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| Dawn Behan, Nessa Dunlea, Eithne Logan and John MacKenna. |
Many local memories were shared last evening at the launch of Eithne Logan's memoir
A Risky Business, Growing up in Kilcullen in The Fifties in Woodbine Books,
writes Brian Byrne. Eithne grew up here as one of six children of the Brennan family.
The book was launched by writer, actor, and broadcaster
John MacKenna, who said such publications were very important to a community. "One of the things that make them so is that people coming into a community can open a book like this and see what has made the place what it is today," he said.
He said that though he was originally familiar with Kilcullen through visiting his boarding sister in Cross and Passion College from their native Castledermot, it was when he read Eithne's manuscript that he began to know more and more about the town. He was one of her tutors at writing classes in which she participated in recent years. "It is so wonderful to see a book grow and grow and grow, and tell the stories of a community."
Thanking her family for their support while she was compiling the memoir, Eithne said she had written the memories for them and never expected the book to be widely available 'in the community where I was nurtured'.
Nessa Dunlea presented Eithne with an ornamental star on the occasion, and also one to Dawn Behan of Woodbine Books, which she described as 'a great asset to the community'.
"I spent my childhood here with Eithne," she said, adding that they were both third children in their respective families, which only lived a few doors from each other.
Through the rest of the evening, the stories told between those attending who were child compatriots of Eithne's were the stuff of at least one more potential book. There was also much flipping through the pages of the book with a view to seeing 'are we in it?'.
A Risky Business, Growing up in Kilcullen in The Fifties was published with assistance from the
Kildare County Council Heritage Grant Scheme 2019.
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