An icy start on Tuesday morning, gradually clearing to leave a mainly dry bright day with spells of sunshine. Highest temperatures of 3 to 7 degrees in light to moderate mainly northwest winds.
DID YOU KNOW?
Sloths have the lowest metabolic rate of any mammal, which means that it takes them a long time to digest anything - it can take them up to 30 days to digest a single leaf . They have an incredibly large and permanently full four-chambered stomach , which can account for up to 30pc of their body mass.
NOVEMBER SESSIONS
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Here is a link to a Calendar of upcoming events in Kilcullen. If you have an event you want listed, email the Diary.
EVENTS COVER
For privacy reasons, the Diary requires to be invited by the organisers to cover events in a private, commercial or club location. This does not apply to public meetings, or events in public spaces.
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TEXT ALERT
Forms for joining the Kilcullen Garda District Text Alert scheme are available from The Grocery in Calverstown, Kilcullen Garda Station, Kilcullen Credit Union, and scheme committee members. Please encourage neighbours and friends to join.
PARISH LOTTO
The Kilcullen & Gormanstown Parish Lotto Draw is held at 8pm each Tuesday in the Parish Centre. This is a public event to which all are welcome. There's a prize draw each night for those attending. Details of previous Draws are here.
The numbers drawn in the Kilcullen & Gormanstown Parish Lotto Draw held on 5 December were 12, 15, 17 and 29. There was no Jackpot winner and next week's main prize will be €17,200.
The winners of the €50 Open Draws were Keelan Hegarty Kelly (Promoter Ger Kelly), Jackie Thompson (The Parish Office) and Art Shieran (Wednesday Bridge Club).
The winners of the Promoters Draw were Vanessa Clarke and Stina Flowers and the winner of the Draw for those in the Parish Centre on the night was Miriam McDonnell.
A family Lego Bricks Workshop event in Ballitore Library next Saturday 9 December still has places left for what should be a really fun afternoon, writes Brian Byrne. The workshop will be conducted by professional brick artist Jessica Farrell, and is for family groups with children aged 7-13.
Each family team of up to four people must include at least one adult and one child, and the event runs from 2.30pm-4.30pm.
The format will include a number of exercises for which there will be small prizes, but the aim is not so much competition, more fun and family working together. If interested, contact Pauline Fagan, Branch Librarian at the Ballitore Library & Quaker Museum, on 059 8623344 or ballitorelib@kildarecoco.ie.
"One of the aims of the workshop is to encourage families to build together as a shared experience," Pauline says. "It is part of the Family Time at Your Library initiative taking place in all libraries during the month of December to support the involvement of the whole family in children’s reading. These events aim to support a family-focused approach to reading with children as part of the national Right to Read programme and to increase awareness of the benefits of reading and promote reading as a fun, recreational activity for children."
Pauline adds that there will be sweets ... "lots of sweets."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Today's Irish Times reports that Irish teenagers are the second best in the world at reading, up from eighth the last time they were surveyed, and second only to Singapore. Maybe the Family Time at Your Library initiative will be the catalyst to hitting the top spot!
Congratulations to young Kilcullen darts player Jack Courtney, who brings home a silver medal after Team Ireland makes the World Junior Darts Championship Cup Final.
Jack and his team made history at the weekend as Ireland reached their first ever World Cup final, with 26 countries competing in this event. Scotland came out on top.
Jack also made the top 32 in the World Championship singles event which had over 250 participants.
It is the second time that Jack, son of Marian and Derek of The Spout and a Second Year student at CPC, has participated in the World Juniors — he competed at Gibraltar for the first time last year.
The Harristown Coughlinstown Community Group has appealed for local people with knowledge and expertise in Engineering, Biodiversity, Equine, and Cultural Heritage areas to help out with their appeal against permission for a solar farm project recently granted in the area, writes Brian Byrne.
These are some of a range of aspects under which the group hopes to build their appeal, but with the ‘very tight’ time constraint of a 3 January deadline, they are not in a position to employ consultants. Other expertise needed is in the areas of Noise, Environmental Impact Assessment, Landscape and Visual, and Fire risk.
“None of us are expert in any of these fields,” a member of the group says, “but we have been forced to learn quickly over the past few months.”
The planning permission was granted last week by Kildare County Council to Delamain Solar Farms Limited, promoters of the development which would see the building of banks of solar farms across a number of sites in the area. The permission provides for an operational life of 40 years for the installations.
Another solar farm for which permission was granted north of the latest proposal is currently under appeal to ABP. A Judicial Review is also being sought for a battery energy storage system at Dunnstown, for which permission was granted by ABP after being refused by KCC.
There was great excitement and lots of laughter in Kilcullen Town Hall yesterday as audiences enjoyed the crazy antics in Home Alone, writes Teresa Nurse of Kilcullen Bridge Cinema. Now over 30 years old, Home Alone has been a Christmas favourite since its release in 1990.
Ranked as Ireland’s number one favourite Christmas movie, followed by Elf, it is no surprise given the reaction of the audience yesterday.
There was a great range of ages attending the movie, the youngest a very well-behaved 13 month-old. For some youngsters it was their first cinema outing. Three year-old Eoin was very excited attending with his Dad and Granny. However he was concerned about when Mom in the movie was coming home.
Kilcullen Bridge Cinema would like to thank everyone for their support. The next Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life is sold out on Eventbrite but a small number of tickets are available in Woodbine Books. Doors open at 7.30pm. There will be a reception with mulled wine and mince pies, followed by the movie at 8pm.
A reminder that the 2023 Carols by Candlelight concert in Kilcullen will feature tenor Patrick Hyland accompanied by the Naas Hospital Choir and the Kilcullen Gospel Choir.
The performance will be in Kilcullen Parish Church on Wednesday 6 December, starting at 7.30pm.
Tickets cost €15 and are available from Berneys Chemist, Eilis Hair Salon, Lorna Brophy 087 2741701 or Vivian Clarke 087 7630655.
All proceeds will go the Church Maintenance Fund. There will be a raffle on the night.
Explore Your Archive is an annual campaign in Ireland and the UK to highlight archive collections, with a different theme assigned to each day, writes Mary Orford. As part of our Brigid 1500 project, we thought it was timely to showcase a few photos from the Meitheal of Memories archive of our community. Thanks to all the donors, these scenes of past life in Kilcullen are captured and stored for future generations.
9. Your Archive 3rd December
Another Jerry Kelly photo. A section of Upper Main Street, taken on the 19th June, 1985. There have been some changes since then but there's also an air of familiarity about the scene.
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