A Happy New Year, and thank you, all

This piece has been a little while coming, writes Brian Byrne. Maybe because Kilcullen, and therefore the Diary, and by extension myself, have all been so busy since. Not to mention the day job ...

The truth is, I was pretty well gobsmacked by the recent night in Fallons for me that so many of you were in one way or another involved in. I said on the occasion that it left me caught for words. Strange, for somebody who has made his living with words for some 40 years. I've been trying to find the right ones since.

"Just a few of us, a bit of food, a few drinks," I'd been told a couple of weeks before, by way of making sure that I'd be around for the occasion. A sensible precaution. I have a sometimes geographically scattered working life, as many will know. So I put the date on my calendar and got on with normal stuff.

It was certainly suspicious that in the day or so leading in, I found so many people seemed to know there was something on. But it's a small town. Word spreads. Spreads often to me anyhow. Usually so I can do something with it, pass the story on. This wasn't a story, though. Well, not yet.

Then, on the night, arrival in Fallon's snug. Full with friends, family, people I come into contact with through the Diary, KCA, and more. The penny fell noisily on the floor.

I won't go into detail, just to say it was one of those very memorable occasions in one's life. Nice things were said, much more than deserved. There were presents, cards, the presentation for the Diary that's now in pride of place in my sitting room. A second 70th birthday party ... most people who reach the Biblical allocation only get one, and even then are lucky.

So all I can say is, a heartfelt 'thanks'. To those who were there, to those who couldn't make it but sent kind words anyhow, to those who contributed to the presentation and all that went on for the evening. It was, still is, fairly overwhelming. But thanks, again.

Much was said about the Diary, and the contribution it has apparently made to Kilcullen at home and abroad. The truth is, I'm the one that gets the most fun out of it. It gives me the excuse to go places, hear about things, keep in touch with my home town. It's a town I'm very proud to be a part of, that my family has been a part of for four generations. It's a town that has given me and my family much more than I might ever have given it.

For the Diary itself, it's just a reflection of what Kilcullen is all about. If nothing happened here, if there weren't so many things to record and write about, to photograph, there'd be nothing to post on it. If there weren't so many individuals, groups, and businesses all doing pretty wonderful, generous, and sometimes fascinating things, there would be no words to write, no pictures to take, nothing to say. If the Diary has earned a place beside The Bridge as a way to help Kilcullen be talking to itself, it's only because the people of Kilcullen give it a reason to be.

I have been blessed with an ability to write a little, an ability I have tried to craft and hone and improve and develop over the last four decades. It is an ability that has contributed to giving me a very interesting life, has brought me to places and introduced me to people I could only have dreamed of if I had stayed with some of my earlier career endeavours. But in many respects the Diary is the part of all that which I find the most satisfying. Because it's about my home. And my home people. The ten years since I set it up have, literally, flown.

Some people are lucky. Others are very lucky. I consider myself exceptionally lucky, to have a beautiful and loving family, wonderful friends, and a unique home town that I'm fortunate to have been able to stay in for all my life. For all that, I say one last time, thank you.

Happy New Year, all.