Athy

Sister cities

• Grandvilliers

History

According to Elizabethan historian William Camden, Ptolemy's map of Ireland circa 150 AD names the Rheban district along the River Barrow as Ῥαίβα. Modern cartography, however, dismisses the claim by using triangulation and flocking algorithms. This method establishes that Ptolemy's Ῥαίβα was actually located at Rathcroghan, the traditional capital of the Connachta. A castle existed at Rheban from the Norman period onward. The town at Athy developed from a 12th-century Anglo-Norman settlement to an important stronghold on the local estates of the FitzGerald earls of Kildare, who built and owned the town for centuries. Athy Priory, a Dominican monastery, was founded in 1253. The Confederate Wars of the 1640s were played out in many arenas throughout Ireland, and Athy—for a period of eight years—was one of the centres of war involving the Royalists, Parliamentarians and the Confederates. The town was bombarded by cannon fire many times and the Dominican Monastery, the local castles and the town's bridge (dating from 1417) all succumbed to the destructive forces of the cannonball. The current bridge, the Crom-a-Boo Bridge, was built in 1796, with the foundation stone laid by the Duke of Leinster. The first town charter dates from 1515 and Athy Town Hall was constructed in around 1745. The completion of the Grand Canal in 1791, linking here with the River Barrow, and the arrival of the railway in 1846, illustrate the importance of the town as a commercial centre. From early on in its history Athy was a garrison town loyal to the Crown. English garrisons stayed in the barracks in Barrack Lane after the Crimean War and contributed greatly to the town's commerce. Home for centuries to English soldiers, Athy gave more volunteer soldiers to the Great War of 1914–18…