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
Seats and kneelers at the front of the church have now been upholstered. Tried one out and I must report that they are very comfortable indeed.
<<<<<<<
Irish Traditions
by Kathleen Jo Ryan and Bernard Share
Below is an extract from an essay by Bryan MacMahon on the Irish people he knew.
<<<<<<<<
Book Launch
We had a great time in St. John’s on Saturday, November 11. Vincent’s latest book is probably his best and most important book yet.
Kathy Buckley, a humble Listowel girl, daughter of Lar, the local cooper, ran the White House kitchen under three US presidents. Vincent has done a marvellous job of research on this one and the beautifully presented book is full of information, photographs and interesting stories from behind the scenes.
Finbar and Cathy Mare were in charge of sales.
Some of Vincents old Listowel friends gathered for the launch
John Cahill, Anne Crowley, Owen MacMahon, Elizabeth Moriarty and Kay Moloney Caball.
Katie Hannon launched the book for her childhood postman. She caught up too with Canon Declan O’Connor, a fellow Duagh native.
<<<<<<<<
Our Wonderful Tidy Town Team
Photo; Tidy Town
Just some of the Tidy Town stalwarts at the presentation of local prizes last week.
<<<<<<<
Fact of the Day
With delight I bring you today’s fact, sent to us by Vincent Doyle
Mick O’Callaghan reminisces about Halloween nights during his Kerry childhood.
I remember in school we were reminded to pray for all the saints that had no special day assigned to them on the calendar. The church had set November 1st aside as a special day for this remembrance and they called it All Hallows Day with the day before that called All Hallows Eve or Halloween. November 2nd is called All Souls Day .We really prayed for these saints and visited the church. This was very much part of our formative years.
My father and uncle told us it was a pagan festival from Celtic Ireland. Samhain was the division of the year between summer and winter when the other world and ours were closest and it was the time when the living and dead were closest. Druids dressed up as spirits to avoid being carried away during the night in case they met spirits.
This is where all this dressing up at Halloween comes from with children and adults dressing up in scary costumes.
When I came to the east coast in 1967, I was amazed at this dressing up tradition when everyone dressed up and went out on the town with children doing Trick or Treat. I had never experienced such a massive Halloween community event during my childhood in Kerry.
The big event there was the celebration at home with the barmbrack taking centre stage. Barry’s Bakery did a huge trade in these. They were rich curney loaves made with the fruit soaked in barm, the left over from fermenting beer and ale giving it that rich taste. There is probably a newer recipe nowadays. Each brack contained a rag, a coin, and a ring or a pea. If you got the coin, you were in for a rich year ahead. The rag was an omen of a poor year ahead while the ring designated love or happiness and the pea meant that you would not get married that year. It was all good fun. My mother was always so careful when cutting the brack to warn us about checking each piece carefully.
My father used cut out a turnip and placed a candle in it. This was to remember the light given to Stingy Jack by the devil to guide him around in the darkness because he would not be allowed into heaven or hell after he died because he tricked the devil, and he was not in favour with the good lord above either. At least that is what I told the children every Halloween during my teaching years. The Jack o’ Lantern tradition is also mixed up in this area. The Irish brought this tradition with them when they emigrated in their millions to the USA during famine years, I believe, but because the USA is more pumpkin than turnip country the pumpkin took over from the turnip. The carving of the pumpkin was also very much part of American Halloween and Thanksgiving Festival with pumpkin pie and soup and whatever else you can think of.
Now we too have pumpkins everywhere and ne’er turnip in sight.
In my youth we enjoyed snap apple at home, and this was great fun also. An apple was tied on the door jamb with a string, and we had to try and slow it down and bite it. It was such a hygienic game, I don’t think.
My uncle would arrive every Halloween with his sack of lovely eating and cooking apples. He told us that in times past apples were offered as sacrifice to the gods in thanksgiving for a good harvest. He got a big basin, filled it with water and put apples in. Our challenge was to dunk in and get out an apple by biting into it while our hands were tied behind our backs.
He also placed some coins which naturally fell to the bottom of the basin so there was quite a lot of water splashed about in our efforts to get the dosh, but it was all good innocent fun. Could you imagine doing that now with covid and sanitiser. No thank you very much.
My father always grew Kale or curly cabbage and was forever hoping for a blast of frost pre-Halloween so that the cabbage would be ready for the colcannon. This was a special favourite meal. The potatoes were taken from the pit and the fresh onions were brought in from the shed and my grandmother Curran always sent in the proper home-made salted country butter to add to the mash. The eventual colcannon meal was scrumptious. I still love colcannon.
Then there were the ghost stories when my father would emerge with a white sheet thrown over him and with the light down told us exaggerated stories of the banshee with a bit of wailing thrown in which scared the living wits out of us.
Nowadays things seem to have changed with the sweet companies producing millions of small bars and sweets to fill the bags of the Trick Or treaters. We now have Halloween lights and baubles to equal Christmas.
Nuts come with an allergy warning; I was asked last year if I had gluten free sweets.
Mick O Callaghan
<<<<<<<<<
More from Walkabout , a 1980s guide to Listowel
<<<<<<<
In Tattoo Shop Window
Church Street, Listowel
<<<<<<<<<<
Bridget Ryan, Listowel to Sydney in 1850
Sue Greenway, on the left, came to Listowel from her home in California to learn more about her ancestor, Bridget Ryan, who travelled from Ireland to Australia in 1850.
Kay Caball has the whole story in her Kerry Ancestors blog today.
Listowel Emmets football team scored 22 of their 24 points from play in Sunday’s defeat of a higher ranked Ballymacelligott team in the County Junior Championship 2023.
Another Prestigious Prize for a journalist with a Listowel Connection
This is Malachy’s father, David Browne’s Facebook post
“Proud and privileged to witness the announcement of the Pulitzer Prize Award to my son Malachy last Monday in the New York Times offices. His team were acknowledged for their unflinching coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including an eight-month investigation into Ukrainian deaths in the town of Bucha and the Russian unit responsible for the killings.’
Malachy Browne with Donnie O’Sullivan at Listowel Writers’ Week 2022
<<<<<<<<<<
A Settle Bed
This is a picture of an old farmhouse from Floklore.ie. On the left of the picture is what was known as a settle bed. The bedclothes were stored underneath the seat and brought out when the bed was dressed for someone for the night. This was a fine cozy bed beside the fire and often used by visitors or travelling workmen.
<<<<<<<<<<<
Listowel’s Newest Amenity
“My heart, tonight, is home again in Ireland
Upon thy banks, my silver river Feale.”
Bryan MacMahon’s words were sung to us by his son, Owen, at the launch of Listowel Kayaking Club on May 14 2023.
The sun shone. The water was resplendent. The birds sang. A small crowd gathered (small, for health and safety reasons) and Jimmy Deenihan presented us with his latest project, a kayaking club. Jimmy and friends have brought this to fruition in jig time.
Jimmy Deenihan
I was delighted to meet this group of my former pupils, all involved in this healthy outdoor activity. Lovely to see these young ladies emerging as leaders in their community.
<<<<<<<<<<<
A Welcome Treat
On my way to town on Friday, I met these lovely young people at the gate of their school, Coláiste na Ríochta. They were inviting me to their Bake Sale in aid of Áras Mhuire.
I took up their invitation and a lovely young man accompanied me to the classroom where selling, eating and chatting was in full swing.
I even met someone I knew. I bought some cakes . They were delicious.
Well done enterprising seniors in Coláiste na Ríochta.
<<<<<<<<
A Coronation Tale
Did we ever think we would see Kay Caball, cousin of Canon Declan, renouned historian and genealogist and a pillar of respectability feature in The Irish Daily Mail?
Don’t panic. Kay was merely telling the tale and it all happened in the eighteenth century.
This is the coronation connection. Lady Fiona Petty Fitzmaurice is Queen Camilla’s best buddy.
The Fitzmaurice connection: Fiona’s husband. is one of the once Lixnaw based Fitzmaurices who used to own most of Kerry.
“After a gatherer comes a scatterer” they say and the Fitzmaurices had the father of all scatterers. Kay told the story replete with “Petticoats up and pantaloons down” to a journalist from The Daily Mail and below is a photo of the centre page in the paper on Saturday.
If you missed the paper, Kay will tell it all again on Jimmy Deenihan’s walking tour at Listowel Writers Week on Friday June 2 starting from Kerry Writers’ Museum at 10.00 a.m.
<<<<<<<<<<
I told you so
In 2018 I posted this picture on here. It is cyclist Dillon Corkery being greeted by his grandparents at the stage finish of the Rás in Market Street.
Pic : Lorraine O’Sullivan
Yesterday Dillon won Rás Tailteann outright as part of Team Ireland. I told you he was destined for great things. My exact words were ” Is Dillon the next Sam Bennett?”
The Listowel Connection?
I went to school in Kanturk with his grandmother and still count her as a friend today. I’m over the moon!
<<<<<<<<<
A Fact
The word NEWS comes from the fact that stories were gathered from all corners of the world. News is actually an acronym North East West South.
Martin Chute restored this piece of old wall art to look exactly as it did for decades.
In case you were wondering the premises of which this is the gable used to be a pharmacy.
<<<<<<<<<
Colcannon
This traditional Irish dish is usually eaten at this time of year. Mattie Lennon tells us all about it and gives us the recipe.
COLCANNON.
By Mattie Lennon.
Did you ever eat Colcannon, made from lovely pickled cream?
With the greens and scallions mingled like a picture in a dream.
Did you ever make a hole on top to hold the melting flake
Of the creamy, flavoured butter that your mother used to make?
CHORUS
Yes you did, so you did, so did he and so did I.
And the more I think about it sure the nearer I’m to cry.
Oh, wasn’t it the happy days when troubles we had not,
And our mothers made Colcannon in the little skillet pot.
It’that time of year again. Post- Autumnal Equinox. (I feel sorry for the Americans, since they call it the “fall” they can’t use a word like “Autumnal”.) Anyway we have less daylight than darkness. Kerry has won the All-Ireland football final, the Liam NcCarthy Cup is safe and sound in Limerick and the shops are stacked with masks, and all the grotesque trimmings of Halloween. This time of year conjures up images of scooped-out pumpkins, trick-or-treat and silhouettes of a witch on a broomstick partly eclipsing a full moon surrounded by wispy clouds. It is the time when, in bygone times, the veil between this world and the next was believed to be lifted. It replaced the old Celtic festival of Sámhain. Sámhain was the Celtic god of death.
If, like me, you grew up in the rural Ireland of the ‘fifties and ‘sixties you will be aware of different regional Halloween customs. However the one constant and nationwide feature was Colcannon. Yes, I know . . .if you Google Colcannon you will get info on a ballad group in Denver, Colorado with Mick Bolger as their lead vocalist.
I wondered where they got the name from so, I contacted Mick who told me; “We got our name back in 1984. The band had been rehearsing to apply for a position as house band at The James Pub and Grille, in Boulder, Colorado. As the only native Irishman in the band it fell to me to make up a list of possible names. Colcannon was one of those names and we decided on it because it sounded Irish and was easy to pronounce. We eventually got a trademark on it since we were getting pretty well-known and didn’t want any complications. Turns out we had some complications anyway but having the trademark helped “.
But the Colcannon of which I write is a simple and delicious dish of few ingredients and no need for lessons from a celebrity Chef for its preparation. Cál ceannann – (white headed cabbage) is a food made from mashed potatoes and cabbage, butter, salt, and pepper.
. In Atlantic Canada (especially Nova Scotia and Newfoundland), a local version of the dish is popular among those raised in rural communities,brought to the provinces by Irish and Scottish settlers.
The Welsh call their leek soup “cawl cennin”, but I’m told there’s no connection.
Did you ever take potato cake in a basket to the school,
Tucked underneath your arm with your book, your slate and rule?
And when the teacher wasn’t looking sure a great big bite you’d take,
Of the creamy flavoured buttered soft and sweet potato cake.
I witnessed the cooking and consumption of Colcannon on rather large scale once. At a charity event, in the Wicklow mountains, Martin Byrne was faced with the task of feeding 1,500 people (no, that’s not a typo) with Colcannon. What did he do? Well, I’ll tell you. He manufactured a stainless steel trailer 8ft by 4 ft and mounted it on “ground-engaging” metal wheels which he salvaged from a defunct agricultural implement. He fitted a large valve in the rear panel; more about that anon. He then procured a half ton of spuds and the relevant quantity of green cabbage. After diligent preparation and the addition of appropriate seasoning the ingredients were put into the “trailer-full of water”.
The whole assembly was driven in over an already blazing log fire. They say “a watched pot won’t boil” but this one did. When it had reached the correct consistency Martin opened the aforementioned valve and the steaming H2o was released onto the ground. Then came the mashing. For this job he had designed and constructed a “two-man masher”. Himself and his assistant Harry Farrington, on either side of the trailer, using plenty of elbow-grease converted the white and green load into appetizing fare. With a number of brand-new shovels one and a half thousand people were fed on Baltyboys hill.
The “loaves and fishes” of the Bible came to mind.
If you don’t have 1500 people for dinner, at Halloween, and you want to try it on a smaller scale here’s the recipe;
4 lbs (1.8kg) potatoes, or about 7-8 large potatoes (‘old’ potatoes or russet potatoes are best, waxy potatoes won’t do)
1 green cabbage or Kale
1 cup ( 7 fl oz, 240 ml) milk (or cream)
1 stick (4oz, 120g) butter, divided into three parts
4-5 scallions (green onions), chopped
Salt and Pepper
Did you ever go a-courting as the evening sun went down,
And the moon began a-peeping from behind the Hill o’Down?
As you wandered down the boreen where the leprechaun was seen,
And you whispered loving phrases to your little fair colleen.
<<<<<<<<<
Greenway Official Opening
As well as the throng of politicians who headed our way for the opening of the 10kms.of Greenway from Listowel to Abbeyfeale, there were many local people present on that lovely morning in October 2022 to welcome this long awaited amenity.
Jimmy Deenihan with Minister of State, Hildegarde Naughton.
The Caballs from Limerick, who are keen walkers, had already walked the greenway before its official opening.
The Fitzgeralds from Knockanure welcomed this new walkway.
I spotted Joan Flavin in the crowd. Joan is a keen cyclist. She will surely be cycling here shortly.
<<<<<<<<<<<
Pitch and Putt, The Early Days
Dave O’Sullivan did a bit of searching for us in the newspaper archives.
The Kerryman of May 22 1971 gave a bit of the background to the location for this recreational facility.
Kerryman April 1 1972
The course opened first with 9 holes and a further 9 were later developed.
<<<<<<<<<<<
At the Food and Craft Fair
Sunday October 30 2022
The Fair is a celebration of local food produce. I photographed a few local food producers.
Brona Chocolates is a family run high end artisan producer of delicious treats.
The one of the family who was on duty on Sunday was a credit to his parents, charming, chatty, knowledgeable about his product and willing to share his involvement with his family company. He is incentivised to work in the business with the chance to earn a few bob for Christmas spending.
Jean Louie is a great example of French diligence and industry. He produces honey, beautiful wooden crafts and beeswax candles under the brand Trieneragh Honey.
He told me that the bees had a great summer, unlike those in his native France who suffered in the heat. Trieneragh honey is delicious, and very few “food miles”. It is available in lots of local shops.
Bridge to Listowel Racecourse over flooded Feale in June 2022
<<<<<<<<<<
William or Patrick?
William Street, Listowel, in Irish is rendered as Sráid and Phiarsaigh, just one of many street naming puzzles in Listowel.
<<<<<<<<<<<<
Plaza Cinema
Here are the rest of the great old film posters that Norma O’Connor sent us.
If any one has a story relating to any of these films, we’d love to hear it. First date maybe, disastrous date or the best night of your life.
Norma sent us the schedule for some of these films in The Plaza, Church Street, Listowel.
The Law and Order with Ronald Reagan showed on 3/06/1956
A girl in every port – 6/09/1954
Lost in Alaska – 13/02/1955
Run for Cover – 06/11/1956
The Virgin Queen – 19/11/1956
Suddenly – 27/11/1955
Malta Story – 14/02/1955
<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Listowel Writers’ Week 2022; Friday Walk
One of the really enjoyable events for patrons of Writers’ Week is the daily morning walks.
Vincent Carmody made these rambles around town a feature and he is still the most knowledgeable walking guide.
I have learned from a master and now I am delighted to guide a Morning Walk. This year it was on Friday, June 3.
My walk is much like my blog, totally random and with a lot of help from my friends.
This is the 2022 team. Kay Caball is the historian, Seán Stack with a lot of help from Mary Fagan is in charge of sound, Clíona McKenna reads a bit and acts as my assistant and prompter, Paddy McElligott is in charge of all the tenor numbers, Mary Moylan is the musician and singer extraordinaire and Éamon ÓMurchú reads eloquently from the work of Joseph O’Connor.
Because I am otherwise engaged, I don’t get to take too many photos but I got a few.
Kay Caball regaling the walkers with tales of The Fitzmaurices and their adventures.
With some walkers before we set off from The Listowel Arms.
I met this lady on Opening Night and she told me she’d come even though she isn’t too keen on walking. I assured her that calling this event a walk is a grave misnomer.
