Frances Brennan talks Big Apple lockdown in Kildare Nationalist

When you're out at the shops over the weekend, don't forget to get your copy of the Kildare Nationalist, writes Brian Byrne.

The Kilcullen Page this week is led by Old Kilcullen native Frances Brennan, a New Yorker for 25 years, talking about life under lockdown in the Big Apple.

There's a lot more too in your local paper, worth supporting at any time.

You can also hear Frances here on this Diary Podcast.

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CPC students produce college newsletter

A Transition Year project in Cross and Passion College to produce a college newsletter resulted last week in the first issue of The Blue and Gold, writes Brian Byrne.

Produced over a series of sessions involving students from all class years in the college, the 14-page publication was posted in hard copy on notice boards, and made available on the school's network as a downloadable PDF which can be read on mobile devices and computers.

The first issue of The Blue and Gold is dedicated to the memory of Ben Guidera, a CPC student from Brownstown who passed away a year ago.

The students in the project chose the various areas of magazine production to be involved in, including reporting, photography, editing, and design. They sourced their own stories, interviewed, wrote and revised, and designed the magazine's masthead and layout.

Senior editor was Molly Aspell; Sub editor, Sarah Hennessy; Current Affairs, Rebecca Walsh; Sports, Lorcan Murphy; Entertainment, Jack Carroll; Health, Aaron Wafer. The layout designers were Conor Healy Glynn, Josh Reidy, and Maisie Biddulph.

Articles in the inaugural issue include one on the All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad (AILO) by Adam Bermingham. Katie Smith contributed reports on the Second Year Debate Club, a Jewellery Workshop, and the One Small Change initiative in CPC.

A comprehensive article by Aideen Stein on a visit to the BT Young Scientists Exhibition highlighted presentations which could potentially help improve everyday life. Alexandria Butler wrote about the reformation of the Kilcullen First Responders and its official launch by Brian Redmond.

In the entertainment section, Jack Carroll reviews the classic 1997 science-fiction horror movie Cube, and while noting some confusion in the structure and plot progression, thoroughly recommends it.

There's a creative writing input too, with a short story by Sarah Hennessy, The Case of Lilian Du Pont, on the theme of wrongful accusation of murder.

Given the GAA interest in CPC, there's a strong sports section with contributions from Ronan Rafferty, Marc Courtney Byrne, and Eoin Clarke.

The Blue and Gold was developed under the supervision of teachers Eoghan Stafford and Ciaran Blanchfield. Work has begun on the next issue.

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Stop. Think. Check.

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels.

Three short words, but a they're the important part of a short guide to being media smart, available from the National Youth Council of Ireland, writes Brian Byrne.

Be Media Smart is aimed at helping all readers of social media to take a closer look at what they're being fed on their screens. The NYCI is involved because young people are possibly the most heavily invested in the fast-churning tide of today's information and entertainment media.

But it's a guide for everyone. Which is why the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and the Media Literacy Ireland group which it facilitates are partners with the youth group in Be Media Smart.

The guide is simple, just four double-spaced pages. As a longtime journalist I'd urge everyone reading this blog to download it and read it. Even with half a century of this work gone through dozens of my typewriters and keyboards, it was a useful reminder of what I should always do myself. What I hope I always do.

Stop. Think. Check.

Read it.

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Kilcullen and 'Rome v Republic'

From RTE's 'Rome v Republic'.

The Rome v Republic documentary shown on RTE television last week was developed and directed by a woman from Kilcullen, writes Brian Byrne.

The documentary is presented by Senator Michael McDowell and examines the Catholic Church's relations with the Irish State over the last 200 years, and directed by Niamh Sammon, originally from Nicholastown.

It begins with Wolfe Tone's ill-fated efforts to get help from France to overthrow British rule in Ireland. The founding of Maynooth Seminary in 1795, and the work to achieve Catholic Emancipation by Daniel O'Connell are reviewed. At the current end of history, interviews with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, a range of Irish historians and religious commentators, and former President of Ireland Mary McAleese are part of the story.

The 'Romification' of the Irish Catholic Church by Cardinal Paul Cullen, born in Kildare and achieving a position of extraordinary power in the heart of the Catholic Church in Rome, is outlined. A programme of church building undertaken by him in the mid and late 1800s included Kilcullen's Parish Church.

The use of education to further the control of the church in almost every aspect of Irish life is thoughtfully established in the documentary, and Clonliffe College, the former diocesan seminary in Dublin, also features. The relationship of the Irish hierarchy with emerging nationalism is also examined. The extensive archives for the former Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, shine more light on the retention of the church's power but also his development of social services in a poverty-stricken period in Dublin. Bringing matters right up to date, the visit of Pope Francis to Ireland last year is used in the concluding section.

The documentary was triggered by an article written by Senator McDowell in 2017 at the height of the furore from the revelation of the Tuam Mother and Babies scandal. Available on the RTE Player, as a Reel Story Production for RTE, it is a carefully researched, well written and highly illustrated piece of television journalistic work. It captures in the short space of a little over an hour a very significant part of what has made us who we are as today's nation.

For those of us who grew up through the 1950s it is both a reminder and a revelation. For those of today's younger generations who choose to view the programme, it may cause bemusement but is also likely to re-form some of their notions of Irish history. It is highly recommended, both for Senator McDowell's beautifully measured exposition and for Niamh Sammon's deft and illuminating direction.

Niamh Sammon has a solid portfolio of important documentaries for RTE, including 'Ireland's Health Divide' in 2017. Others were 'Medication Nation', also in 2017, and 'Hidden Impact: Rugby and Concussion' in 2015.

She also produced 'Fine Gael: A Family at War' and a four-part documentary about the life of former taoiseach Charles Haughey. She is currently a PhD candidate and tutor at Dublin City University and a freelance television Producer/Director.

Michael McDowell is a former leader of the Progressive Democrats, a former attorney-general and former minister for justice.


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Local writer sets up lifestyle magazine

Kilcullen writer and journalist Louise O'Gorman and her friend Jenny Cox have set up an online lifestyle magazine, 'Your Daily Slice', writes Brian Byrne.

And through June the magazine is featuring a special 'Body Positive' campaign, as a series of articles surrounding body image in relation to young people, personal experience, and tips from nutrition and exercise professionals.

"We shall also be having some interesting chats and interviews, and be discussing body image in relation to social media/responsibility," says Louise. "It's an issue that affects us all and one that we at yourdailysliceoflife.com feel very strongly about.

She adds that the magazine is keen to highlight and promote a positive message to as many people as possible. "The Body Positive campaign is designed to start a conversation. To raise awareness and highlight the issues surrounding body image."

The campaign can be followed on the magazines website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter outlets.


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Lots of Kilcullen in this week's Kildare Nationalist

Things have been pretty busy in Kilcullen these last couple of weeks, and certainly that's reflected in this week's Kildare Nationalist, writes Brian Byrne.

In addition to my normal weekly page 'Down and Around in Kilcullen', I have a double spread on the recent visit by Anna Harrington on her round the world walk.

And to round things off, there's also a page feature I wrote about Kilcullen woman Tanya Flanagan, who is getting a major honour from the French government at the end of the summer.

No wonder my keyboard is getting a little hot.

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Kildare on Nationwide tonight

RTE have been filming in County Kildare and will feature on the Nationwide programme tonight with a full programme on Kildare's heritage.

The items featured include the new Arthur's Way walking route in Leixlip, Celbridge and Oughterard, Thatched Houses in Kildare and protected structures which have received funding under the Built heritage Job Leverage Scheme.

A time come around again

This particular piece is getting to be a habit as the years go around, writes Brian Byrne. Six of them now since I first began this bit of cyberjournalism rooted in the town where I grew up and stayed to make my life.

At the time I didn't have any idea how long it might last. That wasn't an issue, because the whole thing was an experiment. Even that's too big a word. A tryout, maybe. A curiosity. To see if anyone might be interested. Also to do what I used to when I began contributing to The Bridge almost four decades ago, a staggered and unplanned start into an eventual career in journalism. Writing about my town and its doings, and its people.

Was anyone interested? Well that they were is now part of the Diary's history. From less than a couple of dozen readers a week, by the end of the first year, the pages of the Diary had been accessed no less than 35,000 times.

And it just keeps going on ... and growing on. In that first year we used about a thousand photographs. Today there are close to 10,000 pictures connected to the Diary, and they have been viewed around a quarter of a million times between them. With almost 200 sets of slideshows each now typically gets played between 800-2,000 times within a week of uploading.

There are more than 3,700 stories posted since the beginning, and our readership is now some 14,000 pages a month. Sometimes I jokingly tell people that I created a monster which has to be fed every day. Truth is, though, I only do it because I enjoy it. And, more importantly, because all of you out there are reading it. If you weren't there, it wouldn't be.

As I read back on my roundup of the Diary's first year, I see that we reported then on pretty much the same things that exercise our community today, but moved on. Life is like that, a large number of small journeys on a train that stops at many stations.

Looking back on that first year, we can see many highlights, and hopes and endeavours of many individuals and groups, some of which came to fruition, others which didn't. And there were lows too. The most difficult story I ever wrote was that year, recording the death of my younger brother Des. It was also the year I had to write about the passing of Pat Dunlea, and Paddy Mitchell, among others who had been part of the fabric of the town from as long as I could remember.

Recording the passing of Kilcullen people is just a small part of what the Diary does. We don't catch them all, of course, but over the last six years we've marked about 130 such departures of people from or related to the community.

And so, to finish this little annual musing about what is at one level a hobby for me, and at another an important part of my identity and my life, let me write again the names of the people who passed on from our community in 2010. They include John McGrath, Carmel St Leger, Brigid Clifford, Don Charlton, Maisie Bolger, Josie English, Joe Fagan, Ann Brennan, Mary Kelly, Isobella Urquhart, Iain Scott, Lilian Healy, Andrew Durney, Margaret Keogh, Mary Pender, Tom Bermingham, and Sheila Dowling.

May they rest in peace, and may we not forget that they were each in their own time an integral part of what each of us in Kilcullen collectively are today. Our community.

Another Kilcullen Year

If you might have forgotten the many highlights of 2010 in Kilcullen, I'd recommend you buy the current Kildare Nationalist.

I have a lookback page on the best, and some of the less good, things that happened.

(Blatant plug!)