Happy Halloween

Watch out for the witches and ghouls tonight! We found a few already, in Kilcullen Flowers & Gifts (above) and Ger's Fruit & Veg (below).

Best wishes, Sam

On behalf of all his many friends in Kilcullen, the Diary wishes Sam Sloan a speedy recovery from his present illness.

Sam is recuperating in Tallaght Hospital, and we also congratulate him on reaching his 80th birthday.

Bothar presentation

When the proceeds of the recent holy well 'Bothar' walk by Donncha O Dualining in Kilcullen were presented to the RTE presenter last night, it was revealed that the amount raised was the largest in any of the series of walks so far.

The cheque for 5,820 euros was presented by Philomena Breslin on behalf of the local organisers at a small gathering in Kilcullen Heritage Centre.

The money will be used to send three cows to one of the countries where the Bothar charity operates.

In addition to the money raised from sponsorship on the walk itself, the funds benefited from a presentation by local actors of 'Poets in Paradise' the same night in the Town Hall Theatre. The production was first performed for the Millennium celebrations and is a hypothetical coming together in Heaven of Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Behan and William Butler Yeats, along with Yeats's Guardian Angel. The evening also included a performance by the Nas na Ri Singers.

In the Bothar scheme, which was set up with the support the late T J Maher in 1991, farm animals are provided to families in selected countries, on the basis that their progeny are given to other families in the same places.

The cumulative results of the output from one in-calf cow, both with several generations of calves and the milk and cheese produced during the life of the animal, can have major impacts on marginal community economies. The motto of the organisation is 'helping people to help themselves'.

"It is just like the way things were in Ireland 60 years ago," says Frances Murphy, Director of Pastoral Communications at the charity. "People helped each other. If a neighbour was short we gave them a bit of buttermilk, or some cheese. Even small things like that can make all the difference."

In addition to the difference of having a renewable source of various foods in a community where a family gets a Bothar animal, the income which is gained from selling the produce is often used to educate children in the family, further rising the tide of community wealth.

Bothar sends cows and goats out from Ireland, and where these aren't suitable to the local environment the organisation will buy farm animals locally to give a 'dig out' to needy people.

Last year Bothar shipped nearly 500 in-calf cows to the countries in which it operates. Already this year that figure looks like being significantly surpassed.

"When it first started 16 years ago, 20 animals were sent out and people thought it was a mad thing," Frances Murphy says.

For those who wonder why Bothar doesn't just buy animals locally, there's a simple answer. An Irish cow will give 20 times the amount of milk as will an indigenous animal in someplace like Tanzania. An Irish goat will give 16 times the amount of milk as its local counterpart.

Before any family gets an animal they have to participate in a training programme, to make sure that they can look after it and make the best use of their new resource.

The charity's growth has been phenomenal in the last five years and it now operates in more than 40 countries. One of the most recent locations is closer to home than might be expected, in Kosovo in the Balkans.

Bothar will next year be sending out a study tour with representatives from communities who have donated funds, so they can see for themselves how the scheme is working in the field.

Donncha O Dualing has been raising both the profile of Bothar and funds for the organisation through his innovative 'holy wells' walks around Ireland. He is aided in the effort by Skoda Ireland, which provides him with a car to get around to the various venues.

Brian Byrne.

Who is 'Missing Madonna'?

The Diary has been given images of two paintings of Kilcullen from the early part of the last century which are a wonderful record of the town in that era.

The paintings are in the possession of John Murphy who lives in London, and whose father was born and raised in Milemill and moved to the English capital in 1938.



They are works by John's great-uncle Richard Murphy, who was apparently a popular local artist here at the time. He died in 1945.

John has two queries, the first of which is when the works were painted? Don't be codded by the spire on the church; clearly Richard Murphy had sight of the original plans which did incorporate a spire that was never built.

The view which includes the church clearly shows the existence of the weir, and the mill stream outlet that took water back to the river after being used for powering the mill which used to be there.



On the other picture, painted from the perspective of what is today The Valley park, the detail in the number and style of shopfronts may be a clue to the date.

The other mystery is a little more exotic. John Murphy found a painting of a beautiful woman in classic Greek or Roman mode on the back of one of the Kilcullen paintings.

He has dubbed the woman the 'Missing Madonna' and wonders who she might have been?

If anyone has any clues, let us know and we will forward them to John.

Brian Byrne.

More Holy Land posts

For those who have been following the recent parish trip to the Holy Land, I have gotten around to posting a few other stories journalled during the trip but not posted at the time. They've been inserted at the appropriate dates.

Hectic pace in Jerusalem
To Jerusalem with a detour
Thoughts on the shore

There are still some stories to write, which I'll get to in due course. Meanwhile, to see all the posted stories together, use this link.

Accidental Pilgrim.

Meeting Sara Atzmon

I don't think I've ever met an extermination camp survivor before.

On the face of it, that doesn't sound like a pleasant beginning for a four hour plane journey from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt, which I was taking on the way home from a trip to Israel. But it didn't feel like four hours in the end.

Sara Gottdiener was twelve when she was liberated from Bergen-Belsen camp. She'd been there a year, her family one of many thousands of Hungarian Jews sent to the camp for 'processing' under the Hitler grand plan to cleanse the world of 'undesirables'.

Some 60 members of her family were murdered in various ways and she saw her father die in 1944 in Auschwitz, where the family had been shipped prior to going to Belsen.

Today Sara is an artist, whose paintings of her recollections of Belsen are world-renowned. They are a key element in her mission to tell in her own particular way the truth about the greatest cataclysm to happen to an ethnic group of people in the 20th century.

When I met her a few days ago, Sara was flying from Israel with her husband Uri Atzmon to speak at the opening of a new museum in Bergen-Belsen this weekend. "We must explain to today's youth that they are the last to meet living survivors, that they are our hope that the message to the next generations will be passed on because they are the ones that met survivors. We are the remaining living evidence."

You can read my full article about meeting Sara here.

Brian Byrne.

Pictures from The Holy Land

Pictures from the recent Kilcullen Parish Pilgrimage to The Holy Land are now available here.



Meantime, all of the stories from the tour (so far posted) can be found here.

Pilgrims coming home

The Kilcullen parish pilgrimage group to The Holy Land leave Israel today after four days in the Jerusalem area which brought them in the final footsteps of Christ as well as to the place where he was born.

In a packed itinerary since they arrived an the ancient city on Sunday evening they visited Bethlehem, Ein Kerem where Mary went to visit her cousin Elisabeth to tell her she was pregnant, and to the various sites in and around the Old City relating to the arrest, torture and death of Jesus some two millennia ago.

Led by Fr Michael Murphy PP, the group also participated in masses in the Garden of Gethsemane, Bethlehem, and in the Church of St Catherine which houses the Tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre complex.

Earlier in the ten-day trip, the Kilcullen pilgrims visited many of the sites in Galilee where Jesus conducted his short public ministry, as well as going to the Dead Sea.

Pictures from the trip.

Reported from Jerusalem by the Accidental Pilgrim.

Suffer the children

A quick visit to the Museum of the Holocaust is too short. It is also too long, simply because the assault on the sense of right and wrong is overwhelming.

The Kilcullen group in the Holy Land had less than a couple of hours here at Yad Vashem, located a little way outside Jerusalem. Our guide Abie gave us a typically informative introduction. He also provided a personal angle, as his father was a Polish-born survivor of a Russian labour camp, after he'd 'escaped' from Poland in the early days of the pogrom.

He first brought us to the memorial for the one and a half million children who perished in what Fr Michael Murphy described as 'the most gruesome event ever'.

"The research which the Nazis did was extraordinary," Fr Michael said. "They had lists of Jews in every country, even of those living in Ireland."

Abie noted that the Nazis even had nurses and doctors whose work was to perfect killing systems, and to make them as cost efficient as possible.

He outlined too how the work to develop the 'master race' was also carefully planned and orchestrated, the object being to eliminate 'undesirables', among them those with disability or infirmity, Jews and gypsies. The plan even involved killing half of the population of Poland and using the other half as slaves.

Truth told, that's not the kind of detail I'd been aware of before, but the visit through the museum certainly reinforced that impression.

The photographs, anti-Jew posters, newspaper clippings and the newsreel footage of the event are truly horrifying. As is the documentation displayed that shows the meticulous detail with which the Nazis went about the business after they came to power in 1933.

But most of us in the group have seen similar images before. Shocking though they are, they don't surprise that much. Perhaps the 'new' genocides of the last decades, in Rwanda and more recently Darfur, not to mention what went on in The Balkans, may also have dulled our senses.

The real tough part had lasted just five minutes, before we entered the museum proper. The memorial to the murdered children begins with a walk down a pleasant stone alley, brightly lit by the sun and with the sculpted face of a child on the wall at the end before you turn into the display proper. The representation is the child of the couple who endowed the memorial, a son who was one of the slaughtered children.

The entrance to the interior is narrow, into an ante room with photographs on one wall of a dozen or so children, most smiling in what were clearly family portraits. The room narrows to a point where the throughway is just wide enough for one person, with a handrail to hold as you enter into sudden darkness.

Not quite totally dark. There are five lit candles, and through a complex set of mirrors and glass their light is reflected above, around and below, a virtual constellation of pinpoints in an otherwise black space.

It is actually physically unnerving. The handrail is necessary not just to guide through the exhibit, but to provide an anchor against potential vertigo.

The most terrible impact in the whole experience, however, comes from quiet voices. Taking turns to speak the name of a child, the child's age, and the country from where the child came before becoming a victim of the Third Reich.

Five minutes and we were back in sunlit garden. Some in the party sobbing openly, others clearly just holding back tears. I suspect there was none of us without at least a lump in the throat.

"The first thing you do when you want to annihilate a nation, is kill their children," Abie had said before we went in.

After that, the museum itself was actually less difficult in some ways. But then, we weren't Jews. And we were passing through quickly. Also, we Irish may have had our troubles, but since Cromwell nobody has tried genocide on us.

Reported from Jerusalem by the Accidental Pilgrim.

Hectic pace in Jerusalem

Visiting the holy sites in and around Jerusalem is a much more frenzied affair than doing so around Galilee. This partly because of the traffic, partly because of the complexity of a quite divided city, and partly because of the scrums of people in the narrow streets and at the churches.

The ideal would be to follow the story in chronological sequence, but for all the above reasons, as well as time constraints, this wasn't possible for the Kilcullen group on the first of a couple of hectic days of church visiting.

In Galilee we had got used to the idea that every key point in the new testament narrative had had a church built on it, sometimes more than one because of the interests of different Christian denominations. In Jerusalem it was the same, only more so. There are churches beside churches, and churches over churches of older eras. Because Jerusalem is, in the words of Abie, 'the most destroyed city in the world', with millennia of conquests, capitulations and sackings and reconquests in its timeline, you often have to dig very deep to get to Jesus's era.

Thus most are modern church buildings, built since the early part of the last century. Before them there were those built in the times of the Crusades, around the 12th century. Most were subsequently destroyed or very badly damaged. Inside and under these you'll find the remains of churches built around 400 years after Christ, when the Romans had converted to Christianity. Finally, in many cases there are grottos and caverns with reputed connections to the holy stories. It is a bit like opening those painted Russian wooden dolls, where you keep finding smaller ones inside.

In a way we began at the finish, at the Basilica of the Dormition on Mt Zion, just outside the bullet pock-marked Zion Gate into the Old City. This magnificent church was built by the Benedictines before WW1 and recalls how, according to the new testament, Mary the Mother of Jesus was assumed into Heaven following her death. The eastern church calls this the Dormition, and the crypt in the bottom has a wooden effigy of Mary 'asleep' under a canopy which features other women from the old testament.

Around the crypt are altars donated by six different countries, each in a style reflecting their own cultures, and the mosaics used are all magnificent in their different ways.

After a time for thought here, the group then went around the corner to the location of the 'upper room' where the Last Supper is believed to have taken place. The building of which it is a part was a 'caravan inn' where those travelling the trade routes from the east stayed when they arrived too late to enter the city of Jerusalem itself and needed a secure refuge. The room itself is actually from the 12th century, rebuilt by the Crusaders. That didn't stop a group of vocal Christians from America leading a loud prayer meeting in the medieval hall. Below the courtyard is said to be the burial place of King David, who lived a thousand years before Christ.

"This place was where the first Pentecost took place," Fr Murphy told the Kilcullen pilgrims during a short break for reflection in the courtyard. "It is also the location of the greatest confluence of worship between the Jews and the Christians."



Then it was time to go to the Mount of Olives over which we had arrived to Jerusalem the previous day. There, mass was celebrated in a cavern grotto where the wine press that gave the Garden of Gethsemane its name is said to have been located. It was converted as a place of worship by the very early Christians and has been in the care of the Franciscans since the end of the 14th century.

"This is where Jesus sweated blood and prepared himself for a dreadful end," Fr Murphy noted. "It is a most sacred place. The places that we are seeing are the most sacred places in the Christian world, and these few days here will be the most precious in our memories when we look back on them in the years to come."

After mass there was a visit to the modern garden of olive trees itself, beside the modern Church of All Nations. One of the three back-altar artworks here represents the traitorous Kiss of Judas and was apparently funded by the Irish state. A large rectangular rock in front of the main altar is believed to be where Jesus suffered the agony of preparing for his death by crucifixion.



Two further nearby shrines were visited before lunch. The tiny circular chapel which marks the spot from where Jesus ascended to Heaven. There's a rock outdropping inside with what is said to be an impression 'similar to that of a footprint'. The place is owned today by Muslims, who also believe in the Ascension. The other was the Church of Pater Noster, a small section of which is dedicated as the spot where Jesus taught his disciples The Lord's Prayer. The main building is unfinished, without a roof, and the walls are decorated with ceramic tiled squares on which are written the prayer in more than 60 languages. These include one in Irish, using the old Gaelic form. The group read it aloud to mark being there.



After lunch it was back to Mt Zion and the House of Caiaphas, where Jesus is reported to have been imprisoned after his arrest. Below the modern Augustinian church are Byzantine church remains, as well as stables and a water cistern cut into the rock which had been converted into dungeons. In a section known as 'The Pit', Fr Murphy led the group in a reading of the psalm with the apt lines 'Your furies have encompassed me, your terrors cut me off ... darkness is my only friend'. They then climbed back up the hill on ancient steps by which Jesus might have walked to the point where the cock crowed following the third denial by Peter of knowing Jesus.

We subsequently entered the Old City via the Sheep's Gate, near where the only complete Crusader Church still stands, under the care of the White Fathers. It is known for its superb acoustics, and the group sang 'Star of the Sea' to make a Kilcullen vocal imprint, however fleeting. Beside the church are the excavations of pools from Roman times, believed to be where Jesus met and cured the man who had been paralysed for almost four decades.

Finally it was the time to follow the footsteps of Jesus on the Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross. Because of time constraints it wasn't possible to actually do the stations properly, a mission that was deferred to the day before the group left for home. The stations are marked by small discs on the walls of the buildings along the street, and the way goes through the shops and businesses of today which probably only differ in what goods they have for sale from the activities of two thousand years ago.

The journey ended at the Church of the Holy Sepulchure, which holds within it both Golgotha, the Place of the Skulls where Jesus and the thieves were crucified, and the Tomb of Jesus itself. A mosaic showing Jesus being nailed to the cross is behind one of the altars, while the Crucifixion site itself is marked by a Greek Orthodox altar under which a silver disc represents the hole into which the cross was placed.

Underneath it is the Chapel of Adam, showing park of a fissure said to have occurred during the earthquake which happened as Christ died. According to legend, the crack went all the way down to the burial place of Adam, an event which symbolises the forgiveness of mankind's sins by Jesus.

The tomb itself, provided by Joseph of Arimithea, is encased in a timber structure within the church and again time was against the Kilcullen group, who deferred their chance to enter the tomb until another day.

Reported from Jerusalem by the Accidental Pilgrim.

To Jerusalem with a detour

As the group travelled from Galilee to Jerusalem, the route was down the valley of the Jordan River as far as the Dead Sea. Both represent the border between Israel and Jordan, and much of the journey was alongside the electronic fence by which the Israelis monitor any attempts to cross, either by terrorist or economic migrant.

For the latter there are good reasons to want to do so, because the average monthly wage in Israel is ten times that in Jordan, for instance. In addition, many people fleeing Darfur have walked the painful and dangerous route to the Israeli border.

Once we left the Jezreel plain we were in more difficult terrain to farm, but the various intensive and often ingenious techniques used by the Israel farmers truly make barren land productive.

Then we were into the Judean hills and the beginnings of the desert. It is a Martian landscape when we are out of sight of water, as we are most of the time because the Jordan River at this time and in this part of its length is a very small river indeed. The mountains are dry beige, in some parts riddled with small caves. Close to the roadside is dry stony land and it is easy to imagine how difficult it was to travel on foot in the time of Jesus.

Eventually we've gone beyond where he would have turned off for Jerusalem and drive by Qu'ran where the first Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in one of the caves in 1947 by a shepherd trying to find his dog.

Finally we stopped at the oasis of Ein Gedi, which is also a national park protecting some typical flora and fauna of the region. The animals seen locally include the little Rock Hyrex, which looks like a hare but is actually related in DNA terms to the elephant. The Tristram's Starling is a bird which always seems to be whistling for your attention. The most prolific bush is the Christ Thorn, also known as the Jujube tree.

This is, as the name implies, the bush from which the original Crown of Thorns was made. It is a bush that won't die simply by cutting it down or even by trying to eradicate the roots ... it will simply grow again in even greater profusion. The people of ancient times knew this and found it best to let it grow tall, where its upper leaved branches formed a canopy from the shade.

The lower thorny branches burn well and were often gathered and stored for kindling. It is believed that from one such stored bundle in the yard of the prison where Jesus was being taunted by the soldiers the 'crown' was twisted together and stuck on his head.

So at a relatively quiet point on a track inside the park it seemed appropriate that mass be celebrated for the Kilcullen pilgrims in the shade of a grove of these Christ Thorns.



It also happened to be Mission Sunday. The theme for the day, Fr Murphy said, was to 'reflect on God's love'. "The best way is, within ourselves, to be aware of God's love for us, and externally by our behaviour."

Concelebrant and fellow pilgrim Fr Niall Thornton spoke about the need for vocations to the priesthood and asked those present to 'pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send laborours to work in his fields'. "You are all missionaries in your own areas," he said. "Keep your eyes fixed on your spiritual needs as well as your material ones."

Later in the afternoon, following lunch and then a 'swim' in the Dead Sea -- you can't really swim in it, partly because of the extraordinary buoyancy and also because you daren't splash the salts-saturated water into your eyes -- we drove up through the hills and then got our first glimpse of Jerusalem.

The modern city on several hills is quite dramatic enough, but as Abie explained, it would have been substantially much more so in the time of Jesus, when the Rock of the Dome and the inhapitants of the old city were surrounded by walls towering twice as high as they appear today. Looming out of the desert as one crossed over the Mount of Olives, it would have been at the same time intimidating, reassuring, and welcoming ... depending on your status and citizenship.

At a strategic lookout point, funded by the Hass family, the full panorama of old and new Jerusalem lies below the incoming traveller. After a detailed explanation of the various parts of the city, including the different churches, mosques and cemeteries in our view, Fr Murphy led a reading of the psalm relating to 'pray for the peace of Jerusalem'.

Our hotel for the duration of our time in Jerusalem was part of the Kibbutz Ramat Rachel complex overlooking the city from its south-east. The kibbutz has sold some of its land for development but still maintains some farming as well as having diversified into hotel, sports club, and conference businesses.

Reported from Jerusalem by the Accidental Pilgrim.

Miscellany on Sunday 2007

The now annual 'Miscellany on Sunday' hosted by Tom and Phena Bermingham has been set for Sunday 25 November.

The event is a fundraiser for Michael Garry House in Newbridge, a hostel for people who are homeless. Kilcullen Drama Group will perform on the day as will Dorley O'Sullivan and her classical musicians who are very popular.

As usual, Louis Moran will sing and play guitar. "We hope to have readings, plenty of music and singing, and of course mulled wine and mince pies," Phena told the Diary

For further information contact Roy Thompson on 086 3270780, Siobhan and Eilis Phillips at 045 481871, or Phena Bermingham at 045 485232 or 087 9767531.

Brian Byrne.

Lions get to know you night

Kilcullen Lions Club are hosting a 'Wine Tasting Evening' in The Heritage Centre on Thursday next 25th October at 8 pm.

It will be an informal evening with an opportunity to meet other community members, maybe learn what 'Lions' are all about and have a chat over a glass of wine.'

All are welcome.

Frances Clare.

Great result for Vintage Rally

A cheque for a staggering 48,736 euro was handed over to the Irish Cancer Society in The Stray Inn on Friday last - the proceeds from the recent Mac and Norman's Vintage rally.



There was a great turn out for the presentation evening and with John Kelly providing the music it was a most enjoyable night.



There was also a surprise presentation to Ann and Peter Sully for their efforts in organising a large contingent to the world record breaking vintage tractor event in the Cooley Peninsula which took place shortly before the local rally. Ann and Peter along with a large group of friends and neighbours brought vijntage tractors from Kildare to the event.

By all accounts, the weekend saw records broken in more areas than just numbers of vintage tractors!! The presentation was made by John Kennedy on behalf of the group who had travelled to Cooley for the weekend. Well done to all involved.

Noel Clare.

Announcing a child

It defies logic and biological science that a young girl can get pregnant without the intervention of a man in some way. But that's the tenet underpinning what is termed the immaculate conception of Mary.

And in the sources of the Holy Land saga, where it began was at Nazareth, where the mother to be of Jesus lived and where she is said to have been visited by the angel Gabriel to tell her why she was here.

Today it is a sprawling mountain top town of some 68,000 people, but in the time of this tale it seems to have been a fairly insignificant place. Various estimates by archeologists and historians put its population anywhere between 16 and 2,000 people. Most scholars now accept that it was likely 300 or less.

Mary was a typical young girl of her time, with daily chores that included going to the town well for water with which to fill the clay jars in her home. She was betrothed to Joseph, usually described as a carpenter but most likely a working class man with various building skills.

There are conflicting stories as to where Mary was visited by the angel. Some say it was on her way to the well, others suggest that it was in her home. Whichever, it must have been really scary for her, because unwed motherhood wasn't welcomed in Jewish families and communities of the time.

The truth of the whole matter we don't know. There's no direct documentary evidence, no letters, no birth certificates, no doctor's records, all the things that today mark pregnancy and birth. Just a story in the new testament, suggesting that prophecy had been fulfilled. It is still incredible, really.

"But this was an occasion when something extraordinary took place," Fr Murphy said during celebration of a mass for the Kilcullen pilgrimage in the magnificent modern basilica built over the grotto where the Annunciation is said to have happened.

"Part of our faith is that what we commemorate here actually happened, that the angel did appear and that the child was born without the intervention of a human father. This is a very sacred place -- the Word was made flesh here."

As the angel is reported to have said, Mary had 'won God's favour'. But it seems it was a mixed blessing for Nazareth itself, and in the serious years of the ministry of Jesus the townspeople weren't all that enamoured of its newly most famous son or his work. According to the four Gospels, he was a prophet 'without honour ... in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house'.

The Basilica of the Annunciation is a magnificent building which, when completed in 1969, was the largest church built in the Holy Land in 800 years. It is a clear demonstration that today both Mary and Jesus are honoured on a global basis.

In addition to the lower level which is designed around the remains of the grotto where 'the angel appeared unto Mary', there is a truly international second level where the daily worship of the local community is carried out.

It is international by virtue of the various donations from many countries of artwork, bronze doors, and other elements of its architecture, and worth a visit for that alone.

Nearby in the same Franciscan-managed complex is another church, under which is the 'St Joseph's Workshop'. This is said to be the home of Joseph, set underground in the rock for even temperature through the year and with his workshop over where it would get the best light.

Whether it ever was what it is claimed to be is a matter for archaeological investigation and conclusions, which are never final. But as another touchstone for the faith of millions, it is as credible as it needs to be.

Because faith is not in remains of buildings, or in the churches that mark them today, but in hearts and souls.

Pictures from the trip.

Reported from Nazareth by the Accidental Pilgrim.

Hospice ball and auction

A Gala Ball and Auction in aid of St Brigid's Hospice and Home Care Service is being held on Saturday 3 November.

It's taking place in the Ardenode Hotel in Ballymore and will include Dinner, Punch and Music by the Deputees.

Proceedings begin at 7.30pm with dinner at 8.30pm sharp.

Admission is 75 euros and tables for ten can be booked for 750 euros.

Further information available from Martine or Denise at 087 6893403.

Brian Byrne.

Was Cana just a matter of proof?

The first miracle said to be performed by Jesus is the changing of the water into wine at a marriage feast organised by a bridegroom in Cana. Said bridegroom wasn't a great organiser, it seems, as he ran out of liquor halfway through the proceedings.

Jesus's mother Mary was a guest along with her son, and she asked him to help out and save her host's blushes.

It is reported that the wine produced by Jesus was of a much better quality than the first lot. If the 'wedding wine' sold in the tourist shops of Cana today is any indication of the quality of what had been served, that wasn't such a big deal. It is rough tack, by all accounts.

Like many of the Holy Land sites, there were several candidates subsequently for the location of that particular event. The town which has the gig, so to speak, is about 7km from Nazareth. The church which is the Catholic pilgrim focus is along a 'Street of the Churches', a narrow alley in which there are other churches of various denominations. A modern edifice off a small courtyard, it is built over other crypts and grottos dating back to the Byzantine era. It is a pleasant place to meditate for a few minutes.

There's an opportunity here for couples to renew their wedding vows if they wish, and a number in our party did so. Part of the deal is they get to buy a bottle of Cana wedding wine. Maybe this is from the second batch, reserved for a second commitment?

Perhaps because it was the end visit of a long day of going to holy sites, but it seemed to this pilgrim that Cana was the least interesting of the venues so far. Maybe even the least credible.

But who am I to say? After all, it's the story, not the place, that carries the faith.

Pictures from the trip.

Reported from Cana by the Accidental Pilgrim.

Go tell it on the mountain

The plain of Jezreel, also known as Armageddon, is on the only valley which runs east-west in the region, and it became the main route to the south-western limits of the Roman Empire and to the trading centres beyond Damascus.

Our guide Abie has a typically Jewish attitude to fortune; when times are good you can enjoy the fruits of that situation ... but when you are the flux point of trade and travel, you'll also find that eventually you'll be destroyed as others, usually outside powers, fight their wars on your territory.

Thus the plain, and the dome mountain which dominates it, have been places of batle, conquest and defeat, as well as prosperous trade since time immemorial. The top of the mountain has been a place of fortresses and sanctuaries on and off for thousands of years.

As a Holy Land site, Mount Tabor has become the reputed place of the Transfiguration story, where Jesus went up a mountain with Peter, James and John just before his last days on earth. There, the story goes, his face and clothing became transformed and he revealed to them his Divine origin. It is also said that Moses and Elijah appeared and talked to Jesus.

"Up to now, as Jesus went about his work, it had become increasingly apparent that there was more to him than met the eye," Fr Murphy told the Kilcullen pilgrims yesterday. "The miracles that were happening, for instance, were all leading up to the moment we are here for."

What actually happened at that moment remains a mystery, Fr Michael continued, something in that 'mysterious zone of aspects of our existence that are beyond what we can see, hear, or know'. "But what we do know is that it was about the Divinity of Jesus."

That it was an event beyond the understanding of his friends is made clear from the account in St Luke's Gospel, which notes that they went down from the mountain and 'in those days told no one what they had seen'.

Even from the vantage point of a strategic mountain, you can't expect to understand everything. But also, given what happened to their leader in the subsequent days, it wouldn't have been in the interests of their personal survival to talk loudly about unearthly light on a mountain top.

Some close encounters can be too close for comfort.

Pictures from the trip.

Reported from Galilee by the Accidental Pilgrim.

The Jordan effect

With most of its length acting today as the border between Israel and its neighbours Syria and Jordan, the River Jordan has tremendous symbolic significance. A very practical one too, as it is the water lifeline for the three countries.

Politics and country names might have been different in the time of Jesus, but there's little doubt that the river had just as much symbolism then. Which probably accounts for a guy named John, 'The Baptist', using it to wash people clean of their past sins and inducting them into a new life of promise.

As Fr Murphy noted during today's visit to a managed baptismal site at Yardenit, Jesus had to search for 'the meaning of life' just like the rest of us. "It wasn't handed to him on a plate," he said. "He had to struggle, to deal with temptations, while trying to find what he had to do."

Presenting himself to John to be baptised was the indication that he was about to do so. It was the turning point, the beginning of his short three years of ministry among the most oppressed people of his time.

"He went to Jerusalem as part of this," Fr Murphy added, "and because of what he was about, he came to a bad end."

The baptismal point on this trip is about a hundred kilometres north of where that actual baptism of Jesus probably took place. But subsequent to Christ's death there were many such places where the disciples symbolically brought new followers into the new religion.

This morning, as probably every morning, there were coachloads of people from all over the world visiting this particular place on their journey through 'The Fifth Gospel' -- the name given to the land on which the life and times of Jesus is based.

Some dipped their toes in the water, which didn't look too clean. Others paddled. One woman totally immersed herself.

Our group simply renewed the promises made on our behalf at our own baptisms, and went on our way.

In the ubiquitous gift shop on the way out, the equally ever present commercialism was reflected in the sign that said: 'Baptism kits for rent - $9'.

But I suppose they gave offerings to John too. The man had to live, after all.

Reported from Galilee by the Accidental Pilgrim.

Cancer presentation tonight

The proceeds of this year's Mac & Norman's Vintage Rally will be presented to the Irish Cancer Society on Friday 19 October.

The presentation will take place in The Stray Inn, Mile Mill, with music by John Kelly.

Brian Byrne.

Cystic Fibrosis night

The 2007 Race Night Road Show is arriving in The Spout tonight.

It is in aid of Cystic Fibrosis and Respiratory Resource Unit in Temple Street Children's Hospital.

The night is compered by David Mitchell, who plays Jimmy Doyle in 'Fair City'.

It is one good cause. Be there if you can.

A thorny subject

The Crown of Thorns kind of tipped it.

That's when I knew I'd had enough biblical history for one day. And it was only the first full day of the trip.

It wasn't the fault of the trip. Just a little too much too much of the layering on of how the Jews have suffered.

The Crown of Thorns was on sale in a souvenir shop to where we were brought at the end of the day by our guide, Abie. Short for Abraham, an Israeli Jew via USofA. A guy quite engaging and really good at his job. You've really gotta like Abie.

"I can recommend this shop," he'd said last night after our introductory boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. "If you're happy with the idea, we'll stop off there tomorrow night."

True to promise, we were here. Pretty worn out, truth be told. And God knows, you gotta tell the truth in Galilee. So we were at the end of a day of touring key locations of the Gospel stories.

It began with the Sermon on the Mount and finished with the church that marks where Jesus is said to have made Peter his first pope, even if that wasn't what he called him.

In between we'd visited the Golan, on the way to and from Banias. That last is the location of a former Temple to Zeus and Pan. There's apparently a Jesus connection too, which at the time of writing I'm still a little confused about. But maybe, like Tiberias where we're based this week, its reputation for Roman Empire debauchery made it a place about which the Lord denounced such goings-on.

Going up there and back gave Abie the time to instruct us on the legalistic complexities of the Jewish Covenant with God. Bottom line, which over the centuries provided rabbis with a great deal to do in interpreting it to make it work with whatever were the requirements of the era. Still does, probably. Though the political mix of secular Israel and its religious orthodoxies must make for even more complicated cohabitation.

Really bottom line, interpreting Abie's homeland truths alongside his narration of the recurrent plights of the Jews in the time of what became that nation's most important prophet, they suffered.

Kind of like Irish history, really. But Jews suffered in one of the cradles of old civilisation, whereas Irish suffering was of a much more recent vintage. And we might even have just got over it.

Back a long time ago, Rome ruled, Jews suffered. And on the Golan today, they occupy it because Jews suffered in the sixties by having their post WW2 Israel homeland subject to bombardment by the original Syrian stakeholders. The fence-enclosed minefields which our road snaked through are grim reminders of that. The warning signs are rusting, though.

But the Israel state yesterday and today are another story. This is a trip through religious history.

For the Kilcullen group -- and with us are a number of Carlow people, it should be recorded -- the mass at the Church of the Beatitudes was a very pleasant start to the day. This is the storied site of the Sermon on the Mount in the New Testament, but which also is described as the Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel of St Luke, on whose feast day Fr Michael Murphy's mass was celebrated.

"He probably never knew Jesus," Fr Michael said of Luke. "He wrote his Gospel later, and was like an editor with a vast amount of information. He wanted to tell the story of Jesus outside the area where it had taken place."

Fr Michael is the first to say that new testament locations visited today are not necessarily the actual places of the stories involved. But culture past, and culture includes religion, is mostly about symbols. Locations are symbols which endure beyond most others, at least in folklore. And even if they are not quite right geographically, they're lodestones of belief.

Today there were several of those lodestones. Not least the 'St Peter's Fish' lunch in a restaurant which bordered the beach of Magdala, Mary of Magdalene's area of birth. Before that we had visited Capernaum, with seriously good excavated and reconstructed homes and streets of the time when Jesus had apparently stayed with Peter's mother in law. And also where he is believed to have made his final appearance to Peter before going home to Heaven.

We went after lunch to a close-by pair of churches. The first built in recent times on the place where the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes is said to have taken place. Then to another which is built on a basalt outcropping suggested to be the location where Jesus told Peter that this was the 'rock upon which you will build my church'. Making him the first pope, actually.

The modern church is managed by the Benedictines. There's a piece of rock under the altar which people kneel to and even touch fervently with their foreheads.

Outside on the little beach of the Sea of Galilee it was a little closer to the reality of a couple of millennia ago. Waves sloshing on the sand. People paddling in the moving water.

Yes, Jesus could have been here. So could Peter. Neither actually expecting what they might achieve, because there wasn't a global perspective then. Their 'globe' was circumscribed around the Sea of Galilee.

Which was where this accidental pilgrim came from to the souvenir shop. It was a pushy place. High priced too. There were two sizes of Crowns of Thorns. Both of olive wood, and with 'guarantees of origin'.

I didn't look at the prices. But I wondered what kind of friend you would bring home such a souvenir to?

"And look, I got your right size ..."

Reported from Galilee by the Accidental Pilgrim.

Thoughts on the shore

Sitting at a table on the beach at Magdala, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Scruffy kind of place really. A lot of litter, just like the beaches at home.

You have to wonder what kind of litter there was when Jesus walked these shores, looking for a fisher of men? Certainly no Coke bottles, or cigarette packages, or the left-overs from somebody's lunch on another table.

There could have been corpses sometimes, I suppose. When the Romans made examples of those who defied their rule? It wasn't a time of civil rights, except when you were a Roman citizen. If your city or tribe decided to rebel against Rome, or even a few people within your group, everybody was killed, or sold into slavery.

Selling into slavery was a profitable option for the Romans. They built the Coliseum on the profits made from tens of thousands of prisoners sold after the sacking of Jerusalem and the plundering of the Temple.

These are the kind of tidbits which our guide Abie -- short for Abraham -- drops into his commentary on the times of the people in the time of Jesus.

His engaging style works well, and I was prompted to the thought that the Israelis were lucky to have a blockbuster bestseller on which to base their tourist industry.

Well this part of it anyhow. I'm not sure how the rest of tourism works here, but the Holy Land part of it around Galilee is all about places where Jesus worked in the three years of his public life.

Three years might seem short, but when you see the geographical area involved, three years could be enough. The 'sea' of Galilee is a middle to small sized lake. And the biblical tourist trail is mostly a slipping from point to point around it. Church to church, really.

The holy sites are managed in the most part by the Fransiscans.

Reported from Magdala by the Accidental Pilgrim.

Group first mass in Galilee

It was a small crisis, but one which could have been problematic for the plan to say mass on the Sea of Galilee.

"I had been told that the boat we hired would provide the essentials for saying mass, but I've just heard that they don't," Fr Michael Murphy, leading the Kilcullen parish pilgrimage to The Holy Land, said.

Which was why he climbed aboard the bus this afternoon with a bag of bread rolls, negotiated from the hotel kitchen. As it happened, a Mass 'kit' was found to be available in the coach luggage compartment, so all went off in the normal way.

The 'sea' of Galilee is actually a medium sized lake, and according to the biblical accounts it was to the northern part of it that Jesus came to begin his ministry. Many of the stories of those early days in his short few years of work relate to this place.

It was where he met his first 'follower', Mary Magdalene, as well as several others later. Where he is said to have performed a number of miracles. And where he met his disciple Peter for the first time ... also for the last time, because it was in this same area that the story is set of his appearance to his disciples after the Resurrection.

Fr Murphy celebrated mass out on the lake for the group. As he did so, he noted the difference between a tourist and a pilgrim.

"A tourist goes through a place, while a pilgrim lets a place go through him," he said. "Let us pray that we will let the holy places which we visit here in the next few days go through us."

The mass on a boat is a traditional pilgrim event here, and generally is an introduction to the stories from the time of Jesus and his founding of Christianity.

The group enjoyed the afternoon, despite signs of a threatening thunderstorm, which if it had happened could have added just one more element to one of the stories we all learned as children.

Reported from Galilee by the Accidental Pilgrim.

Ladies GAA

Kilcullen Ladies GAA Team have a great chance to bring home some much needed silverware to the club this Saturday when they play Carbury in the final of the league.

The game takes place at Round Towers GAA Club with kickoff at 1.30pm

This section of the club has been going from strength to strength over the past few years and it was decided after much underage success to enter a Ladies team in the adult competition last year.

Now in only their second year they have a great chance to claim a title. And if that wasn't enough, the game has added spice in that it was Carbury that eliminated the Ragettes by a solitary point in the championship quarter-final a few weeks ago.

After everything else that has gone on in the club this year it would be great to see it finish with a trophy, and a good turnout to support the girls on Saturday.

Conor Gleeson.

Bernard starts a-building

Just like that ...

Two more streetfront buildings bite the dust (or cause the dust) as Bernard Berney's new shop development gets seriously under way.



It will be interesting to see the new store that replaces one chemist chop and one former post office.

Watch with us.

'Joseph' in CPC

The Fourth Year students at Cross and Passion College are presenting 'Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat' from 23-25 October in the college's Assembly Hall.

Mona Conroy is directing the show, which features Bryan Coyne in the lead role. Other key parts are being performed by Conor Short, Charles Aniagyei, Eoin Clifford and Idris Afolabi.

The vocal coach is Phionagh Gibson. Tickets can be booked from the school at 481524.

Brian Byrne.

Congratulations to Diary

Hi Brian,

I read your blog regularly (5 or 6 times a week!) and have never written or contributed, although there were several responses orchestrated and just never sent - I usually chicken out just before the "send" button! But this I cannot pass.

Your Community Award is much deserved. Over the years you have kept me abreast of all that goes on and I am taken back to Kilcullen when I see familiar faces and hear of growth and progress. I have had several proud moments when members of my family are profiled or referenced, as well as classmates, former teachers and neighbors. Indeed, you do offer a service to us emigrants and I am supportive of your nomination and award.

Congratulations and a Heartfelt Thank You!

Sandra Kunzle (nee Shortt).


Dear Brian,

Congratulations on your award last night. You are truly most deserving of it. Please continue to keep up the good work.

All the best,

Joseph A. Fagan Jr.

Massage Clinic

Louise McGough has opened a specialised Massage Clinic at 'Perfect Images' in The Square.

Qualified in a range of massage therapies, including for children and cancer patients, Louise's services are only available by appointment.

Further information is available by calling her at 087 6608151.

Brian Byrne.

Honour for Dick and Kitty

Dick and Kitty Reade have been awarded membership of the Order of CúChulainn by Scouting Ireland. The award is the highest honour available to adults in scouting in Ireland and comes to the Reids after 33 years of involvement in the movement.


Dick and Kitty are pictured here receiving a special presentation in Kilcullen two years ago

The award was introduced in 2004 to replace Scouting Ireland (CSI)'s Order of the Silver Wolfhound and the equivalent award of Scouting Ireland SAI, the Order of the Silver Elk. It is presented for outstanding commitment to Scouting over many years. Each member receives a certificate, on which there is a citation which details the Scouting career of the recipient.

Members of the Order wear a yellow and red ribbon around the neck from which a miniature replica of a hound hangs, along with the World Crest. It is one of only three items which may be worn around the neck by members of Scouting Ireland, the others being the Woodbadge beads and the Chief Scout's Award.

On behalf of the community, the Diary congratulates Dick and Kitty on a well-deserved honour.

Brian Byrne.

Writing workshop tutors

Tutors for the Writing Workshop organised by the Kilcullen Writing Group have now been named.

They are writer and journalist Greg Baxter, originally from San Antonio in Texas but now working in Dublin, and creative writing teacher Yvonne Cullen.

Both tutors come courtesy of the Itish Writers Centre in Dublin. Greg will provide help with short story writing while Yvonne will discuss ways of 'jumpstarting' imagination to get stories going.

The Workshop takes place in The Heritage Centre next Saturday, 20 October, with registration at 10am. Further information and booking details from Pauline Fagan at 087 2134155.

Brian Byrne.

Flower Club demo

Kilcullen Flower Club has a demonstration on Tuesday night, in the Parish Centre.

All are welcome, and the sub is 6 euros.

Pool tournament

The McTernan's fourth annual Singles Pool Championships get under way Monday evening.

The competition guarantees a prize fund of 1,000 euros plus trophies.

The draw takes place this evening.

The Vanished Man.

The Vanished Man. Jeffrey Deaver. Thriller.
I first got into Jeffrey Deaver's writing when I used the local library in a suburb of Melbourne over Christmas while on a visit to my daughter. With more reading time available than I'd had for some years, and the high cost of books in Australia, it was the only way to viably deal with my very fast reading speed.

I liked immediately his spare style, his tight drawing of characters and locations. And those characters are quirky, too, with little in the superhero department. Makes them people you can relate to.

In The Vanished Man, Deaver's criminal goes on a rampage of graphically horrible serial killings, which very quickly are recognised as reconstructions of classic illusionist tricks.

The police end of things is held up by one Amelia Sachs, detective. She is also lover to the Deaver series criminologist Lincoln Rhyme, who also happens to be wheelchair bound and severely disabled. Nothing wrong with his deductive mind, though.

Through the development of the story, we're also kept first person in the mind of the killer, who doesn't turn out to be the masterful illusionist he believes himself to be. Not least because Sachs and Rhyme are helped along the way by student illusionist Kara, who first recognises the murderous classic set-pieces and then tries to second guess the perpetrator.

The story is fast moving, terse, tricky. And just when the reader is made believe he or she knows it all, finds that nothing is like it seems. That's the trade of the illusionist, after all. In the end, have we reached the end ...?

I've come to like Deaver so much that I had taken two of his books out together from the library here. When I finished The Vanished Man two hours into a very boring small plane trip across Argentina to the Andes in the north west of the country, I was truly sorry that I hadn't brought the second one along with me.

Highly recommended, author and book.

Brian Byrne.

Community Awards 2007

There was an appreciative audience in The Heritage Centre last evening for the annual Killcullen Community Awards.



Guest of honour was Mayor of Kildare Cllr Mary Glennon, and other public representatives included Sean O Fearghaill TD, Cllr Billy Hillis and Cllr Willie Callaghan.

Kilcullen Community Action chairman Kieron Forde, who opened the proceedings, took the opportunity to remind the public representatives that the town's relations with Kildare County Council needs some help. He noted Kilcullen had slipped placings in the National Tidy Towns Competition this year, and this in part was probably due to the absence of litter control.

"We're not blaming the Council for the litter itself -- that's caused by people in the town and visitors to it," he said. "And we have to try and do more at community level to reduce the amount of litter dropped. But there will be litter, and the Council must play a role in helping to clear it."

He also asked for greater communication between the Council and the community so that there could be some coherence between the activities of both. "On occasions local community improvements have been undone by the Council when carrying out work which we didn't know was coming," he noted.

His comments were acknowledged by Cllr Glennon on her own behalf and for her colleagues present.

The presentation of the local Tidy Towns Awards was the main business of the evening.

The Best Large Estate award was won by Bishop Rogan Park, with particular recognition of the 'obvious community effort' made to bring about improvements in the estate. The Best Small Estate award went to St Brigid's Avenue. The Jerry Kelly Trophy was accepted from Kieron Forde by Bobby Walker (right).

Laurel Wood estate got the award for the Best Green Area, which was described as 'an excellent estate overall' with great landscaping and green areas.

The Landscape Award went to the Main Street Floral Project, with particular appreciation for the work 'up the ladder' by Kieron Forde.

Nolans Victuallers won the Best Business Premises accolade, while Ruby Shoes on The Square won the Most Improved Business Premises.

The Best Commercial Premises for 2007 is the Link Business Park. Nichola Kennedy Optometrist was presented with the Best Window Display award.

The KARE McMahon Centre was judged to have the Best Community/Public Facilities, and the Best Apartments was won by The Courtyard behind Bardons.

Special Commendations were made to Lui na Greine for the effort in getting people together to form a residents association and producing their own newsletter. Another commendation was awarded to Castlemartin Lodge estate which showed 'even further obvious improvement' over last year. Individuals who were given Special Commendations were Eamon McDonnell of St Brigid's Avenue for his work on maintaining the estate, and Peter Mooney from Laurel Wood who has been much to the fore in bringing people together, especially the 'old' and 'new' Kilcullen people.

The special Community Awards for this year were presented by Mayor Mary Glennon.

Jim Kiely received one for his work in the community through the Lions, First Responders, and Kilcullen GAA epecially for the running of the regular discos in the club and providing a badly needed outlet for teenagers in the community.

Alfie Haslam was given an award for his outstanding work in looking after two graveyards in Gormanstown and keeping them in excellent condition over several years.

An award was made to Kilcullen Soccer Club for its service to the community over the last 40 years, now looking after 16 teams and providing a sporting outlet for 180 young people and 36 adults.

The Kilcullen First Responders Unit were given an award for providing a much needed and valuable service in the community. It was accepted by the secretary of the unit, Vivienne Wynne (right).

Brian Byrne was presented with an award for providing a platform for communication between Kilcullen people at home and abroad with the Kilcullen Diary website. (Yes, dear readers, they sandbagged your editor last night! Never knew a thing about it. But I'm very grateful and humbled.)

A slide show of the presentations can be accessed here.

Brian Byrne.

Draft development plan meeting

Kilcullen Community Action is holding a special public meeting for local people who want to discuss the Draft Kilcullen Local Area Development Plan, which is on display in The Heritage Centre.

The meeting, on Wednesday night in the Town Hall, is to facilitate local comment and input to the plan before the public consultation period ends on 23 October.

Although the town boundary hasn't been changed since the last plan, some 60 acres inside the boundary have been rezoned from agriculture to residential use.

These include an area behind Nicholastown, near Logstown, and between Lui na Greine and the Link Business Park.

The field opposite Scoil Bhride has been changed to industrial and warehousing use.

The plan as presented represents how future development in Kilcullen will take place up to 2012.

Everybody with an interest in the future of Kilcullen should have a look, and make sure they have their say.

The KCA-organised meeting in the Town Hall starts at 8pm.

Brian Byrne.

CPC retirements

Two members of staff have retired from Cross & Passion College after a total of 56 years' service between them.

They are John Archibold who has worked in the school for 27 years, and Anne Stewart who served for 29 years.

Their retirement was marked by the planting of two trees in the College grounds.

GAA wants parents' help

Kilcullen GAA is appealing for more parents to help supervise their monthly discos for teenagers, which resume on 12 October.

The discos are for 14-17 year-olds only and admission is exclusively by pre-paid ticket which can be bought at the Daybreak shop opposite the Cross & Passion College.

The tickets cost eight euros and the organisers insist that nobody will be admitted without such a ticket.

If anyone wants to help for a few hours every month, they can contact Martin Whyte on 086 8131794 or Jim Kiely on 045 482172.

Brian Byrne.

News from Lui na Greine

The recent edition of the Lui na Greine Newsletter highlighted a number of initiatives by the estate's residents over recent months.

These included the organisation of the first Estate Summer Party. It was a great success and everyone enjoyed the day.




The residents group also met with local Garda Brian Kearney and Sergeant Mary Corcoran from Naas Garda Station to discuss setting up a Neighbourhood Watch.

The gardaí were very helpful and informative about issues regarding the safety of homes. They outlined many tips to deter criminals.

Residents asked what was being done about the young drivers on the main road and around the town who are speeding. Garda Kearney said that they are constantly on the watch for this. They have ongoing speed checks in various places and traffic checkpoints to try and stop this problem. But it is a nationwide one that is difficult to control.

Michelle Ryan

It Says in The Bridge: Oct 07

The lead story in this issue is an important one, headlining that Kilcullen people have 'a chance to have a say' in the Draft Kilcullen Local Area Development Plan, currently up for public consultation.

The story notes that the Plan is on display in the Heritage Centre, and that a special Kilcullen Community Action meeting is being held on Wednesday 17 October to 'facilitate community input' into the Plan. 'Voice your opinion', the story says. Do.

The front-page picture is of the Kildare Ladies Pitch & Putt team which won for the third time the Inter-County Championship 2007. The Kilcullen connections are sisters Chrissie and Marian Byrne, and Tara Dillon. Well done all.

Inside, much space is given over to the full report of local performance in the National Tidy Towns Competition 2007. Kilcullen made 'only a little progress' and has slipped from the third best town in the county in 2005 to being the eighth best in 2007. Both Brannockstown and Calverstown improved much more significantly, the latter now at seventh place.

The Diary notes a comment from the adjudicators that Dave Clancy's florist shop got (much deserved) praise in part for the fact that it didn't have posters in the windows and on the door. That's all very well, but the placing of local notices in shop windows is an old tradition and an important way of getting the word out about a myriad of events and causes. They also give people a reason to stop and look in shop windows. We wouldn't want to see them go.

There are the usual strong schools news pages. Scoil Bhride pictorially welcomes the three new Junior Infant classes. CPC previews the upcoming presentation of 'Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat' by the fourth year students. The Kildare Steiner School welcomes new families to its 'educating through the hands, heart and head'.

There's also photo coverage of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the KARE service to people with disability, of the local Holy Wells Walk with Donncha O Duailing, and of Madge Clarke's 80th birthday celebrations. Lil Delaney's celebration of her 85th birthday also gets mention, and we in the Diary add our congratulations to both ladies.

Lorraine Hergarty-Kelly and Phena Bermingham write their thanks to all for the superb sponsorship of almost 20,000 euros for the Punchestown Kidney Research Fund. A 'great effort' by 'heroic volunteers'.

Other news refers to the establishment of a new massage clinic by Louise McGough in The Square, and how 94 years-old Elizabeth Talt achieved a dream by getting a flight in a heicopter at the recent Kilrush Open Day.

In musing pieces, Billy Redmond is prolific this month. His 'Off the Cuff' gently chides us who complain about a bit of rain, and he wonders if it is all about the frequent trips to Spain making Celtic Tigers expect that the weather should emulate their financial fortune? Billy also writes about 'The House of Stories' movement which revives the old musical and storytelling days of times past. He's organising one in Kilcullen, so watch your local media ... including the shop windows which still allow posters!

Billy also revives a recitation which commemorates the tragic ambush of Irish Army personnel at Niemba in the Congo, in 1960. He was himself a member of the first Irish battalion to travel to the Congo, and he will be writing a full account of his memories of that time in due course.

Other features -- Pat Behan writes about the 'Poets in Paradise' performance which was presented after the Bothar walk, Sean Landers details his experiences of typhoons and earthquakes in his particualr part of Asia, and Pauline Fagan both recalls the iconic Brigid and previews the Kilcullen Writing Group workshop taking place in the Heritage Centre on 20 October. John Mulhall profiles 'The Rasher' Behan, longtime coach to Kilcullen GAA. The piece also resurrects memories of many of Micky Behan's contemporaries.

Finally we must make mention of a story written by Pastor Robert Dunlop, 'Breathings of a Breaking Heart', joint winner in Ballymore of the inaugural Michael Ward Prize.

It is about 'a breed apart', the priest's housekeeper. Read it for the writing, and for its humanity.

Brian Byrne.

Deirdre opening gallery

A new art gallery opening next week in Newbridge represents the realisation of a dream for Kilcullenite Deirdre Groves.



RIOART is officially opening over the Rio store in Cutlery Road, a mecca for handmade jewellery and handbags, on 18 October.

"The Gallery is an extension of this," says Deirdre, who is a daughter of Donie Groves of Knockbounce. "I love art and always have, and this is my dream. Art is inspiring and should be availabe to all. The artistic talent in our midst is mind blowing, and this gallery allows every one to dream."

The opening takes place between 6-9pm and the artists exhibiting will all be there. They include Fiona Marron, Simon Meyler, Eamonn Keanan, Lisa Kavanagh, James Quinn and many more.

All are welcome to the opening, the more the merrier for the whole event.

Brian Byrne.

'Cash' play for Kilcullen

Kilcullen Drama Group have begun rehearsals for their winter play presentation.

Cash on Delivery is a comedy by Michael Cooney, a son of Ray Cooney who is famous for his comedic drama and farces.

The play is about the hilarious problems of a family when a complex fiddling of benefits from the DHSS in Britain begins to unravel. The principal character has set up a household of ficticious lodgers on whose behalf he collects various kinds of benefits.

When he gets qualms of conscious and decides to end the situation by 'killing off' his 'lodgers', things go rapidly downhill and the belly laughs increase in inverse proportion.

Brian Byrne.

Double aerobics classes

Derek Phelan's Aerobics class has been doubled up by special request.

"People are obviously thinking about their health," he told the Diary this week. "So we're now giving classes on Mondays and Thurdays in Kilcullen Tennis Club 7-8 pm. At 6 euros a session they also represent good value."

Anyone interested in Aerobics or Circuit Training should call Derek on 087-8094900 for further information.

Changes at Ballyshannon NS

Lisa Sullivan has taken up the position of new teacher at Ballyshannon National School.

In the meantime, Principal Anna Dillon has begun a year's secondment to Mary Immaculate College of Education in Limerick. Lorraine McGovern will be acting Principal for the year.

Brian Byrne.

Good turnout to walk

Wonderful autumnal weather brought out some 50 friends and supporters of Kilcullen First Responders to the Sli na Slainte walk in aid of their fundraising endeavours for the Irish Heart Foundation.



Along with members of KFR and their friends was a representative of the IHF, Mary Gamble, regional administrator of the IHF, who is pictured above leading the group as they round the corner of the Dunlavin Road and McGarry's Lane.



Monies collected together with sponsorhip cards to be collected will be forwarded to the IHF during the week.



KFR members would like to thank all those who attended and all those who though unable to attend supported it through the means of subscription and sponsorship.

Des Travers.

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Briefing on Holy Land trip

Parishioners going on the Parish Pilgrimage to The Holy Land were given a briefing on their trip by travel agent Joe Tully on Monday night.

He provided a detailed background to their travel arrangements and the security aspects of the visit, which is centred in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, and in Jerusalem itself.

During the nine days of the trip the participants will visit the site of the Sermon on the Mount, and the location of the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes at Tabgha.

They will also take in Nazareth, Cana, Haifa and the Dead Sea before moving to the second location in Jerusalem.

There they will visit parts of the old and the modern city related to the stories from the Bible, including the Garden of Gethsemane and the Room of the Last Supper.

A visit to Bethlehem is also on the itinerary.

The trip begins on October 16, when the group is flying to Tel Aviv via Frankfurt.

Brian Byrne.

Generous response to floral appeal

A number of generous donations have been given to Kilcullen Community Action following their appeal for help in meeting the shortfall in the cost of the flower displays during the summer.

But a substantial extra funding is still required, and KCA is asking local businesses and individuals to return the donation envelopes which have been distributed.

Up to 200 boxes were placed in almost every available Main Street upper floor window, and an automatic irrigation system was installed to keep them watered properly.

Local businessman Brian Fallon came up with the idea and gave a substantial donation towards the cost of the project.

The KCA meeting heard that the total cost of flower displays in the town for the summer came to around 15,000 euros.

This included the window boxes as well as planting 40 street tubs and the 10 planters on the bridge. This last was sponsored for the last two years by local businessman Sammy Cole.

Brian Byrne.

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Sad plight of 'Earls' women

Members of several Kildare local history groups were treated in KIlcullen to a fascinating talk on the women who accompanied the Donegal-based earls when they fled to Europe in 1607.

Dr Mary Ann Lyons, Ger McCarthy of the Kildare Federation of Local History Groups, Larry Breen of Naas Local History Group and Nessa Dunlea of Kilcullen Heritage Group.

The female dimension of the 'Flight of the Earls' is a forgotten one, Dr Mary Ann Lyons told the gathering at the event, which was organised by the Kildare Federation of Local History Groups and held in the Kilcullen Heritage Centre.

Dr Lyons, a lecturer in St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, noted that when the ship carrying the earls of Tyrone and Tyreconnell left Lough Swilly 400 years ago there were 99 people on board, of whom just 37 were actual fugitives. Of 17 women in the party, three were 'noble' and the others were in service to the earls and their families.

Dr Lyons gave detailed accounts of the lives of the three women from the Irish aristocracy. Catherine Magennis was wife of Hugh O'Neill and mother of three of his sons. Nuala O'Donnell was sister of Red Hugh O'Donnell and Rory, Earl of Tyreconnell. Rose O'Doherty was wife first of Cathbhar O'Doherty and later Owen Roe O'Neill.

Dr Lyons also provided an insight into the life of Bridget Fitzgerald, Countess of Tyreconnell and married to Rory O'Donnell, who was left behind in the 'flight' because she was close to giving birth, a matter which left her very bitter.

Interweaving the threads from the lives of each of the women and those close to them, Dr Lyons detailed how their individual and collective fortunes were dictated by the politics of the time between Spain, England and Rome.

She outlined how the marriages of the women were usually 'strategic' matches related to local politics and dynastic power bases, and how their fortunes declined once they were away from their homeland and also separated from their children by dictat of their 'protector' monarchy in Spain.

Nuala Magennis, as the fourth and very young wife of a cruel husband who had already been married three times, found herself in very difficult circumstances compared to her accustomed station, especially following his death in Italy. After many privations she died in Naples, to where she had been chased by creditors.

Nuala O'Donnell, aristocrat by blood and probably the only one of the women to make her own decision to be part of the flight, might have been best able to deal with the difficulties of their exile. Subsequent to the death of her brother in Italy she returned to Louvain in Flanders where the young children of the earls' families were lodged with the Irish Fransciscan community.

Rose O'Doherty's sojurn in Rome was also blighted by tragedy when her brother was killed and her husband Cathbar died. Dependent on Nuala for the administration of her Spanish pension, she also ended up back in Louvain where she married Owen Roe O'Neill and lived with him for the next 35 years. She also played a part in the civil war in Ireland of the 1640s, raising money in Galway and buying munitions.

Dr Lyons related how Bridget Fitzgerald's daughter Mary got involved in anti-English intrigues until she bacame pregnant by a 'lowly Irish Captain' and thereafter her life went severely downhill.

It is clear from the pen pictures painted by Mary Ann Lyons that the lot of the women who left Ireland with their aristocratic menfolk in 1607 certainly was nothing approaching romantic.

And though she only touched on it, the experiences of the more lowly servant women who also left on that boat from Lough Swilly was even more trying.

The evening was a fascinating insight into what hadn't even been a sidenote to a part of Irish history which for most of us was romanticised as far as the principal characters were concerned.

As Dr Lyons noted, decisions made by those principals had disastrous consequences for the people close to them and dependent on them for their livelihoods.

The event was the second such lecture organised by the Kildare Federation of Local History Groups. Thanking all those involved, federation chairman Ger McCarthy said it would continue to be an annual event if the support for this one was any indication.




Brian Byrne.

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