Kilcullen Diary: ROCKIN' IT OUT AT THE ANVIL

DID YOU KNOW?

The Latin for traffic jam is fluxus interclusio. It's not generally known that the Vatican constantly updates the dormant language in a special dictionary, Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis, combining classical root words to describe modern actions, events, and inventions. Among them, jogging (cursus pedester) and fog lights (pharus adversus nebulam). Latin serves as the official working language of Vatican City, and papal decrees, official laws, and the Code of Canon Law are first written and published in Latin.

Monday, August 31, 2026

ROCKIN' IT OUT AT THE ANVIL

Mark Smyth, Yvonne Ennis, Arlene Bailey, Pat Kelly, Lorraine Nolan, Canice Keane, John Kelly, and sound engineer Gordon Turner.

It was Kilcullen's own electric picnic, without the mud or the long queues to get in, writes Brian Byrne. The front garden at No. 1 Bishop Rogan Park had been transformed into a grand stage and covered audience area for the inaugural Anvil at Rest concert.

There was overflow seating for those who preferred to enjoy things from the distance across the road. Messages came in through the afternoon from many Kilcullen people around the world watching on the live stream — Wickford in Essex, Connecticut and California, USA, Perth in Australia, were just a sample of the places from which the global Kilcullen diaspora were tuning in to support the concert in aid of Aware.

From the moment Martha Kelly hammered the final countdown note on a 99-year-old anvil, it was pretty well non-stop for more than two hours. After a brief introduction from Arlene Bailey about the work of Aware itself, Pat and John Kelly, and Pat's daughter Yvonne Ennis, took their turns to get the music well under way. Canice Keane, Kilkenny-born troubadour living in Kilcullen for the last two decades, added several rockin' contributions through the afternoon. A literary interlude from Mark Smyth was a short story that painted vivid word pictures from a different time in Derry. Arlene Bailey brought her own Nashville experience to Bishop Rogan Park in wonderful country style, and Lorraine Nolan, no stranger to Kilcullen, gave her all in a performance worthy of the Riverdance stage on which she has been lead vocalist.

All in all, and not least thanks to the sound system provided and managed by Gordon Turner, it was an afternoon of musical delight. And even if there was the occasional shower, well, that's why people brought umbrellas, and their enjoyment wasn't in any way diminished.

Another great Kilcullen event, for a great cause: if you missed it, either at the 'Park' or online, an edited version will be available on the net over the next ten days, and there's ongoing opportunity for further donations.

Some of the Diary's photos are posted here — all can be found at this link.