Kilkenny’s Mayor Pat Crotty reflects on a turbulent year and looks forward to the season of goodwill and the year ahead.
“It has been a very strange year. For many people under thirty years old it has been a year of firsts; their first time to feel the various pressures of adversity that many of us grew up with in the seventies and eighties. And the prognosis for the coming year is for more of the same.
“Despite these concerns we arrive at Christmas, at the season of goodwill and a time to reflect on 2008 and all that it brought. There is much to remember with satisfaction; the halcyon days in Croke Park in September, the continuing good work done by volunteers in charities, clubs, communities and schools throughout the city to help other people and the special events that enriched our lives.
“We also think of those who lost loved ones, of those who are having tough times and our soldiers who are serving in the Peace Corps overseas. A personal memory for me will be the conferring of the freedom of the city on the very worthy Seamus Pattison and Brian Cody.
“Despite the omens for the country, Kilkenny will be putting its best foot forward in 2009; reopening the Parade and Canal Walk, celebrating four hundred years as a city, making a concerted effort to win the Tidy Towns competition and, no doubt, going for four-in-a-row All Irelands!
“In the meantime may I wish all Kilkenny people, wherever they are, every good wish for Christmas 2008 and for a new year of hope and opportunity.”
