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
Charles Street’s Irish name is Sráid Uí Chonghaile (Connolly St.)
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A Heritage Shopfront
This beautiful shopfront on William Street is a fine example of work appropriate for a heritage town.
Beautiful sign
I even caught the proprietors at the door. Well done, Lisa. Lovely job!
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Progress at Lidl Upgrade
Still a building site but the foundations are laid.
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Connecting People
I get all sorts of different emails and messages from people who want to connect with Listowel people.
Story: Valerie O’Sullivan took this great photo of our very own National Treasure, Jimmy Hickey, in his workshop.
A researcher for the Oliver Callan radio programme saw it and thought it looked interesting.
Then the researcher, Susan, searched to see who might have contact details for Jimmy.
A few phonecalls later and the two are in touch. If Susan tells me in time. I’ll alert you when or if the programme will be aired.
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Schools Folklore
Bryan MacMahon encouraged the boys to tell all sorts of stories for the collection. He obviously realised the value of the project and he collected a huge body of stories, some true and some a bit hard to swallow.
Here is one I have no doubt is true;
Basket making was a very old trade in Ireland in years gone by. Cliabhs and sgiaths are still being made by a young man named Martin Healy Cleveragh Listowel. He learned the trade from his father. Twigs with which the baskets are made are growing around his house and in the winter time when work is scarce he makes baskets from them. When he has 8 or 9 made he usually takes them to the market on a Friday and they are bought by farmers. The high baskets are called cliabhs and are generally used for bringing turf.
The collector is Jeremiah Carroll. He got the story from Tom Carroll
This is Upper William Street. The Premises at the far left of the picture is Number 21, an off licence. If Tankers is number 8, then Number 21 is not at 21.
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Craft Group
This lovely collage was made by one of the NEWKD Craft Circle. It shows examples of the craftwork people do in the Wednesday evening get togethers.
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An Essay from Mick O’Callaghan
The times they are a changing
I was born post-World War 2 in 1947. The treaties of Paris had been signed, and a shaky peace existed in the world. The Marshall plan had been signed to help rebuild Europe after the war. The United Nations voted to partition Palestine into two separate states, one Jewish and one Arab.
India and Pakistan also won their independence from Britain in that year.
At home my parents, who lived and were married in London during the war spoke a lot about air raid shelters, food rationing and survival during their time in London. They taught me a lot about the futility of war and the difficult task of negotiating peace.
My grandparents, on. both sides, who had spent their pre marriage years in America often spoke about the Marshall plan and how it would rescue Europe. They also remembered the first world war and our own war of independence. There was intense bitterness in their home areas post war of independence. They taught us to respect each other and our close family and friends
I started my primary education in Moyderwell Mercy National School, Tralee in 1951.
The building of The Empire State Building was also finished in 1951. Nat King Cole was the dominant music man and Audrey Hepburn was our favourite film star.
When I made my First Communion in 1954, I remember visiting my relatives who lived in the area and collecting a few pounds.
1954 was also the Marian Year, a year of special devotion to our Lady. My family was involved in building the Marian Shrine Grotto in the village. We all recited the rosary and sang the hymn ‘Queen of the May’ there in our earlier years during the month of May. It is still maintained and visited by the present generation of people living there.
I also recall the launch of Tayto crisps which are still there today and eagerly requested by generations of ex pats around the world.
Roger Bannister, that great British Athlete, broke the 4-minute mile barrier in Oxford.
Another precious moment in my life was the confirmation Ceremony in 1958. I remember all the preparations and learning the catechism by heart and the visit of the bishop. Like the first communion we had the family, friends and neighbours to visit and all donations, great and small were gratefully accepted.
In the week after we were made soldiers of the Lord, we visited Cabell’s toy shop in Tralee to spend some of the Confirmation money. There we saw this new-fangled thing called Lego, which is now so prevalent world-wide. I stuck with my Meccano set. This was invented in Britain in 1898 by Frank Hornby, who marketed it to boys as Mechanics Made Easy in 1901 and Meccano in 1907. Last year the last Meccano producing factory closed its doors.
I can also remember other events around these special events in our lives. I can vividly recall the 1958 Munich Air disaster in which eight of Matt Busby’s Man United football babes were killed.
As I grew up, I went on to further education and experience a whole new world outside the narrow confines of our local village town and county. I was amazed when I first realised there was another world outside the Kingdom of Kerry and that not everyone was so obsessed about football as we were. When our cousins came home from England they spoke about soccer and their teams of Man United and Arsenal. The American cousins told us about American football, baseball and basketball.
They all added to my geographical and cultural awareness of the world.
The biggest cultural change for all of us was when Television arrived in The Kingdom of Kerry in 1965.
We had the Beatles who expanded our music and dress code choice. Bob Dylan and Joan Baez led the world with their peace in Vietnam songs. Martin Luther King was involved in The Civil Rights movement and won The Nobel Peace Prize for his work.
I remember my first summer work holiday in London and my whole world view was changed. I was mesmerised by the huge variety of people and cultures I experienced. It was the start of my real-life awareness journey, and I think it gave me a broader world view of life and living. My wander lust was also whetted on that first trip across the Irish Sea.
During my life I have visited many places around the globe but as I advance in years, I just love visiting places around our own native Ireland north, south, east and west that I missed out on during my summers working and travelling.
Nowadays I just love walking in woodland trails, and I enjoy all the people I meet during my rambles. It amazes me on a regular basis to meet people from our local area who have never visited our local beaches and trails. They were too busy working and rearing families they tell me.
When I was speaking to our painter this morning, he spoke about how he gets up early every morning to go to the gym. On average, he told me, there are about 20 people, at the gym he attends. They do intensive training before going to work.
During my working life I got up early to make sure I had a good breakfast, with the odd fry up, to keep me going for the day. We went for the odd walk and the odd pint but we never heard of gyms. Times have certainly changed. A lot of the younger generation and some of the more mature are more conscious of fitness and well-being. They are members of health clubs and gyms which is fantastic to see.
One thing that has not changed during my life is the prevalence of disagreement, trouble and war all over the world. There is still, after 78 years, major trouble in Israel and Palestine. India and Pakistan are still living on a knife edge with occasional border incursions and warfare. Russia and Ukraine are still at war while The Chinese like to keep a watching brief on surrounding countries.
Europe plus countries worldwide, and America are arguing, fighting and negotiating Trump instigated tariff wars.
I continue to walk and write about my peaceful strolls around the parks and forests of our green isle, meeting, chatting and acting as tour guide to so many people from all over the world. These physical and social endeavours help my longevity and wellness in life.
You can follow Mick O Callaghan on www.aramblersblog.com
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Wow!
This magnificent stone sculpture is called The Lookout and it’s in Cornwall.
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A Fact
The word salary comes from salarium, the Latin for salt ration. Salt was so valuable in ancient times that it was a kind of currency.
Margo Spillane loves to return from her home in Castlelyons to Listowel for a visit. She thought the town was looking as good as ever.
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A Town that loves Trees
This beautiful line of trees is at the entrance to Willow Grove. Have you ever noticed how trees and woods occur often in placenames in Listowel?
We have Woodford, Wood view, Hawthorn Drive, Hollytree Drive, Cherrytree Drive, Ashgrove, Ashfield, Ferndene and lots more that I can’t remember just now.
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Graffiti as Art
I spotted this wall at the boys’ school
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A Blast from the Past
This is a story from an old school magazine. The five pence piece is no more. Many of the shops are gone. In those days you could set up a toll in William Street and collect for charity… Happy days!
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At Lynch’s Corner
The words of the Master are commemorated in Lynch’s wall.
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An Apology
Last week I featured the anomoly that is The Convent Street Clinic on Market Street, I also wrote about the difficulty of changing a street name for people who were conducting business on that street.
I was reminded by Maureen that Convent Street Clinic used to be on Convent Street. When they relocated to Market Street they kept the name as it would have caused untold hassle to change it.
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A Fact
Walking under a ladder is said to bring bad luck. Superstitions about ladders go back to the bad old days when criminals had to climh a ladder to the gallows.
The prestigious Listowel Writers’ Week 2025, had one of its outstanding events on May 30. It was, “ Poetry: Celebrating the Poetry of Paul Durkan-An Evening of Music and Poems to mark Paul’s eightieth birthday and the publication of Paul Durcan 80 at 80.” Unfortunately Paul didn’t live to see it, he died on May 17th
There is a tradition, among the good people of Ringsend, of gathering at a funeral procession to carry the coffin over the hump-backed bridge over the River Dodder just before the village. Needless to say at the funeral of one of our greatest poets the Ringsend people turned out in their droves to help the bereaved to, “carry Paul over the bridge.”
Prolific Irish Times journalist Frank McNally treated his readers to a story from some years ago. The volunteers overdid their enthusiasm for the tradition. They stopped a hearse, with three limousines behind it, at the bottom of the bridge and immediately launched into the routine of organising each other to carry the coffin into Ringsend until the driver of the hearse intervened. “Lads, lads stop,” he said, “This funeral is going to F…ing Bray.”
What did Paul think of the afterlife? I’m sure we can glean something from one of his poems.
Staring Out the Window Three Weeks After His Death.
Staring Out the Window Three Weeks After His Death
On the last day of his life as he lay comatose in the hospital bed
I saw that his soul was a hare which was poised In the long grass of his body, ears pricked
It sprang toward me and halted and I wondered if it
Could hear me breathing
Or if it could smell my own fear which was,
Could he but have known it, greater than his
For plainly he was a just and playful man
And just and playful men are as brave as they are rare.
Then his cancer-eroded body appeared to shudder
As if a gust of wind blew through the long grass
And the hare of his soul made a U-turn
And began bounding away from me
Until it disappeared from sight into a dark wood
And I thought – that is the end of that, I will not be seeing him again.
He died in front of me; no one else was in the room.
My eyes teemed with tears; I could not damp them down.
I stood up to walk around his bed
Only to catch sight again of the hare of his soul
Springing out of the wood into a beachy cove of sunlight
And I thought – yes, that’s how it is going to be from now on:
The hare of his soul always there, when I least expect it;
Popping up out of nowhere, sitting still.
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Blessing the Herd
Photo by Elizabeth Ahern
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Kerry Women in Literature
Here are three of the writers featured in KWM’s new exhibition.
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Shared On Line
An old photo of The Castle Hotel Ballybunion
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KDYS
The ramped entrance to KDYS Listowel
It’s Pride month.
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A Fact
Black cats are considered lucky in Ireland and the U.K but in the U.S.A. it’s white cats that are the lucky ones.
Those who don’t learn from the mistakes of history are destined to repeat them.
The debate in Castleisland was short lived. They didn’t even have to resort to the Listowel solution to a Listowel problem. They are going to leave well enough alone. This time the people spoke in today’s forum for people who are unhappy with a proposal to let rip. Let rip they did. Some people wanted no change. Some people were okay with change but not to O’Connell. Various names were suggested until the whole debate descended into chaos. So Main Street Castleisland will remain Main Street for the foreseeable future. In Irish it is simply An Phríomhshráid, a direct translation.
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Kerry Women in Literature at Kerry Writers’ Museum
There was a big imbalance in the representation of Kerry writers in the KWM. The exhibition which opened on May 28 2025 set out to right that wrong.
On opening night Owen MacMahon told me of a conversation he heard reported when the question of gender balance was being debated in the golf club. The wise man in this conversation said that any lady who sought equality with men lacked ambition.
I don’t think many would argue that the women in this exhibition were the equal or superior to household names in Irish writing such as Bryan MacMahon, John B. Keane or Brendan Kennelly. They still deserve some recognition.
Maureen Beasley’s daughter reads what the museum has to say about her mother.
The Beasley family with the Chair of KWM, David Browne
Artist and model…The work of the writers is “reimagined through contemporary art.” Artist, Damien Daly, chose Beatrice Mannix to represent the themes in Sonja Broderick’s poem, The Best of Times.
They posed for me by the artwork. My picture does not do the piece justice.
Eamon ÓMurchú, Seán MacCarthy and Gabriel Fitzmaurice at the opening.
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Listowel Literary Festival 2025
Old friends, Ned O’Sullivan, Chair of Listowel Writers’ Week and Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Patrick O’Donovan. The minister endowed Listowel Writers’ Week with a grant of €25k.
(Photo: Dominick Walsh)
Some of the widespread coverage in the media. Listowel Literary Festival 2025 was a welcome PR boost for tourism in Listowel.
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A Poem
This Pat Boran poem was the unseen poem in this year’s Leaving Cert .English paper.
As Far as Turn Back
After we’ve walked for long enough
the conversation peters out,
and grunts, sniffs and the occasional cough
are all that punctuate the quiet.
Now and then, there’s a heel-burst
slipstream of shingle; a see-saw
slate-flat rock taps and trembles
its morse code underfoot;
a crow caws, a sheep responds
from a clump of grass a field away.
But that’s about the size of it.
No path agreed in advance,
we’re just out walking on this lockdown day,
taking the air and, taken by it,
leaving the road for animal tracks,
heading, as my father’s phrase would have it,
‘as far as turn back’.
And who knew that not knowing
where that turn would turn out to be
would turn out to be
the thing we’d miss the most.
Pat Boran
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Sunday Market
Every Sunday from now ’til October from 11.00a.m. to 3.00p.m. you can buy crafts, baked goods, vegetables, strawberries, knick knacks and more. Brew and Banter had a previous commitment last Sunday but they’ll be back.
The school principal was on hand to support the stall holders.
Lovely hand made toys and gifts
These are to lads I told you about yesterday. From their base in Tralee they are selling popular 3D printer made items.
