Fun Run planned by Soccer Club

A 5K Fun Run and Walk will be held as a fundraiser by Kilcullen Soccer Club on Sunday 27 November, writes Richard Curry.

The event will be based at Kilcullen Parish Centre and registration will take place from 1pm in advance of a 2pm start. Registration can also be made on line at popupraces.ie.

The entry fee is €10 per individual using online or €20 if registering on the day. A family of four can register online for €25, or €35 on the day, and there’s a €5 fee for each subsequent child.

All participants will get a medal and there will be trophies for first back in U/16, O/40 and O/50 age categories.

Roy appeals: 'Support the BAG'

Kilcullen singer-songwriter Roy Thompson has issued an appeal for support for the long-standing Ballymore Acoustic Gigs which he has been managing for just over five years, writes Brian Byrne. The Gigs bring top musicians from North America, Europe and Ireland to the Monday night sessions.

Roy says the Monday nights in Mick Murphys have been very quiet in attendance terms since the gig reopened after this year’s summer break, and he finds it very difficult to ‘look after the musicians properly’ at the end of the night.

“That simply isn't sustainable, and, if it were to continue, would likely be a killer blow to BAG,” Roy says. “I have assembled a pretty great lineup of gigs from now to Christmas, and I really need to see numbers increase somehow, or I'll be faced with an inevitable decision. I can't book the kind of acts I do, if I can't look after them properly — they simply won't return.”

Acknowledging that there are many demands on people's time and money, and that he genuinely appreciates the support the BAG is getting, he says that support is needed now more than ever.

There’s a full full schedule of the Autumn gigs here. Next up, on Monday 3 October is Suzanne Jarvis (below), with Chris Brown and Kate Fenner. And on Monday 10 October there’s the return of Kevin Montgomery with Clive Barnes.

Before rebooting the BAG in September 2011, following a hiatus after the death of the gig founder Larry Roddy who had operated it for many years, Roy had been the ‘sound man’ there. So his commitment to Monday nights in Ballymore is a very long one.

From a very extensive list of top quality performers which the BAG has hosted over the last five years we can pick out, arbitrarily, Brooks Williams, Ger Wolfe, Catfish Keith, Ben Reel, Josh Harty, Amelia Curran, Thomas Leeb, and — going back through Larry Roddy’s time — Mick Hanly, Mary Coughlan, John Spillane, Paul Brady, Freddie White, Paul Lamb and the Kingsnakes, Gareth Pearson, Bruce Mathiske, Buddy Mondlock, Jeffrey Foucault, Chuck Brodsky and Jim Page.

Countries from which artists make their way to Ballymore include the USA, Canada, the UK, Austria and other European countries, and of course Ireland which has its own very strong crop of talent.

One particularly special night in June 2015, Roy gave a full night of his own music, an evening which reminded many just how talented a singer-songwriter he is in his own right.

It would be a shame to see it go, and perhaps it’s just a case of spreading the word a little wider about an ongoing musical gig gem a Monday night’s short drive from here.

So tell your friends, you’ll meet them on Mondays, in Mick Murphys.

John Lonergan for Scoil Bhride PA AGM

John Lonergan will be the guest speaker at the Scoil Bhride Parents Association AGM being held on Thursday 6 October, writes Brian Byrne.

He will speak on the theme ‘Parenting — Raising your child in Ireland today’.

All are welcome to the event which will run from 7-9pm. Refreshments will be served.

Reminder: fundraiser next week for GAA v Amsterdam trip

Kilcullen GAA is organising a fundraising event to help support their Junior A championship-winning team in their upcoming match against European champions Amsterdam in Maastricht, writes Jacinta Sully.

The Kilcullen team is representing Kildare in the first round of the Leinster Junior Football Championship and the game will kick off at 2pm on Saturday 8 October.

On Tuesday 4 October Shelly Behan of Shelly's Barbers has kindly offered her time and is coming to the GAA clubhouse to cut and trim all the lads’ hair before their big trip. Everyone else is welcome to come up and get their hair cut with proceeds donated towards the cost of lads’ trip. So we're asking everyone — adults and children — to try and wait till the 4th to get their next haircut.

Meanwhile, Maastricht is easily accessible by train and other public transport from Amsterdam or Brussels (Belgium) if anybody is interested in supporting the Rags in a once in a lifetime game in the Netherlands.

And while we don’t expect everybody to be able to make the trip, it would be wonderful if we had even a bit of black and white in the stands cheering them on. So if you've been planning on taking a weekend break sometime soon, then you certainly won't get much better than this!

Kilcullen Panel: Alan Wright, Brian Fox, Franny Shortt, Willie Jones, Paul Bell, Jamie Lambe, Howard Peacocke, Darren Barker, Seán Byrne, Paul Jones, Brian Bell, Graham Lavin, David Marshall, John Whyte, Colm Fox, Paddy Maher, Mark Brophy, Ben Foran, Ross Coughlan, Dwayne O'Connor, Andrew Talt, Jack Dooley, John Lavin, Alan Kenny, Adam Phelan, David McMahon, Ross Clarke, Jason Kelly, Colm Sheehan, Joe Carey, Stephen Willis, Ben Phelan, Ronan Toft, Tim Carey, Gary Kenny, James Burke, Danny Fisher, Colm Byrne.

Management & Backroom Team: Jarlath Gilroy, Joe Dooley, Derren Casey, Jack Kelly, Greg O'Dowd.

Liffey fishing season over

As of today, 1 October, the Liffey at Kilcullen is closed to all fishing, including coarse fishing, as the 2016 season is over.

Kilcullen Trout & Salmon Anglers would like to thank all its members new and old for their support during the season.

The fishery will reopen in the spring of 2017.

Great start to SWL campaign.

Wednesday 28 September saw the commencement of the Southwest League for Kilcullen Badminton Club, writes Enda O'Neill, and what a great start the club had.

There has been a slight rule change for the mens and ladies doubles in the Southwest League. In the new rules every player on a team must play with each other, this rule now means that there are two extra games to be played.

Kasi Vallinayagam’s Grade 5 Men’s 4 team were first out playing away to Kildare CWMS, the KBC outfit were determined to get off to a good start in their first season together. The Grade 5 KBC men managed to beat Kildare on their home turf 5-1. Well done to Kasi, Ben Phelan, Oisin Egan and Ross Cole. Ross joined the club this season after playing with us in the summer club and it was a great start to his KBC adventure.

Congratulations also to Ben Phelan who is also a member of Kilcullen G.A.A, Ben is a squad member of both the winning Reserve E and Junior A Championship teams. Ben is off to Amsterdam with Kilcullen G.A.A on Friday 7 October to represent his club and county (well according to Ben its ten miles outside the city, yeah right!!). KBC would like to wish him and the Kilcullen football team the very best of luck in the championship. A big holler from one Kilcullen team to another “COME ON THE RAGS”!

Olivier P. Valroy and his Grade 7 Mens team had a home fixture againist Kildare’s Grade 7 outfit. Olivier and the lads managed to get a 3-3 draw against a strong Kildare team. This is a good start for the lads who are also a newly formed team and had two players playing competitivly for the first time. The first of these was Sean “slippers” Mc Grath, Sean isn’t just a good badminton player, he is also the lead vocalist of a fantastic band called “Wairwe Land” and I would seriously recommend seeing them in a venue near you
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The team would like to thank Harry Murphy who subbed for the team, this was also Harrys first competitive match and he also played a stormer. Im sure the two lads will do great this year under the expericenced and watchful eyes of Olivier and Stephen Kennedy. Well done to Olivier P. Valroy, Harry Murphy, Sean Mc Grath and Stephen Kennedy.

Now that the season kicks off the club will be using the Community Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays for their club nights from 9pm until 11pm. We also will play on Friday nights from 9pm for our home matches. Of course all are still welcome to come and play on our club nights and watch on our match nights and cheer us on. Did I mention the complex committee have installed two new kitchens with those fancy taps that gives you instant boiling water, it makes it very handy to make a cup of tea or coffee!