Listowel Connection

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

Postboxes, Magpies, etc.

William Street on February 1 2025

Another Photo from Carmel

Therese Lenehan and Ger Kenny at on school tour to Carrigafoyle Castle May 1974

Old Post Boxes

In Bray, Co. Wicklow

A Piece of postbox history from the internet;

A Ludlow post box

There are around 800 different types of postbox. There are more than 400 different varieties of pillar box; around 160 types of wall box, 66 Ludlow boxes and almost 80 versions of the lamp box.

The Ludlow box explained:

James Ludlow and Son of Birmingham hold a unique place in postbox history. For 80+ years they were the main supplier of “economy” wall boxes for use in sub-post offices. This came about because any person taking on the role of Postmaster at an SPO without a pre-existing box was required to provide one at their own expense! This led to some rather wonderful locally made boxes, known as Carpenter’s Boxes, coming in to use. To authenticate them, they were frequently adorned with an official Post Box plate which resembles those used on the Ludlow boxes.

Real Ludlow boxes provided the answer for most sub-Postmasters as they were indeed economical and could be purchased from a natty little catalogue which showed the various types in use. For use in towns there was the larger size box with or without a “well” protuding below the bottom of the door, whilst in rural areas the smaller size predominated.

The popularity of the Ludlow design, cheap wooden construction faced with steel plate, a single casting for the aperture and an attractive enamel plate lead to more than 5000 being produced over the years. Today there are somewhat less than 300 in service.

Good Advice

Counting Crows…Update

We must thank Brendan Sheehan for this response to yesterday’s rhyme. Truly, every day is a learning day…

Two Eurasian Magpies, Pica Pica, on moss covered branch in winter. Pair of black and white birds in winter.

The magpie rhyme is a traditional British nursery rhyme which dates back to the 1700s. It’s often used to predict the weather and has two versions. The full magpie rhyme up to 20 goes:

“One for sorrow, two for joy,

Three for a girl, four for a boy,

Five for silver, six for gold,

Seven for a secret never to be told.

Eight for a wish, nine for a kiss,

Ten for a bird you must not miss.

Eleven for health, Twelve for wealth.

Thirteen beware, It’s the devil himself.

Fourteen, make your choice, Fifteen, take your pick,

Sixteen, the sweetest, Seventeen, your heart’s wish.

Eighteen for a letter, Nineteen for better,

Twenty, the future, It’s now or never.”

This rhyme was first printed in 1820 in James Orchard Halliwell’s collection of nursery rhymes and has been popular ever since. It’s believed to originate from an old English superstition about magpies being messengers of joy or sorrow, depending on how many are seen together. It is said that seeing one magpie brings bad luck, while seeing two brings good luck.

The magpie rhyme is still used today as an entertaining way to predict the future and pass on folk wisdom from one generation to another. For some people, it may have a spiritual or prophetic meaning, while others simply consider it an entertaining game. Whatever the case, this centuries-old nursery rhyme continues to entertain and delight children and adults alike.

A Fact

These are not for your common or garden mice but the dormouse which is a protected species in the UK. The new mice nests are located on a high branch well away from dogs and other predators.

Telling the Time

Market Street on February 1 2025

Counting Magpies or Crows

When Everything was Local

I am part of a Facebook group dedicated to old post boxes, A visitor to Dublin was surprised to find this twin post box with one box for Dublin only and the other for everywhere else. This system was common when all the sorting was done in the local post office. This was a kind of pre sorting which made the job of the postmen easier.

Time and Tide waits for no Man

by Mick O’Callaghan

Now that I am retired, I have time to look back and examine the development of clocks and time keeping 

I remember my granny’s house and the various shapes and makes of timepieces they owned and their cuckoo clock with its double cuckoo sound. I listened to their stories about how their parents told the time before the mass production of clocks began in America in the 1820s.and every family aspired to getting a clock. They spoke about getting up at sunrise and going to bed at sunset. They judged the time during the day by the height of the sun in the sky. In wintertime they just worked from dawn to dusk.

I remember during my school days we often cycled around the Dingle Peninsula. We visited Kilmalkedar Church, with the beautiful view of Dún Chaoin, to examine the early Christian Monastic sundial which was marked in 12 parts according to the monastic day. This was home to St Maoilcethair from the 7th century and what a lovely picturesque peaceful setting he chose for his prayer base.

Later, we learned about people returning from The Crusades and bringing the significance of 60 with them which was the counting unit in Ancient Babylonia. We were told that was how the hour with its 60 minutes, and the 12-hour day came about. I gave the same information to my own students during my teaching years. Was it all true and accurate? I hope it was.

In 1656 a Dutch Scientist invented the pendulum clock which was a big development. As a result of this we had grandfather clocks with their deep resonant solemn sound. We also saw the development of other large scale wall clocks. 

Most of you have come across Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” and published in 1751. In it he has that lovely line “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day’. This was the time to put out the fire and go to bed. This was their clock. “Curfew” is a bell that rings at the end of the day, but a “knell” is a bell that rings when someone dies. So, it’s like the “parting day” is dying.

I encountered that knelling word again in college. We read the poem,” Mid Term break” by Seamus Heaney when he speaks about sitting in class counting bells knelling classes to a close. There is a certain solemnity about the word ‘knelling’ used in the context of the inevitability of death, as it is in those two poems. There is something funereal about the school bell knelling because Heaney’s brother had died, and he was waiting to be collected and brought home for the funeral.

In my father’s time we had clocks which had to be wound every day, and the alarm was set each night. There was always a very loud eerie ticking sound which filled the house. There was a problem because the clocks seemed to be too fast or too slow and there was no checking mechanism.

All that changed with the arrival of the Radio into our lives. The clock’s time was set correctly when the news came on at 8 o clock in the morning. That was our time to pack up and cycle to school.

Later in our lives we saw the introduction of the pocket watch which had a cover over the dial. This watch, as the name denotes, was kept in the pocket with a chain attached and when you asked the time it was ceremoniously withdrawn and duly returned to the safety and security of the pocket after the notification of the correct time.

Then of course the wristwatch appeared, and it was met with unanimous approval with all and sundry proudly displaying the timepiece on their wrists with a vast array of straps and bracelets.

There was however another force emerging that would change the world’s communication systems. I read recently what Mark R Sullivan, President of Pacific Telephone Corporation said in 1953. In the first development the telephone will be carried around by the individual, perhaps as we carry a watch. It probably will require no dial, and I think we will be able to see each other, if they want to, as they talk and who knows but they might translate material.

We have travelled a long journey in the last 71 year since Mark Sullivan’s prophetic vision.

Today’s generation rely totally on their phones for all communication and timing with every piece synchronised with Greenwich Mean Time and time is accurate to the last second. We can see each other, translate, send messages, scan and do a multiplicity of tasks which are major advances during my lifetime.

I remember getting the television in 1965 and the advances in TV systems has been phenomenal as is progress in smart phone and technology. Many people will remember the first bulky Motorola phone in 1973.

Then we had the Blackberry in 2000, iPhone in 2007and cameras in all phones in 2010

Now our phones are our timepieces, our health and fitness monitors, our wallets, while with AI and Augmented Reality and increased battery life or maybe wireless transmission the future looks like continuing to be interesting with lots of exciting developments in our communications world. 

It’s all Tik Tok and many other systems nowadays. Farewell to Tick Tock. 

Carmel’s Photo

Miriam Hilliard and Ger Kenny.  School tour to Carrigafoyle Castle, May 1974.

Those were the days! Carmel turned over one of her photos and was reminded how far photography has come.

Once upon a time, you pressed the shutter and you hoped you had got what appeared in your viewfinder. There were no screen and no reviewing. When you had taken your 24 snaps, you handed your film into the pharmacy to be developed. A week later you came back to collect your prints.

A Fact

Birds do not urinate.

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Athea Mural Relocation

Market Street on Saturday, February 1 2025

From the Archives

Every now and again Jer Kennelly delves into the nespaper archives and finds something with a Listowel connection. Sometimes the story ends there and sometimes the story (remember John J. Foley and Thade Kelly’s Hin?) takes on a life of its own.

Here is such a cutting from 1895 for you.

San Francisco Call, Volume 77, Number 133, 22 April 1895

PARISH PRIESTS NAMED

Father Kirby Assumes Charge of the New St. Agnes Church.

SUPERIOR OF THE PAULISTS. Father Wyman Appointed to Succeed Father Brady of St. Mary’s. Rev. Father Kirby has been appointed pastor of
the new parish of St. Agnes by the Most Rev. Archbishop Riordan, and
Rev. Father Wyman has been named superior of the Paulist community at
old St. Mary’s Church on California street to succeed the late Father
Brady. Father Kirby preached his first sermon at St. Agnes Church,
which is a neat little edifice on Masonic street, near Page, at the
high mass yesterday morning. The church was built as an outside
mission to the Sacred Heart parish, and was under the jurisdiction of
Rev. Father Flood. Father Kirby is a young man of zeal and talent. He
was born at Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland, on April 16, 1860. His
early education was gained at Mount Melleray and at All Hallows. Later
he attended the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris. On the 17th of
March, 1883, he was ordained by Bishop Higgins of Kerry, Ireland. He
“came to San Francisco in the spring of 1883. His first appointment
was as chaplain of St. Mary’s College, from where he was transferred
to Father King’s church in Oakland. Later he served two years as
assistant to Father Serda at Temescal. On September 2, 1885, he was
appointed as assistant at the cathedral, where he has since resided.
Of his family a brother is a priest, Rev. Thomas Kirby, at Mission
Dolores, and two Sisters are members of the Presentation Order, Sister
Augustine in Berkeley, and Sister de Sales in the Powell-street
convent, this city. Father Wyman has long been a Paulist missionary
and is well known throughout the United States. He prefers missionary
work to the cares and responsibility of a pariah and looks forward to
the appointment of a permanent superior to succeed him that he may go
into the country and preach. “We have received requests for
missionaries from different parishes all over the coast,” he said
yesterday, “and we are anxious to comply. Missionary work is the
object of the order, and for myself I much prefer that field. If we
had the priests we could send them north to Washington and south to
Arizona. Besides, California and Nevada must be looked after.” The
work of remodelling old St. Mary’s Church will begin this week. The
interior is to be handsomely painted and frescoed, and the idea of the
Paulists is to make the historic tabernacle one of the most beautiful
in the city.

An Interesting old Post Box

in West London

Another Photo from Carmel Hanrahan

Left to right: Tom and Eileen O’Halloran, John and Breda Hanrahan and Joe Mc Namara & Betty. 

I took this picture late last year.

This is just a small section of the artwork but it gives you an idea of the complex detail of flora and fauna, legend and history woven into this masterpiece.

The mural was given a temporary home on a long wall until the nearby premises was sold. This has now happened and the new owners have plans for the space so the masterpiece so dear to everyone in Athea must be relocated.

Athea Tidy Town Group undertook the task of dismantling it and minding it.

Here are some of the pictures they shared on Facebook.

A Fact

In Germany about 2000 schools were closed between 1989 and 2009 because of the fall in the numbers of children in the population.

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Two Stories revisited

McKenna’s corner, Februry 1 2025

Jimmy MacElligott

To recap for people coming new to this, Jimmy McElligott was a WW2 pilot and a native of Bridge Road, Listowel. Jimmy was a star of the Rockwell rowing team and Munster rugby. Jimmy’s plane was brought down at Dunkirk. Jimmy was not among the survivors. He was 24.

Thomas Buckley has found online the location of Jimmy’s grave in a war cemetery near Paris.

Carmel’s Photos

Carmel has remembered a few more names.

I want to say the match was in Brosna but I could be pulling that out of the air. 

Isabel Carmody, unknown boy, Kerry McAuliffe, Tommy Moore, ??, Carmel Hanrahan, Monica (or perhaps Martina) Barrett, Geraldine Browne, Maura ??, ??, Kathleen Kennelly, ?? man standing at back, Caroline Barrett, Niamh Long, ?? at back, Denise Mulvihill, ?? at back, Matty Donohue, Front: ??, Kerry’s friend from boarding school and Norma Doyle

Dermot Mahoney remembers that Kerry’s friend was Audrey Hanley.

A Sobering Thought

I shared this before but it’s worth revisiting. I found it on the internet when looking for something else.

Doing Anything on Saturday ?

A Fact

In 1968 Dr. Christian Bernard performed the second ever heart transplant on Philip Blaiberg.

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A school Tour and a Birthday

St. Brigid window in St. John’s church, Ballybunion

St. Brigid of Kildare

St. Brigid mural on a wall in Kildare town

According to tradition Saint Brigid was born in Faughart, Co Louth, where there is a shrine and a holy well dedicated to her. The Saint found a convent in Kildare in 470 that has now grown into a cathedral city. There are the remains of a small oratory known as Saint Brigid’s fire temple, where a small eternal flame was kept alight for centuries in remembrance of her. She is one of Ireland’s patron Saints and known as Mother of the Gael. She is said to be buried along with St Colm Cille and St Patrick in Downpatrick. Throughout Ireland there are many wells dedicated to St Brigid. 

Growing up in 1970’s Listowel

More memories and photographs from Carmel Hanrahan…

Do you remember the Lartigue Little Theatre?  No stage and the seats were on a steep incline.  I visited the Writers’ Museum on a recent visit and was surprised to find that nobody seemed to know about it.  That is, until a lady of my own vintage came in and remembered it.  Where I now live, they have a Theatre which is of a similar design.  Mind you, the cast don’t come out with tea and biscuits for the audience at interval time as they once did in the Lartigue.

We had a Youth Club which was held on Friday night.  I think the venue was the Sluagh Hall.  Every now and then we had a disco there and that was a highlight.  Dominic Scanlon usually provided the music being DJ (there’s a term no longer used) as he was probably one of the few of us with a comprehensive record collection.  I seem to remember there were parents on duty at these to chaperone us.  A bit like the “Ballroom of Romance” if you remember that film.  Seamus G, I know you’ll read this, I don’t remember you in connection with the Youth Club. We must have split into different groupings by then.  

December 28th was the date set in stone for the Student’s Dance/Ball.  Held in the Listowel Arms Hotel and the only proper dance for years.  My sister dressed quite formally for the first one she attended but I think it rapidly became more casual after that.  I certainly don’t remember dressing up a lot for it.  Later, we occasionally went by bus to Glin on Saturday Nights for a showband-type dance that was held there.  My memory is of an over-crowded, sweaty, marquee with little or no facilities.  But, I imagine we wouldn’t have complained too much at the time.   Who organised those buses I wonder?  Of course, there was also the Central in Ballybunion where we went for discos in the late 1970’s.  Possibly only during the summer months.  That was also the venue for our Leaving Cert Results night out.  What a motley crew we were.  

School tour, to Killarney (Lady’s View).  Left to right: Bottom Row; Catherine Lynch, Christina Caffrey, Catherine Sullivan, Violet Nolan and Linda McKenna.   Top row; Dana Mulvihill, Carmel Hanrahan, Sr. Edmund, Jacqueline Quill, Sr. Therese, and Denise Mulvihill

One of myself and dad sometime in the early 1980’s.  The dog arrived very shortly after I left.  I was so upset as a child when we lost “Sooty” our dog that dad swore there would never be a dog in the house again while I was there.

A Special Birthday

Four of my six grandchildren have birthdays in January. so last Sunday we had a combined celebration for them.

Sean and Killian, no longer boyeens, now grown men, are nineteen.

Aisling turned 18. Róisín is 16.

Róisín and one of her friends from the yard.

When Aisling was born her uncle Bobby and Aunt Carine lived in France. Every baby in France has a comforter which they call a doudou so they sent one to Aisling. It became her favourite toy. It was carried everywhere, on trips to Kerry and Dublin and on holidays abroad. It filled the role of a faithful friend and confidante over the years. But at 18 it is now the worst for wear.

Carine decided to buy a new one for Aisling’s 18th birthday. But this particular squirrel is a discontinued line, replaced years ago by the more popular teddies and rabbits. There was none to be got anywhere.

Not to be defeated, Carine put out a call on a website that sells old and discontinued items and there she found a second hand but little used one.

When Aisling opened her birthday present on Sunday she was overcome with emotion. It was like meeting a long lost child. It reminded her of how handsome and cuddly Doudou looked all those years ago.

Here are the two boys, Doudous mark 1 and 2, memory banks to treasure for ever.

Best birthday present ever!

A Fact

Popeye appeared as a comic strip for the first time in 1929.

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