Broadband plan implementation almost complete in Kildare

The National Broadband Plan, one of the largest infrastructural investments in rural Ireland, is nearing completion in Kildare, with 14,657 high-speed fibre broadband connections now available at homes, farms, and businesses across the county. Just 197 premises remain to be connected in the coming months. 

Initiated in 2020, the project is nearing completion within budget and on schedule. Kildare South TD and Minister for Agriculture, Martin Heydon, has welcomed the progress, highlighting the plan’s role in enabling remote work, online education, technological access for farmers, and global business reach. 

He expressed his satisfaction with the delivery of this significant investment, saying it is the modern-day equivalent of the rural electrification scheme begun in 1946, and he emphasised the necessity for future-proof connectivity across the country.

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Drained Ballymore reservoir

This photograph from Frances Moloney shows the reservoir above the falls in Ballymore Eustace, which was drained to facilitate water system infrastructure repair.

By comparison, and coincidence, here's a photo taken by your editor from almost the same spot, last April. Even then, the level was quite low.

As Frances says, it will take a lot of rain to fill it again.

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Local GW schemes to benefit from water improvement funds

Lipstown-Narraghmore to benefit.

Two local group water schemes will benefit from a €744,000 allocation for rural water projects in County Kildare, writes Brian Byrne. Both will use the funds for water conservation and the reduction and prevention of leaks. 

The Lipstown-Narraghmore GWS will receive €332,370, while €57,473 will go to the Usk-Gormanstown scheme. The remaining funds will be distributed among schemes in Ballindoolin, Sherlockstown Common, and Bishopscourt. This investment is part of the Rural Water Programme 2024–2026 and aims to significantly improve access to safe, reliable drinking water in rural areas not connected to the public network. 

Welcoming the news, Senator Fiona O'Loughlin (FF) said the funding will help both regional towns and smaller villages to grow. Kildare South Fine Gael TD and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, stated that the funding underscores the importance of protecting water sources and maintaining high standards in water treatment. 

The allocation is part of a national fund of €73.9 million, supporting 291 water projects across the country.

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Footpath repairs begin today

Footpath repairs are scheduled to begin today in St Brigid's Avenue and in Conroy Park, writes Brian Byrne. While they are under way, there may be some disruption in the estates.

Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer has welcomed the commencement of the works, saying the residents have waited a long time for them. 

"I would like to thank Kildare County Council for keeping this project on the works programme," she said.

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Final surface on Riverside Manor

It's all Stop and Go at the road into Riverside Manor today, as the long-waited final surface is laid down, writes Brian Byrne.

But there's a definite end line, both into Market Square and towards Fallons car park — the developer is only doing exactly as required.

Market Square is the responsibility of the Council, and looks like retaining its lunar-quality surface for the foreseeable, pending the new specific mention in the Kilcullen Settlement Plan 'to access funds for improving civic spaces'.

Meantime in the Riverside Manor area, there's been a complete clearance of the land  that goes around the back of it, backing onto Saddler's Way and Bentley's Lane. To my knowledge, there's no planning permission on it yet, so expect an application in due course. Anyone hazard a guess as to how many more houses will feed their cars from there through Market 'Lunar' Square?

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Road markings requests to be followed up

Motorway bridge.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland is to be asked to refresh the line markings on the Kilcullen motorway bridge, writes Brian Byrne. This follows a question from Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer at the recent meeting of the Kildare-Newbridge MD as to whether the Council or TII are responsible for this work — the response was that it is TII's. The councillor says she will follow the matter up with the organisation.

Meanwhile, the meeting also heard that a request for refreshing and installing new line markings in Kilcullen, Mile Mill Junction and Athgarvan will be considered 'subject to budget'. This follows a motion from Cllr O'Dwyer on the matter. Officials have agreed to meet and examine the locations in question, but said the MD's budget for line markings is 'extremely limited'.

Worn markings in Kilcullen.

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...and there IS light!

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As promised ... there WILL be light

Photo: Ray Kelly.

As updated by Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer earlier this week, work on fixing the streetlights between Conroy Park and the traffic lights is under way.

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Viewpoint: Kilcullen street lights a dereliction of duty

Street lights out.

A major fault in the street lighting of Kilcullen has gone unrepaired for many weeks and people are now asking why, writes Brian Byrne. The fault, in which the main street lights on a stretch from the crossroads to Conroy Park cycle on and off in 20-second intervals, leaves pedestrians intermittently with only the lights of cars to navigate what are in parts irregular footpath surfaces, in recent nights paths made even more dangerous by heavy frosts. 

Though the fault was reported weeks ago, no indication of reason or of timeline for repair has been forthcoming to the community. The Diary has been asked a number of times recently if there is any word on either. 

Street lights on ... for 20 seconds.

This is not the only such problem. A fault that has blacked out street lights on the other end of town, opposite Moanbane Park, has been an issue for even longer than this latest one. Though an explanation was given that the Moanbane matter would require a major repair undertaking, residents of that area are now asking 'when?'. So far the silence is as deep as the darkness. 

(And while we're at that end of town, we're being asked about a rapidly expanding pothole for which there's no good reason to allow it keep growing.)

Kilcullen as a community has a reputation for doing a lot for ourselves, even stuff that arguably should be the work of the local authority. Street lighting, though, is beyond the ability or expertise of our splendid local volunteer groups. 

Like the failure over years into decades of properly dealing with potentially lethal matters such as Thompson's Cross and the lack of a simple filter light at Kilcullen's traffic lights, someone, somewhere, who has responsibility, doesn't care.  

Whomever that person or those persons are need to realise that responsibility is a duty, not just a highly-paid title in a utilities provider or local authority within which their officials can hide them behind the worn-out epitaph 'subject to resources'. 

Just do, or cause to be done, what you're paid to do. When it needs to be done. 

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Permission granted for solar farm

Planning has been granted for the construction of a solar farm over restored landfill at Brownstown, Kilcullen, writes Brian Byrne. The application was lodged in October.

The installation with an export capacity of approximately 4.5MW will comprise photovoltaic panels on concrete ballast supported frames, along with construction of and connection to a new single-storey ESB Sub-Station/Switch Room building.

The permission was granted to AGB Landfill Holdings Limited on 5 December 2025, with 22 conditions, including the specification that the installation will have an operational life of 35 years.

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Daily water cuts in Narraghmore from next week

Image by Nithin PA via Pexels.

The water supply to those on the Narraghmore Group Water Supply scheme will be cut off daily from Monday 5 December to Thursday 22 December for essential upgrade works.

All users are asked to ensure that they have a reserve of water in place each day to cover needs between 8am and 5.30pm for the duration of the works. Supply will be restored every day at 5.30pm.

The Board of the Narraghmore Group Water Supply apologise for inconvenience but stress that the works are important to providing a quality water supply.

Further information available on 083 8790009.

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Pinkeen bridge 'should be named' for tall tales teller

The new bridge, with Arthur Tapley and Billy Redmond.

With the construction of the long-awaited pedestrian bridge over Pinkeen stream completed, only awaiting traffic calming crossings to be added by Kildare County Council, a move is growing for it to be named after a famous local teller of tall tales, writes Brian Byrne.

The bridge will accommodate hundreds of crossings each day by families and their children who currently use a dodgy traverse of the stream to get to and from schools, the community centre, and local shops. Demand for the bridge has been ongoing for a decade, and thanks to sponsorship by civil engineering company HES in association with Kildare County Council, it should finally be in use during the next few weeks.

But if it does indeed become named after one Arthur Tapley, it's unlikely that those who use it will have any idea of who he was. Most of the families who will benefit from the bridge are new residents to a village grown bigger, where Arthur was once one of the local characters. I was a teenager when he died on 8 December 1961, but I have many memories of him sitting in our family's bar, always ready to spin a tale that would top anything previously in the current discussion.

Arthur Tapley — his name could also be spelled Tapliss, as his father was a British soldier of Maltese origin — was 82 when he passed away, which put his birth at around 1880. That would have put him around ten in exploits he recounted from purported experiences in the Boer War, though in any such wartime stories, including the later Great War, he was always '21'. In the 1950s, he told a visitor to his home on the Sunnyhill Road that he was 95, "but I have a brother in Portsmouth who is 125." 

That same visitor, who had been out for a day's fowling without success, had fallen into conversation with Arthur on his way home. Arthur professed not to be interested in shooting, but said he had once fired on a flock of plover to test a theory, sweeping the barrel of the gun rapidly in a semi-circle as he pressed the trigger. "I suppose you downed 10 or 15," his visitor said with a level of flippancy. "I picked up 39," Arthur replied with simple sincerity. The visitor recalled later that the answer had quickly wiped the smile off his face. "After all, you really cannot question a sportsman who, having shot 39 birds on one cartridge, refrains from telling you it was the round 40."

Current Kilcullen raconteur, writer, retired world walker, and musician Billy Redmond has been promoting the cause of naming the new bridge after Arthur for some time, ever since the prospect of its construction became real. A regular visitor to Arthur's home, just opposite the entrance to the Cnoc na Greine housing estate, he has many of his stories filed away in memory. At a recent Heritage Week event in Kilcullen he retold one, about Arthur once finding himself being chased by a bull in a local 100-acre field. According to the man himself, he jumped for safety to a branch of the only tree in the field ... but missed. "And what happened then, Arthur?" "I caught it on the way down," was the laconic reply.

There are still many in Kilcullen who will have a tale to tell about Kilcullen's tall tale champion, his place not since overtaken by anyone. There's one about him using bees to flush out a champion-sized trout in the Liffey, uncatchable by rod and line, so he could win an angling competition. Or his winning the Tickell Cup at Punchestown riding a mare, which foaled at the first fence and subsequently carried Arthur first past the finish line, 'with the new foal coming in second'. Or the competition between Arthur and a rival about who could tell the tallest tale. His rival thought for a moment, then claimed that he had once driven a nail through the moon. Immediately Arthur agreed, "that's right, because I clinched it," he said before lifting his beloved pipe for a quiet puff of triumph.

Now that the bridge over Pinkeen is finally almost ready, Billy Redmond is upping his campaign that it be named after Arthur. "He is part of the heritage of Kilcullen, and who else could the bridge be named after?" he asks. That's a reasonable consideration, to mark a Kilcullen man whose life was always larger than life, and always entertaining for that. On a straw poll at the stream bank last week, there's other support evident for Billy's suggestion.

And besides, it's the families of the 300-plus homes in Cnoc na Greine estate, opposite Arthur's home, which will get the full benefit of a bridge whose prospect seemed for so long to be a kind of tall tale in a nebulous future. Arthur, had he lived, would surely have been able to build it in a morning, hauling all the stones from Ballyknockan during the previous night. "And I cut them out of the quarry, too, after my tea," he'd probably be saying between puffs of his pipe in that great bar-room in the sky.  

Note: A version of this article was first published in The Kildare Nationalist.

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Pinkeen bridge sections placed this morning

The placing of two preformed sections of the new pedestrian bridge over Pinkeen Stream was completed ahead of schedule this morning, allowing the reopening of the Community Centre access road well ahead of the 12 noon plan, writes Brian Byrne.

Under the direction of Oliver Sweeney, operations manager with HES Civil, the two sections were unloaded and lifted into place by crane, then nudged together by some skilful digger manipulation.

Earlier this week, preparatory work on the site had included a slight diversion of the stream to facilitate placing the sections.

The work on the bridge is expected to be completed over coming weeks, including the surfacing and addition of handrails. HES has sponsored the bridge's construction, which was negotiated by Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer, and Kildare County Council will provide traffic calming and table-top crossings on the roads on each side.

KCC has expressed its appreciation for HES's involvement, saying the Council would not have had the funds to construct the bridge at this time.

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