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.
If you haven't ever visited Strokestown Park in Co Roscommon, make the time when you next drive that way, writes Brian Byrne.
It's an 18th century Palladian mansion surrounded by 300 acres of parkland and traditional gardens. But Strokestown is also the memorial heart of one of the blackest periods of Irish history, the Great Famine.
And thanks to the passion of one man, Jim Callery, that history is brought to life at Strokestown. More>>
All the public representatives contacted by those opposing the recently granted planning permission for a waste recycling facility close to several Kilcullen housing estates have promised to attend Thursday night's Town Meeting, writes Brian Byrne.
"We have spoken to them all, and they say they'll be there," says Ray de Courcy of Cnoc na Greine Woods, which backs on to the site at the Knockbounce Business Park where Kildare County Council recently granted planning permission for the facility.
And the organisers will be appealing to the residents of other parts of Kilcullen to support them, because they say this is a 'principle issue' which could allow other 'inappropriate' industries to be landed in the town.
A core part of their argument has been that Kildare County Council had a vested interest in granting the planning permission to the principals of Dolly Skip Hire, because the Council owns the site which the promoters would buy if they got the permission.
The planning documents show that there had been direct pre-planning discussions between the promoters and the Council as early as last August. The planning application was made in November 2011.
A large number of objections were made against the planning application, by residents and nearby businesses, which they now feel were ignored. They are appealing the decision to An Bord Pleanala.
The Town Meeting is in the Town Hall at 8pm on Thursday, open to all.
(Previous stories on this issue are here.)
A second 'Difference Day' event planned for September will further develop the Bridge Camphill Riverside Trail built a couple of weeks ago with the help of employees of Fidelity Investments, writes Brian Byrne.
The event will be organised by the same Difference Day organisation, but involving staff from a different company on a team-building exercise.
The Diary understands that the next event will concentrate on building seats, picnic tables, bins and other features around the trail, which will eventually be signposted with information on nature highlights around the circuit.
A counselling service is looking for premises in the Kilcullen area to set up a facility to help people with a variety of problems, writes Brian Byrne.
The recent meeting of Kilcullen 2017 was told by PJ Fagan that the project was backed by HOPE(D), a voluntary organisation formed in 2003 by a group of interested people, relatives and mental health professionals, aimed at assisting people whose lives are directly affected by depression.
He said they required a premises suitable for use as a number of counselling rooms. “It would be a kind of drop-in centre, where people could make appointments to meet with trained counsellors in different areas,” he added.
A number of possible premises were suggested during the discussion, which will be referred back to the project promoters.
Kilcullen 2012 is the group set up to further the Development Plan that came from the Community Survey last autumn, commissioned by Kilcullen Community Action.
Meanwhile, Julie tells us that the Library will close from August 10-25 inclusive for annual holidays. It will reopen on August 28. So, stock up on reading matter beforehand.
Down the road, the Library will be the location for an Open Mic evening for local writers on September 21, Culture Day. The same day will feature a tour of Camphill and Bell-ringing in An Tearmann.
More details when we get closer to the day.
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The presentation on Community Alert and personal safety given at the recent Community & Sports Open Night was very well received, the last meeting of Kilcullen 2012 heard, writes Brian Byrne.
Organised under the auspices of K2012, it also provided a focus for a number of community, social and sports organisations to showcase their wares.
PJ Fagan told the meeting that as a result of the feedback on the Community Alert scheme, he intended to go to a number of communities where the scheme is in place.
“I’ll also be talking to groups who have the Text Alert system going,” he said, adding that he would be enquiring as much as how to keep such schemes going as setting them up.
He also told the meeting that the local branch of St Vincent de Paul was also concerned with the safety of old people living alone, and were prepared to provide door safety chains for those who needed them.
Kilcullen 2012 is the group set up to further the Development Plan that came from the Community Survey last autumn, commissioned by Kilcullen Community Action.
A Town Meeting organised for next Thursday night will explain how local residents and businesses will work to have overturned the recent planning permission granted for a waste recycling and vehicle dismantling facility at the Knockbounce Business Park, writes Brian Byrne.
The meeting has been organised by those living or working closest to the planned facility, but they emphasise that this is a situation which 'affects the whole town'.
"If we let the Council get away with ignoring our position on this one, we are leaving the gate open to a flood of similar or extended unsuitable industries in inappropriate locations," says Ray de Courcy from nearby estate Cnoc na Greine Woods.
The permission was granted by Kildare County Council last week to Christopher and Catherine Dolly, despite a large number of objections from Kilcullen people, as well as from Kilcullen Community Action.
Thursday's meeting will be in the Town Hall, and will be widely advertised over the weekend with the hope that Kilcullen generally will rally behind the campaign. The permission is to be appealed to An Bord Pleanala.
All the local public representatives, councillors and TDs, are being invited to come and make clear their positions on the matter. Cllrs Ivan Keatley and Mark Wall have already committed to attend.
(Previous stories on this issue are here.)
Monday night sees the return of Hat Fitz and Cara Robinson to the Ballymore Acoustic Gigs venue in Mick Murphys, writes Roy Thompson.
The dynamic Hill Country Blues/Roots duo are from Australia and Northern Ireland and are touring to launch their new studio CD 'Wiley Ways', produced by Australian Blues guitar supremo Jeff Lang.
The CD represents their personal experience of 'scrawls and ramblings' created late into the many early hours from their shed in the bush and long dark nights on the road with the rest of the world.
As usual, 9pm, €12 on the door.
Billy Redmond's Bazaar in aid of the Irish Wheelchair Association has been very successful so far, he told the Diary last evening.
But there are still more bargains to be had in the final days before it ends on Saturday. And just in case you're on the hunt, here are a couple of pictures of remaining stock pieces.
The venue is the Tennis Club at Logstown.
These are pics taken today of Evelyn O'Sullivan and her Summer Stage 2012 students at the dress rehearsal of their 'Peter Pan' performance which is live on stage tomorrow, Friday, at 1pm. They're great, don't miss it ... and it's free!
The Kilcullen internet portal being developed by a sub-group of Kilcullen 2017 is awaiting the passing of a protocol by Kildare County Council which could allow it use the Kilcullen.ie domain name, writes Brian Byrne.
The recent meeting of K2017 heard that the protocol had been completed by the IT Department of the Council and is likely to be put to councillors at a meeting towards the end of the month.
The meeting was told that a proposal to the Council had been drafted, but wouldn’t be completed until there was sight of the terms of the protocol.
It’s understood that it will allow for the ’lending’ of county town and village domains to suitable community groups, with ownership of the domains remaining with the Council.
Kilcullen 2012 is the group set up to further the Development Plan that came from the Community Survey last autumn, commissioned by Kilcullen Community Action.
Fancy a bit of free lunchtime theatre this coming Friday?
Well, the Summer Stage 2012 production of ’Peter Pan’ is on at 1pm, and everybody is invited to go along and see the results of Evelyn O’Sullivan’s work with her group of summer students.
It’s a show for all the family. And Summer Stage is always great. Town Hall Theatre, 1pm.
The local Primary Care Health Centre project is a ’long way’ from seeing any activity on the site, the recent meeting of Kilcullen 2017 was told.
The meeting heard from the Health Group that discussions on the public-private partnership project are ’still in progress’, and there’s nothing new to report.
The Centre is proposed for a location on the Church Road, behind The Hideout.
Kilcullen 2012 is the group set up to further the Development Plan that came from the Community Survey last autumn, commissioned by Kilcullen Community Action.
The possibility of putting on a short course on using social media for organisations in Kilcullen was discussed at the recent meeting of Kilcullen 2017, writes Brian Byrne.
In a report from the Technology Group, Armelle Soimboing said the Kilcullen Town Facebook page was now up and running, but the number of users needed to be ’grown’.
“We’re not reaching a big number of people yet,” she said. “We need to ask all our own contacts to ’like’ the page, and owners of other local pages need to ’share’ posts between the different organisations.”
The discussion on the possible course centred around Facebook and Twitter, with Armelle suggestingg that the latter platform seemed to be coming out on top as a business tool.
She reported also on a new ’rotation curation’ system on Twitter whereby dedicated special interest accounts are taken over by individual Twitter users to be ’curated’ for a week, thus offering a chance to extend readership of the account by sharing with the curator’s own network of followers.
Kilcullen 2012 is the group set up to further the Development Plan that came from the Community Survey last autumn, commissioned by Kilcullen Community Action.
Four of the round-the-world challengers in the Volvo Ocean Race in the final in-port event on Galway Bay at the weekend. See more of your editor's pictures from Galway here. Food, fashion, music and fun on the ocean wave. (Just like the Kilcullen River Festival, kinda.)
The possibility of producing a simple leaflet outlining places to go in Kilcullen for short term visitor was raised at the recent meeting of Kilcullen 2017, writes Brian Byrne.
It was suggested during a discussion centering on providing car and bus parking directions with a view to encouraging them to stop in the town.
The matter of public toilets, or the lack of them, was also raised.
“If a bus load of tourists arrives in town, there’s nowhere for it to park,” PJ Fagan said, kicking off a discussion on what locations might be explored to use for the purpose.
Esther Kiely, at the meeting on behalf of Kilcullen Community Action, noted that on a recent Saturday morning a coach load of French tourists had walked through the town having stopped unexpectedly. Their coach had actually parked outside Steve’s Daybreak store on the way out of town.
“There was nowhere they could find information on where to go,” she said. “There’s a need for something like an information board at a central location.” She added that the Heritage Centre might have been a point of contact, except that it isn’t open on a Saturday.
This prompted the discussion of a leaflet, which could be available in all local businesses and which would offer simple background and directions to services such as food and drink, and points of interest such as the Valley Park and the Dun Ailinne Interpretive Park.
Kilcullen 2012 is the group set up to further the Development Plan that came from the Community Survey last autumn, commissioned by Kilcullen Community Action.
For those who didn't get there, here's a flavour of the Finale of the Volvo Ocean Race Festival in Galway. And there's some more about it here.
Kildare County Council has granted planning permission for a waste recycling and vehicle dismantling facility at Kilcullen Business Park, Knockbounce, writes Brian Byrne.
The application by Christopher and Catherine Dolly attracted a high level of objections from residents in the nearby Cnoc na Greine estates and from Kilcullen Community Action.
Permission was applied for in November of last year, and the Council requested extensive further information before completing consideration of the application. The applicants also revised their application to shorten working hours on the site.
At this point, the Diary is not aware of what conditions the Council has applied to the permission.
(Pics Trish Whelan/Kilcullen Diary.)
It took some 250 volunteers to pull off a most ambitious project last Wednesday—the building of a 700 metre, wheelchair-accessible nature trail around the grounds of the Kilcullen Camphill Community, writes Conor McMahon .
At 9am on the day, the task seemed almost impossible. A mountain of gravel had to be transported, spread and compacted onto raw, marshy earth. And it had to be done by 5pm.
Around 220 employees from financial services company Fidelity Investments travelled from Galway and Dublin to volunteer as part of a ‘Difference Day’ teambuilding exercise. Fidelity staff themselves chose to help Camphill Communities Ireland and the Kilcullen community in particular.
“We’ll be the strong backs and the weak minds for the day,” said Travis Carpico of the company's Citywest branch as he addressed a batch of the volunteers. Another 18 local people and a team of Camphill residents and co-workers were on hand to work as well.
The Business Group of Kilculen 2017 is looking at ways to ’engage’ local businesses to buy into the formation of a business association for the town, writes Brian Byrne.
That was reported by Paul Carey to the recent meeting of Kilcullen 2017, the implementation group for the Development Plan that came out of the Community Survey carried out last autumn.
He said the Business Group would be contacting the businesses listed in the new version of the Community Directory, as well as others not listed, with a view to setting up the association.
He agreed with a comment by PJ Fagan that a plan for an association needed to be developed. “There need to be clear benefits and incentives,” Paul noted, and added that the Group is also looking at how various ’loyalty’ schemes have worked in other towns.
He said the options in this initiative were to develop a local scheme from scratch or get involved in a larger one already running.
Margaret O'Shea, Gabrielle Berney, John Martin, Terri O'Sullivan and Mischa Fekete from the Bridge Community. The ladies were in charge of catering on the day while John showed a 10-minute video on the Bridge Camphill Community and their involvement in the community of Kilcullen.
John Hennessy, Camphill electrician; with Timmy Allen and Liam Hayden from Kilcullen who work in Camphill Dunshane.
The scouts and friends lent a hand yesterday too.
Sinead O'Mahony of Fidelity Investments getting behind the push to make the nature trail.
(All pics Trish Whelan/Kilcullen Diary)
Local volunteers and some 240 members of the staff of Fidelity Investments took part in today's 'Difference Day' team-building exercise at The Bridge Camphill, building paths around a Nature Walk that's expected to be a big local tourist attraction in the future. (Pic Trish Whelan/Kilcullen Diary.)
He's located a little off the beaten track this year, in the Tennis Club building in Logstown, but it's worth the trek to Billy Redmond's Bazaar which officially opens for business on Friday, writes Brian Byrne.
Pictured here while setting up with his right hand man Jack Lambe, Billy is confident that his regulars will find their way to pick up bargain gems from his stock, but hopeful that the word will get out too to those who aren't familiar with this annual event.
Billy raises money from the bazaar as his annual contribution to the Irish Wheelchair Association, to which he has been giving his support for many years.
He goes walking every year on their behalf, last year the walk was based in Croatia and its neighbouring countries. An area he found to be very beautiful, but also quite poor.
To lend your hand for this very worthwhile IWA fundraiser, take a right at the top of the hill on the Naas end of town and then the first gate on your left.
And tell your friends. The bazaar is open until the end of next week.
Just a reminder that all loans of wheelbarrows, shovels, and even a few more pairs of hands will be welcome tomorrow morning at The Bridge Camphill.
Tomorrow is the Difference Day event with 250 members of staff of Fidelity Investments coming along to do a 'blitz' finish of the Nature Trail being developed along the river bank at Camphill.
An Open Day to raise funds for the Kildare Animal Foundation will be held next Sunday on the South Green Road outside Kildare Town.
The Foundation does trojan work in looking after abandoned and rescued animals, but no less than any other such group at the moment it badly needs support for its activities.
Ireland's now-retired favourite newsreader Anne Doyle will be the special guest on the day, as the Foundation has always been close to her heart.
There'll be a lot of fun for all the family, including stalls with bric a brac, cakes, crafts, toys, teas, a bottle stall and a raffle.
Admission free, lots of parking available.
One caveat, for all sorts of good reasons, please do NOT bring your own pets with you to the event.
The Drama Dynamics 'Summer Stage 2012' workshop camp next week will feature 'Peter Pan' for its participants.
The workshop is running from Monday July 9 to Friday July 13, 10am-2pm daily.
Bookings are now being taken at a cost of €85 per place, with family discounts available.
The camp itself will be located in the Tennis Club, and there will be a show for all the family at the end of the week in the Town Hall Theatre.
Contact Evelyn on 087-6441504 for a great way to keep the youngsters from under your feet for a week in this rainy weather. They'll also have fun and gain self-confidence.
Saturday morning crochet classes have been restarted in The Cottonwood Tree for the summer.
If you're looking for a relaxing activity that's 'sheeper than therapy', beginner classes operate from 10am-lunchtime.
Contact Beverley on 086 2392292 for more details, or ask Rose in the shop.
