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: Glenflesk

In Naas

By

On May 6, 2025

In Listowel

The Small Square, Listowel in April 2025

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In Glenflesk

On my way to and from Cork I like to make a pit stop at the lovely little village of Glenflesk.

St. Agatha’s roadside church is an oasis of calm where you can escape the noisy hub bub of the very busy Kerry Cork thoroughfare.

As I enjoyed my first 99 of summer 2025, I took a wander around.

The mountain behind the church was ablaze with yellow furze.

This old building has all the appearance of an old mill.

Back to reality…beside the defibrilator is a plaque jolting us back to the dangers of life on our busy roads.

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George Fitzmaurice

This is the plaque, commemorating the North Kerry playwright in Harcourt Street, Dublin.

The new owners of the premises have removed the plaque. I contacted the person who was responsible for erecting the plaque, Jimmy Deenihan. He is going to look into what can be done to have it restored.

Jimmy told me that, at the unveiling of the plaque, he organised a great Kerry night in the capital. I wonder does any photograph exist of that occasion. Jimmy has none.

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In Naas

If your travels take you anywhere near Naas in Co. Kildare, be sure to call in here.

Aoife is in the garden of McAuley Place, waiting for our morning snack. McAuley Place is a beautiful and sensitively planned use of the old Mercy convent. The complex incorporates age friendly apartments, a community centre, a craft shop and gardens. It is located beside the church, right in the heart of Naas.

This is one of the photographs that says it all about McAuley Place.

The community space in the old convent chapel still retains the organ and gallery, making it ideal for concerts and other choral occasions.

The beautiful stained glass windows, part of Naas’ heritage are a welcome preservation of the building’s history.

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Kerry Novel of the Year Finalists

Image and text from The Kerryman

Listowel Writers’ Week is proud to announce the shortlist for the 2025 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, one of the most esteemed prizes in Irish literature.

Now celebrating its 31st year, the award continues to honour exceptional fiction from Irish writers and remains a standout moment in the country’s literary calendar.

Sponsored by Kerry Group, the award carries a total prize fund of €22,000, with €20,000 awarded to the winner and €500 for each shortlisted author.

This year’s adjudicators are acclaimed authors, Carol Drinkwater and Paul McVeigh. They reviewed over 48 submitted novels and carefully selected five outstanding titles that reflect the strength, imagination, and storytelling brilliance of contemporary Irish fiction.

The shortlist for the 2025 Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award is: Christine Dwyer Hickey – Our London Lives (Atlantic Books, 2024); Joseph O’Connor – The Ghosts of Rome (Harvill Secker, 2025); Colm Tóibín – Long Island (Picador and Pan Macmillan, 2024); Niall Williams – Time of the Child (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024), and Donal Ryan – Heart, Be At Peace (Penguin Random House, 2024).

Catherine Keogh is Chief Corporate Affairs Officer of Kerry Group. She said the company’s 31-year partnership with Listowel Writers’ Week stands as a testament to its enduring belief in the power of storytelling to inspire and connect.

(Regular readers of Listowel Connection will know my favourite. I loved Donal Ryan’s Heart, Be at Peace as well.)

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A fact

In 1950, a study found that only 46% of British homes had a bathroom.

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Chainsaw Art and Stained Glass

By

On April 9, 2025

In Listowel, Poem

Charles Street

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Cork Regional Park

The people of Ballincollig are very lucky to have the magnificent Cork Regional Park on their doorstep. This beautiful spot is even more beautiful these days.

This man, chainsaw artist, Will Fogarty has been transforming the stumps of dead trees into art installations.

These are the two sculptures on the day after they were finished. That’s why there is all that sawdust about.

Here are few details of the carvings;

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Glenflesk’s St. Agatha’s Catholic Chapel

A welcoming church in a picturesque location.

St. Agatha’s church in Glenflesk.

A few details from the NHBS site

Full-height interior open into roof with central aisle between timber pews, pointed-arch arcade (north) on cut-limestone pillars, exposed scissor truss timber roof construction on cut-limestone beaded corbels with timber boarded ceiling on carved timber cornice, and pointed-arch chancel arch framing stepped dais to sanctuary (east) reordered, 1974, with replacement mosaic tiled reredos below stained glass “East Window” in glazed ceramic tiled surround. Set back from line of road in relandscaped grounds. NOTE: Designed by James Joseph McCarthy (1817-82) of Great Brunswick Street [Pearse Street], Dublin (The Dublin Builder 1st April 1862, 85). Stained glass (1932) by Richard King (1907-74) reclaimed (1974) from Collis-Sandes House (see 21302907).

Because the blue windows are very dark, they have placed them side by side with panes that allow the light in. The church interior is still dark and cool, a welcome sanctuary on a sunny day.

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My Verdict on Dubai Chocolate

This is one version of the chocolate everyone in raving about. In my opinion and as someone who for health reasons should not be eating chocolate at all, it’s nice but over rated.

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An Old Favourite

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A Fact

President Millard Fillmore of the U.S. in 1850 was the first president to take a bath in the White House.

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Glenflesk and Other stories

By

On April 8, 2022

In Listowel

Mallow Camera Club in 2017 took part in a lovely project . They framed some of their beautiful images for a permanent exhibition on the walls of Kanturk Community Hospital. This smashing image is by Viv Buckley.

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On the road to Cork

Last weekend I went to visit my Cork family. I usually go via Mallow and take in my Kanturk family . Unfortunately they had Covid in the house. So I decided to see a different side of the country. I went via Macroom.

Big Mistake!

The little work around most people take to avoid the bottleneck that is Macroom Main Street is closed so all the traffic has to go through the town. Let’s say I won’t be passing this way again for a while.

That is a pity because on the way through Glenflesh I stopped for my lunch at this lovely shop. The friendly assistant, (Subway and Spar would call her a sandwich artist) made me a lovely fresh roll. I took this and my coffee outdoors. They have outdoor seating in the most beautiful calm picturesque setting you could ever ask for.

This caught my eye. I remember that awful accident. How nice of them to remember Denise in this way.

A stone ditch and a faraway mountain were the backdrop to my dining experience.

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From Pres. 02/03 Yearbook

The committee preparing the yearbook in 2003 undertook a few interviews.

Here is one of them.

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Ireland Stands with Ukraine

I know that war and the politics of war is complicated and I know that there is propaganda on both sides and there are good innocent people suffering in Russia as well. But I could not help but be proud of our politicians (with a few exceptions) who listened so attentively and responded so eloquently to Zalensky’s address to us all.

His poor people are being brutalised before our eyes. He is doing his level best for them and it’s not enough.

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April 7 2022 Horsefair

Traditional horsefair on Market Street on the first Thursday of April.

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Listowel Tidy Towns and an unusual Cork Workshop

By

On June 26, 2015

In Uncategorized

Listowel Tidy Towns

Listowel Tidy Towns are a great organization, well embedded in the community. They do excellent work and support every effort that contributes to Listowel’s looking and feeling better.

Listowel Girls Primary school community at the raising of their 5th green flag.

Kerry Crusaders help Listowel Tidy Towns with a clean up.





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A really unusual Café


During my Cork holiday, I was taken to a really quirky and quaint café. it is located not too far from the airport. If you want to visit, you will have to look up the directions on their website; 

The Workshop Tearooms


One of the first things to caught my eye as we parked the car was the tree hung with old chipped and cracked cups.

The family who run the venture also keep prizewinning hens and poultry. My photo does not do justice to this lady as I caught her when the wind had ruffled her feathers.

 A tabletop made from an old road sign

A rail of turf at the door

As you can see, its not your usual café entrance. The business is run by two brothers and it is housed in what was once their father’s workshop.

 Once inside, you will see that the place is full of curios, antiques and bric a brac. Everything is for sale, even the chair you are sitting on.

 An old record player was playing swing music on the day I was there.

In the bathroom, the washhandbasin is inside an old gramophone cabinet.

This is a photograph of a man in Fermoy standing beside a door from his shop which is now a feature of The Workshop.

Pinning their colours to the mast, in pride of place is a framed signed Cork jersey.

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Remember these?


I took the above photographs in The River Island Hotel in Castle Island

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Pastoral scene near Glenflesk

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This is a photo (from the internet) of a cyclist in the Tour de France in the early 1900’s

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