Talking Point: Bridging the Community

by Brian Byrne

As anyone who walks or drives through Kilcullen at the moment will know, the refurbishment of the bridge that separates the two sides of the town is almost complete.

It looks good. Very good, in fact. It has in equal measure the solidity of the ancient edifice that has been there since a very long time ago, and the sophistication of style that is a reflection of streetscape thinking in the roar of the Celtic Tiger.

This time last year we didn't know it was going to happen. Indeed, if it hadn't been for the often-maligned Kilcullen Community Action people, and their investigation into the whereabouts of money promised for work on the bridge, it might not have happened at all.

So we should be thankful to them that it did. And we should also give credit to Kildare County Council who, when the money was identified and located, and the knowledge that it had to be spent by year's end or be lost, somewhere, pulled out all the stops to get the job done.

OK, it hasn't all been sweetness and light, as regular readers of the Diary will know. There has been criticism of the Council's apparent unwillingness to follow the wishes of the community as to which elements of the bridge the money could have been spent on. 

Questions have been legitimately raised about whether the money was being used in the true spirit of the conditions under which it was granted. There were accusations of arrogance, suggestions of shortcuts, a bit of the 'bulldozer' attitude on the authority's part. Indeed, though the purpose of a bridge is to link paths across a chasm, it did seem that this refurbishment was sometimes more of a divider.

Still, all that is water under the bridge, so to speak. Kilcullen now has arguably the trendiest-looking crossing of the river Liffey this side of one or two in Dublin City.

And it comes at a time when our rapidly-expanding village-becoming-a-town arguably needs a symbol to catalyse a linking of Kilcullen old and new.

We have in recent months lost a number of who might be termed the 'old' Kilcullen people, people who in various ways were foundations of the culture, the sports, and the commercial life of the Kilcullen which has become so attractive to the newcomers of the past few years.

I'm another of those 'old' Kilcullenites. I remember the village I grew up in, which itself grew up as I did, albeit more slowly. And I, like many of my generation, was part of the culture of community self-help that generated its own momentum when the village was stuck in something of a backwater as the bigger towns around us grew rapidly and to prosperity.

That too, of course, is also water under the bridge. None of us can live in our past, nor can any community that wants to grow in the normal way of such things.

It has been said to me that there's a barrier between the old and the new in Kilcullen. I'm not so sure this is so. I suspect if you take a walk down to any of the sports groups of a weekend, you'll see many of the new people and their children being quite involved. We have also seen newcomers taking part in other organisations, including the drama group. And I reckon that there's a fair bit of mixing going on in the pubs, too.

Still, a perception, however wrong, is a truth until such time as those doing the perceiving can see otherwise.

So, as 2006 struggles towards us in this last week of the current year, my wish is that the old and new peoples of Kilcullen will find further ways to meet each other and merge their experiences, skills and hopes for the future.

Walking to meet each other on our new trendy bridge might be a good metaphor. At the very least, we should make make the matter a talking point, not separately, but together.

Good day.