Eye 912
Last week our community was attacked in a most mindless and vicious way when attempts were made to burn down St. Michael’s Parish Church. The culprit, and I suspect it was someone acting alone as it...
View ArticleEye 912
Last week our community was attacked in a most mindless and vicious way when attempts were made to burn down St. Michael’s Parish Church. The culprit, and I suspect it was someone acting alone as it...
View ArticleEye 913
‘And we moor, we don’t park’. The information came as canal boat 4B glided to a halt at the Ardreigh mooring following a short trip up the Canal, as well as the Barrow, to mark the latest fitting out...
View ArticlePassing of Kevin Maher
I was in Hay-on-Wye in the upper Wye Valley on the borders of England and Wales when news reached me of the death of Kevin Maher. Kevin was the subject of a previous Eye on the Past (No. 633) when I...
View ArticleProud history of I.C.A.
The link between Athy I.C.A. and Robert Owen, the father of the co-operative movement, or co-partnership in industry might seem at first to be somewhat tenuous. Owen, who was born in 1771 in the Welsh...
View ArticleUnique Irish historical document
I am told it weighs 20 kilogrammes. It is claimed that each and every page of the 5,000 pages of the 10 volume report provide the most detailed insight ever into any military operation in world...
View ArticleEmily Square: Central to Athy's history
The announcement of the imminent erection of the ’98 Memorial commissioned over 12 years by Athy Urban District Council, as it was then known, is very welcome news. I gather the Memorial will be...
View ArticleProud History of St. Vincents
Sixteen years ago I was approached by Eddie Matthews of the Eastern Health Board and asked if I would write a history of the local hospital, St. Vincent’s. The publication was to be ready for the 150th...
View ArticleProud history of St. Vincents
Sixteen years ago I was approached by Eddie Matthews of the Eastern Health Board and asked if I would write a history of the local hospital, St. Vincent’s. The publication was to be ready for the 150th...
View ArticleA history shared
Last Saturday representing Athy I joined representatives of local history societies from around the country in welcoming visitors of the Ulster Federation of History Societies to our county town of...
View ArticleIllegal goal in 1939 Leinster semi-final
Last week’s controversial goal in the Leinster final match between Meath and Louth which gave an undeserved victory to the Meath team brought back memories of a match played 71 years ago involving our...
View ArticlePatrick Moran and the Athy Connection
Seven years ago I wrote an eye on Patrick Moran, the County Roscommon man who worked in Athy some nine or ten years before he was hanged in Mountjoy Jail on 14th March 1921. Just a month before his...
View ArticleImportant to Support our local talent
Two CD’s recently released by local singers have caught my attention. The Sullivan Brothers new release is their second CD following their extended coverage on the TV programme ‘You’re a Star.’...
View ArticleGems from Census
The recent availability of the 1911 Census of Ireland on the internet has provided an extraordinary wealth of material for anyone interested in family history or local history. When it comes to...
View ArticleAthy men at Trafalgar
A recent article in the Saturday edition of the Irish Times about Irishmen serving in the British Army sparked a vigorous debate in the following weeks in the letters pages of the paper. The...
View ArticleArctic Exhibition for Athy
Last April the eruptions from the Icelandic 'Eyjafjallajokull' volcano kept European airspaces shut down over a number of weeks affecting travel for millions of people across Europe. It brought a focus...
View ArticleArctic Exhibition for Athy
Last April the eruptions from the Icelandic 'Eyjafjallajokull' volcano kept European airspaces shut down over a number of weeks affecting travel for millions of people across Europe. It brought a focus...
View ArticleMary Leadbeater and Ballitore
The village of Ballytore, immortalised in print by Mary Leadbeater, is about to embark on a FAS Scheme designed to restore the writer’s house in the centre of the village. Lying vacant and derelict for...
View ArticleOrdination of Fr. Con Foley
We were always led to believe, at least we were until a few short decades ago, that it was the wish of every Irish parent to have a son ordained as a priest for the Catholic Church. In recent years,...
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