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Lucan Newsletter celebrates it’s 40th Birthday on Feb 26th 2007
Below are a few historical notes on the history of the Newsletter.
Where we came from…
The first issue of Lucan Newsletter appeared on Sunday 26th February 1967. 100 copies were sold at a cost of 2d each.
Its predecessor was ‘Nuacht na Sarsealaigh’ – a weekly bulletin of Lucan Sarsfields results and fixtures.
It was a Cork man, who saw the potential in Sarsfields News Sheet! Fr. Con O’Herlihy was the new Curate in Lucan, and he and Sarsfields stalwart, Tommy Higgins, and local Headmaster Larry McCarthy, launched Lucan Newsletter with the help of Sr. Oliver, a teacher in the girls’ school.
At first, it was run off on the school’s Gestetner – stencils were cut and put on the drum, which was then turned by hand, to churn out the pages.
Demand grew, and before long money was invested in a modern printer and camera, and also in electric typewriters. The Cork man had laid a great foundation!
Some facts…
Lucan Newsletter is the longest running Parish Newsletter in Ireland.
We like to think we play our part for ecumenism - for many years, we were the only Newsletter countrywide, to carry notes for all the churches.
We are unique in that we have always carried out the whole operation ourselves, from editing and typing reports, to printing, collation and distribution.
The Newsletter Staff are and always have been voluntary workers. A small token is paid to the teenagers who collate the publication, and prepare it for the shops each Friday.
We have no reporters! It’s your good selves, our weekly contributors who provide much of the news. Occasionally, one of us is on the spot to capture a moment.
In keeping up with the times, and reaching out to Lucan people all over the world, we launched our website in 2002.
The weekly circulation is 2,500 copies; we usually publish 48 weeks of the year.
It is estimated that since 1967, we have published 1980 editions of Lucan Newsletter.
The Newsletter has increased in size from one A4 sheet in 1967, to an 8 page, a 16 page, and finally a 20 page American Foolscap format, before increasing our paper size again 5 years ago, to the present B4 size.
Two books have their roots in Lucan Newsletter – A History of Lucan (1991) and Lucan and Lucanians (1996), and now Treasures of Lucan is on the way!
Lucan Newsletter was featured on RTE’s ‘Time Out’ programme back in 1998.
And yes, we have a few awards under our belts – full credit to our contributors!
Some quirky ones…
The first advertisement in Lucan Newsletter was in 1968, for a woman looking for someone to mind a baby from 8.30am to 4pm – probably a teacher! The second advertisement a few weeks later was similar, but what was very strange by today’s standards, was that many of the early advertisers didn’t have telephones, and replies were often directed to the Newsletter Office!
On 4th January 1970, we carried an advertisement for John F.McDonald M.I.A.A. of Stephen’s Green and Hill House, Lucan. 37 years later, that man is still advertising with us, in the form of ‘McDonald Bros. Ltd’, of The Mall, Lucan. ‘Hill House’ of course was the old name for Lucan Heights’!
There have been 12 typists and 18 printers since 1967.
The combined years of service of the present Editorial Team is 116 years.
The combined age of our present Editorial Team is 224.
(Never mind what the Mayo man says on page 2)
We all agree it was time well spent, but by now you’ll realise that most of us probably won’t be around for the next 40 years.
If you would like to be involved, perhaps typing or delivering to shops or just have some good ideas, please drop us a line or call to the Office any Thursday.
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