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: Dr. Michael O.Connor

No 24 The Square and an extraordinary lady

The following photographs were sent to me by Eitan Elazar and they are from the family album of descendants of Dr. Michael O’Connor of no. 24 The Square, Listowel

Dr. Michael O’Connor and his wife in the garden of No. 24 in 1950

Mrs. O’Connor at her front door

Mrs. O’Connor at home in No. 24 The Square, Listowel

Dr. Michael O’Connor

In the garden at No 24 The Square.

The house with the family Morris Minor in front.

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From my friend and collaborator, Vincent Carmody I got this message on the history of the house itself;

“You might let the readers know that Gerard Lynch was the owner of the Castle House after the O’Connors.  The Lynch family then build a house at the rear. Danny Hannon also was given use of the stables and for many years they housed early productions of the infant Lartigue Theatre.  For some time the Lynches had part of the house rented to the V.E.C who used some of the rooms as classrooms due to lack of space at the old Technical school in lower Church Street and prior to the building of the present Community College. After the VEC relocated, the house was turned into a flat complex. These apartments would have been first homes for a good number of Listowel couples in the days before rent subsidies.

The house itself was built by Richard Fitzgerald in the early 1800’s. It passed from him through his widow, Elizabeth Agnes FitzGerald (nee Fitzmaurice) to her nephew Dr Ulysses Fitzmaurice in 1855. The Attorney, Francis Creagh, father of Bertha Beatty, became owner after the Fitzmaurices.  

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John Stack’s picture of the victorious Listowel Emmets youngsters.

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Forur Genealogy posted this lovely picture of Liza Mulvihill of Glin. This lady was featured in the last edition of Turtle Bunbury’s Vanishing Ireland.

I knew Liza many years ago when she used to cycle to Listowel to collect for the National MS Society. Liza had a lovely niece who had MS. Liza looked after  Mary Anne with the very best of care. Anxious to do something to help find a cure for this awful disease that was devastating her family, she joined the MS Society and became its local liaison person. When the flag day came round, Liza would cycle from her home in Ballyguiltenane  to Listowel with her collecting tin and flags. In the 1970s these”flags” were little paper rectangles which one attached with a straight pin. She usually took up her position in The Square, collected all day, only stopping for lunch and then cycled back home to count the money and send it back to Dublin with the collecting tin.

The MS Society now is a professional organisation with professional staff as well as volunteers on the ground. Back in the early seventies it was run from Dublin on a totally voluntary basis by a group of ladies bountiful. I don’t think they ever realised the sacrifice and hardship heroes like Liza endured in order to fill the coffers and fund vital research which has yet to produce the cure we all hoped was around the corner back then.

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This following story comes from Donegal this week. Has the country gone stone mad? I ask.

DONEGAL
BOY (10) GETS €5,000 FOR CUT KNEE

October 15, 2013

A
TEN-year-old boy has been awarded more than €5,000 in court today – for cutting
his knee.

The
settlement relates to an incident at Ostan Gweedore Hotel three years ago.

Barrister
Patricia McLaughlin told Donegal Circuit Civil Court, sitting in Letterkenny
today, that the child had arrived at the hotel on July 12, 2009 with his mother
and sister.

Whilst
the child’s mother was locking the car, her son fell on grass in the grounds of
the hotel and cut his knee.

Judge
Petria McDonnell was told that the hotel management were not told of the
incident at the time.

“The
first they knew of it was a letter which arrived a year later,” said Ms
McLaughlin.

The
hotel, she said, was not accepting liability but was prepared to settle the
claim.

It was
still not clear, said the barrister, how the cut came about but the boy had to
receive eight stitches for a wound to his knee.

“There
are no long term effects and the boy in fact wears the scar as a badge of
honour I’m told,” said Ms McLaughlin.

She
said the hotel had made a low all-in offer to the boy which totalled €6,000 to
cover costs and the injury and the boy would receive €5,059.90 as part of the
settlement.

Gleasure descendants and Dr. Michael O’Connor of 24 The Square

Listowel had some welcome visitors during the past week. Ben and Kathleen Naylor were on a trip to North Kerry to visit locations associated with Ben’s Gleasure ancestors. If you have forgotten about The Gleasure letters, here is the link.

http://gleasureharberletters.blogspot.ie

Ben’s ancestor is Frank to whom all the letters were written. Unfortunately we have none of Frank’s replies but the one sided correspondence we do have is a wonderful first person account of one family’s life in Listowel in the first half of the 20th century.

Ben consults the letters to clarify a point
Vincent Carmody points out the Gleasure names to Ben and Kathleen.
Vincent took the couple on a tour of the town pointing out places of interest.
Ben and Kathleen pose at the door of the pub which once belonged to Ben’s great great grandfather
Jacinta, Susan and Tom Quilter pose with the Naylors outside their veterinary shop, a premises once owned by the Gleasure family.

Vincent explains why this corner of town was known locally as The Custom Gap.

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If you are following my tales of the Gleasure family and descendants, you will remember a reference in a previous post to one of May Gleasure’s letters in which she referred to her father’s illness and how his life was saved by the intervention of one Dr. Michael O’Connor. The good doctor was George Gleasure’s neighbour in The Square. He lived in the house now occupied by The Seanchaí.

Dr. Michael O’Connor R.I.P.

After I had posted this story I was contacted by  Geraldine O’Sullivan who is a granddaughter of Dr. O’Connor. She sent me his obituary from the Kerryman and the above photo. The newspaper cutting was very blurry so I contacted Michael Lynch the archivist in the County library and he sent me a slightly better scan but of the whole page of the newspaper from August 25 1951.

Then the story took another twist when Eitan Elazar, another grandchild of Dr. O’Connor sent me a typed up version of the obituary and a copy of the mortuary card.

There has
passed to his eternal reward one of North Kerry’s most gentle and unassuming
sons in the person of Dr. Michael O’Connor who was M.O.H. for Listowel and
district for the past thirty-five years. He was born at Derrindaffe, Duagh and
educated at St. Michael’s College Listowel, and at the National University,
Dublin, where he took his M.D. degree in 1906. It was in that year he started
his professional career in Listowel and from then on he had the interests of
that town very closely at heart. Right through his entire life he had the
greatest consideration for the poor and needy to whom he gave of his best
without thought of gratitude or money. Apart from his medical life, he took a
leading part in the affairs of the town and was foremost in anything that
furthered the interest of Listowel. In 1918, a special branch of the Town
Tenants’ League was formed to take over portion of Lord Listowel’s estate by
negotiation for the benefit of the landless poor of the town. These negotiations
failed and with the approval of town and country, the lands known as the Lawn
and the Major’s Field were forcibly entered and ploughed up. This action led to
the arrest of Dr. O’Connor  and the members of the special committee, who
were charged and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in Cork Co. Jail. Later,
Lord Listowel decided to give the land to the people and Dr. O’Connor and
another townsman were appointed trustees. Thus by his action, plots of land
were secured for cultivation by the people and particularly the poor. He was
founder member of Sinn Fein in North Kerry and devoted much of his professional
time organizing the I.R.A and there was not a town or village in North Kerry
but had its Sinn Fein Club, due to his untiring efforts and hard work. The
first Dáil Éireann Loan was organized by him in North Kerry. As a counterblast
to the Belfast Pogrom in 1920, he took a leading part in the Belfast Boycott
and had it so perfected that not a pennyworth of Belfast or English goods
entered Listowel. Naturally, all these incidents marked him as a man to reckon
with, so the British Government decided to make its move. On the Monday
following “Bloody Sunday” in Dublin the doctor and six of his
associates were arrested and taken to Listowel Jail, later being transferred to
Kilworth Camp, Cork Co. Jail and eventually Ballykinlar, Co. Down, where they
remained until the General Amnesty in December, 1921. During his internment
(which incidentally lasted thirteen months) his residence was taken over by the
British military and his wife and young family were forced to seek shelter
among friends. After the “split” he became pro-Treaty, but still his
sacrifices for the country were not over. Coming from Tralee one evening he was
forcibly removed from his car and compelled to walk across the mountains to
Castleisland spending one night in the open country , by the side of a fence,
and was later held prisoner for several days. In later years he took little
active part in politics. With his death the nation has lost a noble son and the
poor a kind friend. May the sod rest lightly on him who spent his life doing
good to others and may God, the giver of life, have mercy on his soul.

Eitan remembers visiting Listowel and staying at number 24

“Our memories of Listowel were from many holidays spent down at the house at 24 the Square.

Vivid memories were of the market days in the square waking up to the mooing of cows, the hee haws of donkeys and the bleating of sheep.

many many outings to Ballybunion during the summer. visits to Roberts the sweet shop at the corner of the Square 

and freshly baked apple tarts from Lynch’s bakery across the square and playing in the grounds of the Castle.

Michael O’Connor jr was a very good artist who was particularly interested in Celtic manuscripts. I include one of his works, 

the breast plate of St Patrick. “

Isn’t that magnificent?

Eitan sent me some more family photographs which I will post tomorrow.

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