Viewpoint: Should we go back to the Big Tree?

They cut down the Big Tree in Kilcullen in the early 70s, writes Brian Byrne. 'They' being Kildare County Council. Without a by your leave, without any kind of what today would be called public consultation. Without even putting up a notice on the tree to say what they planned.

Which was an irony. Because the Big Tree, located where is now the entrance to Conroy Park estate, had for probably hundreds of years been the village notice board.

The contractor who cut it down in an early morning operation found that out to his cost. In the subsequent 'slicing' of the massive trunk, he broke chains regularly on his saw from the hundreds of nails it encountered. They were buried through it, covered by years of successive new rings of bark. I acquired some of that timber to fuel my home fire over later years, and found many of them too.

We can surmise the range of things the notices and posters might have announced. 'Wanted' notices for those required to answer for their crimes were probably among them. Indeed, some local people recall the Big Tree being known also as the 'hanging tree', so some serious miscreants whose doings were posted might have ended up swinging beside their own posters.

Of course, there would have been lots of other news on the tree. Con acre to let, items for sale, auctions, official notices of forthcoming courts, possibly some casual work opportunities, maybe even timetables relating to the coaches which used to change their horses at the stables up where Nicholastown Green is now.

This was all before internet social media, before TV, before radio, before telephones, and even before when newspapers became available for many to buy. But people at least had a central point in the village where they knew they could find essential information.

Today we have the plethora of electronic and print information sources which literally bombard us with news, notices, advertisements, gossip, entertainment, argument, sport, and much more on a 24/7 basis. It also lets anybody and everybody contribute to the remorselessly endless stream. Life has become like a radio discussion where everyone is talking at once and nobody can, or wants to, hear anybody else.

An unintended consequence is that important stuff can get lost in the noise, if not the cacophony. Well, let's be blunt. It does get lost.

I'm prompted to all this by a motion that's to be discussed in Kildare County Council today, put forward by Cllr Fiona McLoughlin Healy (who has a Kilcullen connection in being married to Bernard Healy). Stripped of motionese, she's saying that lots of people don't know stuff that Kildare County Council is doing. Especially when it's something that requires public consultation.

The thing is, local authorities still, to a large extent, depend on fulfilling their statutory obligations of notices to the public simply by placing an advertisement in the local papers. Sometimes they will also take out radio advertisements. And they may nowadays put a press release in the news section of their websites, and might also put a link to that information on their social media accounts. For key matters, such as development plans, these notices will direct those interested to view them either in the Council offices or your local library.

Which is all very well, and indeed it has to be said the embracing of modern digital media by Kildare County Council has in some ways been a leader to other local authorities around the country.

But all that depends on readership at newspaper level, or 'likes' or 'followers' on social media. And if we look at these, how successfully our own local authority actually gets engagement from the people it serves might need some evaluation. Which is part of what Cllr McLoughlin Healy's motion is all about.

Local newspaper penetration has declined dramatically over the last decade, especially in counties around Dublin to where city families have migrated in great numbers and who don't have, and generally don't develop, an allegiance to a local paper. So-called 'free sheets' typically don't get the same level of attention and scrutiny that a paid-for paper will garner.

Local radio has arguably a much greater 'reach' to the population of, in our case, County Kildare. But radio by its nature is 'written on the wind' and unless expensively repetitive advertising is used, a local authority's public consultation message is not likely to be effective.

Those traditional media will also pick up on some of those matters and do news or features on them. This is probably where more attention is gathered. But page- and air-space is limited, and only 'sexy' — bluntly, controversial — stories will be prioritised.

Facebook and Twitter are the 'sexy' communications media at the moment, but they're very noisy with 'me' chatter, and even if 'liking' or 'following', it isn't clear if a relatively dull announcement about a public consultation will catch the attention of any of those ostensibly connected with the Council. It certainly won't get to anybody who hasn't connected.

As a point of context, if we take it that there's a population of some 210,000 in County Kildare, the Council's Facebook account has a mere 1,715 'likes', and its Twitter followers are rather, but not greatly, better at over 3,000. Neither penetration levels look useful.

So, back to my Big Tree, should our local authority be looking at that heritage for keeping in touch with the people it serves?

I've been in the communications business for most of four decades. In that time I've written, photographed, broadcast and published on a variety of print, radio, TV and internet platforms. And still do. I've been a local, national and international journalist, done PR — hated it — and communications training. But one of the things I still do most every day is walk down the street of Kilcullen and look at the notices in the windows.

That's where I get much of my information and heads-ups for the Diary, and for my 'Down and around in Kilcullen' page in The Kildare Nationalist.

That's where the core of local communication is. And, I believe, that's where Kildare County Council should be looking at, in the various communities it serves.

Everybody in those communities goes to their local shops, their Post Offices (if they still have them), or at least walk the streets of their village or town. And they always look at posters and notices in the windows they pass. So there's a case to be made that the Council should also put their important notices directly in the communities that are particularly affected.

We don't have the Big Tree in Kilcullen any more. As I said, the same Council cut it down. And, as it happened, caused my first published piece, an angry one on the back page of The Bridge, entitled 'The Big Tree is Dead'. I haven't stopped writing since.

But Kildare County Council could be a leader in the country, even in this digital age that I am very much a part of, by establishing a protocol that physical notices be published directly in the communities which they affect. In those shop windows, Post Offices, or — better — even in dedicated noticeboard facilities on the street.

It goes against the whole trend towards digitising everything in our lives. But it might actually be better communication to all of us.

And I might even forgive them for felling the Big Tree ...

Viewpoint: Town Hall tonight

There is a unique event in Kilcullen this evening, to which everybody with a stake in the future of the town should go, writes Brian Byrne.

Almost all of the 16 candidates for the nine council seats in the Naas area — to which Kilcullen now belongs — have accepted an invitation to a Town Meeting hosted by KCA.

It is unique, because it is Kilcullen being pro-active about sussing out the plans and personalities of the candidates seeking the positions from where the successful ones will be making decisions on many aspects of Kilcullen life over the next five years.

It is Kilcullen people not waiting to be canvassed for two minutes on our individual doorsteps. It's a very important opportunity, and if we as a community don't grasp it, then we have no business complaining about councillors and Council activities that bear on our lives and businesses for the life of the next Council.

I'll be blunt. I never expected that so many of the candidates would accept the invitation. I thought the party ones would hide behind the 'electoral strategy' gambit and maybe just send the one in their number concentrating on the Kilcullen area. I thought the established councillors amongst them might feel Kilcullen had a nerve in asking them to come before the community. I thought we'd be lucky to have maybe four or five, if for no other reason than requesting them to give up one night of their canvas with just a week to go is a big ask.

So I salute in advance the candidates for making themselves available to Kilcullen tonight. As a group they are extending us a significant courtesy. And I make a plea for Kilcullen as a community to respond to that.

It's a plea to every individual in the town who might read this. Whatever other plans you had for tonight, drop them and come to the Town Hall at 8pm. Show that you also have the courtesy, and the commitment to Kilcullen, to be prepared to spend just a couple of hours in a one-off with the candidates who want you, and me, and the rest of us, to make them decision makers on our behalf.

Kilcullen has a lot going for it. Always had. But no less than any other community we also have issues. Infrastructural development, street-cleaning, roads maintenance. Business support, social and leisure facilities. Community services over which the Council has mandates. Allocation of financial resources which are never enough to satisfy all needs.

We can complain of 'faceless politicians'. Tonight is the chance to see the faces from which we will elect the local politicians who will serve us for the next five years. Tonight is your chance to ask them how they plan to represent the needs of our community in that time. Tonight is the chance to show them that we mean business, and find out what they mean.

Very few communities will have had such a chance as we have tonight. Don't waste it. Please come out and get to know, even a little bit, those who will be our next local representatives. Give them a chance to get to know you too.

Communication is a two-way street. Communication is the Town Hall, 8pm tonight. Be there.

Editorial: Polling Day, Election 2011

This could be one of the most important days of recent decades in Ireland. It might be the day that we, for once, vote with our heads instead of our traditions. Because it is only by working with our heads that we will get our country out of the mess it is currently in.

Perhaps it will be the day we, as a nation, throw aside the concept of our messenger to the Assembly being the man or woman we turn to in order to have potholes fixed, help us through the social welfare system, or to 'fix' something for us. Or worse, to 'swing' a piece of legislation that will make us individual profit.

The new Dail members won't have time for that. They have a country to fix, a nation's pride to repair, the staunching of a population's future haemorrhaging on the emigration planes. If they don't concentrate on these things, and these alone, then we might as well not bother electing them today.

But we must elect them, whoever we believe will do their best and whoever we believe to have the capacity to do what is needed. And each vote does count. Each single voice in millions of voices calling out for better things makes for a chorus, and then a roar, that much louder with a message impossible to ignore.

As much as our new generation of politicians have to change, so do we. We must learn to take responsibility for our own lives, to do rather than ask for things to be done, to build rather than expect things to be built for us, to create rather than always leave that to others. To do these things in whatever small or larger way each of us can.

In one way or another, this is the first day of our nation's future. Whatever the actual result in terms of members elected to the Dail, the really important one is how many of us actually vote today. If the turnout is as mediocre as it has been so many times in the past, then we will, as a people, have failed our sons and daughters who have to live, or leave here, over the coming decade.

For various reasons, mostly your editor's lack of time, the Diary hasn't run a political commentary during this campaign. But this piece is perhaps the most important set of words on Election 2011 that I can write.

Go out and vote today, or forever hold your peace about what has gone before, and what happens in the future. Go out, do your duty to our hopes and dreams, and be proud.

Brian Byrne.

The journalism of fear and loathing

This is one of those times when I feel uncomfortable about being a journalist, writes Brian Byrne. Or, more specifically, about the kind of journalism which has become the most recent filler of column inches and their equivalent on electronic media over the past days and weeks.

This whole Larry Murphy thing has become a frenzy which feels not far off what happens when a piece of meat is thrown into a river inhabited by piranha fish. The water's relative calm is transformed into a roiling mass of ravening teeth, the owners of each set trying madly to get a share of the bloody action.

While it lasts, the area becomes a scary and dangerous place for anyone in a vulnerable position. As soon as the meat is consumed, all goes quiet and the shoal moves on in the hunt for another frantic meal. Leaving behind, amongst other things, fear and loathing.

Read more »

Tolling National Routes: 'fraud, corruption and abuse'

If nothing else that this current Government has done has been enough to really have them physically turfed out of their cosy leather Dail seats, then any attempt to extend tolling from our motorways to ordinary National Routes should do it.

If we allow it, writes Brian Byrne, we will be pitching our constitutional freedom to travel right back into the era of the turnpike roads of the 18/19th centuries, a period of 129 years when 'trustee' boards of local landlords and politicians became the 'legitimate' equivalent of 'stand-and-deliver' highwaymen, fleecing travellers as they passed through their districts.

Read more »

A Thought for the Day

This is a 'heavenly' kind of story that's circulating on the Internet. Aimed obviously at those who believe in the concept of Heaven, it nevertheless has resonances for those to might not believe, but are simply good people.

I dreamed that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, 'This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received.'

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

The angel then said to me, 'This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them.' I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. 'This is the Acknowledgment Section,' my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed 'How is it that there is no work going on here?' I asked.

'So sad,' the angel sighed. 'After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments.'

'How does one acknowledge God's blessings?' I asked.

'Simple,' the angel answered. Just say, 'Thank you, Lord.'

'What blessings should they acknowledge?' I asked.

'If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.'

'And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.'

'If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.'

'If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation... you are ahead of 700 million people in the world.'

'If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world '
'If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very rare.'

'If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair.'

Ok, what now? How can I start?

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you want, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are.

Beats all the doom and gloom stuff, doesn't it?

An Editor's thoughts of the moment

This is just for the record, and to remind myself how useful it is to have two working hands. Especially if you make your living by writing.

For the last two days I haven't had that ability. An operation on Monday to deal with a couple of fingers on my right hand which had become curled-in due to Dupuytren's Contracture has left me temporarily a southpaw, and I'm writing this with my left hand. It's amazing how, in such a situation, a writer's thoughts run far ahead of his ability to get them down.

I can put up with it for now, but -- because somebody once said to me 'your fingers talk' -- I'd not find it easy to carry on like this on a permanent basis.

Even if I had to, though, wouldn't I be lucky? I'd have my mind, and at least one hand. I think of Christy Brown, whose books I read which were famously written with the toes of his left foot. And physicist Stephen Hawking, with a voice synthesiser, has given us some extraordinary essays on what he believes makes the world tick.

So whatever temporary difficulty I might be experiencing tonight as I write this at the counter in Bardon's pub is small enough. Especially as I know that it IS temporary. And also because I know I'll never write anything as important as those two I mentioned.

But, since I first started typing out articles during the mid-seventies, on a portable Brother typewriter, in the public bar of the Hideout after I had seen customers and staff gone home, the ability to get down in print my thoughts and observations has been such an important part of my life. And, I hope, it has had some importance to those who have read or listened to the several millions of words I've written since those after hours type-scribbles.

'Important' is not the right word here. That what I wrote might have informed or entertained, or both, is really what matters.

Just now, I'm so grateful for the simple technology of my Alphasmart Dana keyboard, my sight so that I can see what I'm trying to say, and the the ability to string these few words together.

Yesterday, being so slightly incapacitated, I had the opportunity to sit by the fire at home, and watch and listen while a man tried to bring hope back to a sorely troubled country, and also, by doing so, to a similarly troubled world.

Over the course of the long inauguration of President Barack Obama in the United States, I worked with my left hand to help meet a couple of writing deadlines.

And after listening to him say the kind of words which our own small nation badly needs to hear from our own leaders, I felt uplifted. I emailed friends in the US that, this time, they seemed to have 'elected the right man'.

When I get my right hand back next week -- and, because of the way I type, I only need one finger of it to be back to full speed -- it is the kind of message I'm going to push forward in my own community, where I am lucky to represent the fourth generation of my family in this place.

Because I can. And, even if our leaders are, apparently, still confused ... because WE, as the people who make up our Irish nation, can.

Join me. And all the other people in Kilcullen who wish to carry on a tradition of a village, becoming a town, where the spirit called for by Barack Obama has existed for as long as I can remember.

Let's take to our hearts the core of the new US President's tone on Tuesday, and roll up our sleeves and get on with getting out of our own particular mess.

Brian Byrne.

Light the candles again

That time of year again, as we approach the fourth birthday of the Diary.

Though we seem to have reached a plateau in recent months, there was again a growth in readership during 2008. More than 103,000 visits to the site, with over 150,000 pages read. It's a lot of attention. Thank you, readers.

You tuned in from more than 130 countries, which makes us something of a United Nations. But with around two thirds accessing from Ireland itself -- and by logic, from the more or less direct locality -- the Diary is very much a facility for the community in Kilcullen itself.

That said, our town's expats in the US are the next most interested readers, followed closely by the UK. After a couple of European countries -- Germany has quite a few Kilcullenites -- it won't be any surprise that there's a good chunk of regular readership from Australia. It seems that every second home in Kilcullen has somebody in Ozland at any given time, your Editor's family included.

Why do they bother? I suppose, when you're far away, any regular link with home is nice. I often meet parents or siblings of our Wild Geese and they tell me that the outlanders often know more about what's happening here than do those they've left at home.

For those who look in from around here on a regular basis, we try to offer something new every day. But to be fair, it's a part-time and unpaid effort, and we increasingly find that time is indeed finite, and there are real physical limits to productivity. We'll keep on trying to push out this Internet envelope, though ... because it really is fascinating to this sexagenarian to be still learning new things.

The good thing is that, since we set up the Diary those some years ago, there are other local websites which have come on stream, catering for their own specialised interests here. In most cases, they don't take from what we're at, because we weren't there anyhow.

The Badminton Club, the GAA Club, are to the fore as exemplars, using the WWW in the best way possible, as regularly updated sites to let their members and followers know what's going on in a timely fashion.

The Parish is also getting in on the act, and the original static website is being developed to provide a more dynamic reporting of the Catholic interests in the locality. There's also a new Baptist congregation site which extends further the local spiritual ethos.

Also, Cross & Passion College has now got seriously onto the web, and is providing a regular news feed of the varied and often wonderful things that are happening in that youthful and vibrant part of our community.

Does all this begin to make the Diary look a little redundant? We don't believe so. Apart from the fact that we can direct you to news from these other interests, there are a number of segments out there which still haven't grasped the advantages of what we might call 'Kilcullen on the Net'.

So, approaching this latest birthday of the Diary (third week of January), we're saying 'watch this space'. Because this is the space where we'll try to keep making new things happen.

Otherwise we'd get bored ...

Brian Byrne.

We wish you ...

New Year resolutions are hard work. For Kilcullen in 2009, let's have a wish list instead. Your Diary has a few of its own. Add to them, and let us know ... we don't subscribe to the superstition that a wish should be kept secret. Otherwise how can it be made come true?

We wish that all our readers and their families enjoy good health and reasonable expectations, because being a high-flying Celtic Tiger has truly proven to be no guarantee for long life or happiness.

We hope that the volunteer effort of Kilcullen Community Action is both recognised and augmented by the community which that group has most unstintingly served for many years.

Acknowledging the very positive input of Kildare County Council to the street cleaning programme in the last year, we would still like them to communicate with the people of Kilcullen before they implement such dross as the grotty reflective tape on the bollards (and arrogantly replacing it when the community showed actively what it thought of the idea). Y'know, sometimes it is good to admit one is wrong?

It would be nice if the parents of Kilcullen's (very minority) wayward young people took their offspring in hand and made them aware of the ancient concept of respect for where they live.

We would really like those who park their cars badly and illegally to consider the effects of their actions before they exit their vehicles.

Ah, yes ... while KCC's street cleaning crews are working hard to pick up the litter, wouldn't it be nice if we didn't drop it ourselves in the first place?

Finally, it happens that we have a good crew of An Garda in Kilcullen at the moment; let's appreciate what they do, and do what we can to make their jobs doable.

Here endeth the Diary lesson for the start of 2009. But feel free to add your own wishes for Kilcullen through the rest of the year.

Brian Byrne.

Lisbon referendum, a personal view

Decision time is coming up for all of us with a vote, but the whole Lisbon Treaty thing has degenerated into a shouting match which makes it even more difficult to understand the already confused issues.

When obviously intelligent people on both sides of the divide come up with passionately opposing interpretations of various aspects of the Treaty, clearly there is something wrong with the whole thing?

And I'm just talking about the rational people. The ones who can make reasoned arguments, and don't have a hobby horse to flog to death. I don't take any account of faculties-challenged monkeys, or hijacked turkeys, or opportunistic naysayers like Sinn Fein.

I don't have a problem with many of the more hyped fears. I believe the neutrality issue is well copper-fastened, and anyhow I figure we should punch our weight in any defence of our EU neighbours that might conceivably be necessary. We could be asking them to come to our help. I don't expect the EU to be a belligerent in any conflict, and if it was we're already able to opt out of any involvement.

The abortion thing is a perennial local flag waved against any major EU-related vote. Again I think the situation is reasonably well protected, although even without Lisbon there are probably ways to try to change it. But why would the EU want to? If there's any challenge to the current situation, it will be from within Ireland, not outside.

Even the prospect of losing our Commissioner for five out of every 15 years doesn't cause me serious angst in principle. After all, we don't directly elect them, and anyhow once somebody goes to Brussels in that capacity, they are duty bound to serve the EU, not their own home country. Besides, every member state is being treated the same way. The 'yes' side makes the valid point that passing Lisbon puts off this change, already due to be implemented next year, for a further period.

OK, the Commission is only one side of a duality that actually gets laws made and implemented, the other being the European Parliament. But it is the place where policy is developed, and it is human nature that any Commissioner won't forget where he or she came from when ideas under discussion might advantage or disadvantage the folks back home. On balance, I'd like all member countries to have a permanent place at that particular table, but that's not going to happen.

This whole thing about Qualified Majority Voting is a bit of a mystery to me. And I guess to everyone else except the Machiavellian minds who devised it. Maybe it works. It must, because it is already used. The devil is in the detail of extending it, and nobody seems to agree on just what that detail is. But it isn't hard to believe that the larger countries in the Union can make the most hay with it.

I'm bemused about claims that we'll be 'unpopular' in Europe if we don't allow this one through. Politics is only a popularity contest at grass roots level. Once it gets beyond the people we can directly elect, it is all about deal-making in the corridors of power. And those deals will be made, one way or another, between people who don't give a fiddlers about how well or not they like the home country of the people they're making the deal with.

There's a whole bunch of other stuff making up what we'll be asked on Thursday next to say 'yes' or 'no' to. I've tried to read the full Treaty text, and failed to make any sense of legalese that is clearly designed to keep international lawyers in clover for decades to come. I've gone through the Referendum Commission's booklet several times, and find their effort almost too simplistic. Besides, that they had to hold a press conference for further clarification, and even then weren't able to answer all questions, is worrying to say the least.

I'm downright scornful of the various special interest groups -- farmers and some unions in particular -- which held out on backing for a 'yes' until they got certain promises from the Government. Everybody has the right to change their mind, but could I respect a call for a 'yes' from a group that was so definitely 'no' just a few days ago?

I have another uneasiness. The Government parties are the largest part of the political 'yes' camp. The dangling participles of the Coalition did a direct volte face on this issue when they managed to grab hold of the tail of the horse of power. I can't bring myself to trust their newly glossed lip-service to the 'yes' side. Besides, smelly stuff rubs off when you're so close to a horse's behind.

As for the Horse of Destiny itself, the way its various ministerial riders are urging 'yes' is quite nauseating, given that they are the self-same ministers who continually chorused their defence of Bertie Ahern's financial shenanigans when he was 'De Man', but now are remarkably busy elsewhere since they gave him the final hollow ovation on the steps of his resignation. They are also the ones who insisted that there were no upcoming economic difficulties for Ireland as we galloped towards a water-jump which was so obviously waiting to give us a very wet and chastening experience. Why do I think that they have their own interests at heart rather than yours and mine?

About the main opposition parties, I simply think they are mistaken to blindly clutch the coat-tails of a Government which just wants to strut on the Brussels vaudeville, to applause from technocrats and uber-politicos whom Ireland will have helped perpetuate ad infinitum, if not ad nauseam. Perhaps the recent drop in Fine Gael satisfaction ratings that has so surprised its leader, Enda Kenny, reflects how many of us think this way?

I consider myself a true European in the best sense of the word. I admire the experiment which the Treaty of Rome got under way, and I'm grateful for both the help that we received by virtue of joining the EEC and the long-term peace in Europe that followed from the development of a largely successful Common Market. I'm a firm fan of the Euro, and though we're outside the Shengen area, I'm comfortable with the relatively free way I can travel between the member countries of the Union.

I'm not so happy with the level of authority over our daily lives and businesses which an increasingly powerful bureaucracy in Brussels has been allowed take to itself. I don't think we should be heading for a United States of Europe, which is what those in charge of the EU are doing their best to convince us is the best course. It's a kind of 'a little more power is never enough' thing. Every little extra we give them only encourages an appetite for a bit more. Let it go on, however benign the whole monolith might try to appear, and we'll end up with the kind of centralised system that once was the Soviet Union.

Remember, that 'Union' was a forced together collection of formerly independent countries, and look at the shambles it became. The USA is a different animal altogether, as its component states were never independent countries in their own right. That said, the individual states guard carefully their own degrees of autonomy from the Federal Government, though even that has become increasingly difficult when the country has been led by an administration that shows more the attributes of an African dictatorship than a modern democracy.

All in all, I was of a mind for some last while to say 'no' to Lisbon. Not least because we in Ireland have the absolute constitutional right to vote on matters such as this. My 'no' vote was going to be as much for all those millions in the rest of the Union who didn't get a chance to have their say as it was for me.

Then the little information leaflet giving the actual wording of the Constitutional Amendment dropped through my letter slot last week. As I read it, I finally made up my mind.

I'm a communicator by trade. Have been for more than three decades. In large part my job is to make the obscure clear, to help give voice to those without the ability or the platform to so do, to tell the truth in as far as I can understand it. I hope I've done this all my journalistic career to the best of my ability.

That last little leaflet reflected perfectly the kernel of this Lisbon Treaty Referendum. What we are being asked to vote into our Constitution is absolute gibberish. Words from the topmost level of the fabled tower in Babel. No wonder what we've been hearing lately from the political rabble has itself become a babble.

I'm voting no. If they come back with something I can understand, I'll reconsider. I'm not looking for a 'Plan B', or a renegotiation. I just want it said like it is.

Like I'm saying it. No. Níl, if you like, in our other official language.

Or Ne, Nej, Nein, Õih, Ochi, Non, Nem, Le, Nee, Nie, Não, Nu, and Ei, as they might say in the other official languages of the EU if those who speak them had gotten the chance.

Brian Byrne.

Sorry about that

Apologies for there being no posts over the last few days, but your editor was away on his biennial pilgrimmage to the Frankfurt Motor Show.

It's physically the biggest such show on the calendar, and such was the number of new cars on view that it was just impossible to manage the Diary.

We'll try and do some catchup over the weekend.

An Endangered Species

This piece by Bernard Berney is published in the current edition of The Bridge magazine. It is republished here by kind permission of the author.

I was watching David Attenborough's TV programme 'Planet Earth' recently. I learned that the orang-utan was in danger of extinction in the immediate future. It caused me to reflect on another endangered species currently under threat in Ireland. I refer, of course, to the person (male or female) who is morally offended by evidence of dishonesty or lack of integrity in high places. Even as I write this article I am troubled by the thought that it may be just evidence that I am a holier-than-thou, self-righteous prig out of touch with reality of today's world.

It is amazing the way the public consensus of what is right and wrong can invade your own strongly held moral convictions. Witness how our attitude to premarital sexual relationship has changed. Even the most conservative among us now harbours some doubt about the rights and wrongs of such activities. Similarly, homosexuality has become an accepted part of the human condition and the right of homosexual people to engage in sexual acts is now the subject of considered argument. There is a large constituency in favour of the belief that single sex marriages should be officially recognised and partners of such arrangements should be allowed to adopt children.

I am making no judgement on the rights or wrongs of any of the above issues. I am just quoting them as extraordinary examples of how public opinion can be manipulated, over a relatively short period, by the leadership of powerful people supported by a sympathetic media.

My intention is to highlight the importance of good leadership in the spiritual and temporal growth of our nation. In today's world our moral values are influenced by our temporal leaders just as much, if not more, than by our spiritual leaders. Therefore, Bertie Ahern carries a responsibility way beyond the provision of jobs and income for us. It was always so. But, in the past, the church wielded a powerful influence in the area of personal morality, and the Government was absolute at one with the Church. Such an arrangement was not ideal due, in part, to errors in the Church's understanding. Nowadays, the State, personified by Bertie, holds the position of greater influence. It is, therefore, vital that the Government promotes, by its words and actions, honesty, integrity, fair dealings and an understanding of the essential value of the human spirit. Can we expect such leadership from Bertie Ahern?

On his election as Taoiseach he immediately signals his intention to welcome Beverly Cooper-Flynn back into Fianna Fail and indicates that she will be given the position of Junior Minister. He denigrates the work of the Mahon Tribunal and suggests that it should be immediately ended before it concludes its investigations. There is evidence of possible dishonesty by Bertie himself. Yet nobody cares. We no longer expect righteous behaviour from our leaders. We have gradually become inured to all sorts of dishonesty. Because none of us can claim to be free of all faults we are encouraged to view the apparent lack of integrity and lack of moral judgement in our leaders as a mere reflection of the way we are which, indeed, it is. What we are not allowed to consider is that leadership, by its very definition, must encourage us to be better than we are.

Bertie Ahern and his Cabinet should be the source of our inspiration to good citizenship. Simply by witnessing their commitment to the common good, their unselfish and altruistic endeavours to better the lives of others, we should be inspired to be better people. If our leaders do not affirm the basic principles of right and wrong they will lead us into a world of moral anarchy, a world where whatever you choose to do is right and wrongdoing is incapable of definition. In such a world happiness will be an unattainable goal. This is what's at stake when we consider the behaviour of Bertie Ahern, Beverly Cooper-Flynn, Michael Lowry and their comrades in arms. We must consider the evidence and decide are such people fit to lead us?

What is my own opinion on this question? Well, on the basis of a series of leaks hinting at malpractice and innuendo concerning favouritism I cannot make a clear judgement and must await further evidence, but I am concerned.

Bernard Berney

Editorial: Keep The Bridge open

A friend said to me recently that certain things shouldn't be allowed publication in The Bridge. I had no problem with that opinion being expressed, but did have serious concerns with the idea itself.

Maybe it's my thirty years as a professional journalist in newspapers, magazines and broadcasting; and more latterly in the so-called 'new media' of the Internet. I have a knee-jerk reaction to any form of denial of free speech, or limiting of expressions of opinion.

And, of course, I have a special interest in The Bridge, because for five years before 'going pro', the outlet for my practice of the craft of reportage and writing was that unique community publication. It can truly be said that if The Bridge hadn't existed, I'd probably not have eventually moved into a career which has given me -- and still does -- enormous satisfaction and tremendous variety of experience.

In those early 'Bridge' days, I guess I was just as opinionated as any of the many contributors of that time and through its history since. Opinions which no doubt did occasionally offend others. And I do recall various other surges of temper in its pages from many sources during the thirty-six years for which it has been churned out, month after month, in a tremendous voluntary effort.

Many times in those three and a half decades, opinions expressed by contributors raised hackles and got heated responses. On other occasions the magazine merely recorded and reflected differences already abroad in the community. And then there were periods when issue after issue coasted along on a gentle sea of indifference.

Thing was, The Bridge was always there, to become a repository for history and memory, often from far back centuries, and to record the current state of the town and even sometimes look to its future.

It was always accessible too, something which has been at the heart of its longevity. Whether a contributor simply wrote a letter to the editor, or provided a report from a small event, or launched a regular column, it was there for them to so do. And whatever was reported, proposed, or argued, all was also available for the wider public to read, consider, and maybe comment on.

Something in The Bridge would always be a conversational launching point for Kilcullenites, whether over the family dinner or down in the pub for a Saturday night pint.

By and large, The Bridge has also been pretty flexible editorially. Although with different and generally nominal editors over the decades, no particular editorial policy was ever laid down, especially in terms of what should or should not be allowed into print. In fact, from a professional eye's viewpoint, there were occasions when contributions probably strayed into the kind of territory where our learned friends make considerable sums for themselves and allegedly defamed clients. Fortunately we still have a community where some sensible latitude is allowed. Maybe, though, The Bridge shouldn't count on that ethos continuing ...

But back to the 'it shouldn't be allowed' idea.

There have, across the world and its history, been many examples of the importance given to allowing free speech. The Greeks, and the Romans later, provided fora where anyone could have their say on matters of which they felt strongly. It is arguable that when their leaders began to stifle such opinions, they started their civilisations' declines.

Many centuries later the United States Constitution enshrined freedom of expression in the rules by which that country was founded. And there is still, in many American states, the monthly Town Meeting where local people can, and do, have their say on how they should be governed locally.

Closer to home, although in legal terms Britain has some of the more Draconian defamation laws in the world, institutions like Speakers Corner at Hyde Park gave unfettered platforms to opinion which has included some very anti-British sentiments as well as the occasional loopy.

OK, times they are a-changing, and many of these freedoms in the 'free' world are being circumscribed in the worrisome catch-all of 'national security'. Others are being obscured in a fog of news management and PR. And then there are the PC lobbies busily trying to emasculate language by excising any words or expressions that might give offence, whether in jest or truth.

All that is for longer essays by more learned people than me. But here's a thought about squashing 'non-acceptable' notions out of our local organ of expression; it shoves them underground, and away from retort.

For The Bridge, I firmly believe that it is better if all are allowed to make their points in whatever words they want, within the statutory limits of defamation and incitement to hatred. That way, they can be answered, refuted if necessary, and the merits of either side of an argument be out in the open and available to examination.

Where there could be editorial interdiction is in the presentation. Some contributions to recent debates could have been trimmed substantially without dimming the argument of the writer; indeed, judicious editing could actually have made points more telling.

In a completely voluntary publication like The Bridge, there just isn't the time to do that kind of editing. It really should be done by the contributors themselves. So, a word of advice from somebody who has been self-editing for three decades and more: write, then rewrite, and rewrite, and rewrite again.

It's like distilling poteen; the more times it goes around, the better the final product.

If a policy of refusing articles is ever part of The Bridge, it would be better that it be for overly verbose writing than for what the contributor is saying.

Besides, there's an adage which goes, roughly, 'if the tongue offends, cut it out'.

But then the person so treated will never be able to say 'sorry'.

Brian Byrne.

Editorial: A time for reflection

Well, it's that time again when we take a look at A Kilcullen Diary's year and see what we might have accomplished, if anything.

The fact that we've completed two full years of pretty regular news and views about Kilcullen and Kilcullenites is arguably an achievement in itself. Indeed, to some degree we have created a monster, which demands to be fed every day.

The endeavour has certainly proved one thing: that the Internet as a publishing medium is able to get its own readership even at such a local level as a small village.

And it has also proved that there's no shortage of material for such publishing: around 100,000 words, more than 1,200 photographs, and well in excess of 600 individual stories were published on the Diary in 2006.

We covered everything from births to deaths and most of local life in between. We highlighted the achievements of Kilcullen and its people, and some of the disappointments too. And we noted some good work by the authorities who serve us, and unfortunately some failings on their part. The sad part about that last is that they don't really seem to care about even responding to queries about Kilcullen needs -- but we'll do something about that on another day.

Some stories just keep running; the Carnalway right-of-way saga is now heading for its second full summer of discontent, despite the fact that Kildare County Council has finally come in on the side of the community. How far the Council takes this matter, and how quickly, will be regarded as a mark of its commitment to planning and associated matters. It is worth noting that individuals in the community had to put their own money on the line before the Council came onside. That shouldn't have to happen.

Litter was another unfortunate regular, and the lack of proper backup from the local authority was also often reported here; but we are of the opinion that the creators of litter have at least an equal duty to help keep our town tidy.

On the good side of the ledger, we reported on some long-life celebrations, including one centenarian and a few coming close to that magic milestone. Community celebrations and festivities were also a strong part of the material for our stories.

Over the past year, some 100,000 pages of the Diary were read, which is a statistic almost frightening to us. Around 70 percent of readers are in Ireland itself, the balance from a list of countries too long to detail here, but from every continent. The thing about all of our readers is that they are related in some way to Kilcullen, and many of them have written to say that they appreciate the link with home.

That last is the kind of thing that makes it worth while, so thank you on our part for letting us know you like it.

Thanks also to those who contributed stories and photographs; though most of the work to keep the Diary going has fallen on the shoulders of your Editor, a little extra help goes a long way.

This morning we celebrate our second birthday and begin our third year. From what started out as a few reports from a KCA meeting, we feel we have come quite a way. And we hope there's a lot further to go.

Brian Byrne.

What's another year?

The Diary celebrates its first birthday today, reason enough to look back and see what, if anything, we have achieved.

Maybe we should first go back and ask why I started it in the first place? In the best tradition of any endeavour, a mixture of reasons, really.

It was partly an experiment, partly me wanting to get back to my roots in some way. My 'day job' journalism today is totally focussed on things motoring, sometimes technical, sometimes automotive business, sometimes motor industry people. All three together, actually, much of the time.

All of it interesting, but all of it taking me outside Kilcullen, having no relationship with the town where I grew up.

As I've said to a few people, I needed a reason to 'walk down the street and look at the notices in the windows'.

As I grew up in Kilcullen, it went through periods of stagnation and periods of change, and I've lived through more than six decades of it, child and man. It was always a town of great stories, and even though it was small it made waves outside itself far bigger than might be expected. Just a few examples: in boxing we produced an Olympic contender and a successful professional as well as a very sound reputation at amateur and schoolboy level across the country.

In cycling we had Tom Berney and Liam Baxter in different generations. In racing we had world-class jockeys and trainers in and around the village.

In drama we were respected as a force to be reckoned with in the amateur circuit across the island. And 'built in' to the village we had a range of individuals at every level who brightened the community's days and nights, and in a number of cases pushed out the envelope in social and business capacities to produce virtual tsunamis far from the local banks of the Liffey.

Think 'Capers' and John Brady; think 'Lord Mayor Elections' and Jim Collins with Michael Lambe; think my Dad, Jim Byrne of the Hideout that became an international byword pub; think Paddy Mitchell and his dustcart, Pat Dunlea and his determination that whatever he personally achieved, Kilcullen should be the real winner; my brother, dead too young, Des Byrne, who loved people and made music; Paddy Nugent and KDA, and so many more that there's no point in trying to make a complete collection here.

I grew up with all that as the background in the painting of my own life. And for many years -- even though I remained living here -- since my work became unrelated to Kilcullen, I missed all that kind of thing.

So I started the Diary to connect me again with the place I am fourth generation in. Also, because my involvement with the Internet goes back to before it became the magical world wide web which we now almost take for granted, I wanted to use that technology to see if it could be used to link the 'old' and 'new' Kilcullens of today, at least in a small way.

In a way it was deja vu: when Fr Cathal Price established The Bridge some thirty-five years ago for similar reasons, I got involved early. Indeed, I cut my journalistic teeth on The Bridge and it was the experience gained there that was the Zip firelighter of my subsequent career in every aspect of journalism.

So I had the skills. Well, some of them. I can write. I've been a photographer for some three decades. I'm no stranger to media design. And a computer and its very advanced software in the publishing sense is as easy for me to use as a hammer is to a carpenter.

It should also be said that in Internet terms, my longtime colleague Trish Whelan and I had for five years provided the first (and so far only) county news service on the 'net, in the form of KNN. We had to give that up when our business interests took increasing demands on our time.

So I took the KNN idea to 'micro' level, and community news back to the smallest part of the community.

What's happened since? With in excess of some 35,000 impressions since we kicked off a year ago, there are a great number of people reading the Diary. About 7 percent of them are Kilcullen people living abroad, the balance are all local loggers-in.

We have regulars from countries like New Zealand, Australia, many states in the USA, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Taiwan, a variety of eastern european countries, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, parts of the UK. But most from Ireland itself.

The vast bulk of vistors are repeaters. There's no reason for them to come back except that they have a direct connection with Kilcullen, because all of what we publish has to do with the town and its hinterland, and the people in both.

At local radio and county newspaper level, Kilcullen is not well served in the reporting of the amount of stuff that's going on here. That's undertandable to a degree, as they must concentrate on the population centres which bring them their revenue. The Diary is missing stuff too, but we're getting an awful lot more out.

Over the year we have published in total words terms the equivalent of a good-sized book about Kilcullen. We've used around a thousand photographs. We've experimented with audio -- and will be doing much more of that. And we've attracted a small cohort of other contributors.

We have covered local controversies, reported public meetings, recorded the sad passing of quite a few people from our community, some of them very close to me.

We have tried to show some of us what others of us are doing, saying, asking. We have highlighted anniversaries, fundraisers, visitors home from abroad.

Most of all though, I belive we have pushed out further the envelope of community journalism. I've not been able to find any website on this island or abroad where a small village like Kilcullen has something like the Diary. Or even bigger places.

I don't want that to sound like bragging. This is a two-way thing. There'd be no point in the Diary producing if nobody was reading. And you are.

So, from my side of the experiment, I thank you all for taking part on your side.

It has indeed done for me what I hoped, far more than I could have imagined. I hope it is doing as much for you, the readers.

The experiment isn't over. The Diary takes a fair chunk of my time to research, write, photograph and publish. But I look on it as my social life, or a major part of it.

I have a few more ideas to move forward here, as the technology allows me to try and make it an even better place for Kilcullen to be 'talking to itself'.

I'l give it my best. I hope you stick with it too.

But then, that's my job, isn't it, to keep it interesting enough for you all to come back day by day?

Maybe Kilcullen is again making waves, this time across the Internet. Small ones, sure. But waves nevertheless.

Thanks for helping me generate them, and have fun in the process. Let's make the next twelve months even better.

Brian Byrne.