Alice Quinn, Esther Flynn and Sarah Cahill

Emigration has always been a central feature of Irish provincial town life but particularly so in Ireland of the post economic war years of the 1930s.  I was reminded of this when talking recently to three Athy women whose family lives were marked by emigration.  For the vast majority of the Irish men and women who emigrated in the last century the principal destination was Great Britain.  So too for the father of sisters Alice Quinn and Esther Flynn who left Athy in 1942 to work for British Rail in Leicester city. Paddy Wall spent several decades working in Leicester.  On retirement he returned home to Athy and often recounted to his family stories of his involvement in the aftermath of World War II bombings.  Sarah Cahill’s father Thomas Morrin was also driven by Ireland’s past political and economic failures to take the emigrant boat to work in England. 

As I sat in Frank O’Brien’s pub to talk to the three cheerful ladies I was struck by their almost sanguine acceptance of difficult past times, but times which they insisted were nevertheless happy times.  All three left school at an early age, deprived because of their circumstances of the opportunities which a secondary education might provide.  At fourteen years of age they went to work, Sarah Morrin to Plewman’s house on the Kilkenny Road, while sisters Alice and Esther Wall, who with their mother and brother Johnny had joined their father in Leicester,  also joined the work force on reaching 14 years of age.  Esther worked for some years in a wool factory, while her younger sister Alice worked in Woolworths. 

The Wall family returned to their family home in 6 Nelson Street after spending five years in Leicester but a number of years were to pass before they could be joined again by the father of the family.  Thomas Morrin was also able to return to work in his home town of Athy when he obtained employment in the local Asbestos factory.  Family life with an absent father working and living in England was a fairly common situation to be found in provincial Ireland of the 1940s and 1950s.  The difficulties this presented for the mothers of young children and the void it created in family life can only be imagined.  However, in a country with so few employment opportunities and where emigration figured large in everyday life Irish mothers proved resilient and resourceful. 

Sarah Morrin and Esther Wall were in the same class in St. Mary’s Convent School in Athy with Alice Wall two classes behind before Esther and Alice left for Leicester where they continued their education.  Alice on returning to Athy worked in Bachelor’s Pea Factory until she married John Quinn in 1968.  They lived in Plewman’s Terrace, the same terrace where her friend Sarah Morrin was born and lived before her marriage. 

Esther Wall’s story highlights the persistence of emigration in Irish social life as having spent five years in Leicester before returning to Nelson Street, Athy she again emigrated in 1960.  This time the journey was made with her boyfriend Seamus Flynn of Kilberry when both travelled to Manchester where they were married and where they lived for the next 30 years.

Sarah Morrin, who later married Nicholas Cahill, remembers spending a number of years working all year round in Lambs farm in Fontstown.  An early morning start saw Sarah and her work companions collected in Emily Square to be brought by lorry to the Fontstown Fruit Farm.  On marrying at 21 years of age Sarah went to live in Pairc Bhride where she is now a long time resident.  Sarah Morrin whose parents were appointed tenants of No. 18 Plewman’s Terrace in November 1936 proudly claims to have been the first baby born in Plewman’s Terrace.

I met the three happy contented ladies last week when we swopped stories of life in Athy over the years.  Tales of the lively town scene of yesteryear when the shops stayed open until late on Saturday night, mixed with stories of ‘the tuppenny rush’ at Bob’s Cinema in Offaly Street brought back treasured memories.  Alice Quinn, Sarah Cahill and Esther Flynn are some of the wonderful people who with their friendliness and shared memories make Athy such a wonderful place in which to live.

Anti-partition movement 1949

‘It was decided in the interest of harmonious relations between all religions in the district that publication of the two letters from Northern Ireland be withheld.’  This entry in the minute book of Athy Urban District Council in February 1949 intrigued me when I first read it 30 or more years ago.  The letters mentioned were not filed and so their contents remained a mystery which I felt I was never likely to unravel. 

The Nationalist and Leinster Times report had related to a meeting of Athy Urban District Council where Labour Councillor Tom Carbery complimented the people of Athy on their response to an appeal for funds for the Anti-Partition movement.  However, in thanking the locals for their contributions Councillor Carbery deplored the lack of response from the non-Catholic communities in the town.  Fellow Councillors, M.G. Nolan, a local draper and Liam Ryan, a teacher in the local Christian Brothers School, both of whom were Fianna Fail members of the Council, voiced similar views to those expressed by Councillor Carbery.

The Minutes of the next meeting of the Council noted ‘arising out of the discussion at the previous meeting re failure of some people to subscribe to the Anti Partition Campaign Collection held outside the churches in the town two letters were received from residents of Northern Ireland.  Mr. L. Ryan pointed out that none of the speakers at the previous meeting condemned Protestants, as such, but condemned all those who had not subscribed irrespective of their religion.  Mr. Patrick Dooley stated he was absolutely opposed to anything that would cause religious bitterness or strife.’  As already noted the meeting agreed not to publish the letters.

However, the two letters sent from Northern Ireland were apparently copied and found their way into the library of the local Dominican Priory.  They formed part of a cache of papers and documents given to me recently on the departure of the Dominicans from Athy.  The first letter addressed to ‘Chairman and Fellow Bigots Athy County Council’ referred to the ‘Fenian Council’s’ attempt to remove the ‘disloyal element’ for not subscribing to the ‘Chapel pittance’.  The unknown letter writer who used the name ‘Ulster Luther’ after signing off ‘Moscow before Rome’ warned that ‘Northern Protestants are united as never before.  It will be the sons of the planters you will face and unlike our enslaved and tortured brethren in Spain, whom the Christian Franco intends to obliterate, our cause will prevail.’ 

The second letter writer appended his name and his Belfast address but his message was perhaps more threatening given his indirect references to the Belfast pogroms.  ‘There are 100,000 papists in the six counties and bear in mind they are employed by Protestants and I am sure you don’t want a repetition of 1920 and 1922 again.’ 

Referring to the remarks by two unnamed members of Athy Council the writer claimed they suggested that Protestants who did not subscribe to the collection ‘should go back to the North’.  He finished off  his letter with the warning ‘Remember there is no England to come to your aid this time as in the days of Grattan.  I warn you against any further moves towards those Protestants as we will move here inside 24 hours.’  The letter writer claiming not to be a communist but a ‘loyal Ulster man and an orangeman’ gave his name and signed off ‘No Pope and no surrender’.

The local Councillors confined their subsequent discussions to more mundane matters such as calling for a regional hospital serving Counties Kildare, Carlow, Laois, Wicklow and Kilkenny to be located in Athy.  Equally ineffective was their adoption of a draft development scheme for Athy completed by the Council’s planning consultant which provided for a proposed bypass road of Athy.   Sixty six years later the bypass road is still at the planning stage but thankfully references to religious differences are no longer acceptable or even worthy of discussion.

Professor Louise Richardson, whom I believe lived in Athy in the 1960s, was recently installed as the first woman Vice Chancellor of Oxford University.  Before her appointment to the Oxford position she had made Scottish history by becoming the first female and the first Catholic appointed as Vice Chancellor of St. Andrew’s University.  Her parents, I believe, lived in Chanterlands and her father, Arthur Richardson, was an active member of the local St. Vincent de Paul Society during his time in Athy. 

If you remember the Richardson family of Chanterlands I would be delighted to hear from you.

The official opening of Dooley's Terrace, April 1934

Mealys Auctioneers recently sold at auction a ceremonial key which had been presented to Sean T. O’Ceallaigh in 1934 when opening the housing scheme at Dooley’s Terrace.  The silver key, inscribed with the words ‘Presented to Sean T. O’Ceallaigh Esq., Minister for Local Government, on the occasion of the opening of the Athy Housing Scheme April, 1934’ was the gift of local building contractors D. & J. Carbery of St. John’s, Athy.

In May 1932 Dr. John Kilbride, whose father Dr. James Kilbride had played a major part in improving conditions in the town in the early part of the 20^th century, submitted a report to the elected members of Athy Urban District Council.  The report noted that 1292 persons were living in 323 houses in Athy, none of which contained more than two rooms.  All were devoid of sanitary accommodation and nearly all of them were in a poor state of repair, with many located in sun starved courts and alleyways.  Dr. Kilbride questioned how could children be brought up properly in those conditions.  He pointed out that in Barrack Street there were 11 persons, including married couples, living in two rooms, while on the Canal Side there were four houses with no yards and in one lived 10 people and in another 6 people.  In New Row 10 people lived in a two roomed house, while a similar house in the same row housed 9 people and in each of two other houses 8 persons lived.  The local medical officer concerned at the appalling housing conditions to be found in the town called on the Council to build houses and for every house built to level an unfit house before it was re-let. 

Councillor Brigid Darby of Leinster Street, a National School teacher in Churchtown, proposed that the Council make arrangements to build 100 houses ‘for the working classes’ and that the houses ‘be divided between east and west Athy in proportion to the need determined by Dr. Kilbride.’  The Council took advantage of the 1932 Housing Act which the newly elected Fianna Fail Government had passed as part of the Government’s Slum Clearance Programme.  By October 1932 the Department of Local Government had approved plans for 17 houses in Carbery’s field at Rathstewart, 20 houses in the Sisters of Mercy field, also at Rathstewart, and 56 houses in Doyle’s field adjoining the County Home.

Local building contractors D. & J. Carbery Ltd. submitted the lowest tender of £14,122 for the 56 houses and for the 17 house scheme they were also the successful contractor with a tender of £4,403.  The Urban District Council directed that ‘all houses are to be roofed with tiles that are made locally and the external walls are to be built of Athy brick.’  Building work commenced at the end of 1932, but it soon became apparent that Athy brick was in short supply.  As a result permission was given to utilise Dolphins Barn brick until Athy brick was available in sufficient quantities. 

On 18^th December 1933 the Urban District Council at a meeting chaired by Patrick Dooley agreed to name the 56 house scheme ‘Michael Dooley Terrace’ in memory of the Chairman’s brother who had died unexpectedly the previous October.  The Minutes of the Council meeting noted in relation to Michael Dooley ‘he was always a staunch and steady supporter of the national cause from the old Sinn Fein days up to the last.  He fought and suffered in the cause of Ireland when there was real fighting to be done and when he had everything to lose in the cause of fidelity to his country.’

The tenants of the Michael Dooley houses were appointed in February 1934.  All of the tenants were re-housed from areas included in Slum Clearance Orders made by the Council which included Barrack Street, Shrewleen Lane and Higginsons Lane.

The Minister for Local Government Sean T. O’Ceallaigh opened the Michael Dooley Terrace houses on Thursday, 5^th April 1934.  The National Press reported that ‘a huge crowd accorded Mr. Kelly a great welcome at the Railway Station from where he was paraded through the town preceded by Churchtown Pipe Band, Bert Pipe Band and Athy’s Pipe Band.’  The Minister received a brief address of welcome read by a young boy on behalf of the tenants before the official opening.  Does anyone know who that boy was?

The key presented to the Minister by the contractors D. & J. Carbery 82 years ago following the official opening of Michael Dooley Terrace has now been purchased by Kildare County Council and hopefully it will return soon to Athy to be exhibited in the local Heritage Centre. 

Athy Heritage Centre Museum granted full museum status

During the past week the Heritage Council announced that Athy Heritage Centre-Museum had been awarded full accreditation under the Museum Standards Programme for Ireland.  This means that our local Museum, first opened in 1983 in a vacant classroom in St. Mary’s Convent School, is classified as a Museum on the same level as the National Museum in Dublin.  To have reached the necessary standard for such a classification is an enormous achievement, due in large measure to the ongoing work of Margaret Walsh, the Centre Manager, the Centre staff members and the volunteers who give freely of their time and experience.

The Heritage Centre-Museum has ranked up several noteworthy achievements in its short life and has also gained a remarkable international niche for itself in terms of Antarctic studies.  The annual Shackleton Autumn School is now a well known part of the international Polar studies forum.  Nowhere was that more clear than by the Centre’s recent acquisition of the Shackleton cabin despite competition from the famous Fram Museum in Norway.

The future development of the Centre-Museum which will be facilitated by the transfer of the town’s library to the former Dominican Church affords a huge opportunity to maximise its tourist potential.  The development of tourism in the South Kildare area may seem to many as an aspiration which holds out little hope of success.  This however is an attitude which is perhaps fashioned from decades of unimaginative acceptance of a market town mentality and a rigid adherence to an economic model of another era.  We need to look at the regeneration of the town of Athy with an open mind, realising that both local natural and manmade infrastructure afford an opportunity to develop and recharge the town’s economy.

We need industry as well as we need a vibrant commercial sector.  To that mix we should also add the undoubted benefits of a thriving tourism sector.  The proposed Shackleton Museum will in time no doubt prove to be an  important tourist attraction and its success will hopefully encourage us to market better the wonderful facilities we have in this area. 

When I look to the future of tourism in Athy and the region my thoughts turn to the iconic building on the bridge of Athy – White’s Castle.  This is a building which must form part of any tourism development plan for the town.  It is such an important building and one which could potentially prove to be a huge attraction for visitors to Athy if it were adapted to tell the medieval story and perhaps the story of the Fitzgeralds, some of whose family names are remembered in the principal street names of Athy.

Visitors to Athy are always extremely complimentary of the town’s buildings, the town’s central squares, the River Barrow and the Grand Canal.  Living as I have for most of my life in Athy I like so many others in the town was oblivious of these attractive qualities until they were highlighted in the comments of visitors over the years.

The success of the Heritage Centre-Museum is an indicator of the huge potential for tourism development in this part of the county and hopefully in the not too distant future we can look to the Museum and Whites Castle as twin attractions spearheading the drive for tourists in this area.

The Shackleton Challenge, an exercise in leadership development initiated and adapted by Athy Heritage Centre-Museum for secondary school students concluded this week with a final assessment of twelve projects devised and managed by students of Athy’s Ardscoil na Tríonóide.  The assessors for the project were our three local T.D.’s, together with local industrialists who found that all of the projects involving teams of four or five students provided an excellent opportunity for team building and the promotion of leadership skills.  The project teams were monitored throughout the several weeks of the projects by experienced adults from the local community.  It is intended to extend the Shackleton Challenge to other secondary schools over the coming years.

During the week I attended an event in Ardscoil na Tríonóide organised by transition year students to mark the centenary of the Easter Rebellion.  It was quite a good show but two students stood out for their outstanding contributions which deserve particular mention.  Joe Byrne played the uileann pipes and the bag pies brilliantly and made an enormous impact on the audience.  His is a musical talent which has already been recognised and will undoubtedly lead to national and international success in the not too distant future.

The Master of Ceremonies for the evening was another student whose poise and superb speaking voice marked him out as a future radio star if he should wish to embark on such a career.  Adam Bowden had a straightforward role to play in the event but he performed with aplomb and with such ease that he stood out, as did his fellow student Joe Byrne.  Congratulations to both and to all the transition year students and their teachers who were involved in the show.

Address at concluding 1916 commemoration ceremony in Athy on 12 April 2016

Athy’s commemoration of the centenary of the 1916 Rising concluded on Sunday 17^th April with a formal ceremony at Emily Square.  The proceedings opened with the following address which I am reproducing as this week’s Eye on the Past.

‘In this the centenary year of the Easter Rising we come together to commemorate with pride and dignity the vision, courage and sacrifices that marked the events of Easter week 1916.  We do so in the knowledge that constitutional nationalism and armed rebellion which fused in the years following the Rising transformed Irish political life.  It led to the first Dáil, the War of Independence and regrettably the Civil War but independence in the face of military oppression by the largest empire in the world was an achievement of historical proportions. 

There are many conflicting interpretations of the Easter Rising and commemorating an armed Rebellion which occurred without the people’s support is always going to be challenging.  Questions may be asked about the legitimacy of the Easter Rising – but it is not for us to justify or condemn but to try to understand.

Insurrection was far from the minds of most Irish men and women at the start of the 20^th century.  In 1798 the United Irishmen inspired by the republican ideals of the American War of Independence and the French Revolution had raised the country in revolt.  Robert Emmet had led a revolt in 1803, the Young Islanders in 1848 and the Fenians in 1867 at a time of agrarian discontent.  All had failed. 

In 1914 the leaders of the Irish Volunteers were secretly organising for an armed revolt.  From the radical socialist James Connolly to the nationalist poet, Padraig Pearse, they were committed to changing Ireland’s political situation.  The execution of the 1916 leaders turned the tide of public opinion and led to a radically new direction for Irish Nationalists.  The effect of the Rising of Easter week 1916 termed by the Irish historian, Desmond Ryan, as – ‘one of the most arresting examples in all history of the triumph of failure’, was as Pearse foresaw to shake Ireland from her sleep of apathy.

Those who had little sympathy with the aspirations of the 1916 leaders while they lived began to change their minds after the executions in Kilmainham jail.  George Russell, the Irish poet better known as AE would write:-

                

                 “Their dream had left me numb and cold,

But yet my spirit rose in price,

Refashioning in burnished gold

The images of those who died

Or were shut in the penal cell.

Here’s to you, Pearse, your dream not mine,

But yet the thought for this you fell

Has turned life’s waters into wine.”

Athy in 1916 was a town which had made a huge contribution in terms of young men who volunteered to enlist to fight overseas in the 1914-18 war.  Another young man born in Russellstown was at that time working in Dublin and as a member of the Irish Volunteers he served under Comdt. Ned Daly in the Four Courts.  Mark Wilson was the only Athy man confirmed to have participated as a Volunteer in the Easter Rising.  Following the surrender ordered by the rebel leaders he was imprisoned in Stafford Detention Barracks.  Today we are privileged to have in attendance his son, also named Mark, who is here with other members of the Wilson family.

It was the bravery of men such as Mark Wilson which helped change the public’s attitude and in time led to the resurgence of Nationalist fervour culminating in the establishment of a Sinn Fein club in Athy in June 1917.  Chairman of that club was local shopkeeper Michael Dooley of Duke Street in whose honour the 1932 Housing Estate on Stradbally Road was named Dooley’s Terrace.  Others associated with the Nationalist cause included  Bapty Maher, Eamon Malone, Joe May, Dick Murphy, Christine Malone, William Mahon, P.P. Doyle, Michael May, Tom Corcoran, Joe Mullery, Julia Dooley, Alice Lambe, Hester Dooley and the O’Rourke and Lambe brothers.

If the Easter Rising was the seminal event in the establishment of the Irish State the involvement of these men and women from Athy in the struggle for independence was a significant continuation of the town’s previous participation in the national struggle which stretched back to the Confederate wars and the 1798 Rebellion.

In our final 1916 commemoration event here in Athy we acknowledge the significance of the contribution of Mark Wilson and others to the shaping of modern Ireland.  While not all of the ideals of the 1916 Proclamation have been realised today, nevertheless in this centenary year it is appropriate for us to acknowledge with pride the part played by the men and women of 1916 in furthering the cause of Irish freedom.’

Thanks to all those who contacted me regarding Athy’s 1966 Commemoration of the Rising.  I am still anxious to see if photographs of that event have been retained by anyone.

Ernest Shackleton and the rescue of the crew of the Endurance

On Easter Monday 24^th April 1916 the Easter Rising erupted in Dublin.  Contingents of men from the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizens Army quickly sought to seize sites in Dublin such as the GPO and the Four Courts.  On that same day thousands of miles away three Irishmen embarked upon a boat journey which is now regarded as one of the greatest adventure stories in maritime history.

Six men manned the boat called ‘The James Caird’.  The Caird was one of the lifeboats from Ernest Shackleton’s expedition ship, ‘The Endurance’ which had been crushed on the ice of the Antarctic seas in October 1915.  Shackleton and his men had spent five months surviving on the ice floes until the ice began to break up and then made a dash for safety to Elephant Island.  Elephant Island was a forlorn rocky isle on the edge of the Weddell Sea which did not offer any prospects for long term survival for the men of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition.

On that fateful Easter Monday the Kildare-born Shackleton, the Kerry man Tom Crean, the Cork man Tim McCarthy, the Scots man Henry McNish, the English man John Vincent and New Zealander Frank Worsley left their comrades on Elephant Island on a forlorn mission to rescue the crew of the Endurance now left behind on Elephant Island under the leadership of Frank Wilde, Shackleton’s second in command.

Although these men were experienced seafarers it is hard to imagine that they held up much hope for reaching civilisation given that it was almost 800 miles from the island to South Georgia which was occupied almost exclusively by Norwegians in the whaling and sealing industries.

Under extraordinary tough conditions and with limited equipment and even more limited food they made the journey to Elephant Island in just under 17 days.  When they first reached the coastline around South Georgia they were appalled to find that they had reached land on the wrong side of the island where there was no habitation whatsoever.  Realising that the James Caird could not survive another couple of days at sea they resolved to beach the boat and cross the island, a feat which had never been attempted by any man before.

Notwithstanding their emaciated condition and not having any suitable mountaineering gear Shackleton with Tom Crean and Frank Worsley embarked upon a 36 hour crossing of South Georgia.  What now faced them was the task of attempting to traverse the peaks and glaciers of South Georgia which had never been crossed nor mapped before.

Over the course of 36 hours they achieved the crossing after many hair raising episodes.    They took little or no rest during their trek across South Georgia.  At around 5 a.m. on their final day of the crossing Shackleton directed his companions Crean and Worsley to stop for a brief rest.  Both Crean and Worsley immediately fell into a deep sleep.  Shackleton himself stayed awake.  After five minutes he woke his companions, telling them they had slept for half an hour.  As Michael Smith, Shackleton’s most recent biographer put it, ‘it was a lie that saved their lives.’

At around 6.30 a.m. they reached a rocky ridge overlooking what they believed to be Stromness Bay.  Although they had no sight of the buildings of Stromness Shackleton knew that the whalers aroused from their beds around 6.30 a.m. most mornings and that at 7 a.m. the steam whistle of the factory would summons them to work.  The three men waited patiently and at 7 a.m. on the dot they heard the shrill sound of the steam whistle, the first sound of the outside world that they had heard in 17 months.

Their trek was not yet over but Shackleton knew he had to push himself and his men all the harder to get down to Stromness Bay before the reserves in strength gave out.  Finally at 4 p.m. on 20^th May 1916 they made it to Stromness.  They encountered Mattheus Anderson, the station foreman at Stromness, who was working when he first saw the three bearded and dirt encrusted men.  Anderson brought them to meet the manager of the whaling station, a man who was very familiar to Shackleton.  The manager did not recognise Shackleton.  One of Shackleton’s first questions to the manager was ‘was the war over?’.  The Endurance had left England in August 1914, just as the Great War began in France and Belgium.  The manager answered, ‘the war is not over, millions have been killed.  Europe is mad.  The world is mad.’  Eight days previously the last of the 1916 leaders were executed at Kilmainham Jail.  Among them Sean Mac Diarmada and the critically injured James Connolly.  The world indeed was mad.

Continuing Athy's 1916 rebellion commemorations

On Tuesday nights over the past three weeks Athy’s Community Arts Centre has been a mecca for anyone interested in local events surrounding the Easter Rebellion of 1916.  The series of lectures organised as part of Athy’s commemoration of the Easter Rising has witnessed talks by James Durney, historian in residence to Kildare County Council, Des Marnane, author and broadcaster from Tipperary and Padraig Yeates, author of several books on Dublin’s history.  The final lecture will be given this Tuesday, 12^th April, at 8.00 p.m. by Francis Devine.  His subject ‘From Lockout to Rising, the I.T.G.W.U., I.C.A., Liberty Hall in 1916’  promises to give a detailed account of Dublin’s working men’s involvement in the events of 1916.  Admission to the lecture is free.

The final event in the local commemoration programme takes place in Emily Square on Sunday, 17^th April at 3.00 p.m.  This will be our last opportunity to participate in the centenary events marking the 1916 Rising and to pay our respects to those men and women who played a part in that Rising.  The only Athy man whom it is confirmed participated as a Volunteer in the Easter Rising was Russellstown born Mark Wilson.  His son, also named Mark, together with members of his extended family, will attend the Emily Square ceremonies. 

Athy people can be justifiably proud of the part played by local townspeople in the post 1916 period as the history of emerging Irish nationhood developed.  I have in previous Eyes on the Past mentioned by name those men and women who participated in the struggle for Irish freedom.  Regrettably a comprehensive list of those involved is not available.  How I wish that someone of that generation was recording and noting the events and people of that time and so help to preserve an important part of our local history.  It is gratifying to note that great strides have been made in recent months to make available through the internet various records and documents relating to 1916 and the subsequent War of Independence.  From some of those records I have extracted the names of Athy men and women who were involved in the national struggle.

Christine Malone, with an address in April 1939 at 79 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin was noted as holding the rank of captain in Athy’s Cumann na mBan.  In the early 1980s I was privileged to meet Christine Malone who was then living in Convent View but unfortunately I knew nothing then of her War of Independence involvement.  It was long after her death that I became so aware and so missed the opportunity of learning so much of what has now been lost concerning the activities of the Cumann na mBan in Athy.  Other Cumann na mBan members recorded as attached to “A” Coy 5^th Battalion, Carlow Brigade I.R.A. were Mrs. Julia Dooley, St. Michael’s Terrace, Mrs. May, Woodstock Street and Alice Lambe, Upper William St.

The names of J.J. Bergin of Maybrook and Frank of O’Brien of Emily Square appear prominently in reports of meetings of the National Volunteers following their breakaway from the original Irish Volunteers.  The Athy Volunteers were perhaps the largest such group in County Kildare prior to the Volunteer split and were quite active as confirmed in the following press report of 19^th September 1914. 

‘On Sunday last Athy Volunteers held manoeuvres in the vicinity of the town.  Companys A and B were the white army, Companys C and D the blue enemy.  The latter were the attacking army and having crossed the Barrow towards the Queens County came in touch with the enemy at Bennettsbridge where a “battle” took place.  The Army Medical Nursing Corps displayed great proficiency in dressing “the wounded”.’

The report further noted that the men of Athy were progressing in the art of war.  Soon afterwards the Volunteers would split between the National Volunteers who followed John Redmond and the Irish Volunteers, a much smaller group, who resisted the call to fight in World War I.

A name not previously mentioned was that of Master Thomas Blanchfield who in June 1914 was recorded as the Commander of the Boys Corps of the Irish Volunteers.  This Corps was composed principally of boys from the Christian Brothers School in St. John’s Lane. Other names which I have taken from Cumann na mBan branch records are that of Kathleen Whelan of Ballylinan who was captain of the Ballylinan branch and Mary T. McKenna of Raheen, Ballylinan who was the branch treasurer.

The commemoration events throughout Ireland marking the centenary of the 1916 Rising have been photographed and recorded for posterity.  I wonder if photographs of the 50^th anniversary events in Athy attended by many of the survivors of the War of Independence are to be found today.  I recall seeing a photograph some years ago of some of those men [I can’t recall any women], parading in Emily Square to mark the 1916 Easter Rebellion.  Does anyone have any photographs of the 1966 commemoration in Athy which they would be willing to share?  If you have I would welcome the opportunity of scanning the photographs so that another piece of our local history can be recovered and retained. 

Don’t forget the lecture this Tuesday in Athy’s Community Arts Centre and the closing event of this centenary year’s commemoration in Emily Square on Sunday 17^th April at 3.00 p.m.

Continuing Athy's 1916 rebellion commemorations

The third lecture in the 1916 commemoration series takes place this Tuesday, 5^th April at 8.00 p.m. in the Community Arts Centre, Woodstock Street.  ‘Looters, Deserters and Crime in Dublin in 1916’ is the title of the talk to be given by Dublin author, Padraig Yeates.  Padraig has written several well received books on different aspects of Dublin’s history, the most recent of which was ‘A City in Civil War – Dublin 1921-24’ which was published last year.

A unique part of the evening’s entertainment will be the playing of the uileann pipes once owned by the 1916 executed leader Eamonn Ceannt.  The pipes have been in the ownership of a local man for almost 40 years or more and are a treasured reminder of the 1916 leader who was executed on 8^th May, 1916.  Ceannt’s uileann pipes will be played at the start of Tuesday’s lecture by Tos Quinn who is one of the legendary group of musicians who play traditional music in Clancy’s every Thursday night.  The musical interlude and the lecture promise to give us a very special night in Athy’s Community Arts Centre. 

The final lecture in the 1916 series will take place on Tuesday, 12^th April when Francis Devine, author and historian will speak on the topic ‘From Lockout to Rising, the I.T.G.W.U., I.C.A., Liberty Hall in 1916’.  Admission is free to all the lectures and to the other 1916 commemoration events which will be held in Athy during the next few weeks. 

The Heritage Centre stages ‘A step back in time’ exhibition on Saturday, 9^th April from 12noon to 4p.m.  This takes place in the Heritage Centre and also in Emily Square and will give a flavour of the sights and sounds of the year when the Rebellion broke out in our capital city.

On 14^th April local school children will display their art inspired by the events of 1916 in the Community Arts Centre at 7.30 p.m.  The exhibition will also feature the 1916 Proclamation which the people of Athy will be asked to sign in what I gather is a unique contribution to furthering the ideals of the leaders of the 1916 Rebellion.

The final event in Athy’s 1916 commemorations will be a solemn commemoration to be held in Emily Square on Sunday, 17^th April commencing at 3.00 p.m.  Here the 1916 Proclamation will be read after members of St. Michael’s O.N.E. and St. Brigid’s Pipe band have paraded through the town to the assembly point in Emily Square.  An ecumenical service will be held there following which a wreath will be laid at the Town Hall in memory of those men and women who participated in the Easter Rebellion.  It is hoped that a son of Mark Wilson, the Russellstown born man who was part of the Four Courts garrison during Easter week 1916 will join us on Sunday, 17^th April to lay the wreath.  The ceremony will conclude with the raising of the Tricolour and the sounding of the last post. 

Last week I wrote of the founding of the Sinn Fein Club here in Athy in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising and the execution of its leaders.  The Athy commemoration ceremonies honour not only those who took part in the 1916 Rebellion but also those who in the months and years after 1916 gave of their time and energies to secure the independence of our country.  That the task they had set themselves is not yet finished is no fault of those brave men and women who were members of the IRB, Cumann na mBan or later the reinvigorated Sinn Fein party which was founded as a non military organisation.

When one looks back over Athy’s long history we can see how different generations sought to break the link with England.  Armed conflicts searching back to the Confederate Wars and later still the 1798 Rebellion had Athy folk heavily involved.  The strength of that opposition was considerably weakened over successive generations as poverty and financial dependency compelled many young men to join the British Army.  The Crimean War and the Boer War saw Athy men serving overseas, while the 1914/’18 war saw local church and civic leaders play an active role in encouraging the young men of Athy to enlist in the British Army.

The cause of Irish nationalism reasserted itself in the post 1916 period and Athy through its patriotic men and women such as Bapty Maher, Richard Murphy, Joe May, Eamon Malone and Christine Moloney to name just a few played their part in the armed struggle which we describe as the War of Independence.

Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler's participation in 1916 rebellion

On Tuesday 29^th March the second lecture in the 1916 series will be given by Dr. Des Marnane in the Community Arts Centre at 8.00 p.m.  The subject ‘Saving the Honour of Tipp – Tipperary 1916’ promises to be an interesting insight into a provincial county’s reaction to the events of Easter 1916.  Admission to the lecture is free.

Last week I gave the background to the development of the Irish Nationalist movement in Athy in the years following the Easter Rising.  While the first branch of the Irish Volunteers in County Kildare was formed in Athy on 9^th May 1914 the Volunteers were divided when later in the year John Redmond sought to encourage the Volunteers to enlist in the British Army. The vast majority of the Volunteers here in Athy and elsewhere throughout the country followed Redmond who named the new group which split from the Irish Volunteers as the National Volunteers.  It would be some time before the now smaller group which retained the name Irish Volunteers could reassert itself. 

A military council comprising Tom Clarke, Padraic Pearse and others, all members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, while at the same time leaders of the Irish Volunteers, planned the Easter Rising.  This was done without the knowledge and consent of many of those with whom they shared leadership of the Irish Volunteers and in the ensuing confusion over countermanding orders, fewer Volunteers than expected turned out on Easter Monday 1916.

Two men who did turn out were Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler.  Mark Wilson was born in Russelstown, Athy in 1891 to Robert Wilson, a native of County Wicklow and Julianna Heffernan, formerly of Leinster Street, Athy.  By 1901 the Wilson family had moved to Dublin.  Mark, the eldest of five children, married Annie Stanley of Summerhill, Dublin on 3^rd August 1913.  She was a sister of Joe Stanley, the man who in 1916 printed the Proclamation, original copies of which are now selling for extraordinary sums of money.

Mark joined the 1^st Battalion Dublin Brigade Irish Volunteers and during the Easter Rebellion he was part of the Four Courts garrison under the command of Edward Daly.  Following the surrender of Edward Daly and his men Daly was tried and executed, while Wilson and his colleagues were detained in Richmond Barracks.  In a statement made in 1953 for the Bureau of Military History Patrick Cogan of Maynooth, referring to the Athy man while they were in custody, said ‘in the ranks in front of me was a volunteer in uniform.  When people shouted at us to keep our heads up he answered that they were never down.  He was a source of great encouragement ..... that volunteer was Mark Wilson, a native of Athy.’

The Athy man was later transferred to Stafford Detention Barracks in England where he was detained until December 1916.  On his release Wilson rejoined the Irish Volunteers and following the Treaty enlisted in the National Army.  He attained the rank of Captain before resigning from the Defence Forces in February 1929.  Mark Wilson died in December 1971 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

The other man with connections in South Kildare who fought in the 1916 Rising was Francis Lawler who lived in Castleroe, Maganey between 1918 and 1925.  Like Mark Wilson, Lawler joined the Irish Volunteers and was attached to the 1^st Battalion Dublin Brigade.  He was also a member of the Four Courts Garrison and was also imprisoned following the surrender of the Volunteers.  I have been unable to confirm if Lawler had connections with Castleroe, Maganey prior to 1916.  Following his release from prison in December 1916 Francis Lawler rejoined the Irish Volunteers and played a very active part while living in Castleroe in the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War. 

He served as an instructor/training officer at the I.R.A. camp in Ducketts Grove in 1921.  He joined the National Army in February 1922 and reached the rank of Captain.  It was while he was a Captain that he was involved in an unfortunate incident in Castledermot on 16^th June 1922.  That Friday morning four irregular troops took over the Sinn Fein hall in Castledermot which was the polling station for the general election agreed between Collins and De Valera in an attempt to ward off civil war.  Three Free State officers, Vice Comdt. Cosgrove, Adj. J. Lillis and Captain F. Lawler entered the building to find it occupied by John Dempsey, Thomas Dunne, Peter Brien and William Kinsella.  Captain Lawler in his evidence at the Coroner’s inquest claimed ‘I was the first to enter.  I had my revolver in my hand and was about to cock it when my thumb slipped off the cocking piece and the revolver went off.’

Thomas Dunne was mortally wounded.  Dr. Francis Brannan of Castledermot described the deceased whom he knew well as ‘a hard working respectable young fellow.’  The Coroner in summing up found that the shot which killed Thomas Dunne was not fired maliciously, despite evidence that Captain Lawler had fired three shots.

When we remember the men of 1916 we should not forget that tragedy often marked their activities not only during the Easter Rebellion but long afterwards.

Athy and the aftermath of the 1916 rebellion

Last week in anticipation of the 1916 commemoration lectures which start this Tuesday, 22^nd March, in Athy Community Arts Centre I wrote of the activities in this area of Irish Volunteers from Portlaoise.  Despite the fact that many families in Athy and south Kildare were linked by service and by financial dependency on the British Army, the growth of Irish Nationalism in the years preceding the Easter Rising found a ready response in the town. 

On 9^th May 1914 a local branch of the Irish Volunteers was established in Athy.  Within two months Cumann na mBan had a branch in the town and on the 23^rd of August 1914 Fianna Eireann was set up in Athy.  Not since the days of the 1798 Rebellion had there been such a public display of Irish nationalism in the onetime garrison town.

The First World War and the subsequent split in the Irish Volunteers following John Redmond’s speech in Woodenbridge in September 1914 effectively put a halt to the emerging local Irish Nationalist movement.  The attention of church and civic leaders in Athy was concentrated on encouraging the recruitment of young men to join the colours and fight overseas.  Indeed in June 1915 Athy Urban District Council directed that a ‘roll of honour’ was to be compiled of the local men who had enlisted in the British Army.

It was no surprise to find that the Easter Rising, which commenced with the seizing of the Dublin G.P.O. on 24^th April 1916, was condemned by most public bodies in Ireland as well as by the Irish Hierarchy.  Athy’s Board of Guardians in May 1916 passed a resolution ‘condemning the revolution in Dublin’.  It was the subsequent execution of the leaders of the Easter Rising which led to a change in the public’s attitude.  Another contributory factor was Lloyd George’s Home Rule Bill which was accepted by the Ulster Unionists on condition that six northern counties were excluded. 

The public’s response to the release of the 1916 prisoners in December of that year provided further evidence of the growth of support for the Irish Nationalist cause.  Republican flags mysteriously appeared on telegraph poles in the South Kildare area following the release of the Irish prisoners from Frongoch and Lewes prisons.  On 18^th January 1917 a concert was held in Athy Town Hall to raise funds for the families of men ‘who without being charged were torn from their homes and interned’.  This coupled with the earlier display of republican flags was the first indication of the existence of a group of Sinn Fein supporters in Athy. 

In February 1917 Athy Hibernian players put on a play in the Town Hall and the subsequent press report gave the names of those involved whom it was stated stood to attention at the end of the performance for the singing of ‘A Nation Once Again’.  Those named were the first publically identified nationalist sympathisers in Athy and many of them figured prominently in the local Sinn Fein club which was formed in June 1917.  They included John Coleman, Joseph Murphy, Bapty Maher, Michael May, Joseph May, Joseph Whelan, W.G. Doyle, Tom Corcoran, Robert Webster, Jack Webster and C. Walsh.

On Thursday 19^th July 1917 Athy’s newly established Sinn Fein club organised a concert in the Town Hall in aid of the families of those killed in the Easter Rising.  The audience was addressed by Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Fein.  Following the concert rival parties of females shouting ‘up the rebels’ and ‘up the khaki’, the latter being British soldier dependents, paraded through the town displaying Republican flags and the Union Jack.  The local press reported on the subsequent scuffles during which a shop window in Duke Street was damaged. 

The strength of the local Sinn Fein club was made public when a report of its AGM held in May 1918 was published in the local papers.  One hundred members were present to elect Michael Dooley as President, William Mahon as Vice President, P.P. Doyle as treasurer and Joseph May as Secretary. 

South Kildare’s involvement on the rebel’s side in the 1916 Rising was marked by the presence of Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler, both of whom were part of the Four Courts garrison under Commandant Edward Daly.  Mark Wilson was born in Russelstown, while Frances Lawler lived in Castleroe, Maganey in the post 1916 period.  I am uncertain if he was a native of that area and I am awaiting confirmation as to his pre 1916 connections with Castleroe.

On Tuesday 22^nd March at 8.00 p.m. in Athy Community Arts Centre James Durney will give the first of the series of lectures organised as part of Athy’s 1916 commemoration.  The lecture commences at 8.00 p.m. and admission is free. 

Next week I intend to deal in some detail with Mark Wilson and Francis Lawler who fought with the rebels in 1916 and a third Athy man who was on the other side of the armed conflict in Dublin. 

Athy and 1916 rebellion

On Tuesday, 22^nd March, Athy’s contribution to the 1916 Centenary commemorations will commence with an opening lecture in the Arts Centre to be given by Kildare author and historian James Durney.  His talk on the involvement of Kildare men and women in the Easter Rising in 1916 will be given under the title “Foremost and Ready – Kildare in 1916”.

This will be the first of a series of Lectures all of which will be delivered in the Arts Centre in Woodstock Street on each Tuesday between the 22^nd March and 12^th April.

 The lectures start at 8.00 p.m and there is no admission charge.

On Tuesday, 28^th March, the lecture “Saving the honour of Tipp - Tipperary in 1916” will be given by the well known author and broadcaster Dr. Des Marnane.  The following Tuesday, 5^th April, Padraig Yeates will deliver his talk on “Looters, Deserters and Crime in Dublin in 1916”.  Padraig is the author of several books on Dublin, the most recent of which “A City in Civil War – Dublin 1921-24” was published last year.  Padraig’s lecture will be preceded by a short recital on the uilleann pipes once owned and played by the 1916 leader Eamon Ceannt. The final lecture in the series will take place on Tuesday, 12^th April, when  Francis Devine, Trade Unionist and Author will speak on the topic “From Lockout to Rising, the I.T.G.W.U., I.C.A., Liberty Hall and 1916”.

Many other events are planned as part of the 1916 commemoration and details are included in the posters which are displayed throughout the town.

When we think of the Easter Rising, we usually associate it with Dublin and the G.P.O.  While the General Post Office was the centre of rebel activity,  elsewhere throughout the capital city that Easter Week there were areas of conflict which tragically resulted in the loss of lives.  Jacob’s factory was commandeered by Irish Volunteers under the command of Thomas McDonagh, while Eamon DeValera commanded the Volunteers who occupied Boland’s Mill on Grand Canal Street.  Other buildings occupied by the rebels included the South Dublin Union which is now St. James’s Hospital, the College of Surgeons, City Hall and buildings in the Church Street area.

The initial plans for the Rising provided for the Volunteers to hold Cork in the South, the Kerry Volunteers to join with their colleagues in Limerick while Volunteers in Clare and Galway were to hold the line of the Shannon to Athlone.  The failure to land arms from the Aud and the capture of Roger Casement led to Eoin MacNeill’s order cancelling the planned manoeuvres.  This resulted in confusion and the subsequent failure of many country based Volunteers to come out as originally planned.

That there was any rebel activity outside of Dublin during Easter Week 1916 was proof of the determination and courage of those involved.  In the area of Athy and South Kildare, the Irish Volunteers having broken away from Redmond’s National Volunteers were not particularly strong or active.  It was only after the execution of the 1916 leaders that the separatist movement gained strength in Athy.  Before then, however,  the Irish Republican Brotherhood had gained a foothold in neighbouring County Laois due to the active involvement of Patrick Ramsbottom. He was elected Captain of the Portlaoise Company of the Irish Volunteers in October 1914 after he returned to his native County following a period in Dublin.  While in Dublin he had contact with Tom Clarke.  Ramsbottom formed an I.R.B. circle in Portlaoise whose members effectively controlled the Irish Volunteers in that town.

Eamon Fleming from the Swan was an I.R.B. member based in Dublin and  he acted as a link person with the I.R.B. circle in Portlaoise.  He brought instructions from Padraig Pease to start the Rising in County Laois on Easter Sunday. The Laois Volunteers were instructed to destroy railway lines to prevent British troops coming from Waterford and Rosslare. The Waterford Dublin Railway line near Athy was to be destroyed as well as the Abbeyleix Portlaoise line at Colt Wood.

Eamon Fleming, Michael Gray and Michael Walsh, the last two from Portlaoise met near Athy at 7 p.m. on Easter Sunday.  They proceeded to cut down a telegraph pole and placed it across the railway line.  In the meantime, Volunteers led by Patrick Ramsbottom uprooted the railway line at Colt Wood and while doing so Ramsbottom fired three shots at a railway employee who happened to come across the saboteurs.  These may have been the first shots fired in the Easter rising of 1916.  The small group who came to Athy slept in a schoolhouse on Easter Sunday night and on the following morning made their way to Brady’s farm at Lalor’s Mills where they joined Patrick Ramsbottom’s group.

The Nationalist and Leinster Times carried the following Report on 29^th April 1916.

“On Easter Sunday night a farmer named Nolan who lived at Ardreigh, Athy when walking along the railway line there discovered that a telegraph pole had been cut down and placed across the rails.  He removed the obstruction and proceeded to a signal house where he reported the matter.  The outage must have been perpetrated between 8.00 and 9.30 as about the former hour the line was clear a train having passed.  At the time of the discovery a train was almost due.”

Patrick Ramsbottom, who was the main organiser of the Volunteers in Portlaoise prior to the Rising, was subsequently imprisoned in Ballykinlar Internment  Camp.  He later joined the Gardai and on retiring in 1953 joined Department of Education. He died in April 1965.  He was one of the many unsung heroes of the 1916 Rising. 

Athy Heritage Centre and Positioning of Shackleton statue

Thirty three years ago a public meeting was held in the Courthouse, Athy to consider the setting up of a local museum.  Following that meeting and subsequent meetings Athy Museum Society was founded.  Its purpose was to highlight the then largely unknown history of Athy and its people.  Within weeks of its foundation the young society opened a museum room in Mount St. Marys every Sunday afternoon displaying articles and material generously donated by local people. 

I recall manning the museum room every Sunday afternoon for upwards of 3 years.  The then County Manager Gerry Ward subsequently allowed the use of a room in the Town Hall to house what was the ever developing but still tiny local town museum.  The room allocated was that which was previously occupied by the Town Hall caretaker’s family.

Around the same time I prepared a detailed submission in relation to the town’s history to support Athy Urban District Council’s application to Bord Failte to have Athy designated as a Heritage Town.  Steps were afoot for the local Fire Brigade, which had been housed for years previously in the former butter market in the Town Hall, to move to new premises in Woodstock Street.  The successful application to Bord Failte resulted in the award of substantial funding which enabled the Urban Council and the Heritage Company which was then formed to refit the entire ground floor of the Town Hall building as a Heritage Centre after it was vacated by the Fire Brigade. 

Fitting out the centre required a detailed re-examination of Athy’s history and the identification of events and persons prominent in that history.  My research unearthed details of interesting but hitherto unknown facts, events and persons such as Athy’s participation in World War I and local involvement in the War of Independence and the Civil War.  The emergence of Ernest Shackleton as a native of nearby Kilkea was a revelation, as up to then I had accepted, as was invariably reported, that Shackleton was a native of Kilkee, Co. Clare.

The Heritage Centre has developed over the years and the Shackleton Autumn School has added enormously to its prestige.  Indeed I have before me a letter from Michael Smith, author and biographer of the Irish Polar explorers Tom Crean and Ernest Shackleton which describes Athy’s Heritage Centre as ‘the most prestigious museum in the world dedicated to Ernest Shackleton’.

The town’s library presently occupying the first floor of the Town Hall will be re-located to the former Dominican Church as soon as refurbishment work on the Church scheduled to commence within months is completed.  Athy’s early 18^th century Town Hall will then be given over completely to the Museum.  The plans are to gain maximum national and international coverage for the Museum given its unique Shackleton connections and exhibits, while at the same time celebrating the life of Athy stretching back over 850 years.  Shackleton is an international brand and born as he was in nearby Kilkea it behoves us to reap the benefits likely to be generated by visitors attracted to the only museum dedicated to the world famous Polar explorer.

Kildare County Council conscious of the huge advantages which can accrue to Athy by association with Shackleton recently commissioned a statue of the Polar explorer to be erected in Athy.  This together with the future enlargement of the Museum to include priceless artefacts relating to Shackleton’s Polar exploration presents a unique opportunity to develop tourism as a secondary, if not a primary element, in the regeneration of Athy.

Kildare County Council has now commenced a public consultation process to determine where the Shackleton statue should be sited.  Let your considered views be known to the Council, bearing in mind that the proper positioning of the statue can help highlight the town’s Shackleton Museum and significantly add to the tourism attraction of the Shackleton theme. 

I realise that some people on Facebook have questioned the justification for a Shackleton statue.  Apart from the obvious marketing advantages in promoting a Shackleton Museum, consider the following.  Shackleton was born in nearby Kilkea and always claimed to be Irish.  Indeed when signing onto the Yelcho to rescue his men from Elephant Island Shackleton clearly stated his nationality as Irish.  Shackleton was described by the geologist on the Nimrod expedition as ‘born in Ireland, educated in England, worked in Scotland but from the top of his head to the soles of his feet he was Irish’.

In a letter to the Times some months ago I claimed that public monuments usually articulate a particular national identity, but that part of our identity is not just Catholic, Gaelic and nationalistic but also includes many other diverse elements.  We have commemorated in recent times the men and women of ’98 and those young men from the town of Athy whose lives were destroyed during World War I.  For his achievements in Polar exploration, Ernest Shackleton is a worthy subject for a statue to be erected close to the Shackleton Museum.