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: Bridge Road Page 2 of 4

Listowel

Church Street, Listowel

<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Listowel in the 1930s

Main Street, Listowel

This photograph was taken by an unknown photographer in the 1930s. It is included in digital format in the collection.

Photos of Munster

In the great website, Tipperary Studies which has a huge collection of local history and memorabilia. Well worth a visit.

<<<<<<<<<<<<

Christchurch Cathedral

Photo; Éamon ÓMurchú

<<<<<<<<

Dromin Well

From the schools folklore collection (Presentation Primary School, Listowel)

There is a Holy Well in Droman, some miles from Listowel. It is said a girl called Depra, who was deaf and dumb, was taken to this well by her parents and left there for three days. When her parents retuned, to their great joy she was able to speak and hear. She told them during their absence a beautiful lady appeared to her, and told her to drink from the spring. Depra did so and immediately she was able to speak and hear. The beautiful lady smiled sweetly on her, and disappeared.

<<<<<<<<<<<

Bridge Road these times

In a few months time this will be a cycleway.

<<<<<<<<<

Some St. Patrick theme Windows

<<<<<<<<<<<<

SACRED FOREST TREE PLANTING:  In Templeglantine beside the school Saturday, March 19.  Come and help us to plant Irelands first micro forest. 1,150 trees in a third of an acre with EcoSikh, Reforest Nation and Templeglantine Community Development.  Bring wellies and a spade!  Refreshments will be provided.

  1. Earth has more than 60,000 known species of tree.
  2. A tree thought to have went extinct 150 million years ago was recently discovered growing in a valley near Sidney, Australia For reference Dinosaurs like T. Rex died out 66 million years ago.
  3. Before trees earth had fungi with grew 30 feet tall. Ok not really a tree fact but so cool I thought I had to include it
  4. Trees in a forest can ‘talk’ and share nutrients through an underground internet built by soil fungi. Sometimes called the wood wibe web, each tree acts like a neuron in the human brain giving a forest intelligence.
  5. A large oak tree can consume about 100 gallons of water per day, and a giant sequoia can drink up to 500 gallons daily.
  6. Trees help us breathe — and not just by producing oxygen. Trees in city’s remove air pollution and save lives, each year 4.2 million people die each year from air pollution.
  7. Adding one tree to an open pasture can increase its bird biodiversity from almost zero species to as high as 80. Even more of a reason not to cut down fairy trees!
  8. Trees can lower stress, raise property values and reduce crime rates.   A large oak tree can drop 10,000 acorns in one year. So adopting just a few trees  will one day become tens of thousands!( Reforest Nation).

<<<<<<<<

Pitch and Putt, a Poem, and Bridge Road, Listowel

The Florist; Photo by Paddy Fitzgibbon

<<<<<<<<<<

Listowel Pitch and Putt Clubhouse

The clubhouse of the pitch and putt club is located next to the Dandy Lodge. Martin Chute has done his usual lovely job on the gable wall. I took the photo on a sunny day. Hence all the shadows.

<<<<<<<<<<<

Contented Diner

Glass House

John McGrath

I must have ordered onion rings for two.

They’re stacked above my steak like lifebelts;

Pepper sauce and wedges on the side,

salad and a subtle Chilean Red.

Beyond the glass I watch the river rise

swiftly with the tide.  Swans

feed frantically, bottoms in the air.

Mine hugs lime-green leatherette.

The waiter smiles, tops up my wine

and leaves.  I watch his bottom too,

then raise my fork and stab my plate

like a Polynesian fisherman.

Out on the river, the swans swim on,

pedalling frantically against the tide, 

Diving, feeding, pedalling again.

I marvel at their weight-loss plan.

I put down my fork and sigh contentedly,

raise my feet onto the lime-green leatherette,

smile at the waiter as he takes my plate and muse

on why others choose to swim against the tide.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

A Mystery Procession

Éamon ÓMurchú found this marvellous photo among his late father’s things. It was unusual for Luaí ÓMurchú not to note the date and occasion on a photograph but, in the case of this one, he did not so we need your help.

Dave O’Sullivan tells me that the car on the right was registered in Dublin between January 1949 and June 1950. “I’d be 90% certain it’s a Vauxhall Wyvern LIX. They were made between 1948 and 1951. Top speed 62 mph from a 1442cc engine.”

Surely some petrol head will remember the car.

The girls faces are very clear. Someone must recognise them.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Bridge Road 2021

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Bridge Road, Listowel children, A Christmas Stccking in the 1940s and a Fire at The Races in 1959

Millenium Arch and Bridge Road

<<<<<<<

The Good Old Days?


From Patrick O’Sullivan’s A Year in Kerry

<<<<<<


Listowel Children


These are children  (and a few adults including Michael Dowling R.I.P. )  photographed by John Lynch at parades in 2003 and years after to 2007

<<<<<<<


Christmas Lights in Dublin


 When I was in the Big Smoke to see the Haunting Soldier they already had their Christmas lights up even though it was only mid November.

And in Listowel

On Saturday Dec 1 2018, Listowel Tidy Town Committee switched on the very colourful lights on Listowel’s Christmas tree.  (Photo; North Pole Express 2018)

<<<<<<<



Fire in the Stands



Do you remember this from 1959?

Photo from The Kerryman

Green Guide to Listowel 1965, Mosaics in The Garden of Europe and Bridge Road Then and Now

Listowel Town Square, July 2018

<<<<<<<<


More from The Green Guide



<<<<<<<


Art Installations in The Garden of Europe

 Lovely pebble mosaics have appeared in The Garden recently. There is no artists credited with the pieces and there should be because they are beautiful.


Patrick Tarrant’s John B. Keane sculpture is looking lovely in Summer 2018.

The Holocaust Memorial is central to the Garden. Lest we forget….

<<<<<<<<



Sign Upgrading

This sign at the Millenium Arch was badly in need of a facelift.

<<<<<<<



Bridge Road Then and Now




Photo by John Hannon



Photos by Listowel Connection

Buttevant, Bridge Road, a tip for Town Planners and Rás Tailteann 2018

 Photo: Chris Grayson

<<<<<<


 I was in Buttevant


Butevant is a very historic town in North Cork. I was there recently and I made a few observations.

Isn’t this a good idea? They have  seats celebrating local families and the history of the family in a notice close by.

There are lots of old shopfronts left unchanged.

Just like us they have a castle in the middle of the town. Ours is in better nick though.

The convent in Buttevant has been sold.  The identity of the buyer was a topic of speculation on the day I was in town.

This old graveyard is in the grounds of the church. It is ironic that the man whose funeral brought me to the town would be the very man who could have told me all of the history.


The church had an ancient feel to it too. The galleries, there were three, are accessed by a stairs from the outside.

<<<<<<<


Bridge Road




Prompted by Derry Buckley’s account of Bridge Road houses, Kay Caball who also came from Bridge Road, wrote the following;

“…..In connection with Derry Buckley’s photo of  the Bridge Rd.,  my parents rented one of the three houses built and owned by his grandfather, facing the river.  Then they moved to the left hand side of the bridge to what must have been new houses in the early 1940s.  We lived in the second from the stone wall – I think it was owned by Mrs. Murray who had a shop in Main St., selling religious goods – rosary beads, holy pictures, scapulars etc.  (The Murray also must have had the ‘franchise’ for holy goods at the missions in all the north Kerry churches. They would have covered stall in the yards of the churches at .mission time’ selling all these good like hot cakes.


Other people who lived down our (left hand side) of the Bridge Rd., were the Nielsens (Hilary Nielsen taught in the tech), the O’Sheas (Fr Kieran O’Shea), Mr. O’Sullivan the Creamery Manager, (we called everyone Mr. or Mrs. then, had no idea of their christian names). the McElligotts (I think Mr. McElligott sold encyclopedias) and the Woulfes (Mr Woulfe worked in McKennas).   Accross the road we the Griffins (Juniors people) the Kennys, Hassetts, Rita Purcell and her lodger Dan Daly, the Callagys and at the top of this side there were two shops- beside the road going down to the track – Bolsters who sold lovely Lucan Ice Creams and Moloneys (no relation) who had a large shop selling everything, tea, sugar, meal  and shoes.”



Peggy Brick who also lived in Bridge Road remembers a Mulligan’s shop as well.


<<<<<<


Seen on Twitter




A picture paints a thousand words

<<<<<<



Neighbourly chat in Charles Street




I met Jerry and Violet on a sunny morning in May 2018

<<<<<<<


Rás Tailteann in Listowel May 22 2018…a little known Listowel Connection

It’s May 22 2018. There I was on Market Street waiting for the Rás to hit town and filling my time by taking a few snaps of the locals when………


who do I spot across the street but my old school friend from Scoil Mhuire, Kanturk? 

Why was Mary Kiely (now Corkery) in Listowel at the Rás finish?

This is why. Her lovely grandson is riding in the race. Here is Dylan Corkery with three proud grandparents.  

And here is the Listowel connection or, to be more precise, the Duagh connection. Dylan’s grandfather is an O’Keeffe from Trienireach, Duagh. Dylan at 19 is one of the youngest riders in Rás Tailteann.

(More from the Rás to come)

Page 2 of 4

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén