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: Beano

The Well, Coburg St. Cork, Beano and Storied Kerry

By

On November 1, 2018

In Uncategorized

Main Street, Listowel

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Water fromThe Well

The following extract is taken from Jim Costelloe’s great rural memoir of Asdee in the 1940’s and ’50s



In the days before group water schemes were introduced to rural areas, domestic water was sourced from wells and pumps. If the water supply lasted through the summer and into October it was the sign of a good spring. I well remember trips to the local well with a white enamel bucket and trying to move the green moss on the surface of the well water so that it would not get into the bucket and make the water in the pure white bucket appear dirty.

Getting clear water into the bucket was a skilful job, between trying to avoid the green moss on the surface and the “dirt” at the bottom of the well. How wonderfully cool and refreshing a mug of water was straight from the well. There was always a mug beside the well and we often drank from it during those warm summers that we seemed to get long ago.

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Random Item


From Random Cork Stuff on Twitter


Incredible snap of Coburg St, Cork, with Shandon in the background, from 1905. (found by Joe Healy)
Random fact: Coburg was the old family name of the British royal family before they changed it to Windsor to make it sound less German.



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When I Made a Little Girl’s day



Yesterday I told you about my child minding on polling day in Ballincollig and the find we made in the charity shop.

These pictures were taken when we got home with our haul.




Oh to be nine again!



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Storied Kerry Meitheal Saturday October 27 2018




This man is Professor Joseph Sobol, professor of storytelling at the University of South Wales and, as far as we know, the only professor of storytelling . He was reluctant to claim that distinction as he sees everyone as a storyteller. He told us about story tellers who have influenced him and he told us how the story is centralised in all our lives.



At the seminar we were divided into eight districts to discuss where we go from here.


Mary Kennelly was the board member of Storied Kerry in charge of our North Kerry breakout group.



Here we are, ready to discuss the North Kerry story. We got a bit bogged down in the story of decline, pub, shop and post office closures, rural decline and rural isolation. We touched on the rambling house and festivals as a way of keeping the story alive. We decided on tourism as the most likely industry to keep our story going. we decided to meet again and to spread the word.

Beano, The Bog,The River, The Courthouse and the Ambassador

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On January 30, 2017

In Uncategorized

The River Walk in January 2017


Photo by Deirdre Lyons

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Goodbye Ambassador



Kevin O’Malley has returned to the U.S. and the new ambassador, a Kerry man will be the next to take up the post.


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Listowel Courthouse


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Some Things are Timeless


I have someone in my family who loves nothing better than a session with her Beanos and she has a good few. Whenever I see an old Beano annual in a charity shop I buy it for her.

The photo shows her on Christmas Day 2016 when she abandoned all her other presents to read her Beano first.

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Maria Sham Remembers the Races and The Bog

The railway was very exciting during The Races, which fell at the end of September. It was the Harvest Festival when all the farmers would have finished the harvest and come to town. It would go on for 3 days and well into the nights. The horses would be transported onto the train for the races. The town would be decorated with buntings and music played into the early hours of the morning.

All the country people came to town and you would see them walking through the streets eating crubeens [pigs feet]. They would be displayed in all the shop windows in large dishes, steaming hot. The streets would be strewn with bones . I can’t remember any rubbish bins then. Another special treat at that time and still is!! mutton pies, all the restaurants would sell them in soup plates covered in soup.

Mam would make dozens for us and there would be a big pot of bone broth left on the range the whole of The Races so we could pop in a pie anytime. Nothing spoiled as there were no onions in anything.

But for us children it was not about horse races, but the market. It was a delight with bumper cars, swinging boats, chair planes, the wheel of death, and lots more, games to win anything from a doll to a set of saucepans. My favourite was at the entrance to the market with the tinkers, now called Travellers’. They lived in horse drawn caravans then. They would have fires lit and do their cooking outside, selling heather and telling fortunes, I am sure I can still smell the smoke. As I got older I got a job for the days of the races from 9am to maybe 10pm a £1 for the day.

Another big occasion for our family and for all the people at that time was the cutting of the turf and bringing it home. The turf would be cut with a slawn and would be allowed to dry. Well the bringing home was a great effort and in those days all the neighbours helped each other. On one occasion one of the men fell into a bog hole and had to come home without his trousers only a sack tied around him. We had a great laugh.

That morning the men would set off early with bread and ham and the makings of tea,

On arrival back with a lorry full of turf mam would have a grand dinner ready for everyone, meat, potatoes and a pigs head. We all helped to draw in the turf and stack it in the shed in the back.

There was also a big field called Jack Thornton’s where we also played. We had to be careful and watch out for Jack as he would chase us with his big stick. He also had a shop on the Ballybunion road and we could buy a tosheen which was just a piece of paper rolled up in cone shape, full of sweets for a penny or a Peggy’s Leg or slab toffee which was a favourite of mine. A big treat was if we met dad at his local, Sheahens. Then it was a bottle of lemonade and a big cake.

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A Clarification Re Listowel Badminton Tournament 


When I asked Junior for a photo of the first presentation of his trophy, he asked Tom Bourke to send me one. Now, I presumed that Tom was the photographer but, in fact, he is the winner of the trophy. When I asked about the whereabouts of the trophy I was told that it was on its way to Cork so I presumed the winners were a Cork partnership.

I was all wrong. So here is the photo again and the correct story from the horse’s mouth;

Thank you so much for printing that photo of the first presentation of the cup that the Listowel club commissioned and named after me.

Just to advise that Tom Bourke is not a Cork man. Whilst he is Clare native he is stationed in Kerry and has represented the Kingdom in Badminton for many years, being a winner of numerous Munster singles and doubles titles.

I commenced our mixed doubles event in 1972 and Tom is the leading winner, after his first win in Listowel in 2003  with Dublin’s Helena O’Sullivan , he won his 7th title this year with Cork’s Niamh O’Driscoll who competed in Listowel for the first time. Tom’s 7 wins includes a treble from 2011 to 2013, his partners being Brid Murphy and Peggy Horan, both Kerry, and Patricia O’Herlihy of Cork.

Thanks again Mary

Junior


Well done, Tom from Listowelconnection




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R.I.P. John Hurt




This photo shared on Facebook by John Keane was taken when John Hurt came to Listowel. The two Johns had a great respect for one another and everyone agrees that John Hurt was a brilliant interpreter of the character, Bird O’Donnell, in John B’s The Field. 

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamnacha araon.

A walking tour of Listowel and summer fun with the next generation.

By

On July 15, 2015

In Uncategorized

What a pleasant way to spend a summer evening in Listowel! The committee of Listowel Writers week took a walking tour of the town with the acknowledged authority on the history and people of Listowel town, Vincent Carmody. Here we are on the steps of The Seanchaí as we set off. I’m behind the camera.

 Máire Logue is one of the hard working administrators of the festival so she never gets to enjoy any of the events. She was delighted to have the opportunity to take one of the very popular walks with Vincent Carmody.

 Here Vincent is telling us about Bertha Beatty.

 We are outside the house that once belonged to Dr. Dillon, father of the great female aviator.

Time to tell us about Tom Doodle and the great rally held in The Small Square.

 We are across the road from Galvins and Vincent is telling us about shop names and the lovely mosaic work discovered during renovations.

 You’d never know who you’d run into on the streets of Listowel.  Tom Hickey was in town to play The Gallant John Joe in St. John’s.

Vincent always keeps faith with a man who contributed much to the town but who is now largely forgotten, Robert Cuthbertson. Bob , as he was known, was the printer who printed many of Bryan MacMahons’ ballads. He was the recipient of extraordinary generosity from a Listowel woman who allowed him to live rent free for over 50 years in her house in William Street.

Poor Bob suffered from that most destructive of diseases, alcoholism, and he died in penury. Vincent remembers his funeral as the first he attended in the protestant church. The local schoolboys were encouraged by Bryan MacMahon to attend to pay respect to an adopted son of Listowel.

Here Vincent told us about another classical scholar and and teacher who is also largely forgotten in his native town.

some of the appreciative audience.

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Family in Kerry Summer 2015


These are my grandchildren on their way to Summer Camp in Listowel Community Centre:

Verdict: Brilliant.

The old games are the best. I suppose Hangman is now electronic but in our house we have an intermediate version; not pen and paper but not on a screen either.

winner alright!

Remember Róisín?  She is still in love with comics. Beano is her favourite.

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Calling all Clounmacon People




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