Athy Eye On The Past

Last week the Irish Times carried an article on the closure of Ardscoil Eanna in Crumlin, Dublin. Founded in 1939 by James Joseph O’Byrne, a former teacher in the Christian Brothers School in Athy, it was opened four years after the closure of Padraig Pearse’s St. Enda’s School. Indeed in an interview I had with Denis Langton in 2001 J.J. O’Byrne, as he was known in Athy, was described as a friend of the 1916 leader who was sent down the country to organise the Gaelic League.

J.J. O’Byrne’s was the son of an evicted tenant farmer from Valleymount, Co. Wicklow, who as a young man attended St. James’s School in Dublin before graduating with an arts degree from University College Dublin. He subsequently taught in St. Augustine’s School Waterford before taking up a teaching post in Athy’s secondary school in 1916. He was an active member of the Gaelic League in Athy as well as being a leading member of the local Sinn Fein Club. The first reference I found to J.J. O’Byrne in the local papers of the time was in the Nationalist and Leinster Times of 11^th May 1918 when it reported on his speech at a Sinn Fein meeting regarding difficulties experienced by local traders due to the shortage of silver coins. Apparently the war time shortage was so severe that the authorities had great difficulty in paying outdoor relief and old age pensions. A few weeks later J.J. O’Byrne was again a prominent speaker at a Sinn Fein meeting held in Emily Square to protest against the arrest of the Sinn Fein leaders. He addressed another Sinn Fein meeting in Stradbally towards the end of June 1918 where a fellow speaker was Dr. Higgins, father of Kevin Higgins, both of whom would in later years be killed.

On Thursday 15^th August 1918 J.J. O’Byrne read a statement in Emily Square as part of a nationwide event organised by the Sinn Fein movement. The statement, which issued after Sinn Fein’s success in the Cavan by-election, under the name of Michael O’Flanagan, Vice President and acting President of Sinn Fein, claimed that both sets of belligerent at the Versailles Peace Conference would have to support self determination for Ireland ‘which has at last emerged into the full sunlight of national consciousness and no power on earth can drive us back.’ The statement I believe was to have been read by P.P. Doyle of Woodstock Street but for whatever reason J.J. O’Byrne had to step in and ensure that the Sinn Fein plans for the day were fulfilled. Inevitably he was arrested the following day and while kept in custody was not tried for almost two weeks. The Athy Board of Guardians at its next meeting passed a vote of protest at O’Bryne’s arrest which all the members with the exception of the Chairman T.J. Whelan supported. Athy Urban District Council also condemned the British government ‘for arresting and imprisoning Irish men without charge’.

J.J. O’Byrne was one of seven men court martialled in Maryborough (Portlaoise) at the end of August 1918. The name on the charge sheet read ‘James John O’Byrne’ and the prisoner was reported to have failed to answer when asked if he was J.J. O’Byrne of Duke Street, Athy. After arguing that he was not handed the charge sheet O’Byrne refused to give his name or to recognise the Court. Sergeant Heffernan of the R.I.C. Athy gave evidence that on Thursday 15^th August at Emily Square he saw a group of approximately 200 men whom O’Byrne addressed. The Sergeant had a copy of O’Byrne’s statement, the reading of which he claimed lasted for approximately 15 minutes. He described the statement as the Sinn Fein manifesto. O’Byrne, he declared, was known as J.J. O’Byrne which was the name on the card in the house in Duke Street where he lived. Sergeant Heffernan knew O’Byrne for the previous two years to which O’Byrne replied, ‘my names is James Joseph, not James John.’ Convicted as charged O’Byrne was further remanded in custody and two weeks later was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment.

J.J. O’Byrne was married with four young children when he was imprisoned. He had married Esther Bates from East Wall, Dublin in 1910 having met her at a Gaelic League meeting. They would eventually have a family of 12 children, one of whom, their daughter Maureen, married Sean Moore of Rheban. The O’Byrne family lived for many years on a farm in Barrowhouse at a time when J.J. was teaching in Westland Row Christian Brothers School. The family left Athy in March 1937 and two years later J.J. opened Ardscoil Eanna in Crumlin. The school was founded on the principles of Pearse’s St. Enda’s School and one of the first teachers employed was Pearse’s sister Margaret.

J.J. O’Byrne died in January 1966 just four months after the death of his wife Esther. He was one of the many forgotten patriots whose involvement in the Gaelic League and Sinn Fein during the troubled years of the War of Independence made those of us who came after them proud of our town’s past.

It was Francis Bacon who claimed that ‘reading maketh a full man’. At the same time he advised us‘read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.’

Readers living in Athy in the early part of the 19^thcentury were reasonably well served in terms of reading material. In the 1830s Thomas French had a printing office in Market Square, Emily Square, and it was French who embarked on an ambitious scheme of publishing a literary magazine ‘The Athy Literary Magazine’ which first appeared on Tuesday 14^thNovember 1837. It was a small 8 page magazine costing one penny which appeared in the local shops every Tuesday. The last known edition of the magazine was that which came out on 17^th April 1838. The magazine was a mixture of local news coupled with extracts from Dickens Pickwick Papers and poetic contributions from local contributors. The Royal Irish Academy have copies of the first 18 issues of ‘The Athy Literary Magazine’ while a full set is I believe to be found in a university in Chicago.

During the period of the Great Famine, Athy had a book shop which was located in Duke Street. The 1846 edition of Slaters Directory gave the name John Lahee, described as a book seller so perhaps his was not a book shop as such but a retail business which included book sales.

Three years later Athy readers for a short period were to have two local newspapers, each published and printed in the South Kildare town. The Kildare and Wicklow Chronicle started by Frederick Kearney, who had previously worked on the Anglo Celt, first appeared on the streets on Saturday 17^th February 1849. The Leinster Express which was published in Maryborough (Portlaoise) and had enjoyed wide circulation in Athy, having advance notice of the new newspaper, brought out its own Athy based newspaper which they called ‘The Irish Eastern Counties Herald.’ It appeared on Tuesday 13^th February 1849. The editorials in the rival newspapers set the tone for an acrimonious if short lived struggle. Within three weeks the ‘Kildare and Wicklow Chronicle’ceased publication and in its next edition the ‘Irish Eastern Counties Herald’ claimed ‘the principal object for which the journal was established having been affected, many of our friends very reasonably concluded that upon the demise of the so called Kildare and Wicklow Chronicle its publication would cease. ‘The Irish Eastern Counties Herald’ ceased publication with its 5^th edition on 6^th March 1849.

In January 1852 Samuel Talbot, a member of the Talbot family of Maryborough who were proprietors of the Leinster Express and the short lived ‘Irish Eastern Counties Herald’, published another Athy based magazine, ‘The Press’. Intended as a monthly magazine consisting of 26 pages it sought to advance ‘science, literature and the industrial arts’. Unfortunately the first issue of ‘The Press’ was the only one to appear in the local shops.

As a reader and an avid book collector I have spent many spare hours in book shops. In my young days there was no book shop in Athy but in recent years ‘The Gem’ and ‘Winkles’have taken on the role of book selling. The social and cultural life of any provincial town is hugely enriched by the presence of a book shop and I am delighted to see that the Lions Club Book Shop on Duke Street is doing so well. This was started as a fundraising venture by the Lions Club approximately 5 years ago. The Club had traditionally organised a second hand book sale every year, extending over 2 or 3 days. It’s success prompted the setting up of a book shop staffed initially by members of Athy Lions Club. Because of work commitments the shop in its first year was opened on Saturdays only. I remember as I manned the book shop one day being approached by a woman offering to help in the shop. I did not know Alice Rowan at that stage. From Pairc Bhride she emigrated to England in 1966 and returned to Athy on retirement in 2007.

Alice has now been running the Lions Book Shop on a voluntary basis for the last 4 years and the original Saturday opening has now been extended to a 5 day opening. In recognition of her contribution to the running of the book shop the Lions Club some time ago conferred honorary Lions membership on Alice. This is the first occasion such an honour has been awarded.

The famous American book dealer Rosenbbach often claimed that ‘book collecting is the most exhilarating sport of all.’ It is certainly an entertaining and pleasurable hobby and within the confines of the Athy Lions Book Shop are to be found books catering for a wide diversity of tastes. Thanks to Alice Rowan and to the Shaw Group which gave the Lions Club use of a vacant premises in Duke Street where we now have a second hand book shop of which we can be justifiably proud.

The First World War and the Easter Rising of 1916 cast shadows which despite the passing of several generations have tended to obscure our understanding and appreciation of what enlisted soldiers and volunteers alike had to endure during and after those conflicts. Sometimes the men on the opposing sides were from the same family and many are the stories which have come down to us in the intervening years of a brother fighting in a British uniform on a battlefield in Flanders while a sibling as an Irish volunteer fought against Irish troops in the Irish capital.

Mary McMahon of Butler’s Lane had a similar story for me when I met her last week. It was her paternal and maternal grandfathers who were on opposing sides 100 years ago. Her mother’s father Edward Keegan was an Irish Volunteer who fought in the South Dublin Union, while her father’s father, Robert Gourley, enlisted in the British Army and was sent to France on 18^th July 1915.

Edward Keegan was an actor who performed in Synge’s ‘On Baile’s Strand’ on the Abbey Theatre’s opening night on 28^th December 1904. He was also player – member of the original Irish National Theatre Society. A member of the Gaelic League he was instrumental in the founding of St. Laurence O’Toole GAA club in October 1901 and was a founding member of St. Laurence O’Toole pipe band.

An active member of the Irish Volunteers he was a member of “C” Company 4^th Battalion Dublin Brigade. He fought in the South Dublin Union under Eamonn Ceannt and was engaged in repelling an attack by British troops when he was seriously injured on the evening of Easter Monday 24^thApril. Shot through the lung he was removed to hospital where he was treated under the care of Dr. W. Cremin. Detained in the Union hospital for four months he was later transferred to Beaumont Convalescent Home. By the time Keegan was discharged from hospital on 25^th August his employer had dismissed him. Prior to his engagement in the South Dublin Union he had been employed in the Advertising Department of the Irish Times and the then Unionist paper regarded his involvement in the Rising as disloyal to the crown.

Edward Keegan had a continuous history of ill health thereafter which curtailed his job opportunities until he was appointed in a temporary capacity in 1922 as a stock taker in the Department of Local Government. He was still employed in that temporary position 16 years later but after further deterioration in his health which resulted in extended sick leave his pay from the Department was stopped. Edward Keegan died on 20^thSeptember 1938 from bronchitis which was directly related to the lung wound he had incurred 22 years earlier. He was just 55 years old.

On the 25^th anniversary of the Easter Rising the Abbey Theatre authorities erected a plaque to commemorate the Abbey actors, playwrights and staff who had participated in the Rising. Regretfully Edward Keegan’s name was not included on that plaque, but the omission has now been corrected.

At the same time Robert Gourley, a native of Derry, had enlisted to fight in France. He survived the war and with his second wife and family lived over 51 Lower Sackville Street, now O’Connell Street, Dublin. He died ten years after Edward Keegan, aged 65 years. His son Alexander married Molly Keegan, daughter of the 1916 veteran, bringing together two families which history had put on opposing sides during the 1914/18 war.

Recently several generations of the Keegan and Gourley families of several generations came together in Wynn’s Hotel Dublin to celebrate the life of Edward Keegan as part of the 1916 commemorations. It was in Wynn’s Hotel on 11^thNovember 1913 that Eoin MacNeill and a small group first met to plan the rally held in Dublin’s Rotunda 12 days later at which the Irish Volunteer movement was formally founded.

The short life of Edward Keegan was celebrated by his descendants and the descendants of Robert Gourley and in honouring the 1916 Volunteer both families were acknowledging that loyalties of the past are in the Ireland of the 21^st century no longer divisive in a mature and all embracing nation. The Irish men and women of Easter 1916 and their British Army counterparts, whether soldiers in Flanders or Dublin, deserve to be remembered with honour. The Irish Times, which dismissed Edward Keegan for disloyalty in 1917, recently purchased his 1916 medal at a New York auction and that medal will soon go on public display in the Irish Times building. Attitudes have changed in the Irish Times and indeed they reflect the changing attitudes in today’s Irish society.

The death last week of Athy born Michael Keane, the last editor of the Sunday Press, at a relatively young age, is a tragic loss to Irish journalism. Michael who attended the local Christian Brothers School was part of that brilliant group of students who graduated in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was editor of the Sunday Press when the Press newspapers closed and was remembered by his colleagues as a brilliant journalist.

John McCormack was appointed principal of Ardscoil na Tríonóide in 2013. His appointment was one of huge importance in terms of the history of education in the town as John, or Johnny as he is generally known, is a past pupil of Athy Christian Brothers School which following an amalgamation with Scoil Mhuire has evolved as one of the largest educational campuses in South Kildare.

Born in Kilkenny in 1962 Johnny came to live in Athy nine years later and joined the 2^nd class in the St. John’s Lane School where Brother Murphy, the last in a long line of Christian Brother principals, was head teacher. Later on ascending the iron stairs to the secondary school classrooms he came under the tutelage of Bill Ryan, Mick Hannon and Brother Tobin. He finished his secondary education in 1981 and having graduated with a B.Com. from U.C.D. returned as a teacher to his old alma mater four years later.

Just a year before John returned to Athy the old Christian Brothers secondary school closed and reopened in new premises at Rathstewart. The move came 167 years after the Christian Brothers came to Athy on the invitation of the Archbishop of Dublin to provide schooling facilities for the young boys of St. Michael’s parish. A year earlier the Sisters of Mercy had opened their convent school here in Athy. The move to a new site in Rathstewart saw the Christian Brothers secondary school operating side by side with the Convent of Mercy secondary school, Scoil Mhuire. While there were some shared facilities the boys and girls schools operated under different school Boards of Management, separate principalships and under their own names, Scoil Eoin and Scoil Mhuire. Lay principals would later replace the previous principals who like their predecessors going back to the schools foundations had always been members of religious orders.

John McCormack was appointed vice principal of Scoil Eoin in 2002 following the retirement of Mick Hannon. Five years later Scoil Eoin and Scoil Mhuire amalgamated to become a co-educational school under the name Ardscoil na Tríonóide. The religious trusteeships under which Scoil Eoin and Scoil Mhuire had previously operated were replaced by a trusteeship under the name, Catholic Education Irish School Trust (C.E.I.S.T.). In 2012 John McCormack was appointed principal. He was the first past pupil of Athy C.B.S. School to assume that position.

Today Ardscoil na Tríonóide is a far bigger secondary school than that which my school pals and myself attended in the 1950s. Secondary education in those days was a facility which the vast majority of my primary schoolmates could not avail of. While the Christian Brothers sought a very small fee where they felt it could be paid and no fee if thought otherwise, family circumstances often dictated that the young boys had to leave school at 14 years of age and sometimes earlier. So it was that four small classrooms at the top of the iron stairs in the St. Johns Lane School provided sufficient accommodation for Athy’s Secondary School pupils up to more recent years. The school staff in the 1950s consisted of four teachers, two Christian Brothers, Brett and Keogh and two lay teachers, Bill Ryan and Michael O’Riordan.

It was not until Donagh O’Malley’s move to make secondary education more freely available that the secondary school scene started to change dramatically. Today Ardscoil na Tríonóide caters for upwards of 840 pupils with enrolment two years in advance. A maximum of 150 pupils can be catered for in each class year, a number which is even larger than the total secondary school population of the Christian Brothers School in my time. Another huge change is that approximately 95% of those who enrol in the first year of secondary school go on to sit their Leaving Certificate. In my time the dropout rate after 6^th class primary and 1^st year secondary was very high and just a few years before I sat my Leaving Certificate the Leaving Cert. class in the local Christian Brothers School consisted of just one pupil.

Today Ardscoil na Tríonóide has 53 teachers, with backup secretarial staff. The range of sports provided include basketball, rugby, soccer, equestrian and Gaelic games, with sports hall facilities not dreamed of in my St. John’s Lane school days.

The Catholic ethos of Ardscoil na Tríonóide reflects those of the community it serves but it is a passive inclusion in a school which is non denominational and respectful of the religious beliefs of others. Johnny McCormack, as a past pupil of the earlier Christian Brothers School, fosters and encourages his pupils to continue on to University. The fact that up to 90% of the school’s pupils continue on to third level education is a tribute to the quality of education provided in Ardscoil na Tríonóide and the educational philosophy pursued by Johnny McCormack and his team. The gateway to success in life is a good education and Ardscoil na Tríonóide combines the best traditions of my old secondary school and that of Scoil Mhuire to provide a first class educational environment for its pupils.

Last week I mentioned the sad death of journalist and last editor of the Sunday Press, Michael Keane. As I finish this article I have before me a copy of ‘The Greenhills Magazine’ published at Christmas 1964 by the pupils of the C.B.S. Athy. Its editor was Michael Keane who in his editorial expressed the hope that the magazine ‘will make you a little bit more proud of your school’. We were indeed proud of our school and proud of Michael’s achievement in Irish journalism and we can be justifiably proud of the wonderful educational facilities available in Ardscoil na Tríonóide provided under the guidance of Johnny McCormack who like the late Michael Keane is a past pupil of the C.B.S. here in Athy.

Kevin Barry was born in Dublin on the 20^th January 1902, the fourth child of Thomas Barry and his wife Mary Dowling both of whom were natives of County Carlow. In 1919 Kevin entered University College, Dublin as a medical student. Some years earlier he had joined the Irish Volunteers and was a member of the 1^st Battalion of the Dublin Brigade. As a Volunteer he took part in a number of actions by the Dublin Brigade aimed at securing arms and ammunition. One such action took place in Church Street, Dublin on the 20^th September 1920 when Irish Volunteers including Barry attacked a military lorry. Three British soldiers were killed that day and Kevin Barry became the first Volunteer to be captured in an armed attack since the Easter Rising in 1916. He was subsequently court martialled and sentenced to death on the 20^th October 1920. Kevin Barry was the first person tried and executed for a capital offence under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act which was passed earlier that same year. He was also the first Irish person to be executed since the executions carried out following the Easter Rebellion. Kevin Barry was hanged in Mountjoy Jail on the 1^st November 1920.

The British Army commander who headed up over 40,000 troops in Ireland in 1920 was confident as was the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, that the guerilla warfare which started in January 1919 would soon be ended. However, even with the reinforcements of the R.I.C. by the recruitment of ex-World War I soldiers commonly known as the Black and Tans and the setting up of a new auxiliary division of the R.I.C. law and order could not be restored in Ireland. While deValera was in America seeking support for the self proclaimed Government of the Irish Republic, young men such as Kevin Barry continued to be involved in the fight to achieve an independent Irish Republic.

The recent commemorations for the Easter Rising brought forward an enormous amount of claims, too many to be substantiated, of active involvement in the Rising. The numbers tended to indicate exaggerated claims of involvement. Even more exaggerated claims of involvement in the subsequent War of Independence have in the past been made and will undoubtedly resurface in the coming years. As to the actual participants in the guerilla warfare of post Easter rising Ireland, historians have estimated that it is unlikely that any more than 3,000 men and women were actively involved.

Just a week before Kevin Barry’s execution, Terence MacSwiney, the Mayor of Cork died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison. Four weeks later, fourteen British army personnel were assassinated by Michael Collins’s men and on the same day twelve civilians were killed in Croke Park in a retaliatory action by British soldiers.

The death sentence passed on Kevin Barry’s Court martial attracted world wide attention given that he was just eighteen years of age Eamon deValera, then in America spoke in New York at a large rally on the morning of Barry’s execution. His speech was recorded and later issued as a commercial record, copies of which were on sale in America that following month. Appeals for clemency for Kevin Barry went unheeded and the British Government headed by Lloyd George decided against a reprieve pointing out that the British soldiers killed in the Church Street raid were also very young men.

The Irish Weekly Independent of the 6^thNovember 1920 reported that Barry objected to being pinioned and blindfolded saying that as a soldier he was not afraid to die. Arthur Griffith wrote to his mother “your son has given his young life for Ireland and Ireland will cherish his memory forever”. He was buried within the walls of Mountjoy jail where four months later another young man his friend Frank Flood, was also buried. Kevin Barry’s sister later married “Bapty” Maher of Athy who was a member of the Irish Volunteers in the town. Frank Flood was a brother of Tom Flood who following the Treaty lived in Leinster Street, Athy. Another link with both Barry and Flood was made when Patrick Moran was also executed and buried in Mountjoy Jail. He had spent some years working as a bar man in Athy before leaving for Dublin where he took part in the Easter Rising.

A Kevin Barry exhibition put together by University College Dublin will be opened at Athy Heritage Centre on Tuesday, 12^th July at 7.30 p.m. The images displayed throughout the exhibition come from the University’s Digital Archive with text prepared by Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor of Modern Irish History in UCD. The newly elected Mayor of County Kildare, Councillor Ivan Keatley, will officially open the exhibition. All are welcome.

The recent launch of the Athy Tourist Boat “Freedom on the Water” drew a small crowd of spectators to the site of what was once Athy’s busy river harbour. The harbour was developed some years after the Grand Canal was extended to the south Kildare town in 1792 and after the filling in of the mill race which served the mill adjoining White’s Castle. ‘Rotten Row’ was the name given to the passageway which ran from the town end of Preston’s Gate at the side of the church located in the Market Square down towards the River Barrow. Just behind where the Courthouse is now located were to be found the saw pits where timbers brought to Athy by canal boat were cut and shaped to order. The contours of the river harbour where boats bringing freight from Dublin and the port of Waterford berthed are barely discernible today. The harbour walls are hidden by spoil dumped there in the 1920s during the Barrow drainage scheme.

The nearby public space once known as Market Square and later renamed after Emily, wife of the Duke of Leinster and mother of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, is a wonderful addition to the linear streetscape of the town which is a throwback to its Anglo Norman foundation. There is not a finer public space in any other town in the county of Kildare. The juxtaposition of Town Hall, Courthouse and White’s Castle gives a wonderful streetscape composition, with the Castle standing sentinel like over the late 18^th century Crom a Boo bridge.

The Tourist Boat represents another element in the Regeneration Plan recently announced for the town and hopefully it will complement other tourist related activities in the South Kildare area. Now that Kildare county is part of the Ireland’s Ancient East tourism programme the time is right for Athy to press its claims, as a town replete with history, to be an interesting place to visit. The Tourist boat offering trips on the River Barrow will complement the attraction of the Heritage Centre-Museum which coincidentally during the week received a huge boost with the award of full museum status. Interesting to note that the only two other museums to be similarly awarded this year were Fota House in Cork and the Louth County Museum in Dundalk.

The plans for extending the Museum will require the taking over of the entire Town Hall building to accommodate the revamped Shackleton exhibition. This will undoubtedly attract national and international interest which in conjunction with the Shackleton Autumn School will make Athy the most important venue for visitors and others alike interested in Shackleton and Polar exploration.

It has taken just over 30 years to get the Heritage Centre-Museum to the point where it achieved Museum status. Hopefully it won’t take as long to bring what I hope will be another and perhaps the final cog in the local tourist cycle to fruition. I mentioned earlier White’s Castle, that iconic building guarding the bridge of Athy. The bridge and the castle represent Athy not only in the town seal but also in the memory of anyone who was born or lived in the town. The Castle, once a Fitzgerald fortress, is in private ownership but because of its prominent position in the town centre should be in public ownership. My hope is that at some stage in the near future Kildare County Council will acquire White’s Castle and help it to be developed as a Fitzgerald museum to tell the story of the Earls of Kildare and the Dukes of Leinster. Athy would be an appropriate location for such a museum given that the town was always a Fitzgerald town which even now in the 21^st century recalls in its street names members of various generations of that family.

The development of Athy’s tourist potential should not be ignored. Two wonderful attractions, the Grand Canal and the River Barrow, have been underused and largely ignored for far too long. Now that we have the tourist boat in the local harbour and nearby the newly accredited museum surely we can look forward with some confidence to developing Athy as a worthy part of the Ireland’s Ancient East experience. Bookings for the boat can be made by phone on (087)433-5350 or log on to www.athyboattours.ie.

The Kevin Barry exhibition curated by University College Dublin will be officially opened in the Heritage Centre-Museum tonight Tuesday at 7.30 p.m. In last week’s Eye on the Past I mentioned the various links Ireland’s best remembered patriot had with Athy and the exhibition will give a unique opportunity to learn more of the young man whose execution in Mountjoy Jail gave us the most famous Irish rebel ballad of this or any other era. The Mayor of County Kildare, Councillor Ivan Keatley, will officially open the exhibition. All are welcome to attend.

Danny Kane and Mary Fleming came from a similar rural background in South Kildare. Danny was from Oldgrange, while Mary was from the nearby townland of Fontstown. In age they were a generation apart but both passed away within weeks of each other. Mary was an extremely devout person whose commitment to her church never waivered, while Danny’s work ethic was an essential part of his approach to life.

Mary left Ireland as a young girl in 1937 at the height of the economic war. She would spend the next 67 years of her life in England where she qualified as a nurse and midwife. Even in retirement she continued working as a health visitor in Northampton, near to the home place of the great English poet John Clare. She was however never lost to Ireland or to the extended Fleming family and she returned to Athy 12 years ago. Here in Athy she renewed her commitment to the local parish in the same way as she had committed herself as a volunteer in her UK parish over many years.

Danny Kane, who was one of the most agreeable persons one could meet, left school like so many of his peers at an early age. His lack of formal education did not in any way impinge on his ability to relate to people and he enjoyed an excellent relationship with everyone as he passed through life. While working on local farms at an early age he developed an extraordinary work ethic which he maintained all his life.

In or about 1971 Danny purchased a small grocery shop at 32 Woodstock Street. I am told that the enterprising young man from Oldgrange found that the mortgage repayments exceeded his income and so with friends Syl Bell and Eddie Ryan he purchased a chip van. Travelling to various functions in the area selling chips proved profitable and prompted Danny to open a chipper in part of the existing grocery shop in Woodstock Street. In time Danny gave over the entire premises to the fish and chip business and it flourished while Danny was the proprietor before selling it on in 1998.

Legion are the stories I have heard of Danny’s thoughtfulness and generosity during his time as the shop proprietor in Woodstock Street. It was the same spirit and thoughtfulness which saw him working later in his life as a volunteer driver for the Cancer Society. After retiring from the business he had built up over 26 years Danny worked for a time as a driver for his brother-in-law Fergal Blanchfield. This was followed by a spell as a driver with local hardware firm Griffin Hawe Ltd. and later as a taxi driver for Vals Cabs and Ernest O’Rourke-Glynn.

Sadly in more recent years Danny was troubled by a heart complaint brought on unquestionably by a life of hard work and long hours. He was scheduled to have heart surgery for some time past but health cutbacks caused the operation to be postponed several times. When at last the call came it was via a text message while Danny was attending 12 mass at St. Michael’s Parish Church. He was admitted to St. James’s Hospital the following morning but tragically following a 14 hour operation died shortly after being transferred to the intensive care unit.

Danny is survived by his wife Fidelma who on their marriage in 1972 brought together two families, Kanes and Blanchfields, who are long associated with this part of the county of Kildare. Fidelma and their 8 adult children have lost a wonderful caring husband and father and a man for whom the local community came out in their hundreds to honour on the occasion of his funeral.

The contrasting lifestyles of both Danny Kane and Mary Fleming, both from rural backgrounds, were founded on commitment, one to the church, the other to the family. Mary, who remained single throughout her whole life, found contentment and purpose in the Catholic Church and in her later years on returning to Ireland found great happiness with the extended family members, young and old, with whom she spent her final days. Danny found great happiness in his family life and the life stories of Danny and Mary while different in so many ways show that their passages through life were marked by dedicated commitment to life’s true values. Our sympathies go to the families and friends of Mary Fleming and Danny Kane.

Our former Dominican Church has been in the news recently. Under the front page banner headline “For Whom Will The Bell Toll”, this newspaper recounted the story of Kildare County Council’s efforts to restore the church bell which the Dominican Fathers had removed some months ago. They did so in the expectation that the bell would find a home in another church and continue to be used to summon worshipers to church services. It was not to be. What one Council official described as ‘an important part of our heritage’ had to be returned to the belfry from which it was removed.

The bell was cast by M. Byrne of Fountain Head Foundry, James’s Street, Dublin and his name also appears on the rotary mountings from which the bell hung. The bell was inscribed ‘Presented to the Dominican Church, Bridgeview, Athy – Rosary Confraternity and other kind friends A.D. 1898.’ The account books of Athy’s Dominican Priory, which are held in the Dominican archives in Tallaght, indicate that the bell weighing 21cwt was brought to Athy from the foundry in Dublin by canal boat. It was blessed in July 1898 and christened by the local Dominicans as ‘Dominick’.

The Kildare Nationalist in the same issue which reported the supposed tug of war over the church bell carried an advertisement concerning Kildare County Council’s proposed conversion of St. Dominic’s Church to a public library. The public are asked to submit comments or observations on the proposed development to the County Librarian before 4p.m. on Monday 19^th September. The proposed change of use will undoubtedly be welcomed locally, even if some may quibble over the Council’s failure/refusal to countenance the occasional use of the building for the holding of concerts. I believe this was the original suggestion made in the expectation that modern mobile library furniture would allow such usage, with little inconvenience or difficulty. It’s a pity the idea was not followed through as the Dominican Church has proved over the years to be a wonderful venue for the occasional concerts which were held there. Would it be possible, I wonder, for the County Council to revise its plans for the former church to allow its usage as a library as well as an occasional concert venue?

While the Dominican Church was in the course of construction the members of Athy Urban District Council at its meeting in June 1964 decided to honour the Dominican Order. Tom Carbery in proposing that the new 42 house scheme off Woodstock Street be named ‘St. Dominic’s Park’ said that it was a fitting way of showing the public’s appreciation of and gratitude for the great work of the Dominican fathers over the previous 700 years. Joe Deegan in seconding the motion said the church under construction was the wonder and admiration of people not only in different parts of Ireland but in other countries as well. M.G. Nolan and the Councils Chairman Michael Cunningham also spoke in favour of the motion as did Jim Fleming who however asked that the Council’s next housing scheme be named after the late Deputy William Norton ‘in recognition of the outstanding work he has done for the working classes.’

Reading press reports in the aftermath of the opening of the church in March 1965 I am not at all sure if we locals fully appreciated how important the church was in terms of its architectural style. Headlined as a church of the 21^st century it attracted thousands of visitors in the months after its dedication. The church was designed by 39 year old French born architect Adrien Pache who incorporated a number of Continental ideas into his design. Speaking at a news conference while the church was still in the course of construction he said ‘the Church will be the first of its kind in Ireland. Nothing like it has been attempted before and the fact that it is completely different in design to all other Irish churches makes it somewhat revolutionary.’

The modern design of the Dominican Church would no doubt have found favour with James Johnson who writing from 1055 Manhattan Ave., Brooklyn following the opening of Athy’s Parish Church in 1964 claimed that the dedication of the Parish Church pointed to a regrettable and avoidable failure to join the movement towards contemporary forms in ecclesiastical architecture. He regarded the Lombardy style of St. Michael’s Church as a tragic anachronism.

Unlike the Parish Church the former Dominican Church, soon to be the town library, is truly a magnificent example of contemporary architecture. It will make a first class library, with or without the ancient church bell but imagine what a huge additional contribution it could make to the cultural and musical heritage of the town if its use for occasional concerts was also allowed.

August 3^rd marks the 100^th anniversary of the execution of Roger Casement in Pentonville Prison, England. As a student many years ago in the Kings Inns I passed every day on my way into lectures John Lavery’s monumental painting of Casement’s appeal hearing in the Court of Criminal Appeal. Lavery attended the hearing on the 17^thand 18^th of July 1916 on the invitation of the Presiding Judge, Mr. Justice Darling and being one of the foremost portrait painters of his time produced a stunning painting of the court scene. Lavery, who died in 1941, gifted the painting to the National Portrait Gallery in London but when that august body declined to accept the gift it passed after a number of years to the Kings Inns in Dublin.

The painting shows Casement’s defence counsel, A.M. Sullivan, himself an Irishman, addressing the five red robed Judges who presided at the appeal hearing. Sullivan, who made a fine closing speech on behalf of Casement, was censored by the Kings Inns benchers when he revealed in 1956 a professional confidence told to him by his client Casement during the trial. This was an admission by Casement that he was a homosexual. That same issue had caused much controversy following the publication of Brian Inglis’s biography of Casement in 1973 in which Inglis pronounced himself satisfied that the Casement diaries which referenced his homosexual activities were not forgeries put together by the British authorities to resist public pressure to save Casement from the gallows. Undoubtedly the indefensible use of Casement’s diaries to prejudice his appeal was inexcusable and reflects badly on the British establishment of the time. Now on the centenary of his death it is expected that all of the files held by the British Authorities relating to Casement will be made available for examination by historians.

The Casement ‘Black Diaries’,as they have come to be described, were for many years the subject of controversy with the late Dr. Herbert Mackey publishing several books alleging they were forgeries. Interestingly his brother Frank in a letter to the Irish Independent in June 1973 wrote ‘about a week after Casement’s remains were interned in Glasnevin President De Valera invited my late brother Herbert and his wife to lunch at Aras An Uachtarian. In the course of lunch he informed my brother that he need not expect any help whatsoever from the Irish Government in his efforts to recover the Casement Diaries from the British Government.’ The message was clear.

In September 2001 Roisin McAuley in a letter to the Irish Times wrote ‘Eight years ago for the BBC series “Document” I investigated the charge of forgery against the British government in relation to the “Black Diaries” of Roger Casement ….. having started with an open mind I found compelling circumstantial evidence of forgery and began to believe the forgery theory ….. however, after an examination by a forensic expert there was no doubt in our minds that the diaries were genuine.’

In conclusion she claimed ‘surely the point to be made about Roger Casement is that he belongs to all of us. The debate about the diaries kept him too long anchored to the Republican cause. He is still a Republican hero. But he couldn’t have been Sir Roger Casement, humanitarian hero, if he hadn’t believed in an enlightened role for the British empire. He wouldn’t have been Roger Casement, Republican hero, if he hadn’t seen the oppression by that Empire abroad. And if he hadn’t been homosexual, knowing what it was like to feel oppressed and marginalised, he might not have been a hero to anyone.’

Roger Casement played an important if somewhat peripheral role in the Easter Rising of 1916. For that his place in Irish history is secure as indeed is he in his role as a humanitarian for his work as a British civil servant in the Putumayo Peru in 1910/1911. His personal life is of little relevance, even though his biographers over the years have sometimes thought otherwise.

Some weeks ago I wrote of the attempt by Irish Volunteers from County Laois to disable the rail link between Carlow and Athy on the eve of the Easter Rising in Dublin. The men involved, Eamon Fleming, Michael Grey and Michael Walsh travelled to Athy and cut down a telegraph pole which they laid across the railway track to prevent troops travelling to Dublin. A subsequent statement from Eamon Fleming located the action at Maganey, while a contemporary press report referred to a local man named Nolan from Ardreigh who came across the incident and reported it to a nearby signal box attendant. I am trying to pinpoint whether the Irish Volunteers activity took place as claimed at Maganey or nearby Ardreigh.

Was there a signal box in Maganey station in 1916? If not given Nolan’s address as Ardreigh it is likely that the Volunteers attempted to block the track at Ardreigh. Anyone with any thoughts on the matter might contact me or indeed anyone in Ardreigh or Maganey who might have heard where the Volunteers operated that Sunday morning.

Kildare County Council has recently embarked on a survey of memorials, plaques and signs throughout the County of Kildare. They are part of our cultural heritage, marking as they do people of the past, historic events or heritage landmarks of town and countryside. This is the first attempt to collect this information and when the project is completed it is intended to make its results available to the general public. In turn the public’s help in identifying and recording local memorials, plaques and signs is sought.

The Heritage Officer of Kildare County Council has prepared guidelines for the survey. While advising that graveyard memorials are not included almost every other form of commemorative memorial or plaque is deemed worthy of recording. Even what the guidelines describe as ‘significant street names and laneways’are to be included. Interestingly bench marks, armorial plaques and mile markers also come within the ambit of the survey. The Council’s Heritage Officer Bridget Loughlin who is overseeing the survey would like to get the following information. The memorial/plaque name, where it is located, a brief description with any background information and a photograph, although I suspect the latter while helpful is not essential.

In recent years probably more plaques have gone up in or around Athy than in any other time in the past. Nelson Street has a plaque to Johnny Lynch, musician, while the Dominicans are honoured with a plaque on the entrance wall to the former Dominican Church. The Christian Brothers are remembered with a handsome memorial in Edmund Rice Square, while the Sisters of Mercy have the riverside car park opposite the Parish Church dedicated to their Order.

Until recent years the Town Hall had a large plaque commemorating the founding of Macra na Feirme and its founder Stephen Cullinane but it was removed when the Macra monument was unveiled by President Robinson some years ago. I wonder where that plaque is today? The impressive Town Hall has in more recent years received plaques honouring the local men who fought in the 1914-18 war, as well as a plaque honouring Ernest Shackleton, the polar explorer. This year as part of the centenary commemorations of the 1916 Rising a plaque was affixed to the west wall of the Town Hall.

A few years ago the Enterprise Centre arranged for tourist plaques to be placed on the more important buildings in the town. Whites Castle, Canal Harbour, Crom a Boo Bridge, St. Michael’s Church of Ireland church, Methodist church, St. Vincent’s Hospital are but some of the buildings highlighted in this way.

Bench marks will be seldom recognised but offhand I can recall bench marks on the Town Hall, Crom a Boo Bridge and St. Vincent’s Hospital. There are a few more around the town awaiting to be identified. Memorials are less scarce and in the main square of the town we have the water fountain presented to the people of Athy by the Duke of Leinster. Just behind it is the more recently unveiled memorial to the men and women from the locality who in 1798 sought religious and civil liberty.

Would the stone archway taken from the ruins of the cavalry barracks in Barrack Lane and reassembled in Woodstock Street come within the definition of a memorial? I would think so, as undoubtedly will the superb canal lock gate which adorns the roundabout on the Dublin Road. The various pieces of sculpture provided by Kildare County Council under the percentage scheme for major capital projects must also be included in this survey. Examples are to be found at the Flinters Field site, at Butlers Row and the Fairgreen housing site.

What the Council refers to as ‘significant street names’ may pose problems when it comes to their inclusion or exclusion from the survey. I cannot imagine that any one street name is any less or more significant than another. Our principal street names commemorate members of the Duke of Leinster’s family, while many of the laneways bear the names of long forgotten property owners. The building boom of the Celtic years which came somewhat later to Athy than elsewhere resulted in the creation of a lot of housing estates with names which do not resonate historically or otherwise with the ancient town on the River Barrow.

If you can help the County Council in its countywide survey of memorials, plaques and signs do contact Bridget Loughlin, Heritage Office at the Council Offices, Naas, ph. (045) 980791 or email Bloughlin@kildarecoco.ie.

Another project recently initiated by Kildare County Council is a building survey of the county which seeks to identify buildings of historical interest or architectural merit. Athy has a wealth of such buildings and indeed in the opinion of many is the most interesting town in the county of Kildare in terms of its layout and architecture. If you are contacted by the team involved in the building survey do give them every help in identifying and recording the building which may be your home or your business address. It is purely an architectural survey and is in no way connected with property tax, rating systems or anything that is detrimental to your interests. Your cooperation with the survey team would be much appreciated and will undoubtedly be reflected in the quality of the survey teams final report.

I have had a lifelong fascination with reference books. From an early age these compendiums of facts and figures fascinated me. Haydn’s Dictionary of dates was one such book and although last published in the late 19^thCentury it was commonly available in many public and school libraries in the 1950’s. The dictionary had particularly grandiose titles. The 1881 edition enjoyed the title “Haydn’s dictionary of dates and useful information relating to all ages and nations containing the history of the world to the Autumn of 1881”. Not many publications would make such claims today!

As a young historian first dabbling in history of his hometown, books such as Michael Kavanagh’s Bibliography of County Kildare were an invaluable resource as I worked my way through the records in the National Library in Dublin in the early 1970’s. When I first began working on Athy’s history the immediate difficulty I faced was trying to identify where I could extract information relevant to this history of the town. Michael Kavanagh’s book was a great starting point as it identified all publications in both books or periodicals relating to the County of Kildare and thanks to Michael’s meticulous research I was able to extract much information on the town.

For an amateur researcher such as myself there was quite a great deal of trial and error, sometimes chasing a reference down a blind alleyway, but invariable there was always the joy of finding some nugget of information long forgotten about the town. I can recall long hours in the reading room of the National Library hunched over the microfiche readers while I carefully read through old issues of the Nationalist!

What I didn’t truly appreciate and only really did when my family and I moved to Athy in 1982 was that much information still remained within the living memory of the inhabitants of the town. Sometimes there was a story retold from father to son or perhaps a document preserved carefully in the family’s possession but all this information has gradually informed my writings and research into the town’s history over the last 40 years.

There is no doubt that the advent of the internet has allowed local history studies to blossom in a way that I could not have foreseen more than 40 years ago. The modern researcher can access census records, valuation office records, army records at the touch of a button. The recent release from the military archives of the records of those who served in the War of Independence has been an absolute boon, not only for professional historians, but for the families who now have a greater sense of what their grandparents and great grandparents did more than a century ago.

At the same time this commitment to the digitisation of our records has its downside. The accessibility of the internet also makes it very ephemeral. How many of us have gone on holidays with a digital camera, taken a multitude of photographs and have yet to print one off? How often have we viewed a picture in a family album of relations long dead and now unknown to us for the sake of a label? This is something we must bear in mind for future generations. I am aware that the National Library has a policy of “harvesting” websites to be stored digitally but like all technology time overtakes it and there is always a fear that the technology of today will not be recognised by the technology of tomorrow and these records may no longer be accessible to us.

With the introduction of the e-book many years ago, we were led to believe that it sounded the death knell for the printed book, but I am confident that the dictionaries, anthologies, bibliographies and encyclopaedias which grace my shelves and punctuate my research will assist me in many years to come.

Few communities are as fortunate as we are in having a full time museum in our town which has been assiduous over the last 20 years in collecting and recording the town’s historical development. It is something that is very easy to take for granted but it is important that we continue to support the museum. I am often surprised that the first time many of our towns inhabitants cross the threshold of the museum is when they are showing it to a friend or relation from abroad. It is an important resource that we must not neglect and I would encourage both young and old to use the museum as often as possible. The museum’s latest exhibition “By Endurance We Conquer – Shackleton’s Men” will be opened at 2.30pm on the 30^thof August next, just after the unveiling of the statue of Ernest Shackleton at Emily Square, Athy. All are welcome to attend.

During the week I received a query relating to Mark Hill from County Clare, a Christian Brother whose teaching career ran from the late 1860s to 1919 when he died. His name was not familiar to me and so I referred to the Annals of the local Christian Brothers monastery which I was allowed to copy some years ago. The Annals provide useful, if somewhat sporadic details relating to the affairs of the Christian Brothers in Athy. Unfortunately for extended periods the designated annalist failed to keep the record up to date but nevertheless what remains is helpful for an understanding of what happened in the Christian Brothers schools in Athy from 1861.

An entry in the Annals for 1863 noted that at the beginning of the year Michael Lawler ‘who showed himself a warm friend from the commencement’ offered to pay for the gas consumed in the Brother’s Monastery and to continue doing so during his lifetime. It was a commitment Michael Lawler, by then a Justice of the Peace, renewed on 5^th November 1885.

Another generous benefactor was Patrick Maher of Kilrush, whose daughter was for a time Superioress of the local Convent of Mercy. He donated the sum of £400 to help finance the building of the school rooms in St. John’s Lane prior to the arrival of the Christian Brothers in August 1861. Patrick Maher, who was also a generous benefactor to the local Sisters of Mercy, made many other financial contributions to the Christian Brothers over the years for various improvements to the schools and the monastery.

In 1865 the local G.P. Dr. Thomas Kynsey paid for the provision of a house library for the Christian Brothers. In April 1880 J. Delaney of Market Square died and left the sum of £100 to the Christian Brothers. Strangely a week later his own son Denis also died and in his will he left the Christian Brothers the sum of £20.

An interesting entry for March 1901 referred to the sale of a property in Duke Street by Miss Ferris of Woodbine Cottage to a sitting tenant, John E. Duncan. Apparently she had willed the property to the Christian Brothers but shortly before she died the property was sold for £200, a price considered to be excessively low, thereby depriving the Christian Brothers of a valuable bequest.

For a period of five weeks starting in November 1918 the Christian Brothers schools were closed due to the influenza epidemic. Brother Alipius Cummins, a novice in the monastery, fell victim to what we now refer to as the ‘Spanish flu’. Having failed to get a trained nurse in Athy or Dublin the Brothers turned to Minnie Murphy who had served in France during the First World War. Referred to in the Annals as ‘Sr. Flora of the Square’ Ms. Murphy took charge of the patient for 4 nights. He eventually recovered and the Annals noted ‘she took no fee, though a professional trained nurse. For this charitable act the Brothers are deeply grateful.’

In 1925 the Annals recorded the success of Edward Behan at the examinations for executive officers and he was subsequently appointed to the Customs and Excise. It noted ‘his success was of considerable advantage to the community, adding as it did to the prestige of the schools and demonstrating the efficiency of the teaching. He was at the time of his appointment nearly 20 years of age. His education had been to a great extent ruined through his having been interned for over 12 months in the troubled times.’ This is the first reference I have found to the internment of Edward Behan. Was that internment during the War of Independence or the Civil War? Can anyone help me identify Edward Behan?

John Bealin, formerly of Stanhope Street, died in New York on St. Stephen’s Day 1924. In his will he left the sum of £200 to his former school in Athy. His father Mark Bealin had a bakery business at 2 William Street and was secretary of the local committee set up in the town to build the original school premises for the Christian Brothers. He died in 1866 and on the subsequent remarriage of his wife, his three sons, including the 14 year old John, emigrated to America.

These are just some of the persons who over the years helped the Christian Brothers to maintain a presence in Athy. There are many more unnamed and forgotten individuals without whose assistance the early Christian Brothers schools in Athy could not have continued. As to the original query regarding Brother Mark Hill I discovered that he came to Athy in 1892 and five years later was appointed Director of the local Christian Brothers community. He moved to Kells, Co. Meath in July 1900. The only other entry in the annals concerning Brother Hill noted how he organised a bazaar in Easter week 1900 to help pay the cost of building a new oratory in the Christian Brothers monastery.

One of the great sporting heroes of my teenage years passed away last week. Danny Flood was one of several young Athy men who lined out with the Kildare County Senior football team during the 1950s and 1960s. A towering figure over 6 foot tall with the physique to match, Danny manned the full back position on the county team for a period of 10 years from 1954. His first game as a Senior Kildare player was against Wexford in a National League game played in Ferns on 10^thOctober 1954. Ten years later he made his last appearance on the county team, this time against Meath in a game played in Croke Park on 7^th June 1964.

Danny was a key member of the county team during the course of the 1956 Leinster Championship when the Shortgrass county won the Leinster Championship for the first time in 21 years, only to lose to Cork in the All Ireland semi-final. I remember those matches and the enormous goodwill that victory in the Leinster Final of 1956 generated amongst young and old alike within our local community. Daniel Flood, a local man from Leinster Street, was assuredly Athy’s footballing hero after the success of the 1956 Kildare team.

As a young teenager I have vivid memories which I have never lost of a giant of a man whose spectacular fielding of the ball on the full back line was hugely impressive. Equally impressive was his athleticism which seemed magnified by his huge frame and the energy with which he defended the Kildare goal. I recall a match in Geraldine Park where the Kildare defence led by Danny were defending the goal nearest to the dressing rooms. I was on the terrace looking across to the goal and can still see Danny charging from the penalty area across towards the side line where the ball was being gathered by a member of the opposing team. When he was a few feet away from his opponent Danny launched at his opponent and sent him sprawling over the side line. It had all the hallmarks of a foul, but I cannot recall if it was given as such. What I remember is the athleticism of the man who appeared to me as a giant of a player.

Youthful memories accumulated when one is 13 or 14 years of age always tend to magnify and unintentionally perhaps distort. When I was a young follower of G.A.A. matches I looked upon Danny Flood and his county colleagues such as Seamie Harrison and Larry McCormack as a generation ahead of me. Now that I have gathered in the years I find to my amazement that as a young teenager of 14 years of age I was watching and admiring Danny Flood, a young man of just 22 years of age. The age gap between us was a mere 8 years.

Danny Flood died last week, his wife and one son having predeceased him. He retired many years ago as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Irish army and lived just outside Kilkenny city. He is survived by a daughter and four sons. My sympathy goes to his children and to the members of his extended family.

With the passing of my footballing hero of 60 years ago I am left with memories which can no longer be diluted or exaggerated. They remain fashioned by six decades of intermittent recall to remind me of a time when Gaelic football and footballers were an important part of a young lad’s life. Thanks for the memories Danny.

The role and functions of local authorities have evolved and changed enormously over the years. Borough Councils were brought into existence, usually by royal charters, as in Athy, where the 1515 charter of Henry VIII provided for the annual election of a Provost and the appointment of a Borough Council. Its functions were largely confined to control of the local market and collection of market tolls to finance the building of town walls. Control and power rested with the Earls of Kildare and their nominees, a position which was to remain until many Borough Councils such as Athy were abolished in 1840. It was succeeded a few years later by Town Commissioners elected by property owners in the town. Their functions were extended to include paving and street cleaning and were further added to during the course of the 19^th century. Replaced by an Urban District Council in 1901 the Council as we knew it up to more recent years played an important part in the economic and social life of the town of Athy.

As we approached the last decade of the 20^th century huge demands were made on Athy U.D.C. in terms of planning and economic development. Those were the years of the Celtic Tiger, but even as other nearby towns were flourishing Athy began to feel the effects of several factory closures. The shirt factory on the Dublin Road closed, followed by the loss of Peerless Rugs in 2001 and three years later the closure of the Shuttleworth factory. These losses were the catalysts for the setting up of an investment, development and employment forum by the local Council. Represented on that multi agency body with Athy U.D.C. were Kildare County Council, members of the Oireachtas and officials of the I.D.A., County Kildare Enterprise Board and Athy Chamber of Commerce. The local Council’s involvement was indicative of its developmental role as one of its primary functions under the 1963 Planning Act. As an extension of that role and with a view to regenerating the retailing sector in Athy the Council engaged consultants to prepare a retail strategy for the town in 2008.

All of this work was carried out against a backdrop which saw the transfer to Kildare County Council of functions once the responsibility of the Urban District Council. This was done in advance of the subsequent legislative changes which saw the abolition of Town Councils and the taking over of their functions by County Councils.

One of those roles was the provision of local authority housing. Perhaps the greatest change to the previously unrivalled role of local authorities in the provision of social housing was the emergence of voluntary housing associations. A number of such groups have provided social housing in Athy in recent years. RESPOND built 43 houses in Flinter’s field in 2001 and eight years later provided 28 house and a community building at Ardrew Meadows. In more recent years TUATH housing association provided 37 houses in Clonmullin, 14 houses in Cois Bhearu and 4 houses in Ardrew. The CLUID housing association provided 36 houses in Coneyboro in 2013.

The role of the former Town Council in the economic regeneration of the town was complemented by a similar role in relation to the social and cultural life of the townspeople. In about 1985 the Urban District Council established and funded a cultural recreational sub committee comprised of Council members with a large membership from the general public. That sub committee did much good work in fostering and encouraging cultural activities which led in time to the setting up of Athy’s Art Centre in Woodstock Street. That Centre is presently managed by Directors representing Kildare County Council and a number of cultural interests in the town.

The former Town Council’s encouragement of the arts and cultural activities generally was first recognised with the official opening of Athy’s Heritage Centre in the Town Hall in 1992. This again was a joint venture involving Athy U.D.C., Kildare County Council and Athy Museum Society. The management of the Heritage Centre rests with Athy Heritage Company Limited which like its sister company, Athy Arts Company Limited, is a company limited by guarantee with directors representing Kildare County Council and various cultural and social interests in the town. The former Town Councils role in fostering and encouraging cultural activity in the town was formally recognised with the winning of an Excellence in Local Government award in 2010.

Kildare County Council has continued to exercise a highly commendable role in community affairs insofar as Athy is concerned. The unveiling of the Shackleton statue as part of the Decade of Commemoration events planned for the county is further proof of the Council’s commitment to Athy. It’s rather a pity that the positive story was somewhat lost in the unexpected headlined story which appeared in the front page of this newspaper last week.

At no time in Irish history has interest in local history been so popular. Here in south Kildare we can see everywhere around us the outlines of man’s work on the landscape or in the streets of our town. I was reminded of this when I passed a jostle stone in Duke Street and later in the day as I opened the gate to my house in Ardreigh and looked over the Ha Ha at the nearby field. The jostle stone and the Ha Ha are just two of the many man-made objects of a bygone age which are still with us today.

Duke Street, formerly St. John’s Street, has a number of jostle stones at the edge of buildings with entrances to what were once stables. The jostle stones were positioned to deflect carriage wheels away from the building as they entered the passage way leading to the stables at the rear.

The Ha Has is a strange name given to a sunken wall or a ditch constructed to form a boundary without interrupting the view. There is a Ha Ha at the end of my front garden facing into the adjoining field. I wonder if there are any other examples of Ha Ha’s in or around Athy.

On the Carlow Road which I pass every day can be found a kissing gate. The small gate swings within a circular cage so that only one person can pass through at a time. Its construction was primarily intended to prevent animals having access to the railway line. Your guess is as good as mine as to why it acquired the name ‘a kissing gate’.

Nearby in front of Dukes Lodge is the only example I’m aware of a mounting block in Athy. This is a large stone with steps intended to enable a not very agile person to mount a horse.

At the rear of the Town Hall one can still see the irons which once formed part of the town’s ouncel or scales. In my young days I remember the weighbridge which replaced the ouncel and the small building used by the weighmaster Mr. Dempsey. Farmers and traders selling goods by weight at the local market had to have those goods weighed at the ouncel.

I have in previous articles referred to benchmarks. These consist of a broad arrow with a horizontal line along the top indicating the exact height above sea level determined by the Ordnance Survey office. The name bench mark comes from the surveyor’s angle iron which he used as a ‘bench’ or support for his levelling staff. A book prize to the first ten persons to tell me the location of all the bench marks in Athy.

The town’s cock pit is perhaps one of the most interesting reminders of Athy’s past. It was the subject of a previous Eye on the Past when I dealt with its history and eventual restoration in a cooperative action involving the building’s owners Griffin Hawe Ltd. and the late Niall Meagher, the then County Architect. The cock pit is a very real reminder of a popular 18^th century sport which continued well into our time, despite being outlawed in 1849.

A further reminder of our past, this time in a name are the outlying townlands of Grangenolvin and Grangemellon. The town ‘grange’ refers to an outlying farm belonging to a monastery or friary which was generally worked by lay brothers or hired labourers. The Dominicans, whose Friary was in the area known today as the Abbey, were the owners of the grange lands which were taken over by Royalists supporters following the dissolution of the Irish monasteries in the 1540s.

Another place name steeped in history is Gallows Hill. As the name implies it was the site of the public gallows where executions took place. It possibly marks the site of the original manorial gallows of Woodstock Manor. Capital punishment was usually performed in public from an early age, and generally in a prominent site at the entrance to the medieval village. The offender was brought through the High Street, now Leinster Street, of the medieval town of Athy to Gallows Hill where after hanging the body was left on the gallows. The number of offences for which hanging was prescribed increased enormously during the 17^thcentury. Executions in public were abolished in 1868.

In nearby Castledermot is to be found in the grounds of St. James Church a hog back stone. This recumbent stone with sloping sides lying on a grave gives the impression of a hogs back. Hog back stones, found mostly in the north of England, are regarded by English historians/archaeologists as Saxon monuments of the 8^th and 9^th centuries. The Castledermot stone is for some reason or other regarded as a Viking monument and offered as evidence of a Viking invasion inland as far as the south Kildare village.

Whatever the explanations we should never forget that local history is to be found not just in the man made artefacts of our town but in lives of the local people of our town and countryside. It’s a subject I will return to again.

It’s a quote I have used before but its use again is justified when announcing the holding of Athy’s annual Famine Commemoration Day to take place on Sunday 25^th September at 3.00 p.m. in St. Mary’s Cemetery near to the former workhouse, now St. Vincent’s Hospital. Athy’s Literary Magazine in its edition of March 1838, just seven years before the start of the Great Famine, printed a letter from an Athy resident in which he claimed:

‘there is not a town in Ireland so completely neglected. Ramble through our deserted streets and see the able bodied labourers at our corners, hoards of beggars at our doors, disease and famine in the hovels of the poor.’

Three years after that letter was published the census recorded Athy’s population as 4,698, with 1,005 families living in 790 houses. 147 of those houses were unfit one roomed mud walled cabins, while another 318 houses consisted of two roomed mud walled cabins which were undoubtedly unfit for family use.

Following the passing of the Poor Relief Act a workhouse was opened in Athy on the 9^th of January 1844. It was appropriate recognition of the squalid poverty to be found in Athy and district of that time. However, even that workhouse which was built to accommodate 360 adults and 240 children could not accommodate the large number of starving people requiring assistance. As the Great Famine progressed through 1846, 1847, 1848 and 1849 workhouse additional accommodation had to be found in the town to meet the needs of 1,528 adults and children. They represented the most helpless members of the local community, while at the same time outside the workhouse system 2,807 persons were in receipt of outdoor relief during the summer of 1848.

The town gaol, opened on the Carlow road in 1830, held almost 100 prisoners as famine ravaged the countryside. 16 of those prisoners were awaiting transportation to Van Diemen’s land. Their lot was in all probability better than many of those unfortunate local persons availing of outdoor relief, or even the inmates of the workhouse. John Butler, Justice of the Peace, a native of Athy, obviously concerned by the activity of the Young Irelanders, wrote on 2^nd April 1848 to the Lord Lieutenant: ‘As the only resident Magistrate in this town I beg leave to state to your Excellency that a few days ago the troops quartered here were withdrawn and the town left to the protection of a few police ….. I don’t want my native town in these alarming times to be left to protection of ten or a dozen policemen.’ Butler had no justifiable grounds for expressing concern as the local population were so hungry, demoralised and down trodden to do anything other than to live from day to day courtesy of the food kitchens and the workhouse.

To add to the distress of the local families, just as the worst excesses of that time were being played out, an outbreak of cholera killed many more of the hungry and diseased population of south Kildare and the adjoining counties. A total of 1,205 deaths were recorded in Athy workhouse between 1844 and 1851. At the same time the town population fell by 825 persons and if one calculates an increase in population for the years to 1851 similar to that which occurred in the previous 10 years the notational drop in the town’s population was over 1,000 persons.

These are startling statistics for a town with a relatively small population. Regretfully the names of those who died in Athy workhouse during the Great Famine are not known. They were buried in the nearby cemetery of St. Mary’s which continued to be used to receive the unclaimed dead of the County Home up to recent years. Sadly St. Mary’s Cemetery, the last resting place of so many from this community, tends to be overlooked in much the same way as the Great Famine was for decades after it occurred.

Next Sunday at 3.00 p.m. St. Mary’s will host a gathering of local people who aware of their past and the importance of remembering those who have gone before us, will commemorate the Famine dead of Athy and the local workhouse. At the same time they will remember those men and women who left this area to emigrate overseas in an attempt to escape the disease and poverty which marked the Famine years in Athy.

We should never forget our Famine dead.

Volunteers to help with the work of the local Heritage Centre are always welcome. The Centre, which this year received full museum accreditation from the Heritage Council, is limited in what it can do with the funds available to it. Regrettably with only two part-time staff members and a number of volunteers it is not possible to keep the Centre open on Saturdays and Sundays. A very substantial part of its annual funding comes from Kildare County Council, with admission charges making up the balance. I am firmly of the view that admission to museums and heritage centres should be freely available but unfortunately because of current financial constraints a small admission charge must be imposed for the foreseeable future.

As I mentioned in a recent Eye on the Past there is huge interest in local history and the Heritage Centre has helped to engender a sense of pride in our own history and in our own town. The part played in this by volunteers attached to the Heritage Centre must be acknowledged. One of those volunteers is a young man who has worked tirelessly over the last few years to provide a genealogical research facility as part of the Heritage Centre’s contribution to the local community. Clem Roche of St. Patrick’s Avenue has recently obtained a Diploma in Genealogy from University College Cork following the completion of his thesis ‘British Military Records 1881-1920 and Family History”. He had earlier completed a classical studies course through the Open University and obtained a Batchelor of Arts degree.

Clem’s interest in genealogy was first awakened by his search for details in the World War I army records of a relation of his, James Roche. James was a native of County Clare who enlisted in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and was killed in action on 25^thAugust 1918, just a few weeks before the war ended. Another County Clare relation of Clems, his grandfather Michael Roche, was a member of the First Western Division of the Freestate Army who was killed in Tralee on 22^nd August 1922. His son, Patrick Roche, enlisted in the Curragh in 1938 and two years later he married Mary Carey of Nelson Street, Athy. The young couple came to live in Athy in 1942 or thereabouts and were one of the first tenants of the Pairc Bhride housing scheme which was built in the early 1950s. The Roche family soldier tradition was continued by Patrick’s son, John and Patrick, who served in the Irish Army for many years.

Clem’s research of both English and Irish army records for information relating to his own family members led him to investigate the records of Athy men who fought in World War I. His research in that area has added enormously to the work of others in that field including Pat Casey of Bray, Co. Wicklow. Clem’s concentration on the men from Athy and district has unearthed information previously lost to memory. He has made that information freely available and has never failed to offer his services and the results of his search to interested parties. He is one of several volunteers who have worked tirelessly over the years to make the Heritage Centre an institution of which the people of Athy and south Kildare can be proud.

On 11^th November next, the 98^th anniversary of the ending of the Great War, a new book outlining the men of Athy and district who died in World War I will be launched in the Heritage Centre. It represents the fruits of Clem Roche’s research over several years and promises to add another layer of knowledge to our understanding of a period in our history which witnessed the loss of so many young Athy men.

Not all of the Heritage Centre’s volunteers are engaged in research. Their primary role is to help the Heritage Centre staff in running the centre and to assist visitors in understanding the stories which lie behind the artefacts illustrative of Athy’s historical past.

The Heritage Centre is on the brink of embarking on the next stage of its development and there is an urgent need for more volunteers to assist in its work. If you feel you could help in advancing the town’s bid to make Athy a tourist stop-off destination, why not contact the Centre’s manageress Margaret Walsh. She would be delighted to hear from you.

On Thursday, 29^th September the Castlecomer male voice choir will take to the stage in the Church of Ireland hall, Offaly Street in a concert organised by Athy Lions Club in aid of local charities. Also appearing with their conductor, Dean Philip Knowles, will be the In Cantorium choir. If the Taaffe family had not moved from Castlecomer to Athy when I was three years of age I would probably be on stage on Thursday as a member of the Castlecomer Choir. My absence will surely make the evening all the more enjoyable. Do support this latest Lions Club event.

1916 was a difficult year for the town of Athy. The Great War had entered its third year and there was no sign of it ending. The patriotic fervour and martial ardour that greeted the outbreak of war in 1914 had long since diffused. The town had grown accustomed to regular reports of casualties from the western front and a number of Athy men had been invalided home. The year began badly with torrential rains, the worst in memory occasioning the overflow of the Barrow and the flooding of many farms in the Athy area on New Year’s Day 1916.

By that year over 1600 Athy men were serving in the war and the separation allowance paid to the families of soldiers was a significant bulwark against the endemic poverty of pre-war Athy.

Life in both Athy and Ireland however was itself not without incident. The Easter Rising would erupt in Dublin in April 1916 and one Athy man, a young Irish volunteer Mark Wilson, would find himself at the heart of events serving in the Four Courts garrison. At the same time Sir Anthony Weldon, a fellow townsman from Kilmoroney House and veteran of the Boer War, was in command of the Limerick Military district. His humane and sensitive treatment of the Irish Volunteers in Limerick in the aftermath of the Rising was much applauded at the time as no doubt his avowed beliefs as an Irish Home Ruler contributed to his benevolent approach. He himself would not survive the war, dying at home in 1917 from the after effects of gas poisoning

1916 would mark for Michael Bowden of Athy his second year in captivity in Germany as a Prisoner of War. The publication of his picture in the Saturday Herald newspaper on 10^th June 1916 with that of his brother in law John Byrne was of some comfort to his family, but he would never return home, dying in the camp on 7^th May 1918 without ever seeing a child born after his departure for France on the front in the late summer of 1914.

I have no doubt that Bowden and the many other Athy men imprisoned in Limburg would have derived great comfort from the masses they celebrated with Fr. James Crotty, the Dominican friar who had been Prior of the Dominican community in Athy for two years from April 1900 and whose parents left Athy for New Ross in 1867 shortly before Fr. Crotty's birth.

Some aspects of life continued as normal. The South Kildare Agricultural Show which had been cancelled in August 1914 because of the outbreak of the war was held that summer and local vet, John Holland, received the prize for having the best three year old gelding in the show. His son, John Vincent Holland, recently returned from working on the railways in Argentina and now an officer in the Leinster Regiments, would win greater acclaim on the Somme battlefield in September where his actions in leading a bombing party would see him awarded the Victoria Cross. While local vet John Holland enjoyed his success, his former gardener, John Byrne, remained in captivity in Limburg where he would die as the war headed towards its conclusion in September 1918.

The Hannon family from Ardreigh secured a prize at that same agricultural show for having the best gelding in the four year old category. The grief and loss they suffered in 1915 when a son was killed would be compounded by the further loss of Lieutenant John Coulson Hannon in summer of 1916.

1916 was also a defining year for the Kilkea born Ernest Shackleton. On the day that the Irish volunteers struck for freedom in Dublin on Easter Monday Shackleton set out on an extraordinary 800 mile boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia with his Irish comrades Tom Crean and Tim McCarthy.

It was ultimately with the assistance of the Chilean Navy tugboat ‘Yelcho’ commanded by Commander Luis Pardo, that the rescue was effected on 30^thAugust 1916. This dramatic event will be celebrated in Athy Heritage Centre Museum next Friday night, 7^thOctober, with a reception to be hosted by the Chilean naval attache to Ireland, Mr. Ronald Baasch. The reception will be followed by a lecture, at 7.45pm by the distinguished Chilean navy historian, Dr. Fernando Wilson. All are welcome to attend.

100 years on Athy and Ireland has been transformed and none more so in the prominence of women today in Irish life and society. This has been particularly apparent in sport, with the extraordinary level of participation of young girls and women in our national game, Gaelic football. It was particularly uplifting to see the County Kildare ladies football team take the Intermediate All-Ireland title in Croke Park last Sunday in front of a capacity crowd of 35,000 people and I extend my particular congratulations to the two representatives from Athy, Orlaith Moran and Niamh Mulhall on their wonderful achievement.

Last week I travelled to Belgium with a group of local historians from Northern Ireland and from the Republic to visit sites associated with the Great War. The human evidence of the tragedies of that war can be found there in the cemeteries and memorials dotted across the Flemish countryside.

The main setting off point for any visit to the Great War sites is the town of Ypres. The nearby countryside was the location of various battles including the third battle of Ypres, commonly known as Passchendaele where the British army suffered huge losses in what is now regarded as a senseless and pointless battle.

On the eastern side of the town on the road to Menin is the Menin Gate memorial on which are listed the names of more than 54,000 soldiers killed in and around Ypres and whose graves are not known. Their names are engraved in Portland stone panels fixed to the walls of what is called the Hall of Memory and included are the names of at least 19 men from Athy and south Kildare. Many of them were killed in action on 26^thApril 1915 including Joseph Byrne of Chapel Lane, a sergeant in the Dublin Fusiliers. Other casualties on that day were James Halloran of Crookstown, Patrick Tierney of Foxhill and James Dillon, Christopher Power and Patrick Leonard, all of Athy. Leonard died of his wounds on 29^thApril, while Power at 59 years of age was possibly one of the oldest recruits from this area.

Each evening at 8 p.m. a short ceremony takes place at the Menin Gate memorial when the Last Post is sounded by buglers of the local fire brigade. The poignant scene as a wreath was laid by two members of the Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic groups was evidence of the shared history of the two parts of our island boosted by the involvement of the 16^th Irish Division and the 36^th Ulster Division in the Great War.

A few days later we visited Thiepval, that other great memorial to soldiers who died in the Somme battle sector before 20^th March 1918 and have no known graves. The names of approximately 72,000 soldiers are listed on this memorial for the missing, including the names of 18 men from Athy and district. Two of the south Kildare men named on the memorial died on 6^th September 1916. They were Peter Keogh of Ballindrum and Robert McWilliams of Athy. Three days earlier Thomas Stafford of Butlers Row was killed. His brother Edward was killed in action two years earlier. John Mulhall, a 20 year old from Athy, joined his comrades in death on 23^rd October 1916, as did 25 year old Athy man Joseph Murphy eleven days previously. John Delaney was killed in action on 9^thSeptember 1916, while Edward Dowling of Castledermot died six days later. James Dunne of 3 Offaly Street was killed on 13^th November 1916, while Robert Hackett died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. None of these men have known graves and their names are included on the Thiepval memorial. I was delighted to see at the Thiepval memorial a wreath placed there on behalf of the people of Grandvilliers, the French town twinned with Athy.

Not far away Guillemont was the scene of continuous fighting in the second half of 1916 as the English soldiers fought to take possession of the village. As the scene of repeated attacks and counter attacks the village of Guillemont was virtually a fortress with numerous dugouts and tunnels which defied the heaviest artillery barrages. On 3^rd September 1916 soldiers under the command of Lieutenant John Vincent Holland of Athy broke through the defences of what was regarded as one of the strongest fortified villages held by the Germans. Holland, who was attached to the Leinster Regiment, gained the Victoria Cross for his bravery on that occasion.

The capture of Guillemont by Holland and his men was regarded as one of the most important events of September 1916. Today a Celtic cross stands outside the Parish church in Guillemont and on the church wall is a plaque commemorating the deeds of John Vincent Holland, Thomas Hughes and David Jones, all three of whom received the Victoria Cross for their actions at Guillemont on 3^rd September 1916.

Not far from the village is the Guillemont Road Cemetery in which those killed in action in the September attack are buried. Amongst them is Raymond Asquith, son of the British Prime Minister. Nearby is the last resting place of John Hayden of Castledermot who died at Guillemont on 3^rd September 1916.

Many of the young men from Athy and district who died in the Great War have no known graves. It was the French herald in Shakespeare’s play Richard III who seeking permission spoke the lines:-

‘That we may wonder o’er the bloody field

To book our dead, and then to bury them.’

Thankfully today we don’t need permission to ‘book our dead’ of the Great War.

The October Bank Holiday weekend will see many overseas visitors arriving in Athy for the Shackleton Autumn School. Now in its 16^th year the school brings together international and Irish polar experts and enthusiasts to deal with a wide range of topics concerning the Antarctic and those who have attempted to conquer its inhospitable regions.

In this the centenary of Ernest Shackleton’s courageous exploits following the crushing of his ship, ‘Endurance’ it is wonderful to relate that the Shackleton Autumn School has grown over the years from strength to strength. This year we will welcome eleven members of the Devon and Cornwall Polar Society, many of whom will be visiting Ireland for the first time. Another large group travelling from Norway includes the director and seven staff members of the Fram Museum Oslo. I am told that tickets for the weekend have been purchased by people travelling to the south Kildare venue from Belgium, Spain, Germany and America. Of course there will be, as in past years, a considerable number of attendees from the UK confirming, if such was needed, that Athy’s Shackleton Autumn School has become the premier annual polar event held anywhere in the world.

This is a huge compliment for an event which started off with great enthusiasm but without any experience among its organisers. The contacts made and developed throughout the world of polar studies arising from Shackleton’s connections with Athy have been hugely beneficial in developing the Shackleton Autumn School. It is now an event of huge importance which brings enormous benefits to Athy’s fledging tourist industry. Every bed and breakfast facility in the town of Athy is fully booked for the October Bank Holiday weekend and I am told that bookings have had to be made in surrounding towns by some attendees.

2016, important in itself in terms of Shackleton’s centenary, has been an extremely good year insofar as the development of the local Heritage Centre is concerned. The Heritage Council earlier in the year granted the Heritage Centre full museum status. The award was the culmination of three years work in improving standards and meeting the exacting requirements of the Museum Accreditation Programme. This was achieved with minimum staff levels and limited funding but was a just reward for the enthusiasm and willingness to work of all those involved, whether on a voluntary or paid basis, with the Heritage Centre.

This year also saw the acquisition of the cabin from the ship the‘Quest’in which Ernest Shackleton died in 1922. Acquiring this extraordinary piece of polar history for the Athy Heritage Centre was the work of many people, helped by the Centre’s good standing and acknowledges that it was the only permanent exhibition anywhere in the world devoted to Ernest Shackleton. The cabin is presently in Letterfrack, Co. Galway, undergoing conservation work before it comes to Athy to become part of the growing Shackleton display in the Town Hall.

Reports in the national press and television media concerning the cabin’s shipment from Norway to Ireland provided wonderful publicity for the Heritage Centre. It was matched some months later when the statue of Ernest Shackleton was unveiled in Emily Square. The statue has proved to be extremely popular in terms of visitors stopping off in Athy to see the wonderful work of the sculptor, Mark Richards. It has also proved popular amongst the locals, some of whom may have had doubts as to whether the statue was appropriate for Athy. Thanks must go to Peter Carey and his team in Kildare County Council for their foresight in commissioning a beautiful work of art to mark the centenary of the rescue of Shackleton’s men following their abandonment of the polar ship ‘Endurance’.

The development of the Heritage Centre is just a part of the town’s regeneration plan, as is the ongoing shop front painting scheme which has drawn much favourable comments in recent weeks. The town is on the right track insofar as planning for the future is concerned and we can look to the future with a confidence which was not previously shared by many.

The Shackleton Autumn School will be opened at 7.30 p.m. on Friday, 28^th October by Mark Richards, the man whose wonderful work stands proud today in Emily Square. Everyone is welcome to attend if for nothing else than to enjoy the wine reception which this year is being kindly sponsored by the Athy Solicitors.

The lectures commence on Saturday morning and continue on Sunday. Pick up a programme from the Heritage Centre or the Athy Lions Book Shop in Duke Street.

James Joseph O'Byrne, Irish patriot

Athy magazines and newspapers of hte 19th century and todays Athy Lions Club bookshop

Edward Keegan Irish Volunteer and Robert Gourley World War 1 soldier

John McCormack Principal Ardscoil na Tríonóide

Kevin Barry and the Kevin Barry exhibition in Athy's Heritage Centre

Athy's Regenertion Plan and the launch of Athy's tourist boat

Danny Kane and Mary Fleming

Dominican Church bell and the Dominican Church Athy

Sir Roger Casement

Memorial, plaques and signs in and around South Kildare

Local history research

Local benefactors to Athy's Christian Brothers

Danny Flood

The role of the local authority in the economic, social and cultural regeneration of Athy

Vernacular artefacts of another age

The Great Famine in Athy

Clem Roche and his World War I book

1916 in Athy

Tour of World War I sites in Flanders

2016 Shackleton Autumn School