Athy Eye On The Past

On Thursday last the Athy branch of the Irish Wheelchair Association celebrated the 50^thanniversary of the founding of the first branch of the National organisation. Teach Emmanuel was ‘en fete’ for the occasion as volunteers, past and present, returned to acknowledge the wonderful work undertaken by that most underrated of organisations.

The I.W.A. was founded in 1960 by a small group of wheelchair users who had participated in the first Paralympics Games held in Rome. In September of that year the inaugural meeting of the I.W.A. took place on 10^thNovember 1960 in the Pillar Room of the Mater Hospital Dublin, attended by several members of the Irish Paralympics Games team, as well as a number of civic minded individuals. Given the later history of the Athy branch of the Association it is, I feel, significant that the founding meeting was held in the Dublin hospital established by Mother Mary Vincent Whitty. This was the same Sister of Mercy who came to Athy in 1852 to take charge of the new Convent of Mercy and the nearby Convent Schools.

The Irish Wheelchair Association was founded primarily to improve the lives of people with physical disabilities and today the organisation has a network of 20,000 members with over 2,000 staff and many dedicated voluntary workers supporting and encouraging independence for all. The I.W.A. seeks to improve equality and access for wheelchair users as well as providing employment and housing, while encouraging social interaction. A quarterly magazine ‘Spokeout’ is published and made available to members of the Association.

Pride of place at the 50^thcelebrations went to Sr. Carmel Fallon and Sr. Alphonsus Meagher, both Sisters of Mercy who were part of the small group who in 1968 established the local branch of the I.W.A. It was these two Mercy nuns who with their colleague, the late Sr. Dolores, formed a girls club in Athy in 1968. The young club members were encouraged to visit wheelchair users in their homes and very soon the possibility of establishing a branch of the I.W.A. in Athy became a reality.

The driving force in setting up the branch was the Co. Galway born Sr. Carmel Fallon who entered the convent in Athy in August 1935. The year was 1969 and very soon the local branch developed as socials for wheelchair users were held in Mount St. Mary’s, annual Christmas dinners were arranged and summer holidays were spent in boarding schools operated by the Sisters of Mercy. None of this could have been done without the help of volunteers, both male and female, who from the very start devoted their spare time and energies to helping Sr. Carmel in her determined effort to provide services for the disabled, while integrating them fully into the local community.

Amongst the early volunteers (and apologies if anyone has been overlooked) were Leo Byrne, Lily Murphy, Mary Malone, Mary Prior, Michael Kelly, Bridget Brennan, John Morrin, Tommy Page, Paddy Timoney, Dinny Donoghue, Phoebe Murphy, Caroline Webb, Peadar Doogue, Fr. Lorcan O’Brien and Fr. Denis Lavery.

The Athy branch was in time to provide a fulltime activity service for the disabled and the first Day Centre outside of the association’s facility in Clontarf, Dublin was opened in Athy. Teach Emmanuel was developed on a site in the grounds of St. Vincent’s Hospital and represented a partnership between the Health Board and the Irish Wheelchair Association. It also confirmed, if confirmation was needed, that the diminutive nun from the West of Ireland had an admirable record of achievement since arriving in the South Kildare town at the height of the economic war of the 1930s.

In 1992 Sr. Carmel was appointed president of the Irish Wheelchair Association National Organisation and held that position for 10 years. She is now retired from active involvement in the day to day work of the local association, but still retains a kindly watching brief over the work of Teach Emmanuel.

The 50^thcelebration was graced by the presence of many of the volunteers, past and present, without whose work and efforts over the years the local branch of the Wheelchair Association could never have been expected to survive. That it has survived and indeed prospered, despite depending so heavily on voluntary financial donations and voluntary workers, is a measure of the generosity, not only of the volunteers involved, but also of the Irish public who can always be counted upon to help those who need their help the most. The Athy branch of the Irish Wheelchair Association can be justifiably proud of its many achievements in helping the physically disabled to better integrate with the local community. At the same time the people of Athy and district can take pride in the continuing success of a local organisation whose presence is a welcome addition to the medico social facilities of south Kildare.

Last week I wrote of the new Traffic Management Plan for Athy and referred to an alternative plan proposed by a group which I understood was the Irish Farmers Association. In fact I am told the plan in question arises from discussions within the Athy Traffic Action Committee and has the support of a large section of the business community. I gather their plan has not yet received the backing of the Town Council but perhaps that support will come when the Council members sit down with members of Kildare County Council to consider the Traffic Management Plan prepared by the Council’s consultants.

Hugh Bolger of 6 Offaly Street passed away last week. A native of Ballylinan he worked for many years in the Wallboard factory and his funeral was marked by a Guard of Honour of members of Ballylinan Gaelic Football Club and by the attendance of many of his former work colleagues from the now long closed Barrowford complex. Hugh married Loy Hayden, now sadly deceased, whom I fondly remember as part of the Offaly Street family of the 1950s. She and her brother Seamus lived with their aunt Mrs. Kitty Murphy and her husband Joe at No. 3 Offaly Street before moving to No. 6 when the Taaffes vacated that latter address to move next door to No. 5.

I had departed Athy for ‘foreign parts’, i.e. Naas, before Hugh married Loy and moved into No. 6. I got to know him over the years and he became part of the familiar Offaly Street background at a time when several of the older families were still living there. It is now a street much changed from my young days and the community of which I was a member and of which Hugh was later a welcome part of, has disappeared. Hugh was one of the last links with that street community and his passing is much regretted. He is survived by his daughters Sinéad and Áine and his grandchildren to whom our sympathies are extended.

St. Michael’s Parish Athy has had 20 parish priests since 1670, including several clerics who have been Archdeacons, Canons or Monsignors. Church records indicate that Fr. John Fitzsimons was the local Parish Priest in 1670 at the height of the Penal Laws. It was around the same time that a local Dominican Friar, Fr. Joseph Carroll, was imprisoned in Dublin. The accession of the Catholic James II to the English throne in 1685 brought a brief respite for the Irish Catholics but following his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne the Penal Laws were again strictly enforced. The Dominicans who had returned to Athy in 1630 after an enforced absence of almost 90 years were again forced to flee.

Fr. Fitzsimons’s successor as Parish Priest was Fr. Daniel Fitzpatrick who ministered to his parishioners in Athy for 46 years from 1712. During that time he lived outside the town and said Mass whenever and wherever he could. The Dominicans returned to Athy around 1743 at a time when religious intolerance was on the wane. That same year John Jackson, a member of Athy Borough Council, informed Dublin Castle ‘I cannot find there is or has been any popish priests or regular clergy in this corporation. The priest lives in the Queens County about two miles from the town.’ The priest in question was Fr. Daniel Fitzpatrick, who in 1758 was succeeded by Canon James Nell.

Interestingly the last entry in the Parish Baptismal records for 1758 was made on 24^th January of that year and was followed by a note explaining that the absence of records for the succeeding 10 months ‘was occasioned by the prosecution against the Rev. Mr. Callaghan.’ What was the nature of this prosecution I can’t say but it may well have been related to the Penal legislation then in place.

Canon James Nell, following his appointment of Parish Priest of St. Michaels, remained in that position for 31 years. His name appears in the list of those who at the Assizes in Athy on 16^th February 1793 took an oath denying the Pope’s temporal powers and subscribed to the Oath of Abjuration. This was a requirement under a series of legislative enactments which reduced the penal restrictions on Dissenters and Catholics alike. One such concession allowed priests, then resident in the country, to perform their clerical duties provided those duties were not carried out within a church with a steeple or a bell.

Canon Maurice Keegan, appointed P.P. in 1789, had as his Parish Church a small thatched building located in Chapel Lane, just off the High Street, now Leinster Street. This is believed to have been erected in the middle of the 18^th century as the Penal Laws were relaxed. It was to fall victim to an arson attack on the night of the 7^th of March 1800. By all accounts it appears to have been a deliberate act of reprisal linked to ’98 rebellion activities in this area. A malicious damage claim lodged by the Parish Priest resulted in the payment of £300 from government funds and this with €1,700 collected in the town financed the building of St. Michael’s Parish Church which was built in 1808 on marshy grounds between Clonmullin Commons and the River Barrow.

Patrick Kelly, originally from Kilcoo, wrote a history of the ’98 Rebellion which was published in 1842 and the book contained a letter from Rev. John Lalor (sic) P.P. Athy dated 16^th September 1841 which was authenticated by the Parish Priest of Westland Row Dublin. This was the same Fr. John Lawler who was elected a Town Commissioner in 1842 following the abolition of Athy Borough Corporation the previous year. The 21 elected Commissioners included not only the Parish Priest but also the Church of Ireland Rector, Rev. Frederick Trench.

John Lawler was succeeded in 1853 by Andrew Quinn, the eldest of three brothers from Rathbane near the village of Kilteel, about six miles from Naas. All of them were ordained priests for the Dublin Dioceses and the two younger brothers later became Bishops in Australia. Andrew Quinn was one of the first students of the Irish College in Rome at a time when Ballitore-born Paul Cullen was Rector of that College. Quinn was ordained in 1842. Cullen would later be the Archbishop of Dublin and Ireland’s first Cardinal at a time when his former pupil was Parish Priest of St. Michael’s Athy. Six years after Andrew Quinn became Parish Priest of Athy his brother Matthew was consecrated Bishop of Brisbane, Australia. In 1865 the other brother Matthew Quinn was appointed as the first Bishop of Bathurst, Australia.

Bishop James Quinn was to the forefront in establishing Catholic schools run by religious orders in his Brisbane Dioceses and soon after his arrival in Brisbane in March 1861 he contacted his brother Fr. Andrew in Athy for help. The Parish Priest approached Mother Mary Teresa Maher, Superior of the local Convent of Mercy and the Sisters of Mercy agreed to open a novitiate to receive and train postulants for the Brisbane Dioceses. The first young girl to join the newly opened novitiate was Catherine Flanagan and others soon entered the Athy Convent to train for the Australian Mission. The last of the postulants to enter the Athy Convent for the Brisbane Mission left Ireland on 24^th February 1868 following which the Athy novitiate closed. Bishop James Quinn had an uneasy relationship with the Sisters of Mercy in Australia and history has not been kind to the County Kildare born Bishop who it is claimed exercised his Episcopal authority on monarchical lines. His older brother Andrew seemed to have had his own problems in St. Michaels as evidenced by his announcement in 1867 that the biannual collections for the Christian Brothers Schools in the town could no longer be taken up in the parish. ‘After five years of sad experiences I find myself unable to meet the necessary expenses.’ Fourteen years earlier he had withdrawn, amidst great controversy, similar collections for the local Dominican community.

Fr. Andrew Quinn left Athy in 1879 to become Parish Priest of Kingstown, as Dun Laoghaire was then called, and he was replaced by Fr. James Doyle who had been a curate in Athy for many years. He died in 1892 after a long illness, the local press reporting ‘though stern and reserved in appearance he was beloved by the poor who always called him Fr. James.’

Canon, later Archdeacon Germaine, was the next Parish Priest and the Golden Jubilee of his ordination was marked on 16^th April 1904 with the blessing of a marble pulpit which is still in use in the new St. Michael’s Church. He died the following year and in his place arrived Canon Joseph Keeffe who before he transferred to Rathfarnham in 1909 improved and beautified the Parish Church.

Canon Edward Mackey was the next Parish Priest and he would preside over St. Michael’s Parish for the following 19 years. During the First World War he joined local business and civic leaders on recruiting platforms in Emily Square to urge the men of Athy and district to enlist. When he died on 21^st March 1928 the annalist for the local Sisters of Mercy Convent noted ‘Canon Mackey was a man of noble ideals and sound common sense and an eminent theologian. Though adults might find his manner somewhat repelling, little children loved him. While he laid dying, during the whole of the night, the Parochial house was surrounded by sorrowing parishioners reciting Rosaries.’

......TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK......

Fr. James Doyle, Parish Priest of Athy, is buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery where his gravestone records that he was 64 years old when he passed away on 10^th November 1892. He had served as a curate in Athy for 17 years and Parish Priest for 13 years. I have been unable to locate the graves of six of his predecessors as Parish Priest of Athy, the seventh, Monsignor Andrew Quinn having died some time after he transferred to Dun Laoghaire. The clerical career of his successor, Archdeacon Germaine, is recorded on the latter’s gravestone in St. Michael’s Cemetery as, ‘1 year a curate in Dunlavin, 23 years a curate in Castledermot, 15 years D.D. in Avoca’ before becoming Parish Priest of Athy where he served for 12 years and where he died on 18^thApril 1905 aged 78 years.

Canon Edward Mackey was the next Parish Priest to die in office and his gravestone simply records ‘Edward Canon Mackey, In days gone by, P.P. Athy 1909 – 1928’. Incidentally he died on 31^st March and not 21^st March as mentioned in last week’s article. The whereabouts of the last resting place of Fr. Fintan Carroll who succeeded Canon Mackey is not known to me. Fr. Carroll who transferred from Castledermot to take over responsibility for the Parish of St. Michaels died unexpectedly in May, just a few weeks after coming to Athy. His was the shortest period as Parish Priest of any of the office holders stretching back to 1670, while the distinction of having the longest service belongs to Fr. Daniel Fitzpatrick, who, if records are accurate, served as Parish Priest for 46 years.

Fr. Patrick McDonnell replaced the late Fr. Carroll on 11^thJune 1928 and he remained as Parish Priest of St. Michaels until his death, aged 84 years on 1^st March 1956. It is as Archdeacon McDonnell that he is remembered today by the older residents. During the early part of his ministry in Athy he had a disagreement with the members of Athy Urban District Council over a remark made at a meeting of the Council when the Parish Priest and one of his curates, Fr. Maurice Brown, were nominated to the Council’s Library Committee. The remark was not reported in the local press but nevertheless word got back to the Parish Priest who refused to take up the Council’s nomination. The curate Fr. Brown who would later write a number of highly regarded books while he was Parish Priest of Ballymore Eustace felt compelled to follow the lead of his Parish Priest and so for a while the town’s Library Committee operated without the services of the local clergy. Relationships between the local Church and civic leaders were obviously fully restored by 1952 when on the proposal of M.G. Nolan, seconded by P.L. Doyle, the Council agreed that its new housing estate at Holland’s Field should be named McDonnell Drive ‘to mark the deep appreciation of the people of Athy of the invaluable services rendered to the Parish by our beloved Parish Priest.’ It was a significant honour in view of the fact that Archdeacon McDonnell had still another four years to live. When he died on 11^th March 1956 the Archdeacon was remembered as ‘gentle, unobtrusive, vain but not proud, easy of access and approach and very devoted to the confessional and Mass.’

My own memories of the old priest, for whom I often served Mass on one of the side altars, are coloured by my earliest contact with him. As a 7 or 8 year old I was in a class brought by Sister Brendan to confessions at St. Michaels where one of the confessors that school morning and occupying a temporary confessional specially fitted up for him, was Archdeacon McDonnell. At one stage during the confessions I forgot what I had to say, much to the annoyance of the elderly cleric who pushed his walking stick around the barrier between us and prodded me out of the confession box. I never forgot or forgave and was always conscious of the disagreeable and grumpy cleric whenever I had to serve his Mass in later years.

Parish Priests in the 1950s and earlier seemed to have been fashioned from the same block, as his successor Fr. Vincent Steen who was Parish Priest for 11 years until 1967 was to my young eyes another stern authoritarian. By the time he left for a Dublin parish on 26^th January 1967 I had been out of Athy for six years and another 15 years would pass before I returned.

In the meantime Fr. John Gunning replaced Fr. Steen and after four years it was the turn of Fr. William Rogan to take over as Parish Priest. Fr. Gunning had transferred to St. Anthony’s Clontarf and references to his time in Athy describe him as a priest ‘who endeared himself to the people he served.’ Fr. Rogan remained in Athy for nine years before transferring to another parish and he was replaced as Parish Priest by Fr. Owen Sweeney who had been President of Clonliffe College. His brief five years in charge of St. Michael’s Parish was marked by an energy and a commitment to religious and social development within the parish which made Fr. Sweeney one of the most popular men to have held the position of Parish Priest in recent years.

Fr. Philip Dennehy, happily still with us, arrived in Athy as our Parish Priest in June 1985 having previously served in the town as a curate for ten years from 1963. He proved to be a dedicated and inspiring Parish Priest, who having retired from the position remains on in St. Michael’s to help out in the parish.

Monsignor John Wilson came to us in 2006 and transferred last month to the Parish of Ballymore Eustace. His replacement, Fr. Michael Murtagh, on his first Sunday introduced himself as a Mayo man, a priest for 33 years whose first Parish was on the island of Inis Meáin where he spent three years followed by a similar period in Letterfrack. Two years were next spent in Mulranny, another Parish in the Tuam dioceses before he transferred to the concrete jungle of city parishes in our capital city. One of these Parishes was Killester, not too far from the Dublin Parish where I lived for 12 years and stories of the Mayo football enthusiast and priest have circulated far beyond the boundaries of Killester.

Fr. Michael played minor football for his native county and the depth of his support for what in recent times has been the GAA’s most persistently luckless All-Ireland finalists is understandable. The green and red of Mayo have featured on a few occasions on the morning of All-Irelands at services in Killester Church, while Fr. Michael officiated. I particularly liked the story (believe me its true) where the Mayo curate happily indulged by his Kerry-born Parish Priest bedecked a baby pram in the Mayo colours on the morning of an All-Ireland final and pushed it up the aisle, parking it to the side of the altar. At an appropriate time during the sermon he called upon a parishioner to approach the pram and open a large card which held up to the congregation read ‘Expecting SAM’. Unfortunately even the prayers and support of the Killester parishioners were not sufficient to secure a Mayo victory over Meath so that on the Sunday after Mayo was defeated the pram again made its appearance, still bedecked in the Mayo colours and pushed up the aisle yet again by Fr. Michael. This time when the card was removed from the pram and held up it read, ‘miscarried’.

When I heard the story and some of the other escapades involving our new Parish Priest I laughed heartily. Fr. Michael Murtagh is as far removed from the stern authoritarian Parish Priest of the past as is possible to imagine. The clerical austerity of 50 years ago and more is hopefully about to give way to a happy and inclusive relationship between parishioners and their Parish Priest. Long may it be so.

The Ploughing Championship for 2009 has come and gone and by all accounts it has been a resounding success. Returning to the area in which the first inter county ploughing contest was held in February 1931, this year’s event brought almost 150,000 visitors, compared to the 3,000 who were reported to have been present at the one day event held at Coursetown, Athy on Monday, 16^th February 1931. On that occasion there were ten counties represented in the ploughing competitions, with 52 horse ploughing competitors and six tractor competitors. The winning county was Wexford, with its team captain Edward Jones who used a Pierce plough winning the first prize and the gold medal for all round ploughing. Jones also won the ESMA Perpetual Challenge Cup as the champion ploughman of Ireland.

The Nationalist newspaper in its report of the 1931 ploughing championships mentioned 14 year old James Ryan of Athy who came third in the local class using a Ransome plough and whose work the reporter noted was ‘one of the outstanding features of the competition.’

Local ploughing contests had been a feature of rural life in Ireland for many years prior to then and local Kildare newspapers often carried reports of ploughing competitions at Levitstown, Kilkea and Narraghmore. However, it was J.J. Bergin of Maybrook, Athy with his friend Denis Allen of Wexford who first mooted the idea of an inter county ploughing contest following a ploughing match in the Athy area in February 1930. That first inter county contest was held on the lands of Captain Hosie at Coursetown, Athy on 16^thFebruary 1931. The organising committee for the event was chaired by D.C. Greene, with James Duthie as treasurer and J.J. Bergin as Honorary Secretary. Contrary to the oft repeated claims that the first competition was confined to ploughmen from Counties Kildare and Wexford the competitors in fact represented counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Offaly, Leix, Kildare, Wexford, Wicklow, Dublin, Cork and Louth.

Each county was represented by three ploughmen who provided their own ploughs, swings and marking poles, while pairs of plough horses were provided by local farmers where necessary. These horses were brought to the plough field by their owners and the various competitors then drew lots to decide which horses they could use for the competition. A very detailed set of rules were laid down by the Competition Committee including a ban on ‘coulters or any other gadgets’. Each competitor was allowed to avail of the help of the horse owners man at yoking his horses and the same man was allowed to accompany the competitor for the first round, ‘but must not handle the reins or plough’.

The David Frame Perpetual Challenge Cup and a cash price of £12 were offered for the overall county winners while the ESMA Perpetual Challenge Cup presented by Estate Management Supplies Association of Millicent Sallins and £5 went to the individual ploughman who was named champion of Ireland.

The tractor class also attracted prizes, as did the contest confined to County Kildare ploughmen and there were a number of other prizes ranging from best work by an Irish made plough to best turn out of horses and harnesses. However, the most unusual competition prize was that awarded to ‘the married competitor with the greatest number in family.’ That worthy individual was to receive a 10stone bag of flour presented by Mr. J. Gracie of Kilmeade.

The programme for the 1931 event carried a number of advertisements for local firms. Messrs Greene Brothers of Kilkea Lodge Maganey, auctioneers, valuers and livestock salesmen, advised potential clients that ‘all business entrusted to us will be attended to promptly and with care.’

Industrial Vehicles (Ireland) Ltd. advertised the sale of ‘universal trailers’ being part of their business as ‘main tractor dealers and trailer manufacturers’. Jackson Brothers of 58 Leinster Street were agents for Star ploughs and stocked ploughs and harrow fittings, as well as having ‘a fully equipped workshop for all motor and cycle repairs’ in addition to a high class grocery.

The Leinster Arms Hotel, telephone no. Athy 21, was fully licenced with a free garage and advertised itself as a first class family and commercial hotel. Minch Norton and Company Limited of Levitstown Mills, Maganey specialised in Decorticated cotton cake, Yefato yeast cake, standard pig meal and other animal feeds as well as importing American and English linseed cake, Rangoon ground nut meal and many other exotic sounding commodities.

The Central Hotel in Leinster Street owned by J. Hutchinson proudly advertised that it had ‘electric lights throughout’ with hot and cold baths, home comforts and excellent cooking. Thomas L. Flood, proprietor of the Railway Hotel, included in his advertisement the line ‘official caterer’. There was no further explanation, but I assume that this reference related to the hotel’s position as official caterer to the ploughing contest.

Duthie Large & Co. of the Foundry, Athy were agents for all the major plough manufacturers as well as Fordson tractors and Ford cars and trucks. E. Nolan of 1 Leinster Street was local agent for seed merchants Hogg and Robertson of Mary Street, Dublin. An advertiser unfamiliar to me was Eugene J. Fagan of Duke Street who described himself as Irish Sales and Service Manager for Beardmore Commercial Vehicles which were suited for the carriage of livestock, agricultural produce and general merchantise. He had offices in Athy as well as a service depot and stores.

The Nationalist newspaper reporting on the ploughing contest in Coursetown in 1931 mentioned that the weather was ‘extremely cold with rain and sleet, but this did not dampen the ardour of the spectators who took a keen interest in what has been well described as the battle of the ploughs’.

This year’s event, just a stones throws away in Cardenton, (indeed one of the car parks for the 2009 event was the site of the 1931 event) was marked with good weather and the many thousands who travelled from all parts of Ireland over the three days spent several enjoyable hours visiting the nine hundred or so exhibition stands and the ploughing events.

J.J. Bergin, an Athy man of tremendous initiative, was the driving force behind the early development of the National Ploughing Association and was one of the founders in 1952 of the World Ploughing Association. The continuing success of the National Ploughing Association and its annual event owes much to another local person, Anna May McHugh who since 1973 has served as Managing Director of the National Ploughing Association. The huge success of this year’s event is a fitting testament to Anna May’s organisational skills and the wonderful team which is the National Ploughing Association.

Twice this week I joined with friends, acquaintances and neighbours to pay tribute to members of our local community on Tuesday evening. I walked behind the funeral cortege of Kevin O’Toole, a young married man, on its journey to our local Parish church. A lone piper walked before the hearse as it passed down Duke Street and into Stanhope Street. The plaintive air of ‘The Dawning of the Day’ provided a sombre setting as the measured steps of local sympathisers approached St. Michael’s Church. Kevin’s passing was not unexpected as illness marked his last days, but the announcement at Mass of his death on Sunday filled me with sadness.

I knew Kevin from his involvement in the re-enactment group which he headed up and from the Medieval Festival he organised in the Town Square for the last two years. As Fr. Dennehy said at the Church that evening Kevin was a very pleasant man who was universally liked. He is survived by his wife and two young children, as well as his mother, sister and two brothers, to all of whom we extend our sympathy.

Earlier in the week I was one of an admiring group comprised of parents and young people who came to the local G.A.A. Centre to pay tribute to Aiden McHugh. It’s not every person who receives a well deserved accolade or acknowledgement during his or her lifetime. Indeed, for many such as the late Kevin O’Toole, the only time we show, as a community, our appreciation is when we join a funeral cortege. But last Saturday evening things were very different. A small group had got together and brought many more together on that Saturday night to pay a well deserved tribute to the man who for the last 35 years had organised and trained the members of Athy Gymnastics Club. Aiden McHugh is a native of Athy, his father Mick and his mother Kathy having raised a family of six in their home at St. Michael’s Terrace. He served in the Irish Army for many years where he developed an expertise in gymnastics which would eventually lead him back to his home town of Athy.

It was in 1972 that Brother Sykes of the local Christian Brothers started the Gymnastic Club which for the first year or so used a large building in Meeting Lane as the gym centre. Shortly thereafter the Club’s activities were transferred to the Christian Brothers School in St. John’s Lane where another Christian Brother, Br. Creevy, helped out. Some of the early members of that Club included Gabriel Dooley, Anthony Healy, Derek Donovan, Kevin McDermott and Colm Wall whose training, owing to lack of equipment, was confined to floor and horse exercises. This was soon to change when transfers amongst the Christian Brothers personnel prompted the Club to seek the services of an experienced gymnast. An approach was made to Aiden McHugh and in 1974 he took over as trainer and organiser of the young club.

The enthusiasm and expertise of the new trainer soon brought rewards for the youthful gymnasts who practised every Saturday under Aiden’s watchful guidance. The Club affiliated to the I.A.G.A. and its members started to compete in national competitions. The first Community Games in which the Athy Gymnastics Club participated was in 1975 and two years later the Athy gymnasts recorded what was their first success at national level. Athy Club members returned from the 1977 Community Games with four gold medals and one bronze, making almost a clean sweep of Ireland’s premier games for young gymnasts. The gold medals were won in underage competitions at Under 10, Under 12, Under 14 and Under 16 levels, while Conor Wall won a bronze medal in the Under 8 category. The gold medallists were Declan Porter, Michael Rowan, Niall Wall and Paul Porter.

The members of the Scottish Gym Council who attended the 1977 Mosney Games were so impressed by the Athy Club members that an invitation was extended to the South Kildare Club to travel to Scotland. The resulting trip was the first overseas visit by members of Athy’s gymnastic club which by the late 1970s had almost 30 members. In a few short years the club had become one of the best gymnastics club in Ireland, but as an exclusively male club it required pairing with female gymnasts from Sligo to allow for participation in mixed pairing events.

Early in the 1980s the club was opened to female members and before long the membership had increased to 100 or more and the premises at the Christian Brothers School proved no longer adequate. A move to the former Dreamland Ballroom, a move facilitated by the local Lions Club, provided much improved facilities and allowed the club to host several All Ireland competitions. However, a further move, this time to the GAA Hall at Geraldine Park, was necessary and it was there that the Club hosted the County Community Games for six years in succession. Following the opening of the new secondary school in Rathstewart the old Christian Brothers School again became available and the Gym Club relocated back to St. John’s Lane, now using rooms much larger than those previously available.

The female gymnasts soon showed abilities to match those of their male colleagues and Fiona McHugh, Rosemary O’Sullivan and Clara O’Neill were honoured to represent Ireland at an international event in Cobh, while Rosemary O’Sullivan and Susan Walshe were among the winners at an international competition in Germany.

The success of the Gymnastics Club was due to the extraordinary commitment and dedication of Aiden McHugh who over the past 35 years has guided the club and trained its young members. Former club members who could not be present at the function on Saturday night sent messages of congratulations. Mark Loughman, now in Boston, fondly remembered a club trip to London in 1983 and wrote of the happy memories he retained of his 10 years as a gymnast under Aiden’s supervision. Tributes were also paid to Aiden’s leadership by other former members who couldn’t attend. Ian Macdougald, Niall Wall and Conor Wall gave glowing accounts of happy days spent in the gym, while Paul Griffin, now in a Californian University, referred to ‘Aiden’s inspiration and dedication’. Several speakers in the G.A.A. Hall that night made reference to Aiden’s work with the club members as ‘enhancing so many young lives’. Aiden’s involvement also extended to providing since 1992 gym classes for youngsters with special needs in conjunction with KARE. The Gaisce Awards has seen the club’s most recent involvement with several young gymnasts taking part in the Presidents Awards Scheme.

While Aiden’s stepping down as club trainer was the occasion for the reception, reference was also made to his involvement in the Canoe Club which he started in Athy approximately 20 years ago. There was an earlier Canoe Club, founded by Athy Lions Club under the guidance of Lions members Michael Wall, Des Perry and Jerry Carbery in or about 1976 which had faltered. Aiden revived the Club some years later and his involvement in canoeing will continue into the future. However, in the meantime Aiden is off to Australia for further adventure to add to parachuting, hot air ballooning and other exploits which form part of his ‘bucket list’. Padraig Dooley from Nicholastown, perhaps the most successful gymnast to come out of the local club and an Irish international gymnast will take Aiden’s place as the club trainer.

Athy has benefitted enormously from the involvement in their community of Kevin O’Toole and Aiden McHugh and a week which sees the passing of Kevin and the stepping down of Aiden after 35 years heading up Athy Gym Club is a sad week for our local community.

With rain and dampness providing an unwelcome backdrop to the Emily Square market on Tuesday last my thoughts turned to past sunny days when footballing matters held my interest. I was prompted to do so after a meeting with Hugh Moran, a native of Athy who emigrated to England over 50 years ago. Hugh called on me on his first visit back to Athy in over half a century and talked to me of his footballing days with Athy and the Army team on the Curragh. He recalled many of his teammates on the Athy team and a week or so later I received a photograph of the Athy senior team on which Hugh featured in the late 1950s. The exact date when the photograph was taken and indeed the occasion are not known to me. However, I am fairly confident that many of you will be able to recall all of those details as well as naming the players, officials and supporters captured forever on film over 50 years ago. I would be delighted to hear from you.

The other photograph featured this week is of the Kildare senior team togged out to play Louth in the Leinster semi-final at Croke Park in 1957. It features Danny Flood and Paddy Wright, Athy’s only representatives on that team. Paddy told me that it was his first time on the Kildare seniors but the records show otherwise. The match against Louth who went on to win the All Ireland that year was played on the 16^th of June and Peadar Smith, then living in St. Patrick’s Avenue and working in the Asbestos Factory, played for the ‘wee County’. It was Paddy Wright’s second match with the Kildare seniors as four weeks earlier he had togged out against Offaly in a game played in Portlaoise. He played a few more matches for his native County and on the team in his final game for County Kildare were fellow Athy men Danny Flood and Brendan Kehoe. The Kildare senior team photographed in June 1957 was as follows, from left to right at back Tos McCarthy, Tom Connolly, Paddy O’Loughlin, J. Byrne, Des Marron, Micko Doyle, Danny Flood and Paddy Moore. In the front row from left were Seamus Aldridge, Michael Bohane, Eddie Hogan, Paddy Wright, Paddy Gibbons, Seamus Harrison and Paddy Feeley (Captain).

Betty O’Donnell, formerly Betty Prendergast of Carlow, came to Athy as the young bride of Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim native, Jimmy O’Donnell in 1948. They arrived to take over the running of the shop which Betty’s father, Tom Prendergast, had purchased many years previously for his sister Bridget Gavin. Bridget had returned from the United States of America and the premises purchased for her was in 1910 occupied by Patrick Prendergast, saddler and stationer. Whether there was any connection between Patrick Prendergast and Tom Prendergast I cannot say.

Bridget Gavin set up business combining the sale of sweets with the running of an ice cream parlour, which on fair days became an eating house and tea rooms. On the far side of Convent Lane at No. 12 Duke Street was Mrs. James’s shop where Porters Post Office Directory for 1910 noted she carried on business as book seller, stationery and fancy goods, baskets and picture postcards. The James’ post cards of 100 years ago showing scenes of Athy are still to be found, but regrettably examples of the basket making craft which once flourished in Athy are seldom, if ever, to be seen.

Mrs. Gavin whom I believe was a widow returned from America with her son and carried on business for many years. It was the arrival of Tom Bradbury to Athy and the subsequent opening of his restaurant in Leinster Street which heralded Mrs. Gavin’s retirement from business. Her niece Betty, with her husband Jimmy O’Donnell, arrived in Athy 66 years ago to take over the running of what had been Mrs. Gavin’s well established business. As luck would have it Mrs. James at 12 Duke Street retired from business soon afterwards and Betty O’Donnell secured the news agency rights which in the post war years were a tremendous and much sought after asset. The tea rooms were soon thereafter discontinued and ‘The Gem’ became a fulltime stationery and news agency which continues in business to this day.

Betty was sadly widowed in 1971 when her husband Jimmy died at the young age of 52 years. With 8 young children to support Betty continued to operate the business which today has become the third oldest family shop business operating in Athy. Unless I am mistaken the oldest shop business still in the same family is O’Briens of Emily Square, with Shaws of Duke Street the next oldest and Betty O’Donnell’s ‘Gem’ in third place.

Betty is one of the readers of this column whose interest in the history of Athy and its people is matched by considerable background knowledge of events and people of the last 60 years or so. She has proved invaluable to me in suggesting events, topics and persons whom she feels might usefully be the subject of an ‘Eye on the Past’. Her help and suggestions are always valued by me and her generosity in sharing historical information is very much appreciated.

It was Betty who first drew my attention to the long forgotten and neglected roadside monument to Tommy O’Connell, former Officer Commander of the Carlow/Kildare Old I.R.A. Brigade who was killed in a road traffic accident near Maganey on 31^st August, 1924. I subsequently found the memorial which was hidden in an overgrown roadside ditch and regretfully, given most recent events, made it visible to passing traffic. Unfortunately the iron cross which formed part of the memorial was recently broken and removed by persons whom I suspect took it for its scrap metal value. The shameful act is a sad reflection on a generation which benefit from men such as Tommy O’Connell. The now lost memorial cross was presented by Mrs. Kearney of Carlow to the Carlow Brigade I.R.A. and was the subject of ‘Eye on the Past No. 600’.

Betty, who lives in Chanterlands has just celebrated her 90^th birthday. In extending good wishes to her I hope that Betty, whose name is synonymous with ‘The Gem’ in Duke Street, will continue to enjoy good health and many good years behind the counter.

Last week two men whom I admired and met over the years passed away. Much has been written of Albert Reynolds whose connection with Athy goes back to the early 1960s and Dreamland Ballroom on the Kilkenny Road. Neither Albert nor his English counterpart John Major got adequate credit for their part in the Northern Ireland peace process which resulted from initiatives taken by both men when they were heads of their respective governments.

Desmond O’Grady, a fine poet who also passed away, did not I feel receive the recognition he deserved. Both men made a huge contribution, one to political life, the other to the literary heritage of our country.

For the last nine years the local Heritage Centre has hosted the Shackleton Autumn School over the October Bank Holiday weekend. It has grown in status over the years, hosting as it does each year a gathering of overseas polar experts who bring to an Irish audience an unrivalled knowledge and experience of polar affairs. This year the weekend’s event will have lecturers from Norway, America and England and many overseas visitors will be arriving in Athy to take part in what has become Europe’s premier Antarctic event.

The mixture of lectures, exhibitions, drama and film has proved to be a winning formula. With the other local festivals such as the Bluegrass Festival, the Athy Waterways Festival and the Medieval Festival, the Shackleton weekend provides a welcome addition to the social and cultural life of the town.

This year on the opening Friday night the Shackleton Memorial Lecture will be given by Caroline Casey. Caroline is registered blind but despite this has packed more into her short life than many of us could hope to do in a lifetime. You may recall her journey across India on an elephant some years ago, a trip which got nationwide coverage on radio and TV. On her return from the Indian continent Caroline founded the Aisling Project now re-named Kanchi which works to facilitate the integration of persons with disabilities into the work force. From that she developed and presented on Irish TV the O² Ability Awards. Her achievements in the face of enormous difficulties have been recognised nationally and internationally, culminating in her appointment as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2006. She was the first and only Irish person appointed to that forum and further honours came courtesy of the National University of Ireland when she was awarded an honorary doctorate. Two years ago she received the Eisenhower Fellowship.

Earlier on Friday evening and prior to Caroline Casey’s talk, Alexandra Shackleton, granddaughter of Ernest Shackleton, will launch the book ‘The Shackleton Letters: Behind the Scenes of the Nimrod Expedition’, a book published by the Erskine Press of Norwich, England. The choice of Athy Heritage Centre to launch the book written by Regina Daly is quite an achievement for the Shackleton Autumn School. Unquestionably the launch confirms the growing importance of the Shackleton weekend within Antarctic exploration circles. The Shackleton School’s own publication, ‘Nimrod’ – Volume 3 will be on sale during and after that weekend. It includes some of the lectures given at the 2008 School and with previously issued volumes 1 and 2 provides a well ordered and comprehensive coverage of lectures in past years.

On Saturday 24^th October the lectures commence at 10.30 a.m. with a talk by Hans Kjell Larsen, a native of Norway on his fellow countryman and grandfather, the Antarctic pioneer Captain C.A. Larsen. This is followed at 12noon by Professor Andrew Lambert’s talk on the Franklin Expedition. That expedition remains to this day shrouded in mystery following the disappearance of it’s ships and all their crew in the Arctic.

Dr. David Wilson, the grand nephew of Dr. Edward Wilson who perished with Captain Scott’s Polar party, will give an illustrated talk on Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition. Dr. Russell Porter from Rhode Island College, U.S.A. will give the final talk on Saturday on the subject of the Franklin Expedition. Sunday morning will have particular interest for book lovers when Dr. Michael Rosove, a Professor of Medicine at the University of California and the author of several books on Antarctic history, gives his talk on ‘The Great Books of Shackletonia’. Dublin-born Marie Herbert who with her husband Wally spent years with the Inuit in Greenland will conclude the Sunday morning lectures and in the afternoon a selection of unusual and long forgotten early polar films will be shown in the Town Hall.

Sunday night sees the first performance in Athy of John MacKenna’s new play, ‘We Once Sang Like Other Men’. This prolific writer has produced a body of work including novels, short stories and plays which has been scarcely paralleled by any other modern Irish writer. Adding to his literary achievements is John’s continuing involvement as an actor and in his new play directed by Marion Brophy John plays the role of Peter the fisherman, in a modern re-telling of an age old tale. We had hoped to have the local writer’s new play as the first drama to be shown on the stage of the new Arts Centre in Woodstock Street, but unfortunately it’s not possible pending the completion of planned fitting out work. Instead the play will be staged in the Town Hall on Sunday night, 25^th October commencing at 9.00 p.m. The bus tour through ‘Shackleton country’ will conclude the weekend’s activities. Those wishing to travel should assemble at the Heritage Centre no later than 10.00 a.m. on the Bank Holiday Monday.

This year the exhibition to run in conjunction with the Autumn School tells the story of Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition. This was the first expedition led by the Kilkea-born explorer and it will feature several priceless artefacts from the 1907-1909 Expedition never before displayed in this country. The Scott Polar Institute of Cambridge has cooperated with the Heritage Centre in putting on this Exhibition. Some of the items on display will include equipment from that expedition, together with tins of food carried by the explorers as they traversed the Antarctic continent. Other items include Shackleton’s sledging flag and a copy of the route chart prepared for the search party which set out to find Captain Scott and his companions who perished on the later Terra Nova Expedition. There will be many more important artefacts on display, including a unique original copy of the book ‘Aurora Australis’ which was the very first book printed on the Antarctic Continent.

The help of Kildare County Council, Athy Town Council, Tegral, Athy Credit Union, Athy Chamber of Commerce and Diageo in supporting the Shackleton School is acknowledged. The continuing support of the local people of Athy and district is also welcomed and an invitation is extended to all our readers to attend the official opening of the Autumn School at 7pm on Friday, 23^rd October in Athy Heritage Centre. The wine reception that evening will be sponsored by the Carlton Abbey Hotel.

Last Sunday the sporting people of Kilmead, Booleigh, Narraghmore, Ballitore, Calverstown, Kilgowan, Brewel, Blackhall, Ballymount, Usk, Moone and Mullaghmast celebrated their local team’s highly popular success in the Kildare Senior Football Championship Final. St. Laurences, founded in 1957 had become Senior County Champions for the first time in the Club's 52 year old history.

On the same Sunday and in the same venue, St. Conleth’s Park, Newbridge, Athy’s minor footballers became Kildare Minor Champions for the second year in succession. Meanwhile back home in Athy that same Sunday afternoon yet another club, Woodstock Celts, still in its infancy as a club, won another match in its unstoppable march to securing a league and cup double in Division 2 of the Kildare District Football League.

Athy Gaelic Football Club, founded in 1887, played its first County Senior Final in 1923 when it got a drubbing at the hands (feet more appropriately) of Naas who scored two goals and 5 points to no score for the Athy men. Some of the names from that game bring back memories. Tom Moore and his brother John, Jim Clancy, Mickey Grant, Mick Mahon and Tom Forrestal of Castledermot. Twenty years ago I was privileged to interview Tom Forrestal who was then 92 years of age. He recalled for me many of the players who played for Athy in the 1923 final. Men such as Eddie ‘Sapper’ O’Neill, who later emigrated to America and captained the New York team which defeated All Ireland champions Kerry and Tom, otherwise known as ‘Golly’ Germaine. He told me that the then Club chairman presented each of the players with a medal inscribed with the name of the recipient. I wonder how many of those medals have survived?

Athy’s defeat in the 1923 Senior County Final was to be repeated in 1926 and 1927 before the mantle of Senior Champions finally came to rest on Athy shoulders in 1933. It was a success repeated the following year and again in 1937.

St. Laurences first footballing success came with the winning of the Minor Football Championship in 1974 when Athy were the defeated finalists. The Club’s first appearance in a County Senior Final was on 12^th September 1982 when Sarsfields, who had been defeated the previous year, gained the upper hand by two goals and 11 points to 4 points. Three further County Final defeats awaited the St. Laurences men before last Sunday’s victory. The 1992 final saw Clane run out winners, while Allenwood defeated the South Kildare men 12 years later. The following year St. Laurences suffered another disappointing Final defeat and the prospects for success in 2009 did not augur well after the team played three games in 15 days leading up to the County Final. Awaiting them were Moorefield, generally regarded as the best team in the County and heavily tipped to win.

The final score tells the tale. St. Laurences won convincingly and by a margin of 10 points brought the Dermot Bourke Cup to Narraghmore for the first time. It was a great victory for a great Club which in its short life has made extraordinary strides in developing a club structure which is the envy of the Lilywhite sporting world.

In contrast Woodstock Celts is a small club centered on the Woodstock area of Athy which plays its matches on a local pitch in the shadow of the nearby 14^th century castle. The enthusiasm of the local lads is matched by skill and a competitiveness which has secured for them victory in Division 2 Club Championship in their first year back in the Kildare District Football League. Last Sunday as the Athy Minors and the St. Laurences Seniors won their matches in St. Conleth’s Park, the Woodstock Celts team playing at home beat Allenwood Celtic on a score line of 5 goals to nil. This victory put them 6 points clear in the Division 2 League and well on their way to becoming League champions. Theirs is a remarkable feat which in the light of last Sunday’s victories in Newbridge is likely to be overlooked. Well done to Tommy Connell, Gary Foley, Michael Lawless, Patrick O’Brien, Robbie Donoher, Kieran Walsh, Ricky Moriarty, James Fennell, Dean Connell, Jonathan Fennell, Kirby Fennell, Mark Brennan, James Lammon, Brian Lawless, Kiwi Mulhall and Mick Doogue, all of whom make up the Woodstock Celts playing squad.

Athy Gaelic Football Club has struggled for success on the football field in recent years. Long gone are the halcyon days of the 1930s and 1940s when Athy figured in many County Senior Finals. Even success in the lower grades over the years eluded the sportsmen of Geraldine Park. Victory for the Athy Minors was achieved for the first time in 1936, repeated in 1937 and not again achieved until 1956. Ten years were to pass before the next Minor County Final victory and 1973 witnessed the last Minor championship for Athy until last year. 2008 was Athy Minor’s first championship final win for 35 years when the team, captained by Brian Kinahan, defeated a more fancied Sarsfield team.

Last Sunday before St. Laurences took to the field Athy Minors lined out against a fancied Naas side. At half time the Athy lads led Naas by 5 points to 2. At the end of full time the lead had been reduced to one point but the victory went to Athy for the second year in succession. Only twice before has Athy Gaelic Football Club won back to back victories in County Finals – the minors of 1936 and 1937 and the seniors of 1933 and 1934. Unfortunately, Club records for those years no longer exist but I would imagine that many of those who played for Athy Seniors in 1941 and 1942 were Minor players five years earlier. The Minors of 1933 and 1934 may have included Richard Donovan, Tom Wall, Michael Birney, Tadgh Brennan, John Rochford, Thomas Ryan, Joe Gibbons, Pat Mulhall, William Chanders and Dan O’Shaughnessy. We might never know if they did play on those Minor winning teams but what we do know is that in 2009 a team of young fellows brought the Minor title back to Geraldine Park for the second year in succession. Their names are worth recording, James Roycroft, Sean Ronan, Luke Thomas, Wesley Clare, David Hyland, Barry Purcell, David O’Toole, Liam McGovern, Kevin Feeley, Niall Kelly, Darroch Mulhall, Corey Moore, Tony Gibbons, Cian Reynolds and Keelan Bolger. The team manager is Joe Kinahan, assisted by Minor selectors Denis Sullivan and Ger Clancy.

The men of St. Laurences, the youngsters of Athy and the players of Woodstock Celts have achieved great sporting success within the past week. The Athy Minors victory is another addition to a chequered club history which with all clubs tends to be measured in terms of success on the playing field. For St. Laurences the 2009 Senior Championship represents a milestone which will forever be recalled, whatever the future holds for the Club. Well done to all concerned.

Her mother wore a poppy every Remembrance Sunday. She wore it around the house but seldom ventured outside the door that particular Sunday as she would ordinarily do every other day of the year. ‘Why do you wear that thing mother?’ her young daughter asked, her enquiry born of curiosity as much as a growing awareness of a young Free Stater’s dislike of emblems of a failed empire.

Some years were to pass before the mother explained to her daughter why she wore the poppy. ‘It’s to remember my young brother Michael – he was just 19 years of age when he died’. Michael Territt’s sister would continue to remember her long lost young brother, even as she grew into old age. For years she treasured the last poppy she was able to buy on the streets of Athy, keeping it for that one Sunday each year when with hundreds of other mothers and sisters her thoughts turned to a time when young men left Athy with high spirits never to return.

Michael Territt died of his wounds in Flanders on 22^nd June 1916, aged 19 years. He had enlisted in the Dublin Fusiliers the previous year, exchanging the Territt family home in Chapel Lane, Athy for the Military Barracks in Naas. He landed in Gallipoli in October 1915 and left the following January for Alexandria before travelling on to France. Wounded at Mailly Wood, Flanders on 20^th June 1916 he died two days later. Michael Territt is buried in Mailly – Maillet Communal Cemetery and the army records show that he was survived by his mother Mrs. M.A. Territt of Chapel Lane, Athy. There was no mention of his brothers or sisters.

The story of Michael Joseph Territt and his part in the first World War is the same story told and retold hundreds of times in every town and village in Ireland. The euphoria of war time exploits shorn of the depravity of death and mangled bodies was in itself sufficient encouragement for young Irish men to enlist after August 1914. The boredom of unemployment, coupled with the opportunity for travel overseas, was more than enough to encourage even the most reluctant to don the khaki and shoulder the much vaunted Lee Enfield. Much encouragement came from the local Church and civic leaders, who from a recruiting platform positioned under the Town Hall clock in Emily Square called on the young local men to join the ranks, ‘to fight the Hun’– ‘to fight for the cause of little Belgium’. The Parish Priest and the Chairman of the Urban District Council led the call for local recruits and the local men joined up in their hundreds. Those who enlisted were paraded to the local railway station behind the Leinster Street Fife and Drum Band, cheered on by the women folk of the town. The people of Athy it seemed shared a common mission, seldom if ever before matched or ever again equalled. There were a few disapproving voices, but only a very small minority who caught up in the Gaelic League Movement saw little reason to support the country which had denied Home Rule to the Irish people.

No one questioned the decision of the young men who volunteered to serve abroad following the declaration of war. No one questioned their motives and certainly no one questioned their allegiance to the country of their birth. The young men of Athy left these shores with the support and with the good wishes of those they left behind.

What happened while they were away fighting and dying in the mud of Flanders fields to turn that support into disapproval, culminating at the end of war into denial? When those young men who were fortunate to survive the war returned home after November 1918 they came back to a country which had experienced the Easter Rebellion of 1916. This was soon followed by the execution of its leaders and a shift in support for the emerging Sinn Fein organisation left the returning soldiers isolated and cut adrift from the public support they had previously enjoyed. As they returned to their homes having spent up to four years experiencing the horrors of war torn Europe these battle hardened young men found themselves, not as war heroes as they might have expected, but as an embarrassing reminder of an earlier failed parliamentary movement for Home Rule.

I remember as a young lad a number of local men who decades after the war were still suffering the effects of gas poisoning and other injuries sustained in France and Flanders. They were a forgotten generation, forgotten not just by local Church and civic leaders who had encouraged them to enlist, but also forgotten, indeed positively ignored, by a townspeople, some of whom actively, most however passively, had supported the drive for Irish independence. If the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War were difficult times for surviving Irish soldiers of World War I (some of whom were summarily executed), the post Independence period also brought its difficulties. The comradeship of war kept alive in British Legion halls throughout Ireland and by the annual Remembrance Sunday ceremonies held throughout the Free State in the 1920s disappeared soon after the election of the first Fianna Fáil government in 1932. De Valera’s nation building had no place of honour for the men of 1914-18.

It was a later generation, more tolerant and perhaps less prejudiced, which sought to recover for Irish history a past generation’s part in our common history. Twenty or so years ago it was inconceivable that any Irish person would wear a poppy in public on Remembrance Sunday or that any form of ceremony would be held in an Irish provincial town to commemorate the men who died in the First World War. But it did happen here in Athy and I am proud to say that I was part of a small group who publicly acknowledged the part that a past but forgotten generation of Athy men played in the ever developing history of Athy.

In St. Michael’s old Cemetery are the graves of six Athy soldiers who died at home during World War I. On next Sunday, 8^th November at 3.00 p.m., a short ceremony will take place in St. Michael’s cemetery to honour the memory of all those men from Athy and district who died in the Great War. Many of those men have no known grave. Others like Michael Territt lie in graves close to where they died in battle. Remembrance Sunday is the one day in the yearly calendar when we can show our respects for our town’s war dead. I hope you can join in the Remembrance ceremony in St. Michael’s next Sunday at 3.30 p.m.

Last week Johnny Timpson passed away after a long battle with illness. He attended the Christian Brothers Schools in St. John’s Lane where he excelled as a Latin scholar and was a fine footballer in his day. Johnny came from an old Athy family and like many of those families he too had members of his extended family who fought and died in World War I.

Like me, Johnny was born of a generation which was not decimated by war. Michael Territt and his generation bore the brunt of war and in return got little or no appreciation for what they and their families suffered. We can still make amends for that omission.

This past weekend Athy hosted a number of events, one of which brought us face to face with our distant past observed as never before by a mature and confident Irish people. The other event was in its own way a mark of our growing confidence as a nation and our belief in the importance of our native language. Remembering a lost generation destroyed during World War I on Remembrance Sunday in St. Michael’s Cemetery was in a sense recalling the town’s recent history as a ‘garrison town’. On the other hand the taking over by the Gaelscoil of the recently built school building at Rathstewart spoke of a growing confidence in the Irishness of a people living in what was once an Anglo Norman town.

Our native language has been on the retreat for centuries. Indeed here in this part of County Kildare Irish has not been the everyday language of the local people for more than 200 years. Various attempts to revive the language were made over the years. The Gaelic League established in Dublin in 1893 as Conradh na Gaeilge opened a branch in Athy, when exactly I cannot say, but a contemporary note records that the Athy branch was ‘revived’ in January 1919. This was at a time when the anglicisation of Ireland was at its height and everything Irish was being thrust aside in favour of English ways. It was also a time when the law discriminated against the Irish language. Padraig Pearse in his only appearance before the Courts unsuccessfully defended a carter who insisted in putting his name on his cart in Irish rather than in English. Here in Athy an Irish teacher based in the newly opened Technical School in Stanhope Street was convicted and fined at the Petty Sessions held in the Courthouse for signing his name in Irish.

Brigid Darby, National school teacher, who lived with her mother in Leinster Street, was Treasurer of the Gaelic League, the Secretary being James Kealy, while Michael Dooley, shopkeeper of Duke Street, was the League President. The latter was also Chairman of the local Sinn Fein Club and the Gaelic League and Sinn Fein would appear to have shared many of the same members. The League put on Irish classes in the evening and employed James Tierney of Woodstock Street for that purpose, but for whatever reason the League appears to have discontinued operating in Athy in and around December 1921. It was revived again sometime in the late 1940s by Kevin Meany and others, but like its predecessors seems to have run out of steam after a few uneventful years. A further revival of the Gaelic League in the 1950s involving the late Paddy Walsh, Kevin Meany and others, also petered out after a while.

It was the setting up of Athy’s Glór na nGael in 1994 which in time proved to be the most successful Irish organisation in the town. The initiative came from Kathleen Robinson during her term as President of the local Chamber of Commerce. She organised the first Seachtain na nGaeilge. The aim was to encourage local shopkeepers to make use of the Irish language for one week in the year during the course of their business. Advertising signs in Irish, coupled with the effort to speak in Irish, was the aim of the Chamber of Commerce sponsored Seachtain na nGaeilge over the following few years. It was people such as Peadar O’Murchú, the late Paddy Walsh, Maisie Candy, David Murphy, John Watchorn and Kathleen Robinson who over the years kept the language movement alive here in Athy. Glór na nGael set up the first Gaelscoil in Athy in December 2004, using Aontas Ógra’s premises adjoining the former Dreamland Ballroom to accommodate its first Junior Infants Class. 21 young boys and girls enrolled that first week and their teacher was Michael O’Cuinneagain. The following November Sinead Ni Nualláin from Graiguecullen in Carlow joined the teaching staff and today Sinead is Principal of the seven teacher Gaelscoil Atha Í. In November 2005 the Gaelscoil moved from the Aontas Ogra premises to the Athy Soccer Clubhouse at the Showgrounds. There the classes expanded each year and were housed in the Soccer Clubhouse which accommodated two classes and in four prefabricated buildings.

The inter-denominational and co-educational school now caters for 144 pupils, with seven teachers. They are Sinead Ni Nualláin, Treasa Ni Earchaí, Fiona Nic Seon, Gobnait Bhreathnach, Doireann Ni Raghnaigh, Eamonn O’Ceidigh and Sorcha ni Mhisteil. The Gaelscoil is part of the Gaelscoil movement which operates under the Department of Education but its teachers are not part of the panel system operated by the Department. This is to ensure that only Irish speaking teachers are employed within the Gaelscoil system. Pupils start at junior infant level and by the end of their second year in senior infants most will have a marked proficiency in the Irish language. All subjects with the exception of English are taught through Irish.

Last Saturday I joined my first grandchild Rachel on the school’s Open Day which coincided with the transfer of the Gaelscoil from the Athy Soccer Club premises to the purpose-built school in Rathstewart. The building, just one year old, had previously housed part of St. Patrick’s Boys National School which has now transferred to another new building on the same campus. The Gaelscoil children, as you can imagine, were excited viewing their new school and parents and teachers alike shared in the excitement of their new premises. I was delighted to meet Sinead Ni Nualláin, School Principal, whose father Seamus and her grandfather Jim, who was in his time a member of Carlow Urban District Council, encouraged the use of Irish and so Sinead from a young age developed a proficiency in the speaking of our native tongue.

It is one of the great regrets of my life that despite fourteen years of primary and secondary education I was never able to speak the Irish language, other than badly. I blame the system of Irish teaching in vogue during my years in the Christian Brothers School. It was a system imposed by departmental mandarins whose lack of appreciation of what was required to develop Irish as a spoken language was indefensible. I left the educational system, like so many of my peers, disliking the Irish language, the teaching of which was so unappealing and quite frankly downright depressing. If, like me, you would like to repair the damage of an inadequate schooling in our native tongue, note that the Gaelscoil will be holding Irish language classes every Monday evening in its new school at Rathstewart, with beginners’ classes at 7 p.m. and improver classes at 8.15 p.m.

Two launches during the past week have given us here in Athy a cultural fillip, just in time for the forthcoming Christmas season. I missed the launch of ‘Skin’ Kelly’s book, ‘Winner alright – Skinner alright’, but made amends the following day by buying the book. I began reading it that same evening and enjoyed it so much that I did not put it down until the last page was reached. It is a delightful book, easy to read and well written. A thoroughly enjoyable book, it is highly recommended.

The Photographic Society’s exhibition in the Wet Paint Gallery (which used to be Miss Dallon’s shop combined with part of the old Leinster Arms Hotel) is a fine example of the artistic qualities of some of Athy’s finest photographers. Many of the Society’s members are truly artists with cameras, with the ability to capture and reproduce images as good as any created by artists working in different mediums. The Exhibition, which continues for a few weeks, is well worth a visit. The Photographic Society’s annual calendar is also on sale and it again shows twelve examples of the Society’s members best photographic work in and around Athy. It will make a wonderful gift for Christmas, especially for Athy people living abroad.

With the help of a number of readers and especially Matt Perse, the Athy players, officials and supporters whose photograph appeared here some weeks ago have now been identified. For the record the photograph is reproduced again, with all the names. The team’s goalkeeper, who now lives in Kill, believes that the photograph was taken in 1958, possibly on the occasion of a quarter final match against Raheens which Athy lost narrowly. However, he has since had second thoughts as he felt that Brendan Kehoe played in that match, yet Brendan is not included in the photograph. Can any of my readers identify when and where the photograph was taken?

The photograph shows at the back from left Matt Murray, Tom Clandillon, Tony Taaffe, Eugene Deering, Mick Carolan, Joe Day, Hugh Moran, Joe McEvoy, John Sullivan, Sean Vernal, Tim O’Sullivan, Brendan McNulty, John Flood, Lazerian Kehoe, Harry Mulhall, Johnny Wynne, Noel Rochford and Derek Candy. In front from left are Anthony O’Sullivan, Ambrose McConville, Brendan Owens, Mick Dooley, Johnny Morrissey, Andy Smith, Danny Kavanagh and Terry Holligan. The two young boys are Matt Murray Junior and his brother Thomas.

I had a call recently from Denis Doyle of Letterkenny who worked for years in the tourism business in the northwest of the country. His father was Denis Doyle, a brother of Jim, Jackie, Joe and Pat Doyle, all members of an old Athy family. Denis married Kathleen Looney, daughter of John Looney of Woodstock Street, who survived the horrors of World War I in which he served as a stretcher bearer. Kathleen Looney worked as a dressmaker in Duke Street, while her brother Paddy married and lived in 16 Woodstock Street and another brother John emigrated to England. Her only sister Maisie married Joe Hanley, a Sergeant Major in the Irish Army, and they also lived in Woodstock Street for a time before moving to Dublin.

I would appreciate hearing from any of the readers of the column who know the Doyle or Looney families.

‘A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever’. I can’t recall who penned these words but they strike a chord with me given my interest in books and the printed word. Over the years I have discovered many great books and some not so good, but all of them nevertheless gave enjoyment, while sometimes proving useful and informative. Earlier this year while on a visit to a second-hand book shop in Charing Cross Road, London I came across the two volume set of Kitty O’Shea’s book, ‘Charles Stewart Parnell, his Love Story and Political Life’.

I first purchased a copy of these volumes in Greene’s bookshop in Clare Street, Dublin perhaps 35 years or so ago. I was working then in Baggot Street and Greene’s bookshop and Parsons book shop on Baggot Street Bridge where May O’Flaherty held court, were almost daily ports of call. Despite already having a copy of Kitty O’Shea’s book I decided to buy the set on sale at the Charing Cross Road book shop. The book was very reasonably priced and was a nice copy, despite some adoring mother having inscribed a dedication on the fly leaf.

Some months later a copy of the same book was for auction in England. The book was inscribed by Kitty O’Shea, using her married name Katherine Parnell and with it was a letter signed by Gladstone, the British Prime Minister addressed to Captain O’Shea M.P. I have always had a high regard for William Ewart Gladstone, the first British Prime Minister ever to take a considerate view to what the British call ‘The Irish Question’. He drew up the first Home Rule Bill and resigned in 1886 when many of his own party voted against the measure, thereby ensuring its defeat. One of the longest serving Westminster politicians, Gladstone finally resigned from politics in 1894 when he was 84 years of age. His espousal of the cause of Irish Home Rule was just one of the many causes which marked his as the greatest political career of the 19^thcentury.

Gladstone’s letter coupled with Kitty O’Shea’s inscribed book was the prize I succeeded in securing at the auction and some weeks later both items arrived in Athy. Katherine Parnell had inscribed Volume 1 of her book to ‘T.S. Curtis with kind regards’. Her writing looked familiar and I wondered where I had seen it before. I turned to the other recently acquired volumes of the same book and there in the same hand with obviously the same pen was the inscription ‘Norah, with dearest love from mother.’ It was Kitty O’Shea’s handwriting and she had signed the volumes published in 1914 to her daughter Norah. You can imagine my delight at such an unexpected find.

Kitty O’Shea married Charles Stewart Parnell just five months before he died in Brighton on 6^thOctober 1891. Their relationship which began soon after they met in 1880 resulted in the birth of three children, the first of whom died soon after birth, while the other two daughters of Parnell lived until 1909 and 1947 respectively. Both married and his daughter Clare had an only daughter who died in 1941. There is no surviving direct descendant of Parnell.

Norah, to whom Kitty O’Shea inscribed her book, was her second child by Captain O’Shea and was born seven years before Parnell met her mother. Norah continued to live with her mother Kitty following Parnell’s death and they moved house on several occasions over the years, always living on the South coast of England, before returning to Brighton.

The book, ‘Charles Stewart Parnell, his Love Story and Political Life’, was published in 1914 at a time when Katherine Parnell was in dire financial straits and is believed to have been edited by her son Gerard O’Shea. Reviewed by the National newspapers of the day the book was lambasted by many, although the London Times in its review gave an accurate resume of the book and commented that it gave a new insight into the Parnell O’Shea relationship which redeemed Captain O’Shea’s reputation from the previously made charge of connivance in his wife’s affair with Parnell.

The book sales allowed the impoverished Kitty to live in some comfort and shortly before she died in 1921 she moved to the seaside town of Littlehampton. Her daughter Norah who had by then moved to London as her mother’s health and wealth improved, now returned to Littlehampton. Katherine Parnell passed away on 5^thFebruary 1921, 30 years after the death of the Irish leader. In contrast to the huge funeral which Parnell was given in Dublin, his wife Kitty’s coffin was followed by only two horsedrawn carriages, one of which was empty as it passed slowly through the streets of Littlehampton to the local cemetery. Her grave is marked with a cross inscribed ‘To the beloved memory of Katherine, widow of Charles Stewart Parnell – born 30^th January 1845. Died 5^th February 1921, Fide et Amore.’

Kitty’s daughter Norah was penniless following her mother’s death and sought help from the Irish Parliamentarian T.P. O’Connor who got her a position as a nursery governess in a London hospital. She used the name Norah Woods, rather than O’Shea, because of the notoriety attached to her mother’s name which even so many years after Parnell’s death was still likely to lead to troublesome questions. Norah died aged 50 years on 16^th July 1923 and was buried next to her mother at Littlehampton. She left a box containing relics of her mother’s relationship with Parnell which in 1956 was passed to Sir Shane Leslie who eventually gave the contents to the Kilmainham Jail Museum in Dublin.

How the book inscribed by Kitty to her daughter Norah came to be in the second-hand bookshop in Charing Cross Road is a mystery. The happy coincidence of a book auction purchase of a book inscribed by Katherine Parnell allowed a book inscribed ‘To Norah from her mother’to be identified as written by the former Kitty O’Shea whose love for the Irish political leader Charles Stewart Parnell had far reaching and lasting consequences for the political destiny of the Irish people.

Your own opportunity to buy books of interest comes with the Lions Book Sale scheduled to take place in the premises next to the Emigrant Pub at Barrow Quay on Saturday and Sunday, 28^thand 29^th November. The premises have been kindly lent for the book sale by John Gallagher and books will be on sale on Saturday from 10a.m. to 6p.m. and on Sunday from 12noon to 5p.m. All proceeds go to local charities and donations of good clean books are very welcome. Books can be left into the offices of Taaffe & Co. at Edmund Rice Square, Athy up to and including Friday and into the book sale premises on either Saturday and Sunday.

The River Barrow had cut a channel through this part of the country long before there was any settlement here. It was the ability to travel by boat from the sea up the river which brought the first Anglo Normans to these parts. What was essentially a forested area soon became a medieval village located on the west bank of the river near to where the river was fordable at its shallowest point. The subsequent development of the village overcame many vicissitudes including war before it blossomed in more peaceful times as an incorporated borough and an important market town.

The River Barrow was an important element in that early development, offering as it did the only reliable channel of communication and transport to and from the south Kildare settlement. The arrival of the Grand Canal in 1791 brought great economic benefits to the town of Athy which by dint of its geographical location now found itself as one of the great centres of commerce on the transport route between Dublin and the southern ports of New Ross and Waterford. It was an advantage which depended on the continuing success of canal trade, which success was fortunately duplicated when the railway came to Athy in August 1846. The steam train became the popular carrier of passengers and freight, replacing the slower canal boat and again Athy was ideally positioned to take advantage of the new development in transport.

The early importance of the River Barrow was a matter of historical interest only as the 19^thand 20^th century passed. By then it no longer fulfilled any worthwhile role as a channel of transport but instead came into its own as a location for sporting activities. Rowing contests on the River Barrow were an important mid-19^th century activity and extensive newspaper reports of the time confirmed the river’s undisputed relevance in terms of the social life of the local townspeople. Thomas Rawson in compiling his Statistical Survey of County Kildare published by the Dublin Society in 1807 wrote that the Barrow ‘gave a great supply of salmon 20 or 30 being frequently caught at the bridge of Athy and all the Spring season when meat was scarce and dear, salmon could be had for three half pence and two pence a pound’.

The boating activities of a few decades later brought added attention to the River Barrow. The Athy Regatta which took place on the river on 15^th August 1856 was a revival of an earlier regatta which had lapsed some years previously. Amongst the prizes that day was a silver Challenge Cup on offer for the winners of a two oared boat race confined to Athy residents. A press report of the Regatta two years later noted that ‘the embankments presented a thronged and animated appearance.’ The following year Athy’s Regatta Ball was held in the local Town Hall where a string band entertained from 9.30 p.m., while ‘Mr. Doyle, Professor of Dancing, Baltinglass’ acted as Master of Ceremonies. The success of the local Regatta moved the editor of the Leinster Express to write in his paper of 30^thJuly 1859 ‘there is not in Ireland an inland town that can boast a more public spirit than Athy.’ What a wonderful compliment for a community just ten years after the Great Famine had weakened, if not destroyed, large elements of Irish community life.

The normally benign river passing silently and endlessly through the town sometimes show a different side of its nature. In the height of winter its banks are more often than not insufficient to hold the high volume of water which flows downstream. It is then that here in Athy we take notice of the river as its banks overflow and the river waters cascade across the town Square and further downstream envelops Lords Island and other low lying lands in a watery grave.

During the week I had to drive through Rathstewart and found the road at Lower St. Joseph’s Terrace submerged in water. Reading back on newspaper accounts of winter floods of the past, Rathstewart always figured prominently amongst the areas affected. Indeed until this year’s flooding of Corran Ard housing estate, flooding problems in Athy have in the past generally been confined to the Rathstewart area. Urban Councillors over the years have been faced with demands to take action in relation to flooding at Rathstewart, but in practical terms nothing could ever be done. When the Urban Council purchased two acres of land for £180 from the Sisters of Mercy in 1932 as a site on which to build houses to replace those condemned as part of the Slum Clearance Programme, the flood problems associated with the Rathstewart area were already well known. Messrs Duggan Brothers of Templemore built the St. Joseph Terrace houses using Athy brick and as can be seen today the foundation for the houses were raised above the level of the roadway and hopefully sufficiently high to escape the perennial winter floods which always affect the area. Nevertheless over the years since the houses were first occupied in January 1936 there have been many occasions where the locals have experienced enormous difficulties due to flooding on the River Barrow.

The last great flood in Athy was experienced in February 1990 when the River Barrow again burst its banks to leave the houses in St. Joseph’s Terrace cut off. At the same time the Courthouse in Emily Square presented a scene I had not previously witnessed as swans swam around the building. The River Barrow never allows us to forget its presence and usually takes the opportunity each winter to remind us of the care we must exercise in terms of maintaining flood plains and other natural forms of runoffs from Irish rivers.

During the week I came across a reference to ‘Shamrock Road’. It arose in 1902 at a time when the then Urban Council were attempting to secure lands at the rear of old St. Michael’s Cemetery as an extension to the overcrowded cemetery. The entrance to the lands identified as owned by Hollands was to be through St. Michaels or ‘if feasible, to be made from Shamrock Road.’ It would seem that ‘Shamrock Road’ was what we know as ‘Kildare Road’. Can anyone throw light on the subject? Finally I had a query during the week from an overseas reader regarding ‘Pipers Amusements’ which used to travel around Ireland 70 or so years ago. I have found one reference to ‘Pipers’ in an Urban Council minutes of a meeting in October 1933 when mention was made of ‘living vans’ (presumably caravans) in the Pound Field. Does anyone remember Pipers Amusements or indeed any of the other travelling shows or amusements which visited Athy over the years?

I am always delighted to be shown photographs of times past in South Kildare and am particularly pleased when given the opportunity of copying photographs such as that which appears with today’s article. Nowadays with modern gismos such as scanners and computers, photographs can be scanned in seconds, while someone as far away as Australia can download the results via computer email. Today’s photograph shows a happy group of bakery workers. They were employed in Bradbury’s Bakery which was established by Tom Bradbury in his Stanhope Street premises in 1938. Those photographed were confectioners and they produced the magnificent fancies and cakes for which Bradbury’s were famous throughout the length and breadth of Leinster.

The photograph which I am told was taken in the small back yard of the original Bradbury Bakery premises in Stanhope Street shows from the left at the rear Betty Whelan, Denis Prendergast, Nancy O’Rourke, Louise Harrington and Paddy Prendergast. In front from left are Mary Harrington and on the right Mary O’Rourke. The man in the centre of the front row has not been positively identified, some claiming it was Laurence Church, others believing it to be a Murphy from Offaly Street. Strange to relate that the photograph shows no less than three sets of siblings, the Prendergast brothers from Milltown, the Harrington sisters from Woodbine and the O’Rourke sisters from Stanhope Street. Betty Whelan was from the Carlow Road where her father who worked on the railway lived with his family in the railway crossing gate cottage.

Old photographs can be difficult to date and sometimes nearly impossible to identify in terms of location and those photographed. Even as I wrote the opening lines of this piece I began to have doubts as to the accuracy of the claims made in relation to the photograph being of Stanhope Street vintage, rather than of the later Leinster Street bakery to where Bradburys moved in 1950 or thereabouts. Paddy Prendergast I’m told was born in 1930 and he looks very much like a 20 or 21 year old in the photograph which would date it to 1950 or 1951. If either date is correct then undoubtedly the photograph was taken in the vicinity of the Leinster Street bakery. No doubt someone out there can solve the questions regarding the date and location of the photograph.

Recently I came across a reference to Henry Bettesworth Phillips impresario and owner of the Carl Rosa Opera Company who operated a piano and music business in Derry and Belfast for many years. He was born in Athy on 23^rdDecember 1866, the third child of Henry St. John Phillips and his wife Jane who were both members of the Church of Ireland. His father Henry was the local Station Master and his son’s birthplace was recorded in the local Church records as Athy Railway Station. The Great Western and Southern Railway had been extended to Athy and beyond just 20 years previously. Uniquely the Station Master with the double barrel name of St. John Phillips was described in the Birth Certificates of some of his ten children as a Station Master, Watchmaker and Jeweller. What connection, if any, had he with the St. John family who were jewellers and watchmakers in Athy?

The young Henry won a scholarship as a boy soloist in the Choir of the Church of Ireland Cathedral in Derry in 1877 and it was in that city that he finished his education. He soon became the head choir boy and on Christmas Eve 1881 he took the solo soprano role in a performance of the first part of Handel’s Messiah. A local newspaper described him as having ‘a voice of extraordinary sweetness’.

After leaving school he became apprenticed to a music business in Derry before setting up business on his own account in that city in 1891. Phillips Piano and Music Warehouse would remain an important part of the Derry business scene for many decades. In 1907 he opened a second music shop in Belfast just a short distance from the famous Ulster Hall. Henry promoted concerts in Belfast, Derry and Dublin and one of his first such ventures featured the visit Hallé Orchestra with Hans Richter. He also brought eminent soloists such as Kreisler, Clara Butt and John McCormack to the Belfast stage but perhaps the high point of his impresario career was the performance he promoted in Belfast in 1909 of the world’s greatest tenor Enrico Caruso.

Following the outbreak of World War 1 Henry Phillips founded an opera company which however ran into financial difficulties before being taken over by the well established and more famous Carl Rosa Company. A few years later Phillips gained control of the company which he ran until his death in 1950. He had moved to England in 1911 but kept on the Derry and Belfast shops, the latter however he sold at the end of the war.

Henry Phillips continued his concert promotion work after the War and in 1935 and 1936 achieved great success with a number of concerts put on in Derry given by John McCormack, violinist Fritz Kreisler and American singer Paul Robeson. The impresario and opera company owner Henry B. Phillips who first saw life in the Station Master’s house in Athy in 1866 passed away in London in 1950.

Michael Malone’s ‘Annals of Athy’ were published by Burrows of Cheltenham and London in the early 1930s. The date of publication is not stated on the booklet, which however carries a foreword by the author dated 4^thJuly 1931. It also carried advertisements for 15 businesses in the town and remarkably only one of those is still trading. Shaw & Sons proudly claimed that it was ‘Athy’s most popular shopping centre’, offering its services as ‘drapers, outfitting specialists, house furnishers, retailers of shoes and boots, sports outfits, jackets, tennis racquets, suitcases, fancy stationers and travel requisites.’

The local business advertisers who are no longer in the town included St. John, Jeweller, Purcell brothers of William Street, Jackson Bros. of 58 Leinster Street and F.J. Darling, Hairdressing Saloon of 28 Leinster Street. McHughs Pharmacy of the Medical Hall in Duke Street has changed hands and is now operated by Aileen Wynne, daughter of my school pal Ted Wynne and his wife Eileen. Duthie Larges Co. Ltd. was another large firm in the 1930s which has since gone out of business, the same with D. & J. Carbery Building Contractors. Murphys, General Drapers of Commercial House in Emily Square, established for over 60 years when the Annals appeared have gone from the local scene, as has Industrial Vehicles (Ireland) Limited and W.S. Cross, Plumber and Domestic Engineer of Duke Street.

At a time when there was little holiday travel the comings and goings of commercial travellers throughout provincial Ireland brought much needed business to local hotels. Malone’s ‘Annals of Athy’carries advertisements for four Athy hotels. The principal hotel was of course the Leinster Arms which had occupied the same site at the corner of Athy’s High Street, later Leinster Street, for upwards of 200 years. It was a ‘first class family and commercial’ establishment, ‘fully licensed’ and with a ‘free garage’. Perhaps less salubrious was the Central Hotel in Leinster Street owned by J. Hutchinson, who also carried on business as an electrical contractor from that address. The Central Hotel premises are now owned by Bradburys and I am reminded that several years ago an elderly lady wrote to me from Wales telling me of her connections with Athy. She had been born in the town to parents who owned and operated the Central Hotel. Following the death of her father her mother who was a member of the Church of Ireland married one of her employees, who as far as I can remember was a member of the unreformed Church. Ostracised by her co-religionists the young woman sold the Central Hotel and emigrated with her family to England. Her daughter who wrote to me has since died but she wrote a play based on the events surrounding her mother’s time in Athy and kindly sent a copy of the play to me. Her story is one I will return to again.

There were advertisements for four hotels in Malone’s ‘Annals’, the third being the Hibernian Hotel of Leinster Street operated by Mrs. Lawler. It offered ‘comfortable bedrooms, good cooking and attendance’ with ‘good accommodation for visitors and commercial gentlemen.’ This advertisement was shared with Michael Lawler who operated as a ‘family grocer, tea, wine and provisions merchant’ from the same premises. Now known as Murphys, the Hibernian Hotel’s location on Leinster Street at the corner of Meeting Lane close to the Railway Station was an attractive feature for commercial travellers who in the early 1930s crisscrossed the country by train.

The same advantage however could be claimed by the four hotels in the town as they were all located in Leinster Street. The fourth was the Railway Hotel owned by Thomas L. Flood, the former Irish Freedom Fighter who also carried on business as a family grocer, spirit and provisions merchant.

All four hotels advertised in the ‘Annals’ continued to operate for some years thereafter until one by one their numbers decreased to leave the Leinster Arms Hotel as the only hotel in the town. Occupying a prime position in the centre of the town it too eventually went the way of its competitors, closing its doors a few years ago to be replaced by the Clanard Court and the Carlton Abbey Hotels.

My attention was drawn to a notice in the Kildare Nationalist to an event in the former Railway Hotel in Leinster Street now owned by Margaret Kane and operated as Kane’s Public House. ‘Reeling in the Years’, a celebration of 35 years of Kane’s Public House, took place on Saturday 12^th December. Following the death of Tim Flood in October 1950 the Railway Hotel continued to be operated by the Flood family for a number of years but in and around 1961 it was leased to Malachy Corcoran who later sold on his interest to John Rowley. Margaret Kane from Nart near Swanns Cross in County Monaghan met and married Athy man Liam Kane who had served his time to the bar business in Molly O’Brien’s pub, ‘The Nags Head’. The young couple spent six years in Sydney Australia, returning to Liam’s home town where in 1974 they purchased the Flood family interest in the fine red brick premises on Leinster Street. Then operated solely as a pub by its lessee John Rowley, the young couple lived over the pub for three years before buying out the lease and took over the running of the former Railway Hotel which had been renamed the County Bar. Over the years Kane’s Pub has witnessed many changes in the town of Athy and many of those changes were captured on film and displayed on screen during Saturday’s ‘Reeling in the Years’.

One of the greatest changes to be noted is in the town’s commercial businesses, some of which have disappeared, while others have changed hands several times over the years. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the local public houses which over the last ten years have decreased in numbers so that today Athy has fewer public houses than it ever had in the past. The photograph which accompanies this article is one of many displayed in Kane’s public house and is believed to be of a local Vintners Association outing sometime in the mid or early 1960s. Can anyone identify the publican’s and their partners and the year in which the photograph was taken?

‘I hate to see the town go down’ sung by Dave Mallett is playing in the background as I sit down to write this week’s Eye on the Past. The blank sheet which faced me as I put pen to paper suddenly came to life with the very words ‘I hate to see this town go down’.

This town is Athy – the one time Anglo Norman village which over a period of 800 years or so grew to a sizeable town. During its long life it has witnessed good times and bad. Having survived several destructive wars it faced into the relative calm of mid 18^th century Ireland, seeking to claim its share of the prosperity which came with peace.

Its future as a thriving market town seemed assured when the Canal company extended the Grand Canal to Athy in 1791. This gave direct access to the great metropolis of Dublin, and courtesy of the navigable River Barrow, to the seaports of Waterford and New Ross. What more was needed to create the conditions necessary for the commercial and economic wellbeing of an Irish town? Surely Athy in the 1790s was on the cusp of a great drive forward which would bring prosperity to one and all. It was not to be for within just 7 years of the Canal opening murder and mayhem again raised their heads with the events of 1798, creating and maintaining for perhaps decades thereafter suspicion and unrest within the local community.

The opening of the railway line between Dublin and Carlow in August 1846 was the next great impetus for reviving and developing the commercial life of Athy. By all accounts the opportunity was seized on that occasion, not however without some criticism of the alleged failure of the Duke of Leinster (who effectively owned and controlled the town of Athy) in preventing the recently opened town jail and the Quarter Court sessions being transferred to the county town of Naas. Both were a huge loss to the south Kildare town, but that loss spurred and prompted the local business people to do something about reviving the town’s fortunes.

It was soon thereafter that Athy came to be recognised as the best market town in Leinster. Local businesses prospered and the town’s markets and fairs flourished. It was a commercial town where businesses were geared primarily to meet the needs of farmers within a 12 or 15 mile radius of Athy. Men living in the lanes and courtways of the town had little opportunity for fulltime employment. Industry was limited to the local brickyards, the malting works and the experimental peat works at Kilberry. The town’s success in the second half of the 19^th century was by and large enjoyed by the local shopkeepers, but at least the trickledown effect gave much needed employment to some of the local population. Unfortunately there was not enough work to go around, but viewed against the situation then prevailing in towns of similar size in Ireland of the day, Athy was doing well.

The modern industrialisation of Athy started with the I.V.I. Foundry in the 1920s and received a tremendous boost with the opening of the Asbestos Factory in 1936 and the Wallboard Factory in 1949. Only one of these factories now survives and even that survival is based on an extremely small workforce. In the meantime our local shops have been hit by the recession and more and more vacant shops are beginning to appear on the local streets.

What can we do to stop the slide? Is there in the long promised outer relief road something approaching the Canal and the railway in terms of its beneficial impact on the commercial life of the town? I believe so, indeed I am firmly of the belief that the commercial revival of Athy cannot succeed unless and until the outer relief road is in place. I am assured that funding for the road will be made available within the lifetime of the present government, if so the Town Council and local businesses should get together now and plan for the future redevelopment of the town centre.

Does our future lie in large scale shopping centres on the edge of town or in the development of independent retailing units in the town centre? Is there a need to look at the possibility of pedestrianising our main shopping streets to improve the town centre shopping experience? These are some of the questions which need to be addressed now by everyone concerned. Planning requires action today, not when the outer relief road is in place.

Blame Dave Mallett for this digression or maybe subconsciously I was influenced by my recent experience of city regeneration as practised by the city fathers of Gloucester. I was mightily impressed how the centre of that ancient city has been transformed into a shopping friendly area by a pedestrianisation scheme facilitated by sensible road traffic routing schemes. The outer relief road presents us with the same opportunity. Let’s hope those in charge and those with the opportunity to influence change can give us hope for reviving the town of Athy.

I recently came across some photographs of parades through the town featuring a number of businesses which are no longer trading. I use the word ‘parades’ in the plural as the photographs which at first sight seem to record one parade show the participants travelling and parading in the opposite direction, leading me to believe that two parades at least were captured on film.

The first parade featured tractor drawn floats advertising the Trailer Manufacturing and McCormick Agency of Glespen Brothers of Athy. Glespens operate from premises at Duke Street which I believe are now occupied by Pizza Pan.

John Farrell, Licensed Carrier, Athy with a Dublin depot at Mary Street had one of his lorries in the parade. John, who started business in Ballylinan, eventually passed it on to his son Freddie. Glespens and Farrell have long ceased business. Another exhibitor was Asbestos Cement Limited who are still in Athy but now operate under the name Tegral.

There is nothing to indicate the year the parade took place, or indeed the occasion. Was it perhaps a St. Patrick’s Day Parade sometime in the 1950s? I am showing a photograph from that parade of one of the Glespen Brothers floats as it climbed up Crom a Boo Bridge from the Leinster Street direction.

The second parade shows the participants approaching from the William Street direction and were photographed near Deegans premises of Duke Street. The shop has in the meantime changed hands, as have two of the participants photographed in the parade, Flemings Fireclays and D. & J. Carbery Ltd. Senior students from Scoil Mhuire also paraded, while a horse drawn brake had what appears to be actors in period dress advertising a forthcoming drama. The I.N.F. St. Patrick’s Branch Athy banner was carried behind an unnamed pipe band. The photograph I have chosen to show from this parade may hold the key to identifying the year it was held. The year 1853 appears on the banner held by the lone marcher in front, with further banners bearing the dates 1883 and 1933 following on. Was this parade held in 1953 as part of the An Tostal Festival?

Volume Two Issue Three of the Newsletter issued by the Friends of Athy Heritage Centre has an interesting article on Lord Furnival, the man who erected a fortress on the bridge of Athy in 1417. White’s Castle is the name given by generations of Athy folk to that building which was extended over 200 years ago. Copies of the journal which issues to Friends of the Heritage Centre can be picked up in the Centre located on the ground floor of the Town Hall. The Friends of the Heritage Centre was established to assist and support the Heritage Centre and particularly to help the expansion and improvement of its various exhibits. Membership costs €20.00 per year and brings with it free admission to the Centre and copies of the Friends quarterly journal. It would make a nice Christmas present for many people while at the same time providing much needed support for what is a worthwhile local amenity.

I’ve had enquiries from an Australian correspondent regarding ‘Skurt’ Doyle whom I have mentioned in previous articles. I gather ‘Skurt’ whose first name is not known to me married Mary Lawler of Ardreigh. Both are now deceased and I am told they had no children. I would like to hear from anyone who can give me any information about ‘Skurt’ Doyle.

This week I am showing two photographs of football teams from the 1960s. The first photograph is of the Rheban team which won the Jack Higgins Cup in 1967.

The second photograph is of an asbestos factory team wearing what I think are starlights jerseys. Am I right? If you can name the team members and the year I’d be delighted to hear from you.

‘Charity begins at home’. It’s an old saying familiar to all but uncertain as to its origin. Its relevance is questionable at times when disasters of so many different kinds affect peoples of far flung regions throughout the world. That is why a charitable organisation such as the Lions Club is so important. Lions International is reputed to be the largest charitable organisation in the world and here in Athy we have a Lions Club which has been providing help and assistance for a multitude of individuals and organisations for the past 43 years.

Athy Lions Club comprises men and women who give of their time, skills and experiences to raise money for local charities. On Sunday 28^th September the Lions Club will host its latest fundraising event with a cycle rally starting in Edmund Rice Square at 1.30 p.m. It’s intended to be a fun event with prizes for best fancy dress and all those participating will receive complimentary refreshments en route.

The cycle route will take in Levitstown and Kilkea, finishing in the People’s Park which is perhaps one of Athy’s finest hidden gems. Local firm Athy International Concentrates are sponsoring the event. The Coco Cola manufacturers are proven enthusiastic supporters of local community events such as this year’s cycle rally and the annual October Bank Holiday Shackleton Autumn School. Other sponsors include K. Leisure who have generously supplied a number of vouchers for the use of the facilities in the local leisure facilities at Woodstock and these will also be available to winners in the various fancy dress categories.

The interesting aspect of the Cycle Rally is that the funds collected are to be shared, one half between the local schools, with the balance going towards the cost of replacing and improving the children’s playground equipment in the People’s Park. I understand that the local schools have arranged for sponsorship cards to be handed out to pupils intending to participate in the rally so you may well be approached by your young neighbours for sponsorship. The Cycle Rally however is open to adults also and I am assured that some of the elderly and out of shape members of the Lions Club will be peddling as hard as everyone else on Sunday 28^th. Sponsorship cards are available in the Lions bookshop in Duke Street.

It promises to be a fun event to be enjoyed by young and old alike. All you need is a bicycle, a helmet (which I am told for safety reasons is now an essential piece of equipment on public roads) and most importantly some sponsorship. After all the whole purpose of the Cycle Rally is to raise funds for the local schools and for the refurbishment of the children’s playground equipment in the People’s Park.

Get out your bicycle clips – and maybe even fancy dress – and come to Edmund Rice Square on Sunday 28^th at 1.30 p.m. to join in the Lions Club Cycle Rally. It’s for a good cause and the exercise will do you an immeasurable amount of good. SEE YOU THERE.

In 1997 in my capacity as chairman of Athy Urban District Council I wrote to Mrs. Mae Vagts, formerly of Athy, but then living in America wishing her well on her 90^th birthday. She was born in Meeting Lane, a member of the Stafford family, and she later wrote to me with her memories of her father Edward leaving home to fight in World War 1 and of the telegram which was delivered to the Stafford home announcing his death. Mae was the eldest child of the Stafford family. Her father and his brother Thomas were both killed in the war and their names are recorded on the Stafford headstone in Old St. Michael’s Cemetery. May Vagts has since died but members of the extended Stafford family have arranged for a family remembrance mass to be held in our Parish Church on Wednesday, 24^th September at 9.15 a.m. for Edward Stafford who was killed at the Battle of Aisne on 24^th September 1914 and for his brother Thomas who died on 6^th September 1916. It will, I believe, be the first such mass to be held in Athy on the 100^th anniversary of the death of local men in the Great War.

Athy's Wheelchair Association

Athy's Parish Priests(1)

Athy's Parish Priests (2)

Ploughing Championship 1931

Kevin O'Toole / Aiden McHugh and Athy's Gymnastic Club

Photographs - Athy G.F.C. Senior Team Late 1950's / Kildare Seniors 1957

Betty O'Donnell - A 'Gem' of a Lady

Shackleton Autumn School 2009

St. Laurence's Senior Championship Winners / Athy G.F.C. Minor Championship Winners

World War I / Michael Territt / Johnny Timpson

Irish Language Organisations in Athy / Athy's New Gaelscoil

Names of Athy G.F.C. Senior Team, Doyle and Looney Families

Kitty O'Shea's Book 'Charles Stewart Parnell'

River Barrow and Athy's Boating Regattas

Photograph Bradbury's Bakery Staff / Henry Phillips Impresario

Article 10

'I hate to see the town go down' - Athy's economic slump

Photographs of Parades through Athy's Main Street

Photographs Rehban Team 1967 and Asbestos Factory Team

Athy Lions Club Cycle Rally