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: Horse Drawn Caravans

Looking back to 1985

By

On February 5, 2024

In Listowel

Junction of Market Street and William Street

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1985…A Big Year for Pres.

As we look forward to another extension to Presentation Secondary School, let’s look back at the last big extension in 1985.

The late Bishop Diarmaid OSuilleabháin said the official opening mass and he blessed the new building.

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Memories of a Holiday in a Horse Drawn Caravan

Horsedrawn caravan holiday were all the rage in the 1960s. The slow pace, the novelty of caring for an animal and the uniqueness of the experience attracted many overseas visitors.

One such visitor sent us this picture.

Richard Freedberg wrote

Our horse was named GERRY. and he was very rambunctious. He stopped at every pub on the way. I had to go into one pub to learn the Irish word for STOP. I kept yelling WHOA. Finally a man said to say the word “BACK” and it worked perfectly. We had campfires, went to village festvals, my wife was serenaded in a pub with Rose of Tralee, both sons loved giving Gerry peanut butter when he stuck his head in the caravan. I sort of remember Ballybunion. Is that possible? Almost 50 years ago. Thanks and thanks again. It was a charming vacation. Richard (from Miami) 

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Keep On Keeping on

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Honouring St. Brigid in Kildare

On February 1, St. Brigid’s Day 2024, close on 4,000 pupils from Kildare schools formed a human St. Bridget’s Cross on the plains in The Curragh. Mark McGuire took the photo using a drone.

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A Fact

In 1626 the U.S purchased the Island of Manhattan from the American Native people.

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Old Days, Old Ways

By

On May 10, 2023

In History, Listowel, Listowel Writers Week, Poem

William Street 2023

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Turf Cutting Time 2023

Photo: Ita Hannon

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Bringing a dead loved one to life in a poem is such a cathartic experience.

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Bastables

Bastables were our great grannies ovens. They were suspended on a crane over the open turf fire and the families’ meals were cooked on them. Bastable cooking skills were passed down from generation to generation. The round bottomed pot was for boiling. Potatoes and other vegetables were cooked in this. Sometimes it just boiled water for various tasks. There was a kettle for the tea (no one had coffee) but boiled water was needed for mixing food for animals and certain washing tasks.

The flat bottomed bastable was for roasting and baking. A skilled bastable chef could roast a chicken to perfection, she could cook a stew or even a loaf of soda bread. The cook adjusted the heat by placing burning sods of turf (gríosach) on the lid.

How far we have some with our microwaves and air fryers! If our great grandmothers saw an induction hob at work, they woiuld be gobsmacked.

This is a griddle. Also for cooking over an open fire, This was great for frying of fish . Remember at Phil the Fluter’s Ball the dancers were “hopping in the middle like a herring on the griddle”? The griddle was used for baking of thin breads and scones as well.

The coming of the range put an end to this hit and miss cooking. The range brought the thermostat which cut out much of the guesswork. That said, I remember my late mother having to open the oven door when the turf or timber had heated the oven that little bit too much.

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Important Discussion about Girls and Sport

Friday June 2 10.30 in The Plaza

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A Blast from the Past

This is a picture of Cork in 1969 from a website with old photos of Ireland.

Recently people have been making a big hoo ha because they have identified the bridge behind the Mona Lisa in the painting. Well, I recognise Western Road in this picture because I can see the gates of UCC in the background and the big building on the right is the Eye, Ear and Throat hospital. The filling station on the left is long gone. Traffic on that road is now one way,

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A Fact

Many people know that the sandwich was named after an English earl (1718 -92) but how did the Fourth Earl of Sandwich come to give his name to this meal which is the favourite lunch of so many today.

His lordship was a gambling addict. He ordered that his food be brought to him between slices of bread so that he could eat his meals without leaving the gaming table.

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Horse Drawn Caravan Holidays in the 1960s and St. Patrick’s Day 2016

By

On March 28, 2016

In Uncategorized

The Year has Turned; We’re in New Time

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Charles Street 2016

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Do you remember when Horse Drawn Caravan Holidays were all the rage ?


Photos from Historical Tralee and Surrounding areas

There is a Listowel connection. The following story and photos were shared by Canon Declan and featured on Listowel Connection in 2012. It is worth revisiting the tale again.

The most popular Kerry company running these holidays was Slatterys but other companies based outside the county had overnight stopping sites in The Kingdom. One of these companies was Shannon Horsedrawn Caravans owned by a family business, MacNamaras of Limerick. The tourists (mostly from the U.S.) flew into Shannon, picked up their horse and barrel -top caravan in Adare and sauntered off to tour a little bit of West Munster. There were pit stops along the way for the horse to take a rest and the visitors to get to see some aspects of Irish life.



One such rest stop was on the farm of the O’Connor family in Springmount, Duagh, the family of our parish priest.  Canon Declan O’Connor, P.P. Listowel has shared some of his photographs from that time with us in listowelconnection.



The visitors loved the fact that they were on a  real working farm with fresh milk for tea and free range eggs for breakfast.

Helping the O’Connor family to feed the hens and collect the eggs was a treat for children raised in cities and towns.

This photo would not have been out of place on a John Hinde postcard. It is the O’Connor twins from Springmount, Duagh 


Canon Declan remembers well the excitement when  a very illustrious family of visitors overnighted with the O’Connors while on their Shannon Horsedrawn Caravan tour . They were Patricia Kennedy Lawford and her niece, Cora Kennedy.  Jean was the  sister and Cora, the niece of John F. Kennedy. Cora was the daughter of Ted Kennedy.

In this photo, Declan and his sister, Valerie are enjoying a cuppa with the sister of the late President Kennedy just visible in the background.

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A few more from The Square on St. Patrick’s Day 2016


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Every Life is Precious



On Easter Monday 2016 as we commemorate the deaths of the rebels who were executed after The Rising, let us ponder this.

Five rebels were killed on Holy Thursday, April 27 1916. On that same day 538 Irishmen were killed by a German gas attack in Hulluch, France. The gas used was a mixture of chlorine and phosgene and it was of sufficient concentration to render the Irishmen’s gas masks unable to cope with it. These casualties and the thousands more who died in WW1 have been airbrushed out of our history. Many of them too were motivated by loyalty to their country.

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