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: Gaelscoil Lios Tuathail

Listowel Defibrillators, a Poem and Jesse James

Entrance to Gaelscoil Lios Tuathail from Dowd’s Road

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The Square is Changing

Listowel Town Square in 2016

Before that, this old phone box used to sit in the corner of the Square.

Listowel Town Square in October 2021

The new defibrillator box occupies the site of the old phone box.

Here are the locations and times of availability of other public defrillators in town

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A Poem recalling the Children of Lir

Fionnuala was the eldest of Lir’s children and the mother substitute who looked after her brothers as they wintered on frozen waters. The poet invokes her as she leaves her loved one in the charge of another Fionnuala.

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The story of famous local raparee from Shannonside Annual 1956

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Holocaust Memorial, Pres Girls in 1950s and Tim Kennelly Roundabout

Holocaust Memorial in The Garden of Europe

This is the only memorial to the Nazi Holocaust currently erected on the island of Ireland. It looks lovely in summer 2017…. a great place to stop and think and count your blessings.

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The Bad Old Days 

A blog follower rooted this up for our delight.   Words fail me.

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Third and Fourth Class 





This photo is of some of 3/4th Class. We would have been Leaving Cert 1977!!


40 years out this year! 

Back row Ann Neville, Ann Mc Elliott, Catherine O Gorman, Mary O Connor, Caroline Finucane, Ann Mc Auliffe, Miriam Walsh, Mary Teresa Kelly, Geraldine Gunn, Bernadette Canty, Brenda O Halloran. Middle row-Elizabeth Purcell, Geraldine Mc Carthy, Catherine Healy, Marita O Connor,Triona Croghan, Michelle Relihan, Sinead Barrett, Therese Linehan, Maura Harrington, Elmarie Gibbons, Sr Ronan, 



front row- Lucy Bambury, Geraldine Walsh, Catherine Bruder, Kathleen Walsh, Beata Sweeney, Deirdre Jones.



Maura Harrington Walshe shared the photo and the caption.


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At the Tim Kennelly Roundabout




The roundabout at the top of Cahirdown is dedicated to the late Kerry footballer, Tim Kennelly. It is at the entrance to Kenny Heights. This residential estate is named after the previous owners of the land on which the houses stand. It is a particularly picturesque corner of Listowel.



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Mo Léan!


What an irony. Lios Tuathail is  misspelled on this sign for the Gaelscoil at Upper Church St.


It’s correctly spelled on the reverse of the same sign. Quality control, where are you?






a Kingfisher, Washday blues, Rattoo Tower, Gaelscoil rebrand and Convent Memories

This kingfisher was photographed by Timothy John MacSweeney on the river Blackwater near Kanturk in Co. Cork.

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The Bad Old Days



This is a picture of a washtub and a washboard. This was the washing machine of your mothers.

I dont know any man who ever washed clothes in one of these.

Picture it for a minute and count your blessings.

Monday was washday. There was no running water so water had to be brought in buckets from a water barrel in the yard. The water was boiled in a Burko, if you were lucky, or a big pot on the range or over an open fire if you weren’t. The boiling water was then transferred to the washtub. The clothes were scrubbed on the wash board, using a big bar of Ivy or Sunlight soap. There was rinsing, blueing an starching to follow.

Washing was a day’s work and hard work at that.

Now don’t you feel privileged to live in present times?

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Rattoo


Photos; Bridget O’Connor

Rattoo Tower

A Poem by Pat Given from his anthology, October Stocktaking

A slender pencil pointing to
the skies

I see you there. The story
that you wrote

Erased by time, by men
forgot.

But still you stand and still
you tantalise.

The leather books compiled
upon this site,

Are no longer legible to
human eye.

But you, clear stylus still,
endure to write

Their meaning on the
uncomprehending sky.

To all who pause and
contemplate this scene

These silent stones become a
speaking tongue

Of God and man and Christ
between,

And toil transmuted when for
Heaven done.

O Tower, to each succeeding
age

You preach more eloquently
than printed page.

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Beatha Teanga í a Labhairt



For a language to live it must be spoken




Gaelscoil Lios Tuathail has rebranded



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Convent Memories




Whenever I mention the convent or post a picture of it on Facebook, it always prompts a flood of memories. 



Not everyone is on Facebook, so here are a few recent comments;


Sr Dympna must be turning in her grave. Not a lady to turn lightly without ‘having a word’ with the Man on High. (Kay Caball)

Great memories of this little church, first confession etc . (Máire Logue)

What a waste! Sr Dympna loved the gardens, with the help of a man named Mackassey. I remember walking around the gardens following the Priest with the Blessed Sacrament all of us in our white dresses. It was Corpus Christi. We had another name for it. Does anyone know what it was ? (Maria Sham)

About 15 of us started our school days there. It was known as Babies and High Infants. Sister Claire and Sister Consolata. with Sister Frances keeping a very close eye on us. The down side was when we went to the boys school into 1st class we got a very frosty reception. It is so sad to see this beautiful building going to wreck and ruin. (Jim Halpin)

What a pity, such a beautiful church  and left there to rot. Wanted to get married in that church but it was bought before we started planning  (Catherine Nolan)

These are just a few samples of the many responses to the pictures. I think Liz Dunne’s comment summed up how everyone feels about the convent: 


 So sad to see it falling into decline – I wish I had the pennies to save it!

Listowel ladies in Lourdes in 1954, more from the May weekend and another poem from Jet Stack

An old treasure

I have photographed this old picture in smaller sections in order to make it easier to identify these local ladies in Lourdes in 1954. I’m hoping that some of my loyal followers will name them for us and I’ll post them here if they do.  Memories, memories!

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May Bank Holiday weekend in Listowel

Military Vehicles were everywhere in the Square.

The children enjoyed posing with tanks and guns and other military stuff.

Real soldiers and people dressed up as soldiers were on the streets. Below are some photos of local people and visitors who enjoyed the ‘fun’.

More next week…….

A team of Gaelscoil Lios Tuathail supporters sold some goodies to the hungry attendees.

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Listowel by Jet Stack

There among the green hills of
Kerry.

Where the bells of Saint Mary’s
Church toll.

On the banks of the Feale.

Where there’s beauty so real.

Stands that dear little town of
Listowel.

Its streets and its square so
spacious

and rare.

Its buildings of solid cut stone.

Though old times are gone,

Sure they still linger on

In that dear little town of
Listowel.

Its castles so vast, they’re a
link

with the past.

On history there’s written a
scroll.

The bard and the poet

And writers of note.

Are at home in the town of
Listowel.

The churchyard close by, where
its

ancestors lie.

The schools where its youth comes
to bloom.

On those in between those duties
supreme

They’ll fulfill with God’s help
we’ll presume.

As time marches on, we’ll have
music

and song.

We’ll have tops, we’ll have pops
by the score.

But let’s never lose sight

of those great pens of might

and may God bless the town of
Listowel.

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Jimmy Moloney has put the minutes of the April meeting of Listowel Town Council 

HERE

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