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: John Kelliher Page 1 of 3

In Kanturk and Muskerry

By

On February 27, 2024

In Listowel

Wildflower meadow in Childers’ Park in February 2024

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New addition to Kanturk’s Boar Family

The town of Kanturk takes its name from the legend that the last wild boar in Ireland was slaughtered near the town. The boar’s severed head features on many logos associated with Kanturk. Now a family of imposing boars have been installed in the little park by the river.

I took this photo of the wild boar sculptures in The Canon’s Wood in Kanturk on my last visit.

Now I learn from the Kanturk Newsletter that they have welcomed a baby boar to the family.

Photo; Kanturk Tidytowns community

Baba Val like his parents has been fabricated by Anton Rusinov and Kate Rusinova. Clann Toirc have all been decorated by local artists.

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Another Artefact

On my recent visit to Muskerry Local History Society I saw this extraordinary piece of Catholic Doctrine History.

Jerry Kelliher was a student in Maynooth. He salvaged this book when the library was undergoing a clearout.

This catechism claimed to contain “the express word of God”. It was published in 1848.

The catechism is bilingual.

An interesting explanation is given of the origins of the letters of the Irish alphabet.

Jerry gave us this example of a question and answer.

I photographed a few pages.

The Irish script is so ancient that it would take a scholar to decipher it now.

The author of the catechism was a Fr. Andrew Dunleavy. He was born in 1694 and was hedge school educated. He studied in the Irish college in France in 1710.

The first edition of his Catechism was approved in 1741.

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A Local Hero Retires

John Kelliher was at the other side of the camera at celebrations to mark his recent retirement from local emergency services. John will not ride off into the sunset. He will now have more time for his other passion, photography and he will still be making a huge contribution to Listowel and North Kerry.

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Pres. Yearbook 1988

My photo of the school staff is a photo of a photo in a book so the quality is poor but the memories are there.

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A Fact

On June 20, 1967, boxer, Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston for refusing induction in the U.S. armed forces. He was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam war ands spoke publicly against it. Judge Joe Ingraham handed down the maximum sentence to Cassius Clay (as they insisted upon calling him in court): five-years in a federal penitentiary and a $10,000 fine.

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Christmas Market

By

On November 30, 2022

In Schools, Schools' Folklore

Listowel 2022

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Listowel in Times Past

remembered by Cyril Kelly

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Christmas Market, Saturday November 26 2022

I was a bit early and the festivities hadn’t started in earnest when I was in the Square. My little visitor had fallen asleep so we were at home before the switching on of the lights which was done this year by Paul Manning. We missed Santa and the school band as well so my photos do not do the event justice.

This is Paul Manning at the festivities in The Square. Unfortunately on the way home, Paul lost the hat he is wearing here. The hat was adorned with 2 badges which are of sentimental value to Paul. If you found it, you could hand it in to John B.s, St. John’s , The Garda Station or Doran’s. Indeed if you hand it in anywhere in town they’ll get it back to Paul.

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Folklore

On Friday I was back in Listowel Library for Tom Dillon’s entertaining talk on folklore. The talk was based on some of the local stories in the national folklore collection.

I was struck that some things that happened during the recent Covid crisis are things that only we know. Not everything is reported in the paper. I resolved to tell my family that Nick and the team at Listowel Garden Centre gave me a present of a plant and a bar of chocolate one day during lockdown. The gift came out of the blue. It meant a lot as did all the other kindnesses I received. I will pass the stories on to the next generation. That’s folklore.

Many stories were collected by schoolchildren in copies like these in the great initiative in 1936/37. Is it time to do it again?

Here is an extract from that great treasure trove;

My great grandfather whose name was Daniel Mangan from Bedford owned a house in William Street but it belongs to a man by the name of Corbet now and he fixes [?] cycles. When the house was owned by my great grandfather it was a latin school and it was taught by a man named Mac Namara My grand father whos name was Pat Mangan was taught Latin there. Mr. Mac Namara aied [?]named man.

They had slates to write on with slate pencils. The black board was a big slate. They had a few stools and planks across two or three boxes.

There was a hedge school in Ballydonohue. It was taught by a man named Relihan. One day they were attacked by English soldiers and Relihan was hanged.
Told by Mrs. Keane, Ashe Street, Listowel.
Written by W. Keane, Ashe Street, Listowel.

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What an Improvement

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Exemplary Fire Fighters

Photo; The Kerryman online

Proud to see our own John Curtin and John Kelliher rewarded for their long service to the fire service.

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River Brick, Listowel Fire fighters, an essay on Slagging and a Lyre Cuckoo

By

On May 12, 2020

In Uncategorized

Bovine Reflection in the River Brick

Photo; Bridget O’Connor

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John Kelliher’s Fire Fighters Photos


Fire chief, Anthony MacAuliffe and a very young John Kelliher outside Seán Scully’s


This is the old fire station. The library is now on their site.

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ONLY SLAGGIN’ 

                                 

                                     By Mattie Lennon

  A sense of humour keen enough to show a man his own absurdities, as well as those of other people, will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those worth committing.

                       Samual Lover.

  I’m getting a bit of a slagging lately (I won’t go into details) and it’s great fun. I’m not talking about offensive remarks or insults. I’m referring to good substantial, wholesome, slagging.

 SLAGGING : The delicate art of teasing someone in such a fashion that they look forward to it. 

  It is practiced widely throughout Ireland by all manner of people. Well not all manner; there are those, a small minority, who, through low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy or some form of psychological abnormality cannot take a slagging. And they have a right to live too despite the fact that they could truthfully echo the words of the character in God of Carnage who said “I don’t have a sense of humour and I have no intention of acquiring one.” Will the humourless, however, admit to their condition? Almost eighty years ago Frank Moore Colby asked, “Men will confess to treason, murder, arson, false teeth or a wig. How many of them will own up to a lack of humour.”? (I once lived in a Dublin suburb of which it was said that one “would want to wash your words.”

   In the words of Erin Mack, “Blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves for we shall never cease to be amused.”

   Why can some people not take a slagging? Freud in Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious points out that when we were children we had no need for jokes because all our fantasies were so immediate. “ . . . when we were ignorant of the comic, when we were incapable of jokes and when we had no need of humour to make us feel happy in our life.”

   Is the anti-slagging brigade made up of those who haven’t left their childhood? Who have not grown up and who, subconsciously or otherwise are without the need for a bit of craic? Or are they victims of their upbringing or education? One writer, with reference to French finishing schools says, “In a world where structure, order and logic are the master nouns, the room for nonsense and absurdity is limited.” 

   Or, as one journalist put it, “In Ireland, we’ve always tended to gift-wrap our positives somewhat differently. We do it by insult. The closeness of Irish friendships — particularly Irish male friendships — can often be measured by how egregiously the friends insult each other. Incompetence, ineptitude with the opposite sex, shortness, tallness, fatness, skinniness, hairiness and baldness are all highlighted to tighten the bonds of mutual affection. “  Of course it has been suggested that all Irish people can take a joke, based on the fact that we voted in the government that we have. 

 So, we have our own way of dispensing what Americans call “positive reinforcement.”

   There are people in these islands who have convinced juries that a graceful taunt was an insult. And they are living comfortably on the proceeds.

   In 1994 Jacob Hangaard, a Dutchman, stood for election as a joke. He was elected. His manifesto included “the reclassification of people without a sense of humour as disabled.”

   Should we change a culture to appease a small minority who are allergic to life? How do we deal with people who can’t distinguish between affection and rejection? I don’t know. How about a compromise? What if those who suffer from self-victimisation or hypersensitivity were obliged to wear some form of badge proclaiming, “I can’t take a slagging.” 

I have commissioned a mug for such people. Do you want one?

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Super Photograph of a Super Moon




Ita Hannon took this photo last week.

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Cuckoo in Lyre in May 2020



Photos by Mary Nolan



Listowel from John Kelliher’s Drone, A Poem from Noel Roche, 1992 panto in Pres. and Speed Cameras

By

On April 24, 2020

In Uncategorized

Swans at Rattoo



Photo: Bridget O’Connor

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Listowel in Lockdown


Drone photos from John Kelliher




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HMS Pinafore 1992

Presentation Secondary School, Listowel operetta

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Another Poem from Noel Roche

This poem needs no words of introduction or explanation. Noel says it best in his own words. And remember he is 40 years sober this year.


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Bet You didn’t know this




The speed camera was invented to speed cars up not slow them down. A Dutch rally driver and engineer called Gatsonides wanted to take corners faster. His first device was 2 strips across the road. The first strip started a stop watch. The second stopped it. Then he thought of adding a camera so he not only had a record of the vehicle’s speed, he also had a picture of the car. He could see how much extra speed he could squeeze out of a corner by approaching it along a different line.

His invention was called the Gatsometer and speed cameras are often still referred to as Gatsos. He realised its application in the detection of speeding offences when he replaced the pressure sensitive strips with a radar beam.

Of course the Listowel connection is our own Irish GoSafe speed camera network has its headquarters in Listowel.

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“Oh, lest the world should task you to recite….”

Ursula Stack sent us this Covid fact.

Dame Judi Dench has tasked herself with learning all of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets during Covid 19 lockdown

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From Isolation -Inspiration

Thank you, Nan Bailey for the heads up on this marvellous resource.

This is an initiative of the Irish Embassy in London.

From Isolation – Inspiration involves a series of short videos posted on the Embassy social media channels which feature individual Irish artists currently in domestic isolation performing their art – a musician, singer, poet, novelist, actor etc. The videos are filmed by the artist in their home or garden and are designed to inspire and bring solace and cheer in these testing times.

Access the recordings    HERE

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A (very late) Message from Listowel Celtic PRO



Our own Barbara Mulvihill is nominated for the Best Actress Award in the Kevin Rowe Events Oskars.  She is raising money for St. James hospital.

If you want to vote for Barbara here is the link.

Best Actress at Kevin Rowe Events Oskars

Martin McCarthy is up for Best Actor. He is raising money for the Mercy Hospital Foundation.

A vote costs €1

NNB Voting closes this evening at 5.00

Castleisland, Dublin phone boxes and lights in Listowel’s Childers’ Park

By

On April 3, 2017

In Uncategorized

Deirdre Lyons took this photo recently in The Garden of Europe. Isn’t it beautiful?

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Castleisland


Last week I had occasion to pass a few hours in Castleisland. It is a really interesting town. I sometimes feel that Castleisland people are closer to their rural roots than other Kerry people. I overheard these gems on the street;

” Let me tell you now while I’ve a holt of you…..”

“75? She is in her eye. She’s 85 and she looks every day of it.”

This great likeness of Con Houlihan, one of Castleisland’s most famous sons, stands in the town centre.

This premises is currently idle.

A native of Castleisland informed me that this landmark is called The Fountain. This confirms my belief that people are different in this town. To me this is a pump. I can’t see anything that makes this column a fountain but if Castle Island people want to call it a fountain who am I to differ?

A reminder of Castleisland’s dark history

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Phoneboxes on Connell Bridge, Dublin in the 1970s

Photo: Stair na hEireann on Facebook

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Lighting our Way through the park

If, like me, you were walking in the park on Thursday March 23 2017, you might have wondered why all the lovely lights that are such a great addition to the park in recent years were still on in mid morning. Wonder no more. On my way through the park I met Conor Moriarty whom I knew would be a likely man to know the answer. He did. It was he who had turned them on in order to identify which ones were faulty. They are all now in full working order.

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A Wedding Video from 1962





Wedding of Tommy Murphy and Olivia Featherstone



Paul Murphy sent me this great old video to share. Here is his accompanying email:

My mother was manager of the Arms, hired by Joe Locke, got married in Dublin because she knew people up there.



Listowel people in the video include my Dad’s sisters, Mossie Walsh down the square, with his wife Kats who still lives there, other Walshs, the guy sitting next to the old lady is I think Stephen Stack, the  pharmacist, where The Gentlemen’s Barber is now.



The old lady is my Gran Aunt Ciss Perryman from Beale who ran Mountain View in Ballybunion up until the 80’s. Also from Ballybunion is my uncle Paddy Dowling, who is doing the toasting, his daughter mames was well known in Ballybunion, who died tragically in a freak accident a few years ago. Feel free to ask any questions.

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In London on Friday last 




Nancy and Derry Kelly, both from Listowel, celebrated 50 years of happy marriage.

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Wedding with Fireworks




John Kelliher just happened to be in The  Square on Saturday April 1 2017. He just happened to have his camera with him so he got a shot or two of the firework display which was put on to celebrate a local wedding.



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Don’t Forget



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