Focus point for town heritage
If a newcomer to Kilcullen wants to get a sense of where the town came from, the Heritage Centre that was Kilcullen's Millennium project is usually their first port of call.
The airy building, which makes good use of glass and has superb views of the River Liffey, was actually originally conceived as a foyer area for the Town Hall Theatre which had been revamped in 1994.
But it very quickly evolved as a repositary for photographs and historical items collected over many years by the late Pat Dunlea, whose idea the facility was. He was an enthusiastic member of the Kilcullen Drama Group, which was the main user of the Theatre, and felt that a better use could be made of a garden area to the side of the building.
Subsequent to the official opening of the premises on Millennium Eve, Pat's own collection attracted other items owned by people in the locality, notably from the Pender Family as well as other families with long connections to the town.
Among the funding sources for the facility were the Department of the Heritage, Gaeltacht & the Islands, the Kilcullen Development Association, and private donations.
The Centre is open to the public every weekday morning and has been staffed under a FAS scheme since 2000.
Among the many items of interest is a genealogical explanation of the La Touche family, which was very important in the area in the 18th and 19th centuries.
There are also enlarged photographs relating to the early days of many Kilcullen sports and social organisations, including the Boxing Club, the GAA, and the Drama Group.
The proximity of Kilcullen to the Curragh Military Camp is also evident through quite a number of related artefacts. Booklets, advertisements, programmes and tickets for a wide variety of local events offer very local persepctives on daily life over decades in a much earlier Kilcullen.
A photograph of actor Paul Newman with the projector is one of many which remind of visits to the Heritage Centre by prominent people.
Kilcullen Heritage Group chair Nessa Dunlea says there's no room for any more permanent exhibits, but the group organises an annual heritage event which provides opportunity for special short-term exhibitions.
"We began these with a commemoration on the 100th anniversary of the Gordon Bennett Race, which has strong local history," she says. "And most recently we had our dedication of the new Dun Ailinne Interpretive Park, which prompted a number of events in the Heritage Centre."
Nessa emphasises how important the FAS involvement has been to the success of the Centre as a viable and relevant entity.
"Having somebody there to be able to answer queries from visitors, and being open at regular times, is one reason why it works. Another is that the involvement of the Drama Group helps to subsidise the operation."
Current centre manager Kathy Flynn's FAS contract comes to an end in the middle of August. The position has been sanctioned for further funding and the Heritage Group are actively looking for a replacement for Kathy.
The Heritage Centre also acts as a focus for many other events in the town, and is regularly used as the location for functions such as book launches, musical and theatre productions, and events which include the presentation of the annual Community Awards by Kilcullen Community Action.
Kathy Flynn has catalogued the various artifacts, heirlooms and other items in the Centre, and it is hoped over coming years to develop a public-accessible computer database which will provide further information about each element in the collection.
"The important thing is that the Centre is fully a community resource, belonging to the people of Kilcullen," says Nessa Dunlea. "That was the vision of the original Town Hall built on the site in the early part of the 20th century, and one which we are continuing today."
Brian Byrne.
(This story first appeared on the Kilcullen page of the Kildare Nationalist.)
