'Mother' is one of my short stories. This was written while I contemplated the future of humankind as we push our planet inevitably to being uninhabitable. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

Sometimes, no matter how badly you think of yourself as a person, no matter how much guilt keeps you in nightmares, there's someone out there to bring you through to a second chance.

This podcast is in my series of short fiction, which I have been writing over many years. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

This podcast is one of a series of my short stories. It was written some time after a visit to the Chateau Cloux in Amboise, in the Loire region of France. The chateau is where the artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci spent the last years of his life. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary. Image: Leonardo da Vinci by Francesco Melzi, public domain.

When The Book of Kildare was recently published as part of the celebrations of Brigid 1500, it marked the end of five years of work by artist and calligrapher Josephine Hardiman. It was also something which, after a lifetime of honing her art, had always been waiting for her to create.

Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

If you run the statistics, Kilcullen's canine pets are probably depositing over 74,000 kilos of poo every year, writes Brian Byrne. And if you walk around the town, actual empirical evidence shows not all of it is disposed of properly by some doggy owners.

Over the last three years Newbridge singer-songwriter Joan Healy has moved from her first public performances as a busker outside the Whitewater Shopping Centre to now arranging her own gigs. Some of her songs have been professionally recorded and can be heard on Spotify. And she is living two tandem lives, as a teacher and a singer, both of which she loves. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

Alex Konieczka is an Irish-based environmental activist and the founder of Understory, which uses workshops and talks in communities, schools and other groups to encourage others to make a positive impact on the environment, biodiversity and climate. In this podcast she talks about her background and how she came to this vocation. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary Podcasts.

Back in the mid-1970s, people still hitched in Ireland. And those of us fortunate to be in cars frequently gave people lifts. For both parties it was something of a gamble. Of easy conversation, or not. Of possible personality clashes. Of committing to a distance or destination together that might prove to have been a mistake in as little as a minute or two into the drive. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

Team Ireland for the 2023 UK Transplant & Dialysis Games taking place on the last weekend in July in Coventry, England, gathered in Kilcullen Community Centre for the official launch of their campaign. They were addressed by longtime transplant athlete and Kilcullen businessman James Nolan, who told them they were 'ambassadors for organ donation'. The Kilcullen Diary spoke with a number of team members about their lives as recipients of transplants and the importance of transplant sports. A Rough & Ready Production by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

A century and a half before the movie Jurassic Park brought dinosaurs into their trendy blockbuster modern space, a woman born in poor circumstances in Dorset, England, was to become one of the foremost experts on many originals of the species. Produced by Brian Byrne for Kilcullen Diary.

Image: Portrait of Mary Anning in the Natural History Museum, London (artist unknown).