Welcome to Clongorey Community Association Website

Clongorey is situated about 3 Kilometres North of Newbridge, in County Kildare, Ireland. It is a community comprising some 1400 people with just over 300 homesteads. The Clongorey Community Association was founded in 2002.The overall objective of the association is to contribute positively to the community and cultural life in the area. We do this by responding to the needs of the people who live in the area and who are part of the wider Clongorey family outside the area. Our principle achievements to date include the restoration of our community centre, re-building of St Patrick's Shrine at Barrettstown Cemetery, acquisition of a community sports field. In addition the association run a series of events each year to bring our community together. These include sporting, social and cultural events such as history tours, family days, race nights, and Quiz nights and of course supporting our great local football team Clongorey United. Finally we work to assure the safety and security of our community through supporting our local Gardaí via the Community Alert scheme.

  Bog Walk and Turf Cutting Demonstrations

This book brings together for the first time all the extant writings of Patrick Reilly, as well as an account of his life and times. Reilly was born near the lake of Ballyhoe on the Meath Monaghan border in 1825.  He was a poet, musician and school teacher and was principal of Drumconrath National School from 1852 – 1868. He is best remembered for his book of 57 poems entitled The Rural Harp.  Published in Drogheda in 1861 The Rural Harp gives a bird’s eye view of life in north county Meath in the middle of the nineteenth century. Very few copies have survived, so anyone who is fortunate enough to possess one is the guardian of a unique document. March, 2011 is the 150th anniversary of its publication.

 

 

Patrick Reilly, the Bard of Balnavoran is a book in two parts.  Part I deals with the poems of The Rural Harp.  Some poems refer to prominent landmarks in the Drumconrath/Meath Hill area while others deal with the theme of emigration, exploitation, love, romance and there are a number of tributary verses on the deaths of close friends. What becomes evident from reading of The Rural Harp is that Reilly was a deeply spiritual man, one who was also conscious of the beauty of nature which everywhere surrounded him.  Being a teacher it is not surprising that he should dedicate some poems to the problems which he encountered in the classroom.  However he had a deeper vision of his vocation, referring to the teacher as ‘the potter’ who moulded the men of future generations. One of the poems is dedicated to Vere Foster, first President of the Irish National Teachers Organisation.

 

 

 

 

Although Reilly did not arrange the poems of his Rural Harp in any particular order, Larry Ward has brought them together thematically in chapters.  To help the reader better understand the various references in the poems, an explanatory introduction precedes each chapter. Part II focuses on Reilly’s uncollected poems which are mainly found in the Drogheda Argus and in Purdon’s and Nugent’s Almanacs.  Reilly and his family left Drumconrath in 1868 and moved to Enfield, where Patrick taught for one year.  From 1870 – 1877 both he and his wife Mary taught in Chapelizod where their youngest son, Aodh was born.   From there they moved to Clongorey in north Kildare. On August 1^st 1877 Patrick was appointed principal of Clongorey boys school and Mary was appointed principal of the girls school on the same date. However, on June 30^th 1879 Mary’s salary was withdrawn as she had become physically incapacitated for further duty.  ‘In consideration of long service a retiring gratuity of £70 – 14 – 03p awarded on the usual conditions’. In August of the same year the following notice appeared in the Kildare Observer. In the Press and shortly to be published, price, one shilling, Liffey Lyrics and other Poems, (the latter principally contributed to Irish Newspapers within the last thirty years) by Patrick Reilly, National Teacher, Barrettstown, Naas.   At the request of numerous subscribers, we print again the following singularly, pathetic description of a ‘Deserted Village’.  It has found an echo in many a heart and home among the ‘Exiles of Erin’ on this continent – Toronto Citizen, 1855. The ruins of this ‘Deserted Village are close to the lake of Ballyhoe on the Meath Monaghan border. A subsequent note in the same edition stated: We have looked through the materials of which the above little volume is to be composed, and we confidently predict for it a hearty reception.  Many years ago, when most of our readers were still young, the author was favourably known as a contributor to the provincial press, and now, that he is about to renew his acquaintance with the reading public, we are happy to find that he has not lost his freshness and versatility.  As pleasant reading, we recommend his “Ghost Story” and his humorous adaptation of the “Groves of Blarney”, in which many sporting celebrities are most happily hit off. Sadly, on August 23^rd 1879, their youngest child, Aodh was drowned in the Liffey, which flowed directly behind their home (Cemetery Lodge, beside Barrettstown graveyard).  Two months later, on Oct. 19^th Mary died. She was 49 years of age. Following Mary’s death, Patrick moved to Athgarvan school. Here the inspector’s reports continued to be critical of his work and he eventually retired on Oct. 1^st 1886 with a pension of £43 -09 – 04p a year.  Patrick’s son, Joseph taught  in Athgarvan from 1880 – 1883, following which he joined the army and went to India. Patrick was not idle in his retirement years.  He was clerk of the Naas Burial Board up until his death in 1895. However, even in his retirement years, grief continued to haunt him.  In August 1892 his only surviving son, Joseph died in Lucknow, India from cholera. Nothing is known of his two eldest daughters.  His youngest daughter, Máire, who was present at his death later became a very important influence in the development of Conradh na Gaeilge in Kildare.  Around 1906 she moved to Dublin and in 1916 she opened an Irish bookshop in 87 Upper Dorset St.  Because of her deep involvement in the Irish language movement she had to have  known Pearse, MacDonagh, Tómas Ashe and other leaders of the 1916 Rising.  When she died in 1941 her obituary notice stated that ‘she had rendered sterling service to the National Cause during the troubled times’. The large number of politicians, priests and members of the literary world who attended her funeral are a testament to this fact.   Also included in the Reilly biography are scenes of the Ballyhoe area by the well known Ardee artist, Padraig Lynch, as well as a poem by the Syddan poet, Paddy Meegan, entitled ‘Pride and Pity’. The late Fr. Philip Cuffe, a curate of Drumconrath parish in the 1950’s set seven of the Reilly poems to music, and these are also included.  Of special interest is a previously unpublished map of Drumconrath  village dated 1830 as well as old photographs of Drumconrath and Meath Hill from around 1920.  Scenes of the Liffey at Barrettstown also figure as does a sketch of Clongorey old school by Willie Finney.    Of special interest to the people of the Barrettstown area is a hand written elegy by Reilly on the death of Laurence Steen, Mandistown, Ardee and dated, Barrettstown, October 22^nd 1878.  His Rural Harp, published in March 1861, was dedicted to Mrs. Laurence Steen, hence the significance of the lament.   Patrick Reilly, his wife Mary, son Aodh and his daughter Máire are buried in Barrettstown cemetery.  Patrick lay there, unknown for over 140 years, until his grave was discovered by Larry Ward and Gr. Gerard Cummins, Drumconrath on June 28^th 2008. Sometime later, Gloria Walsh pointed out the site of the Reilly homestead at Barrettstown, saying that as a young girl ‘she came to live there in the 1930’s’. She also revealed that as children they had been warned to keep away from the river ‘as a young child had drowned there in the past’.  This no doubt was a direct reference to Patrick’s young son, Aodh,  who in 1879, drowned in the Liffey which flowed directly behind their home.  Today a new bond has been created between the people of Barrettstown and the north Meath parish of Drumconrath/Meath Hill, the place of Reilly’s birth.  His grave, which lies just behind the beautiful shrine of St. Patrick in Barrettstown cemetery has been refurbished, and the site of their home there is also recorded. No longer does the little family lie ‘beneath some neglected urn’,  but thanks to the work of Larry Ward their contribution to the cultural life of the Irish nation is now preserved.   

Clongorey Schoolhouse by Willie Finney