Looking Back: Paul Newman in Kilcullen

This photographs memory of a highlight occasion for Kilcullen Drama Group was provided by Sabina Reddy, who found them while going through some memorabilia from the group, writes Brian Byrne.

They record the visit by actor Paul Newman to the Town Hall on a Sunday afternoon some two decades ago. The star, founder of the Hole in the Wall Gang camps for providing sick children with respite holidays, was staying at the Castlemartin home of Tony O'Reilly at the time.

"The visit to the Town Hall was arranged by Pat Dunlea and John Dardis," Sabina recalls. "The members received a phone call early one Sunday morning and we were on standby waiting on confirmation of the expected time of arrival of Paul. For security reasons we were all sworn to secrecy and a Garda presence was maintained outside of the Town Hall."

After his lunch at Castlemartin, the actor was picked up in a canoe by Brendan O'Connell, and they both paddled from there to the river bank behind the hall. "He spent a considerable amount of time with the members of the Drama Group and some local people," Sabina says. "A canteen of cutlery was presented to him by  Hazel Dempsey, who was a representative of Newbridge Cutlery." There's a photograph inside the Town Hall entrance marking the occasion.

The Irish sick children's camp was established by Newman at Barretstown Castle near Ballymore in 1994. It is one of 30 camps and programmes operated around the world by the Newman's Own Foundation. Attendance at the camps is free to all the children involved.

Paul Newman died in 2008 at the age of 83, succumbing to cancer.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy