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: Eileen Sheehan

Memories from 1974 and Looking Forward to 2023

By

On May 24, 2023

In Listowel, Listowel Writers Week, Poem

Millenium Arch in May 2023

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How it used to look

This is the remains of the first arch in 2016, It was damaged in a big storm. You will notice the the new designer didn’t bother with the things that looked like very big ball bearing between the arch and the pillars.

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Wolfgang and Anita Mertens

in John B. Keane’s Bar, May 16th 2023

This is the house from which Maria wrote to Wolfgang.

Here are 2 letters Wolfgang kept as souvenirs of his visit to Writers Week in 1974. The first is from Maria Coffey who was, I think, writing on behalf of Writers Week and one from Bryan MacMahon with whom he had a long correspondence. Wolfgang was writing his thesis on his work.

Anita and Wolfgang can’t remember where they stayed which is surprising because they remember a lot about their trip.

On their last night they saw a production of The Honey Spike by the Carrick- on-Siur Drama Group and they were enthralled by it.

Wolfgang in his library has almost all of MacMahon’s published works, in English and some in translation as well.

While we were at the MacMahon statue we met Maggie and Mac Donald who were just returning from a visit to Kerry Writers’ Museum.

Brían MacMahon took time out of his busy day to welcome the German visitors. He told them a few stories about his famous grandfather and generally charmed them with his wit and friendliness.

We met Liz Dunn who gave them a brochure for this year’s Writers’ Week. Wolfgang promises to send me his 1974 programme.

We called to the Garden of Europe on the way home from town.

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A 1980 Visitor

Hello Mary.

I came upon your blog while searching for “Irish Horse Caravans”.

I was a young soldier in the US Army on leave in 1980 when I hitchhiked/walked through Ireland.

I have a photo in this email, which I think may possibly be in Adare or very close to it. I was wondering if you perhaps recognize this image and the signs for the roads they reference and could tell me where this may have been.

Regards from the US, Marietta, GA
Bob Jewell

Is Bob correct? Is that Adare? I think so.

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Kevins

Is your name Kevin or Caoimhín?

If the answer is yes, the place for you to be is this Listowel pub on Friday June 2 in the late evening.

The first annual gathering of people called Kevin in Kevin’s is happening there.

The back story; Stephen Connolly, curator of this year’s Writers’ Week programme was, by chance, in Kevin’s on the late owner, Kevin Broderick’s, birthday and he happened to sit beside a man called Kevin. This sparked this idea; Why not have a gathering of people called Kevin in a pub called Kevin’s during Writers’ Week.

BTW you can come too if your name is not Kevin.

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On the Prowl with Camera

I was in The Square on Saturday May 20 2023

I met the lovely and very talented Eileen Sheehan as she went into Kerry Writers’ Museum to facilitate a poetry workshop.

I had a lovely chat with friends, Brian and May Griffin and Mary and Seán Comerford.

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Serendipity

The meaning of the word, good luck in finding valuable things unintentionally, refers to the fairy tale characters who were always making discoveries through chance. You can thank serendipity if you find a pencil at an empty desk just as you walk into an exam and realize that you forgot yours.

I have so often experienced serendipity at Listowel Writers Week. I have gone to a book launch by someone I had never heard of and find the writer or subject so fascinating that I can’t wait to read the book.

Let me point you in the direction of a few opportunities for serendipity coming up for us in Listowel.

I have never read either of these authors but it looks like lots of people have and loved them.

Friday June2 in The Listowel Arms

This handsome dude is well known to everyone in Kerry. As well as being one of Kerry’s all time great footballers, he is also a clothes designer and now an author.

Confession here; I considered buying this book at Christmas and dismissed it without knowing what it was about. I presumed wrongly that it was the story of how a footballer turned into a fashion designer.

I should have looked more closely and, if only to honour my weaver ancestors, I should have bought it. It’s not too late to make up for lost time.

Join me in Listowel Arms on Saturday at 3.00

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I Love this One

Published in The Irish Times on Saturday May 20 2023.

I have a god daughter who I can just imagine spending her old age (which is a long way off yet) reminiscing about horses.

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A Fact

A typical lightening bolt is two miles long.

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Supernatural Happenings in Beale, Cleaning up at St. John’s and my visit to Mount Lucas

By

On May 16, 2019

In Uncategorized

Irish Wildlife Photography Competition Finalist

Peacock butterfly by Dick Glasgow

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A Scary Story From Ballybunion Convent School in Dúchas Collection



Sheila Sheahan 

Beale Middle

Co Kerry

There is a fort in Beale and it is supposed to be the principal resort of the fairies. One day as two men were drawing hay from Slios near Caill na Talmhain, one went through the fields as it was shorter than to go by the road, and his brother drove the horse by the road to Slios. As he was passing this fort, a little boy came out of it and ran after the car and sat into it. When they were gone a short distance he offered the man some sweets but he refused to take any. None of them spoke anymore until they arrived in Slios. Again the little boy offered the sweets to the second man who went through the fields. But his brother went behind the little boy’s back and grinned at the other man not to take the sweets, because he was about to take them. At this the little boy went into the fort and they saw him no more.



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Tidying Up


This is why Listowel is Ireland’s tidiest town. I met Joe Murphy and Liz McAuliffe on the morning after the international drama festival. Despite a long week of hard work and late nights Joe was out with his mop and bucket making sure his posters were clearly readable and Liz was clearing out the old cardboard.

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Bridge in St. Michael’s in 1994



A trip down Memory Lane with The Kerryman

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Facing into the Future



My son-in-law works on the Bord na Mona Wind Farms. He recently brought me on a visit to Mount Lucas. I was pleasantly surprised. It was a Saturday so the Park Run had just finished. Mount Lucas was once a bog so the area is now covered in 100% organic trees and other vegetation. It has just grown from seeds that have literally blown in.

Each turbine (they call them towers in Bord na Mona) is massive. I didn’t honestly think they looked ugly and they certainly weren’t noisy. We could hear the birds singing happily on a lovely sunny summer day.

The visitor centre was not open on Saturday but if you visit on a weekday you can have a tour and see for yourself.

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A Table of Poets




Eileen Sheehan is the writer in residence at The Kerry Writers Museum. I spotted her in the hotel in the  company of some local poets. They had just participated in Eileen’s workshop.



Left to right; Barbara Derbyshire, Vincent O’Brien, Eileen Sheehan and Susan Hitching



Here is a poem by Eileen Sheehan I found on the internet. I know someone just like her father. I was in his house last week and the was feeding crows.


Guardian

My father,
a most gentle man,

fed the leavings of the table
to nesting crows
that screamed and whirled
in a nearby stand of trees.

From a branch of sycamore
that overhung
his newly-planted drills,
he suspended
by its gnarled legs
one dead crow;

for weeks
the wind-jigged carcass
swung there
in a crazy parody of flight.

My father,
a most gentle man,

appeasing the dark gods,
their appetite
for sustenance,
for blood.

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Nearly There



It’s all hands on deck to get the Square finished in time for the First Holy Communion



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