Rob Strong in the Hideout: 4

Here's the last bunch of pictures taken at the recent Rob Strong gig in The Hideout.

Blood Clinic Thursday

The next Blood Transfusion Service Clinic will be held next Thursday, March 2.

The venue is the Community Sports & Recreation Centre, between 4.30-8.30pm.

Lenten Masses

Lent begins on Wednesday of this week, Ash Wednesday.

Ashes will be distributed at the 9.30 Mass in the morning and the 7.30 Mass in the evening.

During Lent there will be two masses each weekday, at the above times, but if there is a poor attendance at the evening Mass it will be discontinued.

Successful Ballyshannon auction

More than €18,000 was raised on Saturday night in Dowlings of Ballyshannon in the 'Auction of Promise' run on behalf of the local National School. Some €5,000 of the proceeds came from the programme advertising and sponsorship.



The immediate need was €10,000 to meet the shortfall in funds available and the cost of two new classrooms at the school, a contract worth in the region of €550,000.

The schoolrooms have a target date for completion of the end of March.

From a level of just 34 pupils in 2003 Ballyshannon NS now boasts a roll of 70, and climbing.

"We're now hoping to a fourth teacher in September, which means we need even more accommodation if that happens, so it looks like we'll be still using the prefabs as well," Parents Council chairman Francis Donnelly (pictured on right below with Frank Mitchell) told the Diary.



The increase in student numbers is due to the growing popularity of the surrounding area as a place to live, with many of the new residents coming from as far as Dublin.

They're lucky to have a school in the locality at all, as it was in danger of closing because of declining numbers.

"If it had dropped below the 30 mark, it would have been cut to just one teacher," says Francis, who has been on the Parents Council for two years. "I understand from talking to people who have lived here much longer than me that a decade ago it was in danger of closing, and there was a huge effort by the community to make sure that didn't happen."

He also makes the point that it was the previous Parents Council that started the momentum for the current project. "They were very very strong, they put the foundation into it, and then as extra people came in they were able to put more work into the effort."

It is hard to operate a school of this size at an optimum level. The main difficulty is that the Department of Education will require it to get the numbers up in advance of providing extra facilities.

"The reality is that we could have done with a bit more than the two classrooms, and that could have been provided at a modest extra cost, but it wasn't feasible."



The auction on Saturday night had more than 180 items or services donated, and was conducted by John Maher of Leinster Marts Ltd.

Shane and Aideen Kenny, Naas, supporting the event.

(More pictures later in the week.)

Brian Byrne.

Parish collections

The Challenge Collection of family offerings to the Diocese begins its new year this week.

The Parish has asked that volunteers who distribute the Challenge Collection envelopes should collect them from the Parish Office in the Parish Centre in the coming week.

They can also be collected on Monday night at 7.30pm.

Meanwhile, Trocaire boxes for the Lenten season are also available at the Parish Office for any family which doesn't receive one through the school system.

Johnny Moynihan in Ballymore

Calling all lovers of traditional music. Johnny Moynihan and friends will play an intimate acoustic gig in Mick Murphy's pub in Ballymore this Monday night Feb 27 2006.

Born in Phibsboro, Dublin, Johnny dropped out of architectural college. Though remarkably young when he became well-known in 1966 as a member of Sweeney's Men, he was actually part of the pre-Dubliners sessions in O'Donoghues. While Luke Kelly was on a visit home from England around 1961, it was Johnny Moynihan who introduced him to O'Donoghues and encouraged him to go to the Fleadh in Miltown Malbay.

Moynihan introduced the bouzouki to Irish music in the mid 1960s. Andy Irvine picked it up from him and also introduced Donal Lunny to the instrument. Moynihan told Nollaig O Fionghaoile in an interview: "Being aware of my interest in traditional music, Tony French brought a Greek bouzouki back from holidays and offered it to me ... I was coming to the bouzouki as a mandolin player. I found the mandolin a tight little instrument that crucified your fingers, whereas the bouzouki was nice and loose and forgiving ... in the context of Sweeney's Men it was suitable to what we were doing."

With Andy Irvine he went to Galway in the summer of 1966 and persuaded singer and guitarist Joe Dolan to join them in a new group called Sweeney's Men. Moynihan and Dolan were both students in Dublin and veterans of the O'Donoghue's sessions in the early 1960s. In 1967 they released a single Old Maid in the Garrett which went into the Irish Top Ten as did the 1968 follow-up Waxies Dargle. Sweeney's Men is accepted as one of the most influential groups in Irish music to emerge after the Clancys and Dubliners.

After various personnel changes, Sweeney's Men was composed of just Johnny Moynihan and Terry Woods who released Tracks of Sweeney in 1969.

In 1973 he again teamed up with Andy Irvine in Planxty after Donal Lunny left the group. He was also a member of De Danann. He has influenced Irish folk singing and arrangement. He has backed up many singers on recordings including Annie Briggs on several albums and Jane Tabor and Maddy Prior on The Silly Sisters. He also plays the fiddle, tin whistle and melodeon. He has a soft nasal quality to his singing voice, reminiscent of another great Dublin singer, Frank Harte.

This is part of the usual Ballymore Inn Gigs, but has moved to this smaller more intimate setting as the promoter feels (quite rightly in my opinion) that the back room of the Inn is perhaps too big and the atmosphere of a trad gig might be lost in it.

However, I must take the opportunity to say that the renovations in the Ballymore Inn have completely transformed the back room and it is now a wonderful music venue, having been a barn of a place previously. Well done to our hosts Barry and Georgina O'Sullivan.

Monday night's gig in Mick's will be a cracker and well worth the onerous six-mile trip to Ballymore. I unfortunately won't be there due to pressures of the day job turned night job, but I have seen Johnny before and he is undoubtedly one of trad's finest performers. Enjoy.
 
Roy Thompson.

Another road under stress

Re: Road under stress

Dear Brian,
 
I feel I have to comment on this article as there is another road on the outskirts of Kilcullen that is also used as a 'bypass' and that is Mellon Hill (first turn left after the Link Business Park).

At the bottom of the hill there is a particularly bad turn (Costigan's house is on the left hand side and Burkes on the right) and when large lorries of all kinds meet on that corner their fate is definitely in the lap of the Gods.

On Costigans side there is a high bank under severe pressure and despite having put cones outside Mammy's side one day I can see someone ending up in her garden!!!!

In fact and in comparison, in the photo of the Athy Road the road looks in quite good condition.
 
On a more positive note, I love the site - I view it on a daily basis. As an ex-Kilcullenite it keeps me in touch with all the happenings in the town. Many congratulations on your first birthday.
 
Regards,

Bernadette Noel. (Burke from Mellon Hill.)






ED NOTE: These pictures taken at Mellon Hill illustrate Bernadette's point to some extent. While I was taking them, a van with a trailer careened down the hill from the Kilcullen end, and about 50 metres away it lost the left wheel from the trailer, which fortunately spun into the opposite ditch instead of me. The amazing thing was that the van/trailer kept going, sparking around the next corner on the bare axle. When I walked around the corner to see if it was OK, there was nothing to be seen ... the driver had just kept on going, no wheel and all. If he wants to know where it is, I can show him.

Rob Strong in Hideout: 3

Here's another bunch of pictures from last Friday night's gig in the Hideout with Rob Strong.

Confirmations in Kilcullen

Some 45 children were confirmed yesterday in Kilcullen by Bishop Eamonn Walsh.

Many of the children and their parents went to the Parish Centre afterwards for refreshments organised by the parents of Scoil Bhride children.

The Diary was unable to get pictures of all, but the four below are a representative selection.

Cora Kavanagh with her parents Paul and Brenda.


Austin O'Donnell with his mother Elaine and grandmother Esther.


Conor O'Toole with his mother Maria, and grandparents Christy and Dymphna Nolan.


The Kelly family were out in force: Ger and Lorraine with Emlyn, Katelyn, Keelan, Stephen, grandfather Lazerian, and Wayne.

Brian Byrne.

Road under stress

This is a bit of road which was given a major and expensive resurfacing less than a year ago.



It is the link between the Athy Road and the Sunnyhill Road, used extensively as a 'bypass' to Kilcullen by many cars and an awful lot of lorries, including cement trucks.

The edge here is already badly crumbled. This is how potholes happen. It begs some questions about the foundations of our roads edges.

It also begs the question as to why nobody is considering opening a link to Kinneagh Hill off the M7 motorway, which would provide a proper bypass to Kilcullen for all that traffic trying to go places west and southwest?

Brian Byrne.

Concern for others, or what?

There was this big man and his big Beemer, and he needed a place to park while he went and did his bit of shopping.



So he parked it on the footpath at one of the most awkward parts of the junction at the Hideout crossroads. He tucked it right in on the path, so as, presumably, to make sure his motor wouldn't get a clip from the traffic, and in so doing had no regard for anyone needing to use the path, particularly anyone with a buggy.

At the same time, he caused considerable difficulty for traffic itself, especially when this truck was trying to get onto the Curragh Road: before I took the picture it had been locked in for a number of minutes, creating mayhem on every approach to the town.

As things cleared and I finally moved through, the car owner wandered along, got into his car with his bags, and blithely drove away, unconcerned or unaware, or both, of what he'd caused. He was old enough to know better, probably about my age. His car was registered in Cork.

I have no time for that kind of attitude among motorists. Thing is, there's far too much of it. Y'know, if some poor trucker had dinged in his car, the guy would have sued the trucker's insurance.

Ahhh ... don't get me going.

Brian Byrne.

Table Quiz Friday

A Table Quiz in aid of the Landers Dance Group Travel Fund will be held in Markeys in Mile Mill on Friday February 24.

The event begins at 9.30pm and a table for four costs €30.

A great night is guaranteed.

Dorian Gray in Newbridge

The Big Telly Theatre Company will perform A picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde at the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge on February 24.



The performance starts at 8pm, and there will be a 3pm matinee the following day. Admission: €12/€10

In the play, Dorian Gray’s wish for eternal youth is granted and he sends his portrait off to the attic to grow old ungracefully while he lives for the moment and sends himself on a journey of unimaginable indulgence.

Although Wilde’s masterpiece of mystery and wit is over a hundred years old, it too remains eerily young as it foretells celebrity culture, rampant consumerism and an obsession with eternal youth.

Sinead Redmond.

Rob Strong in the Hideout: 2

As promised, here are some more pictures from last Friday night's gig in the Hideout with Rob Strong.







More later.

Brian Byrne.

Access Network meeting

A network meeting of Kildare Access Association was held recently in Kilcullen Parish Centre. 

The Association is a network of all the Disability Access Groups currently operating in County Kildare. Access groups represented on the day were Athy Access Group; Kilcullen Access Group; Newbridge Access Group and Naas Area Access Strategy. We also have a representative from Moore Abbey, Monasterevin as the Monasterevin Access Group is not operating at present. 

Anne Marie Conneely of Kildare County Council Community & Enterprise attended to brief the groups on a Consultation Day organised for March 22, where each head of section in the Council will be available to meet with service users around the topic of disability access.  
 
The primary aim of the morning was to have an opportunity for the groups to meet and  share information on the work of each group over the past year.  It also enabled groups to identify issues of collective concern and agreed a strategy for addressing such issues over the following months. Issues which many of the groups identified were as follows:

- Access to disability toilets - both public and within  
   services,
- Access to public transport - especially through the rail
   network.
- Access to disabled parking bays and the lack of policing  
  re misuse of existing parking bays.   
 
 A lovely lunch was provided by Kilcullen's Copper Kettle.
 
The next KAA network meeting is planned for September 18th 2006 in Kilcullen Parish Centre (due to its excellent disability access). 

Anne Daly.

Shops growth a welcome sign

The Hillcrest shops complex is filling out well now, and the next one is to be a cleaners, opening shortly according to the sign in the window.

The recent arrival of the Bridal Boutique has taken the lonely look off Dave Clancy's bright and cheerful flower shop, and there's speculation that another business is on the point of signing for the other side of that.

Elsewhere, the arrival of Emerald Bloodstock is another indication that Kilcullen is seen as a useful place to locate. And we'll soon see a brand new food place in the premises formerly Yankee Star. Not to mention the planned expansion of the supermarket.

Growth like this is good to see. Let's hope that all these local enterprises are supported by locals new and old. Otherwise we're nothing but a dormitory town.

Brian Byrne.

Calling Melbourne

If any of our Oz regular readers are living in Melbourne, or have lived there recently, maybe they'd get in touch with the Editor?

Many thanks in anticipation.

Community Games Art winners

The Community Games art competition was held on Friday February 10 last. The occasion proved a great success and the following is a list of the winners (pictures don't necessarily match captions) with Ger Kelly, who presented the medals:

Under 6

Austin Muldowney, John Egan, Austin Egan, Dara O'Sullivan, Emmet O'Sullivan, Orlaith Cullen, Jamel Mesouhi.

Under 8 Boys

1st. Jack Fitzgerald, 2nd Mathew Carter, Joint 3rd Sean Murphy and Eoin Curley.

Under 8 Girls

1st. Lauren Muldowney, 2nd Kate Timmons, 3rd Lauren Berney.

U10 boys

Joint winners Brendan Aspel and Stephen Murphy.

U10 Girls

1st. Rachel O'Sullivan, 2nd. Sophie Bernie, Joint 3rd. Danielle Mangan and Nadia Meslouhi.

Under 12 boys

Winner Tony Aspel.

Under 12 Girls

1st. Zarah Reynolds, 2nd. Ellen Gallagher, 3rd Tara Fitzgerald.

Under 14 Girls

Winner Aifric O'Reilly.

The next big Community Games event to start will be the swimming on March 11 next at 2.00pm in Naas Swimming pool.

The Kilcullen Community Games is sponsored by Kilcullen Credit Union.

Nick Aspel.

Flower Club evening

Kilcullen Flower Club will hold a Teaching Evening next Tuesday night, February 21.

The theme is 'Spring' and the event is being held in the Town Hall from 8pm.

Those wishing to take part are asked to bring a packet of tulips, a packet of yellow baby carnations, a flan dish, a block oasis, small and medium-sized foliage, both plain and varigated, and some moss.

Great music night with Rob Strong

Rob Strong played the Hideout last Friday night and his unique blend of soul and rock was much appreciated by a mix of local fans and regular followers alike.



It was particularly a good gig because the three-piece setup of bass guitar (played by Rob himself, an unusual 5-string instrument), lead guitar and drums made for real music as opposed to reliance on backing tracks and artificial drumbeats, far too much used on the pub circuits these days.

Current operator of the Hideout Martin Myles makes no bones about why he brought the former Plattermen lead singer to Kilcullen: "I thought he was brilliant seven years ago when I first heard him in the Plaza, and I think he's still brilliant today."

Martin also figures that by bringing headliner music to the pub he is helping to 'bring atmosphere back to the town'.



Jeffrey 'Thunderlips' Scully is the drummer with the band and he's been playing with Rob for all of 16 years, and has enjoyed every moment of it because he believes Rob is 'just great to work with'.



"He taught me a lot in the music business; when I joined his band I couldn't even play the drums. Well, I thought I did, but now I can."



Guitarist Anton Morelli says he has worked with a lot of people in the business, but with Rob he is part of a 'great band'. "He's also a good friend," he adds.



Anton plays mostly blues, is a Stevie Ray Vaughan and a Jimmy Hendrix fan. He's played guitar since he was about nine, and has worked for some eight years with Rob. His instrumental pieces on Friday night were at least to Hank Marvin quality. Indeed, I betray my age when I put Anton right up there with the incomparable Bert Weedon, guitarist magnificent of the fifties and early sixties.



The evening in the Hideout was a real great mix, from the opening 'Best of the Blues' through to Rob's own version of 'Mustang Sally' (a much more subtle performance than the one made famous by his son Andrew in 'The Commitments') to his rendition of 'Sitting on the Top of the Bay'' towards the end of the evening. That last was at the point of the night when people weren't particularly listening, but everyone was hearing. The sign of a real professional on this kind of circuit, he didn't require an audience to pay attention, he just sang at his best because that is what he does, and that's what he loves to do.



After some three decades in the business, why is he still doing it? "Well, it's not that I've got a lot of choice," he grins. "What else would I do? I can drive a truck, but I really don't want to be doing that."

There's business to be done, even with the competition from a lot of younger musicians out there. "There's no shortage of good musicians, this island of Ireland has always produced lots of those; but there's a shortage of good gigging bands out there at the moment. I'm out there gigging around Ireland and I'm making a living. I've a few years left in the music business, and I might as well ride it out."



It was great night.

Brian Byrne.

(As usual, we'll run out some more pictures of the night, and the people who were enjoying it, over the next week.)

Designer sale in McTernans

There will be a Designer Clothes Sale in McTernan's Pub on Monday/Tuesday February 20/21.

The sale runs each evening from 7-19pm and merchandise includes jackets, trousers and tops from many household name brands.

Sizes available are 10-14, and further information can be had from 481254.

John Spillane in Ballymore

Fresh from his success at the Meteors and laden with the gong he received for Best Folk Act, the truly individual John Spillane appears at the Ballymore Inn on Monday night Feb 20.

John, from Cork and perhaps best known recently for his chart success with 'The Dunnes Stores Girl', is one of Ireland's best live acts, performing with intensity, eloquence and wit in equal measure. He's a gem.

He will be joined on the night's double bill by fellow Corkonian Ger Wolfe. Ger's self-effacing manner and apparent shyness only enhance the effect of beautifully crafted songs that speak of the joy of life, of nature and of the beauty all around us. A poet and a gentle soul, Ger is engaging in a way that few performers are and delights every room he plays.

This gig marks the beginning of a new era in the life of the Ballymore Inn gigs, it being the first gig in the new venue of the back room. The restaurant has been extended so the gig has moved from the front room to its new home in the back.

John and Ger are fitting openers for this new departure and it promises to be a great show. Come along a be a part of the joy that is local live music.

Showtime 9pm. More details on this and upcoming gigs in The Inn from Larry Roddy 045 864017. Sound still by yours truly. See you there.

Roy Thompson.

St Brigid's well scrawled

The Kilcullen 'Night Scrawlers' have struck again at the St Brigid's Well in the Valley Park.



I don't want to repeat here what's written on the sculpture (I've smeared it out on the picture), which was only cleaned last year after an attack by the Green Painters, but it is just an indication of the sad sate of some minds around the town.

Brian Byrne.

Road woes for walkers, motorists

The Diary has been down this road before. Literally.

It's the Sunnyhill Road, recently described as a 'natural bypass' for traffic trying to avoid Kilcullen. And also as a popular walking road for Kilcullen residents.

Your editor is one of the latter. And I am well aware of the difficulties in safely combining both situations.

My understanding is that there's a local proposal that the speed limit on the road be reduced to 60 km/h. As a walker, and as a professional motoring writer, I agree with that. No part of the road is safe for either motorist or walker at the current 80 km/h.

I have other concerns, though.

The road surface conditions, for instance. Most of the road is well-surfaced, much of it done in the last 12 months. But I cannot understand why a 500-metre section from the Curragh Road, and a much shorter but critical section where it opens onto the Athy Road, have not been properly surfaced for a number of years.

In both cases, resurfacing was done to a certain point, and then stopped.



At the Curragh Road end, I presume the developers of the various Castlemartin estates have been charged big levies to provide and repair the particular poor section of road, and maybe even have a footpath continued from that which they have built along the Curragh Road section itself, at least as far as Cnoc na Greine? So, long after the estates have been occupied, why hasn't Kildare County Council carried out such work?

Just now, apart from the safety aspect of having to negotiate their way around potholes and puddles, both motorists and pedestrians have no choice but to share the same road space.



Equally, at the Athy Road end, a short stretch which links the good surface with the main road is, quite simply, in a disgraceful condition. And an unsafe one, where traffic has to sometimes scrabble on a hill waiting to exit onto the main road.



A query about this from the Diary at the time of the resurfacing last year went without an answer beyond being told the question had been passed to the 'relevant' section.



Meantime, let us look at the short distance between the Cnoc na Greine entrance and the motorway bridge up the road. What is the logic in requiring a developer to provide a footpath of regular width to curve onto the road, and then have it peter out into a narrow path to the bridge?



I long ago wrote about the daft 'footpaths' on the bridge itself, which are not wide enough to walk on, let alone wheel a buggy. I've since discovered, in conversation with a (non-council) engineer, that they are not designed as footpaths at all, but are there to protect the bridge fencing from contact by traffic.

I still think that the provision of a wider footpath, at least on one side, would be an excellent way of traffic calming on the bridge, at a quite critical section of the road. But I don't think anyone with responsibility is listening. Certainly, nobody in such position is answering.



Another thought, which I must credit to a recent comment at a Kilcullen Community Action meeting, is that a boardwalk outside the existing bridge fence, on one side, might be a way of making it pedestrian and buggy friendly.

I reckon that has two chances of getting even a consideration ...

Anyway, now that the early morning light is coming that bit earlier, and the evening light lasting somewhat longer, more of us are going to be using Sunnyhill Road to keep in shape. As urged to do in the 'Sli na Slainte' programme supported by our local authority.

Same local authority, can you please have a look at making it safer, both for walkers and motorists? As former, we don't like to be hit. And as latter, we really don't want to hit anybody.

Brian Byrne.