How Athy got its first swimming pool
Athy's first public swimming pool was long fought for
ONE of the great community facilities in Athy is the leisure centre in Townspark. How Athy managed to have the first public swimming pool in the County of Kildare is a story not known or long forgotten.
Even those of us of long memory will have forgotten the story of Athy’s swimming pool committee and the involvement of those who volunteered over a number of years to secure funding for the project.
The initial public meeting to consider the viability of having a public swimming pool in Athy was held in the Leinster Arms Hotel in 1967. The meeting was called by Mick Rowan, known locally as Rexi Rowan, a one-time resident of St. Patrick’s Avenue.
Mick was a member of Athy Urban District Council from 1967 to 1974. He was undoubtedly aware of a motion passed by the Town Council in the latter part of 1934 on the proposal of local dentist Joseph C. Reynolds.
His motion calling upon the Council to build a swimming pool in Athy was passed unanimously by the Council members at a time when the standard of housing in Athy was extremely poor. The Department of Local Government however felt government monies were best employed in building council houses and so cllr Reynolds’ motion awaited many years before the matter was taken in hand locally.
It was Mick Rowan, the former town councillor, who called a meeting for the Leinster Arms Hotel in 1967 to establish a swimming pool committee for Athy.
Many of the men, and indeed it was all men who were at that meeting, had been involved in an earlier fundraising campaign initiated in the 1950s by Fr McLoughlin, senior curate of St Michael’s Parish to collect funds for a new parish church.
For several years the fundraising went on prior to the opening of the new church on Sunday 19 April 1964 and continued for a time thereafter until the planned Giving Campaign came into operation.
Until it did whist drives and carnivals were some of the many ways employed by those early volunteers who gave of their time and energy to building up funds needed for the new church.
The members of the swimming pool committee included Rexi Rowan as chairman, Eoin Blanchfield as Secretary, John Taaffe as treasurer and committee members Brian Kelly, Paddy Kane, Niall Smith, Dan McEvoy, Eddie Delahunt, Billy Delahunt, Paudge Dooley, Pearse Dunne, David Neill and James Kilbane.
The committee set itself the task of collecting £10,000 in three years, as their contribution to a pool costing £60,000 which Kildare County Council were prepared to erect in Athy.
The plans for the pool were conditional on the local contribution of twenty per cent of the local cost being made by the people of Athy.
Under the chairmanship of Mick Rowan, the committee organised a monthly draw. It was the committee members already named who enthusiastically undertook the difficult job of calling on neighbouring households to collect the monthly draw money.
It was a task which was to continue for thirteen years up to 1980. Work on the construction of the pool in the People’s Park commenced in April 1974, almost seven years after the first public meeting in the Leinster Arms Hotel.
On 14 January 1976 Kildare County Council requested payment of the sum of £23,518, being the estimated local contribution, while advising ‘that the project is now at an advanced stage’. The Leinster Arms Hotel was again the venue when on Tuesday 14 September the local swimming pool committee made a formal presentation of a £20,000 cheque to Kildare County Council officials.
The committee had come within £3,500 of their final target, the monies having been raised principally from a confined draw of 400 subscribers over the previous eight years.
A special mention was made at the handing over ceremony of substantial contributions made by the Asbestos factory and Minch Nortons, and it was suggested that ‘other firms and factories in the town and district might follow their example.’ Around that time my father John Taaffe, who had resigned his position as treasurer on health grounds, was made honorary president of the swimming pool committee.
The building works on the swimming pool continued throughout 1976 and the opening of the pool scheduled for Tuesday,14 December of that year was postponed because of difficulties with the filtration system.
The official opening of the swimming pool took place on Saturday 11 June 1977 at 3pm and James Tully, Minister for Local Government was guest of honour.
A buffet reception was held in the Leinster Arms hotel and it is interesting to note that the local committee was required to contribute £100 to Kildare County Council towards the cost of the reception.
The monthly draw organised by the swimming pool committee continued until 1980 when the final instalment of the local contribution towards the swimming pool building costs were paid over to Kildare County Council.
A thirteen-year long campaign had been brought to a successful conclusion and Athy was the first town in County Kildare to have a public swimming pool. That pool, located in the People’s Park, was replaced by the current leisure complex in Townspark.
