DP new listing Fit For A Bishop

56 Bishop Rogan Park Kilcullen. 

Tucked away in a quiet cul-de-sac in this popular estate, is where you will find this 3-bedroom, extended end of terrace property for sale. No.56 extends to c.91 sq.mt. and has the benefit of having a ground floor rear extension which incorporates a kitchen and utility room. This fine home has been continuously upgraded over the years and features recently fitted double glazed P.V.C. windows. In 2021 the current vendor installed a brand new energy efficient oil burner heating system.

Other features include two reception rooms and utility room. The rear garden enjoys a west facing aspect and extends to c.12 meters in length along with a large garage, which is ideal for a number of different uses such as a workshop. Bishop Rogan Park has always proved a popular location due to its friendly neighbourhood and convenience to all amenities which are within walking distance. Just 3-minute drive will find you at the M7/M9 interchange making it ideal for the city commuter. One not to be missed!

The accommodation, which is well laid out, briefly consists of entrance hallway, sitting room, lounge, kitchen and utility room. Upstairs are three generous sized bedrooms and a bathroom. All amenities are located within walking distance of Kilcullen town which include leisure facilities, shops, schools (St. Bridget€TM Primary School and the Cross & Passion College Secondary School), public transport systems and all major road networks including M7/M9 motorway.

A.M.V-€224,950. Call Dowling Property on 045-482189. www.dowlingproperty.ie.

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Roza's Alterations opening this week

A new business opening in the new retail unit on New Abbey Road towards the end of this week will offer an alterations service for ladies and men's clothing, writes Brian Byrne.

Roza's Alterations is owned by Roza Konieczna, and she can carry out any kind of alteration to make clothes fit perfectly. Alterations to curtains, blankets and sheets and similar can also be done.

Roza is originally from Poland but has settled in Ireland since 2007, and lives just 15 minutes drive south of Kilcullen. She has been a dressmaker for 20 years, but will be focussing on alterations in her Kilcullen business.

Opening hours will be 10am-6pm Tuesday-Friday, and 10am-3pm Saturday. Phone 089 2607454 for fitting appointments.

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New season of Tai Chi from Yuki

Tai Chi classes aimed at boosting energy levels will begin via Zoom tomorrow, 1 February, from Yuki Kobayashi in Moyleabbey. The form includes spiral movements that stimulate energy, circulation and enjoyment.

The outdoor classes at Moyleabbey Organic Farm, initiated at the onset of the pandemic, will continue Wednesdays at 12-1pm and Saturdays at 10-11am. Both classes are €10 per session. Online payment is available for the Zoom classes.

Yuki says she kept up her Tai Chi over the last two years even more, and feels better than ever. For further information, contact her at 086 3412006. All welcome.

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Light a candle tonight for Brigid

Kildare people are invited to light a candle in their homes tonight, the eve of St Brigid's Day.

The initiative is designed to provide a county-wide 'beacon of light' to celebrate its patron saint. Images shared on the Into Kildare Facebook page with the hashtag #𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗨𝗽𝗞𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗮𝗿e will be in with a chance to win a Whitewater Shopping Centre gift voucher.

Candles are available free in Kildare libraries.

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Weatherday: The hangman cheated

Kilcullen GAA in party mode (2017).

Largely dry this morning, a few bright spells but otherwise remaining cloudy.

A high of 6deg in light westerly winds.

On this day in 1606, Guy Fawkes, a conspirator of the failed Gunpowder Plot at the British House of Lords, was led to be hanged. However, he fell from the scaffold and broke his neck before the sentence could be carried out.

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Looking Back: Egg theft didn't dampen Easter

In April 1992, thieves stole a giant Easter Egg from Scoil Bhride which had been donated as a raffle prize by Pat Dowling. Pat immediately came up with a replacement.

But so did Volkswagen Ireland when they heard about the theft, so there were two prizes. This photo by Oliver McCrossan in the Leinster Leader shows Larry Mooney, Volkswagen Ireland; Laura Berney (winner); Brian Keyes, Principal; Cormac Aspell, winner; and Pat Dowling.

This is from the PJ Lydon scrapbook of Kilcullen newspaper clippings over a decade from the mid 1980s.

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Weatherday: Massacre in the Bogside

The 1798 cross at Old Kilcullen (2020).

A mostly dry morning with sunny spells. Rain from early afternoon will be light but persistent.

Highest temperature 8deg in light southerly wind that will veer westerly and become fresh to strong gusty.

On this day in 1972, 26 unarmed civilians were shot by British soldiers in Derry; 13 were killed instantly, another died later.

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Kilcullen tops county in Every Step Counts

Some young participants in Kilcullen GAA Lights Up walk.

Participants supporting Kilcullen GAA in the MyLife GAA Every Step Counts Challenge have stepped the local club to the top place in the county and fourth place in Leinster, writes Brian Byrne.

With a total of almost 10,500km logged for the Kilcullen club, the 182 walkers registered to Kilcullen among the 207 clubs participating are outpaced so far only by St Columcille’s in Meath (16,524km), Clontarf GAA (12,517), and Ringtown Hurling (12,523).

Liam Cronin, organiser of the Kilcullen entry, says a big thank you on behalf of the club to everyone who has helped them to this point. “It’s not too late to sign up,” he says to anyone who’d still like to come aboard the effort. “We’d love to reach our goal of 200 walkers. Just download the MyLife by Irish Life app from the Apple Store or Google Play and follow the registration instructions to Kilcullen GAA.”

He also reminds people that the Thursday night Kilcullen GAA Lights Up Walk is now under way until 24 February. At this week’s start of the fitness initiative there were 63 walkers. It starts on Thursday evenings from 7.45pm. 

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KCA giving Brigid due recognition

It’s probably the biggest St Brigid’s Cross in the town, and certainly took a little more making than the standard rush ones, writes Brian Byrne.

But that’s the thing about Kilcullen Community Action, there’s always someone with the required skills for whatever is on.

The location is the laneway beside the Heritage Centre, which has been a focal point for some time for seasonal decoration. Ray Kelly installed the cross this afternoon.

“We were going to put up Valentine’s stuff, but then I figured that Brigid comes before Valentine, so she deserves her space,” Ray said.

Yep, especially as she now gets us all a new Bank Holiday from next year. 

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Kilcullen connection to Ulysses celebrations

Some Joyce iconography and Susan Leybourne with PJ Murphy in Sweny's Pharmacy in Dublin.

Transition Year students from Cross and Passion College and Newbridge College are participating in a Ulysses 100 Project initiated by Calverstown woman Susan Leybourne, writes Brian Byrne.

One of the celebrations for the centenary of the publication of James Joyces most famous book, the Ulysses 100 Project will undertake a series of events in Paris next Wednesday to mark the occasion. The initiative will also publish an e-book with birthday tributes and Ulyssean anecdotes from people all over the world. It will be launched on social media at exactly 20:22 French time, at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris on 02 02 2022.

Amy Moran from CPC and Rebecca Andrée from Newbridge College, who both also live in Calverstown, are contacting Irish bookshops to ask them to display Ulysses in their shop windows or in the store itself. The pair have set up an Instagram account @ulyssesliterarylioness and are encouraging bookshops to send in photographs of their Ulysses displays. The 'literary lioness' of the account name refers to Sylvia Beach, the owner of the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris who published the book when no other publisher would take it.

The Ulysses 100 Project has also organised a birthday card competition in schools in Trieste, Zurich, Saint-Gérand-le-Puy and Dublin, which will be displayed in Shakespeare and Company. Irish bookshops are being encouraged to do something similar. On the day, the Ulysses 100 Project will have French actors appearing as literary figures with John Shevlin, the hatmaker who dresses as James Joyce for many events.

The Project was initiated when Susan Leybourne met another interested person, Joyce Good, at the American Club of Paris and they brainstormed the idea over a bar of Sweny's Pharmacy Soap and a miniature bottle of Writer's Tears whiskey. Susan then teamed up with Marion Byrne of L'Association James Joyce à Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, who is chief editor of the e-book.

The key event is the launch of the e-book which will include photos, videos, and letters coming from various Joycean fans and societies. "The first 1,000 copies of Ulysses sold out within a month," Susan says. "We want to see how quickly we can get 1,000 downloads and how many more within a month."

Other celebratory elements will include a 'Happy Birthday' sing-song in the Gare de Lyon in Paris at the public piano there. Birthday festivities will feature 'Sylvia Beach' and 'James Joyce' arriving at Shakespeare and Company, and a live link with Trieste and the Pasticceria Caffé Pirona where Joyce started writing Ulysses.

The whole story can be seen on Instagram @ulysses100project and contact can be made on the Facebook page. L'Association James Joyce à Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, the James Joyce Centre, Dublin, Shakespeare and Company, and the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris have given their support to the project.

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Weatherday: Doomsday

Work on the new Berney's Chemist shop (2008).

Some rain this morning will clear to drier and brighter weather.

Highs of 10deg in gusty strong breezes from the west, which will ease to moderate in the afternoon.

On this day in 1964, the Stanley Kubrick black comedy about a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and America, Dr Strangelove, had its premiere.

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Proposal for bank building as climate action centre

Kilcullen's former bank building could become a centre for climate action and sustainable community if an initiative proposed to Kildare County Council pans out, writes Brian Byrne.

Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer has asked Kildare County Council to consider buying the former Bank of Ireland premises to be used as a Climate Action Office, which could include an advice and training centre for people who want to take energy saving steps such as retrofitting their homes.

"Kilcullen is an appropriate place for this because it is already a Sustainable Energy Community, with its Master Plan completed," says Cllr O'Dwyer, who has brought the proposal privately to the Council's appropriate officials, with what she says has been a positive response. "I think there is a real opportunity here."

The Diary understands that Bank of Ireland would also be well disposed to having their former premises 'return to the community'. Though, as a business, their building will have to be sold as a commercial transaction. It is on the market for €325,000.

There is a precedent for such a move, as Dunleer SEC in Co Louth have their own premises, acquired with the support of Louth County Council. Cllr O'Dwyer has discussed their initiative with them, and feels that the Kilcullen SEC committee could similarly benefit. "Dunleer also have two staff members, part funded by the SEAI," Cllr O'Dwyer notes. "So what I'm proposing can be done."

As the push to climate action grows, there will be an increasing number of providers promoting their services, and it may be difficult for people to evaluate them. "But having one centre with reliable information and advice will be helpful, and it can also be a focus for a range of educational programmes, for the community generally and for schools." Such a centre would not only serve Kilcullen, but could be a focus for climate action across mid-Kildare.

Cllr O'Dwyer's proposition is based on the fact that there's going to be significant funding available under the Government's plans for climate action. This makes it a viable proposition for the local authority to pursue, 'if the Council goes down this road, and they and the bank engage'. "There is funding coming for climate action. But if we're not ready for it in Kilcullen, we won't get it."

Having a Climate Action Office in Kilcullen would also encourage developers to take sustainability into account when designing their Kilcullen projects, Cllr O'Dwyer says. "If we have an environmental and sustainability office here, they would be inclined to feel that they have to come on board in environmental terms."

The proposal is in play. "It may come to nothing, but if we don't ask for it, we won't get it," Cllr O'Dwyer says, banking on the fact that Kilcullen's tradition of being pro-active will again make things happen.

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Kilsaran contesting Ballyshannon's bid for quarry decision review

The legal action for a Judicial Review of the Ballyshannon Racefield quarry issue will now be heard in October, following a decision by Kilsaran to contest the request for leave to have that review, writes Brian Byrne.

The Ballyshannon Action Group applied for leave for a Judicial Review following the decision by An Bord Pleanala to overturn Kildare County Council's refusal of planning permission for the quarry.

An Bord Pleanala have advised the court that they are 'neutral' on the matter of the application for leave for the review.

Mr Justice Meenan has therefore directed that legal submissions be exchanged between parties and the Leave Application is listed for a hearing on October 20th 2022.

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Kilcullen GAA's 'Ireland Lights Up' strides out

Liam Cronin gives the details.

There was a very good turnout for the first night of the series of walks being organised by Kilcullen GAA under the 'Ireland Lights Up' initiative, writes Brian Byrne.

The event kicked off from the GAA Training Pitch beside the Community centre and will be repeated every Thursday until 24 February 2022.

Registration at 7.45pm and the walk starts at 8pm. Ballygowan water will be served during and after each walk, sponsored by Britvic Ireland.

Participants are asked to wear bright hi-viz vest or clothing at all times when walking. If you don’t have hi-viz, Kilcullen GAA will provide on the night.

For further information contact Liam Cronin on 087 9680399. All are welcome.

(The Kilcullen GAA Lotto Draw was held before the walk started.)

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