Twenty years of KCA: Eoin Houlihan & James Byrne

James and Eoin at the 2021 Pakman Awards where their company Faerly won the 'Online Green Packaging' category award.

Kilcullen Community Action was founded 21 years ago, on 9 May 2001. The Diary asked a number of people who have been involved with it during the last 20 years to give us some of their thoughts on the organisation. We will be publishing these as they come in, to mark the completion of two decades of KCA work.

It was the summer of 2010 when myself and my husband James came to look at an apartment to live in here in Kilcullen. I'm originally from Kildoon, a townland outside of Nurney not far from here and James is from Enniscorthy in Wexford. We had been living in Dublin together for four years and circumstances meant we needed to move. 

What struck us both when we came to view the apartment was how beautiful the main street was, not just the buildings but the beautiful window boxes in full bloom and how clean the street was. Jump forward 11 years and we ended up buying a house in a beautiful estate called Nicholastown and we are both active members of Tidy Towns, indeed I'm now a Director with KCA. 

Kilcullen is very lucky to have a group like KCA who work tirelessly at improving Kilcullen. KCA along with the CE workers and the Tidy Town volunteers help to keep Kilcullen looking the way it is. Over the past number of years KCA has evolved and taken on more and more projects that are beyond flowers and litter picking. KCA is now involved in the National Pollinator Plan, developing a Sustainable Energy Community, as well as looking at creating energy from our current resources with the potential of feeding into the local grid. There are biodiversity talks to help educate people about the world we share with so many other creatures. KCA are now involved in producing a Town Design Plan for the future development of Kilcullen that will endeavour to try and accommodate the needs for everyone. We even have a newly built poly tunnel as well as two bee hives. These are just a small example of the work that KCA are involved in. 

For us this is what is great about KCA, it is a group with a vision and people who are willing to explore new possibilities for the betterment of Kilcullen and the planet. KCA reaches out to the community and draws on the strengths of the people who live here. KCA is a community organisation of volunteers who work tirelessly to make Kilcullen a better place to live, work and visit.

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Twenty years of KCA: Orla O'Neill

At the signing of the Childcare Centre lease in December 2012, Orla O'Neill, Iseult O'Donoghue and Kate Steed.

Kilcullen Community Action was founded 21 years ago, on 9 May 2001. The Diary asked a number of people who have been involved with it during the last 20 years to give us some of their thoughts on the organisation. We will be publishing these as they come in, to mark the completion of two decades of KCA work.

I was initially a member from about 2005, and served a period as a director, writes Orla O'Neill. I have been a member for the past two years of a KCA subcommittee to work on the Kilcullen Design Statement. 

The first time round, I was interested in community development — tackling issues like facilities for young people, public transport and the playground. During my time then I thought there needed to be more people involved that were interested in more than Tidy Towns. I wasn't a gardener nor had I a big interest but I was interested in the value of people working together for the betterment of the town. It didn't happen when I was there, but did shortly thereafter and it seems to be thriving now with new people. 

Although the playground process took place separately, KCA was very much the catalyst for bringing the group together and being 'base camp' for the project. 

For the design statement, I was hoping to engage KCA in the benefits of having a Design Statement process and that happened. 

KCA has been THE group in the town to spearhead most of the major (non-sporting) developments. They were either directly involved, a catalyst for, or an invaluable support base for Community Awards, Christmas Lights, Summer Flowers, Kilcullen Community Playground, Kilcullen Community Consultation and Development Plan, Kilcullen Childcare Centre and all of the other current initiatives that people will list such as the Community Garden, Energy Audit and more including the current Kilcullen Design Statement process. They also provided the insurance for the River Festival. 

KCA provides a focal point to the community to come together — they organise public meetings when needed and give local people a 'go-to' organisation when they need to raise issues. 

The model it currently works to is successful — it is very much volunteer led and this is its strength. I'd like to see KCA try to wield more power with local authorities, demanding more public services. Also perhaps to convene a network of local community and sporting organisations — maybe have a quarterly meeting to share information and identify priorities — perhaps work together as appropriate on particular campaigns around more and better community infrastructure. 

There is also a need to engage more with the planning process, to keep development in line with community needs and to ensure the Design Statement principles are adhered to. There is a need to look at longer term needs of Kilcullen — does it need more school places; more local employment and enterprise support; more facilities for older people, better public transport, more and better public housing so that people don't need to travel outside of the town for these things. However, this would need KCA to seek funding for paid workers, this couldn't be done by volunteers alone. This would bring its own headaches and there is no guarantee it would be successful — a risk analysis would have to be carried out and there may not be the appetite to pursue this approach.

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Twenty years of KCA: Antoinette Buckley

Antoinette Buckley at the opening of the Valley Fairy Train in 2019.

Kilcullen Community Action was founded 21 years ago, on 9 May 2001. The Diary asked a number of people who have been involved with it during the last 20 years to give us some of their thoughts on the organisation. We will be publishing these as they come in, to mark the completion of two decades of KCA work.

I became involved with KCA over six years ago, writes Antoinette Buckley. Funds were tight and money was needed for Christmas lighting for the town. I love bright and fun displays and think every town should put its best foot forward for yearly events, especially Christmas. After discussing it with the group we decided to send out a letter to every business in the town asking them to contribute whatever they could to purchase Christmas lights for the town. The businesses were amazing. We raised over €7,000, and the Christmas lights display was special that year. Since then, I became involved in different projects after that, not just with KCA but with other groups in the town as well.

The first big project I became involved in with KCA was Kilcullen Market Square Redevelopment initiative late 2017 with Fiona O’Loughlin the then TD for Kildare South. We discussed it in detail and Fiona got KCC engineer David Reel to look at the space and it all started from there. I set up and chaired a KCA subcommittee with four of the Naas MD Councillors, Robert Power, Anne Breen, Fintan Brett and Sorcha O’Neill plus Noel Clare KCA, Eoin Houlihan KCA, Laura Bowen Architect, and Garrett Landy. This was a fantastic group of likeminded people with a passion for Kilcullen town and its future. 

We secured €200,000 from the Town and Village Scheme Grant with the help of Mairead Hunt and Joe Boland KCC. It is important to network with all your MD councillors and work together on projects and ask for advice. We were advised to talk to James Hennessy of Paul Hogarth Urban Architects, and he agreed to meet with us. With the help of KCC we were fortunate to have James Hennessy onboard. He designed a proposed plan for the square, and we held several public consultations and invited all stakeholders and residents to the consultations. One of the biggest consultations was held on the square where we asked people to fill out a survey asking them what they would like to see in the plan to redevelop the square. 

The reason I wanted to drive this project is a love for attractive public spaces and how a redeveloped square in Kilcullen would benefit the community and the businesses in the town. Public spaces have a great economic value, an impact on physical and mental health, offer benefits to ALL ages. These spaces create positive social environment and community culture, offer improved mobility between spaces, and a boost to biodiversity. Developing the square will bring the centre back to the town with the amazing unique amenity of the River Liffey flowing through our town. 

Removing 15 car parking spaces is the biggest challenge we faced, and we worked to resolve this. Thankfully, KCC along with the local KCC representatives are allocating 25 car parking spaces just metres away for public use. The square is too valuable a space to use as a car park and we are all beginning to realise the importance of our public spaces for people to use and enjoy, especially over the past two years, with the Covid pandemic and all the harsh restrictions. The development of Market Square is now gone to a Part 8 Planning stage which is a great achievement for the committee, KCA and the town. Having a local councillor in the area who will work with the group is vital in our town, in fact working with all the Newbridge MD councillors is key to the future of our town. 

I am involved in other projects for the town, but another big project was the launch of The Valley Fairy Trail which I spearheaded with Ger Doyle and KCA. Ger sponsored the project and put huge work into making the fairy houses and displays. It took weeks of work and a lot of help from KCA volunteers to complete the project. The Fairy Trail is a tremendous success, and the Valley is used by visitors and locals daily. KCA sponsored some fantastic seating in the Valley last year, KCC with the help of one of our local councillors sponsored six picnic benches made by Kevin O’Brien for the valley and other areas in the town.

For annual events like Easter, Halloween, Christmas displays, everyone in KCA works together on the projects. 

I don’t think I had any expectations when I first became involved, only to work with the group to enhance and improve the town through the numerous projects spearheaded by the group. Yes, I have certain ideas about projects, but we all discuss them and agree if it is a worthwhile project or not for the town. I would have to say it is a collective decision by the team. What I love about the group is that you can give as much or as little of your time, I would like to see some new members join the group with fresh ideas and help with existing projects.

I think KCA are a highly active group with a passion for the town and its future. A lot of projects to list, but these are a few of the visible ones — Kilcullen In Bloom summer flower displays, Christmas Lights and displays, the Valley Fairy Trail, Market Square Redevelopment, Town Design Plan, Pollinator Plan, Energy Plan, Signage, Litter picks, Library Garden, Polytunnel , yearly events. You only have to look around the town and see the wonderful work that the members get involved with. Years ago, people looked at Tidy Town as a litter picking group, but it is so much than that. I would like to thank the CE Scheme team who collaborate with the volunteers on many of the projects in the town.

KCA should continue the work that they are doing, network with other towns and build up a good relationship with all our elected MD Councillors. Working together with the businesses and the community to continue the work, and plan for the town’s future. The projects speak for themselves.

New members are vital to keep things fresh and up to date. Long time members have done such fantastic work over the years, I am in awe of the work that they do on a voluntary basis, but then we do live in a special town with amazing community spirit. We need to hold onto that community spirit into the future. KCA are a forward-thinking group, so I think the future for the town is positive.

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Twenty years of KCA: Anna Jennings

In this photo of the 1991 Tidy Towns Awards organised by KCA predecessor group Kilcullen Community Development, project coordinator Anna Jennings is second from left front row, with Brendan O'Connell, Richard Enright and Rosaleen McCarney and (back) Joan Forde, Larry Campbell, Vincent Nolan, Dave Prendergast and Des Byrne.

Kilcullen Community Action was founded 21 years ago, on 9 May 2001. The Diary asked a number of people who have been involved with it during the last 20 years to give us some of their thoughts on the organisation. We will be publishing these as they come in, to mark the completion of two decades of KCA work.

I was quite involved in the Tidy Towns group which preceded KCA, writes Anna Jennings. Unfortunately, around the time of the setting up of KCA, I changed jobs and had to opt out of most activities. However, I kept in touch with most of the main players and reasonably up to date on events. I offered my support whenever feasible at events rather than attending regular meetings. 

The thinking behind the establishment of KCA was to broaden the base of the original Tidy Towns group and to appeal to a wider sector of the community of Kilcullen. While Tidy Towns had brought about significant improvement in the overall appearance of the town, it was recognised that attention should be given to other related matters. This mirrored the changes that were being introduced into the judging of the annual Tidy Towns competition — a shift away from endless floral displays to wider issues in the community with increasing emphasis on involvement of children and local groups. 

KCA has made huge strides in these areas over the years — engagement with local schools, creating awareness around climate change and general environmental issues and greater emphasis on the importance of the built environment. It has been particularly successful in getting 'new people' involved in KCA and having a spread of projects that people can opt into. All this has happened while still not losing sight of the original idea of Tidy Towns group — encouraging people to have pride in their neighbourhoods and maximising local amenities.

I think that KCA has a good broad base of people who are committed to it and are really influencing the shape of Kilcullen.

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Twenty years of KCA: Noel Clare

Noel Clare making a presentation to Kieran Forde in 2018 to mark his retirement from 31 years of involvement in Kilcullen Tidy Towns and KCA.

Kilcullen Community Action was founded 21 years ago, on 9 May 2001. The Diary asked a number of people who have been involved with it during the last 20 years to give us some of their thoughts on the organisation. We will be publishing these as they come in, to mark the completion of two decades of KCA work.

I have been involved with KCA since the beginning and was also involved with Tidy Towns before that back to the early 90s, writes Noel Clare. Tidy Towns was a project within what was then Kilcullen Community Development and it kept going when KCD ceased to exist. The name change came because some people felt that Tidy Towns held too narrow a perception in people’s minds and as Kilcullen was about to undergo unprecedented development, a name change would help to achieve a broader focus, including an input into planning and development that was happening at the time. 

The input of KCA into planning and development since then is on record and I for one am still proud to have been involved in fighting to preserve something of the unique characteristics of Kilcullen town centre, something KCA is still helping to recognise, preserve and enhance through current projects — including the Market Square Public Realm Enhancement scheme and Kilcullen Design Statement. 

As you pass through Kilcullen you can’t but notice improvements that have been brought about by KCA, particularly to the landscape and environment of the town. From the Dun Ailinne Interpretive Park, to the Valley Riverside Park and Fairy Trail, the Library Garden, the Convent Garden, and the obvious improvements on all approach roads — the most recent being the addition of new town name signs. Things like Christmas Lights and Summer Flowers — both very substantial projects in their own right — are almost taken for granted and both add enormously to the feel-good factor around the town.

KCA has also provided a platform to give voice to the community on many issues over the years, hosting public meetings on several occasions.

But perhaps the most important aspect of KCA is that from day one it has been an open, transparent and welcoming organisation. One of its successes is that it has attracted many new members of the community to become involved. It has also developed into an organisation with really good and strong governance including being registered as a Company Limited by Guarantee with the CRO and as a Charity with the Charities Regulator. All of these bode well for the future of the organisation. 

KCA has also established good relationships with local and outside organisations and this has given added strength to our aim to bring about improvements locally. One sign of this is the fact that Kilcullen has been one of the most successful towns in the county in drawing down funds from Leader. 

Looking forward, KCA has a very robust structure, the result of a lot of hard work by many people over the years and this means that it can look forward with confidence to the future. Tidy Towns still resides at the core, as it did 20 years ago. But Tidy Towns is probably the most successful national grassroots organisation in the entire country (alongside the GAA), and has positioned itself to become a strong force for environmental awareness and improvement — something that is now hugely more important than it was 20 years ago. One current project that is particularly important in this regard is that of Kilcullen’s Sustainable Energy Group and it is important that this gets off the ground in the near future.

Finally it has been wonderful to work with and get to know a tremendous group of people, all of whom have a one common aim — to make Kilcullen a better place.

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