Trainer Dermot Weld is given civic reception

29 April 2003: The extraordinary achievements of Naas-based race horse trainer Dermot Weld were acknowledged on Monday when Kildare County Council hosted a civic reception in his honour at County Hall.

Newbridge hosts major boxing tournament

17 April 2003: The combined residents of Lakeside Park, Ashfield and Meadow Court (LAM) in Naas say they will not tolerate the green area at the top of the lakes being turned into a car park.

17 April 2003: The failure of Government to make proper provision for benchmarking payments may well force commercial enterprises to plead inability to pay the new national pay agreement, according to Charles Meiklereid, president of Newbridge and District Chamber of Commerce.

16 April 2003: Peak hour capacity on the Kildare Arrow Route will increase by 130 per cent by the end of 2003 following the completion of s number of ongoing works.

15 April 2003: A refusal of the Government to provide additional funding for flood relief works in North Kildare means that residents of Maynooth, Straffan, Ardclough and Leixlip could well face more damage and disruption to their lives in the autumn.

14 April 2003: An evening of poetry, drama and song at the Riverbank Centre on Saturday 26 April will feature author and broadcaster John McKenna, and singers Amy Leonard and Paula Dempsey.

14 April 2003: The songs of Marlene Dietrich, Jacque Brel, Edith Piaf, and Nick Cave will form the basis for an evening’s performance by Camille O’Sullivan, at the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge on Friday 25 April.

12 April 2003: Kildare-born Rob Mullally, brother of Millennium Park CE Michael Mullally, has written an account of the 'Black Irish of Jamaica', a country where he spent two decades before moving his family to California.

11 April 2003: Newbridge & District Chamber of Commerce has cautioned the Government not to delay building proper transport infrastructure just because it wants to balance the budget.

10 April 2003: The President, Mrs Mary McAleese, has opened an extension to the medical centre at the Barretstown Gang Camp for sick children in Ballymore.

10 April 2003: The County Kildare organisation for people with intellectual disability, KARE, is facing a E200,000 funding shortage for this year.

10 April 2003: The cost of a house in Naas Town Council’s ‘affordable houses’ scheme on the Caragh Road has been put at E153,514.

09 April 2003: The annual Bealtaine Festival in Newbridge kicks off on Wednesday 30 April with 'Passages of Time', an hour of storytelling by the Crooked Sixpence group in the Newbridge Day Care Centre.

09 April 2003: Thieves have taken around E20,000 worth of greenkeeping machinery in a raid on Kilcullen Pitch & Putt Club.

08 April 2003: In excess of three-quarters of a million euros worth of tickets have been presold for the upcoming Punchestown Festival, which will be held over four days from 29 April.

08 April 2003: Provisional crime figures for 2002 show that the detection rate in the Carlow/Kildare Division is now the lowest in the country at 29 per cent. This compares to the national detection rate of 38 per cent for 2002.

07 April 2003: The early moves in local elections campaigns are getting under way in many parts of the county, with a number of candidates getting ready for nomination meetings or already selected.

05 April 2003: The newest entrant for the upcoming season of the Super Saloon Car Championships was unveiled last night in the Kilashee Hotel in County Kildare.

NAAS 04 April 2003: Naas Town Council is seeking legal advice over its decision to close two walkways following claims that the action was illegal because proper procedures had not been followed.

NAAS 04 April 2003: This month’s Roads & Footpath Works Programme being undertaken by Naas Town Council include edging of the Ballymore Road to allow for 40 car parking spaces (pictured above); junction widening at the Ballymore Road/Craddockstown Road; and controversial resurfacing of a parking area on the Fair Green for 30 spaces. All work will be completed by next week.

NAAS 04 April 2003: Naas Town Council have denied that they overstepped themselves in taking in an extra 20 sq m of the historic Fair Green as a car park.

CLANE 03 April 2003: Clane is to get more traffic-calming road 'cushions', and a count is to be made of pedestrian use of crossings with a view to providing pedestrian lights at both Manzors and Murphys pubs.

NAAS 02 April 2003: Naas Town Council is guilty of 'vandalism' on the Fair Green according to one of its own councillors, who is asking questions about who exactly is running the town - the officials or the elected council?

NAAS 01 April 2003: VIEWPOINT As someone who uses these ways to allow my children to safely walk from Kingsfurze to where we are going, I am disappointed that the safe access route has been closed.

KILDARE GENERAL 01 April 2003: Members of Kildare Civil Defence, First Officer Moira Gavan, Sylvia Tyrrell, First Officer Jim Byrne, Bertie Keirnan, Dick Reade, Vincent Miller, Craig Monroe and First Officer Patricia McNeela (with mascot) who gave a demonstration of some of the work they do at yesterday’s March meeting of Kildare County Council.