There is a unique event in Kilcullen this evening, to which everybody with a stake in the future of the town should go, writes Brian Byrne.
Almost all of the 16 candidates for the nine council seats in the Naas area — to which Kilcullen now belongs — have accepted an invitation to a Town Meeting hosted by KCA.
It is unique, because it is Kilcullen being pro-active about sussing out the plans and personalities of the candidates seeking the positions from where the successful ones will be making decisions on many aspects of Kilcullen life over the next five years.
It is Kilcullen people not waiting to be canvassed for two minutes on our individual doorsteps. It's a very important opportunity, and if we as a community don't grasp it, then we have no business complaining about councillors and Council activities that bear on our lives and businesses for the life of the next Council.
I'll be blunt. I never expected that so many of the candidates would accept the invitation. I thought the party ones would hide behind the 'electoral strategy' gambit and maybe just send the one in their number concentrating on the Kilcullen area. I thought the established councillors amongst them might feel Kilcullen had a nerve in asking them to come before the community. I thought we'd be lucky to have maybe four or five, if for no other reason than requesting them to give up one night of their canvas with just a week to go is a big ask.
So I salute in advance the candidates for making themselves available to Kilcullen tonight. As a group they are extending us a significant courtesy. And I make a plea for Kilcullen as a community to respond to that.
It's a plea to every individual in the town who might read this. Whatever other plans you had for tonight, drop them and come to the Town Hall at 8pm. Show that you also have the courtesy, and the commitment to Kilcullen, to be prepared to spend just a couple of hours in a one-off with the candidates who want you, and me, and the rest of us, to make them decision makers on our behalf.
Kilcullen has a lot going for it. Always had. But no less than any other community we also have issues. Infrastructural development, street-cleaning, roads maintenance. Business support, social and leisure facilities. Community services over which the Council has mandates. Allocation of financial resources which are never enough to satisfy all needs.
We can complain of 'faceless politicians'. Tonight is the chance to see the faces from which we will elect the local politicians who will serve us for the next five years. Tonight is your chance to ask them how they plan to represent the needs of our community in that time. Tonight is the chance to show them that we mean business, and find out what they mean.
Very few communities will have had such a chance as we have tonight. Don't waste it. Please come out and get to know, even a little bit, those who will be our next local representatives. Give them a chance to get to know you too.
Communication is a two-way street. Communication is the Town Hall, 8pm tonight. Be there.
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