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
Ballydehob is a bit like Lyreacrompane. Lots of people believe its a makey up place. The two places have something else in common too. They are real and beautiful.
Breda Ferris took the above photo of Ballydehob.
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A Pres. Fundraiser
This photo from an old Pres album shows a group of seniors counting money. Can anyone name the girls and tell us what was the occasion.
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Neil Brosnan ag teacht i gcabhair orainn
Last week I included a lovely account from a west Kerry schoolgirl of Christmas customs long ago. The piece included this sentence;
Oidhche Nodhlagh beagh oidhche na trí ríghthe creidhtear go ndeintear fíon de’n uisghe síoda de’n triopall agus airgheadh de’n ghreann.
The word triopall stumped me and I couldn’t find it in the dictionary. Help was nearer than I imagined.
Neil Brosnan wrote “I think I can help with ‘triopall’ – as in triopall of rushes. Rushes were used as door mats on special occasions. Triopall was a measurement – a gwall (gabháil) – the amount one could carry in one’s crossed arms. ‘A beart of rushes’. Tá an Gaeilge beo fós.
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Listowel Food Fair 2021
The Food Fair was a low key affair this year. The only evidence I saw was a Garvey’s on Saturday, November 13 2021
Footnote; Now might be a good time for some older readers to share with us their memories of Listowel’s iconic toyshop and its place in Listowel Christmasses past. Memories to listowelconnection@gmail.com please
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Christmas in Kerry Long Ago
From the Schools Folklore Collection in The National Archives
Photo from National Archives. Caoimhín ÓDanachair in Athea, Co. Limerick
Customs and Manners of Christmas.
The people of olden times, when Christmas used come, no matter how poor the people were they tried to honour Christmas the best way they could.
They used always kill a calf for Christmas day and some of them used have a goose roasted Christmas day.
When they used get out of bed Christmas morning they used take three drinks of water and bless themselves after each drink before breakfast. This was a cure for any sudden pain they used get for the rest of the year. There was another custom following it they used keep a piece of the Christmas candle that used be lighting in the kitchen and if they got the pain they used take three drinks and bless themselves as before and they used light the candle and they used make the sign of the cross on themselves with the candle.
They believed that the baby boy who would be born at midnight on Christmas night had a cure on his hand for evil sores by making the sign of the cross on the sores.
The old people said that the night Our Lord was born our Blessed Lady put her hand on the asses back and the ass has a cross ever since.
They brought the holy water from the chapel Christmas morning, because they thought the priest used give it a special blessing for that day. They used eat as much as they could New Years night or if they wouldn’t they wouldn’t eat enough for the rest of the year.
Oidhche Nodhlagh beagh oidhche na trí ríghthe creidhtear go ndeintear fíon de’n uisghe síoda de’n triopall agus airgheadh de’n ghreann.
( On Little Christmas night, the night of the three kings, it is believed that water is made into wine, ………..into silk and ……… into silver)
The child scribe wrote down what she heard. I couldn’t find triopall in the dictionary and greann means fun so maybe it was gcrann as in a tree or wood)
There’s been a bit of a change in circumstances in the Kildare branch of the family.
Last week I got to visit the lovely Aoife, my newest grandaughter, who, at two weeks old is already everyone’s darling. Here she is making her Listowel Connection debut.
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24 The Square, Listowel
This lovely town house has been home to some of Listowel’s most famous families. The Creagh family lived here before the O’Connors. This house is now home to Kerry Writers’ Museum.
This was the family home of Michael O’Connor, illuminator. Here are a few more examples of his work.
The alphabet is amazing. The second picture is a work in progress. Michael died at a young age leaving many projects at various stages of completion.
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Our Ancestors were Superstitious
The Schools Folklore collection has many stories of superstitions and weather lore. Here are some beliefs the old people held that foretold wet weather on the way.
The Robin sings inside in the middle of the bush. The Geese fly against the wind. The Snail creeps up the wall. The cat turns his back to the fire. The wave can be heard for miles. Red in the sky at east before the sunrise. The warble fly lays its eggs on the cattle and the cattle run in the fields. The high hill near Tralee is clouded at the east side. The fish dont rise to the fisherman’s fly. The cement floor gets damp The spring wells will rise The Seagulls come inland from the seashore. COLLECTOR Gerald Mulvihill
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St. Bartholamew
Today, August 24 is the day for visiting St. Batts Well in Coolard. Applying the water from the well to sore eyes is meant to cure ailments of the eye.
All the Covid regulations are observed in Vincents in Upper William Street. Abina and Sarah were in charge when I visited on Friday July 23 2021.
You should call in soon. They will be selling off all their summer stock in their much anticipated sale.
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The Blessed Well in Kilshenane
(From the Schools’ Folklore Collection)
Saint Senan was a great Kilshinane Saint. His well is situated in Kilshinane in John O’Connor’s farm. Many people pray for sore eyes or for any sore they have. If they are to be cured they will see a white trout in the water. It is thought to be a very good well as people come from far and near to pray rounds there. We may pray rounds there any day, but there are four special days for doing so – Saint Senan’s day, the 8th March, the Saturday before the 1st of May the Saturday before Saint John’s day, and the 24th June, and the Saturday before Michalemas the 29th of September. Saint Senan’s well is surrounded by an iron railing. There are three statues over the well placed there by one who may yet be canonized – the late Miss O’Connell, Principal teacher of Dromclough Girls’ National School. One of these is of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the Sacred Heart, another of the Mary of the Gael Saint Brigid. It is thought that the well sprang up suddenly one one night because of Saint Senan’s prayer. In olden times a pattern as held there on Saint Senan’s day 8th of March Whenever there is a funeral at Kilshinane cemetry crowds of strangers go to see the well. It is thought that long ago some person took home some of the well-water to boil as an experiment but if it was down since it would not warm not alone to boil. When people go there they bring home a bottle of the well water with hem, some people leave money there to repair the well. Miss O’Connell R.I.P. The Principal Teacher of Dromclough Girls national school get it repaired first, and got the statues over the well and the iron railing round it also. Collector Eileen Hannon- Age 14 Informant- Mrs Bridget Flaherty- Relation grandparent- Age 74- Address, Mountcoal, Co. Kerry
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My Girleens are Growing Up
My three lovely granddaughters love the water. Here they are after their evening swim in The Dock in Kinsale.
A Strange Tale from the School’s Folklore Collection
Little Hands and the Bread Shoes
Once upon a time there lived a man with his wife and son war broke in France, and every Irish man had to go there, and this man had to go also. He wrote letters every day to his wife, and one a wire came to his wife that her husband got killed in the war. She had only one little boy, and he was only a baby. It was a slate house they had. One day as the little boy was sleeping in his cradle, a slate fell off over the window, and a branch of ivy went in the window and it grew around the child’s. The child was about four years when he went to school. After a time the children got the “flu”, and the little boy took it, and he was very sick, and it was worse he was geting, and at last he died. His mother kept a little red pair of shoes under her bed, and when she went up in the room the mice had them eaten, and then she took out a loaf of bread out of the bin and softened it in boiling water; and while she was softening the bread a man went in and asked a piece of bread for God’s sake. The woman said that she had bread inside, and she had a loaf in the bin. The man who asked her was Christ at last the boy was buried, and the threw herself on the grave, and the neighbours pulled her away, and she went to bed after going home, and a few nights after her son appeared to her and said I am in the first step of heaven mother, but the bread shoes are keeping me back, and the night he came he said he was in the second step of heaven, but the bread shoes had kept him back and the next night he came he said he was in the third step of heaven but the bread shoes had kept him back, and then they took off the shoes, and he went to heaven. After a short time the boys mother died, and she went to heaven Collector; Eileen Hannon Age 14-
Informant- Mrs Ellen Foley-Age 74-
Address, Mountcoal, Co. Kerry.
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Wouldn’t it Lift your Heart?
This is my grandnephew in the U.S. dancing with his great grandmother at a family wedding.
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Drought 2021
The River Feale at the Big Bridge is at a very low level.
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Elegy to Road Kill
Fox
by John McGrath
I killed a fox last night
outside the graveyard wall.
Too late to brake I caught
a flash of golden fur
in headlight’s glare,
Felt the thump and crunch
of steel on bone,
Slow-motion silence,
Disbelief and then,
certitude
that fate had mindlessly conspired
to lead us to this place,
this point in time,
this intersecting line
where two lives intertwine
with tragedy.
One of us remained
outside the graveyard wall.
One moved on
and died a little too.
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The Mural is Finished
I took the following photos on July 24 2021 as the muralist just finished the artwork. I took a few long shots to give those of you not in town an idea of where it is and to put the scale of the work in context
