Pages from the Past

1860 Get your vaccines in Ireland, not in sick old London Members of Athlone Union which operated the local workhouse agreed in February to overrule its own decision a month previously to discontinue paying for vaccines from a Dublin medical institution, in favour of free vaccines from a London body. The board completed its u-turn following a letter from local doctor George Hetherington who pointed out that current medical practice was to source vaccines from rural areas. "The policy and propriety of a London institution for the issue of vaccine matter - deriving its supply from persons subject to all the bad influences of an overgrown and over-crowded metropolis and assuredly enfeebled more or less thereby - has been seriously called in question," he pointed out in a letter to the union members. He pointed out that small pox had recently reappeared in London. He also explained that the London institution concerned was privileged with a parliamentary grant to cover its costs while the Dublin facility had no such aid. Instead, the Dublin institution is operated by a committee of the leading physicians and surgeons and each vaccine was sent forth under the guarantee "of their high and honoured names". Sewerage on the town streets The local town commissioners agreed to consider the subject of a sewer for Church Street, after the matter had been raised at one of their meetings. The commission was told that a sewer was very much wanted in Church Street, to run from Dublingate into the sewer already in Victoria Place (now Custome Place). "At present there as a most intolerable nuisance when the sewers from the houses on Church Street were discharged into the street, " Mr Stokes told a meeting. 1910 John L. Sullivan visits Athlone Former world heavyweight boxing champion John L. Sullivan visited Athlone in February 1910. The report by the Westmeath Independent noted that he had arrived by train and stayed at the Prince of Wales Hotel. His mother was Kelly from Curramore near Kiltoom and his sister was married to one of the Killion family of Drum, while there was also a connection with Lennons of Drum, the report stated. Sullivan was then 52 years of age and a teetollater for the previous six years. Two inches short of six feet and weighed 22 stone. Still of youthful appearance and agile and virile, the paper said he was also particularly interesting socially. "To an interviewer he chatted freely on the great strides made by the Irish people in America, the prominent positions so many of them hold and the force they are today in the Great Republic." He criticised the lack of a proper mercantile marine service in America, pointing out that 92 per cent of food stuff produced in America was exported but in foreign vessels. Sullivan said he thought boxing was now too commercial and had therefore declined in popularity in America. The interview was interrupted by a semi-official welcome from members of the urban district council. The Athlone National Brass Band gathered outside the hotel as did a large number of people and Sullivan, introduced by Cllr M.J. Lennon, was cheered and spoke to the crowed of his Irish origin and local connections. The next day he spent visiting friends in the district in the company of his wife and left by the afternoon train for Dublin. 1960 The 15-year-old music genius Master Paul Brock, the 15-year-old Athlone musical genius, now known all over Ireland, England and Scotland as the boy with the golden fingers, has once again hit the headlines by the announcement that he has signed a contract for a big American tour, the Westmeath Independent reported in 1960. Paul, who was three times All-Ireland Accordion champion under 14 years, was the previous year acclaimed the national senior champion in the Mansion House in Dublin. He had just returned from a very successful tour of England, which he undertook during his school holidays from the Marist Brothers' Secondary School in Athlone. He played to capacity houses in Birmingham, Coverntry, Mancheser and London during the tour. And the paper reported he would appear on the world famous Ed Sullivan Show, viewed by 44 million people on St Patrick's Day and would take part in the St Patrick's Day parade in New York. His parents were Arthur and Margaret Brock, O'Connell Street, Athlone. Athlone's tourist spots remain under developed Athlone was in an unique position as a tourist, angling and cursing centre, but its natural assets needed development, said Mr TJ O'Driscoll, Director-General, Bord Failte, who was guest speaker at the annual dinner of Athlone Chamber of Commerce during February 1860. The attendance also includes the Minister for Transport and Power Erskine Childers. Mr O'Driscoll noted that 1959 had seen an increase in the numbers of coarse anglers to all midland centres. However, he said Athlone was not developing as rapidly as an angling centre as it should "Athlone enjoys the best position in Ireland for all kinds of fresh water fishing and for lake and river cruising. "But it must be emphasised that there has to be development of the natural assets and the greater part of this development must be by local interests and by private enterprise. He said there was a need for more boats for anglers, better publicity for Athlone's improving hotel stock and more plentiful private accommodation facilities.