It Says in The Bridge: April 2015
The Bridge recently promised some enhancements to mark its 45th year, and this month's issue kicks that promise off with a full colour cover which marks a number of celebrations in the community, writes Brian Byrne.
These include the winning of an All Ireland title by the girls of Cross & Passion College's Gaelic Football team, and Michael Lambe's 70th birthday, recently celebrated with a party in Fallons. There's also a picture showing Jenny Murphy helping the Irish Women's Rugby team win the Six Nations. Two events in the Town Hall Theatre also merit photo space, the recent country music concert that was a 'magic night' sellout, and the upcoming 'Caught in the Net' comedy play which also deserves to be.
Other good news in the magazine is the figure of €6,875 raised by the Parish Feis, which attracted over 450 dancers, and the successful Equinox occasion where the weather and the sun obliged a couple of weeks ago to allow Noel Scullion's sculpture to shine, literally. Oh, and in case we needed more reminding, Pat Foley's picture of three lambs with their mother on the An Tearmann farm reminds us that spring has actually arrived.
There are also congratulations to Pat Foley himself who recently was awarded 'Club Person of the Year' by the Blessington Vintage & Veteran Motor Club. And the induction into the Pitch & Putt Union of Ireland Hall of Fame of Liam Sherry also gets a deserved report.
Highlight articles this month include an account of Jude O'Keefe's experiences in the Special Olympics, a memory of Jim McCann when he played in Kilcullen, and a recollection of Tulla publican John Minogue by Michael Landers, who grew up in Kilcullen. John Minogue's pub became a venue for some of the top acts in the music business, often the same acts that Michael used to pay to see in Berneys back room when he was a younger Kilcullenite. There's also a two-page spread on Michael Lambe, known best as Porky to his very many friends gathered over his 70 years. It's the first of two articles, the next one will be in the next issue.
In the same vein, but in his own words, Billy Redmond continues his own story 'so far', this time touching on the people who worked in Blackers, trapping rabbits, and learning the Latin responses as an altar boy at mass. There are the other regulars, Sean Landers reporting from Taiwan, Julie Dunlop writing on the virtue of patience, especially with teenage children, and the schools and sports pages as well as the latest KWWSPCA update.
James Healy catches up with Jo Doyle's memoir of her life in Africa, 'Labyrinth Through The Elephant Grass', and he takes issue with some of the Christian teaching which prevailed at that time. Elsewhere, from the perspective of more than 30 years after the claimed apparitions at Medjugorje, he asks if it was all faked?
We'll leave those questions to those better able to answer them. Meanwhile, for lots of reasons, it looks like The Bridge is going to be a much more colourful read from now on.
