Festival opens in song and colour KILDARE, 25 August 2000: 8.30am by Brian Byrne. Kildare’s International Duchas 2000 Folk Arts Festival was opened last night with a parade of folk dancers and musicians from Spain, Hungary and Croatia. The Landers Dancers from Kilcullen and the Malahide & District Pipe Band also took part in last night’s event, which included a concert in St Brigid’s Cathedral. The dean of the Cathedral welcomed the visitors with a reading from a 3,000-year-old psalm which recorded a Jewish folk festival of the time. Other groups expected over the weekend include St Laurence O'Toole Clondalkin Pipe Bands, Lord Edward's Own Narraghmore Pipe Band, Mary Byrne Folk Group, Cill Dara Irish Figure Dancers, Patrician Premier Pipe & Brass Band, Mary Donohoe Folkdance Group and the Cullen Pipe Band. There will be a series of parades, concerts, recitals, seminars, workshops and pub sessions throughout the weekend. A Music & Dancing Workshop at 10am on Saturday will be followed by a European Union Seminar at noon, which will be hosted by the Kildare Town Twinning Association in St. Joseph's Academy. There will also be a series of Open Air Concerts at Market Square. Final performances will be between 1pm and 3pm on Sunday. The festival is organised by Kildare Town Twinning Association in conjunction with The Institute For International Cultural Exchange. At last night’s opening, the chairman of the twinning association, Pat Sweeney, recalled that while the festival had officially been in place for the last nine years, musicians and dancers had been coming to Kildare for some 16 years with the help of festival founder Martin Dempsey. (Homecoming picture and word coverage is also available here)

Residents object Intel plan to ABP LEIXLIP, 25 August 2000: by Brian Byrne. Two Leixlip residents have appealed to An Bord Pleanala against planning permission granted for Intel’s proposed £1.5 billion new plant. John Colgan and the Hon Desmond Guinness say they want stronger conditions to deal with airborne pollution and traffic problems they claim will be associated with the expansion. In his appeal, Mr Colgan claims the expansion will increase health hazards to the Leixlip community on commuter traffic, vibration and exhaust emissions grounds. He also asks whether the State's environmental and health monitoring bodies are sufficiently able to safeguard the health of local people. Both objectors also say that the development is ‘premature’ pending the completion of a planned interchange on the M4 motorway, and the expansion would otherwise raise traffic levels in the area to an unacceptable level. Intel emphatically denies the emissions and health claims and the company’s stance has been endorsed by the EPA, which says its operations are fully compliant with its pollution control licence. The company also notes that the M4 interchange is due to be opened prior to the completion of the factory extension, permission for which was granted last May. The expansion was announced in June by Intel Corporation's CEO Dr Craig Barrett (below). The appeal is expected to be heard in October.

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Councillor critical of delays in property transfer MAYNOOTH, 25 August 2000: by Brian Byrne. The legal delays over the transfer the Harbour Field in Maynooth to Kildare County Council have been criticised by local councillor John McGinley, who says the delay is extraordinary, particularly as the council and owners of the property share the same solicitor. The owners of the field, which has wide community recreational potential, have agreed to hand it over to the council provided a written agreement is made that it only be used for recreational, social and amenity purposes. "This was agreed by the Leixlip Area Committee in November 1999, but it appears no progress has been made since then," Cllr McGinley says. He also expressed his concern over the Geraldine Hall, which is 'becoming a ruin' through lack of care. "The Maynooth community is fortunate to have such amenities on its doorstep, but full use of them cannot be made until their ownership is transferred to the council," Cllr McGinley says. "The Celtic Tiger won't ask forever, and it would be a shame if Maynooth could not benefit from the community gain that other towns are getting throughout the country."

Around and About the County... MAYNOOTH: Kildare County Council is to erect signs in a number of estates in Maynooth banning the parking of heavy goods vehicles. The council says it will take the step towards the end of the year 'when resources become available'. The signs will only be erected in estates which have requested them, and which have been taken in charge by the council. COUNTY HALL: A scheme to provide funds to cover the cost of grass cutting in estates which have been taken in charge by Kildare County Council is to be drawn ujp for inclusion in the Council’s Estimates 2001. This followed a motion by Deputy Emmet Stagg asking for such funding and that it be calculated on the basis of the area to be covered and the market price for such work. NAAS: Naas Musical Society are holding their annual open night in the Town House Hotel On Monday 28th August at 8.30pm. The Society have announced their 2001 production will be "The Gypsy Baron" by Johann Strauss. So if you are interested in joining a fun group come along to the Town House Hotel, even if you can't sing, the society has plenty to do for those who don't like to be on stage. Further details can be had from Chairperson: Tina O'Kelly at 045 871956 NAAS: Cllr Mary Glennon says that Ascon construction company are routing construction traffic up the Sallins Road in Naas rather than sending it to the interchange via the Monread Road. She said residents on the Sallins Road do not want construction traffic of any kind using the road on a regular basis. She said it was understood that Ascon will apply to Kildare County Council for an entrance/exit to the site at Millennium Park on the Sallins Road. Members of the Naas Area Committee asked that it be noted they would not be in favour of this proposal. EADESTOWN: Cllr Tony Lawlor has asked Kildare County Council to open a field it owns beside Eadestown Cemetery to allow people to park at times when funerals are entering the graveyard or on Graveyard Sunday. Phyl Hickey, AO, confirmed that the field is reserved for future extension to the graveyard and its use as a carpark would not be possible as there are insurance implications, and it would have to be set out as a proper carpark. No funds are available to do this work. NEWBRIDGE: A gas leak at Cutlery Road (above) caused serious traffic disruption for a time on Friday morning last. It was made safe by members of Newbridge Fire Brigade. COUNTY HALL: Kildare County Council is now sharing an Irish Officer with Wicklow County Council. This is the first such employment in the country by a local authority. He is Roy O Gleiasáin (left) from Kilquade in County Wicklow and his job is to promote the use of Irish among the staff and the county. He will be working with staff first, and will be contacting community groups later. Further information from 044 61731. CLANE: There are no recorded accidents on the Capdoo/Castlebrown Lane route and the width of the road and the condition of the road surface is not conductive to speeding so traffic calming measures are not warranted, a recent Clane Area Committee meeting was told. This followed a request by local Cllr Tony McEvoy that ramps be installed on the section. Assistant county manager Tommy Skehan said funding should be reserved for areas that would satisfy the warranties for the provision of such facilities. It is estimated the ramps would cost in the region of £5,000 each. Repeater speed limit signs could be placed along the lane, which may alleviate the problem to some extent. To Advertise on KNN, call 086 8267104, fax 045 481091, or email tellingtales@yahoo.com Advertising rates here

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Monread Park 'far from finished' NAAS, 24 August 2000: 8.30am by Brian Byrne. Suggestions that Monread Park ‘is finished’ were strongly disputed by residents living around the area at a special public meeting last night in Naas, which also heard of the ‘frustrating experience’ of a committee set up to provide local input into the original design of the park. Local resident John Keegan said he had been surprised to hear at the AGM of the UDC, outgoing chairman Seamie Moore’s claim that the park was finished, when it is ‘self-evident that it is nowhere near finished’. Local councillor Pat McCarthy told the meeting that he had objected to plans to have an opening ceremony in June in the park, ‘because we’d have been cutting the tape over rubble and mud’. The meeting was organised by the Sallins Road Action Group with a view to setting up a new committee to oversee the management of the park, which has been built by the Parks Department of South Dublin County Council (SDDC) under contract to Naas UDC. Cllr McCarthy said town clerk Declan Kirrane had assured him he ‘would give every cooperation’ to any committee that might be set up, and was prepared to meet one as early as next week. But a member of the original residents park committee recalled how they had received similar positive messages, but had effectively been ‘ignored’ by the council as they went about their work. John Keegan of Gleann na Riogh said that after 20 meetings, six of them with the UDC, and the development of a community-agreed plan for the park by the committee through consultation with the people of the area, the UDC had then come up with another plan prepared for them by SDDC. “This had been going on completely unbenownst to us,” Mr Keegan said. “But we decided to work with the new plan anyway, and at the end of the day accepted the rationale for much of what was proposed. However, if what was finally agreed was minimalist, the reality of what has been done is an awful lot less than even that.” Mr Keegan said the reason that the original committee effectively disbanded was because the members saw the UDC was ‘paying little attention to what we wanted’, despite their own representations and even those of public representatives approached in the Dail. “We also found that councillors were good at making promises to us in public forums, but that what was being said in private was completely contradictory,” he recalled, and added that he and the people who worked with him would like to know just how much of the £200,000 earmarked for the park has been spent on it. Cllr McCarthy defended the position of the current council on the matter and said he believed the park ‘will be a showpiece’ and ‘has a great future’. Phelim O’Heaney of Monread Court said that it appeared at the moment that the town clerk ‘was putting it up to’ the residents to say what they want. “I think we should pick that up and run with it, otherwise nothing’s going to happen,” he said. There was further discussion on what residents might want in the park, and John Keegan said a list of ten or 12 items from the final agreed plan which had not been carried out might be brought to the UDC. Sallins Road Action Group chairperson Mary McCarthy said many of the residents in the area now were new, and they might have their own ideas. Among suggestions mooted at the meeting were a roller-blading arena, and football pitches. A playground is now quite possible for the park, as one of ‘a number’ which the UDC plans to create around the town, Cllr McCarthy said. He said the council had found a consultant to work with on the possibility of playgrounds. Kingsfurze resident John Kavanagh, who formerly lived in the area, said he was part of a Naas parents organisation which had lobbied hard for playgrounds, had engaged their own consultants and acquired a lot of information, but were still ‘ignored’ by the council. “Your new committee will want to be sure they don’t have the same experience,” he warned. (Homecoming picture and word coverage is also available here)

Duchas festival opens this evening KILDARE, 24 August 2000: by Martin Dempsey. Kildare International Folk Arts Festival will be opened this evening at 8pm with a concert in St Brigid’s Cathedral. The event will run until Sunday 27 August. The festival is organised by Kildare Town Twinning Association in conjunction with The Institute For International Cultural Exchange. This year's festival will consist of a series of parades, concerts, recitals, seminars, workshops and pub sessions throughout the weekend Participants include international groups Turopolje Folk Ensemble, Croatia, Tall De Vermadors Folkdance Group, Spain and Szedereinda Folk Dance Group, Hungary, who will perform alongside Irish folkdance groups and pipe bands. Irish groups include St Laurence O'Toole Clondalkin Pipe Bands, Landers Folkdance Group, Lord Edward's Own Narraghmore Pipe Band, Mary Byrne Folk Group, Malahide & District Pipe Band, Cill Dara Irish Figure Dancers, Patrician Premier Pipe & Brass Band, Mary Donohoe Folkdance Group and Cullen Pipe Band. The interaction between international groups, Irish groups, local people and visitors to Kildare who attend the festival, is what the event is all about. On Saturday 26 August, a Music & Dancing Workshop at 10am will be followed by a European Union Seminar at noon, which will be hosted by Kildare Town Twinning Association in St Joseph's Academy. All local dancers and musicians are invited to take part in the Workshop. On the evenings of Friday 25 and Saturday 26 August, international and Irish folkdance and music groups will take part in a series of Open Air Concerts at Market Square from 8pm to 9.30pm. On Sunday the festival parade will take place after noon mass in the Carmelite Church to Market Square, where participating groups will give their final performances between 1pm and 3pm. IICE - The Institute for International Cultural Exchange was founded in 1985. Since then groups have visited Kildare from France, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Poland, Estonia, Croatia, Spain, Hungary and the Celtic Nations - Brittany, Cornwall, Isle of Man and Wales.

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Potential parking site application for apartments NAAS, 24 August 2000: by Brian Byrne. One of the identified sites for possible car parking in Naas now seems to have disappeared following the lodging of a planning application for the site in question. Naas UDC has received the application from Naas Developments Ltd for 36 apartments on the site, which is beside the entrance to Rathasker Heights. The proposal involves 20 2-bed apartments and 16 1-bed apartments in two-storey and dormer structures, in 3 blocks with a wall and railing. The property was one of 13 identified by the town engineer at the last meeting of Naas UDC. It was then described as ‘being on offer’ to the council. Meanwhile, suggestions that the Fair Green and the Swimming Pool Field be used as car parks have raised the ire of local residents and historians alike. The locations are being strongly supported by town clerk Declan Kirrane and UDC chairman Pat O’Reilly respectively. There have been a number of residents’ meetings on the issue, and a public meeting of protest is planned for early September. Notwithstanding this, there are reports that surveyors were working on the Fair Green site two days ago.

Blueberries bid for alternative enterprises ALLENWOOD, 23 August 2000: 8.30am by Brian Byrne. The first crop of blueberries on a pilot bogland operation in Allenwood is now being picked and the produce is on sale from the Allenwood Enterprise Centre and a number of shops through the county, including Swans of Fair Green in Naas. The blueberry plantation has taken three years to reach the point of first crop, and has a life expectation of some 35 years. Larkwood Products Ltd have some 15 different varieties under evaluation, with the best so far being Berkeley and Blue Crop. The scheme, on 20 acres of cutaway bog at Ballyteague, was set up under the auspices of Allenwood Community Development Association Ltd to prove an alternative enterprise possibility for owners of bogland in the area. According to Ian Donald, director of ACDL, it is hoped that owners of as little as an acre of bog could boost their incomes by growing blueberries, which are established crops in North America and New Zealand. Teagasc has had pilot schemes running for many years to prove that blueberries could be grown on bogland, and one commercial plantation in Portarlington is already selling successfully into both the Irish and UK markets. But it can’t meet the demand, so Larkwood - a community-owned company - is hopeful that the Ballyteague operation will build to help fill the gap. “This year we’re really only getting our first evaluation of the scheme,” says Ian Donald. “We don’t yet know what the yield will be, so it is still very much a demonstration effort.” It costs about £5,000 an acre to develop a blueberry plantation, and the Ballyteague operation has been supported by KELT, the County Kildare Leader II company. “We now also have to do a lot of work on marketing, and setting up a processing operation in the Allenwood Enterprise Park. I think it will be well into next season before that is in place.” The site now under blueberries was formerly harvested by the Ballyteague Turfcutters Association and had been lying idle for years before the blueberry initiative. There are literally hundreds of acres of other suitable bogland in the area. “We intend to use this scheme to prove that it can be viable and then encourage satellite growers,” Ian Donald says. “There are about 14 other growers around the country and we’re all members of the Irish Blueberry Growers Association.” It’s a long-term investment, with some five years elapsing before there’s any return on the money. But it has a strong potential, and the subtle-flavoured fruit could well become as much a staple here in Ireland as are raspberries or strawberries. “They’re also very good for you,” Ian adds. “Extensive research in American universities has confirmed that they enhance vision, reducing eyestrain, lower cholesterol, helping to prevent cancer and slow down the aging process.” And in case you don’t know what to do with them, an extensive set of recipes has been put together by Maura Doyle of Teagasc and Madge Hurst of the Irish Blueberry Growers Association. More details, and of course the blueberries, can be had by contacting Marie at Allenwood Enterprise Centre phone 045 870804, 870577. Allenwood, Co Kildare; email info@acdal.ie (Homecoming picture and word coverage is also available here)

Clare critical of banks' attitude to women in business NEWBRIDGE, 23 August 2000: by Brian Byrne. She may or may not have known that a sizeable number of those in her audience were working in banks, but businesswoman and broadcaster Clare McKeon let rip about banks’ attitudes to women in business anyway at yesterday’s Network Business Lunch in the Red House. Clare was guest speaker at the event, and she’s pictured above receiving a presentation from Network Kildare’s Louise Byrne. The lunch was run by the Kildare branch of the national organisation for women in business, and Clare retailed her experience of 20 months ago when setting up a new beauty-based business during which she found it very difficult to get a good hearing for her business idea. “You have an idea for a business ... you KNOW it will work ... but the attitudes of the bankers is ‘that’s all about women’ and they don’t take it seriously,” she said. “I think if I had been thinking of setting up a chain of betting shops, the response would have been different.” Her comments struck chords with a number of the some 50 women present, though there was a defence of the banks from some of the participants who seemed to have had a better experience when setting up their own enterprises. Pictured below are Evelyn Farrell, Bank of Ireland Kilcullen; Imealda Ashe, Gallic Distributors Ltd; and Ellen O’Neill, Bank of Ireland Finance.

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UDC will seek to jail travellers NAAS, 23 August 2000: by Brian Byrne. Naas UDC will be seeking committal orders this morning against a number of travelling families who have not yet left the land at Caragh Road which was invaded by travellers almost four weeks ago. A High Court injunction was granted to the UDC last week against the travellers, who had up to 100 caravans parked on the UDC and and the Naas Sports Group land at one point. Considerable damage has been done to the Sports Group facilities and work on the £1.4 million Sports Complex (above right) on the site has been stopped for the duration of the incursion. Last week, secretary of the Sports Group John Dunne said it was ‘time to bite the bullet’ on dealing with such invading travellers. He said he expected that the running track and hockey pitches will have to be ‘dug up and resodded’ before they can be used again. (Previous stories about the travellers problem are here.)

Curragh residents 'incensed' at planning application DONNELLY'S HOLLOW, THE CURRAGH, 22 August 2000: 8.30am by Brian Byrne. Curragh plains residents are incensed at last week’s notice of application by the Department of Defence for planning permission to dump topsoil in the old gravel pits (above) behind Donnelly’s Hollow, despite their strong protests on environmental grounds. And they warn that they’ll strenuously object to any such application. The dumping of the soil, from works at Magee Barracks in preparation for the reception of asylum seekers, has already raised local hackles in recent weeks (KNN story here), and led to demands to Kildare County Council that they make sure it doesn’t continue. But defence minister Michael Smith last week confirmed that the department would be seeking planning permission and would be filling in the pit and others on ‘safety’ and ‘visual enhancement’ grounds. In a letter to local representatives who had enquired about the matter, he said it was proposed to use earth from the Kildare By-Pass works to ‘complete the fill-in and landscaping of the area’. Local farmer Tom Snell said this week that Kildare County Council should not consider the application until the department had first applied for retention of the existing ‘illegal dump’, or cleared the illegally-dumped material from the pit, which has been a natural feature of the area for over 100 years. He also says that local people will object very strongly to any planning application in reference to such dumping, and they will demand that the EPA become involved on the basis that any new landfill operation requires an EPA licence. Independent environmental consultant Dr Anne Behan (pictured in centre below between Tom Snell and assistant county manager Tommy Skehan) of Redhills, Co Kildare, has already sent an eight-point letter to Kildare County Council on behalf of Tom Snell and other members of the public who have contacted her. This calls on the council to ensure that all such dumping is terminated immediately and that the people concerned get a written assurance that it will not commence ‘at any time in the future’. The letter was signed by 40 concerned residents of the area. (Homecoming picture and word coverage is also available here)

Extra funding granted to Arts Centre NEWBRIDGE, 22 August 2000: by Brian Byrne. A grant of £400,000 has been approved by the Department of the Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht & the Islands for the Kildare County Arts Centre now under construction (above) in Newbridge. The grant is to allow for ‘an increase in theatre capacity, new gallery space and external performance and exhibition space’ at the centre, due to open in November. The funding was granted following representations by the minister for finance, Charlie McCreevy TD, on behalf of assisitant county manager Tommy Skehan. The funding has been welcomed by Newbridge town commissioner Pat Black.

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Red light on signals delivery LEIXLIP, 22 August 2000: OPINION by Cllr Catherine Murphy. Traffic signals were ordered for Main Street Leixlip last November. I sought and it is minuted in November 1999 that a delivery date should be included in the order/tender for these lights simply because I felt it would go on and on otherwise. I have a letter from the Council stating a delivery date for January and, later, another one saying they will be installed in early April. Nothing happened, and I next received a commitment from town manager Tommy Skehan at our Leixlip TC July meeting that they would be installed by the end of July. Nothing happened. The next date I was given by the Council was 7th August. Again nothing happened. This week I have been told the electrical contractor was meeting with a company to do the Civil Works. I know that meeting took place I have been assured the lights will be installed very soon after that meeting. The collective spending power of the Local Authorities Nationally needs to be used to assist in both its buying power and its capacity to deliver. I am convinced that where log jams are identified, such as the one with Traffic Lights, what needs to happen is that a person is appointed between all the LAs with the brief to locate alternative suppliers with guarantees of delivery outside the country if it is not possible to supply them within. The management of the growth in our economy requires us to deal with issues of delivery of infrastructure. When the Leixlip/Maynooth/Kilcock by-pass was opened the relevant minister talked about the time being cut of the average journey from some western towns to Dublin. The reality is that the two major industries and the population of Leixlip have been experiencing, over the past year, unacceptable delays at all times of the day and night because of one set of faulty traffic lights. There is a personal cost in this to the individuals and there is also a cost to the economy in such inefficiency and a cost to the environment in Main Street Leixlip with constant traffic jams. It is this kind of an issue on which the public measure the ability of the Local Authorities to deliver. Clearly there is a problem. It is necessary to seek ways of overcoming it. A collective response by the Local Authorities is one way which should be examined. ED: Please note that views expressed under 'OPINION' on KNN are those of the writer concerned, and do not necessarily reflect the views of KNN or its proprietors. This facility is provided in the interests of free speech and public information and may be availed of either to make a point or respond to one.

'More young donors needed' NAAS, 22 August 2000: by Brian Byrne. There was a ‘very strong’ response to last week’s session of the Blood Bank held in Naas. According to local coordinator Cllr Willie Callaghan, pictured here with NBTSB team leader Siobhan English, many people who normally gave blood at their work or elsewhere, but who live in Naas, came along to the St Patrick’s Community College session for the first time. Siobhan English said it was very important to encourage younger people to become donors, and she suggested that it was ‘fear of the unknown’ which might keep them away. “I’d appeal for young people to come along and try it,” she told KNN. “There’s nothing at all to be afraid of, and we make sure that the person is medically fit to be a donor before we accept them.” Willie Callaghan’s pint of blood last week brought his donations in total to the level that earned him a Gold Pelican badge.

Objectors will miss consideration on new planning application PIPER'S HILL, 21 August 2000: 8.30am by Brian Byrne & Trish Whelan. A large number of objectors to a proposed 235-acre business park (above) at Piper's Hill near Naas may believe their objections will be considered by Kildare's planners. But they won't be, because their letters of objection were not carried forward when the proposers withdrew their original application and submitted another in June. The file on the second application by Piper's Hill Stud only has objections from five members of the local Purcell family, and from Cllr Mary Glennon, An Taisce, C P Delahunty and Naas UDC. There is one representation on behalf of the applicants, from Cllr Rainsford Hendy, dated the beginning of the week after he was elected chairman of Kildare County Council. The date for decision on the application was last week extended from 14 August to 5 September. It is believed that 'hundreds' of objections were registered against the original application, after several meetings of residents of the area showed a high degree of concern about the plan. The project, on land owned by the Weld family rezoned during the preparation of the 1999 Kildare County Development Plan, envisages a 37-unit IT, industrial and business services park on 17 fields currently used for grazing and bloodstock. The proposers say almost 9,000 jobs would be created on the site, and the businesses there would result in approximately 2,000 more jobs created in the Naas area. The plan's implementation would involve constructing three roundabouts on the short piece of road between Michael Judge's home at Piper's Hill and the north end of the development, which surrounds the former Kilashee School lands in a horshoe shape that stretches as far as the old railway line at Punchestown. One of these roundabouts would link with an as yet unplanned link road between Kilashee and the Newbridge Road at Jigginstown. Twelve-point objections from members of the Purcell family include concerns about unlicensed tree-felling, inadequate sewerage, traffic bottlenecks, possible adverse effects of pharmaceutical and biotechnological businesses suggested for the park, and pollution of a stream going through the site. Matt and James Purcell, who own land opposite the proposed development, further say they were not informed by the planning authority that the original application had been withdrawn. This apparently is also the situation with the very many other objectors to the first application. When KNN talked to a number of residents in the immediate vicinity of the site, they were under the impression that they already had valid objections in place. When we asked to see the list of original objectors, we were told that is no longer possible when an application is withdrawn. Meanwhile, An Taisce has presented a comprehensive objection based on 'inadequately assessed' traffic impacts, what it considers 'seriously misleading' claims in the EIS on the effects on the existing landscape, and a 'fundamental deficiency' in failing to address the level and impact of emissions from the operations in the park. The organisation says the 'sprawling low density' proposed for the site is 'extraordinary' and an 'extremely inefficient use of land'. It notes also that the project area includes the site of a castle and St Patrick's Well, a ring fort, church, graveyard and souterrains. Cllr Mary Glennon has objected to the development on the grounds that it conflicts with the aspiration in the County Development Plan of the preservation of stud farms. "Are these just empty words" she asks, "or does the plan really seek to protect those breeders who are constantly hitting the world's headlines and whose futures are now threatened by the industrialisation of what is intended as one of the green lungs separating the three neighbourhoods of Naas?" She also suggests that Naas could become 'a ghetto surrounded by factories'. The objection by Naas UDC says the proposed development should not be granted permission in advance of the construction of the Naas Relief Road between the Newbridge Road and the Kilcullen Road. Local residents have also told KNN of their concerns for the future of mature oak trees on the property. (Homecoming picture and word coverage is also available here)

Sewing Centre closing after 20 years NEWBRIDGE, 21 August 2000: by Brian Byrne. If it were possible to put together all the stitches that Michael Whelan in Newbridge has been responsible for, they could conceivably stretch the length of Ireland, or 152 million stitches. But that’s just fanciful supposition, because there’s simply no way of knowing how much sewing has been done by the people who have bought his machines over the last two decades. “I don’t even know the number of sewing machines I’ve sold in that time,” says Michael, who this week surprised many by putting up a ‘closing down’ notice on his shop on Main Street. It’s a move which reflects a fact that much less home sewing is being done today than was the case when he first opened for business. “People just don’t have the time to sew anymore. Most of the young people these days are out working, paying for their homes, and there are many more things to occupy them. It’s not like a generation ago, when wives tended to stay at home and had both the time, and perhaps the economic need, to run up and repair their own clothes.” Michael Whelan checking that his 1864 Singer, the pride of his collection, is still in top-class working order. It is perhaps also a function of a run-down in teaching sewing at school, where it used to be one of the important elements of the Home Economics class. These days, instead of running material through sewing machines, youngsters are learning how to use computer keyboards. Computers have taken over the sewing machines too, of course, and in recent years most sales involve machines which allow the selection of stitch types by merely pressing a button. “The user doesn’t even have to be able to move the material under the needle straight, because the machine does that for them too. You’d be surprised at the number of elderly people who have bought these high-tech machines.” It is a business he confesses to ‘love’, to the point that he regularly works far and above the hours of a normal business week. And perhaps this is another reason for slowing down now. But it was probably inevitable that he went into it in the first place. “My father has been in the business, working for Singer, for 45 years, and still operates a shop in Talbot Street in Dublin. When I was a youngster, he would often bring home one of the machines and ask me to strip it down for repair, so I got into it early. And he used to get me to break up the old cast-iron legs of machines that were no longer usable ... if I had every one of those today that I smashed up, they’d be worth a fortune.” Michael joined in the business after leaving school, then took advantage of a franchise that came available in Newbridge. Which is where anyone with an interest in old Singer machines can also see a selection of them, beside the modern high-tech Husqvarnas. Not for much longer though, as Michael clears his stock in a closing down sale and prepares to take things a bit easier. But he’s not leaving his regular customers without a stitch in time. “If anyone needs repairs or parts, they all know where I live,” he says with a smile. “Anyone who wants help or advice won’t be let down.”

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Students up early to get results NAAS, 21 August 2000: by Trish Whelan. Students in the secondary schools in Naas were all up early last Wednesday to get the results of their Leaving Cert examinations. We picture a few of the early birds below. Students of Naas CBS after getting their results - Front: Craig Byrne, Ronan Flannery, Dermot O’Carroll, John Pierce and Sean Dando. Middle: Carlos Bueno, Declan Doherty, Alan Ryan. Back: Alan Grant and Liam McManus. Students of St Mary's College in Naas comparing their results - Sarah Brownlee, Deirdre King, Emma Clancy, Fiona O’Driscoll, Michelle Corrigan and Aoife Brittan. Students of St Mary's College after getting their results - Cathy Halpin, Jane Ann Healy and Lynn Swan. John Finnegan, Ciaran Dwyer, Patrick Naughton, and Carol Smyth, all students at St Patrick's Community College, Naas, pictured after receiving their examination results. Students of Naas CBS - John Byrne, Conor Moore, Alan Inglis and Eoin Finnerty.

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