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
Still the king of the castle but sheltering from the heat.
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The Blessed Well in Kilshenane
From Closing the Circle, an anthology of the poems of John McGrath
Hare
I met a hare along the road today,
Tall as a greyhound.
He hopped towards me,
hesitated,
hopped again,
stopped to listen
to my freewheel click,
then turned and loped away.
I gazed in grateful awe
as with each simple spring
the distance grew between us,
marvelled how his quiet grace
belied his hidden power.
Then with one bound
he cleared a ditch
and disappeared from view
leaving me to wonder.
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Dancing in the 1970s
Those were the days.
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Church Street Tattoo
Our local tattooist was taking the opportunity in a lull in business to paint his door jamb.
He had a cancellation due to his client getting sunburnt.
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Master at Work
Martin Chute sign writing in the old fashioned way at Sheahan’s, Upper William Street on Saturday July 24 2021.
Martin was so focussed on his work, he wasn’t even aware I was photographing him. This man is the best at what he does. Listowel is blessed to have him working on our shopfronts.
Recently Éamon ÓMurchú visited Newbridge House and Farm in Donabate.
This is an exceptionally interesting visitor attraction bringing country life, old days and old ways within easy reach of Dublin.
Look at the old milk churns. They are a throwback to days when cows were milked by hand and the milk taken by the farmer to the creamery.
A collection of rakes, spades, scythe, sickles, slash hook, a hay knife, a sleán, a push mower and an implement on the lower right that baffles me.
Could it be a whet stone?
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Memory Lane
An old one of Jim Halpin chatting to a garda at the door of his military and historical museum.
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Wheelmaking
from Asdee National School in the Schools’ Folklore Collection.
The wheel is made in the following way – the stock which is made of elm is first chipped with a hatchet – it is then put into the dell and turned. The dell is twisted round with a handle and the carpenter is at the other side with his chizels until he has it rounded enough. He then marks it with two lines at about two inches apart. The lines are used as a guide for mortising the wheel. He then gets a compass and centers his wheel so as to have his mortises even for the spokes. He then dresses his spokes which are made of oak. The spokes are prepared in the following way – they are first cut with a saw about two feet long by three inches broad and two inches in thickness. He first cuts the tenant which fits into the mortice. Then he rounds the spokes with a hatchet. After this he works a drawing-knife for to clean it. Next he works a spoke-shave in it and then he brings it to perfection with a smoothing-plane. When he has his spokes dressed he drives them into the stock. Then he gets a trammel for to get the round of the wheel for to give him a guide to mark his fellows. He then cuts the end of the spokes to fit into the fellows. The fellows are made into six parts and are a kind of bent to bring in the circle of the wheel. He then bores two holes on each fellow with an augur in order to fit them into the spokes. It is then taken to the forge and shod with an iron band. COLLECTORMaureen D. O’ Connor
I met these girls at the Community Market in Ballybunion. They were selling Digiwiz products and doing a great job of promoting this local business.
“Learn how the digital world works in a constructive way and how it can be used for more than social media and video games.” This quote is from the Digiwiz website. This Tralee based business aims to enthuse young people to engage with technology in a fun way.
I bought a small robot in kit form and the lovely girls gave me some batteries and a screwdriver to get us going. I’ll try it on some grandchildren and keep you posted.
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The Queen in Coronation Street
Coronation Street is my favourite soap.
Over the years several members of the royal family have visited the set. Vera Duckworth famously claimed to be a distant relative of the Windsors.
Queen Elizabeth was the latest royal to visit the cobbles.
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A New Old Word
I had a delicious morning coffee in The Horseshoe. The scones were beautifully presented, doily and all. They were fresh out of the oven, and served with jam and cream and all the butter you want.
But the new word I want to introduce to you is bojonter. I asked for my coffee in a mug rather than a coffee cup and this beautiful Woodford Pottery mug arrived on the table. It was a fine big mug that I know a certain sister in law of mine would describe as a bojonter. I had heard her use the word for a big vessel of any beverage but I didn’t really know where the word came from.
So I asked the host. Gerry not only told me what a bojonter is, he showed me one on the shelf in the bar.
This is a bojonter of Guinness and that measure is still available today.
Presentation Sisters, Listowel when they lived in the convent in Greenville. Most of these lovely women have now passed away but the memories linger.
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An Act Of Civil Disobedience….Ploughing the Cow’s Lawn
Over the years since I’ve been writing this blog, several local people have told me their family story of this incident from 100 years ago. Margaret Dillon, Eileen Sheridan and Paul Murphy have shared memorabilia with me from that time.
But it was very remiss of me not to acknowledge that yesterday’s account of the incident was researched and written by Kay Caball. Kay has done very thorough research into that time in Listowel’s history and she gave a most informative talk on it complete with photos and graphics a few years ago in The Seanchaí.
Another addendum to the story came to me yesterday in the form an email from Eamonn Dillon.
Eamonn wrote;
It is with great pleasure that I reach for my phone every morning just to see what new nugget or gem you have posted overnight. Thank you so much for your great work. I am sure that very many follow your blog but – and I include myself in their number – they do not either thank you or provide feedback. Your blog this morning was a particularly good example. I remember in the early 1980’s visiting the Old Folks Home at the hospital in Convent Street. One of the residents was John Joe Mulvihill who lived just up the road from me in Church Street. Indeed the name Mulvihill is still in plaster over the door to this day. He lived with his two sisters Aggie and, I think, Peg. All three are long gone now. I recall John Joe vividly describing the gathering of the Volunteers from the town itself as well as from the surrounding areas, the march to, and the gathering outside, the Estate Office , the specific orders to all Volunteers to gather peacefully, the marching into Lord Listowel’s fields, the ploughing of the fields and the general excitement. His mind was crystal clear and perfect and it is one of my regrets that I did not have the presence of mind to record him. He was one of the, I think, 13 men, who were arrested. He told me that he was sentenced to 3 months in jail for his participation. One of the reasons that he told me so much about it was because the man marching next to him was Edward (Ned) Stack from Carrueragh, (Knockanure Company) my maternal grandfather. On the day he was arrested, John Joe told me that Ned went left and he went right. Ned got away and John Joe was arrested!
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A Fact about Cake
” Let them eat cake’ was never said by a callous Marie Antoinette to starving Parisien revolutionaries who were demanding bread.
Cake is the translation given of the French brioche which isn’t really cake at all, just fancy bread. There is so much sugar in today’s bread that the line between cake and bread is very blurry today too.
The famous “let them eat cake’ line had been in use in France well before The Revolution. It was a kind of cliché for aristocratic decadence, implying that the rich eat fancy bread so if the poor are clamouring for bread why dont they go the whole hog and demand brioche. The slogan was used during the French Revolution for propaganda purposes.
Last time I was on the cliff walk there seemed to be some running repairs going on.
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Remembering
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LISTOWEL RACES 1938
Look at this account of the granting of licences in 1938 with dancing ’til 6.00 a.m in one of the many dancehalls and they even had open air dancing too. And they got a booze licence for a dance in a “Temperance Hall” in Dromolought!
Good times!
Kerry News Monday, September 19, 1938
At the Listowel District Court on Saturday, before Mr .C. S. Kenny, B.L., D.J..
This being the Annual Licensing Sessions and there being- no objections all publicans certificates were renewed.
RENEWALS.
Renewals of Wholesale Beer Dealers’ Licences were granted to Michael Dowling, Market Street, Listowel; Elizabeth Galvin, William Street, do.; George Gleasure, The Square, do., and Maurice O’Brien, Castle Inch, do.
Amedee Crowley, William Street, Listowel, was granted a renewal of General and Game Dealer’s Licences.
LISTOWEL RACES.
Agnes Macaulay, publican. The Square, Listowel, was granted an occasional licence for the Race Course Bar on the occasion of the Listowel Race Meeting.
THE ASTOR
Patk. Coffey, Tralee, was granted a temporary licence to hold dances at “The Astor” Cinema, Listowel, on the three nights of the forthcoming Listowel Race Meeting. The hours fixed are from 11 P.m. to 6 a.m. on each day.
OPEN AIR DANCE
Patk. Sheahan, Kilmore, Ballyduff was granted a licence to hold open air dances in Listowel on the three days of the Listowel Races from 12 noon to 8 p.m.
DANCE HALLS
The following were granted renewals of licences for dance halls: — Trevor Chute, proprietor of ” The Plaza,” Listowel. John Collins, in respect of Walsh’s Ballroom, Listowel. Michael Cronin, Secretary of the Lixnaw Coursing Club. Maurice Heffernan, owner of a hall situate at Shronebeirne, Duagh. John Curtin, in respect of a hall at Tourhane. Batt Joy, for the Bedford Hall. Timothy Kelly for a hall at Lisroe, Duagh. Timothy Langan in respect of the Lyons Memorial Hall, Duagh. Ml. Regan for the “Six Crosses” Hall. Michael Scannell, proprietor of Scannell’s Hall Listowel. Jerh. Whelan, In respect of a hall at Crotta. John Woulfe, for the Dromolought Temperance Hall.
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Witch Hunt
Witch hunt is a term which is back in use thanks to Donald Trump. He sees every investigation of his activities as a witch hunt. According to my “fact” book witch-hunting is a much misunderstood term.
Witchfinding was a trade in the seventeenth century. The witch finders were a bit like bounty hunters, a legitimate branch of the law.
Here are a few facts;
Witches were not all women. Men were also accused of witchcraft.
For an allegation of witchcraft to stick, the accuser had to prove that the alleged witch had actually harmed them.
Witches were not burned alive at the stake or elsewhere. They were hanged. Sometimes the body of the already dead (from hanging) witch was burned but not in all cases.
There were no mobs baying for witches blood. Most ordinary people were superstitious and feared having anything to do with those suspected of witchcraft.
Seventy five per cent of all witch trials ended in acquittal.