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
Cora felt that a trip to Ballybunion would be wasted without a bit of a dip. Her mother assures me she was well away from those dangerous looking waves. The camera foreshortened the distance.
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Listowel’s Presentation Sisters
Once upon a time the sisters used to be buried in a cemetery in the convent grounds. A nun’s funeral was a solemn ritual, full of ceremony and singing, her sisters chants accompanying their departed loved one into eternity. Now the local convent building and grounds, including the graveyard, is no longer sacred ground and the remains of the sisters are now interred in St. Michael’s Cemetery.
Many of the names on these simple stones are names of great women I knew as friends and work colleagues. They sacrificed much and their legacy will benefit Listowel and beyond for years to come.
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Retirement marked with a Tony O’Callaghan plaque
When Jim Cogan retired from St. Michael’s he was presented with a beautiful piece of Tony O’Callaghan’s artwork adorned with symbols of family, Jim’s work life and his interests. It is a treasure.
In the photograph with Jim are Bill Walshe and Fr. Seamus Linnane on behalf of the Board of Management and John Mulvihill, principal, St. Michael’s.
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Beautiful Signwriting
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A Fact
Both Shakespeare and Cervantes died on the same day, April 23 1616
One of my Ballincollig grandchildren attends Gaelscoil Uí Riordáin.
I attend their show last week. It was hard to believe that they were just primary school fifth and sixth class pupils. They were superb.
There is my little Cora giving it socks as an exotic dancer.
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Tony O’Callaghan and the Listowel Police Mutiny
This is the Tony O’Callaghan plaque on display in Listowel Garda Barracks. It is a record of the names of the mutineers.
“On June 19th 1920, fourteen rank and file members of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Listowel defied the order of their superior officers and refused to hand over the control of the barracks to the British Military, and to adopt a shoot to kill policy against the local community. This incident – forever more known as the Listowel Police Mutiny – was a seminal event in the Irish War of Independence.” Kerry Writers Museum.
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Then and Now
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A Ballybunion Sunday
Essential training and practice for this vital service takes place on Sunday mornings in Ballybunion. My daughter-in-law took the photos.
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A Fact
A jiffy is an actual unit of time. It’s 1/100 of a second.
Remember last week I brought you the lovely old Protestant church in my native Kanturk.
Quite far away on foot but no distance as the crow flies is this gate into the same church.
It is located right beside the side entrance to Egmond House, a short cut for the gentry to their Sunday service.
Lots of little titbits of history to be learned in the new heritage trail.
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Finuge GAA reliving the glory days
I spotted the following on Facebook.
Eamonn Fitzmaurice and Paul Galvin…photo Finuge GAA on Facebook
,
It’s coming up to the 10 year anniversary of our club’s appearance in the All Ireland Intermediate final in Croke Park. Time flies!
This piece below captures Éamonn Fitmaurices reflections in 2019 on what was a hectic and fun time for our club…
enjoy!!
Eamonn Fitzmaurice on Club Glory and Defeat
04 Feb 2019 Club , Kerry GAA and County
BY SHANE STAPLETON
Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s case is not an unusual one. He grew up dreaming of glory with club and county, but then out of the blue came the two buses at once.
He had already lifted the Sam Maguire as a player. But for 2013, the Kerry county board appointed this managerial novice as successor to Jack O’Connor, as the locals expected.
All the while, Fitzmaurice was one of the veteran players on the Finuge team in hot pursuit of an AIB All-Ireland IFC title. Two ambitions coming into view, with one complicating the other. As if that wasn’t enough, Fitzmaurice was also managing Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne in the Corn Uí Mhuirí.
“The month of January in 2013 was completely mad,” Fitzmaurice tells AIB GAA. “I was involved with Finuge, with Kerry, and with the school as well, so I had three gear bags going! I remember one weekend we had a match on the Friday with the school in the Corn Uí Mhuirí, which we won. Then on the Saturday, we played against Tipp in the McGrath Cup, and won. On the Sunday then, we played the All-Ireland semi-final against the Kildare side Monasterevin, so it was a crazy weekend but brilliant because we won all the games.”
If only every weekend could be so easy. As it turned out, Fitzmaurice would lead his school to Munster glory in the Corn Uí Mhuirí, but spring would not run so smoothly for the Kingdom, as they lost four league games in a row and the pressure mounted.
While all of this was happening, he had to prepare for a February 9th clash with the Tyrone champions, Cookstown Fr Rocks, led by Owen Mulligan. Heading into the game, all the talk centred around the rivalry between the two counties over the previous decade; of Paul Galvin and Fitzmaurice going toe-to-toe with Mulligan and Raymond Mulgrew (who had just returned from two years in Australia) once more.
“My last game at Croke Park had been with Kerry in 2006, the All-Ireland final (win over Mayo),” says Fitzmaurice. “I didn’t think I’d be back playing there, and here we were about six and a half years later.
“We had gotten to the junior club All-Ireland in 2005 and beaten Stewartstown Harps but that was the year before it was moved to Croke Park, so we had played that final in Portlaoise. We lost a few intermediate finals in Kerry but finally won it in 2012, and then made it to the All-Ireland. It was fantastic to get back to Croke Park after so long.
“We trained very hard for that final. I remember the last hard session that we had before the final, it must have been a week out. But we had this training game where you got the ball and four or five lads would tackle you, just trying to condition ourselves for what we expected against a Tyrone side. It didn’t turn out to be the best idea, because Jack Corridan ended up with a broken nose and there was a bit of a row! I think I’m still getting blamed for it to this day, but it wasn’t me.”
In contact sport, anything can happen, and Fitzmaurice is able to look back and see the funny side of it now. But the stories didn’t end there.
“For the final, we decided to travel up the night before and stayed at the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel which is outside Dublin (near the Red Cow roundabout). We had a bit of time to kill on the Saturday, so we were out in the car park having a kick-around, but there were balls flying out on the M7 (motorway), and lads dancing out trying to retrieve them.”
Unfortunately for the north Kerry side, the big day didn’t go as planned. Finuge trailed by just a point at half-time but Mulgrew and another returning Cookstown player, Barry Mulligan, would help inspire the Tyrone men to a 1-9 to 0-6 win.
“We had always been a physical side, but we felt it wouldn’t suit us against a Tyrone side,” says Fitzmaurice. “We worked on discipline and maybe that took the natural edge off us. They were cuter on the day.”
It turned out to be Fitzmaurice’s final game for the club, and though he was disappointed to miss out on playing senior with Finuge, he needed to focus on his duties as Kerry manager — to give it his full attention. He may have missed out on All-Irelands with his club and ultimately as county boss in 2013, but he would lead the Kingdom and Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne to the promised land in 2014.
As with most GAA careers, it begins and ends with the club for Fitzmaurice. He grew up just outside Lixnaw and was an accomplished hurler, but ultimately football took over when an under-16 tournament in Limerick proved he could compete with the best footballers around. Three miles separate his two clubs, and the two co-exist in harmony.
“Finuge is a small place, there’s a shop, a pub, the field, and a teach siamsa — a thatched cottage which is a centre for traditional music and dancing. Lixnaw then, to the west, has four pubs, two or three shops, and a church. Paul Galvin and Trevor McKenna would be out that way too. There’s no rivalry between the two clubs and a lot of lads played both codes.”
He explains that he started out as a centre-back in hurling but ultimately made the move out to midfield for his biggest days with Lixnaw. “I enjoyed the hurling and I was centre-back but when I was away playing football, I found it hard to get my touch back. Paul got his touch back a lot quicker. So, they put me out at midfield to be a workhorse and I played there for the three county finals we won.
“GAA is a huge part of the community and it’s unusual in a way because I come from the west part of the parish, and it was all hurling when I was younger, but I got more attached to the football over time,” Fitzmaurice adds. “I was in Finuge recently and I was looking at a tribute wall of club honours, and prior to our group, we had just two North Kerry championships won in the late ‘60s and ‘80s.
“Then we went from Division 5 to Division 1, like going from Junior B to senior. In the middle of it, we didn’t take much notice and you expect to win more, but it really was a golden age (winning county and Munster titles at junior and intermediate).”
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Yondr in St. Michael’s
Photo John Kelliher for The Kerryman
Boys in St. Michael’s pop their phones into a locked pouch for the duration of the school day.
There was Tommy Tiernan thinking he had came up with something revolutionary when St. Michael’s had it all the time.
Tommy says he paid a fortune to an American company for these pouches that he used for the first time in Vicar Street last week. If you have booked for his gig you will be contacted to say that it’s a phone free event. Tommy hired extra staff to implement this. He bought 1,000 of the Yondr pouches and everyone who enters the bar is given one and their phone is locked into it by a staff member, to be released only when the gig is over.
If you need your phone for a medical reason you will be given a wristband identifying you as a special case and your phone will be unlocked instantly if necessary.
Doon Cottage photographed by Kevin Danagher; Photo is in the National Library
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Celtic Art…A Listowel Connection
Many knitting stitches are inspired by celtic knots and patterns. This is the nearest I get to being a celtic artist.
A young lady who grew up in Listowel and is now a highly rated goldsmith/silversmith was surely influenced by her Listowel surroundings as she walked our streets.
Eileen Moylan in her workshop. Photo TG 4
This is Eileen’s Celtic love-knot pendant.
“Two hearts intertwine through an infinity symbol to create a distinctive Celtic design. With no beginning and no end, this Celtic love knot represents eternal love.”
The unique Celtic Torc Pendant crafted from solid gold.
“This striking piece carries intricate panels of Celtic knotwork. With no beginning and no end, the Celtic knot offers a symbol of eternity. The ancient torc, believed to have been worn as symbol of protection, as a talisman for protection.”
These are just 2 pieces from Eileen’s online shop. She also handcrafts beautiful custom pieces for clients at home and abroad in her studio in Macroom.
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A Sad Event Commemorated in a play
A Play, The Bell Ringer by Charlie McCarthy had its first staging in Schoolyard Theatre Charleville on Feb 2 2023. It is a reminder of one of the saddest events to ever happen in this country outside of wartime.
Photo…Schoolyard Theatre on Facebook
Gerard Greaney researched this disaster. Here is his comprehensive story with all its heart rending and poignant details.
“Here is a piece I wrote a few years ago on the Cinema Fire Disaster in Dromcollogher when 48 people, over 10% of the town’s population, perished in a blaze.” Gerard Greaney
Cinema fire.
On Sunday 5th September 1926, forty-eight people lost their lives when a fire broke out during a film show in Dromcollogher, Co. Limerick. The two films, which had been brought from Cork by a projectionist hired by a local man, were shown in the hall in Church St. This was on the upper floor of a building used for storing hardware and access to it was by an external timber ladder, fixed to the wall to form a stairs. The hall, which had been used for meetings and entertainments for a number of years, was a rectangular room with a separate small dressing room area in the right hand rear corner.
The show began about 9:15 p.m. after Benediction had finished in the local church, at which many of the audience had been present. Estimates of the attendance varied but it appears that at least 150 people crowded into the hall, many of them children.
At around 10:00 p.m. as the second film was showing, one of the reels, which lay unprotected on a table near the door, went on fire when a candle on the table overturned and set it alight. The people immediately rushed to the single narrow door from which the ladder/stairs descended. Those seated nearest the exit escaped as the fire spread rapidly. Others fled to the rear of the hall where the two windows were located and they crowded into the small dressing room area. Some got out through the window and jumped on to a nearby hay rick. Unfortunately, the window exit was blocked when a woman became trapped in it. Within minutes the floor of the hall collapsed and the victims were hurtled to the ground where they died from the combination of burns, asphyxiation and shock. 46 people were dead within fifteen minutes. Two survivors later died from their injuries.
More than half of the victims were aged under twenty-five, nineteen were less than twenty years old and fifteen were children. The two youngest victims were both just seven years of age, Thomas Noonan and John Kenny. The Kenny family of Carraward also lost a second son, John’s twelve-year-old brother, James. The oldest to die was sixty eight year old Mary Turner from Gardenfield. Jeremiah Buckley, a fifty-two year old national teacher, his wife, Ellen (47), daughter Bridie (10), sister-in-law Kate Wall (45) and their maid, Nora Kirwan (18) all perished. This entire household on the Square was wiped out. The family terrier was to be seen whining at the door next day. Bridie would have celebrated her eleventh birthday on the following Thursday. Thomas Buckley (62), Woodfield, Jeremiah’s brother, also died. The Buckleys were the only married couple among the victims.
Margaret Collins (60) and Kate Collins (58) died along with Kate’s daughter (22) and two nieces from Sheshive, Nora (22) and Myra O’Sullivan (21). There were two sad cases of the death of young mothers and two of their children. Mary Barrett (34) of Carraward and two of her five children, Mollie (10) and Tom, Anne Fitzgerald (37) of Pike St. with two of her three children, daughter Margaret (10) and son Daniel. Equally poignant was the death of Kate McAuliffe (56), her fifteen-year-old daughter Mary and eleven-year-old son John, leaving Florence McAuliffe (53) of Church St. without his entire family. Mary B. O’Brien (51) from Kells died alongside her only child, Nellie (18) leaving an invalid, wheelchair bound husband.
Patrick O’Donnell (62), Pike St. stayed in the hall looking for his wife Katie and young daughter Mary unaware that they had escaped through the window. Mary (O’ Flynn) was the last known survivor and passed away a few years ago. Among the other victims was May O’Brien (24) of Church St. who was engaged to marry local Garda John Davis, Nora Mary Hannigan (11), a London resident, who was visiting relatives in the town and Violet Irwin (15) from the nearby village of Feenagh. Edward Stack (22), a farm labourer working for the O’Sullivan family in Mondellihy, was from Duagh, Co. Kerry and John J. Walsh was a national teacher in Milford. All the other victims were from the parish of Dromcollogher. Most of these lived in the village itself. Ten were from Pike St.
One of the victims had not even been at the show. William Savage, a 56-year-old butcher and farmer, who lived across the road, was incorrectly told that his two sons were trapped and he rushed into the burning building from which he never emerged. Robert Aherne, a 31-year-old publican, also lived in Church St. He had only been married for five months. He escaped with his wife Nora, who was expecting their first child but returned to try to rescue his mother-in-law, Anne O’Callaghan and perished along with her. Thomas Buckley a retired schoolteacher and Jim Quaid, 39-year-old farmer stayed in the building helping others to escape. They both lost their own lives.
Burial
Newspaper photo of funeral
Special permission was obtained from the Bishop of Limerick, Most Rev. Dr. David Keane, to allow a communal burial of all the victims in the church grounds. The funeral Mass on Tuesday 7th of September was attended by the bishop and by William T. Cosgrave, President of the Executive Council, as the head of the government was then styled. The parish priest of Dromcollogher, John Canon Begley, presided while the celebrant of the mass was Rev. Daniel O’Callaghan son of one of the victims, Mary Anne O’Callaghan (61).
A benevolent fund was established and money poured in from all over the world. Those affected received various amounts, some as lump sums, most sent in instalments every quarter to the dependants of the victims, and to some of the injured survivors, until the 1950’s. For many the burning money was a much needed and welcome supplement
In the 1940’s the site of the hall was bought by the relatives of the victims and given to Limerick County Council who erected an attractively designed Memorial Library there, where framed photographs, contemporary newspapers and other materials relating to the tragedy are displayed. A large Celtic style cross marks the communal grave in the nearby churchyard on which are inscribed the names and dates of birth of all forty-eight victims, innocent men, women and children whose lives were so unexpectedly and cruelly ended on that September night of horror, ninety seven years ago.
The mass grave in Dromcollogher Church yard where all but two of the victims are buried
Photo online
Names of the Deceased
William R. Aherne Mary Barrett Mary Barrett
Thomas Barrett Bridget Buckley Ellen Buckley
Jeremiah Buckley Thomas Buckley Kate Collins
Kate Collins Margaret Collins Mary Egan
Anne Fitzgerald Daniel Fitzgerald Margaret Fitzgerald
Nora-Mary Hannigan Maurice Hartnett Daniel Horan
Violet Irwin James Kenny John Kenny
James Kirwan Margaret Kirwan Nora Kirwan
Nora Long Catherine McAuliffe John McCarthy
Mary McAuliffe Anthony McAuliffe Ellen Madden
Thomas Noonan Mary-Ita Nunan Ellen O’Brien
Mary O’Brien Mary B. O’Brien Mary O’Callaghan
Patrick O’Donnell Eugene O’Sullivan Mary O’Sullivan
Nora O’Sullivan James Quaid William Quirke
William Savage Bridget Sheehan Edward Stack
Mary Turner Kate Wall John J. Walsh
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Chapel on the Hill
I recently bought a new car. I bought it in O’Callaghan’s Kanturk. This is a view from the forecourt of the car dealership; the picturesque old Protestant church is now unoccupied but still beautiful.
Families like Sheltons, Prouse, Sharpe and Bolster worshipped there in my time. It was, of course, forbidden for us Catholics to cross the threshold!
I took a trip down memory lane recently. I visited by Alma Mater, UCC. The many changes have blended in beautifully and much of the campus was recognisable from my student days.
I entered by the Gaol gate. Any bikes that were here in my day were the students’ own.
In the 1970s the gate lodge was just that and the gatekeeper lived there.
The arch looking towards the quad was just the same.
The stoney corridor with its Ogham stones was where our exam results were posted for all to see.
The Aula Maxima was used for study and as an exam centre.
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Listowel Library
The library is a great resource. It seems to get better with each passing month.
February’s treat for us is a series of talks by local historian, Vincent Carmody. Vincent is a fount of knowledge about so many aspects of Listowel. These are bound to be great events.
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Listowel Emmetts
Listowel Emmetts have shared a 2002 letter from John B. Keane to Stephen Stack, chair of the committee fundraising to develop Sheehy Park,
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The Influence of Celtic Art
The place where you live, the sights you see everyday, inevitably influence you. There is a theory that people who live in Listowel become writers by osmosis. It appears to me that people of an artist bent who spend time in Listowel become artists in the celtic genre.
Literally every street corner is adorned with scrolls and swirls in the style of the old celtic artists.
One such artist was Vincent O’Connor
V.L O’Connor was born in Church St, Listowel on July 8th 1888 to Listowel natives, Daniel O’Connor and Elizabeth (Bessie) Wilmot. His father was a retired Sergeant Major of the 1st battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. The family moved to Dingle where Daniel took up the position of Station Master. On his death in 1898 the family relocated to Tralee where Bessie ran a hotel on Nelson St.
Vincent was a very accomplished artist from an early age and took up a teaching post in the Christian Brothers in 1904. He also studied art under William Orpen.
Vincent emigrated to the USA in 1915 sailing on the Lusitania. He taught at Notre Dame university for a number of years. In 1916 he published a book of 18 caricatures of notable people of the time, including Douglas Hyde, Alice Stopford Green, GB Shaw and others.
When the Irish government was invited to take part in the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, also known as the Century of Progress International Exposition, they were initially reticent. Tariffs and trade barriers meant there was little prospect of any financial gain. Eventually they decided to participate because ‘considerations such as those connected with national publicity and prestige might outweigh the more tangible considerations of trading advantage’.
Ireland sent a cultural and industrial display that was housed in the monumental Travel and Transport building. When the Fair organizers decided to run the event again in 1934, numerous countries—including the Irish Free State—did not participate and their places were taken by private concessions. However, there were a number of events that the Irish State did participate in during the second manifestation, the most prominent was an open air theatrical pageant representing Irish history, The Pageant of the Celt. Irish Consul General in Chicago, Daniel J. McGrath, was on the executive committee of the production.
The Pageant took place on the 28th and 29th August, 1934, at Chicago’s main sports stadium, Soldier’s Field, in front of large ‘marvellous’ crowds. Although the pageant is credited to Irish- American attorney John V. Ryan, it was most likely co-developed with its narrator Micheál MacLiammóir, to whose work it bears similarities. Some contemporary reports credit it solely to MacLiammóir. The Pageant was produced by Hilton Edwards and covered the period of Irish history from pre-Christian times to the Easter Rising of 1916 and it had almost two thousand participants. Subjects like the imperfect resolution to the War of Independence with Britain in 1921 and the subsequent Civil War were still fresh in people’s memory and, as in the earlier MacLiammóir pageants, were avoided.
The program itself has a richly decorated cover and small illustrations and decorated capitals throughout by Irish-American artist Vincent Louis O’Connor (c.1884-1974). The cover contrasts Celtic Ireland with modern Chicago. Round towers are juxta positioned with skyscrapers, separated by clouds, both icons of their time and the spirit of their respective ages. A man and a woman in distinctive ancient Irish dress festooned with a Tara brooch, stand on Ireland’s green shore facing the Atlantic. These and Saint Brendan’s ship anchored, trademarked with a Celtic cross, signifying the Irish-American connection. This was an Irish pageant suitable for diaspora consumption, with its mix of the mythical and ancient, cultured and catholic, distinctive and unique, oppressed but not beaten, leading to phoenix-like revolution and rebuilding.
David O’Sullivan found all of this information for us and he also sourced these obituaries to the artist.
