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: Poem Page 15 of 53

At a Cost

By

On July 5, 2024

In Poem

Kerry Writers’ Museum in June 2024

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Revival 2024

This will be a good one. The lineup looks special. Get buying those tickets.

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Our Beautiful old Coins

These beautiful animals were once in everyone’s pockets. As we move ever closer to a cashless economy, let’s take a minute to see how beautiful these pre -decimal Irish coins were.

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Another Find at the Library

You can borrow these “age friendly” tablets from the library for 10 weeks at a time. They are ideal for an old person who has to go into hospital or for respite or even in their own home.

Once you have a gmail account they are relatively easy to set up and they are programmed for local regions. They have a calendar and diary, links to the webpages of the local newspapers, links to local churches so you can “attend” mass if that’s your thing. You can take photos and chat to friends. I think they are a “try before you buy” option for someone who likes to stay in touch. On these Acorn age friendly tablets you can use Borrowbox, the free library online store of books , papers and magazines. When you hand it back, the library staff will wipe all your stuff off it before the next borrower.

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What I’m Reading

I usually have a few books on the go at a time. This one won this year’s Writers’ Week Kerry Novel of the Year. It is very very good.

Piece of serendipity in the IWA charity shop this week…expect some great weird and wonderful facts from this source.

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Squashed In

I just love the names of flowers and plants

Like the lovely Sauce Hollandaise daisies

Conjuring up images of summer salad days

Or that adorable Butternut Squash

With images of butter and nuts

Being squashed together

To make a tasty nourishing mash

I first became aware of this lovely vegetable

In the year of two thousand and ten.

I was just retired from teaching

And was embarking on a new way of living

Health matters were now a more pertinent issue

Weight loss and exercise became a focus for me

With aspirations to become a slimmer, fitter, healthier me

So, I betook myself off to a healthy heart course

With the emphasis on eating meat dishes demoted

                                            And using vegetarian dishes was promoted

For their beneficial effects for healthy living

We had carrots, lettuces, cous cous and coleslaw

There were melons, oranges apples and bananas

We tried shepherdess pies, Moroccan tagines

                                           There was tofu with ginger and broccoli spears

Then we were introduced to special soups and dishes

With butternut squash being the new one to me

We made butternut squash soup

We roasted it in the oven, skin and all

It tasted yummy and delicious 

Leaving my taste buds with a yearning for more

We made risottos and curries

I really liked eating them all

Because it was such nice nutritious food

Also, on our menu we had 

Quinoa with stir-fried greens

There was wheat grass and juices

Energy balls and sprouts

Diet plans and meal plans

I got used to living a more spartan lifestyle routine

Shedding kilos of weight and waistline inches

Reducing my cholesterol and blood pressure levels

 My energy levels increased appreciably

I just loved my expanded healthy menu choices

With my new friend, my delectable butternut squash

 heading the nutrient field for me

In my newly acquired style of healthy living routine

 Mick O Callaghan June 2024

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A Fact

Octopuses have three hearts. (You know where I got this one.)

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Glin Castle

By

On July 3, 2024

In Listowel, Poem

Lavender at Listowel Courthouse

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Some People I met at the Ard Chúram Performance

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A Fishtank

This tank with its very colourful fish is in Ard Chúram Day Centre.

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A Poem

This poem by Seamus Redmond will forever be associated with Micheál ÓMuircheartaigh who recited it so beautifully.

A Hurler’s Prayer

With strength of arm and speed of limb 
Unerring eye for the flying ball 
And courage to match whate’er befall
May my stroke be steady and my aim be true
My actions manly and my misses few
No matter what way the game may go
May I rest in friendship with every foe
When the final whistle for me has blown
And I stand at last before God’s judgement throne
May the great referee when he calls my name
Say, you hurled like a man; you played the game.
Seamus Redmond

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Glin Castle

Glin Castle was featured in a Discover Ireland post and the proprietors were delighted. Here is what they posted of Facebook.

Thank you to Discover Ireland for featuring us in their article “How to plan a Taylor  Swift-inspired short break in Ireland” 

Article reads:  

” Back in 2018, Swift and Alwyn spent Christmas in Glin Castle, the luxurious country manor on the edge of the Shannon Estuary. The castle is the ancestral home of Catherine FitzGerald, who runs the historic pile with her husband, the actor Dominic West.  

Once again, it was an Instagram post that tipped off followers, who identified the backdrop of Alwyn’s photo as the Knight’s Walk, a 3km loop that weaves through the grounds to the highest point of the Glin Demesne, with great views of the water and the castle itself along the way. And the good news is you don’t need to stay at the castle to do the walk yourself, as it’s open to the public. It’s also worth keeping an eye out for the occasional open days held at Glin Castle, so you can have a look around the impressive 18th century features in the house where they stayed. 

Swift and Alwyn also reportedly stopped for a pint in O’Shaughnessy’s, where she bought a raffle ticket for the local GAA team. This charming country pub was a good choice – it’s just outside the walls of the castle, with antique whiskey jugs on the shelves, a roaring open fire and cosy armchairs.”

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A Fact

Human saliva contains a painkiller called opiorphin. It is six times more powerful than morphine.

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Carrigaline Pottery

By

On July 2, 2024

In History, Listowel, Listowel Writers Week, Poem

On the banks of The Feale in June 2024

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Paul Durcan, Micheál ÓMuircheartaigh and Poetry Ireland

A Listowel connection

Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh has a fan in Paul Durcan who heard him – mid commentary – send Greetings to our Friends in Brazil one summer Sunday. Here’s Paul’s poem from Poetry Ireland’s Everything to Play For anthology which Mícheál selected & read at our event at Listowel Writer’s Week 2015.

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Did you have this tableware?

Carrigaline crockery graced every table I knew in my youth. While I am not a collector, I enjoy being part of a Facebook group given over to the celebration and preservation of this Irish treasure.

Here are a few pieces from that Facebook page.

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Ard Churam Choir

On June 27 2024 I was in Ard Chúram day centre to hear a great performance by the Ard Churam Choir. I’d love to post a clip of the singing but I’m running out of space on my hosting platform and videos are very space hungry. Sorry. Take it from me, they were a treat.

Here are some of the lovely people I met there

This man entertained us while we were waiting for the choir to finish their performance in the Fuchsia Centre

Eleanor and Brenda

Aras Mhuire guests

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Fact Check

I was a bit dubious about yesterday’s “fact”. It said that babies at birth can only see in black and white.

Jeremy Gould fact checked it for us and here in a nutshell is what he found on Snopes…

What’s True

Babies are born with a visual acuity that is below the threshold for legal blindness …

What’s False

… but it isn’t true that newborns can only see in black and white. Instead, they are able to perceive some colors, in an extremely muted way.

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A Definition

from The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

Architect, n. someone who drafts a plan of your house and plans a draft of your money

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A Fact

The toothbrush was invented in China in 1498. The brush was made of boar bristles.

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Black and Irish

By

On June 24, 2024

In Listowel, Poem

Hugh Stancliffe seat in The Garden of Europe

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Black and Irish

Rhasidat Adeleke, the greatest living Irish athlete.

One of the great benefits of having a festival like Writers’ Week on our doorstep is that we are exposed first hand to writing that opens our eyes to issues we may have been unaware of before.

For me, last year, one such event was the great event in Listowel Courthouse when Stephen Connolly brought us Bad Bridget, a look into the underbelly of the Irish diaspora, when there were more Irish women than Irish men in prisons in the U.S.

This year Martim Dyar brought us Black and Irish. This is not just a book. In fact the book is the least of it. It is an educational movement that opens our eyes to issues faced by people around us, who, even though they may not look stereotypically Irish, or have names like Siobhán or Seán, are just as entitled to call themselves Irish as I am.

Listen to this about our most promising athlete

Through our work in Black and Irish we’ve had many opportunities to speak to young people about @rhasidat_adeleke 

At every school talk and book talk we give, we show her to the audience and discuss the impact she has had on Ireland 

 Rhasidat is not just a talented athlete, she is an inspiration for all young Irish children who aspire to be the best at what they love. We are privileged to hear the whispered “wow’s” and see the looks of complete awe on children’s faces when we talk about her. We get to answer the many questions we are asked about her. This is the impact that Rhasidat has. She is inspiring the next generation. She is making all kids, regardless of gender, colour or anything else feel proud to be Irish 

Rhasidat is at the beginning of a glittering career. She is and will represent Ireland at an incredibly high level and we should all be behind her on this journey! 

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A Poem we Learned at School

W.H.Davies

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait tiWll her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.”

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St. Michael’s Cemetery

Martin Moore’s walk during this year’s Writers’ Week brought us to St. Michael’s cemetery.

This place deserves a book. It is full of Listowel’s history.

Owen MacMahon told us about Bill Kearney and his central role in Listowel life.

A family who experience tragedy

Michael Guerin has relatives buried here. He is knowledgeable about them and other fighting men interred here.

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A Defintion from The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure and intimate when he is rich or famous.

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A Fact

Almost 90% of snow is air.

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A Friday Miscellany

By

On June 21, 2024

In Listowel, Personal, Poem

Courthouse Road

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The Horseshoe

Looks like this eatery is about to have something added to its facade.

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Paddy Glavin Remembers The Feale

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Moments of Reflection

Listowel printing Works at Tannavalla

Paul Shannon printing up another iteration of my book…exciting times.

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Moments with Aoife

Aoife and her Nana on Charles Street

Happy days with a bubble wand

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Little Known Kerry Writers from The Newspaper Archives

New York NY Irish American Advocate 1916-1918

Mr. James J. O’Neill, Librarian of National University of Ireland, in a series of monthly lectures at the Carnegie Library, Listowel, Co. Kerry, read an interested paper on some distinguished Kerrymen.”

Mr. O’Neill after a rapid survey of Ireland’s ancient scholars, and their merits said that Kerry had Just cause to be proud of its place in its countries roll of fame —————–

Kerryman prominent among the writers of that literature. Hugh Kelly, the Kerry dramatist was born in Killarney in 1739. At an early age he removed to Dublin closed his career, and he died in 1777 at the early age of 38.

——– Richard Cantillon, the political economist, sprang from a Kerry family He was born at Ballyheigue about the beginning of the 17th century .

Among the writers in English we have the names of Bartholomew Dowling, Mrs. Mary Downing and Maurice O’Connell.

Mrs. Mary Downing was the daughter of Daniel MacCarthy of Kilfadimore, near Kenmare. She contributed many pieces of prose and poetry to the columns of the Cork Southern Reporter under the pseudonym of Christabel.

The O’Donoghue of the Glens, a leading figure in Irish politics from 1858 to 1868, was another distinguished Kerryman.

Lest we forget, Thomas Moore’s father was a Kerryman. Dr. Douglas Hyde, the great father of the Gaelic League, also has ‘Kerry blood in his  veins. To Irishmen the name of O’Connell is synonymous with their redemption.

Harman Blennerhasset the talented, but unfortunate son of Conway Blennerhasset of Castle Conway, Killorglin. He sailed toAmerica in 1726, and settled down to the life of a country gentleman, with his bride, the beautiful and accomplished Miss Margaret Agnew. After a few years he had the misfortune to meet the notorious Aaron Burr.

Mr. James Franklin Fuller, of Gasnacree, is another artist of whom Kerry may feel proud.

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A Fact

In 1830 Sarah Josepha Hale wrote the well known nursery rhyme, Mary had a Little Lamb. She based it on an experience of her own when she was teaching in Newport, New Hampshire in the U.S. A pet lamb followed one of Hale’s students to school and refused to leave. The lamb waited until it was reunited with “Mary” at close of classes.

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