By Peter Kelly (Liffey Champion, Front Page)

Fianna Fail TD for Kildare north Michael Fitzpatrick is vowing to carry on in public office after he confirmed his recent diagnosis with motor neurone disease.

He is determined to stay in Dáil Eireann as long as he possibly can but will not contest the next General Election. Fitzpatrick says that “physically and mentally , I feel fine at the moment.”

The former County Councillor first noticed there was something wrong over Christmas when his arm began to give him trouble.  After going for tests he was diagnosed with the disease two weeks ago. He is still attending hospital and having treatment and has received tremendous support from his family, constituents, former fellow councillors in Kildare County Council and from other TDs in Dáil Eireann.

“I’m coping with it” says Fitzpatrick. “I know what the end result is. It’s a terminal illness but you can last a long time.  I’m on treatment and I’m hopeful that treatment can slow down that process. I know what it is and I can live with it.”

Drunk driver crashes on the motorway at Kilcock

By Sarah Egan (Liffey Champion, Page 4)

A drunk driver crashed his car on the M4 near Kilcock last Friday night (19^th Feb) after hitting the verge and losing control of his car. No other vehicles were involved in the incident.

Leixlip Gardai arrived at the scene of the accident at 8.45pm and fire brigades from Maynooth and Leixlip were called out to get the man out of the car. When they arrived he had already gotten himself out of the car.

He was taken to Connelly Hospital by ambulance with minor injuries and while at the hospital his blood alcohol level was found to be over the legal limit.

He was then charged with drink driving.

Entries being sought for Kilcock St. Patrick’s Day Parade

(Liffey Champion, Page 15)

Entries for this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Kilcock are now being accepted by the committee.

Anyone who would like to take part but who has not received an entry form yet should contact Caroline on 087-2312455 to get one.

All of the businesses, community groups and organisations are welcome to enter a float.

All-Ireland bid by Kilcock School

By Henry Bauress (Leinster Leader, Feb 18^th)

Eleven volleyball players from St. Joseph’s Boys School in Kilcock are to travel to Limerick on 9^th March to try and lift an All-Ireland title. They’ve beaten five school teams in Kildare and five in Leinster to make it to the final where they will play Mary Immaculate School in Limerick.

Last year the group reached the Leinster final and hope to go one better this time around.  The team plays a modified form of volleyball called ‘Spike Ball’ under the guidance of their teacher Ms. Orla Fitzsimmons.

Everyone here at ourkilcock.ie wish the team the very best of luck in the final.

The team: Jason Gibbons, Kevin Costello, Patrick Bermingham, Barry Redmond, Nathan Murphy, Daniel Kyne, Matthew Capley, Sean Eves, Danny Coss-Heneghan, Rory O’Brien, Gavin Tyrell.

Therese Brady is a local aspiring writer and writes mainly about food, fiction – novels and short stories, restaurant, movie and book reviews and I have my own website www.theresebrady.com and blog called Writer’s Cramp. This is where I keep my creative juices flowing during those down moments of writer’s block. I’ve completed one novel and am currently working on the second. Find me on Facebook and Twitter.

The main news in Kilcock this week is still the state of our crumbling roads causing residents enormous headaches and to empty their pockets for car repairs. Also the Class sizes in North Kildare are causing major concern among schools.

However, in my opinion, a very important story that we should all take note of is the recent spate of house burglaries. Please be extra vigilant by locking all doors and windows, arming your security alarms and especially by hiding your car keys and valuables as it seems that these burglars are after people’s vehicles rather than money or electrical goods.

Residents fed up with dangerous state of roads in Kilcock

by Sarah Egan (LiffeyChampion – Front Page & cont P15 )

Kilcock Potholes

The dangerous state of the roads in Kilcock made front page of the Leinster Champion again this week. The damage has been caused by the Sewage scheme works and the freezing weather we have experienced in recent months. The crumbling roads and huge potholes are resulting in burst car tyres and rims coming of wheels. Fr. PJ Byrne, Parish Priest, said the residents have demonstrated a lot of patience in waiting for necessary works to be completed, but the various roadwork’s that are being carried out at the same time is upsetting both residents and having a huge negative impact on local businesses.  He points out that more communication is needed to help people endure these inconveniences and a speedy conclusion of repairs of the roads.

A Facebook page has been set up called ‘Repair Kilcock’s Roads Now!!!’ to give people a forum to vent their anger. As of the 17^th February there were 329 members.  At the last meeting of the Clane Area Committee, Cllr. Padraig McEvoy (Ind) assured that he has since met with engineers who have promised to carry out repair works. These include improving the quality of the temporary resurfacing and repairing potholes along the new sewer line route.  They’ve have also promised to co-ordinate pothole repairs on other roads that are outside the sewer contract, to install and interim “tidy” road surface in mid-march and to carry out a post subsidence, high quality surfacing around six months after the contractors finish works.

We will wait and see if, within the next month, these pothole repairs and temporary resurfacing is actually carried out as promised.

Class sizes still higher than average

by Henry Bauress (Leinster Leader – 18 Feb 2010)

Class Sizes

Class sizes in the main towns in north Kildare are even bigger than those around the country. Figures given to Kildare North TD, Emmet Stagg recently showed that in the 2008/2009 school year 23% of primary school pupils in North Co. Kildare were being taught in classes of 30 or more and that 51% of pupils were being taught in classes ranging from 25 to 29 pupils.

While the native average is 40% (25-29) and 18% (30-34), Celbridge has 76% in the 25-29 category and 16% in the 30-34 pupil category. Other high proportions in the 25-29 size are Naas (64%), Clane (59%), Leixlip (48%), Kilcock (45%), Kill (37%) and Maynooth (34%).

54% of Kill pupils are in classes of 30-34, while the proportions in other towns are Maynooth (38%), Clane and Leixlip (25%), Naas (15%) Kilcock (14%)

Deputy Stagg said these figures do not take into account the change announced in Budget 2009 which increased pupil/teacher ratios to 28 to 1, adding that “whilst the 2009/2010 figures are not available we can assume that things have only got worse.”

“These figures show that principals and teachers throughout north Kildare are under immense pressure to deliver proper education to our children and the Government, despite repeated promises, are now in the process of gradually increasing class sizes again, putting the future education of our children at risk,” he said.

As Kilcock is a commuter town with a lot of young families with small children, I for one believe this is a very important issue that we must tackle. I was in a class of 40 + when I was in Dunboyne GNS many moons ago. At one stage, I was in a class of 45 and 7 of us had to be put forward one year to balance the numbers of students in the classes. This resulted in us 7 skipping a year but then being held back in 6^th class. I thought those days were over. Obviously I was wrong.

Maynooth, Celbridge and Kilcock hit by burglaries

Article by Sarah Egan (Liffey Champion, Page 6)

Prevent House Burglaries

Two houses in Maynooth, one in Celbridge and one in The Hawthorns in Kilcock were broken into during the early hours of last Sunday 14^th February. The following day (again in the early hours) another house in Maynooth was broken into and in all cases, car keys were taken from the houses and the cars stolen from the owners’ driveways.  Gardaí say that in each incident the barrel of the lock of the front or back doors were popped to get in and nothing else was taken except for car keys. They are urging homeowners not to leave car keys visible at a night and to lock up adequately and to arm any security alarms.

All incidents are under investigation and Gardaí are appealing for information regarding any suspicious persons or vehicles that may have been seen in the areas at the time.  Contact the Gardaí at Maynooth Garda Station on 01-6292380, Celbridge 01-6288222 or Kilcock 01-6287202.

Therese Brady is a local aspiring writer and writes mainly about food, fiction – novels and short stories, restaurant, movie and book reviews and I have my own website www.theresebrady.com and blog called Writer’s Cramp. This is where I keep my creative juices flowing during those down moments of writer’s block. I’ve completed one novel and am currently working on the second. Find me on Facebook and Twitter.