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: Culture Night 2019

Vintage Day at Listowel Races 2019, Killarney Jostle Stones and Culture Night 2019

All over for another year

My lovely boys gone back home after a few days in Kerry.

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Vintage Recycle Upcycle Day at Listowel Races 2019


The tent was full. There were some lovely outfits on show. The mens’ competition seems to have attracted many more entries this year.


The organising committee on behalf od Listowel Tidy Towns were busy interviewing the entrants and hearing their stories.

The winner (on right )and first runner up

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Enjoying the Races and the Sunshine



Agnes and Jimmy were enjoying the Saturday race meeting.


An unusual and tragic event at the races. This is so sad for the owners and all associated with this poor horse.

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Jostle Stones Again


They have them in Killarney too. I’m getting a great thrill out of my blog followers spotting these for us around the country.

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Church Street Girls in 1958


Miriam Kiely has been in touch with the last name.

Eileen Sheridan sent us this photo and she had all the names except one. Here is the caption as Eileen had it;

It is summer 1958 and these are the girls

Front row Ann Gleeson

Mary Keane,  Noreen Scanlon, Noreen McSweeney, Geraldine Flaherty

Angela Breen, Eileen Guerin, ? ,Kathleen Kenny

Maisie McSweeney, Eileen Scanlon

Miriam thinks that the girl between Eileen and Kathleen is Bride Given, who lived with her family in the Garda Station.

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Culture Night 2019


Listowel had lots of music and singing on Friday September 20th. Ard Churam choir and the local Comhaltas musicians were all playing their part.

I was in the Small Square giving out free poems on behalf of Writers’ Week. 

It’s a sign of the times that  some people couldn’t believe they were free and were reluctant to take them at first.

Then there was the other little issue of being mistaken for a Jehovah’s Witness.

Two scenarios I had nor envisaged when I volunteered for the job.

Marie, Catherine  and Éilish were my fellow poetry distributors



One of the poems which was chosen by Writers’ Week literary adviser and poet, John McAulliffe was called Corner Boys. This time it was not John B. Keane writing about this urban phenomenon but Bryan MacMahon.

MacMahon’s Corner Boys were ex soldiers mostly. They had seen awful things and glorious things

…”the sun behind a minaret….`



I sympathised with them as I too stood stood on Main Street.



“Here the lonesome Kerry winds

Shriek up along draughty streets,

And how around the corner 

Where the corner boys are growing grey

Dreaming of sunny skies.


Ardagh Chalice, Presentation Convent Listowel and More from Races 2019


The Arcade looking good in the sunshine last week

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Mending Fences

From my vantage point at the rails I could see the damage a field of horses jumping over them can do to the hurdles.

Immediately the workforce are out with mallets repairing the fence.

Here it is, good as new and ready for the next onslaught.

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Presentation Convent, Listowel

As I was passing by on foot to the races I dropped in to my old workplace and I took a few photos of the dear old convent. 

The Parents’ Committee has erected a plaque to the nuns and the great contribution they have made to education in North Kerry.

The secondary school grounds.

 Looking towards the convent chapel from the school grounds

 Presentation Convent Listowel in September 2019

The old convent chapel

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Building in Greenville

This building is going up next door to the convent chapel.

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Ardagh Chalice

The Sam Maguire Cup was based on the Ardagh Chalice 



The Ardagh Chalice is one of the greatest treasures of the early Irish Church. It is part of a hoard of objects found in the 19th century by a young man digging for potatoes near Ardagh, Co. Limerick. It was used for dispensing Eucharistic wine during the celebration of Mass. The form of the chalice recalls late Roman tableware, but the method of construction is Irish.



The Ardagh Chalice represents a high point in early medieval craftsmanship and can be compared in this regard to the Tara Brooch and the Derrynaflan Paten.



See it on display at the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology https://www.museum.ie/Archaeology

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A Minute of Your Time



If you’d like to pre-order a signed copy, just drop me a line at listowelconnection@gmail.com The book is with the printers but as soon as I have it I will be mailing copies.

For Listowel people, the launch is planned for St. John’s Listowel on Saturday October 19 at 7.30

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Culture Night 2019



I ran into Aimee and Sinead from Writers’ Week as they finalised their plans for Culture Night. I met them in Listowel Printing Works where they were meeting with Paul. He has a part in the Culture Night event too.

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