Robin in Glenbeigh ;Photo: Chris Grayson
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More Reminiscences
Carmel Hanrahan has taken another stroll down Memory Lane. I will bring you some more of her memories this week.
Thank you, Carmel, on behalf of all followers of Listowel Connection.
And thank you, Judy MacMahon who started it all with this.
Did we really have better Summers back in the day, or is that nostalgia taking hold?
It seems the weather was more consistent. School holidays arrived and we never gave a thought to the possibility of rain. We didn’t seem to experience the current extremes, except of course, for that blissful heatwave in 1976. Then we spent our time hanging out in the Cows Lawn and more specifically in the tennis courts. Long hot days spent in Ballybunion and by then we were old enough to go on our own either on the bus if we had money but more often just walking out on the Ballybunion Road and thumbing (do you remember thumbing?).
Easter tended to bring the finer weather with it and was the catalyst for a change from the heavy tights of winter to knee socks then later (perhaps May) ankle socks and best of all sandals with no socks. Always Clarks shoes and sandals from the shop on the corner of Market Street and William Street. Brown lace ups for winter and strappy sandals for the summer. What was the name of that shop? The exception was white shoes for First Communion. I wore mine until I just couldn’t fit my feet in any more.
When did we fit in our Holiday jobs? I know we worked but don’t remember a job impinging on leisure activities. I had a job for two Summers and Race Week in the Spinning Wheel Restaurant in the Small Square, which was where there is now a shoe shop. Kathleen and John Scanlon owned it and I learned some cooking skills there. One of them being how to gut a trout through its gills! I got to be quite good and quick at this but it was very hard on your hands – a bit like tearing your hands on sewing needles. Making light fluffy omelettes was another skill I acquired and I remember showing Sadie Fitzmaurice how John Scanlon made them. Of course, the ultimate holiday job was working on the Island during Race Week. I once had a job on the turn-stiles and made (for the time) loads of money.
Further up Cahirdown, beyond the railway bridge and Hilliard’s, there was a group of houses commonly referred to as the Soldier’s Cottages. Does anybody know the history of why they were called this? We just assimilate these things as youngsters and never query the why.
Below is a photo of Carmel and some school friends
Left to right: Denise Mulvihill, Marie Keane, Carmel Hanrahan, Katsi Kenelly and Kyra Walshe. Taken in the garden at the front of the convent according to the back of the photo.
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Taking a Leaf out of Trump’s Playbook
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Storm Éowyn
The storm that hit our coast in the early morning of January 24 2025 was the worst ever experienced in Ireland.
These pictures shared online by Kerry’s Eye give you a small glimpse of the destruction it caused.
Doon Road, Ballybunion
The remains of someone’s caravan wrapped around a pole in Ballybunion
Power lines down in Ballyduff
Banna
Listowel to Ballybunion Road
The big sign at the entrance to Farranfore Business Park
Tralee
Tralee
Just a small taste of the destruction that was caused. Thousands left without power and water.
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Some Weather Rhymes from a 1951 schoolbook
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A Fact
In 1963 the first cat in space was a moggy named Felicette.
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C Philip O Carroll, MD
The soldiers cottages in Cahirdown were gifted to veterans of the First World War. My father was James Carroll who had been wounded in the Battle of the Somme. Next door was Michael (Mikey Joe) Walshe, Michael Deveraux and John Fitzmaurice all veterans in the British army. The cottages were leased but i’m certain the British Gov received no funds from anybody. Still, the threat of “the Bailiffs” hung over our heads sometimes leading to sudden evacuation of the house , hiding behind the hedge in John O Brien’s nearby farm. Years later we put our mother’s anxiety to rest by buying our portion of “the cottages” from the British government
Muireann O’Sullivan
The shoe shop on the corner of Market Street and William Street was Paul Shanahan’s if memory serves me correctly.