‘A Galvanised Shed in Aldridge Park’ 

For a number of years Frank Whelan has been documenting the history of Athy Town AFC, Frank is a trustee of the club and with the new Astro turf pitch being laid at Aldridge Park over the coming weeks Frank furnished me with a wealth of information on the club, I am very grateful to him for this. He told me that prior to the formation of Athy F.C. in 1948, soccer was played in the Athy area from as far back as the early 1920’s. The Barrow Drainage scheme was extended to Athy in the mid-1920’s bringing with it workers and supervisory staff from outside the town. One of these workers was a Mr. Sanford and with some of the men on the scheme he started a soccer club in Athy. The club went under the name of “Barrow Rovers”. 

The playing pitch was at Fennelly’s of Quarry Farm and the local players included Ned Ward, Johnny and Chevit Doyle, Johnny Kelly, Tosh Carr, Jim Eaton, Paddy Looney and Cuddy Chanders. This club lasted for a few years until the completion of the work on the Barrow Drainage scheme. Work was not easy to find at the time and so many of the original club members and mentors moved on to new construction projects, and the club quickly went into decline. In 1948 the decision to form an Athy Town soccer club was a brave one. The Second World War was just over and many young men were taking the boat to England to work on the reconstruction of the bombed cities. Equally, at the time, the G.A.A. was the dominant sporting organisation in the country and the treat of ‘The Ban’ on men playing foreign sports was in place.

A meeting was organised to gauge the local interest in forming a soccer club and from that meeting the first committee was elected. The first Athy Town Soccer Club committee elected wee; Matt Tynan, President who also acted as Chairman, Danny O’Brien, Hon. Sec., Jim Mc Evoy, Treasurer, and the committee members elected on the night were; Paddy O Neill, Paddy O Gorman, Jimmy O Donnell, L.B.Pawelczyk, Mick Nolan and Harry Prole. Matt Tynan had been involved with the Athy Hockey club, which by 1948 no longer existed. They had been using the Showgrounds for a pitch and had built a galvanised shed for a dressing room. Matt along with Paddy O Neill (a brother of Dr. Joe O’Neill) secured the transfer of the lease held by the now defunct Hockey club to Athy Soccer club. The lease has remained with the club ever since.

Athy Town Soccer club was now up and running. A report from the Kildare Nationalist in the late summer of 1948 reported; ‘The newly formed Athy Soccer team played their first match on Sunday at the Showgrounds, Athy. Recording a victory over Carlow, 4 goals to 3 goals. Jimmy O’Donnell, an experienced player, Brendan O Flaherty, J.Davis and the ex-Kildare Senior G.A.A. goalie, Cuddy Chanders, in goal were outstanding. Three of Athy’s goals were scored by Davis and one by L.Pawelvsyck. Mr. Ned Ward made an efficient referee. On Sunday next the home team will meet Edenderry. The visitors who are an experienced side will have a tough proposition in the Athy lads who have already shown much ability at the game. The Athy team was as follows :- C.Chanders (goal), M.O.Donnell (R.F.B.), T.Kiely (L.F.B.), J.Walsh (half right), B.O.Flaherty (centre half), J.O.Sullivan (half left), G.Kelly (outside left), J.O.Donnell (inside left), L.Pawelvsyck (centre front), J.Davis (inside right) and B.Chanders (outside right).’ The first season was spent mainly playing challenge games against such clubs as Carlow Town, Edenderry, Newbridge Town, Mullingar, The Curragh Command, Naas and several Dublin clubs such as Queens Utd, Sunbeam Wolsey and Evening Mail. Frank told me of a conversation he had with Cha Chanders, the current club President, Cha recalled, as a young man, meeting a stranger one summer’s day back in 1949 while walking down St. John’s lane. The man was looking for directions to the ‘Barrack Yard’ where Mr. Danny O’Brian, Sec. of Athy Town soccer club lived. He had cycled down from Dublin to arrange a friendly match against a team he was managing, the man was John Giles’s father.

Pitch maintenance is something that players tend to take for granted but Athy AFC have had some excellent grounds men down through the years. The first grounds man in 1948 was Vin Smyth (his son Denis played for the club and was Hon. Sec. during the 1950’s). Probably the best-known grounds man was Frankie Aldridge who cared for the pitch throughout the 1970’s . The grounds were later re-named ‘Aldridge Park’ in honour of the loveable ‘rogue’ and character. Men of a certain vintage will never forget the pots of soup he prepared on a potbelly stove in the old galvanised shed on winter evenings for the players when they came in after training.

So today, almost 80 years after Joe Davis scored the first goal for Athy Town in a friendly game against Carlow at the Showgrounds, the diggers broke ground to install the new UEFA/FIFA approved all-weather Astro pitch at Aldridge Park. Club Chairman, Sean Bolger informed me that following a successful grant application under Leader Funding the groundwork is underway to install a world class Astro pitch at Aldridge Park. “This has been a number of years in the planning stage.” He told me, “The club is expanding and we are seeing an increase of up to 30% in our underage membership on an annual basis, so this is an investment in the future of the club”. Athy Town AFC presently field up to four senior teams every week, as well as underage teams from under-13’s to under-18’s, and cater for upwards of 350 boys and girls in the 5 to 10 year old age group. “The new Astro pitch means we can play all year round, irrespective of the weather.” 

The project committee have been working hard over the past four years, planning, securing funding, engaging contractors and putting in place contingency plans to ensure games are still played during the development phase. 

“Our target is to have the new pitch playable by the end of October.” Sean said, “And with all going well we might even kick the first ball here before the end of September. JNC are the main contractors and Optimum Civics are the sub-contractor. Mark Dunne of Optimum Civics will also act as project manager. The project team are also working on a number of avenues to generate additional funding to complete the project. A marketing campaign will see pitch side sponsored advertising hoardings installed as well as a “Buy a Sod” board in the club house, where members and past members can have their name inscribed, in perpetuity, remembering good days in the sun.

From their humble beginnings, Athy Town AFC has grown into an innovative and dynamic club with a state of the art indoor Astro training pitch, dressing rooms, a club house adorned with pictures of past teams and a brimming trophy cabinet and soon to have a world class all weather playing pitch. The club has, coached, nurtured and given opportunities to generations of footballers, many who have gone on to play ‘The Beautiful Game’ on pitches in every corner of the world from; to paraphrase the poet Derek Mahon; ‘A Galvanised Shed in Aldridge Park.’