Eight years on, the news is good

As we turned from 2012 into this year, a couple of local stories were happening which show a very important thing, writes Brian Byrne. The power of people.

The Diary is now eight years old, and we have covered a lot of things over that time. Most good, occasionally bad. Most important, they were local. Kilcullen stories, about Kilcullen doings and people.

One we led with just before Christmas, and the one we led with yesterday, are among the most positive. The first was the news that the Childcare & Family Resource Centre is definitely going ahead, and all going well will be in place for next September's intake of children. Yesterday's was the news that the appeal by residents against planning for a metal recycling and cars ELV facility close to two local estates was won.

Both stories have long tails. Which are evident when you go back through the Diary. Where you see that when all seems lost is when people mobilise. In each case, public meetings resulted in a vitalisation of effort, and renewed purpose. And with people taking on the impediments, positive outcomes.

It is one of the advantages of the internet that we can go back through the timeline of an ongoing story, and work out where the 'turnover' moments were. The same thing can be done with other local news providers, like The Bridge and the local newspapers. But it's easier on the 'net. And if we go back over the last eight years on the Diary we can find many instances of local 'people power' making Kilcullen a better place to live in.

In 2012 the Diary hit new readership records, reaching in excess of 31,000 pages viewed in a month. I still find it amazing that it gets such attention in a village that really is not yet a town. Though I do notice that the proportion of overseas hits has increased a little, an indication of more emigration in these difficult times.

From when I started out in journalism back in the second half of the 70s, I made a point of trying to report good news where it happened. Not a way of getting ahead in this game. Certainly not these days, where digging deep in muck and anger and misery is the source of most lead stories across the news media. But in a career of working for national newspapers, RTE and local radio, and a plethora of magazines and regional newspapers, I have managed to make a living and earn a degree of respect for what I do.

Kilcullen over the last eight years has produced many good news stories, and I'm proud to have been able to get many of those across to the Diary's readers at home and abroad. But I'm just the reporter, and without the people in Kilcullen who actually make their hopes and projects actually happen, those stories wouldn't be there.

So, as we head into the ninth year of A Kilcullen Diary, I pay homage to all those Kilcullen people, old and new, who keep the good news stories coming, simply because they believe in their lives and their families and their town. And when the news is bad, they show tenacity and courage to try and turn it around. It's the power of people.

Salut, as we begin the latest Irish Presidency of the EU, and here's to a really good 2013 for you all.