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: Schools Page 6 of 21

Road Signs and Civil War Disruption

St Patrick’s Day 2023

Canon Declan O’Connor and his neighbours enjoying the 2023 St. Patrick’s Day parade in Listowel Town Square

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Another String to his Bow

Dave O’Sullivan found us this in The Kerryman archive from 1961. These beautiful signs were designed by the great Michael O’Connor.

Would anyone know of the whereabouts of one of these or does anyone have a better photograph of one?

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The Civil War and the Lartigue

Story from Mark Holan’s Irish American Blog

Civil War Toll on The Lartigue

Mark Holan

Anti-government forces in the Irish Civil War attacked the Listowel and Ballybunion Railway several times in early 1923. Damage to the rolling stock and stations of the 9-mile monorail between the two Kerry towns, and the impracticalities of operating such a unique line in the newly consolidated Irish rail system, forced its permanent closure in October 1924.

Passengers and mail on the LBR had been targeted by Irish republican forces during the Irish War of Independence, 1919-1921. In January 1923, during the civil war, armed men forced the Ballybunion stationmaster to open the line’s office, goods store, and waiting room, which they doused with petrol and paraffin oil and set on fire. Within an hour a similar attack occurred at the Lisselton station, about halfway between the two terminuses.

Such destruction is generally attributed to the IRA forces opposed to the Irish Free State. These “irregulars” also cut down about 1,700 yards of telegraph wire and six poles between Listowel and Ballybunion, matching attacks along other Irish rail routes.

Nicknamed the Lartigue after inventor Charles Lartigue, the monorail was “suspended indefinitely” in early February 1923 due to the sabotage. Nearly 40 employees lost their jobs, impacting about 100 family members and ancillary businesses.

With the train out of service, a char-a-banc and motor car service began operating between the two towns, but it also came under attack in March.Once the civil war ended later that spring, the Lartigue was repaired in time for the busy summer season at Ballybunion, a seaside resort. By mid-July, the Freeman’s Journal reported the Lartigue “has already, particularly on Sundays, been taxed to almost its fullest capacity in the conveyance of visitors.”

Like the Lartigue, however, the national newspaper also would have its run ended in 1924.

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Then and Now

2007 and 2023

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Friends Reunited

Mary Sheehy met this lady twenty years ago on a pilgrimage to Lourdes. They met last week by chance in The Flying Saucer café, Listowel.

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A Poignant Poem of Family Love

The Week After St Patrick’s

John McGrath

The week after St Patrick’s, my mother

pressed his suit and packed his case,

drove him to the station for the early train

from Ballyhaunis to the crowded boat,

then on to Manchester and solitude

until All Souls came slowly round again.

I don’t remember ever saying Goodbye.

At seventeen I took the train myself

and saw first-hand my father’s box-room life,

the Woodbines by his shabby single bed.

I don’t remember ever saying Hello,

just sat beside this stranger in the gloom

and talked of home and life, and all the while

I wanted to be gone, get on with mine.

Westerns and The Western kept him sane,

newspapers from home until the time

to take the train came slowly round once more.

Lost in Louis L’Amour, he seldom heard

the toilet’s ugly flush, the gurgling bath

next door. Zane Grey dulled the traffic’s

angry roar outside his grimy window.

Back home the year before he died we spoke

at last as equals, smoked our cigarettes,

his a Woodbine still, and mine a tipped.

My mother would have killed us if she’d known.

The phone call came as winter turned to spring.

I stood beside him, touched his face of ice

and knew our last Hello had been Goodbye.

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Back in the Classroom

Spring 2023 in Listowel Town Square

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I was Back in the Classroom

There I am in the midst of the lovely 6th class girls in Presentation Primary School, Listowel on World Book Day 2023. The girls were dressed as their favourite characters. I came as myself.

I was a VIP guest as part of their Creative Schools’ Cluster project.

I was welcomed to the school by my friend Mrs. Anne Brosnan and the class I spoke to is now being taught by someone I taught back in the day, Miss Julieanne Galvin.

Behind us on the interactive whiteboard is our good friend, Jimmy Hickey. I told the girls about Jimmy’s exploits in The National Concert Hall. They don’t read Listowel Connection so it was news to them. Jimmy is their dancing teacher.

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Alice Curtayne

It’s not all male writers in Kerry Writers’ Museum. This female Kerry writer is there too. She is a little known but very learned journalist and writer, deserving of a wider audience.

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A Little bit of the USA in Cork

When I’m on foot I notice things that were there all the time but I never spotted before.

This happened to me lately when I was walking on Western Road in Cork and I came upon this sign.

Maybe it is my imagination but doesn’t that white car look a bit American as well.

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Something to Look Forward To

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Sadness in the midst of Joy

Snow – Killarney – 17-01-2023 Photo: Kathleen Griffin

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That 1947 All Ireland Final

Yesterday I shared with you Kathleen Reynolds’ great uncle’s first hand account of a spectator at that match.

Photo from the internet

Here is an extract from Kathy’s email;

The game was attended by 34,500 including my father’s uncle, Mike Fitzmaurice, who had left Moybella South, Lisselton around 1910 for Waterbury, Connecticut.

Notes (Irish Independent & Wikipedia)

The Artane Boys’ Band also travelled to New York to play before the match.

Michael O’Hehir broadcast a radio commentary from New York. O’Hehir noticed that broadcasting delays would bring the radio link down five minutes before the final had ended. He later recalled his plea:'”If there’s anybody along the way there listening in,  just give us five minutes more, and I kept begging for five minutes more” The link stayed open.

Kerry — D O’Keeffe; D Lyne (capt), J Keohane, P Brosnan; J Lyne, W Casey, E Walsh; E Dowling, E O’Connor; E O’Sullivan, D Kavanagh, B Garvey; F O’Keeffe, T O’Connor, O Kennedy.

Subs: W O’Donnell for Dowling, M Finucane for Walsh, T Brosnan for O’Donnell, G Teehan for Kennedy

Score 2-11 to 2-7

……………………………………

There was a North Kerry man on the team.

The last surviving member of that Kerry team, Ballydonoghue man , Mick Finucane passed away in 2016;

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People I met in Town

I met Paud Pelican and Mary Hanlon at Listowel Credit Union

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A School in Mourning

I visited Scoil Réalta na Maidine to photograph their beautiful piece of Paddy Fitzgibbon’s artwork.

I was jolted back to harsh reality by the lovely shrine underneath.

On the week that Paddy Fitzgibbon passed away, the boy’s school lost someone dear, a beloved member of the school community, pupil,

Pádraig Beasley.

Padraig Beasley R.I.P. with his school principal Kieran Quirke and Padraig’s mother Maeve

Padraig’s family have strong links with the school. His mother, Maeve is a teacher there and his grandfather, Cathal is a past principal.

Padraig passed away on Jan 6 2023. Go dtuga Dia suaimhneas síoraí dó.

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Beauty

Upper william Street in January 2023

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All Ireland Football Final 1947

The All Ireland Final of 1947 was famously played in The Polo Grounds in New York. Kerry played Cavan and Kerry lost.

Why am I venturing into a realm I know nothing about?

Kathy Reynolds has been in touch and she sent us this letter from her great uncle who actually attended the match.

” The game was attended by 34,500 including my father’s uncle, Mike Fitzmaurice, who had left Moybella South, Lisselton around 1910 for Waterbury, Connecticut. This is his account of the day, written on 6th October 1947 to his brother, Paddy, in Ballybunion.”

Isn’t it great to have a hoarder in the family?

What beautiful writing?

Back to the match;

In 1947 the All Ireland Senior Football Final between Cavan and Kerry was played outside Ireland at the Polo Grounds in New York to mark the centenary of the Great Famine and to acknowledge the large Irish American community.

Pádraig Ó Caoimh (Paddy O’Keeffe) General Secretary of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) oversaw the staging of the unique event and of the radio broadcast back to Ireland. Radio Éireann commentator Michael O’Hehir went to provide commentary for listeners back home in Ireland. For the broadcast, a landline from the Polo Grounds connected to a transatlantic cable which then fed through to transmitters in Dublin, Athlone and Cork.

The lines had to be paid for in New York in advance and were booked up to 5 pm on the day of the game. This would give enough time for the match to be concluded and 30 mins for wrapping up after the match had finished. (Source RTE Archive)

To cut a long story short the match ran over time because RTE forgot to factor in the time spent introducing dignatories and other fal dals before the match. Terrified that he would be cut off before the end of the game, Michael O Hehir appealed on air to be allowed an extra 5 minutes He was given the extra time.

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Celtic Artwork in Scoil Realta na Maidine

This is the beautiful piece of artwork donated by Paddy Fitzgibbon to Scoil Realta na Maidine.

The piece here is hung lower so more accessible than the one in the Credit Union. I took a close up of a few letters so that you can see this absolute gem of Celtic artwork.


 
This work is executed with copper wire and pins. I am totally in awe.

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Glenflesk

Usually in this weather I don’t venture too far from home.

Certain trips have to be made though.

I travelled to Cork via Tralee and Killarney. My usual route, through my home territory of Rockchapel and Newmarket is a bit more challenging in frosty weather.

The new Macroom bypass is great. We won’t know ourselves when it is completed.

On this road I love to make a pit stop in Glenflesk.

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Aspects of Listowel

Members of Listowel Folk Group carol singing in the Square at Christmas 2022…Photo: Facebook

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Listowel and Listowel

Remember last week I told you about an email from a researcher looking for a photograph of a Listowel soldier who was killed at Passchendale.

Imagine his surprise when he found he was communicating with Listowel, Co. Kerry, Ireland when his soldier was from Listowel in Canada.

I think he had already discovered his mistake when I forwarded him Dave O’Sullivan’s find.

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Confraternity

Listowel Confraternity on Retreat. Phot shared by Mike Hannon

Up to the middle of the 20th century confraternities were a feature of Catholic parishes in Ireland.

These all male lay societies promoted personal piety, engaged in charitable undertakings and supported the work of parish clergy.

Religious orders played a big role in the promotion of fraternities. They organised annual retreats to re-enthuse any who may be falling by the wayside. The above picture is of a group of Listowel men attending one such retreat (with the Redemptorists in Limerick, I think.)

In the early and mid twentieth century there was an upsurge in religious devotion in Ireland. When the bubble burst and scandals and injustices within the church exploded into public consciousness, confraternities, almost overnight, disappeared from the face of the earth.

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Pres. Girls at Young Scientist 2023

Photo shared online by Trant’s Pharmacy

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Laoch ar Lár

Seamus Begley R.I.P. spoke three language fluently, Gaeilge, English and the universal language of music.

Only when he was in his beloved fields in Baile na bPoc was Seamus ever alone. He was the ultimate co laborator and accompanist and he always seemed happiest in the midst of the Session.

I encountered Seamus fadó, fadó on tamaill spent in An Carraig as a student of Irish. Halla na Muirí was where the céilithe were. Halla na Muirí was the Tinder of the 1970s. I can still remember our first sashay into the dancehall.

“Anyone here take your fancy?” says one of the cailíní eyeing the row of aspiring woodwork teachers opposite.

” I fancy the lad on the stage in the red jumper.”

The lad on the stage was James Begley. Little did we realise that we were in the presence of greatness.

The world is a poorer place for his passing.

Go gcloise tú ceol na naingeal go síoraí, a Shéamuis.

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A Poem to raise a smile

Odds by Brian Bilston

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