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
Shannonside Annual printed some of Jerry Kennelly’s reminiscences in 1959.
Jerry claimed that he was known by every man, woman and child in Listowel and district.
I hope this print isn’t too small. I firmly believe our ancestors had great eyesight. Old newspapers and magazines all seem to have tiny print size. This old man tells a first person account of life in Listowel in bygone days…. e.g.”the time of Bonaparte.”
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In The Park
1916 Commemorative garden
Lane between Park and Bridge Road
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De Valera and the Jews
Further to my Michael O’Connor story of Friday last, I went on an internet search for a forest in Israel and Jewish people in Ireland.
I found this picture of the Nobel prize winning physicist, Edwin Schrodinger on the internet. He was probably the most illustrious (and controversial) Jewish person who Dev. invited to Ireland.
Dev had two great passions, Celtic Studies and Maths. He set up the Institute for Advanced Studies and invited Shrodinger, then a renowned theoretical physicist, to be part of it. The invitation was timely as Schrodinger, an Austrian Jew, was facing expulsion or worse. He came to Ireland in 1939 and spent 17 happy years here.
I don’t pretend to understand any of his wave mechanics stuff. All I get from “Schrodinger’s Cat” is that a cat can be alive and dead at the same time.
This story connects Moyvane, Co. Kerry, Allihies, Co. Cork and Denver, Colorado USA
This is Alan Groarke, formerly of Moyvane and now of Colorado. Alan is president of The Irish Network of Colorado. The Network connects Irish people and people of Irish descent in Colorado.
On October 2nd. 2022, Alan and many more gathered at the Evergreen cemetery to celebrate the completion of stage one of a project that connects, Colorado with Allihies in Co. Cork.
In the late 1800s many Irish men and their families came to Leadville from their homes in Ireland. The came mostly from the Beara Peninsula mining community in Allihies Co. Cork, but also from counties Mayo, Donegal, Waterford, Cavan, Galway, and Tipperary.
They fled Ireland in the wake of An Gorta Mór which devastated this picturesque area. That scourge was followed by a dramatic plunge in the price of copper, the main mineral asset of the area. Mining was the main employment for men of the region.
Many of these destitute emigrants made their way to Colorado where a gold and silver rush had opened up opportunities for men skilled in mining.
But the land of opportunity did not prove the happy hunting ground they had hoped for. They found themselves victims of cruel exploitation. They worked for very poor wages. They went on strike twice. They lived in substandard housing in hard core poverty.
When the rich prospectors moved on, these poor people were left behind. Surface mining was exhausted and now all that was left was the excruciating hardship of underground mining with all its attendant health hazards. Temperatures above ground for part of the year are as low as -20.
Over 1000 Irish miners died, average age 23, many only children.
They received paupers’ burials and there they lay in unmarked graves until a historian called Jim Walsh made these people his area of study.
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“Census records show that there were about 3,000 Irish-born people in Leadville in 1880, likely making the Colorado town, according to Walsh, the largest Irish community in the western United States outside of California. Almost a fifth of the town had some kind of Irish heritage. Of Leadville’s Irish-born, two in every five came from Allihies in west Cork, a village that exported considerably more than the famous copper that came from its mines. The names of Harrington, Sullivan and McCarthy were as common in Leadville as they were in their native Cork.”
Simon Carswell in an Irish Times article in 2016
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Long story short; In recent years the local Irish community in Colorado and the Irish government set to work to commemorate these much wronged diaspora.
On October 2 2022 a crowd gathered in Leadville to celebrate the completion of stage 1 of the commemoration project. The above sculpture by Terry Brennan was unveiled in the commemorative garden.
Stage 2 of “Naming the Unnamed” is now underway. The plan is to erect glass panels with all the names of the miners.
St. Patrick’s Day is a big day in Denver. The hope is that one of the highlights in 2023 will be the celebration of the completion of this worthwhile project.
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Galvin’s Flats
When a corner of town has looked the same for years, I sometimes think it will go on looking like that forever. Not so this corner of Listowel Town Square.
I think you will agree this recent paint job at this corner of town is absolutely beautiful.
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Listowel’s Jerry Ryan Remembered
For all sad words of tongue and pen
The saddest are, It might have been
I was reminded of these lines yesterday when I met Marie Gorman on her way home from Jerry Ryan’s anniversary mass. She showed me this photo.
This is Jerry Ryan’s grave in John Paul cemetery. Yesterday it got a new memorial stone which reads, “Jerry, our lost brother, forever now in our thoughts, Your brothers, sisters and family.
This is Jerry at work in 2014. He was a beloved presence on our streets and he always had a greeting and a cheery word. He took pride in his work and was well looked after by his work colleagues in Listowel UDC.
I was honoured to have Jerry come to the launch of my book, Listowel Through a Lens, in 2009.
It was well known that Jerry was a an orphan who had come to Tralee from an orphanage in Dublin and from there was “boarded out” with farmers near Listowel before coming to town and settling into his job with the council. Little was known of his family for indeed Jerry knew little of his family.
It was only after his death that it was discovered that Jerry had 9 half siblings who never knew of his existence. They came to Listowel yesterday for his anniversary mass and they brought this lovely stone for his grave.
One entrance to the greenway is just off the Tim Kennelly roundabout.
In Cahirdown the walking and cycle paths are generously wide.
The cycling section ends at St. Michael’s.
The entrance to Páirc Mhic Shithigh is at the junction with Ballygologue Road so it was not possible to extend the widened path that far.
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Alice in Wonderland Day
This quartet were participating recently in Cork’s Alice in Wonderland Day.
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De Valera, an Israeli Forest and a Listowel Connection
Stephen Rynne is nothing if not diligent in his quest to track down samples of Michael O’Connor of Listowel’s beautiful artwork.
Here is his latest update.
Michael O’Connor on the far right of picture
Hand illustrated ‘Book of Honour’ presented to President de Valera on 5 November 1965 to mark the planting in 1965, of a ‘Forest of Trees in his honour and in his name at ‘Kfar Kanna’ near the ancient town of Nazareth in Israel in recognition of his many years of devoted service in the cause of peace and freedom’. Includes quotation from Bunreacht na hÉireann and tributes to de Valera from Dr. Isaac Cohen, Chief Rabbi of Ireland, Dr. Robert Briscoe, former Lord Mayor of Dublin, Dr. Immanuel Jakobvits, Former Chief Rabbi of Ireland, Mrs. Sarah Herzog, wife of the late Dr. Isaac Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Israel, and Arthur Newman P.C, list of names of members of the Irish Jewish community and the names of the Eamon de Valera Forest Committee. Lettered and illuminated by hand, using Celtic symbols and decorations from the Book of Kells. Parchment leaves.
Illumination and Calligraphy by M.A. O’Connor, Dublin and Design and Presentation by Maurice Fridberg. Album (31pp), in bespoke presentation box;
This is the entrance to Listowel Town Square from the Tralee side. Some of the old names have been lost but older residents of the town know that this is Canon’s Height leading to the Custom Gap, so called because on fair days Lord Listowel’s agents exacted a toll from people entering the Square to see cattle or produce. The Square was the market place on market day. Once, on a walking tour with Vincent Carmody, I learned that the corner on the right of the picture was also know as Collopy’s Corner as the building on the corner was a hotel owned by a family called Collopy.
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Santa is back on The Lartigue
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Another Listowel Writer
Noel Grimes who now lives in Killarney is another Listowel historian and writer. He has produced this book detailing the devastation wreaked on the people of Killarney by The Great Hunger. There were 7 burial sites in Killarney and at one stage the cathedral was used as a workhouse.
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A Faithful Restoration
This house on William Street is so beautifully restored I just love to stop and admire it. It’s hard to see in my photo but there are two parallel bars across the lower window that I remember from my childhood as serving to keep cattle from damaging the window on a fair day. Some shops had bars that could be removed and erected on the morning of the fair when the cattle were bought and sold on the street.
His friends in Presentation Primary School helped their dancing teacher celebrate a big birthday lately.
They shared the pictures on Facebook.
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A Poem about Ballinruddery
From North Kerry Landscape
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Point to Point
I love this book. It’s the third in Healyracing’s horse racing books and, in my humble opinion, the best.
If you love horses; if you love history; if you love photographs; if you love stories, if you love people, they are all here in Point to Point.
Many p to p races are held in gorgeous settings, a photographer’s dream.
It’s not all glamour. Many big day winners at Cheltenham or Fairyhouse started off in muddy fields in rural Ireland.
There is the usual sprinkling of dramatic dismounts.
I love this book and I’ll be dipping into it for a while yet. You dont have to know anything about horses or racing to enjoy this one. It will be a best seller.
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The Greenway
I went to investigate where the greenway enters the park. Here are a few photos to give you an idea. This section is not finished yet.
