Listowel Connection

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

JFK in Cork, The late Peter McGrath and Perfect Pairs to Retire

Kingfisher

Photo; Chris Grayson

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I Remember it Well


No social distancing in Cork in 1963 when the U.S. president, John F. Kennedy drove in a open topped car down Pana.  A few short months later in another open topped car in another city the Camelot dream was ended by a sniper’s bullet from a “grassy knoll”.

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Photo: Tom Fitzgerald 

Fr. Michael O’Doherty with four young ladies. Peggy Sweeney is on the far right. I dont have names for the others.

Peter McGrath R.I.P of Market St. Listowel

Photo; Tom Fitzgerald

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North Kerry in Summer 2020



Clare and the River Shannon from Knockanore


Old Graveyard at Lisselton


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Closing Down in Summer 2020



An Blascaod , Fun Run 1985, Listowel Courthouse Plaza and KCC Outdoor staff reunited

Blasket and Tiarach  photos by Tom Fitzgerald

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Fun Run 1985


Photos: Con Dennehy

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Listowel Courthouse and Plaza in 2020


Aras an Phiarsaigh in the background.



Listowel Library

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Friends Meeting


Our Town Gardener, David Twomey takes a minute off to catch up with his old work colleague.


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Another Closure



Fr. Pat Moore R.IP., Brian Cowen’s Visit, Jeanie Johnston and Lislaughtin

Photo: Eamon Ó Murchú

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Fr. Pat meets the Pope

Fr. Pat Moore and Pope Francis

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More Photos from Brian Cowen’s Visit in 2008

 

With John O’Sullivan

with Michelle Buckley

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St. Michael’s 1979




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Mike O’Donnell, Muralist


Mike must be one of the most prolific muralists around. This is his Jeanie Johnston at KUH.

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The Story behind Lislaughtin




Lislaughtin was a Franciscan Friary near Ballylongford. It was built in 1470 and from then until the horrors of 1580 it was a place of worship and learning. King Henry V111 had years earlier passed a law dissolving all religious houses but Lislaughtin, in its remote location had escaped detection for decades.

This beautiful window has fascinated artists and locals alike. It is replicated in a lovely silver sculpture at Ballylongford Church

One day in 1580 a battalion of English soldiers was in the area when the monastery bell rang for prayers. The man in charge of the soldiers ordered them to  immediately attack the abbey and the monks inside. The boys scattered left and right fleeing for their lives. Three old men were slower than the others and only got a few hundred yards away. ` The soldiers captured them, The story goes that they cut off their ears so they would hear no more prayer bells. They dragged them back to the abbey, made them to kneel before the high altar. They tortured and beat the holy old men, and, as a final indignity, beheaded them.

The abbey now is a ruin and is more used as a graveyard than a place of worship.

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Great to have family visit again


Fr. Antony Gaughan, a feileastram and the richest Kerrymen in New York in 1940

Photo: Eamon ÓMurchú

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Mr. Kebab with Safe Streets enclosure


I read in the newspaper that, for a fee, businesses can buy a licence to put tables and chairs in these widening the streets lay-bys.

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Fr. Antony Gaughan

Photo; Tom Fitzgerald

Fr. Antony Gaughan reading from his Listowel and its Vicinity.

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Necessity is the Mother of Invention

A feileastram or flag iris.

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Nov 23 1940  from The Irish American Advocate


Re Richest  KERRYMAN  IN  N.  Y.  Editor,  The  Advocate  

Dear  Sir: 

 I  read  in  your  report   of  the  Kerry -men’s  Ball  in  The  Advocate  of  Nov.  16,  a  list  of  some  of  the  richest  Kerrymen  in   New   York.    That   was   interesting.   I   would   like   to   supplement   that   list   with  others  that   I  know,  who,   if   not   their richest  Kerrymen   in   New   York,   may  be  classed  in  the  upper  brackets.

  I  refer  particularly  to  Judge  Charles  A.  Curtin   of   the   Municipal   Court,   New   York   City,   native   of   Knockane,   Listowel,  who  owns   a   million   dollar   estate   in   West   Nyack,   New   York;   also   Pat   Howard   of   Long   Beach,   the  big   apartment   house   owner   around   59th   Street   and   Amsterdam   Avenue;    Pat    hails   from   Killeenterna,  near   Castle-island. P.  J.  Sullivan  from  Templenoe,  Kenmare,  who  owns  considerable  real  estate  in  Manhattan,  the  Bronx  and  the  Glenmore   Hotel   in   Rockaway   Beach.   Pat   is   a   man   of  substantial   means.   Dick  Reidy   of  Manhattan   and   Rock-away    Beach,    an    outstanding    hotel    man  and   a  native   of  Kenmare;   Commissioner   Garrett    W.   Cotter    of    the    First  Federal  District,  New  York,  a  native    of    Knockbrack,    Knocknagoshel,    who  owns  a   million  -dollar   estate   of   several    acres   in    Flushing,   L.    I.    “Garry”   as   they   call   him,   is   one   of   the  shrewdest  investors  in  Long  Island real estate and part owner of North Hills Golf Club.

Dinny Shea,   the   beef   and   king   at   33  Beekman   St.   is   a  man   of   wealth   and   knows   how   to   hoard   it.     Dinny     was  Hitchcocks’   right   bower  on   Park   Row   for   40  years  and   took   over   the   business   when   the   latter   passed   on.   He   is   from   Scartaglin,   near   Castleisland.     John   J.   Curtin,   lawyer   and   political   wizard,  born   in   Dromtrasna,   Abbeyfeale  and  brought  up  in  Currow,  Castleisland,  since  childhood,  with  the  Walshes,  his  mother’s  people,  is  one  of  the   most   successful    practitioners    in    New  York;  he  was  counsel  to  Governor  Alfred  E.  Smith  for   four   years  and   is  now  chief  counsel  to  the  Rapid  Transit  Commission,   James   O’Connell,   native   of  Knockanure,  Listowel,  Is  one  of  the  most    successful    contractors    in    the    Bronx. Major Fitzmaurice,  native  of  Duagh,  is     owner     and     publisher      of     the     Lronx   Home   News;   his   cousins,   the   O’Flahertys,  James  Sr.  and  James   Jr.,   founders  of  the  Home  News,  were  from  Ballylongford. 

    Dan   Parker   of  the  N.  Y.  Mirror  is  a  true  son   of  the  “King-dom”;   his   father   came   from    Tralee    and    his    mother,     a    Scanlon,     from     Duagh;   Dan  owns   a  ranch   in   Waterbury,   Conn.,   and   another    in   Texas.  Michael   OKeefe    of    Smerla    Bridge,    Listowel,  is  head  of, the  Dennison  Real  Estate    Co.   at   3lst    Street    and    6th    Avenue.  N.  Y.  City.  Another,   Michael   O’Keefe    is   proprietor of the Kelly Dry Ginger Ale Corporation   and   Kelly’s   Cola   of   Astoria,  L.  I.,  and   one   of  the   outstanding  men  in  the  soft   drink   business  in  New  York  and  suburbs;  O’Keefe   comes   from  Kilmurry,  near  Castleisland.  Eugene   McDonnell   of   Ballylongford,    is    trustee  of  his brother’s estate  and  Langan   Bros,  in  Chambers   Street,   head-quarters  for  religious  goods;  he  is  also  a  hotel  and  property  owner  at   Orient   Point,  

L.  I. 

Mrs.   Lillian  Patterson   of  the  Bronx,  mother   of   County   Judge   Lester   Patterson  is one  of  the  Murrays  from  Ardfert.  Tralee:   her   uncle,  the   late  William  H.  Murray  was  a  well  known  stationer  to  bankers  and  brokers  in  Nassau  Street  and  retired  worth  a  million.  There  are  others  that  I  cannot recall  at   the   moment,   but   perhaps,    other    readers  of  The  Advocate  would  supply  the    eclipses    for    the    honor    of    the    “Kingdom.” 

Very  sincerely   yours,   NEIL  COLLINS.  New  York  City

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Mill Lane; Then and Now




Knockanure Boys 1924 and the Days of the Dial Up Telephone

Photo: Eamon ÓMurchú in the Botanic Gardens, Dublin

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St. Patrick’s Hall aka The Bandsroom




Upper William Street, Listowel

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Fadó, Fadó




Knockanure 1924


I have no names but someone’s ancestors are here in this lovely old photo with the boys all dressed up to the nines. 

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The Good Old Days before Mobile Phones


Today’s youngsters can’t begin to imagine what life was like when we were all uncontactable.

 Do you remember the days of the ‘person to person call?  Otherwise you could ring a house only to find that the very person you wanted to talk to was not there. 

Do you remember reversing the charges? This was useful for ringing home when you were skint.

Do you remember payphones? You had to have a mountain of small change lined up to make a call.

Phonecalls were a kind of public thing. The one phone in the house was often in the hall and everyone could earwig on your conversation. Anyone could answer the phone so there was very little privacy involved.

Don’t get me started on “crossed lines”.

Photo; Eddie Rice

The is an old dial phone. It was a huge advance in the 1980s. Before that you just picked up the receiver and waited for the operator to answer and them told her the number you wanted to ring.

This is a photo (from the internet) of a small switchboard. It was one of my duties in my first summer job to attend to one of these…nightmare. There were no screens of any description in those days. All interchanges were executed by a human being.

Photo and caption from Eithne Gallagher on Vanishing Ireland on Facebook

Not many of these left around the country now. This one is in Carrowbehy, Co. Roscommon.

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The Chinese Ambassador’s Ash Tree

This is my favourite spot for a Covid socially distanced picnic.



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