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 137 of 182

Cavendishes

By

On May 17, 2022

In Listowel

Photo; Kieran Mangan, Mallow Camera Club

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Periwinkles and Seagrass

Pat Maher photographed by Moss Joe Browne.

This man has been selling these local delicacies on the street in Ballybunion for years.

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Milano

This building which now houses the Milano shop was once a huge department store and ballroom.

Back in the day it was Walsh’s shop and later called Cavendishes. Mike Hannon and Alice Walsh have shared some great photographs on Facebook.

At Christmas the shop was packed with all the latest merchandise and toys of all descriptions for Santa Claus.

Jim Walsh outside the shop

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Do you have a Magnolia?

Raymond O’Sullivan posted this image and the following information about this ancient shrub.

Although the Magnolia has been on Earth for millions of years, believed to be the oldest flowering plant on the planet, it was not introduced into Europe until 1740. It symbolizes strength, longevity and purity. In the Victorian ‘language of flowers’, it had several meanings based on the colour of the flowers: White: perseverance, purity, dignity, determination, modesty; Pink: shyness, innocence, joy, sensitivity; Yellow: prosperity, luck, loyalty, good health Purple: luck, fertility, courage and beauty. In China, people believe that planting a Magnolia in the garden ensures luck, prosperity, and marital happiness. Garden design and layout and the positioning of plants are a headache for most amateurs, and you should see some of the ‘mistakes’ in my little cabbage patch. According to Feng Shui placing a Magnolia in the front of the house promotes a happy life full of pleasures, while cultivating it at the back of the home favors solid financial well-being. Not so sure I got that one right either, mine is at the back of the house.

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Your Help Needed

Hi

 I’m writing on behalf of Breda Hartnett nee Corrigan, who was born and raised in Listowel. She would like to trace her neighbours Mary, Agnes and Jimmy Barry who were sent to a orphanage in Tralee, Ireland. Mary would have been only 7 years old at the time. Breda and Mary both lived on Convent st and were best friends until Mary was taken away. Mary Barry would be around 73 years old, Agnes Barry 71 and Jimmy Barry 68 years old. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Kind regards

Charithra Thejopal

On behalf of Breda Hartnett

If you can help Breda, will you email me at listowelconnection@gmail.com please.

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Flavins

By

On May 16, 2022

In Listowel, Schools

St John’s from St. Mary’s May 2022

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Flavins of Church Street

This is Flavins of Church Street today.

Part of this shop’s history is told in pictures by Maura McAuliffe on Facebook.

“Dan Flavin’s burnt to the ground by the Black and Tans. Dan Flavin was put in jail. They would have shot him only he had an American passport as he was born in New York and brought back as a child to Ireland.”

Martin Moore shared these receipts and this caption.

3 receipts from the 1920s, one is for a contribution to the North Kerry Republican Soldiers Committee, and another is for 200 copies of Irish Independent and is marked as the first received in nearly two months (due to the Civil War).

Dan Flavin

Micheál Flavin

Joan Flavin

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New Exhibition in Kerry Writers’ Museum

At the launch of Lifting the Curtain, an installation celebrating amateur drama in Kerry, our own Lartigue Theatre presented a compilation of extracts from Sive.

Billy Keane (standing behind Cara Trant) watches the enactment of extracts from his father’s play.

Liz Dunn of Writers’ Week is in the foreground.

Dr. Fiona Brennan, an amateur drama scholar, presented a brief synopsis of the history of drama in Kerry.

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Sr. Dympna R.I.P.

From Pres. yearbook 2002/03

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A Thought

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Sr. Thomas R.I.P.

By

On May 13, 2022

In Listowel

Photo; Kieran Mangan, Mallow Camera Club

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” She lived unknown and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be….”

I am reminded of Wordsworth’s Lucy poem when I think of this humble nun.

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A Corner of The Square

St. Mary’s in May 2022

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A Lounge Bar

Photo shared by Mike Hannon on Facebook. This is Finucane’s Bar, now The Saddle in Upper William Street.

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Four Men and a Cup

The four men in Mike Hannon’s photo have been named on Facebook as

Tom Sweeney, Tom Lyons, Mick Carey, Gigs Nolan

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In Kerry Writers’ Museum

Cara Trant and David Browne at the launch of the exhibition of Kerry’s Amateur Dramatic Heritage on Saturday, May 7 2022

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Prince Monolulu

By

On May 12, 2022

In Festivals, Listowel, Listowel Races, Listowel Writers Week

Tim Doody; Mallow Camera Club

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A Corner of The Square in 2022

The green area is the designated car parking spaces for electric cars while they are on charge.

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Lidl

Our Lidl store is going to get an upgrade. The shiny new store will be on the site of the old one so we’ll have to do without for a while.

Lidl have purchased the nearby derelict Dowd’s cottage. This will be demolished and that site will become part of the new superstore.

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Prince? Monolulu

Alice Walsh shared this great old photo recently on Facebook. It was taken at Raceweek 1961 at the opening of Walsh’s Super Ballroom.

In the centre of the image surrounded by Mick Delahunty band members is a beloved visitor to Listowel Races, an eccentric tipster known as Prince Monolulu.

He wasn’t a prince and his name wasn’t Monolulu and he wasn’t an African chief as he claimed.

In Listowel in the 1950s and 60s a black man was a rare enough sight. A very tall black man dressed like an Ethiopian chief with a monstrous ostrich plume on his head and a lion’s tooth around his neck was bound to attract attention.

He was a regular on racetracks in Britain. When not at the races he was a “Lion tamer, fire eater, street dentist, preacher, tribal chief, boxer, prisoner of war, and entertainer.”

“He was married six times.”

When Spion Kop won the 1920 Derby at odds of 100-6 (about 16-1) Monolulu won a reputed £8,000 (worth around £400,000 in today’s money). 

This was all part of the myth that surrounded this man. But like most “facts’ about this character we have to take everything with a pinch of salt.

Monolulu was American. He came to England and soon discovered that a life as a showman could be quite a good living in the early 20th century.

He plied his trade on racecourses until his death in 1965 on Valentine’s Day. The story goes that he choked on a strawberry cream from a box of Black Magic. Like everything else about him, this too sounds a tad implausible.

On his trips to Listowel he would visit The Island armed with a handful of sealed envelopes. “I got a horse to beat the favourite.,” was his cry. He sold you the tip sealed in an envelope and urged you not to share it so as not to upset the odds.

He must have been successful as he came back year after year. He was part of the colour that was Listowel Harvest Festival of Racing.

Another of Alice Walsh’s photos shows Monolulu on the stage.

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Writers’ Week Committee 2012

Listowel Writers’ Week Festival Committee 2012

Doesn’t feel like 10 years.

Catherine Moylan, Simone Langemann, Liz Dunn and Jim Dunn

I took this photo of some of today’s Writers’ Week people at the launch of the Amateur Drama Exhibition in Kerry Writers’ Museum on May 7 2022.

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Cinemas

By

On May 11, 2022

In Listowel, Listowel Writers Week

Photo credit; Tom Quish, Mallow Camera Club

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A Postbox

The post box at the corner of Church Street was still out of service last time I was in that part of town.

Mike Hannon shared this old picture of Bryan MacMahon with the very same postbox.

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Listowel Cinemas

Tom McElligott and his committee are working hard to save the Classic Movieplex. They have set up a Go Fund Me page.

Save Our Cinema

To realise the dream they need 100,000 euros

Mike Hannon’s picture of the cinema when it was The Astor

Tom sent me this old poster that was sent to him by a great grandson of Michael J. Tighe.

It is from 1925.

Once upon a time there were at least 4 cinema in Listowel. I dont know which one was The Stella.

There was a cinema in the Plaza, one where Quill’s North County is now, one in Tae Lane and one where the Classic was.

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Won’t be Long Now

Catherine Moylan, Chair of Listowel Writers’ Week, is looking forward to standing at the podium in person to open this year’s festival.

The 2022 festival will be officially opened by Dominic West.

Writers’ Week 2022 will run from June 1 to June 5

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From the Pres. Yearbook 2002/03

Little Known Fact

If Holly (Ilex aquifolium) finds its leaves are being nibbled by deer, it switches genes on to make them spiky when they regrow. So on taller Holly trees, the upper leaves (which are out of reach) have smooth edges, while the lower leaves are prickly

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