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
According to a story in Kerry’s Eye, Listowel is due a windfall of €900,00 to bring “three transformational projects” to planning stage by 2024.
The re-establishment of Listowel Town Square as the cultural heart and economic centre of Listowel.
Positioning of Listowel as a hub of activity tourism in North Kerry
Establishment of a state of the art enterprise centre space for remote working.
“The Public Realm Plan also aims to enable Listowel Town to transition to a competitive, low carbon, climate -resilient and environmentally sustainable economy.” John Kennelly, Listowel Town Manager.
Three more concrete parts of the plan are
Development of the Neodata site as an outdoor activity hub
Turn the Ball Alley into an outdoor performance space. (This is not part of the plan but I think that maybe when no one is performing there it could be used to revive handball)
Reimagining Kerry Writers’ Museum
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Bike Stands
Especially for the folk coming into town via our new greenway, but for local cyclists as well, bike stands are popping up all over.
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Memories, Memories
Eleanor Belcher’s story continues…
There were several families in the Small Square who were part of our ‘gang’ . Gertie Kennelly and I started school together. She cried so much that she was brought home for another year. Her father used to stand outside the shop and tell me on my way home from school that all my father had to do was to say ‘put out your tongue ‘ and ask for £1.
There were the Sheehy boys across the road who were very much part of our childhood. Jerry was the comic lover. The Galvins, Mercedes and Monty were at the Central Hotel with its ‘Erin go Bragh’ plaster relief. They had two older half brothers who lived in the USA and came home occasionally bringing amazing gifts for Merc and Monty. There was an icecream machine in Galvins and getting a cone from there was a huge treat.
There were not many cars , Mr Galvin had one similar to Mr McElligott. The road ran on the opposite side of St John’s church then. We played outside all the time, ball games and ‘picky’ and hopscotch on the footpath. . Rollerskating became very popular as we got to about seven/ eight and on halfday Mondays we had races along the main road. Maura Fealey was the star.! A picture of us rollerskaters appeared in the Kerryman and was used to illustrate a Kerryman book of photographs to capture the 60s which was published some years ago.
(Thank you, Dave O’Sullivan for finding the photo. And he found the other one referred to in the caption as well.)
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A Familiar Face in a Familiar Place
I ran into Kay Landy in The St. Vincent de Paul shop on Saturday July 22 2023. Kay was a stalwart of that shop and of the local Vincent de Paul society for years. It was lovely to see her looking so well. She was accompanied on Saturday by her daughter, Breda.
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A Fact
Greg Norman won the British Open Golf Championship at Tunberry in 1986.
Eleanor Belcher Remembers life in Listowel; Town Square in the 50’s and 60’s
There were families in the Provincial Bank next door (to Dr. Maguire’s) but I can’t remember their names though we went to parties there. There was a long passageway beside that and we spent a lot of time as teenagers meeting up with the local boys in there. It was all very innocent.
The Carroll family Maurice, Olive, Pamela and John lived over the shop and Mrs McCoombe lived above the chemist shop with her son Colin ( our age) and her sister Finnuala Lane.
The Lynches had a bakery on the opposite side of the Square and had a large family who again were younger than me. Miss Kirby taught music above a shop next to Lynches and we went for piano lessons there. She was a lovely white haired lady and I think she was Mr O’Hanlon, the dentist at the top of William Street’s, aunt.
The third doctor in the Square was Dr Bob Corridon whose house was next to the National Bank. The large family there were younger than I was . The Bank Houses tended to have families who changed from time to time.
The Dalys came to The National Bank when I was about eight and the youngest girl, Helen, and I are friends to this day. We were very impressed when she arrived as she had blue ‘bobby ‘ stockings while the rest of us had grey school stockings. Her elder sister Patsy got married when we were small and Mr Harry Daly walked her across the Square to the church which we thought so romantic.
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Date for Tractor lovers
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The Changing Face of Kerry Population
Population statistics as reported on Radio Kerry
Tralee has the largest population in Kerry.
That’s according to figures released from the CSO’s Population, Distributions and Movements report from Census 2022.
The report shows that of the county’s population of over 156,500 people, 17% live in Tralee.
According to figures in Census 2022, 156,458 people live in Kerry.
The latest report from the CSO shows that of these, over 26,000 (26,079) people live in Tralee.
Killarney has the next highest population in Kerry, with almost 14,500 (14,412) residents.
Listowel (4,794), Kenmare (2,566) and Castleisland (2,536) make up the rest of the top five largest populations in the county.
The report shows that the village with the largest population in Kerry is Ardfert, with 771 residents.
This is closely followed by Rathmore, where 766 people reside, and Lixnaw, with a population of 758.
Fenit (619) and Kilcummin (612) completing the top five largest villages in the county.
The figures show Portmagee is the village with the smallest population in Kerry, with 116 residents.
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Fact of the Day
Nadia Komanechi was the first gymnast to achieve a perfect 10 out of 10 in the Olympic Games of 1976
The Miss Bunyans had a knitting business in the house next door to the hotel but I don’t think they lived there. At the back, my Dad had a boxing school where he encouraged young lads to box. Mr Fitzmaurice’s office was next but the family consisting of Mary & David, again our age, lived at the top of Church Street. The Enright Dental practice was the next house which was lived in by Toddy the younger dentist and his wife Peggy and their boys who were younger than we were.
Mr McElligott lived in the first of the two houses with steps up. He rented the house from the Dennehys who lived in Singapore but of course he went back out to Mount Rivers also. Dr Dennehy came home sometimes with his daughter Mona . He had been a great friend of my father and encouraged him to go to Trinity College, Dublin. Dr McGuire worked from the next house and the contrast between the two houses was striking as Mrs Edith McGuire kept that house looking lovely . We were very much in awe of her as she was English and considered exotic! The four McGuire boys were younger than we were but of course also ended up playing in the Square. Sitting on those steps is a fond memory as copies of the Beano and Dandy were shared. We were not allowed comics by my mother so this was great.
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Changing Times
Wolfgang and Anita Mertens with me in Listowel Arms Hotel in May 2023
Wolfgang Mertens noticed that change and modernisation is a constant theme with me in my reflections. Wolfgang has studied Bryan MacMahon and he sent me these extracts from The Master. MacMahon also deals with the subject of changes he has seen in his lifetime.
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A Limerick Hurling Poster Before the Final
They skinned them alright. Congrats to our neighbours.
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A Fact
The first ever football World Cup competition began in Uruguay in 1930.
My father was a GP and our house was always busy as the surgery was in the front room. Next door were the Fitzgibbons. Mr Fitzgibbon was a vet and Marie and Joan were in the same age group as my sister Katrina and I. The other half of their house was let to various people. Miss Noonan was there when I was a child. She was a teacher and very popular as she gave us sponge fingers sometimes, a wonderful treat. Then came the Rochfords . both teachers with children Sheila and Eoin. Sheila was actually called Philomena but when Saint Philomena became demoted her name was changed! They were followed by the Gannons. There were two children Renée and a boy, Barry. The young Hannon family hadn’t moved into the house next to the hotel when I was young though did so later. I do remember Maurice as a child.
The Listowel Arms was run by Mr Gerald McElligott and the ballroom hadn’t been built. He had one of the few cars in the Square which he kept in the large yard. It had a running board. On cold mornings we children on our way to school would be asked to push the car .
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Listowel Lacemaker
This picture was shared on the internet. It was part of a newspaper feature on Listowel’s first Civic Pride Week. No date was given but I’m guessing sometime in the 1950s
Does anyone remember Kathleen MacElligott? Does any of her beautiful lacework survive?
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Cuckoos
Image and story from Radio Kerry
Three cuckoos were tagged in Killarney National Park in May of this year.
One cuckoo, named Torc, was tagged in East Herzegovina – close to the border of Montenegro, while anoher called KP was tagged near the foot of the Italian Alps.
The third cuckoo, Cores, was tagged in the Piedmont area of Italy.
The project is a collaboration between the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
The taking of Christ is the priceless treasure by Caravaggio that was thought lost but was discovered by chance in a Dublin Jesuit house in 1990.
Micheál Kelliher at the Celtic Art talk in Kerry Writers’ Museum in July 2023 suggested that the below piece may just be Listowel’s long lost Caravaggio. The Michael O’Connor illuminated scroll features the words of Bryan MacMahon. The magnificent piece was presented to the race company to mark 100 years of Listowel Races. It was kept safely by the Stokes family, descendants of the Race Company chairman who accepted the presentation. The piece is currently being conserved and will then be returned to Kerry Writers’ Museum.
You would have to travel to Dublin to the National Gallery to view The Taking of Christ. Soon you will be able to view our own national treasure in Kerry Writers’ Museum in the heart of town.
Stephen Rynne very kindly transcribed the poetic words of MacMahon.
DAWN
The town on the cliff above the silver river stirs in sleep. The autumn sun limelights the white posts of the “Island” course and brings to brilliance the emerald of stretch and straight. In the enclosure begonias take morning flame.
The sun, too, touches the purple, gold, blue, green and red of pennants and scrolls hung above the streets of the awakening town. It strikes fire from the painted houses. And then, on a cockcrow, the town comes fully awake to the first of its three great days.
DAY
For a full century in this town, youngsters, adolescents, those in prime and oldsters have leaped up to full life on such a day.
For the children the splendour traditionally begins with a vendors cheery cry of “Race-ee cards!” Thereafter the day resolves itself into a spinning wheel of beauty and colour.
In the market-place the whirligig gains momentum as the day advances: merry-go-rounds; wheels-o’-fortune, chair-o-planes, swingboats, and the great Ferris Wheel – all these add their circles of exhilaration.
There are ramparts of gingerbread and plumduff, batteries of Peggy’s Leg, hillocks of dilisk and winkles, and foaming cascades of ice-cream.
Music mounts to crescendo.
There are professional strong men and professional fat men, dancing ducks and performing fleas, boneless wonders and leprechauns. There are Death Wall Riders and Headless Marys. And Mmm! The smell of mutton-pies is aromatic on the morning air.
For those in prime there is the meeting of old friends and the clasping of the hands of exiles. Carts, cars, caravans, buses and breaks continue to disgorge their loads. Countryfolk, the weariness of harvest forgotten, turn the streets to canyons of good fellowship. Tipsters cry their racing certainties. On every side there are bells and cries of joy.
Then – Tappeta! Through the streets go the hooves of the horses. The great “Island” field darkens with people and vehicles. Excitement mounts as with stentorian voices the bookmakers cry the odds. The coloured silk of the riders is now brilliant against the grass.
On hearing : The horses are now under Starter’s Orders, a prolonged silence falls on the immense throng. Then, abruptly the roar of: “THEY’RE OFF! ” rises from the people. The thunder of hooves advances and recedes. Presently the climax of the neck-and-neck finish sets the crowd fully a-roar.
NIGHT
Above, the sky is indigo about a lemon-coloured moon.
In the town below, in rainbow hues, the lights flick on. The Norman Castle is green-lighted. Stepdancers respond to the insistence of fiddle-music. Gypsy rings catch the firelight as country girl hears of the dark man destined to be her lover. Glasses foam over. An old man tells the tale of a sugar barrel race-bridge. A boy smiles at a girl: a girl smiles at a boy. Cupping his hand about his mouth a ballad singer chants:
I’ve been to Bundoran, I’ve rambled to Bray,
I’ve legged it to Bantry with its beautiful bay.
But I’d barter their charms, I would, ‘pon me soul,
For the week of the Races in Lovely Listowel.
Green Morning. White Day. Coloured Night.
Thus, for a hundred years have our forefathers made merry **** on
HARVEST RACING FESTIVAL
God grant that those who come after us shall continue to uphold the Irish sense of wonder.
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Winter’s Turf home and stacked
Lovely picture of the late Michael Stack proud of his reek of Turf in Listowel, Co. Kerry around 1950. (Photo and caption from the internet)
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Around The Square
Photo; John Kelliher
Eleanor Walsh now Belcher grew up in Listowel Town Square, when the centre of town was very different to how it is today. I asked Eleanor to share here her memories of a happy childhood in the Listowel of the 1950s and 60s.
I am going to share these with you this week and if anyone else would like to add to her story, I’d love to hear from you.
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My parents John and Peggy Walsh bought No 26 the Square in 1950 and named it Ivy House because of the Ivy creeper. The Square in the 1950s was a wonderful place as it was a playground for all of us children growing up then. There were 5 Lawlor children at No 20 . Their father Tim Lawlor was the Parish clerk . Next door the house later owned by the Sheehans was derelict and we played in the front garden.
There was a house ( now demolished ) next door to St Mary’s church which was owned by the Bank of Ireland. The families who lived there tended to be Protestant. When I was very small the Berry family lived there remembered by my mother for the children’s wonderful names of Ivy, Heather, Myrtle , Holly and Rowan. When I was about six I ran in home to tell my parents that there was a new family and that the boy was called after two birds. His name was Robin Peacock. ( The Peacocks moved to Maam Cross and the big shop there is still called Peacock’s) The Heneghan family were grown up but we all knew Mr Heneghan who was a vet and always kind to us. The present Writers’ Museum was a house often empty though I remember a girl called Persephone staying one summer. We were fascinated by her name. Next was the castle which was a playground for us as was the river bank accessed down the lane.
The elderly McKennas, John and Grace lived next door to us. We were never in that house but we shared a communal backyard which was marvellous as we were never aware of living in a terraced house. We brought our bikes in through the big wooden gate on the side wall on the road down to the island bridge.
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A Fact
Dynamite is made from peanuts.
Well its a kind of exaggerated fact.
Peanut oil can be processed into glycerol, which is a main ingredient to make nitroglycerine, the explosive liquid used in dynamite
