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 5 of 175

History all Around Us

By

On March 19, 2025

In Listowel, Poem

Bridge Road on a sunny morning in March 2025

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Confirmation in St. Mary’s

St. Mary’s looking lovely for last Friday’s confirmation.

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Eleanor Belcher Remembers the Sheehy Brothers

Mary,
You showed a bench remembering Martin, Michael and John Sheehy of Main Street recently. I grew up with the Sheehy family.
Marty( Martin) was the oldest and was very important to all of us who used to play tennis on the Cows’ Lawn where there still was a hard court and the club house was an old carriage from the Lartique Railway. Marty organised tournaments, got a large official poster where he organised seeding and ran tournaments for us. He also showed me how to pour a beer when I was about 16 at a party in Helen Buckley’s home in Ballybunion. I thought it was so sophisticated! He went on to be some an anaesthetist in the US.

I don’t remember Michael but Pat was next , He was great fun and very popular. I think he entered the Seminary for a while but as far as I know didn’t go on to be a priest.

The twins were John and Jerry, John being the more solemn one. Jerry loved comics and got the Dandy. My mother didn’t allow us to have comics and Jerry used to share his with us. We used to sit on the steps of what were then the Dennehy and McGuire houses in the Square. So I got to know Dennis the Menace, , the Bash Street kids and more. Again Jerry loved soccer which was not discussed in my home( my Dad having played rugby). Jerry was a fan of Denis Law and I thought of him recently when the great Scottish player died and his funeral was big news in Glasgow.

It is lovely that the family are remembered on that bench.

It is lovely to see such successful men still fondly remembered by their old friends in Listowel.

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Street Furniture

In one small space on Upper Church street there is a wealth of Irish, and Listowel history in three items of street furniture

Eamon Bulfin (1892–1968) was an Argentine-born Irish republican. He was the son of writer William Bulfin (1864–1910) of Birr, in County Offaly (then called King’s County). His father had emigrated to Argentina at the age of 20 and was a writer and journalist who became the editor/proprietor of The Southern Cross. (Wikipedia)

Bulfin was the man who raised the flags on the GPO in 1916. He was later condemned to death but reprieved.

He lived in Argentina and worked as a journalist.

In the 1920 County Council elections, Bulfin was nominated in his absence for a seat on the council of Offaly, his family’s county of origin. He was elected and though he was in Argentina, immediately appointed chairman of the council. One of the first actions of the new council was to agree that King’s County be renamed Offaly, the name of the ancient Gaelic kingdom from which part of the modern county was formed. (Wikipedia)

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Ashe Street

Thomas Patrick Ashe (Irish: Tomás Pádraig Ághas; 12 January 1885 – 25 September 1917) was an Irish revolutionary and politician. He was a member of the Gaelic League, the Gaelic Athletic Association, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and a founding member of the Irish Volunteers.[1]

He was a senior commander in the Easter Rising of 1916. After release from prison just over a year later he was soon re-arrested on separate charges of sedition, and died as a result of forcible feeding whilst on hunger strike in prison. (Wikipedia)

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For the Grieving

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1942 Tourism Survey

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A Fact

In 1906 William Kellogg formed the Battle Creek Toasted Cornflake Company. I think by now his wildest dreams have come true.

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Pieces of History

By

On March 18, 2025

In History, Listowel

William Street in March 2025

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St. Patrick’s Day 2025

I snapped Doran’s Patrick’s Day window .

Great blend of fun and greenery

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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.

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New Sign

The Shebeen in Main Street

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A Fact

In 1997 scientists in Edinburg cloned a sheep called Dolly.

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Heading into a Holiday Weekend

By

On March 14, 2025

In Listowel, Schools' Folklore

Áras an Phiarsaigh

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Nest Building

These crows in Childers’ Park are out collecting materials for their nests. Traditionally people believe that crows, who are very intelligent birds, know when it’s March 1st for that is when they start nest building.

Crows mate for life and their lifespan is about 7 to 8 years.

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From the Schools’ Folklore Collection

According to a story told by his grandfather to Tom Reaney in Galway for the Schools’ Folklore of the 1930s, St. Patrick used intimidation and other scare tactics in his work of converting pagand to Christianity.

Óisín and St. Patrick

When Oisin came from Tir na n-Óg he met St Patrick and St Patrick tried to convert him. Oisin did not believe in being converted and St Patrick told him that all his Fianna were down in hell. Oisin then said that if only Conan Maol the worst man of the Fianna was there he would bring the forge and the devil with him on his back. St Patrick then brought Oisin down to Lough Derg and told him to sit there. After a while Oisin fell asleep and had a dream.

In his dream he saw hell and when he woke he asked St Patrick to take his comrades out of hell and so Patrick said, “out of hell there is no redemption”. He then asked St Patrick to relieve them. Oisin then said,

“if all the land on earth were paper nd the sea were ink and all the quills of the fowl were pens and all that were born since Adam and Eve were clerks they could not write down the one third of the pains of hell.”

Oisin then asked for baptism. While he was being baptised St Patrick put the Staff that he was carrying accidentally through Oisin’s foot,

“I am sorry”, said St Patrick, ” I have your foot cut”.

and Oisin said

“I thought it was part of the baptism”.

St Patrick then said that Oisin was forgiven.

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Wise Words

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Luke Wadding

We may be hearing a bit more about this man soon as he was the only Irishman to receive a vote in a papal election.

Here is a small extract from a long Wikipedia article about him.

Luke Wadding was born on 16 October 1588 into a prominent Old English merchant family in Waterford. He was particularly well connected on both sides of his family. His mother, Anastasia Lombard, belonged to another important Old English family. Members of the Wadding family supplied mayors to Waterford City, and Luke Wadding was related to a number of famous Irish bishops of the time, among them Peter Lombard, archbishop of Armagh, David Rothe, bishop of Ossary, and Patrick Comerford, bishop of Waterford. Little is known of his early education in Waterford, although it would seem that he acquired a knowledge of Latin, probably not a difficult task for someone with such linguistic flair: in his lifetime he became proficient in Hebrew, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. After his mother’s death from the plague in 1602, Wadding accompanied his brother Matthew, a merchant, to Lisbon and soon afterwards joined the Franciscans. He was ordained in 1613. He began his studies in philosophy and theology in Portugal and was then invited to join the Spanish Franciscan province, where he became a lecturer in theology in the renowned University of Salamanca. His formation in Portugal and in Spain brought him into contact with some of the most influential Catholic teachers and intellectuals of the time, including the Jesuit Francisca Suárez. Once in Salamanca he gained a reputation as a theologian with a particular interest in the historic and spiritual tradition of the Franciscan Order.

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Fact

From 1927 to 1961 the RDS dog show was the only place you could legally drink on St. Patrick’s Day. Huge crowds used to turn up. One T.D. is reported to have said, “It’s a great day out except for all the damned dogs.”

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Hands across the Ocean

By

On March 13, 2025

In History, Listowel

Market Street in March 2025

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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.

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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

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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?

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Remember

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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.”

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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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Remembering

By

On March 11, 2025

In Listowel, Personal

Listowel Fire station in March 2025

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Remembering

St. Patrick’s Day 2023 in Listowel

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Old Friends

The Sheehy family of Main Street remained proud of their Listowel roots to the end.

I wish someone would write the life stories of all these people who are commemorated on benches in town. All of them contributed to Listowel, and Listowel is justly proud of them. Their stories, as well as their names, deserve preservation.

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Different Times

Jer Kennelly found this one.

I did a bit of research and it seems that the dance in question may have beein in 1940.

Here are extracts from an article I found online. The interview awas with a Bray saxophonist in The Irish Independent in 2003.

“…One piece of memorabilia Charlie keeps is a diary in which he recorded all the gigs he played and what he was owed for each. The entry for March 1940, when playing with the dance band, was £2 and 16 pence! ‘That’s what I earned that month,’ laughs Charlie.

In 1942 Charlie joined the Phil Murtagh band, who had a residency in the Metropole on Dublin’s O’Connell Street.

This was the biggest gig in the country and the band was the best in the business. They played all around the country and had a summertime residency in Tramore.

Bandleader Phil Murtagh abhorred alcohol and had a strict rule ‘Whether you were driving to the top of Donegal or the bottom of Kerry, you didn’t stop for a bottle of stout. We drove in two cars – I drove and Phil drove and he always drove behind me to make sure I couldn’t stop at a pub!’ recalls Charlie.

‘In 1946, we were driving to Tramore and on a straight stretch of road I flew on ahead of Phil, went around a corner and he sailed on past. So me and the three I had with me went in for a few drinks, but when we came out I had a puncture. Because it was just after the war and cars weren’t long back on the road, we had no wheel brace to change the wheel. So we went back in for another few drinks!’ Someone eventually came who could help them, but by the time they got to Tramore there it was 10.30pm and the dance started at 8pm!

Given their status as top band in the country, any notions Charlie and his bandmates might have had about themselves were shot down at an enormous dance run by the army in the RDS, also in 1946.

Arriving with their instruments they were stopped by an army officer as they had no tickets. After over an hour waiting around outside they were eventually marched a quarter of a mile down the road to an entrance normally used for horses! ‘That ended any thoughts we had of ourselves as big shots,’ laughs Charlie.

Again he recalls also how little they were payed compared to today – on St. Stephen’s night in 1939 he played from 9pm until 5am and was payed one pound! In 1940 they drove to Listowel, earned two pounds each and crashed the car on the way back!

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Deltiology

According to the internet, deltiology is the third most common collector hobby, after money and stamps. This is surprising since so few people send postcards any more. I once had a huge collection and I used to display them on my kitchen wall., where they eventally got grubby and had to be thrown out.

Máire MacMahon is a deltiologist and she has sent us pictures of a few of her cards.

William St.

St. Michael’s College

Presentation Convent

You can see why postcards were so popular. They were ideal for holiday correspondence with a very favourable picture of your location and just enough room to tell everyone (including the postman) that you were having a good time.

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Reunion

Me, Geraldine, Mary, Breda and Bridget in Lizzie’s Little Kitchen in March 2025.

I was dining in Lizzy’s last week with some old teacher friends when we met a lovely past pupils out to lunch with her family.

By the way the lunch, in my opinion, was better than The Carriage House of last week’s fame.

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Update

The market in the boys’ school yard is now planned to be held on Sundays, not Saturdays as previously advertised. The first market will be held on Sunday May 4 2025 and from then until October, markets will be held from 11.00a.m. until 3.00p.m. every Sunday.

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A Fact

The reason we have a feast day to commemorate Saint Patrick is down to Fr. Luke Wadding. This Waterford missionary petitioned the Vatican in the 1600s to grant St. Patrick a dedicated feast day. Apparently the choice of March 17th was a bit arbitrary. It is believed to be the date of his death but that’s not too certain, like many otherm things about St. Patrick.

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