Bright and breezy this morning with sunny spells and scattered showers, which will ease through the afternoon, becoming isolated by evening. Feeling crisp with highest temperatures of just 8 degrees in moderate to fresh westerly winds, easing later.
DID YOU KNOW?
Even though there are at least 30,000 edible plant species in the world, three-quarters of the planet's food comes from just 12 plants and five animal species. Most of that is from wheat, rice, sugarcane, corn, and soy, and a much smaller share from cattle, chicken, sheep, pigs, and goats.
For privacy of those attending, the Diary requires to be invited by the organisers to cover events in a private, commercial or club location. This does not apply to public meetings, or events in public spaces.
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WHAT'S ON AROUND
Here is a link to a Calendar of upcoming events in Kilcullen. If you have an event you want listed, email the Diary.
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PARISH LOTTO
The Kilcullen & Gormanstown Parish Lotto Draw is held at 8pm each Tuesday in the Parish Centre. This is a public event to which all are welcome. There's a prize draw each night for those attending. Details of previous Draws are here.
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TEXT ALERT
Forms for joining the Kilcullen Garda District Text Alert scheme are available from The Grocery in Calverstown, Kilcullen Garda Station, Kilcullen Credit Union, and scheme committee members. Please encourage neighbours and friends to join.
Reaching 60 years of priesthood, and still being able to enjoy the occasion, is not given to many, writes Brian Byrne. But Fr Matt Kelly OP achieved just that recently in the company of his extended family.
There was a symmetry to the occasion, as the celebration was held in the dining room of Fallons of Kilcullen, which was once the tailor's shop operated by his father Jim and above which Fr Matt was born 85 years ago.
Those who celebrated with him included his sister Brigid, known to all as B, and his brother Pat, as well as many nieces and nephews and their children.
"It has been a wonderful day," Fr Matt said on the occasion, pictured above with his sister Brigid (better known just as 'B') and brother Pat. He lives in Kilkenny with his order these days, occasionally coming back to visit Newbridge College where he worked for many years. In fact, it was while a young boy being brought to visit his older brother Jim, a pupil in Newbridge College, which probably sparked his initial interest in the priesthood.
"Later I got a scholarship to the College myself, and was educated there until 1944. Afterwards I went to Oxford and studied my theology with the English Dominicans and was ordained there."
Following a period at UCC, where he studied for a BA, he came back to Newbridge College in 1955 and taught there for a decade, after which he went to Australia for a number of years. "I was stationed in Canberra, where I was chaplain in the National University. I enjoyed that time very much, it was exhilerating, meeting not just Australians, but people from Asia and elsewhere."
When he returned to Ireland he worked in Limerick before eventually moving to Kilkenny some years ago.
Both as a priest and a teacher through his working life, he says he was 'learning all the time'. "There's nobody will teach you better than young people you are working with. They are mirrors of the society in which we all live."
In addition to his teaching career, Fr Matt trained rugby teams, his other passion in life—he had himself played rugby for Leinster as a schoolboy. "I say that lightly," he smiles, "but I still have the same interest in the game." He was also very strongly involved in Newbridge College Past Pupils Union.
His memories of growing up in Kilcullen remain sharp, and he still 'thinks of and prays for' the 'wonderful' people of the village in which he was born—"Kilcullen has a marvellous character," he muses. With family still here, he retains a direct line of contact even if it isn't quite as easy for him to visit.
Fr Matt is the surviving member of four siblings in his father's first family, who included Jim, Jerry and Mary. Pat and Brigid came after his father remarried following the death of his first wife. Fr Matt particularly appreciates being able to be with the extended Kelly family.
"Sometimes I come on 'holiday' from Kilkenny to Newbridge College, and I can catch up with some of them then," he says with the quiet smile that has always been his trademark.
This article was first published in The Kildare Nationalist.
This week is the last chance to enter on line for Kildare and Ireland’s Kilomarathon, writes event PRO Sean Cleary.
The first one took place in South Kildare, starting and finishing in the village of Moone last August. It will take place again this year on Sunday 7 August over a new route that will start in Moone and go through Kilkea and Bolton.
A kilomarathon is a new style of marathon - 26.2 kms, mimicking the 26.2 miles of the full Marathon. The Kilomarathon, apart from its own attractions, will bring many newcomers the sport by acting as a stepping stone to participating in traditional Marathons.
The Kilomarathon Day in Moone is like a carnival, with music, bands and loads of excitement. Childrens races will be held while we await the first adults home.
Advance Entry on Line is up to Midnight on August 5. Kilomarathon €30, 10K €20. Later Entries, will be Kilomarathon €35, 10K €25. Entries will be accepted on the day from 9am.
The Kilomarathon will start at 11.45 and the 10K at 12.15 sharp. Entry Forms for The Irish Kilomarathon and the 10K, which take place on the same day, are available on www.kilomarathonireland.com.
Listen, it wouldn't be the greatest hotel to wake up in with a hangover, writes Brian Byrne, but you have to give the Nhow Hotel in Berlin full marks for working off a bright palette.
The predominant colour is pink, the design theme full of curved large shapes. There are zests of lime yellow and bright blue and some seriously oddball graphics to pummel any booze-delicated optical nerve endings. Overall, it's like living inside one of those very dangerous-looking fancy cocktails beloved of some promotional event organisers.
But the staff are friendly and very helpful, and the food excellent. The WiFi is a little slow, and you have to pay for it, and the minimum bike rental costs €13 for six hours. It isn't within walking distance of the city centre, so the bike rental is recommended if weather permits.
And if you decide you want to stay in your room but have neglected to bring your guitar for company, they promise they will deliver the loan of a Gibson if you ask.
Pink might seem a bit much. But it could be worse—I believe there’s one in Milan where the keynote colour is ... orange!
Kilcullen is losing another business with Friday's closure of Picture Framing Services, writes Brian Byrne.
Popular proprietor Tara Gale has taken a job with Dell, and spent much of the last week dealing with the remaining projects for her customers (in between bouts of celebration and commiseration with her many friends).
"I've had great times here and some fantastic friendships have developed through this business," she said during the week, thanking everybody who had supported her.
Tara was one of the key local business figures behind last year's very successful Kilcullen River Festival.
The picture framing business was formerly operated by her artist father Dermott Gale, first in the premises beside Bank of Ireland (later Ruby Shoes) and afterwards in Kilcullen's industrial park.
When Tara took over in 2008 she moved it to a more visible premises on the Curragh Road.
Among the many framing projects she undertook was a major Yeats art and prints exhibition in Lissadel House in August of last year.
Kilcullen Drama Group will be getting its next season activities under way on 15 September with a reading for the group's autumn production.
The reading will begin at 8pm and anyone interested in taking part either on stage or backstage should contact Marlena Healy at marlenahealy@gmail.com.
A major fundraising campaign in aid of a proposed Community Childcare & Family Centre is being spearheaded by the Kilcullen Community Playgroup (Naomh Bride).
Things get under way to raise the €40,000 local contribution target with a bag-packing day in Dunnes Stores in Newbridge on Friday 5 August.
Volunteers are needed for the day and anyone wanting to help should contact Iseult on 086 8519361.
The playgroup would also be delighted to hear of any fundraising ideas from other members of the community.
Kilcullen GAA have expressed their appreciation to all local businesses who have supported the club's fundraising for expenses associated with being involved in the Celebrirt Bainisteoir 2011 series.
The club is hosting its first-round match of the knock-out competition, against Dana-trained Lissan of Derry on Sunday August 21.
Twenty pitch side advertising signs are already in place on the pitch, and there's room for more, says club PRO Henry Barrett. There are also opportunities for businesses to advertise on the special programme being produced for the day and on the club website.
Contact Henry on 086 1677829 or Dan Bell on 086 2590314 if you want to take that opportunity.
A group of four women who took part in the Flora Womens Mini Marathon in aid of funds for Brannoxtown NS raised €1,208.
Between them they represented staff, and parents and grandparents of pupils at the school. They were Rosie Shaw, Betty Horan, Caroline McGlinchey and Audrey Finnegan.
The ninth Mac & Norman Vintage Rally in aid of the Irish Cancer Society will take place this year on Sunday August 14.
Organised by Peter and Ann Sully and a hardworking team of friends, the rally attracts hundreds of vehicles each year. It was raised around €300,000 for the ICS since it was inaugurated.
It's just five months since local man Martin Heydon was elected to Dail Eireann (above) on his first outing, and after a very short time in politics.
As he and his colleagues closed down the Dail for the summer recess, in a Radio Diary interview Brian Byrne asked the Fine Gael TD what these first months have been like (20'12").
Kildare County Council's waste collection service will be taken over by AES from 25th July.
Details of the handover were provided at yesterday's meeting of the Council. It will not mean any change in service details to existing Council waste collection customers, including to those receiving waivers.
The Council says its waste collection business has been declining in recent years, and if it was to continue providing the service, charges would have had to rise.
New challenges and fond memories are the summer focus for Esther Reddy, who will be leaving Brannoxtown NS in September after five years as teacher and principal in the idyllic setting of the village, writes Brian Byrne.
Esther is moving on to St Brigid’s NS in Ballysax, where she takes up the post of administrative principal.
“It’s very hard for me to leave Brannoxtown,” she admitted last week as she sat in the empty school working on administrative details. “I’ve had a fantastic time here, I’ve learned a lot, and I have met some wonderful children and wonderful parents.”
Complimenting those same parents and children for their ‘terrific energy’, Esther notes that there are ‘great things’ happening in Brannoxtown NS as she leaves.
“We have been given a devolved grant for four new classrooms, and we’re working very hard at getting work started on these before the summer holidays end. In place of decrepit buildings which have been used for years, the children and teachers will be getting bright new classrooms which they really deserve.”
Moving to St Brigid’s is another step in a career which has included teaching in St Josephs NS in Halverstown, and Athgarvan NS. But it is in a way also closing a circle, because her very first teaching position was in Brownstown NS, which was replaced by St Brigid’s.
“I’m looking forward to leading a larger school, where I can devote all my energies to the work of an administrative principal. Though I will miss the teaching side; in Brannoxtown my first responsibility was to the children sitting in front of me, and when they went home I then got down to the administrative work. But with a family too, that can all be quite draining.”
Esther’s new post will have many similarities to what she is leaving, but on a larger scale. “I’ll be dealing with the same sets of policies, but with many more people. There are going to be a lot of children’s names I’ll have to learn first, and later their parents’ names.”
Although administration will be her main work, the role of a principal in any school is much more than that, Esther says. “You are a teacher, an administrator, a medical person, a counsellor, a disciplinarian, a comforter ... as well as dealing with architects, builders, the people who deliver the cleaning supplies. It’s never ending, and it is probably why the official job description hasn’t changed since the mid-70s. I think the Department is afraid to touch it.”
Esther will leave Brannoxtown on 23 September, and begin in Ballysax on Monday 26 September. “I already know the community there, and they have a wonderful spirit which I’m looking forward to tapping into.”
This article was first published in The Kildare Nationalist.
A project which began as a Cross & Passion Transition Year endeavour has resulted in the recording of historic graves in New Abbey Cemetery on the world wide web, writes Brian Byrne, with a view to making them available to anybody who wants to trace family in the plots.
The work involved plotting to a very high degree of accuracy, using GPS, the location of the graves, and sending them along with photographs of the gravestones to a Cork-based company which is documenting historic graveyards in various parts of Ireland.
The technical part of plotting the graves was done by retired Irish Army General Des Travers, who lives in Kilcullen and has always had a keen interest in local heritage.
We reported in April on how the project was going. The next stage is to provide more information, as well as transcriptions of what is written on the more weathered stones.
Des makes the very valid point that where no documents exist relating to those buried in the graves, the research must be done where they are buried.
And he suggests that providing information in this way will bring the descendants of those people to visit Kilcullen so they can find out more.
Hannah Evans, Kilcullen's pastoral worker for the last two years, is leaving to take up the position of Church Officer with Trocaire.
She has contributed significantly to many aspects of parish pastoral life in her short time here. Some of her impact will be detailed in next week's Kildare Nationalist.
On our part, the Diary wishes her well on her new adventure.
Two sisters who believe they are descendants of the famous pugilist Dan Donnelly paid a visit last week to The Hideout, which was associated with the 19th century fighter’s mummified arm for almost half a century, writes Brian Byrne.
Valerie Malik and Lorraine Ringling had in fact visited the pub back in 1988, where they saw the arm in its then repositary, a glass case over the fireplace. Retained by the Byrne family when the late Des Byrne sold the pub, the arm is currently on loan to a major exhibition, Fighting Irishmen. The exhibition is at the moment in the University of Limerick, having been already in New York, Boston, Omagh and Croke Park.
“My mother’s maiden name was Donnelly,” says Valerie Malick, “and it has always been in the family lore that we were descended from Dan Donnelly. But we have never been able to prove it, because the Dublin records were destroyed in the Custom House Fire of 1921.”
According to the family story, the Donnelly family related to the pugilist moved north to Belfast at some stage, by coincidence even setting up home in Townsend St in Belfast. Dan Donnelly himself lived in Townsend St in Dublin.
“And there’s another coincidence,” says Valerie. “I actually live in Coulsden in Surrey, very near where Dan Donnelly fought the fight at which he was knighted by the Prince Regent.”
Valerie and Lorraine are pictured here with Clare Boyce of The Hideout. Behind them is a framed poem and drawing presented earlier this year by Brownstown-based Dan Donnelly fan Barney O’Keefe.
This story was originally published in The Kildare Nationalist.
The annual Old Kilcullen Cemetery Mass takes place on Friday 29 July, at 7.30pm.
All are welcome. The graveyard is on the site of a round tower, which was used as a refuge and as a storehouse for church valuables during the Norse raids in the 9th and 10th century AD and served also as a watchtower and Belfrey.
A partial list of families with members buried there is here.
Kilcullen Community Action is looking for six local research assistants to help with the upcoming Community Survey.
The survey—which is funded through the Rural Development Programme—will be carried out from September-December.
A professional researcher has been appointed, and the research assistants will be involved in interviewing local residents and compiling data afterwards.
Expenses will be paid. Text details to 085 1372710 or email info@kilcullencommunityaction.ie
With Kilcullen River Festival beginning to pump up a good head of steam, the organisers are releasing news of attractions as they are confirmed.
This year, music will feature right through the afternoon, and the line up already included Flock Of Budgies, Porno Pigs, Shindig, Tristan Carroll and Saoirse songs of Freedom.
The in-river gigs which were such a success last year will also return, with the Defence Forces looking after an Obstacle Course competitive event. They will also be showing off military vehicles, with opportunity for fans to have a hands-on experience.
Make-a-Face face painting are also contributing.
More as it happens, but if the word of more than 4,000 happy attendees from last year has got out, the whole event is full of promise.
Gifts, flowers and party supplies are available from a new business at Hillcrest, The Gift Box.
Established by Jason Lambert in the unit formerly occupied by Dave Clancy, the enterprise offers a wide range of choice for marking special occasions, or just to give a lift to a dreary day for somebody.
The flowers side of things is in association with Flora By Norah Floral Designs, a specialist in providing for weddings, parties, and all other occasions when flowers say best what is in the giver’s mind.
Previously working in construction, Jason’s move into this kind of retailing has echoes back to his youth. “My father used to own a nursery and was always saying I should go into the business. I wanted to do construction, but I did all the courses anyhow and now I’m back into it.”
Jason and his family have been living in Cnoc Na Greine for the last five years, and so are well integrated into Kilcullen. “We had been looking around in the village for some time for a suitable place, and then this opportunity came up.”
Handling the party side of things is done in association with PartyLink.ie, and provides everything needed to make an event go with a swing. The service particularly can provide all the necessities for a themed party. Balloon printing, and gifts in balloons are also available.
“Our service includes suitable table settings available for hire for weddings and similar events, and we can coordinate everything needed. Our flowers delivery service is free in the Kilcullen area, and people can order by phone. We can also arrange delivery of both flowers and gifts to hospitals and other locations for a small delivery charge.”
The Gift Box location is an easy one for access, with parking out front for a quick drop in. There’s also plenty of longer term parking at the back of the Hillcrest complex.
A request for Kildare County Council to put a yellow box on the Church Road outside the exit to the Church Car Park has been turned down, writes Brian Byrne. The Council says it would be 'in breach of traffic regulations' if it created the 'box'.
The matter was raised for today's meeting of the Council's Athy Area Committee held in Athy, by Cllr Ivan Keatley.
In a report received from the Traffic Management Section of KCC, Cllr Keatley was told the 'location is clearly a private access point and not a junction. The installation, or renewal of yellow boxes, is being strictly enforced so that they comply with regulations'.
The report suggested an alternative of a white painted box with the text 'Keep Clear', which could be considered 'subject to agreement and funding being available'.
In response to other queries, Cllr Keatley was told that it is planned to erect signage for the M9 motorway in the vicinity of the main traffic lights in Kilcullen 'in the near future'.
And a request that the council contact the NRA regarding the inadequate signage at Whitehall has been forwarded to the Naas Area Office for consideration, the councillor was informed.
Cllr Keatley told the Diary this afternoon that he will continue to follow up on both the Church Road and Whitehall Cross issues as he is 'not satisfied' with the reports he got today.
Fr Matt Kelly OP had a family celebration in Fallons on Saturday to mark the 60th anniversary of his ordination. He is pictured here with his brother Pat, his sister B Cummins, Pat's wife Liz, and B's husband Derry.
Behind them is the stairs which led to the living quarters of the Kelly home over Jim Kelly's tailor shop, where Fr Matt was born 85 years ago.
We will have a profile of Fr Matt's life here in due course.
Remember, today is the Fun Day organised by Bardons to raise funds for Barretstown.
Things kick off at 11.30am at the Astroturf pitch with a fun football match, then through the afternoon there will be finger food, music and craic in the pub itself.
Kilcullen ladies from the Suas Knitting Club recently presented a cheque to Peta Taffe from the Order of Malta, the proceeds of an Awareness Day on Palestine which the group held in association with Transition Year students from Cross & Passion College.
The knitted items on show are newborn baby sets made by the group. These will also be brought to Palestine and given to premature babies and babies in the desert visited by the Order of Malta. (Pic: Hannah Evans.)
Bardons of Kilcullen is winding up for its next Barretstown fundfest, scheduled for next Sunday 17 July.
Though they're not doing a barbecue this year there will be a full day of fun in hand, beginning with the keynote charity Football Match on the Astroturf pitch from around 11.30 (Linda says if she gets enough players, there will be two matches and a final, so get the numbers up).
From lunchtime there will be all-day finger-food at the pub, with music, face-painting, darts and other games, and a mighty raffle with prizes too good to mention yet.
Anyone entering the football match should get a Barrettstown sponsorship card from Bardons from now, and sign up their friends before they all sign up each other. Of course, anyone else can get a card to fill too.
Other funds will be gathered through the raffle and from donation buckets, so there's plenty of opportunity to help out the worthy cause.
Rehearsals for the Drama Dynamics summer show are in full swing this week in the Tennis Club. Tomorrow at 10am the youngsters have their first run-through on the boards of the Town Hall Theatre, after which each of the two age groups will perform their own shows.
Our picture from this morning shows just a few of the youngsters in rehearsal.
Well, now that the Diary poll is completed and whatever I say won't influence it, writes Brian Byrne, I figure as the other Valley trustee I can safely voice my own opinion on the M9 sculpture.
I'm in favour of the proposal to locate it in the Valley, and especially the suggested position where it will be clearly visible from the bridge and from the Market Square.
I believe that part of the Valley needs something. It is a bit of emptiness, with a rather scruffy background of steep bank and scrub. Something fairly substantial there would better 'anchor' that section of the park, which is also the gateway to the place.
And I think a piece in that position would quite well triangulate with the other two existing elements, the spout and the 1978 opening edifice, and offer a greater visual depth. There's something about a trinity, whether it be people talking or things in a place, which will usually offer a greater dimension to whatever is going on.
As to the piece itself. My fellow trustee, Jim Collins, has expressed concerns that it is, among other things, 'too modern' for the park. He mentions the 200 years old spout and St Brigid's Well and suggests that the Valley and its 'natural beauty' has nothing to do with the M9.
The Valley itself was never an old amenity for Kilcullen, and only came into existence in the 1970s. Thanks largely to Jim Collins himself, who masterminded the purchase, payment for, and development of the ugly scrubland behind Molloy's milking shed. As children many of us in my generation had played there, sure, scuttling along a number of slippery and very unsafe paths created in the undergrowth. But there's nothing historic about today's Valley park except as a place with several plaques commemorating individuals who were outstanding in the development of Kilcullen through the 1970s and thereabouts.
The spout may well indeed be 200 years old, but it was never in the Valley itself. It was on a wall up near the main street, in a scruffy lane down to the river, usually cow-patted by the beasts driven up and down twice a day to Molloys. It had been one of the sources of the village's drinking water until mains water arrived. I have my own memories of lugging pails of water from the spout each day for my grandmother, who swore by it as much healthier drinking water than that mains stuff.
The spout disappeared during the development of the Valley park, and it was only rediscovered in 2000. Again thanks to Jim's efforts, it was relocated and connected to the original spring from where it continues to pour today. As a direct relationship to the Valley park, it has nothing much; but it is good that it has been placed in the park, where its heritage and original value can be celebrated.
St Brigid's Well is modern myth. Again, many of my generation will recall it as a mucky spring in the bit of sloping field across the road from Nolans hayshed. If there was ever any documented connection to the patron saint of Kildare, I've never read it. But as part of the development of the Valley park, a proper surround was built, and the spring was subsequently graced with a fairly modernistic sculpture produced by the late Fr Henry Flanagan. But old and historic? Nope, more likely the runoff from the higher Nolans land above it. The water, by the way, was always unfit to drink, and still is as far as I know.
Now, the Valley not having any connection with the M9? Not directly, certainly. But indirectly it does have a number of parallels. For instance, that aforementioned lane down to the river by the spout probably was the way down to the ford across it. Before it was 'bypassed' by the first of the bridges which now link the two parts of Kilcullen. And the M9 has, since the first section was opened, bypassed that bridge and Kilcullen itself.
The original road through Kilcullen was not just the way from Dublin to Kilkenny and points further south, but was also the main road to Cork out of the Pale. So the many motorists who still use the bridge driving about their local business would certainly be part of a connection with the M9 sculpture as they cross the Liffey southwards. The piece's title, 'Homeward', would certainly resonate with those drivers inching their way across the bridge at teatime.
As Jim rightly mentions, the work was designed to be viewed on the side of a motorway by travellers passing it. Which also means that it doesn't have a back in sculptural terms. If it were located in the Market Square, facing up the hill northwards, then those looking at it from behind—either in the square itself, or from the Valley across the river—would be looking at a blank rear. As for the Logstown Road junction, or the parking space beside the bank, each of those would be too close to the road for the size of the piece.
Placing sculptures in public parks is a time-honoured practice and has resulted in old, not quite as old, and modern pieces existing happily side by side. Attracting interest from both traditionalists and modernists. And as often as not marking moments of transition in an area or community. The addition of 'Homeward' to Kilcullen's list of public sculpture fills that last, I believe.
Comments have been made in other forums about 'spending the money on something more worthwhile'. The thing is, the money for these motorway project art pieces is ring-fenced, under the Per Cent for Art Scheme launched in 2004. It provides that up to 1 percent of the value of public works be set aside for related art.
And so to the Diary poll, which ended yesterday. Whatever its outcome, I find it very heartening that 116 people in the community felt exercised enough to register their feelings. In the context of some 3,500 people living in Kilcullen, and up to 20,000 pages viewed on the website every month, it may not seem much. But only a very small percentage of readers would ever use an Internet poll anyhow. The final tally was substantially more than I ever expected.
The 'no' side prevailed, by a small margin. I should mention that the poll was informal on the Diary's part, and was never going to be the basis of whatever decision is made. Though I reckon it will be noted. And it is interesting that the result reflects accurately the divergent views of the two remaining trustees of the Valley.
So what's next? I don't know. Pistols at dawn between Jim and myself in the Valley is not a runner, partly because we have been friends too long and, besides, we might not manage to miss each other. The making of the sculpture itself has just begun, as per the contract between Kildare County Council and the artist. Pretty soon, a decision has to be made about the location.
Wherever it goes, the very worst decision would be that it ends up in some other place along the M9. We really don't want to lose this one.
We're already getting good reports about the new garden shop, the latest of several new businesses in Kilcullen which show that—recession or not—entrepreneurism is alive and well in the town.
Located at the car park of Leinster Marts, The Garden Shop has been established by Kevin Noud as a boutique enterprise specialising in garden plants and shrubs, as well as general garden needs. A wide variety of herbaceous plants, trees, climbers, fruit trees, specimen plants, herbs, hanging baskets and bedding plants are in stock, along with garden accessories such as compost, sprays fertilisers and pots.
The business also offers landscaping advice. Kevin Noud Landscaping is well established in Athy, and Kevin was the landscaping contractor for a silver medal garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2005.
"We aim to bring the focus of a garden centre back to the plants," says Kevin, a graduate from the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin with BSc. Horticulture. He has many years experience which he can call upon for his new venture, which can supply the highest quality and healthiest plants at excellent value.
And the business has brightened up yet another corner of Kilcullen.
An Adoration Prayer Room has been established in the basement of the Parish House, for those who wish to spend some quiet time in the presence of the Blessed Eucharist.
The room was blessed yesterday (above) by Fr Michael Murphy.
It will be open on a regular scheduled basis Monday through Saturday.
Local concerns about the new signs to Martinstown at Whitehall Cross are scheduled for discussion at the next meeting of the Athy Area Committee of Kildare County Council.
Residents of the area want signs identifying Whitehall Cross itself, as they are afraid that the Martinstown direction signs will result the local towns land name disappearing from use.
Cllr Ivan Keatley has a motion on the matter down on the agenda for the meeting, which will be held in the Municipal Building in Athy on Monday 18 July.
He has also put down a motion on the need for signs to the M50 for the crossroads in Kilcullen.
It's that time of year again, and Billy Redmond has opened his fundraising Bazaar in aid of his annual walk for the Irish Wheelchair Association. Again it's down beside Brennans, a hop and a skip from three good pubs.
There are all sort of bargains in bric a brac, books, furniture, lights and lots of surprises. And never a man to sell merchandise not fit for purpose, Billy (right) and 'staffer' Jack Lambe take the time to test out the sofa.
"Maybe we'll keep this one, eh?" Jack suggests hopefully, thinking it might be a long week on his feet otherwise.
Maybe somebody will put it on layaway until the Bazaar closes?
Kilcullen is losing another business with Friday's closure of Picture Framing Services, writes Brian Byrne.
