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

My Favourite Mural

By

On September 28, 2023

In Festivals, Listowel, Listowel Races, Personal, Poem

Childers Park Wildflower Meadow, September 2023

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Contrasting Murals

Creative Walls is a marvellous project by Listowel Community and Business Alliance.

Here is what they have to say about the latest Listowel mural

~ Listowel Characters ~
The latest Listowel Characters mural has been commissioned by the Listowel Business & Community Alliance. With support from Kerry Co Arts and Creative Ireland.

The artist selected for the new typographic mural is the talented Master Signwriter – Martin Chute. As with our previous walls, the artist gets to choose an inspiring quote from a selection of Writers, Poets, Songwriters, and more.  Martin was keen to create a mural featuring John B. Keane.

“Where’er I go I’ll love you sweet Listowel and doff my distant cap each day to you” 
– Sweet Listowel. 

Martin lived and worked in the United States for many years. Now his exquisite lettering enriches the fascias of his native Listowel. The Chute family’s sign writing and artistic painting work are a prominent feature on Listowel’s shopfronts.

Since his return from America, Martin’s unique, handcrafted signs and shopfront designs have transformed the streetscape in Listowel. His work offers an identity and a sense of place that has contributed to the preservation of the town’s character.

Thank you Martin and all involved for this exquisite piece which has attracted massive attention and admiration already. An asset to the town of Listowel. A special thanks to Pat Nolan from Pat Nolan’s Furniture & Carpet Centre for kindly donating this wall space for this project.💙

#listowel #wherestoriesbegin #soundtown #followthegreenway #kingdomofkerrygreenways #discoverthekingdom #listowel4all 

Listowel Business and Community Alliance
Kerry County Arts 
Creative Ireland
John B. Keane’s Pub, Listowel, Co. Kerry

This is the other Charles Street mural. The contrast in styles is striking. Listowel Community and Business Alliance is catering for all tastes.

I particularly love the quotation Martin chose. Listowel is often described as lovely. Sweet is somehow to me more emotive, more tender, The colours, the shape and the timbre of Chute’s mural is reminiscent of an old sweet wrapper, a taste of childhood.

The doffing of the cap suggests to me respect and reverence, an acknowledgement of all that Listowel has given. It’s a gesture of gratitude and loyalty.

My blog has brought me into contact with many Listowel emigrants. This mural speaks to them and for them. I find among the Listowel diaspora, a massive loyalty to the town. I haven’t met a Listowel person yet who was not proud of where he came from.

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Kilbrin

Kilbrin is a very small village in North Cork. It has no shop and no pub now. It has a primary school and preschool and a thriving GAA club.

My family are buried in Kilbrin.

Over the graveyard wall a flock of sheep were investigating a mound of earth. Kilbrin is in the heart of the countryside.

Kilbrin is a very very old burial ground, still in use today . A wonderful restoration job has been done here by the local graveyard committee. All of the graves’ inscriptions which can be read are also online;

Kilbrin Graveyard inscriptions

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My Family

For the first time in years we were all together for race week.

We took walks and they discovered new things about the place where they grew up.

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Death of an Irishwoman

(Michael Hartnett wrote this about his grandmother who was a link to another era in Irish social history.)

Ignorant, in the sense she ate monotonous food 

and thought the world was flat, and pagan, 

in the sense she knew the things that moved at night 

were neither dogs nor cats 

but púcas and darkfaced men 

she nevertheless had fierce pride.

But sentenced in the end to eat thin diminishing porridge 

in a stone-cold kitchen 

she clinched her brittle hands around a world 

she could not understand.

I loved her from the day she died.

She was a summer dance at the crossroads.

She was a cardgame where a nose was broken.

She was a song that nobody sings.

She was a house ransacked by soldiers.

She was a language seldom spoken.

She was a child’s purse, full of useless things.

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Great Idea… but you must book

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A Fact

Be warned: You can overdose on coffee!!!

Ten grammes of coffee or about 100 cups over 4 hours can kill the average human being

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Ballybunion and Other Places

By

On September 27, 2023

In Ballybunion, Listowel, Listowel Races, Personal

Greenway mural Sept 2023

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Iconic Ballybunion

Certain images say Ballybunion to us all; the castle, Virgin Rock, Nine Daughters Hole for instance. Uptown there are some unique local identifiers too.

trompe d’oeil cottage

Joyce’s, the post office

Mary Young statue seated outside St. John’s

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Listowel Races 2023

I only went to The Island on one day and it was Ladies Day. This year, the celebrity designer judge, Don O’Neill, brought a New York frisson to the occasion.

Some of the style on show

Danny Russell put his millinery skills to work. He made this magnificent hat to match Norella’s silver pants suit.

My old friend and a faithful Listowel Races attendee, Mary O’Halloran was there with her daughter, Louise, both looking very stylish.

Photo: John Kelliher

The very popular winner of the top prize was local lady, Kathleen Flaherty, in a classic blue crochet suit. The judges recognised timeless style when they saw it.

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I Remember, I Remember

This is my mother’s family home. It is no longer in the family but I paid it a visit on a recent trip home. If those walls could speak they’d tell the story of my beloved Uncle Bernie and Aunty Eily. Eily planted those flowers.

This tree was planted by my grandfather. He lives on in it and the memories it evokes.

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Catechism

I never knew, until someone shared this online, that Kerry schools once had their own approved catechism. Does the line “a general catechism for the kingdom” actually refer to Kerry or The Kingdom of Heaven?

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A Fact

The phrase “rule of thumb” comes from an old English law which forbade a husband to beat his wife with anything wider then his thumb.

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After the Races

By

On September 26, 2023

In Listowel, Listowel Races, Personal, Poem

Courthouse Road Sept 2023

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The Kerry Piper

My friend, Margaret came across this when she was looking for something else. Has anyone any idea who this Kerry Piper is?

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Listowel Races 2023

The weather was not the best for this year’s race week and I’m afraid I’m a fair weather race goer. I only made it to The Island on one day, Friday, Ladies Day.

My three children, Clíona, Anne and Bobby at Friday’s Races.

All of my grandchildren had school, except Aoife who is only 2. She was enjoying her first Harvest Festival of racing.

Clíona and Aoife posed for me outside the box where Clíona sold racecards many moons ago.

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Murals, New and Old

My visitors beside the newest mural and the oldest

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A Sobering Fact

The period 1347 to 1351 was a dreadful time in Europe. The pandemic known as The Black Death killed one third of the population. Physicians at the time had no clue what caused the pandemic but they recognised that it was highly contagious. To protect themselves against the disease they wore an elaborate beaked headpiece. This protective mask had a large beaklike container which sat between their mouths and their noses. The “beak” was filled with vinegar, sweet oils and other strong smelling compounds. It’s purpose was to counteract the stench of putrid flesh from the dead and dying plague victims, whom they were helpless to cure.

Folklore has it that this is the origin of the title quack as applied to a doctor.

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A Trip to Ballincollig

By

On September 19, 2023

In Listowel

Listowel Garda Styatio in Sept. 2023

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Keeping an Eye on Things

Molly at home

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Celebrating 40

Gaelscoil Uí Riordáin in Ballincollig is celebrating 40 years since its humble beginnings in an old supermarket. The school has has the same principal, Gabriel ÓCathasaigh, since its inception.

It is part of the contract for new school buildings that the contractor set aside a percentage for art. The art project funded from this percentage is Abhainn an Feasa, the Salon river in ceramic tiles depicting stories along the river and its banks.

Cora is in 6th class. She posed for me with some of the magnificent artwork on display when I visited.

The significance of the robin harks back to the poet from whom the school takes its name. Seán ÓRiordáin’s famous anthology is titled Eirbeall Spideoige. (The Robin’s Tail)

The reason Cora was out of uniform was because she had just returned from playing a Sciath na Scol football game. This is a very competitive school league in hurling and football. Gaelscoil Uí Riordáin is defending its titles in both disciplines. They would dearly love to celebrate their 40th with wins.

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My Annual Leave

It’s race week. Those of us of a certain vintage never work during race week. I’m hoping to go to the island with my houseguests and If I do I’ll take a few photos for you.

Wish me luck!

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Listowel’s Back Lanes

By

On September 18, 2023

In Listowel, Schools' Folklore

Listowel Credit Union building in Sept 2023

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A Stroll Through a Back Lane

In these days of modernisation and urban renewal it is great to see so much of Listowel’s history preserved in the back lanes.

The stone walls were built by Listowel craftsmen in a bygone era.

We can’t hold back the march of progress. For me the stone walls hold far more charm and history.

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St. Michael’s Graveyard

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Progress Report on the John B. Keane Mural

Martin was painting the first letters of the quotation on Sept 10 2023

Sept 13 2023, Martin Chute, muralist and Pat Nolan, wall owner at Listowel’s newest mural in the Creative Walls initiative by Listowel.ie

This John B. Keane quotation from his song, Sweet Listowel, will be very well received by everyone with a Listowel connection.

Here is the full song from Listowel Emmets website

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Sweet Listowel

A song by John B. Keane as promised to Eric

Oh sweet Listowel I’ve loved you all my days

Your towering spires and shining streets and squares

Where sings the Feale it’s everlasting lays

And whispers to you in it’s evening prayers

Chorus

Of all fair towns few have so sweet a soul

Or gentle folk compassionate and true

Where’er I go I’ll love you sweet Listowel

And doff my distant cap each day to you

Down by the Feale the willows dip their wands

From magic bowers where soft the night wind sighs

How oft I’ve roved along your moonlit lands

Where late love blooms and first love never dies

Chorus

Of all fair towns few have so sweet a soul

Or gentle folk compassionate and true

Where’er I go I’ll love you sweet Listowel

And doff my distant cap each day to you.

(A link to one of the best singers of this song…Louis O’Carroll R.I.P. recorded and produced by Denis Carroll of Fealegood Productions ….

Sweet Listowel by John B. Keane)

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A Story about Marriage

From the School’s Folklore Collection, Boy’s National School, Listowel

There was three sisters in one house and no one would marry the old one. The two young sisters got married and she was culled. There was one man and he said she would make a good wife so they got married and those days they used ride side saddle after being married behind the husband.

They all raced to be at the house the first and he rode too fast. There was a big ditch near the house. The horse would not leap the ditch. He came off and he told her to come off too. So he pulled out his gun and shot the horse. She asked him why so did he do that. “That’s what I do to anyone that wouldn’t be said by me” said he.

So at the wedding the three were drinking in the room. The three wives were playing cards in the kitchen. The three husbands were having a conversation on which of the wives would come to them at their first call.First girl that married her husband was to be called. The man that was married second was to be called second.

The first one that was called said she was dealing out the cards. The second one when she called she said she would when she have these five cards played. The man who shot his horse when he called her, she ran to him and he won the price of his horse back.This wife always answered his call when he called her.

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COLLECTOR Joseph Cahill

Address Curraghatoosane, Co. Kerry

INFORMANT John Carmody

Age 81

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A Fact

The tern canter to describe the easy comfortable speed of a horse is thought to have come from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It described the slow measured pace of the pilgrims as they made their way to Canterbury.

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