Seven years and counting
Seven years ago I didn't have a notion that I'd be writing this article, writes Brian Byrne.
Seven years ago the Diary didn't exist, but it was just about to be born, in the last week of January 2005.
A lot has happened in Kilcullen in that seven years. And a lot has not happened too. For instance, the very first story in the Diary was a somewhat lengthy report on a KCA public meeting, at which it was decided KCA would not object to a planning application relating to Brennan's Hardware on Main Street.
The application, by Pat Dunlea and Donal Brennan, proposed a number of apartment blocks and shops on the property. It was a sometimes heated discussion on the project, which would see the Brennans hardware and builders providers business move to the outskirts of Kilcullen.
Of course, we know today that it didn't happen, even though planning permission was granted. But how many, I wonder, remember that the meeting took place at all?
That is, of course, one of the reasons the Diary is still in existence. Even thriving. Because so much happens here in this little one-street town. I don't claim we get to note everything, but a lot of what is going down finds its way into these daily pages.
And this is despite massively increased internet-based 'competition' when every local organisation, business, and very many individuals have their own 'news outlets' in the form of Facebook pages. There are also many more local websites than when the Diary started out.
In those first months, I got quite excited when the readership hit 200 pages a month. These days it is averaging out at some 18,700 a month. Sometimes peaking considerably higher.
In the past week we have posted lookbacks on Kilcullen 2011. A number of readers have responded on the lines that 'don't we live in a very interesting place?'. And we do.
Kilcullen is a place with buzz. All human life is here, to steal a marketing phrase once used by, I think, the News of the World or some such newspaper (I could Google it, but it wouldn't make any difference to the sense of what I'm saying).
Joy and tragedy, extraordinary and commonplace, beginnings and anniversaries are all part of a wonderful mix of what makes Kilcullen tick.
Sometimes one or other of them will overwhelm us. For instance, the tragic car accident that took the lives of two of the community's young people in October brought by far the highest ever number of 'hits' on the Diary.
The next highest might surprise, it was the stories related to the 'drive-through' by Queen Elisabeth II on her way to Gilltown in May.
There was also big interest in the story of the paver running out of control in August during roadworks on Hillside.
And our recent piece on 'Dick Reade, hero' was also exceptionally popular.
These were just a few strands in the highly coloured tapestry that is Kilcullen, and which I'm privileged to be able to report on. No more than any of us, I can't say that I'll be here this time next year to look back at yet another year of hyperlocal journalism (yes, that's something I learned in 2011, that there's a name for what we do here).
But, as always, I'm looking forward to continue being involved in my home town day to day in my own way. Thank you all, readers, contributors, the people I meet in the process, advertisers and everyone else who in one way or another are part of the same adventure.
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