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

Fond memory brings the light……..

Memories, Memories….





Time brought me many another friend

That loved me longer.

New love was kind, but in the end

Old love was stronger.

Years come and go. No New Year yet

Hath slain December.

And all that should have cried, “Forget!”

Cries but-“Remember!”

(Mary Coleridge)

<<<<<<<<<

Valuable record of Listowel’s forefathers

This old treasure came to light over the Christmas holidays.

It shows the boys of 6th class in Scoil Realt na Maidine in 1930/31

There were hand written names with the photo but they were much faded over time. This was the best that could be made of them. Apologies for any errors or omissions.

Back Row: 1,  ? Behan 2. Gerard Relihan 3. Liam Stack 4. Sean Connor (Driscoll?) 5. Tom Canty 6. Andrew Hartnett 7. Seoirse O’Callaghan . ? Neville

Third Row: 1. Johnny Wilmot 2. Patsy Moloney 3. J McMahon 4. Mick Mc Carthy 5. Fintan McGrath 6. Maurice Stack 7. ? Dunphy (Guard’s son) 8. Sean O’Dell

Second Row: 1. ? McAuliffe 2. Michael Murphy 3. J O’Connor 4. Paddy O’Connor 5. Paudie Fitzmaurice 6. P Banbury 7. Vincent Rowan 8. ? Guerin 9. Martin Quigley 10. Jackie Moore

Front Row: 1. ? ?    2. L O’Brien 3. Sean Kirby 4. Cyril Collins 6. Francie Chute 7. Sean O’Sullivan 8. Roly Chute 9. John Corridan 10. Tom Flavin 11. Gerard Murphy 12. D Joy

If anyone recognizes a relative, do get in touch. It would be great to name them all.

<<<<<<<

Obituary from The Kerryman, 1961




<<<<<<<<


Remember this?




Before McDonalds there were Wimpy Bars. They served no alcohol as far as I remember, just pocket -friendly fast food. This is the Tralee branch of the franchise.         Photo from Kennelly Archive.

<<<<<<

From Denis Carroll’s old negatives

Listowel tennis courts in the 1980s

<<<<<<

Look up…it’s Aer Lingus

(souce; Findmypast on Facebook)

Will the brand soon be a thing of the past?

Spring is in the Air

One we learned at school



Anois teacht an earraigh beidh an ‘ dul chun síneadh

Is t’réis na Féile Bríde, ardóidh mé mo sheol……

Well, spring is here and today is Lá le Bríde so tá mo sheol ardaithe agam. For those of you who don’t get a word of that, it just means that I’m back.

Here let me take a minute to thank all of the well-wishers who enquired for me in various ways during my absence from here. I was galavanting. You’ll hear more about that later.

<<<<<<

Well deserved recognition for Junior

Junior Griffin of Listowel is one of those people who are the salt of the earth in small communities up and down the country. In December 2014 Junior was honoured by the Kerry County Board of Badminton for all his service to the sport as an administrator and player.

Junior is not just a badminton administrator. He is a poet and journalist. He has contributed enormously to handball, pitch and putt and the GAA in town. He is a great repository of local history and lore. Junior is an artist and photographer.  As well as that he is an all round good guy and I am honoured to count him among my friends.

Top photo is of  the County Board members and the delegates from the 

Kerry Clubs.

The “cutting the cake” photo includes all Listowel Club members

  Fergal Hannon, James Sheahan (Club Chairman), 

Rita McCarthy, Jnr. Griffin, Mark Loughnane, Tom McElligott and Paul 

Hayes.

(photos from Tom Bradley) 

It fell to Peggy Horan to say the words of tribute to Junior as he was presented with his citation by the County Board

“As we close our meeting tonight and begin our
Badminton season we think back to a very special season 50 years ago.  It was 1964, Tipperary won the hurling and
Galway won the football.  In that
September a very special man was starting on a very special journey.  The man thankfully for us is still on the
journey and hopefully will continue for many years to come. 


He started badminton in 1964, became club secretary
the following year and is the current club secretary.  He has served in all the Officers positions
in the Listowel club.  On the field of
play or should I say the court of play he won 4 Mens Doubles County titles
between 1967 -1975.  Serving under 9
different presidents he held the position of Munster secretary from

1981 – 2003. 
How befitting it was that he was the first  Honorary
Real Life member of the Munster Badminton association.  Unequalled as a wordssmith he has painted
many a badminton picture to both home and abroad with his turn of phrase. 


Thank you Junior for your commitment to the
sport you have loved so well over so many years.” 


<<<<<<


Comedy Club in Mike the Pies





(photo; Denis Carroll)


A new and welcome addition to Listowel’s entertainment scene is the comedy club in Mike the Pies. Dennis Carroll took this photo on what he described as a great night in the pub.


<<<<<<<



Kanturk in the snow





For many Listowel people Kanturk is a town you pass through on the way to Cork, but for natives like myself its a beautiful place. A photographer resident took these lovely photos during the January snow day.




<<<<<<<


Some old Tralee photos



If you are interested in old Tralee photos, Clearys are now putting many lovely photos from their vast archive on Facebook. Here are a few to whet your appetite.  More here:

Cleary’s photo archive

The late Lizzie Hannafin serving chips from her van with PJ Shanahan and Paddy Hannafin. Probably outside the Brandon.

Flood in Tralee in the 1980’s

<<<<<<

Great start to 2015


(photo: Internet)

Great win for a young man who is surely Ireland’s best golfer ever. Rory McIlroy won the Dubai Desert Classic  2015 in style.

Things to do; Places to go; People to see

I have been silent for a while but I will be back soon.

I have had the flu which has scuppered some of my Christmas holiday plans. I’m, therefore, going to enjoy one of the perks of being self employed and extend my holidays until February. Meanwhile, if you have any old photos or stories, you know where to find me.

<<<<<<<

Nollaig na mBan 2015 in Scribes

Namir cooked a lovely dinner for his Knitwits and Craftshop friends.

All hands on deck:  Abraham, Kay and Roza pitched in to help out on the night

 Patricia Borley and Maureen O’Connell admire Una Hayes’ dashing Christmas jumper.

 Kaie Heaton

 Ruth O’Quigley and Eileen Fitzgerald.

 Eileen O’Sullivan and Mary Sobieralski

The gang in Scribes on Jan 6 2015

<<<<<<<

Changing the Focus


This is Listowel post office.


Its present location at Upper William Street is not ideal. Parking is difficult and vulnerable old people often have to make their way across a busy street to collect pensions or do other business. The sight of customers queueing in the rain sends a message to all and sundry that the post office needs more space. So with a change of management structure, now was the time to consider relocation.

BUT

Relocation to a shopping centre at the edge of town is not the answer.

 A shopping centre? you ask.

Yes, for that is what this location will become. People will come here for the post office and then do all their business in this area and never come into town at all.

In my humble opinion a far better location would be any of the empty shops in the town centre, where the post office could stand alone as it always has done. Listowel people have seen their post office relocate to several different locations and have never objected to any of the moves because the service was always centrally located and accessible.

An Post customers in Listowel need a big, well staffed post office. They need an area to queue in reasonable comfort. They need a degree of privacy to conduct their business. They need safe parking close by. They would like to have been consulted in the process to find the premises which would best answer these needs.

That is why I am supporting the march on the 17th. I have no hopes that the protest will achieve anything but it will demonstrate to An Post that people would like to be consulted on these very important issues in future.

<<<<<<<<

New Year, new project






(National Archive photo)


It all began in 1842 when Fr.
Darby Mahony, the then Parish Priest of Listowel, decided to build a
Presentation Convent in Listowel. In May 1844, four nuns came to Listowel from
Milltown, to run the convent. Their main objective was to open a National
School in Listowel.

On the day of the opening 300
pupils attended but this number soon rose to 500. Pupils were not only from
Listowel but many attended from the surrounding areas. Amongst the attendance
were some adults who were preparing for Confirmation. The nuns had just begun
to raise funds for the building of an adequate school and chapel, when disaster
struck. The famine of 1845.

With money of their own and with
the help of donations, the nuns sought to make the pupils as comfortable as
possible. They served the pupils a breakfast of bread, a mug of boiled rice and
a little milk almost every day thourghout the famine. Money subscribed in
England for famine relief was distributed by the authorities and some was
raised by the nuns to purchase rye bread. This, again, they gave to their
pupils. Because of their dedication to their pupils and comunity, many of the
nuns died due to overwork and under-nourishment.

After 1848 the situation
improved. Due to hard work, perseverance and a 

little help from God, the nuns
raised enough money to go ahead with the previously planned construction. In
1849 the convent chapel was built and in 1852 an infant school with a number of
classrooms was also built.

Mainly due to the fact that the
Presentation Sisters are dedicated to the Holy Cross, a large cross was erected
in 1853 on the Infant School. Because of the rules of the National Sschool
board, the Comissioners of National Education ordered it to be taken down. The
order was ignored. A series of letters from the Comissioners ordering the nuns
to obey were all rejected In 1856 Fr. J. McDonnell the Parish Priest of
Listowel at that time, refused to become Manager until the cross was removed.
This didn’t bother the nuns and to this day the cross is there to be seen by
everyone.

The reputation of the nuns as teachers was so good that parents from
outside areas, ambitious for their children found them board in town so that
they could attend the convent school. An average of 80 girls were boarding in
Listowel at this time. The nuns, as charitable as ever, distributed clothes and
goods to the needy pupils.  The clothes
were distributed on certain days of the year. 100 to 500 pupils received a meal
of bread and milk or bread and coffee (when milk was scarce) and soup in winter.

Presentation Secondary school celebrated a significant milestone with the appointment of the first lay principal in 2014. It is time to write the history of the school so far.

If you are a past pupil of the school or if you have any memories of the school or the nuns, Kay Caball and I are in the process of gathering material for a project on the school. 

If you have photos or stories, please contact me.

Christmas in Kerry


Christmas Greetings




Listowel artist, Olive Stack’s beautiful Christmas card



A Very Happy Christmas to all my blog followers and collaborators. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who helped me during the year by sending or giving me photos, stories, encouraging emails and helpful suggestions. I am grateful to everyone who interacts with me about the blog but I also appreciate all the “followers” who just use the blog to stay in touch with Listowel. 

This is the last blogpost for 2014. I look forward to getting back to work in 2015. Do remember that I can’t do it without help so keep rummaging in those old photo boxes.

<<<<<

People love to hear this old Bryan MacMahon poem at this time of year

Kerry
Candlelight

1

I am
standing here in Euston, and my heart is light and gay,

For ‘tis soon I’ll see the
moonlight all a-dance on Dingle Bay. 

So behind me, then, is London, with the
magic of its night,

And before me is a window
filled with Kerry Candlelight.

Chorus

‘Tis the lovely light of glory
that came down from heav’n on high,

And whenever I recall it,
there’s a teardrop in my eye.

By the mountainside at
twilight, in a cottage gleaming white,

There my true love sits
a-dreaming, in the Kerry Candlelight.

2

She’ll be waiting by the turf
fire; soon our arms will be entwined,

And the loneliness of exile
will be lost or cast behind,

As we hear the Christmas
greetings of the neighbours in the night,

Then our hearts will beat
together in the blessed Candlelight.

3

Now the train is moving
westward, so God speed its racing wheels,

And God speed its whistle
ringing o’er the sleeping English fields,

For I’m dreaming of an altar
where, beside my Breda bright,

I will whisper vows of true
love in the Kerry Candlelight.

<<<<<<<

More Innocent Times    



                  

This Christmas story comes from a Listowel emigrant who remembers happy times growing up in Kerry…

Now the tradition of Christmas and
Santy Claus evidently is different in every house, but in the Stack house it
was, is and always will be a big deal.

When I was a little boy Santy Claus
personally delivered my presents every year. That didn’t happen to all the boys
in my class . And despite the strict criteria for the year of not being naughty
and being nice,  which I might not always
have adhered to, he never left me down. He would always call between 9 and 10
on Christmas Eve.

We would have all been washed and
have the new Christmas outfit on and most years about 7 the whole family would
take a drive and see all the lovely Christmas lights , That is a lovely single
white bulb in the every window of every house and the odd posh one might have a
red bulbs.

We would return home and instead of
going to the living room we would retire to the sitting room  which we used to migrate to for the two week
Christmas holidays. The rest of the year it was reserved for priests, guards or
water bailiffs ( nothing to do with me) . 

We then would chose what to watch on
TV1 or 2 but we were always a little anxious as we knew a special visitor would
be calling. At some point either my mother or father would say “Be quiet. Was
that a knock ?”  We would all freeze ,
then turn down 1 or 2 and listen and we might hear a faint bell or another
knock this time much louder. We would run to the door, turn on the outside
light and see large bags of presents spread all over the lawn. When we were
very young Santy would be by the door and as we got older, I suppose he was
getting older as well he would be further away each year until I remember him
being at the front gate waving . While we were always grateful, as children we
were normally more interested in the contents of the bags on the lawn than
Santy himself.

Christmas 1983 the world changed
forever. Despite several doubts there was always an explanation ! , Santy would
always come to our house on Christmas Eve but people on our road could be
Christmas Day. Santa doesn’t use roads !!

At 6 o clock that Christmas Eve my
father said he wanted to talk to me.

I was curious as we walked down the
hall , to see what I had done wrong cos I’d usually pull up a couple of weeks
before Christmas . We sat on my bed and he told me Santy wasn’t real . Reeling
from the shock as a 12 year old would I enquired was I still going to get
presents this year. He said yes. That made me feel better and when I enquired
who was the fellow calling to my front door banging windows and ringing a bell
for the last few years he just said JET.

That was when Christmas began. As I
had a younger brother and sister still not in the loop Santy was expected as
usual. My father and I sneaked out of our house and went next door to Jet’s
house , where it was like the The North Pole with bags of presents for different
houses within a 10 mile radius.

Now at 12 I got to see Santy face to
face. First he had granny’s pinkish dressing gown on with a big pillow inside
and a mask that was more like Freddie Kruger than Santy but a big red hat,
plenty lipstick on the cheeks a bit of white paint for a beard . He was perfect.
Unless there was a full moon then you’d want to stay well back from the front
door. His first call that night was our house and after that I had the job of
riding shotgun on Santa’s  sleigh, a Renault  9 at the time, of
calling to about 9  or 10 houses in my locality, where there was small
children waiting for Santy .

Years later after Jet , one of his
neighbours and someone Jet had played Santy to, revived it and did a great job
for a few years and when he went on to have his own family he roped some of his
friends into the position . 

Sincerely 

A relative of Jet Stack 

<<<<<<



Christmas in Clounmacon


(Photo;The Advertiser)

<<<<<<

Fungi at Christmas




His friends at Fungie Forever visit the Dingle dolphin almost daily so be sure to check in with them over Christmas.

My Christmas Wish

Happy Christmas



May you live as long as you wish and have all you wish as long as you live.


(old Irish toast)






Junior Griffin’s poem says it all.

MY
CHRISTMAS WISH

Oh Lord, when we give this
Christmas time,

Do teach us how to share

The gifts that you have given
us

With those who need our care,

For the gift of Time is
sacred~

The greatest gift of all,

And to share our time with
others

Is the answer to your call,

For the Sick, the Old and
Lonely

Need a word, a kindly cheer

For every precious minute

Of each day throughout the
Year,

So, in this Special Season

Do share Your Time and Love

And you’re Happy, Holy
Christmas

Will be Blessed by Him above

Junior Griffin

                                                                                            Listowel

<<<<<<<<<<<


Peace on Earth; Goodwill to all men


One hundred years ago some battle hardened soldiers laid down their arms and did the unthinkable; fraternized with the enemy. It is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise gruesome, dirty war.



Here is the Wikipaedia account



The Christmas truce (GermanWeihnachtsfriedenFrenchTrêve de Noël) was a series of widespread but unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front around Christmas 1914. In the week leading up to the holiday, German and British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. In areas, men from both sides ventured into no man’s land on Christmas Eveand Christmas Day to mingle and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps, while several meetings ended in carol-singing. Men played games of football with one another, captured in one of the truce’s most enduring images. It was not ubiquitous; fighting continued in some frontal regions. In others the sides settled on little more than arrangements to recover bodies. The following year, a few units arranged ceasefires, but the truces were not nearly as widespread as in 1914; this was, in part, due to strongly worded orders from the high commands of either side prohibiting fraternisation. Soldiers were no longer amenable to truce by 1916. The war had become increasingly bitter after devastating human losses suffered during the battles of the Somme and Verdun, and the incorporation of poison gas.

And here is the link to Mickey MacConnell singing his brother, Cormac’s song commemorating the event.

Christmas 1914

<<<<<<<

William St. Upper; Dec. 2014 by Denis Carroll

<<<<<<<

Lego, Lego




The budding engineers and constructors at Scoil Realt na Maidine love Lego. They love it so much they have a Lego club in the school. The senior boys wrote to RTE to ask if there was any Lego left over from The Late Late Toy Show. There was. RTE sent them a big box of Lego for the club.

(Photos and story from Scoil Realt na Maidine on Facebook)

<<<<<<<

Nighttime in Listowel Christmas 2014


Scoil Realt na Maidine
Listowel Garda Station

<<<<<<<

Listowel Post Office

Billy Keane had the whole town talking with his article in Fridays’ Irish Independent. I’m reproducing it here in its entirety

………..

Heart of our town has been torn out by a move
decided hundreds of miles away

As bad as the English were back in the days of
the 1916 Rising, they did have some sense of the need for certain key components
in our towns. Schools, banks, churches, libraries and the post office were all
part of the fabric of small-town l
                

An Post has relocated our post
office here in Listowel from Upper William Street to a big Supervalu
supermarket complex. Supervalu is thriving as it is. The store is well run and
the staff are very friendly but the heart has now been torn out of our town.

I had better declare an interest
right now. I own a small pub, no more than a long stagger from the post office,
but the loss for me will be very small. John B’s trades mostly by night when
the post office is closed.

Listowel is a heritage town, a town
with a soul. We box well above our weight with hugely successful writing and
racing festivals. We care for our town, with brightly painted shopfronts and a
hard-working Tidy Towns Committee.

There’s a sense too that we are
only guardians of the buildings we live and work in. We owe a duty to those who
came before us to keep our town from dying out. An Post deals in figures, not
context. The words ‘people or community or loyalty’ do not appear on its
balance sheet.

There will be some who will
disagree with the history, but it could be said Irish freedom began in a post
office. Isn’t it ironic then that the attempted relocation of the Irish town
centre is being planned and executed from the same post office. A few weeks
ago, it was announced that An Post has plans to establish an interpretative
centre in the GPO, where men died for Irish freedom in 1916. I suppose we
should be grateful An Post saved the building from fast food and amusement
arcades. But does An Post care about the communities from which it profits? Is
there any semblance of duty other than that of harvesting money, like some sort
of absentee landlord?

Dungarvan, Skibbereen, Carrick-on-Shannon,
Athy and Loughrea are next up for the An Post small-town makeover. Our sources
tell us the future of at least five other towns will be decided in the GPO. The
post office will remain as is in some towns, but many more will suffer the fate
of Listowel.

The attitude of those who occupy
GPO 2014 is that we’re a commercial company and we can do whatever we like with
“our” post offices. I would say post offices are more than mere items
on a balance sheet. The post office is an integral part of small-town life.

For the record, here’s the
proclamation from the GPO: “An Post is a commercial entity and we have to
ensure we remain competitive by ensuring the post office is in the area where
we can gain the maximum footfall. The Listowel post office will be run by local
people and there will be no loss of services, in the best quality premises,
with adequate parking.”

There’s a large free car park
within two minutes walk of the existing post office and lovely, local people
work there as it is. As for footfall, the Listowel post office does a mighty
trade.

It’s all about the profit and loss
account but even then, like so many of our institutions, An Post has that side
of the equation all wrong. Bald figures on their own do not tell the whole
story. Towns need lively streets and people love chatting on their way to and
from the Post Office. A town should not be transported at the decision of a few
executives in some office far away.

The heart pumps the blood. Tear the
heart out and the town will die.

An Post was so sneaky and arrogant.
There was no consultation with the community. The dealings of An Post only came
to light when Donal Nolan of the ‘Kerryman’ broke the story this week. Most of
the post office staff in the greater North Kerry area only found out about the
relocation when they read the ‘Kerryman’.

And you will not believe this. For
a company so faithful to the god of profit, An Post did not put the relocation
out to tender.

It should have gone public on this
months ago and allowed us to make proposals as a community or as individuals to
keep our post office. Why all the secrecy?

We know these plans were made a
long time ago. The town was the last to know. An Post will say it is a
commercial entity with no duty to disclose business decisions.

So who are all these people who
live and trade near the post office?

Sheahan’s is the last pub and
grocery combo in our town. The shop is run by Conor O’Docherty and it’s famous
for the lovely, freshly cut, crumbed ham. Sheahan’s is just two doors away from
the post office. Conor will fight on.

“It’s a huge blow but they
will not close us down.” So proud of you, Conor boy.

Right next to the post office, is
the charity shop run by the excellent Irish Wheelchair Assocaiton. The future
of the shop is now very much at risk.

Next door are the Lawlees, who run
a thriving plant business. They’re fierce busy with Christmas trees right now.

The Lawlees, like their hardy
plants, would survive in the North Pole but the big supermarket sells plants
too.

Back down again to the other side
and you have the Saddle Bar. Sean and his wife, Dara, worked all hours in the
United States and like my own parents bought a pub with their savings. Like the
Lawlees, they too have a young family.

I was in a shop lately and this old
lady was in front of me in the queue.

“How did you get on at your
eightieth last night?” asked the shopkeeper of the lady.

“Wonderful, wonderful,”
replied the octogenarian. “I was in the Saddle all night.”

Such are the lives, the loves and
the laughter of a small town. What does An Post know of our town? Does it know
all of these people – or footfall as they call us. From bad comes good. Our
town has rallied together as one. The shock and the hurt will unite us and we
will survive.

We’ve been through recession, repression,
war and famine. Old Listowel will still be here, living and loving and trading
and battling, when all of us and all of you in An Post are long gone.

Irish Independent”

Page 505 of 679

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén