Listowel Town Square, early morning, January 26 2022
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That was then; this is now
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Pres. Yearbook 1990
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In Rath Luirc
Charleville Heritage Society and Charleville Men’s Shed are responsible for this newly erected memorial to townsmen who fell in The Great War.
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A Listowel Fact
In 1800 a flour mill was built on The Feale behind the castle. When milling ceased there the building became a creamery and later a sweet factory.
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A Kanturk Memory
I belong to a Facebook group called Kanturk Memories. Recently Richard Norton added this gem. It is a goods train steaming into Kanturk Station in Percival Street with empty wagons before a Kanturk fair.
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Her Smile
A poem by Cyril Kelly
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That was Then; This is Now
This premises is soon to change its use again. In 2007 it was an Art Gallery.
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Christmas Windows
Listowel businesses are excellent at embracing a window display challenge. This Christmas Listowel.ie has chosen Toy Story as a theme for the festive windows.
It is lovely to stroll around town and look at all the various displays.
Here is Doran’s
I met Ryanne and she told me that the reproduced letters are genuine and the toys are the ones Santa brought as requested in the letters.
What a magical uplifting window display!
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1916 commemorative Garden, July 2018
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Crowley’s Corner now Doran’s Pharmacy
Photo: The John Hannon Archive
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Hiking The Kerry Way
A friend recently sent me a link to this blog post
Read this account of Patrick Keough’s walk and you will want to “arise and go there”
Here are just a few snippets.
The Kerry Way Trail takes you over some of Ireland’s highest mountains, majestic coastlines, remote valleys, native forests and breathtaking scenic vistas.
The terrain along the Kerry Way is much more extreme and remote than the Camino to Santiago, however the scenic views are magnificent and awe inspiring. I also got myself lost a few times hiking the mountain ridges in dense fog. It was a frightening experience not being able to find the trail markers then looking at my phone and realizing I had no service. Luckily after about 4 km of searching and some praying I found my way back to the trail. It was an introspective trek, in addition to a great personal challenge.
After a week of hiking over rugged deserted terrain I started thinking what it must have been like for the Irish people 200 years ago. No creature comforts, no cars, phones or electricity. I can’t even imagine how hard life must have been just traveling from town to town by foot or horse cart.
It’s difficult doing justice with words describing the majestic beauty of the Kerry landscape. It’s the same as it was thousands of years ago. Towering rocky hillsides, flowing dark rivers and miles and miles of wet boggy grass and yellow gorse. I feel very blessed and a little overwhelmed hiking in this timeless unspoiled environment. Looking upon my surroundings this morning bathed in crisp dawn light I feel Gods presence in nature.
This is just a small taste of this marvellous blogpost. Here is the link again. Read it all and look at Patrick’s marvellous photos. If you don’t have the energy to undertake it, this is the next best thing to being there.
All photos and text are copyright to Patrick Keough
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Summer Visitors
When I called in to Listowel Writers’ Week office last week, I found Máire and Eilish entertaining Jim and Liz Dunn and their visiting grandchildren.
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This Cat is going nowhere
Member of staff at Tralee railway station
The Cross at Lisselton in glorious June sunshine in 2018
Photo; Ballydonoghue Parish Magazine
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A Doctor in Spite of Himself X2
Remember I told you about this open air performance of Moliére’s play in Listowel Town Square during an early Writers’ Week. Mike Moriarty who is in the white coat on the left of the stage remembered that they were all delighted when their performance made The Irish Times. David O’Sullivan did a bit of delving for us and here is what he found.
The above is an extract from the 1978 programme. What a feast of drama they had!
Two other performances aroused my interest. They are The Life of O”Reilly with Brendan O’Reilly. Was this the late great high jumper and later sports commentator?
And what was The Ball on the Hop by Eamon Keane?
I’ll have to go back to the oracle.
I hope you can enlarge this to read it. It reminds me of accounts of early performances of Shakespeare and miracle plays in courtyards of inns and town squares when people would drop by to see a play on their way home with the shopping and maybe shy a tomato or two at the villain.
Seems like the evergreen Mickey McConnell was the highlight of the ballad competition. No surprise there then.
This is the 1991 production. Mike Moriarty is on the right, playing the part he first played in 1978. Danny Hannon, who founded the Lartigue Players was also involved in the acquiring and refurbishing of St. John’s decided to reprise a successful play for the opening performance.
The “smallest theatre in Ireland and England” had been closed down for 9 years when the lease ran out. Gerard Lynch, who owned the building, had given the Lartigue the use of the theatre rent free for ten years. Now drama had found a new home in St. John’s and the Lartigue company was just one of the many local drama groups who used it as their home for many years and some still do today.
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Then and Now on a Corner of Church St.
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Evening Stroll by The Feale
Photo: Chris Grayson
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Knockanure parish church in May 2018
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First Communion, Knockanure May 2018
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Boyhood Friends
Martin Griffin gave me this old photo to share with you.
In front; Billy Dore, Dominick Scanlon and Richie Chute R.I.P.
Back Buddy Jones and Frank Chute
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Convent Chapel May 2018
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R.I.P. Fr. Roger Duggan
Last week I attended the funeral mass of Fr. Roger Duggan in St. Mary’s Listowel. It was a small funeral, because, in the words of Fr. John Fitzgerald who celebrated the mass, Roger had become a Kerryman only recently.
Fr. Roger was far from “unknown” and during his life he had travelled and served and sang and had many adventures.
As was fitting for a man who loved music his funeral mass featured some of the most heavenly music I have heard in St. Mary’s, Listowel.
So who was this gentle holy man?
Fr. Roger Duggan was the only brother of Una Hayes, whom I have come to know through our both belonging to the Knitwits knitting group.
Una and Roger were born in Wales to Irish parents. They moved to Birmingham and it is here that Roger and Una grew up.
Roger worked in Wales, in England and eventually in Australia. His cv is very diverse. He worked in taxation, in sheep shearing, in the hospitality industry and in railway building.
Eventually this very intelligent and well read man decided on a life in the religious order of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. He was ordained in 1993 and spent his life in ministry in Australia.
When he retired, he relocated to Cork. He took up a new role as chaplain to the local convent and he helped out with the work of the parish.
When he fell into ill health it was decided that he would be happiest nearer to his beloved Una and her husband Liam and so he spent his last years being well looked after in Oaklands Nursing Home.
May he rest in peace
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Doran’s Pharmacy, Listowel opening
I disturbed Norma and staff as they put the finishing touches to her new shop. Outside, the final brush was being put to the paint.
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Things ar Hotting up in the Writers’ Week office
All hands on deck, shoulders to the wheel and noses to the grindstone. Writers Week 2018 is 2 days away.
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Nathan Carter meets a Star and her husband
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