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An Image of War
Soldiers attending mass in Notre Dame Cathedral in 1945
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From 1990 Yearbook
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Tae Lane, January 2022
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Old Dublin
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At The Listowel Arms
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It’s Back
Revival has been revived.
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When Soap was Soap
If you remember this, you are as old me. This was ‘household soap”. It was manufactured by Lever Brothers in Port Sunlight outside Liverpool. it was used everyday for hundreds of jobs. If anything, and I mean anything, needed washing this was the go-to soap.
Scrubbing the doorstep, indeed scrubbing floors generally, was an activity undertaken by some on a daily basis. The scrubber knelt on the floor and with scrubbing brush and soap scrubbed every inch of the floor, mopping off the excess moisture with an old rag. These poor women (they were always women) ended up with a condition known as “housemaids knee”.
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We’ll go racing again
We’ll cross this bridge again in 2022. I was delighted to see the sign advertising a June meeting and The Harvest Festival of Racing for September has been erected at the River Feale entrance to the racecourse.
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Old Tarbert Ferry Postcard
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From Pres. YearBook 1990
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A Well Travelled Trip Adviser
(From RTE on the internet)
A Kerry man has made it into the review history books, as he’s named the best-travelled reviewer on Tripadvisor.
The review site has published a break down of its stats, as it reaches a milestone of publishing one billion reviews and traveller insights.
User @damienstack, from Listowel in Co. Kerry, Ireland, was revealed to have posted reviews for 176 different countries. If that wasn’t impressive enough, he has actually visited all 193 countries in the world!
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Main Street
This was taken early in the morning on January 26 2022. I was on my way to mass. The Small Square was quiet. Listowel is easing its way out of Covid restrictions and we are taking cautious steps back too normality. We have had the mildest and driest January in my memory. Hopefully the blue sky is a portent of better days to come.
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From the 1990 Pres Yearbook
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Our Lovely Back Lanes
One of the suggestions for our upcoming “reimagining” of Listowel is upgrading and preserving of the back ways. Listowel’s back lanes are not like the ginnels of Coronation Street but wide streets capable of renewal and promotion.
Look at the beautiful stone work on these old buildings in Mill Lane. The walls are the work of ancestor craftsmen. The bricked up window serves as a stark contrast.
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Ship at Night
Ita Hannon is a superb photographer. Here is another of her excellent captures of a ship on the Shannon estuary.
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Old Dublin
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From the Mailbag
Dear Mary,
Again, thank you so much for the interesting article about the Presentation Sisters and their history and dedication to Listowel.
I grew up in NYC. My father was from Listowel. He was committed to our family both here and in Ireland. When it was time for my secondary school in New York City, we went to St Michael’s Academy on 33 street and 9th Avenue in the city. He understood what the education by the Presentation Sisters offered me. The school was a bus and 2 train rides away from my home in Flushing, New York but his commitment to the best education for me overcame the long commute each day.
Because of the guidance and education of the Presentation sisters, I thrived both academically and socially. I am 80 years old and still in active contact with many of my classmates. Until covid time about 16 of us would meet for lunch in New York and we continue to keep in contact on line. We have never lost sight of what was blessedly given to us by the Presentation Sisters in those 4 years.
I learned a good deal from your article and thank you so much for your commitment to Listowel.
God bless you.
Frances O’Brien Blaikie
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St. Bridget’s Day
February 1 is St. Bridget’s Day. If you can at all, get or make a St. Brigid’s cross. It is meant to protect the house where it is displayed from all harm but particularly harm by fire. Many houses in Kildare (the home of St. Brigid) used to put up a new cross every year but they did not take down the old one and it was not unusual in a Kildare home to see a long line of crosses displayed on a wall or door jamb.
There is a new moon tonight Feb. 1 2022. The full moon will be on Feb. 16. I never knew until lately that full moons had names. Last month it was a wolf moon. This month it is the snow moon or the storm moon.
By the way this is the chinese year of the tiger.
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Pat McAuliffe’s Abbeyfeale
Photo; Alice Dennehy
Text: Alice Dennehy for Vanishing Ireland on Facebook
I passed this beautiful building yesterday in Abbeyfeale, County Limerick. I believe it was a pub in its day. J.D. DALY established 1869.
From National Heritage of Architectural heritage website it says..
“This unusual large scale building makes a significant contribution to the architectural heritage of Abbeyfeale.
The building is distinguished from its neighbours by its highly decorative rendered façade, which was applied by the Listowel artisan builder named Pat McAuliffe (1846-1921). The stucco work on Daly’s dates to 1890. Here McAuliffe uses an eclectisim of decoration on a single façade: Corinthian capitals, Egyptian cornice mouldings, arabesques, Latin scrolls, Hiberno-Romanesque bearded men and lionheads and Italian diamond pointed quoins. McAuliffe’s plasterwork imitates features more commonly found carved in stone and is best exemplified here by the render pilasters, corbelled eaves, decorative quoins and elaborate window surrounds with masked keystones. Such is the variety and quality in Pat McAuliffe’s work, that these masterpieces merit continued protection and appreciation within Abbeyfeale and Limerick County as a whole”
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Pres. Yearbook 1990
In 1990 the girls on the magazine committee asked a few past pupils to write a bit about their lives now. One of the chosen old girls was Katie Hannon.
She has come a long way since 1990.
I met Katie with Miriam O’Callaghan at Women in Media in Ballybunion a few years ago.
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Just a Though
The link to last week’s reflections, broadcast on Radio Kerry from Jan. 24 to Jan 28 2022 is
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