'Open All Hours' on Sunday
The 'Open All Hours' event in Kilcullen Community Library on Sunday is a must for anybody who has an interest in how businesses developed in Kilcullen, and how they contributed to the development of Kilcullen itself.
Come along and listen to stories from both sides of the counter as customers and staff take a walk down memory lane and share their tales of how shops and shopping used to be in the town of Kilcullen. It kicks off at 3pm.
"The impetus for this memory event was Mary Orford," says Librarian Julie O'Donoghue. "Her family background and her own childhood spent in and around the family's shop and pub has left her with an abiding interest in human nature, people's foibles and peculiarities and a deep compassion for her fellow beings."
Mary will be one of the people contributing to the day. The event grew out of discussions between Julie and Mary. "We felt that it was a worthwhile project and that there would be much local interest in it," Julie says, adding that families often 'dealt' solely with one business or another. "There was huge loyalty to the shop or shops that you used. My grandmother would walk past several closer businesses in order to shop in May Brennans — a good step from Nicholastown. We had many more businesses in the town then and people had a real choice."
Most of these shops allowed people to buy on credit (tick) and it was all written down in the book and some of it paid off each week. "They offered a valuable and humane service to many families — most of the poor and working class had small wages and large numbers of children so this was a very important service to them.
"People often talk about what a nice community Kilcullen is to live in and I believe that the generosity of spirit and the compassion for people and their experiences shown by our shopkeepers has contributed in no small way to how the town has developed and to how easily we integrated our new residents into the community. The 2011 Community Survey showed (scientifically) that Kilcullen is a very cohesive community — more so than most."
