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

Category: Listowel Page 1 of 179

Women in Literature

By

On June 9, 2025

In Listowel

The Square and St. Mary’s

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Kerry Women in Literature Exhibition Launch

A new permanent exhibition honouring 13 Kerry women writers was opened on May 28 2025 in Kerry Writers’ Museum. The exbibition was officially opened by Dr. Fiona Brennan who told us a bit about some of the artists.

Some are well known to us from our school days e.g. Peig Sayers and Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill. Four of the writers are Listowel women, Cecile O’Rahilly, Bertha Beatty and grandmother and granddaughter, Maureen Beasley and Sonja Broderick.

The others are Siobhán Ní Shuilleabháin, Pauline Maguire, Mary Dowling, Anne Margaret Rowan, Alice Curtayne, Sr. Margaret Cusack and Máirín Cregan.

Owen MacMahon, Jimmy Deenihan, Kay and Arthur Caball and Mayor of Listowel Municipal District, Jimmy Moloney at the launch.

Boards like this tell us a bit about the writer.

Relatives of Alice Curtayne were there to honour their illustrious ancestor.

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Historic Photographs Facebook Page

The grave of legendary ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, known for his electrifying stage presence and groundbreaking defection from the Soviet Union in 1961. The grave appears to be draped in a richly patterned carpet, but it is actually a meticulously crafted mosaic tombstone. Designed by Ezio Frogerio Italian artist.

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Did you wear one of these?

They were actually a great idea.

Speaking of skirts, I was at Lakewood Tennis Club’s open competitions recently.

The competition here is as keen as Wimbledon but the dress code is relaxed, any sports clothes will do.

In a competition where ladies could wear anything many of them chose to wear skorts.

Family support, Killian, Aisling, Anne, Bobby and Colm all in Lakewood supporting Carine on Friday evening for the semi finals and the barbecue. Anne lost both of her semi finals. The food was delicious.

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Scoil Realta na Maidine Market

I was back in the schoolyard yesterday for the Sunday market. This week there were a few very welcome new stalls.

I met Carmel Hanrahan, great friend of Listowel Connection. It was lovely to finally meet in person.

I bought this from some lovely enterprising young men. They made it using a 3D printer. It’s a fidget spinner, very popular with young and old. Their company is called

It’s at

https://3dandme.ie/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKzbDlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETB2blZJb1pFbkZONjU3QW1pAR5MnzfFlELWjeOJwq8TcgWpCVywSmmEQl09fB5r6QETkPtM3Ej_QHClk3EmpQ_aem_1a7sqWG5dwaf2dJK4LvTQw

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A Fact

Peppa Pig, the sassy two dimensional cartoon pig who talks and walks on two legs was originally conceived as an antidote to the pretty palace dwelling princesses of so many children’s stories.

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Connecting with our ancestors

By

On June 6, 2025

In Listowel, Poem

Wild flower meadow at John B. Keane Road

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People Looking at People

At the great exhibition of old photos from the 1950s and 60s in Kanturk library, people had a great time, seeing themselves, their parents and friends and so many people no longer with us.

I am beside the picture of my Uncle and his friends and their famous combine harvester.

Marguerite and Derry O’Mahoney are looking at photographs of their father, Miah who was always one of the highlights of the Fancy Dress Parade.

Local people putting names to faces.

James Twohig is the chair of Duhallow Heritage Society, who presented the exhibtion to us. The two girls on my right are Caroline and Mary O’Sullivan, relatives of Danny O’Sullivan, the photographer.

Mary, Marguerite and I were in school together many moons ago.

One of the many school groups on display.

If only every town had a Danny O’Sullivan and a generous family to share all the images with us.

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Quality before Quantity Every time

Help Needed

Hi im trying to contact Deidre Finucane to do with my family tree. Was her father James Finucane born 1924 Cappamore and mother Bridie. Regards Guy.

If you can help, email me. I have an email address for Guy.

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A Fact

Thw last public execution in Britain took place outside Newgate Prison in 1868.

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Listowel, Kanturk and Queensland

By

On June 5, 2025

In Listowel

Hospital chapel in May 2025

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Jew’s Retreat

I was fascinated by the Jew’s Retreat line in Gina Wheeler’s postcard .

She sent us this explanation.

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A New Fire Engine

Danny O’Sullivan ‘s archive of old photos of Kanturk has this sequence from 1958.

God help the poor volunteer firemen in that firefighting gear.

In those days everything had to be blessed. Canon O’Leary and unnamed altar boy carrying the holy water blessed the new fire engine and the firemen.

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St. Mary’s

Text from Listowel and its Vicinity by Fr. Antony Gaughan

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Did you have one of these?

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Cows

Last week I included Kate Slevin’s photograph of cows sunbathing on Rosbeg beach .

Julie Evans responded;

Dear Mary

In today’s Listowel Connection there is a great photo of cows on a beach. I saw this at much the same time I saw the attached photo on Facebook. The cow in my photo was caught up in the catastrophic floods on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. It comes from a property in Wallanbah and was found 50 kms away, on the NSW coast, washed down the river to the ocean. Poor creature looks exhausted. An amazing story of survival. Its owner was identified by the ear tag and was on his way to collect it.

So many cattle, and other animals, lost in these floods and over 400 homes left completely uninhabitable. The recent flood is being called a one-in-500-years event.

Lovely to keep in touch through your ‘Connection’!

Love

Julie

Julie sent us some more links if you would like to read more about the flooding catastrophe.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-23/in-pictures-how-the-nsw-floods-impacted-people/105327638

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/may/23/destruction-everywhere-taree-cleanup-begins-as-nsw-floods-reignite-inter-agency-tensions

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/nsw-floods-gallery-images-from-on-the-ground-as-extreme-weather-event-unfolds/news-story/29f60a38e71a0495911f05e78f9002fc

It is unimaginable to us who slept in our warm beds last night. The government promises assistance and the Prime Minister is visiting to see for himself. Meanwhile, in South Australia there is drought and terrible winds creating dust storms. The red dust has even blown across to Sydney and the city is shrouded in a dirty haze.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-26/sa-gets-burst-of-windy-weather-and-rain/105335724

Truly Australia is a continent of contrasts.

Julie shared this poem

Dorothea MacKellar – Australian Bush Poetry

My Country

© 1904 Dorothea MacKellar

The love of field and coppice, of green and shaded lanes,

Of ordered woods and gardens is running in your veins.

Strong love of grey-blue distance, brown streams and soft, dim skies-

I know but cannot share it, my love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror- the wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests, all tragic to the moon,

The sapphire-misted mountains, the hot gold hush of noon,

Green tangle of the brushes where lithe lianas coil,

And orchids deck the tree-tops, and ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country! Her pitiless blue sky,

When, sick at heart, around us we see the cattle die –

But then the grey clouds gather, and we can bless again

The drumming of an army, the steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country! Land of the rainbow gold,

For flood and fire and famine she pays us back threefold.

Over the thirsty paddocks, watch, after many days,

The filmy veil of greenness that thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country, a wilful, lavish land –

All you who have not loved her, you will not understand –

Though earth holds many splendours, wherever I may die,

I know to what brown country my homing thoughts will fly.

………………………………

“My Country” is an iconic patriotic poem about

Australia, written by Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968)

at the age of 19 while homesick in England. After

travelling through Europe extensively with her father

during her teenage years she started writing the

poem in London in 1904[1] and re-wrote it several

times before her return to Sydney. The poem was

first published in the London Spectator in 1908 under

the title “Core of My Heart“. It was reprinted in many

Australian newspapers, quickly becoming well known

and establishing Mackellar as a poet.

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A Fact

Mummy Pig, mother of Peppa and George, gave birth to her third piglet, Evie Pig, in the very maternity hospital in London where Kate Middleton had her three royal children.

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Olden Times in Listowel and Kanturk

By

On June 4, 2025

In Listowel

Listowel Garda Station in May 2025

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One of the Greats

Text from Mad for Trad on Facebook

Séamus Ennis (1919–1982) was a master uilleann piper, singer, and one of Ireland’s most important collectors of traditional music. Born in Finglas, Dublin, and taught by his father, he began playing the pipes at 13 and later worked for the Irish Folklore Commission, where he collected nearly 2,000 songs, tunes, and stories from across Ireland, often traveling by bicycle with only pen and paper. His meticulous fieldwork preserved a vast repertoire that might otherwise have been lost.

Ennis was also a pioneering broadcaster, recording and promoting traditional musicians for Radio Éireann and the BBC, and he played a key role in legitimizing Irish music on radio and television. In 1968, he co-founded Na Píobairí Uilleann, the society dedicated to the promotion of the uilleann pipes, and was renowned for his generosity in sharing his knowledge with younger musicians His playing style, noted for its elegance and mastery of slow airs, set a benchmark for future generations.

His legacy endures in the thousands of tunes he preserved, the standards he set for piping, and the influence he had on Irish music’s revival and transmission. Ennis is commemorated by the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre in Naul lrish cultural life.

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St. John’s

St. John’s in May 2025

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An Emigrant’s Descendants Return

Email from Gina;

I was excited to find your Listowell blog as I have a connection to this beautiful town.  My mother’s grandfather migrated to Australia in 1863 from Listowell, Kerry. His name was Martin Collins. I found your blog through a postcard that was sent to my Gx3 Grandfather from Mount Rivers, dated 1906.tI was from Nell? C MacElligott. I have attached photos.

I am hoping to find some more information about my  Great x3 Grandfather’s background. I know his parent’s names were Thomas Collins and Mary Lynch.

Hope you are able to  help or lead me in the right direction.

Kind regards,

Gina Wheeler

If anyone reading this knows anything of Martin Collins or Mary Lynch, Gina would love to hear from you.

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Carmody’s of Sráid an Phiarsaigh

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American Wealth in Kanturk in the 1960s

This is the late Danny O’Sullivan of Kanturk. He returned from the USA just before the Great Depression. His father, also called Dan, had emigrated like so many Duhallow people to Oregon.

Dan Sr. amassed a huge fortune. It is said that he owned a Street in Boston by the time he liquidated his assetts and returned with his family to live in Kanturk. He opened a bar in The Square. As his sons matured and married they each opened a business in town. The businesses names acknowledged the source of their wealth. They were the USA Café, the USA Bar and the USA Stores. Dan also bought a farm.

As well as running the café, Danny, who was an excellent photographer, had a part time business photographing first Communions and other occasions. He had his own dark room.

This is just one of several cameras he owned.

Danny was out with his camera on every big occasion in town. This is the Corpus Christi procession. This was a huge event in the Kanturk of my childhood and Danny’s archive of pictures has many processions over the years.

This is years later when Danny added colour film to his offering.

Fancy Dress parades were also a favourite subject. In those days adults took part in these parades and they were a great source of fun and entertainment.

Danny left us a huge archive of precious mementos of a different era in Kanturk.

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A Fact

The phrase ‘to turn a blind eye” comes from Admiral Nelson’s time. A message was sent to Nelson to cease fighting. He put his telescope up to his blind eye, claimed he never saw the message and continued to fight.

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Listowel Streets

By

On June 3, 2025

In Listowel, Personal

Roses at Listowel’s Civic Plaza in early summer 2025

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Listowel Literary Festival 2025

The Kerry Irish Novel of the Year 2025; Time of the Child by Niall Williams

I’m delighted that my favourite book won.

Rhona Tarrant did a great job as MC on Opening Night of Writers’ Week. She is here with her parents, Gerard and Jenny

Sally O’Neill is a regular supporter of all things literary in Listowel.

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Street Name Confusion

This is the Convent Street Clinic.

This is the sign on the wall of the Convent Street Clinic.

This house is located directly across the road from the Convent Street Clinic.

This sign is on the house directly opposite the Convent Street Clinic

So for this street it’s a case of Market Street, Convent Street, Sráid an Mhargaidh or Gleann an Phúca, take your pick. They are all correct according to the street signs.

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Essay Writing Success

Picture and text from Facebook

A transition year student from Co Kerry has been named as winner of the Law Society of Ireland’s national Gráinne O’Neill Memorial Legal Essay Competition 2025.

Hazel Barrett, a student at Presentation Secondary School in Listowel, raised the trophy at a special awards ceremony held at Blackhall Place last Wednesday.

Now in its third year, the annual competition invites TY students from across the country to submit a 1,500-word legal essay on a specific topic.

This year, over 350 essays were submitted by students from 52 schools across 16 counties, each exploring “the role the law can play in addressing hate crime”.

The competition aims to inspire young peoples’ legal learning by encouraging students from a wide range of backgrounds to consider contemporary justice issues.

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Listowel Arms Hotel

Photograph: May 2025; text: Listowel and its Vicinity by Fr. Antony Gaughan

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Kanturk, My Hometown

Here I am in my old home with my only brother, Pat. I love going home. It is the most welcoming, most hospitable house you can imagine, thanks to my lovely sister in law, Breeda.

This was the reason for my visit.

Duhallow Heritage Society allowed me to read a reflection as part of the great night of reminiscing and reconnecting. I’ll tell you more tomorrow.

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A Fact

The phrase ” That will cost you an arm and a leg,” comes from the Victorian era. The Victorians loved to have their portraits painted. The more of the body you included in the image, the dearer the commission. So they were often painted with just head and shoulders. An arm and a leg cost extra..

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