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

Thank you Teachers, A Lament a 1965 Gleann football team and staying in touch with her Listowel roots

 Photo credit; Liam Downes

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Thank You Teachers

These notes were recently left on the railings at Presentation Primary School, Listowel

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The Last (Lamp) Post

By Mattie Lennon

At dusk and at morn, long before we were born

His bark had re-echoed on the old barrack square.
His life’s breath departed and grieving now started
We walked slowly behind him, emotions laid bare.

With moves synergetic and memories genetic,
In sorrow united by our hero’s demise,
Distraught, but none bolder, we stood shoulder to shoulder,
From a long line of soldiers, our gait was precise.

Then one of our party, all bouncing and hearty,
Made some crack or other within the cortege.
Through stiff-upper-lip training and morale restraining
He evaded chastisement, which befitted our age.

There was slight improvising; what the bugler was rising
Was not made of silver or bright gleaming brass.
‘Though sorrow abounded, no volleys resounded
As the pallbearers laid his corpse down on the grass.

In the sombre enclosure, we retained our composure,
Then adjourned to environs more private and lax,
Where concerns ballistic and matters more mystic
Were debated ’till fiction got mixed up with facts.

Then an offer from Alice, without favour or malice,
Meant a hasty collection was arranged on the spot.
She conveyed by suggestion, that without any question,
For proceeds sufficient, she’d show all she’d got.

No libidos developed, in mystery enveloped,
At our stripper, quite curveless, we gazed all agog.
But it still seemed like Heaven; we were all aged eleven
AND HAD JUST LEFT THE GRAVESIDE OF BOLGER’S PET DOG.

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An Gleann Football Team




Here is Noel Roche’s photo again. Now between Noel and Neil Brosnan we have most of the names. The year is 1965

Players back row from left   D OConnor, Mickey Barry,[rip]  Paudie Carey[rip]  Jasper O Driscoll.[rip] Noel Roche, ? O Connor, Jimmy Woulfe, Thomas McDonagh.

middle row from left PJ Browne, Kevin Woulfe, Ned Lyons,[rip], Pat Loughnane, Charlie Nolan, Michael Hannon, ? O Connor

Front from left. Jimmy O Driscoll, Charlie McDonagh and Stephen Downey.

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A Note of Appreciation


I know that people appreciate what I do on Listowel Connection because they tell me so all the time.

This happy sad email from Frances Blaikie makes me want to keep on posting  despite the lack of “news”.

Thank you Mary!  When I open my emails and see the Listowel Connection I smile immediately.  My Dad was born in Listowel in 1907 and came to the US in the early 1920’s.  My link to your wonderful town is through him and so many of the O’Brien transplants.  I may not be able to visit Ireland again (age) but everyday you open the town up to me. 



I do keep in touch with my cousins in Listowel.  My Uncle died at age 100 two years ago and I truly miss knowing him.  I traveled to Ireland about 8 times in the last forty years and the highlight of my trip was spending time with Uncle David and Aunt Crissie.  Roots go deep and for a ‘yank’ it’s important to know your roots.  My Dad was a true Kerryman.  He always said ‘once a Kerryman always a Kerryman’.  I understand what he meant.



 God bless you.  Frances


Thank you, Frances.

Crows, The Mens’ Shed is Locked Down and a timely story remembered



Photo credit; Liam Downes from Born in West Limerick on Facebook


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Everything Looks better in Colour


Look at this great initiative in Athea.


West Limerick Rocks! 

We are delighted to be working with West Limerick Resources on the West Limerick Rocks Project. 

Take a rock, bring it home, wash it and paint it and return the rock to the rock display at the fairy garden adding colour and much-needed joy to Athea. You can also pick a rock from your own garden, decorate it and add it to the display. Remember – movement is limited to 2km from your home! 

Thanks to our local caretaker Margaret Carroll who has agreed to spray varnish the rocks! 

This project is funded by the SICAP programme. The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) 2018-2022 is funded by the Irish Government through the Department of Rural and Community Development and co-funded by the European Social Fund under the Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) 2014-2020

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Observing Birds


Photographer, Tom Fitzgerald, is finding lots of subjects to photograph without leaving the confines of his own house. He has set up his camera in the garden. He can operate it remotely. He can sit at a distance and wait for the action to happen. Last week he saw these crows descend to gobble up these crumbs that had been left out for smaller birds. He captioned the photo “Loaded Up.”

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Lament for Good Times in The Mens’ Shed



We all miss so many things during this crisis. I miss my book club, my knitting group, Writers’ Week meetings and more. But what I really miss is the human interaction, the chat and the banter, the listening and the observing. 

Mattie Lennon speaks for many when he writes of missing The Mens’ Shed.

Our poet with Seamus Hosey at Opening Night Listowel Writers’ Week

RHYME OF THE ANCIENT SHEDDERS.

By Mattie Lennon.

Were you born since nineteen fifty four?

Then listen to my tale.

Since now I can’t go past the door

It’s worse than being in jail.

The Mens’ Shed  basks in silence now

Dead ashes in the grate.

The powers that be will not allow

Us meet or congregate.

Trips to historic places

Postponed till God  knows when

And absence of the faces

Of jolly Mens- Shed men.

Restrictions with good reason

Our precious lives to save,

But it’s Limbo land this season

No wooden beams we’ll shave.

Sans banter, cakes or mugs o’ tay

The shedders felt marooned

 Spin-doctors soon came into play 

‘Twas simply called “cocooned.”

The sound of saws and lathe no more

No smoke or leaping flames. 

We miss the sawdust on the floor

And elders calling names.

No forty verses now from Jack 

Or the  Micks with Niall and Noel.

No poems or  songs or mighty craic

To elevate the soul.

Poor remedy for culture shocks

Are Zoom and mobile phones.

We’ll have to take our stumbling blocks

And make them stepping stones.

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A Thought for the Day


History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

I enjoyed this anecdote from Nicholas

Hi, Mary, 

Amazing what an unseen and unknown little ‘bug’ can do! Mighty countries laid low, despite nuclear weapons and ‘star-wars’ capabilities and endless money. And then there are ourselves. When all the mighty are laid low and helpless, we sheepishly turn to God, who, for many, as was said about the fairies, ‘doesn’t exist’ (but He’s there alright!). We can’t even whistle past the grave-yard now. The bug has decreed that we stay locked away at home! 

All the fear and dread generated by the bug reminded me of an incident in my part of South Meath long, long ago. One of our ill-fated rebellion  was in  progress, and a group of peasant warriors was transporting a cache of weapons, ingeniously, in a coffin surrounded by wailing mourners and downcast men. A troop of soldiers, who were used to these stratagems,  halted them and demanded that the coffin be opened for inspection. There was much shuffling, and obvious horror in the faces of the ‘mourners.’  One of the peasant warriors audibly muttered ‘cholera’ – for the benefit of the soldiers, whereupon the latter fled in some disarray- leaving the ‘funeral’ to proceed unhindered.

Whoever coined ‘O Tempora, O Mores’ got it spot on!

Lilac studio and Listowel Pitch and Putt Course and Árd Chúram Cares

 Ita Hannon took this photo on Beale

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The Little Lilac Studio

This much missed little studio used to be on Main Street

Coco Kids is in that site now.

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Recruitment Poster for An Garda Síochána in 1923


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Listowel Pitch and Putt Course



Brenda Enright, whose father Tom O’Halloran was a stalwart of Listowel Pitch and Putt Club sent us this photo. The course may be closed but it still looks very beautiful and the members are working constantly on keeping it beautiful. It is important that people not walk on the greens as they are being worked on at the moment and could be easily damaged.

Below are some of the beautiful trees on the course.



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Róisín Meaney has been composing little rhymes to help her through lockdown. Now she has inspired others to join her in this humorous avtivity.  Here’s a good one from Mags Hough

From Mags Hough – on keeping to your limit! 

A fella went walking one day.

He said he was saving the hay,

The guard said “Dat’s right,Don’t give me dat shite,
Now turn back to your home, it’s dat way.”

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Árd Chúram Delivers



People over 70 are cocooned from Covid 19. People who live alone,  often in rural locations miss the social interaction of the weekly trip to Árd Chúram Day Centre. Their friends at the centre have not forgotten them and they are preparing a treat. Care packages with food, activity packs and home exercise programmes will be delivered to the service users shortly.

Chef, Sid Sheehan, preparing some sweet treats.

Listowel in Lockdown, April 2020

April 2020…..Glimpses of a Town in Lockdown

Cherrytree in bloom in the closed Pitch and Putt course

The cinema is closed and the old Walshe’s Ballroom doesn’t presently have a business .

 Upper William Street from the old Casa Mia to the old post office.

 St. Vincent de Paul shop closed.

No music at Mike the Pies

 Not a living soul, hog, dog nor devil, on the street

Carmody’s Corner and Charles Street

 Royal China are operating a take away service only. In the age old fashion of Chinese restaurants, it’s all about numbers. You get a number when you place your order. When your meal is ready they display your number on to the inside window sill and you collect at the hatch.

The Mermaids

 Tracey Grimes’, that used to be Moriarty’s

William Street, Listowel in lockdown

Billy is still flying the flag at John B.’s.

Market Street

McKenna’s and Chemco

Customers are not allowed in the shop at McKenna’s but you can collect your order at the door.

This is the corner where John B.’s famous corner boys hung out.

Lower William Street

This window reminds us of happier times. There will be no Tidy Town competition this year but our town looks spotless anyway.

Looking into Main Street, the sign on Broderick’s Pharmacy window reminds us to wash our hands. Hand hygiene is one of the three main planks of our fight to slow the progress of Covid 19. The others  are social distancing, staying at least 2 metres apart,  cough etiquette and cocooning the vulnerable members of our community.

The kids are all indoors. Confirmation Day has been and gone and Communion Day will pass without a day out too.

Ah, Revival! Not cancelled yet but big question marks hang over it due to the difficulty of following  social distancing guidelines

Lower Church Street

Main Street

At Listowel Racecourse

No June race meeting this year and the Harvest Festival meeting is in question as well.

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Life in Isolation

Stuck at home / safe at home

I have not felt the touch of a human hand for the past six weeks but  I have been touched, supported and loved by means I didn’t even know existed two months ago.

Covid 19 has been an enormous learning experience for us all.  I can use words and phrases like serology testing, R0 rate, herd immunity, community transmission and comorbidities. I could certainly now pick Dr. Tony Holohan or Dr. Philip Nolan out of a lineup of suited gentlemen.

Best of all I have learned how much I am loved and appreciated. My family have come up trumps. The love that was always there has taken concrete form in daily phone calls, postcards and endless text messages and memes. My neighbours, my friends and my former colleagues are a constant presence in  my life. People I have not heard from in years have rung or texted. The Christmas card list has come to life in April.

Things will never return to how they were. Almost overnight constants in our lives like work, church, school, the gym, the restaurant, the pub,  the match were all swept away in a surge of social distancing, working from home, self isolation and lockdown.

We will eventually emerge from this to a new normal, much chastened by our experience and hopefully, with a new appreciation of the little things.

Rattoo, Sr. Ignatius Moore, River Walk, An Gleann Footballers and Claddagh Design

 Sunset at Rattoo


Photo: Bridget O’Connor

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Pushing up Daisies

I took this photo in St. Michael’s Graveyard  in Listowel. I apologise if this is your family grave. I mean no disrespect by the caption.

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An Extraordinary Irish Missionary Sister


Southern Cross Adelaide, SA – Fri 20 Mar 1931

VETERAN NUN OF INDIA WHO TAUGHT FOUR GENERATIONS.
Madras (India) .—One of the most remarkable missionary careers of modern times came to a close with the death at 91 years of age of Mother Ignatius Moore, of the Presentation Order, at Kodaikanal, Diocese of Trichinopoly, India, on January 11. 

Possessing a striking personality, thevenerable nun was well known throughout Southern India, and four generations of children passed through her hands in her 67 years of active life spent in the country. She never returned to her native land of Ireland after leaving it in 1863. When Bishop Fennelly, vicar Apostolic of Madras, visited Ireland in 1863 seeking workers for his mission, Mother Ignatius offered  her services, and set out with a small group of Sisters for the perilous journey. The shorter route through the Suez Canal was then unknown as also the swift and safe steamers of the present day. 

The voyage” to India was made in a sailing vessel via the Cape Of Good Hope, the trip covering five months. 

Mother Ignatius was awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind Medal by the Government in 1917, in recognition of her long and meritorious services in the cause of education. In 1922 she celebrated her diamond jubilee, which marked the close of her 5oth year-as a religious.
When the pioneer Nun arrived in Madras there was but one Presentation Convent. Now there are six, besides the one at Kodaikanal. She lived to see the great-grandchildren of her former pupils, to see Madras develop from a small seaside town to a great  modern city, and to see the immense progress in almost every field of missionary endeavour in Southern India.



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River Walk




This photo was taken on the footwalk under the bridge about 5 years ago.

I took that walk again recently. The level of water in the river was very low

Has anyone any idea what this is? It was in the river.

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An Gleann photo shared by Noel Roche. I have no names or year.

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They’re Back


Behan’s The Horseshoe and John R’s foodhall are open again.

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Never out of Fashion




Listowel’s Eileen Moylan’s timeless jewellery business is featured in the Fashion section of this week’s RTE Guide.

Claddagh Design is open for business throughout the pandemic and Eileen ships to anywhere in the world where shipping is allowed during the crisis.

I am a great fan of Eileen’s work and I am the very proud owner of several pieces created by her.

This is the beautiful bracelet I got for my birthday.

My family worked with Eileen on the design and materials for this piece which is made from my late husband’s wedding ring and a sapphire from the first ring he gave me.

As well as her bespoke pieces, Eileen makes off- the- shelf treasures as well.

You may remember Eileen in Craftshop ns Méar as she introduced her very popular Listowel range which, with the blessing of the MacMahon family, she called “My Silver River Feale”.

I have featured here before some of her gorgeous one off pieces.

Eileen also does big pieces like awards, mayoral chains and presentation pieces.

The Kerry Chain

Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Brendan Kennelly at Listowel Writers’ Week

Listowel Writers’ Week award to Edna O’Brien.

 Eileen also makes wedding jewellery.

She works from her studio in Co. Cork but she is still very attached to her Listowel roots.

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