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.
Congratulations to Miah Phelan Sweeney, who has won the final of RTE TV's 'Star Search' on 'The Den'.
Miah has been singing since she was five, but set out on this particular star trail in the middle of last year. Throughout the various stages of the competition she has received fulsome praise from the judges.
Miah also recently played the lead female role in the Brian Brady Youth Theatre presentation of 'Oklahoma!' in the Town Hall Theatre.
Kildare man and Fine Gael candidate Martin Heydon has been voted the country's sexiest man running in the local elections according to an online survey carried out by Boylesports.
Respondents were asked to rate candidates' sex appeal from 1-10 with 22% of the voters giving Heydon 10 out of 10 for his good looks.
Labour's Cian O'Callaghan was voted the second sexiest with 31% of those surveyed rating him as a 7 or higher while 23% gave new kid on the block Ronan Callely a 6 or more.
Cork man Seamus McGrath was deemed the least sexy with almost half (45%) giving him 1 out of 10 for his sex appeal. Fianna Fáil had a bad run as he was followed closely by Galway West candidate Seamus Kyne and Mayo man Michael Smyth with 36% of respondents giving each the lowest score possible.
"The men don't seem to take as much pride in their election posters as the ladies do," commented Nicola McGeady, Entertainment Spokesperson for Boylesports. "Martin Heydon was the clear winner but after that the ladies really voted towards the other end of the scale."
A Summer School in dance, drama and singing will be held in Kilcullen Community Centre from 10-14 August. It is being organised by Maureen Ward of the Calverstown-based Talented Kids Performing Arts School.
Other subjects on the curriculum include musical theatre, make-up, audition techniques, mime and script-reading.
The school will run from 10.30am-3pm each of the five days, and costs €100. The workshops are best suited to boys and girls between the ages of 6-17.
Application forms are available on the school's website at talentedkidsireland.com, or by calling Maureen at 087 2480348 or 045 485464.
Kilcullen Lions Club is hosting a Health Fair on Saturday June 6.
The location is the former Nolan Auctioneers building on Main Street. The event will run from 10am-3pm.
More details next week.
This year at the Kildare County Show, the positive health message is going to be big. The ‘Your Health ’ marquee will be bursting at the seams as exhibitors set out a huge array of therapies and programmes and there will be a continuous programme of talks and demonstrations throughout the day.
“Most people are interested in building a healthy life-style but its not always easy to work out how to go about it,” Chairman Liam Dunne says. “Finding the feel good factor in the day-to-day or the zest in your step is often difficult. We hope the ‘Your Health’ marquee will help decide how to take that step and find a better quality of life.”
Breast Check will be there on the day as will Vista Primary Care, a diabetes testing unit, Fight for Sight, allergy testing will be available as will blood pressure monitoring and cholesterol testing.
Dieticians will be on hand to advise on how to make your food your medicine and there will be a demonstration on how to cook macrobiotic food. Fitness trainers will be at the Show to advise on how to choose a fitness programme that is right for you.
There will be a wealth of complementary practices to choose from, and some will offer treatments on the day. They include life coaching, acupuncture, homeopathy, physical therapy and osteopathy. Massage treatments cover a wide range from aromatherapy and reflexology to Indian head massage. Health promoting products will also be available on the day.
The Kildare County Show will take place in the Athy Showgrounds, Dublin Road, on 21 June 2009 from 10.00 – 18.00.
Brannockstown Baptist Church Sunday worship service will start at 11am beginning on 7 June. The move from the 11:30am start time is to accommodate a time of fellowship afterwards. All are very welcome to attend and stay for some tea.
During the week, on the first and third Thursday night of the month there Guided Prayer Meetings. Bible Study takes place on the second and fourth Thursday nights. Both sets of events start at 8pm and are held in the small building behind the church.
For more information, please visit www.BrannockstownBaptist.ie or ring 045 420811.
The Kildare Steiner School, located at Gormanstown, outside Kilcullen, is hosting two special Trad and Folk nights in the Moat Theatre, Naas, on May 26 and June 2.
Those performing include ‘Bunoscionn’, one of the new generation of ballad and folk groups who offer a fresh interpretation and energy to many of our best loved songs.
Balladeer and local man Ger Loughlin will be joining them on the night. Ger has performed in Ireland and internationally for the past seven years with folk group Dublin City Workingman’s Band.
Also taking part is ‘Arc’, a group of young musicians from the Hollywood and Ballymore Eustace area who have all in some way been associated over the last 10 years with the Laura Greaves Music School in Hollywood.
The Dara Quartet will be performing a set of Irish tunes and airs specially arranged for string quartet. They have been playing together for eight years and began when they were all still members of the Dunlavin Youth Orchestra.
Tickets are €12 and are available from the box office on 045 883030 or online at www.moattheatre.com
All proceeds from the two concerts will go to the Kildare Steiner School. The school has a Mother and Toddler Group, Kindergarten and Primary School on a 4-acre campus.
It took four years of asking, but in the end it was ‘pester power’ that went a long way to landing the prestigious start of the 2009 FBD Rás Cycle Race for Kilcullen.
“I had asked race organiser Dermot Dignam for a stage start or a stage finish for years,” Kilcullen Cycling Club Secretary Liam Walker says of the event which underpinned a day of festivities last Sunday week. “Finally, when I rang him last September, he apologised that all the stages were gone, that all he had left to allocate was the race start. So I said that’d do fine ...”
“Getting the Rás here took the same tactics as you use in racing, you have to be persistent,” confirmed the legendary Shay O’Hanlon, who won the overall Rás in 1962, 1965, 1966 and 1967 and holds the record for the most wins. “If you get tossed, you just have to get up and go again.”
Kilcullen representation in the event itself included Kieran Kelly, Brian Geraghty, Ciaran Steed, David Peelo and Colm Bracken, racing as the County Kildare Murphy Surveys Team.
The Kilcullen club also featured in a 10-minute segment on RTE’s ‘Nationwide', on the theme of amateur teams competing against professionals from countries such as China, Australia, Austria, Germany and England.
Brian Byrne.
(An extended version of this piece was published on the Kilcullen Page of last week's Kildare Nationalist.)
The Senior Boys Gaelic Football Team from Cross and Passion College were praised at the College's annual Prize Presentations for providing ‘a glorious sporting year’ on the football field.
They clinched the Kildare, south Leinster and Leinster Colleges treble in quite stunning fashion, playing some breathtaking football along the way.
There were emphatic wins over close rivals St Joseph's Acadamy in the Kildare decider, as well as against Presentation Bray in the South Leinster decider.
However, the team had their finest hour in what turned out to be a battle royal in Navan in the Leinster decider when, with just over ten minutes remaining, they managed to turn an eight-point deficit into a two-point win.
"This was a match worthy of any stage and will live long in the hearts and minds of anyone lucky enough to witness it," coach and team manager Murt Dunne said at the prize-giving, where the trophies were presented by current County Senior player and past pupil Michael Conway.
"If ever there was an advert for what schools football is all about, then this was it. It truly was a game for the purists -- honest, hard hitting, open football, scores from everywhere, goals aplenty and skills to burn."
Murt said that most of all for himself, and probably for them too, this was the realisation amongst 20 young men from the neighbouring rural villages of Kilcullen, St Laurence's country and Suncroft, that they could unite themselves as a team in the primrose and blue of the Cross and Passion, and be victorious at the highest level.
“No matter where you go in the future, you can look back on those ten minutes and realise that you can actually do things that you think at the time are impossible,” he said. "For me, this was an utter privilege and one which I'll never forget. To the school, its staff and its students, and especially the boys who brought glory and village pride to the area, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude for all their efforts in making this school and this team a success this year.
"To the supporters, parents and clubs of Kilcullen, St Laurence's and Suncroft, I would also like to express my heartfelt appreciation for all the help given to us here at the school in terms of pitches, jerseys, support and sponsorship. Without your generous support this would all have not been possible, either."
Murt called on the GAA County Board to continue to develop and maintain a strong connection with schools football. "I believe that a thriving schools scene lays a solid foundation for future senior county successes," he said.
"It is of paramount importance that the long-term vision of Kildare GAA should centre on the injection and sustained input of GAA resources into second level schools in Kildare for the future betterment of our counties senior football team. From what I have witnessed this year already, the quality players are well and truly there."
The CPC Senior Boys panel were Franny Short, Daniel Fisher, Eoin Clifford, Shane O’Connor, Dwane O’Connor, Barry Comerford, Ronan Toft, David Hickey (Captain), John Browne, James Fahy, Paul Bell, Fionn Dowling, Shay Pembroke, Padraig Fogarty, Shane Molloy, Barry Jacob, Christy Walsh, Ronan Kiely, Sean Moore
Kelvin Kelly and Ross Clarke.
Murt Dunne is a teacher at CPC and a former County player. His club is Sarsfields.
(This piece was published on the Kilcullen Page of last week's Kildare Nationalist.)
The Diary records the death of Nancy Aspell (nee Keenan), a woman with many Kilcullen connections and well known in this community.
She will be deeply missed by her husband Paddy, daughters Marguerite and Bernice, her sons Patsy and Murty, her brothers Kevin, Tom and Jim, her sisters Patsy, Chris, Molly and Sheila, and all her extended family and family friends.
Nancy is reposing at her home in College Park, Newbridge, this (Saturday) evening until removal tomorrow afternoon to arrive at St Conleth's Church, Newbridge, at 5.30pm.
Her funeral mass will be celebrated at 11 o'clock on Monday morning, after which interment will take place in St Conleth's Cemetery, Newbridge.
May she rest in peace.
The Kilcullen/Gormanstown Parish Pilgrimmage to Knock will take place on Sunday 7 June.
The cost will be approximately €45, or less if there's a full bus, but those interested need to get in touch quickly.
For bookings and details, call the Parish Office at 480727 or Patty Bagnell at 045 481544.
The price covers transport, morening refreshments and evening meal.
One of the highlights of the Dunlavin Festival of the Arts will be a presentation of 'The Armed Man', a Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins.
The evening will include music by the Milltown Singers and guests, and the venue is St Nicholas of Myra Church, Dunlavin, at 7pm on Sunday June 21.
Admission is €15, and further enquiries from 087 9693960.
The recent special Tea Morning held at Kilcullen Parish Centre raised some €1,300 towards the national Alzheimers fundraiser.
“We were really pleased with the support,” says Olivia Keaveney, who organised the event with the help of Petra Conroy and Michael and Nancy Fitzpatrick.
Olivia runs a regular Thursday ‘getting together’ tea morning at the Centre, but for this special event really pushed out the boat with a mouth-watering selection of cakes, pavlovas, sandwiches, and, of course, copious refills of the brew itself.
Through popular demand, the newly-developed Pet Farm at Stonebrook Farm on the road to Ballymore will open on Bank Holidays.
The enterprise has been set up by Jackie Ronaldson, with the help of her husband Tim and friend Caroline Broadley.
The Pet Farm is for groups by appointment only, and is an ideal alternative for a child's birthday. The cost is €7 per child and the visit includes a guided tour, and opportunities to find eggs, feed lambs, and take rides on Elf the Shetland pony.
Further information from Jackie at 086 483620.
"We are about to leave behind the days when all our hopes were the brightest, our laughter the loudest, and our tears the sweetest."
That phrase read out during the Cross & Passion College Graduation 2009 mass echoed through the vaulted ceiling of the parish church last evening as the Class of 09 spent one of their last times together as a group.
It was bitter-sweet. Perhaps the first realisation that relationships built up over six years were about to leave the relatively safe harbour of their schooldays. To fend for themselves in the rougher, possibly more dangerous, definitely more uncertain seas of the rest of their lives.
For the Year Head, Mr Dennehy, it was his official parting from a group with whom he'd been closely associated since their Fourth Year. He clearly found it difficult. He spoke for longer than he had anything left to say, as if trying to push back the moment of disconnection.
"You have, hopefully, learned the skills needed to tackle the next phase of your young lives," was his core thought as, on behalf of all the teachers of the Class of 09, he wished them well in their future. An adult, he tried to pass on one thing which all adults learn, that humankind really doesn't do invincibility. And that trying to be so is not necessarily a good thing.
"Don't try to be too strong. As a human being you will feel very vulnerable and humble at times. That humility may be your real strength. Be assertive, not aggressive. Be flexible, accommodating and open to learning. Keep in touch with your spiritual side and keep God in your life."
It was a good message. Even if some of those there don't take it onboard immediately, or even for many years to come. Which, of course, is inevitable. But at some time in every one of his listeners' lives, when they really need the words, or the ideas behind them, they will be there, buried but accessible in the software of their memory.
The event itself, though, was as much a celebration of the past as it was a good wish for the future. In that celebration, the Class of 09 excelled. To mark their transition, they brought to the altar a number of symbols of their time at CPC.
Schoolbooks to illustrate all they have learned. A bowl of seeds representing their first years in the school and their hopes for the future. A plant reflecting the maturity and growth they have achieved. A sports jersey for the teamwork and recreation learned in sports and leisure. Candles for the light shown by the teachers and staff. And a class photograph, showing them as young adults, ready to meet ever-changing challenges.
In front of all these, a mat laid on the altar steps had the signed name of each member of the class. A foundation of collective comradeship for all their individual futures.
The mass was a long one, but it didn't feel so. Possibly because it was one where the celebrant only had a minor role in the whole scheme of things. And Fr Paddy Ryan, current chaplain to CPC, appeared to be really enjoying it that way.
The Ceremony of Light, where they shared between them the flame from the church's Paschal Candle, was an attempt to make eternal the warmth and light which the students have experienced from each other for the past six years. Moments of wistfulness were evident in faces lit by the flickering flames.
Naturally with young people, there was music. A lot of it. Mostly guitars, though piano and flute also figured, as did many individual and combined voices. Real talent flexing growing skills. Giving joy. As a mere observer, it was a privilege to be there.
At moments for reflection, the assembly was urged to follow their dreams. To work hard. To be kind. To learn that people are the real treasures in life. And it seemed that the message was as much for their parents as it was for the young people.
The time when the children presented flowers to their parents was sweet, but also marked a point of no return. There were hugs, probably swiftly-wiped tears. There was pride. There was surely, for some, intimation of a future moving away.
But even when they do, those of us who have gone through it know it doesn't end. Nor do we want it to. Fr Paddy asked the parents were they prepared to commit to ongoing support? Of course they were. And the young people for their part committed to accept the opportunities of life 'with joy and energy'. That is all that parents hope for.
There was more music. There were presentations to teachers, and to other staff of CPC. And then it was time to leave. To begin to put behind them the years when innocence was helped towards maturity by their parents, their teachers, and by their own developing friendships.
There were balloons to release, in the yellow and blue of their school, colours which will always bring special memories of a time that, as Mr Dennehy put it, 'you cannot forget'.
There were friends to hug, before they went home with their parents, to glam up in advance of going out to celebrate their new status in their own ways.
They'll have chances to hug again, during and at the end of their now-looming examinations. But as of Tuesday evening, an era has ended for them. And in the one which they have just now entered, there is no doubt the Class of 09 will make CPC, their local home towns, and their parents, proud.
Kilcullen GAA has sent out an appeal for families who are willing to host players and mentors for a visiting team for Feile 2009, which is being held in Kildare on July 3/4/5.
Kilcullen will host one boys team from among the more than 150 teams who will be participating.
If you can help, call Jennifer Shortt at 087 1242984 or Frank Kenny at 087 2215389.
The annual Flag Day to raise funds for Kilcullen Senior Citizens Association will take place on 3-4 July.
The Association is looking for volunteer collectors. Anybody willing to help should contact Dolores at 045 481108.
The annual Kilcullen Parish Feis organised by the Landers School of Dancing raised €4,470 this year.
The event was held in Kilcullen Community Centre in March, and as usual the attendance came from all over Ireland.
Local girl Emma Birchall won a perpetual trophy and Lisa Kennedy won the Paddy Aspell Cup.
Meanwhile, the Landers Dance Group travelled to take part in a Celtic Festival in Portcawl, Wales, in March. Upcoming trips include one to Morcenx in France, and to the Europeade International Festival in Lithuania, both in July.
The group is fundraising for the trips at the moment.
A fundraising Golf Classic is being held on May 22 in Kilkea Castle, organised by the Parents Association of Cross & Passion College.
The cost for a team of four is €200. Entry forms are available from the college website at cpckilcullen.com, or from any school student.
The Parents Association are currently raising funds to compensate for grants lost in the recent Budget. The recent Car Boot Sale was very well supported and will be repeated on the first Sunday of each month.
A Summer School in dance, drama and singing will be held in Kilcullen Community Centre from 10-14 August. It is being organised by Maureen Ward of the Calverstown-based Talented Kids Performing Arts School.
Other subjects on the curriculum include musical theatre, make-up, audition techniques, mime and script-reading.
The school will run from 10.30am-3pm each of the five days, and costs €100. The workshops are best suited to boys and girls between the ages of 6-17.
Application forms are available on the school's website at talentedkidsireland.com, or by calling Maureen at 087 2480348 or 045 485464.
