Kilcullen Diary

In association with a Climate Action Event organised by the Kildare Public Participation Network for the weekend beginning Friday 27 November 2020, Kilcullen Diary has produced a short series of related podcasts. This episode looks at the opportunity which online markets give to local food producers, especially in achieving sustainability and access to local consumers. Hannah Fox of Neighbour Food...

An Irish Car Magazine Podcast, in association with Kilcullen Diary. When I first saw the new Ford Kuga rolled out during a special ‘Go Electric’ event in Amsterdam last year, I liked what they’d done. Produced by Brian Byrne.

A remark from a friend about having to do an essay on broadcasting prompted me to some recollection about the evolution of Radio Eireann to Radio One from the time I was a young listener. Produced by Brian Byrne.

Part of the Eurospar store on Main Street was once a shop owned by two women whom I knew as my aunts Peg and Nora. They were actually my grandfather's sisters and the shop was the business which my great-grandfather came to in Kilcullen to help out with and which established him here. Produced by Brian Byrne.

On this day in 1605, acting on a tip-off, soldiers for King James I in England searched the cellars under the House of Parliament in London and found a man leaving one of them. His name was Guy Fawkes, and in the room behind the searchers found barrels of gunpowder hidden under firewood and coal. Fawkes and a number of co-conspirators had planned to explode the gunpowder while Parliament was in se...

On Sunday 30 October 1938, the Mercury Theatre on the Air began a broadcast in New York of an adaptation from the HG Wells novel War of the Worlds, written 40 years before. It reportedly caused widespread panic across America. Produced by Brian Byrne.

A Kilcullen Community Action project to develop a Design Statement for the town will cost in excess of €20,000, the bulk of which would be paid for by a grant from the Kildare Leader Partnership. With the support of Cllr Tracey O'Dwyer, Cllr Rob Power last week committed €2,250 from his councillor's discretionary budget to cover the local contribution to the cost. He talks about planning for villa...

Dun Ailinne outside Kilcullen, Co Kildare in Ireland, is a place where people came together on regular occasions from the Iron Age until around the sixth century AD. First archaeological excavations were carried out by Dr Bernard Wailes from the University of Pennsylvania in the 1960s and 1970s. In recent years, further investigations have been directed by Dr Susan Johnston from the Department of...

With the prospect of another period of severe restrictions due to coronavirus, some thoughts on where we are and where we're going. Produced by Brian Byrne.

When two Irishmen happened to meet in a bar in Gibraltar in the 1970s, they unexpectedly closed a circle around separate cinema and liquor licensing matters which had taken place in Kilcullen over more than two decades. Produced by Brian Byrne.

We're into what some call Level 3.5, others say 3.75 of the Covid restrictions in Ireland. There's a sense of going back towards the original lockdown in March. But a quick snapshot of opinion on the street in Kilcullen this morning suggests that people are in favour of going even further. Produced by Brian Byrne.

The overall take-up of electric cars in Ireland remains not just lower than political expectation, but also soft in terms of what ought to have been a bigger reality. Produced by Brian Byrne.

Wearing another hat, that of a motoring journalist for some 30 years, here's the first of what may be a series of automotive pieces. This time it's my review of the new Peugeot 208. Produced by Brian Byrne.

The Kilcullen Diary on Sunday, where we take a quick look at the national and local news, and focus also on some of what we covered during the week on the Diary. Produced by Brian Byrne.

When the Cross and Passion sisters first came to Kilcullen they didn't have a wall. Indeed, they started only with a small donated house. The wall came with the building of the actual convent school that was to become the second landmark building in Kilcullen. Produced by Brian Byrne.

A new business recently launched in Kilcullen is faerly.ie, by Kilcullen residents James Byrne and Eoin Houlihan. The concept is to make available high quality personal care and daily-used household products which are sustainably produced and eliminating as far as possible plastics and chemicals. Produced by Brian Byrne.

Would the 19th century Irish pugilist Dan Donnelly be as well known today as he is, if his arm had not been taken off by the surgeon to whom grave-robbers took his body? Produced by Brian Byrne.

On this day in 1869, the first official postcards were issued, in Vienna by the Austro-Hungarian Post Office. By the end of the year, more than three million had been posted. In today's internet terms, that would be described as 'going viral'. Produced by Brian Byrne.

In these days of carefully metered and chilled beers, a pint of Guinness is a scientifically consistent joy for those who favour the black stuff. But it wasn't always that way. Produced by Brian Byrne.

Some years ago, an announcement about bringing in private contractors to try and deal with the chronic backlog in driver testing reminded me of my own first car driving licence. It was very different then. There were no driving tests, no provisional licences. You went into the local council office, paid out £1, and you were street legal. Produced by Brian Byrne.

There are memories in the grass in my back garden. Once it was part of a field. A field that 'grew' money, on Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons. Not literally, of course. But at those times of the week, quite amazing sums of money changed hands in 'Mongrel Park', home of terrier racing in Ireland. Produced by Brian Byrne.

On this day in 1976, the first Space Shuttle was unveiled by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the US. As an indication of the popular brand value of the TV Star Trek series, it was named Enterprise after the fictional starship. Produced by Brian Byrne.

The sign on the supermarket promised a 'new way of shopping' soon. It reminded me of how that particular shop once was, looking back in my mind's eye at my grandfather's hardware and drapery store on Kilcullen's main street. Produced by Brian Byrne.

On 8 September 1966, the first episode of Star Trek aired on American television. Though it only lasted for three seasons, it was the foundation for one of the most enduring science fiction television franchises. Produced by Brian Byrne.

It’s funny how you can still 'smell' memories. Like the mix of battery electrolyte and paraffin, a most distinctive odour that I can still smell in my mind today — the smells in the back of my grandfather's hardware store and 'radio days'. Produced by Brian Byrne.