Dun Ailinne Open Day next Sunday

Dr Susan Johnston explaining a detail last year.

The annual Open Day at the Dun Ailinne excavations will be this coming Sunday, 6 July, from 1pm-4pm, writes Brian Byrne. Dr Susan Johnston will give site tours at 1.30pm and 3pm.

A fee of €5 will be charged, which will be donated to charity. The event is by kind permission of the Thompson family, as the site is part of their working farm.

Dr Johnston, who is based at the Department of Anthropology at George Washington University, has been investigating the site since 2006. With colleague Dr Suzanne Garrett, she has led teams of American archaeology students on summer digs on Dun Ailinne since 2016, in association with the Black Friary Archaeological School in Co Meath. The students gain practical field experience on the site as well gaining an introduction to archaeology of Europe.

The late Professor Bernard Wailes carried out original excavations on Dun Ailinne in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Dr Johnston was the co-author with him of a book on that work, published  in 2007. In 2008, the 'spear' monument, commissioned from the late sculptor Noel Scullion by Kilcullen Community Action, was dedicted as the centrepiece of the Dun Ailinne Interpretive Park in Kilcullen with Professor Wailes in attendance.

Dr Susan Johnston and Dr Suzanne Garrett.

Next Sunday's event is an opportunity to see and hear an update on the findings at a place of major historical significance and which is on the Tentative List for consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the ancient Royal Sites of Ireland.

Dun Ailinne is on a private working farmland, not open to the public, and investigations of the site are thanks to the courtesy of the Thompson family.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Kilcullen Cemetery Sunday date

The date has been set for Cemetery Sunday in Kilcullen, on Sunday 7th of September. 

There will be prayers in St Brigid's Cemetery at 2pm, and a Mass will be celebrated in New Abbey at 3pm.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Kilcullen News Update

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Jerseys and shorts collections for Kenya

Used jerseys and shorts from any sports team or club in Kilcullen are being collected for delivery to Maintain Hope's families in Kenya, writes Brian Byrne. They will be brought by the 12 local volunteers going to Ngong later this month.

The clothing can be donated at Kilcullen GAA clubhouse during the Kids Academy sessions on the next two Saturdays, 5th and 12th of July.

The session run from 10am-12 noon.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

New town for mid-Kildare mooted by councillor

The concept of building a complete new town in mid-Kildare, somewhere along an axis line between Kilcullen to Caragh, has been floated at Kildare County Council, writes Brian Byrne. The idea was raised in a motion by longtime Naas-based councillor Seamie Moore, at the recent meeting of the full council.

Cllr Moore says building a new town with appropriate community infrastructure would be an alternative to continuing to add populations to the existing main towns of Naas and Newbridge, where sports and social infrastructures are already way behind the needs of their communities.

"It's not a new idea," the councillor told the Diary, recalling the 'Myles Wright Triangle' in town planner Prof Wright's Advisory Plan for the Dublin Region of 1967, which envisaged managed equal growth for Naas, Newbridge and Kilcullen to partly offset the expansion of Dublin. That subsequently didn't happen for Kilcullen because links to the county sewerage system were not provided to the village until 2001.

Cllr Moore's motion included the idea of designating an Economic Corridor between Naas and Newbridge, along the commuter catchment route of the M7/M9 and the Dublin-Cork Rail Line, and that the council should write to the National Development Planners and East Midland Regional Authority, asking them to consider the overall proposal. "This would reduce the indicative expectation of future population overload of Naas and Newbridge and allow community amenities and community infrastructure facilities to be developed in those already overpopulated towns."

The councillor has been highlighting the fact that the larger towns have insufficient capacity in clubs such as GAA and other amenities, forcing families to bring their children to outlying areas to get some playing time. "If we are loaded with a population increase that's expected to be maybe 10,000 or more for Naas over the next ten years, and similarly for Newbridge and Celbridge, these areas face serious social problems because they won't have the community facilities."

By taking the expansion of existing towns 'out of the equation', the councillor says the new town idea would ease the pressure on existing ones. He says he doesn't want to specify a particular location for the new town, but 'somewhere along the M7-M9 commuter corridor' and 'not too far removed' from the Dublin-Cork railway line. "I'm trying to broad-brush the idea, to put it up for discussion."

He references previous examples of the new town at Shannon, initiated in the 1960s, and more recent new town constructions in the Dublin area. "Some of these didn't initially work out as planned, but they are more on stream now."

Cllr Moore says his idea has received positive reaction, both cross-party from his council colleagues and from KCC planners.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Ballyshannon Action AGM 2025

The Ballyshannon Action Group AGM will take place on Thursday, 24 July at 8pm in Ballyshannon Hall. All are welcome to attend.

The group has expressed 'a big thanks' to the local community for rallying behind the recent Golf Classic in Rathsallagh. The results were — 1st place: David Keane, Ronan Toft, Paul Bell, Fionn Dowling; 2nd Place: Paul Brophy, James Kennedy, Kevin Hudson, Brian Lennon; 3rd Place: Martin Kelly, Pat Bennett, Tommy Brennan, Jerome Murphy; Nearest Pin: Pat Henry, Jim Lawlor, Dick Doyle, Aldi Malini; and Longest Drive: Dave Dillon, Bernard Kavanagh, Ciaran Dowling, Patrick Keon.

Appreciation was also expressed for the event's sponsors: Ballyfair Farm, Ballyshannon Stud, Brendan Conlan Automobiles, Bushy Park Organic Beef, Christy Brennan Carpentry, Declan and Deirdre Corrigan, Delaney Design, Dillon Brothers, Dowling’s of Ballyshannon, Equine Products Ireland, Fachtna Newbridge Signs, IES services, James Kane, Katherine Allen, Liffey Mills, Cllr Mark Leigh, Mark Wall TD, Martin Fleming, Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon, MFL Metal Fabrication Prosperous, Pat Durkin, Seanchaí Books, Tank Storage Systems, and 

Troy Electrical.

The support of members, friends and neighbours who entered the raffle was also acknowledged.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Reader seeks space for wellness clinic

Photo: Karolina Grabowski via Pexels.

A Diary reader is looking for a small treatment room or unit in Kilcullen to start a wellness and skin clinic. 

She has tried estate agents and the usual routes but is finding it hard to get a space. 

Email Nisaholisticwellness@gmail.com if you can help.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Parish Lotto Draw results

The numbers drawn in the Kilcullen and Gormanstown Parish Lotto Draw held on 1 July 2025 were 8, 15, 27 and 31. There was no Jackpot winner and next week’s main prize will again be €20,000. The value of the follow up draw stands at €15,000.

The winners of the €50 Open Draws were Taylor & Shane (Promoter Kay Dixon), Breda Kelly (Berney’s Chemist), and Elizabeth Donegan (Berney’s Chemist).

The winners of the Promoters Draw were the Parish Office and Vanessa Clarke, and the winner of the Draw for those in the Parish Centre on the night was Breda McCormack.

The Parish thanks all who support the Lotto. 

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Kilcullen News Update

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Kenya HIV treatment 'thrown back two decades': Maintain Hope

A successful HIV treatment campaign in Kenya has been thrown back by two decades following the Trump-Musk closure of USAID last January, writes Brian Byrne. That's according to the Kilcullen-based Maintain Hope charity founder, Gerry O'Donoghue.

Most of the families supported by the small charity, in Ngong outside Nairobi, are in a community ravaged by HIV. When Maintain Hope was established in 2006, that was a highly stigmatised situation, with women dying because they hid the disease, resulting in many orphaned children.

"But gradually, workshops in the slums and the availability of retroviral drugs helped these women to manage their condition and live full family lives," Gerry O'Donoghue told the Diary at the recent Coffee Morning hosted by Esther Reddy and Joe Dooley and their family. However, 90 percent of the retroviral medicine came through USAID, and with their programme 'fed into the wood-chipper' by Elon Musk on behalf of President Trump, literally overnight the clinics were closed. 

Maintain Hope was able to step into the gap and provide money to provide the medicines to their families, but there are countless others who don’t have anybody to turn to. "It’s going to lead to a lot of unnecessary, preventable deaths," Gerry O'Donoghue says. "They’re now going back to that original cycle where children become motherless and fatherless and will be farmed out to various unsuitable accommodations.”

Maintain Hope currently supports 82 Kenyan children within their families to ensure they are healthy and can continue education through primary, secondary and even third level. In the coming month a dozen Kilcullen area volunteers are going to Ngong to help and assess how best to advance the charity's work. It’s a revival of Maintain Hope’s early days volunteering programme which helped to build facilities at the original Ngong children’s home. “This time it’s about capacity building, liaising with the local people to see how future volunteers might best help out the children and the communities.”

Maintain Hope is funded by many small initiatives and helps a very small number of people in the larger scheme of things. But for every child aided to learn and live a fuller life, the beneficial ripple effect for the future of their families and community is beyond measure.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Kilcullen doctor highlights locum shortage for rural GPs

Shortage of locum cover for GPs, especially in rural areas, has been highlighted by Kilcullen doctor Deirdre Collins, writes Brian Byrne. Speaking on RTE News last evening, she said cover for annual leave and maternity-paternity leave is one of the biggest issues in the sector.

The chairperson of the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) made the comment following yesterday's publication of General Practice in Ireland: An Analysis of Supply & Demand by the Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. The paper was produced by the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES) at the Department of Health. Among other matters, the document addresses GP numbers, retirement and succession planning, productivity, and capacity constraints in medical general practice.

Dr Collins noted that there are shortages of GPs in a number of urban deprived areas as well as in widespread rural general practices which are 'under pressure all the time'. "These would be, for example, in Clare, Galway, Mayo, up to Donegal, and also down in Tipperary, Wexford, and even Westmeath and in my own county of Kildare."

She said the big problem for many areas is that there are well-established and well-loved single-handed general practices where a significant number of doctors will be retiring. "Twenty-five percent of our GPs are over 60, so that tells the tale. We need to look at ways of handing those practices onwards to a newer generation of GPs." She said that providing cover for times that a GP in a single-handed practice needs to take off is a key support requirement.

Dr Collins said that the ICGP has been sending the message for a long time about the need to ensure that rural practices are an attractive proposition. "We know the value of life there. Many of us also know that it's wonderful to live there and so we need to ensure that our general practitioners, the trainees coming out, and those who are setting up in practice, want to go there too."

Saying that the value of a good general practitioner can never be underestimated, she also highlighted what she termed as the 'joy' of the work. "General practice is about taking care of somebody from before they're born, when they're born, and the whole way down to when they pass away in our care. That's what makes us all want to be general practitioners. I get to care for people who remember me when I was a child, and I remember others when they were children, and I would take care of my older neighbours and friends as they go on through their illness."

Dr Collins added that with 350 new doctors coming into training every year, it is 85 percent more than was the case ten years ago. "But it's not all about the numbers, but about keeping those doctors in general practice and giving them specialty training to deliver excellent healthcare for their people."

She also commented on the financial pressures on GPs and their staff in the busy commuter belt areas. "If somebody is going to work and live in any of those areas, it's going to cost a lot of money to buy a house, and to buy or rent a practice to work from. So we would look to the Department of Health, to the HSE, to look at ways of supporting that bricks and mortar investment in general practice."

Dr Collins is a founding partner in the Kilcullen Family Practice.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

Coffee Mornings in Irish

Image by Alexa via Pixabay.

An As Gaeilge Coffee Morning will be held in Kilcullen Community Centre every Wednesday morning through July and August. It will run from 10am until noon.

Beidh tae agus caifé ar fáil le roinnt cácaí le ceannach le haigh €4.

All interested in the language are welcome to drop in.

Further information from Susan on 085 1792117.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy

CES jobs at Kilcullen Community Childcare

Several positions are open as Community Employment opportunities at the Kilcullen Community Childcare & Education Centre. They are operational through the KARE Community Employment Scheme.

KCCEC provides a caring, progressive and inclusive environment for the children who attend, and the staff who work there.

The Community Employment Scheme enables participants to gain a funded, recognised qualification whilst they gain valuable on-the-job experience.

No experience is necessary. The jobs are advertised on JobsIreland.ie. They include Assistant Cook (#CES - 2392685).

For anyone interested or with any informal questions, contact: Mairead or Deirdre 045 448700.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy