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 21 of 53

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

St. Patrick’s Day 2024

Getting it Right

and getting it very wrong.

Tasteful, stylish grey and red branding on MBC new offices in Church Street

Garish, unsightly signage at the new Mr. Price store. We know the goods are cheap. We don’t need it shouted at us from every window.

A St. Patrick’s Day Card

I was telling you before about my experience with An Post’s AI generated card. My friend, Catherine, fascinated by my account of this new product, sent me one.

I dont know which category of image she chose, could be strange Irish animals. Is that fellow in the centre a lion?

Catherine let AI compose a “poem” as well.

No words!!!

Daffodil Day

Friday March 22 was cold and windy. The hardy souls of the Irish Cancer Society were out in force selling their daffodils.

Alice and Rachel were on the island in Main Street.

Anne and Áine were at Carrolls.

More Colloquialisms

Stephen Twohig of Kanturk and Canada says;

Here are a few more old sayings that us Wild Geese may have forgotten .

Little by little  and without notice they slip away from you and you hardly ever miss them. Like the shadows of a twilight or the chatter of little birds before dark. What I am referring to are some of the old sayings, axioms and expressions of our elders. From a more simple life and time. Some of these sayings I suppose are derived from our native tongue. Some are still in use today by those of you closer to the well. As before some of you will remember them, others will come back to you like an old friend. Most are sayings you would never hear at this side of the Atlantic. Here are some of my favourites with their corresponding meanings for those who have forgotten them. 

A ruction is a commotion.

 “‘Next nor near’ nowhere near. 

“Make a fist of”, to try to be good at.

 “Fit to be tied”to be angry or annoyed

“Fair play” , the same as “fair dues”, a term of praise or acknowledgement .

‘Heel of the hunt”‘, in the end. 

“Bad cess”, an old term wishing bad luck to someone or something. ·

“For love or money “self explanatory but hopefully not a regret after marriage! 

“‘Hale and hearty … happy or joyous. ·

“With a heart and a half”, with great generosity. 

“Between two minds .. , undecided. I think. but I’m not sure! 

 “A right fix” in a tough predicament or situation. Like being “found on” after hours. 

‘Real old stock,  a term to describe someone as coming from the older and purer generation. 

“‘Great gas … great craic or fun. ·

Straight away” promptly or right way. Not usually associated with any government body or public works. 

“To put your oar in” , to put a word in, or add to the conversation. Rarely done at home! 

”Heart in my mouth, scared. 

The time that was in it … the time that was left. 

“The fat in the fire’·, trouble brewing. Like if you forget her Birthday or Anniversary. 

“ A jorum”, a drink. 

“Traipsing”, to saunter or drag yourself along. Like the County Council. 

“Mooched”, to indulge oneself in the generosity of others. And I will let the poor Cavan people alone. ··

“Highfalutin”, high on the hob, law di daw, or seemingly well off. In looks anyway. 

“Joe Soap”, a term like John Doe or your average Joe. Just as we say “‘Happy as Larry”, whoever or wherever he is. 

“The Hammers of hell”, a term to suggest immediate urgency. To do something in great haste. Like vacate the premises when the twin bulbs (squad car) shows up. 

“Within an ass’s roar”, nowhere near. As up near the counter on Paddy’s night.

“A caper”, a racket. Not as in tennis but in underhand dealings. As opposed to backhand. 

“Pulling  someone’s leg”, having them on or playing a joke on them. 

“·Putting something over” on someone as in pulling the wool over someone’s eyes or deceiving them.

A Fact

On March 23 1906 the Wright brothers received the patent for their flying machine.

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Catching up with Aoife

St. Patrick’s Day 2024

Champions

Not only does he write evocatively, David Kissane can run and race walk with the best. Here is his caption for this picture last week…

Still only sinking in now that we won the European Masters 5K race walking team gold medal here in Poland this morning! With just 29 seconds separating us from the highly-rated German team, and a talented French team in 3rd, the two Kerry athletes, Michael O’Connor (FFMV AC) and myself from St Brendan’s AC along with Sean McMullin ((Mullingar AC) are honoured to have taken the gold for Ireland in the M70+ category. Great moment on the podium with Amhrán na bhFiann playing. Never to be forgotten and we learned a lot to pass on to the juveniles and adult race walkers in our clubs.

Star of the Silent Screen with Kerry Roots

Story from “Anyone from Ballyduff…” on Facebook

Each summer, Ballyduff welcomes celebrities, some more well-known than others. In the summer of 1955, one such celebrity was Mary Pickford, the revered “America’s sweetheart” of the silent screen and one of the first film stars. She and her husband, Buddy Rodgers, visited Boyles old house at Knopogue, which had been the ancestral home of her Grand-parents, Charles, and Mary Pickford. On their visit to Rattoo cemetery, they found a Pickford headstone, a testament to Mary’s origins. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on April 9, 1892, Mary Pickford became a picture actress, and at the peak of her career she was one of the wealthiest and most famous women in the United States. 

Died: May 29, 1979, Santa Monica, California, U.S. (aged 87)

Founder: United Artists Corporation

Awards And Honors: Academy Award (1976) Academy Award (1930) 

Academy Award (1930): Actress in a Leading Role.  Honorary Award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1976)

A Love Poem

translated from Irish by Gabriel Fitzmaurice

Catching up with Aoife

Aoife is my youngest grandchild. Spending time in her company is always a treat.

Feeding her Peppa family

Checking in with Daddy

A bedtime story with Mammy

A Fact

In a group of just 23 people, there is a 50% chance that at least two people will have the same birthday.

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A Poem, a Fisherman and a Parade

Main Street and Church Street

A Poem from One of my Favourite anthologies

One of my favourite poems too

Spending St. Patrick’s Day in Phuket

Mary Sobieralski spent St Patrick’s day 2024 with Mark and Jacqueline in sunny Phuket.

Meanwhile in Listowel

St. Patrick was meeting and greeting.

Corkisms (and probably Kerryisms too)

A fellow Kanturk man, Stephen Twohig, who now lives abroad made a list of some of the many colourful idioms he only hears when he is at home.

” A Birdie··, a kiss.

“A beeor” a girl or lady.

“Belt away”, carry on.

“Break your melt”, to try your patience. “Bubbillah” a shortened version of “Boy will you”

 ” C’mere”, Come here will you.

“Cat” or “Catma]ogen”, something bad or negative.

“A Caffler”, a troublemaker or “Gurrier”. 

“Chalk it down”, I agree with you.

“Cog”, is to copy your homework from someone else.

“Compo” a way of earning money from a bad string of luck and a remarkable

recovery.

“A dawk” is a punch or dig.

“Daycent”, decent.

“A Darby , a small whiskey.

“Deflicks”, the movies

“Doonchie” or “dounchy” means something small and usually smaller than

“twinchey”

“Don’t be codding me”, fooling me.

“A Dote”. a lovely person 

“Ecca”, is homework.

“A feen”, is a boy or man.

“A fifty”, is to be stood up on a date.

” A flah”, is someone very attractive. 

” Flahed out,” exhausted.

“A funt, is a kick.

 “‘Gatch” is a particular way of walking.

To ”Gawk “at something is to stare at it. Usually a “beoor”. 

Grade” and ”spondoolicks” is money.

A Fisherman Remembered

Story and pictures from Christy Halpin on Facebook

Earlier this month a small ceremony of dedication was held by North Kerry Anglers Association. The ceremony was to dedicate a plaque by the river to a fisherman whose favourite place was this stretch of The Feale.

Tom Galvin passed away two years ago. He is remembered by his fishing friends.

Another dive into an old Yearbook

These are the girls who put together the yearbook in 1989.

A Fact

Smoking tobacco was introduced into Europe by a Spanish physician, Francisco Fernandes …in 1558….yes, 1558!

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Listowel Man in Japan

Photo; Chris Grayson in Glenbeigh

Language and how we use it

I have long been fascinated by local quirks of language and meaning. When I came to live in Kerry first I was amused to be asked if I would walk or “carry the car”. I never got used to wan instead of won for the figure 1.

Mattie Lennon wrote the following about his own Wicklow (Wickla) dialect.

SPAKES FROM WEST WICKLA’.      

By Mattie Lennon.                                                                                                                               

 “ Look what we’ve done to the old mother tongue,

it’s a crime they way we’ve misused it.”             

So the song says. But did we do it any damage?

John Dryden said that a thing well said will be wit in all languages. In my native west Wicklow the transposition of vowels seemed to be almost as popular a pastime as locking referees in car boots. And did it do any damage? (no…I’m not asking about the morality  depriving the GAA arbitrator of his liberty on a winter’s day in Rathnew, I’m referring to a bit of readjustment of the A, E, I, O and U’s ) 

In my part of the world the language of Synge survived into the final decades of the twentieth century and beyond. His inspiration for The Shadow of the Glen came from Donard in west Wicklow where his father was a  Protestant  minister. Only recently a neighbour with a somewhat defective ticker told me that he had been fitted with a “Peace-maker”. I know of a case where a lady with notions, in the days when meat was kept in a safe, asked an apprentice carpenters to make a “Mate-Seaf”.  A Mate Seaf. Nowadays I get all sorts of gazes when I disclose that it used to take a lot of courage, in Kylebeg, to say tea instead of “tay” and to refer to unpolluted H2O as anything other than “clane wather” meant you were getting above your station.  And you’d soon be reminded that it wasn’t long since you had holes in  your”brutches”. The”hins” were fed off the “led” of a pot and when it was necessary to communicate with absent relatives the “pin an’ ink” were taken down and that reviled member of the rodent species was called a”rot”. It would be said of the less-than-honest that he would “stale the crass ev an ass”. A welcome visitor would be invited to ” take a sate an’ give yerself a hate” and if you weren’t “plazed” by a frank comment you were said to be “aisy effinded” and you were sure to be “med game of”. That gurgling moving rivulet  much lauded in song and poem was a “strame” o’ wather and the single arch structure over it was a brudge”. 

Some people through hard work (or a windfall) would  progress from thatch to a more substantial roof on their dwelling and it would be called a ”Toiled roof.” Every County Council cottage had an outside “labatery”. A “dacent little girl” was an unmarried female, of any size, shape or age, who wouldn’t let a male in a mile of her.

Whatever about the Catechism definition of Grace in our part of the world it was “the juice o’ fat mate”. And of course if you were of an argumentative dispossession it would be said that you  “would rise a row about the kay o’ there”. (Songwriting , of course, was easier than elsewhere because floor rhymed with sure and bowl rhymed with howl) A snob might have ” a collar an’ tie on his nick an’ a watch on his wrust” but no male would go so far as to sport “gould” ring. Nobody would admit to having “flays” themselves (The’re fleas by the way)  but a person would  comment that a certain neighbour’s house was “walking wud thim”.

You could expect a”could day'” whin the win’ was from the aist”. Ewes”yaned”, you ploughed “lay” and you “Bilt” the”kittle” ( unless of course it “laked”. You “gother” the sheep, “muxed” the pig-feeding and you could”bate” the living daylights out of someone  “whin timpers ed be ruz”. But in such “is-ther-no one to-hould-me-coat” situations there was usually someone to make “pace”, a pacemaker.The piece of binder twine used to restrict the movements of the canine was a”lade”. Beyond was”beyant” and an old neighbour of mine went so far as to do a bit of consonant-juggling resulting in “belant”.The clothes were held on the line by “pigs” and a brave man (or maybe one who didn’thave the courage to run away) was described as a “hairo”. 

Surnames didn’t escape either. Lennon was Linnen, Fitzsimons became Fitzsummons, Geoghan was Googan  and Reid was made to rhyme with spade.

Looking back on it now I reckon that the hillbillies of the old black-and-white “Westerns”, with their “varmint” and “critters” would have fitted in perfectly in the Lacken of my youth. And I’m sure they would have adapted very quickly to describing the economy-conscious as “mane” and making stirabout from “yalla male”.  If you are not from my neck of the woods perhaps like D.H. Lawrence you will marvel: “That such trivial people should muse and thunder in such a lovely language”.

  As a trivial people we have descriptive terms that you wouldn’t hear anywhere else. Take for example an  individual who is considered highly intelligent by some. But may in some areas of their life, lack common sense.  We have a sort of a compromise term for them. We would describe them as a “cliver eeget.”   If  you were reared anywhere between Knockatillane and Shillealagh, like Thomas Babbington Macauley,  you will recognise “…..that dear language which I spake like thee”. 

From Listowel to Tokyo

Listowel man Willie Guiney proved that you can fulfil your dreams at any age.

Willie completed the Tokyo 6 star major marathon to fulfil a long held ambition.

Photos of Willie in Japan from his own Facebook page.

From Pres. 1988 Yearbook

A Poem

A Fact

The cock crows but the hen delivers the goods (Old proverb)

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Honours and Fundraising

Photo: Chris Grayson in Killarney

Pitch and Putt Club Honoured

Photo: Dominick Walsh

Text: Listowel Pitch and Putt Club on March 2 2024

Last night, the Listowel Municipal District honored our three All Ireland Champions at their annual awards night in Listowel. Honored were Jake Shine (All Ireland Junior Strokeplay Champion, 2020 (played in 2021)), Killian O’Gorman (All Ireland Intermediate Strokeplay Champion, 2022), and Ajay Barrett (All Ireland Boys Strokeplay Champion, 2022). It was a lovely night for the boys to be honored by their hometown for their amazing achievements on the Pitch and Putt course. Thank you to the Listowel Municipal District for acknowledging their achievements. Well done, boys.

A Poem

1986 in the Newspaper Archives

Kerryman, Friday, October 03, 1986

BARE SERVICE FOR THE BLIND

SERVICES for nearly 250 blind people throughout Kerry ¦ are “barely surviving” according to the Chairperson of the Kerry branch of the (National Council, for the Blind, Mary Jo McDonnell.

Last week nearly 100 bind people from around the county gathered in Ballybunion for the NCs Kerry Branch lunch. The organisation, in Kerry is finding it, increasingly difficult: to .run its services on, its present Health ‘Board grant,’ and voluntary subscriptions.

Next year the Kerry Branch, will be without a permanent headquarters when it: will have to vacate its present premises at the Social Services Centre in Tralee.

Moira finds that the attitude to the blind has changed with the general greater understanding of the disabled. Some bind people still have barriers, about using a white cane and, the attitude of sighted people can help in overcoming these.

Meanwhile the fund raising by the Kerry Branch continues. One recent example of it was a marathon walk by Bernie O’Connor of Moyvane who works in Rehab in Tralee and who raised, £600 by walking from, Killarney, through Tralee and Listowel and, on to Ballybunion.

Irish American Heritage Month..The Listowel Connection

Tonight, March 6 2024, is a big night for our own Vincent Carmody.

The Irish American Historical Society will bring the extraordinary story of Kathy Buckley to a New York audience.

“Born in Upper William Street in Listowel, Co. Kerry in 1885, immigrant Kathy Buckley had unprecedented access to the highest corridors of power of the 20th Century, not to mention some of the era’ best kitchens. She was once heard to remark, “If my sandwiches came back from the Oval Office uneaten, I knew then there was a world crisis.”

In 1900, Kathy was employed as a kitchen help at the Butler Arms Hotel in Waterville Co. Kerry. In 1906, some American guests dined there and one asked to meet the cook. He was none other than the famous banker, JP Morgan, and in a pivotal moment in her young life, Morgan offered Kathy a job as an assistant cook at his home in New York. She was eventually hired by Mrs. Grace Coolidge, wife of Calvin Coolidge, to head the White House kitchen. 

The author of the book is Vincent Carmody, a proud Listowel man, who has published a number of books starting with North Kerry Camera: Photographic Memories of Listowel and its Surroundings 1860-1960, in 1989. He followed that book with Listowel – Snapshots of an Irish Market Town, 1850- 1950, in 2012.

The book will be launched by culinary journalist and historian Laura Shapiro. Her essays, reviews and features have also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Gourmet, Gastronomica, Slate and many other publications. Her first book was Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century (1986), which the University of California Press has reissued with a new Afterword. She is also the author of Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America (Viking, 2004), and Julia Child (Penguin Lives, 2007), which won the award for Literary Food Writing from the International Association of Culinary Professionals in 2008″

Text and photo from the page of The American Irish Historical Society

A Fact

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