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: Christmas 2017

A Tan song, Listowel Convent now and some more Christmas window displays

By

On December 4, 2017

In Uncategorized


A Blue photo


Mallow Camera Club held a very interesting competition. The only instruction was that the photo had to have something blue. This week I’ll bring you a photo a day from Mallow, all  with a blue theme.

Photographer; Chris Bourke

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The Convent Now at the end of 2017



I took the photos from the secondary school yard





It is so sad to see a chapel and garden that were cared for and nurtured over so many years now completely neglected and derelict.



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A Black and Tan Song from a dark era in our history

14th January 1950

(By AN MANGAIRE SUGACH)

“Cahirguillamore” is a song in which we learn of a terrible happening near Bruff on St. Stephen’s Night, 1920. An I.R.A. dance was in progress in Lord Guillaghmore’s unoccupied mansion when the place was surrounded by British forces in great strength. In the ensuing fight five I.R.A. men lost their lives. They were: Daniel Sheehan, the sentry who raised the alarm, Martin Conway, Eamon Molony, John Quinlan and Henry Wade. Here is a song that commemorates the tragedy. It was sent to me by Peter Kerins, Caherelly, Grange.  I have not learned the author’s name.

CAHIRGUILLAMORE

O Roisin Dubh your sorrows grew

On a cold and stormy night,

When Caher’s woods and glens so bold

Shone in the pale moonlight.

Within your walls where alien balls,

Were held in days of yore,

Stood many an Irish lad and lass,

At Cahirguillamore.

Did you not hear with fallen tear

The tread of silent men?

As a shot rang out from a rifle bright,

To warn those within.

The sentry brave the alarm gave,

Though he lay in his own gore:

His life he gave his friends to save,

That night at `Guillamore’.

I need not tell what there befell,

All in that crowded hall;

The Black and Tans worked quite well,

With rifle-butt and ball.

 Unarmed men lay dying and dead ,

Their life’s blood did out pour;

They sleep now in their hollow graves,

Near Cahirguillamore.

The commander of those legions

Would more suit a foreign field,

Where he would meet some savage foes,

His methods they would greet,

And not those laughing youths

Who were taught to love and pray,

And who received the body of Christ,

On that same Christmas Day.

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Some of Listowel’s Old Patricians



Tommy Moore shared this photo on Facebook. All of these men who were familiar to us all in Listowel have now passed away

They are Bunny Dalton, Jimmy Moloney, Sean Walshe and Bryan MacMahon R.I.P.

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Polar Express Christmas windows 2017


Lizzy’s train and little village is lovely at night.

Brenda Woulfe added a few carriages and some railway related books to her display.

Brendan Landy has a very stylish display and a very swish train…The TGV ?


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A Winning Poem


Every year  Listowel Writers Week sponsor the poetry prize at the annual Bord Gais Book Awards.

This year, 2017 winning poem was called Seven Sugar Cubes by Clodagh Beresford Dunne.

On 10th April, 1901, in Massachusetts, Dr. Duncan MacDougall set out to prove that the human soul had mass and was measurable. His findings concluded that the soul weighed 21 grams.

When your mother phones to tell you that your father has died

ten thousand miles away, visiting your emigrant brother,

in a different hemisphere, in a different season,

do you wonder if your father’s soul will be forever left in summer?

Do you grapple

with the journey home of the body of a man you have known

since you were a body in your mother’s body?

Does the news melt into you and cool to the image

of his remains in a Tasmanian Blackwood coffin, in the body of a crate

in the body of a plane? Or do you place the telephone receiver back on its cradle,

take your car keys, drive the winter miles to your father’s field, where you know

his horses will run to the rattle, like dice, of seven sugar cubes.

The poem is intensely personal but has that universal appeal that enables us all to put ourselves in the speaker’s place.

Listowel Writers’ Week will run from May 30 to June 3 2018

Artisan Food, A Poem of Exile and more Christmas Windows

By

On December 1, 2017

In Uncategorized

Happy dog following his owner in Listowel Town Park recently

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Artisan Food at Listowel Food Fair


On the Sunday of Listowel Food Fair there was a great market of artisan food in The Listowel Arms. It was the Sunday of November prayers for our dead in John Paul Cemetery so I was late getting to the fair. It was well worth the visit. Here are some of the goods for sale and to sample. Some people were already sold out by the time I got there.

 These chutneys and relishes are by Chicco. They are delicious. I bought some for the Christmas cold meats

This Kerry cheese is completely organic. I stayed clear of this out of respect for my heart but people who tried it said it super.

This Charleville man had cheese products as well and was proudly displaying the prize he won at the fair.

I didn’t even go close to this charming lady to photograph her. She makes the most delicious ice cream you will ever taste and its all handmade in Kenmare.

This happy crew from Killocrim school were promoting their unique cookery book. It is a collection of recipes that the children made with their families and the book has lovely photos  as well. It will be a treasure for years to come and a cause well worth supporting.

I ran into my friend Billy Keane and his family. They were very proud to have their recipe included in the book.

Norma Leahy and her family were there with their Carralea Kefir. This dairy product is really good for your gut health. I’m trying it at the moment.

This is the lovely family behind Brona chocolate products. Jimmy is just a friend. He had no part in making the chocolates.

Orla Walshe runs a cookery school at Ballydonoghue. Her chocolate biscuit cake is to die for.

Completely sold out. The picture tells its own story.

Wellness bread products are a Listowel success story.

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This poem is especially for Maria Sham, who loves it.

The Exile’s Return

(John Locke, 1847-1889)

T’anam chun Dia! but
there it is –

The dawn on the hills of Ireland,

God’s angels lifting the night’s black veil

From the fair sweet face of my sireland.

Oh! Ireland isn’t it grand you look,

Like a bride in her fresh adorning,

And with all the pent-up love of my heart

I bid you the top of the morning.

This one brief hour
pays lavishly back,

For many a year of mourning,

I’d almost venture another flight,

There is so much joy in returning,

Watching out for the hallowed shore,

All other attraction scorning,

Oh: Ireland don’t you hear me shout,

I bid you the top of the morning.

Ho, Ho, upon Glen’s
shelving strand,

The surges are wildly beating,

And Kerry is pushing her headlands out,

To give us a kindly greeting,

Now to the shore the sea birds fly,

On pinons that know no drooping,

Now out from the shore with welcome gaze,

A million of eaves come trooping.

Oh! Fairly, generous
Irish land,

So Loyal, so fair, so loving,

No wonder the wandering Celt should think,

And dream of you in his roving,

The Alien shore may have gems and gold,

And sorrow may ne’er have gloomed it.

But the heart will sigh for its native shore,

Where the love-light first illumed it.

And doesn’t old Cobh
look charming there,

Watching the wild waves motion,

Resting her back against the hill.

And the tips of her toes to the ocean,

I wonder I don’t hear the Shandon bells,

But maybe their chiming is over,

For it’s a year since I began,

The life of a western rover.

For thirty years “A
chuisle mo chroi”,

Those hills I now feast my eyes on,

Ne’er met my vision save at night,

In memory’s dim horizon,

Even so, ’twas grand and fair they seemed,

In the landscape spread before me,

But dreams are dreams, and I would awake

To find American skies still o’er me.

And often in Texan
plain,

When the day and the chase was over,

My heart would fly o’er the weary ways,

And around the coastline hover,

And my prayers would arise that some future date,

All danger, doubting and scorning,

I might help to win for my native land

The light of young liberty’s morning.

Now fuller and turner
the coastline shows

Was there ever a scene more splendid!

I feel the breath of the Munster breeze,

Oh! Thank God my exile is ended,

Old scenes, old songs, old friends again

There’s the vale, there’s the cot I was born in

Oh! Ireland from my heart of hearts

I bid you the “top o’ the morning”


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Slavery and the Hiring Fair

This is a photo from the Library of Congress. It dates from the days of slave auctions in Illinois. I don’t think there was ever any official slavery in Ireland. Women who were forced by circumstances to work in the Magdalen Laundries might disagree. There were, however, hiring fairs.

These fairs were often held on the same day as a cattle fair when farmers were in town. Labourers weren’t auctioned as slaves were. Labourers agreed to work for a farmer, usually for a year, at an agreed wage. They earned little more than their bed and board. This system was in place in most European countries. In fact hiring out your labour goes back to biblical times.

In between the fairs if a spailpín or casual labourer was unemployed he would often walk from one farm to another in search of a few hours work.  Paddy Drury was one of these wandering workmen. Jim Sheahan remembers him coming to their house in Athea. Even if they didn’t have work for him, they fed him and he was content to sleep on a chair until he headed off again.

Fear of a lash of his tongue meant that Paddy usually could be sure of a chair to sleep in in most houses he visited.

Paddy was like the bards of old who could rhyme off a blessing or a curse on the spot.

Once when he and the other workers in a house where he was employed were served up bacon so tough that none of them could chew it, he extemporised;

Oh Lord on high

Who rules the sky

Look down upon us four

Please give us mate

That we can ate

And take away the boar.

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More Christmas widows


Listowel shop windows this year have a train travel theme. Utopia’s window is really stylish and minimalistic.

The IWA window is gorgeous.



The Mermaids features old photos of the real Lartigue.

Stack’s Arcade is gorgeous.

Betty McGrath’s Listowel Florist’s

The Gentleman’s Barbers

Kay’s Children’s Shop has an excellent replica of the Lartigue on its snowy scene in the window.

Christmas Craft Fair, some photos, a poem and a sugar tax in 1901

By

On November 23, 2017

In Uncategorized

May you have a happy, safe and thankful Thanksgiving all U.S. friends of Listowel



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Christmas is coming

And the goose is getting fat,

Please put a penny in the old man’s hat

If you haven’t got a penny

A ha’penny will do

If you haven’t got a ha’penny

God bless you.

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Sive Revival




In a week that saw Mickey McConnell’s Lidl and Aldi exceed 6 million views, John B’s ‘Sive’ launched in John B’s bar in the Gaiety Theatre. 

The Druid Production will run from the 26th Jan to the 3rd of March 2018

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Today’s November poem from Irish Stories of Love and Hope is from Rita Ann Higgins.

Our Mothers Die on
Days Like This

Rita Anne
Higgins  (Irish Stories of Loss and Hope)

Where there isn’t
a puff

And the walk from
the bus stop

To the front door

Isn’t worth the
longed-for

Out-of-the-question
cup of sweet tea

She can never have

Because doctor
do-little-or-nothing

Told her face to
face

It was the sugar
or the clay

The choice was
hers.

The choice was no
choice

He knew it, she
knew it.

When the heavy
bill on the hall floor

With the final
notice reminded her

Once and for all
she must turn out the lights,

Her Angelus bell
rang and rang.

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Photos from a Craft fair


I was at a craft fair in The Seanchaí, Listowel on Sunday November 12 2017. I photographed some of the lovely fare on offer.

Stephen Pearce, Louis Mulcahy, Nicholas Mosse and a slew of others have made their fortune as potters with a distinctive style. In Listowel we have our very own local potter with a beautiful product and a distinctive style.

Pat Murphy’s Woodford Pottery is based in Woodford, Listowel. His pieces are available in black,  dark blue and green. They make an ideal present for anyone who loves Listowel and likes to have a piece of home close by at all times.

AND by comparison with the big names mentioned above they are very reasonably priced. Pat is a one man operation so he obviously doesn’t produce huge quantities. My advice is get to him before the world discovers him.

Woodford Pottery

Beautiful hand knitter nativity by Ella O’Sullivan

Eileen O’Sullivan makes these and other ceramic pieces to order.

Listowel’s best knitter and tea cosy designer is Frances O’Keeffe.  Her charming creations are still available at Craftshop na Méar and at local craft fairs.  

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A Sugar Tax…..in 1901!



My friend, Nicholas wrote us the following;

” I came across this little piece in the British Parliamentary Papers. It concerns a sugar tax proposed in c1901. The fuller debate is fascinating as it goes into the ramifications of all types of sugar and associated products- honey  seems to have been exempt from the intended tax.


Extracted from The Debate on the proposed Sugar Tax in the House of Commons on 29th April 1901:

‘… MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.)

said that as an Irish Member he desired to enter his protest against this tax because it pressed severely upon the poorest classes of the population. He had listened with amazement to the doctrine laid down by the Hon. Baronet opposite, who said that he welcomed this tax because it would tend to discourage the unwholesome custom of using jam and marmalade and sugar, instead of porridge and milk.


‘In many parts of the country the poor people could not get milk. The working classes of Ireland were unable to give milk to their children because they could not afford it, and consequently they had to fall back upon jam and marmalade. There was no more necessary food than sugar for young children if they could not get plenty of milk and butter. Milk contained a good deal of sugar, and if they could not get the natural sugar contained in milk they were driven to buy sugar, and to supply it in that shape. 


A tax upon sugar was a tax upon one of the prime necessities of life, and that was a departure from the traditional policy of this country for the last fifty years, which was to remove all taxes from all the necessary articles of food. If they agreed to tax sugar he could not see why they should not tax corn…’ 



I think O tempora O mores! is appropriate in the light of the current sugar tax proposals, and the complete change in  Irish nutritional circumstances and health standards.” 





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New Windows for the Gardaí




Maybe they are getting the fancy new ones with the Garda logo in them

Preparing for Christmas 2017, Marie Shaw and a Wedding in Germany and Painted Ladies in John B.s

By

On October 31, 2017

In Uncategorized


Two St. Johns’


St. John’s Tralee


St. John’s Listowel




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Looking Forward to Christmas 2017


Great things are planned for Listowel at Christmas 2017

Local elves have been at work preparing a surprise for us all. The polar express will bring Santa into town this year and he and Mrs. Claus will meet North Kerry Children at the Lartigue Museum.

Keep an eye out for updates on this page;  North Pole Express


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Marie Shaw remembers her Christmas in Listowel in the 1950s

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A Wedding in Germany with a Listowel Connection



This is Mary Sobieralski of Listowel pictured with her son Mark on the morning of his wedding.



Mary loves Listowel where she spent her youth and happy years of retirement with her late husband, Wolf. But Mary’s smile is broadest when she is in the company of her lovely sons and their families in Germany. This photo of Mary’s family was taken later on on the day of Mark’s wedding.

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A Most unusual fundraiser in John B.s (text and photos by Mattie Lennon)


Mattie Lennon sends us this account of a great night in John B. Keane’s Bar, Listowel.

Billy Keane and Mattie Lennon in John B.s

BILLY KEANE AND THE (BRAVE) PAINTED LADIES.

By Mattie Lennon.

Good painters imitate nature. (Cervantes.)

Hard to argue with that but some painters  tell the story of the most poignant aspects of nature.

   John B. Keane’s pub in Listowel has been home to ventures various and unusual in the past half century but on Thursday 12th October there was a new departure.   There are two body-painting events organised (for Dublin and Cork) during November, by  Bare-to-Care,  to raise awareness of breast cancer.  Ken Hughes and Eimear Tierney came to Billy Keane with an idea for a publicity event; breast painting!  Three brave women volunteered to bare all.  Ann-Marie Quigley who travelled from Portrush,  Bex Tolan originally from Donegal  and Siobhan Heapes from Cork all had had serious health issues.  All three women spoke honestly and openly about their   terrible experiences.   Anna had a double mastectomy and her partner, Jade, died from ovarian cancer in 2008.  Bex won’t ever be able to have children because of previous painful medical conditions and Siobhan Heapes had breast and ovarian cancer.

  Billy Keane is an established author and one of our great Irish journalists.  His writing, about his own life, has, in my opinion, saved lives.  With Billy the devilment is always close to the surface and while Ken Hughes was the event organiser Billy opened proceedings on the night with, “I want to make a clean breast of this.” 

   Three artists, Stephanie Power, Ruth McMorrow and Ciara Patricia Langan, in the words of Billy Keane,”Formed a bond with the human canvasses.”      

   Tennyson wrote of how,” . . .blind and naked ignorance delivers crawling judgements unashamed . . ”  


    “Naked” and “ignorance” were side by side in John B’s on 12th October; One couple got up and left. The female said to Billy, “What would your mother  and father think of this? They are turning in their graves. “  I know what Billy’s parents, who both died of cancer,  would think.  They would think that thank God they had reared a son who is doing something to highlight that dreadful disease.  There was certainly no whirring sound in Listowel cemetery that night .  John B. and Mary were not spinning in their graves.  And Billy Keane was too well reared   to reply to such an ignorant comment.



    Bare to Care Dare will take place in Cork on Saturday November 11th and in Dublin on Saturday November 18th. Hundreds of women will come together to celebrate their bodies, their breasts and above all to support each other. To tell their own cancer survival stories. To be proud and celebrate their new post mastectomy or reconstructed breasts. To lighten their spirits while going through treatment right now. To tick something off their bucket list. To laugh and have fun, to share and to support. Those that have lost loved ones to cancer will bare all in memory, to show their thanks to the support the Irish Cancer Society give every day to thousands of women all over the country.

   Eimear Tierney, Spokesperson   told me, “From our perspective, we were thrilled that Billy agreed to get on board with the charity and publicize our campaign. We were elated when he suggested a promotional event in John B’s. It’s hard to describe the atmosphere and spirit of giving and camaraderie that Billy created that night. Not only did he manage to raise awareness and promote the campaign, he and the guest performers  captured the whole ethos of Bare to Care. The volunteer canvasses were made to feel brave, beautiful and vital by every person that attended the event. He promoted our Bare to Care events as planned but he also provided a safe space for the girls to share their stories and celebrate their womanhood and survival.   We are in awe of Bill’s talent and generosity and we couldn’t possibly have found a more worthy and appropriate advocate for what we are trying to achieve with these events. We hope that it has inspired women to be brave and register for one of our two events.” (Eimear may be contacted at; hello@baretocare.info)

 Anna-Marie had an eagle painted on her front but not everyone knew.  One woman asked, “Where did she get that beautiful top with the eagle on it?”  Of course she was in Kerry so the answer came like a shot, “Penney’s.”  Where would you get it.

I’ll leave the last word to Billy Keane, “  I learned a lot over the last few weeks. There is so much going on in women’s  bodies.  We need a national conversation, education and more  bare, brave ladies.” 

   Billy insists that the pole in the centre of the bar is there to support the roof and there will be no pole-dancing in the future!

 There was no turning in graves

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