The North Gate, Significant New Information, Aug 2024

The North Gate, Athenry, Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland

In 1839, F W Wakeman, an illustrator, employed by the Ordnance Survey office, Dublin travelled, by coach and horses, to the Aran Islands and on his way, he stopped in Athenry, where he met with William Vesey Fitzgerald Hickman of Athenry Town House, “gentleman, the chief proprietor of the old town”. Years later, in 1860, Wakeman published an account of his journey in Duffy’s Hibernian Magazine. 

Extract from Wakeman’s article – “Aran – Pagan and Christian” page 460

“How well do I recollect my first sketching journey, when employed upon the intended Ordnance Memoir.  Dr Petrie was the head of that particular department of the survey to which I was attached. In the little back parlour in Great Charles-street, we used to meet daily. By we, I mean John O’Donovan, Eugene Curry, Clerence Mangan, P. 0’Keefe, J. O’Connor, besides two or three more. The duty of the office was to collect every possible information, antiquarian or topographical, about that particular portion of the country which was at the time being surveyed. All sorts of old documents were grabbled up, old spellings of names compared and considered.

O’Donovan and Curry, even then the first Celtic scholars of the age, settled the orthography of the towns, villages, baronies, or other divisions of land, so that the Ordnance maps might be as correct, in a literary sense, as they undoubtedly were as surveys. At the same time, Petrie’s great work on the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland,” as also his admirable essay on the “Antiquities of Tara Hill”, were being completed.  Indeed, we lived in such an atmosphere of antiquarianism, that a thousand years ago seemed as familiar to us as the time when we first donned breeches. For my own part, I felt as if I had a personal acquaintance with Niall of the Nine Hostages, or Con of the Hundred Battles (or “bottles” as poor Mangan humorously misstyled the hero), or with Laoghaire, who wouldn’t mind the exhortations of Saint Patrick, but insisted on being interred sword in hand, in his rath at Tara, with his face turned to the east…

 Petrie, as head of the office, superintended everything; and the mass of antiquarian and topographical information collected far exceeded the expectations of the most sanguine”. 

The coach stopped in various places along the way, from Dublin to Galway, in order to change horses, but Wakeman only mentions two places along the way – Athlone and Athenry. In Athlone he bemoaned the fact that in the demolishing of the old bridge with its many arches had been demolished and replaced by a new one.   He also mentions the many beautiful sculptures, there, that were in a bad state of neglect. As a conservationist, this was in direct contrast to his work of the Ordnance Survey Office.

“In due time we arrived at Athlone, then a highly picturesque and romantic looking old town. The ancient bridge, by which we crossed the Shannon into Connaught, was a very singular and interesting structure of its class. We forget the exact number of arches which it exhibited, but they were very numerous, and of various forms and sizes. Each pier upon the roadway was hollowed into a kind of recess, which afforded foot passengers a very necessary retreat when vehicles were passing, for the bridge was so narrow, that scarcely more than one carriage could pass at a time. During the temporary stay of the coach for dinner, I made a hasty examination of an extraordinary collection of sculptures, with which an erection upon the southern battlement was decorated. They seemed of considerable historic interest; and there were traces of lengthy inscriptions, so choked, however, with dust and mess as to be completely illegible. What has become of these carvings and inscriptions?  When that supreme job, the so-called “drainage of the Shannon” was settled upon, the commissioners at once condemned the ancient bridge to demolition, and the sentence was soon completely carried out. We do not, now, want to question whether the venerable structure was so much in the way of the water-flow as to render its removal absolutely necessary or not, but we would ask the government what has become of these most interesting relics?  We heard a few years ago that they had been preserved, and were to be inserted in some place of safety. If so, where are they? Where, also, are the sculptures which, a few years ago, were to be seen surmounting the archway of the north gate of Athlone, an edifice by-the-bye, which ranked amongst the most interesting of its class in Ireland. The huge square tower bore many honourable scars in the shape of unmistakable shot holes from the cannon of besiegers. We cannot conceive however; it could be considered as an obstruction to the insignificant traffic which existed upon the northern side of Athlone.

Wakeman, then, goes on to compare the neglect of the antiquities of Athlone to the preservation of one of the most important medieval structures in Athenry.

Page 463 -464 “Perhaps the stones were enacted by some needy contractor, as in the case of the fine municipal gateway which still stands upon the wall of the neighbouring town of Athenry, and which was only saved from demolition by the fine stand made by a single gentleman, Mr. Hickman, the chief proprietor of the old town, who would not allow an historical monument to be unnecessarily destroyed, in order that one or two interested parties might make something of the job. An enlightened individual, arguing upon the side for demolition, wondered how any person could wish for the preservation of the old portion, on the ground of its antiquity, ”as any antiquity it possessed had gone long ago!”

Stones especially, building stones were in short supply around the town of Athenry in the 1930s and the town wall, at Court Lane and from the Castle to the priory, may have been disappearing for new buildings. Bringing in new building material would have been expensive so that “one or two interested parties might make something of the job”, if they could source stones from the Arch and wall. *

Who was William Hickman?

William Vesey Fitzgerald Hickman was the son of Edward Shadwell Hickman and Sarah Hoops. He was born circa 1817 while his father was Crown Solicitor for Connaught with offices at 17 Middle Gardiner Street. It was here Edward had met and started working with William Vesey Fitzgerald, M.P. for Clare. It would appear Fitzgerald was godfather to young William and given his name.

William entered Trinity in 1833 qualifying with an MA in 1841.

In the 1851 census he is living in Edinburgh with his wife, Sarah (nee Payne), sons Richard and William and daughters Sarah, Louisa and Eliza.

A son Arthur was born in 1855 and a daughter in 1858.

Both Sarahs were born in Ireland. His daughter Sarah was born there circa 1845 and they then moved to Scotland where son Richard was born in Edinburgh circa 1846.

William’s wife Sarah died in 1859 and is buried in Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh.

By 1860 William had returned to Ireland and went to Athenry where he was recorded as ” the chief proprietor of the old town” where he made a “firm stance” to save the demolition of “the fine municipal gateway” belonging to the historic town walls.

In the Dublin Evening Post of 2 April 1850 William advertises for lease the ” House and demesne Lands of Athenry”.

Whether Hickman acted on his own accord or was influenced by a youthful, energetic and enthusiastic Wakeman, whose work was the recording of Irelands wealth of antiquities and their protection was his obsession, we will not know but the result is that the medieval town of Athenry has one of its finest monuments preserved and maintained to this day.

In Galway, Wakeman and John O’Donovan were guests of  the historian James Hardiman in Taylor’s hill. “At Taylor’s Hill high hospitality was kept; we generally sat down eight or ten to dinner, and Hardiman, like an old Irish chieftain, as he considered himself to be, had his piper, Paddy Connelly, at a table upon his right hand and well the piper fared both during dinner and after it.” 

* Builders of the garden wall of the Bermingham house, in the Square (from the Castle to Bridge St.) and Irvine’s Mill (Later Taylor’s Mill), Mill Race and other buildings in the town may have availed of stones from the Town Wall (from Court Lane around to the Priory).

Sources:

Duffy’s Hibernian Magazine, Volume 1, January to June, 1860, Page 460, “Aran – Pagan and Christian” by F W Wakeman.
Duffy’s Hibernian Magazine – was a literary periodical, a monthly journal of legends, tales, and stories, Irish antiquities, biography, science, and art, founded in 1860 by Irish author and publisher James Duffy (1809-1871), with contributions by Julia Kavanagh, William Carleton, John O’Donovan, Rev. C.P. Meehan, Martin Haverty, William F. Wakeman, J.D. MacCarthy, John F. O’Donnell.
Notes on William Vesey Fitzgerald Hickman researched by Declan Barron

Note: The Feature Photo of The North Gate (The Arch), is published here courtesy of the National Library of Ireland. Dated circa 1860, shows what the Arch looked like when Wakeman wrote his article.

Editor’s note: William V. Hickman was landlord of a large number of properties in Chapel Street, (now Old Church Sreett), most of Chapel   Lane, some properties in Court Lane, Mc Donald’s Lane, Barrack Lane, Cross Street, and Clarke St.

See also: More Athenry property owners in this era!