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

Author: listowelconnection Page 53 of 193

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

Arise, Knocknagoshel

By

On April 19, 2024

In Listowel, Poem, Tarbert

Upper William Street on an April Sunday in 2024.

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Another Story from my Knocknagoshel Phoenix

“Meetings” were election rallies, Trump style, but on a much smaller scale.

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Tarbert Ferry 2006

Some of my old pictures of the Tarbert Ferry

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Michael Hartnett’s Last Aisling

James Kenny found a copy of handwritten poem and David O’Sullivan found a print copy.

Now Vincent Carmody has been in touch.

Mary, 

Both hand written and printed Aislings are credited as written by Michael Hartnett, both dated 10 June 1991, one has John B’s name,  however, looking at the newspaper copy, dated Sunday, June 9th 2002, the poet has dedicated it to John B.,, in a line of the Aisling, it is not John B’s name thats mentioned, rather his brother, Eamon Keane.

I wonder is this due to the fact that John B, had died, 12 days previous, on May 30th 2002.

It would be nice to see the published version, Book of Strays, which was due to be brought out by The Gallery Press in September 2002.

Vincent.

If someone has Book of Strays, would you please look up the poem and see to which Keane brother it is dedicated.

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A Fact

Pedestrian crossings have gone from Zebra to Panda to Pelican. Zebra crossings allow pedestrians the right of way. They can cross when ever they want as soon as the traffic stops. Panda crossings are controlled by lights which stop the traffic at regular intervals to allow the build up of pedestrians to cross. Pelican crossings are the on-demand ones we are familiar with. The pedestrian presses a button to stop the traffic.

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A Song and Dance

By

On April 18, 2024

In Listowel

Listowel Courthouse in April 2024

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Duagh Family Recalled

An email;

Hello Mary,

I recently purchased and read Teampall Bán by John Pierse and found it most interesting. I would be pleased if you are able to convey my thanks to his family for his writing of the book.

My interest in Listowel is somewhat distant. Some forebears of mine – Bartholomew (Bhatt) Barry and Ellen Connell – on my late mother’s side married in Duagh in 1846.

I have absolutely no idea what they did in Duagh. Both were born there in the early 1820s and they had a child in 1849.

By 1851 Bhatt, and by 1853 all three, were living in Hampshire, where their second and only other child, my great grandfather Daniel, was born that same year. By 1871 the family was in Islington. 

It’s almost 20 years since we visited Ireland properly, and Duagh briefly. How time flies. 

Best Regards

Clive Hardy

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A Find

I told you that I love to find a treasure in the swap box in the library.

I found this there recently.

This page of ads was inside the front cover.

This article gives us an insight into a bygone era in Ireland.

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The Big Busk

This fundraiser in aid of Focus Ireland was help on Friday, April 12 2024. The Fealegood Band entertained the crowd in Garvey’s Super Valu.

Photos shared by Garvey’s on social media.

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A Poem

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A Fact

Funds left in the will of Swedish chemist, Alfred Nobel, established the Nobel Prize.

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The Frances and Sonny Show

By

On April 17, 2024

In Listowel, Personal, Poem

Áras an Phiarsaigh in April 2024

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Great Show in The Glen

Friday, April 12 2024 was a special day for our own Frances Kennedy. She and I were back on our home turf of North Cork in The Glen Theatre, Banteer. Frances was performing and I was in the audience.

The show was a Frances Kennedy and Sonny Egan special. Frances looked ever so glamorous and Sonny was his usual understated self.

Didn’t I capture him well on a borrowed phone from my seat in the second row?

It was a big night for Frances. She was celebrating a roundy birthday. And it was forty years to the day since she met Patsy. Frances and Patsy met on her first day in Listowel, which was also her twentieth birthday. Meeting Patsy put paid to her plans to emigrate to the U.S., she told us. Thank you, Patsy.

Sonny and Frances sang, danced, played and told stories to the delight of the appreciative audience. The highlight of the night was a rare duet from Patsy and Frances.

It was a great night’s entertainment from two very versatile, talented performers.

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Maureen Sweeney

I told you last week that An Post was commemorating Maureen Flavin Sweeney with a postmark.

Eleanor Belcher sent us this obituary from The London Times.

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From Pres Yearbook 04/05

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Horses!

Luckily horses love mud, almost as much as pigs do. Fields are saturated these times but these two boyos were delighted to be allowed to play outdoors for the first time without their coats.

As he frolicked around the field, kicking up mud in all directions, it was hard to believe that Henry is 24 years old.

These best buds love a bit of mutual grooming.

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A Fact

In 1914 in Brussels the first non direct blood transfusion was performed by Dr. Albert Hustin.

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Remembering and Celebrating

By

On April 16, 2024

In Just a Thought, Listowel, Poem

Charles Street, April 6 2024

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Forty Years of Gardening

Radio Kerry’s lovely new wagon was the first indication that today was a big day at Listowel Garden Centre.

Forty years in business for the MacAuliffe Roberts family

There were raffles every hour on the hour in aid of Listowel Hospice.

A great day of celebration and fun.

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Remembering Michelle

It is always unbelievably sad when a yearbook contains an obituary. Michelle had only just left Pres. and her memory was still very much alive in the school when she died. She made a mark. May she rest in peace

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Just a Thought

Here is the link to my reflections in the Just a Thought slot on Radio Kerry last week.

Just a Thought

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Immigrant Communities in Britain

This is Rook Street in London in 1912. There was a large Irish community in the Poplar area in the East end of London in the early 1900s. This photograph shows local residents preparing for their Corpus Christi procession.

The photograph is part of a collection in the National Archives in Britain. The postcard was sent to me by Ethel Corduff (formerly Walsh of Tralee). Ethel has a great interest in immigration and immigrant communities. It was she who studied and documented the story of Irish girls training as nurses in British hospitals. Her important book, Ireland’s Loss, England’s Gain tells their story.

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A Poem

John McAuliffe doesn’t find an empty house creepy at all.

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Today’s Fact

During the 1950s atomic bomb tests were a popular tourist attraction in Las Vegas.

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The Stunning to Headline Revival 2024

By

On April 15, 2024

In Listowel

Charles Street, Sunday April 6 2024

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A Find

James Kenny found this copy of Michael Hartnett’s Last Aisling in the poet’s handwriting, dated and signed. I’m presuming the original is in the Hartnett archive.

David O’Sullivan located the poem in an old Sunday Independent.

An Aisling is a genre of Irish poetry. In it Ireland appears to the poet in the form of a beautiful woman. She tells him her troubles but encourages him and gives him hope for help is on the way.

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The Stunning

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Pres. Yearbook 2004-2005

Cover design by Joan Stack

A great year for basketball

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Jer’s find in the Newspaper Archives

Irish Examiner Saturday, 27 January, 1894;

A KERRY Missionary. Among those selected by the Holy Father to go forth during the present year to preach the Gospel in foreign parts, is the Rev Thomas Griffin, a young Kerryman, who comes of a family which have given many faithful and zealous servants to the Church. Father Griffin, who is a son of Mr Jeremiah Griffin, formerly of Listowel, and late of Queenstown, was educated at the College of the Pious Society of Missions (to which Order he belongs) at Rome, where be was ordained last autumn, and had a most successful collegiate career, acquiring in addition to the indispensable classical and theological curriculum, a thorough knowledge of French, Italian, Spanish and German, which he speaks with fluency and ease.

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A Fact

In 1937 laminated glass in vehicle windscreens became mandatory in Britain. My calendar didn’t tell me if Ireland followed suit but there was little or no vehicle manufacturing going on here anyway. Factories like Ford assembled cars from parts imported into their Cork plant.

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