Looking Back: Kilcullen Cinema in 1962

While the revived Kilcullen Bridge Cinema is bringing a curated series of excellent films to local audiences, it only has one or two screenings in a month, writes Brian Byrne. How different it was in the heyday of the cinema in the 1960s, when it was managed by the late Paddy Melia, a man never short of a hyperbolic phrase, and regularly providing cinematic entertainment every night of the week.

Thanks to the continuing archival delvings of Joe Murray, we have here the Leinster Leader advertisement's lineup of a typical week of cinema in Kilcullen, beginning Friday 21 September 1962, on "KILDARE'S W-I-D-E-S-T SCREEN." The offerings began with the adventure of Swiss Family Robinson in Super Cinemascope 55, on Friday, Saturday, and a special Sunday matinee. Sunday also featured "for laughs", Strictly for Pleasure, a Technicolour comedy starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, along with the 20 hits song-filled Teenage Millionaire in a "Smash hit Sunday Show." 

Monday and Tuesday brought "fast and furious action" from the "Magnificent Three" of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr with Peter Lawford, (Yes, they are four. Go figure.) in a "Walloping Western", with "tremendous pace from start to finish", Sergeants 3 in "stunning Super Cinemascope 55 and Technicolour." 

Midweek audiences were to be treated to the "High Drama on the High Seas" of HMS Defiant, a stirring epic in the vein of The Guns of Navarone, featuring Dirk Bogarde, Alec Guinness, and Anthony Quayle, "the screen's most talented actors". The week would reach its dramatic peak with "something entirely new in cinematic entertainment", The Unfrocked, a "searing, searching study of an unfrocked priest." 

The blurb went: "However controversial its subject may be, this film has been hailed by the press as the best film ever shown in this country. The Catholic Herald said: 'It may be distasteful to the squeamish, it may horrify many, it may shock others, but it is THE BEST FILM WE HAVE EVER SEEN.' As this picture is being withdrawn from this country on 30th Sept., IT WILL NOT BE SEEN IN ANY OTHER CINEMA IN IRELAND. Don't miss this only opportunity of seeing the most talked-about film in years. We have obtained a Special Censor's Certificate for the final presentation. STRICTLY ADULTS ONLY. NOBODY under 18 years will be permitted to see this film." That it was a French film, originally released eight years before, probably added to the mystique. 

Looking ahead to the following week, the cinema promised screenings of Johnny Nobody, Taste of Fear, and Twist Around the Clock, and no doubt Paddy had already pencilled his purple prose for the next issue of the Leader.

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M9 motorway archaeology book launch

A book detailing 9,000 years of archaeological heritage in south Kildare, uncovered along the M9 motorway during its construction, will be launched in Athy Library on Thursday, 4 December, writes Brian Byrne. Landscapes with Lineage, by Colm Moloney, Patricia Long and Ros Ó Maoldúin, is published by Wordwell Ltd for the Transport Infrastructure Ireland Heritage Series.

The launch will be at 6pm, with one of the authors introducing the book and reflecting on the discoveries that shaped it.

Old Kilcullen is mentioned several times in the book, primarily relating to Late Bronze Age-Iron Age finds, predating the ceremonial activities that occurred at nearby Dún Ailinne as detailed by Dr Susan Johnston and Prof Bernard Wailes in 2007. 

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New book from James Durney

A new book by James Durney sheds light on one of the darkest and least remembered chapters of Ireland’s Civil War, writes Brian Byrne — the internment of over 5,500 republican prisoners at Newbridge Barracks and the Curragh’s Tintown camps between 1922 and 1924.

Special Powers: Civil War Internment at Newbridge Barracks and Tintown Camp, 1922–24, will be launched in Naas Library and Cultural Centre on Thursday, 20 November at 7pm. 

All are welcome to attend.

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Donnelly's Arm to feature in talk next week

There will be a Kilcullen interest next Wednesday, 16 July, at a County Carlow event in a nationwide tour by two performance artists in a 1960s Renault 4, writes Brian Byrne. Dan Donnelly's arm will feature in a talk at Muine Bheag Arts about 19th-century sport, medicine, media and grave-robbing.

The talk will be given by historian and writer Barry Kehoe between 1pm and 3pm at the Muine Bheag centre. In particular, he will discuss Dan Donnelly’s mummified arm, which was displayed in the Hideout in Kilcullen for four decades from 1953, and subsequently exhibited in New York, Boston, in the Ulster Folk Museum in Omagh, Co Tyrone, Limerick University, and Croke Park, Dublin. 

The free event is part of a summer-long series titled Tour de Force by artist Liliane Puthod and writer Ingrid Lyons. They are travelling around Ireland in Liliane's fully repaired 1960s Renault 4, hosting events, art installations, performances, talks and live broadcasts.

Meanwhile, if you're out and about in Kilcullen today, Wednesday the 9th, the car will be travelling through Kilcullen sometime from midday on. Give them a beep if you're in your own car, or a wave if on foot.

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Dun Ailinne Open Day 2025 today

A reminder that the annual Open Day at the Dun Ailinne excavations will be TODAY, Sunday, 6 July, from 1pm-4pm, writes Brian Byrne. Dr Susan Johnston will give site tours at 1.30pm and 3pm.

A fee of €5 will be charged, which will be donated to charity. The event is by kind permission of the Thompson family, as the site is part of their working farm.

Dr Johnston, who is based at the Department of Anthropology at George Washington University, has been investigating the site since 2006. With colleague Dr Suzanne Garrett, she has led teams of American archaeology students on summer digs on Dun Ailinne since 2016, in association with the Black Friary Archaeological School in Co Meath. The students gain practical field experience on the site as well gaining an introduction to archaeology of Europe.

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The 1798 march to Old Kilcullen

They came to Old Kilcullen today to the rousing music of The Rising of the Moon, pikes and flags of the rebellion held high, writes Brian Byrne. Albeit the music coming from a modern boombox rather than marching to the drums of more than two centuries ago.

It was the annual walk from Scoil Bhride to the site of the local rebel engagement in 1798 on the anniversary day of the start of that attempt to unshackle Ireland from England’s chains. A march now embedded in the school’s calendar and one to which the pupils look forward in this last school term.

“The interest and engagement of both children and staff has spread through the school over the years,” says Muiris Ó Raoghaill, who with colleagues from Scoil Bhride organises the trek to the round tower site. “There's been a huge buy-in. In the early years, the children would be very self-conscious about dressing up and marching with flags and pikes, but now they're clamouring to be part of it.”

There’s much more going on in the classes now about local history, with stories and the songs that pepper Ireland’s revolutionary history, and Muiris says the pupils today are much more aware of the details of a very complex history. “They know the context, that there were Catholics and Protestants on both sides, for instance, there were wealthy landowners on both sides, and Irish speakers on each. It cannot be underestimated their ability to understand when it's presented in song and in story and with props, and the great resource we have in local historian Gerry O'Donoghue.”

Also by visiting the actual site of the battles. Muiris looks around where has been monastic spirituality, Viking raids and abductions, Norman invasion, and the tragedy of a failed insurrection by young men, many of whom might have been in their teens. “We can't begin to imagine the trepidation, the fear. What were their thoughts? What was the desperation that drove them to do what they did? Wearing their Sunday best, thinking they might never get another opportunity to do so again. On a morning that could have been just like today, did they realise the import of what they were doing and the consequences of what might happen?”

Would they have understood the politics of the time, how that might transform the future? “I like to think they did. When their children and their children's children went to America, they stood out as being the most politically aware immigrants of all. I think there is always something in the Irish that they have a hunger for justice.”

The children who had marched to Old Kilcullen today settled down in groups to have their lunch. With much to think about, and in some cases trying to relate their own lives to what was happening around them 227 years ago. Somewhere in the distance of time, muskets barked, men roared as they charged with pikes ... and others died by steel and ball ...

All the Diary pictures from today are here.

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Remembering 1798

Scoil Bhride pupils at Old Kilcullen in 2024. Insets: contemporary map and the monument commemorating the battle.

Tomorrow is the 227th anniversary of the Battle of Old Kilcullen, the main local encounter in the Rebellion of 1798, writes Brian Byrne. It was one of the early engagements in the rebellion that began on the 23rd of May that year.

The battle involved members of the United Irishmen and local military under the command of Lieutenant General Ralph Dundas, then based at Castlemartin. Although initially successful against Dundas's forces, the rebels were subsequently defeated at the Liffey in Kilcullen and after negotiations surrendered at Knockaulin.

Over recent years, children from Scoil Bhride have walked to Old Kilcullen on the anniversary of the battle. They will be doing so this morning because tomorrow is not a school day. Many dress up in costume representing rebels and the English redcoats.

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Talk on Blessington Tramway

The Curragh Local History Group's next talk will be about the Dublin and Blessington Tramway and will take place at 8pm on Tuesday 25 March 2025 in Suncroft Community Centre. 

Guest speaker will be Paul Tyrrell, Chairperson of the Blessington Historical Society. The Steam Tram ran from 1888  to 1932. 

All are warmly welcome to have a chat over a cuppa before the talk.

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Boer War talk

Liam Kenny and Stephanie Jones.

Two Naas historians will present a talk next Saturday 30 November on the Anglo-Boer War which started 125 years ago this month. The talk will be at 3pm  in the atmospheric environs of St David's Church of Ireland Naas where Stephanie Jones and Liam Kenny will stress the local impacts of the far-away war in South Africa in which many Kildare troops were involved. 

The conflict pitted an avaricious British Empire against the Boers who were Dutch settlers established for generations in the mineral rich terrains of the Transvaal.   

There were Kildare links from its very beginning with the first first British army officer killed being George Anthony Weldon whose family hailed from Athy. There is a plaque to Capt Weldon and to other local casualties of the war in St David's church. 

Another local family to be involved were the De Burghs of Naas. Col T J de Burgh joined with other gentry of the Kildare Hunt in deploying to the Cape Colonies when an  urgent call went out throughout Britain and Ireland for men experienced in horse riding and with fire-arms. 

The regular units of the British army got a short sharp shock from the canny Boers and the British government realised that huge manpower would need to be recruited if it was to prevail. Naas Military Barracks, training Depot for the Dublin Fusiliers, was packed to capacity as recruitment ramped up before soldiers were despatched on the long sea-voyage to the fighting front in south Africa.

This episode, which had enduring impacts internationally but also for nationalism in Ireland, will be recalled on Saturday.

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Local history seminar for Kilcullen at weekend

All County Kildare historians — and even those with a passing interest — are invited to a seminar in Kilcullen Heritage Centre on Saturday morning next, 19 October, writes Liam Kenny. The event, hosted by the County Kildare Federation of Local History Groups, brings historians from across the county together to update the public on the latest research. 

The programme begins at 10am in the Kilcullen Heritage Centre and theatre in Main Street, with a presentation by Kill native Noel Cocoman on the topical letters of John Devoy. This year marks the centenary of Devoy's return to his native area of Kill and Naas after years in exile in the United States, where he was the chief agent of Irish republicanism. 

Afterwards there will be a dazzling presentation by Sean Sourke, who has mastered the techniques of 3D photogrammetry to show County Kildare landmarks in a way never seen before.  The morning will conclude with short reports from the history groups in the county, from Celbridge in the north to Castledermot in the south, giving updates on their vigorous programmes of talks and walks, helping locals discover the stories that make the Shortgrass County such a fascinating place in which to live. 

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Historical models on display in Heritage Centre

Just a reminder that Dr Michael O'Connell will be in Kilcullen Heritage Centre this afternoon, Wednesday, and on Friday afternoon, between 2pm-4pm, to guide people through the display of his models of heritage areas and houses around Kilcullen and Naas, writes Brian Byrne.

And tomorrow night, Thursday, he will be giving a talk on the history of New Abbey, on which another of his models is based. This follows his very interesting talk on Monday night last about the evolution of Castlemartin from the 12th century to today.

The displays and talks are part of National Heritage Week, which runs through the coming weekend.

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Talk about Kilcullen activism 1913-1923

A reminder that a presentation on local activists in Kilcullen during the revolutionary period 1913-1923 will be given in Kilcullen Library tonight, Tuesday 30 April, writes Brian Byrne. The event features historian and author James Durney, and is free to all, starting at 7pm.

The presentation will be in the form of a biographical sketch on the local people involved during that very important decade in Ireland's history. 

It's hoped that it will be a very interactive meeting, and people are encouraged to bring photos, medals and any memorabilia from their family archives.

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Talk on the Cluxtons of Kilcullen

A talk on the Cluxtons of Kilcullen will be given in St Laurence's GAA Club in Narraghmore on Wednesday 13 March, writes Brian Byrne. The speaker will be the author of the book of the same name, Barry Kinnane, and is hosted by the South Kildare History & Heritage Group.

The story of the Cluxtons provides a local backstory to all the major events of Irish history over three centuries, shaping the family who migrated to Kildare from County Down in the 18th century, settling in Kilcullen. These events include the 1798 Rebellion, the economic depression of the 1820s and 1830s, the Tithe Wars, the Great Famine, the Land Wars, and the formation of the Irish state.

The primary character in the book is John Bailey Cluxton, a relieving officer for the Athy Poor Law Union and a public servant working for what eventually became Kildare County Council. His daughter Mary Anne was possibly the first female local government official employed in Kildare. Her sister Bridget served as a World War 1 nurse and their brother Pat was a volunteer in the IRA during the War of Independence. 

The book was produced as part of the Kildare Decade of Commemorations Programme.

All are welcome to the talk which begins at 8pm. For those travelling from outside the area, the Eircode for the venue is R1 CX28. 

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