers, for the price of one shilling and six pence or nine pence, were treated to a film, ‘The Spoilers’. Set in the goldmines of Alaska, it was inspired by Rex Beach’s novel of the same name published in 1903. In tandem with the main feature, cinema goers could also enjoy the serial ‘Go Get Them Hutch’. The hero of the serial was Hutch who rescues a ship owning heroine from the clutches of a crooked lawyer who was the head of a crime syndicate. That serial was a little before my time but I can remember attending the Sunday afternoon offerings of the Hopalong Cassidy episodes featuring a rough talking cowboy hero played by the actor, William Boyd, who appeared in sixty six films as the character from 1935 to 1948. The 1924 U.S. Presidential Election followed a little over two weeks afterwards in which the Republican Candidate, Calvin Coolidge defeated the Democratic candidate John Davis. Coolidge had previously been the Vice President and had succeeded, the incumbent, Warren G. Harding on Harding’s death in 1923. I was amused to see an article in the Belfast Newsletter around the same time stating that “The Wireless and the Cinema had been employed to reach the voters, and never before has public interest been so greatly aroused”. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose’! A century on from the opening of the Picture Palace, I wonder what one would have found in Athy in that very year. Commercial life in the town was dominated by Athy’s Public houses. It might surprise readers to know that at the time Athy boasted no less than forty local hostelries all of which were open for business. As late as 2001, there were 26 public houses in the town. 1924 saw the closure of Hannon’s Mill on the Bridge at Duke Street, Athy while the oldest local industry, brick making, was under severe strain. From a time in which the town could boast of having twelve or so brickyards, there was only two left in 1924 being the Athy Tile and Brick Company at Barrowford and Hosie’s Brickyard in Coursetown. John Conlan, a farmers party TD for Kildare said in the Dail in January 1924, “In the Athy District, my constituency, several brick yards were in operation up to a comparatively short time ago……..These works turn out the very best brick. In fact some of the old squares in Dublin were built of Athy Brick and that will go to show their durability”. That speech was made by Deputy Conlan in his support of a Bill going through the Dail to compel contractors to use more Irish materials but whether such Bill was ever passed, I am unsure. Despite the rise of public interest in the cinema, cultural events of a more nationalist bent were still popular. The Tailteann Games was established in 1924 inspired by those held thousands of years ago in Tara, Co, Meath. The organisers of the event cleverly staged the sporting elements to coincide with the Paris 1924 Summer Olympics and some of the greatest stars of the Olympics competed at the games, including triple gold medallist Johnny Weissmuller, of Tarzan fame, who swam in the Phoenix Park. The only medallist I can find with an Athy connection is Richard Long, the portrait landscape painter. He was awarded a Bronze Medal for a fire screen which he designed and made depicting the death of Cu Chulainn. He would later find employment as a Woodwork Constructor at the Athy Technical School in 1929. He only remained there for two years and Theo Snoddy in his book, ‘Dictionary of Irish Artists’ published in 2002, notes that Long wrote “I left due to the fact that there was an awful unfairness between Protestants and Catholics. One sect occupied one side of a room, the other sect the other side. If I was giving instructions to a Protestant, a Catholic would call me and vice versa. No wonder I cleared out”. How reflective this was of the relations between the religions in the town at the time is hard to know but his comments surprised me. Richard Long departed Athy to take up a post as an Art Master in Clonmel Technical School playing a prominent role in the Art world in Tipperary until his death in 1960.

Shackleton Autumn School 2024

A small contingent from Athy was among the 2,500 people at the Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London on 12th October last. The occasion was the premiere, at the London Film Festival, of the film ‘Endurance’, a documentary produced by National Geographic telling the story of the discovery of Shackleton’s ship ‘Endurance’ on the 5th March 2022, 100 years to the day Shackleton was buried in Grytiken Cemetery, South Georgia. It was a significant moment for those who have worked assiduously over the last 25 years to raise the profile of the Kildare-born explorer Ernest Shackleton both nationally and internationally. It is testament to their commitment and drive, coupled with the significant support from Kildare County Council that Athy will have a world class museum devoted to Shackleton opening towards the end of 2025. A little later than previous years, the Shackleton Autumn School will run in Athy on the weekend of 8th to 10th November. It is the 24th successive year in which the Autumn School has been hosted in the town. During covid the Autumn School was hosted online by its indefatigable organisers. ‘Virtually Shackleton’, as the online version was titled, was an enormous success, bringing the Shackleton story to a global audience online in 2020 and 2021. For those of us who couldn’t attend the event in London last month I am delighted to report that there will be a showing of the ‘Endurance’ documentary film, in The Abbey, Athy at 8pm on Sunday, 10th November. The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the producer, Ruth Johnson, who is originally from Donegal. Admission is free and as it is expected there will be quite a demand for tickets bookings should be made through the Shackleton Museum’s website, www.shackletonmuseum.com. The film is only one of many events featured in the Shackleton Autumn School weekend from 8th to 10th November. There is a full lecture programme on Saturday and Sunday. Jan Chojecki, the grandson of John Quiller Rowett, who financed Shackleton’s last expedition, will be delivering a talk about the colour photography of Shackleton’s last expedition. Coupled with the lecture there will be a small exhibition devoted to these unique coloured photographs which will be well worth viewing. Philip Curtis of the Map House, London, a specialist dealer in rare and antiquarian maps, will be delivering a lecture on the mapping of Antarctica and I also understand that Philip will be hosting a workshop for Leaving Certificate Geography students of Ardscoil na Tríonóide on Friday morning in The Abbey. From the United States the distinguished historian and writer Buddy Levy will be telling the story of the disastrous voyage of the Arctic expedition ship ‘Karluk’. The story is one he has told in his book ‘Empire of Ice and Stone’ which is an excellent read. Laura Kissel, the Director of Archives at the Byrd Polar Research Institute in Columbus, Ohio will be talking about George Hubert Wilkins, an Australian who served with Shackleton on his last expedition, who himself was a Polar pioneer and her lecture will focus on the voyage of the American submarine Nautilus to the North Pole. Closer to home Joe O’Farrell, a longtime member of the Shackleton Committee, will be looking at the reputations of many Polar explorers, including Shackleton and Scott, while the award-winning playwright and screenwriter Peter Straughan whose films include ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ will be speaking about his work on bringing a screen play on Shackleton’s life to the big screen. Other contributors from the U.S.A. will include Sabrina Waldron who will look at the life of Frank Worsley, Shackleton’s captain on the ‘Endurance’, while Allegra Rosenberg from New York will look at those aficionados drawn to Polar explorers over the last century. An important part of the Shackleton Autumn School is the variety of events on the afternoon of Sunday, 10th November, which will include a bus tour through Shackleton country led by Kilkea based historian Sharon Greene, while the ‘townees’ amongst us can enjoy a walking tour of medieval Athy with archaeologist Marc Guernon. Finally if you are of an active frame of mind Kildare Sports Partnership will be hosting a ‘Pole to Pole’ walk on the Athy Blueway from 2.30pm onwards.

Athy men's involvement in the Boer War

Last Tuesday night the Community Arts Centre in the Methodist Church, Athy hosted the second lecture in the Athy Historical Society’s Autumn series of lectures. Delivered by Naas historian Liam Kenny, the title of the lecture was ‘From ballot box to Council Chamber, Kildare’s First County Council Election 1899’. Over the course of an hour Liam delivered a fine lecture to a rapt audience which ranged over the political, cultural and economic context of the time in which the first County Council elections were held. What interested many of the attendees was the skilful way in which Liam contextualised the election in terms of Irish society and politics at that time. This was a society in which politics was dominated by the middle class and the Home Rule party. The successful county council candidate from Athy was Matthew Minch who at the time was the MP for South Kildare. However, with the outbreak of the second Boer War in October 1899 the war itself began to exert an interesting influence on Irish polities in society. Nascent militant republicanism began to develop inspired by the plucky and determined Boer fight against the British empire in South Africa. As this month marks the 125th anniversary of the breakout of the war it is interesting to reflect on how those events thousands of miles away impacted upon the people of Athy. The Leinster Leader reported on 6th January 1900, when the war was only three months old, that ‘Athy boys with their keen sense of humour raised a Boer flag over the Town Hall over the dead of night with the police unable to ascertain their purpose.’ The Nationalist and Leinster Times gave an amusing account of how the offending ‘Boer flag’ was removed from the Town Hall. ‘In the morning as soon as the first drinks of dawn appeared a grand green flag floated from the pinnacle which summands the Town Hall. William McCleary, the town hall caretaker, volunteered to remove the flag and at about three o’clock he ascended to the roof of the building. He had armed himself with a fishing rod, to the end of which he had tied a knife. He cut through the strands of rope which held the standard in position, and after some exertion the chords were cut and the emblem of Krugerdom collapsed’. The flag incident has occasioned a great deal of talk about Athy and there is much conjecture as to the individuality of the daring crew who seized on the principal building of the town in this way. Accounts brought by native runners from Dunbrinn direction disclosed the fact that after dispersion by the Police the band retired to a lonely kopje overhanging the Barrow and called Coneyboro. Here they made a bonfire and when it was in full blaze they threw in a shell in the shape of a gallon of paraffin. The fluid exploded with a report so loud that it awakened sleepers in distant Grangemellon.’ In addition to the newspapers letters home from Athy soldiers were an important source of information about the conflict. Paddy Connors who was then serving with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers wrote to his brother about the first major battle he was involved in in the war. He noted that three men from the town by the names of Murphy, Kenny and Flynn had been dangerously wounded. Connors went on to write: ‘I like being out here, except for seeing so many disabled for life. Thank God I am very lucky. My helmet was knocked off by a bit of shell when I was carrying a wounded Corporal and he got shot dead in my arms. When I was acting as an escort for the guns, a shell fell in front of me but did not burst.’ The dubious distinction of being the first British officer to be killed in the conflict lies with Captain George Anthony Weldon. Weldon was the grandson of Sir Anthony Weldon of Kilmoroney House in Athy. Weldon was an officer in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers which was part of a force tasked with taking a hill called Talana which was occupied by Boer forces. In attempting to save the life of a Private Gorman who had been wounded by Boer marksmen, Weldon was killed. Later that evening Weldon’s pet terrier was found waiting patiently by his master’s lifeless body. Weldon was buried that same afternoon in a small cemetery facing the hill on which he met his death. For most of us the Boer War has little lasting impact on our collective memory but there are little resonances here and there. Those of an older generation will recall that one of the malting buildings of Minch Nortons was called Ladysmith due to the involvement of a number of employees of Minch’s at the battle of Ladysmith during the war.

Naas Hospital treatment 1966 and 2024

Many of my readers were aware that I was hospitalised in recent weeks. I was discharged last Monday from Beaumont Hospital where I received the latter six weeks of radiotherapy. The nursing staff in St. Ann’s Ward provided a most extraordinary service and one which prompts me to write this article and to draw comparison with my previous contact with hospital services, admittedly of another era. I was admitted to Naas Hospital in 1966 following an appendicitis diagnosis by Dr. Joe O’Neill. There I was operated on by the legendary South African Surgeon, Dr. Jack Gibson, who hypnotised me instead of using conventional anaesthesia. The operation was successful, but I wonder if Dr. Gibson would be allowed to practice his undoubted skills today. This was not so many years after issues were raised in Naas Hospital concerning the absence of basic medical equipment including a blood pressure machine. It required approval by Dr. Ward, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minster for Local Government and Public Health, before that most basic health equipment could be purchased. What I found extraordinary different between my Naas Hospital experiences was the high level of nursing care today compared to then. Numerous checks are today made on every patient every few hours for blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate, respiratory rate, blood sugar and other blood tests. It was a continuous medical examination which commenced as early as 6.00 a.m. The results were noted on one’s hospital charts which were constantly consulted throughout the day. The Naas operation occurred approximately one year after another Naas Hospital event which was irreplaceably fixed in my memory. My first ever job was as a Clerical Officer with Kildare County Council where I served in the Health Services Section under the Staff Officer Noel Finn. County Council staff were small in numbers in those days and may I say apparently much more efficient than Council officials today. Kildare County Council were responsible for the provision of health services in the County of Kildare under the guidance of the late Dr. Brendan O’Donnell. As part of my duties, I occasionally visited Naas Hospital and St. Vincent’s Hospital, Athy to check on some accounts. It was in Naas Hospital, then housed in what was the former Workhouse, a four-storey building with no lift that on one official visit I was committed to helping the lone porter carry a dead man down from the fourth floor. I can hardly imagine that happening in today’s hospitals and brings to mind the readily available porters in Beaumont Hospital. Medical science has made extraordinary advances in the intervening years and ward sisters and nurses taking responsibility for caring, treatment and diagnosing. I found the Beaumont experience quite extraordinary. From bed making early in the morning to monitoring patients’ meals, to carry out the numerous medical checkups during the day, the nurses displayed an empathy and care which was quite exceptional. The vast majority of the young nursing staff in the Beaumont ward were of Eastern European origin. Some born in Ireland, others having qualified in their home country came to Ireland. Others emigrated and are now attending the nearby DCU Nurse training course. The senior nursing staff were apparently all Irish but uniquely those who dealt with patients on an almost hour by hour basis were non-Irish. It reminded me of the UK Hospital regime of the 1950’s where Irish nurses played a major role in staffing hospital wards in the absence of UK nurses. Were you one of the many households contacted within the last few days by telephone by Bord na Mona to advise of a change in the refuse collection days? Apparently the multi-million profit making company will not issue any letters or send texts to advise of the new changes. This seems an extraordinary poor way to communicate with customers, and I wonder if the next price increase will be communicated in the same way. Thank you to the lady who sent me a photograph of the work being carried out by the ESB which resulted in blocking a major part of the Ernest Shackleton mural at the end of Meeting Lane. The work was carried out on a piece of ground owned by Kildare County Council and I must assume that both Kildare County Council and the ESB agreed on where the ESB box was to be erected. It surely would have been as easy for both to move the ESB box a few yards to the left where it would not obscure the Ernest Shackleton mural. The second lecture in our Autumn series of lectures organised by Athy’s Historical Society will take place tonight, Tuesday, 22nd October in The Community Arts Centre, Woodstock St., Athy at 8pm. The title of the lecture is ‘From ballot box to Council Chamber, Kildare’s First County Council Election 1899’ and the guest speaker is Liam Kenny. Admission is free.

Basilio Angeli v. Joseph Galbraith / Athy Summer Assizes July 1856

The most famous court case in literature is Jarndyce v Jarndyce, immortalised in Charles Dickens Bleak House, published in 1853. It features a large inheritance whose heirs cannot be clearly determined and the narrative is driven by the interconnectedness of the novel’s protagonists. I don’t think there is any equivalent in Irish literature or in Irish legal history but I was intrigued to read about the case of Angeli v Galbraith which was first heard at the Kildare Summer Assizes sitting in Athy on Friday, 26th July 1856. The Assizes are somewhat equivalent to our current day Circuit Court. On this Summer’s day the Lord Chief Justice himself, Thomas Lefroy, presided sitting in the Courtroom in Athy, at that time located on the first floor of the Town Hall. While it might seem incongruous for the most senior Judge in the country to be sitting in a small Courtroom in Athy, Lefroy was no stranger to Athy. He had attended boarding school in Athy in 1791, as did his brother Ben, born in 1782 who later settled in Cardenton, Athy which property remained in the Lefroy family until 1956. Thomas Lefroy entered Trinity College in 1792 from where he graduated with a BA degree in 1795. That same year he spent the summer months in Hampshire, England and became friendly with Jane Austen, daughter of the Reverend John Austen. It was the same time that Jane began writing a manuscript which she completed in 1797 under the title “First Impression”. It was later published as Pride and Prejudice and Thomas Lefroy is sometimes credited as being the inspiration for the famous Mr. Darcy in the self same novel. The case before him that day in Athy was an action for slander brought by Basilio Angeli against Joseph Galbraith. The case revolved around the suitability of Angeli for a teaching position in Trinity College, Dublin and Galbraith’s alleged slander in questioning Mr. Angeli’s qualifications and suitability for a post. The minutiae of the case is of little interest today. What is of interest are those parties present at the Court in Athy. Acting on behalf of the defendant, Galbraith, was Edmund Hayes QC who would be replaced at a later appeal hearing by Isacc Butt. The Donegal born barrister Butt himself taught in Trinity and would be prominent in the instigation of the Home Rule Movement. Isaac Butt and Galbraith were both friends and colleagues and Galbraith played an important role in the Home Rule movement and is credited with coming up with the term “Home Ruler”. An important witness in the case was another close colleague and friend of Galbraith’s, the Reverend Samuel Haughton. The Carlow born Haughton was a distinguished scientist lecturing in Trinity who had close connections in Athy through the Haughton family who had built the Mills at Ardreigh and in the town. Haughton and Galbraith would enjoy a lifelong friendship where they jointly wrote a series of financially lucrative textbooks on aspects of Mathematics and Physics which remained in print well until the 1900’s. This close association and friendship was cemented by the marriage of one of Galbraith’s daughters to one of Haughton’s sons. The surviving Court Report records the twelve men who formed the Jury for the case and I was instantly drawn to the name Mark Cross. Cross was one of the fifteen qualified rate payers elected as the First Town Commissioners on the 10th June 1856, a mere two weeks before the Court case where he was described as an “Architect”. Slaters directory for 1846 records Mark Cross as Civil Engineer/Builder living at Market Square, which we now know as Emily Square. Among the buildings in the town which we can attribute to his activities is the construction of the “New Courthouse” which began as a corn market in 1857. In about 1859, he commenced the Glebe House or Rectory of the Church of Ireland on a site provided by the Duke of Leinster near the Church in Church Road. Another interesting connection is that Thomas Henry Cross, a son of Mark Cross’s recorded in his diary attending a school in Athy from 1844 to 1847 run by a Mr. Flynne. Among his classmates were Ben Lefroy, Richard Lefroy, Robert Lefroy, presumably relations of Chief Justice Lefroy. Thomas Henry Cross would proceed to study at Trinity College, Dublin in 1848 and the Tutor he was allocated in Trinity College was the Reverend Samuel Haughton. Difficult though it is at this distance to disentangle the interconnectedness of the various parties in the case, one would have to presume that there was an element of prejudice suffered by the unfortunate Mr. Angeli giving the links between the participants in the case, the Jurors and the Judge himself. Mr. Angeli was ultimately unsuccessful in his case and again in his appeal to the Court of Exchequer in front of the Lord Chief Baron. Galbraith, Haughton and Butt would have long distinguished careers in public life, Samuel Haughton’s legacy is perhaps the more complicated in that applying his scientific rigour to public executions, he devised, in 1866, a more humane method of hanging.