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
St. Patrick’s Day mass in St. Mary’s Listowel as legendary Listowel dancing master, Jimmy Hickey, dances before the altar with two of his star former pupils, Jonathan Kelliher and Patrick Brosnan.
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Meanwhile in New York
The New York Kerryman were out in force, joined this year by a Listowel Kerryman, Jimmy Moloney, Mayor of County Kerry.
Denis Hegarty sent us some pictures. That’s Denis back in his usual spot proudly carrying the banner of The Kerrymen’s association.
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People I met at the Parade
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A Puzzle
Is this the flag of Palastine?
Why is it flying in Ballybunion on St. Patrick’s Day?
Very strange?
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Some Placenames
Triopal…a bundle of rushes
Billeragh, Biolarach…A Place with cress
Ballygrennane, Baile an Ghrianain…the sunny homestead
Ennismore, Inis Mór, The big peninsula
Bedford, Ath an Turais, A ford on the way to the holy well
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A Poem from Joe Fahy
Exploitation
Culture to Cain, the importance of label In expressing social status. Economic power, its Everest, from the steppingstone It’s foundation, the rock of exploitation. It’s superiority, its status, Who pays for the products on the table? It’s resources from third world locations. Mixed by and through manipulation, Political in essence The priesthood of power, Political domination, Economic exploitation, Social and Cultural Marginalisation. Our menus, From first world T.V. stations Emphasis on ‘having.’ Children forever grieving, Totalitarian values at the Crucifix of consumption. The two thieves of much And more, on either side- Twin towers of greed. But resurrection is guaranteed- The first of the Nazarenes’ Abel, in our era. Remember apartheid, Our contemporary Roman Era. That fella of the sixties, Nelson Mandela. Romero in the eighties, Ignacio Ella Curia in the nineties, The new Holy Land Cuscatlán, Meaning, ‘land of Rivers and Jewels’ El Salvador, our Saviour.
Liam Brennan as St. Patrick, the flags, the crowds, the music, the sunshine…a St. Patrick’s Day to remember in Listowel.
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Shamrocks’, Bicycles, Ukraine flags…March 17 2022 in Listowel
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Some people I met
Everyone was in great form, delighted to be outdoors and back together again. St. Patrick’s Day 2022 had lifted the spirits of everyone I met.
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Meanwhile in Malahide
Éamon ÓMurchú took these shots at an event in Malahide. fireworks are notoriously hard to photograph. These are brilliant images.
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I had some gymnasts in the house
On a beautiful sunny evening in March in Ballybunion you wouldn’t know if you were on your head or your heels.
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A Few Local Placenames
Fourhane, Fuarthán…There is cold spring well here which gave this downland its name.
Ballynagowan…Baile na Gabhan The home of the blacksmith
Kilmorna….Cill Mórna The church of Morna. Legend has it that there was a graveyard here and a the remains of a lady called Mórna were found there.
Tanavala…An tSeanbhaile, the old homestead
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Ballydonoghue Bardic Festival 2022
One for the diary1
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Bono’s poem for Ukraine
Oh, St Patrick he drove out the snakes With his prayers but that’s not all it takes For the snake symbolises An evil that rises And hides in your heart, as it breaks And the evil has risen my friends From the darkness that lives in some men But in sorrow and fear That’s when saints can appear To drive out those old snakes once again And they struggle for us to be free From the psycho in this human family Ireland’s sorrow and pain Is now the Ukraine And St Patrick’s name now Zelenskiy
“I’ve a tradition of sending a limerick to [Pelosi’s] St Patrick’s Day lunch over the years,” Bono said on Twitter. “This year the limerick is irregular & not funny at all. We stand with the people of Ukraine & their leader.” Bono also said the poem “wasn’t written to be published”, but after much attention he released it on U2’s Twitter page.
Éamon ÓMurchú, Kay Caball, Pat White and Jim MacMahon
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Ballydonoghue Parish Magazine
Ballydonoghue Parish magazine is a credit to everyone associated with it over the years. It is a treasure, eagerly awaited at home and abroad every year. So many of these precious local journals have ceased to publish and their loss leaves a huge gap in our tapestry of local history and memories.
I take my hat off to the good people of Ballydonoghue.
The 2022 Ballydonoghue Parish Magazine committee at a function at The Thatch, Lisselton February 19 2022.
Front: Maria Leahy, Jim Finnerty, Áine Canavan, Colette O’Connor and John F Keane. Back: Seán Linnane, Ger Moran, Mike Gilbert, Ann Foley, Seán Stack and David Kissane.Material is being accepted now for the 2022 edition and may be emailed to magazine@ballydonoghue.net or posted to BPM, Lisselton PO, Co Kerry.
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A Dan Keane Limerick
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Matt Mooney’s Photo
Matt shared this photo of Vocational School boys on Facebook…no dates and no names except for Matt himself on the back left and Michael Gaine on the back right.
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Old Ballybunion
Ballybunion Tourist Office shared this beach scene as it was 1930 to 1950
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In Time of War
Mattie Lennon sent us this;
“Hitler was running riot through Poland with very little opposition. The cream of the British Army, battered and broken, had their backs to the sandy walls of Dunkirk. The Listowel Grenadiers of the LDF were gathered in Eddie Scanlon’s pub making feverish plans to invade Russia…..
“The Listowel LDF after much liquid discussion, in Eddie Scanlon’s Bar, decided not to invade Russia after all”.
Ballybunion Golf Course January 16 2022; Photo; Catherine Moylan
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I don’t know much about this photo except that Bryan MacMahon and John B. Keane and others are on the back of Stuart Stack’s truck. Any help with identifying the others and telling us when where and why this photo was taken would be great.
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Local Lore and Legend
Newmarket man, Raymond O’Sullivan is a great man for local lore. Here is his Facebook post about St. Ita.
St. Ita, the patron saint of Killeedy and Co. Limerick, is also called ‘The Foster Mother of the Saints of Ireland’. Among her many illustrious foster children was none other than St. Brendan, the Navigator, who was brought to Killeedy when he was one year old and stayed until he was six.Her çult remains strong in the hill country along the Cork, Kerry, Limerick borderlands. One unusual feature of the cult is letting the Christmas decorations up until after her feastday on the 15th of January. Not sure if it is out of laziness or devotion to her that I continue to observe this custom. Probably a bit of both. We got married on her feastday, and, when unsure of the anniversary date over the years, a discreet inquiry about St. Ita’s ‘pattern’ got me out of many a potentially perilous situation.
Shrine to St Ita in Killeedy, Co. Limerick
Stained glass window of St. Ita in The Oratory in Gougane Barra
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Your Help Sought
I am trying to trace any (relatives) or people that may know of/ be related to my Grandfather, John Sylvester Horan.
My hubby is doing my family tree My mum, ( who died in 1990) was orphaned when she was 9 yrs. She told me that she was led to believe her father was a bigamist but, I have found through ancestry that he was in fact a widower when he left for Liverpool. I only know that his 1st wife was called Sarah.
John was born in 1886 in Listowel. I know this is a massive long shot, but maybe someone may know something.
Thank you so much, Patricia Jones…South Wales x
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Telling Stories
This little piggy….
Aoife and I had great old chats on her recent visit. I can’t wait to share all the family secrets with her.
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The one who came back to say thanks
John O’Leary contacted Listowel Connection to thank his former teacher in Rossmacowen Primary School, Miss Enright of Bridge Road. He remembered her with gratitude. We tracked down the Sheila Enright in question and John’s gratitude and kind words will be conveyed to her.
This is from John’s latest letter;
Hi Mary,
I can not thank you enough for all your time and effort in tracing my primary school teacher, Sheila. I moved into the fourth class as Sheila arrived at our school. Sheila was kind and always showed interest in your progress, caring, taking time to explain the subject, never telling you off. It was a time of learning. The classroom was always welcoming with displays and all the flowers on the window board and on her desk. There was the open fire with all the bottles of drinks for lunch time, as from Oct to March we all brought a sod of turf for the fire and at lunch time we went up through the fields to collect wood for the fire. My last years in primary school were so memorable. Thanks to Sheila or, as we would say, Miss Enright.
