JANUARY
It was an exceptionally busy start to the year in Kilcullen, in large part due to the planning for the many Kilcullen 700 events which would be happening over the next 12 months, writes Brian Byrne. These would include heritage talks, memory and memorabilia sessions, twinning, and much more, culminating in a symbolic lighting of Old Kilcullen tower and the bridge which began the move of one settlement to another.
But there were other things happening too. Among them the participation of two First Year students from Cross and Passion College in the
BT Young Scientist of the Year Competition. Hugo Langan and Matthew English had a project on the possibility of using large seaweed algae and as an alternative source of fuel to diesel and petrol. With them were their teachers Eleanor Higgins and Aisling Doyle, and among the many visitors to their stand was Martin Heydon TD.
Kilcullen GAA kicked off its own year of 130 years celebration with the provision of new kit in its O'Neill's store online shop, all pieces with a specially-commissioned 130th anniversary crest.
FEBRUARY
The proceeds of the second
Sarah Swaine Memorial Run, amounting to €4,636, were presented to the children's cancer charity Aoibheann's Pink Tie. The presentation event was a music and auction night in The Spout Bar, with one of the auction items being the racing gear worn by jockey Kevin Manning when he won the English Derby on New Approach in 2015.
Pupils at
Scoil Bhride NS got into the
Kilcullen 700 swing by taking part in a poster competition based around the celebration's bridge logo. They also began rehearsals for a play about the 1798 Rebellion which partly played out on the bridge. The play was written by former Principal at the school, Maurice O'Mahony.
Local business
Nolan's Butchers became the latest to make a change from plastic bags with everything when they launched a suite of paper bags designed for various products. The initiative was spearheaded by Emma Nolan and Emily Behan, and the idea was to phase out plastic packaging wherever possible.
MARCH
The annual
Parish Feis run by the Landers family for more than four decades was resumed in 2019 after a hiatus the previous year when it had been cancelled due to the passing of family member Mary Keane. Some 300 young dancers took part.
The
Cross and Passion annual musical this year was 'Voulez Vous!', involving some 130 TY students over all aspects of the production. Directed by Sue Fox, Phionagh Gibson, Lisa Rohan and Angie Lawrence, the choreography was by The Leah Moran Stage School. The show was performed to a sellout three nights of audiences.
A phenomenally successful
St Patrick's Day weekend was colourful and noisy in the best possible way. In addition to a very comprehensive Parade, the new
Fairy Trail initiative by Kilcullen Community Action was officially opened in the Valley Park.
A twinning with the
Normandy town of Saint Contest was signed with a delegation from that town. Overall, this was a particularly special weekend.
St Joseph's National School in Halverstown celebrated its 60th anniversary in a number of ways, including the organisation of a Celebration Run which attracted more than 120 participants. School Principal Davis Dempsey became one of the early recipients among a large number of groups in the town who were to be presented with
Kilcullen 700 plaques for involvement in the wider
Kilcullen 700 celebrations.
The newly-formed
Kilcullen Sustainable Energy Community signed up with Kildare County Council to make a joint submission to the SEC Partnership Programme with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. If the application is successful, Kilcullen will be able to access three years of mentoring and technical support for a plan to identify energy saving opportunities and undertake a variety of related activities.
The Kilcullen Drama Group production of Michael J Ginnelly's comedy
'A Wake in the West' had a sellout first week and due to public demand had to be presented for a further four nights. The play was directed by Eilis Phillips. A very special guest at the Gala Night was Bernard Berney, a longtime stalwart of the Group, who had been seriously ill.
APRIL
A
play about the 1798 Rebellion presented by Fifth Classes of Scoil Bhride was so well received that it had to be staged for a second time to accommodate demand. 'The Old Bridge of Kilcullen' was written by Maurice O'Mahony and was part of the school's contribution to
Kilcullen 700. Pupils of the school also decorated two beehives which were to be installed in Kilcullen for the community as part of the Tidy Towns Biodiversity Plan.
On the final night of 'A Wake in the West' performed by Kilcullen Drama Group, presentations were made to two long-time members of the Group,
Dick Dunphy and
Bernard Berney.
One of the most long-term projects in the
Kilcullen 700 programme of celebratory events was the
planting of 700 trees between the New Abbey Mass Path and the Mill Stream. Representatives of all the families living in Kilcullen were invited to take part in the event, which was supported by the Tree Council of Ireland and was held on a fine Saturday morning. A special guest was nature expert Eanna Ni Lamhna.
With the May local government elections now getting ever closer,
Kilcullen had two key candidates for the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael parties in the Kildare Newbridge Municipal Distract contest.
Antoinette Buckley (above on right) was selected by FF for its panel, and Fine Gael brought on board Brannockstown-based
Tracey O'Dwyer as their runner.
It was fresh and windy, but the atmosphere at the
Kilcullen Easter Market was a colourful and pleasant event in the Market Square. The Market was an initiative of Kilcullen Community Action, spearheaded by Antoinette Buckley.
Longtime local activists for Kilcullen's elderly, Josie Connolly, Anne Moloney and Anne Corrigan, collected three hampers of sweet treats for the
patients in St Vincent's Hospital in Athy, where there was the annual Easter Party. The ladies expressed their warmest appreciation for the Kilcullen businesses and individuals who supported the gift.
One of the key visual elements of the Kilcullen 700 celebrations, the
River of Tulips, came into full flood of blooms at the entrance to the town on the Naas side.
The overall winner of the annual
Paint the Town Red Punchestown competition, sponsored by Bank of Ireland, was
McTernans in Kilcullen, the popular pub operated by Mary Masterson and her husband Mick. A bottle of champagne that had been an important element of the bar's elegant presentation was certainly popped afterwards.
MAY
A
major restoration and repair effort on the E Buccini painting behind the main altar in the parish church was begun by conservator Mary McGrath. She also cleaned and restored the now 120-year-old piece back in 2007 in an operation funded by Dr Tony O'Reilly.
Already a household name in Ireland and the winner of Best Butcher Shop in the UK & Ireland, Nolans was also recognised further afield, when James Nolan was presented with the
Outstanding Achievement Award by the German Butchers Association. As always, James emphasised that the award was for the whole team at the Kilcullen business.
The
Kilcullen 700 Art Trail organised by Conor Williams and Esther Reddy provided a very wide range of contributions, from paintings in varied media through photography, knitting, quilting, ceramics and clay art, by both professional and amateur artists. They were exhibited in various shops and business premises through the town, with many of the contributors showing their work for the first time.
A presentation by the Drama Dynamics Drama Group of
'Twelve Angry Jurors' was yet another tour de force on the stage of Kilcullen's Town Hall Theatre. The group was formed from the adult acting classes of Evelyn O'Sullivan's speech and drama business, and their production of the Reginald Rose intense and complicated play set in a jury room was executed to perfection.
The
Kilcullen Pollinator Project had its official launch in the Heritage Centre. Part of the Kilcullen Tidy Towns/KCA Programme for 2019 and beyond, the initiative led by local beekeeper Paul Leighton provided a fascinating insight into the importance of bees to our everyday life, and even to the future of the planet. It was the town's contribution to National Biodiversity Week.
A
'Ring around the Barrow' event at Old Kilcullen was held to raise awareness of the archaeological importance of a bit of commonage on the hill. Local people, organised by the Old Kilcullen Area Community Association, attended and formed a ring around the ancient burial barrow at the site, which is believed to date back 5,000 years.
As part of their contribution to
Kilcullen 700, members of the three local
Camphill Communities walked in costume through the town handing out 'Victory!' broadsheets announcing the defeat of the British forces at Old Kilcullen in the 1798 Rebellion. The Battle of Old Kilcullen in that event took place on 24 May.
A day of work for volunteers of Kilcullen Community Action and their families and friends saw some 200 window-boxes planted for the
Kilcullen in Bloom 2019 street flowers project. Celia Travers commented on the number of children who turned out to help: "They're great."
The
Calverstown Action Group, as part of a very committed and busy year, planted a new pollinator-friendly flower bed. Designed by Rose Doherty, the plants were sourced by Feile Morris.
After a hard-fought campaign
Tracey O'Dwyer won through the Local Elections to become a Kilcullen based councillor in the Kildare Newbridge MD. Thanking all who had helped and voted for her, she promised to make sure that Kilcullen, Brannockstown, and Two Mile House would all be strongly represented by her in the coming five years.
There was also a local interest in the poll topping win of
Fiona McLoughlin Healy, who is married to a member of the well-known Healy family in Kilcullen.
It was without doubt the most colourful event of the
Kilcullen 700 celebrations, the yarn-bombing of the bridge by the
Suas Knitting Group. Not only colour, but an absolutely amazing variety of knitted creatures, characters, and motifs made the whole affair a fascinating initiative to walk through and study.
JUNE
A good start to the month was the visit by the
Gordon Bennett Classic Car Run 2019 to Kilcullen as part of the Kilcullen 700 celebrations. Among the drivers was Irish rally legend
Rosemary Smith, leading a fleet of ten Sunbeam Tigers. There were up to 150 pre-1988 cars parked around the town during the event.
St Joseph's NS held a past pupils reunion event at the school as part of their 60th anniversary celebrations. There were lots of memorabilia and memories from down the decades, and a new
Time Capsule was buried in the school grounds by today's pupils.
Kilcullen band
Barley and the Graperag had a very special gig in O'Connell's Bar, to launch their first single, 'Can't Wait till June'. Their local music fans, and from further afield, were out in force for the event.
A
Bloomsday Garden Party in the grounds of Tony and Geraldine Gahan's home was a spectacular success, raising funds for the KWWSPCA. The weather was good, the music brilliant, and the garden looked fantastic.
It was a first for
Kilcullen Cub Scouts when they took home the gold from the scouting organisation's national finals competition. The team of six were aged between 9-11 and suitably marked the 41st year of scouting in Kilcullen.
A very special event in Kilcullen Heritage Centre was the unveiling of a plaque to
Kilcullen-born Frank Conroy who was killed as a volunteer with the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. The unveiling was by singer
Christy Moore, who had always promoted the cause of Conroy.
The now-annual
Acoustic Picnic moved out of the Town Hall to various venues around the Bridge Camphill Farm and Nature Trail for 2019. It was a gamble, given our climate, but though it rained a little, that didn't dampen the enthusiasm of both entertainers and the entertained. As always, the event was a fundraiser for the Maintain Hope charity.
A presentation to The Spout of a framed jersey was made by the
Senior Ladies GAA team to mark the pub's fifth year of sponsorship. The jersey was accepted by Tommy Dignam and the ladies expressed their 'massive thank you' to him and all the crew in the pub.
(As they say, that's only the half of it. We'll post the second half of this 2019 roundup at the weekend.)
Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy
