Orphan Emigration Scheme
Athy’s workhouse was opened on 9 January 1844. It was designed and built to accommodate 360 adult inmates and 240 children. The Great Famine which commenced with the failure of the potato crop in 1845...
View ArticleChristy Johnson
I left the Christian Brother’s School in January 1961 and went to work with Kildare County Council. I was to remain out of Athy for the following 21 years. Just three years before I departed for the...
View ArticleFirst Gardai in Athy
The Morris Tribunal now at hearing in Co. Donegal into allegations concerning members of the Garda Siochana in that division is so far as I can recall the first such enquiry since the Force was founded...
View ArticlePhotograph of Cast of 'Dick Whittington' - 1947
I have been aware for sometime of my neglect of the great musical shows which graced the stage of the Town Hall in the mid 1940’s. May Bachelor has been my informant in relation to this part of the...
View ArticleNames of Students Photographed [See Eye No. 516]
This week I am re-producing a group photograph which first appeared in the column just weeks before the Christian Brothers School Class Re-union last September. The photograph shows pupils from the...
View ArticleHaggis Dinner / Wren Boys ; Launch of Michael Delaney's Book
Christmas always brings with it surprises. Pleasant or otherwise they are an almost essential part of the festive season as people renew contact with family, friends and acquaintances. My surprise,...
View ArticleChristopher Fingleton
As you journey on the road to Carlow and beyond you pass about four miles out from Athy the towering gaunt castellated remains of Levitstown Mill. Idle and vacant for almost 70 years the sturdy walls...
View ArticleAthy Christian Brothers School
To mark the coming together of Scoil Eoin and Scoil Mhuire as one school later in the year transition year students from the former Christian Brothers Secondary School have embarked on a publishing...
View ArticleEddie Delahunt / Barney Dunne
Eddie Delahunt and Barney Dunne died during the past week. Their passing is a sad loss to a local community which was enriched by their contributions over many decades. Eddie was a native of Athy,...
View Article1920 Local Elections in Athy
Free elections are the bedrock of our democracy. Later this year the country will go to the polls and using the proportional representation system of voting will elect members of a new Dáil Eireann....
View ArticleErnest Coyle / 'Who by Fire'
I have just returned from the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge where I attended the opening of an exhibition of works portraying “the vast array of talent amongst the social groupings in Athy”. At...
View ArticleNoel Scully
He has often been described as “the last of the old style butchers”. It’s a claim which finds favour with Noel Scully, but I’m not so sure that it is strictly correct. Whether it is or not is...
View ArticlePhotographs of opening of St. Michael's Parish Church
Older residents of the town will remember the huge fund raising activities which went into the drive for funds for the construction of St. Michael’s Church in the town. They included weekly house-to-...
View ArticleAthy's Mace
Just a few months before I returned to Athy in 1982 the then Urban District Council was engaged in a lively debate on the merits or otherwise of acquiring the mace of Athy Borough which was to be...
View ArticleWilliam Connor / Benjamin Pelin
I have often wondered to what extent farm labourer militancy (if I could call it such) in South Kildare was due to the influence of William Conner of Inch or for that matter Benjamin Pelin of...
View ArticlePhotographs / Wren Boys / Athy Gardai
Photographs are a wonderful record of times past and this week having laid aside my pen for the festive season I reproduce two photographs from our recent history. The first photograph is of wren boys...
View ArticlePhotographs / Athy Credit Union / Blessing of Geraldine Park
A further set of photographs from Athy's past is this weeks offering for the Eye on the Past. Athy Credit Union was established in 1968 and the first photograph shows the directors of the Credit Union...
View ArticleWilliam Conner / Benjamin Pelin
I have often wondered to what extent farm labourer militancy (if I could call it such) in South Kildare was due to the influence of William Conner of Inch or for that matter Benjamin Pelin of...
View ArticlePhotographs St. Dominic's Church / Duke Street
Two photographs this week of Athy scenes no longer to be seen. The first is an interior shot of St. Dominic’s Church which was demolished and replaced by the present Church. Fr. Lawrence Cremmin,...
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