It Says in The Bridge

This month's edition leads with what it terms the 'desecration' of St Brigid's Well (highlighted here in the Diary). The piece notes that while there are great examples of good work being done by young people in the community, it is such a pity to see that a 'tiny minority' of young people seem to be so detached from the community that they are happy to carry out such vandalism and destruction.

Front-page treatment is also given to the retirement of Cross & Passion College deputy principal John Kinane, and the 'resounding yes' given by An Bord Pleanala to Pat Dunlea's development in the Market Square. Both of these are further extended in the body of the magazine, where Noel Clare provides a very detailed account of some of the observations of the ABP inspector.

Pictorially, this Bridge portrays a wealth of photographic coverage, including faces from the Lions Club Senior Citizens Social, the visit by a number of Kilcullen students to the European Parliament, the CPC 2005 Graduation, the Steiner School May Day celebrations, and, sportwise, the Kilcullen Community Games and the Kilcullen AFC Presentation Day for Under 9/10s.

In addition to the schools news from Brannoxtown, Halverstown, and Scoil Bhride national schools, there's a page of achievements by young students from CPC, including the winners of the recent Battle of the Bands and the promotion of a town playground by the Transition Year.

Richard Reade gives an account of the annual investiture, during which the troop presented a €5,000 cheque to the Irish/Sri Lankan Friends, money raised by a 'sponsored silence' earlier in the year.

There's an extended piece by Pearse O'Sheil on 'Steiner and Wholeness', which examines how a young child deals with his or her world. Coincidentally, the Bridge publishes a shortened account of an article by Gary Byrne in a recent Ireland's Eye magazine on the subject 'How Well are Irish Children being Educated?' Although much of his own teaching life has been in Africa and China, it is clear that he keeps a close eye on what happens back here.

That other longtime Kilcullen exotic expat wanderer, Sean Landers, writes in his 'Letter from Taiwan' about the umbrella thieves of Taipei, what talking about the weather means in that part of the world, and also provides us with an interestingly graphic description of the street where he lives.

(Sean is one of the longest-watching of our growing number of overseas readers, a very regular dipper into the daily life of Kilcullen as published through the internetted pages of the Diary.)

In the other regular columns, Billy Redmond is somewhat bemused about a Letter to the Editor last month which apparently made reference to a column which he hadn't actually written. His overall theme this month is a muse on what makes people so much in a hurry in slow traffic?

The writer of 'Over the Bridge' is getting shy, it seems, and now signs himself 'Daffodil'. This month he looks at the fiasco which the 'You're a Star' method of selecting a Eurovision song and dance act has made of our recent performances in that event. And, with the possible — or even probable — introduction of anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) here, he takes a wry look at some of the crazier ones which have been issued against people in our neighbouring large island.

'Daffodil' also has an alternative solution to vandal behaviour, involving a version of 'transportation' and one or more of the smaller uninhabited islands off our other coast.

A perfect solution, the Diary thinks. Now, if only we could find those 'tiny minority' of locals with green paint under their fingernails ...

— Brian Byrne.