'CROSSROADS' IN COLOUR

Here's an update to yesterday's 'Crossroads' post. Austin Egan had an original colour version of that photo. Makes all the difference!

Mary Orford has told us that rehearsals were held in the Old School with liquid and food refreshments provided by her uncle,  Tommy, who lived next door at Church View. She also provided a selection of cast names, in no particular order: 

Eithne Dempsey, John Linnane, Josie Connolly, show producer (aka Cecil B De Mille with her cast of thousands), Stasia Orford, Frank Morrow, Betty Corrigan, Carmel Talt, Lil Moore, Joe Doyle, Jean Halpin, Susan Halpin, Áine Kelly. Orla Connolly, Henry Talt, Jim Collins, Joe Waldron, Ray Monaghan, Paddy Moloney and Des Hogan.

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WERE YOU IN 'CROSSROADS' IN 1976?

This one is a difficult challenge for recognising faces, as the reproduction in the Leinster Leader of July 3rd 1976 is pretty poor. But there may be some in the picture who remember themselves as playing their part in the Orford's Knockaulin Bar production of 'Crossroads' for the Kilcullen Capers that year. Contributed by Joe Murray.

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Looking Back: Kilcullen Capers 50 years ago

We're looking back 50 years this morning, with this photograph of a Kilcullen Capers Group, taken c1972-1973, writes Brian Byrne. It's courtesy of Ambrose O'Connell, in Coventry, England.

It might be another occasion to listen to my documentary on the 1982, and last, Kilcullen Community Capers. 

NOTE: There seems to be a belief that it was McTernans Capers Group, can anyone confirm?

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LISTEN: Remembering the Capers

As part of Heritage Week 2022, the Kilcullen Diary offers an audio documentary made in 1982 of Kilcullen Community Capers, writes Brian Byrne.

Capers was an annual fundraising event in which different areas of the village and parish were pitted against each other in a week of variety shows. The 1982 event was the tenth year, and as it happened, was to be the last. 

The documentary was made by myself — I was then working for RTE Radio News — and the interviews I did at the time provide a special listen back into the past with some very special people.

LISTEN: Ballyshannon Voices from the Past.

LISTEN: Conserving Moone Tower House. 

LOOK: All Heritage Week events in Kildare here. 

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Major music award for Saoirse Mhór

Photo: Saoirse Mhór.

Kilcullen-born musician Paul Durney, aka Saoirse Mhór, has won the Best Song of the Year in the 39th German Rock & Pop Awards, writes Brian Byrne.

Saoirse works as a professional singer-songwriter in Germany and the award from the Deutscher Rock & Pop Preis 2021 is for 'Ashbury Lane' from his current album Minor Tales Major Stories. 

"It's nice to ring out the year with some icing on the cake," he said after being notified of the award this week. "This song was the ugly duckling during the CD production and, well, there you go. Thanks to all who helped put it together with their respective amazing inputs: Katie Doherty, Andrew Cadie, Michael Busch, Steffen Knauss and Andy Horn."

The 7-song EP was Saoirse's 'lockdown production' after his his normal summer of touring the street music events and pubs in Germany with his band Fleadh was disrupted by the pandemic in 2020.

Paul sang as a youngster in the Kilcullen Community Capers back in the 70s. In 1980, after a spell working in Berneys Saddlers he left Ireland and busked his way across England and Germany, where he settled in 1987.

On a trip to Ireland in 2004, after hearing Luka Bloom playing in The Riverbank in Newbridge, he picked his pseudonym Saoirse Mhór and began his life of entertaining on the streets and on the Irish pub scene in Germany. He last performed in Kilcullen in 2014, with a night on the stage of the Town Hall.

Saoirse with his then bank Fleadh, in Kilcullen in 2014.

This summer he was back on the circuits in Germany again with his new band Siolta. The EP can be bought at Bandcamp. 

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A song from Saoirse Mhor

A nice rendition by Saoirse Mhor of his song 'Hill of Plenty', performed in the Maximal Concert Club in Rodgau, Germany, a month ago.

Saoirse is, of course, Kilcullen-born Paul Durney, who lives and works in Germany.

He is a musical 'graduate' of Kilcullen Capers. 

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New EP from Paul Durney (Saoirse Mhór) is a journey through heartache

Kilcullen-raised singer songwriter Saoirse Mhór, who lives and works in Germany, has just released a new EP which pandemic restrictions gave him the time to complete, writes Brian Byrne.

Better known to us as Paul Durney, his normal summer of touring the street music events and pubs in Germany with his band Fleadh was disrupted, and the result is Minor Tales, Major Stories, a 7-song studio production.

Paul's song style is story-telling, and this latest presentation is a somewhat haunting set which had their genesis during what the singer calls a 'personally difficult time'. The first offering on the EP, 'Ashbury Lane', sets the tone. The second, 'Table of Losers', continues it. Poets and songwriters traditionally wear their lives, loves and heartaches on their metaphorical sleeves, in this case the sleeve notes of the EP.

All the songs except 'Lord Franklin' are Paul's own, but that one also suits the journey on which the others are taking him. In the end, the 'difficult time' passes, as they do, and with 'It's Over', the eventual, inevitable almost-liberty from heartache reflects rebirth by each night's performance. The boy is still singing/It remains his delight/Because he's learned it's a way/That he can pass on some light.

Paul sang as a youngster in the Kilcullen Community Capers back in the 70s. In 1980, after a spell working in Berneys Saddlers he left Ireland and busked his way across England and Germany, where he settled in 1987. On a trip to Ireland in 2004, after hearing Luka Bloom playing in The Riverbank in Newbridge, he picked his pseudonym Saoirse Mhór and began his life of entertaining on the streets and on the Irish pub scene in Germany. He last performed in Kilcullen in 2014, with a night on the stage of the Town Hall.

He is now working with a new band, Siolta, 'and when the ghost of corona fades, we'll be back on the road again'.

Meantime, you can sample and buy the new EP from Bandcamp. Recommended.

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Kilcullen Diary SoundCloud: Remembering Kilcullen Capers

Through the 1970s until 1982, Kilcullen Capers was an annual event in which different areas of the village and parish were pitted against each other in a week of variety shows, writes Brian Byrne.

The 1982 event was the tenth year, and as it happened, was to be the last. Not knowing that, I made recordings of rehearsals and participants in a number of the shows, which later I turned into an audio documentary.

For this latest episode of the Kilcullen Diary SoundCloud, I have uploaded that documentary, which recalls a very special period in Kilcullen. It's a full 45 minutes, so pick a suitable time over the weekend, with a pot of tea or even a glass of wine.

Enjoy, and for those of you who were there, happy memories.

Beat the Virus: Stay At Home. 

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Sweet song of impossible love from Saoirse Mhór

A Thursday morning treat — here's a song written and performed by former Kilcullen man Paul Durney, aka Saoirse Mhór, to mark the love of those who cannot be together, writes Brian Byrne.

White Birds is based on the doomed relationship between WB Yeats and Maud Gonne. It is from the CD he released in 2017, Ghosts of Tomorrow, with the Fleadh Euro-trad band gathered around him in his long-time home in Heidelberg, Germany. This version is performed by the Saoirse Mhór Trio.

Paul's first public performances were in the Kilcullen Capers when he was a youngster growing up in Kilcullen in the 1970s.

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A personal blast from the past in Heritage Week

During all the emphasis on Past Times heritage during the last week, I acquired a few photographs which related to myself and brought back a slew of memories, writes Brian Byrne.

They were given to me by Pat Schwer, who worked at the time as a photographer with Flaircolor of Newbridge. As you can see, they show The Hideout as it was around the early 1970s, with a rare Ford Corsair Estate parked out front.

Then there's one of myself with Brian Keyes, after winning a cup for The Hideout in the Kilcullen Capers, probably 1972. Dig the sideburns and the knitted tie!

The third is myself in The Hideout with singer-songwriter Donovan, in 1972 when he was living in Castlemartin while in tax exile from Britain. During that time, he composed the songs used in the sound-track for the Franco Zeffirelli film about St Francis of Assisi, Brother Sun, Sister Moon.

Donovan sang all the songs on the soundtrack itself. In 2004, he re-recorded the song and released them on iTunes Store.

As a local aside, he also formed a new band at Castlemartin for a planned tour, and their first public performance was on the stage of the Town Hall, the proceeds going to Kilcullen Tennis Club.

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Another names game

Yet another photograph from the past, provided by Patricia Byrne.

This looks like a Capers team from Nicholastown? Let's play the names game again ... some are quite obvious, but others may not be whom they seem.

UPDATE: Mary Orford is first in, with the suggestion it might be a McTernans Capers Show ... and that makes a lot of sense. Anything more?

MORE: Angela Keogh Murray says it's McTernans Capers too, and names include Ambrose O'Connell, Michael Lambe, J McGarr, Triona Keogh, Sean Power, Phil McGrath, Noel Nugent, Bill Dowling, Dan Sullivan, and Nick Aulsberry.

MORE AGAIN: Shane McGrath confirms that it was McTernans' Capers Team, they won the Pub part of the competition that year. "My dad, front left, sang 'My Old Man's a Dustman'. Back row, after the priest, is Angela Keogh (my Mam), Una Keogh, her brother Sean Keogh and his wife, Mary Keogh. Paddy O'Leary on the extreme left. Fergal Sloane and Billy Dowling there too."

(Also, don't forget the Meitheal of Memories event tomorrow night in the Town Hall ... bring your memorabilia along and share some stories.)

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A night of cinematic nostalgia

It was a gathering of cinematic memories as much as anything else, and if last night's presentation of Cinema Paradiso didn't quite fill the theatre with people, it did so with nostalgia, writes Brian Byrne.

The showing organised by Kilcullen Lions drew an audience of cinemagoers who would understand what the smartphone and Netflix generation have probably never experienced — the community of a night at 'the pictures'.

Nessa Dunlea spoke about the early days of the Town Hall, opened in 1933 and rebuilt a number of times since to be the Heritage Centre and classy theatre that it is today. All that time, despite a 'troubled early history', it has been the hub of social activity for the entire community.

Your editor recalled various 'back-room' aspects of showing films when I was a child, access to which I had because my dad and a couple of pals started up a cinema in the premises in the early 1940s — before I was born — and later as a youngster I had the perk of getting in free.

The cinema was later taken over by a community group and operated until the mid-70s when the advent of videos effectively killed the cinemas of rural Ireland. But during that time it became the first cinema in Co Kildare to have Cinemascope wide screen and stereophonic sound, and had the reputation of being the best cinema in Leinster outside of Dublin.

Big movies shown soon after general release included The Sound of Music, The Robe, The Big Country, The Magnificent Seven, The Alamo and many more. As one advertising flyer put it, 'for a little over a shilling, you can see a production costing many millions of pounds'.

The Town Hall has also been the constant venue for the Kilcullen Drama Group productions — today it remains as the home of that group which has been in existence for more than eight decades. There were also live shows, including the famous Community Capers of the 1970s and early 1980s. Boxing tournaments were also presented on the stage.

But last night it was the movies, and the memories, from Nessa, Noel Clare, Bernard Berney, and no doubt others in the evening's conversations. All that was missing was that there was no O'Connells shop across the road to race to for sweets and drinks during the intermission …