Sunny spells and isolated showers this morning, becoming well scattered during the afternoon and evening. Highest temperatures of 16 to 20 degrees with moderate to fresh and occasionally gusty south to southwest winds developing.
MATHS GRIND
Seeking a maths grind teacher in the area for Junior Cert student. Call or text 086 3018720.
CHILDMINDING
Local qualified SNA, with childminding experience, available for childminding or babysitting on a part-time or casual basis. Happy to work with children with or without special needs. Contact Sally on 087 4073286 or 087 2396337.
DID YOU KNOW?
The average adult blinks around 15 times a minute, which serves several purposes, including lubrication of the eyes, clearing irritants, or refocusing attention. Babies, on the other hand, blink only two to three times a minute on average. Blinking is associated with dopamine levels in the brain: the more produced, the more blinking.
For privacy of those attending, the Diary requires to be invited by the organisers to cover events in a private, commercial or club location. This does not apply to public meetings, or events in public spaces.
BUS TIMETABLE
WHAT'S ON AROUND
Here is a link to a Calendar of upcoming events in Kilcullen. If you have an event you want listed, email the Diary.
KILCULLEN DESIGN STATEMENT
DIARY PODCASTS
PARISH LOTTO
The Kilcullen & Gormanstown Parish Lotto Draw is held at 8pm each Tuesday in the Parish Centre. This is a public event to which all are welcome. There's a prize draw each night for those attending. Details of previous Draws are here.
Also available on iPad; go to iBooks Store and do a search.
TEXT ALERT
Forms for joining the Kilcullen Garda District Text Alert scheme are available from The Grocery in Calverstown, Kilcullen Garda Station, Kilcullen Credit Union, and scheme committee members. Please encourage neighbours and friends to join.
A Ballyshannon farm was shown as an exemplar of how Irish farmers are working to improve water quality, writes Brian Byrne, during a visit to Kildare by European Commissioner for the Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, Jessika Roswall.
The Durkin family farm between Kilcullen and Athy was presented as a typical Irish dairy farm, where Pat Durkin and his daughter, Kayleigh, work side by side, adopting the latest technology to produce top-quality food while improving the farm’s environmental impact.
Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon arranged the visit as part of his campaign to retain Ireland’s nitrates derogation. It was followed by meetings with Oireachtas TDs, senators, and environmental stakeholders in Teagasc’s Ashtown research facility in Dublin.
If you're looking for a family few hours out with a difference this weekend, the International Sheepdog Trial 2023 is running from today through Sunday near Blessington, writes Brian Byrne.
With competitors from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, it is a very competitive and visually appealing contest. Some 60 sheepdogs and their handlers will be competing for the 15 final places, who will be then in contest for the 2023 crown. The location is at Treecastles, Co Wicklow, with the Eircode W91 YT78.
The event gates will open at 10am daily for spectators. Please be patient when travelling to the event site. Expect traffic on the country roads approaching the trials. Parking is available for all visitors — please don't park on the road, use the car park provided.
The trials themselves run until 5pm, and there are traders, stall and exhibitions and a funfair open until 6pm. A bar is open from 12 noon until 11pm, and there's live music from 6pm-9pm.
Kildare is one of 21 counties where livestock on farms have been attacked by dogs in the last four months, writes Brian Byrne.
An Garda Síochána say they have nearly 50 reports of such incidents since March in different areas of the country.
In some cases the owner of the dogs were identified and had to pay damages. Dogs have also been put down, and can be legitimately shot by farmers who find their sheep or cattle being worried by them.
An Garda warn that Prosecution under Section 9 of Control of the Dogs Act 1986 could result in one month in prison and/or €600 fine on conviction of such an incident.
They ask owners to understand that while their dog is friendly and placid at home, they can cause horrific injuries to other animals. "We would ask that everyone ensures their dog is kept under control as nobody wants to see animals being harmed."
The Diary has been sent a photo of two dead lambs found on Brennan's farm at Old Kilcullen, writes Brian Byrne.
After some thought, I decided the original picture is simply too shocking and distressing to post here, so I have modified it to a much-blurred version. Something had to be shown.
But the appeal is, by the owner of the dead lambs and other farmers, is to always have dogs leashed while walking, and NEVER let them out on their own. Especially at this particular time.
Farming in Old Kilcullen is primarily sheep farming and it is the height of the lambing season at present.
Farmers have permission to shoot dogs if they are worrying the sheep.
Candidates for the Macra na Feirme national 'Titles' competitions were picked by the Kildare branch on Friday night in The Hideout, writes Brian Byrne.
Three young women were selected for the Queen of the Land, Miss Macra, and Blue Jeans Country Queen titles, and one man for the Mr Personality contest. They were chosen by judges Anthony Culleton from Laois Macra and Máiréad Ní Bhroin from Carlow Macra after being interviewed on stage by Paddy Jordan, from Carlow Macra and Escort of the Year winner at the Queen of the Land Festival. Anthony was a former winner of the Mr Personality title and Máiréad is the current Miss Macra.
Those selected to contest the national titles for Kildare were Mr Personality Tom May, Blue Jean Country Queen Aoife Hanlon, Miss Macra Katie Costello, and Queen of the Land Alice Hodges.
There are three Macra clubs in the county, in Rathangan, South Kildare and Naas.
A presentation was also made to the newly elected chairman of the Kildare West Wicklow branch of the Irish Farmers Association, Tom O'Connor from Belan in Moone, by the Kildare Macra chairman David Kelly from Booleigh. Tom was a previous chairman of Kildare Macra.
Thomas congratulated the members present on the occasion, saying that farming 'needs leaders from the grassroots', and the organisation is an excellent place to develop such leadership.
Pictured above with David Kelly and Thomas O'Connor are the contestants at the event in The Hideout: (back) Michael Anthony Kelly, Katie Costello, Aoife Hanlon, Alice Hodges, Jennifer Gray, Rebecca Higgins, Laurie Curtis, and Rachel Kelly; (front) Anthony Lawlor, Joe Metcalfe, Sean Roddy, and Tom May.
Local girl Emma Birchall is one of the 'Faces of Farm Safety' headlining a range of farm safety issues during this Farm Safety Week UK & Ireland, writes Brian Byrne.
Emma, the 2017 Macra na Feirme Queen of the Land, emphasises that people impacted by a farm accident should talk to the people who are there to help. In particular, she notes the dangers posed by poor mental health. "Poor mental health can effect physical capabilities on the farm and this is when accidents happen," she says.
Under the social media hashtag #FacesofFarmSafety, she joins Ciaran Roche of FBD Insurance, who encourages farmers to ensure machinery is in good and safe condition; Imelda Walsh of the Irish Farmers' Association who warns about the dangers of livestock; and Joe Killeen, President of the INTO, who shares his farm safety message in a focus on child safety.
Paddy Hennessy of Glanbia and Mairead McGuinness MEP, and Helen Guinan of The Irish Farm Centre are other 'faces' of the campaign, as is Tommy Boland UCD School of Agriculture & Food Science, who asks farmers to 'always reflect on the risks before undertaking any task'. "Life holds too many opportunities to risk missing out on them because you are rushing," he says.
Last year, 24 people lost their lives in farm accidents in Ireland, and so far this year the death toll is 11.
A clinic will be held to help Kildare farmers with their online applications for the Basic Payment Scheme, according to Kildare South Fine Gael TD Martin Heydon. The online clinic will be held at the West Grove Hotel, Clane, on Friday 6 April from 9am to 12:30pm
Further to existing supports available, such as telephone help-lines, how-to guides and instructional videos, staff from the Department of Agriculture will be available to meet with farmers on a one-to-one basis to assist them in making their applications.
“These clinics have proven successful in the past and farmers can sit down with an official from the Department and make their online BPS or Transfer of Entitlements applications on the spot," Deputy Heydon says.
“Online applications offer a range of benefits for farmers and also help the Department to issue these vital payments more efficiently.
“The recent growth in the number of online BPS applications shows more and more farmers are finding that the best way to apply for vital schemes such as BPS and ANC is online. From 2018 all the elements of the Direct Payments Schemes (BPS, Greening, Young Farmers Scheme, National Reserve, and Transferring of Entitlements) will be online. This will help to ensure that the Department can process all applications under these schemes as efficiently as possible.”
Should farmers wish to contact the Department in relation to their online application they can do so at 076 1064424 in relation to queries on registering for www.agfood.ie – for example queries on lost passwords, how to register etc, or at 076 1064420 in relation to queries on actually completing the BPS application once registered on www.agfood.ie or to enquire about the one-to-one clinics.
If your heart stops suddenly, you won't care what age the person is who administers CPR and saves your life, writes Brian Byrne.
And that's why PJ Fagan, local volunteer with the Irish Red Cross, was quite happy to show the technique to a young person at Kilcullen Mart yesterday, during the Farm Safety event.
"But a couple of years ago, we couldn't have done that," he told the Diary. "It was only last year that we had the younger age limit for qualifying someone in CPR brought down to 12 years. Before that it was 16."
There's no upper age limit, but PJ says that older people sometimes say they wouldn't have the strength to use the technique if they found someone in cardiac arrest.
"That might be the case occasionally, but wouldn't it still be useful if they could direct someone else how to do it? That's why I think everyone should learn."
True. And it can be learned quickly. So whatever age you are, if you get a chance to learn at a local first aid course, or wherever, take the short time it needs.
Peter Gohery, a Galway farmer who lost his leg in a PTO accident in 2009, never misses a chance to stress to his fellow farmers the importance of safety around machinery, writes Brian Byrne.
At today's Farm Safety event in Kilcullen Mart, he recalled the incident over which he considers himself 'lucky'.
Lucky to be alive. Lucky that he had turned down the speed of the PTO — which didn't have a cover like the one he was speaking beside today.
Lucky that his 10-year-old son was on the tractor and knew how to switch off the power to the PTO, and who could then run to get help.
Lucky to be around today to be able to talk about it. Now with a prosthetic leg, Peter was a keynote to today's multi-agency event which included the IFA, Department of Agriculture, An Garda, Irish Red Cross, and Kildare County Council's Road Safety department.
He spoke of the lack of any support network to anyone in a farm accident. "There's no social welfare because you're self-employed, and my insurance company said I'd have to lose two legs for a viable claim."
Following a short but graphic speech in the Mart itself about his accident, and about its consequences, Peter and members of the Red Cross, and Kildare Fire Brigade, discussed what can be done by anyone nearby to a farm accident, whether it by from machinery, a fall or a crush, an incident with livestock, or a sudden health issue.
But the bottom line to it all was to try and prevent an accident in the first place. And the underpinning to that is as it always was: don't take short cuts, don't take risks, with any health and safety aspect of operating a farm.
As 2017 runs on, it's unfortunately a message that needs reinforcing, as with 15 people already dead in farm accidents so far this year, we are looking at a worse outcome for the whole year than in 2016.
Advice on how to safely use the roads when operating farm vehicles, and the need for patience and consideration on both sides was part of the information given today at the Farm Safety event in Leinster Marts, Kilcullen, writes Brian Byrne.
Kildare County Council Road Safety Officer Declan Keogh was on hand both to distribute packs of high-viz clothing to farmers at the Mart, as well as discussing issues relating to moving between fields and roads.
"Simple things, like making sure that their vehicles are as clean as possible before they exit onto the road," he said. "It's important that mud and other debris is kept off the road, for the safety of other drivers. If a car comes on a stretch slippery with mud, they can unexpectedly skid."
He also emphasised that other road users in rural areas should be aware that they may encounter farm machinery around a bend, moving slowly. "A lot of this equipment can't move quickly by its nature, so motorists need to drive at a speed on rural roads that allows for this." He reiterated the advice given this week by the Road Safety Authority that, with the silage cutting season in full swing, the need for patience on all sides.
The Garda Traffic Corp was also in attendance at the Mart, reminding those present of the regulations relating to the operation of farm equipment. In particular, loads should be properly tied down, and trailers mustn't be loaded in a way that makes them unstable.
Awareness of low bridges and power lines, and the consideration of using escort vehicles for large machinery are also matters which are being reiterated by the IFA at events like this.
Kildare Fire Service gets a significant number of callouts to farms over a year, writes Brian Byrne, and not all of them relate to fires.
"But we had two haybarn fire callouts last week alone," says fire officer JP McDonagh, who with his colleague Michael Maciejewski was today showing some of the equipment they use, at the Farm Safety Week event in Kilcullen Mart.
"If a farmer gets caught under machinery, we are called in to rescue them," says Michael. "And also, farm accidents can be in difficult places to reach, so we have a 4x4 vehicle to help with that." He also noted that they deal with cases of sudden illness, such as a heart attack, and these can also be in difficult-to-access cases on a farm.
A farm operative falling into a slurry pit is another not uncommon accident which the Fire Service has to deal with. "And we also have to do animal rescue," says JP. "A horse or a cow can fall over in a field and has to be lifted, or rescued from a drain by strap and crane.
The officers were also advising those attending the Mart on specific fire safety for farms and rural areas, including threats from arson, natural processes that generate heat in stacked crops, or careless use of matches and cigarettes.
Farmers are also reminded to make sure they have adequate fire-fighting equipment and that it is properly maintained.
