Pinkeen bridge 'should be named' for tall tales teller

The new bridge, with Arthur Tapley and Billy Redmond.

With the construction of the long-awaited pedestrian bridge over Pinkeen stream completed, only awaiting traffic calming crossings to be added by Kildare County Council, a move is growing for it to be named after a famous local teller of tall tales, writes Brian Byrne.

The bridge will accommodate hundreds of crossings each day by families and their children who currently use a dodgy traverse of the stream to get to and from schools, the community centre, and local shops. Demand for the bridge has been ongoing for a decade, and thanks to sponsorship by civil engineering company HES in association with Kildare County Council, it should finally be in use during the next few weeks.

But if it does indeed become named after one Arthur Tapley, it's unlikely that those who use it will have any idea of who he was. Most of the families who will benefit from the bridge are new residents to a village grown bigger, where Arthur was once one of the local characters. I was a teenager when he died on 8 December 1961, but I have many memories of him sitting in our family's bar, always ready to spin a tale that would top anything previously in the current discussion.

Arthur Tapley — his name could also be spelled Tapliss, as his father was a British soldier of Maltese origin — was 82 when he passed away, which put his birth at around 1880. That would have put him around ten in exploits he recounted from purported experiences in the Boer War, though in any such wartime stories, including the later Great War, he was always '21'. In the 1950s, he told a visitor to his home on the Sunnyhill Road that he was 95, "but I have a brother in Portsmouth who is 125." 

That same visitor, who had been out for a day's fowling without success, had fallen into conversation with Arthur on his way home. Arthur professed not to be interested in shooting, but said he had once fired on a flock of plover to test a theory, sweeping the barrel of the gun rapidly in a semi-circle as he pressed the trigger. "I suppose you downed 10 or 15," his visitor said with a level of flippancy. "I picked up 39," Arthur replied with simple sincerity. The visitor recalled later that the answer had quickly wiped the smile off his face. "After all, you really cannot question a sportsman who, having shot 39 birds on one cartridge, refrains from telling you it was the round 40."

Current Kilcullen raconteur, writer, retired world walker, and musician Billy Redmond has been promoting the cause of naming the new bridge after Arthur for some time, ever since the prospect of its construction became real. A regular visitor to Arthur's home, just opposite the entrance to the Cnoc na Greine housing estate, he has many of his stories filed away in memory. At a recent Heritage Week event in Kilcullen he retold one, about Arthur once finding himself being chased by a bull in a local 100-acre field. According to the man himself, he jumped for safety to a branch of the only tree in the field ... but missed. "And what happened then, Arthur?" "I caught it on the way down," was the laconic reply.

There are still many in Kilcullen who will have a tale to tell about Kilcullen's tall tale champion, his place not since overtaken by anyone. There's one about him using bees to flush out a champion-sized trout in the Liffey, uncatchable by rod and line, so he could win an angling competition. Or his winning the Tickell Cup at Punchestown riding a mare, which foaled at the first fence and subsequently carried Arthur first past the finish line, 'with the new foal coming in second'. Or the competition between Arthur and a rival about who could tell the tallest tale. His rival thought for a moment, then claimed that he had once driven a nail through the moon. Immediately Arthur agreed, "that's right, because I clinched it," he said before lifting his beloved pipe for a quiet puff of triumph.

Now that the bridge over Pinkeen is finally almost ready, Billy Redmond is upping his campaign that it be named after Arthur. "He is part of the heritage of Kilcullen, and who else could the bridge be named after?" he asks. That's a reasonable consideration, to mark a Kilcullen man whose life was always larger than life, and always entertaining for that. On a straw poll at the stream bank last week, there's other support evident for Billy's suggestion.

And besides, it's the families of the 300-plus homes in Cnoc na Greine estate, opposite Arthur's home, which will get the full benefit of a bridge whose prospect seemed for so long to be a kind of tall tale in a nebulous future. Arthur, had he lived, would surely have been able to build it in a morning, hauling all the stones from Ballyknockan during the previous night. "And I cut them out of the quarry, too, after my tea," he'd probably be saying between puffs of his pipe in that great bar-room in the sky.  

Note: A version of this article was first published in The Kildare Nationalist.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

It Says in The Bridge: March 2015

Kilcullen’s community magazine The Bridge has begun its 45th year with the current edition, writes Brian Byrne.

It’s an arguably unique occasion in local publishing, as we’re not aware of any other similar volunteer-operated publication which has continued uninterrupted for so long.

The issue kicks off by reporting how local student Aoibhinn Tutty Bardon was one of a group of young people selected by the Newbridge Rotary Club to visit Strasbourg and address the European Parliament. There’s also coverage of Nolans recent celebrations of their ‘Champion of Champions’ award, and a promo for a St Patrick’s Day screening of vintage Disney comedy in the form of ‘Darby O’Gill and the Little People’, some four and a half decades after the movie was first launched.

A rather different comedy is also promoted by Bernard Berney, the upcoming Kilcullen Drama Group’s presentation of ‘Caught in the Net’ to go public on Thursday 9 April, with four performances scheduled so far.

A country music event in the Town Hall Theatre on Sunday 30 March also gets space this month, and while the headliners are Nashville stars Leona Williams and Ron Williams, the supporting acts are Just Two Country and our very own Jimmy Aspell.

Photo coverage of that recent Nolans celebration is the main visual part of this month’s Bridge, and they are happy pics. Not so nice are the images on the KWWSPCA page depicting some very bad treatment of animals. Always raises the question of ‘why?’, and frankly, like littering and graffiti, it’s one I’ve never been able to fathom.

There are lots of features to browse through this month. Topically, an non-bylined page introduces us to the ’New Man at Castlemartin’, John Malone. He’s described as a philanthropist who wants most of his vast fortune to end up in charitable foundations. Closer to home, Jacinta Sully profiles Albert Keenan, our local veteran athlete who ‘just keeps on running’. There’s another extract from Billy Redmond’s own life story, and in this one he recalls one of Ireland’s long-gone ‘characters’, Arthur Tapley (about whom there is yet to be a book done, under the title ‘Tapley’s Tall Tales’ … but it would need to be researched quickly before all those tales are forgotten).

Aoibhinn Tutty Bardon writes an extensive piece on her trip to Strasbourg, a ‘wonderful opportunity’ gained through her winning of a Youth Leadership Award organised by Rotary Ireland. The now regular contribution from Julie Dunlop this month focuses on bereavement and grief and what can be learned from both close companions. Bernard Berney’s numerous words in the magazine include memories of the Brady family who lived in a house on Naas Road where Moanbane Park is now located. The other regulars retain their pages, including Billy Redmond’s ‘Off the Cuff’, and Sean Landers still writing from Taiwan.

The 45th year of The Bridge prompts James Healy as the ‘Archivist’ to look back at the magazine in the 80s. He writes that it was ‘an exciting time’ in the publication’s four and a half decades, and his remarks raise a number of forgotten memories in this writer’s mind.

The Schools updates have as always fine nuggets of writing and commentary as only the excitement and wonder of being very young and curious can produce. In the Sports coverage, the ‘Face in the Window’ GAA subject this month is one of the club presidents, Pat Lynch, who has been associated with the club since 1940.

In the anniversary year that’s in it, we again have a plea from those who perform the monthly miracle of producing The Bridge for more people to get involved. Writing, photography, production, wherever is their bent. ‘Can You Help The Bridge Reach 50?’ is a good question, and one which should be answered in the positive.

Meantime, get your copy of the March issue now. Where else will you get the scoop on Bernard Berney's first date, or why Billy Redmond was refused entry to the Dail Canteen?

A Reflection from Local Elections 2019: Billy Redmond

Longtime Bridge magazine contributor and occasionally such to the Diary, Billy Redmond reflects on his own experiences in the Local Elections over the past few weeks.

Notwithstanding my life's interest in politics, both local and national, I never was until this time actively involved. Albeit in a minor role.

Having hinted that I might just have run as a local candidate myself, I did decide against it on a few grounds. To begin with, I would have won! But my main reason was that I would have had to give up all my music sessions countrywide, and forgo many of my social activities.

Anyway, since I keep a close eye on local happenings, I knew our FF candidate had plenty of local support in the town, so I opted to throw my hat into Tracey’s corner. Whilst I knew her to see, that was about it until I heard her on KFM some time ago about getting Brannoxtown School reopened. Well, she really caught my attention, such an articulate lady, totally on top of her brief and every bit as competent as all the current ladies on our national media outlets.

Following on that, I met her in the parochial car park one day where she informed me that she would like to get involved in a little ‘parochial project’ I had proposed. Before I knew it, I was indeed involved. And who better, since I know all the highways and most of the people in Kilcullen, and am familiar with all the housing estates, electric gateways, wicked dogs (and the occasional ‘wicked human’, tho’ luckily we had only one such encounter). Most people were very respectful, and very glad of the ‘personal visit’.

To begin with I delivered leaflets in the Yellow Bog and Castlefish area, then Old Kilcullen, Knockbounce, Milemill, Gilltown, Sunnyhill, Castlemartin, and Saddler’s Way. And to many individuals that I met out and about. Later I also acted as ‘navigator’ to Tracey when she was making her personal visits. What an experience that was!

Firstly, the Electoral Register was badly in need of updating. Luckily I knew most of whom had died or moved on and so on. Moving about about the country areas there were many electric gates and so on, places where I personally would not have bothered with. Not so Tracey. Gate bells pressed, more often than not gates opened and off she goes. As if she had been in this game all her life, she took to it like a duck to water.

From listening to her conversations with her super driver — there were times when I thought we were in Mondello! — I couldn’t get over her grasp of the ‘local issues’, and her ability to make decisions. Not bad either at giving a few executive type instructions, but most of all I couldn’t help but note her ability to communicate with everybody whose path she crossed. A fantastic and very worthwhile experience!

When all that excitement was over, next was the count in Punchestown, another exciting chapter (thanks to the Diary for coverage of that event, it was the first time I ever followed any event on this computer gadget). Fifteen candidates for six seats, from early on Tracey was ahead of her local rival by roughly 500 votes. Yes, that was just a ‘tally’ figure, and there were 11 more counts to go. But by around six o’clock on Monday evening, the last count was over and Tracey was elected.

I was truly delighted to witness this young woman being rewarded for her super efforts over these past few weeks. Oh yes, she was very late on the scene, but by Jove she rose magnificently to this occasion. Well done, Tracey, and I know you will be a wonderful representative for our thriving town and the surrounding area. And leaving all this party stuff aside, I do expect that she will be given all the support and encouragement from all the committees, groups and organisations in Kilcullen.

— Billy Redmond.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Billy keeps his garden right in the drought

Billy Redmond is a man you can always depend on to do the right thing, writes Brian Byrne. And it is in his nature, and his training as a former Army man, that he will find a way of doing the right thing even if it seems impossible.

So it was in the last six weeks, when he looked at his beloved garden, and at the weather-caused drought conditions, that he had to find a way to do the right thing by both the garden and Ireland's water shortage.

"So I thought of the spout in The Valley," he says. "With a constant water flow, just going into the river."

The spout was, of course, once the only source of fresh water for the original town of Kilcullen, and even in this writer's memory there are the times I'd struggle up the road as a child with a bucket of water for my grandmother.

Not that she didn't have running water, but she always maintained the water from the spout was better, for both drinking and cooking.

But back to Billy Redmond's dilemma ...

"I have lots of plastic 5-litre bottles, so I've been going down to The Valley every day and bringing back 50 litres of water from the spout, which I've used in my garden."

And the garden is indeed flourishing. But Billy is Billy, eternally curious about every little and big thing in life — as readers of his longtime column in The Bridge will know. He wasn't content with just bringing the water home. He was curious about how much water goes through the spout.

"Because I have the time to do it, I measured how long it took to fill my ten bottles. And I estimate that it flows up to 10m gallons a year."

And indeed, while that is a little more than the 6.5m gallons a year that the late Jim Collins estimated when he unearthed the original spout in the summer of 2000 and replaced it in its present location, either way it sure does represent a lot of water.

Good to see Kilcullen people haven't lost their 'can do' spirit ... Kilcullen Community Action have also been using water from the spout to keep the flowers on the bridge going during the shortage.

(Originally, the cast-iron spout was set in a wall on the laneway down towards the river by Molloy's milking shed, which is where the Valley Park begins today. It was lost when the area was bulldozed to build the park 40 years ago, and only rediscovered by Jim at the turn of the millennium when a new sewer line was being laid. He's pictured here getting the spout going again in 2000.)

Kilcullen Diary Policy on Photographs. Kilcullen Diary Privacy Policy.

Billy pleased at Jadotville soldiers recognition

Kilcullen’s veteran of the Congo peacekeeping forces in the 1960s, Billy Redmond, says he’s very pleased that the Irish soldiers who fought in the siege of Jadotville are finally getting proper recognition, writes Brian Byrne.

In an interview on ‘Kildare Today’ on KFM radio, Billy said that while he and colleagues were ‘several hundred miles away’ in Goma at the time of the Jadotville event, they were ‘shocked’ at the news of the siege when it came through on their radio.

He was speaking with Shane Beatty of KFM, along with John Gorman, who was then a 17-year-old private soldier who fought in the actual siege, where lightly-armed Irish soldiers resisted Katangese assaults for six days as a relief force of Irish and Swedish troops unsuccessfully attempted to reach them.

A combined force of some 5,000 white mercenaries, Belgian settlers and local tribesmen attacked the Irish peacekeepers while they attended Mass, but were held off over the next six days until ammunition ran out and they were taken prisoner. No Irish soldier was killed in the engagement, but they inflicted heavy casualties on their attackers.

However, when they came home, the Jadotville soldiers were treated with a degree of derision because they had become POWs for a month. Ever since then, John Gorman has been fighting for recognition for the actual heroic activity of the men and their officers. This has finally been achieved, with the help of Limerick TD Willie O’Dea according to John Gorman. In September, on the 55th anniversary of the siege, a special Citation will be awarded to the remaining former soldiers, of whom about a third are still alive.

“When we came home we never spoke of Jadotville,” John Gorman said on KFM, recalling the term of derision ‘Jadotville Jack’ with which they were sometimes labelled. “It was treated as a dirty word in the Army. We didn't talk about it even among ourselves when we would meet on the square.”

In 2004, then Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea instigated an inquiry into the event, following which Commandant Pat Quinlan and his men were cleared of any charge of soldierly misconduct. A commemorative stone honouring the soldiers was erected in the grounds of Custume Barracks in Athlone in 2005, and a commissioned portrait of Commandant Quinlan now hangs in the Congo Room of the Irish Defence Forces' UN School.

“When we got news of the siege, we were shocked,” Billy Redmond recalled, noting that the only communications they had at the time was by morse code on radio. “It was some time afterwards, such were the difficulties with distance and restraints on communication. It was the major topic of conversation and speculation for some time. What could have happened, and what might have happened, all that sort of stuff. But communications back then were very, very basic. We didn't even have any real link to Ireland at the time.”

(Pictured above, Irish soldiers at Jadotville being guarded by a mercenary after their surrender when they finally ran out of ammunition.)

House of Stories a success

The story was about the young lad from a poor home in the American midwest who went away to the army. Among other things he found out about flush toilets. A lot different from the outside privy he'd known at home. He resolved to do something about it when he went home, and for that purpose brought with him a hand grenade.



As Michael Murphy (above) told the story at Friday night's 'House of Stories' organised by Billy Redmond in the Parish Centre, the homecoming conversation went something like so:

"Hey, Paw, watch this!"

Paw watched as his son pulled the pin on the grenade and threw it at the privy, which disappeared in the subsequent explosion and smoke. "Goin' to get you one of 'em flush toilets, Paw," the son said with satisfaction.

Paw shook his head. "You shouldn' a done, that, boy."

"Why not, Paw? Goin' to get you and Maw a much better toilet."

Paw shook his head again. "Maw was in there ..."

At that point the audience erupted in laughter. But Michael Murphy, a true performer, hadn't delivered his real punch line. When things quieted he told how at that moment, Maw appeared out of the smoke surrounding the remains of the old privy, understandably the worse for wear. She looked at Paw and their son, an expression of apology on her smoke-blacked face.

"Must have been somethin' I ate, Paw."

At which point the room exploded in twice as much merriment as a few moments before.



Michael Murphy was just one of a long list of performers at the 'House of Stories', all doing their party pieces of songs, stories, recitations and instrumental pieces, under the direction of MC Billy Horan.

The cars outside told how far many had come, with numberplates from Wexford, Tipperary, and Cork parked among those of the closer counties and from Kildare itself.

Billy Redmond had organised the evening to bring to Kilcullen some of the old style of entertainment that didn't depend on the pub and which illustrated old fashioned manners of listening in silence to performers.



It was a first, and hopefully not a last, effort for Kilcullen. There was no charge, but a raffle at the interval raised enough to pay for the expenses of the room and the tea and sandwiches provided. The Diary couldn't stay through, but full marks to the two Billys and to all who entertained the 70 or so people who filled the room.

'House of Stories' evenings are quite common in the southern counties. It's nice to see them extend up to here, where we're in danger of being turned into passive fodder for TV and pub entertainment.

There are too many to mention, but local singer Jack McDonald opened proceedings. And that it can be very much a family thing was ilustrated by husband and wife Seamus and Nancy Sheils from Tipperary, who each provided their own inimitable kinds of performance.

Bring it on again, Billy. These are the kind of nights that help to shorten the winter.

(Here's a set of pictures from the evening.)

Brian Byrne.

Billy Redmond is on a mission

Among the regular good community things our local stalwart Billy Redmond does is keep the church grounds tidy, writes Brian Byrne. It's maybe something not many notice, but they certainly would if the work wasn't done.

Well, in the course of his efforts recently, Billy happened on something he thought was long gone. More than four decades, gone, in fact. And now he's on a mission, to have it reinstated to where it was prior to Vatican II.

It's the pulpit, from which many of us of a certain age will remember hearing the reading of parish notices, Sunday sermons and even the hellfire-threatening Mission Week oratory from visiting specialists in that kind of thing.

In line with the general architecture of Kilcullen Parish Church, considered a really good example of architect JJ McCarthy's works, the pulpit really is a lovely example of its kind of church furniture. Billy remembers being quite exercised when the edifice, and the altar rails, were removed in the post-Vatican II reforms.

Finding it again has given his life an extra lift of purpose. He says it's in good condition, just needs some cleaning, new velvet on the top and a new timber floor. He has talked privately with a number of parishioners and got a positive response to the idea of reinstating it in the church. Now he's waiting on official feedback from the priests and, presumably, the Parish Pastoral Council, on his proposal.

You can read the full version of his thoughts on the matter in the next issue of The Bridge. In the meantime, as he glances from time to time at a photograph of his own wedding which clearly shows the pulpit and the altar rails, he hopes that — like everything in the circle of life — the pulpit's time might come again.

It Says in The Bridge: Feb 2006

This month's issue takes a blunt front-page whack at littering in Kilcullen, headlining our town as a 'black spot' and blaming equally our people of all ages, Kildare County Council and owners of business premises. The piece points out that it was a problem discussed 40 years ago, and yet Kilcullen Community Action is still trying to address the problem.

News items in the issue include the word that Dr John Marsden has been appointed Dean of St Brigid's Cathedral, the success of the recent collection for the Irish Society for Autism, and progress reported on a number of planning applications, including the permission granted for development at Brennan's premises on Lower Main Street.

There's a fair bit of 'looking back' in this issue, including a reflection on the recent production of 'A Christmas Carol' by Monica Martin, a republication of a poem recited by the late Katie Treacy from Kennycourt back in 1977, 'An Old Hen Tells Her Life Story', and a 'This Month in History' piece from Pat Behan which goes as far back as February in the year 600.

The same writer profiles a new business in town, Emerald Bloodstock Services Ltd, and Sean Landers represents an extract from 'Beauties of Ireland' focussing on the giant Irish Elk.

The Bridge also reproduces the piece written about my late brother Des by our other brother Fergus, published in the Diary last month.

In the first of what I understand to be a series of philosophical pieces by Roy Thompson, our local conservation ranger muses on the wider social implications of the recent agreement between the GAA and other football organisations to share Croke Park.

Our familiar scribe Billy Redmond expresses thoughts on the difficulties he encountered in having the road where he lives given an official name. He also writes thoughtfully on the implications of a recent controversy on whether first communion children's parents should have to take their children to Mass.

In his occasional 'Breaking Bread' column, Pastor Robert Dunlop provides his own unique style of commentary on the 'evocative' film Chronicles of Narnia, concluding that C S Lewis's tale is both 'durable and irresistable'.

Sean Landers, in his 'Letter from Taiwan', gives us an insight into the life and work of his friends Christine and Lance Ayerst, who spent many years in Lance's native South Africa but have lived in Kilcullen since 2001.

Wandering 'over the Bridge', Paul Aspell is expressing cautious optimism about the future of popular music, suggesting that the control of the business by 'hard-nosed forty-somethings' providing us with 'manufactured' puppets might be on a change. He also has definited thoughts on the suggestion of an auxiliary garda force, fearing that the 'pretend garda' force would attract local 'jumped up Hitlers' to its ranks.

Sports pages feature a report from the AGM of St Bridget's Pitch & Putt Club, which includes the news that the long-vacant positions of Juvenile Officers have been filled, by Anne Sweeney and Joann McDonald.

The 'Offside' soccer page highlights the achievement of the U/11 Premiers in getting into the last 32 of the Menton Seery Cup, played yesterday at Knocnacarrach in Co Mayo.

The Kilcullen GAA U/15 Girls Team were recently presented with their County Medals and are the main interest on that club's page, while there's also a report from the St Laurence's Hurling Club AGM, at which the special guest was Tipperary senior hurler Eoin Kelly.

And finally, there's a certain nostalgia for your Editor in a photograph of the 1955 alter boys. Though I didn't join that particular group, they were many of them schoolmates and often pals of mine: the Lambes, Seamus, Anthony, Michael and Joe; John Bardon; Mick Sammon, Noel Redmond, Michael Walker; Michael Guidera, Billy Redmond, Seamus Orford, Brian Doyle, Mick Brady, Shay Walker, John Brady and Anthony Conroy.

I know some are still well and happy. I know some have sadly passed on. Those of you whose whereabouts I don't know, I hope you too are well.

Brian Byrne.

Billy Redmond celebrates 80th

Billy Redmond celebrated his 80th birthday at the weekend with a party for family and friends in Shackleton’s Rest..

Longtime Bridge magazine columnist and local commentator, a world walker for charity for many years, storyteller and musician, and a communications specialist in the Irish Army during his long career there, it was an occasion for reminiscence, music and song.

Friend and photographer Pat Foley was there to record an event of achievement.

Many more of them, Billy.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Billy's Ode to Kilcullen 700

This seems to be a day for poetry, writes Brian Byrne. Hot on the couplets from Lily Crawford earlier today, here's a poem from Billy Redmond, longtime Bridge Magazine columnist, about the year that's in it for Kilcullen.


KILCULLEN 700

My Hometown Kilcullen
In The County of Kildare
A Year to Celebrate
Its Tale I will Relate

Once We Were a Hamlet
Now Quite a Town
Millennia of Progress
A Place to Settle Down

A Bridge to span The Liffey
Just inside The Pale
Its Builder Canon Jakis
He did not Forsake Us

1319 Being the Year
Our Bridge it did Appear
Underneath our River
Its Waters Cool and Clear

The Spout across the Way
Never has Run Dry
Sparkling Spring Water
Daily it does Spray

Kilcullen is a Smashing Place
As All of us Agree
Well Known Far and Wide
A Grand Place to Reside

Had its Share of Characters
Just like Anywhere
Far too many to Mention
Tho' T'Was my Intention

The Valley Quite a Place
To Walk, Sit or Meditate
Or Gaze upon our Bridge
And to it Relate

For Drama Clubs and Groups
No Other can Compare
Praise to All our Leaders
Well it's only Fair

700 Tulip Bulbs
Planted in November
To Help us Celebrate
Our Bridge to Remember

Our Local Suas Knitters
They did Plain and Purl
The Bridge to Bombard
And their Banner Unfurl

Our Lantern Walk
From Old Kilcullen Tower
Hundreds of Participants
From there They did Power

Lights Adorn our Bridge
Posters and Stickers all Over
History Talks and Heritage
Sure We are All in Clover

700 Years have come and Gone
Now Heading for 701
Our Thriving Little Town
Will Continue to Move On

(Billy Redmond, January 2019.)



Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Billy's pulpit project is finally successful

Following an eight-year campaign, Billy Redmond got the good news yesterday that the Kilcullen church pulpit is to be repaired and cleaned and put on display, writes Brian Byrne.

Billy told the Diary today that it is 'great news' that the new parish priest, Fr Gary Darby, will decide on a location for the pulpit, which was removed almost half a century ago in the general changes to altars that resulted from Vatican II.

In 2014, while going about his then regular voluntary chore of keeping the church grounds tidy, Billy found the pulpit stored in an old shed at the back of the church. Since then he has been on a mission to have the edifice relocated to a safe place where it can be seen.

"It will never be used as a pulpit again, nor will it go back in the original place," Billy says. "My primary aim now is to effect some minor repairs and cleaning, affix a suitable plaque thereto and it will be displayed in a public place to be decided by Fr Darby, advised by whatever Parish Council is in place." A new Parish Council is in the process of appointment at the moment.

The 'rescue' of the pulpit will happen sooner rather than later, as the shed in which it has been stored is on the point of collapse, and will soon be demolished. "The pulpit itself, because of its construction — marble pillars, and plaster effigies — has not deteriorated over the intervening 48 or so years," Billy adds. (Photos here courtesy of Billy.)

Meanwhile, preparations are well under way to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the church, on Sunday 6 November. More details closer to the event.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

It Says in The Bridge: July-August 2022

The lead story in this issue is about the latest cohort of the Kilcullen Community First Responders, who recently were given a special pin and certificate by the National Ambulance Service for their contribution to the community, writes Brian Byrne. Some are pictured during a training session where they were called out to 'an emergency'.

The magazine's front page also highlights two related centre spread features, of businesses centred in Naas but involving Kilcullen families — the closure due to retirement of Gouldings Hardware and Nolans Butchers in Naas. Noel Clare talks to Pat and Betty Goulding on the one hand and Derek Nolan on the other as they end their respective enterprise eras.

Other features include a profile of Paula Phelan's new practice to provide life coaching, after 25 years working in leadership areas in large organisations — she says she's back to working directly with people.

A new young writer from CPC has his first Bridge article, James Groome reflects on Playing With the Pen as he outlines his early forays into writing. There's a profile too of local woman Anna Kondera, who offers help to people making the last journey we all face, an 'end of life companion' as she describes it.

From the Bridge 'regulars', Mary Orford looks back at the early days of television sets in Kilcullen, headlined by a quote from my own father Jim Byrne that the reception was 'sometimes perfect, sometimes not so good' ... and those of us who remember the oft-times 'snowy' picture in the Hideout will smile. Julie Felsbergs ponders on the importance of our circle of friends in life.

In her Living Sustainably column, Cliona Kelliher discusses the 'Carbon Footprint versus the Carbon Shadow' argument. Sean Landers continues his series on Peter Purcell Gilpin, this time 'The Wizard of Clarehaven' as an exceptionally successful horse trainer. Billy Redmond discusses a number of parish matters, including the potential for raising funds from the car park, the possibility of having grand concerts from the combined choirs and church singing groups in Kilcullen, and the lack of a Novena in this parish. Garda Jon Brien is at the interrogation end for this month's 20 Questions, and John Duffey supposes on the easier time the nomads of 2000 BC had it compared to the 'monster' haunting many households today. A KCA insert outlines the work of the group over the last year.

In sport, Ger Breen reports on the history-making ladies of Kilcullen GAA when they beat Eadestown in the Kildare LGFA Division 1 League final in late May, while Joe Mallon continues to click the clubs for St Bridget's Pitch & Putt. The awards presented to Kilcullen AFC U12 double champions are reported by Sheena Coogan.

News reports include Fr Mackey's farewell mass and reception, photos from the Pieta concert, and the Ballyshannon Action AGM.

And if you want a final smile, check out Billy Redmond's ode to Medics & Pills that 'keep me moving'. All too true.

It's the last Bridge until September. Enjoy.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Signal Corps to celebrate century

Some Signal Corps unit flashes, courtesy David Power.

The 100th anniversary of the Irish Army's Signal Corps will be celebrated at The Curragh on 22 June, writes Billy Redmond.

The event will include Mass in St Brigid's Church, a conducted tour of the Defence Forces Museum, a Parade of serving and retired personnel, a demonstration of modern communications equipment, and coffee and chat at Ceannt NCO's Mess.

All ex-Signal Corps personnel are invited, along with families or next-of-kin, and civilians who have had an association with the Signal Corps.

Further information from Billy Redmond at 087 6311177.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy