Athy's Wheelchair Association
On Thursday last the Athy branch of the Irish Wheelchair Association celebrated the 50thanniversary of the founding of the first branch of the National organisation. Teach Emmanuel was ‘en fete’ for...
View ArticleAthy's Parish Priests(1)
St. Michael’s Parish Athy has had 20 parish priests since 1670, including several clerics who have been Archdeacons, Canons or Monsignors. Church records indicate that Fr. John Fitzsimons was the...
View ArticleAthy's Parish Priests (2)
Fr. James Doyle, Parish Priest of Athy, is buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery where his gravestone records that he was 64 years old when he passed away on 10th November 1892. He had served as a curate...
View ArticlePloughing Championship 1931
The Ploughing Championship for 2009 has come and gone and by all accounts it has been a resounding success. Returning to the area in which the first inter county ploughing contest was held in February...
View ArticleKevin O'Toole / Aiden McHugh and Athy's Gymnastic Club
Twice this week I joined with friends, acquaintances and neighbours to pay tribute to members of our local community on Tuesday evening. I walked behind the funeral cortege of Kevin O’Toole, a young...
View ArticlePhotographs - Athy G.F.C. Senior Team Late 1950's / Kildare Seniors 1957
With rain and dampness providing an unwelcome backdrop to the Emily Square market on Tuesday last my thoughts turned to past sunny days when footballing matters held my interest. I was prompted to do...
View ArticleBetty O'Donnell - A 'Gem' of a Lady
Betty O’Donnell, formerly Betty Prendergast of Carlow, came to Athy as the young bride of Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim native, Jimmy O’Donnell in 1948. They arrived to take over the running of the shop...
View ArticleShackleton Autumn School 2009
For the last nine years the local Heritage Centre has hosted the Shackleton Autumn School over the October Bank Holiday weekend. It has grown in status over the years, hosting as it does each year a...
View ArticleSt. Laurence's Senior Championship Winners / Athy G.F.C. Minor Championship...
Last Sunday the sporting people of Kilmead, Booleigh, Narraghmore, Ballitore, Calverstown, Kilgowan, Brewel, Blackhall, Ballymount, Usk, Moone and Mullaghmast celebrated their local team’s highly...
View ArticleWorld War I / Michael Territt / Johnny Timpson
Her mother wore a poppy every Remembrance Sunday. She wore it around the house but seldom ventured outside the door that particular Sunday as she would ordinarily do every other day of the year. ‘Why...
View ArticleIrish Language Organisations in Athy / Athy's New Gaelscoil
This past weekend Athy hosted a number of events, one of which brought us face to face with our distant past observed as never before by a mature and confident Irish people. The other event was in its...
View ArticleNames of Athy G.F.C. Senior Team, Doyle and Looney Families
With the help of a number of readers and especially Matt Perse, the Athy players, officials and supporters whose photograph appeared here some weeks ago have now been identified. For the record the...
View ArticleKitty O'Shea's Book 'Charles Stewart Parnell'
‘A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever’. I can’t recall who penned these words but they strike a chord with me given my interest in books and the printed word. Over the years...
View ArticleRiver Barrow and Athy's Boating Regattas
The River Barrow had cut a channel through this part of the country long before there was any settlement here. It was the ability to travel by boat from the sea up the river which brought the first...
View ArticlePhotograph Bradbury's Bakery Staff / Henry Phillips Impresario
I am always delighted to be shown photographs of times past in South Kildare and am particularly pleased when given the opportunity of copying photographs such as that which appears with today’s...
View ArticleArticle 10
Michael Malone’s ‘Annals of Athy’ were published by Burrows of Cheltenham and London in the early 1930s. The date of publication is not stated on the booklet, which however carries a foreword by the...
View Article'I hate to see the town go down' - Athy's economic slump
‘I hate to see the town go down’ sung by Dave Mallett is playing in the background as I sit down to write this week’s Eye on the Past. The blank sheet which faced me as I put pen to paper suddenly...
View ArticlePhotographs of Parades through Athy's Main Street
I recently came across some photographs of parades through the town featuring a number of businesses which are no longer trading. I use the word ‘parades’ in the plural as the photographs which at...
View ArticlePhotographs Rehban Team 1967 and Asbestos Factory Team
Volume Two Issue Three of the Newsletter issued by the Friends of Athy Heritage Centre has an interesting article on Lord Furnival, the man who erected a fortress on the bridge of Athy in 1417....
View ArticleAthy Lions Club Cycle Rally
‘Charity begins at home’. It’s an old saying familiar to all but uncertain as to its origin. Its relevance is questionable at times when disasters of so many different kinds affect peoples of far...
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