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

Town Park, Sinn Féin v. Lord Listowel and Ballylongford remembers the days of old

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On May 3, 2018

In Uncategorized

Listowel Town Park Today

This little house is now known as The Dandy Lodge. Most older Listowel people knew it as Danaher’s Lodge. The Dandy Lodge seems to be a name that came about when it was relocated in the park.

On the subject of names, the Town Park is actually Childers’ Park after the late Erskine Childers, who was the only Irish president to die in office. Older Listowel people call it The Cows’ Lawn remembering its iconic place in the history of Listowel.

This path is relatively new. It runs between the children’s playground and the pitch and putt course.

The playground was busy on the sunny evening I took my walk.

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Listowel’s Childers’ Park, a painful memory


Kay (Moloney) Caball is a historian with a particular interest in Gurtinard House, her childhood home and in the long struggle put up by Listowel elders to secure Lord Listowel’s front lawn as a public amenity for the people of Listowel.

I took this photo after her excellent talk to Listowel’s Historical Society in The Seanchaí on Sunday April 22 2018

Kay is on the left of my picture. Chatting to her is Donal O’Connor of Tarbert and Helen Moylan of Listowel.

One hundred years ago, at the height of World War 1, there were  many poor people in Listowel who were struggling to feed big families. We know that Listowel made a huge contribution of manpower to the front. Jim Halpin once told me that there was one area in Listowel which provided more soldiers that any street in any town in England. Pals’ Brigades were a way of encouraging brothers and friends to enlist. This policy left many towns, including Listowel, bereft of young men.

Listowel was lucky to have a very able leader in the late Jack McKenna, father of the present Jack McKenna. He was chair of Listowel Town Council and he was also on Kerry County Council. He was a member of Sinn Féin. He conducted a long campaign of letter writing to Lord Listowel’s agent with a request to hand over his 2 “lawns” to the town for tilling to plant vegetables.

His campaign was not meeting with any success so he and some more elders of the town set up The Sinn Féin Food Committee and took it on themselves to cut the locks on the gates and, helped by volunteers from local areas, who brought ploughs and manpower, they ploughed up the lawns.

This act of civil disobedience saw them before the courts and landed with prison sentences.

Kay Caball has done a thorough study of this episode and what followed.

Her talk was filmed by Mike Guerin and it is available  here;

Sinn Féin Food Committee versus Lord Listowel

Paul Murphy, who is a great friend of Listowel Connection, sent me some stuff on his grandfather who was one of the town folk who was sentenced to jail. He served his time in Ballykinlar, Belfast. Most of the men were jailed in Cork but Jack McKenna was also incarcerated in Belfast. The regime here seems to have been particularly brutal and Mr. McKenna came home with his health broken and unable to continue with his civic work.

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Local and National Treasures


In St. Joseph’s National School in Ballylongford they had a vintage day when the children displayed the artefacts they had researched.

The antiquities included a Box Brownie Camera, a tilly lamp, a bed warmer, a shoemaker’s last,  a smoothing iron, a school bell and a washboard. 

I feel old as I acknowledge that I remember all except the bedwarmer in use.

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Listowel History and Comic Festival



Friday May 4 2018 to Sunday May 6 2018



Listowel Town Park, Old Ballybunion and a quaintly different Abbeyfeale shop

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On May 2, 2018

In Uncategorized

The Last of the Daffodils

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A Walk in the Park



This walk is in Gurtinard beside The Garden of Europe and down to the Feale and the Big Bridge.



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Gasworks are Ongoing



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The Bord na Móna Tapestry


Photo and text from Bord na Móna Living History


In 1979 then Bord na Móna Managing Director, Lewis Rhatigan, commissioned Louis le Brocquy to produce a tapestry to celebrate what was then felt to be the midpoint of Bord na Móna’s life span.

The eight square metre tapestry was finished in 1980 and le Brocquy reduced it to a simple theme which showed the energy derived from the turf itself which is expressed in the sun like form in the centre and the colour scheme representing the gradual transition from bogs to pastureland. All over this are the masses of people traversing the time and space of this journey. That is how Le Brocquy described it himself.

When it was unveiled in our former Head Office in Dublin, Rhatigan asked one of our porters what he thought of it. He said it looked like souls trapped in purgatory. Today it hangs in the lobby of our head office building in Newbridge.

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Old Ballybunion


Photo and caption by John Keane on Facebook

“It’s the remains of my grandfather’s house at the bottom of the glen. It burnt down. This picture was taken in June 1929. The gable of the wall is all that’s left. You can still see bits of the floor in the old car park.”

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A Shop in Abbeyfeale



Every time I pass this shop, Greyhound and Pet World in Abbetfeale I am fascinated by the display on the forecourt.



It is all about Irish and particularly rural Irish values, Catholic saints, animals, leprechauns and gnomes, Disney characters, children, birdhouses etc. etc. I love it!

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Special Day at the Lartigue Museum



May 5 2018



A special  commemoration event will take place at the Lartigue Monorail Museum from 

1-2pm this Saturday May 5th to acknowledge the 130th anniversary of the opening of the Lartigue Railway in 1888. 


The event will include a brief overview of the history of the Lartigue Railway System, the reason why it was used in North Kerry and a demonstration of how it worked. The Railway has become a very important part of world monorail history and has entered into the realms of railway folklore.  

Over 4,000 tourists  from all over the world visited the project in 2017 and were very happy with the experience. The committee is  confident that there will be a further increase in visitor numbers this year.   



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Another Accolade for Listowel




Listowel Writers’ Week won the prize for best Irish Festival at last night’s Irish Hospitality Awards. Liz Dunn and Eilish Wren collected the prize.

Kerry speech, Ballybunion Seats, a new sand artist and some photographic puzzles solved

By

On May 1, 2018

In Uncategorized

David O’Brien Irish Wildlife Photo Competition

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The Kerryman Unbuttoned by Redmond O’Hanlon published in Shannonside Annual

(last paragraph)


Perhaps not least
of the attraction of the Kerry idiom is its ancient lineage. It stems from
generations when Irish was the tongue of farm and fair. It still constitutes
the warp and woof of daily intercourse and is ‘honourable in the gates.” It is true one must be on the alert for intruders. There is such a thing as
manufactured idiom, but it is a poor dead thing, still-born for all the travail
of the pen that strove to give it life. Counterfiet coinage of speech, it bears
the marks of the self conscious file and its shine is not the patina of age.
Read Synge’s plays and listen to its tinny jingle.

This refusasl to
conform in our Kerryman, this robust individuality, who would have it
otherwise? Kerry speech is as uninhibited as the deer that skip on Torc; as
colourful as the changing mists that veil the purple Tomies; as impatient of
restraint as the waters that spill over Derrycunnihy Cascade; as haunting as the
echoes of the bugle call flung back in falling cadence from The Eagle’s Nest.
And spoken by its maidens, this Kerry speech sweeps away the unwary stranger’s
last defences, prompts him to forswear his allegiance, and in Kerry is his
consolation when he remembers home.


(concluded) 


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Commemorate Me


“With no hero courageous tomb

Just a canal bank seat for the passerby.”……Patrick Kavanagh


I think of Kavanagh when I see these memorial seats in Ballybunion.




I learned from the Ballybunion Tidy Towns page that putting memorial plaques on seats is an initiative of Kerry County Council. If you would like to have your loves one commemorated on a seat all you have to do is contact Kerry County Council and they’ll tell you all about it.

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Mario is in California so who is the newest beach artist?




On April 21 2018, I spotted this magnificent creation. I zoomed in closer and I think that is Ballybunion’s own Pixie O’Gorman I see putting the finishing touches to this sand installation.

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A New Miss Marple Gets us Closer to Success



Kay O’Leary has recognised the lady in the centre of the photo with Arthur Chute and Charlie and Violet McCarthy in John Hannon’s photo. She is Hannah O’Connor who used to work at Latchfords and later became a hackney driver. Thank you, Kay.  Now we only have one lady left to identify. Could she be a Tralee lady as well?

And




My good friend, Cathy Healy has been on to me again. The man stroking the dog is not Liam Healy. He is his brother, Mike Healy. The lady with the curlers in is Mary Corridan and the little boy is one of the Bunyan family.

The influence of Irish in Kerry English and a trip to Castleisland

By

On April 30, 2018

In Uncategorized

Chris Howes, Irish Wildlife Photography Competition

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The Kerryman Unbuttoned by Redmond O’Hanlon in Shannonside Annual


…..As the years pass
one insensibly makes many of these phrases one’s own. There is a gay
inconsequence about your Kerryman’s talk. Rabelasian at times, he is impatient
of the restraints of a pseudo culture that would seek to shackle his ready
tongue. Conscious of the inadequacies of English, he rifles the rich store of our own tongue to add colour and imagery to his talk. Someone is classified as a
mean bacach and we have him in focus at once. He will refer with feeling to the
shortcomings of a cabóg and we share his impatience with the bosthoon. The
average Kerryman is close to the soil and we are one with him there with this
difference, that his sense of values gives him pride in his background.

Words, accents,
idiom, what a fascinating field for him who delights to listen. In individuality
of speech Kerry is perhaps more rewarding to the observer than any other county
of the thirty two. Listen to the salty arguments of dealing men in fair and
market., to the caustic asides of crusty old lads drowsing over pints in deep
cavernous pubs; to the helpers paying the comhar at the threshing; to the
passionate vociferations of those followers of the green and gold as their
heroes rise with elan to tear balls out of the skies in Croke Park; and listen
again wherever Kerrymen foregather to pay the last tribute to their dead.

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Then and Now


John Hannon took this photo of Mrs. Mann at the door of her shop in Main Street.

The same corner of town today

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I was in Castleisland


There is lots of history on Castleisland’s Main Street. I was struck by the irony of the name of the pub on  which I saw the above plaque.

The great Con Houlihan is well remembered.

The above three pictures were on display in a shop window.

I have no idea of the era of the post box.

This landmark building was unoccupied last time I was here. I was delighted to see it back in business.

You all know how much I love a charity shop. I met a lovely lovely lady, Nora, in the Vincent de Paul shop but it was in the NCBI shop that I discovered these.


I do a spot of knitting so I know how much time and effort went into these creations. The green and pink doll are one doll.  You turn her over and you have her alter ego. They call her a topsy turvy doll.

The lady who knits these is Jan Wesley and she is 88 years young. She sells her knitwear in aid of the NCBI, so this shop in Castleisland is well worth a visit. The dolls are a snip at €10 and the tea cozy was €12.

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Craftshop back in Town (temporarily)



Until June 3 2018 there will be a craftshop in Galvin’s Off licence premised in William Street. Why not pop in and take a look a these Craft Makers wares

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Style with  a Listowel Connection

This is Niamh Kenny from Listowel at Punchestown Ladies’ Day last week.

This is the piece in Saturday’s Irish Times. Niamh and her friend, Mary O’Halloran caught the eye of a journalist. Competing at Ladies Day is part of the fun and enjoyment of a day at the Races for many ladies. It’s worth the investment. The prizes are big. As Mary says, “We’re gambling on ourselves.”

Grugs, Rabbits, Town League 1950 and North Kerry; the Swedish connection and National Poetry Day 2018

By

On April 27, 2018

In Uncategorized

Chris Howes, Irish Wildlife Photography Competition

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The Kerryman Unbuttoned by Redmond O’Hanlon Part 5 


 ….Early I learned that in Kerry the ‘accounts’ that are so prominent a
feature of the social structure of the county are distinct (but not completely
so be  remembered) from financial
statements or debts unpaid. Ramblers have no affinity with the tinkers but are
the Kerryman’s word for loose stones on the road. To be taken up in the bones
may baffle any doctor outside of Kerry. The complaint seems endemic to the
county-  tribute to its mists maybe and,
so far as can be gathered medical treatises are silent on the subject. It is
doubtful too if a medical man can state with certainty the location of his grug
on which a Kerryman sits betimes.

It was in the
townland of Trieneragh near Duagh where the land falls away in eye-soothing
sweeps towards the river Feale, that I met a young man who was a specialist in
the art of indirect approach. I had made my way slowly towards the road from
the inch by the river, burdened with a rifle and a bunch of rabbits when I met
him. Eyeing the bag from time to time as we chatted he at length observed
reflectively, “If my mother met you now she would ask you for a rabbit.” Adding
somewhat unnecessarily that she was terrible fond of rabbit. I thought a brace
of graziers but a small fee to pay for this delightful example of Kerry tact.
In any event, I had been shooting over my young friends fields……

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Town League 1950



This old photograph from Vincent Carmody’s Living history popped up again recently on Facebook.

The occasion is the Ashes team for the Listowel town league of 1950.

The players are

Front Row. D.Prendeville, John B., Toddy Enright (holding mascot, Frank Pierse) Jim O Neill, Mick McAuliffe, Jimmy Harris, Mick Cotter.
Back Row. Timmy Walsh, Michael McGuinness, Jim (Roddy) O Sullivan, Mick Barrett, Micheal Quigley, J.Ryan, Jim Deveraugh, Tom Finucane.

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Spotted on My Walk


A blackbird, a dry wall and a ruin


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A Swedish Influence in North Kerry



A few months ago I had Vincent Carmody’s story of Lars Larsson and how his relatives came to St. Michael’s graveyard to seek out his grave.

On the foot of this story, Jim MacMahon wrote to tell me how it came about that a Swedish man was buried in Listowel.

Sweden was a big dairying country and companies like Alfa Laval had trained many technicians and engineers.

A far seeing creamery manager in Ballyheigue, a granduncle of Jim MacMahon’s, advertised in Sweden for some operatives with technical experience to work in Ballyheigue Creamery. Three of the men who came were our friend Larsson, Nielson and Monson. Larsson was killed in an accident but Nielson and Monson went on to marry local women and their descendants still live in North Kerry or else visit often.

The Monson descendants have a jewellery business.

Monson Irish Jewellery

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Did you do Your Leaving Cert in St. Michael’s in 1968?



A 50 year reunion celebration is being planned for this class and the organisers are encountering some difficulty in rounding up the last few old boys.

Here is an extract from Ned O’Sullivan’s email:

A group of us are planning a reunion weekend on the 7-9 September 2018. It entails a social gathering plus hopefully a nostalgic return to the school, photo exhibition, and some other things finishing with a day at the Races on the Sunday. We have established contact with most past colleagues but we are in the dark about a few. 

It’s possible that some of them read your blog and we would be v thankful if you could put it out there for us. 

Committee members are Michael Moriarty NT., Teddy Murphy, John Moloney n Christy Sheehy. 

Many thanks Mary

Ned O Sullivan. 

Ned has given me his phone number in case anyone of his classmates is reading this and wants to get in touch.



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Healys of Convent Street and their Neighbours




Cathy Healy sent the photo to her uncle Pat in England and he confirmed that the young boy is Mike Healy, Cathy’s uncle. The lady in the hair rollers is till a mystery.



Common sense says that she would not be going too far from her home in rollers, I’d say she was a neighbour of the Healys and of John Hannon who took the photo, so we’re looking for someone from the Gleann area to put a name to a face. Liam Healy R.I.P. would have remembered her name and as Cathy said he’d have the dog’s name as well.

We miss them every day.



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National Poetry Day 2018



Poetry Ireland decided to celebrate National Poetry Day 2018 on April 26 2018. Listowel Writers’ Week went to town on it, literally. They took to the streets and they gave everyone a poem in their pocket and challenged everyone to read at least one poem on Poetry Day.

Here are some of the people they met with a poem.





Would you read a Poem on Poetry Day          by Mary Cogan



with apologies to Dr. Seuss



Would you read it in a shop?

Would you read it with a cop?

Would you read it in a car?

Would you read it with a jar?

Would you read it stuck in traffic?

Would you read if it was graphic?

Would you read with Sinead and Liz

Máire or Maria, gee whiz

Poetry Day brought to my mind

That Writers’ Week’s not far behind.



Listowel Writers Week and the National Children’s Literary Festival run this year from May 30th to June 3rd.



See what’s in store here



Listowel Writers’ Week 2018 programme






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