A snapshot of Diary readers

I took a 'snapshot' of 100 Diary readers yesterday to see what the shape of viewing is at the moment.



It's interesting how it has developed since I set up the site in January 2005. With an average of close to 4,000 page views a month, a little less than half of the 'snapshot' were from Ireland, most of them classed as 'local'. But depending on the time of the day and the week, that can change significantly in favour of local viewing.

In addition to the high level of these from around Kilcullen itself, we have regular Irish viewers from Newcastle West, Hospital, Cork, Ennis, Shannon, Tipperary, Belfast, Omagh and, of course, Dublin.

About 18 percent of the sample were looking in from the UK, with towns like Woking, Trafford, Fife, Redbridge, Bromley, Warrington, Taunton, Southend-on-Sea and Hinckley having people with interest in Kilcullen goings-on.

A fifth were from the US, including North Arlington and Montclair in New Jersey; Somerset, Huntington Station, Hawthorne and Tarrytown in New York; Malvern, Emmaus and Shippensburg in Pennsylvania; Pittsburg in California; Westwood and Wellesley Hills in Massachusetts; and also someone in Hawaii has peeked in regularly.

We also have a reader in Barbados, quite a number in Australia and New Zealand, one in Taiwan (Hi, Sean!) and at least one regular in Hong Kong (Hello Sylvia!!).

Back in Europe there are constant viewers from several cities in Germany, a couple in Holland and a few in Sweden, and there are regulars from Poland too, which obviously reflects part of the local immigrant population.

And that was just one snapshot view at one time point. I know from daily monitoring that other places are also in the lists on a regular basis. And I also know from what people I meet in the street tell me that a lot of families here in Kilcullen have members abroad who check in regularly.

And the readership is still climbing.

It quite blows me away, the interest in a tiny little website that normally only carries small news from what used to be a small village in mid-Kildare.

Meantime, maybe some more of you out there beyond our own locality would like to tell us more about what you're at?

Brian Byrne.