Woodstock Castle as reported in the Dublin Penny Journal / Ben Taaffe
The Dublin Penny Journal was founded in 1831 by Caesar Otway who was later joined by George Petrie and John O’Donovan. In its early life the Journal published original articles of Irish interest which...
View ArticleShopkeepers Shows 1963 and 1964
Over the years Athy has been home to many festivals, two of which came to my attention as I sorted papers collected, laid aside and forgotten until today. Two xeroxed programmes for the Shopkeepers...
View ArticleWar of Independence deaths in Kildare or of Kildare men elsewhere in Ireland [1]
The first deaths of participants in the Irish War of Independence occurred three days before the start of the Easter Rising. On 21st April a car on the way to Tralee drove off the pier at...
View ArticleLions Club Everest Challenge / Pauper burials in St. Mary's Cemetery
The second part of the story of Kildare connected persons killed during the War of Independence is put aside until next week. Instead, I want to write of the unremembered deaths of men, women and...
View ArticleWr of Independence deaths in Kildare or of Kildare men elsewhere in Ireland [2]
During the period of civil unrest extending from the Easter Rising of 1916 to the end of 1921, 2850 Irish men, women and children were killed as a result of what the historians Eunan O’Halpin and...
View ArticleIrish Traditional Music and Athy
Irish traditional music, whether songs in Irish or English, instrumental music or dance music, has been passed on from generation to generation. Here in Athy, the Anglo-Norman town on the river Barrow...
View ArticleWar of Independence deaths in Kildare or of Kildare men elsewhere in Ireland [3]
The truce which came into effect on 11th July 1921 came approximately four months after the execution by the I.R.A. of Mrs. Mary Lindsey and her driver. The intervening four months saw 14 violent...
View ArticleCommemorating William Connor and James Lacey, victims of the Barrowhouse...
The Barrowhouse chapel bell rang out at 4 o’clock on the afternoon of 16th May last. It was around that time 100 years ago that two young men from Shanganaghmore lay dead on the ditch side of the road...
View ArticleKildare Senior Hurling Final 29 Nov., 1964, Athy and Eir Og
The game of hurling has over the years had a limited degree of success in Athy. The first Senior County Final in which the Athy club played was against Clane in 1909. Athy’s footballing club members...
View ArticleAthy references in 'A timeline of the War of Independence in County Kildare'
Within the past week the Kildare Decade of Commemoration Committee published a 128-page booklet titled ‘A Timeline of the War of Independence in County Kildare 1919-1922’. It details local incidents as...
View ArticleState Minister visits to Athy Museum Society
Last week’s visit by the Minister for State in the Department of Heritage and Local Government to the Shackleton Museum was a welcome acknowledgement of the importance of the museum redevelopment...
View ArticleRecovery of another Athy Workhouse ledger
When I was asked by the Eastern Health Board almost 30 years ago to research and write a history of St. Vincent’s Hospital and it’s predecessor, the Union Workhouse, I found to my dismay that the...
View ArticleArts Council Grant and the development of the arts in Athy
The Art Council’s announcement of a grant of €450,000 over a period of three years to help the development of creative opportunities for people of all ages in Athy was welcome news for the South...
View ArticleAthy Workhouse Minute Book 1892/'93
Images of Charles Dickens’s characters came to mind as I studied the Minute Book of 1892/’93 in which the Master of Athy’s Workhouse recorded the decisions of the Board of Guardians and his reports of...
View ArticleTeddy Kelly
Long forgotten memories flooded in on me as Teddy Kelly’s remains were lowered into the grave at the new St. Michael’s Cemetery. Memories which prompted me to recall that in that very same place where...
View ArticleTos Quinn / Dr. O'Neill's medical practice
The relentless march of time each day brings changes to our lives. Some for the better which are welcomed but there are also many unwelcomed events which leave us saddened. I have just come away from...
View ArticleSt. Vincent de Paul Society and Athy Lions Club Presidents Everest challenges
During twelve months of lockdown we have witnessed a catastrophic change in the commercial life of our town and district. Local businesses have suffered badly, and business owners and workers alike...
View Article'The Black and Tans 1920/'21' and 'The World War 1 Dead of Co. Kildare'
Two important books arrived on my desk in the last week, both of them with listings of men who served our neighbouring country at a time when Ireland was an unwilling part of the British empire. The...
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