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

Tag: Agnes Browne

Entente Florale and Nationwide. Going Back 100 years and Horse Racing on Ballybunion Beach

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On June 11, 2019

In Uncategorized

Entente Florale 2019

Listowel retailers are pulling out all the stops for the judges in the hope of adding another accolade to the town’s 2018 Tidy Town Award.

Nationwide cameras are due in town today.

Jackie Barrett Madigan, Breda McGrath and Eileen Worts were putting the finishing touches to the flowerbeds at Morkan Tiles. Breda was up since first light litterpicking.

Valerie O’Sullivan’s super photo of the Tidy Town people who assembled to meet Uachtarán na hEireann, Michael D. Higgins on May 25 2019.

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Met on the Street

Liz Dunne took a picture of me with Carmel Moloney and Alice Sheahan as they were out and about on May 29 2019.

And then I took a picture of Liz and Jim as they took a break from hanging an art exhibition.

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Wizard of Oz windows


It is 100 years since The Wizard of Oz came into being. It is a story that has stood the test of time and is still popular today, in both the old story form and the more modern film version. To celebrate the centenary The National Children’s Literary Festival at Writers’ Week decided on this story as their theme for the 2019 festival. the local shops got on board and decorated their windows with Wizard themed displays. Here are a few.


Not quite Wizard of Oz but literary all the same

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Maureen Barrett Records Agnes’ Browne’s Memories



Memories of Home

I was always amazed at how she remembered everyone in Listowel even years after she left and she explained that while she never missed Listowel she said but after being gone for a while she realized she was forgetting people and she never wanted to do that so she would lay in bed at night and as she would say “go down the road into town” and go in an out of each house and draw up people’s faces in her mind and name them so that she would never forget them-and she never did.  She could name all the OConnor family down the road-Hilda, Nellie, Rita , Anthony, John, Mike and May-at least she thought that was all of them. She remembered a Sr.Frances at the convent very fondly. She once wrote an essay that she showed to her father Dan Brown and he gave her a penny as it was so good. She remembered  a Sr. Margaret who she had in 2nd class telling her she was smart like her Aunt Hannie who taught in Tipperary-( I don’t know who auntie Hannie was) She had so many little memories of things we wouldn’t think were important to remember. She remembers Margaret McMahon from Church St. telling a not appropriate joke in class and the nun hearing her. She had very clear memories of her family’s involvement in the “troubles” She and her neighbor (my uncle) Tom Pellican got many the pair of new shoes at Whelan’s (Morans’s) shoe shop-they would go into the shop and the notes would be put into the insole of the shoes for “the boys” and they would walk out and nobody knew what they were up to. 

She remembers one of the Enrights from the road getting TB while he was in jail with her father Dan Browne. She talked of her father escaping from Limerick jail and nobody knowing for sure where he was at first. She talked of the Black and Tans raiding their home on a regular basis looking for her father.  One of her sisters suffered from what I assume we would call PTSD from having the Tans come and go and thrash their house and frighten them. She died still loving DeValera and hating Michael Collins. I had attempted to get her to watch the movie Michael Collins when it came out and “no way” was her answer- I did prevail and on commenting to her about “what a powerful man he was” her answer was “wouldn’t we be mad about him if he wasn’t a blue shirt”. 

She could still name all the “informers” in the Listowel area-they shall remain unnamed. After the family settled in Chicago their house was a regular visiting place for the old friends from home especiailly the friends from the Republican side. They also would keep some of the footballers when they came from home to play in Chicago.

  Agnes married John Broderick whose family was from Listowel also-and raised 3 lovely daughters. Dan and Nora Browne never returned to Listowel. Dan died December 30, 1955-Nora Browne died July 14, 1959. As time went on different family members did go back to visit although not very often for most of them. Agnes was to go on one of the family trips but it was discovered that her citizenship papers were not in order and by the time they would have gotten them it would have been too late to travel with the family group.  Several  years before her death she had an opportunity to go back with her daughter and son-in-law but declined citing health issues. She never saw Listowel again but always kept it close to her heart. The remains of the house they lived in is still there next to Pellicans house in Dirha.  

As a final joyous note to finish her life’s story as a Listowel woman, a memorial mass was said for Agnes in St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Deerfield Beach, Florida on St.Patrick’s Day 2017 at the request of a decendent of her old neighbors in Dirha-the Pellicans. It was celebrated by Fr. Bryan Dalton the pastor of the church at the time who was from Listowel. She would have loved that.

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Ballybunion Beach Racing


They had a great time in Ballybunion on Sunday. Looks like a super fun event. Lots more like this planned for the summer. Take a look at 

Ballybunion by the Sea

I took the below picture from that page.

Visit of Michael D. Agnes Browne in her 105th year and the death of Anne Dillon

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On June 10, 2019

In Uncategorized

Visit of Uachtarán na hÉireann


President Michael D. Higgins visited Listowel to honour the Tidy Towns volunteers on Saturday May 25 2019. Here are a few photos from the great day in town.

The boys choir from Scoil Realta na Maidine sang My Silver River Feale for the president. He loved it.

 

 In The Square I met an artist friend of Olive Stack’s painting the occasion.

Local people, Seán Treacy, Mairead Divine, Esther Guerin, Mary Walshe, Carmel Griffin and Rachel Guerin waiting for the unveiling.

The girls of Presentation National School band played for the president .

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A Lady who Never Forgot Listowel


Maureen Barrett of Ballylongford has sent us this great story of her friend Agnes Browne of Listowel and Illinois.

This is the first part of the essay that Maureen wrote in July 7, 2017. 

(Second part of the story tomorrow)

 I will start with the fact that Mary Agnes (known her whole life as Agnes) Broderick formerly of Dirha East,  Listowel died January 12, 2017 in Tinley Park, Illinois at the wonderful age of 104-5 months short of being 105.

Agnes was born on June 30, 1912 to Dan and Nora Browne. Dan was the son of Daniel Browne (butcher of Listowel) and Catherine Lynch and Nora was the daughter of Jeremiah Mulvihill, Clounmacon (a farmer in Dirha) and Johanna Buckley. They were married on November 15th, 1908 in Listowel. They  had 9 children born in Listowel and 1 born in Chicago. They eventually lost 3 of their children-Margaret-3 yrs old died March1918 of croup, Jeremiah-11 months-died March 18th 1926 of whooping cough and Lillie-3 years died March 26tha week after her brother of whooping cough.  

The story was always told in the family that a gypsy came to the house when the children were sick and make a drink brewed from a weed from the bog for Agnes and that is what kept her from getting sick. The gypsy was never seen again. She remembered that a Sullivan family in Market Street lost 5 children at the time (this has not been verified). A relative of theirs, a Dr. Connor came from Dublin to help Dr.Dillon from Listowel with all the illness and he ordered that Agnes be removed from the house 

Dan Brown was very active in the fight for freedom of Ireland along side his neighbors Tom and Ned Pellican- the friendship between those 2 families has survived since then and this little story about Agnes is being written by a niece of Tom and Ned who now lives in Chicago-Maureen Barrett from Ballylongford. The story of the Brown family being evicted from their home and their neighbors building them a replacement house in one day is out there in stories from those terrible times. Dan Brown fought on the Republican side after The Treaty was signed . Agnes told me he was offered money and a job and suffered much at the hands of  those who were trying to get him to join the  other side but he refused. He was eventually convinced  by someone- “to give up trying to free Ireland as he had a family to take care of” so he gave up the fight and  in May 1925 he and his oldest daughter Catherine (Kay) left Ireland on the ship Republic arriving first in Boston and then New York where they then took a train to Chicago to stay with a relative, a Mrs.Kissane. I think she was his sister. Kay lived with another relative at another address. As Kay was underage she had to go to school in Chicago until she was 16.  

Dan worked for the railroad  I thinkit was decided that Nora would leave with the remaining children when Dan and Kay had got settled with jobs and a place to stay for the large family they had.  They were to emigrate  in April of 1926 but the death of  2 of their children from croup/bronchitis type illnesses in March of that year so devastated Nora that the trip was cancelled. Dan Brown wanted to come back home to Listowel to be with his wife after the death of their 2 children but was convinced that it was in the best interest of them all that he didn’t. So he stayed in Chicago and proceeded with plans for them to travel at a later date- Agnes shared with me that the only reason her mother survived the death of her children was that her friend  and neighbour  Mrs.Pellican and indeed all her friends on the road came and took over her home and children’s care because she couldn’t even get out of bed to face what had happened to her. 

The trip was eventually rescheduled and Nora and her remaining 5 children Johanna-16 y/o, Mary (Agnes) 14, Nora 9, Dan 7 and Bridget 5- left Listowel and sailed to New York on the Westphalia arriving in New York on October 11, 1926. With time some of them changed their names to more Americanized names and Johanna became-Joan, Bridget became  Eileen and Nora became Brenda.

Some of Agnes’s recollections of her trip were that it was  an exciting adventure. “the most beautiful time of their lives.” was her statement. They made friends with the cooks and enjoyed many treats that were new to children leaving Ireland. It was her first time seeing coloured ice cream. That was the one she remembers the most.They had a great time on the ship ran and played freely. She remembers a German girl they befriended even thought she didn’t speak English. She got lost on board the ship. She didn’t remember her being found. 

One of her sisters did consider staying at home with an aunt Margaret. I think she was Ray McAuliffe’s mother.  I’m not sure if that is correct but she changed her mind. Another one of the girls loved a Nurse Pierce who was in Listowel at that time and she wanted to stay with her. 

Agnes remembered staying with a relative in New York who had come from Ireland years earlier and Agnes was overwhelmed that that relative now had her own maid.  She remembered the maid was a Mrs.Foley and she couldn’t do enough for them while they stayed there. Her mother’s brother Jerry Mulvihill came to visit them while they were staying there and stayed the whole day. 

Dan Browne went to New York to bring the family back to Chicago. She remembered the excitement of taking a taxi to the train station. It was her first time seeing a colored person. He was the taxi driver. She remembers seeing the Statue of Liberty as they were leaving New York on the train.

She loved the US from the minute she arrived, loved the whole family being back together, loved going to school here. She was put back a few classes but the nuns were “lovely” to everybody, a change I am sure from what they left in Ireland. She wrote an essay in school and won a prize for it. 

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Bean Uasal agus Cara Imithe ar Shlí na Firinne


My lovely friend, Anne Dillon, would have liked this touch. It’s rarely now we see a black crepe on a door announcing a death and giving details of the funeral arrangements. In these days of R.I.P.ie and Radio Kerry death notices, Anne was still one for the old ways. She had a great respect for old customs.

Although she lived most of her life in town, Anne was a country woman at heart. She embodied the hard work ethic and neighbourliness of the country, She loved the old ways  and she had a great love of her home place, her family, her history and the Irish language. She was at her happiest at home in her own home with her beloved Liam.

Anne and Liam are two of the most hospitable people I have ever had the luck to have in my life. I worked beside Anne in Presentation Secondary School where we became firm friends. She was hugely supportive and understanding of me. She eased the burden of juggling a full time teaching job with a full time caring role for me in every way she could.

When we both retired, and especially after I lost Jim, Anne and Liam’s door was always open for me and I received the warmest of welcomes there always.

Anne was always stylish, dignified and caring. She bore her last illness with great fortitude  and patience. She was a loving mother and grandmother and a loyal and generous friend. I loved her dearly.

Braithfidh mé uaim í.

In happier times

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