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: Coláiste na Ríochta

Greenways and Waterways

By

On May 22, 2023

In Greenway, Listowel, Personal, Schools

Greenway Mural at the old Neodata site, May 2023

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Progress on the Greenway

This is the Bridge Road entrance

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Another Prestigious Prize for a journalist with a Listowel Connection

This is Malachy’s father, David Browne’s Facebook post

“Proud and privileged to witness the announcement of the Pulitzer Prize Award to my son Malachy last Monday in the New York Times offices. His team were acknowledged for their unflinching coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including an eight-month investigation into Ukrainian deaths in the town of Bucha and the Russian unit responsible for the killings.’

Malachy Browne with Donnie O’Sullivan at Listowel Writers’ Week 2022

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A Settle Bed

This is a picture of an old farmhouse from Floklore.ie. On the left of the picture is what was known as a settle bed. The bedclothes were stored underneath the seat and brought out when the bed was dressed for someone for the night. This was a fine cozy bed beside the fire and often used by visitors or travelling workmen.

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Listowel’s Newest Amenity

“My heart, tonight, is home again in Ireland

Upon thy banks, my silver river Feale.”

Bryan MacMahon’s words were sung to us by his son, Owen, at the launch of Listowel Kayaking Club on May 14 2023.

The sun shone. The water was resplendent. The birds sang. A small crowd gathered (small, for health and safety reasons) and Jimmy Deenihan presented us with his latest project, a kayaking club. Jimmy and friends have brought this to fruition in jig time.

Jimmy Deenihan

I was delighted to meet this group of my former pupils, all involved in this healthy outdoor activity. Lovely to see these young ladies emerging as leaders in their community.

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A Welcome Treat

On my way to town on Friday, I met these lovely young people at the gate of their school, Coláiste na Ríochta. They were inviting me to their Bake Sale in aid of Áras Mhuire.

I took up their invitation and a lovely young man accompanied me to the classroom where selling, eating and chatting was in full swing.

I even met someone I knew. I bought some cakes . They were delicious.

Well done enterprising seniors in Coláiste na Ríochta.

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A Coronation Tale

Did we ever think we would see Kay Caball, cousin of Canon Declan, renouned historian and genealogist and a pillar of respectability feature in The Irish Daily Mail?

Don’t panic. Kay was merely telling the tale and it all happened in the eighteenth century.

This is the coronation connection. Lady Fiona Petty Fitzmaurice is Queen Camilla’s best buddy.

The Fitzmaurice connection: Fiona’s husband. is one of the once Lixnaw based Fitzmaurices who used to own most of Kerry.

“After a gatherer comes a scatterer” they say and the Fitzmaurices had the father of all scatterers. Kay told the story replete with “Petticoats up and pantaloons down” to a journalist from The Daily Mail and below is a photo of the centre page in the paper on Saturday.

If you missed the paper, Kay will tell it all again on Jimmy Deenihan’s walking tour at Listowel Writers Week on Friday June 2 starting from Kerry Writers’ Museum at 10.00 a.m.

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I told you so

In 2018 I posted this picture on here. It is cyclist Dillon Corkery being greeted by his grandparents at the stage finish of the Rás in Market Street.

Pic : Lorraine O’Sullivan

Yesterday Dillon won Rás Tailteann outright as part of Team Ireland. I told you he was destined for great things. My exact words were ” Is Dillon the next Sam Bennett?”

The Listowel Connection?

I went to school in Kanturk with his grandmother and still count her as a friend today. I’m over the moon!

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A Fact

The word NEWS comes from the fact that stories were gathered from all corners of the world. News is actually an acronym North East West South.

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Junior Griffin, Gunsboro, Listowel before election fever takes hold, a very old radio and a voice of morning radio passes away

By

On February 1, 2016

In Uncategorized

Prize winning Photographer



From time to time I include a photograph here from my friend, Jim MacSweeney. So I am delighted to tell you that  at the Southern Association of Camera Clubs Photographer of The Year Competition Jim won a gold medal for this photograph. The  winning shot got 26 Marks out of a possible 27. 

Jim took the photograph in Killarney National Park during the rutting season in 2015.

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Bíonn Siúlach Scéalach

Above is John, better known as Junior,  Griffin. I had the great pleasure of spending a couple of hours with him recently. Junior has hundreds of great stories to tell and he has a colorful and engaging way of telling them. He is great company.

I am going to share some of Junior’s stories with you over the coming days and then, I promise, I’ll go back for more.

Above is a photograph of Junior’s grandmother, Kate Hegarty Griffin. In this photograph she is bringing a beart (bundle) of reeds to the thatcher.

Junior reminded me of the lines from the song, Forty Shades of Green;

“…To see again the thatching with the straw the women glean

I’d walk from Cork to Larne to see the forty shades of green.”

Junior’s grandmother was one such gleaner.

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Gunsboro

photo; Historical Tralee

Gunsborough House, Listowel, Co.Kerry

Birthplace of Lord Kitchener of Khartoum.It was leased to Listowel Board of Guardians as an auxilliary workhouse. In 1837 Lewis records it as the property of Pierce Mahony who had recently purchased the estate. Bary writes that it had previously been in the possesson of the Gun family. It is now ruined.

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Look, No Posters! ……. Yet!



The party faithful are only waiting for the word and they’ll be out of the traps faster than any dog at The Kingdom Stadium. Our lovely town will be littered with election posters. Do they make a difference?

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A Really Really Old Radio….and a brand new one



John Griffin brought this radio all the way from Detroit to Knockalougha, Duagh  when he returned home to live in 1931. it was the first radio in Duagh and it made Griffin’s homestead into a kind of Mecca. The late Christy Downey of Knockalougha often told the story of how as a youth he remembered seeing droves of neighbours crossing the fields to converge on Griffin’s house. These people lit their way with torches which were lighting sods of turf held aloft on pikes. The reason for their journey was to hear on Griffin’s radio the results of the 1932 general election which saw de Valera elected to The Dáil for the first time.

Years later in 1951 Phillips held a competition during the agricultural show, pictured below.

The prize was a brand new Philips radio and the winner was to be the person with the oldest radio. Johnny Griffin was well ahead of the posse there and Junior remembers the delight when they brought the new radio home to Bridge Road.

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Look Who Got  engaged!




and look where VIP magazine chose for the phooshoot to tell us the good news. Bernard Brogan might have proposed to Kiera in Turkey but I agree with VIP; he looks best with a Kerry backdrop.


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Are you a past pupil of The Tech in Listowel?



If you answered yes to this question, read on because your old school has an invitation for you;





“As part of the 1916 commemoration, Colaiste na Riochta will commemorate the event on Saturday, March 12, at the school. We will also celebrate a special  anniversary of the school and open the school on that date to celebrate these two events simultaneously. We would appreciate if you could loan us any photos, articles, any form of nostalgia in relation to ‘the teck’ which you  or others may have in your archives and encourage people in your blog to join us on the day.
Any one who has anything of interest might drop them into the office to the Principal, Stephen Goulding or the Committee members, Ms. Iseult Glynn or Ms. Marion Sugrue.”



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I Never Met Terry Wogan




I read his book. I listened to him on the radio and I watched him on TV. Like so many others I felt I knew him. That was his charism. He connected with us all. As my late mother would say, “You could take him anywhere.”



His British audience loved him. He embodied all of the attributes they prize. He was charming, witty, relaxed, self effacing, open, chatty and impeccably polite. He followed in a line of Irish entertainers the British have loved: Eamon Andrews, Des O’Connor, Val Doonican and I’m sure there are more I have forgotten. Dermot O’Leary is the closest of today’s bunch to that mould.



If you look at the three I have mentioned, they were all cut from the same cloth as Sir Terry. They were utterly competent and professional, full of stories and great company. They “walked with kings yet kept the common touch…” And of course there was the voice. Terry never lost his Irish brogue. He spoke the queen’s English with a lilt, a smile and always a hint of roguery.



In the tributes I have read so far, the word legend occurs often. We seem to have lost a lot of legends in 2016 already. He will be missed.



Leaba i measc na naomh is na naingeal go raibh aige.

Listowel Rebranding, Christmas Shop and Sitting on Window Sills

By

On October 22, 2015

In Uncategorized

Lots of Rebranding Going on


Rebranding is not about changes of ownership. It’s more a change of ethos and business model. Listowel is seeing a fair share of this lately. It started with Stacks changing to Number 21 and on Saturday night, Oct 10 2015 the last pint was pulled in Sheahans of Upper William Street.




Listowel Community College has two new brands, Coláiste na Ríochta and North Kerry College.

What we knew as Esso is now Topaz.

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This is not an ad. for Listowel Garden Centre. If, like me, you love this stuff you need travel no further than Listowel.

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Nobody sits on the window sills anymore

Listowel people remember a time when ladies used to sit on the window sills outside their houses in the evening time and chat. The day’s work done, the children in bed, the women took a welcome breather and availed of a chance to catch up with the news in the neighbourhood. People moved from one window to another but nobody left their perch for too long in case a crying child or a baking cake needed their attention. There were no televisions and no phones, mobile or otherwise, to bother them. The only sounds above the chatter were the happy sounds of children’s games or the chirping of the caged birds that hung outside the doors…….Happy days!

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Saturday Night’s Entertainment Sorted



Daniel may be out, but our own Daniels and Kristinas are all set and rearing to go on Saturday night, October 24 2015

Aprons, Christmas, School Visits and Donie Lyons is honoured

By

On October 20, 2015

In Uncategorized

Let me see !



This unusual photo was taken by Tom Healy in Killarney.

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Do you Wear an Apron?





This is Maura Gleasure of Craftshop na Méar. If you are in need of an apron or any other table linen, Maura is your woman.

The apron has an interesting history. I found the following on Facebook;

The History of ‘APRONS’

I don’t think our kids know what an apron is. The
principle use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath because
she only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than
dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that, it served as a
potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children’s tears, and on
occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying
eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the
warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding
places for shy kids..

And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it
around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow,
bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen
in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.
After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples
that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was
surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the
porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the
fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents
something that will replace that ‘old-time apron’ that served so many purposes.

Send this to those who would know (and love) the story
about Grandma’s aprons.

REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the
window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many
germs were on that apron.

I don’t think I ever caught anything from an apron –
but love
—Hawk Seeker of Truth—



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That Tidy Towns Trophy is still on its lap of honour

 Presentation Secondary School

 St. Michael’s

Coláiste na Ríochta

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More Christmas Goodies from Listowel Garden Centre


These pictures above looked absolutely lovely in a dark space.



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Presentation to Donal Lyons


A presentation was made to Donie Lyons of Ballyguiltenane in recognition of his dedication to music and singing and for his great support  of Comhaltas and local events.

The presentation took place in Fr Casey Hall, Abbeyfeale on Sunday, 18th Oct. 2015.

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