Athy Eye On The Past

An entry in the annals of the Sisters of Mercy Convent for 1935 reads: “During the year the creation of a row of cottages facing the Convent on the borders of the Clonmullin Road and just beyond the enclosure wall of St. Raphael’s field was begun”. A somewhat censorious tone was noted in the final entry relating to what was to be called the “Convent View houses”. “This was the work of the Urban Council. We had no voice in the matter.” In May 1936 Mother Mary Gonzaga was elected Superior of Athy Convent and with so many postulants joining the local Convent it was found necessary to enlarge the novitiate.

The following September Mary Breen and Winifred Meagher entered the Convent of Mercy. Less than three weeks later Catherine O’Hara also joined the Sisters of Mercy in Athy. All three would spend the rest of their lives in Athy as part of the once growing but now dwindling community of nuns who made up the Athy Convent of Mercy. Mary Breen took the name Sr. Enda, while Catherine O’Hara would in religion be known as Sr. Philomena.

Winifred, or Una Meagher as she was sometimes called, came from the County Tipperary village of Doon and after her first year in the Convent she received the Holy Habit, taking the name Sr. Mary Oliver in a ceremony shared with her colleagues Mary Breen and Catherine O’Hara. Around the same time in far away Australia the foundation stone of a new Church was being laid in Parramatta, New South Wales by the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Kelly. The Church was to be dedicated in memory of Mother Mary Clare Dunphy, a Sister of Mercy who had entered the Athy Convent as a young postulant in 1873 where she received the Holy Habit before transferring to the Callan Convent. The Convent of Mercy in Callan opened when following an invitation from Dr. Moran, Bishop of Ossory, six nuns transferred from the Athy Convent on the 8^th of December 1872. When Bishop Moran later went to Sydney as a Cardinal of the Church he requested the Sisters of Mercy in Callan to open a convent in his Australian diocese. Sr. Clare Dunphy and her colleagues travelled to Australia where the one time postulant who had entered the Sisters of Mercy at the Athy Convent died in 1927.

In January 1939 Sheila Meagher, who would later be professed with the name Sr. Alphonsus, entered the Athy Convent where she joined her sister Winifred. Three years later on 18^th April 1942 Sr. Enda, Sr. Philomena and Sr. Oliver made their final profession. All three would have a joint celebration of their Silver Jubilee on 18^th April 1964. I was puzzled as to why the Silver Jubilee was celebrated 22 years after their final profession, but it seems the Jubilee in question referred to the taking of their Triennial Vows in 1939. The final profession occurred three years after the taking of those vows.

Sr. Oliver and Sr. Enda taught for over 40 years in St. Michael’s primary school. Indeed the former Winifred Meagher was for several years principal of the school, from which position she retired on 30^th June 1982. Sr. Enda retired from the school staff on 31^stFebruary 1983. Sr. Oliver was a member of the first Board of Management appointed for the girls primary school in 1975. Incidentally it is interesting to note that when Sr. Oliver retired as principal of St. Michael’s Primary School she was replaced by her own sister, the former Sheila Meagher, known in religious life as Sr. Alphonsus. Following her retirement Sr. Oliver visited the Holy Land in 1983 accompanied by Sr. Carmel, having made an earlier pilgrimage to Rome in October 1975.

In March 1984 Sr. Oliver was appointed Sister in Charge of St. Vincent’s Hospital where she remained for five years. In 1989 Sr. Oliver, together with the two other Jubilarians, Sr. Enda and Sr. Philomena, all of whom had entered the convent fifty three years earlier were planning to celebrate their Golden Jubilee. Sadly, however, Sr. Philomena died in the local St. Vincent’s Hospital on 21^st March of that year. Sr. Philomena had trained as a nurse in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, while her two colleagues, Sr. Oliver and Sr. Enda had trained as primary teachers. The remaining two Jubilarians, Sr. Enda and Sr. Oliver, celebrated their 50 years as Sisters of Mercy in April and the following month Sr. Oliver had a family celebration in the Convent of Mercy. Her extended family came from Doon in Co. Tipperary and on 26^thMay she was joined by nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, as well as her two sisters and her brother, all of whom were in religious life. Sr. Alphonsus had sometime previously transferred to Arklow as Superior of the local Sisters of Mercy Convent, while Sr. Antonio travelled from Florida, U.S.A. to join her sisters, Sr. Oliver and Sr. Alphonsus in the Jubilee celebrations. With them was their brother, Fr. Roger Meagher who was a Parish Priest in Derby, England. Fr. Roger concelebrated Mass in the Convent chapel and following lunch all the guests and the Sisters of Mercy adjourned to St. Michael’s school hall where the extended Meagher family of different generations put on an entertainment.

Sr. Enda passed away in 1998 aged 81 years. Sr. Oliver celebrated her 90^thbirthday last week amongst her friends and colleagues at the Mercy house in Church Crescent. She has spent 71 years in the Convent of Mercy, initially as a postulant and then as a Sister of Mercy, teaching for more than 40 years in St. Michael’s Primary School. It was while a teacher and a mentor to the hundreds of young girls who passed through St. Michael’s in her time, that she gave witness to the mission directives of the followers of Catherine McAuley who commit themselves:-

“To promoting the dignity of women

enabling the oppressed to become

agents of their own liberation

to the upbuilding of the family

conscious of its many and diverse forms

and to promoting the well being of children

to being radically and unequivocally

on the side of those who are poor and marginalized.”

The Sisters of Mercy came to Athy in 1852. I have identified 144 nuns who were members of the Convent of Mercy in Athy in the intervening 155 years. There are, I believe, 19 Sisters of Mercy still with us in Athy. No longer based in their magnificent convent building which was partly built with funds collected in Athy in the years immediately following the Great Famine, the nuns now live at four different locations around the town.

Sr. Oliver, at 90 years of age, is not the oldest member of the local Mercy Sisters. That honour goes to Sr. Carmel Fallon who continues to be involved in the Wheelchair Association at both National and local level. All of the remaining nuns, like their predecessors, have made an enormous contribution to education and nursing in this town. Their legacy is to be seen in the first class schools for girls which we have here in Athy and in the good work which continues to be provided in St. Vincent's Hospital where the Sisters of Mercy served for over 130 years.

Congratulations to Sr. Oliver on her 90^thbirthday and with it goes our thanks to her and her colleagues in the Sisters of Mercy for the sterling work they undertook in Athy after the founding of the local Convent in 1852.

Last week Des Murphy formerly of St. Michael's Terrace died in his county Meath home. His remains were brought back to his home town for burial in St. Michael's cemetery to rest along side his parents Joseph and May Murphy. A few weeks earlier the former Bernadette Cross who like Des was born in Athy passed away in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Her ashes remain in Scarborough.

The Murphys and the Cross's are two families remembered by the older generation of the Athy people. Jack Murphy was a skilled mason who left a reminder of his work in the beautiful stone entrance gateway to St. Dominic's friary. The former Technical school on the Carlow road is another local building on which he worked in his time. His son Des was a member of the Garda Siochana as was his other son Sean who retired a few years ago. As the funeral cortege arrived outside St Michael's cemetery on a beautiful sunny day last week it was met by a generous gathering of Athy men and women whose memories of times past go back quite a few decades. For Des Murphy left Athy in the late 1950's but even after the elapse of 50 years or so memories of young days were stirred by the announcement of his death. The Murphy family formerly of St. Michael's Terrace were represented by Des's siblings Una and Sean and decade old acquaintances and youthful friendships were renewed when school pals were reunited at the graveside.

The news of Bernadette Cross's death reached me some weeks after it had taken place. We had corresponded for a while eight or nine years ago after she first wrote to me from her home which she called “Athy” at Seaview Gardens in Scarborough. She was the youngest daughter of “Watty”Cross of Duke Street, a Dublin born master plumber who came to Athy in 1925. He had married an Athy girl Christina Littleton who had been working in Dublin. After the birth of their first two daughters the Cross family came to Athy where they lived in a house near the old Comrades Hall in St. Johns Lane. Walter Scott Cross known to all as “Watty” Cross had served in the Dublin Fusiliers in World War I. His daughter Bernadette who first wrote to me in 1998 recalled her father singing the balled “The Dublin Boys” the opening lines of which were:

“We are the Dublin Boys

We are the Dublin Boys

We knew our manners

We earn our tanners

We are respected wherever we go”

Hannons Mills at Ardreigh and Crom a Boo Bridge closed down around the same time the Cross family came to Athy and in time “Watty” Cross bought the small office building towards the front of the mill in the town centre. He opened a sweet shop and an ice cream parlour making his own ice cream with cream bought each day from Mahers of Sawyers Wood. His daughters Maureen, Vera and Bernadette worked at different times in the ice cream parlour. About 1938 “Watty” bought 23 Duke Street where the following year he opened a hardware and plumbing business. His eldest daughter Maureen worked in the hardware shop for a while but World War restrictions on hardware supplies caused her to relocate to the ice cream parlour where she worked for the duration of the war. Cross's Ice Cream was very popular. I am afraid my memory does not go back far enough to recall what must have been a very welcome treat in war time but I am assured by many who remember Cross's ice cream parlour that the ice cream was superb.

Bernadette Cross went to England to train as a midwife in Paddington General Hospital. She later emigrated to Australia where she remained for seven years before returning to England. Her sisters Vera and Maureen would also emigrate to England. Maureen emigrated in 1945 and in 1949 married Athy man Fintan Stafford who passed away in 1999. Vera married Eugene Gormley who worked as a butcher in Athy. When Eugene went to England Vera continued to work for a while in the Duke Street ice cream parlour before joining her husband.

“Watty” Cross sold the former ice cream parlour premises to Tom McStay in or about 1951 and Tom opened a butchers shop from where his son David today operates a fast food outlet. “Watty Cross” died aged seventy nine years of age in February 1968 and is buried in new St. Michaels cemetery. Number 23 Duke Street was sold to John Dunne when “Watty's” widow Christina went to Birmingham to live with her eldest daughter Maureen. Christina died in 1971 aged eighty one years and her remains were returned to Athy for burial with her late husband.

There are no members of the Cross or Murphy family living today in Athy. The links fashioned in decades before and after the Second World War have long been broken but nevertheless the town in which Bernadette Cross and Des Murphy went to school and spent their youthful days was never quite forgotten. In the North Yorkshire town of Scarborough Bernadette called her home after her native town of Athy. Des who lived never too far from the town in which he was born and reared made the final journey back to his roots and joined his parents in the family plot in Old St. Michaels. Athy is for many living in Ireland as well as abroad “the home where the heart lies” For the new families arriving amongst us it may in time become the same.

The local Chamber of Commerce held an information meeting in the Clanard Court Hotel last week to announce details of the various water/canal events planned for 2007 which has been designated “The Year Of The Barrow”. Amongst those was the “Tri Athy” event a triathlon race where the competitors compete in swimming, cycling and running over the Olympic distance. This promises to be one of the most important sporting events ever to be held in Athy and already has attracted over 400 competitors. Hundreds if not thousands of spectators can be expected to come to Athy for the 2^ndof June when the river Barrow will be the starting point for the men and women competing in this most difficult of sporting disciplines. I will return to this again but the date should be noted as one of the great highlights in the sporting and social calender of events planned for Athy this year.

He was at different times in his life a footballer, a balladeer, an actor, a public representative, a political activist and a guest of the nation. To the people of South Kildare George “Mossy”O’Reilly was as local as one can become. Yet he was a man apart, defined by his allegiances as were many others who took the same path at different times in Irish history.

About four years ago, conscious of Mossy’s unique talents as a balladeer, I encouraged him to put on tape the ballads which he had composed over the years. It was obviously a task he was reluctant to undertake but I persevered and gave him a tape recorder to encourage him. Time passed and as the years added up Mossy, possibly embarrassed at my persistent enquiries as to how the taping was progressing, eventually got down to the task. Just three months ago the completed tapes were given to me by Mossy. As I listened again last night to Mossy singing his own compositions I could not but smile at his spoken introduction where he claimed, “I would like to say that I have been forced at gunpoint to make this tape.”

I mentioned at the start of this piece that Mossy had once been a guest of the nation. If you are not familiar with the title of one of Frank O’Connor’s stories, it may be necessary to explain that Mossy spent time in prison for membership of the I.R.A. This was something which was well known to those who knew Mossy. Less well known however was the fact that he was imprisoned in Mountjoy for 31 days as a result of a conviction arising out of the aftermath of a football match between Athy and Castlemitchell in 1970. I had forgotten this and was only reminded of it when listening to Mossy’s tape. The first ballad he sang on tape concerned “the wrong I was done by a club called Athy”. Clearly the matter rankled with Mossy and throughout the ballad it was obvious that he felt he had been unfairly treated, both by officials of Athy G.F.C. and the courts.

“As I look back now I think once again

Of the games that we played against Grange and Rheban

Against Sarsfields and Towers how the fists they would fly

But still no one ever was sent to Mountjoy.”

Concluding the ballad Mossy named individuals he blamed for his incarceration in Mountjoy and expressed the view:

“Oh, as long as they live they’ll not look back with joy

On the day they swore lies to send me to Mountjoy.”

Perhaps the most famous and best known ballad associated with Mossy was “The Row in Athy”, the opening lines of which read:

“Oh one night in October in the streets of Athy

Sure a battle took place as I chanced to pass by

Some say that this battle started off in a pub

But sure I know it started in Athy Social Club.”

The narrative goes on for fourteen stanzas as the row progressed down Duke Street as far as Crom-a-boo Bridge where my late father features in the lines:

“So then Sergeant Taaffe leads his men up the street

And you’d swear it was Bulganin with his old Russian fleet

And they got into action with batons held high

But this mob beat them back down to Duke Street Athy.”

The year of the big row was 1957 and some, but not all of the participants ended up in the local District Court where:

“The Judge takes all in and he sits like a mute

And then passes sentence you can hear not a sound

Once he opens his mouth its six months or ten pounds.”

Perhaps one of Mossy’s earliest forays into the world of ballad making was the ballad he composed to mark Castlemitchell’s victory in the intermediate football final of 1953. Mossy was a member of that team which brought the first county championship to the Castlemitchell Club fourteen years after its foundation. Played in Newbridge on 18^th October 1953 against Young Emmets the Castlemitchell team won on the score of 3-4 to 0-4. Their victory was marked by Mossy’s ballad in which he played tribute to his teammates. I’ll quote just one stanza from the 1953 victory song.

“Here’s to our three half forwards they starred on the day

Ed Conway was outstanding and a star was Paddy May

If they were in trouble they always thought to cross

To O’Reilly on the other wing who’s better known as Moss.”

Joe Bermingham was Secretary of Castlemitchell Football Club in that year, having taken over from founder member Jim Connor who had been club secretary from 1939 to 1952. Following a dispute Bermingham resigned from the club and started up a rival football team, St. Michael’s, which however was short-lived. Mossy O’Reilly took over as club secretary in 1954 and he remained in that position for the following nineteen years. As club secretary and a playing member of the club, Mossy played a vital role in the continuing success of Castlemitchell G.F.C. His footballing abilities were acknowledged by the County Board mentors when he was chosen to play for the County Kildare senior team which at different times featured his club teammates Jimmy Curtis, Peadar Dooley, Paddy Wright and Ned Conway.

Mossy was a long time member of the Republican Movement and for several years was on the run. This coincided with his time as a member of Athy Urban District Council and because he was unable to attend meetings he subsequently lost his seat on the Council. However, he was re-elected at the following local elections and fulfilled his role as a public representative for many years thereafter.

Mossy devoted his life to the cause of Irish Republicanism. In time that part of his life story may be told but for now we remember the man whose name in so many ways was synonymous with the small but vibrant community of Castlemitchell. Ar dhéis Dé go raibh a anam.

Colm McNulty, back in Athy for a sabbatical year, from his teaching position in Wellington New Zealand is planning to lead a World War 1 battlefield and cemetery trip to France and Flanders next August. The seven day trip will take place from 6^thto 12^th August and presents an opportunity for Athy folk to visit the sites associated with the men from South Kildare who were involved in the 1914-18 war. Research has shown that more than 2000 men from Athy and district enlisted to fight in the First World War and I have identified 219 men from the same area who died during that war. In war graves throughout France and Flanders are buried the remains of many of those men. However, for many more the only record of their involvement are their names carved on memorials such as the Menin Gate and Thiepval memorial which records those killed in battle but whose bodies were never found.

There will be a maximum of 45 places available on the August trip so anyone interested should contact Colm McNulty immediately at Ph. (059) 8631089 or by logging on to his website leinsterww1tours.sitesled.com. I am told bookings will be made on a first come basis so prompt booking is essential if you would like to make this trip.

The name Harland and Wolff conjures up many images. Tragedy hovers on the fringes of many of those images. It was in the sprawling shipyard of Harland and Wolff that the Titanic was built by Belfast workers. The White Star Liner was launched on 31^stMay 1911 but in less than a year the most awesome ship ever to come out of the Belfast shipyard would sink to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Bruce Ismay was chairman of the White Star Line which commissioned the liner and his name I came across many times in the mid-1960’s when I frequented the beautiful countryside around Connemara. Ismay left the stricken Titanic in controversial circumstances after it struck an iceberg on the night of 14^thApril 1912. Criticised for doing so, although exonerated by the British enquiry into the disaster, Ismay withdrew from public life and spent a lot of his time at his fishing lodge at Costelloe in County Galway. However, long after his death which occurred in 1937, the Connemara locals were critical of Ismay, the millionaire ship owner who survived the sinking of the Titanic while the majority of the third class passengers including several Connemara men and women, perished.

Harland and Wolff came to mind with the recent announcement by Athy Lions Club of a concert planned for the Dominican Church in Athy on Saturday, 28^th April in aid of local Lions charities. Topping the bill for the concert is the Harlandic Voice Choir. The choir was founded in 1944 in the Harland and Wolff shipyard by a group of approximately 20 shipyard workers. During the past 63 years the choir has had many successes at music festivals in England, Scotland and of course Ireland and in 1983 came second in Europe, competing against 200 other choirs in the “Let the People Sing” competition. The choir has appeared many times on television featuring on programmes on the BBC, UTV and RTE alongside such stars as Harry Seacombe, Moira Anderson, Joseph Locke and Stuart Burrows. The musical repertoire of the Harlandic Voice Choir ranges from operatic choruses to Broadway musical hits and the performance in St. Dominic’s Church will mark the choir’s first visit to Athy. It promises to be a wonderful musical experience and because Athy Lions Club is promoting the concert for local charities a “full house” can be expected on the evening of 28^thApril. Tickets can be purchased in The Gem, Winkles or in Martin Mullins office at Leinster Street.

I had intended to write of Athy Boy Scouts which their notepaper claims as the “5^thKildare Unit Athy Scouts”. The local troop celebrated its 30^th anniversary this month and Aidan Prendergast who has been involved with scouting all of those years was to be the focus of whatever was to be put in writing. However, the best laid plans don’t always materialise and I have to confine myself to extending good wishes to Aidan Prendergast and the team of adult volunteers who have dedicated themselves to maintaining scouting in South Kildare over the years. The Scout Centre at St. John’s is located on the site of the Old Comrades Hall which was built as a clubhouse for ex British soldiers following the first World War. It later became the centre of the local Social Club, which in its heyday in the 1940’s and 1950’s had an extraordinary powerful influence on the cultural and social development of the middle class of this area. The Old Comrades Hall, or the Social Club as it was known in later years, is no more. The scouting den of the 5^thKildare Unitnow occupies the site and the wish is that the next 30 years will bring even more success to the local scouts.

I had a phone call from Riga in Latvia a few days ago seeking information on Konrad Peterson who was manager of the Bord na Mona peat factory in Kilberry from 1947. I am sure many will remember Peterson who lived in Church Road. He emigrated to live with his only daughter in Newfoundland following his retirement and the extended family returned to live in Athy sometime in the 1970’s. Konrad Peterson died in 1981 and is buried in Old St. Michael’s Cemetery. He was a man with an interesting past, involved as he was in the Latvian Revolution of 1907, and if it is to be believed, was also involved in Dublin’s Easter Rebellion of 1916. If you have any information on Konrad Peterson or a photograph of him I would be delighted to hear from you.

The amalgamation of the boys and girls secondary schools will take place later this year. Scoil Eoin, formerly the Christian Brothers School, will hold a week of events to celebrate its past which I gather will conclude with a celebratory dinner in the Clanard Hotel on 12^th May. The Annals of the Christian Brothers Monastery commenced in 1861 with an entry dealing with the history of the house at St. John’s Lane which would later be refurbished as the Brother’s Monastery. The Annals continued and I quote:

“Reverend Andrew Quinn P.P. Athy and Canon of the Archdiocese of Dublin subsequently built two schoolrooms with the aid of the parishioners and a few friends, but chiefly with the assistance of the generous and truly charitable Mr. Pat Maher of Kilrush in this county who principally at the suggestion of his eldest daughter Mrs. Mary Teresa Maher, Superioress of the Convent of Mercy, St. Michael’s, Athy gave £400. When the schools were finished in the August of 1861, three brothers, viz John Stanislaus Flanagan, director; Francis Luke Holland, sub-director and John Patrick Sheely, lay brother were sent by our Very Rev. Brother Michael Paul O’Riordan, superior general to conduct the establishment which was put into the possession of the brothers on the 8^th of August 1861 ..... the Brothers commenced the school on 19^th August 1861.”

In the intervening years thousands of young boys have passed through the Christian Brothers School in St. John’s Lane and its successors, Scoil Eoin in Rathstewart and St. Patrick’s National School in Greenhills. Following the amalgamation of the two secondary schools the Christian Brothers will no longer have any involvement with secondary education in Athy. Theirs was a long and fruitful engagement with education in Athy and South Kildare and the only reminder we will have of the Christian Brothers past links with this area is in the name Edmund Rice Square, given to the newest public space created in the centre of Athy some years ago.

The Christian Brothers, like the Sisters of Mercy, made an enormous contribution to improving the life and aspirations of the people of Athy and district following the dreadful years of the Great Famine. The Sisters of Mercy came to Athy just a few years after the Famine, while the Christian Brothers arrived nine years later. The educational facilities afforded to boys and girls of this area following the arrival of the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy brought advantages both educational and social which had been denied to previous generations. The new secondary school to be opened in September will be a far cry from the two schoolrooms which John Stanislaus Flanagan and his colleagues first opened to boys 146 years ago. I would hope that at some early date there can be a joint celebration for both the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy.

A very pleasant function in Kane’s public house in Leinster Street during the week saw the launch of Paddy Walsh’s book of poetry. Published by Glor na nGael, the slim volume of Irish poems, I understand, contains just a few of the substantial body of work which Paddy has produced over the years. A native of Ring in Co. Waterford, Paddy was the subject of an Eye on the Past some years ago. The gathering in Kanes to celebrate the book launch was treated to a reading of several of Paddy’s poems, or more appropriately danta, as they are all compositions in our native language. Paddy spoke and gave us a rendition of a wonderful bilingual piece called “Micháel Mór” which he learned from the late Ger Moriarty who for so long was part of the Thursday night Irish music sessions in Clancy’s of Leinster Street. Overseeing the event was the chairman of the local Glor na Gael, Johnny Watchorn. Not the Johnny Watchorn that immediately springs to mind, but a younger man whose family have lived on the Carlow Road in what was the Railway Cottage located alongside the crossing gates of the old Wolfhill colliery line. Johnny spoke eloquently in gaelic and his command of the language was delightful to hear in one who is a native of the Irish midlands. It made me realise that the Irish language is something which with some effort on our part could again become a vibrant everyday language of the people.

Kanes public house which hosted the book launch is an establishment associated in my mind with a man connected with the Irish War of Independence. It was here that Tom Flood, a member of the Dublin Brigade of the old I.R.A. came to set up business in the 1920’s after the end of the hostilities which had commenced with the 1916 Easter Rebellion. He was one of several Flood brothers who took up arms at that time and Tom was involved in the attack on the Customs House on 25^th May 1921 following which he was arrested and imprisoned. Tom Flood served as a Fine Gael councillor during his time in Athy and died in October 1950.

Just a few doors away from Tom Flood’s former premises lived James McLaughlin and his family, the last of whom, Bridie, died recently and whose remains were returned from Cork to be buried in the family plot in St. Michael’s cemetery. Her father, James, was born to a farming family near Buncrana in Co. Donegal in 1885. In common with many young Irish men and women of the period when he came of age he emigrated to America. I gather he travelled with one of his first cousins and having cleared Ellis Island they eventually settled in Butte, Montana. This was the centre of the copper mining industry in America, if not the world, and had been first settled by Irish emigrants from West County Cork where copper had been mined for many years. By 1900 the first and second generation Irish in Butte numbered over 8,000 out of a total population of 30,000 or so, justifying its claim to be “the most Irish town in the United States”.

Labour struggles involving the old Irish and the new arrivals such as James McLaughlin were a feature of life in Butte, Montana where Ballyjamesduff born Marcus Daly, known as “the Irish copper king” organised the old Irish under the banners of Butte Miners Union to ensure job security by excluding “new emigrants”. Labour violence in Butte was a feature of life in the Montana mining town and McLaughlin’s county man Ed Boyce who led another mining union opposed to Daly’s Union was forced to move his union headquarters out of Butte. Irish organisations predominated life in Butte and amongst them was the Robert Emmet Literary Association and after the 1916 Easter Rebellion in Ireland, the Pearse/Connolly Independence club. Irish socialists such as Con Lehane who visited Butte in 1916 and Jim Larkin who visited the Montana city three times between 1915 and 1917 kept the Irish independence cause to the forefront of emigrant life in the mining city.

Two of James McLaughlin’s brothers, Edward and Patrick, joined him in Butte to work in the copper mines, but James and Patrick eventually returned to Ireland. With the dollars earned in the Butte mines James bought a public house in Dee Street in Belfast where he lived with his wife, the former Agnes McCabe from County Cavan. Belfast was the scene of many notorious sectarian killings at that time and in 1920 McLaughlin’s pub was destroyed in an arson attack. Happily enough James had moved his family to a safe address prior to the attack and with his two children, John and Lilly and wife Agnes left Belfast to live with his parents-in-law in County Cavan. From there McLaughlins moved to Athy after buying a small public house in Leinster Street, just a few doors away from the Railway Hotel which Tom Flood would later purchase. Bridie McLaughlin and her sister Kitty were born in Athy and here also their older sister Mary Elizabeth, known as Lilly, died aged 18 years on 6^th May 1938. James’ wife Agnes died eleven years later aged 59 years and James McLaughlin, the Donegal man who for a time was part of the mining community of Butte, Montana died on 2^nd August 1967 aged 82 years. Following his death the business continued to be operated by Bridie, while Kitty who was secretary to Athy’s Town Clerk worked in the Urban District Council offices. Kitty and Bridie were members of the Social Club in St. John’s Lane in the late 1940’s and the 1950’s and Kitty featured in many of the plays put on in the Social Club and the Town Hall during that time. Kitty died suddenly a few years ago and now with the passing of Bridie McLaughlin the last links with the McLaughlin family of Leinster Street is gone forever.

The two Leinster Street pubs once operated by James McLaughlin and Tom Flood are now in different ownership. Every generation or two the names over local businesses change and in many cases interesting family stories are lost. James McLaughlin’s working life in the mining town of Butte was such a story which unfortunately can only now be touched on without the detail which the Donegal man himself could have provided. It highlights yet again the importance of oral history in preserving the cultural and social life lines of a community. I wonder if the County Library services or some other agency might be encouraged to embark on a project aimed at recording the lives and stories associated with the older generation of Athy men and women.

Two weeks ago I mentioned the trip being arranged by Colm McNulty to visit World War One sites and graves in France and Flanders next August. I gather there has been a lot of interest expressed, particularly by people not living in Athy or South Kildare. The seven day trip is an ideal opportunity for locals who had family members involved in the 1914-18 war to visit graves and memorials associated with the war dead. Anyone wishing to travel in August should contact Colm McNulty on Ph. (059) 8631089 or by logging on to his website leinsterww1tours.sitesled.com. I am told bookings will be made on a first come basis so prompt booking is essential if you would like to make this trip.

Sunday 22^nd April was the 85^thbirthday of the evergreen Frank O’Brien. The doyen of Emily Square, Frank is one of Athy’s greatest ambassadors. O’Briens of The Square has been a landmark in the centre of Athy for over a century and it retains the charm of an earlier age when grocery and public house stood cheek by jowl catering for the male and female of the household. Nowadays the supermarkets have reduced the once busy grocery to that of convenience store status, but still it remains as it has for decades, a welcome change from the drab sameness which pervades the commercial world today.

Frank O’Brien personifies in so many ways the Gaelic heart of this ancient town of ours. He glories in its successes, his window displays always bearing testimony to his own Irishness, his support for the Gaelic language and his love of Gaelic sport.

He is a repository of local knowledge stretching back beyond his own time, enhanced by what he learnt from his own father and his father before him. It’s no wonder O’Briens is the first port of call for many visitors to Athy, especially those with links to this area. For there they can expect to hear of the past, of the people now long forgotten, who once were as familiar on the streets of Athy as we are today.

In wishing Frank O’Brien a happy 85^thbirthday I do so in the knowledge that I would have liked to devote this entire article to him, but modest as ever, he asked me not to do so. Perhaps another day.

Another birthday being celebrated around this time is that of Aidan Higgins, Celbridge-born writer whose 80^thbirthday is being celebrated with an Aidan Higgins Literary Festival in his native town this May Bank Holiday weekend.

Since the publication of Langrishe, Go Down! in 1966, his has been a unique voice in Irish writing. His first novel won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize as well as an Irish Academy of Letters Award, and was filmed for BBC television in an adaptation by Harold Pinter. Set in the hinterlands of Kildare where its author grew up, it slyly reinvents the familiar traits of the ‘Big House’ in Irish fiction. This was an audacious beginning for any writer, but throughout his career Higgins has continued to innovate - blending styles and genres, working within European as well as Irish traditions - most provocatively in his experimental novel, Balcony of Europe, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1972. He is now an author of novels, short stories, memoirs, travel writing, and radio dramas; he is an honorary doctor of letters, a Saoi of Aosdána and most of all this weekend, a celebrated Kildare man. John Banville, Derek Mahon, Shane Connaughton, Annie Proulx, John MacKenna, Fintan O’Toole and Dermot Healy are among the writers who this Bank Holiday weekend will gather to pay tribute to a prolific and inventive prose stylist. Full details of lectures and events during this two-day festival can be found at www.kildare.ie/aidanhiggins.

The Churchtown Castlemitchell Community Development Association have organised a meeting for Castlemitchell Hall on 10^thMay at 8.00 p.m. to plan celebrations surrounding the 50^thanniversary of the local community hall and the 150^th anniversary of Churchtown National School. Both events, I believe, are to be celebrated next August. The Association is anxious to hear from anyone with past links with either the school or the hall and would welcome to their meeting on 10^thMay anyone willing to help out with the celebrations.

Writing on celebrations prompts me to remind you that the Christian Brothers Secondary School will be hosting a variety of events next week, ending with a dinner on 12^th May in the Clanard Court Hotel to mark the amalgamation of the boys secondary and the girls secondary schools – Scoil Eoin and Scoil Mhuire. I gather a substantial amount of photographs and other memorabilia have been collected for an exhibition in the Heritage Centre during the week. In addition transition year students in Scoil Eoin have been busy completing a booklet to mark the event and this will soon be on sale.

The last celebrations in Athy which were centred around the Christian Brothers Schools took place on 23^rd and 24^thSeptember 1994 to mark the 150^th anniversary of the death of Edmund Rice, Founder of the Christian Brothers. The occasion coincided with the planned departure of the last Christian Brothers from Athy and soon thereafter Brothers Murphy and Quinn left the Christian Brothers Monastery in the town for the last time. The centenary of the Christian Brother in Athy was celebrated in 1961 and the photograph shows a parade of school boys coming over the Crom a Boo bridge and heading towards the old school in St. John’s Lane. My late brother Seamus is one of the boys holding the banner. I wonder how many of the other boys captured in the photograph can be identified today.

This week I return to the amalgamation of the Christian Brothers Secondary School and Scoil Mhuire, both 19^thcentury institutions which since their foundation have been an integral part of the educational life of Athy. Indeed by dint of their influence both schools have been in their time an integral part of the social life of this area. I was privileged to receive my early education, both primary and secondary, in the local Christian Brothers School and so am more than an interested onlooker as the date of the amalgamation of my old school with Scoil Mhuire draws near.

Until the 1790’s the children of Athy town received no formal education. The Church of England did not have a parish school at that time and no Catholic was licensed to teach his co-religious. Only the children of well-to-do families could afford to attend the fee paying private schools of which there were a number in Athy at the end of the 18^thcentury. In 1870 the local Church of England Rector set up a parish school, which for a time at least was located in the Town Hall, but later moved to the three storey house presently standing at the corner of Meeting Lane and Emily Square.

In 1811 the Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor of Ireland, commonly called the “Kildare Place Society” was founded. Its stated purpose was to afford the same facilities for education to all classes of professing Christians without any attempt to interfere with their religious beliefs. It is from the records of that society that we first learned of the existence of a Catholic free school in Athy. Known also as the “Athy Poor School” it had as a teacher, John Goold, who in January 1823 received a payment of £11.4.4½ from the Kildare Place Society. Rev. Charles Bristow, the Church of England curate, received a grant of £3.1.9 that same year for running a school in Athy Gaol which was located on the Carlow Road.

The building of the Athy Poor School premises was attributed to Colonel Fitzgerald of Geraldine House and it was described in the 1824 Parochial Returns as “a substantial building of stone and lime.” Located at the North East corner of the present St. Michael’s Church, it was funded by local subscriptions under the management of the Parish Priest and a Committee of twelve local men. Patrick O’Rourke and Ann Doogan were teachers in the school in 1824 and on the school rolls were 232 boys and 96 girls, with an average attendance each day of 140 boys and 35 girls.

By 1835 the Athy Poor School was known as the National Day School and the teachers there were George and Elizabeth Carmichael who had 168 boys and 76 girls on the school rolls. The average attendance in those days, when compulsory school attendance was still a long way off, was 86 boys and 42 girls. Sometime after 1827, but before 1835, a new schoolhouse was built at the corner of Stanhope Street and Stanhope Place. It would seem, although I cannot be certain, that the original school building continued to operate as a girls school, while the new building housed the boys school.

Despite the progress made in providing education for the children of Athy the local Catholic clergy were anxious to desecularise education and bring it more under the control and influence of the Catholic Church. A meeting of the local parishioners was held in the National Day School in the spring of 1843 to further the idea of establishing a convent in Athy for a teaching order of nuns. The prime movers in this were Anna Goold, who subsequently gifted her house in Stanhope Place to the local Parish Priest, Rev. W. Gaffney, a curate of St. Michael’s, the Fitzgerald family of Geraldine House and Patrick Maher of Kilrush. That meeting resulted in the building of a convent and a new school in the grounds of St. Michael’s Parish Church which the Sisters of Mercy took possession of on 10^th October 1852. The first of the two Catholic educational institutions which are now about to amalgamate had arrived in Athy. The Sisters of Mercy in their early years in the town concentrated on teaching primary school children, but after some time they opened a private secondary school which later became a public school, known today as Scoil Mhuire.

In the meantime the Christian Brothers were invited by Archbishop Cullen to open a school for boys in Athy and they were facilitated in doing so by the gifting of Greenhills House by the Sisters of Mercy which was to become the Christian Brothers Monastery. Again, like the Sisters of Mercy, the educational facilities provided by the Christian Brothers when their school opened on 19^th August 1862 was for primary school pupils and it was some time before more senior boys were catered for.

To complete the educational framework in Athy, mention must be made of the Model School opened in 1852 and the Vocational School, as it was then called, which commenced in November 1900. The District Model School was built by the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland on a five acre site which was donated by the Duke of Leinster in 1848. The building of the school commenced two years later and it was opened on 12^thAugust 1852. It catered for infants, as well as boys and girls, and combined the teaching of children with the preliminary training of teachers known as candidate teachers. The school was non denominational and the first two school principals, John Walsh who had previously taught in Dublin and Elizabeth Reilly who had been a teacher in Ballinvally National School, were Catholics. The success of the Model School is shown by the numbers enrolling in the school. On it’s first day 13 boys, 1 girl and 1 infant were enrolled and by the following February the school had 207 on it’s books and 281 by September 1853. In each succeeding year up to 1856 when 567 children were enrolled the Model School attracted more and more of the local children to its non denominational classes. It achieved its highest enrolment in 1858 when 582 children were listed on the school register.

It was the success of the District Model School which prompted Archbishop Cullen to invite the Christian Brothers to Athy. The Irish Hierarchy’s disapproval of the Model schools was set out in a letter to the Commissioners of the National School which described the schools as “intrinsically anti-Catholic”. The fragmentation on religious grounds of the educational system in Athy dates from that period.

The Vocational Schooling system first came into being following the passing of the Technical Instructions Act in 1899 which when adopted by Athy Urban District Council was followed by the setting up of a technical instruction committee. A Technical School was opened in part of the old National School at the corner of Stanhope Street and Stanhope Place and there it remained until a new Technical School was opened on the Carlow Road on 5^th December 1940.

The amalgamation of Scoil Eoin and Scoil Mhuire brings together two institutions with a shared history extending over 301 years and marks the final chapter in the history of the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers in the town of Athy. The celebrations marking this important occasion commence with the opening of an exhibition in the Heritage Centre this Wednesday and the launching of a book of memoirs compiled by transition students of Scoil Eoin. Other events take place during the week and on Saturday, May 12^th a celebratory dinner will be held in the Clanard Court Hotel which past pupils of Scoil Eoin and the old secondary school in St. John’s Lane will attend.

The closing of Scoil Mhuire and Scoil Eoin and their coming together as Ardscoil Na Trionoide, catering for boys and girls, is a huge advance in our local education story which started over 200 years ago with the Athy Poor School.

This week the pen gives way to the camera. I am showing a number of photographs from Athy’s past. The first is the local F.C.A. group taken in St. John’s Lane, Athy. The pier on the left side of the picture is the entrance to St. John’s House, once the home of the Carbery family and so you can orientate yourself as you visualise the background captured in the photograph which was taken sometime in the early 1960’s. Incidentally, can anyone identify the uniformed men in the photograph?

Perhaps easier in terms of identification is the second picture, showing two happy customers in Doyle’s pub in Woodstock Street.

Photograph No. 3 shows a group of workmen standing outside the premises of Duthie Larges in Leinster Street. The man in the centre wearing a hat is Jimmy Duthie and the others, apart from the young boy in front were, I believe, workmen from Duthie Larges. Prior to the coming to Athy of the asbestos factory in 1936 Duthie Larges was the largest employer in the Athy area.

The final photograph shows an unusual scheme. Against the backdrop of the disused Hannon’s Mill at the foot of Crom A Boo Bridge, the horse and cart (is it a milk cart?) with the youthful driver come to a halt for the photographer to take his picture.

Can any of the people captured in these photographs be identified? If so I would welcome hearing from you.

As the end of the first World War approached a previously unknown form of influenza swept through Europe and America. The first reports of what would become the greatest threat to health, even greater than the cholera outbreak of 1832 appeared in the Leinster Leader of 6^th July 1918, “A great many persons in County Kildare are suffering from an influenza which appears to be raging in many parts of the country”. Another report noted the outbreak of fever at Umeras, Monasterevin, following which six persons were brought to Athy Fever Hospital where two of them later died. On 2^nd November the Nationalist and Leinster Leader reported, “Athy is pretty largely in the grip of an influenza epidemic. In most houses several family members are ill. Some businesses are closed, as are all the local schools. So far few deaths in Athy, but the large numbers affected have taxed local doctors and nurses to the utmost.”

Athy Urban District Council asked the Board of Guardians who had charge of Athy Workhouse and were responsible for providing the limited health services then available to the general public, “to engage more nurses to attend the sick poor during the influenza epidemic which is now raging through Athy.” At its meeting on 4^th November the Urban Council passed a vote of thanks to Miss M. Murphy of Emily Square and Miss Darby of Leinster Street “for their unselfish attention bestowed without hope of monetary reward and irrespective of class or creed on our afflicted townspeople during the present terrible epidemic”.

Miss Murphy was sister of P.J. Murphy, a butcher who had served as a member of the Urban Council from 1900 and whose brother, Monsignor William Murphy had been Rector of the Irish College in Rome at the time of his death in 1905. Miss Darby was Brigid Darby, a national school teacher who was elected a member of Athy Urban District Council in 1928 and remained on the Council for the following 14 years. She has the distinction of being the first female to stand as a candidate in a general election for the Kildare constituency.

The two ladies organised a group of volunteers to visit the poor of the town and to provide them with food and drink during the influenza epidemic. The group was called the “Committee of Ladies to the Sufferers from the Influenza Epidemic in the Town”. The Urban Council directed one of it’s employees as sanitary sub-officer for the town to disinfect, fumigate and lime wash houses where influenza patients were to be found. He was also charged with the removal of manure heaps from the alleys and laneways of the town which were believed to be contributing to the growing influenza problem.

Without having recourse to the death registration records for the period it is not possible to quantify in exact terms the numbers who died in Athy during the epidemic of 1918. Certainly the situation became so serious that the Urban District Council were moved to issue a warning to the townspeople as to the undesirability of holding wakes which the Council regarded as “highly dangerous and liable to spread the disease”. The victims of the epidemic, warned the Council, “should be coffined immediately and interned with the least possible delay.” Within the first week of November the number of deaths arising from the influenza epidemic caused delay in securing coffins and hearses. “In some cases remains were brought to the cemetery by friends” reported the Nationalist and Leinster Times on 9^thNovember.

The first significant number of burials in St. Michael’s Cemetery on the same day occurred on 30^th October 1918. On the next day seven coffins were brought to the local cemetery. On 2^nd November three funerals took place and everyday thereafter until 28^thNovember there were multiple burials in St. Michael’s Cemetery. Between 30^th October and 28^thNovember 1918, 57 internments took place in St. Michael’s Cemetery which was the principal cemetery for the town. Burials may also have taken place during this period in St. Mary’s, Ardreigh Cemetery, St. John’s or in Geraldine Cemetery. However, I have not been able to access the records for these cemeteries.

Looking through the names of those who died I was struck by the number of young children who succumbed to the dreaded influenza. Three families suffered multiple losses, the greatest loss falling to the Blanchfield family of Leinster Street. On 9^thNovember 4½ year old Andrew Blanchfield died, to be followed two days later by his brothers George, aged 7 years and Edward, aged 3 years. They were the children of John and Catherine Blanchfield. John died aged 49 years, less than 4 years after his 3 children, while his widow Catherine lived on into her 96^th year before passing away in 1970. On John Blanchfield’s tombstone in St. Michael’s Cemetery there is inscribed after the details of his early death on 28^th June 1922 the words, “also his five children who died young”.

Another family to suffer the deaths of young children during the influenza epidemic of 1918 were the Eston family of Meeting Lane. Patrick Eston was the father of Mary, aged 1½ years and Ellen, aged 3 years, both of whom died on 13^thNovember 1918. Unfortunately I don’t have any further details to hand of the Eston family who suffered so tragically during the flu epidemic.

The May family of Leinster Street lost two children during the epidemic. Eileen May, just 5 months old, died on 16^th November, while her sister Sarah, known as Sally, aged 1½ years died on 7^th December. They were the children of Sarah May who lived until 1949 and James or Jim May who had died in a tragic accident earlier in 1918. Jim was a carpenter who when working on the Christian Brothers School in St. John’s Lane fell from a ladder and died from the injuries he sustained in that fall. He was a member of the local Sinn Fein Club and the press reports of his funeral indicated that the Sinn Fein club members attended his funeral in great numbers, while the Leinster Street band played the Dead March. Jim had been a member of the very first Athy Gaelic Football Club team to win a Kildare county championship. The Athy team won the junior final played in Kilcullen on 14^th September 1909 under the captaincy of “Jack” Lawler. The winners medals were not presented until 1927 when a medal presentation ceremony was held in the Urban District Council offices in the Town Hall. Jim’s son Tom received his late father’s medal on that occasion.

Another family whom I knew well in Offaly Street lost a five year old child during the flu epidemic. He died on 10^th November 1918 and tragedy would befall the same family again during the health crisis of the 1940’s and ‘50’s when the White Death or Tuberculosis was rampant throughout Ireland.

The current health services in this country have been the subject of much criticism in recent years, what with patients on trolleys, MRSA in hospitals and waiting lists for admission to hospital for elective surgery. The huge unexpected increase in the Irish population which followed decades of mass emigration, coupled with the longevity enjoyed by so many today, has put a huge strain on our medical services. However, viewed against the tragic events of post World War 1 Ireland when the flu epidemic resulted in more deaths in a few months than had occurred during the four years of the Great War we have to acknowledge the great strides which have been taken in the provision of health services in this country and elsewhere.

The tragic loss of life during the flu epidemic of the latter part of 1918 now seems so far removed from 21^stcentury Ireland. Yet today we still live amongst neighbours whose brothers and sisters, uncles or aunts died so tragically and so young 85 years ago.

We sat three abreast in the Church pew in much the same order as we had sat on the school benches in our old alma mater in St. John’s Lane over 50 years ago. We were in Crecora in County Limerick, a place never before known to us but where our school pal Tony Prendergast was now lying coffined before the altar in the small country church.

The strains of the hymn ‘Hail Queen of Heaven’ stirred memories of youthful days spent in our own Parish Church and perhaps more evocatively of choir practice in the primary school of the local Christian Brothers. These were scenes which would have been once familiar to Tony Prendergast who passed away last week after a very short illness. Like all his school pals Tony had a nick-name, for nick-names were the currency of youth. However, at times like this full recognition was given to the name which his parents had bestowed on the youngster who had grown up to tower over his classmates. Tony was tall, thin but tall, an attribute which stood him in good stead on the football field.

Gaelic football was our favoured sport in the 1950’s and beyond and Tony with Pat Timpson and Ted Wynne came to the notice of the selectors for the County Minor team resulting in Newbridge based County team trials for all three. They did not reach the dizzy heights of minor team selection, but nevertheless the cache of being on the fringes of selection was sufficient in its day to give satisfaction and memories which lasted to this day.

Gaelic football would also provide another talking point, even in the Limerick heartland of Gaelic hurling, for as the officiating priest admitted, Tony once earned the distinction of being banned for six months from playing his favourite sport. It was surely a distinction, worn almost like a badge of honour, something to be brought up whenever old friends got together to reminisce of times past. Tony, whose mother was a Lawler from Barrowhouse, was a club player for Athy Gaelic Football Club. He succumbed to the blandishments of a now unidentified official from the Laois club to turn out for Barrowhouse Club. Not only did Tony do so but was joined by Jimmy Malone whose father was a Barrowhouse man and Ted Wynne whose own father was from Ballylinan. The problem was that all three were team members of Athy Football Club and inevitably word of their indiscretion came to the attention of club official Matt Murray. The result was a six month suspension for Tony and Ted Wynne, but whether Jim Malone, who is now living in California, escaped censure I cannot say. The suspension was initially regarded as harsh and unwarranted, as is almost everything suffered or sustained in the throes of youth, but in more mature years it came to be regarded as a badge of distinction.

Teddy Kelly, Ted Wynne and myself travelled to Crecora on Saturday to pay respects to our school pal, conscious of the advancing years which although clearly marked in our physical condition yet seemed to have left untouched a mindset which has not kept pace with the passing years. It was a journey of memory in which we trawled back through the years shared with Tony Prendergast and our other class mates.

The recent 50^th celebration for Aontas Ogra saw the publication of a book which included a photograph of Tony Prendergast with Michael O’Neill, George Robinson, Ted Wynne and Ted Kelly, all togged out for football with Tony clearly giving instructions to his team mates as to what was required of them. It is the only photo I have seen in recent times of a young Tony Prendergast. Tony worked for some years in Bord na Mona in Newbridge but in latter years worked and lived in Cork where he died last week. Originally from St. Patrick’s Avenue where his younger brother Aidan still lives, Tony is survived by his wife Joan, three sons Colm, Niall and Shane, his daughter Ciara, as well as his sister Breda and brothers Billy, Joe and Aidan. May he rest in peace.

‘The Dominicans of Athy 1257 – 2007’ is the title of a new booklet written by Fr. Hugh Fenning O.P. to commemorate the 750^th anniversary of the coming of the Friars Preachers to the Anglo Norman village of Áth Ae on the banks of the River Barrow. The Order first came to Ireland 53 years previously settling immediately in five major ports, as well as in the city of Kilkenny. Fr. Fenning’s research adds to that of Daphne Pochin Mould who produced a much smaller publication 50 years ago when Fr. Colgan was prior.

The original friary was located on the east bank of the River Barrow in the area known to this day as ‘the Abbey’, which I believe is soon to be the site of a major commercial development. During the Reformation the Dominican Friary was suppressed and the buildings which had been developed over almost 300 years of monastery life passed into the hands of Martin Pelles who was constable of the Castle of Athy. Nothing remains overground of the Church, the Chapter House, the Bell Tower, the Dormitory or the other buildings which were part of the Dominican Friary of Athy. Indeed the cemetery attached to the friary has long been obliterated but undoubtedly the Abbey grounds hold beneath its surface the foundations of the ancient Dominican Friary. I presume that before any development takes place, a comprehensive archaeological survey will be carried out on the site to record and preserve, where possible, whatever medieval material of historical interest is found.

The suppression of the Dominican Friary saw the preachers leave Athy for almost 90 years but apart from that enforced absence the Dominican’s have been part and parcel of Athy community life for the remaining 750 years. The 750^th anniversary of the arrival of the Dominican Fathers to Athy will be celebrated on Saturday, 6^thOctober with a special mass to be said in the church which was opened 42 years ago, just two years after the Ecumenical Council of 1963. Described at the time as ‘revolutionary in design’ its vibrant interior aroused great interest with works of art by Brid ni Rinn and George Campbell. It was however the exterior of the new Dominican Church with its curved concrete roof spanning 147 feet between abutments which excited most comment. The church of the Athy Dominicans was perhaps the forerunner of emerging Irish Church architecture of the 1960’s and represented what has been called a ‘liturgy conscious design’ as opposed to the antiquarianism of church design of the past.

Fr. Patrick Deegan of Raphoe, an Athy man who was invited to preach the sermon at the opening ceremony on 17^th March 1965 said during the course of his sermon :-

‘There must have been some great heart searching and much discussion before the momentous decision was taken to build a church in a modern style ....., he continued, ‘we are now in the process of changing from traditional styles of church building to radically new ones.’

Fr. Deegan in concluding referred to St. Dominic’s Athy as‘a building of our time’. This was re-affirmed by the Irish Press in its report of the opening of the new church which it carried the headline, ‘Church in revolutionary style displays spirit of Council’.

Tony Prendergast as a young man attended mass in the old Dominican Church now long demolished but a photograph of which is in Fr. Fenning’s booklet. He was just one of the many thousands from Athy who over the centuries was part of the communities served by the Dominican Friars. During that time, as Fr. Fenning wrote in his booklet, ‘the Dominicans of Athy have seen every shade of fortune and have had their share of hunger, fire and sword ..... since 1754 they have been able to maintain an unbroken presence in Athy, offering mass, preaching the word and giving the daily witness of their religious lives. But what of tomorrow?’.

What the future holds for the Dominicans in Athy we cannot foretell. Neither can we

quantify the magnitude of their contribution to the religious wellbeing of our townspeople over the centuries. The upcoming 750^th anniversary gives all of us an opportunity to show our appreciation of what the order founded by St. Dominics means to our historic town.

In next weeks “Eye” I hope to be able to give details of a programme of events planned to take place in early October to celebrate the 750^thDominican Anniversary. If you would like to be involved in helping to organise any of these events, why not contact me

Founded in 1215 by St. Dominic the Dominicans or Black Friars within a few years spread rapidly throughout the European continent. In England the Dominicans first settled at Oxford in 1221 and two years later at London. In 1224 a number of Dominicans crossed to Ireland and founded Dominican convents in Dublin and Drogheda. Another twelve convents were founded in the following 28 years and in 1253 or 1257 a convent was established in Athy. The first date has been generally given by the many writers on Dominican foundations in Ireland, but according to a manuscript in Trinity College the foundation year was 1257 and indeed the Order chose to celebrate the 700^th anniversary of the Athy convent 50 years ago.

Before the Dominicans came to Athy the Order of the Most Holy Trinity had accepted the invitation of Richard de St. Michael, Baron of Rheban to establish a monastery on the west bank of the River Barrow close to Woodstock Castle and the new village of Athy. There is some question as to whether the Monastery of St. Thomas was in fact a Trinitarian foundation, some believing that the only Trinitarian monastery in Ireland was located in Adare, County Limerick. Many of the foundations believed to be Trinitarians were dedicated to St. John the Baptist and indeed the name St. John’s has come down to us over the centuries as the area in which the first monastic settlement in Athy was located.

Fr. Thomas Flynn O.P. who wrote a brief history of the Dominican foundation at Aghaboe answered for me in his booklet on Aghaboe a question which has long troubled me. I could not understand why two religious orders should establish foundations in such close proximity to each other as they did in 13^th century Athy, which was a small inland settlement established around Woodstock Castle located on the river crossing known as the Ford of Ae. Fr. Flynn claimed that Dominican foundations of the 13^th and 14^thcentury frequently co-existed with previously established religious houses in the same locality, with the Dominicans or friars preachers undertaking the specific task of preaching and teaching. The members of the other foundations were generally contemplative or as in the case of the Athy Trinitarians providing shelter and a hospital for pilgrims and travellers generally.

It is remarkable to realise that the Dominican Foundation in Athy extends back 750 years, fully 235 years before Christopher Columbus discovered the new world. Who invited the Dominicans to Athy is not known. Previous writers on the subject have given the credit to the Boswells and the Wogan families, but Daphne Pochin Mould in a pamphlet produced 50 years ago and Fr. Hugh Fenning in his history of the local Dominican foundation published earlier this year felt that it was likely to have been a member of the St. Michael family of Rheban, or alternatively Maurice Fitzgerald who was owner of Kilkea from 1244.

The Dominican convent endured, while the Trinitarian Monastery on the opposite side of the River Barrow had closed down before the Reformation. Indeed the Athy Dominicans hosted Provincial Chapters of the Order in 1288, 1295 and 1305, a clear indication of the importance of the local convent or perhaps its strategic geographical location in relation to other Irish Dominican Convents. Unfortunately 1305 was also the year the native Irish from the neighbouring county of Laois attacked and burned the Anglo Norman settlement of Athy, no doubt prompting those in authority over Dominican affairs to write Athy off its list of suitable venues for future Provincial Chapter meetings.

Ten years later the Dominican Convent cemetery received the bodies of those killed during the Battle of Ardscull, including two of Bruce’s army chiefs, Lord Fergus Andressan and Lord Walter De Morrey. As I mentioned last week there is now no trace overground of the original Dominican Convent or its cemetery, but presumably somewhere in the area of the Abbey in Emily Square or the adjoining field stretching back towards the Horse Bridge lie the remains of those killed in the Ardscull Battle, not to mention the Friars who for nearly 300 years prior to the Reformation were part of the Dominican community in the Athy Friary.

An interesting entry in the State papers for 1347 show that Philip Pereys, the Prior of the Dominican Friary in Athy, obtained the pardon of King Edward III for all felonies and transgressions committed by him on paying a fine of half a mark and saying 100 masses for His Majesty, the fine being afterwards remitted on saying another 100 masses for the same intention. What I wonder was the felonies and transgressions committed by Fr. Pereys?

Athy Dominican Friary was suppressed by Henry VIII in 1539 and uncertainty surrounds the date of the Friar’s return to South Kildare. Certainly the Dominicans had re-established a presence in Athy by 1649, the date when Richard Ovington, sub-Prior of Athy, was seized by Cromwell’s men during the Siege of Drogheda and summarily executed. Around the same time Thomas Birmingham who was Prior of Athy in 1648 was imprisoned by Cromwell’s troops and sentenced to transportation to Barbados. He was eventually exiled to the Continent and died a few years later in Italy. Fr. Raymond Moore who replaced Fr. Birmingham as Prior fled with some other priests to Derryvullagh in the middle of nearby Mullavullagh Bog to escape prosecution and he eventually escaped to the continent. Following the restoration of the English monarchy Fr. Moore returned to Athy to resume as Prior in 1661.

The 16^thand 17^th centuries were extraordinarily difficult times for the Dominicans in Ireland but despite those difficulties which were the direct result of the Penal Laws, the Friars Preachers continued, despite enforced breaks, their long association with our town. That connection has now reached the 750^th year and in the first weekend of October the town of Athy will celebrate what is a unique partnership between the Dominican Order founded by St. Dominic and the people of Athy.

The programme of events will commence with what I understand will be a reception for the Dominicans to be given by Athy Town Council on Friday, 5^thOctober followed on the next day by a series of events culminating that Saturday evening with a Mass in St. Dominic’s Church and a reception in the G.A.A. centre. On Sunday, 7^thOctober, a lecture is planned for the afternoon, with a concert in St. Dominic’s Church that evening showcasing local artists and musicians, all coming together to commemorate and celebrate the history of the Dominican connection with Athy.

With the October Bank Holiday looming it’s time to remind all and sundry of the SHACKLETON AUTUMN SCHOOL which starts on Friday, 26^thOctober with the official opening by Kevin Myers. The controversial newspaper columnist who graced the pages of the Irish Times for many years is now part of the Irish Independent journalistic team. He is scheduled to give the Shackleton memorial lecture this year and as such follows in the path of previous speakers Brian Keenan and David Norris. It promises to be an interesting night and as in previous years the opening night at which Kevin Myers features is open to all without charge. Indeed the organisers of the Autumn School would welcome a large attendance. No invitation is required, so go along to the Heritage Centre in the Town Hall on Friday for the 7.00 p.m. opening.

That same night a new publication will be launched by Alexandra Shackleton, granddaughter of the Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton. ‘Nimrod’ is the annual journal of the SHACKLETON AUTUMN SCHOOL and Volume One includes a number of lectures delivered at past autumn schools held in the Town Hall, Athy.

The various lectures will take place on the following Saturday and Sunday, commencing on Saturday at 10.30 a.m. and on Sunday at 10.00 a.m. Ranging from an illustrated talk on polar photography to an examination of Captain Scott’s life as an explorer the lecture series will give a unique opportunity to hear at first hand a range of experts drawn from overseas. A full programme for the weekend can be had from the Heritage Centre, Ph. (059) 8633075.

On Sunday night one of Ireland’s most celebrated folk theatre ensembles, ‘The Armagh Rhymers’ will perform their unique blend of music, song, drama and dance in the Town Hall. Dara Vallely, Peter Shortall and Brenda Bailey have delighted audiences all over the world and recently represented Northern Ireland at the Smithsonian Folk life Festival in Washington D.C. Theirs is a show not to be missed.

On Saturday evening the Autumn School dinner will be held in the Clanard Court Hotel, commencing at 8.00 p.m. Places are limited so anyone wishing to attend should place their reservation with the Heritage Centre staff without delay. Jacinta O’Donnell who recently took part in the Dominican commemoration concert will provide the after dinner entertainment.

The ERNEST SHACKLETON SCHOOL is now in its 7^th year and the local organising committee have done extraordinarily well to bring together an interesting programme of lectures and events for the weekend. The importance of Ernest Shackleton, who was born at Kilkea just a few miles from Athy, to the world of polar exploration cannot be overstated. Athy Heritage Centre first highlighted Shackleton’s exploits after they had been overlooked for many decades and helped to bring him and his Irish colleague Tom Crean to the forefront of public awareness. Indeed the local Heritage Centre has the only permanent display anywhere in the world dedicated to Shackleton. The items on display range from a sledge from one of his Antarctic trips, to a biscuit he carried in his pocket as he sailed across the Southern Ocean in what was a successful attempt to have his men rescued from Elephant Island. Through the generosity of one particular benefactor the Centre has amassed a valuable collection of memorabilia relating to Shackleton and his family which form a unique record of the Antarctic’s most famous explorer.

The SHACKLETON AUTUMN SCHOOL has something for everyone, including a film show on the Sunday afternoon and finishes with a bus tour of the ‘Shackleton country’ on the Bank Holiday Monday morning. Contact the Heritage Centre for any information required about this worthwhile annual event.

Two books about to be launched this week deserve to be mentioned. John Duffy has written an excellent commentary on the Bridges of the River Barrow as a follow up to his earlier book on the River Slaney. Illustrated by the author, the section on the River between Monasterevin and Carlow includes a number of interesting photographs and pencil sketches with Crom A Boo Bridge and Whites Castle taking pride of place. The Railway Bridge, just below the Horse Bridge, is noted as ‘the earliest reinforced concrete railway under bridge in Ireland’ which was built to allow coal to be brought from Wolfhill at the end of World War I. Friends of ‘Person of the Year’ nominee Paddy Walsh will be delighted to find his poem on the Horse Bridge featured in the book. No doubt the words ‘beneath the Horse Bridge, near sweet Athy’ will bring memories of younger days spent ‘down the line’for many whose leisure hours in summers past were spent along the Barrow.

John Duffy’s book is beautifully produced and the foreword is by Dick Warner who looks upon the River Barrow, the second longest river in Ireland as ‘a very special river’. It was always thought as such, even by the Normans who built fortifications on the River, three alone at this area, at Ardreigh, Ath Ae and Rheban. Go out and buy this book. It’s full of fascinating facts about our local river which you will want to know if you are ever to fully appreciate the hidden charms of the ‘dumb waters’.

The other book I want to recommend to you is Robert Redmond’s second book of photographs which he calls ‘Achill Voices’. This time around Robert has merged words with his excellent photographs to provide an insightful view of life on the island of Achill. The large mountainous land joined to the mainland by a bridge across Achill Sound includes a number of villages including perhaps the most famous missionary village of the 19^th century, Doogart which was founded by Reverend Nangle. Robert’s book, published by Nonsuch Publishing is being launched on Wednesday, 24^th October by Minister Eamon O’Cuiv in the Filmbase Centre in Temple Bar, Dublin. The last quarter of the year usually witnesses a succession of new books appearing and these two books are the start of the book fest which we can expect to happen between now and Christmas.

In February 1913 the three contractors employed by Athy Urban District Council to build the first Council houses in the town were ready to hand over the newly completed houses. D. & J. Carbery of Athy built ten houses at Matthews Lane which was subsequently re-named St. Michael’s Terrace. Michael Sweeney of Portarlington built six houses at Woodstock Street which were named St. Martin’s Terrace, while D. Twomey of Leinster Street built five houses at Meeting Lane. For the first scheme of 21 houses the Council received 25 housing applications. They were :-

Mrs. Bridget Butler Woodstock Street
Mrs. Ellen Brennan Meeting Lane
Mrs. Bridget Byrne Meeting Lane
John May Woodstock Street
James May Leinster Street
James McNally Convent Lane
John Doyle Canalside
James Flynn New Row
Robert Carter Butlers Lane
Thomas McHugh Meeting Lane
Mrs. Elizabeth Hall Woodstock Street
Thomas Murray Leinster Street
Mrs. John Kelly Nurse, Leinster Street
Edward Nolan Ballylinan
John McEvoy Postman, Woodstock Street
Matthew McHugh Meeting Lane
Ml. Sweeney Offaly Street
Edward Hanrahan Emily Row
Henry Lake Post man
Thomas Keane Duke Street
Peter Cunningham Meeting Lane
Joseph Geoghegan Offaly Street
Mr. Painting Tech. Instructor
Daniel Shaughnessy Brick Layer
P.J. Devereux Post Office

I wonder how many of these families are still represented in Athy 94 years later.

Fire fighting has always been a community shared responsibility. From the earliest times volunteer firemen (never women in those days) provided whatever was needed to save life and property from the ravages of fire. Unpaid volunteers were still operating local fire services in Athy up to the early part of the last century. Kildare Co. Co. took over responsibility for fire fighting around that time and “retained firemen” were then employed and paid on a call out basis.

I can recall fire brigade drill competitions held in Emily Square in the late 1950s in which local firemen such as Matt McHugh, Christy Dunne, Tom Langton, Eamon McCauley and Ned Delahunt took part. This week I’ve a number of photographs from that time and later showing some of the local firemen who manned the fire service in Athy over the last few decades. I’m sure all of those pictured can be readily identified and the memory bank stirred to recall the times captured on film.

The 1930's in Athy as elsewhere were hard times. "There was not a shilling about" is one common claim. The weekly markets in the town were a hive of activity to where the local farmers brought their produce to sell in an attempt to off-set the worst effects of the economic war.

The Tuesday market was as always the more colourful of the weekly markets with clothing and haberdashery stalls offering a wide variety of goods. Amongst the Tuesday market stalls in 1935 there appeared a man who by his colour and appearance marked him out as a foreigner. He was believed to be of Indian extraction and the temporary stall which he set up that first morning displayed a bewildering array of bottles, potions and medicines. The stranger who described himself as a herb specialist was known as “Doctor” Don Rodrique de Vere. His appearance excited curiosity as did his loud proclamations as to the efficacy of his specially prepared potions designed to cure the most stubborn of ills.

The response which the new market trader encountered in Athy encouraged him to prolong his stay and he set up home in a disused shed at the rear of Garter Lane. He continued to sell his potions and herbs earning the approval of the local people for whom home remedies handed down from generation to generation were more highly regarded than a visit to a local Doctor for conventional medicine.

A Doctor he was not but nevertheless the well-spoken articulate Indian was always referred to as Dr. Don Rodrique de Vere. His background was unknown but it is believed that he was a former medical student who, for whatever reason, had given up his medical studies.

His success in Athy prompted a search for a permanent address and he secured the tenancy of No. 22 Blackparks, the last house in a row of single storey terraced houses on the Kilkenny Road which have since been demolished. By now a well known character in the town the Black Doctor as he was commonly called was the subject of a ballad composed by local Balladeer Moses Rowe of Churchtown, part of which read:-

"He searched all round for a house in the town
and then he secured one quite near,
Where he took his place with the men of his race,
Dr. Don Rodrique de Vere."

Erecting a sign over the door of his small house proclaiming to all and sundry that he was a "Herb Specialist" the Black Doctor soon built up a substantial clientele. His fame spread beyond the immediate area of Athy and soon he purchased a motor bike with a side car which he ingeniously covered in to give the appearance of a bubble-like car. An impressive dresser he always wore a Panama hat and gaiters which with an off-white suit and a double watch chain to match his gold tooth marked him as a man apart.

His success with potions and lotions almost inevitably brought him into contact with those unfortunate women who for one reason or another wanted a concoction to induce a miscarriage. This was at a time before Public Health Schemes were in place. Poor people, especially those unable to pay for medical treatment, were left to their own devices and in the absence of any health education or information concerning birth control it was almost inevitable that the services of a herb specialist such as the Black Doctor would be called upon.

This was to be his downfall. In time he was arrested and charged with assisting in procuring an abortion and on his subsequent conviction he was sentenced to imprisonment. After his release from jail he returned to his small house in Blackpark but by then the women folk had turned against the Black Doctor. He was shunned by the local people and confining himself indoors he did not venture out even to replenish his bucket of drinking water from the nearby pump. Instead he availed of the rain barrel in his yard and in time he contacted lead poison, requiring his admission to Naas Hospital where he died in or about 1945. I have been unable to trace his last resting place.

Dr. Don Rodrique de Vere is often mentioned by the older people of the town as a colourful character who is remembered with fondness and whose eventual fall from grace is overlooked in the backward glance at times past.

1961 was an important milestone in my life. In January of that year I left Athy to work in Naas. Nowadays the county town is just up the road, a short car distance away, but back 47 years ago it seemed as far away as Cavan town is today. That same year two Daly brothers left their hometown of Athy, one having disposed of a business which his parents had established in Stanhope Street, the other closing the door on a butchering business which he had carried on from a small premises in Leinster Street. Tom Daly’s shop in Stanhope Street, separated from Noonan’s pub by the curiously named ‘Garter Lane’ was where the Taaffes bought their daily ration of milk. I remember Tom Daly quite well and can picture in my mind’s eye the thickset man who took over the business which had previously been operated by his father Laurence Daly. Tom’s brother Joe was the butcher who in 1961 moved to Bray in County Wicklow. I don’t remember Joe who at 17 years of age enlisted in the Irish Army during the second World War and while there became apprenticed to the butchering trade. When he was demobbed at the end of the European hostilities Joe opened his own shop at No. 65 Leinster Street where he carried on business for approximately 12 years before migrating across the Wicklow Gap to the seaside town of Bray. Joe passed away on 21^stMarch last at 82 years of age. He had maintained contact with his home town over the years and as a keen sportsman followed the stumbling progress of the Lilywhites each year in the league and football championships. Sportswise, one of Joe’s proudest moments came about when his greyhound ‘Cheeky Robin’ won through to the final of the Coursing Derby in 1960.

While the Daly brothers and a gawky red-haired youngster from Offaly Street were moving away from the familiar streets of Athy in 1961, a somewhat older but still relatively young man was busily planning on extending his ballroom empire to the South Kildare town. Albert Reynolds was his name and although working full time for C.I.E. he still managed with his brother to build up a formidable array of dance venues around the country, including the aptly named Dreamland here in Athy.

I think it was the summer of 1961 when Victor Sylvester and his orchestra featured on the opening night of Dreamland Ballroom. I was there that night, having travelled from Naas courtesy of Carmel Fitzpatrick’s trusted Ford Prefect accompanied by several girls from Kildare County Council. It was a great night, so unlike the dances previously attended in the Town Hall or the Social Club Hall in St. John’s Lane. Dreamland was the real thing, what with a revolving crystal ball hanging from the ceiling casting it’s reflected light on the semi-dark interior of what was essentially a gentrified barn. But it was a barn with a difference. For that night, and am I right in believing that it was for that night only, a revolving stage was employed to glide Paddens Murphy’s Sorrento Band backstage as the London maestro Victor Sylvester and his men came into view playing the same tune as the departing local musicians. I can’t ever remember the revolving stage being used again, but then of course it wasn’t needed as relief bands only came into vogue at the end of the showband era which came many years later.

I was reminded of Dreamland and the part it played in the lives of every local man and woman over 55 years of age when I heard of the Nostalgic Showband night planned for Wednesday, 7^th May. The venue this time is to be the Carlton Abbey Hotel, but I am told the bands performing will recreate for us the atmosphere of the sixties and the exciting times we had in Dreamland and the other smaller venues which came on stream towards the end of the ballroom era. Back in the 1960’s and the 1970’s almost every provincial Irish town had its band. Musicians of an earlier era had been encouraged in their musicianship by the plethora of marching bands which were once a feature of Irish life. The emergence of the showbands ushered in by the Clipper Carlton from Northern Ireland brought with it fresh outlets for young musicians. Here in Athy, which had bands to rival the Mick Delahunty’s of this world in the Sorrento Band and the Stardust Band, young fellows were gravitating to guitar playing, and to a lesser extent to other musical instruments. If Dreamland was showcasing the best of the Irish showbands of the time, many of the smaller venues in and around the town were offering their version of the then current music. The Town Hall, the Parochial Hall in St. John’s Lane which was previously known as the Social Club, the Oasis in Meeting Lane and the Band Wagon in Offaly Street were just some of those local venues where aspiring local musicians played.

I can’t say which of the local bands emerged first but amongst them were the Adelaide Showband, the Albtros Band, Harry and the Escorts and The Spotlights. Later still as the showband music scene waned and musical tastes broadened Athy had several new combinations including Woodbine, the Flint Hill Boys and Wordworm.

The musical evolution which started with the showbands continues to this day and many of the current local musical groups have links extending back over the years. It might perhaps be invidious to mention just some of those involved as inevitably someone worthy of mention might be unintentionally omitted. Rather than doing so therefore may I simply pay a well earned tribute to all those local musicians and musical groups, all of whom have contributed so much to community enjoyment since Albert Reynolds and his brother first opened the doors of ‘our Dreamland’.

On Wednesday 7^th May the Carlton Abbey Hotel will host the Nostalgic Showband Night which is being organised by Robert Chanders and his colleagues to raise funds for the Irish Wheelchair Association in Teach Emmanuel. That night many of the local bands of the past will come together for perhaps the last time to recreate our fading memories of a time when the showband was king. Sadly one of the local musicians who entertained us for many years and who was an original member of the Adelaide Showband is now wheelchair bound and availing of the excellent services provided at Teach Emmanuel in the grounds of St. Vincent’s Hospital. Support for Teach Emmanuel and the Irish Wheelchair Association is very important and the forthcoming showband night on 7^th May will give all of us an opportunity to give that support, while reliving the romantic nights of yesteryear enjoyed in Dreamland Ballroom and elsewhere.

On Tuesday 29^th April in Trinity College Dublin the memoirs of Professor Bill Watts will be launched. Born in Barrack Yard, Athy from where he attended the local Model School, Bill later became Provost of Trinity College Dublin. The local Council graciously gave a civic reception for the former Provost a few years ago which was attended by many of his former school pals and family friends. I know that the Town Fathers gesture was greatly appreciated by Bill and his family and the forthcoming memoirs which will be launched by the poet Brendan Kenneally has, I believe, a chapter devoted to the Watts family’s time in Athy. It’s a book which will surely be of interest to readers in Athy.

Finally, anyone wishing to contact me in relation to these articles can do so by logging on to www.athyeyeonthepast.blogspot.com. The Eye on the Past articles appear on that blog and as always I would welcome hearing from anyone in a position to help me better understand and interpret the ever unfolding story of our historic town and it’s people.

A recent letter to the Kildare Nationalist from the President of the local Chamber of Commerce regarding the Tuesday market in Athy came to mind when a few days ago I came across a translation of Athy’s Charter of 1515. It was extracted from a manuscript volume of the Leinster family over 171 years ago by a person who signed his name at the end of the copperplate writing of the translation as M.J. McInerney. The manuscript volume from which it was extracted contained details of the estates of the Earls of Kildare and the Charter was one of two such documents still in existence.

Henry VIII granted the Charter in 1515 and it represents the first such Charter granted to Athy which is still available to historians. However, it is believed that a Murage Charter may have issued previously permitting the town’s inhabitants to levy taxes to fund the building of the towns defensive walls but no record of that Charter has been found. Henry’s Charter was followed 98 years later by the granting of another Charter by King James I, under which the borough of Athy was incorporated. Another Charter was subsequently granted by James II, but it was founded on a supposed forfeiture by a judgment of the Exchequer and as far as is known was not acted upon.

The Charter granted by Henry VIII created the office of Provost who was to be elected annually ‘on the feast of St. Michaels, the Archangel’ from amongst the local people. Significantly the opening lines of the Charter indicate that it was granted by the King at the ‘special request of our well beloved cousin Gerald Fitz, Earl of Kildare, in consideration of his agreeable and fruitful service to us exhibited.’ The people of Athy were also given licence to erect ‘walls of stone and lime’ and later in the Charter it is stated ‘we do give and grant to the aforesaid provost and his successors forever for enclosing and paving the aforesaid town in opposition to the malice of our Irish enemies that they by themselves or their deputies may take and receive all the customs herein under written.’ There then follows a list of the customs payable within the town, for instance one penny for every horse or cow sold, one penny for every horse load of board sold and half a penny for every sack of corn sold. The Provost was also empowered to levy such other levies or customs as were required, but in all instances was to account each year for the monies collected and spent to Gerald, Earl of Kildare, his heirs and successors. Thus on the one hand, while the inhabitants elected the Provost to look after the towns affairs, he was accountable to the Earl of Kildare. Was this, I wonder, an early example of the modern day county management versus elected representative scenario found today in Irish local government?

In terms of the market right, the Charter contains the following provisions ‘and also that the aforesaid Provost and his successors for the time being and the inhabitants of the said town may have one market weekly within the town aforesaid in a place deputed or ordained thereof by the aforesaid Gerald, Earl of Kildare Videlict (namely) on or throughout Tuesday.’ The Provost and his successors were also given the right of monitoring ‘all kinds of weights and measures within the town’ which gave the Provost control not only over the market traders, but also the shopkeepers of the town.

The second Charter of 1613 replaced the Provost with an annually elected sovereign for which the electorate was confined to the burgesses of Athy. This group of men (for no women ever held the position) were nominated by the Earl of Kildare (later the Duke of Leinster) and those nominated held the position for life or presumably until removed by the Earl. The ‘rotten borough’ thus created and so called because it was controlled not by the townspeople but by the local landlord, the Earl of Kildare, would continue to administer the towns affairs until it was abolished in 1840.

Tolls or customs were collected on goods sold in the market and the level of those charges were reviewed each year by the members of the Borough Council. That part of the report of the Commissioners on Municipal Corporations in Ireland relating to Athy and based on a public enquiry held in the town on the 3^rd and 4^thof October 1833 claimed ‘Tuesday and Saturday in each week are now market days.’ It did not give the authority for claiming Saturday as a second market day, but recent research confirms that Athy Town Commissioners at it’s meeting on the 2^nd of August 1852 agreed that ‘a second market be established in Athy on every Saturday to commence on the first Saturday of September 1852.’

As early as 1813 Athy Borough Council was concerned at the falloff in market business and proposed to the Duke of Leinster the abolition of market tolls, other than for fair days, of which six were held every year in the town. The Duke appears to have acceded to the Corporation’s request as by 1833 the earlier mentioned report confirmed that market tolls were imposed on fair days only. The reason for the Corporation’s concern was that farmers who normally came to Athy market travelled to the nearby Carlow market to avoid turnpike charges which were payable at the entrance to the town of Athy. While turnpike charges (an example of early 19^th century road tolls!) existed in addition to market tolls, Athy’s market was in serious difficulty. The market tolls were first to go, other than fair days, and some years later the turnpike tolls were also abolished.

Interestingly, in the light of the Chamber of Commerce letter calling on the Town Council to make byelaws regulating the market, it seems that the local Council has forgotten that it’s predecessors made market byelaws in 1907 for this very purpose. These byelaws were published in local newspapers on 1^st July 1907 and in addition to setting out regulations for the operation of the market they also reimposed market tolls on goods sold in the market and reaffirmed Tuesday as the towns market day. There was no mention of the Saturday market.

The history of Athy market goes back to 1515 and the market tradition continues to this day 493 years after the youthful King Henry VIII first granted the market right to the people of Athy at the request of Gerald Earl of Kildare.

In 1760 a 15 year old boy left his parents house at Shanraheen, just outside Athy, and walked the main road to the capital city of Dublin. John Crosthwaite was destined to become one of Ireland’s foremost clock and watchmakers and is included in William Stuart’s ‘Watch and Clockmakers of Ireland’where he is noted as ‘an important maker.’ His grandfather John Crosthwaite who was baptised at Keswick in Cumberland England in 1666 was of farming background and had settled in Ireland, exactly when it is not now known. Was he perhaps part of the Williamite Army which defeated King James’s Army at the Battle of the Boyne?

Shortly before his arrival in Ireland the population of Athy numbered 565, of which 83 were English born and 482 were native Irish. Incidentally the comparative figures for Carlow were 560 and Naas 303. The Protestant settlers of the time were undoubtedly alarmed at the Catholic resurgence under Charles II and their fears were further increased with the accession of James II in 1685 and the appointment of a number of high ranking Catholics to positions of power in the Irish administration. The Williamite Wars which resulted in the Treaty of Limerick and the Battle of the Boyne gave way to a period of relative prosperity and calm in the country. English settlers who in the years immediately following the Cromwellian Wars arrived and departed with apparent regularity, now settled in the developing urban community of Athy or the surrounding farmland which were described by Thomas Monk in 1682 as ‘level and plain areable, and there very fertile, plentifully yielding all sorts of grain; with considerable increase which encouridges the painefull husbandman to turne all under the plow.’ Little wonder then that the likes of John Crosthwaite would settle in the south Kildare area at the turn of the 18^th century.

Crosthwaite married Mary Crawley and they had a number of children, only two of which I have so far been able to identify. They were Philip, born 1715 who in 1740 married Gertrude Ringwood and their son John, born on 29^th September 1745 was to become one of Ireland’s greatest watch and clockmakers. The other identified son of John and Mary Crosthwaite was Joseph who lived in and inherited the family farm at Killart, while his brother Philip farmed at nearby Shanraheen.

John, the future clockmaker, arrived in Dublin in October 1760, after walking the entire journey and he reportedly used to say that on his arrival he heard ‘the city bells tolling for King George II’s funeral.’ The entries relating to Crosthwaite in William Stuart’s reference book show that he was apprenticed in 1716 in Christchurch Yard. For three years from 1772 approximately he worked at Dame Street and for the following 20 years at the Sign of Kings Arms at 27 Grafton Street in Dublin. In 1796 he had his own business at No. 26 Grafton Street where he operated under the style of ‘John Crosthwaite & Son’, later as‘Crosthwaite & Co.’ and later still as‘Crosthwaite & Hodges’. He died on 30^th January 1829.

A few years ago Julian Cosby, whose family own Cosby Hall in Stradbally but who himself lives in England, paid me a visit when in Athy to do some maintenance work on the Town Hall clock. Cosby, who is one of the world’s leading horologists, told me of Crosthwaite and his importance as a clockmaker. Some of Crosthwaite’s unique clocks are to be found in various locations throughout Ireland. St. Columba’s College Rathfarnham has a Crosthwaite double dial wall clock, while the Church of Ireland in Delgany has perhaps his most famous clock, still in existence in the Church tower. The Customs House in Dublin had a Crosthwaite clock, which unfortunately cannot now be traced. There are a number of Crosthwaite drawings which were published at the latter end of the 19^th century, held in either the National Library or Marsh’s Library in Dublin. A friend of mine sent me some years ago a copy photograph of the covers of two journals kept by Crosthwaite. The earliest is dated 14^th May 1761 and the other has embossed in leather on the cover ‘John Crosthwaite Watchmaker 1773’.

Another noteworthy Crosthwaite was Philip Crosthwaite, born in Athy in 1825. He was another descendant of the English settler John Crosthwaite, his parents being Edward and Rachael Crosthwaite who emigrated to America some years before his birth. They had returned to Ireland to visit their own home when their son Philip was born and he was left in the care of his grandparents in Athy when they returned to America. It was highly unusual for anyone who had left Ireland for America in the decades before the Great Famine to return to this country, especially for a visit and the indications are that the Crosthwaite family were well off. With his parents having returned to America Philip lived with his grandparents until he was 16 years of age when he left for America to visit his mother, returning to Ireland in 1842 to enter Trinity College, Dublin. His grandmother died in the first year of the Famine in 1845, following which Philip journeyed again to America where he was to remain for the rest of his life. Without intending to do so he ended up in San Diego and it was there that he was to spend the rest of his life, dying in 1903 at the age of 77 years. In an article dealing with his life in the ‘Journal of San Diego History’ Pamela Tamplain described Crosthwaite’s involvement in the American Mexican War. He married in 1848 and held a number of local government positions in San Diego county during his lifetime. He was the first County Treasurer for San Diego and was also a member of the City Council, a School Commissioner, a Justice of the Peace and a Deputy Sheriff. In addition to his civic and political career Crosthwaite also played an active part in the city’s Masonic Lodge, becoming the Lodge’s first Master after it received its Charter. Rather strangely for a man who on his death was survived by 7 sons and 3 daughters, his grave was an unmarked plot in the Masonic Lodge of the local cemetery until the members of the Lodge placed a memorial over it 65 years later. He played an important and an active part in the early life of San Diego city and is remembered today in that city as the Irish man who was born in Athy 183 years ago.

Some time ago I got an email from a grandson of Patrick Keogh who was a member of Athy Urban District Council from 1920 to 1925. He lived at 28 Woodstock Street from 1919, having previously lived in Offaly Street. Born in Dunlavin in 1875 Patrick Keogh at two or three years of age was brought to America with his family and he was educated there before taking up an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker in Steinways, the piano makers. I don’t know when he returned to Ireland but I am told that when he did he worked for Doyles Brothers and also for Rigneys where he made coffins. He married Mary Tomlinson, whose father John Tomlinson farmed at Foxhill. Patrick and his bride in the early years of their marriage lived in St. John’s Lane, later still in Offaly Street and Woodstock Street. Elected to the Urban District Council following the January 1920 local elections which were the first elections held under the proportional representation system, Keogh held office until the 1925 elections. Interestingly his fellow Council members, of which there were 15, represented the Sinn Fein Party, the Labour Party, the Unionist Party and Nationalists interest. I don’t have any further information on Patrick Keogh and would welcome hearing from anyone who can help me in that regard. At St. Michael’s Cemetery there is a memorial to a Patrick Keogh who died on 8^thJuly 1956 and his wife Mary who died on 3^rd March 1944 and their daughter Phil who died in 1932 aged 8 years. I wonder was this Councillor Patrick Keogh and his wife Mary who lived in Woodstock Street?

The history of the 800 year old town of Athy is a story of a community growing from the close-knit village of yesteryear to the more loosely connected life of a modern day sprawling urban centre. Where once both young and old alike knew everyone and every place within the town, nowadays there are limits to our local knowledge as the population increases and new estates are developed on the outskirts of the town. It has become more difficult to maintain the unified community life which characterised the town’s earlier existence and so almost inevitably we find area communities emerging, lacking the cohesion and common purpose of a strong urban community.

I was prompted to reflect on this when I became aware of the Churchtown and Castlemitchell community celebrations over the August bank holiday weekend to commemorate 150 years of education in the area and the 50^thanniversary of the Castlemitchell community hall. Castlemitchell in my lifetime has been unique in terms of its community strengths. Its isolated position at the southern tip of County Kildare and just inside the county border with Laois should have ensured an inconspicuous future for the area, but in truth the reverse was the case. Nowhere was that perhaps better displayed than in the quiet disproportionate influence which it’s Gaelic football club had on Gaelic games in the county in the 1950s and later. Castlemitchell’s footballers were then a rough tough bunch of players who literally left their mark on opponents as well as on G.A.A. administration. They carved out a reputation which was awesome and attracted to their club a host of players, including some very good players of county calibre who for one reason or another fell out with Athy club officials.

In addition to the strong Gaelic games tradition in the area which only came about with the demise of cricket as the local sport, Castlemitchell has a vibrant community life which has been sustained for many years. Uniquely in my opinion Castlemitchell developed and sustained a close-knit community life which over the years has made it the premier rural community in south Kildare. No other area in this part of the county can match the strength of its community involvement. There are several good reasons for this and simply put, these are found in the names, Donnelly brothers, Joe Bermingham, Mick Fennin, Jack Wall, Maisie Candy, Dot Mullan and Mossy Reilly amongst many others. The Donnelly brothers were for so long the heart of Castlemitchell football and earned for it the reputation which marked their team as a team apart. Joe Bermingham was a community activist who went into politics and even though living on the very edge of County Kildare managed to contest and win many elections at county and Dail constituency levels. It’s a feat which Jack Wall, who has taken over Joe’s role, has managed to replicate. Mick Fennin served as secretary of Castlemitchell Football Club for 33 years, retiring two years ago, and his contribution to Gaelic games in the area played an essential part in sustaining the community life of Castlemitchell during these years.

Retired school teacher Maisie Candy perhaps personified more than anyone else the spirit of Castlemitchell. As a historian and a folklorist for the Castlemitchell area, she has highlighted the importance of community involvement and has helped maintain that community spirit which has kept Castlemitchell an active and vibrant community. Mossy Reilly and Dot Mullan were also actively involved in their local community and like Maisie and others not mentioned by me contributed handsomely to the community life of the area.

I am writing this a few days before the August bank holiday celebrations planned for Castlemitchell and Churchtown and courtesy of Ger McDonagh I have received a copy of a book to be launched at the weekend. ‘A Community Remembers’ is a compilation of articles and newspaper extracts on various aspects of life in Castlemitchell over the years. Short articles by former pupils of Churchtown School give a flavour of the happy times spent in the small rural school which opened just a few years after the Great Famine. The history of Castlemitchell Hall is recounted with memories recalled of the Tops of the Club competitions held there in the 1960s.

The stories of the Meggars Club as well as the Churchtown Pipe Band, which I gather is being revived, are told with several other articles of interests including pieces on Joe Bermingham and Mary ‘Dot’ Mullan. I was particularly delighted by the story written by Eibhlis Candy entitled ‘Pole Dancing in Churchtown School’. The book ‘A Community Remembers’ will be on sale over the bank holiday weekend and everyone involved in it’s production are to be congratulated on an excellent job well done.

Here in Athy we are very fortunate that one of the world’s foremost photographers captured the people of Athy on film over a 25 year period from the early 1960’s. John Minihan who lived in Plewman’s Terrace and attended the local Christian Brothers school photographed the townspeople while he was a staff photographer with the Evening Standard in London. He took pictures of life in Athy, building up a unique record of a way of life in a small provincial Irish town. His book of some of the Athy photographs was subsequently published and regrettably is out of print and virtually unobtainable in second hand bookshops.

What John Minihan did in starting to photograph Athy’s people over 40 years ago was to add an important piece of work to the material which in years to come will form a unique record for social historians. Last week the Athy Photographic Group and Athy Heritage Centre announced a photographic project for Athy under the title ‘A Week in the Life of Athy’ scheduled to commence the week commencing 7^th September 2008. This project is intended to involve as many local people as possible in taking photographs during that week of people, places and events in the town. The purpose is to build up a documentary archive of life in Athy, realising that, like John Minihan’s work, it too will in time constitute a valuable resource for future historians and others.

The project is one which invites involvement by anyone in Athy with a camera. All you have to do is take photographs in the town of Athy during that week in September and to pass on the photographs to the Heritage Centre. The project will be further outlined at the meeting to be held in the Heritage Centre on Wednesday 20^th August at 8.00p.m. If you would like to be involved come along to that meeting when further information and advice on the project will be available. Please note that even if you cannot attend this meeting you can still be involved in the project. Ideally you should pass your name and address onto the Heritage Centre in the Town Hall if you intend to take part in the project. The Centre will give out an information sheet following the meeting on August 20^th to anyone wishing to take part in the project.

This year marks the 60^th anniversary of the refounding of Athy Association Football Club. The first soccer club in Athy was believed to have been formed when a Mr. Sanford, a supervisor on the Barrow Drainage Scheme and some of his workers came together to play soccer under the name ‘The Barrow Rovers’. This was in or about 1926 but given the prominence of soccer on the British mainland from an earlier period it is highly probable that soccer was played in south Kildare long before the Barrow Rovers were established. However, I have not found any newspaper reports of soccer games involving the Athy club prior to 1926, so either the soccer played was not on a formal club basis, or alternatively the local newspapers did not report on any such games.

The Barrow Drainage team included a number of locals including Cuddy Chanders, who would later play on the County Kildare Senior G.A.A. team, as well as Ned Ward and Chevit Doyle. Ned Ward had butcher shops at Stanhope Street and Duke Street and Chevit Doyle lived in St. Joseph’s Terrace. The team played their home games on a field at Quarry Farm, owned I believe by the Fennin family. The club lasted only for as long as the headquarters of the Barrow Drainage Scheme was located at Athy and when it moved from Athy the club ceased to exist.

In 1948 a number of local men came together in the Leinster Arms Hotel to consider setting up a soccer club. The club committee elected that night consisted of Matt Tynan as chairman, Danny O’Brien as secretary and Mick McEvoy as treasurer. Matt was the manager of the local L. & N. Shop in Emily Square, while Danny O’Brien who lived in Barrack Yard and Jim McEvoy from St. Joseph’s Terrace were both local postmen. The first committee comprised of Paddy O’Neill, Paddy O’Gorman, Jimmy O’Donnell, Mick Nolan, Harry Prole and Louis Pawelczyk. The meeting was called apparently on the initiative of Matt Tynan who had been involved in the Athy Hockey Club before it went out of existence, leaving it’s playing pitch and galvanised dressing rooms at the Showgrounds vacant. Paddy O’Neill, a local solicitor with offices over Anthony Auctioneers and who had also been involved with the Hockey Club, arranged for the transfer of the lease held by the Hockey Club to the newly created Soccer Club.

The first soccer match played by the newly formed Athy A.F.C. on it’s home grounds was against neighbouring Carlow and the Athy team that day was Cuddy Chanders, Mick ‘Jock’ O’Donnell of Castlemitchell, Tom Kiely, Joe ‘Lowly’Walsh, Brendan O’Flaherty, Jerry Sullivan, ‘Sham’Kelly of Dooley’s Terrace, Jimmy O’Donnell, Louis Pawelczyk, ‘Cymbal’ Davis and Billy Chanders whom I believe was brother of the goalkeeper Cuddy Chanders. Tom Kiely, Jerry Sullivan and ‘Lowly’ Walsh were very experienced soccer players and had previously played for Carlow.

The club colours were blue and white and the first sponsors of club jerseys were Michael Nolan, a draper of Leinster Street and Joe Kelly, the publican of Leinster Street. The club’s first grounds man was Denis Smyth’s father, Mick, who lived in No. 2 Offaly Street and following a few friendly matches Athy A.F.C. entered the 1949/’50 Midland League and also played in the Sunday Alliance Division 1. Training for matches was of the most perfunctory kind but at the end of the first season the club nevertheless reported a modestly successful season. Interest in the game grew locally and in 1952 a summer street league was organised with teams from Pairc Bhride, Barrack Street, Leinster Street and St. Joseph’s Terrace. The final played between Pairc Bhride and Barrack Street at the Show Grounds on 4^th August 1952 ended in a one all draw, with Barrack Street winning the subsequent replay. The winning team, all of whom received winners medals, included Tom Kiely, Joe Aldridge, Brendan O’Flaherty and Danny Shaughnessy. I wonder if any of the street league medals of 1952 have survived and if the other members of the winning team can be recalled?

Athy A.F.C. joined the Wicklow League for the 1952/’53 season and transferred to the Kilkenny League the following year where it remained for the next six years. Team players in the 1950’s included Michael ‘Gunner’ Quinn, Jim Foley, who subsequently emigrated to Liverpool, Brendan O’Flaherty, Cha Chanders, Joe Aldridge, Brian O’Hara, Mick Godfrey, Niall Smith, Denis Smyth, to name but a few. The club went into decline around 1960 and dropped out of the soccer league. It’s revival was due to a number of school boys including Fergal Blanchfield, Ger Moriarty, Joe McEvoy, Walter Clancy and Aidan Prendergast who came together as an informal group to play soccer. They called themselves ‘The Tigers’ and played several friendly matches on the soccer pitch at the Showgrounds.

Mick Godfrey who had been a player member of Athy A.F.C. organised a meeting for the Town Hall in December 1964 to which members of The Tigers were invited to attend. At that meeting a new committee was formed, with Brendan O’Flaherty as chairman, Denis Smyth as secretary, Mick McEvoy as treasurer and committee members Ernest Henderson, Mick Whelan, Mick Godfrey, Brian O’Hara, Mick Aldridge, Mick Eaton and Cuddy Chanders. A letter appeared in the Evening Herald in January 1965 from the club secretary Denis Smyth who was then living at 14 St. Patrick’s Avenue, Athy, in which he wrote: ‘in an area famed more for exponents of Gaelic football Athy Town A.F.C. finds it difficult to carry on and since our financial position will not allow us to participate in Dublin leagues we look forward to visits from outside clubs. An enthusiastic schoolboy section of the club is anxious also to contact boy clubs in Dublin. We have an excellent pitch here in Athy and being only an hour’s travelling time from Dublin we suggest it is an ideal choice for a days outing.’

After experiencing initial difficulties the 1968/’69 season saw a huge improvement insofar as the fortunes of Athy A.F.C. were concerned. The club reached the semi-final stages of the Sheeran Cup with a team which included the likes of Johnny Morrissey, Noel Myles, Ernest Henderson and Seamus Clandillon. Following an earlier suggestion by club secretary Denis Smyth it was decided to run a street league for young players and the subsequent league involving teams from Leinster Street, St. Joseph’s Terrace, Duke Street and Pairc Bhride catered for almost 200 players at Under 14, 16 and 18 levels. Quite a large number of the young players involved in that street league subsequently went on to play at senior level for Athy Town.

In August 1970 the club won it’s first major title when it defeated Newbridge Rangers in the final of the Ardenode Cup. In 1971/’72 the club had three teams for the first time, a senior team, a second team and an Under 18 team. That same year club member Michael Reen, a local school teacher, was instrumental in setting up Athy and District Association Football Council which included representatives from the Athy Club, together with eight other clubs catering for players in Kilberry and various other areas of Athy town. F.A.I. coaching was introduced to the school players and regular coaching sessions were organised. This led to further success with Athy A.F.C. winning the Ardenode Cup for the second time in August 1972.

The story of Athy A.F.C. is ongoing. The first 24 years of the club’s history was marked with an equal measure of success and disappointment, while the last 38 years have seen the club survive many vicissitudes to celebrate this year’s 60^thanniversary under the chairmanship of Finbar Bride.

FRANK TAAFFE

Sr. Oliver's 90th Birthday

Des Murphy / Ber Cross

'Mossy' O'Reilly

Harland and Wolff Choir in Athy / Amalgamation of CBS and Convent School

Paddy Walshe's Book of Poetry / Leinster Street Pubs - Floods and McLaughlins

Frank O'Brien's 85th Birthday / Aidan Higgins

Education in Athy

Photographs F.C.A. Athy / Duthie Larges Workmen / Doyles Pub

Influenza 1918

Anthony Prendergast / Published Histories of Aontas Ogra / Athy Dominicans

Athy Dominicans - 750 Years Old

Shackleton Autumn School - Two Books - Bridges on the River Barrow / Achill

Photographs / Athy Fire Brigade

Dr. Don Rodrique de Vere

Daly Brothers Athy 1961 / Dreamland

Photograph of Minch Norton / Asbestos Factory Outing to Navan / Review of 1953 Production Barretts of Wimpole Street

Athy's Charters of 1515 and 1613

John Crosthwaite Watch Maker, Philip Crosthwaite San Diego

Castlemitchell Community

Athy Association Football Club