Beware the glam spookies ...

It's not so much Halloween Spooky, more Halloween Glam tonight as the Diary ventures among the scary night pubs of the town. Here we have just a few of the giggly sights to be seen before we escape their clutches ...

Fallons retains Michelin Pub Guide listing

Fallons of Kilcullen has retained its listing in the latest edition of the Michelin Eating Out in Pubs Guide, writes Brian Byrne.

The local eatery is one of three pubs in County Kildare that are listed, the others being the Ballymore Inn and new entry Hartes of Kildare.

Just 32 Irish pubs north and south of the border are listed this year in the Guide, which covers in total some 590 pubs across the Republic, NI, England, Scotland and Wales.

Enjoying 'Shirley Valentine'

Some of the audience who thoroughly enjoyed the opening night on Thursday of the two-night run of 'Shirley Valentine', presented by Evelyn O'Sullivan and EvE Productions.

Full review here.

Bonfires 'will be put out'

Bonfires will not be allowed in public spaces in Kilcullen tonight, and will be put out, the local Garda have warned, writes Brian Byrne.

People found at any bonfire will be asked by the Garda to disperse.

The Garda have also appealed to young people not to use fireworks, as every year at this time around the country 'somebody loses an eye or a finger'. "None of them are regulated. there have been no safety checks, you don't know whether they are going to go off in your hand. We're concerned about your welfare, that you all come through Halloween safely."

In the latest Text Alert Newsletter from the Naas Garda District, parents are asked to explain to their children the dangers of illegal fireworks. It also notes that criminal damage is sometimes done to property as a result of bonfires, and warns that wind can carry sparks a long distance from the original fire.

Deputy Martin Heydon FG has extended wishes to all for a happy and safe Halloween, while Kildare South Fianna Fail candidate Fiona O'Loughlin has repeated her party's call that proper protection for emergency workers be introduced. "Halloween is a time of great enjoyment for most people but for members of the Gardai, paramedics or fire crews, it’s an extremely dangerous night.”

Table Quiz for hospital, church

A Table Quiz in aid of St Vincent's Hospital in Athy and St John's Church Ballymore will be held in Paddy Murphy's Bar, Ballymore, on Friday 6 November.

Questions start at 9pm sharp, and the entry fee is €10 per person on each team.

It's guaranteed to be a great night of trivia competition and there are lots of fun and spot prizes.

Kilcullen Badminton update

We start this week's proceedings with Kat and the Grade 5 Ladies who travelled to play their counterparts Athy. The Kilcullen girls had beaten Athy in their home fixture 4-0 and were hoping to do the double over their rivals. Kat, Emer,Catherine and Mari didn’t disappoint and managed another 4-0 win over Athy. This win ensures the Kat and the girls are into a semi final and they top the table with healthy 10 points from their opening four matches.

Sarah and the Grade 4 Ladies A also booked themselves a semi final spot when they travelled to Carlow's Ballinabranna. In their last meeting Sarah and her team were a convincing 4-0 win. The only thing different in this match was the venue and the KBC team again won in style beating their opponents 4-0 in a great game. Another great result for Sarah, Caroline, Bernie and Catherine. Good luck to Sarah and the Ragettes in their semi final.

The KBC Grade 5 Mens team captained by Kasi were also on the road on Tuesday night and they visited a improving Portlaoise team. Kasi knew that a victory would put yet another Kilcullen team into a semi final. If Kasi and the lads were under pressure with this knowledge they didn’t let it effect their performance and the lads came away with a fantastic 4-0 victory. Well done to Kasi, Sudeer, Michael and super sub Graham and congratulations to the three teams for making it to the knock out stages.

Murt Dunne was stand in captain for the Grade 2 Mens on Thursday 29 October when they hosted Country Club. Due to other commitments the Grade 2 mens team had to call in three subs and unfortunately Murt and his team were beaten 4-0. The result doesn’t effect the group standings or reflect fairly on the closeness of some of the sets. Well done and hard luck to Murt, Alan Fitz, Michael Cass and Owen Wallace.

Finally some of the girls in the club decided to compete in a 5Km Mud Run for charity the week before last and I managed to find a selfie of the girls just before they went out for a few social drinks, (just after they had completed it!). Well done to Tara, Kat and Lynsey. Sorry, girls, I couldn’t let this photo disappear into the archives without the world seeing it! Lovin' the make-up!

Review: Shirley Valentine in Kilcullen

Thirty years after Willy Russell wrote his one-woman play 'Shirley Valentine', the core elements portrayed of the life of an ordinary woman trapped in domesticity still ring loud and true, writes Brian Byrne.

Last night's performance in Kilcullen by local drama teacher Evelyn O'Sullivan brought that hauntingly home to a packed house. Of mostly women, it should be said. But that doesn't mean there wasn't anything there for men who are equally so trapped.

Because that's the underlying premise of Russell's play, the 'unused life' that afflicts all of us who slip into the state of forgetting that life is to be lived. And lived today. Because, as my own father always said, 'this is not a rehearsal'.

Even with all her ongoing Drama Dynamics activities, Evelyn must have burned the candle both ends to find enough learning and rehearsal time for 'Shirley Valentine', her first full-length solo stage foray. Because from curtain up at last night's performance, she was no longer the Evelyn O'Sullivan we all know, but an absolute reincarnation of Shirley Bradshaw, reached a stage of life where she only had the wall of her kitchen to talk to.

No matter how well written, words on a play script page are only words. To come to life, they need flesh and blood, tongues that speak, emotions to release. And someone to feel all that as an audience. Theatre is a team effort for all, the writer, the actor, the director, and those who have paid to come and experience the result. Last night proved just how well something can be if all of that falls perfectly into place.

Writing a monologue play where the actor has to bring a whole set of other characters alive is difficult enough, but Willy Russell had the skill and experience to do so even three decades ago. And the Shirley Bradshaw ("I used to be Shirley Valentine") in Kilcullen last night was as real as the Liverpool housewife he envisaged all that time back.

So were the other characters in Shirley's life. Husband Joe, trapped himself in the same stifling space as he kept his wife, unchanging as a beetle encased in amber. Their children, gone from home but as unseeing of their mother as was their father. Her school friends, whom she thought had advanced way beyond her. Costa, her short term lover in Greece, where she learned that the Shirley Valentine she had once been, could have a dream come true at a table beside the soft Grecian waves. And could make it come true for others too, if they were prepared to let it.

Shirley Valentine in Kilcullen last night was a helter-skelter ride between despair, humanity, love, loss, happiness, and generosity of spirit. Evelyn O'Sullivan achieved the most difficult task, keeping an audience in the thrall of her Liverpudlian character's voice and actions for the complete performance.

The standing ovation at the end, for the actor and her EvE Productions partner in the play, director Eunice Lavelle, was deserved as much as any would be in London's West End or on Broadway.

This was a quintessential tour de force, and those lucky enough to have tickets for tonight's remaining performance are in for a truly memorable experience.

(All the pictures here..)

Bus service cuts report 'not true'

Reports that the Naas to Carlow bus service will discontinue weekend services are not correct, writes Brian Byrne.

The reports suggested that the National Transport Authority was dropping the service from the end of November, but local TD Martin Heydon says no such decision has been made.

"An initial usage report was issued showing usage numbers of the route to date which showed low usage at weekends," he says. "Arising from this it was proposed to curtail some of the weekend services. This was only a proposal and no formal decisions have yet been made."

The Kildare South deputy has been critical all along of the level of promotion of this route by the NTA and wrote to them in September to ask what funding was being put aside for promotion but got no response. "I spoke with Anne Graham, CEO of the NTA, yesterday on this issue again," he told the Diary this morning. "I made it clear in the strongest possible terms that a proper promotion of the route must be carried out by the state body before any decisions are taken on its success."

The initial clear commitment was that this route had a six-month trail to see how it was operating. "It is only operating three months so far but it must be better advertised to give it every chance of success and to maintain important connectivity for local towns and villages."

UPDATE: "Ms Graham has confirmed today that the route will continue in operation as planned and that the national authority will work with Kildare Local Link to promote the service further. I will be liaising with both bodies to ensure this happens."

A 'Shirley Valentine' tour de force

Just some of the expressions mirroring the life of Willy Russell's 'Shirley Valentine', as played in a bravura performance by Evelyn O'Sullivan last night in Kilcullen's Town Hall Theatre, writes Brian Byrne.

For some 100 minutes, her character held a full-house audience spellbound, alternately flipping moods from the despair of the woman's suffocated life to the laughter moments that she was still capable of. And which were to flower fully again on her journey outside her kitchen wall, to a Greek island where wine, sun, and a little romance rebooted her life.

If you have a ticket for tonight's performance, do not miss it. And be prepared to, as happened last night, give Evelyn and her director in their EvE Productions, Eunice Lavelle, the standing ovation so richly deserved.

Burglaries stay the same, most crime down

There were 471 burglaries in the Naas Garda District in the year to date, a similar number to the same period last yearwrites Brian Byrne. Instances of drug seizures, public order and criminal damages offences recorded are down.

The District includes Kilcullen, Clane, Robertstown, Johnstown and Kill as well as Naas itself.

The figures come from the Naas District Text Alert Newsletter, which also notes that 27 of these took place in September, down from 37 in September of last year.

The Newsletter says improved awareness of home security is a vital tool in combating this sort of crime, and provides a number of advice points, including participation in Text Alert which plays a 'major part' in the fight.

The Newsletter also provides advice on safety at Halloween, and to farmers about the best ways to stop theft from farm property.

The Crime Prevention Officer for the District is Sgt George Doherty, who is available for advice on 045 884300.

The Newsletter can be downloaded from here.

Evelyn's 'Shirley Valentine' tonight

All best wishes to Evelyn O'Sullivan for her one-woman performance of 'Shirley Valentine', which runs tonight and tomorrow night in the Town Hall Theatre. No more just talking to the wall ...

The famous Willy Russell play is produced by Evelyn's friend Eunice Lavelle, the pair operating under the banner of EvE Productions.

Into winter, time for common sense driving

The time has shifted, and suddenly we're not just driving into the winter months, it actually feels like it, writes Brian Byrne, as publisher of Irish Car+Travel magazine.

Looks like it in the golden leaf colours. Sounds like it as our tyres swish through fallen leaves. Smells like it as people start lighting the more than occasional fire. So rather than go on the car review trail this week, I'm writing about keeping safe on the road in what are more difficult conditions, bound to get worse.

That extra darkness in the evening. Even if you're on the commute in reasonably lit areas, there's something different about it. Not least the ...

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Dennis Ellsworth in the BAG

Hailing from Canada, Dennis Ellsworth stopped by BAG last February for his first ever (and only) Irish gig, writes Roy Thompson of the Ballymore Acoustic Gigs.

A small crowd came along,and were treated to a fine show of solid songs, in a folk/country vein, delivered with with one of the sweetest, smooth vocals I've heard in a while.

Dennis Ellsworth might just have the whole package, and I recommend you come along, and welcome him back to Mick Murphy's next Monday, 2 November. Doors open at 8:30pm; Gig starts at 9pm. As usual, €12 gets you in!

More info, details, and videos here.

Becky's Bridge hats ward off winter chill

If you're just beginning to feel the winter chill around your head, take a walk down to An Tearmann and check out the woolly hats there, writes Brian Byrne.

They're colourful, individual, and very very warm, and made by a Bridge Camphill house-parent, Becky Ditchburn.

Working with the Bridge community for some two years now, north of England native Becky doesn't have a background in knitting or needlework, but finds it a great way of filling in waiting hours when, for instance, she's accompanying a Camphill resident to an appointment.

"I inherited a whole lot of cones of wool from my mother in law in Cumbria, and worked out how to do a simple hat to get going," she says. "Then they just kept on coming." Her mother in law was an 'amazing' worker with needles of all kinds, it seems. "Her crochet work was particularly unusual and exquisite, and she could knit Aran jumpers without needing a pattern."

Once Becky had provided headgear for all her friends, the work got a further impetus when she used her talent to raise funds for a London Marathon sponsorship for the Anthony Nolan Trust.

Now she never goes anywhere without her bag of knitting, and finds she can complete a whole hat while waiting three hours in a hospital with a resident.

The headgear is on sale in An Tearmann, and the money is used to help top up grants income to Bridge Camphill projects.

One problem, Becky has finally reached the last of the 'inherited' cones, and has had to top up her own stores with wool from places like the Cottonwood Tree shop. "Somehow, for sentimental reasons, I can't quite bring myself to start on what would effectively be the last hat on the cone."

Parish Lotto Draw

The numbers drawn in the Kilcullen & Gormanstown Parish Lotto Draw held on Tuesday 27 October 2015 were 2, 4, 7 and 14. There was no Jackpot winner and next week's main prize will be €16,400.

The winners of the €50 Open Draws were Seamus Dempsey (Promoter Ethna Dempsey), Nuala Grace (Wednesday Bridge Club) and John O’Brien (Kilcullen Credit Union).

The winners of the Promoters Draw were Mag O’Connell and Vanessa Clarke and the winner of the Draw for those in the Parish Centre on the night was Bernie Kirby.

The Parish thanks all who support the Lotto.

Full houses for Taken at CPC

There were full houses for two concerts by the boy band 'Taken' last Thursday in Cross & Passion College to raise funds for the Peter McVerry Trust and Crosscare.

First, Second, Third and Fourth Years students attended and fully enjoyed the band.

The event was organised by a group of CPC students and the proceeds were divided between the two charities.

(Pics courtesy The Bridge Magazine.)

Bollards, car, damaged in bridge crash

Five bollards and a hanging basket standard were damaged last night when a car apparently went out of control, writes Brian Byrne.

The car, probably a Vauxhall/Opel Vectra C, sustained considerable damage, according to the debris and oil left on the road and path.

The Diary understands the incident happened at around 10pm last evening.

Kildare County Council has been informed.

A member of Kilcullen Community Action said they hoped repairs would be completed before the new Christmas lights are being put up, as the bridge is planned to be a centrepiece for a substantially upgraded display.

A similar accident last year damaged two bollards and a flowers standard.

Kilcullen Badminton update

KBC hosted three visiting teams and the first team we cover are Martin and his Grade 3 Mens who played Kildare CWMS in this their return fixture. Martin and the lads were desperate to build on their previous win away to Carlow LTC and to strengthen their position in the group. The Grade 3 men came away with a great 4-0 win which keeps them in the hunt for a semi final spot with one group match remaining. Good luck to the Martin, Vincent, Owen and Michael in their final fixture against Carlow LTC.

Kasi and his Grade 5 mens team were also playing at home to Portlaoise. Kasi had to call in sub Graham Mason as he was missing Alan Fogarty, but this didn’t hamper Kasi's progress and they came away with a 3-1 victory. Well done to Kasi, Suddeer, Michael and Graham on a great result.

Sarah and the Grade 4 A ladies played Ballinakillin fairly one sided match. Sarah and the team are sitting comfortably at the top of the table with 16 points and easily brushed Ballinakillin aside with a 4-0 win. This makes it four out of four for Sarah, Catherine, Caroline and Bernie. The Kilcullen Grade 4 A team are proving to be quite a handful for the rest of the group.

Orla and the Grade 6 Ladies visited Portlaoise on Friday night, unfortunately it wasn’t to be their day and they were beaten 3-1. The ladies did however manage to take an away point which may prove valuable at the end of the group stages. Hard luck to Orla, Dayna, Grace and sub Nora and good luck to the girls in their next match.

Finally the Octoberfest Open was held over the weekend and as usual Kilcullen had their trusted representatives, congratulations to Division 2 Ladies runners up Lynsey Walsh and Gillian K. Smith, also congrats to Siobhan Willis and Sarah Walshe who were the Division 6 runners up. Lynsey Walsh and Gareth Hogan also got to the grade 2 mix final and were narrowly beaten. A big congratulations to Sarah Walshe and Vincent Coller who won the Division 5 Mix.

Good luck to all in their upcoming matches.

Pictured are Sarah Walshe and Vincent Coller Mixed division 5 Octoberfest winners.

Albert wins another Leinster medal

Kilcullen's Albert Keenan fought hard to clinch another Leinster medal to add to his growing collection at the Masters Cross Country Finals yesterday in Moyvalley, Co Meath.

Having just missed out on a place in the national team the previous week in the Autumn Cross Country in Dublin, Albert had to recover fast to line up again against the best in Leinster. He finished the 6K course very strongly to capture third spot and a Leinster bronze medal.

Albert will now focus on his winter training plan and return to competitive club action in January at the National Cross Country finals and then on to the indoor season.

Well done, Albert, on a fantastic season. He's pictured above with Irish international running champion Sonia O'Sullivan.

Local 1916 commemoration events

The commemoration events building to the centenary of the 1916 Rising are becoming more frequent, writes Brian Byrne.

This past weekend alone, Kilcullen hosted the talk to the County Kildare Federation of Local History Groups by Adhamhnán Ó Súilleabháin about his grandfather, 1916 veteran Domhnall Ua Buachalla, from Maynooth.

A week before there was a book launch in Arus Chill Dara, ‘Through Peace and War, Kildare County Council in the Revolution Years, 1896 – 1926’. Pictured above at that are Cllr Fiona O’Loughlin, Chairperson of the Kildare Decade of Commemoration Committee; Mayor of Kildare, Brendan Weld; author Thomas Nelson with Acting Co Librarian and co-ordinator of Kildare Decade of Commemoration Committee, Marian Higgins. Cllr O'Loughlin's grandfather Joseph O’Loughlin was on the very first County Council in Kildare in 1898 and is featured in Tom's book

The County Kildare Decade of Commemorations programme already has over 90 events listed, with more to be added. These include concerts, school pageants, book launches, drama, musical and dance performances, art exhibitions, lectures and seminars.

"This is an opportunity for all of us in County Kildare to commemorate these great events and celebrate our history," Cllr Fiona O'Loughlin said as the programme continued on Sunday with the unveiling of the John Devoy statue at Poplar Square, Naas.

Stardust in New York

If you were wondering where our postmistress Noeleen Eston and her partner Joe O'Neill have been this last week, well, they've been sprinkling a little Stardust in the Big Apple, writes Brian Byrne.

And in the process, helping to raise funds for the Emerald Isle Immigration Center in New York, which provides resources, advice and active help for immigrants to the US.

Noeleen and Joe are in New York for the annual 'October Seis' gig organised by members of the O'Neill family in memory of Joe O'Neill Snr from Athy, who founded the Stardust Orchestra that toured dance venues across Ireland in the 40s and 50s.

Each year the Seis is held in a different part of the world, where there is a member of the O'Neill family or their friends, with a local charity or benevolent organisation being the recipient of the funds raised.

Since 2006 the October Seis gigs have been held in Cavan, Tewkesbury in the UK, Naas, Westport, and Athy itself, as well as previously in New York. Joe Snr also founded the St Joseph's Boys Band and later the CBS Brass and Reed Orchestra. When he died in 1989, he left a large family of musicians to keep the tunes ringing.

The main gig at the weekend for the Immigrant Center took place at Jack Demsey's Restaurant & Bar on West 33rd Street.

Joe and Noeleen have their own 'Stardust' operation here in Ireland playing ballrooms and hotels on a regular basis in the Leinster area. They also regularly entertain in nursing homes here, and continued that on Friday afternoon with a performance at the Mary Manning Walsh Nursing Home on Manhattan's Upper East East Side. They then repaired to the nearby Ryan's Daughter Bar & Restaurant for some further musical sessions.

"We also dropped in to Rosie O'Grady's to see Frances Brennan from Old Kilcullen," Noeleen told the Diary over the weekend. "She sends her regards to everybody back home."

Joe and Noeleen are currently working on a new album, as yet un-named, and we picture them recording rece.ntly in the WL studios near Castledermot. Their previous CD, 'Nobody's Darling but Mine' was released last year and was very successful for the duo.