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

More people at the parade on March 17 2014

By

On March 24, 2014

In Uncategorized

Some more local faces at the St. Patrick’s Day parade 2014

<<<<<<<

Never, ever give up.


photo ; Historic pictures


<<<<<<<<<


Amateur genealogists might want to put this date in the diary



http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/Discover-your-history-at-The-Genealogy-Event-Limerick.html

It’s a 2 day event  August 22 and 23 in Limerick. Follow rthe above link to read all about it.

<<<<<<<

Ballybunion Women in Media event have changed their date.

It is now on on April 11, 12 and 13

Read all about it here

http://www.wimballybunion.com

<<<<<<

One for everyone affected by emigration

The next link is to a very very funny video….so why did it make me feel so sad?

http://www.joe.ie/joe-life/life-features/video-leaving-lovely-ireland-is-a-must-watch-for-any-irish-living-abroad/

Images of the 2014 parade in Listowel and a few snaps from my recent trip home

By

On March 21, 2014

In Uncategorized

Some more photos I took on March 17 2014 at The Parade

Listowel Tidy Towns proudly paraded their 6 hard won gold medals.

Johnny Ryan was walking with the turf cutters.

More turfcutters

Jer. Kennelly was out with the camera too. His photos are here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbnziJXU3zM&feature=youtu.be

<<<<<<<<<<<<<

While I was in Kanturk last weekend I spent some happy time revisiting the family and friends of my youth.

This is my brother with one of his beloved horses.

My niece looks a bit dischevelled as she nurses her horse  who was feeling a bit poorly. Note the drip in the background. She had to sit and hold him steady while the drip went in.

The same horse gamboling about, thankfully restored to full health.

In The Trade Union Hall I met Anne Goggin, who remembered me as a teacher in Kanturk.

Mary Lynch, now Crowley remembered me as a pupil and recalled the one most significant event that dominated all our schooldays; the death at age 15 of my older sister. Mary told me that it was her first experience of the death of someone she knew.

( Lisa Egan took the photos)

<<<<<<

An image of war from the Limerick 1914 website

<<<<<<,

What on earth is that?

It is a bug hotel in Ballincollig, part of their Tidy Town’s ecology drive.

(photo from Listowel Tidy Town page)

St. Patrick’s Day in Listowel and Kanturk, Co.Cork

By

On March 20, 2014

In Uncategorized

More from St. Patrick’s day 2014 in Listowel

Toddy and Noreen Buckley
Phil Deevey and friend
In Main St.
Mary Boyer, Namir Karim and Patsy O’Connell
Listowel Scór musicians
Canon Declan O’Connor and Jimmy Hickey
Mary Moylan

Mary Moylan sings My Silver River Feale:

http://youtu.be/xIPZeCInLME

<<<<<<<<

I attended Kanturk Arts Festival last weekend.

One of the more innovative events was the Human Orchestra.

The premise is that we all have a pulse so we all have rhythm. No one is tone deaf who can distinguish one voice from another on the phone or who can tell when someone is angry or happy.

We began our interactive experience by imagining  a world without music. Then, guided by Justin Grounds, we went back to the first primitive human attempts at music. We discovered harmony by accident.

We got a little music history lesson. We learned that music was composed appropriate to specific occasions, e’g’ wedding music, funeral music, triumphal music etc. Today in the era of processed recorded music, all music is for all occasions and none.

We made our own specific human music for our own specific occasion and, like the best live music, when it was over it was over and gone forever.

Even if you have absolutely no musical education, you can enjoy this very different experience. If Justin Grounds brings it to venue near you, I’d advise you to give it a go.

<<<<<<

While I was home in Kanturk for the festival I took a few photos of my lovely hometown, known only to most Listowel people as a town you pass through on your way to Cork for a hospital appointment or a match.

 Kanturk has 2 rivers running through it. Both the Allow and Dallow are tributaries of The Munster Blackwater.

Ducks on the river

A lovely riverside walk runs between O’Brien Street and the river.

Egmond House dominates this corner of town.

This crest on the bridge is a reminder of Kanturk’s glory days of Percival and Egmond.

“The Metal Bridge” with the Church of the Immaculate Conception on the hill in the background.

Church St… I took this photo at a spot familiar to me, the gate of the school where I attended as a pupil and later taught for a short while.

A sight now rare in Catholic churches; When Kanturk church was refurbished they left the original pulpit.

<<<<

Lest we forget

(from the internet; images that define our age)

St. Patrick’s Day parade 2014, Joanne O’Riordan

By

On March 19, 2014

In Uncategorized

Images of St. Patrick’s Day in Listowel 2014

recording a maemory
Dromclough’s St. Patrick
Matt Mooney, grand marshall
Billy Keane, M.C.


Some of the Polish contingent
Dromclough brought livestock
and some very handsome farmyard fowl
John Lynch recorded it all
Tim O’Leary
musicians on the platform

Nine year old Daragh Hudson danced The Brush Dance:
http://youtu.be/VLm7kMhvXxY

<<<<<<<

Meanwhile, in Sydney

<<<<<<

This is a photo of yours truly with Joanne O’Riordan. I was in Kanturk for the annual Arts Festival and Joanne was doing the official opening. Joanne is a star and like all stars she had a “rider” in her contract. She asked that the Kanturk hurling stars, Anthony Nash, Lorcán MacLoughlin and Aidan Walshe all be in attendance at the opening. Such is Cork GAA’s appreciation of one of the team’s most passionate supporters that all three of the hurlers attended.

On the following day, I watched Stephen O’Riordan’s film about his famous sister, No Limbs, no limits.  It was an honest documentary, sad, uplifting and life affirming. We saw a very ordinary family in a rural Irish community responding with admirable determination to the arrival of a beloved child with enormous disabilities into their family. From day one the emphasis was on Joanne’s abilities and she has grown into a vocal well adjusted advocate for the rights of wheelchair users.

Read one of Joanne’s articles in The Examiner here;

What I hate about being in a wheelchair

and as soon as it hits the cinemas go see the film. You’ll be glad you did.

<<<<<<<

We have a new business in town; Emilia’s Café

St. Patrick’s Day 2014, St. Patrick’s Toledo and Sr. Brendan O’Connell

By

On March 18, 2014

In Uncategorized

Billy Keane and Mayor of Listowel, Jimmy Moloney at the official start of the 2014 Listowel St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Liam Brennan as St. Patrick

Seán Moriarty was a marshall and Noel Kennelly attended the parade with his family.

One of the treats for us who watched the parade in the Square was Jimmy Hickey’s dancing display;

http://youtu.be/7nQJnsw-LDk

(more photos tomorrow)

<<<<<<

It never ceases to amaze me how the ripples from some little story I post resonate around the world and evoke a response in people far away from Listowel who still harbour an affection for our little town.

Two such responses came to me by email this week:

“Good morning Mary.  Wising you a happy St. Patrick’s.

Your photos of the tiles at St. Mary’s brought to mind our Historic Church of St. Patrick here at Toledo.  Here are photos of the tiles.  I am sure the Irish in Toledo made many sacrifices to have this church built.  There is a complete history in Toledosattic.org.  The Church is well loved.”

This came all the way from Toledo, Ohio from Kathy Taylor and this is the St. Patrick’s church she refers to;

Kathy took the following photos of some of the tiles in the church featuring shamrocks, a testament to the Irish in the congregation who contributed to the rebuilding of the church.

 Would you believe that St. Patrick’s in Toledo was officially dedicated in 1901 by Archbishop Ireland?  I kid you not.

<<<<<<<<

The second email came in response to this photo of Storm Darwin damage in St. Michael’s graveyard, Listowel.


<<<<<<<



Hi from NZ,

Your recent blog post shows a picture of storm damage done to the burial plot of the Presentation Sister’s grave. The fifth name on the marker, the one with the crack right through it, Sister Brendan O’Connell belongs to my great great grandfather’s younger sister Anna O’Connell who died 4 November, 1904.


Taken from Kerry Sentinel Nov. 12th 1904.

Sr. Mary Brendan O’Connell a native of Ballybunion died at the Presentation Convent Listowel. Her brother Capt. Chevalier Michael O’Connell had command position in the Papal Army and her other brother Fr. James Hennessy O’Connell a priest in the Melbourne Diocese. Cousins in Ireland:


•Mr T Kissane, Lacca.

•M Byrnes, Inch.

•Mr and Mrs Maurice Keane, Main Street, Listowel.

•J. O’Connor, Coolkeragh.

•Mr and Mrs W. Keane, Ballygrennan.

•Mrs O’Connor, Lisselton.

•Miss Keane, Lisselton.

•Maria Kissane, Lacca.

•Mrs O’Shea, Tullamore.

•P. Grady, Glouria, Lisselton.

•Mrs Murphy, Cool, Ballylongford.

•Miss Fitzgerald, Greenville, Listowel.

•Mrs Cremins nee Hennessy, Glin.

•Mr E. Hennessy, Lahard.

It would be nice to know that it will be fully restored and who will have to foot the bill as I would like to make a small contribution if possible.

Sister Brendan’s family is the subject of the Kiwi O’Connell website at oconnellfamily.co.nz

Sean O’Connell

Christchurch

New Zealand


<<<<<<<



Page 545 of 679

Previous

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén