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

Entente Florale trophy, Cahirciveen, Kells Bay and the unveiling of the Nun’s Statue

Another Feather in Listowel’s Cap


Yesterday Feb. 27 2020 I was in Listowel Town Square on my way to Carroll’s of Course to pick up a lamp they had so kindly ordered for me  when I spotted Darren Enright busy at work in the Tidy Town trophy corner of town. He was putting in place the accolade Listowel received for achieving a silver medal in the Entente Florale competition. The official unveiling of this takes place on Saturday at 2.00 and everyone is welcome.





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Cahirciveen

Cahirciveen is a town full of history. Even on a cold wet weekend in February 2020 with many shops closed for the off season, its appeal is obvious.

Quirke’s is a lovely bookshop run by Colman who is passionate about books. His stock is small but carefully chosen.. He even has A Minute of Your Time.

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Kells Bay

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What a difference a word makes


Try this;

Insert the word only anywhere in this sentence:

She told him that she loved him.

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Unveiliing of the Nuns’ Statue


On a snowy Sunday in December 2010 Bishop Bill Murphy unveiled Listowel’s memorial to the nuns who have given so much to the town. They came in Famine times and fed and clothed the starving and sick of the parish. They have educated the town’s young ladies for decades and are still giving service today.

Jimmy Deenihan who worked hard on this project whips the tarpaulin from the sculpture.

The sisters and dignitaries in the sunny snowy square.


Kells Bay Gardens, Turf cutting and Awards for dancers and musicians

Beautiful Kells Bay Gardens




Kells Bay Gardens is a beautiful sub tropical forest park on The Ring of Kerry. It is a truly magical place with dinosaur sculptures carved from fallen trees, forest paths, moss laden trees and rippling streams all nestled in a saucer surrounded by hills.



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Well done Balydonogue Dancers and Listowel Pitch and Putt


Cathaoirleach of Listowel Municipal District Cllr Jimmy Moloney, presenting Ballydonoghue CCÉ Dancers, 

Aoibhín Lyons Captain, Órla Mahony, Sarah Murphy, Audrey Ryan, Molly Linnane, Edel Dillane, Shauna Carey, and Grace Heffernan, Cian Horgan, members of Listowel Pitch ’n Putt Club, Grainne Toomey, Sara Allen at the Kerry County Council Annual Awards, at the Great Southern, Killarney on Friday night. Also included is Cllr Mike Kennelly, Joan McCarthy, Manager Listowel Municipal District. Photo: Valerie O’Sullivan

( I took the photo and caption from Facebook. Apologies to the people whose names are missing)

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All Ireland Turf Cutting Competition

The first All Ireland Turf Cutting Championship was held on 21st April 1934 at Allenwood, Co. Kildare. From the late 1600s to the end of the 19th century around 6 to 8,000,000 tons of turf were cut each year for home heating and sale. The industry in the 1800s mainly produced moss peat for animal litter and some briquettes. However by the early 1900s the amount of turf cut each year had fallen to around 3,000,000 tons. 

The turf cutting championships were organised as part of a campaign to increase the amount of turf cut and reduce the imports of coal. Eamon De Valera and other Ministers attended each year. The competitions ran from 1934 until 1939. When the war started everybody went back to the bog so the competitions were no longer needed. This photo shows the wing slean competition in 1934.

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LISTOWEL LIBRARY IS HOSTING AN OPEN DAY 

On Saturday 29th February. there will be a library tour at 11.00 am and 3.00 pm. Each tour will include a presentation on Online Resources so people should feel free to bring along their devices and we can answer any questions.  Also : every Saturday morning at 11.00 am we have Storytime & crafts for Smallies  –  For queries  068-23044

Cahirciveen with Family, Boston Listowel Talk, Writers in Town and Diarmuuid and Gráinne

Cahirciveen




I recently spend a lovely weekend in Cahirciveen with my whole family. Here we are in Kells Bay Gardens on a wet and windy Saturday.




We all did the rope bridge crossing.



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Listowel Comes to Boston



If you live anywhere near Boston this will interest you.

If you need to know a bit more about Vincent, here is a recent video from Listowel.ie

Vincent Carmody



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Writers at Writers’ Week




Movers and shakers of the Irish book world at Listowel Writers’ Week 2019;  Rick O’Shea, Colm Tóibín, John Boyne and Joseph O’Connor.

This year the festival runs from May 27 to May 31.

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Obituary to a Priest from a Family of Priests in Australia


Catholic Freeman’s Journal (Sydney, NSW)- Thu 29 Jun 1939

One of the oldest and best known Priests in the Archdiocese of Melbourne Rev. John Joseph Gallivan, died at Northcote early on Friday week in the eighty-third year of his age. On the previous Tuesday morning he attended the Jubilee Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Joseph’s Home, Northcote, and was one of the assistant deacons to his Grace the Archbishop of Melbourne. 

The announcement of his death caused deep regret throughout the Archdiocese, and especially at Northcote and Sunbury, where he had laboured untiringly for many years in the priesthood.

 Born in Listowel. County Kerry, Ireland, on February 8 1856. Father Gallivan entered All Hallows College, Dublin, and was ordained on June 24, 1880.   Had he lived another fortnight he would have celebrated his 59th year as a priest. He arrived In Melbourne on November 1 of the same year, and his first appointment was that of curate at Old Kilmore to Rev. M Farrelly. In May. 1886, he was appointed parish priest at Gisborne. twenty-five years later, Sunbury, with Bula attached, was made a separate parish, with Father Gallivan in charge and he remained there until 1923 completing forty-three years’ service in the Kilmore, Gisborne and Sunbury districts —six years as curate and thirty-seven years as Parish Priest There was great regret in Sunbury when Father Gallivan left there to take charge of St Joseph a Parish, Northcote. This was in April, 1923. 

In 1906 he revisited his native land after an absence of twenty six years. In June, 1930, he celebrated his sacerdotal golden jubilee, and his fellow-priests tendered him a dinner and

presented him with an address. A jubilee concert was held in the Northcote, Town Hall, and  celebrations were also in Sunbury and  Gisborne, where the jubilarian was most enthusiastically

welcomed. 

The obsequies of the deceased priest took place at St. Joseph’s Church, Northcote, his Grace Archbishop Mannix presiding and preaching the panegvric.

Among the priests who attended were Rev. P. Galvin. P.P of Katoomba, N.S.W.  Rev D. Galvin, P.P. of Springwood, N.S.W. and Rev M Calvin, P.P.. of Footscray, nephews.

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The Fianna in Beale


Local Historical Landmark

In a place near the cliffs three fields from our school there is a mound of earth which is locally called “Darby’s Bed” Leaba Diarmada. It is said that Fionn expected Grania’s hand in marriage but instead of she marrying Fionn she married Dermot. Dermot and Grania had to fly from the wrath of Fionn. They travelled round the cliffs from Ballybunion and they crossed a chasm on a pig’s back. This place is called Léim na Muice. On their travels they rested on a place only three fields from this school and ever since this lump of earth is locally called “Darby’s Bed”. We find on the Sopers’ and Miners’ maps that the right name for this place is “Diarmuid and Grania’s bed”. This place is in the townland of Kilconly.

Michael Lynch, VII, Doon, Ballybunion

June 27 1938

Information from people at home.

Sean Byrne, The Kerryman Mural and Listowel Marching Band

Strickeen Mountain

Sandra Johnson shared this fab. photo to This is Kerry

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Kerryman Building 2020


 The Kerryman with Mike O’Donnell’s great paperboy mural

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Listowel Marching Band 1987



Photo: Charlie Nolan


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A Family Hero


From the Dúchas Folklore collection

Martin Leahy’s Story

A great man 

My Uncle who lives with me says the strongest man he ever knew was Sean Byrne. He says although he was very strong he was as quiet as a child. 

There was a policeman in Abbeyfeale and he said that he himself was a good man and that he was stronger than any other policeman in the barrack. It happened one day that Seánwas in Abbeyfeale and that he was drunk, this policeman saw him and to show off his strength went up to arrest Seán. When he came up to Sean he said “You are drunk.”

 “I am” said Sean. 

“You are” said the policeman “and I must arrest you.” 

Sean went along quietly with him for some time and when he saw his opportunity he threw the policeman into a pool of water that was near at hand. Sean went home and policeman went into the barrack and he was never boasting after that. 

I heard about that there was a son of his at Latchfords in Listowel and that he too was a very strong man.


Martin Leahy st.v

Dromore, 27 . 6 . 1938

Information from my uncle,

Edmond Leahy, Bromore, Ballybunion.

He got it from his grandfather.

James Carmody, An Upcoming Lecture and Faction Fighting in the nineteenth century



Photo; Lisa Egan



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Date for the Diary




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Faction Fighting in North Kerry



I haven’t read this book yet but it sounds fascinating. Here is a small section of a long extract that was published in The Irish Examiner;

“At Lisselton, on Christmas Day 1828, Maurice Flaherty was attacked by three men of the Mulvihills and a man named Fitzgerald, and ‘cruelly beaten’ with sticks and stones.

‘It appeared that a drunken fellow [,] one Fitzgerald, infuriated with whiskey, brandished his cudgel and halloed for one faction; he was instantly replied to, and a most bloody affray soon commenced.’

It was asserted that Flaherty was killed ‘under circumstances of the

most shocking and unmerciful cruelty’.

John Mahony Mulvahill, ‘a young man’, was convicted of manslaughter, and, seemingly based on the terrible nature of the killing, sentenced to transportation for life, ‘amidst the deafening shrieks and lamentations of his male and female friends’.

At Ballyheigue, on the evening of St Patrick’s Day 1839, a crowd of about 20 people, whom a policeman believed to be Cooleens and Lawlors, struck each other ‘as hard as they could pelt’.

At Beale, Ballybunion, the pattern day ‘was usually marked out for a faction fight between the two great factions then in North Kerry — the Cooleens and the Mulvihills’, said a later folklore interviewee.

A recollection of Beale fair, which was held on 21 September, written in 1928, stated: ‘It was the battle ground of the old faction fighters and next to Ballyeigh ranked as North Kerry’s biggest event. Many and sanguinary were the fights that took place there between the rival factions that held sway in North Kerry and old men still tell tales of broken heads and bones.’

The two parties also met at the pattern days held annually in Knockanure on 15 August.

In the earlier part of the nineteenth century this Pattern was the scene of many a faction-fight between what were known as the Couleens and the black Mulvihills; young and old assembled there to see the fight; the contending parties being armed with black-thorn sticks … Hard strokes were given and received, and many a young man was maimed for life.

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An Unlikely Hero

I have heard that there was once a strong man in Beale. His name was James Carmody. One day he was forced to fight a bull and with the first blow of a stick he gave the bull he killed him. After that he was forced into a wrestling match with a strong man from Tarbert. When he got his hands firm around the man’s body he squeezed him to death. He was considered the strongest man for miles around and he was a famous man that lived around the locality at that time.

Patrick Mulvihill v.

Lensechane, Ballybunion.

June 24th 1938

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