Looking Back: 'Then there was Light'

With the Christmas Lights now a 2022 festive memory, once again organised by Kilcullen Community Action, it's maybe appropriate to look back to the first time the village had such lights, writes Brian Byrne.

It was as far back as November 26 1989 when chairman of the newly formed Kilcullen Community Development committee Dave Prendergast threw a switch to light up the main street in a festive manner.

The picture above is from the Leinster Leader of the following week, of the KCD Committee — the forerunner of today's KCA.

In the story headlined 'Then there was Light', we read that funding for the lighting had been provided by Kilcullen's business community, and the initiative was the first project carried out by KCD. PRO Jim Collins told the reporter that 'we never had so much as a bulb before'. "We've gone from that to having the whole town lit up."

The cost was given as around £2,000, and in addition to the lights there were Christmas trees erected at the bank, at Nicholastown to the south and at the rubber factory at the north end.

The information for this piece came from a clipping provided by PJ Lydon.

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