Category: History Page 2 of 31

Old Shops

By listowelconnection

On February 25, 2025

In History, Listowel, Poem

Grey Heron at breakfast…photo by Chris Grayson

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Shops and Shopping

by Mick O’Callaghan

continued from yesterday

Now I liked this institution (Mikey OConnor’s shop) because when we brought the shopping list into O’Connors on Wednesdays we were always allowed dip into the open biscuit or loose sweet box and have one treat. After the treat the list was handed over to Mikey. He examined it and put it on the Friday pile. He had circular wooden pieces with what looked like a knitting needle protruding upwards and he just pushed the shopping list on to the Friday pile. Then these messages were selected and duly delivered in the van by Big Pat Sullivan, and you paid him the exact amount due in cash or else you paid in cash in the shop next day. Otherwise, there was no delivery the following week. This was our online shopping with very strict credit control.

In addition to the delivery vans most shops had heavy messenger bikes with the big cumbersome wicker basket in front for deliveries of shopping. These were heavy machines to handle and were operated solely by human pedal power in all weathers. They usually had the name of the shop on a plate attached to the crossbar. They could have done with some of the battery-operated machines that today’s Deliveroo people use for fast delivery of take aways. And now as I write these delivery methods are being superseded by delivery drones. Will the next phase be robots galloping around delivering?

I remember in rural Ireland we had the man with the van travelling from village to village selling groceries and this worked well in small communities but was not widely available.

I look at shopping today and I see so many people doing click and collect since Covid times. People regard it as a great convenience which it really is.

We also have home deliveries which have become very popular with shoppers with instant card payments and online selecting and ordering. It is a fantastic system for busy people where both partners are working or for older people whose children or themselves do the shopping online and have the groceries delivered to their own kitchen table.

I smile wryly to myself when I think that we had online shopping, home deliveries and on the spot payments 75 years ago and more.

I came to Arklow in 1967 and spent my first couple of years in digs which was very settling, comfortable and secure with no shopping required, but times moved on. Our land ladies retired, and we rented a house. Now we had four bachelors who needed sustenance and had to eat. This required the provision of groceries. We went to Jack Byrnes on the Coolgreaney Road which was our nearest grocer’s shop. Now Jack operated a book service for regular customers whereby you got your groceries, they wrote them into your book, and you paid for them on pay day. This suited us perfectly until it came to pay day and dividing up the bill. The list was well scrutinised to ensure no one was doing any extra personal shopping outside the prescribed agreed list of necessary foods to be purchased for breakfast, dinner and supper. It was a great system that worked perfectly well for us before we spread our wings and settled down to more acceptable ways of living.

Shopping has developed exponentially since our barter system was common in Ireland long ago or even more so since the Egyptians used a set weight of gold to purchase goods or since Charlemagne introduced the first standard penny coin in 800 AD.

Life and shopping experiences are constantly evolving, and we must keep changing and continue to manage and adapt to the changes. As Barrack Obama said “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the change that we seek “

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Memories of Ena Collins

This old image last week evoke many memories for people of a certain age. End, by all accounts was a very pious woman and a great friend of the nuns. You could say she was their eyes and ears in town. She kept a close eye on the convent girls and reported any ‘conduct unbecoming’.

Mike Moriarty has a memory of the shop and the strips of ling ( a cod like fish) hanging by the door. Ling was often salted and preserved for eating during Lent. I remember it well…ugh!

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Keep on Keeping On

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A Dingle Postbox

Maybe this one has been repainted since this photo was taken. In this snap you can see the old red paint coming through.

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You Have to Laugh

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A Fact

A small amount of alcohol on a scorpion will drive it insane and cause it to sting itself to death.

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Soldiers’ Houses

By listowelconnection

On February 13, 2025

In History, Listowel, Poem

Market Street, February 2025

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A Kerry Castle

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The Big Wind in Family History

Lauren Davis wrote the following letter to us in October 2020:

Hi Mary ~
I wanted to let you know how much we’ve been enjoying your blog lately. Even with little “new”news to report on, you are keeping our interest here in America! My ancestors left Listowel around 1870 so even “news” from the 19th century in County Kerry is fascinating for me. For instance, when a piece you posted a few days ago said,
“For three quarters of a century afterwards the people in this district and in North Kerry generally recorded events from the year the boat was drowned” or from the night of the big wind”.”I got so excited! Our family’s stories mention that my 2x great grandmother was born “the night of the big wind.” (She actually was born a few days before but everybody remembered her birth in connection with the storm.) My own granddaughter was just born a month ago here in Oregon. I’m sure we will be remembering her birth as “the time of the big wild fires.” Just knowing that other people from Co. Kerry remembered events the way my family did makes me feel so much more connected to our ancestral home.

Thank you for all that you do! Please keep it up!

Lauren Carroll Davis

Sisters, Oregon

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Hens and Eggs

Photo; Chris Grayson

Egg prices in the US have risen by 20% due to the many outbreaks of bird flu.

Did you read about the egg heist in Pennsylvania when 100,000 eggs were stolen? I must admit that with the CEO’s name given as Flocco and references to scrambling to improve security and cracking down on theft I think maybe the story was a wind up.

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Soldiers’ Houses

Since Carmel Hanrahan raised the subject, I have been fascinated by the story of the soldiers’ houses in Cahirdown.

A helpful blog follower told me that the late Gerry O’Carroll had written about them in his memoir. I borrowed it from the library.

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So True

So, grief walked up to love,
and asked if it would dance.
Love blamed grief for everything
and rudely answered “no chance.”

Grief stood there watching love.
Knowing there was nothing it could do.
It shared in every teardrop
and felt the heartache too.

Love hated grief so fiercely,
and prayed for it to go away.
Grief could never leave though
and it was here to stay.

Every day it asked the same question,
“Love, please dance with me.”
Everyday was met with the answer
“Please just leave me be.”

Grief and love shared every moment.
Every thought was just the same.
Every day they fought a battle,
Of love along with blame.

Grief finally stopped asking,
and pulled love to its chest.
Together they swayed to memories,
and shared their empty nest.

Grief never let go of love again.
They made better music as one.
After all if there was no love,
then grief wouldn’t belong…

Joanne Boyle ~ Heartfelt

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A Fact

In 1978 the song Mull of Kintyre by Wings went to No. 1 in January.

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The Big Wind in Kerry

By listowelconnection

On February 12, 2025

In History, Listowel, Poem

Listowel Garda Station, February 2025

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Pillar Post boxes

Pillar postbox in Main Street Listowel

Anthony Trollope, the novelist, introduced the pillar box to Britain in 1852 when he worked as a Post Office Surveyor in the Channel Islands. The first mainland box was erected a year later in 1853. At first local District Surveyors ordered boxes from local foundries. In 1859 a standard design was introduced. Wall boxes appeared in 1857, Ludlow boxes in 1885 and lamp boxes in 1896.

Each new reign brings boxes bearing the royal cipher of the monarch. Pillar boxes and wall boxes have been made in different sizes and with improvements to the design incorporated over time. A large number of different manufacturers have been employed and over the years there have been many experimental boxes put in service.

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The Big Wind

I took the story and image from Joe Harrington’s Facebook page. He posted it on the eve of Eowyn.

Night of the Big Wind

The incoming Storm Éowyn would appear to be on the scale of the ‘Night of the Big Wind’, 6-7 January 1839. The centre of the storm to the north of Ireland is forecast to be as low as 938 Millibars (MB). The storm 186 years ago was 20 MBs lower at its centre. However, the pressure over Kerry at the height of this storm may well be lower than it was here on the night of the big wind.

In the 1839 storm, the number killed may have been about three hundred. It was calculated that 4,846 chimneys were knocked. How the fallen chimneys could be counted so accurately, and the dead so vaguely is strange. Trees were a valuable commodity and some Landlords had grown fine stands. These were valuable on January 6 and almost worthless on January 7, 1839. There was a glut of firewood on the market.

Many people lost their small savings, secreted inside the thatch when roofs were carried off. There was no weather forecasting at the time and the storm arrived unannounced. Winds reached 120 miles per hour in what was a category three hurricane. Twenty-five percent of the houses in Dublin were destroyed and 42 ships were sunk along the east coast.

From Kerry, it was reported that the “well-constructed Listowel Arms Hotel” was damaged and in the same town, the police under Chief Constable Fletcher were credited with saving many lives. There were no deaths in Listowel.

The 1908 Old Age Pensions Act came into law in January 1909 for those over 70 years of age – exactly 70 years after the Night of the Big Wind. Over a quarter of a million applied and within a year over 180,000 had been deemed successful. Contrary to popular belief, the acceptance of a memory of the Big Wind as proof of age in a claim for the Old Age Pension is not backed up by any records of the time. There is a belief that some official of the Board may have asked people who were having trouble providing proof of their age what they were doing on the night of the Big Wind but when large numbers answered “eating a potato out of my hand” that approach was quickly dropped.

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Love is in the Air

Danny Russell is not only an excellent hairdresser, he is a top class window dresser as well. His Valentine’s 2025 window is a triumph.

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A Poem Celebrating a Tree

Anyone who is familiar with the back gate entrance to UCC or anyone who works in The Bons in Cork or visits there will know this tree.

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A Fact

In Finland 9 out of 10 plastic bottles and almost all glass bottles are recycled.

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When we read Bunty

By listowelconnection

On October 21, 2024

In Ballylongford, History, Listowel

Lower William Street, October 2024

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Simpler Times

People, well, women anyway, of a certain age will remember this activity well. You cut everything out very carefully…not the good scissors, the one for paper. You glued Bunty to a piece of cardboard….a Cornflakes’ box was ideal, not too stiff to cut but stiff enough to stand up. Then wrapping the little paper tabs around her, you dressed Bunty. Hours of fun!

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A Talk on Women’s Health

Shelagh Griffin organised and Katie Condon delivered a great talk on women’s health in Listowel Family Resource Centre on Tuesday last. Shelagh promises in future to alert me to similar events so that I can tell you before, rather than after the event.

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Important tip from An Garda Siochána

Your IMEI number is the unique identifier of your mobile phone. Follow the easy instructions below to keep this number safe. It will make the job of finding it easier if your phone is ever lost or stolen.

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Disappearing Verbs

If you remember anything about grammar you will remember that a verb is an action word and a noun is a naming word. Not so any more it would seem.

One doesn’t win a medal any more. One medals.

One doesn’t score a goal. One goals.

One doesn’t sit on the bench. One is benched or even sidelined.

We don’t put a question on the table. We table a question.

You don’t go on holiday, you holiday.

The list goes on.

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Look what I bought in the Vincent de Paul shop

Prepare to be mesmerised.

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From the Archives

IRELAND.

Taranaki Daily News 8 January 1920

FURTHER OUTRAGES. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, Jan. 5. Constable Clarke, while walking in a street at Ballylongford, was shot from behind a wall, 150 pellets lodging in his neck and shoulders. His condition is critical. A number of men waylaid a police patrol who were protecting a loyal farmer in North Clare. A brisk exchange of shots followed, one constable being wounded. His comrades, using grenades, routed their assailants. This is the first time grenades have been used. Military aeroplanes are patrolling throughout Ireland, particularly in the neighbourhood of Carrigtohill, to prevent further assemblies that might lead to a recurrence of outrages. The police in Cork visited prominent Sinn Feiners and interrogated them, regarding their movements on Saturday. Sinn Feiners are contesting all the 80 seats in the Dublin Corporation elections—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

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Hospice Coffee Morning

A few photos of people who attended the best coffee morning ever in The Listowel Arms on Thursday October 17 2024

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A Fact

With 980 known species bats make up 23 per cent of all known mammals by species.

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Different Sports

By listowelconnection

On October 18, 2024

In History, Listowel, Listowel Races, Personal, Poem

Photo: Chris Grayson in Killarney National Park…2024 rut

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Where I was Yesterday

Volunteers were everywhere, Selling tickets, baking and serving, playing the piano, finding chairs for the huge crowd who came to support and generally ensuring that the annual Kerry Hospice coffee morning was an outstanding success.

I took lots of photos, so you will be seeing lots of the lovely people who attended in upcoming posts.

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The Sales

In the days before online shopping, shops used to hold much anticipated end of season sales. A few hot ticket items would be greatly reduced and these would be available to shoppers on a first come first served basis. This led to competitive queueing and a mad scramble once the doors opened.

The queue at Roches Stores, Cork for one such sale. The queues and, in this case, the shop is no more.

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My Weekend in Ballincollig

Last weekend found me in this little theatre for a festival of one act plays. The calibre of play and of acting was very varied but it was a worthwhile exercise and I enjoyed a return to live theatre which I had missed for a while.

Saturday saw me in Belgooley where hundreds of underage lady footballers from local clubs were trying out for mid Kerry teams. It is heartwarming to see so many young girls actively involved in Gaelic games. The turn out was a great credit to the mentors who coach and encourage these young ladies week in week out.

Sunday and I was in Lakewood tennis club supporting my daughter in the first round of the winter league tennis. Cora joined us after victory with her soccer team in their first round national championship soccer game.

Sunday lunch in Kanturk with my Kanturk besties.

The book tour is due in Kanturk on Friday, October 25th at 7.30 in the Linn gorm Community Hall (P51 YC57). Stuart, the bull, who is one of the stars of Moments of Reflection, won’t be in attendance but his family will. If you are reading this in North Cork, do join us. We won’t have any music this time but we will have a party, hosted by my star baker sister-in-law.

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Sad story from the Internet

Did you sing this as a child? .

Explanation below, where this song came from..

This old man he played one

He played nick nack on my drum

With a nick nack paddy whack

Give a dog a bone