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

Evening Press 1939, Listowel Hospital and Clinics and the old popemobile

Roses at Listowel Big Bridge July 2018

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More advertisements from the Sunday Press of 1939

That one doesn’t seem to have caught on.

Back in 1939 they were pushing bottle feeding. Apparently it protected a child against the winter weather!

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In Listowel Hospital Grounds


I took a wander back Greenville to see how things were in that part of town. Here are some pictures I took in the hospital grounds

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Donncha  ODulaing and the Popemobile



This photo is in the RTE archive. I wonder if the new popemobile will look less like a caravan mounted on a lorry

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Interesting Sign for the Golf Tournament




AA signs now have the eircode for the event venue  Genius.  No one will ever be lost again!

1939 paper, Garden of Europe signs and Some 1966 Roses

Doe a deer…. baby deer at Beauford photographed by Chris Grayson

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An Old One from Scoil Realta na Maidine



Scoil Realta na Maidine teachers photographed by John Hannon

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A Blast from the Past



Recently a friend bought an old house. When she started her refurb. she pulled up all the old carpets. In the days before underlay, people used to use newspaper to  cover the concrete to keep damp from rising up to ruin the floor covering. It is a sign of how good this insulation was that the first paper laid down was the Evening Press of 1939 and it was there in 2018 intact. She shared a few pieces of these newspapers  with us.

Seems like they were bombarded from morning ’til night by advertising even back then.

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Road Works are Gas




One day as I was passing the John B. Keane Rd. sign workmen were replacing it after laying their gas pipeline.

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Repainting the Signs



Faded signs are being repainted this summer.




The MacMahon tree is beside The Garden of Europe and provides bay leaves for the town.

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Roses in 1966


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On a bank Holiday break in Listowel



It was lovely to meet my former pupils, Brita Whelan and Darina Harman, their families and Jake.

More from The Green Guide., Living Literature, Dublin Kerry Association

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More from the Little Green Guide of 1965


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Living Literature  at The Seanchaí


This is Angeline, the actress, with Jerry, the John B. Keane fan before the start of our Living Literature Tour on Saturday July 21 2018

We were in The Seanchaí for a tour of the rooms dedicated to North Kerry Writers. If you get a chance to take this guided tour, I’d highly recommend it. Angeline, our guide, was full of enthusiasm for the work of the featured writers. She sang, played, recited and acted to bring to life the work of the various writers. She was brilliant and we all greatly enjoyed the tour.

 In the room dedicated to Bryan MacMahon she told us the story, recounted in The Master, of Bryan getting a young mahout to bring a baby elephant to the school. This seems really extraordinary to today’s young people but a photo in the John Hannon archive shows a parade of elephants through the town to advertise the arrival of a circus.

Elephants on Market Street photographed by Johnny Hannon.


Paddy stepped up to the plate to play Byrne to Angeline’s Big Maggie in the excerpt from the John B. Keane Play.

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Dublin Kerry Association


I missed this one earlier in the summer when Fr. Anthony Gaughan was presented with an award and the Kerry gang in the capital came out in force

Fr. Gaughan with Miriam O’Callaghan and Keelin Kissane

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Seán Keane in Finuge


The highlight of the Seán Maccarthy Memorial Weekend was Seán Keane in concert Neil Brosnan was there and he met Brendan Kennelly with his sister and niece.

Photo; Neil Brosnan

 This photo and caption are also from Neil Brosnan on Facebook.

Sean McCarthy ballad competition sponsors, Mike and Sue Nilsson, with prizewinners: Joe Harrington, 1st, Caroline O’Callaghan, 2nd, and myself in 3rd place 


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Yesterday, August 5 2018 in Listowel






1965 Green Guide, Pub Theatre at John B.’s, Sensory Sunday at the barber’s

In Childers’ Park, Listowel

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Listowel’s 1965 Green Guide


Aileen Skimson in Canada kept this souvenir of her visit to Listowel, her father’s birthplace, in 1965. Here are a few more photos and advertisements to bring back memories.


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Remembering John B. Keane at 90


The first event of the recent John B, Keane festival was pub theatre in John B. Keane’s Bar.

I was there for a while and it was a great night.

 Some of the appreciative audience with Billy Keane.

Two of the performers were Cathy Healy and Gabriel Fitzmaurice.

 Mickey McConnell sang his tribute to Mary and John B.

Billy in character as the matchmaker.

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The Gentleman’s Barber, William Street, Listowel




Sounds very inviting, doesn’t it?


I know someone who brought a nervous little boy one Sunday. She was full of praise for the whole experience. Highly recommend it


Nature photos, BlazeAid, Big Maggie in 1969 and 2018 and Welcoming the rain in summer 2018

Nature Photography

Photo; Chris Grayson

Readers of this blog know that I love a good wildlife photograph and one of my favourite wildlife photographers is Chris Grayson. The above photo is one that he entered for an Irish Times biodiversity competition. He didn’t win but when you look at the others he was up against, you’ll agree that it was a huge achievement to be shortlisted.

Here is the link;  11the Annual Biodiversity Photographer of the Year Competition 2018

and here is what Chris said about his image;

Blue Tit by Chris Grayson: “I took this pic in my Garden in Glenbeigh, Co Kerry. This beautiful Blue Tit and partner are happily nesting in a tiny gap in the stonework of my house. I caught this shot as she/he headed very quickly into the nest. They’ve been a joy to watch daily collecting caterpillars to feed their nestlings. Beautiful to see every day.”

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Bert Hickie and a Different kind of volunteering



Bert, who grew up in Duagh follows Listowel Connection from Melbourne

He wrote:


Hi Mary,

  I love your blog & your entry about Molly made me LOL as I used to breed Cocker Spaniels when I lived in Duagh as a gorsoon to make pocket money which was spent quickly & foolishly, in hindsight. 


I have lived in Melbourne Australia since 1971 but I’m still considered Irish because I never lost the “accent” so they tell me . I retired in 2014 & started travelling around Oz in a campervan, & I’m on my second trip to Western Australia at present , but I also volunteer with BlazeAid, an organisation that helps people affected by fire, cyclones, floods, & droughts. 


BlazeAid.com

 I’m currently at a blazeaid camp in Cobden SW Victori,  replacing fences destroyed in “the St Patrickis Day bushfires” .  Its the middle of Winter here & its very similar weather that we used to get in late Nov in Irl. Cold,wet mud everywhere, thunderstorms, hail & sleet & sometimes frost in the mornings, but its all in a good cause & we get well looked after.



Your blogs keeps me in touch with all the local happenings in Listowel & the surrounding districts & sometimes little snippets of information that take me back to my days at St Michaels when I shared the same class as Batt Hannon, Seamus Brown, Michael O Keeffe Jim Keane, Maurice McMahon ,”Martin Sheehy & David Shaughnessy & Teddy Halpin,”all three  of whom I believe are deceased, also in that class was Thomas O Connor, Eugene Doyle ,John Moran, but my memory fails me on the other names.

Unfortunately, I cant say my days at St Michaels were happy ones.


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John B. Keane’s Big Maggie




Big Maggie was first seen in a professional production in The Olympia in 1969. In the audience was a Kildare impresario, Paddy Melia. He couldn’t wait to produce it with his amateur actors, The Kilcullen Players. An approach was made to John B. and, lo and behold, The Kicullen Players in Kildare produced the first amateur Big Maggie. They took it around to several drama festivals to much critical acclaim.

Dave O’Sullivan found the newspaper accounts for us.

My connection with the Kilcullen Players is to Johnny O’Neill who played Byrne. My daughter is married to his grandson.



Johnny’s daughter, Mary was only 10 when her dad played the part and she wasn’t allowed to see it.  So when the Corofin Dramatic Society  performed it In St. John’s, Listowel as part of of the Remembering John B. festival, Mary was delighted to finally get an opportunity to see the great play. Let’s say she understood why her parents deemed it unsuitable.




Mary (O’Neill) Mc Kenna and her husband Tony met Conor and Joanna at the festival.



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Welcome rain


After weeks of drought It’s great to welcome a drop of rain.

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