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: Flavins

River Feale, some Listowel people, Flavins, Female T.Ds and an uplifting story

By

On December 8, 2015

In Uncategorized

After Storm Desmond


I took the following photos on Sunday Dec 6 2015

The flood of Saturday had abated but there was still a lot of water in The Feale.

 I didn’t venture on to the walkway under the bridge.

<<<<<<<<<<


 Some People I met on Sunday Dec 6 2015


Kieran Moloney was out for a Sunday morning stroll.


On Church St. Clíona and I met Liam and Anne Dillon chatting to Mossie Kelliher and Mrs. O’Sullivan.

<<<<<<<<


Today’s blast of Nostalgia

photo;Irish Abroad

Does this take you back? This was the very first mixer tap, invaluable for shampooing the hair or washing the dog. This was back in the days before showers when everyone took a bath.

<<<<<<<

 Flavins of Church St.: A Family Business for Generations




Vincent Doyle sent me this cutting of Dan Flavin and his son, Michael, at the door of the shop . The photo was taken some time in the 1950s

When I popped in to my local newsagent’s last week, there were 2 lovely ladies to help me out. Flavins’, still going in 2015. Long may it continue!

<<<<<<<



Kerry’s Female T.D.’s

The first woman to be elected
in Kerry was Kate Breen in 1927. She was the first of five. Next to be elected
was Mary Crowley, nee Boland, who succeeded her husband, Fred. Fred Crowley was
fifty years in the Dáil. Mary served from 1945 to 1966 as a F.F. T.D in South
Kerry. Kathleen O’Connor Fitzgerald succeeded her late father, Johnny O’Connor
in a by election in 1956 and served as a Clann na Poblachta deputy until the
general election of 1957. Kit Ahern, nee Liston served as a Fianna Fail T.D.
from 1971 to 1980. She later served as a senator. Breda Moynihan Cronin
succeeded her father, Michael Moynihan, when he stepped down. Breda, a Labour
T.D. served in Dáil Eireann from1992 to 2007. 


(Source; Knocknagoshel Despatch) 


Will there be another name to add to the list in 2016?


<<<<<<<<




I believe in God even when she is silent


photo; Michelle Crean

Fr. Pat Moore shared this great story that he found recently

In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: 


“Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”

“Nonsense” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”

The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”

The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”

The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”

The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one has ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”

The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”

The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”

Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”

To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.” 

– Útmutató a Léleknek


#Mother Mother Earth News

<<<<<

From 1868

Breda Breen posted this photo on Facebook recently

<<<<<<<

Christmas Baking


It’s that time again!

Hunting, Flavins, Autumn Leaves and Super Shopping Sunday and closure of the train station

By

On December 1, 2015

In Uncategorized

Hunt in Kilbrin

photo by Thomas Healy

<<<<<<<<<


Bang, Bang




Photo from Irish Abroad



Do you remember the whiff of cordite? 

This was the smell of Christmas in the 1950s when every young boy got a cowboy outfit and a gun belt and holster from Santa. These rolls of caps were fed into a cap gun and when “shot” gave off a realistic crack and a distinctive smell.

Back in the days when “shooting” people was fun, this was the must- have toy for young boys.

 They are probably banned now as replica firearms.

 In 2015 images of young boys shooting people are all too real and not fun at all.

<<<<<<<<<

Christmas in Listowel

If you click on the link above you will get details about what’s happening in town this Christmas.

The above photos are from the Christmas in Listowel page. They show my newsagent, Joan Flavin, in her shop in Church Street. Flavins is an old fashioned shop, a shop with character. It is a newsagent’s, a book shop, a tobacconist, a stationery and everything in between shop.

If that counter could only talk……..

<<<<<<<<



Leaf Taking




My weekend visitors swept up my leaves

<<<<<<<<

Super Sunday

Sunday last was the big pre Christmas shopping day in town. Storm Clodagh did her best to spoil the fun but a good few brave souls came out and shops were doing a brisk business.

Town is looking great. Windows and lights are adding to the festive feel.

<<<<<<

Dramatic Blaze on the motorway yesterday; November 30 2015

This horrific fire broke out near J11 of the M8 yesterday. T.J. Carroll took the picture and Cahir and Cashel Fire and Rescue brought the blaze under control. No one was injured Thank God.

<<<<<<

Apropos yesterday’s photo from Patrick O’Shea, I started a bit of debate on Facebook about when exactly the station closed.  I took my information from this site

Disused Stations; Listowel

Like everything else on the internet, it’s not 100% reliable. Memories of the station  would be lovely to gather here. 

1960s advertising, Kanturk and some Church St. people

By

On April 20, 2015

In Uncategorized


It’s Official; Summer is here



Yes, we know one swallow doth not a summer make but I’m still delighted to see that Mike Enright spotted this little harbinger of sunny days in Ballybunion last week.


<<<<<<


Wild Flowers in the Park

Primroses and buttercups on the bank of the glaise that flows through the park

“Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.”

This section of the pitch and putt course is covered in daisies.

<<<<<<



Back to my Roots


Kanturk in Times Past

Ger Greaney alerted me recently to this great old series of photographs of my hometown. Looking at the comments when he shared the Youtube video I realized that you don’t have to be from Kanturk to enjoy this one.

The sequence opens with an old railway carriage in the train station at Kanturk. The station is now only a memory but what a memory!

The ballad of The Bould Thady Quill has a line, “Proceed to Banteer to the athletic sports and hand in your name to the club committee”. In my youth the way to proceed to Banteer was by train. It cost 3d for the short train journey and I can only remember making it on Sports Day.

Michael O’Sullivan, who made the slide show, is the next generation of O’Sullivan’s from Klamper who have left their mark on the town forever. The O’Sullivan brothers emigrated to the USA where they did very well. They brought their wealth back to Kanturk, set up several businesses in retail, catering and the licensed trade and they transformed the face of Kanturk. They brought with them a whiff of US glamour and they opened our eyes, in the Kanturk of the 1950s and 60’s to a world we only saw in the movies (films we called them then.)

Just doors away from the local cinema the O’Sullivans opened a café, the like of which had not been seen before in Kanturk. It had a juke box!!!

Do you know the lyric? “Please Mister, please, don’t play E17. It was our song; it was his song but its over…..”

Only people who remember a juke box will have any idea what this is all about. Each record had a number and for 6d. you could choose the song you wanted played. Through a glass, you could watch the drum turn the records and then  the selection tool would take the chosen record and place it on a turntable, the stylus would come across and the whole café listened to your selection. There was a kind of honor system in operation where people took turns to pay for the music. He who paid the piper always called the tune despite much pressure. The proprietors got in new records regularly and there was great clamouring to listen to the latest arrivals.

One of the photos in Michael’s slide show was taken in the café. The machine in the photo is a weighing scales and, sadly, not the juke box. There are also other familiar local scenes like the official opening of the Marian grotto, the mammoth Corpus Christi procession, Fancy Dress parades, firemen, FCA and much more.

<<<<<<

Talented sisters

Rosaleen and Patricia hard at work in Craftshop na Méar. These two are multitalented and make many of the lovely items available in Craftshop na Méar in Church St.

<<<<<<

Bang for your Buck

Listowel people were well versed in the art of advertising back in 1960. Who could resist these bargains?

<<<<<<

Snapped in Flavins, Church St. April 15 2015




Flavins is an old style newsagents where the personal touch is valued. In the words of John B. in another context, “Courtesy and civility guaranteed at all times.”  Long may it continue!

<<<<<<<<

Well done, girls!


(photo: Listowel Celtic)


Listowel Celtic U12 girls after winning their match away to Killarney Celtic 6.0. They are now JK Sports U12 league champions!

<<<<

2015 Nano Nagle Poker Run

These and lots  more lovely photos from Saturday’s bike run in aid of Nano Nagle school  here;

John Kelliher

Ramadan, Flavins

By

On July 19, 2012

In Uncategorized

This evening is the first day of Ramadan in Ireland. This is a particularly disciplined time for  Irish Muslims because daylight lasts so much longer this time of year.

During Ramadan, which lasts 30 days, Muslims do not eat, drink (not even water) or smoke during daylight hours. People who stick rigidly to the rules of Islam often have their first meal of the day at 3.00 a.m. This first meal, known as Iftar is often a  big family feast.

>>>>>>>>

The Irish Times is running a competition to identify the best of Irish shops. Anyone can nominate any shop anywhere in Ireland and then in August the paper will travel around the country inspecting these shops and the best will be included in a special magazine with the paper later on in the summer.

I have nominated Flavins of Church St.

This shop is in the Flavin family since 1880. It was originally a book shop, later a library and now a bookshop, newsagent and stationer.

This is Joan, the present owner behind the counter where her uncle Micheál and his father Dan once stood.

Why don’t some of you get cracking and nominate some of the other lovely shops we have in town. It would be great if Listowel could be well represented in the guide to the best of Irish shops.

>>>>>>>>

You gotta laugh

>>>>>>>>

The Boss is in town again. Here is a  ticket from Bruce Springsteen in Slane in 1985.

>>>>>>>>

Found this on the internet:

“If you found a lost child who said “Please help me find my Mom” I am sure that you would wait with that child until her mother was found.
You wouldn’t walk on by!
Sadly, there are thousands of children all over the world in this exact position. They can’t find their mothers and the world is walking on by.
I am talking about all the little boys and girls who were adopted from Ireland. They are adults now but they are still looking for their mothers.
In their thousands they write to convents and government agencies in Ireland every year.
In their thousands, they are refused access to their records.
In their thousands, they are refused any information about the women who gave them life.
On the other side, there are mothers, some in their 80’s now, who are still searching for their babies.
They live every day with the knowledge that they may die without ever finding their babies. Many have already died.
Please don’t walk on by!
Please sign the Access to Birth Records Petition.
Please sign now.
We need at least another 200 signatures to bring about an end to this cruel situation. “

Church Street, Listowel

By

On March 7, 2012

In Uncategorized

Church St. as it used to be in the bad old days.

It is a very different place today with some of the classiest shops in town.

One little gem is Flavin’s,

This lovely little bijou is a throwback to a more relaxed age when you could buy a bit of this, a smackerel of that, have a chat with the shopkeeper and come back and do it all again tomorrow. It is very important that these little shops with their individual character are supported and appreciated by the people of town. It is difficult to be a sole trader in these tough times but I hope to be buying my newspaper in Flavins for many years to come.

97 Church St. is a very glamorous hair and beauty salon. Its proprietor, Danny Russell, is a very enterprising business man. I called last Weds. to have my tresses attended to before the photo shoot for the launch of NKRO’s St. Patrick’s Day post cards. When I told Danny about our Week of Welcomes and the 45 visitors we are hoping to attract to town, Danny immediately offered to give  a 20% discount to any visitor attending our WOW. So if you are planning your trip to our festival anytime between Aug 3 and 10th. and you feel like having your hair done in very swish surroundings Danny’s new partnership with NKRO will see you get 20% off.

And the photo of the post card launch……..

There we are; Maria Leahy, Grace Kelly and me in front. At the back Joe Harrington, Kay O’Leary, Ger Greaney and Tom Fitzgerald. We are officially launching the postcards on Friday night along with our website unveiling.

http://www.northkerryreachingout.com/

The website is a work in progress. We are adding new content  all the time. If you are reading this and you are in North Kerry, come and join us in The Seanchaí on Friday next at 7.00 p. m. We are having a bit of a hooley to officially launch our site onto the WWW.

——

Back to Church St. where its oldest resident was 100 on Saturday.

This is a newspaper clipping from a few years ago of Willie Keane accompanied by his son,  grandson and great-grandson. 

Happy birthday,Willie.

Page 4 of 4

Previous

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén