End of a millennium — were you there?

On New Year's Eve 1999, Kilcullen held a Town Party to bring in the new Millennium with a bang, writes Brian Byrne.

The images posted here were provided by Nessa Dunlea, and include part of the script with which she narrated a pageant in the newly-refurbished Town Hall commemorating national and international events of the previous 100 years.

There were theatrical events on the street, and very many townspeople dressed up in the way of different eras during that period.

Organisations involved included the GAA, Soccer Club, Credit Union, the Tracey Martin Dancers, Kilcullen Scouts, the Grennell School of Drama, Kilcullen Parish Choir, the Lions Club, the Potato Pickers, Rugby Club, Camphill, Kilcullen Set Dancers, Pitch & Putt Club, the Landers School of Dancing, and many more.

The Potato Pickers? Maybe someone can enlighten me ... memory fails, though I was certainly there.

Tableaux and presentations at various locations around the town included a commemoration of the Easter Rising at An Tearmann, a pageant of The Great War at the Credit Union, a Scout Camp in the CU's garden area, and Free State sentry posts on the bridge itself.

There was 'cross-roads dancing' in the Square with barbecue and mulled wine, a Literary Festival in what was then Berney's Bar along with staged 'Tribunals'.

A traditional Travellers Camp was located in the parking area beside Bank of Ireland with a representation of an 1940s Farmhouse nearby. A Shebeen was to be found in the 'new' Town Hall (today the Heritage Centre), and a 1950s Schoolhouse exhibition was also set up.

The stage pageant going through the century depicted the Black Bottom and Charleston dancing for the 1920s, a recollection of WW2, highlights of the 1960s in music of The Beatles and Elvis as well as remembering JFK and Martin Luther King, the Abba songs and dance of the 1970s, and zipping through the 1990s with Boyzone, The Spice Girls, and 'Fashions of the Century'.

At 11.30pm, everybody went outdoors to the plaza area behind the Town Hall, and onto the bridge, to bring in the New Year and New Millennium with a brilliant display of fireworks organised by the late Pat Dunlea — there was talk of a van having been sent to the UK in previous week to bring back the necessary.

Those were the days, my friend.


Beat the Virus: Stay At Home. 

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy