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: James O’Donoghue

Living Literature at The Seanchaí, a Football Team at The Six Crosses in 1954 and Ballybunion in the 70s

Living Literature at The Seanchaí



Last week I took the Living Literature Tour of the Seanchaí. It was brilliantly entertaining and informative. Heritage Week 2015 would be a good time to visit if you have not done so already.

We were lucky to have Denis Hobson as our guide. He is an excellent interpreter of the playwrights and poets of North Kerry. Here he is in the John B. Keane room playing John B.’s Chastitute. He had stories and memories of the late John B. and everything was delivered with great appreciation and respect for the work of the writer.

Here is Denis in the Bryan MacMahon room. He painted Mac Mahon as a man of enormous learning  who loved learning for its own sake. Denis once came upon him in a snug in Listowel having a conversation with 2 friends in classical Greek. Apparently to keep their Greek from growing rusty they used to choose a topic for next week and then prepare what they wanted to say  on the matter.

Bryan MacMahon was comparable to Frank O’Connor as a short story writer, he was a great collector of folklore and worked hard to preserve Shelta, the Traveller language, now lost except for words like pavee and buffer. But locally it was as a teacher that MacMahon left his great legacy, nurturing young imaginations and always encouraging creativity in all its forms.

This is the great Maurice Walsh who wrote the story of The Quiet Man. Denis read from his works and no doubt he had a great way with the English language. He lived in relative luxury in Dublin. He is now almost forgotten. It was good to hear about this writer whom we all know so little about.

George Fitzmaurice is depicted looking out over The Square. He had the strangest back story of them all, one of 12 children, none of whom had issue. He died in poverty in Dublin despite having had a run of several successful plays at The Abbey. Some of his plays are strange and enigmatic, but The Country Dressmaker and The Magic Glasses are still relevant today.

We took the 12.00 noon tour on Thursday and Denis took a well earned break before his next tour at 2.00 p.m.

The Living Literature Tours take place at 12.00 and 2.00 on Wednesdays Thursdays and Fridays. I’d highly recommend it. Great value at €5.







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Six Crosses Football 1954

Jack O’Donoghue from Pittsburg found this photo among his father, Tom O’Donoghue’s possessions. He obviously treasured it all his life. Tom’s brother Mick is also in the photo and ironically it was taken in the year that Tom emigrated to the U.S. 

Could the Six Crosses field a football team today, I wonder?

Jack also sent me all the names of the young men in this 1954 photo;

Back Row left to right:

T. McKenna, V. Carey, B. Browne, M. Barry, D. Broderick

Middle Row:

T. Fitzgerald, B. Quinlan, M. O’Donoghue, G. Joy, M. O’Connell

Front Row:

M. Browne, T. O’Donoghue, P. McKenna, G. Browne, G. Fitzgerald

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Ballybunion Church




St. John’s church in Ballybunion is a lovely building, recently restored to its former glory.

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Ballybunion in the Seventies



Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a great fan of Jason of Ballybunion Print‘s photos. He photographs Ballybunion daily and posts his beautiful shots on Facebook. 

This photograph is a departure from his usual work. A friend sent him this photo of the beach in the 1970s. Bring back memories?

Do you remember the changing huts?

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Louise Galvin, Great athlete and One of Our Own





photos: Irish Examiner

Louise Galvin of Finuge is in the news because she is a star of the Ireland Sevens Ladies Rugby team. Since I knew her as a pupil in Pres. Listowel, Louise has learned many life lessons in the school of hard knocks.

She was the subject of The Big Interview in Saturday’s Irish Examiner. Read and admire this exceptional young lady.



A Few Final Odds and Ends from the children’s events at Writers’ Week 2015 and The Athea Mural

Remembering a Great Few Days

This is British children’s author, Andrew Cope at the entrance to Listowel Town Park during The National Children’s Literary Festival at Writers’ Week 2015.

U.S. children’s author, Emily Raabe, with Maria McGrath, children’s programme administrator, Irish author, Sarah Webb and committee member, Mairead Costelloe.

Local Xistance Youth volunteers painted faces all day long.

Philip Ardagh in full flight.

Kerry GAA star, James O’Donoghue posed for a photo with some young admirers.

Here I am with Will Collins, his wife, Karen and son, Luke and his parents, Willy and Peggy Collins, my good friends from Kanturk.

Still face painting.

Best selling author of the Darkmouth series, Shane Hegarty signing copies of his book.

Happy days for Cora: face painted, Scellig chocolate lolly in hand and the show about to begin!

Taking a rest after a whistle stop tour of the town

Sarah Webb signing her book for a young fan.

Still face painting…. these young face painting artists were tireless.



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How to Behave at The Palace


Should you get an invitation to the queen’s garden party, The Telegraph has a handy guide to a few essential table manners;

If you are seated to the right of the queen, you are the guest of honour and will be spoken to during the first course.

If you are to her left you are of less importance and can expect to be spoken to during the second course.  Whether you are left or right, you never speak first. You speak only when spoken to.

Never touch the queen or any item of her placesetting or cutlery.

Replace your teacup on its saucer after every sip.

Hold your wine glass by the stem.

You may drink wine even if the queen declines. She usually drinks mineral water.

So now you know.


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Meanwhile in Athea



I went to Athea on Saturday, June 27 to check in on progress on the forge mural. A little bird (named Jim Dunn) had told me that there were some new figures added recently.

This was the scene, high vis jackets and hard hats everywhere, cherrypickers at every pole and it looked like every ESB worker in Limerick had descended on the village for the day. I had struck town on the day of the big switch on of the new lights.

AND

This is how the mural looks from across the road. The lovely peaceful olde worlde forge scene is now  behind a kind of modern maypole of wires and shiny silver aluminum. Shame!

I ignored the pole and inspected the additions to the work of art. It’s going to be a masterpiece! Even an ugly ESB pole fails to detract from the charming scene from a more slow moving era.

A sleepy yet vigilant dog is now lounging at the feet of the horseman.

The original horse man has been joined by another gentle country man, this time dressed up for a visit to town with collar and tie and good sports coat. He is standing like a man at ease with the world admiring the work of the farrier. This little tableau is just perfect.

Now we discover that our first man is killing two birds with one stone. He is on his way to or from the creamery with his two small churns in the body of his cart.

Meanwhile in the forge the farrier is shoeing the draught horse while the owner is reassuring his animal that it will be over soon. I love the attention to detail  in this horse’s tackling. Look at the winkers, the collar, the hames and belly band…all perfect.

My father died when I was seven and many of my memories of him are with working horses like this.

This man has brought a machine for repair. It looks like a seed drill to me but it could be an implement we called a scuffler.

One of these days I’ll hit Athea when Jim is actually working on this.

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Great News for Family Researchers


“It is all good news to-day on the Church records.  Next Wednesday afternoon 8thJuly, the Catholic Church Parish records will be released on their website  by the National Library.”


This good news comes in a blogpost from Kay Caball of  Find My Kerry Ancestors

Click on the link to hear how compiling your family tree has just got a whole lot easier.

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