About us

Woodstock Castle Press is a non-profit community publishing initiative established by artists Mark Durkan and Mary Jo Gilligan and Rose Doyle, Chairperson of Athy West Urban Community Group in collaboration with communities in Woodstock, Athy, Co. Kildare.

 

Woodstock Castle Press was born out of the collaboration between Mark, Mary Jo and Rose as part of the Creative Places Athy Woodstock Artist Residency, funded by Creative Places Athy, Slaintecare - Healthy Communties, Kildare Leader Partnership - Empowering Communities and Kildare County Council Heritage Department.

 

Central to this residency was the ongoing engagement in the community of Woodstock over a period of one year. This comprised of a series of strategic events intended to connect with different groups and respond to the context of Woodstock. We have highlighted four events below.

 

Most importantly however was the connections made, week by week and day by day. The stories about the heritage and history, the social life, the sporting heroes, the music life and the natural landscape and ecology, all laid the foundation for the development of the WOODSTOCK publications, which served as the backbone and central activity of the residency. All issues of WOODSTOCK are first distributed as a printed publication to the communities of Athy West Urban (Dominic’s Park, Carbery Park, Greenhills, Townspark and Castlepark), after which the publications are redesigned for digital distribution online to the wider town of Athy and Kildare and beyond.

 

On the back of the success of the WOODSTOCK publications, Mark, Mary Jo and Rose established Woodstock Castle Press in 2024 to continue to celebrate the rich stories and voices of Woodstock.