Heritage week activities planned for Connaught Street

Preserving and promoting our heritage is a core value of the Connaught Street Traders and Environs community group, and to this end it has a number of events planned to coincide with Heritage Week, which runs from August 16 to 24.

The group has been running markets monthly in Connaught Gardens throughout the year, in a bid to highlight just what the area has to offer, while providing small businesses with an outlet and ensuring there's something on offer for all the family.

Patrick Walsh, who is the sixth generation of his family to operate Walsh's on Connaught Street, brings alpaca to the markets each month and says these are a huge draw for people.

"There has to be something for the kids, and they'll bring their parents and grandparents. We aim it as a family event," he said.

While the group tries to align the markets with any bank holiday weekends, it will be holding its next one on Sunday, August 17, to coincide with Heritage Week.

Vice-chairman of Connaught Street Traders and Environs, Tim Dowling, said the group feels Connaught Gardens lends itself very well to markets.

"It allows for lots of local producers to come in and contribute, and local smaller businesses to set themselves up on a temporary basis. There are tonnes of people around who are producing really great stuff in their sheds and in their gardens and this gives them a medium to sell," he said of the markets.

While the August market will provide the same family fun as previous events, it will also have an added heritage element as the group has been working on a project relating to the graves in the area, and has plans to remember all those who are buried there.

PRO Erica O'Meara explained: "We've been looking at the graves. There are 135 unique surnames. They are buried there between 1806 and 1910. A lot of them are three generations, at least.

"There are a lot of military, there are over 50 military names, and there are vicars, there are farriers and excise collectors. We've researched the backgrounds of a lot of them. There are a lot of English and Scottish, but there are multiple generations of English and Scottish who have married Athlone families."

She added that during their research they unearthed many tragic stories, including one where three children from the one family all passed away within a week of each other in 1860. They also discovered the story of five men who drowned in the Shannon on the one day in the 1840s, with a similar tragedy unfolding some 20 years later.

Erica explained that they will be putting together flyers with the names of the people who are buried in the graveyard so that they can be remembered.

She added that the group also plans to clean up the graves in the area properly.

"Some of them are cemented behind walls, which is really heartbreaking, so you can only see some of the inscriptions," said Erica, who added that they are hoping they can link some of the families to current families in the Athlone area, and are appealing to anyone who thinks they may have a connection to any of the names to get in touch.

"We're going to give out the names, just to have the names handed to somebody, to be looked at, and to be thought of even just once," she said of the event on August 17.

Tim Dowling added that the group has sought advice from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings on the restoration of these limestone headstones.

"That could potentially turn into a really nice heritage workshop, where locals find out how to preserve these things and how to properly take care of them," he said.

Also part of Heritage Week, Tim will be giving a talk on Wednesday, August 20, at 7pm in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel regarding a study the group commissioned on the buildings on Connaught Street and O'Connell Street. An architect by profession, he explained that the group received €25,000 in funding to carry out a comprehensive study of all of the buildings on the two streets.

Describing Sunday, August 24, as 'Culture Day', the group has a number of events organised to take place at The Hollow, Battery Bridge, (the area located between Walsh's Bar and the Shamrock Lodge Hotel).

The group's treasurer, Joe O'Meara, has organised a football tournament to take place over the course of the weekend, with the final on Sunday at 1.30pm.

"Back in the late 60s, early 70s there used to be an over 40s soccer competition held down in The Meadows, so we're going to try and revive it as a five-a-side," explained Joe. He added that there will be six teams taking part, representing The Fiddler's Bar, Beaumont's, Walsh's, McNeill's, The Shamrock Lodge, and a team made up of the men who work on the canal.

There will also be a trad session on the day and a street theatre performance at 3pm, also taking place at The Hollow.

In addition, Athlone Little Theatre will be performing a play which Gearóid O'Brien adapted from a John Broderick novel.