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
One of my Ballincollig grandchildren attends Gaelscoil Uí Riordáin.
I attend their show last week. It was hard to believe that they were just primary school fifth and sixth class pupils. They were superb.
There is my little Cora giving it socks as an exotic dancer.
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Tony O’Callaghan and the Listowel Police Mutiny
This is the Tony O’Callaghan plaque on display in Listowel Garda Barracks. It is a record of the names of the mutineers.
“On June 19th 1920, fourteen rank and file members of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Listowel defied the order of their superior officers and refused to hand over the control of the barracks to the British Military, and to adopt a shoot to kill policy against the local community. This incident – forever more known as the Listowel Police Mutiny – was a seminal event in the Irish War of Independence.” Kerry Writers Museum.
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Then and Now
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A Ballybunion Sunday
Essential training and practice for this vital service takes place on Sunday mornings in Ballybunion. My daughter-in-law took the photos.
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A Fact
A jiffy is an actual unit of time. It’s 1/100 of a second.
St. Mary’s Listowel on March 24 2023, Confirmation Day
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Vehicles in St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2023
Vintage vehicles are a part of St. Patrick’s Day tradition in Listowel.
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Tony O’Callaghan, Artist in Copper
Tony O’Callaghan of Listowel had presentation pieces commissioned for many prestigious people.
David O’Sullivan found these newspaper accounts of President ODalaigh’s visit to North Kerry. He was presented with a Tony O’Callaghan copper plaque by Listowel Town Council.
Some other examples of O’Callaghan’s work, treasured by their Listowel owners;
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Daffodil Day 2023
Some of the collectors who were out and about on March 24 2023.
Anti-government forces in the Irish Civil War attacked the Listowel and Ballybunion Railway several times in early 1923. Damage to the rolling stock and stations of the 9-mile monorail between the two Kerry towns, and the impracticalities of operating such a unique line in the newly consolidated Irish rail system, forced its permanent closure in October 1924.
Passengers and mail on the LBR had been targeted by Irish republican forces during the Irish War of Independence, 1919-1921. In January 1923, during the civil war, armed men forced the Ballybunion stationmaster to open the line’s office, goods store, and waiting room, which they doused with petrol and paraffin oil and set on fire. Within an hour a similar attack occurred at the Lisselton station, about halfway between the two terminuses.
Such destruction is generally attributed to the IRA forces opposed to the Irish Free State. These “irregulars” also cut down about 1,700 yards of telegraph wire and six poles between Listowel and Ballybunion, matching attacks along other Irish rail routes.
Nicknamed the Lartigue after inventor Charles Lartigue, the monorail was “suspended indefinitely” in early February 1923 due to the sabotage. Nearly 40 employees lost their jobs, impacting about 100 family members and ancillary businesses.
With the train out of service, a char-a-banc and motor car service began operating between the two towns, but it also came under attack in March.Once the civil war ended later that spring, the Lartigue was repaired in time for the busy summer season at Ballybunion, a seaside resort. By mid-July, the Freeman’s Journal reported the Lartigue “has already, particularly on Sundays, been taxed to almost its fullest capacity in the conveyance of visitors.”
Like the Lartigue, however, the national newspaper also would have its run ended in 1924.
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Then and Now
2007 and 2023
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Friends Reunited
Mary Sheehy met this lady twenty years ago on a pilgrimage to Lourdes. They met last week by chance in The Flying Saucer café, Listowel.
Across the Shannon Estuary, in North Kerry, lies the small coastal townland of Doon East. It was here in 1799 that the piper pictured here, Thomas McCarthy, or Tom Carthy, was believed to have been born. Tom learnt to play the uilleann pipes in his youth. He spent many hours walking the cliffs near his homeplace, about a mile from the seaside town of Ballybunion, practising on the pipes. The sound of the water and the wonderful view across the estuary to the Loop Head Peninsula in Clare is said to have inspired many of his tunes. With his haunting Irish airs and lively dance tunes he was a welcome figure in the houses of the gentry, and a well-known character in Ballybunion. No wedding or country dance in the area was complete without Tom and his pipes. For sixty-five years he entertained the crowds on Fair Days and Sundays in his favourite spot at Castle Green in the town. This was written about him in the Kerryman in 1934:
‘Through the long summer days, with his back to the old castle, he sent the notes of his music among the clouds or away across the ocean waves at Ballybunion, until he almost became part of the old ruin itself, his weather-beaten, age yellowed coat fitting perfectly with the grey-lichened ruins of the once lordly keep of the O’Bannins. In North Kerry still people speak of “Carthy’s Reel,” and often a musician is asked to play that dance tune which, through constant repetition by the old piper, came to be associated with him as his own composition, but is in reality the well-known “Miss McLeod’s Reel.” ‘
When Tom died in 1904 it was said he was 105, although he is listed in the 1901 Census as being 88. He had requested to be buried with his pipes but instead they were sold by a relative for £1. The buyer soon returned them, claiming they had started playing of their own accord in the night. These ‘enchanted’ pipes were then taken to London by a member of Tom’s family but eventually ended up, years later, with Comhaltas – I wonder where they are today?
( Shared online by Ballybunion Tourist Office)
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Birthday Boy
He wanted no fuss. However his friends in the Listowel Arms got a tip off. He doesn’t look a day over 60.
I never told you it was his birthday!
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A Great old Junior Griffin Story
Told first in 2007 but well worth repeating
In its early years Listowel Badminton Club was a mens club only and Eddie Faley, Mortimer Galvin, J. Farrell and others were members at that time. Ladies applied to be admitted but to no avail. It is said that Eddie Faley considered the females to be “A bloody nuisance”.
However he was prevailed upon to admit the ladies and grudgingly condescended, and in his first ever mixed doubles game his partner was one Aileen Cronin, and lo and behold, she became his life partner for many years to follow.
Indeed, it leads one to ponder on the seemingly unending number of romances that have blossomed through Badminton, and one feels that that the figure of Cupid should be depicted with a racquet and shuttlecock and not with the customary bow and arrow.
Listowel is very fortunate that yet another dance ticket was found in an old Library Book giving details of yet another dance ball but more importantly for the benefit of historians, the officers and committee of that time was listed.This dance, known as a wireless ball coupled with a fancy dress parade, was held also in the Gymnasium on Saturday March 1st 1924 .
It is interesting to note the data on this card such as the admission price where the men had to pay an old shilling more than the ladies, 8/6 pence compared to 7/6 pence.
There is nice line stating that “Mr. Dunne’s Orchestra is personally conducted”
The back page gives information on the Wireless Concert. (To the young people of today a wireless is now known as a Radio).
It states that “Subscriber will be entertained to a programme Broadcasted from the following stations; London; Paris; Bournemouth; Manchester and Glasgow.
Detailed Programme can bemseen in the Irish Independent of Saturday March 1st.
The set is fitted with the latest and most up-to-date-Loud Speaker”
With the IT technology that is available today the world has certainly come a long way since those updated loud speakers of 1924.
It is interesting to note that whilst Listowel had a wireless on March 1st, some days later, on March 6th, 1924, that Pope Pius XI had a wireless installed in Rome for the first time.
One wonders did he have some contact in Listowel who told him about this new form of communication, and did he, per chance, purchase it from McKenna’s of Listowel?
This lady, sitting frozen outside the door, is who we have to thank.
Mary O’Malley Young was a very pious lady. She settled in Ballybunion after her millionaire husband died. She befriended Fr. Mortimer O’Connor who was the parish priest. She built the church and the convent for the Sisters of Mercy. She built two houses in Ballybunion but ended her days in the convent she had built. Mary Young invested all of her inherited wealth in Ballybunion. She did not live to see St. John’s completed. Fr. O’Connor was very ill but dragged himself from his sick bed to bless the church on opening day in August 1897.
Fr. Mortimer O’Connor is buried before the side altar in St. John’s
According to Danny Houlihan’s great book, Ballybunion an illustrated history, the original Ballybunion Parish Church was in Doon. It was a much smaller, simpler church than St. John’s.
Doon church fell into decline as the mass goers moved to the more convenient St. John’s. Doon was located about a mile from the town . St. John’s was completed in 1897 and gradually the congregation moved to the Church in town. St. John’s was first intended as a second church as the Doon one was small but the arrival of the Lartigue railway in 1888 meant that there was demand for a church that could be easily accessed on foot.
St. John’s today is a must see visitor attraction if you are in Ballybunion. It is, of course also a busy place of worship.
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In Vincent’s
Listowel’s Vincent’s, the retail outlet of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is located at Upper William Street. These are some of the lovely volunteer customer assistants that you may meet there any opening day.
Vincent’s is open on Thursday and Fridays from 11.00 to 5.00 and on Saturdays from 2.00 to 5.00
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A Butter Box
I grew up in Kanturk , a town famous for it’s delicious butter.
It is now called Ór but in my day local people just called it Kanturk butter.
I worked for a summer in the creamery offices. It was my first introduction to a telephone exchange…nightmare!
As well as answering the phone we had various callers to the office with various queries. I remember a consignment of butter destined for an African country and so made with some kind of preservative to keep it fresh on the long boat journey. The preservative coloured the butter dark brown. The ship broke down and couldn’t sail. The butter was returned to Kanturk and a decision made to sell it in the local shops. One lady called to the office demanding to see the manager to complain that her husband wouldn’t eat the butter. We told her the story of why it was that colour and we reassured her that the taste was exactly the same. Unmollified she demanded to see the manager. He was duly brought to her and his solution to her dilemma was “I suggest, ma’am, you blindfold your husband.”
The sight of a butter box in the window of The Horseshoe brought me back to that time.
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Listowel Library
It’s well worth keeping an eye out for great things happening in the library.
For instance a Creative Writing Group Write Lines, meets on Tuesdays from 10.30 to 12.00.
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A Fact
It is against the law to leave a restaurant in Italy without a receipt. Apparently this is not because they have so many diners doing a runner but because so many Italian restaurants were avoiding tax by doing cash- in -hand customer transactions.
So when in Rome, be sure to ask for a receipt and keep it on you.
