War and South Kildare - 'To Stem the Flowing Tide' by Michael Fox
One of the many hidden stories from Athy’s past is the part played by local men and women, many now forgotten, in the development of the Republican Movement following the 1916 Rising. Athy and South...
View ArticleThe burning of the Catholic Church in Athy on 8th March 1800
On 25th March 1800 a proclamation issued from Dublin Castle offering a reward for the apprehension of the arsonist who had set fire to the Catholic Church in Athy. ‘Whereas information upon oath has...
View ArticleReverend Thomas Kelly
One of the leading hymn writers of the 19th century was Thomas Kelly who was born on 13th July 1769 and died 86 years later in Dublin. The only son of High Court Judge Thomas Kelly of Kellyville, he...
View ArticleHenry Hosie
Athy, once the largest town in County Kildare, was a thriving commercial centre even in the most difficult economic times of the 19th century. As the brick making industry developed in this area, Athy...
View ArticleGarda Siochana Athy
A few weeks ago the National Press reported a claim that upwards of forty percent of Gardai were engaged ‘on the beat’. I read the report with surprise as at no time within the past thirty years or so...
View ArticleAthy's Slum Clearance Programme of 1934
The current housing crisis prompts a reminder of the housing problems of a century ago and later when a majority of the families in Athy lived in unsanitary and unfit privately rented houses. The...
View ArticleThe Quakers of Meeting House Lane
As a youngster growing up in Offaly Street I knew nothing of the background to the naming of Meeting Lane which was just a short distance from where I lived. It was many years later while doing some...
View ArticleAthy's Architectural and Social Heritage as seen on a walking trip from...
Heritage Week prompted me to review some elements of the town’s story insofar as it related to buildings and structures along the Barrow trackway between the harbour at Emily Square and Ardreigh lock....
View ArticleSt. Michael's Boxing Club Athy
Boxing has for many years featured as a favoured sporting activity here in Athy. In the 1930s Sydney Minch and others founded a boxing club, which in the tough economic times of the day offered a...
View ArticleDavy Loughman - Seamus Hayden and the changing patterns of urban commercial life
The recent death of Davy Loughman and that of Seamus Hayden in the last few days have revived memories of a time past filled with youthful memories and of faces and characters no longer with us. The...
View ArticleErnest O'Rourke Glynn
When the Taaffe family moved from Castlecomer to Athy in 1945 the World War was nearing its end, while food restrictions and many other restrictions were still in place. Paper shortage gave us...
View ArticleThe building of the Pairc Bhride Housing estate
During the 1930s as part of the Slum Clearance Programmes initiated by de Valera’s Government Athy U.D.C. increased its housing stock from 30 houses to 269 houses. It represented the greatest decade...
View ArticleAthy's links with the O'Connell Monument Committee 1862-1888
Canon John O’Hanlon, Parish Priest and secretary of the Daniel O’Connell Monument Committee wrote a report of the committee’s work which resulted in the erection of the O’Connell monument in Dublin....
View ArticleKathleen Coburn
During the week we buried Kathleen Coburn, who like myself was a child born during the war who grew up in Athy of the 1950s. We Offaly Street lads, two Kellys, two Moores, two Whites, two Cashs, one...
View ArticleShackleton Autumn School 2018
In late October 1908 the Kildare-born explorer, Ernest Shackleton, was about to commence a long journey from his base camp to the South Pole. As it turned out he would not achieve his objective of...
View ArticleThe Irish Presidency and the Presidents who came to Athy
The Irish Constitution of 1937 which established the office of President was adopted by referendum rather than by the Dáil of that year. As a consequence it can be rightly considered as a people’s...
View ArticleColm Walshe's music trail - Made of Athy
There is a growing realisation that our urban heritage is a key resource in helping to promote the development of Athy. There is no doubt our ancient town is badly in need of regeneration and the news...
View ArticleFrancis Ledwidge
Just outside Mons in Belgium a stone monument records the date when a squadron from the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards fired the opening British shots of the first World War. The date was 22nd August...
View ArticleAthy - a Settlers town found3ed by the Anglo Normans
John Dymmor in his treatise on Ireland referred to Athy in May 1599 as ‘a great market town, but brought by these late wars into the state of a poor village’. The wars referred to were those waged by...
View ArticleWorld War 1 Commemorations November 2018
The First World War figured prominently in events held over the last week or so here in Athy and in the county town of Naas. The centenary of the last day of the war which accounted for the loss of...
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