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 Races

Sea Swimming, Races and Bringing Home the Turf

Photo; Bridget O’Connor

Friday, Sept 10 2021 was International Suicide Awareness Day. Bridget’s picture above shows a troop of people who ventured into the sea at Ballybunion on that evening to show solidarity with those bereaved by suicide and to highlight the issue of treatable mental illness.

Pictured with Snámhaí Sásta, June Curtin, are local ladies, Billy Jo and Lelia O’Connor and Bridget McCarthy.

June brought some of her positivity calendars with her on the night. She is selling them in aid of Pieta, the suicide prevention charity.

Aoife Scott was in town for a concert as part of the Ballybunion Arts Festival at The Tinteán. She came and sang a song or two for the delighted swimmers.

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Listowel Races in Years Past

This man has been coming to the races and staying with Nora for over twenty years. I hope he got a ticket this year.

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Out of This World

This Ballybunion placename never ceases to amaze me.

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Bringing home the Turf

If I had been asked I would have said that this scene was earlier than the 1970s.

Donkeys and carts were ideal for bog work. The ground underfoot in the bog is soggy and unstable so it calls for a fairly light sure footed animal like this lovely ass.

Look at how the young man leading the donkey was dressed for his day in the bog. In the early years of the 20th century in Ireland there was no such thing as casual clothes. Athleisure is a very recent fashion. We had good clothes and old clothes. this man is in his old clothes, i.e. a suit that used to be his Sunday suit but was now relegated to everyday wear. It kind of looks like a suit he may have inherited from someone bigger than himself. Hand me downs were common too. Suits often were passed down through the family until they were no longer wearable.

I bet his v neck is hand knitted. All jumpers were hand knitted one time, until Ben Dunne brought us cheap clothes and it no longer made sense to knit something you could buy more cheaply. Of course it didn’t last as long but that mattered little when it was so cheap and did not entail hard work.

Along with the turf, this scene will soon be unfamiliar to all but the oldest of us.

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Poetry Town

We’ve exchanged our Social distancing stencils for Poetry Town ones.

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Listowel Community Orchard

A beautiful spot down by the Feale is the community orchard. The pears are nearly ripe. The horse chestnut tree is laden with conkers. There are herbs galore for all to pick and use. It’s the perfect spot for a picnic.

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In Duagh

I like to call to Duagh church and grounds to reconnect with Fr. Pat Moore. He is still very much there in spirit.

“Somedays I just sits.”

I sat on the bench dedicated to Fr. Pat’s memory.

I sat and looked at the church where he ministered and the house and parish centre where he lived, worked and prayed.

On a sunny September day in 2021, it was a haven of peace and birdsong. Fr. Pat’s spirit is there among the people who loved him.

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Kitchener (1901)

A correspondent of Mr. T. P. O’Connor’s weekly writes as follows regarding the present Commander-in-Chief of the forces in South Africa.

Let me set you right about Lord Kitchener’s natal spot, regarding which I happen to know a good deal, having myself been born within a couple of miles of it. He was born at Gunsborough Cottage, which was lent to his father, Lieutenant-Colonel Kitchener, by the father of the well-known ci-devant Irish M. P., Mr. Peirce Mahony, of Kilmorna. Gunsborough is within three miles of Listowel, the capital of North Kerry. He was baptised at the little Protestant Church hard by now in ruins, I believe by the late Rev. Robert Sandes, a representative of the family of which the late Mr. George Sandes, of Grenville, Listowel, was a well known member. The Kitcheners subsequently went to live at Crotto House, which Colonel Kitchener afterwards sold to Mr. Thomas Beale Brown, a near relative of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach. The true history of the whole vexed question of the connection of the Kitchener family with Kerry was told during the late Soudan campaign in the columns of the Irish Times by Major Kiggell, of Cahnra, Glin, County Limerick, whose son, Major Lancelot Kiggell, is now on Lord Kitchener’s staff.

New Zealand Tablet, 25 July 1901, 

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Church Street Tattoo Shop

The tattoo shop has gone from pink to blue. It is probably more in keeping with the dark vibe coming from the shop.

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Getting in the Mood

Flavin’s window is getting us in the mood.

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Listowel Races in 1938 and Ballybunion’s Cliff Walk in 2021

Cliff Walk, Ballybunion

Looking down on the Nuns’ Beach, Ballybunion

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.

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