St. Patrick’s Hall in late August 2024
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Ta Dah!
It’s here…my beautiful new book, Moments of Reflection, is all done and ready for launch. Paul Shannon of Listowel Printing Works did an excellent job once again.
Mark this date in your calendar
Saturday September 21 2024
Please join me in The Listowel Arms at 7.00 p.m. We will read a few reflections and we will have a few songs.
And, of course I’ll be signing the books.
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Charles’ Street Cinderella
The late Mrs. O’Keeffe of Charles Street was a great lady for holding on to newspaper cuttings. Her daughter found this treasure among her collection. Rose (Guiney) Treacy shared it with us. We don’t have the exact date but sometime in the 1970s.
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A Stag in the National Park
Photo; Chris Grayson
This magnificent animal is pictured surrounded by ragworth. This yellow “weed” is everywhere this year. Once upon a time you would be fined if you allowed it to grow in your fields or ditches.
Ragworth is loved by pollinators. But it is poisonous to horses. Strangely, sheep thrive on it and in some parts of Kerry, farmers used to bring sheep down from the mountains to clear the fields of ragworth before putting the cattle out to pasture.
Maybe, over time, animals have become immune to it. I hope so, because, with the amount of it flourishing in roadside ditches this year, the emerald isle will soon be the yellow isle.
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Castlemaine
When Cora was with me this summer we took a little road trip. This trip took us through Castlemaine.
In the Square is this really big postbox. I hadn’t seen one this size before.
Sad to see many of the shops in this corner of town are now closed but the owners have painted them in bright colours and decorated the windows with scenes from times gone by.
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Date for the Diary
Lartigue Monorail Museum will feature on Nationwide on Wednesday next, September 4 2024, on RTE 1 at 7.00p.m.
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A Fact
According to readers’ letters in The Guardian on August 29 2024, expectant mothers in England in the 1950s, 60s and 70s were routinely prescribed a glass of Guinness a day.
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Michael Reddy
Here in North Wexford pregnant mothers were also prescribed a bottle of Guinness, I think after given birth. The local PP told my mother that she would not be breaking ‘ the Pledge’ if she put a spoon full of sugar in it as it then became medicine
Maire kolb nee Pierse
That play would have been 1976. I participated, and my name is Máire Pierse. Peggy was the heart and soul around the town. A wonderful persality and friend to all of us during that time. I was 9 years old. I remember all those girls. We had a great time. It was indeed a happy time, as I certainly didn’t like school that time with the nuns. Peggy used to work for my dad Robert Pierse at that time.