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

Moyvane Concert, Woman’s Way Cover 1969 and a Poem from Australia

By

On March 16, 2020

In Uncategorized



Photo: Christopher Bourke, Malow Camera Club

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Dioscesan News 


Letter from Frances Rowland


While we will not be able to participate physically in Mass this weekend, we will be able to pray the Mass with the celebrations being held online. If you wish to look at the Mass being broadcast over the internet, here are some of the churches in the diocese where Mass is being broadcast. 

http://www.stbrendansparishtralee.net/            Saturdays 6.30pm, Sundays 10 am, 11.15am, 12.30pm,

Weekdays 9.30 am

http://listowelparish.com/                          Saturdays 6.15pm, Sundays 9am and  11.30am

Weekdays 10.30 am

http://www.killarneyparish.com/            Saturdays 6.15pm, Sundays 8am, 10.30am, 12 noon,

Weekdays 10.30 am and 6.15pm

https://naomhmuire.wordpress.com/   Saturdays 8pm, Sundays 11.30am

https://www.churchservices.tv/castleisland       Saturdays 6.15pm, Sundays 11.30am, Weekdays 11am

It is only in the gravest circumstances that Masses are cancelled. Being unable to go to Mass this weekend will make us more conscious of the gift of being able to attend Mass usually and realise the importance of the Eucharist in our lives. We can revive the practice of Spiritual Communion as we unite ourselves, from our homes, with the sacrifice being offered. We can also be in spiritual communion with all those throughout the world who are not able to attend Mass for different reasons.

We unite as sisters and brothers of Jesus Christ, standing together in the hope he brings.

With kind regards,

Frances

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Moyvane Concert


Elizabeth Brosnan took some great photos at the recent concert featuring Liam O’Connor and family band, Brian Kennedy and local dancers which was held in Moyvane church to raise funds for the upkeep of the church.

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The Light of Other Days


Mattie Lennon sent us this screen grab of the cover of Woman’s Way from November  1969. The cover featured the Housewife of the Year and her family.

The winner of the Calor sponsored competition was Mrs. Ann McStay and she was the first Dublin winner of the title.

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The Diaspora

Around the world there are millions of people whose ancestors came from Ireland. Many of these people were raised on stories of life in Ireland in their forefathers time. They have grown up with a love and appreciation of our Irish songs and dances, our traditions and our gift for poetry,

One such person was the late Australian Bush poet, Martin O’Brien. His ancestors on both sides fled Ireland during the Great Hunger. He knew that his great grandmother on his father’s side was evicted with her 9 children. The mother died and how the children made their way to Australia is unclear.

In this poem Martin echoes the longing of many emigrants to seek out the place of birth of their Irish antecedents. Many long to walk in the footsteps of their forefathers, to reconnect with the land they were forced unwillingly to leave.

THEIR    LAND

I hope one day I’ll leave this land

to go from whence they came,

and travel far across the sea

so there at last my eyes will see

the land from which they came.

I know I never will belong
to my ancestors’ land,
but still I’d like one time to see
(if God should grant that time to me),
the land that was their land.

I want to see the sights they saw
and hear the sounds they heard,
because that land still holds some claim  –
more than just an Irish name  –
some thing unsaid, yet heard.

I want to feel the living soil
they felt beneath their feet;
to watch the sun rise there, and set,
and go to places where they met,
and then to make complete …….

I want to walk some ancient track
where their young feet once lept,
to feel the pain as they had done
when their own exile had begun,
and weep where they once wept.

I know I never will belong
to my ancestors’ land,
but still I’d like some time to see
(if God should grant that time to me)
the land that was their land.

July, 1994.

I found this poem on a great website called  Tinteán

 About Martin O’Brien

Martin grew up on the O’Brien family dairy farm at Mount Burrell in the upper reaches of the Tweed River. After high school at St John’s College, Woodlawn, he spent many years as a seasonal worker – cutting cane and picking fruit – mainly on the Tweed, at Tully (Nth Qld) and in Mildura (Vic). In the off-seasons, he returned home to work on the farm. After the dairy crash in the mid-1960s, the family moved out off dairying into beef cattle production, building up (from their AIS milkers) one of the first herds of Charolais cattle on the Tweed. With increasingly lower beef prices towards the end of the 1970s, Martin was only able to work part-time on the farm, and obtained local off-farm work – mainly in sawmills. Tragically, on Christmas Eve 2013, Martin was killed in a tractor accident on the family farm.

He is a poet in the vernacular Bush Ballad tradition and was a finalist in the 1996 Poet Laureate Award at the Tamworth Music Festival.

Martin was deeply interested in his Irish heritage (on both his Mother’s and Father’s side of his family). These two poems are from Martin’s unpublished ‘Irish Collection

Message from Denise, Parish secretary at St. Mary’s Listowel

By

On March 14, 2020

In Uncategorized

Covid 19 Announcement

Historian in Residence, A Generous Maloney, Stained Glass Windows

By

On March 13, 2020

In Uncategorized

When there was a phone box on every corner

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Tom Takes up a new post

Ennismore native, Tom Dillon is a passionate historian. He is an expert on North Kerry men who fought in two world wars. He has recently been appointed as Historian in Residence by Kerry County Council.


Tom has always been a busy man and now he is about to become even busier. I heard him recently with Frank Lewis on Radio Kerry’s Saturday Supplement telling the fascinating story of one of Kerry’s most notorious faction fights between the Cooleens and the Lawlors at Ballyeigh.

Tom is on the far right with Jim Dunn, Mike Lynch and Rose Wall Volunteering at a Graham Norton event at Listowel Writers’ Week.



Tom is among North Kerry history lovers, Martin Moore, Declan Downey, Michael Guerin and myself in Ashe Hall where Tom gave an excellent lecture on the Fitzgeralds, Knights of Kerry.

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A Duagh Philatropist

William Maloney was born in Duagh County Kerry, Ireland, in 1828, and died in Pittsburgh, Dec. 28, 1870.

All affairs bearing on the public good interested Mr. Maloney, and the weight of his influence and his moral and financial support were always forthcoming in aid of such activities. Charitable cause made and unfailing appeal to his warmly, generous and sincere nature, and he was especially friendly to St. Paul’s Orphan Asylum. He was a member of St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, then at Fifth and Grant streets, and there was no branch of its work that did not owe a large part of its comfortable ease in financial relations to his never-failing donations. He was known for his ever-courteous manner and was a musician of accomplishment. His religious convictions were strong, and, practical man of affairs the he was, he believed that they were worthy of the best of his means.

William Maloney married Mary B. Mullin, daughter of Thomas and Mary Mullin, her father a linen manufacturer of note at Carrickmacross, a famous linen center of Ireland. Her mother, Mary Mullin, came to the United States a short time after her son John, Mr. Maloney’s partner, had made Pittsburgh his home. Mrs. Maloney, a devoted mother, and active charity worker, an accomplished home maker, died Aug. 25, 1914. 

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Listowel Convent Windows in their new home


A Corkman, Eddie Hyland has been studying stained glass windows from the Harry Clarke studios in Dublin. His research brought him to two windows in Presentation Convent chapel  in Listowel.

The chapel was deconsecrated and the windows dispersed. Eddie started a search that brought him to sources like Listowel Connection as well as the Presentation archive.

Here is his latest letter bringing the news that his search iOS over and has been successful

Dear Mary

I’ve located the Saint Patrick window; it is in the parish church [named Saint Patrick’s]

in the tiny village of Knockavilla near Upton in Co Cork.

I’m sending to you as attachments photos of both windows. As you can see the Saint Michael

window has been reworked somewhat to make it fit into the opening in Blackrock Church, Cork.

The Saint Patrick is however unaltered. It is not however fitted into a wall opening but instead

is located in a custom made wooden frame and artificially back lit

Again thank you for all of your help and encouragement

Regards

Ed Hyland 

 



Fr. Harnett, A Curse and the Lartigue Theatre Company

By

On March 12, 2020

In Uncategorized

All Changed

Upper Church Street, Listowel July 2007

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Looking for Old Photos

Can you help, please?

Hi there,

I am in search of some old photos of a public house that used to reside at 35 William St, Listowel. The Pub was called mulvihills and i cannot find any evidence of it online.

The pub was sold in the 80’s.

If you can shed any light on this bar will you tell me and I’ll pass on the information.

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A Dementia Poem



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From the Schools’ Folklore Collection

Fr Harnett

Long ago there lived in the Parish of Newtownsandes and old woman. One morning she went to her dairy for a pan of milk. When she was returning from the dairy she slipped with the pan of milk and fell. Just as she was falling the pan struck her in the side, and injured her, and the milk was spilled. When she went in home she had a very bad pain in her side, and she had to go to bed.

She spent three weeks in bed, but after the three weeks she was as bad as ever, and her side was greatly swollen. When she saw no improvement coming on her she sent for the doctor. But when the doctor saw her he said that he could find nothing wrong with her. At last she sent for one of the neighbours.

The neighbour was an old woman who was supposed to be with the good people. When the old woman looked at her she shook her head and said, “When you were coming in from your dairy that morning a woman from a fort asked you for a cup of milk. Now you did not hear her and she threw the cup at you, and it went in through your side. So it is not in the power of any doctor to cure you”.

She spent about another week in bed. At that time she heard that there was a priest in Duagh named Father Harnett who used to cure a lot of sick people. Her friends took her to the priest soon after that. When the priest saw her he took a book from his pocket and he kept reading over her for about ten minutes. Then he told her to go home and that she would be better. The woman went home, and the pain was as bad as ever. The next day her side broke out and glass began coming out of it. The glass was coming out of it for about a week. After a week all the glass of a cup had come out of it. Then her side healed up as good as ever.

Joe Walsh

Told by

Mrs Mary Walsh, Leitrim East, Newtownsandes, 54 years

Collector- Joe Walsh. Informant- Mrs Mary Walsh, Age 54, Address, Leitrim East, Co. Kerry

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The Lartigue Drama Group

I dont have a date for this happy gathering but at a guess it’s the 1980s


Mike Moriarty gave me the names.

FRONT ROW; Denis O’Mahony, Gertie O’Keefe, Sean Moriarty, Peggy Brick, Danny Hannon, Noreen O’Connell, Damian Stack, Joan Stack, Donie Finucane (R.I.P.), Mairead O’Carroll.

SECOND ROW; Martin Griffin, Jackie Carmody (R.I.P.), Miriam Carey (R.I.P.), P.J. Broderick, Helen Walsh, Maurice O’Sullivan, Louise O’Shea, Jack Joyce, Jackie McGillicuddy, Kay Ryan, Anthony McAuliffe.

THIRD ROW; Cathal FitzGerald, Jerome Murphy (R.I.P.), Batt O’Keefe, Ursula O’Connor, Michael O’Neill (R.I.P.), Anne FitzGerald, Louis O’Connell, Oonagh Harnett, Cliff Gore, Danny Moriarty.

BACK ROW; Mike Moriarty, Gillian Hilliard, Jed Chute, Paddy Walsh, Noreen O’Mahony, Pat Scully, Toddy Buckley (R.I.P.), Bernie Dalton, Johnny McElligott, Angela Hayes.

Molly, Macroom, Hidden Treasure and Listowel Drama Group

By

On March 11, 2020

In Uncategorized

Molly at Home


I haven’t given an update on Molly for a while. Here she is in her happy place with her Christmas toy. She has been to the groomers since and is looking even more handsome these days.

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I was in Macroom, Co Cork

Last week I met a friend in Macroom for lunch. We ate in Granville’s and it was lovely, good food, friendly staff and cozy dining room.

I parked in the square just opposite this well named premises. It is truly a golden treasure, a throwback to the days of my childhood.


Once upon a time many shops had bars like these fitted outside their windows. This was in the days when fairs were held on the streets and shopkeepers needed to protect their very expensive plate glass. It’s lovely to see this one still in place.

Further down the street in this blue and yellow shop there was another of these fair day protectors. This one was removable but seems to be being left up permanently here.

Back to Golden’s and it’s old advertising hoardings… This one exhorts us to smoke a brand of cigarettes no longer available.

This place was certainly a general store, a virtual cornucopia judging by the goods displayed in the windows.

Among the mirrors and jugs was a jewish menorah and some various christian imagery.

It was not clear to me if these items were for sale or merely for decoration.

I was fascinated to see an old fashioned ring board and a skipping rope.

The sign inviting musicians to the monthly sessions had been updated since I was last here.

The Guinness toucan was on the wall and in the window was the old Guinness advertising slogan; Guinness is Good for You.  Are we allowed to make unsubstantiated claims like that nowadays?


Is that cctv I see beside the golden finial? The plasterwork depicts the oak leaves and acorns below some sheaves of corn, a rich harvest image for a lovely lovely old bar.

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From the Schools’ Folklore Collection

A Hidden Treasure

There was a very old woman who lived in a small little house close to the village of Newtownsandes. She seemed to be very poor and the village people used to give her food. One day the priest said to her, “You seem to be always looking for charity”, and the old woman said, “Sure what else could I do. I haven’t a pig, a goat, or a man”. In a short time after, the old woman grew sick and was ordered to hospital. The neighbours went to her little house. As the ambulance came they were preparing her for the journey, and on no account would she allow them to take off a flannel skirt. So when she got to the hospital the nuns ordered the skirt to be removed, but the old lady screamed aloud and thought to hold on to the skirt. However they succeeded in removing the skirt. The nuns got suspicious and stood by after giving orders to two wardswomen to get a scissors and open up the skirt. To their surprise, there were nineteen sovereigns sewed in a tuck to the skirt. She lived for one week after, and during that time the other patients in the ward could not sleep as the old woman was all the time shouting for the flannel skirt.

Collector- Pat Stack- Informant- Nurse Stack- Age 62 Address, Newtownsandes, Co. Kerry

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Listowel Drama Group

The curtain has come down for the last time on A Daughter from over the Water. This 2020 production by Listowel Drama Group entertained audiences  in the dreary evenings of early March 2020….great cast and excellent set, as usual.

Cast of Listowel Drama Groups production of A Daughter from over the Water

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