Porter for the Workhouse

Clodie Duclos didn’t grow up around animals in her native Normandy, apart from the family dog. And she’s the only one in her family who has made a career working with animals. “But my grandfather was always interested in horses, in hunting and also going to the races,” she recalls. "He raised racing pigeons too. So maybe it came from there." She smiles at the memories. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

It's a time of the year when reports of dogs worrying sheep make headlines, sometimes with very distressing photographs of animals which have been savaged. Behind such images is heartbreak for the farmers concerned, and a harrowing effect on up to 60 flocks in the Kildare West Wicklow area each year. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

The opportunity for Cross and Passion College Kilcullen students to speak in French and German with counterparts was a key part of a recent visit by student groups from Caen in Normandy and Krefeld in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was facilitated by the EU Erasmus student mobility programme, to which CPC signed up last year. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

Over the years, I have covered quite a few local authority meetings with deliberations on a wide variety of issues, but I never came across a discussion on what to do with a consignment of porter. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

When I came across a picture in a 44-years-old Image magazine, I was transported back in telephone time. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

The Bönickhausen Tower doesn't have the same ring to it as the Eiffel Tower, but the best known symbol of Paris could well have been just that, if its builder's family hadn't added the name of their local mountains to their surname when they emigrated from Germany. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

On This Day: The president of Romania, Nicolae Ceaușescu, was overthrown on the 23rd of December 1989 after more than two decades as head of a state widely regarded as a dictatorship. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

This memoir is in my series In Those Days, written many years ago following the death of my mother, Monica Byrne. It's about a painting of her, created by the renowned Irish artist Sean O'Sullivan. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

To most of my generation, Julia Buckley was a somewhat forbidding figure, as we grew up in Kilcullen. To go in to buy a stamp, or a savings certificate, from 'Miss Buckley' was something of an adventure. As did most people in responsible positions appear to us children, she was a symbol of authority, just as much as were the teachers Miss Griffin and Paddy Byrne, or Guard Bradfield. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

Charity Muthani is the ‘face’ of Maintain Hope, an Irish-based charity supporting disadvantaged children in Kenya. She is a living example to those who support the organisation of what can happen when their money or their time is invested in a child. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.