Athy's legacy of children's books
A Cuala press print of St. Brigid with a poem by Winifred Letts (illustrated by Kathleen Verschoyle), a copy of which I understand hangs in Government Buildings in Dublin
This Christmas the Athy Lions Club book shop, based in Duke Street, Athy, is offering two free books for any young boy or girl (of their choosing) as a Christmas gift from the Lions Club.
You can call into the Lions Club bookshop at any time up to Christmas and collect your two free books. It’s a wonderful gesture from the Athy Lions Club, whose bookshop has proved to be an important resource for the town over the last number of years.
The members of the Athy Lions Club have made a huge contribution to the local community since it was established in 1971. Perhaps the most visible reminder of the club’s work is the sheltered housing scheme in the grounds of St Vincent’s Hospital.
This was a project led by the Athy Lions Club and funded in part by government grants and fundraising locally by the Lions Club members.
Christmas is the ideal time to gift books to your loved ones and particularly important for children to be encouraged to read from a very young age. We are very fortunate in this town to have a very fine public library in the old Dominican Church with a myriad of facilities available to young and old alike.
Children’s literature is now very prominent in bookshops, but that was not always the case. I was reminded of this when perusing a recent publication titled – the life works of W.M. Letts (1882-1972).
Winifred Letts, a native of Salford, Lancashire, spent much of her life in Ireland and was distinguished as a writer of plays, poetry and prose. She probably first came to prominence with her poetry collections including published in 1913, followed by and in 1916.
Her war poems were inspired by her wartime service in a military hospital. In 1926 she married W.H.F. Verschoyle, a land agent who owned a farm in Kilberry and up to his death in 1943 she spent many of her summers, weekends and holidays in Kilberry.
On 5 May 1932, she recorded in her diary her trip to Kilberry on her sixth wedding anniversary, ‘the birds are in fine song at Kilberry – chaff, mistle thrush, chaff finches and best joy of all, a pair of goldcrest wrens very busy about the avenue singing and flitting and feeding all the time.’ She had a keen appreciation and love of nature which is recorded beautifully in Bairbe O’ Hogan’s new book just published by South Dublin Libraries. The book is a lovely record of a life joyfully lived through nature and through Letts’ own writings.
She was a versatile writer who also had successful collaborations with Kathleen Verschoyle, the artist, who was her stepdaughter. One of their more attractive collaborations was a Cuala press print of St Brigid with a poem by Letts (illustrated by Verschoyle), a copy of which I understand hangs in Government Buildings in Dublin at the present time. Kathleen also illustrated Lett’s memoir .
Her children’s books including titles such as published in 1909, (1912), (1931) and finally in 1938.
She was not the first Kildare-based writer to publish a children’s book. That accolade goes to the Ballitore-based diarist Mary Leadbetter, who published in 1794 , although she did so anonymously as it would have been quite common for women writers at the time. It is regarded as the earliest children’s book published by an Irish woman.
After the death of her husband in 1947, Letts moved to Kent, but returned again to Ireland in 1953, spending the rest of her life in Killiney until her death in 1972. Letts is commemorated by a memorial plaque and sculpture at the Church of Ireland in Rathcoole, County Wicklow where she is buried with her husband. While there is no monument to her in Kilberry, there is a beautifully made stained glass window to the memory of her husband, W.H.F. Verschoyle in the Church of Ireland there.
The local St Vincent de Paul Society, aided by the Athy Lions Club, will be holding their annual Christmas Food Appeal at Pettitt’s Supervalu Athy from 9am to 8pm on Friday 6 December and from 9am to 5pm on Saturday 7th December. The people of the town have been hugely supportive of the appeal in the past and no doubt will be equally generous this festive season.
