It Says in The Bridge: Oct 08

A couple of congratulations stories make the front page of the October Bridge, which is a nice way to face into the winter. The first is to the Kilcullen U16 Gaelic squad, which won the County Final in Newbridge. The second is for Ann Sully from Kennycourt who has been nominated for the Kildare Person of the Year Award for her work in helping to organise the Mac & Norman Vintage Rally, which has raised €212,000 for the Irish Cancer Society.

Inside, there's considerable food for thought in the full reports from the 2008 National Tidy Towns Competition, for Kilcullen, Brannockstown, and Calverstown. Too much to mention here, but there are strong positive conclusions for all.

Much space is also given over to the success of the Ladies Mini Marathon effort for the Punchestown Kidney Research Fund, including a report from Phena Bermingham and a letter of thanks from PKRF founder James Nolan. James also contributes an article of recollection from the recent Transplant Games in Germany, in which he makes the point that for most contenders, medals were secondary to the fact that they 'had won their own personal race just by being there'.

Reaching the Big Seven-Oh is also winning an important lap in the race of life, and there's a double spread on the surprise party held for him in Markeys to show community appreciation for his work for Kilcullen and Brannockstown over many of those seven decades.

There are the usual full sets of pages from the local schools, now well bedded in for the new school year. And the usual writing suspects are back in harness, with Billy Redmond musing on GAA, the national pay talks, and the current financial crisis. Sean Landers writes on a Taiwan mix of subjects, including a local penchant for people to have an English name as well as their given one. Robert Dunlop writes on how important the light of day is to us, against so many dark-filled nights.

Finally, we take the liberty of republishing one of the contributions to this month's 'Spout' page of local writing. It is a poem, The Tree's Story by Daniella Traynor of Sixth Class in Brannockstown NS.

I was a lime tree tall and green,
these are a few of the things I've seen.
The quiet time of the horse and cart,
bringing goods to the weekly mart.
The noisy time of the car door's slam,
dropping off kids to where I am.
The seasons pass, birds come and go,
all kinds of weather, rain, hail or snow.
Christmas, Easter, Halloween.
These are a few of the things I've seen.

We like it.

Brian Byrne.