Wide spread of interests for National Heritage Week

A reminder that no less than 98 events are scheduled for Heritage Week in Kildare, running from tomorrow, 15th, to 23 August, writes Brian Byrne. Across the county, historic houses, libraries, and community groups are opening their doors for talks, tours, and workshops celebrating the area’s history and culture.

Highlights include guided walks along the Royal Canal Greenway in Kilcock, historical tours at Maynooth Castle and Castletown House, and hands-on craft workshops in Kilcullen, Celbridge and Athy libraries. Nature lovers can enjoy bog walks, butterfly and dragonfly tours at the Bog of Allen Nature Centre, and a wetlands stroll in Moone.

Interactive experiences include storytelling and genealogy sessions to willow weaving, wattle and daub building, and Irish lace workshops. Families can explore the Shackleton Experience in Athy, join treasure hunts, or learn about native wildlife and conservation.

With events such as the Grand Canal Festival, concerts in Celbridge, and open days at historic homes like Leixlip Castle and Moyglare Glebe, Heritage Week in Kildare promises something for all ages. Full schedules and timings are available from local libraries and heritage centres, and also at this link. 

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Booking opens for Shackleton Autumn School

Image: Shackleton Experience, Athy.

Booking is now open for the 26th Annual Shackleton Autumn School, taking place from 16 to 18 October 2026 in Athy, the birthplace of explorer Ernest Shackleton. 

This event invites historians, researchers, and enthusiasts to engage in scholarship, camaraderie, and explore the significance of polar regions. The programme includes expert lectures, interactive workshops, exhibitions, cultural events, and networking opportunities. 

Early Bird tickets are available for €225 until 31 August 2026. 

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Ballitore Librarian feels 'hugely privileged' in her workplace

Sometimes small museums are best, writes Brian Byrne. Not least because visitors don't feel they have to rush through a vast selection of exhibits in order to make the most of their time. Such is the Ballitore Library and Quaker Museum, where Librarian Pauline Fagan reckons she has one of the most heritage-atmospheric workplaces in Ireland, devoted to the life and times of 18th-century diarist and writer Mary Leadbeater.

When, a few weeks ago, the great and the good of Kildare heritage enthusiasm descended on the small Quaker village to mark Mary Leadbeater's 200th anniversary, it may have been the largest gathering there since the 1843 Monster Meeting held nearby by Daniel O’Connell. Or, earlier, the incursions into the locality of the 1798 Rebellion. Mary Leadbeater's writings, published as the Annals of Ballitore, offer harrowing first-person local observations of that latter doomed event, along with much-respected commentaries on contemporary Irish rural village life. 

The granddaughter of Yorkshire teacher Abraham Shackleton, who settled in Ballitore and founded a school in his home, Mary married one of his former pupils, and they moved into the building that's also the former Meeting House of the Religious Society of Friends. There, she managed the then-equivalent of a local post office and wrote poetry and her diaries in her spare time.

Three of the upstairs rooms comprise the museum, one of which was Mary's writing room. Through its window, she had a constant view of Ballitore's streets and square. "She would have watched all of life going on, and the events of 1798 as well," says Pauline Fagan. "This place is lived experience, of a woman, her writing, and the Quaker values of service." It's the first room Pauline takes visitors to — there were some 600 who went through in June. The only furniture is a writing desk and chair, which she emphasises are not the originals but do approximate what Mary Leadbeater used. Three panels provide a short overview of the writer and her place, extracted from a 2009 introduction to the Annals by Castledermot-born writer John MacKenna, long fascinated by the story.

The Folk Life room has artefacts of local domestic and agricultural heritage, old photographs of the village, and an original copy of the Charles Brookings Map of Dublin published in 1728. This one, which is referenced in the Annals, used to hang in Abraham Shackleton's home and was donated to the Museum in 2006 by the Shackleton-Chinn family.

The third room features women's clothing from Mary Leadbeater's era, including an 1853 wedding dress owned by a lady from nearby Burtown House, built by Quaker Robert Power in 1810. In its own space is the one item of men's apparel, a 19th-century fedora hat worn in 1970 by peace activist and historian Charles Lamb when he was the sole Quaker protester at US President Richard Nixon's visit to the cemetery in Timahoe where his maternal Milhouse ancestors are buried.

For Pauline, who has similar feminist and pacifist instincts to those of Mary Leadbeater, working for the last nine years in the Ballitore Library and Quaker Museum has been a "huge privilege". She especially likes to explain the heritage to school groups who come. "She was a woman, she was married, she was a Quaker, and she was a voice of her time that we don't often hear. So when the small ones come in, I'm saying: what you have to offer is yours alone, and only you can be you, and to value your unique voice."

These days, many voices compete loudly, often peremptorily, for attention to their opinions, angsts, and prescriptives. They will mostly be well-forgotten in a far, far shorter time than the two centuries from which Mary Leadbeater's diaries' observations and notes still encourage their audience to think about what's going on around them, and make up their own minds.

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Mary Leadbeater remembered in Ballitore

The Annals of Ballitore, written by Mary Leadbeater and originally published in 1862, were described today as a "document from the heart of somebody who was at the heart of her community", writes Brian Byrne. Launching a revised edition of the book, as part of an honouring of her life on the 200th anniversary of her death, author and publisher John MacKenna said the Annals were her personal diaries, not written for publication, but are a celebration of her community.

"It's the things that happened, the people who were here, and their interaction with their society," he said. "It was a small community, and she names names, and by the time you finish reading the Annals, you almost know them. It's a bit like reading the local notes in today's Nationalist or Leader — you actually get to know the people."

Born Mary Shackleton in the Quaker village of Ballitore in 1758, Leadbeater was a poet, correspondent, and chronicler of local life whose works included Poems, Cottage Dialogues among the Irish Peasantry, and Cottage Biography. The Annals were edited from her personal diaries about her observations and events in Ballitore between 1766 and 1823. They were first published in 1862 as two volumes under the title The Leadbeater Papers. The new revised edition includes a foreword by John MacKenna.

Also present today was Cllr Ivan Keatley, Cathaoirleach of the Athy Municipal District, who noted particularly her accounts of the lead-up to and the local happenings surrounding the 1798 Rebellion. "How lucky we are to have her completely impartial account of what actually happened, not taking one side or another. Stuff that is not ordinarily written down, and probably is still skirted around in times of war."

Mario Corrigan, Senior Executive Librarian with Kildare County Council, thanked everyone involved with the celebration of Mary Leadbeater's life, recalling the fortunate happenstance in the 1970s of the preservation of the old Quaker Meeting House that allows it to be the village Library and Museum today. He also remarked that the statue of Mary Leadbeater on the site had been created by a young artist, Eamon Keenan, who today works in Kildare Library Service.

The afternoon included a walk, In the Footsteps of Mary Leadbeater, conducted by John MacKenna, as well as an exhibition hosted by The Thread Shed, in the Meeting House, Reflections on the Life of Mary Leadbeater through Contemporary Art and Craft.

Afternoon tea was served, and many of those present wore vintage dress from the era described in the Annals.

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Kildare to unveil Ballitore Papers online archive

Kildare County Council’s County Archives and Local Studies service will unveil The Ballitore Papers, a new online archive, at Ballitore Community Library tomorrow, Saturday, 27 June 2026, writes Brian Byrne. The collection will be launched at 2pm by Cllr Ivan Keatley, Cathaoirleach of the Athy Municipal District, as part of a wider programme of local celebrations beginning at 1pm.

The archive marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Mary Leadbeater, the Ballitore-born Quaker author, and the 300th anniversary of the founding of the boarding school at Ballitore by Abraham Shackleton. It brings together letters, diaries, notebooks and other memorabilia relating to the Shackleton, Leadbeater and Barrington families.

Kildare Library Service is also republishing Annals of Ballitore, with a revised edition launched by playwright and novelist John MacKenna, who wrote the introduction. After the launch, visitors will be able to join MacKenna for a walk through the village, In the footsteps of Mary Leadbeater.

Archivist Karel Kiely said the project celebrates Leadbeater’s legacy and the wider Quaker history of Ballitore, adding that interest in the village has grown alongside the nearby Shackleton Experience in Athy.

The event is supported by Kildare County Council and the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.

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Two Mile House ICA is celebrating 75th

Members of the Two Mile House ICA Guild recently had an outing to the Shackleton Experience in Athy. 

Pictured here before having a meal at The Brown Bear in Two Mile House afterwards are: (front) Valerie McTernan, Angela Tynan, Mary Tyrell (Treasurer), Mary Faherty, Ina King, Pat Conroy, and Joan Shirran; and (back) Ann Fitzsimons, Mary Cummins, Catherine Conlan, Paula Harte, Mary Gleeson, Helen Kennedy, Susan Kelly, Noeleen Shaw, Brenda Domican (Secretary), Vivienne Byrne, Therese Lawlor, and Catherine Loughnane.

The Guild is currently celebrating its 75th year.

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Commemoration day for Mary Leadbeater

Ballitore will mark the 200th anniversary of the death of writer Mary Leadbeater on 27 June 2026 with a commemorative afternoon of heritage, literature and art, writes Brian Byrne. Events begin at 1pm with the unveiling of new signage at the entrance to the Quaker Burial Ground in partnership with the Ballitore Burial Ground Restoration Group. 

At 2pm, a revised edition of Leadbeater's most famous work, The Annals of Ballitore, will be launched by John McKenna at Mary Leadbeater House, now Ballitore Library. The programme continues at 3pm in the Meeting House with Reflections on the Life of Mary Leadbeater through Contemporary Art and Craft, an exhibition hosted by The Thread Shed.

Afternoon tea will be served, guests are encouraged to wear vintage dress, and donations will be welcomed towards the upkeep of the Meeting House.

Born Mary Shackleton in Ballitore in 1758, Leadbeater was a Quaker poet, correspondent and chronicler of local life whose works included Poems, Cottage Dialogues among the Irish Peasantry and Cottage Biography. 

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Riverbank documentary season

Riverbank Arts Centre has announced a documentary season for May and June 2026, featuring five screenings over six weeks, with guest appearances and post-screening discussions.

The season opens on Wednesday, 20 May, with How to Build a Library, followed by a panel discussion on themes raised in the film. Speakers include Kildare County Librarian Gillian Allen, Kenyan anthropologist and academic Dr Fernando Ongolly, and IADT post-doctoral film researcher Dr Judith Pernin, who will chair the event.

Further screenings include Myrid Carten’s directorial debut A Want in Her on 27 May; Charlie Shackleton’s Zodiac Killer Project on 3 June; Born That Way, an award-winning Irish documentary on disability inclusion pioneer Patrick Lydon, on 10 June; and The Song Cycle on 24 June. 

Director Éamon Little and Gladys Lydon will take part in a short Q&A following Born That Way, while The Song Cycle director Nick Kelly will attend that screening.

The documentary season is presented in association with Access Ireland and Europa Cinemas.

Tickets are €7 early bird, €9 on the door, and €5 for students. Bookings can be made through the Box Office, by telephone on 045 448327, or online at riverbank.ie, where a €1.50 booking fee applies per ticket.

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Ballyshannon NS fundraiser at Martinstown

A reminder that the Parents Association of Ballyshannon National School is organising a fundraising event, Spring Fest, at Martinstown House, The Curragh, on Sunday next, 19 April 2026, from 12pm to 4pm.

Spring Fest will be a fun-filled afternoon for adults and children alike. The event will feature live music, children’s games, storytelling and crafts, face-painting, and a range of food and drink options, including a pizza truck, coffee truck and bar.

There's also a raffle with a wide selection of prizes sponsored by local businesses and supporters. Among the prizes on offer are:

• Kildare Fire Logs voucher (€200)

• The K Club hotel voucher (€100)

• The Yurt voucher (€100)

• Crookstown Tyres & Batteries Ltd voucher (€100)

• Playbarn vouchers (10 admit-one passes) valued at €115

• Faerly hamper (€90)

• Kildare Bouncy Castles (€80)

• Burkes Pharmacy hamper (€80)

• Mondello Historic Festival family passes

• Vouchers and prizes from The Potting Shed, Dome Carlow, Mels of Narraghmore, Lily and Wild, TRM Pet, Punchestown, Lullymore, Kalbarri, Shackleton Experience, K Leisure, Treasured Toys, Eabha Crystals, Pumpkin Patch Kildare, Grangecon Kitchen, and many more, including family days out, toy sets, haircare products, hampers and activity vouchers.

Tickets for both the event and the raffle are available on Eventbrite by searching “Spring Fest Martinstown House” or by using the QR codes featured on Ballyshannon National School Parents Association’s promotional material.

All funds raised will go towards supporting Ballyshannon National School. Updates and further details are available on Instagram at @ballyshannonsparentscouncil.

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Shackleton Experience wins major building awards

The Shackleton Experience in Athy has won two top honours at the Irish Building and Design (IBDA) Awards 2026: Leisure, Tourism and Hospitality Project of the Year and Heritage, Conservation Project of the Year. The IBDA Awards recognise excellence in Irish architecture, engineering, construction and design and were presented at a ceremony in the Intercontinental Hotel, Dublin.

The Shackleton Experience was praised for best-practice conservation and detailed restoration, combined with contemporary design. A standout feature is the glass extension, known as the Iceberg, along with cutting-edge exhibition design and interpretative methods.

An €8.3 million investment has turned the 300-year-old former town hall into a cultural and tourism destination. Reopened last October, the project was co-funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development under the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund and Kildare County Council.

The general manager of the attraction is Brannockstown woman Aline Egar. 

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For 2026, a salute to Kilcullen's women

Some of the Kilcullen women who made the news in 2025.

Looking back through the highlight stories of 2025 on the Diary, one cannot help but be struck by how many of them focus on Kilcullen women, writes Brian Byrne. The reports cover, inter alia, science, literature, politics, business, and local leadership.

Nicholastown woman Professor Teresa Lambe, co-designer of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, addressed the Graduate School Class of 2025 at the University of Notre Dame in the USA, where she spoke about the "superpower" of global collaboration in science. Teresa also delivered the inaugural Fr Sheil People for Others Honorary Address at Clongowes Wood College. Ellen Kelly, Senior Technical Officer in Molecular Virology at the National Virus Reference Laboratory, also from Nicholastown, was a featured speaker at the prestigious BioMedica 2025 conference in Dublin. Kilcullen Neurodevelopment and Behavioural optometrist Nichola Kennedy launched her book, See The Change, which is designed to help teachers identify vision problems in pupils.

Several local women featured prominently in the creative and literary arenas. Hazel Gaynor saw her 12th book, Before Dorothy, published. CPC student and solo vocalist Olivia Lambert won the 2025 JBforever27 music bursary, established by Louise Kelly in memory of her son Jeremy. Cliona Kelliher contributed to an anthology exploring the experiences of autistic adults in Ireland, Wired Our Own Way. Dorly O’Sullivan published Damien: A life for my son, documenting her family’s journey with Down Syndrome and Autism.

In the new business sector, Eileen Tan launched her portfolio of handcrafted wearable fragrances during National Women’s Enterprise Day at Keadeen Hotel, and Dearbhaile Donagh opened Byron Pilates at the Link Business Park.

In the Kilcullen Community Awards, Brona Dooley won the Youth category for her work with the Kilcullen GAA Healthy Clubs initiative. Eilis Philips received one for her contributions to the arts and local theatre, and three women on the Kilcullen GAA Field of Dreams committee — Teresa O’Loughlin, Debbie O’Brien, and Emma McLarnen — were an integral part of the project winning the Community Initiative of the Year award.

Brannockstown woman Annette Aspell, as the Deputy Chief Executive of Kildare County Council, represented the county at the New York St Patrick’s Day Parade. She was a guest of the Kildare Association of New York, the Recording Secretary of which is Sandra Kunzle, née Shortt, also from Kilcullen. Another Brannockstown woman, Aline Fitzgerald, was appointed general manager of the new Shackleton Experience in Athy, following a stellar career in the hospitality and tourism industry.

Dr Emma Birchall, former CPC student and a highly active community Scout during her teens, was elected Chairperson of the National Board of Macra na Feirme. Cllr Tracey O’Dwyer is a regular Diary news subject, advocating for community services and infrastructure; among her achievements this year, she secured €100,000 for a skatepark for the town’s young people. Even that is a small part of her broader work for Kilcullen and its residents.

Though not from Kilcullen, Dr Susan Johnston from George Washington University certainly merits honorary status, having led the summer archaeological excavations at Dún Ailinne for most of the last decade. The project concluded this past summer.

These listed represent only a small part of a larger truth: if we examined all the local sports, cultural, social, and educational organisations, as well as many local businesses, we would undoubtedly find many, many more women's names to add, who underpin Kilcullen in ways not always fully appreciated.

As we step into 2026, the Diary salutes you all on behalf of the entire community.

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Bringing the world to the Shackleton story

While at Cross and Passion College in Kilcullen, Aline Egar dreamed of becoming a primary school teacher, writes Brian Byrne. A lack of fluency in Irish stymied that. “I do love the language, but it wasn’t good enough at the time,” says the Brannockstown woman, now Aline Fitzgerald, who is general manager of the newly opened Shackleton Experience in Athy. Her journey from Brannockstown to that position has arguably been as complicated as some of Ernest Shackleton’s expeditions.

Shelving her original ambition, Aline went on to study Hotel & Catering Management at Brighton College in the UK. After four years there, she worked at several hotels in Ireland, then, in 1996, made another move to another country. “I got a position as Sales Manager with the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts in Chicago,” she says. “It was a fantastic experience in a very beautiful city. My work focused on selling the hotel as a venue for corporate events." Her territory spanned the area between Chicago and the West Coast, and she thrived in her job, earning the company’s President's Club Award twice. However, much as she was enjoying it, there was always a pull to return home. “I was always something of a homebird,” she laughs.

The opportunity to return to Ireland came in 1999, when the group was opening the Four Seasons hotel in Dublin, and she transferred to help with that. Initially, as Sales Manager, she helped build the hotel's profile in the Irish market and worked to attract North American leisure visitors. Later, as Director of Sales & Marketing, she oversaw a broad range of key activities. In 2015, with the Dublin hotel joining the InterContinental Hotel Group, she coordinated communications and interactions with various stakeholders to ensure a seamless transition. Aline says she absolutely enjoyed working with the Four Seasons group, calling it an ‘incredible’ company. “I met many amazing people, and I was mentored and really supported along the way, which was so beneficial. But ultimately I wanted to make a change."

After leaving the hotel business in mid-2015, she took a short-term contract with Trinity College Dublin to manage its involvement in the EU Discover Research event, held every 25 September in over 250 cities as European Researchers Night. "That was a really fun thing to do. It was helping people to understand that science is not just in a laboratory, but also includes other topics and subjects as well. My role was to coordinate with the various schools within Trinity so they'd host a programme on the night. We ended up with something like 75 different events."

The next adventure began when a friend sent her the specification for a role as General Manager of a museum in Dublin's GPO, proposed by An Post as an immersive visitor experience about the prelude and aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising. "I applied and got the opportunity. Ultimately, so much of what I had done in the past related to the museum world. You need to attract visitors. It's very focused on customer service and delivery, and on coordinating everything happening out front and what's happening behind the scenes." Taking the post at the end of 2015 put her right at the heart of the 2016 Commemorations and the opening of the museum in March 2016 in the historical GPO building. "It was an incredible experience," she says. "I worked there for just over eight years, but I had a little girl towards the end of 2019, and she was starting school, so my commute to Dublin wasn't working for me anymore. I left in July of last year, basically giving up my three- to four-hour daily commute to be home. I'd rather spend that time with her than on the N7."

The opportunity to manage the new Shackleton Experience in Athy arose, and Aline took on the role of General Manager in March of this year. Up to its official opening on 10 October, she was immersed in finishing the project. In many ways, it was a repeat of her work with establishing the GPO Museum, though on a physically larger scale. "We're in a historic building that has had many lives. The Experience is on three levels, which is quite extensive. There's a lot for people to engage with, and the dwell time for our visitors is around two hours, which is quite something."

The Experience includes a 1920s-style cinema screening documentaries about Shackleton and his expeditions. "We also have several different interactive pieces — for instance, you can sit in what appears to be the James Caird lifeboat, and you are watching a video telling you about the individuals and that journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia. It's phenomenal, you really feel that you're riding the waves, and you're enduring that trip just like they were back then. You also get the experience of pulling a sledge, giving you the essence of what that must have been like." The over 200 artefacts scattered throughout the museum also indicate how extensive the whole thing is. "The previous museum, which was much smaller, already had such an incredible collection ... we've had many on loan to us, others donated."

You can build it, but will they come? Aline does not doubt that the iconic story of Shackleton and his colleagues has enough pull to make a pilgrimage to Athy a must for many visitors from around the world, not least because the Autumn School devoted to the explorer has become a major international event over the last 25 years. "We're fortunate that we have that following already, with attendees from all over the world. We also maintain relationships with other polar museums, which certainly serve us well. That's a very positive place to start from when you open something of such significance as we now have in Athy."

For Aline, the job fits perfectly with a part of her that has always been comfortable as a tourist in her own land. "Being in the world of tourism appeals to me, shouting from the rooftops about things in Ireland that we're proud of and have every right to be. Here in the Shackleton Experience, we are something that not everybody relates to as being an Irish success story, but he was from Kilkea just out the road, and he was proud about his Irish heritage."

No less proud, probably, than Aline Fitzgerald and her team are to tell his story to a world beating its way to South Kildare.

This article was first published in The Kildare Nationalist.

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Kilcullen News Update

No1 Fitness celebrates 10 years ... Belgian students at CPC ... Shackleton Experience general manager is from Brannockstown ... Kilcullen Bridge Cinema tomorrow night ... Showtime for Kilcullen Drama Group ... Lions Whist Drive ...

Reporting since 2005 from a Village Grown Bigger. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

Shackleton Experience manager is from Brannockstown

The general manager of the new Shackleton Experience in Athy is a woman from Brannockstown with a strong international background in tourism and hospitality. 

Before her latest appointment, Aline Fitzgerald served as general manager of the GPO Museum on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, playing a key role in its successful launch in 2016. 

Previously, she worked at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago and later contributed to the establishment of the Four Seasons in Dublin and its subsequent transition to the InterContinental hotel brand. 

Her current position with the only centre in the world dedicated to the life and legacy of Kildare-born polar explorer Ernest Shackleton involves overseeing the redevelopment and daily operations of this world-class visitor experience.

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