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

Listowel F Coy FCA, Travellers, Ciarán MacMahúna and Listowel Bridge

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On April 2, 2013

In Uncategorized

End of an era for the FCA in Listowel at the Sluagh Hall on Easter Saturday 2013.

The caption says it all. This and other moving and valuable pictures of the final day in the hall can be viewed and purchased from  John Kelliher

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John Kelliher’s stunning photo of Listowel Bridge at night.

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A group of Travellers on their way to Puck Fair in 1954. Life then was a far cry from the lifestyle depicted in My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Hardship, cold, poverty and struggle and early death were the lot of the Traveller back then.

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Shoeing a horse

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This photograph was taken in Athea and not today nor yesterday.

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“Rashers and Sausages Music”

Memories of Ciaran MacMathuna

By George Lee

“Rashers and Sausages Music” was what it was called in our house though purists knew it as “The Lark in the Clear Air” but it was that piece and Ciaran’s distinctive voice that announced Sunday morning.

We felt we had a hold on him, he grew up 5 doors down the Edwardian Terraced Cul de Sac, he had gone to the same school as us, and some of the old people in the Avenue remembered the McMahons in number 14. I recollect the excitement of the RTE Camera Crew coming some time in the 1970’s with him to do a biographical programme on his life and my father even possessed a copy of his wife Dolly’s song “The Hills of Connemara

The music still elicits all sorts of memory pictures of getting up early to serve Mass in the nearby Cathedral and of Spring sunshine catching the dust particles in its beam as it reflected off the kitchen floor. It was atmospheric and indicative of a time when life was slower and certainly less complicated and more innocent. My Dad got home from work for his breakfast some Sunday mornings and if you were lucky you shared his rashers and the soundtrack was always Ciaran’s voice and music.

Occasionally he would make a reference to Limerick, his upbringing or his family and that made him more “ours” and though his life was in a very distant Dublin (where we went to the Zoo) we always felt that in some way his ties were to his homeplace.

Of course I now understand that Ciaran’s work was so much more than just that radio programme and that as a nation we owe a great debt to him and the others who travelled the country recording a disappearing culture and preserving it. This was done in the days when recording devices were cumbersome and travel was difficult but his “Job of Journeywork”, as he styled it, has laid the foundations for much of the music and the Irish Cultural Revival that has happened over the past 40 years.

He often spoke of West Clare, of Fleadh’s and Mrs Crotty from Kilrush, of Tulla and Kilfenora, of Micko Russell and Willie Clancy, and of flutes and fiddles, all of the familiar things that meant something to a young man whose extended world encompassed his home place and the annual holiday in Kilkee.

We grew up with his slow measured bass voice and as it got older and early Sunday Morning rises gave way to long lie ins after late nights we parted company for a number of years. But as if to mark the passage of time when our own children arrived and woke with the dawn Ciaran’s voice once again anchored us reassuringly and the Rashers and Sausages music took on a new meaning.

And so it was that I was privileged to be the one despatched to collect him from Limerick Station to assist in the launch of a charity album. We drove up Mulgrave Street that dark wet Friday night and that Sunday morning voice was now in my car regaling me with stories of his youth and enquiring about old neighbours. I had a million questions to ask him but I sat and listened immersing myself in the voice and understanding just what a formative place his home was in his view of life. I realised that our upbringing in that same place though 50 years apart were almost identical and I learned from him that his passion for his trade was undimmed by the years and that my childhood Sunday Morning influence was as real in person as he was through the speakers of the radio in the kitchen

Ciaran finally no longer finished his programme with the line “go dtí an céad uair eile” in 2005 and went to his eternal reward in December 2009 and Sunday mornings have never been the same. For me the smell of Rashers and Sausages or the music of Geraldine O’Grady always reminds me of Ciarán MacMathuna.

 The above was posted on Limerick Life’s blog

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Donal Óg Cusack is no stranger to controversy. In his very well written article in Irish Central he gives us his views on Pope Francis.



Athea Drama at 21, flood in Feale and some Corridans

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On April 1, 2013

In Uncategorized

This is Chris Hadfield. He is currently tweeting from his space station. Yesterday he was letting his followers into a secret.  He had bought Easter eggs for his crew. 

Has he a Listowel connection?

 Not that I know of but he has an Irish one. At Christmas he sent the first tweet as Gaeilge from space. His daughter is a student in TCD and he has a cúpla focal.

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Pathé News footage from 1949 of the proclamation of the Irish Republic

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/irish-republic-proclaimed/query/McBride

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Athea Drama Group celebrates 21 years of acting in 2013, with a production of John B Keane’s Many Young Men of Twenty. It was also their first production 21 years ago.They have lost Mary and Jimmy Dee and John Joe O Connor who have passed away.Theresa O Halloran is the only  actor from the original cast among the 2013 cast.

The 2013 production is directed by Theresa O Halloran.

Cast, Annette O Donnell, Margaret Reidy, Tommy Denihan, Donal Woulfe, Oliver McGrath, Hannah Mai Collins, Tom Enright, Roger Ryan, Theresa O Halloran, Carol O Connor, Kevin O Keeffe, Tom O Keeffe, Jack Denihan, Lal Browne, Lorcan McAuliffe, Saoirse Redmond, Box Player Kieran Flavin,Set, Noel Ambrose and Martin Dalton. Backstage, Amina Parkes and Damien Ahern. Makeup Joan Griffin. Front of house, Sean Barrett, Mary Kelly, Francie Flavin and Dan Griffin. Lights/ Sound, Declan O Carroll.

Cast of 1992 Production, Director Oliver McGrath; Cast, Lillian O Carroll, Theresa Mullane, Mick Ahern, Donal de Barra, Con Fitzgerald, Betty Murphy, Raymond Enright, Jimmy Dee, Christina Brouder, Mike Sheahan, Theresa O Halloran, Pat Brosnan, Teddy Murphy, Joan Griffin, Patricia Quinn, J J O Connor and Box Player Francie Flavin.

Productions;  Many Young Men of Twenty 1992, Sive, ’93, Buds of Ballybunion ’94, The Field ’95, Nano ’96, I Do Not Like Thee Dr. Fell ’97, The Factory Girls ’98, Big Maggie ’99, The Year of the Hiker ‘2000, The Chastitute ‘’02, The Cripple of Innishmaan ’03, Moll ’06, The Country Boy ’07, The Cobweb’s Glory ’08, The Curse of Josie Ward ’09, Unforgiven ’10, The Man From Clare ’11, 

Lovely Leitrim ’12.

Jer sent me this news and a little video clip to illustrate it:

http://youtu.be/VawZZ6xqw9U

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Big Flood
at the Racecourse Footbridge

This was
the big flood on November 19th 2009. 
The height of this flood was approximately 4 metres and the width of the
bridge is 86 metres.  One can safely
assume that 20,000 cubic metres of water were flowing under the bridge every
minute while the flood was at its peak. 
Other big floods that brought havoc to North Kerry and West Limerick
over the years were, June 1926, November 1941, August 1946, December 1st
1973 and August 11th 1986, until the building of the Richard Griffith designed
Big Bridge in 1829 which has stood the test of time.  Several of the previous bridges which were
built on that site were washed away by big floods.

            Both the 1973 and 1986 floods were
both 7 metre floods and were it not for the River Drainage Scheme in the
1950’s, North Kerry would have been devastated by them. 

(photo and text by the late Tim Griffin )

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Lovely photo of a Dublin drayman and horse

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I had an email from Paul Corridan concerning a Corridan who contacted him but does not belong on his family tree.

Terry Corridan lives  in Greece.She knows very little about her family only that her father was from Listowel.

“Terry Corridan was one of six children born to Thomas Corridan and Annie Connolly in Dublin. Thomas along with his brother Seamus were reared in Convent St, Listowel. Both boys attended Listowel National School. Thomas (c.1920)went to Dublin and worked in the Civil Service. Seamus(c.1922) went to London and married a Listowel Lady. He came home in his latter years and lived back in Convent Street. The boys father they think may have been Patrick and he died when they were in infancy. Their mother was Eleanora or Nell Connor or O’ Connor probably from Convent St also.

 If anyone could  shed a little more light on their family relatives they would be most grateful” 

Drop me a line and I will pass it on.

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Good news story from The Limerick Leader

By Gerard Fitzgibbon
Published on 31/03/2013 12:00

FOR NEARLY 200 years, the Harrods department store in London has been a byword for luxury products at luxury prices. But last week, the Knightsbridge store’s exclusive array of goods received an unlikely addition – cheese produced in a family-owned factory outside Newcastle West.

Cahill’s Cheeses have become an increasingly popular treat for shoppers across Ireland, and now the award-winning produce has gained a highly sought after spot in the Harrods fromagerie counter.

Helen Cahill, who has spent the last few months criss-crossing the globe bringing her family’s artisan cheese to new customers, said that getting their wares behind the counter in Harrods was fantastic.

“It was lovely. But it’s back to reality this week, back in the white coat and wellingtons! It was a great experience, and our cheese was very well received. We won gold at the British Cheese Awards and gold in the Blas na hEireann awards in 2012. There is certainly a sense that if you’re good enough for Harrods, you are doing something right”.

Cahill’s Cheese traces its roots back to the early 1980s when it was set up by Newcastle West dairy farmer, David Cahill, and his wife Marian.

Today, its speciality cheeses incorporate a host of unique flavours, such as porter, chilli and chives, and can be found in a number of Irish supermarkets.

In the past two years, the company’s profile overseas has continued to grow and grow. In 2011, David Cahill received the unique honour of giving the keynote lecture at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco, in the company of Prince Albert.

Last year, the company exported its produce to seventeen countries worldwide, and is continuing its push to reach even more new markets.

Earlier this year, Helen travelled to America to promote their cheeses, which are now sold in the Trader Joe’s speciality grocery chain, which has outlets in California, New York, Massachusetts and a host of other states.

“It is very exciting for us when someone finds our cheese in their local cheese market or delicatessen in America and sends us a photograph. We’re very proud of our product”, Helen said.

“My brother Dan and I are constantly looking for fresh opportunities in new and existing markets.

“The reputation of Ireland’s dairy produce is growing with each year”, Helen added

St. Patrick’s Day 2013 and Peat Briquettes and new genealogy website

By

On March 29, 2013

In Uncategorized

The very last of my St. Patrick’s day photos……….. for now.

Martin Stack
Liz Healy
Judges
Maurice Hannon AKA St. Patrick
Matt Mooney
Liam Brennan AKA St. Patrick
St. Patrick’s sandals….and it was skinning cold!

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Briquettes

There is much talk of winter fuel and fuel shortages during this cold snap. Bord na Mona has had one of its worst peat harvests on record and is currently witnessing unprecedented demand for briquettes.

Did you know that peat briquettes as fuel are an Irish thing?

Here is a sequence of archive photos from  Bord na Mona Heartland  from the briquette factory in Croghan.

Croghan Briquette factory opened in 1961, 62 years ago. It closed around 1999. This shows a delivery of peat to the factory.

After the briquettes were made they were extruded on runners to help them cool down before baling. The runners extended for 75 meters into the baling house. When baled the core temperature of the briquettes was 78 degrees C.

Eventually the briquettes were loaded for transport.  At this time some 22 million bales were produced each year between Lullymore, Derrinlough and Croghan.

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Jimmy Deenihan T.D.

Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

 launched the new Genealogy Website

at Royal Irish Academy, Dawson Street, Dublin 2

on Tuesday 26 March 2013 

www.irishgenealogy.ie is a new Irish Genealogy search portal

This portal will make it possible for users to search records from a number of genealogy records sites including:

·         Census 1901/19011 records, Irish Census of populations for all counties of Ireland.

·         Griffiths Valuations, the first full scale valuation of 19th Century property in Ireland, published 1847 to 1864.

·         Tithe Applotment records, Compiled 1823-1837,

·         Soldiers wills,

·         Military Archives,

·         National Library of Ireland,

·         Ellis Island records, passenger lists and other records of U.S. immigration through Ellis Island, New York.

·         Ireland-Australia transportation database,

·         Women in 20th Century Ireland 1922-1966, a database of almost 20,000 entries on a set of records relating to central government.


Hoarders, Mike Aylmer R.I.P. and a cigarette card

By

On March 28, 2013

In Uncategorized

Congratulations Boys!

Moyvane brothers, Aaron and Sean Slemon who came 15th and 1st in The World Irish Dancing Championships in Boston.

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We are not done with St. Patrick’s Day yet!!

John McGrath
Johnny Cronin dancing school
Johnny Cronin
John Stack

Mary Moylan

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People who hoard photos and old newspapers, magazines and programmes are to be treasured. These people are an invaluable help to me in compiling the blog.  My newest collaborator is Tom  O’Connor of the well known local Mike the Pie family.  Recently Tom brought me 2 old GAA commemorative programmes and a copy of The North Kerry Chronicle. 

The North Kerry Chronicle was a free newspaper before The Advertiser was heard of. Tom had kept the paper from June 1966 because in it there was a tribute to his old friend, Mike Aylmer. Customers of McGuire’s will remember Mike as he was pharmacist  there for years and he was a valued member of Listowel Tennis Club.

 His friend, Gerard Leahy wrote this obituary. If you knew Mike, take a minute to read it and remember a “character” who is gone but not forgotten.

Tribute to a nice man

 from The North Kerry Chronicle 1996

(Gerard Leahy)

The death of Mike Alymer on
May 12 1996 was an irreplaceable loss for the town of Listowel and an occasion
of shattering sadness for his many friends and admirers.

Mike was born in
Castledermot, Co, Kildare, a village nestling in lush Kildare pastureland,
enriched by the River barrow. His father was editor of The Carlow Nationalist
and his mother was headmistress of Castledermot National School, next door to
the family home. He was the eldest of two sisters and four brothers, all of
whom went on to achieve distinction in the medical and legal professions. Mike
went to Rockwell College and although his initial passion was architecture,
because of the cost and length of this course at the time he decided to study
Pharmacy. He qualified with distinction and set up a successful in Carlow Town.
The death of Mike’s wife, Frances prompted him to move on. He came to McGuire’s
Pharmacy and stayed her until his death.

Mike was a man of tremendous
intellect, combined with personal sensitivity and humility. He had a unique
ability to size people and situations and to transform these observations into
a witty analysis, which he would quietly confide with his friends over a pint.
He was not opinionated or particularly well informed on current affairs but he
had a view on most aspects and situations in life based on his own acute
observations down through the years. Above all he loved to spice his
observations with a quotation or a good yarn gleaned from his own experiences.
He was a renowned wit and the nicknames he invented for local and national
characters combined a roguish sense of fun with a penetrating sense of
observation.

After forsaking his practice
in Carlow he lived life on his own terms and discarded material goods. He lived
humbly, his only prized possessions, his tennis racquet, his classical music
tapes and his 2 budgies. He had little time for religion and nothing was
guaranteed to irritate him more than the clickety clack of high heels going
down Church Street to mass on a Sunday morning. He was amused at the changeover
to Saturday night mass, describing it as “going to mass today for tomorrow.” He
expressed is personal philosophy on life as “Life is like a blossoming flower
which eventually withers and dies.’ He lived his own life accordingly.  He was mildly suspicious of women of whom he
used to say, in a deliberate misquote from Macbeth, “She looketh like the
innocent flower but she the serpent under it.” At the same time he had great
admiration for many of those females he met through tennis and through his
work. He would not tolerate the company of fools but he was incapable of
insulting anyone, preferring to quietly avoid their company. He needed neither
people nor distractions and h spent his life in Listowel at work, having a few pints
in O’Connor’s Bar, walking in the park or playing tennis in the town courts and
placing the odd cross double on a Saturday afternoon. To my knowledge he never
progressed beyond McKenna’s Corner in either direction in his 17 years in
Listowel.

Mike’s great passions and
consolations were tennis and classical music. I first met him through an
arranged tennis match in 1979 and we remained firm friends since. He loved
tennis, particularly men’s doubles, and nothing would give him greater
satisfaction than to send a winner past a beaten opponent. He would invariably
turn and describe the shot as “one from the bottom drawer”. He helped to
revitalize Listowel Tennis Clun in the 1980’s and was its chairman for two
years. During one of these years the club held a fancy dress social. Mike
arrived, dressed impeccably in uniform as Adolf Hitler. After the meal he stood
up to give the club chairman’s annual address. For 10 minutes he recited in
strident and vociferous German a prepared Hitlerite speech and then he sat down
without a word of English or any comment whatsoever on the previous tennis
season.  He brought the house down and
the affectionate applause was thunderous.

Mike’s friends transcended
all class boundaries. He had friends from all walks of life who will miss him
dearly. He loved good sunny weather and he always said that the best time of
year was the last two weeks of April and the first two weeks of May when the
effervescence of life was at its most potent.

He fell ill during this
period in 1996, died on May 12 and was buried on a beautiful day in
Castledermot on May 14th. On the way back to Listowel, I went
through the nearby village of Moone. I pictured Mike on a tennis court
receiving a weak second serve which his legs would not carry him in quickly
enough to return properly after which he would describe the serve with sneering
disgust to his opponent “like the women’s sodality up in Moone”. Passions may
come and go, but friendships are forged through years of trust and can only die
with death. Mike’s friends remembered him at his month’s mind mass in the
convent chapel on June 12th followed by refreshments in O’Connor’s
Bar.



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Listowel Garden Centre decorated with flags and daffodils for the national holiday.

Digging up The Square again?

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This artefact is a cigarette card with a very strange tale.

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March 17, Gortaglanna, Ronnie Delaney and Duagh 1958

By

On March 27, 2013

In Uncategorized

During the St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2013, Listowel Celtic entertained the crowd by inviting onlookers to take frees against Elmo (AKA Edel O’Connor)


The theme of Dromclough School’s troop was the scourge of emigration. In the group I saw the grandson of returned emigrants reliving the pain of emigration which is ravaging our green and misty isle today as it did in his grandparents time in the 1950s.

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Ronnie Delaney Feb 2 1959

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I took the following account from the Pres. school yearbook of 1992. In the days before the internet girls used to ask their parents and grandparents to tell them the stories of historical events.

The Martyrs
of Gortaglanna

There was a
mission on in Athea this particular week. 
Con Dee, Paddy Dalton and Paddy Walsh were after attending the mission
on the morning of the 12th May 1921. 
They had Mass, Confession and Communion. 
They had come a couple of miles to Connors cross where they had arranged
to meet Ger Lyons.  As Ger arrived, the
lorries which belonged to the Black & Tans surrounded them.  The only thing the four men had with them was
their rosary beads.  They hadn’t expected
to meet the Tans but it is rumoured that a woman in Athea told the Tans that
she had seen them leaving a while earlier and that they were on the road.  The Tans captured them, beat them up and
threw them into the lorries.  They took
the four men about a quarter of a mile in the direction of Listowel.  They took them out of the lorries and marched
them into a field where there was a fort. 
This field is now known as the “Martyrs’ Field”.  This field was owned by William McMahon of
Kilmorna.  The Black & Tans lined the
four men up and selected a firing party from the Black & Tans.  The Tans were ordered to shoot the four men,
the orders were given and the shots rang out. 
Paddy Walsh, Paddy Dalton and Ger Lyons fell dead.  Con Dee was wounded in the leg.  He turned and ran down the glen as shots rang
out after him.  He kept going on towards
the bog with his leg bleeding heavily until he came to a road.  He had travelled a mile when he was spotted
by a man who had a horse car and rail. 
He put  Con into the horse car and
covered him over and brought him a  mile
or two towards Coilbee and put him into a meadow and hid him in a dyke and
contacted some of the other comrades.

            Con was collected by Donal Bill
O’Sullivan who helped him across about eight fields to Enrights of Ballahadigue
where a doctor was called from Listowel to treat his wound.  He had lost a lot of blood by this time.  Later that night Con Dee was removed in a
pony and trap to a farm between Ballylongford and Lisselton where he was cared
for until his wound healed and he had recovered to health.  Con Dee emigrated to Philadelphia in the late
1920s.  He used to make regular visits to
Ireland and called to the people who cared for him while he was wounded and
would also call to the location where the murders had taken place.  Con Dee died in Philadelphia about ten years
ago.

            There is a monument in memory of
these men at Gortaglanna and also the well-known song “The Valleys of
Knockanure” is dedicated to these men. 


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This photo from 1917 shows US submarines in Bantry Bay.

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Liam Murphy found these photos of Duagh Confirmation 1958 while trawling through the great Kennelly Archive

 Back L to R- ?-Horgan, Thomas Hickey(R.I.P.) Bernie O’Connell, Pat Buckley, J.J. Somers,Ned Murphy, ? Keane. Front L to R- ? Keane, Ned Somers, (R.I.P.) Joe Doran, (May be) Pat O”Loughlin, Me, and Billy Doran.




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