Athy Association Football Club
‘Irish soccer is in crisis’. So pronounced the TV newsreader earlier today as news of the resignation of the Irish international team management was made public. The previous day I read in the Kildare...
View ArticleCastledermot
Driving recently towards Castledermot I passed along a road which in medieval days and earlier was possibly a trackway through thickly wooded countryside. I was prompted to reflect on how the fortunes...
View ArticleDolores Nolan and Niamh Hegarty
I was reminded of long lost youth when, during the week, I had an unexpected visit from two friends of my late brother Seamus. Fifty-three years have passed since his tragic death in a road traffic...
View ArticleDolores Nolan and Niamh Hegarty
I was reminded of long lost youth when, during the week, I had an unexpected visit from two friends of my late brother Seamus. Fifty-three years have passed since his tragic death in a road traffic...
View ArticleSt. Michael's Medieval Church
‘St. Michael’s is one of the most ancient of the many ruined churches in the parish of Athy’, so wrote a former Athy curate, Rev. James Carroll, with reference to the church in St. Michael’s cemetery...
View ArticleMichael Conry, Carlow Author
The 2019 edition of Carloviana, the journal of the Carlow Historical and Archaeological Society, has been published. It is a fine publication, with a range of well researched articles relating to...
View ArticleSoloheadbeg and later incidents in the War of Independence
Polling in the General Election of 1918 took place on 14th December and the count and the declaration of the result occurred two weeks later. Twenty-five of the seventy-three successful Sinn Fein...
View ArticleMemories of Eddie Roycroft, Olive Smyth and Aidan Stafford
Within the last two weeks old treasured connections with Offaly Street were severed with the deaths of Eddie Roycroft, Olive Smyth and Aidan Stafford. Eddie was the eldest son of the Roycroft family...
View Article1918 General Election and the first Dail
Last Wednesday Kildare County Councils Decade of Commemorations Committee organised an event in Naas to mark the first meeting of Dail Eireann held in the Mansion House, Dublin on the 21st January...
View ArticleBarrowhouse 16th May 1921
‘On Thursday 19th May 1921 the final phase of the Barrowhouse tragedy was completed when the bodies of two young men, Lacey and Connor, were interred at Barrowhouse graveyard.’ So reported the Leinster...
View ArticleThe Tithe Wars of the 1830s
Many of us have been transfixed by the machinations of the Westminster Parliament in London since the Brexit vote. There has been a sense, until very recently, that the public at large had lost...
View ArticleJimmy Kelly and Paddence Murphy
The recent death of Jimmy Kelly of Chanterlands marked another milestone in the passage of time and the reactivation of memories first gathered during youthful days in Offaly Street. Jimmy was the...
View ArticleAthy Food hub, Manley Shop and Tir na nOg
The recent announcement of the Food and Drinks Hub to be located in the former Model School on the Dublin road is welcome news for Athy. The media announced it as an initiative by Kildare County...
View ArticleAthy Boxers John and Michael Donoghue
I had intended to write an Eye looking back at past local elections but before I put pen to paper two young fellows, members of Athy’s boxing club, contacted me regarding upcoming boxing tournaments in...
View ArticleLocal Election material of the past
With candidates for the forthcoming County Council elections and their supporters calling to homes throughout the county it is a good time to cast an eye over election material of the past. The...
View ArticleThe Woodstock Allotment Project
President Michael D. Higgins recent address in Athy regarding the value of a caring community was brought home to me during the week when I visited the Woodstock estate allotment project. What was once...
View ArticleFrank McCarthy, Kieran O'Doherty, Lisa Tobin, Anne Redmond and Teresa Campbell
The past week has been marked by the deaths of five members of our local community. Frank McCarthy, Kieran O’Doherty, Lisa Tobin, Anne Redmond and Teresa Campbell left behind treasured memories for...
View ArticleAthy's Republican Courts
Sometimes referred to as the Republican Courts or Sinn Fein Courts, Parish Courts were part of the Dail court system set up during the early part of the War of Independence. They were a precursor of...
View ArticleHenry Hosie and the I.V.I. Foundry
In Athy we knew him as the Colonel but his first army commission was as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Service Corps at the outbreak of World War 1. Henry Hosie, born on 31st December 1891, was the son...
View ArticleRev. Thomas Kelly
On Sunday 30th June Rev. Thomas Kelly, the founder of the Kellyites, will be commemorated with the unveiling of a plaque near to the entrance of his early 19th century meeting house in Duke Street....
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