Dogs ban warning for Field of Dreams

Images: Kilcullen GAA.

Kilcullen GAA says it may have to reconsider its policy of allowing dogs to be walked on its grounds if the behaviour of some dog owners does not improve, writes Brian Byrne. This follows a series of incidents where dog excrement has been found on walkways and even on the playing fields. 

There is also an issue with dog poo bags being discarded around the grounds instead of being taken home or placed in proper bins. "The use of bags is great if the dog owners bring them home and put them in their bins!" says the club's Martin Murphy. "Not so great when they deposit them around the walkway for a club volunteer to pick them up." 

Martin also notes that the law requires all dogs in public places to be kept on a leash, and this regulation applies to the Field of Dreams. "If dog owners do not act responsibly, then we may have to reconsider allowing dogs into the Field of Dreams," he warns. 

The dog excrement issue is not limited to the GAA grounds. The Diary receives regular communications from members of the public, angry that their children or baby buggies get contaminated with poo on their shoes and wheels. In 2024, Kildare County Council issued just four fines for dog fouling. These were among only 48 fines issued nationwide by 17 local authorities that year. 

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Kildare South TD calls for statutory right to home care

Image: Houses of the Oireachtas.

A statutory right to home care and the provision of the infrastructure and staff to provide this has been called for by Kildare South TD Mark Wall, writes Brian Byrne. In a Labour Party motion in the Dáil, he proposed a 'fair deal for care' that would mean "the end of privatisation of nursing home care in Ireland."

Deputy Wall noted that a right to home care has been promised by successive Governments since 2017 but there has not yet been any real progress on this. "Instead, the only option that older people and their families are faced with is nursing home care. The average length of stay in a nursing home is around three years. This reflects the level of decline that many older people experience due to privatisation, where shareholders are more concerned with profits than the care and well-being of older people."

The deputy said he had constituency cases in recent times which demonstrated a 'huge issue' of people waiting for housing adaptation grants from local authorities. "Yet they cannot move into their homes because those housing adaptation grants have not been sanctioned. Surely an intervention from the Minister of State would allow those people to go back to live in their own homes and allow that bed to be freed up for somebody else," he said.

A Government amendment to the motion, which committed inter alia to a review of inspection and monitoring of nursing homes, additional nursing home capacity, and a review of ownership structures, was described by the deputy as "not a Government listening or caring, but a Government promoting privatisation."  He said that over the last 20 years a small number of multinational corporations and foreign investment funds have taken a 'stranglehold' on the nursing home sector.

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Home care on a growth path

Brenda Kavanagh, CEO Komfort Kare.

The latest home-care business to open in the Kildare and West Wicklow region comes with a 5-year track record in the Dublin area and has just opened a regional headquarters in Kilcullen's Market Square building, writes Brian Byrne. For Komfort Kare CEO Brenda Kavanagh it was kind of a coming home: she lived in one of the complex apartments some years ago while studying social care at the Carlow Institute of Technology.

"When I completed my degree, I planned to do a Masters, but then found that I'd have to do a HDipEd first," she told the Diary at last weekend's Open Day for the new Kilcullen office. "Of course, cost came into it then, so instead I started work, first with Nua Healthcare Services, later with Caremark homecare in Naas where I eventually became a manager."

Brenda with Maggie Chen.

In 2019, Dublin-based investor Maggie Chen established Komfort Kare and brought Brenda in as CEO. When the pandemic hit, the enterprise provided support to nursing homes, and quickly grew staff levels to some 90 people. "After Covid calmed down, we moved into elder care, initially in Dublin from where we extended to Westmeath and Longford. In addition to Kildare and West Wicklow, from this office we will also be providing services in Laois and Offaly." The local manager is Laura Glynn.

Komfort Kare offers clients a range of behaviour support, domestic assistance, personal care, complex care, ASD and ID support, and 24-hour health care services. In addition to private clients, the company is an approved HSE provider and can also provide agency staff on a temporary or permanent basis. "We provide a full range of non-clinical care, which can go from helping people in their homes with getting ready for their day all the way to support for people with significant disabilities." Staff are all fully qualified to a minimum of QQI level 5 training in healthcare and are trained in Patient Manual Handling, Safeguarding, First Aid and CPR, and more. "We have also recently began working with Griffith College, with which we offer a 2-year apprenticeship to a Level 6, working alongside our staff who mentor them all the way and they get full hands-on experience as well as their qualification."

The whole area of home care services has expanded exponentially, Brenda says. That has both made the sector highly competitive in both getting business and in recruiting qualified staff to do the work. "In Dublin alone, it has gone from around nine HSE approved providers to something like 29 in in the space of a decade. So the market is really flooding.”

To get and keep care staff, Komfort Kare is offering higher wage rates than many larger competitors, Brenda says. "We also have the mandatory pension arrangements in place in advance of next years's changes, and we also offer a full healthcare package and guaranteed roster hours.”

A new idea from Komfort Kare will be the production of a series of podcasts on various aspects of home care and how to live safely and comfortably at home either as an elder person or with various levels of disability. A small studio setup is part of the new offices in Kilcullen. "That came about because our HR and Social Media manager Rachel McGaley posted on Facebook a video of me doing a talk, and it got a very good reaction. So we'll be doing more of that, I think. It's all about creating more awareness of home care." Part of the plan is also to make people aware of what they are entitled to. "A lot of people just don't realise they can actually get state-funded care."  

Komfort Kare introduced themselves to Kilcullen with an Open Day last weekend which included demonstrations of chair yoga, a sensory room, the care staff training space, and a mobile unit offering people a sense of what it's like to have dementia.

Meanwhile, as the possibility that the first human to live to 150 has already been born is being argued about amongst scientists, there is no doubt that even if that is not the case, there are going to be more older people around who are in a position to stay in their own homes with the right supports. That's a key element of the Sláinte Care programme looking forward. So there's not going to be any shortage of business for Komfort Kare and their colleague companies in the sector.

Primary care centres and home care together can help to keep people out of hospitals and nursing homes. "I think it can work, and we will see significant growth in the field," says Brenda Kavanagh, who actually did recently complete her Masters. "Ten years on," she laughs. It's never too late."

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Avoid canvassers, have a musical treats night in Kildare Cathedral

For anyone at a loose end, and who wants to avoid Canvassing Politicians knocking on their doors at home — come to Kildare Cathedral instead on Friday next, 22 November, writes Dr Brendan O'Shea.

A great event, lovely mix of music, and an important cause, it includes music, raffle and a focused Photographic Exhibition interpreted by volunteers from previous Missions to Northern Jordan.

The fundraising evening for the next AHR Medical Mission, to help Syrian refugees in that country, starts at 7.30pm and will include works by Faure and Byrd from Gormanstown Chapel Choir as well as a range of pieces performed live by guests including Arthur Greene (formerly Organ Scholar at Trinity College and Christchurch), and the Dara String Quartet and the Consonance Clarinet Quartet. It's a family friendly event.

A number of local volunteers have participated in previous missions, but they had to pull out of the one scheduled for early October because of the dramatically escalating conflict in the region. 

Funds and supplies gathered for the October 2024 Mission will be used on the May 2025 Mission, when hopefully conditions will be safer. The Gormanstown Chapel Choir previously held a very well-supported fundraiser in Gormanstown Church in August.  

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Go down to the woods today - you'll feel better

Skip the shopping centre at the weekend and go to the woods instead, writes Brian Byrne. That’s the advice of a Kilcullen retired community health doctor, who believes we’re genetically programmed to appreciate and be restored by nature.

Dr Liz Cullen will be pushing this message home at a talk scheduled in Kilcullen Library on Friday 30 August, starting at 7.30pm. Hosted by Kilcullen Community for Climate Action, the free event is designed to provide food for thought for those feeling stressed out by modern life, with its non-stop calls to consume, in algorithmic thrall to endlessly scroll on phone screens, and trying to cope with the pounding news cycle of bad happenings.

Liz Cullen is a medical doctor with a long-standing interest in the environment and the impact of the physical and social environment on health. She received a PhD in 2009 from NUIM for her work on the impacts of climate change on health in Ireland. In 2016 she was one of the recipients of the first BT Masters bursaries, for her work on how to assess environmental factors contributing to cancers. Her illustrated presentation will describe why taking time out in nature is beneficial from a physical and psychological perspective. 

“We evolved together over millions of years with every other living organism, and we’re naturally attuned to the natural world,” she told the Diary. “So from the earliest times of Stone Age man, our eyes and our ears were in tune with the sound of nature, for food and for danger. When we take time out to link back with natural things, and leave our phones and gadgets behind, it restores us. The natural world always delivers. On the other hand, going to a shopping centre, which promises so much and generally leaves us unsatisfied, is very deeply un-restorative. You never see a window in them, for instance.”

She cites recent research which shows the production of biogenic organic compounds from trees and plants, the soil and insects and other parts of the natural world, have a positive effect on humans who spend time in a nature environment. She also firmly believes that biodiversity is humanity’s ‘life support system’. "The benefits include decreasing stress and boosting our immune system, and these compounds just give us a lift."

“When I give this talk I’ll not be lecturing people on how they should live their lives,” she says. “It will be a two-way event, and I really want a discussion, what I hope will be the start of a conversation on how we can all build a better balance in life. We need to get out of the television and the mobile phone world for a bit. We need to let the forest into our lives.” 

Living in the Ballyshannon area just south of Kilcullen town, Liz Cullen is also an active member of that community’s fight against a plan by the Kilsaran Group to turn local farmland into a quarry, which she says would ‘industrialise a peaceful and tranquil area’. Which sounds like the absolute antithesis of her mission to help everyone live in a better balanced way. 

NOTE: This talk was originally scheduled to be given last May, but due to unavoidable and unforeseen circumstances had to be postponed.

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If you go down to the woods today - you'll feel better

Skip the shopping centre at the weekend and go to the woods instead, writes Brian Byrne. That’s the advice of a Kilcullen retired community health doctor, who believes we’re genetically programmed to appreciate and be restored by nature.

Dr Liz Cullen will be pushing this message home at a talk scheduled in Kilcullen Library on this Friday 24 May, starting at 7.30pm. Hosted by Kilcullen Community for Climate Action, the free event is designed to provide food for thought for those feeling stressed out by modern life, with its non-stop calls to consume, in algorithmic thrall to endlessly scroll on phone screens, and trying to cope with the pounding news cycle of bad happenings.

Liz Cullen is a medical doctor with a long-standing interest in the environment and the impact of the physical and social environment on health. She received a PhD in 2009 from NUIM for her work on the impacts of climate change on health in Ireland. In 2016 she was one of the recipients of the first BT Masters bursaries, for her work on how to assess environmental factors contributing to cancers. Her illustrated presentation will describe why taking time out in nature is beneficial from a physical and psychological perspective. 

“We evolved together over millions of years with every other living organism, and we’re naturally attuned to the natural world,” she told the Diary. “So from the earliest times of Stone Age man, our eyes and our ears were in tune with the sound of nature, for food and for danger. When we take time out to link back with natural things, and leave our phones and gadgets behind, it restores us. The natural world always delivers. On the other hand, going to a shopping centre, which promises so much and generally leaves us unsatisfied, is very deeply un-restorative. You never see a window in them, for instance.”

She cites recent research which shows the production of biogenic organic compounds from trees and plants, the soil and insects and other parts of the natural world, have a positive effect on humans who spend time in a nature environment. She also firmly believes that biodiversity is humanity’s ‘life support system’. "The benefits include decreasing stress and boosting our immune system, and these compounds just give us a lift."

“When I give this talk I’ll not be lecturing people on how they should live their lives,” she says. “It will be a two-way event, and I really want a discussion, what I hope will be the start of a conversation on how we can all build a better balance in life. We need to get out of the television and the mobile phone world for a bit. We need to let the forest into our lives.” 

Living in the Ballyshannon area just south of Kilcullen town, Liz Cullen is also an active member of that community’s fight against a plan by the Kilsaran Group to turn local farmland into a quarry, which she says would ‘industrialise a peaceful and tranquil area’. Which sounds like the absolute antithesis of her mission to help everyone live in a better balanced way. 

NOTE: This article was first published in The Kildare Nationalist.

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Do you remember? - January 2023

Instead of a long look back at the year passed, as we have done in previous times, for 2024 the Diary will begin each month with a revisit to that month in 2023, as a reminder of highlight happenings, writes Brian Byrne. So this was last January. 

While most of the community was recovering quietly from Christmas and New Year activities, Kilcullen ladies celebrated Nollaig na mBan in Fallons in high style (above). Organised by Michelle Reddy and Paula Phelan, the glamorous event  included a fashion show, hair care demonstrations, health and nutrition tips, and food and music. The proceeds were given to KCA. 

Having had sell-out success before Christmas with their their 2022 winter run, Kilcullen Drama Group used the new year to provide a two-night reprise of their presentation of For Better, For Worse, Jimmy Keary's farce. As group PRO Vivian Clarke put it, the extra nights were an opportunity for those who missed the pre-Christmas shows to come and see it, "or to miss it again if they prefer!"

More than 150 walkers took part in the Kilcullen GAA MyLife Every Step Counts Challenge, and in tandem there were good turnouts by walkers for the GAA Lights Up weekly walks.

Plans were put in place for Kilcullen events as part of the Brigid 1500 celebrations. Among them was a revival of the custom of 'Brat Bríde', putting a piece of cloth out in the garden or window sill on the night of 31 January — St Brigid's Eve. Brats were handed out to people on the street by Mary Orford and Julie O'Donoghue. A Brigid's Cloak, made by the Suas Knitting Group, was displayed in Nolan's Butchers window. 

Work began on the provision of a stretch of footpath linking the entrance to Cnoc na Greine to the existing one along by New Abbey estate on the Kilcullen-Newbridge Road.

Sheila Peacocke celebrated her 90th birthday with family and friends in Fallons, after having had a smaller celebration at home (above) on the day itself.

John Spillane headlined the first sellout 2023 gig of the Red Hot Music Club in Fallons back room, supported by Eadestown musician Willie Headon. A pre-concert chat about whether the Irish are really Celts had the potential to be fascinating, but there was a crowd waiting to be entertained.

A great start to the year for Kilcullen GAA was the granting of planning permission for their 'Field of Dreams' expansion development. That would lead to many fundraising initiatives and a very quick start to the work through following months.

Even in the traditionally quietest month of the year there was lots more, but those few items should bring back memories.

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Be careful what you ask for - a Christmas story

Many years ago, talking to a friend, he told me his son was ‘feeling the breeze’ in his business, writes Noreen Dowling. He said, “You know, Noreen, the worst thing about it all was that himself and his family had to resort to living over the shop.”

This made me think, as my husband, myself, and our three young children were living over our shop on Main Street Kilcullen at that time.

Living over the shop to me were some of the happiest times of my life. No two days the same, lots of ups and downs, but we always managed to see the fun side. How we loved the Christmas buzz, selling all the Christmas things and helping Santa Claus to deliver the very latest toys. I recall on one occasion a phone call at 4.30am from a very upset mother, who told me the dog had just chewed both legs off the Sindy Doll. A quick replacement and all was well.

One Christmas Eve I will always remember. My children were appointed to help in any way they could in the shop, sweeping, cleaning, etc (along with eating the profits). My son’s duties required him at front of house, carrying boxes, bags etc to customers’ cars and bicycles. He was helping one country lady with her purchases, filling a large box on the carrier of her bicycle and hanging numerous bags on the handlebars. It was certainly a complete load.

Suddenly she said to my son, “hold the bicycle, I forgot to get a message from the supermarket.” He, being eight or nine at the time, had great difficulty balancing the bicycle and, seeing they were getting nowhere, the lady said “here, you go into the supermarket and get the message”, handing him cash and telling him her order. He obliged and returned with a brown paper bag which she placed very securely among her groceries. Everyone happy, my son received his reward, and with a ‘Season’s Greetings’ proclaimed, the lady headed for home.

The day came to a close and, everyone feeling tired with the pressure of the day, we all sat down to a well-deserved evening meal. Out of the blue, my son piped up: “Mam, do you know that lady who comes in from the country for her shopping?” I replied, “yes.” He then asked me, “does she have a lot of babies?” Not knowing where the conversation was going, I said, “why are you asking me that?” He replied, “she asked me today to go into the supermarket for three tins of baby powder.”

Being a long time in the world myself, and knowing the lady was past child-bearing years, and also that she had a little fondness for a ‘drop of the cratur’, I realised that the order was meant to be three ‘Baby Powers’. It was not going to be a merry Christmas in that house!

When I remember that Christmas I smile, and always think of the Christmas song, ‘The Little Girl that Santa Claus Forgot’. Living over the shop was life’s university and I feel blessed that it was such a large part of my life.

ED NOTE: Noreen is a contributor to The Bridge magazine. This seasonal piece arrived too late for the current December issue, and we're delighted to publish it on the Diary instead.

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Out of Town: Tipperary Museum of Hidden History

Sometimes all we want is a few hours away, especially in these autumn days with a hint of chill or that phrase loved of weather-people, 'persistent rain showers', writes Brian Byrne. Sometimes we want to forego the trending healthy option of a brisk walk by a canal, river or on a hill. Sometimes it's just 'let's go for a drive'. Recently, while in Clonmel on one of those spontaneous spins, we were directed by a local to the Tipperary Museum of Hidden History. 

The museum is a modern building but rather hidden itself unless you have a reason to go to the Tipperary County Council and Clonmel Town complex of civic buildings beyond what was the original Borstal Gate of the walled town. But when you get there, you've found one of those unexpected true gems.

There is history there of Clonmel's medieval past, especially the famous siege by Cromwell in 1650 where, after losing a substantial number of his 8,000 soldiers through the clever ambush tactics of Hugh Dubh O'Neill's much smaller garrison, the besieger was conned by the mayor into promising no reprisals if allowed to take the town. The expected artefacts of the time are on display, as is a copy of Cromwell's death mask. 

There are also details of the historical importance of Clonmel and nearby settlements along the Suir River for industry and trade that made the town one of the most important in inland Munster.

But it is what I call the 'near-history' exhibits cleverly displayed in the relatively small space that I expect garners the curiosity of children and the 'do you remember that?' amongst their parents. 

A plug-and-connect old telephone exchange, placed between an Ogham stone and a by-now ancient Digital VT100 computer terminal from the late 1970s, reflects how communications evolved over 1,600 years. A P⁊T phone box does something similar, though instead of a phone it has examples of postcards which were, in the pre-digital past, the way many of us personally communicated with family and friends.

There are bombs and guns and bullets and bayonets recalling Ireland's own wars against oppression and with ourselves and WW2, including a so-called 'non-lethal' baton round of the type used during the 'Troubles' in more recent decades.

 

There's poignancy in the clothes, playthings and home-school work of Dorothy May Petronell Grubb, who died at the age of 11 from typhus. Her things were stored in a box for 100 years before being given into the care of the museum.

There are exhibits of Tipperary-connected more gruesome past. Including a 1907 murder carried out in Monte Carlo by Clonmel-born Vere Goold and his wife Marie Girodin which involved hiding their victim's body parts in a trunk and suitcase. The former which leaked blood and a 'foul odour' and led to their capture. In that section there's also the disturbing and shameful account from the mid-1800s of the transportation of more than 4,000 Famine orphan girls as young as 14 to Australia to work as domestic servants, and to become wives in a place where there were many more men than women. Some 477 of those girls were from the Tipperary workhouses. While this is a generally little-recalled story in today's Ireland, these girls are commemorated every year in the Australian cities where they were sent.

On a lighter note, literally, Tipperary has a very strong musical history, especially from Clonmel itself. This is marked in the Museum of Hidden History by exhibits about famous in their day musical radio presenters Tommy O'Brien and Vincent Hanley, and stars from the town and wider region including Frank Patterson, Mick Delahunty, and the Clancy Brothers from nearby Carrick on Suir.

And still from hear-history, there are many of us who remember giving our own children toys like the Fisher-Price 'record player' that is among a small collection of what kids used to enjoy — before video, electronic, and digital innovation changed children's entertainment. Utterly. "D'you remember that?"

If you're in the area, do make a point of finding the Tipperary Museum of Hidden History. Small. Beautifully presented. An hour of putting our lives today into a little look-back perspective.

A full selection of the Diary's photos from the museum can be viewed here.

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Special Kilcullen interest in Punchestown kidney race

Eimer Smullen and Sinead Smullen with trainer Denis Cullen.

Regular customers of The Hair Emporium in Kilcullen will have a special interest in the organ donor awareness charity race at this year's Punchestown Festival, writes Brian Byrne. The reason? One of the salon’s long-time stylists will be taking part in the 32nd running of the race, which has raised more than €1.7 million for the Punchestown Kidney Research Fund  established by local businessman James Nolan.

Sinead Smullen has been in training for the event since last summer, along with her younger sister Eimear, with Denis Cullen's Beechcourt Stables near Naas. It will be the first time two sisters have competed in the event together, although James Nolan and his brother Andrew both competed in the same races in 1992 and 1994. James founded the PKRF, to raise awareness of the importance of organ donation and to fund support services for kidney patients on dialysis, after receiving a life-saving kidney donation from his sister Catherine.

The 'Have the Conversation — Say YES to Organ Donation' race is traditionally the last event of the Punchestown Festival, and this year is on Saturday 29 April. Each of the amateur jockeys has to train to a fitness and competency level where they can qualify for a racing licence, and must raise a minimum amount of sponsorship. This year there were 71 applicants, from whom 25 were selected for the race. A special participant this year includes Dave Bennett from Dublin, who is riding to honour the donor family who made his kidney transplant a reality.

Eimear leading a ride out session at Beechcourt Stables.

For Sinead and Eimear Smullen, taking part this year continues a family tradition — their mother Helen and sister Ciara were former participants in the event. Both are well used to horses as they grew up with them at their Two Mile House home and are regular riders with the Carlow Farmers hunt.

Denis Cullen says it hasn't been difficult to get them up to racing fitness. "They knew how to ride and they know horses, so it is just a matter of learning the different techniques of racing. Instead of riding hunters, they're dealing with horses which are professionals in their own business. But they're two good riders — I used to go hunting with them before, and they're brave."

Sinead in full flight riding out at Beechcourt.

Eimear, who works in the family business of Smullen Transport at Newhall, says the difference between what they are used to and riding for a race is 'like getting out of a Morris Minor and into a Ferrari'. Both women have been riding out every morning for the past eight months at Beechcourt and recently also on the 'Old Vic' gallops on the Curragh, a 9-furlong run named after the 1989 Irish Derby winner.

And will there be some sibling rivalry when the starter’s flag falls? “Maybe a little bit,” Sinead admits with a smile. “But we’ll be looking after each other as we go around as well ... and then I'll push on and I'll win." 

Eimear isn't quite agreeing to that last part.

Dave Bennett, honouring donor family.

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