The Graney Ambush of 24th October, 1922
It was a full house at last week’s lecture in Castledermot organised by the Castledermot local history group. The lecture delivered by James Durney, author of several books and historian in residence...
View ArticleSr. Cecilia Hall and Sr. Immaculata of the Sisters of Mercy, Athy
The past is slipping away with a quickening pace which increases as the years pass. My thoughts as I attended the funeral of Sr. Cecelia Hall, a Sister of Mercy, who entered the convent in Athy almost...
View ArticleCarol Taaffe's Essay on Athy's old Libratry
The planned opening of Athy’s new library in the architectural gem which was the Dominican Church prompts me to hand over this week’s Eye on the Past to my daughter Carol, from whose article ‘Reading...
View ArticleAthy's libraries of the past
In the days immediately following the Great Famine Athy had a reading room where a lending library was available with books to borrow, in addition to the Irish and English daily newspapers. That first...
View ArticleIreland's commemoration of World War 1 since the 1920s(1)
Men and women from both parts of the island of Ireland played prominent parts in World War I. Their response to the call for volunteers was a cross community response. However, when it came to...
View ArticleIreland's commemoration of World War 1 since the 1920s(2)
In Athy where 223 men from the town and the surrounding district died during the 1914/18 war, I joined a few friends on Remembrance Sunday 1986 to publicly commemorate for the first time in over 50...
View ArticleBishop James Quinn (brother of Athy's Parish Priest Dr. Andrew Quinn)
St. Patrick’s Day is the one time in the year when the Irish diaspora gets to celebrate our national festival. Its origins lie in a feast day celebrated by the Catholic church since the early...
View ArticlePhotograph of St. Joseph's School boys school circa 1949
They gazed at the photographer with a sense of wonderment, while their class teacher, a Sister of Mercy, in all probability stood behind the man with the camera. The photograph was of my class in St....
View ArticleOweny Prendergast - Death of Dinny Prendergast
Sitting here on the night of the 2004 budget I marvel at how different, how improved, our lives are compared to those who lived 50 years ago. Many would no doubt take issue with me on that simple...
View ArticlePaddy Wright
Paddy Wright has always been something of an agitator. The playing field, sometimes his work environment and nowadays the public forum of local politics have provided Paddy with readily accessible...
View ArticleHistoric Links with the Sisters of Mercy
Many generous people have in the past contributed handsomely to the maintenance of the social and religious fabric of our ancient town. Some are remembered, even if only by dint of research into long...
View ArticleFund Raising for and Building of St. Michael's Parish Church
It was 1952 when the senior curate in Athy, Fr. John McLaughlin, addressed what the local newspapers described as “a well attended and representative meeting” of parishioners in the Christian Brothers...
View ArticleDeath of Rev. Francois Murenzi / Jimmy Doyle / CBS Class Reunion
This week the Church of Ireland in Athy suffered the tragic loss of its recently appointed pastor, Reverend François Murenzi. Everywhere in town this week there was a measurable sense of heartfelt...
View ArticleHannah Spellman
Ever since my younger brother Seamus was killed in a car accident on the Dublin road just outside Athy in November 1965, the eleventh month in which we commemorate the dead has held for me an extra...
View ArticleMichael Wall's Memoirs
During the past week I read a publication edited by Kildare poet, Ann Egan, in which a number of our senior citizens published their memories of times past. Among the contributors was Michael Wall of...
View ArticleVolunteerism in Athy
I wrote in Eye on the Past No. 1174 of volunteerism and of the many men and women in and around Athy who with advantage to themselves and to the voluntary sector make themselves available for voluntary...
View ArticleGreat Famine Commemmoration 2018
On Sunday 13th May at 3.00 p.m. the annual Great Famine Commemoration Service will take place in Athy’s former workhouse cemetary. The once neglected cemetary of St. Mary’s located just over the canal...
View ArticleCanon Owen Sweeney
With the death of Canon Owen Sweeney, former Parish Priest of St. Michael’s, the Irish Church has lost one of its most energetic clerics who during his time in Athy gave positive expression of the...
View Article'Having it Away' by Seamus Murphy
‘Published by Castledermot Press’ was what caught my eye as I perused the books in the Connolly book shop located next to Dolphin House Court at the rear of the Clarence Hotel in Dublin. My immediate...
View ArticleAncient road works and the turnpike road through Athy
Athy of the 18th century had a population mix of Catholics, Established Church adherents, Quakers and other dissenters, each socially removed from each other yet commercially interdependent. Catholics,...
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