February 10, 2012

KILDARE BATTALIONS 1920 BY MICHAEL SMYTH

Kildare Battalions-1920

By

Michael Symth

 

Shortly after the release of the County Kildare Irish Volunteers, who were interned in Frongoch after 1916, the Volunteers in north Kildare were reorganised early in 1917. At a meeting at Prosperous on Ascension Thursday, 1917, a battalion council was formed. It was decided to form it as the North Kildare battalion. The following battalion officers were appointed:-

Commandant-Patrick Colgan-Maynooth company. Vice-Commandant-Thomas Harris Prosperous company. Adjustant-Michael Smyth Athgarvan company. Quartermaster-Art O’Connor Celbridge company.

Officers from the following companies were represented at the meeting:-Maynooth, Celbridge, Leixlip, Kill, Naas, Prosperous, Newbridge, Athgarvan and Carbury.

 Early in 1920 when Peadar McMahon-afterwards Lieutenant General McMahon-came as organiser to Kildare, the I.R.A. in north Kildare was divided into two battalions, 1^st Kildare battalion and 2^nd Kildare battalion-the latter included some companies in west Wicklow.

 

Irish Republican Army

Kildare 2^nd Battalion

   At a meeting at Naas early in 1920, the 2^nd Kildare battalion was formed. The battalion officers appointed were:-

Commandant-Thomas Harris-Prosperous company, Vice-commandant-Michael Smyth-Athgarvan company, Adjutant-Sean Curry-Naas Company. Quartermaster-Patrick Dunne-Kill company. Intelligence-Sean Kavanagh-Naas company. Training Officer-William Jones-Athgarvan company. The following companies and O.C.s. were in 2^nd Kildare battalion:-

Athgarvan (A) Matthew Cardiff.

Ballymore (B) Art Doran.

Kill (C) John Traynor.

Naas (D) Thomas Patterson.

Prosperous (F) Thomas Dunne.

Robertstown (G) John Herbert.

Two-mile-house (H) Andrew Byrne.

Allen (I) Michael Fitzgerald.

 

In July, 1920, a training camp was established at Ladytown, Naas under the charge of Peadar McMahon, organiser, and was attended by officers from all companies in the battalion area. An intensive training course was carried out.

 As a result of an organising campaign carried out in the battalion area by Peadar McMahon and the commandant and vice-commandant, a number of new companies were formed at Allenwood and Eadestown, County Kildare, and Blessington, Valleymount, Donard, Hollywood and Brittas, County Wicklow. It was noted that numbers who had fallen away after the anti-conscription campaign were now rejoining the various companies.

 In August, 1920, Dowdington House, Athgarvan, Two-mile-house-about four miles from Naas-was taken over as Battalion headquarters, and fortnightly meetings of the battalion council were held there. Training sessions held there were under the various Battalion officers. Classes were held on drilling, engineering, rifle and revolver practice, first-aid and signalling. The battalion had a very efficient and experienced training officer in William Jones, who had been a corporal in the Connaught Rangers. He had served in the great war and had been badly wounded in France in 1914. He was invalided home, and was granted a pension and given employment at Curragh Camp. Before being called up on reserve in August 1914, he was appointed drill instructor to the Athgarvan company, and rejoined the company in 1915. As a result of an argument with some fellow workers at Curragh Camp he was dismissed, and prosecuted under the Defence of the Realm Act in October, 1915. He was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment at Lumville court, Curragh, which was afterwards altered to a fine of £5-owing to his military service-but he lost his pension and his employment at Curragh Camp. Dowdington House, battalion headquarters, was not found out by enemy forces until it was raided in May, 1921. There was no one there at the time, as we had received information of the proposed raid, and all arms and ammunition had been removed for sake keeping to the belfry of the adjacent church at Two-mile-house.

   An attempt was made to blow up the Limerick bridge, Naas, one of the principal bridges on the Dublin-Curragh Camp road, by volunteers from E company, Naas, and battalion officers, assisted by the engineering officer of the first Kildare battalion.

 Volunteers from the various companies of the battalion were engaged keeping order during the farm strike of 1920.

 Other battalion officers appointed were medical officer-Doctor Lavin, B. company: signalling-William Merlin, F. company. Members of the battalion were mobilised to assist Carlow brigade in a proposed attack on Castledermot R.I.C. barrack in August, 1920, but the attack was called off.

 During the summer of 1920 a number of R.I.C. barracks in the battalion area were evacuated and those were all burned down to safeguard against their being reoccupied. Adjoining courthouses were also burned. The R.I.C. barrack and courthouse at Lumville-less than a mile from the Curragh Camp-were burned down by members of A company. The only R.I.C. barracks which remained occupied in the battalion area were those at Naas, Newbridge and Hollywood. Sallins R.I.C. barrack was burned down in June, 1920.

    An ambush was carried out by members of the Kill company, under the commandant of the battalion, Commandant Thomas Harris, in the autumn of 1920. The attack was made on the R.I.C. patrol on the Naas road, Kill, near where the present John Devoy memorial stands. Sergeant O’Reilly and Constable Flaherty were killed and the other R.I.C. were taken prisoners and arms and ammunition were captured. There were no I.R.A. casualties, but enemy forces were very active after the ambush and a number of members of the Kill company were arrested. A business house in Naas was burned by enemy forces also.

    During 1920 a supply of revolvers and ammunition was procured from British soldiers in Curragh Camp and Newbridge barrack. Supplies of gelignite and some mills bombs were also procured. A house-to-house raid for rifles and shotguns was carried out in September 1920, and a large number were procured. Those raids were intended to forestall raids by the R.I.C.-of which we got information.

   Volunteers in the various companies were also engaged in the collection for the National Loan in 1920. Richard Cottier was appointed by Michael Collins in charge of the collection in County Kildare.

 Raids were carried out throughout the area for post office bicycles and other enemy property. British and Belfast goods at the various railway stations were destroyed.

 During the local elections in 1920 the members of the battalion were engaged as guards at public meetings, and at polling stations. In County Kildare at the county council elections twenty-nine members were elected, and of those, twenty-eight were Sinn Fein or Labour Republican. Only one Irish Parliamentary Party candidate was elected. At its first meeting it was decided to pledge allegiance to Dail Eireann and to repudiate any claim by the British to legislate in Irish affairs. A number of I.R.A. members were elected including the 2^nd battalion commandant, Thomas Harris; vice-commandant, Michael Smyth. Donal Buckley, a veteran of 1916, was elected chairman, and Eamonn O Modhrain, 6^th battalion, Carlow brigade, vice-chairman. Every effort was made by the British to compel the council to recognise the British Local Government Board-including the issue of writs-of which I have a copy.

    Resolutions condemning Easter Week were passed by the Kildare county council in 1916; these were deleted from the minutes by the new council.

   A battalion police officer was appointed and Republican courts were set up in the town in the battalion area. Volunteers were engaged in guarding these courts.

   Armed raids on the mails were carried out during 1920 and 1921, especially at Sallins and Newbridge stations. An amount of British correspondence was captured. Those raids were carried out under the supervision of Sean Kavanagh, intelligence officer. Sean Kavanagh made many contacts with friendly members of the R.I.C.. (see The Capuchin Annual 1969, p.354).

   An ambush was arranged for Newbridge railway station on 1 November, 1920, the day Kevin Barry was executed in Mountjoy. During the summer of 1920 the railway men refused to drive any train on which the British military travelled-a part of military attended Newbridge station almost daily and boarded the 10.30 train. In addition to the battalion officers, Harris, Smyth and Kavanagh, Volunteers attended for the ambushes from the Newbridge, Athgarvan and Ballymore companies, but the party of the military did not turn up, as the British forces had decided not to engage in these operations any longer.

     The railwaymen were either members of or strong supporters of the I.R.A. in our area. Sean Kavanagh, intelligence, paid tribute to those men who were engaged in carrying dispatches to and from G.H.Q. and also to the many postal officials who co-operated in connection with the various raids on the mails.

   After one raid for the mails at Sallins station, while Sean Kavanagh, Art Doran and myself were in bed in Art Doran’s house at Ballymore Eustace, where we sorted out the mails, a lorry pulled up outside the house. We jumped up thinking it was an enemy raid, but the lorry moved away. We found out next day that it was only an ordinary private lorry.

   In November, 1920, Commandant T. Harris was arrested and also the commanding officers of C company, D company and J company. The week after “Bloody Sunday” a number of officers and Volunteers were arrested as a result of an intensive campaign of raids on 23 November from a member of the R.I.C., Sergeant McGowan of Newbridge who was friendly towards the I.R.A. Although members were warned not to sleep in their own houses that night some did so, and their houses were surrounded in the early hours of the morning by military and police and they were arrested.

    Two other members of the R.I.C. at Newbridge were also friendly. Another R.I.C. man, Eamonnn Broy, a native of Rathangan-afterwards Colonel Broy-was an important member of Michael Collins’s secret service.

   Towards the end of 1920 the battalion adjutant, Sean Curry, and quartermaster Patrick Dunne, were arrested and also the O.C. of F company.

 As a result of the arrests the battalion council was reformed as follows:-commandant-Michael Smyth; vice-commandant-Art Doran; adjutant and intelligence officer-Sean Kavanagh; quartermaster-James Harris. New company officers were also appointed in place of those arrested. Enemy activities were intensified over the area.

 The following “death sentence” was posted to the battalion commandant:

 

                                                                                                              1/12/1920

 

                                 FINAL WARNING

Whereas, it has come to our knowledge that the Sinn Fein organisation of which you are a prominent official through the so-called I.R.A. or murder gang has been committing outrages in this hitherto God-fearing and law-abiding country, this reign of terror must be stopped. You are, therefore, most earnestly warned that in the event of the continuance of those heartless and cowardly crimes you will be personally held responsible and punished in such a manner that others will be deterred from criminal course.

         By order.

Michael Smyth

Athgarvan, Newbridge

Co. Kildare

 

An intensive campaign of road blocking by trenching and felling trees, of disrupting communication by cutting telephone wires-especially on all roads leading from the Curragh Camp was carried out on instructions from G.H.Q.

   There were three military barracks in the battalion area-Naas, Newbridge and Curragh Camp-all strongholds of the enemy, Curragh camp being headquarters of the British military in Ireland. There was also four strongly fortified R.I.C. barracks-Naas being the headquarters of the Black-and-Tans and Auxiliaries.

 Unsuccessful attempts were made on Hollywood R.I.C. barrack and also by 6^th battalion, Carlow brigade on Kilcullen barrack, in which the 2^nd Kildare battalion co-operated by blocking all roads between Kilcullen and Curragh Camp.

At the end of 1920 an active service unit or flying column was formed. The O.C. was Martin O’Neill, O.C. B company, who had had service in the British army. It consisted at first of twelve Volunteers, and operated mostly in County Wicklow-western area.

 Shortly after the formation of the unit a couple of the west Wicklow companies decided to transfer to the south Dublin brigade and this caused a split in the active service unit, as the numbers were almost half from Kildare and half from Wicklow. The Volunteers from the Wicklow demanded half of the rifles and ammunition held by the unit. This was refused as it was claimed that all the rifles were the property of the Kildare companies and were mostly those which were purchased from British soldiers at Curragh camp and Newbridge.

 Gerald Boland, afterwards Minister for Justice, representing the south Dublin brigade, met me at Ballymore Eustace, by appointment, after a company parade there, and alleged that the Kildare Volunteers had fired on the Wicklow men. He said it was bad enough to be fighting the Black-and-Tans without fighting among ourselves. After a discussion we came to a satisfactory settlement and agreed to have co-operation between the two areas, and also we agreed on a boundary between the two areas. Three of the Wicklow companies remained in the 2^nd battalion area.

   Raids were carried out on all excise offices in battalion areas and the documents in them destroyed.

 A one-day general strike was ordered by the Labour party in June, 1920, to compel the release of the Republicans who were on hunger strike in Mountjoy and other prisons and the Volunteers were engaged in enforcing obedience to the strike order. The strike resulted in the release of the prisoners.

 At a meeting of the battalion council at the end of 1920 the members were perturbed at the number of arrests taking place in the battalion area-especially of battalion and company officers. It was believed that there were informers and spies in the area. Some persons were mentioned as suspects.

 As a result of a visit by Volunteers to the house of a man suspected of giving information, he was fired on and mortally wounded but first attacked the party with a slane and struck one of the Volunteers on the head. A number of men were arrested in the area after this incident-but none of them were members of the I.R.A.

 While “on the run” in Rathangan area in November 1920, I reorganised a company there, with Joseph Kenny O.C. Owing to a number of arrests in the area the numbers were so small that I amalgamated them with the neighbouring 1^st company at Allen and they were very active members of that company and took part in all engagements including the Allen ambush.

 Our intelligence service got important information from a member of the clerical staff in the office of the crown solicitor, Naas, and from Volunteers who were employed at Curragh camp about the numbers of British troops in the area and about troop movements which were an advantage to us in our planning. We also got a supply of .303 ammunition from the workers employed on the military ranges at the Curragh camp.

 An attempt late in 1920 to obtain a supply of arms and ammunitions-including a machine gun failed, owing to the transfer of the soldiers concerned from Newbridge barracks.

 

 Cumman na mBan and Fianna

      Units of the Fianna Eireann and Cumman na mBan were attached to some of the companies and they did useful work in carrying dispatches, arms and ammunition. They also attended first-aid classes and helped in collecting funds for the I.R.A. and for the purpose of sending food parcels to Volunteers interred or imprisoned and also in helping their families.

 A number of the Fianna were afterwards enrolled in the I.R.A. and were useful members as they had been already well trained. There was a strong company of the Fianna in Newbridge under their officer, Patrick Fulham. They usually marched to Bodenstown and camped there on the night previous to the Wolf Tone anniversary. One of their members, the late James Clancy, was promoted to a battalion intelligence officer after the arrest of Sean Kavanagh.

 

First Battalion, Kildare

     Activities by the 1^st battalion were similar to hose of the 2^nd battalion which we have set down. But this battalion was occupied in a special way with getting messages from G.H.Q. to the counties of practically all the midlands and the west, and on this work practically a full-time staff was engaged. Depots for receiving and transmitting the messages were set up at Leixlip, Celbridge, Straffan, Maynooth, Kilcock, Cloncurry, Mainham, Johnstown Bridge. Messages were transmitted safely with the minimum delay. Members of Cumann na mBan were frequently used for carrying messages during the day time and as some of the depots were national schools, the school teachers did their part of this important work.

   Attacks on barracks were planned by the various companies as well as attacks on police foot patrols to disarm them. Guards were put on the Maynooth-Kilcock road, Celbridge-Maynooth road, Celbridge-Leixlip road and Maynooh-Leixlip road. Sunday was the usual day the patrols scouted these roads. After being on guard for three Sundays we learned that the patrols had been stopped.

   Orders came that the records in rural district council offices were to be destroyed and three members of Leixlip company carried this out with success.

 Explosives were manufactured in Celbridge at Cauldwell’s. At Leixlip, mines were constructed in the metal boxes of cartwheels. Large quantities of buck-shot was also made in that area.

 The 1^st battalion of north Kildare in 1920 was under the command of:- Frank Powell, O.C., until he was arrested and replaced by C. Mullaney. Alex Mitchell, vice O.C., Donal O Buachalla was quartermaster. In all between two hundred and fifty and three hundred men carried on the actions and kept the British forces on the alert in the locality.

 The Carlow brigade took in some areas of south Kildare and Wicklow. A company, Athy, was attached to the 5^th battalion, Carlow brigade. Castledermot, C. company, also belonged to the 5^th battalion, Carlow brigade. Kildare, F. company belonged to the 6^th battalion, Carlow brigade. Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow, A. company belonged to the 6^th battalion, Carlow brigade.

A.                      Company; Athy, under Captain Paddy Hayden, engaged in similar activities as the Volunteers in the other areas. Mail trains on the Waterford-Dublin branch line were raided on three different occasions to capture letters addressed to and from the British authorities. They raided the custom house in Athy and seized and burned all official records. They enforced the Belfast boycotting by burning the abattoir in which prescribed goods were stored. Disruption of enemy communications by cutting telegraph wires, blocking roads with trenches and felled trees proved constant harassment for the British forces.        

   During the summer of 1920 several reports of cattle stealing were received by the 5^th battalion. These occurred principally in the Curragh and Ballysax areas. As a result of investigation two men were arrested, Michael Hand and James Mullally (Hand was employed at the British abattoir at Curragh camp) and were kept in the custody of A. company, mostly at the residence of Doctor Kenna, Ballymount, Collinstown.

   As a result of further enquiries William Hanly, a farmer, of Ballysax, Curragh, was arrested. He was kept in custody at the Glen of Imaal, Co. Wicklow, in the area of A. company. Those who arrested Hanly were Laurence O’Toole, captain of A. company, Joseph Deering, first lieutenant, and Volunteer Denis Fay.

   William Hanly was kept in custody at Doyle’s of Knockeendarragh, Donard. Once when he complained of being unwell he was attended by Doctor Keena a strong supporter of the I.R.A. in the area.

 On 17 July, 1920, the trail of the three men took place at a court at Byrne’s barn, Kilgowan, Kilcullen-a midnight court. John Flanagan, O.C., 6^th battalion, Michael Smyth, vice-commandant, 2^nd Kildare battalion, and Eamonn Moran acted as Republican justices. Seamus O’Connor, solicitor, Dublin, afterwards state solicitor for Dublin, and previously a member of the Irish volunteers executive before 1916, prosecuted. William Hanly was a big farmer and race-horse owner. A large number of witnesses were examined, including some prominent cattle dealers, and gave evidence of their cattle being stolen. All three were found guilty. Hanly was heavily fined and Hand and Mullally were sentenced to be deported. They were deported the following day,

 The owners of the stolen cattle were paid compensation from the fine imposed according to the valuation by Messrs. O’Connor, Mylerstown, Naas, cattle dealers.                  

   Castledermot was one of the earliest centres of Volunteer activity in South Kildare. The Volunteers engaged in harassing the enemy by the same means as the Athy men. They received orders early in 1920 to burn down the local police barrack. When they arrived there they found the sergeant’s wife and family still in occupation. Immediately they made arrangements for the lady’s removal with her family and all the furniture and had her transferred to a neighbour’s house and the furniture brought to a safe place locally. In the burning down of the building and explosion caused by lighted match, one Volunteer would almost certainly have lost his life but for the prompt action of the leader, Paddy Cosgrave, who at great risk entered the burning building and brought him to safety. He was so badly burned that the skin peeled off his face and hands. In the hospital in Athy, where he was concealed and treated with the greatest care by the staff, he fully recovered. I am glad to say that fifty years afterwards Paddy Cosgrave is still hale and hearty.

 The Dunlavin company, who burned down the vacated R.I.C. barracks at Ballytore, Dunlavin, Donard, Stratford-on-Slaney, attacked the occupied Baltinglass barrack and killed one policeman. They burned down the officers’ quarters around the Glen of Imaal British camp and also the mansion of an anti-Irish family known as Saunder’s Grove after the notorious Colonel Saunders of 1798. They court-martialled and executed a troublesome spy. An outbreak of larceny, including a case of cattle stealing, was brought before the Sinn Fein courts, and those concerned convicted and sentenced. The company guarded the courts and some times risked their lives in this duty.

          F. company, Kildare, were also in the 6^th battalion, Carlow brigade. Kildare company was established in 1917. In 192(?) the company captain was Denis O’Neill. The company was very active during 192(?) and carried out an intensive course of training, drilling and rifle practice.

          All roads leading to Kildare military barracks were continuously trenched and blocked by fallen trees, and telephone wires were cut.

      A quantity of arms and ammunition was procured from soldiers serving in Kildare barracks and Curragh camp. A house-to-house collection was also carried out for shotguns and other arms.

    In a raid on income tax office all documents were taken and destroyed.

       In the local elections of 1920 Volunteers were on duty at polling booths, and also at public meetings. A Republican court was established in 1920 and members of the company were on duty at the various sessions of the court.

     At Kildare railway station was a junction, one line leading to Waterford, and the other to Cork, and it was an important centre for distribution of communications from G.H.Q. The captain and first lieutenants were employed at the station and were in a good position for carrying out this work. Raids were made on trains for the mails of British forces and to implement the Belfast boycott the railway station at Kildare was raided and the Belfast and British goods destroyed.

    Members of the company were on duty on the occasion of the one-day strike called by the Labour Party in June, 1920, for the release of the prisoners on hunger-strike in Mountjoy jail and also at the church parade ordered for the day of Terence MacSwiney’s funeral.

     A Republican police section was formed to take over the work of civil protection and control in various towns.

      There was a strong branch of Cumann-na-mBan in Kildare. Miss Peg Daly was O.C. They were most useful in carrying dispatches and doing other work including first-aid. They helped in collecting funds for the Volunteers and for the purpose of sending food parcels to those interned or imprisoned and helping to provide for their families.

    The Daly family had long service in the Republican movement, as a sister, Mrs. Beatty, saw service in Easter Week, 1916. Another sister, Lucy Daly, recently deceased, was also a member and was interned in Kilmainham jail with her sister, Peg.

   Kilcullen and Suncroft companies were also attached to the 6^th battalion, Carlow brigade. The area covered by these companies bordered the Curragh camp, and the chief activities during 1920 were blocking of all roads leading to the camp, trenching the roads and felling trees. Cutting telephone wires caused further disruption to enemy communications.

 Mullaghmoy bridge and another small bridge on roads between Athy and the Curragh camp were destroyed. A number of men of the Suncroft company were arrested and imprisoned as a result of those activities.

 Members of the Suncroft company were responsible for procuring a supply of rifles, revolvers, and ammunition from British soldiers stationed at the Curragh camp. Members of those companies were also engaged on an attack on Kilcullen R.I.C. barracks after all roads leading to Kilcullen were blocked.

 Drilling and rifle and revolver practice was held on Sundays; ammunition and explosives were also manufactured on that day.  

 They raided British controlled excise offices and destroyed records. During 1920 they helped in collecting for the Dail Eireann loan.

   A man, named Power of Kilboggan, Suncroft was questioned about robberies in the area, but before he could be arrested he sought refuge on Curragh camp, where he gave information concerning the I.R.A. He was kept under the protection of the British military at Curragh camp. When he left camp to return home on one occasion he was arrested, tried, found guilty and executed. There was considerable enemy activity around Suncroft after the execution, but no arrests were made. Some other spies, including a woman, were under observation, but they, too, took refuge in Curragh camp.

     Raids were carried out for British and Belfast goods during the boycott in 1920 and in one raid two Remington typewriters were seized. They were consigned to the divisional commissioner, R.I.C. One was left at Dowling’s house at Carna, Curragh camp, which was afterwards raided, but Mrs. Dowling put her apron over the type writer and the raiding party did not notice it.

    James Collins, intelligence officer, Kilcullen company, called with two men to settle a family quarrel at Knockbounce, Kilcullen, but the R.I.C. got information on the matter and were waiting at the gate of the house and fired on them. Two of the Volunteers, Thomas Hazlett and William Martin, were wounded. Five were arrested and brought to Kilcullen barrack. They were afterwards tried and released.

   Two members of Kilcullen company were arrested during a Republican court-Frank Corrigan and D. Buckley-and were carried around in a lorry all day before they were released.

 Another member of the company, Michael Sammon, a native of Celbridge, and a well-known G.A.A. player, was arrested after reading the Republican Manifesto after Mass, and was sentenced to six months imprisonment.

   Shop-keepers in the area were warned not to offer British goods for sale. British newspapers were burned.

   Members were on duty on the day of Terence McSwiney’s funeral-keeping order in the church parade and seeing that it was kept as a national holiday.

 A number of our Volunteers-and some girls-were always available for carrying dispatches.

   Doctor Kane, Kilgowan, was friendly to the I.R.A., and was available at all times to treat the injured.

   During the munitions strike, when the railway men refused to drive the trains carrying munitions or enemy forces and were sacked, collections were made for these men, by the Cumann na mBan especially.

   Monasterevin, G.company, also attached to the 6^th battalion Carlow brigade, joined in the same activities as the other companies. They insured that the general strike in April was successful in their district. Later when the railway men refused to drive trains carrying munitions or soldiers, they blocked the main Dublin-Cork road and the by-roads around the town. They organised the collecting of funds in the towns around for the patriotic railwaymen.

 One very important contribution of the Monasterevan company was the capture of five mail bags of Dublin Castle and British army correspondence in a raid on the train at the local station. The captured bags were deemed so important that members of the brigade intelligence staff came to collect them. These men, the local Volunteers, piloted safely, not without some anxious moments, along roads patrolled by British cavalry.

 Other activities of G. company included the blowing up of a bridge over the river Barrow, the removal of labour from a culvert on the main Kildare-Monasterevan road, the trenching and severing of connections on local roads and telephone communications and the destruction of the local excise office and of enemy cargo being transported by canal. They worked in guarding the Sinn Fein courts as police when a sentence of the court was not accepted and the offender had to be taken for a cooling off to “an unknown destination.”.

    In one unfortunate mistake nearly all the equipment which was collected with such difficulty was lost and two Volunteers were captured. Captain Hugh McNally, who was sentenced to ten years’ penal servitude and Fintan Brennan who got five years’ penal servitude.

       The Kildare Volunteers succeeded in making the large number of crown forces stationed in the Curragh very much less effective than they should have been by their constant harassment of them, emplementing the orders of the Volunteers’ G.H.Q. and wrecking the enemy lines of communication in every direction.

B.                 company, Kilrush, the final company in our account which was attached to the 6^th battalion Carlow brigade, was captained by Sean Flanagan, who was later promoted to battalion commandant. They played their parts with the other companies in acquiring arms, training in their use and in other military duties, in enforcing the Belfast boycott and the orders of the Sinn Fein courts, and looked after the general strike.

   They were successful in hampering troop movement by blowing up Kilboggan bridge which partially at least cut off the Curragh camp from the South; the bridge on the by-road from Suncroft to Tippeenam and the bridge at Tippeenam on the main Dublin-Waterford road were also destroyed. The motor-cars of people hostile to the Volunteers were dismantled. They arrested, court-martialled and shot a spy-a salutary warning to others so inclined.

    The Kilrush men were successful in helping some of the Volunteers interned in the Curragh camp to escape and showed them safe routes to take in motor-cars they had commandeered for them. Later they supplied an accurate record of any of the property they had commandeered.                                          

Michael Smyth's account of his activities during the War of Independence - later a Labour Senator, he was Vice-Commandant of the 2nd battalion I.R.A. during those troubled times. The account is takend from the Capuchin Annual 1970.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 04:06 PM

AUGUST 1950: GIBBET RATH MEMORIAL COMMITTEE and DEMOLITION OF OLD WHITE ABBEY HALL/CHURCH

Leinster Leader
12 August 1950

St. Brigid Statue Project

Subscriptions to the Gibbet Rath memorial Fund (erection of statue of St. Brigid) continue to mount although the organisers feel that collections in some areas are not yet properly under way. Those appointed in all areas are urged to complete their collections as soon as possible.
At the last meeting of the Committee the Chairman, Rev. T. Kennedy, C.C., Rathangan, thanked a representative of the Kildareman’s Association in New York for their generous donation of £20.
To arrange to raise funds to go towards the cost of erecting a statue of St. Brigid at the Gibbet Rath, Curragh, a public meeting is being held in the Courthouse, Athy, next Monday evening at 9 o’clock.

Leinster Leader
12 August 1950

Historic Kildare Building Demolished

 This week demolition of the old White Abbey Hall at Kildare was completed – a traction engine was used to pull down the gable and side walls. The old building had quite an interesting and historic past and old residents can recall attending mass there.

[authors note: St. Brigid's Statue was finally unveiled in 1973 and erected on the Market Square in 1976]

Couple of interesting notes from the Leinster Leader of August 1950

Posted by mariocorrigan at 04:01 PM

March 14, 2008

MEDIEVAL FLOOR TILE FOUND BY MARTIN KINSELLA

A fragment of floor tile found by Martin Kinsella at his home near Hospital Street was displayed at the highly successful Memories and Memoribilia night organised as part of the yearly programme of events by Cill Dara Historical Society on Wednesday night last, 12 March 2008.

 

 Martin searched the area thoroughly but could find no more evidence. Apparently the spot where he found the tile at the bottom of his garden had been used for many years in the past as a sort of refuse disposal area by his father so the tile may indeed have come from elsewhere. The fragment of tile was identified as a very good example of a medieval floor tile by a local archaeologist. There were similar tiles found at Kildare Cathedral. It is hoped to display the tile in Kildare Town Heritage Centre but also to map the actual location and send measurements and photographs to the National Museum.

 

 Side views of floor tile fragment Drawing of floor tile from Kildare Cathedral from the unpublished Urban Archaeological Survey Volume 4 - Bradley, Halpin and King

Medieval floor tile fragment found at Kildare by Martin Kinsella, member of Cill Dara Historical Society

Posted by mariocorrigan at 11:00 AM

January 23, 2008

Some notes from the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society Journal

J O U R N A L

Of The

Co. KILDARE ARCHAELOGICAL SOCIETY

AND

SURROUNDING DISTRICTS.

 

VOL. IV.

 

JULY, 1903 – 1905.

 

 

( 65 )

 

Notes.

 

 

Fragments of Celtic Slabs in St. Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare. – Visitors to this ancient and historic Celtic ecclesiastical site must be struck with disappointment at the very few monuments belonging to that early period which are now visible; the Round Tower and the high unsculptured granite cross being the only two pre-Norman remains now existing in the cathedral grounds. This may be accounted for by the erection of the Anglo-Norman cathedral in the thirteenth century, when the Celtic crosses, Irish inscribed slabs, and other remains, may have been injured, ignored, or even broken up and used for building material. Even at the present day there are no Anglo-Irish monuments of an earlier date than the seventeenth century, with the exception of the Bishop’s Effigy and the sixteenth century effigy of Sir Maurice FitzGerald, of Lackagh. That Celtic slabs were at one time in existence here is proved by the fact that three small fragments were rescued during the last restoration of the cathedral, and now are deposited in the west end of the cathedral, where they are carefully preserved by orders of the Dean of Kildare.

Rubbings from these three small fragments (two of which belong to one another) are illustrated on the opposite page.

W. FITZG.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

J O U R N A L

Of The

Co. KILDARE ARCHAELOGICAL SOCIETY

AND

SURROUNDING DISTRICTS.

VOL. V.

 

1906 – 1908

 

 

(a note on John Hewetson from Kildare? - being part of the following article - full article can be located in Vol. V of the Journal.)

 

THE HEWETSON COAT-OF-ARMS

 

PATRICK HEWETSON, M.D.

 

BY JOHN HEWETSON.

 

PATRICK HEWETSON, Doctor in Physic, of Betaghstown, Clane, County of Kildare, the founder of “Hewetson’s School,” Clane, was a descendant of John Hewetson or Hewsonne, of the City of York, born before or in the year 1498, and elected a Freeman of that city as “Johannes Hewson,” in the 30^th year of Henry VIII (1537-8); he was living there in the reigns of Mary I and Queen Elizabeth. He married Margaret Lambert, second daughter and co-heir of John Lambert, of Calton and Skipton, County of York, Vice-Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who died 1569 (a descendant of William the Conqueror, through his granddaughter Gundred, daughter of William, Earl Warren and Surrey, and widow of Roger de Bellamont, Earl of Warwick). He had seven sons and one daughter. Of the sons, we need mention but two, Thomas and Christopher.

I.                              Thomas, his eldest son, was of Kildare, and of Baskin, County Dublin, a captain in the army of King Charles I, who by his wife, Eleanor, had issue – (a) John, (b) Thomas, (c) Dominick, and (d) George.

(a)                John of Kildare, colonel in the army, owner of “both abbeys,”[i]  County Kildare, and also possessed of lands at Titchfield, in the County of Southampton. He was born at Settrington, Yorkshire, in 1613, and was High Sheriff of Kildare, 1656. His death took place on the 2^nd February in 1658, at the age of 45. According to his wish, he was interred in the “Church of the Abbey of Kildare,” where a monument, erected as memorial of him by Christian, his wife, can still be seen.[ii] County Kildare, and also possessed of lands at Titchfield, in the County of Southampton. He was born at Settrington, Yorkshire, in 1613, and was High Sheriff of Kildare, 1656. His death took place on the 2 February in 1658, at the age of 45. According to his wish, he was interred in the “Church of the Abbey of Kildare,” where a monument, erected as memorial of him by Christian, his wife, can still be seen.

 

 

 

NOTES.

 

The Grey Abbey at Kildare. – The following is a translation from the Latin of an entry in “The Earl of Kildare’s Red Book” (p. 35b, of the original:-

“In the Chapel of the Bless Virgin Mary of the Church of the Friars Minors of Kildare, lies the Lord Thomas, son of the lord John fitzThomas, Earl of Kildare, Justiciary of Ireland, and Lord of Offaly, who caused this Chapel to be erected. His wife was Johanna de Burgo, who presented many gifts to the Friars of Kildare, which are too numerous to specify . . . . He (the Earl) died at his Castle at Maynooth on the 9^th of April in the year of our Lord MCCCXXVIII, and was buried before the Altar of the Blessed Virgin.

“Item. – To his right, his son Richard, who succeeded him in the Earldom, lies in front of the Altar of St. John; he died at Rathangan in the year of our Lord MCCCXXIX, without male issue.”

W. FITZG.

 

---

[i] The ruins of a considerable part of one of the abbeys, viz., the “Grey Abbey,” still remained in 1786.

[ii] The Dean of Kildare has kindly copied the inscription here mentioned, line for line, as it appears on the monument:-

Here: vnderneath : Lyeth : the : body : OF : Iohn : He= wetfon : efq : he : waf : born : att : fettrington : in : Yorkefhire : anD : dyed : the : 2 : day : of : febru : 1658 aGed : 45 : yeares : this : monument : waf : erected : af : a memorial : of : him : by : Chriftian : hif : wif : by : whom : he : had : : iffue : one : fonno [sic] : and : two : daughterf : the : yo= unger : dyed : the : yere : of : her : age : and : if : inter= ed : by : her : f[ather]r.

 

The last line is cut on the projecting frame of the mural slab, and a chip occurs in the word “father”. The age of the daughter is omitted. The son was Col. Thomas Hewetson, of Grange, Co. Kildare; and the daughters Dorothy and Elinor, the latter being buried in her father’s tomb.

 

Some notes of interst on Kildare Town and Grey Abbey from the pages of the Journal of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society. My thanks to the Society. 

Posted by mariocorrigan at 10:41 PM

November 16, 2007

KILDARE COUNTY INFIRMARY - Part 2

 

1837-	Jan.	16.	County Surveyor's plans adopted and sent to Road Sessions and Grand Jury.
1839-	May.	31.	Duke of Leinster to get a lithographed plan of Infirmary.
	Nov.	26.	Plans and alterations adopted. One person to act as Apothecary and Steward at ₤40 per annum. Porch in front. Shed for men's garden and one for women's to be built.
1841-	Jan.	29.	Building's insured at ₤1,700; Furniture at ₤200.
	Aug.	24.	John Murphy's proposal for new work accepted, as recommended by Architect, Mr. Butler, [. – sic]
1842-	Jan.	14.	Mr. Yeates (Co. Surveyor) to inspect new works and compare same with Architects plans and specifications.
1824-	May	24.	Communications with Poor Law Commissioners. Surgeon's apartments expressly built for his accomodation. [accommodation – sic; 1824 - sic - possibly should read 1842?]
1845 -	May	22.	Co. Surveyor to prepare plans for alterations and repairs.
"	Sep.	22.	Stephen Mulleady's proposal for new works accepted at ₤179 16s. 4d. Edward Marshall's for re-fitting well ₤75.
1851-	Oct.	8.	Summer Assize Grant ₤300 and Treasury Grant ₤89 1s 10d.
1852-			Total Expenditure Jan. 5, 1851, to Jan. 5, 1852-₤636 19s. 9d.
1853-			Marquis of Kildare appointed Treasurer. County Surveyor to prepare estimate for next Assize for new works.
1855-			Dr. Geoghegan gets 12 months' leave of absence. Dr. Chaplain locum tenens.
1855-	July	20.	County Surveyor to make survey of necessary repairs.
1856-	Feb.	16.	Dr. Geoghegan resigns.
1856-	Mar.	28.	Dr. Chaplain elected Surgeon.
1857-			Dr. Chaplain to act as Secretary and Apothecary at ₤40 per annum.
1865-	Feb.	9.	Resolution regarding proposed Lock Hospital. Dr. Chaplain may act as Superintendent Surgeon of Lock. Necessary changes to be carried out.
1865-	Aug.	10.	Surveyor to draw up detailed report of needed repairs and a plan for sewerage.
1865-	Oct.	12.	Dr. Chaplain to write to Hans Hendrick, Esq., for lease for ever of plot in Mr. Clancy's field 20ft. x 16 for sewage tank.
1866-	Mar.	29.	Project to build Surgeon's House. 1st Grand Jury grant too small. Subscription list opened. Subscribers of ₤20 and over to be Governors for life.
1866-	July	6.	Vote of thanks to Turf Club for piece of ground given to Infirmary. Mr. Brazil's plan for alterations adopted.
1866-	Sep.	3.	New buildings, according to plan of Surveyor to be carried out. Contract for Surgeon's House given to Mr. Dunne for ₤1,369 13s. 6½d.
1867-	Oct.	25.	Surgeon's House insured for ₤1,200. Fence wall side and front to be carried out.
1867-	Nov.	29.	New wards to be completed. For altering hot water supply, ₤22 10s. 0d.
1868-	Jan.	25.	Additional alterations to be carried out.
1868-	July	28.	Surgeon to have plan for new Laundry by next Presentment Sessions.
1869-	Aug.	5.	Mr. Irwin to send in specification for work to be done in Surgeon's house.
1869-	Nov.	11.	Let Secretary write Mr. Kennedy for ₤150 granted at last Assize out of dog tax. Make out report for repairs to be presented for at next Assize. Lower ceilings in Surgeon's house renewed.
1870-	Feb.	2.	Mr. Irwin's bill ₤157 10s. 0d., paid. Baths, cistern, water-closets to be put in order.
1870-	May	14.	County Surveyor to make a plan for new Laundry and drying closet.
1872-	Feb.	8.	Plan of Laundry by Messrs. Loftus approved, and County Surveyor to have estimate for buildings and drainage ready for Grand Jury, to be applied for next Assize.
1872-	July	12.	Edward Gibney's tender for alterations in Laundry, at ₤142 0s. 0d, accepted.
1873-	May	3.	County Surveyor to examine Laundry Works; direct Loftus as to defects, and see E. Gibney's contract.
1873-	Nov.	11.	Policy of Insurance for Buildings effected at ₤4,000 with Patriotic.
1874-	June	11.	Board not ready to give new contract for Laundry.
	July	11.	Mr. Waldron to complete existing contract for Laundry, and enter on new contract.
1875-	Feb.	11.	Surgeon's house much out of repair. ₤50 to repair it. Send resolution to Grand Jury.
1875-	Sep.	14.	Mr. Waldron's tender for repairs to Surgeon's house accepted.
1875-	Sep.	27.	Mr. Waldron's plan to be completed by Summer Assize, 1876.
1876.-	Oct.	30.	Wards to be floored. Expense not to exceed Grand Jury grant.
1877-	Jan.	13.	Mr. Waldron's tender for flooring accepted at ₤247.

1877-

Apr.

14.

₤222 2s. 0d. on account to Mr. Waldon for work done at Infirmary and Surgeon's house.

1877-	Nov.	24.	₤302 to Mr. Waldron for work done.
1879-	Nov.	1.	Mr. Brett to report on drainage and sewerage of Hospital and Surgeon's House, and suggest improvements.
1880-	Sep.	11.	Sewerage arrangements suggested by Mr. Brett to be carried out. Bath and closet for Surgeon's house, ₤50.
1883-	Jan.	26.	Three members to confer with Solicitor of Grand Jury and have case prepared for Assize regarding refusal of Presentment at County at County at Large Sessions.
1883-	Feb.	23.	Thomas Cooke-Trench, Esq., Rev. Dr. Kavanagh, James E. Medlicott, Esq., to lay before Cesspayers the great loss the County would sustain by closing Infirmary.
1883-	Mar.	5.	Counsel to be briefed regarding Presentment refused.
Above are items regarding Surgeon's House taken from two entries in Account Book. They do not show entire cost as is clear from above dates and references on page 9. [p. 9. Listed entries from 1869-Nov. 11. To 1880-Sep. 11]
1884-	May.	14.	Mr. Medlicott to carry out legal arrangements regarding new plot given by Turf Club.
1885-	Jan.	30.	Lord Lieutenant cannot authorize Governors to hold a sworn inquiry. Local Government Board can hold it.
1885-	Feb.	17.	Mr. Clancy appointed to Secretaryship resigned by Dr. Chaplin.
1886-	Jan.	28.	As associated cesspayers have rejected Presentment (₤600) the Infirmary must be closed when funds are exhausted, "a calamity" to be averted.
1886-	July	9.	Salaries of officials reduced. Dr. Chaplain offers a subscription rate of ₤100 per annum.
1886-	May	17.	Presentment now rejected a third time by County at Large Sessions. Infirmary must be closed. No more patients after next Assize. [Entry described May but after entry for July - may indicate the month is inaccurate or merely that listing is inaccurate.]
1887-	Apr.	27.	Dr. Chaplain appointed Caretaker.
1887-	Mar.	26.	Auction ordered.
1887-	Nov.	9.	No adequate Presentment. Intern department to be closed with all speed. Officials dismissed. Secretary and Surgeon retained. Salary of latter reduced to ₤94.
1890-	July	15.	At Naas ₤78 for necessary repairs.
1890-	Sep.	3.	Mr. Greene's tender for repairs, &c, accepted at ₤78 as specified by Mr. Glover.
1891-	Mar.	16.	₤20 to be paid for extra work over and above.
NO FURTHER ENTRY.

 

 

The Leinster Leader 18/6/1960 carried an article on the Hospital which described the purpose of the booklet in the first paragraph : -

 

County Hospital Has a Lively History

 

In May, 1886, Kildare County Infirmary as it was then called, was closed, and it was re-opened in 1903, mainly through the efforts of Rev. John Delaney, who had been C.C. in Kildare since 1898. A booklet of 11 pages which Father Delaney had printed at the time, and circulated to subscribers of 1/- and upwards, is our main source for the history of Kildare County Hospital. Father Delaney’s history is based on the hospital and public records.

            …

 

 

Having paraphrased the information from the booklet, the last couple of paragraphs give a little more information on the hospital and Fr. Delaney.

 

            …

            In 1899, the first Kildare County Council was elected. Fr. John Delaney, C.C., led the first movement for the re-opening of the Hospital. Public meetings were held in Kildare, and all the facts were laid before the County Council, who promised support.

 

SISTERS TAKE CHARGE

            The Sisters of St. John of God, Kilkenny, were asked to take charge of the nursing. Miss Elizabeth Talbot, who was afterwards Mrs. Connolly of the Hotel, and another lady still living, went to Kilkenny to interview the Sisters. All preparations for the re-opening were supervised by Fr. Delaney, who also equipped the chapel.

            In 1903, the hospital was re-opened. In June of that year, Father Delaney was appointed Parish Priest of Rathvilly. In 1924, he became Monsignor. He died in 1941.

            From its re-opening in 1903, the County Hospital received a small grant from the County Council. In 1933, the Hospital was taken over fully by the County Council.

 

 

[Compiled and edited by Mario Corrigan - Reprint of Fr. Delaney's booklet on History of Co. Infirmary which was published as part of the campaign to re-open the Infirmary - closed since 1886/7 it was re-opened in 1903. original Booklet in Kildare Co. Library]

Posted by mariocorrigan at 10:41 PM

KILDARE COUNTY INFIRMARY - Part 1

Posted by mariocorrigan at 10:21 PM

October 17, 2007

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR BOOKLET 1953 - The Programme of Events

Posted by mariocorrigan at 09:14 PM

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR BOOKLET 1953 - The Committee

Posted by mariocorrigan at 08:57 PM

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 24

Posted by mariocorrigan at 08:37 PM

July 12, 2007

KILDARE BARRACKS by Mark McLoughlin; Local History Lecture 2005

Kildare Barracks

Wednesday 7th September 2005

by

Mark McLoughlin

The other important event at the turn of the century was the decision to construct an artillery barracks at Kildare which would remain open for almost 100 years until it closed in 1998.

Royal Artillery
The decision to construct an artillery barracks at Kildare in 1900 was one of the most important events in the development of the town. The site of the barracks was on a farm called Broadhook Farm. It was the site of the Lock Hospital which was built in 1868 on lands leased from the Duke of Leinster and remained open for approximately 20 years. However the road it was built on is still called Hospital Street today.

The 1901 Census records the barracks as the Lock Hospital consisting of four camp hutments with 65 carpenters and joiners, Irish and English involved in the construction of the barracks. Living in the canteen were 26 English plasterers and painters. The foreman was a Thomas Ryan from Kildare and a Thomas McLoughlin from Kildare operated a public house on site.

The Leinster Leader recorded a social night in January 1901:-
“On Saturday night last the Irish foremen and timekeepers employed at the military barracks in course of erection in Kildare, entertained their English friends in the same employment. A number of guests were invited, and when supper was served at twelve o’clock about fifty sat to table. The health of the strangers was proposed and Mr. Oram foreman, responded in suitable terms. Dancing commenced after supper, the music being supplied by the employes [sic]. Songs were also rendered by Mr. Oram, Mr. White, Mrs. O’Brien, Mrs. Studley, Miss Dollard, Miss Farrelly, and Mr. McLoughlin. Proceedings were kept up until the small hours, when the party separated well pleased with their night’s pleasure. Messrs Behan, Hickey, and Murphy, who organised the entertainment, are to be congratulated on the success of their efforts.”

The barracks was occupied some time in 1901 and the first units stationed in the barracks were the 31st and 33rd Brigades, Royal Field Artillery – which consisted of five batteries of artillery.

The opening of the barracks provided a period of prosperity for Kildare because by the time of the census of 1911, the population had increased to 2,639 persons which included the 808 men stationed in the Barracks.

The onset of the First World War of course brought great excitement to the town – Military leave was cancelled and military intelligence took over Kildare Railway Station.  Kildare Barracks was virtually emptied as the men in Kildare (15th Brigade RFA) were part of the Fifth Division which went to France in August 1914.

The Kildare Observer of 22 August 1914 reported

"A couple of large detachments of the Royal Field Artillery left Kildare Barracks early on Sunday and Monday mornings. They on each occasion being played out of the town by the band of the Kildare Volunteers, which rendered such tunes as "Come back to Erin", etc. Though it was 2 o'clock on Sunday morning, never the less a large crowd of Kildare Townspeople assembled to cheer them off and this was repeated on Monday morning at 7 o'clock. Such warm demonstrations must have helped to bring gladness to the hearts of those men who were going forth to defend our nation's right, and also to their wives and relatives from whose presence they have been called for an indefinite period."

They left a great store of uniforms behind them which were used for a new unit being established in the barracks. Many of these men, no doubt were killed in the next few years in France and other battlefields around the world. There were, of course, also locals killed in the war. Harry Greene, a teacher in Kildare National School applied for a commission on 13 May 1915 and was commissioned into the Royal Munster Fusiliers. He was killed on 29th April 1918 by a sniper after leading a company of Royal Irish Rifles in taking over a german machine gun post.

There is a letter published in the North Cheshire Herald at Christmans 1915 written by some men of the 3rd Cheshire Yeomanry who were stationed in Kildare at the time. They wrote “We spent our Christmas at a little village called Kildare, where the houses are just like stables. You talk about being among the pigs, we are amongst them..”.

Following the war of Independence and signing of the treaty, the British made plans to vacate the barracks in April 1922. However on 10th February 1922 Lieutenant John Wogan Browne, a member of a well known family from Naas at the time, went to the Hibernian Bank to collect the regimental pay. At the corner of Infirmary Road a car pulled up and one of the occupants grabbed the bag which contained £135. Wogan-Browne attempted to recover the bag and was shot in the head. The car was driven by a Tom Graham from Kildare who hired the car out to three men who held him at gunpoint. Three men, who were all local, were arrested for the murder but were released a few months later. All passes for traders to the Barracks were cancelled and on the night of the funeral there was some trouble by British soldiers in the town.

A dance was held in the Barracks at the end of March 1922. While the soldiers danced, someone stole the safe from the canteen which was later found opened in the field behind the barracks. The furniture from the Officers’ Mess and Officers’ Married Quarters was sent north while the rest of the equipment was given to the new state. The families of all soldiers left the barracks on 15th April 1922 when it was handed over to the National Army.

Civic Guards
In February 1922 Michael Collins had established a committee to examine a replacement force for the RIC and within a month had decided on the establishment of the Civic Guard. Following the withdrawal of the British army, the barracks was selected as the site for the training of the new Civic Police and 800 men were sent to the new Civic Police headquarters on 25th April 1922. where the new recruits engaged in drill instruction and route marches to Newbridge and Monasterevin. Within a week of arriving the civic police were attacked by anti-treaty forces and soldiers were put on the gate to protect the barracks.  There were simmering tensions in the barracks when the new recruits arrived as they found themselves being instructed by former RIC men. These experienced policemen were appointed over former republicans and tensions came to a head on 15 May 1922 when a former Cork IRA man, Thomas Daly presented an ultimatum to the Commissioner of the Civic Police demanding the expulsion of five named former RIC men. Commissioner Staines ordered a full parade of the barracks and when he ordered the signatories to step forward, a shouting match ensued and the parade was abandoned. The next day, Newbridge Barracks was handed over to the Civic Guard and while the commissioner was there, the mutineers raided the armory and seized rifles, revolvers and ammunition. Meanwhile, Staines had called for soldiers who had just taken over the Curragh from the British to assist the Civic Guard. They arrived in Kildare but were prevented by armed civic guards from entering the barracks and a stand off ensued. The situation was so serious that Michael Collins came to Kildare and agreed to set up an inquiry provided that Staines and other senior Civic police be allowed back to Kildare.

However, when Staines arrived at the gates, he was refused entry and when two former RIC men, Sergeant Patrick McAvinia and Superintendant John Byrne arrived at the gates, the mutineers drew weapons and Byrne was narrowly missed by a shot. The two ex RIC men fled while being chased by a mob and fled to the Railway Arms where they tried to make a phone call. A crowd gathered outside and threatened to burn the place down. They escaped out the back door and hid in the Carmelite house before escaping back to Dublin the next day.

Tensions did not completely finish as on 17th June, days before the start of the Civil War Daly again met a force of anti-treaty men from Dublin who went with him to the barracks, tied up the guards on duty and commandeered the rifles and ammunition from the armoury with some of the Civic Guards joined them and went back to Dublin to the Four Courts.

The overall impact of these events were that the new police force was reconstituted as an unarmed police force which aimed to have closer links to the wider community and much less like a colonial police force in the way the RIC was perceived.

Artillery Corps
In March 1925. the Garda Siochana moved out and the Artillery Corps which was formed in 1923 moved from Dublin to Kildare. On 20th March 1925, the Artillery Corps arrived at Kildare railway station and the two batteries consisting of eight guns in total were each linked and harnessed to six horses and travelled to the barracks with outriders on the lead horses. Artillery requires specialist knowledge and accordingly, the new army gathered together men with previous experience of artillery and horsemanship to create the new unit.  Thus you had men like Sgt Major Downey who had seen active service during the war at Vimy Ridge, Bertie Thompson, formerly of the Royal Canadian Artillery and my own grandfather James McLoughlin of the Royal Garrison Artillery. Kildare initially had one battery consisting of 5 Officers, 18 NCOs and 93 gunners (116 in total).

Like the British army, the Irish army battery included 1 farrier, 2 shoeing smiths, 2 saddlers, 5 signallers, 2 Trumpeters, 3 cooks, 2 clerks, 4 sergeants, 40 gunners and 29 drivers. Each battery had 4 18 pounder guns. The smiths and farriers would have been busy as two batteries of artillery required a regulation 125 horses.
The Artillery Corps was renowned for its strict discipline which was far stricter than other army units – with the highest standard of training, drill and dress.

The Artillery Corps carried out their first shoot in the Glen of Imaal in September 1925 with the men having to haul the guns over Table Top mountain. At the time with the formation of new batteries, each battery was assigned to a particular Battalion of the army. So, the 1st Battery was assigned to the 4th Battalion in Cork and when they held their exercises in Kilworth, the battery had to organize a special train to transport all the horses and equipment. This would take from 4 am to 8 am that evening to get the battery to Cork whereas the 2nd Battery only had to travel to the Glen of Imaal although this would in itself be an endurance as all movement was by horse. During the 1920s and 1930s, the entire artillery corps was based in Kildare so a number of Officers were sent to America and to England for Artillery training which they in turn passed on to others on their return to Kildare.

The replacement of the hutted artillery lines with a proper barracks commenced in 1938 when Sisk were given the contract to construct a new barracks and the artillery corps transferred temporarily to Plunkett Barracks in the Curragh. This was the first purpose built barracks built by the Irish State.  The barracks was named Magee Barracks after Gunner James Magee who bravely handled a six pounder gun at the battle of Ballinamuck in September 1798.

The biggest change for the Artillery Corps in Kildare was the changeover to a mechanized artillery corps. In March 1939, most of the horses were sold at public auction in Dublin and the remainder given to other units in the army.

With the reorganisation the army in the 1990s, the days of Kildare Barracks were finally numbered and it closed in 1998.  Yet again the business community and people of Kildare wanted to know what would become of the barracks. After a number of years as a home for Kosovan refugees and asylum seekers from around the world, the barracks will shortly make way for the needs of an expanding town.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 11:00 PM

July 06, 2007

THE CURRAGH - A LAND DIVIDED by Guy Williams

[I posted this on the EHistory website also www.kildare.ie/ehistory but as it has a special significance to Kildare Town I felt it should also be on the Grey Abbey site. Great to see yet another packed house at the Cill Dara Historical Society Meeting; a very enjoyable evening]

Posted by mariocorrigan at 02:33 PM

June 12, 2007

COUNTY INFIRMARY - Proposed closure 1959

[Copied from typed copy provided by Stephen Talbot from original notes of meeting in November 1959 in Stephen Talbot's possession]

Proposed closing of Kildare County Infirmary.

Public Meeting in C.Y.M.S. Hall Kildare
At 8 p.m. 3rd November 1959.

Report of Proceedings.

Opening the meeting, the Chairman Colonel Rea said:-

“This meeting, as you know, has been called to discuss the proposal to close the County Infirmary.  It is indicative of the interest to see such a large gathering present, but before opening the meeting I would make one earnest appeal – to approach this whole problem, coolly, calmly and in a reasonable manner.  I know the way feeling is going, but I think it is better for everybody if we are quite cool about the way in which we approach the subject.  Another point I will stress is that the matter is completely above politics.  Do not let us have politics in it.  I am sure that is the wish of everybody I have been speaking to.

There are a lot of people who want to express views on this matter.  At a meeting such as this there is always a distinct probability that we would jump up and say things for which afterwards we would be sorry, so it is for that reason, and reason only, I regretfully announce to the Press that from now on this meeting is in Committee.  At the end of the meeting we will give the Press a statement and any information they require.  I hope they will accept that.

The way I propose to run the meeting is to call on a number of people to express their views, then we will give a period of general discussion and for people who have not been called on to say what they may wish to say.  If, at the end of that discussion there are any points requiring clarification, we will frame questions and put them to our Council members.  Again, it is completely up to them.  We will not embarrass them in any way, but if they are able and willing to answer out questions we will be pleased if they would do so.  If at the end of the question time period the meeting feels like formulating a resolution we will formulate it – then you can from the body of the hall give the action to be take on such resolution.

With that, I think it is best to start straight away to get the views.  It might be just as well to set the course.  The first comment is this and I think it is a fair comment – that the first indication that the general public got of this proposal to close the County Hospital, was in the press.  Following on that I and most people here I think, have been discussing this whole problem and I think the reaction can be summed up briefly by saying that the people of this district have been deeply shocked that such a proposal should go through.  Having said that I will say no more, and will hand over the discussion to the various speakers and to start off I will call on our Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Swayne:
 

Proposed Closing of Kildare County Infirmary.

Speaker:  Very Rev. Fr. Swayne. P.P.

For a long time past the people of Kildare have been familiar with and concerned about conditions in Kildare Hospital, the correct and official title by the way is St. Brigid’s Hospital.  One does not need to be an Engineer or a Doctor, and one had not to wait for last week’s Leinster Leader to be informed of the defects from which the hospital suffered.  The people of Kildare were perfectly aware of these already.  It was humiliating for them to realise that though the hospital had made considerable progress in recent years, it had not kept pace with the general rate of progress of hospitals throughout the country.  They could not but know that these defects were due to the neglect of the County Council to equip the hospital adequately for the purpose it has served for so many years, namely the Surgical Hospital for Co. Kildare.  All are agreed as to the handicap under which the hospital has worked for these years, but notwithstanding those handicaps, nobody has suggested that the Co. Surgeon and his staff have not carried out their work with the utmost efficiency, or that they did not deserve the tribute which the Co. manager paid them at the Council Meeting last Monday 26th.

Frequently during the past eight years the organisations of the Parish have discussed these defects, and efforts were made to induce those responsible to remedy them.  We readily acknowledge that Kildare Co. Council have a high standard of courtesy towards the public, and of efficiency in all fields under their care.  The people of Kildare were always assured that a general scheme of hospitalisation – that was the magic word – was being prepared, or if it was not being actually prepared, it was at least in contemplation.  This scheme would be very broad; it might even embrace Co. Carlow and of course St. Brigid’s Hospital would fit perfectly into this general scheme; that nothing however could be done at the moment; we would have to wait until the New Manager, or New Minister, or the New Co. Council took up duty.  Soft words such as these had a soothing, in fact a soporific effect on the people of Kildare, but within the past week they had a rude awakening.  They realise that the grandiose scheme that was being contemplated was to leave Kildare Town and Kildare County without a Surgeon and without a Surgical Hospital.

It appears that last April the new Co. Surgeon – Mr. Ward was asked to report on the surgical facilities in Co. Kildare and to recommend thereon.  In his report Mr. Ward referred to the principal defects in St. Brigid’s Hospital, defects which he has since pointed out are to be met with in other surgical hospitals as well, and he expressed his preference for St. Mary’s Hospital Naas as a suitable surgical unit.  The Co. Council’s reaction to this report was to move their Office Staffs into St. Mary’s Hospital last April.  While nobody grudges the Co. Council’s Staff their present comfortable quarters, there is no indication as to when they will vacate them again.  With these facts in mind, Mr. Ward again turns his thought to Kildare and in April last he recommended that at least a Lift should be installed in St. Brigid’s Hospital.  This recommendation Mr. Ward states has been ignored.

With the Council Staff happily housed at St. Mary’s Hospital the Co. Manager too turns his thought to St. Brigid’s Co. Surgical Hospital at Kildare.  At last Monday’s meeting he told the Co. Council of the conditions which he found in St. Brigid’s Hospital and which had been described in Mr. Ward’s report.  It should not have been necessary to tell the Co. Council of conditions in St. Brigid’s it was their plain duty to have ascertained these conditions for themselves and have remedied them long ago.  But they felt humiliated at the recital of these defects which only showed up their own neglect.  They shared in the alarm of the Co. Manager who took care to tell them that the cost per day of a patient in Dublin was 11/1d lower than in Kildare.  This was a bait they easily swallowed.  By 15 votes to 2 they adopted the Co. Manager’s suggestion that they should close Kildare as a Surgical Hospital and send the surgical patients in future to Dublin or Portlaoise.

On reading the Press report, Mr. Ward wrote protesting at the use that had been made of his report.  He justly complains that his letters had been used to represent him as having recommended that Kildare be left without a Surgical Hospital.  It is now clear that Mr. Ward recommended nothing of the sort.  But everybody will agree that in the light of Mr. Ward’s statement, the proceedings of last Monday’s meeting place the Co. Council in a very unfavourable position.  On the other hand he considers that the decision to abandon St. Brigid’s as a Surgical Hospital is ill-advised.  In the short time he has been in Kildare he readily recalls a number of patients who might not have survived if they had to travel further than Kildare for attention.

On Friday last the very day Mr. Ward’s letter appeared, the Co. Kildare Branch of the Irish Medical Association met and passed the following resolution:-
“The Kildare Branch of the Irish Medical Association views with great concern the proposal of Kildare Co. Council to close the Co. Hospital as a Surgical Hospital.”

“They regret that such a serious proposal should be made without reference to the Consultative Committee or the Medical practitioners of the County.”

“There are many grave aspects, such as treatment of acute surgical emergencies and road accidents requiring immediate blood transfusions, which, we feel, cannot be satisfactorily dealt with under the proposed arrangements.  Furthermore, the absence of a surgical consultant within the county is a serious disadvantage to patients and doctors alike.”

“We further feel that such a far reaching decision should not be made so hastily and that the existing arrangements should be continued.”

After the authoritative statements of Mr. Ward and the Co. Kildare I.M.A. there should be no further room for loose thinking or loose talking such as was indulged in at the last meeting of the County Council, Members of which must now regret their premature pronouncements on medical matters.

The picture which the Co. Manager painted of the Co. Surgeon getting suddenly sick while an emergency or unconscious patient was brought to hospital could hardly have impressed anybody.  Less impressive perhaps was the picture drawn by a Councillor of a man who is hanging by a thread between life and death, for whom the implied remedy was to send him an extra twenty or thirty miles to Dublin or Portlaoise: that surely would afford instant relief to the patient, and no doubt also the ratepayer.

More startling still was the statement of the Athy Councillors that 99% of the people of Athy would prefer to go to Dublin.  I have no way of assessing opinion in Athy, but I surely will be permitted to disclose my own experience.  During the past eight years, I have met scores of Athy patients in St. Brigid’s Hospital: they were all delightful people: I never heard one of them complain that he or she was compelled to come to Kildare in preference to Dublin, or that he or she was compelled to remain there.  The County Manager has made this clear.  It seems to me that when he instructed the Co. Surgeon to send to another hospital any patient he felt he was unable to handle, he was only continuing and sanctioning the practice of years past.  Special cases have always been sent to special hospitals in Dublin for special surgical treatment.

The Dublin hospitals are often found to be full to capacity and patients have to wait for beds.  The visiting hours at Dublin hospitals are and have to be more restricted than at Kildare.  It is hard to believe that that the people of Athy do not appreciate being able after their day’s work to visit their friends at Kildare hospital.  May we suggest to the Kildare Councillors that they should consider canvassing Athy opinion on this matter.

The people of Kildare do not accept the Co. Managers statement that a lift cannot be installed at St. Brigid’s Hospital.  For one thing the Manager does not quote any Architects opinion.  It is just as well perhaps.

It is difficult too to understand his statement that in the event of a Fire at the hospital, surgical and bed-ridden patients could not be got out.  What then is the purpose of the two huge concrete structures that were erected at the rear of the hospital within the past four years?  To ordinary eyes they look to be Fire-Escapes.  The Co. Manager proposes that St. Brigid’s should be continued as a Medical Hospital.  Does he wish us to believe that these Fires-Escapes which appear to be triumphs of architecture and engineering are inadequate for surgical patients but quite adequate for medical patients.

Notwithstanding last Monday’s meeting everybody will find it hard to believe, as I for one do not believe, that these are the real sentiments of the County Manager and the County Council.  We do not believe that they ever intended to deprive Kildare County, or Kildare Town for that matter of full surgical facilities.  We endorse the statement of Mr. Ward and the Co. Kildare Irish Medical Association and request:

1) That St. Brigid’s Hospital be retained as a County Surgical Hospital.
2) That St. Brigid’s Hospital be adequately equipped and the defects indicated by Mr. Ward be removed viz.

a) Additional accommodation be provided.
b) A lift be installed
c) The theatre facilities improved
d) Facilities for outdoor clinic be provided.

Rev. Dean Eaton

Rev. Fathers, Mr. Chairman, ladies & Gentlemen,

“Father Swayne is a jump ahead of me.  He has said some of the things I intended to say, but I may have a few other things to put before you.

The County Council, we should remember, is elected by us and yet there are people I regretfully say who regard the continued existence of the County Council as a grave public scandal.  I do not agree with that at all.  They have always been extremely courteous to me, very kind and helpful in every way.  Whenever I had a deputation or wanted work done, they always did it for me.  They always listened patiently to me.  We ought to remember that and I would like that recorded.

It gives me considerable pain then to disagree with the County Council’s decision to close the hospital.  I think the closing of our hospital here would be a disaster.  Furthermore, it would be unlucky.  I am full of superstitions.  I will have nothing to do with pulling down a church as long as there is somebody to worship, and I will have nothing to do with shutting down Kildare Hospital.  I think it does wonderful work.

It is said that the building is old.  There are three National Hospitals in Dublin that are far older and they are most efficiently run to the satisfaction of the public.  As you know, Dr. Cannon and the physicians of this town have done wonderful work in reconstructing this hospital.  We owe Dr. Cannon a great debt of gratitude.  I am not a builder or a surgeon and it seems to me that it would be the simplest thing to cut down the width of the various flights of stairs – they are 6 ft. wide and most stairs are 2 ½ feet wide – and to install a lift.  The theatre, to my uninstructed mind, is adequate and up to date.  The anesthetics are all at the head of the table, the instruments are to hand, there is a very powerful system of lighting – these are important facts to remember.

I have been connected with this hospital for over 25 years and I have been one of the Chaplains for the last seven years.  I have been in every hospital in Dublin save two or three, and I say that this hospital is as good as any of them.  The Staff – Surgeon, Medical Officers of the town, Matron, Sisters, Nursing Staff and everybody from our good friends at the door to the people who cook the food are first-class and I think small enquiry will prove that.  People say that I am prejudiced because I have a gra for the nuns.  I have a gra for them and I propose to go on having it.  I think that they are very wonderful people and that they have been kindness itself.  The patients tell me that they, the patients, are quite warm in their beds, that they are comfortable and that the food is good and there is an atmosphere of cheerfulness throughout.  This is a matter of vital importance to the patient and to everybody concerned.

To take the case of accidents – I should suggest to you and I say it would reference to religion, that before crossing Claregate Street we ought all to say a short prayer, because a fast car coming from the South, while it may not kill us may injure us and we could find ourselves in Mr. Murphys’s parlour spoiling his carpet while we await the coming of the ambulance and we get the best spiritual and bodily aid.  But suppose we do not have our hospital – suppose it is closed – and one of us should have an accident.  Again we find ourselves in Mr. Murphy’s parlour, destroying his carpet, and being left there for hours-waiting for the bus from Cahirciveen or Skibbereen to take us to Belfast.

Mr. Ward’s last words – and I do not say that in the religious sense – as reported in the Leinster Leader, were that he knew of several cases of people who would have died if the ambulance had by-passed Kildare Hospital – that he could not visualise Kildare without a hospital.  So Ladies and Gentlemen, I say to you that you ought to fight for your hospital.  May we be able to retain it and I pray that God’s blessing will rest upon its work and everybody in it.”

At this point, the Chairman requested subsequent speakers to try to confine their remarks to about five minutes as he wished to confine the length of the meeting.

Mr. Weir

“Rev Fathers, Rev. Dean, Ladies and Gentleman.

I follow in very difficult footsteps.  We have had two most excellent and pointed speeches which have brought home to us all the importance of the very vital issue at stake.  I will not say very much – I will keep it to five minutes anyhow.

I came here on 21st May 1937.  I arrived to find that there had been a serious accident at the factory on the previous day, as a result of which a man, but for the skill of Dr. Cannon would certainly have lost a finger, perhaps a hand.  From that day to this, I have always received the most courteous help at the hospital from the resident surgeon, no matter who he was, from the matron and nursing staff and from all the medical gentlemen of Kildare town.  I want you to visualise what would happen to us tomorrow if the hospital was closed and a similar set of circumstances arose.  That is only a very minor detail when compared with life. It might be the life of a man or woman that is at stake, and we don’t want any ‘last words’ such as have been referred to by the Dean.  The only thing I can say is this – there was a parable about two brothers.  The Lord told one brother to do a job and he said he would do it and went off and did not do it.  The other brother said that he would not do it and he did it.  I believe here that we here can bring pressure to bear on the County Council, the County Manager and all concerned that the things they said they would do they will not and our hospital will be kept open.”

Introducing the next speaker, Colonel Rea pointed out that Mr. Smith has had associations with Kildare Hospital for many years.  It was Mr. Smith who had provided the data for the short history which had been in circulation.

Mr. Michael Smith.

“Mr. Chairman, Rev. Father, Rev. Dean, Ladies and Gentleman.

I have been associated with this Kildare Hospital for a very long time.  I became a member of the Kildare Infirmary Committee in 1920 and I have been associated with the Hospital ever since, both on the infirmary Committee,  The Board of Health, the County Council and lately as a member of the County Health Committee.  Like the other speakers here, I was very much surprised to learn from the Press that the hospital had been abolished.  There is no doubt at all that if it is closed as a Surgical Hospital there will be no further use for it.

A lot of matters have been spoken of here.  I just wish to say that when I became a member of Kildare Hospital Committee, it was a voluntary hospital – the people of Kildare kept it open.  The one matter we have to remember is that the Kildare Hospital is the property of the people of Kildare.  In the old days they got no grant.  When I became a member of the Committee, they were a voluntary committee.  At that time they had a very excellent Ladies Committee who worked very hard collecting and running entertainments and dances to keep the hospital going.  The only grant at the time was a small one to pay the Surgeon’s salary.  Those of us on the Committee at the time decided that we would look for a further grant and that we got, to pay Dr. Coady who was working for a ‘starvation’ salary at the time.  We met monthly and made rulings.  The late Mr. Charles Bergin was Honorary Secretary and our Parish Priest was Chairman and it was carried on as a voluntary hospital until 1933 when Kildare County Council took it over.  At that time a number of members of Kildare Infirmary Committee objected to it being taken over.  They believed that the time would come when it would be closed.  They had their suspicions that when Kildare County Council took it over it might be closed.

The Hospital is a very old building – 192 years since it was established.  It is a historic building.  During 1798 it was taken over by the North Cork Militia (1) as a Barracks and after all, the very fact of it being placed in Kildare proved even at that time that Kildare was the best place for it.  After the Rebellion, it was transferred to Naas, then it was brought back again to Kildare.  After it being taken over in 1949 we had a big fight to retain the hospital here, but the County Council at that time acted differently to our present Council – they fought for the Kildare Hospital – It was actually due to them that Kildare kept the County Surgical Hospital for this County.

As far as a visiting committee is concerned – we had a visiting committee. In conjunction with the Surgeon, the Matron and architect, made a number of suggestions for the improvement of the hospital during the past ten or twelve years.  A lot of matters were attended to.  Of course there was always the trouble of the operating theatre and the stairs.  It was brought to our notice that the operating theatre was too small – but we had surgeons like Drs. Coady and Cannon who carried out their work effectively and efficiently in it.  I think there is no other hospital which had a lower rate of mortality as far as operations were concerned.  Before Dr. Cannon went away, he called on me and other members of the Health Committee and suggested improvements.  He said that it would be a disaster if Kildare Hospital should be closed.  He had his suspicions that when he went, an attempt would be made to close Kildare Hospital.

We always had a great fight to try and keep Kildare Hospital but still at the same time what I cannot understand is this.  A number of the County Council Members are old members and know all about this fight for Kildare Hospital.  They knew of the complaints made by Drs. Coady and Cannon, and of course the same complaints were made by Mr. Ward. – and after all – they were not complaints – they were recommendations.  Mr. Ward made his recommendations to improve the Hospital.
There is no use in the County Manager making a statement about the stairs. The stairs was always there and yet there was no accident. We believe there can be a lift installed. We had a committee of medical men who made certain recommendations and one recommendation was that there could be a great operating theatre for £2000 – there could be a lesser one for £1500 and there could be a big improvement for £280, but the County Council would not grant that amount, but at the same time they are squandering thousands on jobs about the county. We believe at all times that there should be a grant from the Hospital Trust Fund. Co. Kildare got very little from the Hospital Trust fund though they buy their share of tickets.

What I object to is that members of the County Council take such little pride in their County. They were told to send their patients to Portlaoise, to Baltinglass and to Dublin. This county is as much entitled to a Surgical Hospital as Wicklow and Laois since we have a greater population and the members of the County Council should have fought for a County Hospital. Every other county has a county hospital, Leix, Offay, Meath – all with less population than Kildare therefore I can`t understand why fifteen members of the County Council who should have been interested in maintaining our hospital should vote against Kildare Co. Hospital.  I believe, and I am supported here by the other speakers that the people have the last word. Each one on the County Council is there to represent the people and I must say that both Councillors Dowling and Mc Wey are to be complimented at the fight they put up against the big odds on Monday week last, for the retention of our hospital. They showed that they do represent the people.

Whether the patients come from Athy or North Kildare, one thing in favour of Kildare Hospital is that the people could visit their relations there. People cannot afford to go to Dublin on visits. I believe that if we held a meeting in Athy we would find that 99% of the people of Athy would wish to come to Kildare Hospital. At a meeting in Droichead Nua last night, Monsignor Miller said that he could guarantee that as far as the people of Droichead Nua were concerned, they wished to come to Kildare Hospital. Therefore 100% of the people of Kildare want the Co. Hospital there”.

Mr. Felix Murphy

“Mr. Chairman, Rev. Fathers, Rev. Dean, Ladies and Gentlemen.

First of all I think I have been asked to speak as a native of this town, one born and reared in it. I think I should first of all take the opportunity of thanking our Parish Priest and Dean Eaton for the magnificent speeches they made and the effort they have made to win this cause for us.

Unlike Fr. Swayne, I have no speech prepared but I would say this much – I think I am expressing the view of all the people of the town when I say that this decision of the Council hit us in almost bewildering fashion, so much so, I could say with safety it shook the very foundations of life in our town for a few days until we got over it. Now the purpose of this meeting is very obvious. It is not to consider the merits of the County Council resolution. We are satisfied that the resolution should be rescinded. We do not want to lose our hospital as a surgical unit. I am sure there are very few families if any, that do not owe at one time or another their thanks to the hospital.

As far as I can judge, the meeting of the County Council to decide this issue was held in a very short time. One would think that a motion of this nature would call for very prolonged and serious discussion and consideration. If you read the report in the press you would come to the conclusion that this serious problem was decided almost in a manner of fifteen minutes or half an hour.

To come to business itself .The only valid reason as far as I am concerned and I speak on behalf of all of you, that would appear to exist for the closing down of the hospital, would be the question of the inadequacy; but surely those inadequacies are not so great that they cannot be overcome. A lift should be a very simple thing to install - and as regards an out-patients department and Childrens Ward - the ground is there and should be utilised.

Take the other side of the picture which Senator Smith was talking about. It is highly inconvenient to expect the people of Kildare to bring patients to Dublin or Portlaoise. This in the mind of the Co. Council could be done by ambulance, but you would want a fleet of ambulances fully equipped for this work. The idea of the County Council saying that you can hire a car is not feasible. Motor cars were not made to bring patients to hospital. Ambulances are specially constructed, specially sprung and equipped with a proper bed and they have proper nursing staff, which the patient may need on the way. These cannot be provided in a motor car. The suggestion that you can bring a patient to hospital in a car is a complete failure on the part of the County Council to fulfill its obligation to the public. I do not see personally any alternative in the resolution but I heard Fr. Swayne say that it would be continued as a medical hospital. There is nothing in the resolution about that. The resolution simply says that the hospital be discontinued as a surgical unit. Until we see some resolution from the County Council we cannot accept that.

I do not really think there is much more I can say. It seems extraordinary in these days when we have so many Social Services, Health Act, Social Welfare Department, Social Welfare Acts, Hospital Sweeps for some 30 years, surely it seems a dreadful thing that a county is asked to send their patients to other County Hospitals. You and I, all of us are working daily for the life of this country. I am not going to touch on politics but I think you will agree with me if I finish these words by saying that because if the work we are doing to satisfy legislators, surely we are entitled to a greater return from Local Government administration than the suggestion that we ought to run our county without a Surgical Hospital which has been there for so many years and has served the public with such great loyalty.

 
The Chairman then declared the meeting open for general discussion for ten or fifteen minutes.

Mr. Stephen Talbot

“I would like to say that it is a good thing that this has happened at the end of the tourist season or we would be the laughing stock of the World. If you drive up O’Connell Street any day you will see a huge poster ‘43 million for the hospitals.’ There are only 26 counties in this part of the country and surely out of the 43 million they can give something for Kildare Hospital and put in a lift. Take up today’s paper, you see the Irish Hospital Trust invested 1 million pounds in a loan; they give £5000 to a big race; they give £5000 to golf - of course all of these things are more important than the saving of life. I wonder what the tourists who buy these sweep tickets would say if they knew that Kildare Hospital must close because they cannot put a lift in or a ward for children or something like that. 

Mr. H. Darling

“I would say a few words on behalf of the old Infirmary. From this meeting I would say that one thing would originate - It might be a deputation to the County Council. But during my thirty years in Kildare there have been many deputations for various things. They have always been received but that is as far as it got. No further. In the old days the infirmary was run by the people. I now say, instead of pandering to the County Council, I would ask them to hand back our Hospital to us and we will run the infirmary on voluntary contributions.”

Mrs. O’Donoghue

“On behalf of the I.C.A. I would like to protest at the closing of the Kildare County Hospital and when I say this it is on behalf of all the families resident in the County.”

Mr. Joseph Whittle

“I would like to say a few words. I am not a Kildare man but about three years ago I was sent there for two days. I was not very sick but I was in severe pain. I was well able to eat. I ate all that I got. I was eventually transferred to a prominent Dublin Hospital. The surgeons were very efficient. I am not saying this for a joke. After being two days in bed I was weaker than when I went in. I am a country lad and I could eat anything I get. But I definitely could not eat anything I got at this Dublin Hospital. At 7 in the morning I got a piece of bread with no crusts on it- that same piece of bread came to me at eleven o ‘clock. That would never happen and did not happen in Kildare Infirmary.”

 
The Chairman

“We have heard a very fair expression of views. I have now a few queries which arise from the discussion and statements made. We will put them to our Councillors here. I do not want to embarrass them in any way. If they feel they should not answer any question then we should accept that. If they feel that they are able to answer, it might help to clear a number of points, because with an issue like this we are bound to have rumours and wrong slants. I will now put the questions”.

Q 1.   Were the Council fully briefed on all correspondence between the County     Surgeon and the County Manager.

A. Mr. Chairman, Rev. Fathers Ladies and Gentlemen. I do not propose to go into the pros and cons of this very vital question. My views are already known, but regarding the question that the Chairman has asked I will say this. The very first intimation that the Council as a body – I am speaking on behalf of my colleagues – received in connection with the closing of the hospital was at the meeting. Regarding the question if there were any correspondence between the Co. Surgeon and the County Manager the Council were not made aware of them. We at no time knew what was in the air. Certainly on Monday week last was the first time that we had any idea that the County Hospital was to be closed.

Q.2   There is a health Committee in the County. Is there any reason why that Committee was not called or consulted before this issue was put to the Council.

A. I would like to make it quite clear at this stage that I am not speaking to this meeting as Chairman of the County Council. For that reason I will try to make the reply. The Health Committee is formed, not in the general sense drawn by the County Council but as laid down by the Dept. of Local Government, and that advisory committee has met through the years and proved its usefulness but for the last two years that Medical Council or Health Committee has not met because if the fact that you had no permanent Co. Manager and for that reason the advice of the Health Committee was not asked in any matters or vital importance associated with the hospital. But the question in a sense may be rather awkward. In so far as the recommendations or requests associated with the discussion to a certain extent imply that the Council could only decide the issue after a discussion had taken place. It means in words that the Committee were not called on to meet in the last two years. I can only express the feeling of the meeting as expressed by Fr. Swayne by saying we consider it a matter of regret that the Committee was not called on to report on this before it was put to the Council.

Q.3     Chairman does not wish to have question recorded.

Q.4    In putting this proposal to the Council was any consideration given to the families of patients who will have to travel to Dublin to seethem thereby having   to pay their fares and in all probability lose their wages because visiting hours in   Dublin are during normal working hours. Was that point put to the Council.

A. The answer is of course “No”.

Q.5    Was there any reason why a permanent County Surgeon was not appointed      since Dr. Cannon left.

A. In connection with that answer I think some member of the Health Committee will bear me out. The Health Committee in their talks in 1956 - men of qualified experience - placed before the Council, their advice in this matter and asked the Council to demand the appointment of a permanent and full-time surgeon for the county. The Minister for health then stated that he would not agree to the question of a permanent full-time appointment but that he would agree to the appointment of a part–time surgeon. Again the Health Committee were very useful and led the Council to put their heels on the ground and fight further. They would not accept the question of a part-time surgeon and in 1957 the Minister for Health having in view at the time, the possibility of a Regional Hospital for Kildare and Carlow, agreed to appoint a full-time temporary surgeon for at least two years but at no time was it a function of the County Council to make that appointment themselves. It was entirely subject to Ministerial sanction and the Minister would not give sanction.

Q.6    Is there no machinery in local Government for informing the public before major issues like this are discussed, thereby getting the feeling of the public on these matters?

A. In matters of that nature there are very long correspondence and discussions between public bodies and the Minister and it is hard to broadcast in a general way unless through the press who publish the report of Committee and County Council proceedings but I am sure it could be answered in this way - with a little more intimacy existing between Councillors and the people those things could be brought to their notice but presently it is entirely dependent on a slight synopsis that you have read in the papers.

The Chairman said he did feel that major issues such as this should be brought before the public before they are decided on.

Mr. Smith

    “I have been speaking to Mr. Dowling and I believe that the motion was not in order. According to Standing Orders a member must give notice in writing. Any member cannot stand up and propose a resolution, he must give notice in writing and that can be considered at the next meeting. If that had been done the motion would have to go before the Council at the following meeting and members could consult the people and have them decide what they would do. I ruled several similar motions out for that reason.”
The Chairman thanked Mr. Smith and pointed out  that the meeting would not presume to interfere in Co. Council affairs.

Q.7     Could we be told by any of the Councillors what proportion of the rates of this County are collected in Kildare and surrounding districts?.

A. Regarding that question, the total rate contribution by the rate payers of this County is £420,000 per annum. Taking Kildare Town as a center for a radius of 10 miles, the total rate contribution is £142,000 approximately – one-third of the total rate collected.

Q.8   If our Hospital is closed and the medical officers of the County want a surgeon’s opinion, will the patient have to be brought to Dublin just for a surgeon’s opinion or will the surgeon be brought to the County.

A. That I think, hit the nail on the head regarding this whole question. It is my considered opinion that the decision to remove the Co. Surgical Hospital depends entirely on the opinion of our Medical profession. Regarding the question that has been asked, it will happen and we must face the truth that if a doctor in any particular area of this County wants to obtain a Surgeon’s opinion on any case he is faced with, with one of two courses either he will have to send the patient to Dublin or Portlaoise or the Surgeon will have to come from Dublin. Either answer to my mind is ridiculous.
    

The Chairman

I have given you an opportunity to raise points you had. We have had a full expression of views. We are grateful to the Councillors for their answers.

At this stage, it is up to you to decide what you are going to do. I am not going to give you any guidance, but in Newbridge they did propose a resolution and whether you decide or not is a matter for you. I will read you the Newbridge resolution. It is addressed to :-

Members of Kildare County Council
County Manager Kildare Co. Council
Secretary, Kildare Co. Council
Leinster Leader
Carlow Nationalist.     
                                       Dated 2nd November 1959

               Closing of Surgical Facilities at Kildare Hospital
 

On November 2nd 1959 at a public meeting representative of Droichead Nua and district the following resolution was passed unanimously:-

1.  That it is considered a vital necessity to the people of Kildare that surgical facilities 
      be retained within the County.

2.  That we consider that the decision of the County Council does not represent the
     views or interests of the people of this district.
 
3. That in light of information which has become available since the County     Council’s last meeting, and in view of the strong feelings of the public, we request
     that Kildare County Council call a special meeting to rescind their previous
     decision to dispense with surgical facilities within the County.
                        
                                                                  (Signed) Monsignor Miller and J. B. Kearns.

Mr. Talbot 
 
I submit the following proposal;

1. That this meeting being fully representative of the Town, demands that Kildare Infirmary be retained as a Surgical Hospital until a more suitable Surgical Hospital can be found.

2. That the recommendations and suggestions of the County Surgeon be carried out forthwith.

3. That a permanent County Surgeon be appointed immediately.

4. That a special meeting of the County Council be called to rescind their motion and rescind their decision of 26th October dealing with the closing of the County Infirmary and to take steps for the implementation of paragraphs one, two and three of this resolution.

 Mr. Connolly 
 
 I have great pleasure in seconding Mr. Talbot’s resolution.

Dean Eaton   
 
I am wholeheartedly in favour of that resolution but I propose an amendment – that we delete the words “until a more suitable hospital is found.”

The Chairman
  
We had the original from Mr. Talbot which included the words “until a more suitable hospital be found in the county.’ We have a proposal that these words be deleted. Do I take it that this is the feeling of the meeting that they be deleted. I will now read the amended proposal to you. That the County Infirmary be retained as a Surgical Hospital for the County. Can I take that that is the unanimous decision of the meeting?

No dissenters.

Mr. Talbot

As far as I am concerned I will accept that amendment. I withdraw the original.

The Chairman

Now that a resolution is formed what are we to do with it?
Are we to do the same as Newbridge did? Is that the general idea?

This was agreed to.

This concluded the business of the meeting.

Rev. Father Swayne

“Rev. Fathers, Dean, Ladies and Gentlemen –

I am fully in agreement with those resolutions. I was not able to follow whether they were on the same lines as the Newbridge resolution but I think they are practically the same. I am very glad also that the amendment was passed. I too had in mind a resolution of that kind. I had thought of those words, but afterwards I was advised to leave them out. I am not sure if those resolutions cover all we want. I will depend on the Chairman to inform me.
The resolution is that the County Council meet as soon as possible to rescind their resolution and that the recommendations indicated by Mr. Ward and mentioned by Mr. Talbot, be carried out immediately. That of course means additional accommodation, this Children’s ward, the Installation of a Lift, Improved Theatre facilities, facilities for Outdoor Clinic- that all of these be carried out.

We are not sincere if we complain, if we are not prepared to carry out these improvements. These improvements cannot be carried out without expenditure. That may be what frightened Kildare County Council from facing up to their obligations by not carrying out those improvements, by not equipping the hospital as it should be equipped. We are afraid of expenditure so we send our patients for cheap treatment to Dublin. The County Council have left themselves open to the charge - the charge of false economy on the sick who need every care.

Nevertheless, I have lost faith in Kildare County Council. I am not so clear as to why a County Surgeon is not being appointed permanently. All those words about temporary this and temporary that, I don’t know what they mean. It means we are to lose our Hospital because there was no surgeon. Mr. Ward was to have no successor. So that is the root of the trouble. That is the beginning of the plan - appoint no Co. Surgeon - let Dr. Cannon have no successor and then we can deal with the simple Kildare people. This thing about temporary and part-time temporary, that sort of thing I am tired listening to and I am tired of listening to Kildare people complaining. I have stood between the people of Kildare and tried to keep them back from the throats of the County Council. You know that, each one of you. Those things were brought up again and again. Why isn’t there a visiting Committee as there was in the old days? Why isn’t there this and why isn’t there that. My answer always was ‘There are great things coming!! Wait till the Regional Committee gets going.’ That was a great bait of mine - it was a question of ‘Follow me up to Carlow! While I have not lost faith in Kildare County Council, I am not going to be deceived any longer. Why was there not a meeting called of that Medical Consultative Committee or whatever it is - that Committee of 10 men.
I have learned that they have done great work in the past. But to say that they can’t meet because there was no County Manager - that I can’t understand. I am quite sure they can cover the same ground as the Irish Medical Association of Kildare. Would it be breaking any secret - surely we must have heard that there was a full meeting of the Medical Association of the County in Naas and that every doctor in the County who could be there was present. I am not sure that that information is correct, but I do know that the statement made was the statement we would expect from their noble profession, that they spoke with unanimity and solidarity which does them great credit. I think not only should we call on the County Council, to meet and reverse their decision but we should also pass a resolution calling on the ‘Big Ten’ to meet immediately even though they may have to pass the same resolution - there are four imminent members of the medical profession and six Councillors on it – therefore it has plenty of wisdom and plenty of professional skill.
I propose a resolution that they meet immediately. We must make ourselves be heard.  We don’t want to be deluded again. We must rouse ourselves from the lethargy into which we have been lulled by the County Council, because as I have stated, the difficulties are due to the neglect of the County Council, because they have not visited the County Hospital - they have seen to it that there was no local Visiting Committee-they have seen to it that the Medical Committee has not met for two years. I accuse them therefore of neglect - I will not go back on that. While I accuse them of neglect, I do not accuse them of willful neglect. I hope they will be men enough to go back on their decision .I hope that everything I have said will be implemented and that there will be a resolution passed to call on the ‘Big Ten’ to meet and also to have a local Visiting Committee for the Hospital and although they will be a nuisance, they will be vocal.

The Chairman  in reply suggested that the easiest way to deal with this matter was to leave it to the Chairman of the County Council, The Chairman then asked if he would add an extra paragraph to the resolution demanding that the Health Committee meet immediately and regularly. This was agreed to.

As there were a number of people from Rathangan present, the Chairman then called on Councillor Byrne to address those present.

Mr. Byrne

“Rev Fathers, Rev. Dean, Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I would like to first of all thank Fr. Swayne for keeping the people away from our throats. I would like to clear up one thing. At the Council meeting last Monday week
 
I did not vote for the simple reason that I was in another part of the building when this took place. I did not even turn over the pages of the agenda. Afterwards, after a discussion with our local doctor, I discovered that it was on the second page under the heading ‘Kildare Hospital Report.’ That to me was the same as it is every month - just another report.

I wish to state that I am quiet certain that the people of Rathangan are whole-heartedly with this meeting today. We in Rathangan are isolated and living in a bog area, as you all know we have very powerful machines on the bogs and are likely to have very serious accidents at any time. It would be a dreadful hardship on the people of Rathangan if the Kildare Hospital was closed. This is the view of the people of Rathangan”.

The Chairman

“I want to thank you all for coming here tonight, It does show an excellent public spirit. As always, when you are needed you are there. I would like to thank you for the way you supported the various speakers and for the way the meeting ran. I want to thank the speakers and finally the Councillors who came and answered the various questions, they answered fairly and justly. They now leave this meeting knowing the full feeling of the people of Kildare and district and we hope they will do their utmost to implement this resolution and they can be confident of the full support of this meeting in doing that.

Mr. Weir

I would like to pass a vote of thanks to the Chairman for the excellent way he conducted the meeting.

Fr. Swayne seconded.

                                   ---------------------------------

(1) I think this may have in fact been the City of Cork Militia – it is a mistake often made because of the infamous cruelty of the North Cork Militia preceding and during the Rebellion of 1798 which made them memorable in popular accounts. However it was the City of Cork Militia under Captain Swayne that was decimated at Prosperous and again this Regiment who defeated the rebels at Rathangan. There is reference to Captain Swayne being at Kildare in 1797.

Thanks as always to Stephen Talbot for his generosity in sharing his knowledge and resources and indeed the Talbot family for preserving the Minutes of the meeting which may otherwise have been lost.

[This article was transcribed by Breid as part of an ongoing Cill Dara Historical Society Project dedicated to the ehnancement of our knowledge of the history and heritage of the town. My thanks to the Society for this and for all their work in the promotion of the history of Kildare Town and the surrounding districts.]

The Minutes of a meeting held in Kildare Town on 3 November 1959 to discuss the proposed closure of St. Brigid's Hospital, Kildare. My thanks to Stephen Talbot who made the Minutes available.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 11:14 PM

May 15, 2007

ANCIENT WELL, MARKET SQUARE, KILDARE TOWN

THE ANCIENT WELL ON THE MARKET SQUARE, KILDARE TOWN

by

STEPHEN TALBOT

The Well was uncovered firstly in June 1973 by the Council's road crew and I just happened to be on hand and took some colour slides. My now late father was also in attendance on that fine summer morning. Work was in progress at the time, refurbishing the market Square and the then Council overseer, who had discovered the Well in the first instance, received an instruction from KCC at St. Mary's to close in the Well immediately for safety reasons. No thought was given to it's historical significance. My father was most disappointed and asked me to try to do something to have it reopened.
  Soon after, I commenced my campaign (which was to go on for 30 years) to have the Well uncovered and refurbished and stepped up the campaign again in the mid-late eighties.
  It wasn't until May 2000 that I finally managed to arrange a meeting with County Architect, Brian Swan and after much discussion and correspondence an effort was made by GMB construction to locate the Well. We only had photographs to guide us and out of the blue, two more photos turned up. The late Marty Flemming had also taken pictures in 1973. However, on 25th Jan 2002, that effort failed as they were looking in the wrong area. No further efforts were made until the Autumn of 2003 when the Well was finally reopened and refurbished. It was excavated to a depth of 13 feet although it is originally some 80 feet in depth. Provision for lighting at the bottom was made and there are lights installed around the circumference at the top. The Cover is galvanised but it is hoped that with the passage of time a more suitable covering will be installed.
  A plaque was made from polished granite was commissioned in 2006 which reads: Ancient Town Well.. This Well, in existence since 1757 was the town water supply until 1886.  It was accidentally uncovered in 1973 and closed again for safety reasons as it was 25 metres in depth.  It was rediscovered in 2003 and refurbished by Kildare County Council.

[additional note on the water supply of Kildare - From articles in the Leinster Leader (1882 and 1901- no mention of well in this later one Church of the Oak pp. 40 and 49) on the pumps and water supply and the dating of the waterworks in the Market Square to 1886 I think it could be argued that the well was closed in 1886 or certainly around 1886 when the water was pumped from Tully.
According to the Historic Towns Atlas the well on the Square was

1763 - draw well
1817 pump
1838 fountain
1847 - pump house
1872 pump
1873 no building
1882 pump
It says the pump was later removed. The Waterworks constructed 1882-6 and extended in 1897; water pumped from St. John's  Well, Tully c. 1 km S.E. of Kildare to a tank in the roof of the market square (nearly sure the date-stone on the Nugent St. side says 1886 which would indicate the operation of the water works).
I would imagine that once the water works was in operation then the pump would have been removed and the well covered but an article from the Leinster Leader 1973 (Church of the Oak pp. 92-3) suggests the well may have been an emergency backup (at the very least) for the town in the early days of the 20th century - Mario Corrigan]

Stephen Talbot has to be commended on his efforts to preserve and record one of the ancient sources of water for the town and it should serve as a reminder to us all to be ever vigilant in terms of protecting and preserving the history and heritage of our local environment in so much as we can.

A note by Stephen Talbot on the discovery and re-discovery of the Ancient Well on the MArket Square of Kildare Town

Posted by mariocorrigan at 10:53 AM

January 23, 2007

Construction of Wallpaper Factory - July/August 1936

Two articles from the Leinster Leader recording the initial stages of construction of the Wallpaper factory.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 11:36 PM

January 05, 2007

Civil War Memories and Anecdotes

Below:- Photograph of Paddy Sheehan in Sheehan's Shoemakers shop in Newbridge - holding a cast-iron RIC sign from the old Constabulary Barracks in Newbridge. On the table is a folder of Sinn Fein Dail Court Reports - copies of these reports are now in Newbridge Library. My thanks to James Durney for the photograph.

An article on events relating to 1922 and the Civil War from the Grey Abbey Conservation Project's book, 'Church of the Oak,' in memory of Paddy Sheehan of Newbridge who passed away shortly after it was published. My thanks to Paddy for his generosity and time.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 09:56 PM

December 12, 2006

REPORT ON RESTORATION OF KILDARE CATHEDRAL, 1871

The Restoration of St. Brigid’s Cathedral

 A note by

Mario Corrigan

  By the mid-nineteenth century the ruinous condition of St. Brigid’s Cathedral was a matter of grave concern and in 1871 a decision was made to investigate the possibility of restoring the once great edifice to its former glory. The architect George Street who was supervising the restoration of Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin was approached and he submitted a report, dated 31October, 1871 on the condition of the Cathedral. The Report was printed and circulated with illustrations showing the ruins of the Cathedral and a design for the restoration. While subscriptions were slowly gathered and the cost eventually exceeded Street’s initial estimate, work began in 1875 but was abandoned in 1881. The second phase began in 1890 and the Cathedral was re-opened in 1896. As it stands today it is difficult to visualise the physical ruins that existed at that time and the reprinting of Street’s Report makes interesting reading. It also reminds us of what can be achieved and should serve to spur us to action to see the fallen north boundary wall of the Cathedral rebuilt.

REPORT

The original Report on the condition of Kildare Cathedral by George Street in 1871, prior to its restoration - reprinted from CHURCH OF THE OAK; a contribution to the history of Kildare Town, published by The Grey Abbey Conservation Project.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 10:00 PM

December 06, 2006

The White Abbey; the first 600 years!

An article from the Grey Abbey Conservation Project's new book CHURCH OF THE OAK, on the White Abbey from 1290-1890.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 01:01 AM

November 27, 2006

Kildare Town Heritage Centre

An article from the Grey Abbey Conservation Project's new book CHURCH OF THE OAK, on the Heritage Centre - the old Market House.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 09:55 PM

The Knights Hospitallers at Tully

Posted by mariocorrigan at 09:30 PM

November 03, 2006

THE RORY HOPKINS LECTURE ON KILDARE'S TOWNLANDS

Notes from the recent excellent lecture on the derivation of townland names delivered by Rory Hopkins to the Cill Dara Historical Society in September.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 09:12 PM

October 31, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 23

Chapter 23 of the An Tostal Programme of 1953 lists the Parish Priests of the parish of Kildare from 1704 until the arrival of  the Very Rev. Peader MacSuibhne on 13th December, 1951.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 09:54 PM

October 23, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 22

FATHER BENJAMIN JOSEPH

BROUGHALL

        THIS remarkable priest was born in Kildare town about the year 1780. He entered Carlow College on the 7th November, 1795, and left on the 7th August1796. He continued his studies at Salamanca, in Spain, and at the Irish College, Rome, and was there ordained to priesthood, probably early in the year 1807.

        Shortly after his ordination, he set out on his journey home. On his arrival in Ireland in 1807, Father Broughall was appointed C.C. at Raheen, Queens County, where he laboured for some ten years. Amongst the fruits of his zeal was the erection of the present Chapel of Ease at Shanahoe. In June 1818 he was promoted P.P. of Graig-na-managh. Soon after his coming to Graig-na-managh, Father Broughall built a modest residence.

        He had scarcely completed his house, when he was afflicted with a long and dangerous illness. When all natural remedies seemed unavailing, with lively faith he made a vow that if restored to health, he would go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and after returning, take the habit of the Carthusians. The great Dr. Doyle, "J.K.L." offered Father Broughall leave of absence for two or three years for the benefit of his health. He began his pilgrimage in the year 1822, travelling entirely on foot except what he was necessarily obliged to pass by sea.

        Father Broughall met many difficulties after setting out as a pilgrim. When he arrived at Paris he was so ill from the fatigues of the long walk that he was confined to bed for five weeks, and was not expected to recover. After some time however he regained sufficient strength and took up once more his pilgrim’s staff and set out on "the Path to Rome," and thence with the blessing of the Supreme Pontiff, for the Holy land. Father Broughall acknowledges the great kindness he received from the Holy Father, Pius VII, who blessed the pilgrim’s habit and clothed him therewith, explained the difficulties and dangers that lay before him, and offered even to dispense him from his vow, "but resigning myself," says Father Broughall, "into the holy hands of Almighty God, through the intercession of the ever Immaculate Blessed Virgin Mary, I determined to comply with my vow." And so with wonderful patience, perseverance and trust in God, he overcame all difficulties and accomplished his pious and penitential pilgrimage. In a letter to the bishop of Kildare and Leighlin he states: "I left Rome, possessing no riches except my breviary and pilgrim’s staff. I was obliged to traverse every port in Italy before I could procure a passage to the East. There is such a decay of religion on the Continent that the generality of the captains to whom I applied refused to take me, many of them insulted me; however after long perseverance and many difficulties, Almighty God in His goodness provided me with a ship at Leghorn for the island of Cyprus, where I embarked a second time for Bayrout, a seaport in Syria. From thence I proceeded on foot, to Nazareth, the river Jordan, Mount Thabor, Tiberias, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and to all the sacred places sanctified by the miracles and holy life of Our Redeemer. I arrived in Jerusalem very much fatigued, but on entering Mount Calvary forgot all my difficulties. The many Stations representing the sufferings and Passion of Our Blessed Redeemer, the view of that awful place on which He purchased our redemption, the sight of the Holy Sepulchre, filled me with gratitude for His unparalleled mercy to us, and His extraordinary favour to me in bringing me to the place of my redemption. I celebrated Holy Mass at the different stages of the Passion of our Divine Redeemer. I visited Mount Olivet whence Our Blessed Redeemer ascended into heaven. I also celebrated Mass in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Valley of Josaphat is situated between the Garden of Gethsemane and Mount Calvary. The torrent Cedron passes through the south of the valley. In Bethlehem I remained four months. The Stable in which Our Blessed Redeemer was born is in the same condition as at the sacred birth. There is a sumptuous church erected over the Stable."

        In November, 1827, having accomplished his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he set out on his return journey to Rome and to Ireland. Difficulties, dangers and infirmities confront the way-worn pilgrim.

        In Rome the Holy Father, Pope Leo XII received the Irish Pilgrim Priest with every mark of kindness. While in Rome on his way home to Ireland, Father Broughall was again visited with fever and dysentery which continued two months. "In Cairo I lodged in the Convent. There were six religious, four clergymen, and two lay brothers who were the only missioners in that country, all of whom though in perfect health on my arrival, were in a few days after seized with that fatal distemper. I attended them, administered to them the last Sacraments, each of them dying in my arms. I accordingly undertook to discharge the duty of these venerable, holy, deceased Missioners. During my stay in Grand Cairo there died in the city forty thousand persons. On resuming my journey to Ireland my complaints again returned in Genoa; I was obliged to enter hospital for eight months. I left Genoa something better but had to enter hospital again in Barcelona, where I was confined to bed twelve months with continual fever. I was not expected to recover; I received the Last Sacraments. My recovery astonished the physicians. On my arrival in Madrid I had to enter hospital again, where I was confined to bed for four months." Father Broughall was back again in Ireland in 1838, and during his stay he resided at Carlow College, where the President, Dr. Fitzgerald, invited him to make his permanent abode. The man of God however declined this kind offer. So in 1839 notwithstanding all the harsdhips [hardships – sic] he had previously endured, he bravely set out for Italy, with the purpose of spending the remainder of his life as an humble hermit in that favoured land. After many difficulties and trials Father Broughall arrived at Naples.

        Father Broughall spent the last ten years of his life in the calm seclusion of the cloister; for in 1840 he was admitted into the celebrated Benedictine Monastery of Monte Cassino where he edified everyone by his great piety, and where his memory is revered as that of a saint. His special devotions were towards Our Lord ever present in the Most Holy Sacrament, and towards the Blessed Virgin, whom he delighted to style "Ever Immaculate." In 1848 the King of Naples and his family visited Monte Cassino. On going to the church to make their devotions the royal visitors found Father Broughall in adoration before the Tabernacle. They came and knelt behind him, and on leaving, each of the royal party reverentially took up and kissed the hem of the habit of the holy religious, who was so absorbed in his devotion as to be wholly unconscious of their presence.

        Father Broughall died on the feast of the Ascension 1850 in the seventy first year of his age. Such was the fame of his piety that the monks and many secular persons thronged round his bed for the eight days that his illness continued. He is buried in Monte Cassino.

        The memory of this remarkable priest seems to have faded almost entirely from Kildare. Towards the end of the eighteenth century a Broughall family lived beside the road in a field still called Broughall’s field, now Mr. Fitzgerald’s, where it adjoins Mrs. Berry’s land. The field between that and the Foundry is called Butler’s field. The Broughall house is shown on the Ordnance Map of 1837. At this time English troops distributed through the country lived by the system of "free quarters" staying in the people’s houses, and taking food without payment. Night after night the skies were ablaze with burning houses and chapels. The Broughall homestead was burned down one Sunday evening. A large crowd of neighbours gathered to sympathise with them, for it had been their home for generations. The Broughall family went to live in Kildare in Bride Street. There were many thatched houses from Messrs. Bolands down towards the present church. The people of Cherryville, Pack Bush and adjoining districts built a house for them in the lane leading from Pack Bush to Rathwalkin. Father Broughall who was born in Kildare town in 1780 may have been of this family.

        Thomas or Lawrence may have been the name of the man whose house was burned. He had a brother Timothy unmarried who lived in a house at Cherryville Cross on Mr. Johnson’s land. He was shot by English soldiers and his house burned as he was seen crossing a field with a pike in his hand one evening after a meeting at Gallows Cross. This three road cross is about half a mile from Cherryville in Kildangan district. It is said a priest was hanged there. This information was given in 1925 by Ellen Boughall [Broughall? - sic] whose father, Thomas Boughall [Broughall? – sic], was a grand-nephew of the Broughall brothers already mentioned. Ellen was about 90 years of age when she died in 1929. Her mother’s name was Carthy: the ruins of the Carthy home are still to be seen on the back road from Pack Bush. This back road was once known as the "sixty-six," because there were sixty-six houses from Pack Bush to Cross Morris. Ellen Broughall lived up the lane from Pack Bush, probably in the house that has been built for the Broughall family who were burned out about 1779. Miss Ellen Broughall had three sisters, Sarah, Maria and Brigid and one brother Timothy, a railway engine driver who distinguished himself by his bravery on the occasion of a railway smash near Roscrea about 1905. Mr. Laurence Broughall of Meitta Road is a nephew of Miss Ellen Broughall.

        The descendants of the Broughall family at Cherryville built a house again on the old holding. It was occupied in 1880 by John Broughall, whom Mr. John Melia remembers to live there. A Broughall family, probably relatives of the Cherryville Broughall family, lived at Mount Rice opposite Christopher Moore’s about 1890. The ruins of the house are still to be seen. There were seven sons. The father was Michael and the mother formerly Miss Maher. They were stricken by a fever from which the parents did not recover. The boys wished to go to America, so their uncle Peter Maher paid their passage to the U.S.A., took over their homestead and burned the house in ease any trace of the fever might have remained. The youngest boy, Laurence, was ordained in the U.S.A.

[Compiled and edited by Mario Corrigan - the images are poor but are taken from the original and were so placed in the original booklet although them seem to have little to do with the actual text.]

Chapter 22 of the An Tostal Souvenir Programme of 1953 is dedicated to the Pilgrim Priest, Fr. Benjamin Broughall. A plaque commemorating Fr. Broughall is mounted at Bride Street, Kildare Town.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 11:56 AM

September 05, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 21

Chapter 21 of the An Tostal Programme of 1953 deals with the Modern Parish of Kildare - that is the Parish of Kildare as it was in 1953.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 01:34 AM

August 15, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 20

Chapter 20 of the An Tostal Souvenir Programme of 1953 is dedicated to the 'Book of Kildare' which was said to have rivalled the Book of Kells.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 12:35 PM

July 31, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 19

Chapter 19 of the An Tostal Programme of 1953 is dedicated to the Irish National Stud and Japanese Gardens at Tully.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 12:16 PM

July 16, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 18 Parts 6 and 7

The final parts of Chapter 18 of the An Tostal Programme of 1953 are dedicated to the Wallpaper factory and the Chilling Factory.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 10:00 PM

June 12, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 18 Parts 4 and 5

Chapter 18 Parts 4 and 5 of the An Tostal Souvenir programme of 1953 are dedicated to the C.Y.M.S. with a brief note on the County Hospital. The latter building is now the Curragh Lodge Hotel.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 09:53 PM

June 07, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 18 Part 3

Chapter 18 Part 3 of the An Tostal Programme of 1953 is dedicated to the De La Salle Brothers and St. Joseph's Academy.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 09:53 PM

May 30, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 18 Part 2

Chapter 18 Part 2 of the An Tostal Programme for 1953 is dedicated to the Presentation Convent.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 12:33 AM

May 23, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 18

[William Marshall is credited with erecting the castle at Kildare but it is likely that a castle was first erected in Kildare Town by Strongbow as a means of safeguarding his interests in the town; The reference to 1294 is confused - there was no Earl of Kildare until 1316 and indeed Fitzgerald apparently engineered a raid on Kildare around the same time that O'Connor did; Lewis – Samuel Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, published 1837 – the entry for Kildare can be found in the Archive section of this website; all references in Lewis to County Kildare can be found at www.kildare.ie/heritage - Mario Corrigan]

Chapter 18 of the An Tostal Programme of 1953 examines the early history of Kildare Town and the development of education in the town in the early 19th century.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 10:13 PM

May 14, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 17

Chapter 17 of the An Tostal Programme 1953 is dedicated to the Massacre at the Gibbet Rath in May 1798. I have included two photographs of related gravestones in Dunmurry Graveyard. This graveyard was recently cleaned up by the Grey Abbey Conservation project.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 03:27 PM

May 08, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 16

Chapter 16 of the An Tostal programme of 1953 is dedicated to the United Irishman, Lord Edward FitzGerald, who lived for a short time in Kildare Town with his beautiful French wife, Lady Pamela. In 2003 on the 205th anniversary of his death a bust of Lord Edward was unveiled on the Market Square.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 10:50 PM

May 02, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 15

Chapter 15 of the An Tostal Programme of 1953 features a description of a chance meeting bewteen an English traveller, Topham Bowden, and Fr. Nolan, P.P. of Kildare, on the Curragh in 1790.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 11:43 PM

April 23, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 14

 THE CURRAGH OF KILDARE

 

             THE Curragh is a fiat plain containing 4,885 statute acres. It is 6 miles in length and 2 miles in breadth at its broadest points. Its mearin or outer boundary is 15 miles. From the earliest times the Curragh has been a great common, an unenclosed plain. The word cuirreach means a racecourse. The ancient name of Cuirreach Lifé shows that long ago the original plain reached that river’s banks, but since Anglo-Norman times it has been gradually encroached upon from all sides, as the names Pollardstown, Brownstown, Maddenstown, Walshestown and others show. The Curragh lay in the ancient territory of Magh Lifé, or Lifé’s plain, so called from Lifé, daughter of Mac Druchta, cup-bearer to Conaire Mór, King of Eire. Hence Abhann Lifé, or the River Lifé, running through Magh Lifé which was situated in the O’Byrne territory of Offelan.

             In pre-Christian times, aonachs or fairs were held at the burial-place or moat of a king or warrior. The Annals of Erin associate two aonachs, Aonach Colmain and Aonach Lifé, with the Curragh where the royal fair and sports of Leinster were held. Dun Auilin, near Old Kil­cullen, was the residence of the King of Leinster. The aonach honoured the dead, by funeral rites and games. Keening and games at wakes were a survival of this. It was a combined parliament and school at which the people were taught the history of their country and clan. The warlike deeds of their chiefs and the laws under which they were governed were proclaimed.

It was the occasion of friendly contests and competitions in juggling, dancing, music, horse and foot-races, feats of arms, recitation of poetry and stories, athletic sports and games. It was a general market for the exchange and barter of livestock, gold ornaments, weapons of offence and defence, cloths, embroidery and all kinds of home and foreign wares.. The aonach was governed by strict laws, all breaches of the peace, insults to women being severely dealt with. No one could be arrested or his goods seized on his way to or from a fair, or while at the fair. The aonach lasted several days and was presided over by the King in whose district it was held. Attended by his brehons, bards and other officials, he distributed the prizes to successful contestants.

            Every cattle and sheep fair is derived from the aonachs of old; the Fair of the Furze held on 26th July is a survival of the ancient aonachs of Cuirreach Lifé.

            About the year 480 St. Brigid had founded her Cell of the Oak on Drumcree and had appeared like as a bright daybreak over the land. How she acquired the Curragh s [is –sic] told by older generations. The King of Leinster who lived at the time was an tight-fisted man. He had refused to grant any ground to St. Brigid on which she might graze her few cows. This king had a deformity, namely two ears like those of a horse, and he kept these concealed under his long hair. He daily dreaded discovery which would have meant loss of his throne, as a king had to be without per­sonal blemish. He had heard of the wonders St. Brigid was working in Kildare, and he decided to see if she could help him. Going quietly to Kildare he had an interview with St. Brigid. She promised to remove the deformity on con­dition that he would grant her as much land as her mantle would cover. The King willingly agreed to the condition. St. Brigid put him into a deep sleep and when he awoke he found the deformity was gone, and that he had two normal ears. The day came when the plot of ground was to be handed over and a large crowd assembled to see St. Brigid acquire the first grant of land for her cell. St. Brigid explained to the people the nature of the King’s promise; she then called her nuns; taking off her mantle she ordered them to spread it on the ground as far as it would stretch, to the North, East and South. They did so, and to the amazement of the King and his people the mantle spread until it covered the area known as the Curragh. The grateful King gladly conferred on her the whole territory. The Round Tower, that graceful guardian of the holy city of Kildare, built more than two centuries after St. Brigid’s time, looks out across the grassy expanse of the Curragh.

           Along these dim green vistas the white-clad Brigid drove so frequently in her swift chariot that the tradition of her passing is still vivid after fifteen hundred years. In the twelfth century, Giraldus Cambrensis wrote “. . . no plough was suffered to turn a furrow in the Curragh, which was called St. Brigid’s pastures. It was held as a miracle that though all the cattle in the province should graze the herbage from morning till night, the next morning the grass would be as luxuriant as ever.”

           Battles were fought here, but all through the centuries the Curragh remained an extensive commons, and race­course. When the English came, they seized it and kept a jealous eye on its grazing rights, and leased them to local landholders.

            Horse-racing and horse-breeding on the Curragh are of long standing. In 1696 the Government of the day gave two plates of £100 each to be run for annually at the Curragh races. In the Public Record Office we have the names of the winners of Plates run for at the Curragh from 1696 till 1820. The Curragh is famous for its horse racing, and the fame of the Irish race-horse is world wide.

In front of the staudhouse, which has lately been extended at a cost of £250,000, a large area is leased to the Turf Club for use as a Race-course, and here are run each year the Derby, Oaks, Guineas, ‘Zarwich and other import­ant flat races.

In 1854 the Crimean war began and the military authori­ties established a camp of instruction on the Long Hill at the Curragh: later it became a permanent training centre. The present Camp and Water Tower were built at the end of the last century. On 16th, May, 1922, it was handed over to the Irish Government. Since then it has been the main training centre for the Irish army.

The Curragh Act of 1870 secured that the Curragh lands belonged to the State. Grazing rights on a commonage basis were allowed to the tenants of the townlands in the vicinity. The tenants were allowed pasturage for as many sheep as they had acres. The landowners on the Curragh verge usually let their grazing rights to Wicklow sheep-­owners. Only sheep are allowed to graze on the Curragh. And over all is the mantle of St. Brigid—the Brat Brighde— and the bleating of the sheep evoke her sweet memory, and the sense of her blessing and protection over Curreach Lifé.

 

 

CURRAGH OBELISK

 

Commemorating the vic­tory of Dan Donnelly, the Irish Champion Boxer over George Cooper, the English Champion, in December, 1815, at this spot, now known as Don­nelly’s Hollow.

 

[Dun Auilin or Dun Ailinne or Knockaulin near Old Kilcullen; ‘Zarwich is the Cesarwitch; image is to poor to reproduce better]

Chapter 14 of the An Tostal programme of 1953 is dedicated to the history of the Curragh of Kildare.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 08:14 PM

April 12, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 13

Chapter 12 of the An Tostal Programme is dedictaed to the original four penal churches which were in Kildare Town prior to the building of the present Parish Church.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 10:32 PM

April 03, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 12

Posted by mariocorrigan at 07:34 PM

March 26, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 11

Chapter 11 of the An Tostal Programme of 1953 was dedicated to the history of the Grey Abbey.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 06:32 PM

March 20, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 10

Posted by mariocorrigan at 09:51 PM

March 12, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 9

[There seems to be an error here. In the previous chapter the authors say Calvagh O’Connor captured the castle in 1294 and that it was re-taken by the Normans in 1307 so it is unlikely that it was the same John Fitzthomas who enlarged Maynooth in 1426. John Fitzthomas who became 1^st Earl of Kildare in 1316 died that same year at Rathangan and was buried at Grey Abbey. Another John succeeded his father Gerald in 1410 and became the 6^th Earl of Kildare until he died in 1427 - Mario Corrigan. Spelling and grammar are retained as in the original; mistakes indicated by square brackets and sic - [sic]. ]

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Posted by mariocorrigan at 04:15 PM

March 06, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 8

Chapter 8 of the An Tostal Programme tells the story of the Castle of Kildare.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 09:33 PM

February 27, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 7

 

         Greallach means miry marshy ground on which cows stand. Tradition states that St. Brigid kept her cow here, prayed here, and made butter beside the stream. Her well is pointed out and her “Shoes,” or as they are also called her “Cows” are objects of veneration. These are two granite stones, 32 inches by 12 inches, hollowed out so that the stream water passes through them. According to the flow of water through each of them at certain times of the year, it is said that one cow is “going dry” or is dry, and the other is “a new-milch cow,” or “in full milk.” Owing to the cleaning of the larger stream and the stream from the well, the position of the Shoes or Cows has varied, from the mouth of the well-stream where they seem to have been sixty-two years ago, to a place between the mound and the whitethorn bush. They seem to have been placed in the latter position over thirty years ago, and to have remained here till the Shrines were renovated by the people of Tully in the autumn of 1952. Pilgrims have always prayed on the Mound beside the stream. At noon on Sunday, St. Brigid’s Day, 1953, the Parish Priest blessed St. Brigid’s roadside well at Tully and then proceeding to the Greallachs, in the presence of several hundred parish­ioners, he blessed St. Brigid’s Well and her “Cows” or “Shoes.” All then joined in the recitation of the Rosary at the seven station-stones, and in a hymn to St. Brigid.

Chapter 7 of the 1953 An Tostal  Programme was dedicated to the Shrines of St. Brigid. There is an interesting explanation of the meaning of the name of the townland of Loughminane and an explanation of the meaning of 'St. Brigid's Shoes.'

Posted by mariocorrigan at 10:11 PM

February 14, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 6

Posted by mariocorrigan at 08:05 PM

January 30, 2006

ST. BRIGID OF KILDARE

The Journal of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society is an invaluable source for those interested in the History, Heritage and Archaeology of Co. Kildare.   

Above the cover of vol ii. 

 Above the first page of Denis Murphy's article and below the old Irish text for the word Brigid

Denis Murphy's article on St. Brigid of Kildare from Volume I of the Kildare Archaeological Journal.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 06:32 PM

January 29, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 5

[To celebrate the lighting of the flame as a permanent feature on the Market Square on St. Brigid's Day, Feb. 1st,  this week's chapter from the An Tostal Programme of 1953 (chapter 5) is indeed apt, as it is dedicated to St. Brigid's Fire House - Mario Corrigan]

Posted by mariocorrigan at 10:11 PM

January 23, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 4

Round Towers in Ireland had a twofold purpose. They were used as belfries for Churches, and served also as keeps or places of strength in which the sacred vessels, books, relics or other valuables could be placed, and into which the clergy to whom they belonged could retire in case of sudden attack. For this purpose, the doorway was usually a certain height from the ground. There are ninety-eight round towers in Ireland, thirteen of them in perfect condition. The cloichteach of Kildare is 108 feet high. It has a solid base 50 feet in circumference. The doorway is 15 feet from the ground. The internal diameter at the door is 8½ feet. The wall is 5 feet in width. The tower stands near the west end of the nave of the Cathedral and is built of two kinds of stone, 13 feet being of white granite, and the rest of a darker stone. The chief feature is the fine Irish Romanesque doorway, built of a hard silicious sandstone of light colour, with ornaments in very low relief. There are four concentric arches, one recessed beyond the other and resting on round pilasters or semi-columns with flat imposts or capitals. The ornaments on the external arch have long been destroyed and were replaced with crude masonry early in the 18th century. The ornaments on the recessed arches are also much injured but the fourth or innermost is fairly well preserved. The tower was built probably at the close of the eighth or early in the ninth century. Giraldus Cambrensis tells of a beautiful falcon that used to nestle in its summit all alone and was on familiar terms with the monks and citizens, and was known as St. Brigid’s bird. Even in the time of Giraldus the Round Tower was a venerable building. It still points heavenwards as of old, marking out the sacred city of St. Brigid in the great plain of the Liffey.

Chapter 4 of the AnTostal Programme from 1953 describes the Round Tower near St. Brigid's Cathedral. Fittingly next week chapter 5 contains a description of St. Brigid's Fire House, in time for the re-lighting of St. Brigid's flame as a permanent feature on the Market Square, Kildare Town. The lighting of the flame will take place on ST. Brigid's Day, 1st February 2006.

Posted by mariocorrigan at 09:48 PM

January 17, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 3

KILDARE CATHEDRAL

The Church erected in the time of St. Brigid and St. Conlaeth was probably of wood, like most of the churches of the period. The earliest description of the Cathedral is that of Cogitosus who, early in the ninth century, wrote as follows concerning “the Church in which rest the glorious bodies of Bishop Conlaeth, and the Virgin St. Brigid on the right and left of the decorated altar, placed in monu­ments decorated with various embellishments of gold and silver and precious stones with crowns of gold and silver hung above them.

For owing to the increase in the number of the faithful and their being of both sexes, the Church occupied a wide area and was raised to a towering height and was adorned with painted pictures. It has within three spacious ora­tories separated by plank partitions, under one roof of the greater house, wherein one partition decorated and painted with figures and covered with linen hangings, extended along the breadth of the eastern part of the Church, from one wall of the Church to the other, which partition has at its end two doors. Through the one door on the right the Chief Bishop entered the Sanctuary accompanied by his regular school, and by those who are appointed to the holy ministry of offering Sacred and Divine Sacrifices. Through the other door, on the left part of the aforesaid cross wall, enters the Abbess with her virgins and faithful widows to enjoy the feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Moreover another wall separates the floor of the house into two equal parts stretching from the eastward part of the cross wall. The Church has many windows and one ornamental door on the right by which the priests and faithful of the male sex enter the Church, and another door on the left by which the assembly of the virgins and faithful women are wont to enter. Thus in one very great temple, a multitude of people in different order and ranks separated by partitions but of one mind to worship God.”

The Church described by Cogitosus was probably of stone, and half of it was destroyed in 835 when the Danes of Wicklow invaded Kildare. They also carried away the costly shrines of St. Brigid and St. Conlaeth. The relics were saved from desecration, and those of St. Brigid were conveyed for safety to Saul. In 1185 in answer to St. Malachy’s prayer the relics of SS. Patrick, Brigid and Colmcille were discovered. Permission to remove the relics to Down was obtained from Pope Urban III, who sent as his Legate, Cardinal Vivian who, with fifteen bishops, together with abbots, deans, provosts and other clergy were present at the translation. The Shrine of the three great Patrons of Eire was desecrated in 1538.

In 868, Kildare Church was rebuilt by Queen Flanna, wife of Aedh Finliath, King of Ireland. In 1050, Kildare with its Daimliag (great stone church) was burned. They were burned again in 1067. In 1132, St. Laurence O’Toole son of Maurice O’Toole who lived in or near Castledermot, was baptised at Kildare. The Church was plundered in 1136. In 1138 and again in 1150, Kildare was burned. In 1223, when Ralph de Bristol became bishop of Kildare, he found his cathedral in ruins. He rebuilt and beautified it at great expense. Dr. Edmund Lane, Bishop from 1482 to 1513, continued the work of restoring and beautifiying the Cathedral, and built a college for the Dean and Chapter. In 1600, Kildare town suffered so severely that all the houses were in ruins, without a single inhabitant. The Cathedral shared in the general wreck. In 1641, the Cathedral again suffered severely, and its steeple was beaten down by cannonade. In 1643, the town was made a garrison post under the Earl of Castlehaven. Bishop Rosse McGeoghegan restored the ancient Cathedral and and [sic] in March 1643 reconscrated [reconsecrated - sic] it for Catholic use. The wars of the 17th century again left the Cathedral in ruins. In 1686, the choir portion was fitted up for Protestant service, the rest of the building remaining in ruins until 1871, when the restoration of the Cathedral was begun under the supervision of Street, the eminent architect. The work was completed in 1896. 

The third chapter of the An Tostal Souvenir Programme from 1953 explored the history of St. Brigid's Cathedral, Kildare.

Spelling and grammar retained - mispellings, mistakes in grammar, punctuation etc. identified by square brackets and sic - [sic]

Posted by mariocorrigan at 12:08 AM

January 09, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953 - CHAPTER 2

SAINT CONLAETH

 Closely associated with St. Brigid in the foundation at Kildare was St. Conlaeth, first Bishop of the See. Owing to the great and rapid increase of her community and to meet the spiritual wants of the new city that rose around this already famous monastery, St. Brigid asked that a bishop be appointed. Her request was granted and on her recommendation, St. Conlaeth, a holy recluse who lived in the south of the Liffey plain, probably the present Old Connall, was appointed. The date of his appointment is not certain, but it was probably not earlier than 490. St. Conlaeth no doubt had under him a body of clergy for the service of the Church. He was a skilled artificer in gold and silver. The Four Masters call him St. Brigid’s Brazier. An ancient crozier of St. Finnbhar in Connacht, now preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, is said to have been made by him. During his episcopate he made a pilgrimage to Rome. He brought back from Rome precious vestments for the use of his Church in Kildare. Cogitosus, a monk of Kildare, who wrote a life of St. Brigid early in the ninth century, recording St. Brigid’s great charity, refers to these vestments and states that “she gave to the poor even the transmarine and rare vestments of Bishop Conlaeth which he was accustomed to use when offering the Sacred Mysteries at the Altars, on the festivals of Our Lord and the vigils of the Apostles.” After governing his See for about twenty years, St. Conlaeth died on the 3rd. May, 519. Some authors say that he died a violent death having been killed by wolves. In 799 his relics were removed from his grave at Cinel Lugair, probably the present Killeen Cormac, and placed in a shrine of gold and silver.

 [There were no actual chapters but it is the easiest way to differentiate between the sections]

The second chapter of the An Tostal Souvenir Programme from 1953 recounted the life of St. Conleth, the reclusive hermit from Old Connell, who became the 1st Bishop of Kildare.

Scanned Image of Front Cover

Posted by mariocorrigan at 07:12 PM

January 03, 2006

AN TOSTAL SOUVENIR PROGRAMME 1953

Cill Dara Brigde

ST. BRIGID’S KILDARE

THE STORY OF AN HISTORIC PARISH

Souvenir of An Tostal Festival

1953

CONTENTS

FOREWORD 
CILL DARA BRIGDHE 
SAINT CONLAETH 
KILDARE CATHEDRAL 
THE ROUND TOWER 
THE FIRE HOUSE OF ST. BRIGID
SCHOOL OF KILDARE 
ST. BRIGID’S SHRINES 
THE CASTLE OF KILDARE 
THE GERALDINES 
TULLY ABBEY 
THE GREY ABBEY 
THE WHITE ABBEY 
PENAL DAY CHURCHES 
THE CURRGH OF KILDARE 
KILDARE AND THE CURRAGH IN 1790—FATHER NOWLAN
LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD
GIBBET RATH 
KILDARE TOWN 
PRESENTATION CONVENT
DE LA SALLE BROTHERS
 C.Y.M.S. 
COUNTY HOSPITAL
THE WALLPAPER FACTORY
THE CHILLING FACTORY
MODERN TULLY ~ NATIONAL STUD
TULLY GARDENS
THE BOOK OF KILDARE
THE MODERN PARISH
PILGRIM PRIEST—FATHER BROUGHALL
SUCCESSION OF PASTORS
SUCCESSION OF CURATES
CURATES AT RATHANGAN
NATIVE PRIESTS OF KILDARE
AN TOSTAL COMMITTEE, 1953
AN TOSTAL PROGRAMME, 1953

FOREWORD

Historic Kildare with your ancient Abbeys, Castle, Round Tower, Cathedral: what memories you hold; memories above all of ‘Brigid, The Mary of the Gael,’ from whose humble church beneath the ‘Oak,’ ‘Cilldara,’ you owe your name. Home of St. Brigid, who founded her Convent here, lived here, worked here, prayed here and died here. How blessed we are in Kildare, under Divine Providence, to be privileged to live where she lived; to walk in her very footsteps; to know that the schools founded by her, still flourish under the direction of our devoted Sisters, Brothers and lay-teachers; that all her work is still being carried on as of old, under her sweet invocation, in her own Kildare.

Illustrations

RUINS OF TULLY ABBEY
ST. BRIGID’S CATHEDRAL
THE CATHEDRAL, 1871
THE ROUND TOWER
ST. BRIGID’S FIRE HOUSE
THE ANCIENT FONT
ANCIENT CROSS, KILDARE
THE GREY ABBEY
TOWER, ST. BRIGID’S CHURCH
DONNELLY’S HOLLOW, THE CURRAGH
THE MONKS’ WALK
NOTED SIRE AT NATIONAL STUD
SCULPTURED FIGURE OF A BISHOP
PENNING SHEEP ON CURRAGH PLAIN

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The compilers of this Souvenir booklet are greatly indebted for the free use of matter from the following books of Reference: Comerford’s Collections; County Kildare Archaeological Journals; Brenan’s Schools of Kildare and Leighlin; Curtayne, St. Brigid of Ireland, etc.

Other historical matter was obtained from the following local historians—The Misses Cahill, Mrs. Jordan, Messrs Patrick McCormack, Thomas Daly, James Kelly, Thomas Dunne and others.

They gratefully acknowledge the kindness of Very Rev. R. E. Eaton, M.A., Dean of Kildare, for the use of the blocks of illustrations in the booklet.

The Tostal Committee will be grateful if readers will kindly point out any errors or omissions in description.

CILL DARA BRIGHDE

SAINT BRIGID’S KILDARE

ANCIENT Kildare seems to have stood a little to the west of the present town. The place was formerly called Drumcree, (Dromcriadh) or ridge of clay. It received its present name from an ancient high oak beside which St. Brigid made her oratory or cell. St. Brigid established herself at Kildare about the year 470, and to this fact the town owes its origin. St. Brigid is the greatest of the daughters of Ireland. As St. Patrick is the father, so is St. Brigid the mother of the children of Ireland. She is the second of the three Patron Saints of Ireland: as St. Patrick is the Apostle of Ireland and as St. Colmcille is the Apostle of Scotland, so St. Brigid is the founder of female religious communities in Ireland.
The place of her birth is uncertain. Faughart near Dundalk claims her, but there is a strong local tradition that she was born either at Umeras or Shindela between Monasterevan and Rathangan; that she lived at Mullacharue an adjoining district; that St. Mel visited her there, and that she founded a church at Red Hills. “St. Brigid’s Course” from Mullacharue to Red Hills is still pointed out. From Mullagharue, Red Hills and Croghan Hill where she received the veil from St. Maccaille are clearly visible. She was born about 450 of noble Christian parents. She grew up to be a girl of singular grace and beauty. She was trained from childhood in letters, but this did not prevent her from performing ordinary farmyard duties such as the care of cows and the making of butter. Many suitors sought her hand but she turned them all away for her heart had already been given to a higher Spouse. The day came when with seven other maidens she betook herself to Croghan Hill where, prostrating themselves before the holy bishop, Maccaille, each of them received from his hand a white veil and a white dress. She travelled much over Ireland in a two horse-chariot, founding convents and working miracles. Owing to the fame of her holiness the people of her native place sent to invite her to found a convent among them. About 470 she came to Drumcriadh over looking the Liffey plain, and there built Cill Dara, the Cell of the Oak. Soon Kildare was famous as a monastic settlement. Crowds of men and women came from all parts of the country to consult the Saint, to benefit by her miraculous powers, or place themselves permanently under her guidance. By 480 what had first been a mere cell had grown to be a monastery of large proportions. She was noted for her hospitality, and for her charity to needy people. “The holy virgin loved constant piety, which was not prescribed, sheep herding and early rising, hospitality towards men of virtue.”

“MARY OF THE GAEL”

St. Brigid died about the year 524 at Kildare. She was then about 74 years of age. She received the Last Sacraments from St. Ninnidh, who is known in history as Ninnidh of the Pure Hand. St. Brigid had prophesied that he would assist her at the hour of death, and on this account he always wore a cloth on his right hand. The Brehon laws Prescribed special devotion to St. Brigid. The Kings of Leinster paid tribute to her convent. Through respect for her, the town and suburbs of Kildare were granted the privilege of Sanctuary, that is, an accused person who took refuge there was safe from immediate punishment.
She is the saint of pastoral life. Her visions as given in the Leabhar Breac are of ploughmen and sowers, clear shining streams, oats springing up, furrowed fields, all farm animals, sheep, swine, dogs. All her legends are about farm life, milking cows, making firkins of butter, calling home the sheep in the rain. She was an expert butter and cheese maker; her home-brewed ale was famous. Even when she was Mother-Abbess of thirteen thousand nuns, she spent part of each day at rural occupations. We find her tending sheep on the grassy slopes of Dromcree or on the Curragh plains, or supervising the reapers as they worked from dawn to sunset in the harvest fields about her convent settlement, or busy over her stores of honey, or home-made brews. She loved all animal life. The wild duck came at her call. Once she tamed a wild fox for [a – sic] pet. Yet she fostered learning equally with pastoral occupations. The Book of Lismore states: “Wherefore it came to pass that the comradeship of the world’s sons of reading is with Brigid and the Lord gives them through Brigid’s prayer every perfect good they ask. Everything that Brigid would ask of the Lord was granted to her at once. For this was her desire: to satisfy the poor, to expel every hardship, to spare every miserable man. None was ever more retiring, more modest, more gentle, more humble, more wise, or more harmonious than she. She was abstinent, innocent, prayerful, patient; she was glad in God’s commandments; she was firm, forgiving, loving; she was a consecrated casket for keeping Christ’s Body and His Blood; she was a temple of God. Her heart and her mind were a throne of rest for the Holy Ghost. She was compassionate towards the wretched; she was splendid in miracles and marvels; wherefore her name among created things is Dove among birds, Vine among trees, Sun among stars. She helps everyone who is in straits and danger; she banishes pestilence; she quells the anger and the storm of the sea. She is the prophetess of Christ; she is the Queen of the South; she is the Mary of the Gael.”

CULT OF SAINT BRIGID

February is called in Irish the month of Brigid’s feast. St. Brigid’s Day, 1st. February, is the first day of Spring; the early flowers bloom that day, and the linnet, called the glasan Brighde, begins to sing. The country people rejoice in the gradual lengthening of the day, and although the rigours of winter are not yet entirely past, they feel that their faces are towards the long evenings and the summer’s heat. The Cros Bhrigde, St. Brigid’s Cross, made on the eve of the Feast is affixed to the back of the door in every home. In time of temptation her Irish children say: Brigid and her cloak, Mary and her Son between us and every evil. At night prayer and again at the raking of the fire and in every occupation the name of Brigid is invoked with the sacred names of Jesus and Mary.

[One of the best sources for the history of Kildare Town remains the An Tostal Festival Souvenir Programme published by the An Tostal Committee in 1953. Over the next few months this programme will be republished on this website chapter by chapter. It is intended to re-publish the material as it appeared in 1953. The original spelling and grammar will be retained with obvious mistakes highlighted by the use of square brackets and sic. The town is indebted to the original authors and the An Tostal Committee and this addition to the website is a tribute to their work and research. ]

Posted by mariocorrigan at 11:43 PM

December 08, 2005

WORLD WAR I GRAVES IN KILDARE CATHEDRAL

Details Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Gravestone:
GS/4758 Private J. Ashbie  12TH Royal Lancers 9TH August 1915

Website:
Name: ASHBIE, JOHN
Initials: J
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment: 12th (Prince of Wales's Royal) Lancers
Date of Death: 09/08/1915
Service No: GS/4758
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Near North boundary.
Cemetery: KILDARE (ST. BRIDGET) CATHEDRAL CEMETERY

Gravestone:

L/4347 Private G. Evans 5TH Lancers 28TH August 1915

Website:

Name: EVANS, GEORGE
Initials: G
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment: 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers
Date of Death: 28/08/1915
Service No: L/4347
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Near North boundary.
Cemetery: KILDARE (ST. BRIDGET) CATHEDRAL CEMETERY

Posted by mariocorrigan at 11:17 PM

October 09, 2005

WAR GRAVES IN GREY ABBEYAND DONEANY

Identified onthe Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website is the war grave and marker erected

In Memory of
Private WILLIAM HENRY HONOUR
3439, 6th Dragoons (Inniskilling)
who died
on 06 September 1914
Remembered with honour
KILDARE (GREY ABBEY) CEMETERY

The grave is near the gap in the wooden fence which is the entrance to the Abbey ruin

Another war grave can be found in Doneany cemetery but the website gives us an extra piece of information, the names of the parents of the individual interred there. The marker was erected

In Memory of
Private WILLIAM NEANOR

2716504, Middlesex Regiment
who died age 38
on 12 December 1943
Son of John and Bridget Neanor (nee O'Connor), of Duneany.
Remembered with honour
DUNEANY OLD GRAVEYARD

The grave is to the left of the church ruin, past most of the graves which lie directly in front and to the left of the gate

Posted by mariocorrigan at 11:53 PM

August 24, 2005

KILDARE TOWN IN 1846

Slater’s Trade Directory 1846

KILDARE

Is a market town, the seat of a diocese, and formerly a parliamentary borough, in the barony of Ophaly, and parish and county of its name, 32 miles S.W. from Dublin, 13 W. from Naas, 7 S.E. from Rathangan, 6 E.N.E. from Monastereven, and 5 W.S.W. from Newbridge; situated on the mail roads between Dublin, Cork and Limerick. The town derives its name from Kill-dara, or Chille-darraigh, the “Church or cell of the Oak,” from the circumstances of the first Christian church, founded here, having its site amongst trees of that kind. The town, which is the property of the Duke of Leinster, enjoys but little trade, yet, from the numerous remains of its ancient religious edifices, it possesses an aspect of importance, and boasts two admirably conducted hotels, for families and commercial gentlemen-they are called the “Rosmore Arms” and the “Leinster Arms,” and are both posting establishments. James II conferred upon the inhabitants a charter of incorporation; the municipal body consisting of a sovereign, two portrieves, and a certain number of burgesses and freemen, assisted by a recorder, with other officers; for many years these officials have, however, ceased to exercise any judicial functions, indeed the corporation may be said to be virtually extinct, and the government of the town is now vested in the magistrates, who sit in petty session every alternate Thursday in the court-house, a plain structure. Quarter sessions are likewise held in April and October, in the same building.

The cathedral of Kildare has long been in a ruinous condition, and although at various times partially repaired, it appears, at the present day, but a mass of ruins. The original structure dates its existence from a very early period; and it was repaired and adorned by Bishop Ralph, of Bristol, who enjoyed the see of Kildare from 1223 to 1232. The south transept is a ruin; the nave, which stands unroofed, displays some arches, and other architectural features, in the pointed style. The choir retains both walls and roof, and is used as the parish church; it contains the sepulchral vault of the Earls of Kildare and Dukes of Leinster. In the church-yard is the lofty pedestal of an ancient stone cross; and about thirty yards west of the cathedral is the interesting “Pillar-Tower of Kildare,” full one hundred and thirty feet high. Its origin is variously ascribed to the Danes, who, it is supposed, erected it as a watch tower; while others contend that this and similar towers, of which there are many in Ireland, are connected with the services of religion. Besides the cathedral, the other places of worship are the Roman Catholic chapel, a fine spacious edifice; the chapel attached to a Carmelite friary, and one belonging to the Presentation Convent. The principal charitable institution is the county infirmary, erected in 1780, munificently presented to the county by the Duke of Leinster. It will accommodate fifty patients, and in connection with it is a dispensary, the whole under the able management of W. P. Geoghegan, M.D. there are schools under the dean and chapter, and also the national board-the instruction of the female pupils of the latter is undertaken by the nuns of the Presentation Convent, who confer a great amount of benefit on the children of the poor, by their laudable exertions in the path of eduation. Near to the town is the celebrated “Curragh of Kildare,” supposed to be one of the finest commons in Europe, and containing, within its limits, three hare parks. Race meetings are held on the Curragh in April, June, September, and October. In September, 1821, his late Majesty, George IV, who visited these races, contributed to the club a whip of 100 guineas value to be run for annually. The market is held on Thursday; and fairs February 12th, April 5th and 26th, May 12th, June 29th, and September 19th. Population of the town, in 1841, 1,629.

(original spelling and grammar are retained - Mario Corrigan)

Posted by mariocorrigan at 10:28 PM

August 14, 2005

KILDARE TOWN IN 1837

Lewis's Topographical Dictionary 1837

http://www.kildare.ie/heritage/lewis-topographical-dictionary/kildare.asp

 Spelling and Grammar are retained as in the original

A description of Kildare Town taken from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of 1837. All the relevant articles for County Kildare are available at www.kildare.ie/heritage

Posted by mariocorrigan at 03:53 PM