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

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Listowel Men from Far and Near

Courthouse Road, Listowel in October 2024

At the October Horse Fair

There is so much more besides horses at the fair these times.

You could buy a spade or a fork, a pickaxe or even a mallet.

Poultry

I only saw one goat.

A Successful Emigrant and Philanthropist

Dec 16 1926  •  Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Death of Mr. D. Kennelly Mr. Daniel Kennelly, for many years a well – known resident of Port Pirie, died at his home at South_terrace, Adelaide, after a long illness. The late Mr. Kennelly was born at Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland, 60 years ago, and came to South Australia by the Robert Lee, sailing ship, in 1877. After a period of farming at Crystal Brook he removed to Port Pirie, where started a carrying business. He secured from the Broken Hall an important. Proprietary Company contract for the carting of coal, coke, and lead, which proved eminently satisfactory, and which he retained for several years. The late Mr. Kennelly was the owner of a number of farms in the Port Pirie district, and showed remarkable foresight in investments. He left Port sight Pirie in 1906, and settled in Adelaide, but he had always evinced the greatest interest in the northern town, which he visited on numerous occasions, and had such a regard for it that he left instructions that his remains should be interred there. An excellent organiser and a man of the strictest integrity, he was held in the highest esteem by all with whom he had business transactions, and when he left Port Pirie he was given a public send – off by the citizens. He was a much travelled man, and during his lifetime visited Japan and China several times, the South Seas, Honolulu, and the Mother Country, while it was a regular thing for him to make a trip to North Queensland during the winter season. Possessing a remarkable memory he was a most interesting raconteur. and he will be much missed by a large circle of friends to whom he had endeared himself by reason of his kindly, and generous nature. He has left a widow and one son. Mr. Eric Daniel Kennelly.


Oct 19 1927  •  Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

DISTRIBUTED Legacy of Late Mr. D. Kennelly INSTITUTIONS BENEFIT Elder’s Trustee and Executor Company, Limited, as executor of the will of the late Mr. Daniel Kennelly, of Listowel, South terrace, Adelaide, has made a first payment of one – half of the amount of the legacy bequeathed in terms of the will to each of the following institutions: £ 500, St. Joseph’s Orphanage,, Largs Bay. 2500, Late Father Healy’s Reformatory and Old Men’s Home, Brooklyn Park. £ 500, St. Vincent de Paul’s Orphanage, Goodwood. £ 500, Catholic Refuge, Fullarton. £ 500, Little Sisters of the Poor, South Australia, Incorporated, at Glen Osmond. £ 500, St. Francis Xavier’s Cathedral Building Fund. £ 500, Good Samaritan Sisters, Port Pirie. £ 500, Solomontown Catholic School. £ 250, St. Joseph’s Providence, West terrace. £ 250, St. Vincent de Paul’s Society, Adelaide, to be divided equally between St. Francis Xavier’s and St. Patrick’s Conferences. £ 250, Little Company of Mary, South Australia Incorporated, for proposed Public Hospital, North Adelaide. £ 250, Sisters of Saint Joseph, Port Adelaide. £ 250, St. Patrick’s Church, West terrace. £ 250, St. Mark’s Church, Port Pirie. £ 50, Late Father O’Mahoney Memorial Fund, Port Pirie.

Listowel Men in Cork

Richie, in grey in left front, is the only man in this picture who is not from Listowel.

L to R: Seán O’Sullivan, Gavan Buckley, Fergus O’Connor and Bobby Cogan

Dancers in 1975

John Stack shared this photo on Facebook and some others named the dancers as Diane Barry, David Moriarty, Ann Hickey, John Scanlon, Ann Dowling, Murt McAuliffe, Mary Cantillon and John Stack. Jimmy Hickey is the dancing teacher and we don’t know what the cup was for.

An Admirable Aspiration

A Fact

The last person to be executed by a government via guillotine was Hamida Djandoubi on 10 September 1977 in France.

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Athea, Listowel and Abbeyfeale

Athea Footbridge

Culture Night, Friday September 20 2024

Clíona and Aoife McKenna in The Square

Aoife in St. John’s for her first ever experience of a live performance

Mr. Bubbles was brilliant and held his young audience enthralled.

We met Sinead Bunyan and family in The Square

David Browne and Jimmy Hickey

From the Schools Folklore Collection

School: Cnoc an Iubhair (C.)

Location:  Kealid, Co. Kerry Teacher: Máire Ní Cheallacháin

A True Story

There lived in Carrueragh at one time a man by the name of Costello with his two children.

He lived in a farm out of which another family had been evicted by the Landlord Blacker Douglas.

The White Boys had determined to murder everybody that had anything to do with the Landlord and so they came to the house of the poor man who was a widower. They took him a little distance from the house and killed him.

The two children cried until they were hoarse and the hoarseness never left them.

As the man was dying his blood spattered on a stone beside him, and the stone is still there bearing the name of “The blood stained stone”.

A Few Friday Racegoers

These three ladies should have been in the final shake up for Best dressed. Imelda Murphy, Faith Almond and Maria Stack all know a thing or two about styling, tailoring and millinery.

Niamh Kenny was accompanied by her lovely daughter. Niamh wore a hat in the shape of a quill as a nod to Listowel’s literary heritage.

This hat was chosen by the judges as the most creative headgear. It was created by Cathríona King of Galway.

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Legendary Football Teams

Launch of Moments of Reflection

Me with Mary Fagan who was the special guest on the night

Me with my good friend, Margo Anglim

Miriam, who loves Listowel and comes back as often as she can. Dulce, who loves Listowel and has come to Listowel to live.

Robert and Eileen Bunyan

Promoting my Book

I was in Abbeyfeale on a wet afternoon last week.

An Siopa Milseán is like taking a step back in time….lovely shop, lovely stuff, lovely people

If you live in Abbeyfeale and you’d like to buy a copy of Moments of Reflection, this is the shop for you.

A Fact

Coffee consumed in large doses can be lethal. 10 grams or 100 cups in four hours can kill the average human being.

Health Warning; This fact was sourced in a book of trivia. Under no circumstances should anyone put this “fact” to the test.

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Jimmy Hickey, Dance Master

On the John B. Keane Road

Jimmy Hickey among his Dancers

Jimmy Hickey has given a lifetime to doing and teaching the thing he loves. Here he is with pupils of Presentation Primary School, many of whom are 70 years younger than him. Jimmy has taught their parents and in some cases grandparents. He has passed on the steps and the old figure dances and is as passionate today about Irish dancing as he was when he himself attended Liam Dineen’s Saturday dancing classes in Scoil Realt na Maidine.

I am so lucky to call this genius my friend.

St. Michael’s Class of 2024

From the school’s website

Great Houses in the Coolard area…

from Maurice O’Mahony’s History of Coolard School

Yeats in Melancholy Mood

A Fact

This is, in fact, a definition from my Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.

to abscond…to move in a mysterious way, commonly with the property of another.

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Art and Books

Back Lane behind Church Street in Summer 2023

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Dancing Down the Years

Photo and text from Fleadh Cheoil na Mumhan

Footsteps

The dance tradition of North Kerry has extended its influence far beyond its borders, to different places around Ireland, across Europe, and over the Atlantic to America.

Dance has been part of the culture in this region for centuries, passed down through the generations by the Dance Masters, like O’Ceirín in the 1700’s to Mooreen, Ned Batt Walsh, and to the great Geramiah Molyneaux, affectionally known as Munnix, who passed on the dance, to the young girls and boys, of the area.

The Dance masters travelled, often on foot, from town to town, village to village, 

such was their love of, and desire to pass on their art to the younger generation.

Munnix pupils like Jack Lyons, Jerry Nolan, Sheila Bowler, Liam Dineen, Liam Tarrant, Paddy White, Phil Cahill and many more would perform the old steps with great pride.

Long live the dancers! Long live the dance! 

Featuring Dance Master Jimmy Hickey, Musician Greta Curtin.

Devised and choreographed by Jonathan Kelliher, Artistic Director, Siamsa Tíre, The National Folk Theatre of Ireland.

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Celtic Artist, Tony O’Callaghan

When your grandad is an artist, you are lucky enough to have some marvellous bespoke piece of his work made especially for you and celebrating your name.

Few nameplates are as beautiful as these pieces that Miriam brought to share with the audience on July 6 2023.

Tony O’Callaghan, among many of the prestigious commissions he did, designed the logo for Listowel Writers’ Week.

This information comes to us from Wolfgang Mertens’ 1974 LWW memorabilia.

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Visitor

My latest summer visitor, Aoife McKenna, from Kildare loves, loves, loves Listowel library.

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A Smile from the Internet

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Summer Entertainment

My little granddaughter, Aoife McKenna in Ballybunion in June 2023

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Writers’ Week 2023

I’m back in the saddle after a little blip. In this picture, Saturday, June 4 2023, my younger daughter Clíona is addressing the audience at my Writers’ Week walk. In the forefront right hand side is my older daughter, Anne. My son, Bobby, is beside her in the picture.

The event this year became a family and friends affair as I was temporarily indisposed. They did fine without me.

I was sorry to miss this highlight. The legendary Jimmy Hickey, with his past pupils and fellow dancers, Jonathan Kelliher and Patrick Brosnan delighted the crowd with dancing, before the castle and beside the memorial to a man who would have appreciated this event more than most, the late Michael Dowling.

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Michael O’Connor, Illuminator

Stephen Rynne shared these two pictures. They are both pictures of &.

The top one is the work of an unnamed monk. It is in The Book of Kells and the bottom one is from Michael O’Connor of Listowel.

O’Connor took what he saw in the Book of Kells and elevated it to a new level.

Plans are afoot; On July 6th Stephen Rynne, our Michael O’Connor expert will give a talk in Kerry Writers’ Museum to an invited audience. The talk will be on Michael O’Connor and all the other Listowel artists working in different branches of art but all with a Celtic ambiance. I’ll be telling you more about this in the coming days. It is hoped that the talk will be live streamed and we’ll all be able to hear it.

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Remembering Luke Kelly in Ballybunion

I got a lovely email from the U.K.

…I grew up in the Square in Listowel and my father Dr Johnnie Walsh was a GP. He was called to Ballybunion one night where the Dubliners were playing. Luke Kelly had dislocated his shoulder. My father put his shoulder back in but demanded payment first. He had not been paid often as a young doctor and had learnt that you got the money when ‘the tear was in the eye’! 

Thank you for all the pleasure I am getting from the blogs. 

Best regards, 
Eleanor

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A Great Night in The Tinteán

I hadn’t been in the Tintean in years until last week when I went there with my visitors.

One of the main attractions (for me anyway) was Elle Marie O’Dwyer. On the left of my picture is Elle Marie’s mother, Catherine, who comes from Kanturk, with Breeda Ahern, my sister in law, Sheila Cronin, my cousin, and in the front Lil MacSweeney.

Elle Marie with Frances Kennedy, also from our parts and another friend.

Elle Marie on stage. You could hear a pin drop as she sang, unaccompanied, Garry MacMahon’s beautiful Land of the Gael.

A slightly bigger name on the bill was Sean Keane, always a joy to listen to.

Crystal Swing came out of retirement for the night and Derek threw his legs east and west in his inimitable style. We loved it. If an act wasn’t to your liking, you knew that there would be another one on in just a few minutes. My visitors loved their night’s entertainment.

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Strange but True ( and a bit harsh)

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