Happy New Year

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Patsy celebrated 95th

Patsy Lee celebrated his 95th birthday yesterday. His family celebrated with him at his daughter Mary's home, with his other children, Brigid and James and extended family.

Other pictures show him with grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Photos supplied by the family.

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Remembering absent friends

Image: Pixabay.

At this time of the year we remember those from the parish, or with connections to Kilcullen, who have passed away during 2023. May they always be in the thoughts and memories of those to whom they were loved ones. 

Tom O’Connell, Jack Kelly, Jeremy Burke, Paddy Kane, Fr Michael Nevin, Agnes Gibson, Corina Staunton, Alice Doran, Philomena Donoghue, Mary McCormack, Mick Brady, Patrick Howard, Anne McIntyre, Kevin McDonagh, Chris Hart, Paddy McGlynn, Carmel Crowe, Annie Ward, Joseph Jones, Alice Conlon, Vincent Dowling, James Glynn, Fr Brendan Forde, Úna O'Sullivan, Philomena (Phil) Barrett, Gary O'Connor (Manchester), John Buckley, Christy McDonnell, Mary (Mollie) McMahon, Kate MacKay (Pat Nolan), Enda Watters, Raymond Dempsey, Billy Horan, Susan Tutty, Betty Hughes, Katie Cranny, Helen Kennedy, Orla Murphy, Raphael (Ralph) Berney, Padraig O'Connell, Margaret (Peg) Aspell, Margaret McCarthy and Carmel Duffy.

Rest in peace.

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Riverbank January programme for mental health

Riverbank Arts Centre is again partnering with First Fortnight in a programme of events and activities built around the arts-based mental health charity. First Fortnight’s annual festival, held throughout January, celebrates the arts as a catalyst for sparking unscripted conversations around mental health.

The programme also serves as a platform for connection, uniting individuals through shared artistic and cultural experiences and is designed to bring heightened mental health awareness, challenge prejudices, and eradicate the stigma around mental ill health.

For art lovers there will be a range of workshops, from mixed-media collage to smartphone photography to working with clay, presented by artists Martina McDonald, Brian Cregan and Marta Golubowska.  

Befriending My Monster by Selma Daniel Dance (Saturday 13th) invites children on a journey down 'Belly Button Lane' to explore those big feelings that they may not know how to talk about yet. There will be a special screening of Irish film Ballywalter (Monday 15th), starring Seána Kerslake and Patrick Kielty. 

First Fortnight Family Day on Saturday 20th features Prose & Pose: Family Yoga Fables, Manga Workshops with artist Amy Louise O’Callaghan, and a screening of When Marnie Was There. 

Kate Escolin will host the first in a series of Sketchbook Clubs (Thursday 18th), which aims to provide a safe space to create. Poet Nell Regan presents an Online Poetry Workshop for Long Haulers (Thursday 18th), which is specially designed to support those with Long Covid (along with other isolating conditions such as CFS/ME). Gemma Walker-Farren and Echo Echo Dance Theatre present Ghosts (Friday 19th), a one-woman show which is about our relationship with fear and how that takes many different forms over the course of a lifetime. The Creative Well come together once more for Sharing the Archive – Creative Well Book Launch & Reflection (Saturday 20th). Max Zanga of Tebi Rex brings Filmore! Escape Room Experience (Friday 26th & Saturday 27th), which will be followed by a live performance on the Saturday at 7pm.

Tickets for events can be booked through the Box Office, either in person or by telephone on 045 448327 Monday to Friday 9.30am-5pm (closed for lunch 2-2.30) and Saturday 10am-1pm. Tickets can also be booked 24/7 on www.riverbank.ie – Online tickets subject to €1 booking fee per ticket.

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Kildare CU boosts Outreach funding for Brigid 1500

A total of €25,000 is being made available by Kildare Credit Union for their Community Outreach Programme for 2024, writes Brian Byrne. Of that, €5,000 represents an extra funding allocated for projects related to the Brigid 1500 festival or associated with St Brigid.

Projects that focus on climate change and reducing the carbon footprint in our community will be given priority when considering how to distribute the remaining €20,000 fund.

"We look forward to hearing about the wonderful, imaginative community projects being organised," the Credit Union says in a statement. "The work of the voluntary organisations in our community is so important and we are delighted to help."

Application forms and further information are available from the Kildare Credit Union website, www.kildarecu.ie, by calling into any one of the offices at Kildare, Kilcullen or Narraghmore, phone 045 521928 or via Facebook. 

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Scoil Bhride in national final of Someone Like Me art competition

Images: Someone Like Me website.

Scoil Bhríde Kilcullen has been named as Junior County Winner in Kildare of the Someone Like Me national art competition organised by the National Disability Authority, writes Brian Byrne.

The entry by Ms Walsh's 2nd Class Robin won the school a spot in the national final taking place on 17 January in Dublin's City Hall, at which there will be 47 other schools competing. More than 2,200 national schools entered for the 2023-2024 competition, in the eighth year of the event.

Contributions included posters, collages, large sculptural installations and multi-media pieces.

The competition was created by the National Disability Authority to encourage more positive attitudes towards persons with disabilities. 

The winners gallery can be seen here. 

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The passing of Carmel Duffy (née Hughes)

The Diary has learned of the death of Carmel Duffy

(née Hughes), of Avondale, Kilcullen and late of Rosetown, Athgarvan, Newbridge, on 28 December 2023, peacefully in the wonderful care of the nurses and staff of St Vincent's Hospital, Athy. 

Predeceased by her loving husband Frankie, Carmel is sadly missed by her loving family, daughter Debbie, grandson Jason, son-in-law Timmy, brothers and sisters, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews, extended family, relatives and friends.

She will be reposing at Anderson & Leahy’s Funeral Home, Newbridge, on Monday from 5pm with prayers at 7pm. Removal will be on Tuesday morning at 10.30am to arrive at St Conleth’s Parish Church for Mass at 11am. Funeral afterwards to St Conleth’s Cemetery, Newbridge.

The mass can be viewed on newbridgeparish.ie/parish-church.

Rest in peace.

 

Brigid 1500 film programme through February

Following a very successful inaugural season through recent months, the Kilcullen Lions Club cinema initiative has put together a special month-long programme of films to celebrate the values represented by St Brigid, writes Brian Byrne.

The Kilcullen Bridge Cinema Brigid 1500 season will involve screenings in Kilcullen Town Hall of films with themes of equality, peace, social justice and leadership. Award-winning films from Irish and international producers will kick off on 30 January 2024 with Herself, starring Clare Dunne as a Dublin cleaner fleeing domestic abuse and having to fight a system of callous bureaucracy. Among the awards the film has received is winner of Human Rights Film Award, Dublin International Film Festival 2020.

Róise and Frank screening on 8 February is an Irish-language film set in the Gaeltacht of Ring, Co Waterford. It's a charming comedy-drama about a recently widowed woman who believes that a stray dog embodies the spirit of her late husband.

The enchanting Song of the Sea on 11 February is a family-friendly afternoon screening. It is a magical adventure steeped in the wondrous worlds of Irish myth and inspired by the legend of the “selkies” — magical beings who live as seals in water and humans on land. It was the winner of Best Film, Irish Film & Television Awards 2015.

Girl on 20 February is a character drama exploring the bond between a mother and daughter resettling in Glasgow. A debut film from British-Nigerian filmmaker Adura Onashile's, it is rich in atmosphere and social commentary.

The special Brigid 1500 season closes on 27 February with La Syndicaliste, the real-life story of Irish woman Maureen Kearney, a senior trade union representative in a French power company. Maureen’s efforts to expose top-secret deals resulted in her life being turned upside down when she was violently assaulted, with all made worse by police subsequently accusing her of faking the attack.

Tickets for the season are available from Woodbine Books in Kilcullen and also on Eventbrite Kilcullen Bridge Cinema.

The Lions cinema initiative got under way last September with a screening of The Fablemans, and brought cinema back both to Kilcullen and the Town Hall location after an absence of some 47 years. The Kilcullen Town Hall venue is the only such in the world where the 110 seats are leather ones made for Volvo S80 cars — it opened in the year 2000. The seating came about when local Volvo dealer, the late Pat Dunlea, got Volvo to donate the seats to Kilcullen’s newly refurbished Town Hall Theatre. 

The Kilcullen Lions Club is a member of Access Cinema, a resource organisation for regional cultural cinema exhibition in Ireland, funded by the Arts Council. Access Cinema negotiates with film distributors, and provides to its members lists of commercial and cultural films and documentaries available for screening at reasonable costs. The first Kilcullen season ended last week with cinema-goers enjoying festive treats of mince pies and mulled wine ahead of a special screening of Frank Capra’s iconic Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life. 

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Moon morning

A very clear moon over Kilcullen this morning. Pic: Brian Byrne.

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Large entry entertained at Narraghmore Vintage Run

With 80 entrant vehicles including motorbikes, tractors, vintage cars, a truck  — and one very popular toy truck — there was plenty to entertain at this afternoon's Narraghmore Santa Vintage Run, writes Brian Byrne.

Scores of local people turned out to the spectacle, for which there was a welcome window of sunny spells after the very wet morning.

It was an opportunity for the community to get together with a social occasion after the relative family seclusions of the direct Christmas days.

The route for the participants took them across south Kildare, through Monasterevin and on to a stop at Treacy's of The Heath, before returning to Narraghmore and the potential for meals and refreshments at Mel's.

The event was organised by the Narraghmore Vintage Club.

A small selection of the Diary's photographs are on this page, while ALL are can be seen here. 

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The passing of Margaret McCarthy

The Diary has learned of the death of Margaret McCarthy (née Kennington) Grangemore, Kilcullen, and late of Blackbog, Kilmoganny, Kilkenny. Margaret passed away peacefully after a short unexpected illness on 25 December 2023 at Tallaght Hospital, in the company of her family.

Margaret will be sorely missed by her children Sonja, John, Thomas and Sarah; her siblings, Bobby and Sara; her nieces and nephews and their families in Ireland and Wales, her grandchildren Aren and Sara in Norway and her wider circle of friends and family, including her cousin Olive and sisters-in-law Miriam and Shayle.

Margaret spent her life as a teacher and passed on her deep love of learning to generations of young scholars.

Margaret's family would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to the doctors, nurses and support staff of the Tallaght University Hospital Intensive Care Unit and Osborne Ward for their dedication to their work and their compassion to Margaret and her family in her final weeks.

She will be reposing at Walsh's Funeral Home, New Street, Carrick on Suir from 11.45-12.45 pm, Saturday 30th December. This will be followed by funeral service in St Paul's Church of Ireland, Piltown at 2pm. Burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery.

Joan Healy concert cancelled

The Joan Healy concert scheduled for Fallons on Friday night has been cancelled.

Joan has been ill over Christmas and can't do the gig.

Hopefully it can be rescheduled for some date in the future.

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Narraghmore fun in vintage run

The annual Santa Vintage Tractor & Car Run in Narraghmore will be held tomorrow, Thursday 28 December.

Organised by the Narraghmore Vintage Club, the event rolls off at 1pm.

It's a great post-Christmas day out in the village and everyone welcome to come along for the fun.

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Joan Healy, music in the moment

Singer-songwriter Joan Healy will be performing in Fallons on Friday 29 December.

It took the pandemic to get Joan Healy out of her bedroom and onto the streets, writes Brian Byrne. 

OK, that needs context. It was during the pandemic that this Newbridge-based singer-songwriter first began performing in public, as a busker outside the Whitewater Shopping Centre. Three years later she is arranging and promoting her own venue gigs, has three of her own songs professionally produced and available on Spotify, and is living two tandem lives that she loves.

Joan's genre is folk and blues, the latter very much from years of listening to Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald in her bedroom, singing their songs for herself as well as writing her own. "Theirs were the kind of voices I grew up into," she says. "I could really feel their power and sweetness, and they opened up their hearts when they were singing, which is something I try to emulate."

All that stayed as performances in her bedroom while Joan developed her daytime career as a primary teacher. She works in a Celbridge school, which she loves, and singing with the children is an important part of her class. But going out in front of a live audience wasn't part of her life until a friend convinced her to go busking in Newbridge while the country was locked out of live entertainment. "It was something I had always wanted to do, but I didn't have the courage. My friend brought me to a place and he said, 'sing here, it's a perfect busking spot'. I remember in the back of my mind thinking it was all a bit mad, but I went for it anyway." 

She sang something — "it may have been just a scale to start" — and then recalls the realisation that, yes, she could busk. "I remember a feeling of great relief, that I was getting through the fear I'd had, of people making fun of me in the street. And I was enjoying it." From then it became a regular thing in Joan's spare time, meeting other buskers and musicians, a community which encouraged her "and showed me the hot spots." Later she busked in Dublin's Grafton Street, finding a different experience where people didn't stop and chat. "They weren't interactive, seemed too busy to stop. I much preferred Newbridge, where people would come over and say 'thank you' or that they liked my voice. They would gather around, and a set was a kind of event, about something happening."

The street as a place of performance has its 'magical' side, Joan says. "It was really cool, because I was used to being on the audience side of buskers, enjoying what they were doing. Now I had become the one who brings that magical experience to others. It is really fun, and really nice to share music. It is joyful, and people are really generous." The street gig also has its darker side, though, where a lone singer has to be their own security, protecting themselves, their equipment and their money from opportunistic predators. "But from busking I learned that I loved to share music — it's really cool to see people connect with it, or with me, and that it might become a memory with their families of a particular day."

From the busking, Joan moved on to Open Mic nights in Dublin, getting spots in festivals, and performing in spaces like the Moat in Naas, the Brady Sessions in Terenure, and regularly in the Tuesday singer-songwriter nights in Darkey Kelly's in Dublin's Fishamble Street. She has also been support in gigs by Mundy and Megan O'Neill. Along the line, she decided to do voice training. "Both in singing and as a teacher, I use my voice a lot, and there were times when I lost it just from speaking. So I went to a vocal coach, to learn techniques and to protect my voice so that as a singer I could sustain an hour or two hours of performing." She also took the music study and exams trail, and got to Grade 5 in Musical Theatre. "That made me think about what I was singing, and about my expressions and body movements. Now I'm communicating a story instead of just singing a song."

Joan has worked with other musicians, but her preference is as a solo performer. And her move into music venues as opposed to busking and bars — "I don't really like singing in pubs, I don't like the drink scene" — has changed how she presents her show. "I sing without a microphone, I only use a mic between songs to introduce them. I also mix singing with my guitar to doing songs a cappella — I like to show people what a voice is like on its own. And, as the only one on the stage, I'm enjoying it all as a challenge to myself."

Another challenge has been to completely organise her own gigs, renting the venue, doing the marketing, making the posters and tickets, and promoting a gig through messages, family, friends and colleagues. It goes against the whole concept of relying on a promoter or manager to ensure money is made. "I've kind of got used to the process now. For me it's not about the money, it's about sharing the moment. Of people enjoying the experience and looking back on it and saying it was nice."

Renowned Newbridge-based Colm Cahill has produced some of Joan's own music recordings, and the results, which can be found on Spotify and Youtube, show just how much good talent he's had to work with. That bedroom mentoring with Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald has arguably put Joan Healy on a road to whatever level of success she might wish for. 

You can hear for yourself on Friday 29 December, in Fallons iconic back room in Kilcullen, from 8pm. Tickets €10 on the door or from the staff at Fallons.

LISTEN: Joan Healy, Music in the Moment

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Christmas Eve in Gormantown

This photo from Geraldine Gahan shows the Gormanstown Choir under the direction of Dorly O’Sullivan, singing at the Christmas Eve mass in Gormanstown church. Peter Moloney is playing the organ.

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