Rolling into Christmas

With Christmas now very much sleighing in, there's a lot happening in Kilcullen but almost all of it is personal to people and not for the Diary to report on, writes Brian Byrne.

So we'll be keeping a fairly low profile over the next week. Upcoming is our regular review of the year, and reading back through the last 12 months it is once again quite astounding the variety and number of things that have been taking place in our community.

For the brief record, we uploaded 1,544 posts over the year. The number of page views of the Diary was more than 3.7m, according to Google Analytics, which is just boggling. Of the sessions initiated by readers in the last year, 88pc were from Ireland (effectively Kilcullen, because the Diary is of no interest to anyone without a connection to here), with most of the balance coming in order from the US, the UK, Norway, Australia, India, Spain, Germany and Canada.

In age profiles, 45pc of readers are between 45 and 64, and most of the balance are equally divided between 25-44 and 65+. Taken all together, that's likely a much broader spread than is happening in most other social media. Some two thirds of readers are women.

As we head into our 15th year in January, there's not much more to say about 2019 than to thank all who have contributed to the Diary, those also who are our loyal readers, and to our advertisers whose support helps so much to keep the whole show on the road. From my point of view, it continues to be one of the most fun things I could be doing, and for that alone I'm very grateful.

A happy Christmas, and a peaceful and prosperous new year to you all.

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