This blog is a personal take on Listowel, Co. Kerry. I am writing for anyone anywhere with a Listowel connection but especially for sons and daughters of Listowel who find themselves far from home. Contact me at listowelconnection@gmail.com
This poster outside St. Conleth’s Park is there since the great stand off of 2018 when Kildare won out against the GAA who wanted Kildare’s game against Mayo to be played in Croke Park. There were fears that St. Conleths Park would not be able to cope with the expected crowd. The rule is the first team out in selection gets home advantage so Kildare forced the powers that be to abide by their own rule.
Everywhere you look in Newbridge there are floral displays. Beautiful!
<<<<<<<
Some poems never grow old.
I picked up an old English school book. I photographed the first page so you could see that it was first published in 1931. Some of the poems were familiar to me from my school days.
<<<<<<<<<<
Incoming Rats
Getting closer!
<<<<<<<<
A Fact
Over the last ten years, 257 post offices have closed across Ireland.
I took this photo in Kent train station in Cork on the day I travelled to Newbridge, Friday July 4 2025. At first glance it looked like all the ticket collection machines were out of order.
If you haven’t travelled by train lately you wont be familiar with the present routine. You book your ticket online, you get a collection number to put into this machine to collect your physical ticket at the station. You need a physical ticket to open the barriers to get to the train in some stations. Cork is one.
The machine at which you print your ticket is also the machine where you buy your ticket if you have not booked online. On July 4th 2025 the train was fully booked (travellers to Longitude and the Cork hurling match).There were no tickets for sale but there were a lot of people needing to collect tickets. Iarannrod Eireann had sent me an email the day before asking me to collect my ticket the day before, if possible. Not possible! They did try to help the situation on the day by posting a man at the one open terminal to speed up collection.
I can’t understand why they couldn’t leave all the terminals open and put a sign saying. Train fully booked. This machine is for ticket collection only by passengers with prebooked tickets.
They say that if you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room. Was I in the wrong train station?
I’ve mentioned this before but there is a chasm between the platform and the train in Cork. You may have seen the ramp they have for wheelchair users. Well, in my opinion, they should put these ramps down at the doors in Kent station as a matter of course. I think I’ll write to the station master and see what he says. I’ll keep you posted.
<<<<<<<<<
Dining in Newbridge
I’m sure there are plenty of places to eat in Newbridge. I went to the one that came highly recommended and I can add my recommendation here.
specials at Lilly and Wild
I had the Feta cheese with fig etc. It was delicious.
If you take my recommendation and go to Lily and Wild, be warned. This marvellous restaurant is in a furniture shop. No body warned me so when I went in I immediately came out again, thinking I was in the wrong place.
This is one bit of the breakfast display in The Keadeen. There was another station with cereals, another with juices, another with breads and pastries and ,of course, a huge hot array of fried food. I didn’t take photos of everything in case people thought I was never left out.
<<<<<<<<<
Two Newbridge Facts
This bar was a favourite stopping off point for John B. Keane on his way to and from Dublin.
The Irish comedian, Hal Roche, was a native of Newbridge.
Hal’s seat is on a flower bedecked corner of the Main Street.
<<<<<<<<<
A Wedding in Australia in 1937
Catholic Freeman’s Journal
June 24 1937 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
WOLLONGONG. CATHOLIC FREEMAN’S JOURNAL WEDDINGS. MORAN – GRIFFIN. At St. Columba’s Church, Bribbaree, on Saturday, June 12, a singular honour was conferred on Miss Agnes M. Griffin, and Mr. John L. Moran, when they began their married life with the blessing of his Lordship Most Rev. John Barry, D.D., Bishop of Goulburn. After he had solemnised the marriage his Lordship celebrated the Nuptial Mass and was assisted by Rev. Father Griffin, Bribbaree, and Rev. Father Butler, B.A., Michelago. Rev. Father Morrison, Young, was also present. In the pretty little rural church, where her brother, the Rev. Father D. J. Griffin, parish priest, and which had been her special care and pride ever since he was appointed to Bribbaree, the bride made a radiant picture of happiness as she knelt at Holy Mass to receive from his Lordship the solemn blessing of Mother Church in the new state she had undertaken. Despite the fact that the ceremony was ranged for the early hour of 6.45 a.m.. the little church was almost filled with well – wishers as the bride – to – be left her brother’s presbytery, where she has been his housekeeper and faithful companion during the busy years in which his spare moments have been devoted to the organisation and service of the Goulburn Diocesan Union of the Holy Name Society. The bride is the daughter of the late James D. Griffin and Mrs. Catherine Griffin, of Listowel, Co. Kerry, Ireland, and she is the baby of a grand old Irish family of eleven. She came upon her to Australia in 1933, and brother’s appointment to the charge of the parish in 1934 she came to Bribbaree. The bridegroom, Mr. John L. Moran, is the son of well – known pioneer family, the late Martin Moran and Mrs. Hanorah Moran, ” Merrylands, ” who came to the Bribbaree district from Victoria almost half a century ago, and during those well – nigh fifty years Mrs. Moran has been one of Bribbaree’s foremost church workers, and her indomitable spirit and material devotedness. were borne witness to a few weeks ago when the whole of her family gathered together to celebrate her seventieth birthday. The bride was given away by Mr. John Davis, Postmaster, Cowra, who has been an intimate friend of her brother ever since his arrival in Australia in 1921. Mr. Kevin Dunn, nephew of the bridegroom, and Miss Kathleen Moran, sister of the bridegroom. were best man and bridesmaid respectively. The immediate relatives were entertained to a wedding breakfast by Mrs. Moran, senr., at Merrylands, where Rev. Father Butler presided. The happy couple were the recipients of many valuable gifts. Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Moran are making their future home at Bribbaree, where a new cottage is being erected for them.
This is the carpark behind the offices of the Revenue Commissioners.
<<<<<<<<
Joan Mulvihill’s Retirement
Joan Mulvihill and staff of Presentation Primary School, Listowel. The photo was shared on social media. It was taken at a fuction at the school to mark Joan’s retirement a principal.
<<<<<<
A Sad,Sad Poem
<<<<<<<<
The Famine
The population of Ireland is now around 7 million, the highest it’s been since the Famine.
“This problem may not be yours today but it could be someday.” This used to be the tagline in Frankie Byrne’s radio show but It’s apt for the world we are living in.
Here is an account from the school’s folklore collection. The account was collected in Scoil Realt na Maidine, Listowwel.
The crops grew abundantly the year before the Famine but the people had no meas(respect) on them & they left the crops beside the ditches to rot. The next year the crops failed especially the potato crop. When a person would go into a farmer’s house for a drink of water, if he saw a turnip under the table he would snap it and run his best. The people had nothing to eat but turnips. They weakened with the bad food & died in hundreds on the roadside.
<<<<<<<<<
It’s the Silly Season
<<<<<<<
In Kildare
I was in Newbridge for the weekend.
I was helping Tony and Mary McKenna celebrate 40 years of happy marriage.
I stayed in the Keadeen Hotel.
When I share some more of my weekend’s photos with you you will see that Newbridge has flowers everywhere.
These are just some of the floral displays at the hotel.
Once upon a time you opened a drawer in your hotel room and you found bible. In The Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge I found Arthur Gouroulian looking back at me from the Newbridge Silverware Brochure. Shopping is the new religion.
<<<<<<<<
A Fact
The game of Pitch and Putt was invented by W.A. Collins in Fountainstown in Co. Cork in 1936.
Bobby, Carine and Reggie out and about in Ballybunion
Reggie loves the beach
Cora gave me a good excuse to lunch in Lizzie’s.
The weather was a bit rainy so we made a jigsaw. Cora made most of it.
<<<<<<<<<<
The Book Club
A post from someone who wished to start up a bookclub in Listowel got me thinking about how marvellous and varied an institution the book club is.
I’m a member of a library based book club in Ballincollig. I spend a lot of time in Ballincollig with my family and I thought a book club would be a good way to meet up with like minded people. I was right.
There are many advantages to this type of bookclub. We don’t choose the books so every month is a surprise and we get to sample books we may never have chosen to buy. There is no obligation to attend so if one of us is otherwise occupied we just go ahead anyway. We have a warm comfortable venue with tea and biscuits provided, no washing up and no tidying the house. What’s not to love?
Of course like most bookclubs I know, setting the world to rights in the chat after the book discussion is a vital part of every meeting.
My sister-in-law’s book club is very different. They were mostly friends or friends of friends already. They meet in one anothers’ houses. They cook a meal for each meeting and they each take a turn to choose a book. It is usually a book they have read and so are recommending to the others.
Then my daughter’s book club is a different kettle of fish altogether. They formed online and they meet every month in a local tapas bar. The chat and the socialising is more important than the book. That club is 10 years on the go this year so after a glass or two of wine one winter’s evening, one lady suggested they go to Spain for their tapas to mark their 10th anniversary.
Here they are in Bilbao, not a book in sight, enjoying their 36 hour getaway with their bookclub mates.
<<<<<<<<<
The Corpus Christi Procession
A few photos from this year’s procession on Saturday, June 21 2025
Turning into Courthouse Road
<<<<<<<<<<<
People I met at the Sunday Market in Scoil Realt na Maidine
These lovely people from just over the border in Newcastlewest have a lovely product, wax melts. I bought a lavendar one and my house smelled of old world charm for hours.
The boys from 3D & Me have a steady repeat business every week.
Bobby met a man he hadn’t met since schooldays. Tom and Bobby were in the same class and played on the same soccer team.
Karen’s River Crafts are absolutely beautiful. They are made locally using local fallen trees, pebbles, foliage and flowers.
I bought this one. I love it. I’ll be back for another one.
The market is a great place to meet and chat, have a cup of coffee or a baked potato. Bobby and Carine met their friends, Dulce and Sylvestre. Reggie and Rian were welcomed in the market as well.
<<<<<<<<
A Fact
Marks and Spencers were the first to laser barcodes into fruit. This saves tonnes of paper and glue every year.
Roses at Listowel’s Civic Plaza in early summer 2025
<<<<<<
Listowel Literary Festival 2025
The Kerry Irish Novel of the Year 2025; Time of the Child by Niall Williams
I’m delighted that my favourite book won.
Rhona Tarrant did a great job as MC on Opening Night of Writers’ Week. She is here with her parents, Gerard and Jenny
Sally O’Neill is a regular supporter of all things literary in Listowel.
<<<<<<<<
Street Name Confusion
This is the Convent Street Clinic.
This is the sign on the wall of the Convent Street Clinic.
This house is located directly across the road from the Convent Street Clinic.
This sign is on the house directly opposite the Convent Street Clinic
So for this street it’s a case of Market Street, Convent Street, Sráid an Mhargaidh or Gleann an Phúca, take your pick. They are all correct according to the street signs.
<<<<<<<
Essay Writing Success
Picture and text from Facebook
A transition year student from Co Kerry has been named as winner of the Law Society of Ireland’s national Gráinne O’Neill Memorial Legal Essay Competition 2025.
Hazel Barrett, a student at Presentation Secondary School in Listowel, raised the trophy at a special awards ceremony held at Blackhall Place last Wednesday.
Now in its third year, the annual competition invites TY students from across the country to submit a 1,500-word legal essay on a specific topic.
This year, over 350 essays were submitted by students from 52 schools across 16 counties, each exploring “the role the law can play in addressing hate crime”.
The competition aims to inspire young peoples’ legal learning by encouraging students from a wide range of backgrounds to consider contemporary justice issues.
<<<<<<<<
Listowel Arms Hotel
Photograph: May 2025; text: Listowel and its Vicinity by Fr. Antony Gaughan
<<<<<<<<
Kanturk, My Hometown
Here I am in my old home with my only brother, Pat. I love going home. It is the most welcoming, most hospitable house you can imagine, thanks to my lovely sister in law, Breeda.
This was the reason for my visit.
Duhallow Heritage Society allowed me to read a reflection as part of the great night of reminiscing and reconnecting. I’ll tell you more tomorrow.
<<<<<<<<
A Fact
The phrase ” That will cost you an arm and a leg,” comes from the Victorian era. The Victorians loved to have their portraits painted. The more of the body you included in the image, the dearer the commission. So they were often painted with just head and shoulders. An arm and a leg cost extra..
