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
Author: listowelconnectionPage 34 of 190
Mary Cogan, retired from teaching in Presentation Secondary School, Listowel, Co. Kerry. I am a native of Kanturk, Co. Cork.
I have published two books; Listowel Through a Lens and A minute of your Time
These new murals have replaced the old ones in the lane beside St. Patrick’s Hall. I got my visiting granddaughter to pose with the wall art for us.
These lovely pieces are designed with a gap for you to pose in.,
Aren’t they lovely?
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A Poem
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From the Newspaper
Shared online by Patsy and Frances Kennedy
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Siamsa Tire in the U.S.
From newspaper archives
Irish Advocate NEW YORK, N.Y. SAT. NOV. 13, 1982
Irish Folk Theatre to Perform in U. S.
Siamsa Tire, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, -will stage performances at nine centres throughout the United States from October 31st through November 15th. Siamsa recaptures in music, song and dance the many facets of rural life in Ireland during the period when Irish was the spoken language. It is performed nightly during the summer months in Tralee, County Kerry.
Directed and devised by Father Pat Ahern, the three-act performance, with cast of twenty-five, skilfully portrays traditional household and farm chores—churning the butter, plying the spinning wheel, threshing the corn, milking the cows—and features Ireland’s many folk customs, blessings and strange superstitions. All ends in a lively harvest festival dance. In bringing to life Ireland’s ancient culture in its many moods and merriment, Siamsa Tire offers the theatre lover unique and spectacular entertainment.
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A Fact
Wild Bill Hickock’s brother, Lorenzo, was nicknamed Tame Bill Hickock.
‘Comma’ butterfly resting on the Rudbeckia Goldstrum flower in the Wexford garden of Mick O’Callaghan who took the photo in August 2024.
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In Kildare Town
When visiting the Kildare branch of the family, I took a few photos in the town.
Cill Dara means the church of the oak. Oaks and acorn symbols abound in the town.
Kildare people are pretty proud of this fellow too. The statue of Bill “Squires” Gannon, the first person to hold “Sam Maguire”, stands in the Square.
“Regarded as one of Kildare’s greatest-ever players, Gannon was a regular member of the starting fifteen during the team’s golden age of the 1920s. During that time he won two All-Ireland medals and four Leinster medals. An All-Ireland runner-up on two occasions, Gannon captained the team to the All-Ireland title in 1928.” (Source; Facebook)
Recent mural of St. Brigid
The community mosaic is on the wall of the Heritage Centre
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Poem
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Music in The Square
Clíona Cogan in The Square on Saturday August 10 2024. Clíona was enjoying the music.
There will be music in Listowel Town Square on the next three Saturdays. Last Saturday the musicians were Ian O’Shea and friends. I don’t know if next Saturday’s musicians will be different. If they are, be warned, lads, you have a very hard act to follow. Last Saturday’s music was top class. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Some Olympics Lore
(research by Jer Kennelly)
Edward Barrett of Rahela, Ballyduff:
Edward Barrett was born in Rahela, Ballyduff in 1882 to father Thomas and mother Bridget Whelan. He joined the City of London Police. In 1901 he won an All Ireland Hurling medal as a member of the London Irish Hurling team that beat Cork in the All-ireland final. At the 1908 Olympic Games held in London he won an Olympic Gold medal as a member of the City of London Police Tug- of -War team, he also won an Olympic Bronze medal in the heavyweight freestyle wrestling. He married Julia McCarthy in 1910 in Middlesex. They are on the 1911 Census in High Holborn and I can trace them both in Electoral rolls until 1926 in St Pancras area – Chalk Farm, Regents Street and Kentish Town Road. He died c 1930s.
John James Barrett:
John James was born 1879, represented Britain at the 1908 Olympics and was a brother of Edward Barrett.
Tim Ahearne and his brother, Dan Ahearne from Dirreen, Athea.
They emigrated to the United States, Tim Ahearne had won the 1909 AAA long jump championship, in America Dan Ahearn set the first IAAF-recognized triple jump with 50-11 (15.52) in May 1911. He won the AAU triple jump in 1911 and 1913-1918, mostly defeating Tim, who was runner-up in 1911, 1913-14, and 1916. Tim Ahearne born August 18, 1885 died December 1968. Tim Ahearne won the gold medal in the triple jump at 1908 Olympics held in London. Dan came 6th in the Olympics in 1920 triple jump, he was born in 1888 and died 1942.
LEAHY Family of Creggane
Seven brothers Leahy all atheletes. Pat and Con were the first brothers to win Olympic medals. First brothers to two Olympic medals each. The first family to win olympic medals in all three jumping events.
Martin Sheridan won a total of nine Olympic medals.
Michael Collins of Currans competed in the free style discus at the 1908 London Olympics games.
1900 High Jump Pat Leahy of Creggane won SILVER 1.78m
1900 Long Jump Pat Leahy BRONZE 6.95m
1900 Hammer John Flanagan GOLD 51.01m
1904 3,000m S/C John Daly SILVER 7.40.61
1904 Hammer John Flanagan GOLD 51.23m
1904 Decathlon Tom Kiely GOLD 6,036 pt
1908 High Jump Con Leahy of Creggane won SILVER 1.88m
1908 Triple Jump Tim Ahearne of Athea won GOLD 14.92m
1908 Shot Putt Denis Horgan SILVER 13.62m
1908 Hammer John Flanagan GOLD 51.92m
Jer. tells me that the Ahernes and the Leahys had cousins in Knockanure.
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A Fact
Fidel Castro estimated that he saved 10 working days a year by not bothering to shave,
Photo credit; Paul Madigan, Blackwater Photographic Society
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In Kildare
Recently I spent a lovely few days in Kildare Town. Symbols of Kildare’s heritage are everywhere in The Square.
This building has been repurposed as The Kildare Town Heritage Centre.
St. Brigid presides over everything in Kildare town.
This is one of the many murals dotted all around the town. This one celebrates the town’s long connections with horse racing.
Utility boxes, litter bins, gable walls, it looks like every usable surface has a piece of public artwork on it.
The horse charging into town on this wall is part of there Legends trail.
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A Medieval Poem
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Sportstar with a Listowel Connection
While we are recovering from Paris 2024, here’s this from the archives.
On the left is Helen Lyons whom I photographed a few years ago with her lovely mother. Helen’s mother has passed away now. Her more famous brother passed away in 2018. Here is his Olympic story…
Pat Leane competed at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics, appearing in the decathlon both times, finishing ninth in 1956. He also competed in the high jump and long jump in 1952. Leane won the 1960 Australian Championship in decathlon, and two weeks after that won the Victorian title with a personal best. In all, he won six Victorian decathlon championships, and also finished second at the 1957 Australian Championships in the javelin throw. In 1979 Leane was still competing, finishing 15th in the Victorian decathlon event, while competing alongside his sons, Brendan and Pat Jr.
Below is an article written a few years before his first Olympics. This was sent to me a few years ago by Monica and John Summers who live in Australia.
PAT’ S A STAR ALL-ROUNDER
Rugged PatLeane has impressive records for almost everything on the athletic field. He has hopes of Helsinki
TWENTY – TWO – YEAR – OLD’ six-footer Pat- Leane, of Oakleigh, 13 stone of Irish pluck, must be Victoria’s most versatile amateur athlete.
Australian Olympic selectors have so far overlooked him, but happy-go-lucky, curly-haired Pat hasn’t given up hope yet.
He’s going to make one last do-or-die bid to crash his way into the Helsinki team this month. And rugged Pat can do it if anyone can.
Tomorrow he will be in the last stage of the stiff Victorian decathlon championship – the perfect outlet for his varied and out-standing talents.
Title-holder Leane‘s best total so far has been 5,886points. But he’s training hard daily, and is sure he can reach the Olympic standard of 7,000 points, provided he is not hampered by adverse weather or track conditions.
Talk to the star and you find him almost excessively modest, but his list of best performances easily qualify him as the State’s leading cne-man athletic team.
Here they are:
High Jump: 6ft. 5¿in.
Broad Jump: 24ft. 23in.
Hop, Step, and Jump:
44ft. 6in.
Pole Vault: 10ft. 9in.100 Yards: 10.1sec.220 Yards: 23.3sec.
440 Yards: 51.7sec.
Javelin Throw: 165ft.Shot Put: 38ft.
Discus Throw: 128ft. 6in.120 Yards
Hurdles: 16.9 sec
1,500 Metres: 5.20
Pat has already proved him-self Australia’s best broad and high jumper this season, and recently became the only athlete to better the Olympic standard of 6ft. 4in. for the high jump.
When he’s not concerned with improving his athletic form, schoolteacher Pat is also well up in the football world. A brilliant centre half-forward, he played with Association club Oakleigh in 1947-48-49, and Golden Point, Ballarat, in ’50
For recreation he plays a keen game of tennis, and in his spare time plays the piano!
A natural athlete, Pat began picking up sport trophies as a12-year-old at De La Salle College, Malvern. He was good at football, cricket, and handball,and school champion in the 100and 220 yards, high and broad jumps, and shot put.
He had some early tips from De La Salle honorary coach. BobWright, and now gets a little advice occasionally from “Pop”Gordon, well-known University coach. Mostly, however, he trains by himself, and figures out his own schedules.
“It’s more fun that way,” he says.
Experts believe he has such terrific potential that If he had been coached consistently over the last 10 years he would now be in top international class in any one of his strong events. But Pat, undisturbed, likes to have a go at everything,although he prefers jumping.
For his decathlon training Pat Is building up stamina with two six-minute miles once a week, and improving technique on five other days.
Pat‘s future is uncertain. His burning ambition is to represent Australia at the Olympic Games. But if he doesn’t go to Helsinki, his athletic career may be cut short.
Pat’s engaged to a Ballarat girl, and a tempting offer has been made for him to play professional football with North Melbourne.
He makes no attempt to disguise his love for athletics, but professional football would help him establish a home. It would also immediately disqualify him as an amateur.
Pat’s’ parents hail from County Kerry, and they’re mighty proud of their son.
“But,” says Pat with a smile probably they reckon he’d be a world-beater at the good old Irish game of hurley.
“that’s one game at which I’d draw the line -it’s too tough!”
– Alan Trengove
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A Fact
You can buy cannabis in the U.S. …as birdseed!
The feathers of birds who feed on it have a glossy sheen,
My Cork family had a bit of a staycation in Killarney. Rain, mist and wind was the order of the day.
One of the highlights was having deer grazing on their lawn.
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My Staycation
I had a lovely break with my Kildare family. Be forewarned. I’ll be posting Kildare photos for a while.
I travelled by train from Cork. Cork railway station, when the stations were renamed to commemorate the signatories of the 1916 proclamation of independance, got Thomas Kent.
I like to arrive early. I had plenty of time for a wander around the station. This is what I saw.
There are opportunities for entertainment in the foyer as well.
the “take a book; leave a book” library is a good idea but….. the selection was poor and displayed on open shelves in a very busy area. The books were old and grubby. To be successful, the books need to be protected from dirt and dust. They need to be replaced regularly and displayed in a tidy and inviting manner. It wouldn’t take much to make this a very useful service for travellers.
Next stop Portlaoise…
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A Horsey Photo
Photo; Fred Ward
My brother, Pat, admiring Felicity’s horse at a recent show
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The Joys of Gardening
by Mick O’Callaghan
Cabbages and Catterpillars
Whenever I hear the word butterfly, I recall my late father and his horror when he saw the cabbage butterfly, or large white, appear in the garden in summer. He grew a lot of cabbage, and the white butterflies loved to lay their eggs on the cabbage leaves and the ensuing caterpillars could devour lots of cabbage overnight.
I was appointed the exterminator person to dispose of these eggs before they emerged into caterpillars. I rather enjoyed my role as inspector of cabbage leaves. You had a choice of squashing them or throwing them into a bucket of water. I was successful in protecting the cabbage crop most years. There was also an added incentive in that I was allowed sell some fresh cabbage every day and enjoyed the pecuniary reward for my labours and industry.
I, like many more people admired the butterfly who got all the publicity and admiration, because of their elegant colours and flight patterns, while their offshoot commandos, the caterpillars, did all the destruction of the cabbage crop and later devoured our nasturtium leaves as well.
Apart from my father’s hatred of the large white we loved to see the Red Admiral butterfly appear and we ran around after them with our jars and lids to catch them and have a close-up view of them. We never damaged any and they were released quickly.
I also loved the ‘Comma” butterflies which appears around gardens and woods and are particularly fond of areas where nettles flourish . I have seen quite a few in our garden this year despite our lack of nettles. They are very like the ‘Tortoise Shell’ butterfly and are very attractive with their light brown colouring.
Pride of place must go to the “Peacock Butterfly’ for all its beautiful colours. We have noted quite a few of them in the woods this summer season. They frequent an area near the river where nettles abound. They are truly aesthetically beautiful and add so much colour to the environment they inhabit.
All butterflies start as tiny eggs and then out comes wriggly caterpillars ready to gorge on juicy cabbage and other leaves. Later the caterpillar makes a chrysalis and starts to change. In the season after the chrysalis the caterpillar has turned into a lovely butterfly after the cocooning and is ready to fly and start the whole metamorphism all over again.
Mohammed Ali was one of the greatest boxers of all time. I remember him being asked about his style of boxing and his movement in the ring. He said, “I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” What a lovely description of his boxing performance. You can mentally paint a picture of a butterfly floating around the sky on a nice sunny day and then picture Mohammed’s ducking and diving and floating around the ring.
People use butterflies to describe nervousness. Before any tense situation a person might say, “I’ve got butterflies in my tummy, ‘or” I’ve got butterflies flying around in my tummy”.
I leave the final bit of this to that lovely Danish writer of children’s’ literature, Hans Christian Anderson in his book ‘The Butterfly “when the butterfly says “Just living is not enough, one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower “.
Go on, be a daredevil, get out and taste the freedom of the great outdoors today and come home with lungs full of the fresh outdoor air and your nostrils full of the aromas and smells of the great outdoors. You might even see a butterfly and evoke some childhood summertime memories.
Mick O Callaghan
05/08/2024
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A Fact
The five Olympic rings are symbolic of the five continents, and the colours were chosen because they all appear on the flags of all the competing nations around the world.
She has made herself at home on every chair in the house.
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Returning to the home of his ancestors
Dr. Michael O’Connor opened a door to many many memories on July 31 2024. Michael is the third generation of Michael’s to open this door. His grandfather, also Dr. Michael O’Connor lived here and his father, Michael O’Connor, the great illuminator, lived in this house too.
The house is no longer a family home. It is now Kerry Writers’ Museum. Michael is here viewing for the first time his father’s beautiful celtic artwork on display. Michael was 16 when his father died and he never fully appreciated how talented his father was.
Michael with his wife and one of his daughters in the room where Michael O’Connor’s artwork is exhibited.
The travelling party included family and friends. They were entertained to a tour of the museum by Vincent O’Brien.
Here, Vincent, in the John B. Keane room is playing his bodhrán and singing them the Sive songs.
Stephen Rynne who has dedicated much time and effort into collecting the works of O’Connor gave the visitors a talk on how he discovered various pieces by the artist. Some very important commissioned works are still out there, awaiting discovery.
Jimmy Deenihan is anxious to promote the artworks and to raise the profile of this great local artist.
The U.S. branch of the O’Connor family at the door of No. 24.
When Dr. Michael visited here on summer holidays as a child he remembers coming down these steps to go to play marbles with the local children in The Square.
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Just a Thought
All of last week’s reflections which were broadcast on Radio Kerry will be in included in my new book
The book will be launched next month. Look out for details here.
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A Poem
I love to do crosswords. Recently I was doing the Simplex crossword with a little help from my son. The clue was a line from this poem with a word missing. Bobby had never heard of the Gray’s Elegy. Here it is (well, a bit of it) for all of us who learned it in school.
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Flowers and a Stone Wall
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From the Archives
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1910.
New York NY Irish American Advocate
Moore and Healy-—Kerry joins Cork. On Sunday last January 22, 1911, Cornelius F. Moore, of Newtownsandes , Co Kerry, and Miss Mary J. Healy, Ardgroom, Castletown Bere, Co. Cork, were joined in the bonds of matrimony at St. Mary’s Church, Bensonhurat, Brooklyn.
The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Father Wightman,P.P., of that church.
After the ceremony was performed the happy couple were convoyed by a host of friends and relatives to their new home at 576 Seventeenth street, Brooklyn, where they entertained a large crowd of relatives and friends and gave them a most enjoyable time until a late hour on Monday morning. Mr. Moore has been president of the Jolly Sports Social Club for the past five years and is highly esteemed by its members,
The brides-maid was Miss Hannah Healy, a cousin of the bride, and the best man was James Foran, of Ballyguiltanan, Co. Limerick.
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A Fact
Why do Olympic gold medal winners bite their medal?
It is a silly tradition that harks back to a time when buyers sometimes tried to trick merchants by passing off inferior metals as gold. The trader would bite into the coin to make sure he was not being cheated, Biting into gold leaves no teeth marks. The biting now is purely symbolic as the medals aren’t gold anyway.
