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

Category: History Page 1 of 30

Pieces of History

William Street in March 2025

St. Patrick’s Day 2025

I snapped Doran’s Patrick’s Day window .

Great blend of fun and greenery

Pillar Postbox in Main Street, Listowel

It has lost its collection notice but it’s very much still in use. It is important that we don’t lose these lovely old pieces of street furniture which are part of our history.

New Sign

The Shebeen in Main Street

1942 Survey

In 1942 a man called Tim Dennehy was tasked with conducting a survey for the Irish Tourist Board of amenities in Listowel.

Maria Stack found his report on the Kerry County Council website. It makes interesting reading.

I’ll give you bitesize chuncks over the next while.

Re Issue of an Important Book

Kay Caball has taken pains to track down very many of the Kerry Girls who emigrated to Australia under the Earl Grey Scheme. Her book has been reissued with input from the descendants of some more of the “Kerry girls”.

I’m sure Kay will be taking her rightful place in the new exhibition of female writers soon to be curated for Kerry Writers’ Museum.

Seán Carlson

“My short dispatch from the Tralee to Ballybunion afternoon route was featured in the winter/spring 2025 issue of Trasna, a journal on Ireland and its diasporas.”

Bus to Ballybunion

The five o’clock bus is nearly full by the time it leaves Tralee eight minutes after the hour. The transport lurches from the station, shifting between low gears in afternoon traffic.

“This is ridiculous,” an older man says.

“It is,” a younger woman affirms across the aisle.

“Every day now,” one of them offers.

The first temporary-protection permit holders arrived in Ballybunion six months after the Irish Times declared “Scores killed as Russia invades Ukraine from land, sea, and air.” A local crowd almost the same in size gathered on the beach in welcome beneath a cliff-top castle wall.

At first, Ukrainian licence plates adorned some cars parked outside seasonal businesses. A year later, many new residents rely instead on the hour-long bus to reach the main county town.

Stopping at the technological university, the driver leaves the door locked, tallies the seats.

“Who are the lucky three?” he asks the six students waiting for the day’s last trip.

As the bus departs, another passenger rushes down the aisle. His voice breaks: four seats remain unused. Others grasp his tension if not the language. The driver stays silent.

There are few vehicles on the road now, a clear route forward, only a roundabout ahead.

“You can still do right,” the passenger begs. 

And for a breath, the possibility holds.

A Fact

In 1997 scientists in Edinburg cloned a sheep called Dolly.

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Hands across the Ocean

Market Street in March 2025

A few More Old Postcards from Máire MacMahon

William Street looks so busy on that day with ladders, horses, Model Ts and people all over the place.

An Irish American Poet with a strong Listowel Connection

Sean Carlson no linger lives in Listowel but he maintains a strong link with us.

Sean has been in touch. Here is his news…

Hi Mary,

Three new recent write-ups for you to know about:

Home and/or Home,” my interview following our 2024 Listowel Writers’ Week panel with Erin Fornoff and Gustav Parker Hibbett on their respective poetry and experiences also growing up in the U.S. and writing in Ireland, was published in The Common, a U.S. literary journal.

Bus to Ballybunion,” my short dispatch from the Tralee to Ballybunion afternoon route was featured in the winter/spring 2025 issue of Trasna, a journal on Ireland and its diasporas.

Every time a fly went by,” written in and about Listowel and first published last year in the Honest Ulsterman, was recently selected for Verse Daily‘s poem-a-day anthology.

Best wishes from here!

– Sean

St Patrick got his very own Executive Order

Here is an exchange from the Oval Office as reported by The National Desk.

(On March 7 2025)

“Lindsey Halligan then presented Trump with the Irish American Heritage Month proclamation. She told Trump it was a “proclamation proclaiming March 2025 as Irish American Heritage month in honor of, to commemorate our amazing friendship between America and Ireland and to just honor all of the Irish Americans and I’m a little bit biased, because I am American and Irish.”

Trump said, “They’re great people, great people.”

Halligan reminded the president, “St. Patrick’s Day is coming up as well.”

Trump noted that Irish Americans voted for him in “heavy numbers.”

Holding up the signed document, Trump told reporters, “So for the Irish American people, proclamation.”

Irish Americans have played a crucial role in our great American story — courageously overcoming adversity and hardship to embolden our culture, enliven our spirit, and fortify our way of life. This Irish-American Heritage Month, we commemorate the special bond of friendship between the United States and Ireland — and we honor the extraordinary contributions of Irish-American citizens past and present, Trump wrote.”

Trump obviously loves our American cousins and they love him as shown by their voting for him in “heavy numbers’. Let’s hope he remembers that when it comes to slapping his beloved tariffs on Big Pharma and Tech companies with their European bases in Ireland.

“If You’re Irish, come into the parlour….”

What a welcome from Donald Trump and JD Vance yesterday?

Remember

Deborah’s Lixnaw ancestors

Deborah Cronin wrote

“…I am also related to Tony McCarthy from Lixnaw. His charming wife gave me information to help me. 

I will send you a photo of a map from 1850 that Nora McCarthy sent me. This depicts the McCarthy & McAuliffe properties. We visited the McCarthys a few years. My children have also visited. When we were there we met some relatives, Delia McAuliffe O’Sullivan and Mickey Heapy.”

A Fact

Our national colour used to be blue. It’s only been changed to green in popular, but not official, culture in the last 100 years.

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Old Shops

Grey Heron at breakfast…photo by Chris Grayson

Shops and Shopping

by Mick O’Callaghan

continued from yesterday

Now I liked this institution (Mikey OConnor’s shop) because when we brought the shopping list into O’Connors on Wednesdays we were always allowed dip into the open biscuit or loose sweet box and have one treat. After the treat the list was handed over to Mikey. He examined it and put it on the Friday pile. He had circular wooden pieces with what looked like a knitting needle protruding upwards and he just pushed the shopping list on to the Friday pile. Then these messages were selected and duly delivered in the van by Big Pat Sullivan, and you paid him the exact amount due in cash or else you paid in cash in the shop next day. Otherwise, there was no delivery the following week. This was our online shopping with very strict credit control.

In addition to the delivery vans most shops had heavy messenger bikes with the big cumbersome wicker basket in front for deliveries of shopping. These were heavy machines to handle and were operated solely by human pedal power in all weathers. They usually had the name of the shop on a plate attached to the crossbar. They could have done with some of the battery-operated machines that today’s Deliveroo people use for fast delivery of take aways. And now as I write these delivery methods are being superseded by delivery drones. Will the next phase be robots galloping around delivering?

I remember in rural Ireland we had the man with the van travelling from village to village selling groceries and this worked well in small communities but was not widely available.

I look at shopping today and I see so many people doing click and collect since Covid times.  People regard it as a great convenience which it really is.

We also have home deliveries which have become very popular with shoppers with instant card payments and online selecting and ordering. It is a fantastic system for busy people where both partners are working or for older people whose children or themselves do the shopping online and have the groceries delivered to their own kitchen table.

I smile wryly to myself when I think that we had online shopping, home deliveries and on the spot payments 75 years ago and more.

I came to Arklow in 1967 and spent my first couple of years in digs which was very settling, comfortable and secure with no shopping required, but times moved on. Our land ladies retired, and we rented a house. Now we had four bachelors who needed sustenance and had to eat. This required the provision of groceries. We went to Jack Byrnes on the Coolgreaney Road which was our nearest grocer’s shop. Now Jack operated a book service for regular customers whereby you got your groceries, they wrote them into your book, and you paid for them on pay day. This suited us perfectly until it came to pay day and dividing up the bill. The list was well scrutinised to ensure no one was doing any extra personal shopping outside the prescribed agreed list of necessary foods to be purchased for breakfast, dinner and supper. It was a great system that worked perfectly well for us before we spread our wings and settled down to more acceptable ways of living.

Shopping has developed exponentially since our barter system was common in Ireland long ago or even more so since the Egyptians used a set weight of gold to purchase goods or since Charlemagne introduced the first standard penny coin in 800 AD.

Life and shopping experiences are constantly evolving, and we must keep changing and continue to manage and adapt to the changes. As Barrack Obama said “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the change that we seek “

Memories of Ena Collins

This old image last week evoke many memories for people of a certain age. End, by all accounts was a very pious woman and a great friend of the nuns. You could say she was their eyes and ears in town. She kept a close eye on the convent girls and reported any ‘conduct unbecoming’.

Mike Moriarty has a memory of the shop and the strips of ling ( a cod like fish) hanging by the door. Ling was often salted and preserved for eating during Lent. I remember it well…ugh!

Keep on Keeping On

A Dingle Postbox

Maybe this one has been repainted since this photo was taken. In this snap you can see the old red paint coming through.

You Have to Laugh

A Fact

A small amount of alcohol on a scorpion will drive it insane and cause it to sting itself to death.

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Soldiers’ Houses

Market Street, February 2025

A Kerry Castle

The Big Wind in Family History

Lauren Davis wrote the following letter to us in October 2020:

Hi Mary ~
I wanted to let you know how much we’ve been enjoying your blog lately. Even with little “new”news to report on, you are keeping our interest here in America! My ancestors left Listowel around 1870 so even “news” from the 19th century in County Kerry is fascinating for me. For instance, when a piece you posted a few days ago said,
 “For three quarters of a century afterwards the people in this district and in North Kerry generally recorded events from the year the boat was drowned” or from the night of the big wind”.”I got so excited! Our family’s stories mention that my 2x great grandmother was born “the night of the big wind.” (She actually was born a few days before but everybody remembered her birth in connection with the storm.) My own granddaughter was just born a month ago here in Oregon. I’m sure we will be remembering her birth as “the time of the big wild fires.” Just knowing that other people from Co. Kerry remembered events the way my family did makes me feel so much more connected to our ancestral home.

Thank you for all that you do! Please keep it up!

Lauren Carroll Davis

Sisters, Oregon

Hens and Eggs

Photo; Chris Grayson

Egg prices in the US have risen by 20% due to the many outbreaks of bird flu.

Did you read about the egg heist in Pennsylvania when 100,000 eggs were stolen? I must admit that with the CEO’s name given as Flocco and references to scrambling to improve security and cracking down on theft I think maybe the story was a wind up.

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Soldiers’ Houses

Since Carmel Hanrahan raised the subject, I have been fascinated by the story of the soldiers’ houses in Cahirdown.

A helpful blog follower told me that the late Gerry O’Carroll had written about them in his memoir. I borrowed it from the library.

So True

So, grief walked up to love, 
and asked if it would dance. 
Love blamed grief for everything
and rudely answered “no chance.”

Grief stood there watching love. 
Knowing there was nothing it could do. 
It shared in every teardrop 
and felt the heartache too. 

Love hated grief so fiercely,
and prayed for it to go away. 
Grief could never leave though
and it was here to stay. 

Every day it asked the same question, 
“Love, please dance with me.”
Everyday was met with the answer
“Please just leave me be.”

Grief and love shared every moment.
Every thought was just the same. 
Every day they fought a battle,
Of love along with blame. 

Grief finally stopped asking, 
and pulled love to its chest. 
Together they swayed to memories,
and shared their empty nest. 

Grief never let go of love again. 
They made better music as one. 
After all if there was no love, 
then grief wouldn’t belong…

Joanne Boyle ~ Heartfelt 

A Fact

In 1978 the song Mull of Kintyre by Wings went to No. 1 in January.

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The Big Wind in Kerry

Listowel Garda Station, February 2025

Pillar Post boxes

Pillar postbox in Main Street Listowel

Anthony Trollope, the novelist, introduced the pillar box to Britain in 1852 when he worked as a Post Office Surveyor in the Channel Islands. The first mainland box was erected a year later in 1853. At first local District Surveyors ordered boxes from local foundries. In 1859 a standard design was introduced. Wall boxes appeared in 1857, Ludlow boxes in 1885 and lamp boxes in 1896.

Each new reign brings boxes bearing the royal cipher of the monarch. Pillar boxes and wall boxes have been made in different sizes and with improvements to the design incorporated over time. A large number of different manufacturers have been employed and over the years there have been many experimental boxes put in service.

The Big Wind

I took the story and image from Joe Harrington’s Facebook page. He posted it on the eve of Eowyn.

Night of the Big Wind

The incoming Storm Éowyn would appear to be on the scale of the ‘Night of the Big Wind’, 6-7 January 1839. The centre of the storm to the north of Ireland is forecast to be as low as 938 Millibars (MB). The storm 186 years ago was 20 MBs lower at its centre. However, the pressure over Kerry at the height of this storm may well be lower than it was here on the night of the big wind.

In the 1839 storm, the number killed may have been about three hundred. It was calculated that 4,846 chimneys were knocked. How the fallen chimneys could be counted so accurately, and the dead so vaguely is strange. Trees were a valuable commodity and some Landlords had grown fine stands. These were valuable on January 6 and almost worthless on January 7, 1839. There was a glut of firewood on the market.

Many people lost their small savings, secreted inside the thatch when roofs were carried off. There was no weather forecasting at the time and the storm arrived unannounced. Winds reached 120 miles per hour in what was a category three hurricane. Twenty-five percent of the houses in Dublin were destroyed and 42 ships were sunk along the east coast.

From Kerry, it was reported that the “well-constructed Listowel Arms Hotel” was damaged and in the same town, the police under Chief Constable Fletcher were credited with saving many lives. There were no deaths in Listowel.

The 1908 Old Age Pensions Act came into law in January 1909 for those over 70 years of age – exactly 70 years after the Night of the Big Wind. Over a quarter of a million applied and within a year over 180,000 had been deemed successful. Contrary to popular belief, the acceptance of a memory of the Big Wind as proof of age in a claim for the Old Age Pension is not backed up by any records of the time. There is a belief that some official of the Board may have asked people who were having trouble providing proof of their age what they were doing on the night of the Big Wind but when large numbers answered “eating a potato out of my hand” that approach was quickly dropped.

Love is in the Air

Danny Russell is not only an excellent hairdresser, he is a top class window dresser as well. His Valentine’s 2025 window is a triumph.

A Poem Celebrating a Tree

Anyone who is familiar with the back gate entrance to UCC or anyone who works in The Bons in Cork or visits there will know this tree.

A Fact

In Finland 9 out of 10 plastic bottles and almost all glass bottles are recycled.

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