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: Jim Dunn Page 1 of 5

More cartoons, The Joys of Being Cocooned, a poem and a fact

Millenium Arch and Bridge Road, Listowel in March 2020

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Love in a Time of Pestilence


“Let us live that they may say of us, when things were at their worst, we were at our best.”

I have to take a minute today to thank all the people who have been so nice to me in my cocoon.

 I have the very best neighbours in the world.

As well as doing my shopping, I get the newspaper delivered to my door, a care package for my birthday, a bottle of wine when my cellar was running low and I feared wine may not qualify as essential supplies, and a surprise lunch from Lizzie’s Little Kitchen. This is in addition to the usual jobs the Moylan family do for me, like mowing my lawn, spraying my weeds and providing

over -the- wall chats.

My pharmacist, Oonagh Hartnett made a special delivery of my medication.

I was blown away by this gesture from my friends, Liz and Jim Dunn.

Below is my present from my beloved goddaughter, Elizabeth Ahern. The inscription on the lovely Eileen Moylan bracelet says “Storms make the oak grow deeper roots.”

The oak is the symbol of the Ahern clan, my birth family.

I have become an expert on many social media platforms like Zoom, Hangouts and Houseparty. I video conference with my family and friends on these. My children ring me every day. I have never talked to them so much since they were children and lived with me. I play Pictionary with Cliona on  Houseparty and  I’ve even joined a quiz with Orla Kennelly and her friends. I’ve been to a Zoom birthday party.

I may yet make a TikTok!

The postman has brought me some gems to treasure.

One of the pleasant side effects of this lockdown is the daily contact with my family and friends. My phone has never rung so often.

Photos keep me abreast of what is happening with my family.

My daughter in law, Carine, is making me some facemarks.

I’m baking the recipes my friends share on Facebook. Thank you, Maria Sham, for this one.

I didn’t get to taste this one my sister in law made for Easter.

I’m reading and puzzling.

I light a candle for the front line soldiers and victims of this deadly virus.

Of course I am very grateful to all the blog followers who have offered me thanks and encouragement. I am especially thankful to everyone who is helping me out with content.

I know it’s not over yet, not by a long way, but I’m registering my thanks at this juncture.

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A Picture Paints…….

Mike captioned this one Escape from the Nursing Home

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 A Covid Rhyme


Today we have a new poet on the block. This is Daniel Murphy’s Banjaxed Limerick.

Banjaxed Limerick #19

There once was a Canon named Caoimhin

Who, wanting no Face Masks in Heaven,

Announced that ’Due to Viral Strife

Not Coviding thy Neighbor’s Wife  

Is now our Commandment Eleven.’



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I Know for a Fact


The French company Bich changed its name to Bic to stop people in English speaking countries calling it Bitch.


Alice Taylor, Pisheógs, Cotter na Gruaige and Plans for Writers’ Week 2020

A dog who loves the beach  Photo by Bridget O’Connor

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A Writers’ Week Memory


It must have been 1988 or 1989, because To School Through the Fields was published in 1988 and its author, Alice Taylor is the subject of my story.

Alice Taylor and me in Philips Bookshop in Mallow at a book signing in

November 2019.

Back in 1988 Alice Taylor was starting out on her literary career and she came to Listowel to attend Writers’ Week. I was a Mammy with a little girl who was anxious to take part in the Writers’ Week fancy dress parade. I thought up the perfect dress- up character for Clíona. Easy peasy as all the props and costume requirements were easy to acquire.

I dressed her up in her school uniform, tied a few old books together with a leather strap/belt and found a sod of turf. Ta dah! Alice Taylor goes To School Through the Fields.

As we were dispersing after the parade the bus with the people on the bus tour was just arriving in The Square. Alice Taylor was alighting from the bus when she spotted the little girl dressed as herself. She called us over, gave Clíona a fiver and posed for a photo. Poor Clíona hadn’t a clue who the lady was but she pocketed the fiver all the same. She didn’t really appreciate the fact that she had just met one of Ireland”s up and coming memoir writers.

Statue of Alice Taylor in her native Newmarket, Co. Cork

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Listowel Writers’ Week Art Committee



Jim Dunn, Catherine Moylan, Carol Stricks and Elizabeth Dunn finalising a brilliant Art programme for Listowel Writers’ Week 2020, which will run from May 27 to May 31 2020

I got a sneak peak at what’s in store and its really really good.

I’m on the 50th Commemoration Committee and we are desperately looking for old photos, or stories from the last 50 years of festivals. A big thank you to the people who have sent stuff already but there must be lots of stuff in albums and attics that others would enjoy seeing. Take a look for us, please.

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The Bittling Woman of Rathea


Yesterday’s story from Rathea raised many questions. I think we are all agreed that it refers to some kind of pisheóg behaviour. The dead cow at the end is the clue here.

Dave O’Sullivan found the meaning of the word bittling in a dictionary of Scots Gallic

Dictionary to the Scots language

It would appear she was washing clothes and beating them clean. The reference to hearing her is obviously to hearing the beating sound as she pounded the clothes.

Pisheógs were often invoked to bring good luck to one family and bad luck to another. The death of a cow would be a huge stroke of bad luck. Pisheógs often involved the stealing of milk or butter. A man told me that he heard of a family who could work pisheógs. The person casting the spell would come to the cow house of the person to be cursed, would take the spancel and would work it back and forth under the best cow in the herd. That cow would dry up and the pisheogie person’s cow would produce gallons of milk.

Another story he told me was of a man who could work pisheogs.  When he went to mass on Sundays, when it came to the consecration, he would turn his back on the altar and face the congregation behind him.

(the power of pisheogs was thought to come from the devil)



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Cotter na Gruaige


A Pied Piper story from Rathea in the School’s Folklore collection

About 74 years ago a most unwelcomed visitor occasionally went past the village of Duagh, as it was the main road from Listowel town to Cork City for carting all farm produce. The name of this visitor was Cotter na Gruaige, he used to set charms, and also curse people for little cause and everybody was afraid to meet him. He was conspicious looking. He wore his hair hanging to his waist at his back and his beard hung to his waist in front. His mode of travelling was a pony about 20 years old and spotted like a magpie. 

He often went without causing any trouble but on one occasion while passing through Duagh the school children were at play in the school.grounds and when Cotter na Gruaige came on they threw puddle on him and his pony. He immediately drove his pony into the school yard to accuse the teacher named (Mr James Dore) who met Cotter in the  yard and ordered him out on the road. When on the road Cotter said to the teacher “I am going now but I am leaving you my army.”

 Master Dore lived 100 yards from the school, in a nice thatched residence which stands to this day. When school was over Dore walked up home, but to his amazement the thatch of his house was torn and thrown down by an immense crowd of rats. He entered the house but could not eat his dinner as the rats came up on the table. He was half frightened and did not know what to do. He went to the Parish Priest Father O Regan and told him his story. The priest went to see the rats and when he saw them he told the teacher, he should find Cotter na Gruaige and pay him to withdraw his charm. 

Next day the teacher set out on search of Cotter and found him in the evening at the house of a man named Nolan of Brosna. The teacher apologised and asked Cotter to come next day and take away the rats which he promised to do. The teacher came home that night and told his story to everybody including Father O Regan. 

Next day about noon Cotter na Gruaige was coming to the village and crowds flocked round him to see what would occur. Cotter rode his pony to the yard in front of the teachers house, put his hand in his pocket and drew out a bugle which he sounded and out came all the rats on the road. Cotter kept playing his bugle and riding slowly on his pony until he came to a small river South of Duagh named Glashamore. When he came to the river bank all the rats were around him, except one which he asked for, and the teacher said one rat remained in the yard. 

Cotter na Gruaige ordered two rats to go for the missing one and they went immediately and brought the largest rat of all which was blind. He walked between his two Guards led by a cord which he held in his mouth. When the blind rat landed on the river bank Cotter ordered all rats to disappear and all the rats jumped into the river below the bridge and were out of sight in a second and from that day to this no rat was seen at Dore’s house.

COLLECTOR
Dómhnall de Staic
Gender
male
Address
Duagh, Co. Kerry
INFORMANT
father
Relation
parent
Gender
male
Address

Duagh, Co. Kerry

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Wren Boys, Listowel shops and Christmas Things

December 2019

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Some Listowel Shops at Christmas 2019



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A Christmas Tradition

Wren boys by Vincent Carmody

The wren-boy tradition on St. Stephen’s Day is unfortunately, now nearly a thing of the past. Now, only a few small groups, or individuals carry on a tradition, the origins of which, are lost in the mists of time. In the time of the big batches of wren-boys, under the leadership of their King, these groups would traverse the country roads all day, and as evening and night approached, they would head for the larger urban areas to avail of the richer pickings in the public houses.

The North Kerry area was well catered for, with two large groupings in the Killocrim/Enismore and Dirha West areas, There was also a strong tradition in the Clounmacon side of the parish.

Some time after the wrens-day, it was the custom to organise a wren-dance. When the date was picked, a house offered to host the dance. The dances were all night affairs, with liberal quantities of food and drink provided. 

In the early 1960’s I spent three years in London,  during which, I worked in a pub, The Devonshire Arms, in Kensington, for a year or so. At this time, The Harvest Festival Committee, under Dr. Johnny Walsh, organised the wren-boy competitions in Listowel. Mr Johnny Muldoon, of London, had met Dr Johnny in Listowel and told him that he would organise two dances in his Dance Halls in London, provided that the Listowel committee send over three or four wren-boys to be in attendance. During their stay in London, Dan Maher, who managed the Devonshire, invited the Listowel contingent to the pub. On the particular evening I was serving in the lounge bar. (the pub was a gathering place for many film and TV actors who would have lived nearby). Suddenly Dr.Johnny threw the double door open, and in came the Listowel wren-boys, led by the leader, Jimmy Hennessy. Jimmy, wearing a colourful pants, had only some fur skin over his shoulders and chest and a headpiece with two horns. The others followed, faces blackened, and wearing similar outfits, all beating bodhrans. To say the least, those present did not have an idea what was happening.  To this day, I can hear the remark which one man, Sir Bruce Setan, (he, of Fabian of the Yard) at the counter said to the other, Christopher Trace (of Blue Peter fame), Blimey, they’re coming in from the jungle. They will kill us all.
There was no one killed, and I think that Jimmy Hennessy enjoyed drinking pints of Guinness and pressing the flesh, surrounded by people he usually saw, only in the Plaza and Astor.

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My Christmas Things

This is my new favourite Christmas thing, a beautiful Jim Dunn Christmas scene.

My second favourite Christmas thing is my Woodford Pottery crib.

And finally my little Judy Greene nativity

A Christmas wreath, some shop windows and Colourful Spirits exhibition

A Kerry Donkey: Chris Grayson

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Cured, you say? Caused, more like!


Photo from Facebook

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Some Christmas windows

Utopia

 Tae Lane

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A Christmas Wreath

My lovely daughter in law, Carine, treated me to a wreath making workshop in The White Horse in Ballincollig. Even if I say so myself, we made some lovely creations.

My Christmas wreath 2019

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John Paul 2 Cemetery



I put my Christmas wreath on Jim’s grave. The cemetery was looking lonely in the winter sunshine.

The burial ground is expanding rapidly with a whole new section opened up recently.

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Colourful Spirits Exhibition in St. John’s


I took the following photo s at the opening evening but the pictures will be there for the month. I’m delighted with my purchase. I’ll leave it hang for a few more weeks but I’ll have it in my home for Christmas.

Viveca Amato’s Santa greeted us at the door.

I think most of the Spirits who were exhibiting are in one or other of these photos. The group does have a few more members but their work is not in this show. The paintings are lovely. Well worth a visit. These artists do commissions as well so if you like someone’s work you could talk to them about doing something more special to you.

This mixed media picture is very eye catching.

This is me with my painting and the artist who painted it. Máire did a bad job on the photograph. I’ll have to take it again when I get it home.

Máire bought Jim Dunn’s Mad Hatter.   ‘nough said!

Street Names Saga Drags on in the 70s and its daisies and dandelions everywhere in 2019 and Friends in The Áras

Signs of Summer in Upper william Street



The circus is in town. The ice cream cones are out. It must be summer.



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Biodiversity


We have all learned that we have to allow the daisies, dandelions and other wildflowers to grow and flourish as they play an important role in the natural world. Listowel is doing its bit.

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Listowel Street names





It would appear that the MacMahon family preferred Ashe Street to Church Street as their address.  Ashe Street is an English translation of the Irish Sráid an Aghasaigh

Many people to this day use Patrick Street instead of William Street Upper, even though that plebiscite was defeated. 

Colbert St. was changed by agreement from Bridewell Lane although I dont know why it is Street in English and Road in Irish.

To this day the naming of places proves controversial. We wont mention the Ballybunion/ Ballybunnion or the Moyvane/Newtownsandes debate. As for Dingle, An Daingean or Daingean Uí Chúis….

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Friends in High Places

Áras an Uachtaráin….the Listowel Connection

The Kerry Association in Dublin presented their Arts award for 2019 to Pauline Bewick. The presentation was made by Uachtarán na hEireann, Michael D. Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin.

Jim and Elizabeth Dunn of Athea and Listowel, as friends of Pauline’s, “were (according to Liz) humbled to be invited and honoured to attend”.

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