Sad end to Athy Arts Centre

IN my article last week on the men and women who had joined with me in efforts to improve social action in Athy, regrettably a reference to three stalwart supporters did not appear.

Almost 12 years ago, I joined with Trevor Shaw, Paul Langton and Brian Dooley for what proved to be an unsuccessful attempt to revitalise business life in Athy. Trevor, who died in September 2021, was a great champion of Athy, while Paul and Brian continue to display spirit and commitment in support of Athy’s development. The ‘Spirit of Kildare’ Heritage Award presented to me recently was not just for me but for all those wonderful men and women, many of whom are no longer with us, who contributed hugely to community work and to our understanding and appreciation of the history and heritage of Athy.

Trevor Shaw approached me about 16 years ago when he discovered that Athy Urban District Council had not responded positively to a request to lease the former dispensary in Meeting Lane.

John MacKenna, Brid Brophy and I wanted to convert the building for use as a community arts centre.

Trevor, ever anxious to assist in the development of Athy culturally as well as commercially, offered the Methodist Church in Woodstock Street as a Community Arts Centre.

Following discussions between the Methodist Church body, Kildare County Council officials and ourselves, the future of Athy’s Arts Centre was secured.

It was operated for fifteen years or so by volunteers, headed up at different times by David Day and Brid Brophy.

It was a successful venture, but sadly the Methodist community have not continued the arrangement. The community arts centre sign which stood at the front railings of the church building has now been removed.

It is a sad blow for the volunteers who had been involved for many years and an abject failure of recognition of the need for a community arts centre for the benefit of the local community.

How I miss Trevor Shaw at times like this.

I wonder if there is another venue that might be proposed, and new volunteers who might join with us to revive an arts centre for Athy?

It is a timely coincidence that John MacKenna, one of the original trio involved in setting up Athy’s first Community Arts Centre, is launching his latest novel, The Lock-Keeper’s Wife, in Athy Library on 27 February at 6.30 p.m.

John, who has dedicated the book to me, has also asked me to speak at the event. As someone who for forty years or so has confined his reading to Irish history, as well as Irish and English social history and politics from 1800, I may not be the most appropriate man to have been asked to launch a novel.

However, the exception to my non-fiction reading habits are novels and poems by this Castledermot writer. He was and is for me a wonderful wordsmith whose works, centred around the south Kildare countryside, give that part of the short grass county an audience which we have not had since the days of the novelists Winnifred Letts, Ann O’Neill Barna and Dorothy M. Large.

These were popular writers who lived in the vicinity of Athy in the 1940s and the 1950s, at a time when the Irish literary scene was, by and large, male dominated. Today, female novelists have replaced the male-dominated literary scene of yesteryears, and we rely on writers such as John MacKenna to retain a balance between the sexes!

I have just finished reading John’s book, which is the diary of a woman who reflects on a life shaped by an unhappy marriage, the flight of her two children to London, and the death at birth of two other children.

The Lock-Keeper’s Wife charts the changes in the seasons over the course of the year as she confronts isolation, grief and loneliness in an unhappy marriage. That unhappy existence is challenged when she meets an Englishman holidaying in Ireland, and she must consider the consequences and opportunities of their growing love.

The novel is published by Lilliput Press and will shortly be available in all good bookshops.

John MacKenna is one of the finest writers to come out of south Kildare. This latest book, The Lock-Keeper’s Wife is a beautifully written story of bravery and resilience set in the hinterlands of Castledermot and Moone. Don’t forget, the launch of The Lock-Keeper’s Wife will be held on Friday, 27 February at 6.30 pm in Athy Library.