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: Cyril Kelly

Words and Music and Saturday at Listowel Races 2013

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On October 15, 2013

In Uncategorized

 The entertainment at Listowel Writers’ Week Words and Music event on Saturday evening,

 October 12 2013 was second to none.

Kathy Nugent, accompanied on the piano by Colm O’Brien, had the audience in the palm of her hand with well known Doris Day, Sinatra and Tony Bennett numbers. Kathy has a powerful voice and a really winning stage presence.

Claire Keane gave us a lovely rendition of John B.’s Sweet Listowel.

Gabriel Fitzmaurice’s theme was family as he read some warm sonnets to his granddaughter, his late father and his wife. Admiration, awe and love shone through in every line.

Veronica, Bernie, Margaret and Norella, all from the Writers’ Week committee were working hard on the night.

This local group of multi talented young musicians wowed us all with their versatility and musicianship.

Mary Kenny was one of the star turns. She spoke about The Femme Fatale, Terry Keane and then in Part 2 she gave us a little insight into her own unconventional upbringing.

Cyril Kelly is one of a group of Listowel people exiled in Dublin. Like all of this group, he retains a huge affection for his native town and mines these happy memories of growing up in this special place in much of his writing. He read  a poem he wrote for Miriam Kiely, celebrating happy days as teenagers in Listowel. He also took up the theme of family with a revealing insight into his first venture into fatherhood in the days before epidurals, when pain relief had not advanced much further than mopping his wife’s brow with a flannel!

Owen MacMahon is an expert on his father’s work. He gave us a unique insight into Bryan MacMahon, short story writer. As always, his talk was laced with amusing local anecdotes, self deprecating humour and erudite classical and Irish references. He even ended with a song beloved of all past pupils of The Master, Kerry Candle Light.

A happy Seán Lyons, chairman, Listowel Writers’ Week signed off on a very successful evening.

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On the Saturday of The Harvest Meeting of Listowel Races 2013 I went to The Island en famille. I am a very proud mother and grandmother so people have been wondering where those Saturday photos went. Well, here they are…

Bobby Cogan met up with his friend, Fergus O’Connor who was at The Races with his dad.

 The boys studied form in the parade ring before committing their (or my) money.

€2 each way on Number 4.

Listowel Tidy Towns were holding an upcycling competition.

 Some people seemed a bit unsure of what constitutes upcycling.

There was a bit of early canvassing going on.

This lad was doing a good job of cleaning the ring.

Carine met a work colleague and family.

Clíona met her friend Gillian.

Madeleine and Margaret looked every stylish even though they told me that they were more dressed up the day before since it was Ladies’ Day.

Clíona and Seán picked a few winners.

Edel, Frances and Liam were winners in the upcycling competition.

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John Kelliher took this great picture of rutting stags in The National Park, Killarney

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Jer.’s video clip from the community procession at Listowel Parish Mission 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO3vP5gyvfY&feature=youtu.be

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(Pic: Goracing)

A tug o war was one of the many fun events which took place at Limerick racecourse yesterday. All funds raised on the day will go to help injured jockies, Johnjo Bright and JP MacNamara

Windows of Wonder; Words and Music; Michael Collins and Ladies Day 2013

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On October 2, 2013

In Uncategorized

Two Dates for the diary

This is actress, Florence Gabriel who plays teacher, Cathy MacMahon in a film of the great Bryan MacMahon story “The Windows of Wonder”

The Listowel premiere of the film will be screened in The Classic Cinema, Listowel on Thursday October 17 at 8.00p.m. The story is a lovely one and the film promises to be a faithful adaptation.

Preview here;

http://vimeo.com/74309915

On the previous Saturday, Writers Week are holding what promises to be a great “Listowel Night”

Tickets for this one off gig are available from any Writers’ Week member or from the WW office in the basement of The Seanchaí.

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This is Michael Collins’ bicycle. Jer. photographed it on show during the recent Ploughing Championships. For those interested in such things is a 1919 Rudge Whitworth deluxe double bar.

This is Michael Collins addressing a rally without any amplification except the human voice. It must have been all the cycling that gave him the lung power to be heard by all of these.

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Still some more from Ladies Day at Listowel Races 2013



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And the Listowel Connection?



 Kieran O’Connor, Listowel and New York in the centre of the picture with the cup and some team mates on the Kerry New York Senior Gaelic football team after their great win in  the New York Senior Championship 2013.

Mai Naylor/ Aoife Hannon Millinery Yarns event Writers’ Week 2013

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On June 13, 2013

In Uncategorized

Anyone who believes that a prophet is never appreciated in his own parish, has not been to Listowel. Listowel likes nothing better than to celebrate its own writers. Any Writers’ Week event featuring the work of a local writer is a guaranteed sell out.

Cyril Kelly may not be as well known nationally as John B. Keane and Bryan MacMahon but he is huge in Listowel. Cyril’s style is conversational and confessional. He blends nostalgia with bemusement at the pace of change in the world. Growing up  in Listowel, family and particularly the joys of living in a mainly female household, the agony and the ecstasy of fatherhood, travel and teaching are among the themes he returns to again and again in his writing. All his anecdotes are told in a carefully crafted, learned yet accessible style. He delights in the well turned phrase; the well chosen adjective; the evocative metaphor. His word pictures are a delight to the eye. 

Cyril has another gift even greater than his command of the English language, that is his inimitable speaking voice. His essays are written for the voice….his own. Like  Dylan Thomas, another man who wrote for radio, his work is best  enjoyed when heard delivered by the writer.

Writers Week 2013 featured two Cyril Kelly events. The first was his reading in St. John’s. The second was an event he presented along with local milliner, Aoife Hannon. The happening took place in Tae Lane Store on Church Street and featured hats by Cyril’s mother, Mai Naylor and modern headpieces by Aoife Hannon whose star continues to rise among modern established milliners.

Cyril Kelly reminisces about Mai Naylor, Babe Jo Wilmot and her 2 pigs, Hansel and Gretel, milk delivered from cow to doorstep by the man who did the milking and the first Writers’ Week. He told us how Vatican 2 dealt a death blow to his mother’s milinery trade. Women were no longer required to cover their heads in church.

Aoife Hannon has little to do with cows and pigs. Horses are the animals most dear to the hearts of her customers. Aoife’s colorful and beautifully crafted hats are seen on racecourses and at weddings and glamorous social events here and in the U.K.

Hats by both Listowel milliners were on display in the shop and were a great talking point among the many ladies present.

Cyril Kelly, Kelly Browne of Tae Lane Store who organised the event and Aoife Hannon wearing one of her own creations.
Mirian Kiely, Bríd Kelly, Anne Moloney and Kay Caaball
Mai Naylor’s grandaughter models one of her grandmother’s hats.
 Moloneys; Anne, Maeve and Kay

 The three Kelly girls pose with their grandmother’s hats. Unfortunately there were none of her famous turbans among the hats that Kelly collected for this occasion from local women.

Mai Naylor’s three granddaughters in the Tea Lane Store at Writers’ Week 2013.

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Since it looks like this post will be enjoyed mainly by the ladies, here are a few fashon items from another era.

Dungarvan women in the fashionable attire  of the early 20th century
Bathing costumes from the same era

The Bantry Cloak.

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Business people in town made a great effort for Writers’ Week and The Races

The Horseshoe

Listowel Garden Centre’s display advertising Ladies’ Day at the races

Local Writers celebrated at Writers’ Week 2013

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On June 12, 2013

In Uncategorized

One of the best parts of Writers’ Week for most local people is the opportunity to meet up with old friends who come home to Listowel for the festival. What better place to meet these friends than at a “local” event. One of these events this year was a tribute by Owen MacMahon to his late father, Bryan. Owen managed masterfully to show us what made Bryan MacMahon ‘tick”.

Our own local “údar agus oide” was brought to life before our eyes but we also got a glimpse of the great man as father and husband. Owen shared his unique insights into everyday life with a disciplined writer, a man of fixed habits but above all a story teller extraordinaire. Maybe a more fitting title would be ” údar, scéalaí agus oide” .

Owen’s enormous pride in his father shone through in every anecdote. Bryan MacMahon was a writer deeply rooted in his native place. He respected and honoured his own people: he celebrated them in ballads and stories but he always treated them gently and with a tolerant teacher’s understanding of the shortcomings of the human condition.

The singing of Karen Trench, Philip Enright and Sonny Egan added to this gem of a performance; for me the theatrical high point of this year’s Writers’ Week.

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I met a group of old Listowellians, pictured below, reunited as they left St. John’s after another vituoso local performance from essayist, Cyril Kelly. Cyril has the gift of turning the minutae of everyday life as he lives it, into charming evocative pieces with  universal appeal. 

His essays are a delight to read on the page but far far more delightful when read in his distinctive musical voice.

Cyril Kelly reading in St. John’s
Vincent Carmody introducing Cyril to the audience.

Cyril gave a second performance on Saturday in Tae Lane Store where he spoke about growing up in the house of a milliner. I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow.

School friends and old neighbors, Máire MacMahon and Anne Cogan met up during writers’ Week 2013.

 Joan Regan and Jim Cogan take a stroll before the theatre on Sunday night. They saw King of Carnage, an enjoyable light hearted farce, just the ticket for those suffering from literary overload.

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This picture of Ballybunion on Friday June 8 2013 comes from

https://www.facebook.com/pages/BALLYBUNION-not-just-a-placemore-a-way-of-life/125749737436255

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