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
Bobby Cogan and his Lakewood Division 2 team who won their Winter League match at the weekend.
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Friendship Celebrated
Make new friends
But keep the old
The new ones are like silver
But the old ones are like gold
Peggy O’Shea, Mary Cogan, Margo Anglim and Assumpta O’Sullivan, friends for 50 years, meeting up for a regular catch up in March 2024 .
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Pres. Yearbook 1988
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An Obituary
I spotted this obituary in this week’s Kerry’s Eye. I never met Jim Costelloe but he is a man I feel I know through his book. He wrote about Asdee in the 1940s and 50s, a world very familiar to me from my own childhood.
I’ve featured many of his stories in his lovely chatty writing style on here in the past. I’ll have to revisit them again now.
A Post have come up with a scheme that seemed to me like a great idea when I heard about it on the radio.
You go to the An Post website and you choose to send a St. Patrick’s Day card. You are given a choice of categories and then you will be given an AI generated image for your card. You write your greeting, the name and address of the recipients. Then you pay €4 and An Post will print and deliver the card anywhere in the world.
Brilliant!
I have these lovely friends whom you met here before. They are Wolfgang and Anita Mertens. They live in Germany. They love Ireland. Since I met them for the first time last year they have kept in touch and send me greetings, cards, photos and stuff.
So I set to make my greeting card for them.
Wolfgang is a scholar in the field of Anglo Irish literature. His special field of interest is the work of Listowel’s Bryan MacMahon. So the first category I chose was “literature” and the above card is what AI generated. Not so much literature. Lots of Paddywhackerry…rainbow, pots of gold, four leaved clovers masquerading as shamrocks. It was just short the leprechauns. I was definitely not choosing that one.
So next I chose the category St. Bridget’s Cross. The AI bot who made the above didn’t know too much about Saint Brigid since she numbered a pot of gold, a guitar and tricolour among her assorted artefacts at the foot of her very elaborate high cross. I rejected this one too.
I settled for my third and final choice, green landscape. Not very Irish but very very green. I thought I detected a few camels at the foot of those pyramids but who am I to question AI?
An Post had better up its game or I won’t be going there for my Easter cards.
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I met Two Famous Men
At lunch in Behan’s last Thursday I ran into Billy Keane and Michael Healy Rae having a chat. I disturbed them to bring you this.
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From Pres. Yearbook 1988
1987/88 was a great year for sport in the school. There were many exceptionally talented basketballers and footballers among the pupils.
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A Very Grim Fact
1740 to 1742 was the longest period of extreme cold in modern European history.
With rivers frozen, coal could not be delivered to ports, Animals and fish died. Birds fell dead out of the sky, having been frozen to death in flight. Starvation and hypothermia killed thousands of people.
I peeped in and the interior has had all the fridges taken out and Mr. Price type shelving installed.
In Listowel now I count 4 shops selling helium inflated balloons. We must be doing some celebrating.
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Another Honour for Mike the Pies
Mike the Pies is a huge Listowel success story. It is now one of Ireland’s topmost music and comedy venues.
The latest accolade is for Hot Press Live Music Venue of the Year.
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An Old One from Irelands Own
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From Pres Yearbook 1988
Artwork on the back cover
Denise, one of the many talented artists in the school then .
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All Grown Up
On the left is my granddaughter, Aisling. She was in Dublin at the weekend with her cousin, Charlotte. Aisling is dressed formally for her first gig as a gymnastics judge.
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A Fact
The winter of 1740 was so cold that rivers and lakes froze. People, unaccustomed to these new playing surfaces, held dances and carnivals on the ice. A hurling match took place on The Shannon and a Fair on the Lee.
Aoibhe Joy was selected as Listowel’s Community Rose for this year. She now goes forward with other Community Roses to compete for a place in this year’s festival.
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Listowel Drama Group
I have to return to the superb Big Maggie, now finished its run in St. John’s. Circumstances meant that I thought I had missed it but as soon the extra night was announced I booked my ticket.
The production values of this play were second to none. The acting from so many professional- standard well seasoned actors was breathtaking.
What I want to single out for mention here is the set…wow, just wow!
Look at John Kelliher’s picture above and notice the cash register, the signs, the old fashioned weighing scales, the jars of sweets but the coup de grace for me was the brown paper roller on the end of the counter. The bin of meal!!! I could go on. The attention to detail was impressive.
Walter Polpin wasn’t cold in his grave when the name over the door was changed. I’ll single out as well the impressive opening flat of the graveyard which was cleverly converted into the shop with a minimum of scene changing.
I’m glad I got to see this one. It will live long in the memory.
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A Fine North Kerry Musician
Story and pictures from The Irish Examiner
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A Poem
RHYME OF THE ANCIENT SHEDDERS.
(Written during the first lockdown.)
By Mattie Lennon.
Were you born since nineteen fifty four?
Then listen to my tale.
Since now I can’t go past the door
It’s worse than being in jail.
The Mens’ Shed basks in silence now
Dead ashes in the grate.
The powers that be will not allow
Us meet or congregate.
Trips to historic places
Postponed till God knows when
And absence of the faces
Of jolly Mens- Shed men.
Restrictions with good reason
Our precious lives to save,
But it’s Limbo land this season
No wooden beams we’ll shave.
Sans banter, cakes or mugs o’ tay
The shedders felt marooned
Spin-doctors soon came into play
‘Twas simply called “cocooned.”
The sound of saws and lathe no more
No smoke or leaping flames.
We miss the sawdust on the floor
And elders calling names.
No forty verses now from Jack
Or the Micks with Niall and Noel.
No poems or songs or mighty craic
To elevate the soul.
Poor remedy for culture shocks
Are Zoom and mobile phones.
We’ll have to take our stumbling blocks
And make them stepping stones.
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A Fact
Before the Great Famine of the 1840s, Ireland experienced a famine in the years of 1740 to ’42. Extreme cold weather over all of Europe resulted in hundreds of deaths.
In Ireland it is believed that 100.00 to 300,000 out of a population of 2.4 million perished.
With just a couple of hours to go the people at Áras Mhuire are delighted to announce that there will be a disco with DJ FATZ after the selection takes place in The Listowel Arms Hotel! Entry is included in the ticket price. So get your dancing shoes on and we look forward to seeing you all Friday night!
Tickets available to purchase by calling
(085) 883 0746 or (068) 21470
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Big Maggie in St. John’s
John Kelliher took these brilliant photos of this excellent production by Listowel Drama Group of the John B. Keane classic.
Well done all. Great night’s entertainment.
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Could it Happen again?
This time in Dublin.
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In 1988 the Musical was Oliver
from the 1988 yearbook
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A Fact
The blackbird is a member of the thrush family. Reliable estimates of the number of breeding pairs of blackbirds in Ireland now is 1,800,000.
