For those who work today in what was Kilcullen's first 'business park', or who have their own lives because their parents did or benefited in some peripheral way from the provision of the 'advance factory' space it provided, is part of my late Uncle Tom's legacy to Kilcullen.
The property from which King Coil operates, and several other businesses including Renley, came about because he 'took the ball on the run' and bought 40 acres of farmland in the early 60s from the late Ned Chamney for £6,000.
"He wouldn't have had the money himself at the time," local man Jim Collins recalls. "But he handed over the cheque, and went to a meeting of the Kilcullen Development Association, of which he was a member, and told them that if they wouldn't cover it for the community he would do it himself. That was in 1962, and they did, and the rest is history."
History moved on, and the scheme which KDA pioneered was later adopted nationally by the IDA. Later the KDA under the leadership of the late Paddy Nugent developed Moanbane Park and Bishop Rogan Park on part of the property as 'affordable housing' for people who wanted to live in Kilcullen. Another 'first' for Kilcullen that eventually was adopted as national policy.
Except that some would say that Kilcullen actually made the ideas work?
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