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: Duchas Page 5 of 7

A Goat, Our Tidy Town Seat, Winding Wool, a ghost and an Old Album Cover

By

On May 15, 2019

In Uncategorized

Irish Wildlife Photography Competition

Feral Goat: Neil T. Halligan

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We Care with a Chair


Thank you Tidy Town people. I rarely pass the seat in this fine weather but there is someone taking their ease. These two local ladies were waiting for the bus.

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Newspaper Pins its Colours to the Mast in 1912



Kerry Weekly Reporter  Saturday, October 12, 1912


THE POST OFFICE AND THE PARTY.


The 30th September, the fatal day when an Englishman was to be brought in to ride roughshod over able Irish officials, has come and gone. Mr. Norway has been duly installed as Secretary of the Irish Post Office: an office, we believe, he never previously put his foot in, and no explanation good or bad is vouchsafed by the Irish Party in the Irish Press -why an Englishman who never was in Ireland should be placed on the necks of the whole Irish Post Office staff. One can only, ask is this one of the fruits of the Balance of Power.

If this rotten job be one fruit of the Balance of Power and Mr. Runciman’s Regulations are another, and Mr. Winston Churchill’s Home Rule for Ulster scheme is yet another, and Mr. Birrell’s anti-Irish, anti-Catholic educational balloons are yet some others, everyone will shudder at what the Balance of Power may bring to Ireland out of the womb of the future. “Sinn Fein “



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Winding Wool




It is May 6 2019 and my little girlies are learning a social history lesson. A friend recently gave me some skiens of pure wool and I took the opportunity to teach my little granddaughters a lesson.

Do you remember when all wool (It was wool. No acrylic back then) came in 1 oz. hanks and you had to wind it into a ball before you could start on your knitting project? The girls were full of enthusiasm to start with but they found the job a bit tiring on the arms. Happy days!

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Scary Story from Ballybunion Convent School in the 1930s



From Dúchas, the school’s folklore project


About thirty years ago on Christmas night a man in Beale had to leave his own house and he had to take his candle in his hand to a neighbour’s house, because he was hunted by ghosts who asked him to leave as there was to be a fight that night between the Wrens and the Shines who lived in the neighbourhood some year before. As he and his sister were leaving, a man whom they knew to be dead of years offered to lead them and when they went out in the yard, he had to divide the crowd to allow them pass. The day before the place was covered with magpies and he did not know what was to happen. 

The morning after this he was going fishing. The moon had risen. When he got up, he thought it was day. He went to the boathouse and waited under his canoe until it was bright. As he was about to lie under the canoe, the man who told him to leave his house the night before came to the canoe and peeped in. He told him that if they went fishing that morning, someone would be drowned. When it was bright he and four other men went fishing. They were not far out when a great storm came and overturned the boat and two men were drowned.


Sheila Sheahan 

Beale Middle

Co Kerry

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Old Album Sleeve



Liam OHainnín found this one.

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Meeting a Blog Follower




I was lucky enough to meet (by chance) one of my most faithful blog followers in Flying Saucer on Monday.

Noreen Holyoake – Keese grew up in Listowel and now lives in New York.

The streets of Castleisland, Faction fights in the 1800s and John Coolahan remembered

By

On May 10, 2019

In Uncategorized

Tidy Town announcement;

President Michael D. Higgins is coming to unveil the Tidy Town Plaque on Saturday May 25 2019.

the Tidy To

Kingfisher by Philip Blair for Irish Wildlife Photography Competition

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Tarbert Honours One of It’s Own



Last weekend at the start of the Cuckoo Walking Festival the people of Tarbert came out in force to the unveiling of a memorial plaque to the late great educationalist, John Coolahan

(photos; Tarbert.ie)



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Castleisland …a Town in Transition


I saw more than one of these signs on my walk around Castleisland

Charity shops in prime locations are usually an indicator that rents are cheap. Castleisland has a lot of charity shops.

The irony! the tricolour flies at The Crown Hotel.

There are some lovely well kept shops side by side by so many derelict buildings.

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Faction Fights (from the schools folklore project)


On the 13th of May fair in Listowel some time previous to 1830. some Magheragh men (Ballyduff, Causeway, Ballyheigue, Killanhan, etc) were selling potatoes. A discussion arose as to the comparative merits of the potatoes between the Magheragh men and the cúl-na-lín (Culeen near Listowel) men. The discussion ended in a fight, where the Magheragh men got off the worst as they wouldn’t have the backing in Listowel that the others had. At the Whit Monday fair in Ardfert the fight was renewed. Practically every man in North Kerry took one side or another and for years after whenever people assembled at fair or market on Sunday after mass the fight was renewed.

The biggest fight of all took place at (Ballyduff) Ballyeigh on the 24th June 1834. The North Kerry race meeting was then held in Ballyeigh Strand (opposite the Cashen School) but was eventually transferred to Listowel (1870). The races were held on the

right hand side of the River Cashen on the strand where the school is now and when some of the combatants tried to escape by crossing the river in boats and swimming, they were attacked by their opponents with stones, bottles, stick and so on at the left side of the river. A terrible fight ensued in which about thirteen people were drowned and very many injured.
As far as I know there was only one man arrested for it, a well to do man named Leahy of Ballinorig near Causeway. Many others went on the run but were never arrested. He was tried and sentenced to be transplanted to Freemantle.
For threequarters of a century afterwards the people in this district and in North Kerry generally recorded events from the year the boat was drowned” or from the night of the big wind”. After the tragedy the faction fight slackened and died down and the famine helped to put an end to it altogether.
Even some old people take pride in the fact that their ancestors took one side or the other in the faction.

COLLECTOR
Murtie Dowling
Gender
male
INFORMANT
Denis Lawlor
Gender
male
Address
Causeway, Co. Kerry
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May

LANGUAGE
English

April Horse fair, The Kindness of Friends and St. Senan’s Well

By

On April 16, 2019

In Uncategorized

Celtic crosses in St. Michael’s  Cemetery, Listowel

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It’s a Good Day When

Your friend brings you scones, just because…….

A U.S. friend sends a card to say she appreciates what you do.

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I wasn’t the only one taking photos at the horse fair. I ran into Steve and Helena on Market Street.

 sellers, buyers and some of the goods and animals for sale on April 4 2019

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Spotted on a Listowel Window


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St. Senan’s Well


Tarbert School collection. Nora Scanlon Dooncaha.

Our Holy Wells

There is a well in Tarmons known as St. Senan’s. It is in the corner of Buckley’s field in Ballintubber.

This well is not deep and a stream flows out of it. Always in the month of May people pay rounds at this well on every Saturday of the month.

This is how people pay rounds. People pick up seven pebbles out of the stream and then kneel down at the well and start reciting the Rosary. Then they start at the right hand side of the well and walk slowly all round reciting a decade of the Rosary while going round. At the end of each decade they throw one pebble away. Then when the seventh round is paid they kneel down and finish the Rosary. Then they take three drinks out of the well and wash their faces at the stream. Then they usually tie a piece of string on an overhanging bush. It is said that according as the cloth wears away the disease wears off the patient.

It is called St. Senan’s well because it was St. Senan who blessed its waters. From the well you can see the ruins of seven churches and round tower in Scattery built by St. Senan.

There are no fish in the well and the water is not used for household purposes. Once a woman went to fill her kettle at the well. She forgot to bring a vessel with which to fill her kettle. She left her kettle at the well and went back for a saucepan. When she returned the well had disappeared and the bush with it. It went from the top of the hill to the side where it is now.

Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

Collector- Bernadette O’ Sullivan- Informant Gerald O Sullivan, Age 60, Address, Tarbert, Co. Kerry

Convent Cross, 1916 Commemorative Manhole Cover, Kennedy Home, Holy Wells and Buying a Duck

By

On April 15, 2019

In Uncategorized

 Calvary at Convent Cross

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Manhole Cover


Because Listowel was undergoing road repairs in 2016 when these special commemorative manhole covers were commissioned we have a few of these at locations around the town. This one is on Upper Church Street.

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Kennedy Home Then And Now

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Holy Wells on the Move


( from Dúchas school folklore collection)

Local Place Names
Collector Jeremiah Clancy- Age 11-Informant, Patrick Ahern, Age 70, Occupation, labourer
In a farm in Gortdromagowna owned by Thomas OConnor there stands a well called St. Mary’s well. The field is known as the Blessed Well Field. People from this parish and the surroundings go there to pay their rounds in May.

The Blessed Well
Collector Annie Heffernan, Tarmon West.
There is a blessed well in Mr. John Buckley’s field. It is St. Senan’s Well. There is a story connected with this well. First it was situated in Kelly’s land and now it is relocated to its present loacation.

It is said that the servant of the house took water from this well to wash clothes and next morning it had disappeared.

Many people go to the blessed well during the year to pay rounds. They go on the Saturday before May, and on the Saturday before St. John’s Day.

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Buying a Duck at the April Horsefair


On April 4 2019 on Market Street Listowel I came upon this family taking a great interest in the poultry seller and particularly his ducks. He had  a variety of healthy looking young ducks for sale.

This little man was very adamant that this was the one he wanted. Even though the duck was heavier than he anticipated, he was delighted with his new purchase.

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Good Job, Firemen




Photo; John Curtin



Extensive damage was done to this Ballybunion premises on Friday night. Our hard working fire  fighting personnel did a good job and thankfully there was no loss of life.

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Women in Media



The full programme has been revealed.

official promotional photo

See what’s in store;

Women in Media 2019

Ballybunion. Little Lilac Studio, April 2019 Horse Fair, the public loo in 2019

By

On April 12, 2019

In Uncategorized

Ballybunion in March 2019 photographed by Bridget O’Connor

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The Last Project

I have sadly delivered the last Little Lilac Studio project to my grandchildren

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Listowel’s Public Convenience




Listowel’s public toilet on Market Street has some state of the art features that are meant to make it attractive to patrons.

It is wheelchair friendly. It costs 25cents to spend a penny. It has instructions in several languages including Braille. For hearing impaired people there are audio instructions.

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Wells and Place Names from Dúchas School Folklore Collection


There is a well situated in Mrs. David Dillon’s farm. At this day the well goes by the name of Tobair na Giolláin. The people say the English of it is the well of the flies. At first the well was situated near a hedge in the field but one morning a woman rinsed clothes in it and when the people came to the well it was dried up but it sprang up about four perches from the place. The people are still taking water out of it but the old people always said it was a blessed well.

Collector- Martin Connelly,Address, Kilteean, Co. Kerry. From Drom Muirinn School

Informant, Mrs K. Quilter

GLEANN na BRÓN

The name is still used by the local inhabitants and probably means the Glen of the Quern. It is beside this glen the “brittlen” woman used to be heard.

In the farm of Pat Trant Jnr, Behins, there was a blessed well. This was known to the older people as Tobar Uí Leidhin. There was an old midwife living in Behins named Moll Barry. One May morning she went to the well for a can of water. She had hardly reached the well when she was lifted off the ground and the next place she found herself was below at the monument in Lixnaw, spirited away by the good people.

Beside the well there was a graveyard. A glen beside it is still known as Gleann Dóighte.

Beside our house is a place called Pike, on the main road between Listowel and Castleisland. Old Ned Prendiville use to say that there were two gates here and everybody who passed the way with cattle or cars had to pay a toll of a halfpenny. There was also a pound there. There is a Dispensary at Pike. In this building was the old National school whose first teacher was John O’Connor. O’Connor was not long there when he had to flee the country owing to his connection with the Fenians. Then came my Grandfather old Master Lynch who taught there for six years and who opened the school at Rathea in 1875.

My Grandfather was a native of Knockanure. He used to tell stories about a woman name Joan Grogan of Knockanure. This woman used to be “out” with the good people. One night they were on their way to Castleisland to decide whether a girl there name Brosnan was to be taken away or not. On their way they called in to my grandfather’s aunt the wife of Michéal Ruadh Kirby of Behins and took her snuff box as a joke. Micéal Ruad’s wife met her a few days after at the big fair in Listowel (13th May). Joan asked her did she miss her snuff box on such a morning and she said she did. Micheal Ruadh’s wife told her she heard them laughing in the kitchen that night.

Maureen Lynch

M’athair Muiris Ó Loingsig O.S a d’innis an méid sin dom. Rathea Listowel.

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