Kilcullen Community Childcare celebrates 50 years

WHEN a rainbow appeared during the 50th anniversary celebrations of a community playgroup in Kilcullen, someone remarked "that's Peggy Walker saying hello". 

The anniversary commemorated the founding by Peggy of the Naomh Bhride Community Playgroup in 1974 which subsequently evolved into the state-of-the-art Kilcullen Community Childcare and Education Centre (KCCEC), which providing services to some 220 children. A rainbow linking a baby and a toddler off to first school is the logo of the Centre.

Peggy died in 2017, three years after the opening of the building that represents the fulfilment of a dream long held by her and co-founder Maureen Keogh. But her legacy was more than Kilcullen's, as she campaigned and supported early education in playgroups in many communities in Ireland, as director of Information with Early Childhood Ireland. 

At the recent celebrations, a €2,000 bursary for childcare education in her name was announced, open for application by local students, school leavers and adult learners on qualifying early years courses.

Speaking on behalf of the Walker family, Peggy and Liam Walker's daughter Niamh Headon reminded those present that when Peggy had to leave her civil service job after marriage, she had studied to be a Montessori teacher and then opened a playgroup at the behest of Kilcullen priest Fr Murphy. 

"She established it on behalf of the parish, not as a personal business," she said. "It was for the community and that ethos has remained with the playgroup project ever since."

Originally located in a number of premises around Kilcullen, including the tennis club and the former old school, the playgroup had afterwards operated for years in a number of donated prefab buildings on the Kilcullen Community Centre campus. 

Planning permission and funding to build a new premises had been agreed in 2006, but the funding was lost in 2010 due to legal delays with a lease on a site on the campus. In February 2011 a public meeting hosted by Kilcullen Community Action restarted the campaign. The newly-formed KCCEC took over the project, now costed at €450,000.

"The project had then seemed dead in the water," board of management member Iseult O'Donoghue reminded those at the anniversary event. “The idea of having a dedicated building and a full service, including a breakfast club and after-school facilities, then seemed unfeasible. But the ground had literally been prepared by so many in the community — women mostly — who had worked tirelessly since 1974 right up to ten or 12 years ago when this had become more of a reality. We were standing on the shoulders of giants.” 

On those shoulders, and with strong community support, the project was revived.

In December 2012, the critical lease was finally signed. By 2013 the group had sourced the new funding. A total of €36,613 had been raised from the local community, €12,000 had been allocated by Kildare County Council, and a loan of €70,204 from social funding organisation Clann Credo. The balance of €356,450 was secured after negotiations with the County Kildare Leader Partnership. 

A further hiccup arose when Minister Phil Hogan's Department of Environment, Community & Local Government rejected access to the Leader funding. However, this was solved after intensive lobbying by Kilcullen people and public representatives of every stripe. The building was completed by local company Kennycourt Construction, within budget and on time for the first children to be accommodated in 2014.

Iseult O'Donoghue recalled the "fantastic achievements and some very trying times", resolved by community effort. 

"Every time we have gone to the community to say we need help, everyone has responded in a positive way. The amount of goodwill that the project has had from the very start, from 1974 onwards, has been amazing, and we are very lucky to have benefited from that.”

Centre manager Emma McEvoy told those at the celebrations that the facility is "all about the smiling faces". 

“We have a happy place to come to, thanks to the wonderful children and the wonderful staff team who come here to work every day.” 

On behalf of the Board of Management, chairperson Sinead Forde thanked everyone for coming. 

"It's hard to believe the playgroup is 50 years old," she said. "This is our way of saying 'thank you' to the community."

Presentations of bouquets were made to Emma as the 'captain of the ship', to Iseult for her longtime contributions as a BOM member and has displayed that unique Kilcullen spirit, to Orla O’Neill for her professional expertise in the re-ignition of the project and her tenacity in making sure it materialised , to Christine Nugent for being 'the backbone' of the playgroup for 25 years and to Niamh Headon.

For the duration of the evening, appropriately, Peggy Walker's rainbow held at bay the heavy showers which had otherwise been a threatening feature of the preceding hours.