Remembering 50 years of The Bridge

Pat Foley, for many years photographer for The Bridge; and previous editors Brian Keyes, Noel Clare and Sean Landers.

Reminiscences about fifty years of The Bridge Magazine were shared at a representative small gathering of contributors to its production, past and present, on Thursday evening, writes Brian Byrne.

Welcoming those present and thanking them for their support, Noel Clare also paid tribute to many others who had been involved down the decades. "There are so many other people who could be here if we had time to seek them out, but we only organised this very quickly, in a 'window' before Sean Landers went back to Taiwan." He also especially mentioned the late Bernard Berney and the late Robert Dunlop, whose wives Mary and Olive respectively were guests at the gathering.

"Robert wrote for so many years, and gave of his wisdom in pieces that would be fitting in much more noble publications than The Bridge," Noel remarked, noting also that Julie Dunlop Felsbergs is still a regular writer 'in a lovely way' with her Spirit in The Bridge articles.

Noel also said that the Bridge 'would definitely have failed somewhere along the line' if it hadn't been for Bernard Berney. "He wrote so well all those years ... and we were very lucky to have his input, and there were also so many things he did in a practical way to keep it going." He also spoke of the artistic contributions of the late Mary Keyes, who provided the cover illustrations for so many of the early Bridges.

Brian Keyes was one of those present who had been there from the beginning and he recalled the way the early years had used very basic systems in production, which included cutting stencils with a manual typewriter for Gestetner machine printing. He noted that the first editor was Fr Cathal Price, and that there was 'a lot of work' involved in gathering photographs, printing, collating and stapling the magazine together. "It's great to see some of the faces of the people I worked with," he said, "and it's fantastic to see that there are people whose births were reported in those early issues are now themselves 50 years of age."

Brian Keyes also wrote a regular series about Kilcullen's history and heritage under the banner title of An Baile Seo 'Ghainne which represents a unique retrospective on the evolution of Kilcullen through two millennia. 

Another former editor and consistent writer through the five decades of The Bridge, Sean Landers, said the publication is 'something very special' which many people in Kilcullen would miss very much should it suddenly disappear. "I think it means a lot too to people who have moved away from Kilcullen," he said, referencing his own experience of receiving the printed copy in Taiwan where he has worked for many years. "I really enjoyed reading it, sent out by my father, and I felt I was still in touch with Kilcullen."

Longtime contributor Billy Redmond, whose Off The Cuff column often reflects his own sometimes controversial views on matters both local and global, remembered how as a younger man he used to help out with the collating and stapling in Fr Price's time. "I hadn't been discovered as a great writer at that time," he quipped, adding that it wasn't until Bernard Berney suggested it that he began his column. "It has provided a great new chapter in my life, and thanks to everybody involved."

For Mary Orford, the impetus to begin writing regularly in the magazine was the Kilcullen 700 celebrations through 2019. "With Kilcullen progressing, I felt there were so many things in Kilcullen that I knew, and the people I knew, that were disappearing, and maybe would not be captured in that year." She said her contributions recorded 'ordinary people doing ordinary things, or sometimes extraordinary things'. "There are little treasure troves of history out there which do impact on Kilcullen, and maybe not a lot of people know it. So much family history and the National Folklore Collection which I often mention ... I think those things are important, and people stop me on the street and say that I have reminded them of things and they have enjoyed it, which is really nice."

The job of collating the Bridge, on the first Friday of every month for many years, involved maybe two generations of young people, often friends of Noel and Francis Clare's son Stephen, Noel recalled. "Maybe they were 'forced' into it, but the interesting thing is that many of them, when they were looking for references to get their first jobs, put down their activities with us as 'work experience' and we were also put down as referees."

Concluding the recollections, Sean Landers said it is very important that new writers be recruited to make sure that the magazine continues. "There's no point in just issuing invitations," he said, "we have to identify them and go out and ask them."

Appreciation was also expressed to Noel and Frances for their personal and constant commitment to keeping the Bridge  going over at least three decades of its existence.

Colleagues from peacekeeping days in The Congo and Bridge contributors Billy Redmond and Joe Mallon.

Nuala Collins, Mary Berney and Olive Dunlop.

NOTE: From my own point of view, I owe The Bridge a lot. When I began writing in the 1970s, it provided me with an outlet for my efforts, and gave me a taste for and an unexpected launching pad to a subsequent career in journalism which I am still enjoying today. BB.

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