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: Kildare Page 3 of 4

Telephones

By

On February 16, 2022

In Listowel

Gap of Dunloe by Chris Grayson

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Coming of the Telephone

Dave O’Sullivan has been doing a bit of research for us on the coming of the telephone to Listowel. We were remembering last week when local telephone numbers were in single digits.

From Dave;

Hi Mary,

Your refence to the phone system tweaked a bit of curiosity as to when the telephone might have arrived in Listowel. It appears from the attached to have been around 1915. Although by 1925 there were only 8 subscribers. Also a keen resistance from the town commissioners to having to pay for the apparatus !

Best wishes

Dave

I’ve snipped the relevant column from The Liberator. Listowel seems to have been a bit behind the times on this one.

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Kildare on The Curragh

It is always heartwarming to drive through the Curragh on my way to my Kildare family. Everywhere there are sheep and lambs asserting their right of way and meandering to and fro. The other animal associated with The Curragh is, of course, the racehorse and horsey references and themes are everywhere.

When I stayed in Kildare town recently, I stayed at Kildare House Hotel.

Will you look at the inventive door openers?

In the hotel there are lots of pictures and caricatures of horsey people. This is Nina Carberry who is in the news nowadays more for her dancing skills that her horse riding.

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From the Mailbag

Ms. Cogan,

Just a note to thank you for your work on the Listowel Blog.  My great grandmother, Mary McElligott (daughter of Maurice McElligott and Margaret Cashel) was born in Listowel in 1864 and immigrated to the States in 1885 as a single young woman. She was smart and determined and became a business woman running several of her own businesses along with purchasing a farm. She held a love in her heart for Listowel and County Kerry until the day she passed away.  I appreciate all that you share in your blog as it provides a glimpse into the land she loved and our ancestral home.  I hope I will get to visit in the not too distant future and enjoy it in person.

Best regards,

Christine

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Bicycles

Will we ever learn? On Saturday February 12 2022 I spotted these two bicycles “parked” against the wall and windows of the community centre. Nearby the beautiful new bike stand stood empty.

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Remembering Anita

By

On February 14, 2022

In Listowel, Personal

Gap off Dunloe by Chris Grayson

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A Schoolday Memory

As you know I’ve been revisited my old school yearbooks, trawling for “content”. I suppose it was inevitable that some of the memories would be sad ones. So many colleagues gone from us.

Then in this old treasure I came across a poem that took me back to a Tuesday I will never forget.

That Tuesday, after the long weekend, Anita should have been sitting at the back beside her friend Gretta in my first class.

We were all in shock. It was my first experience of the death of a pupil and for many of her classmates it was their first experience of death. The Leaving Cert. didn’t seem to matter so much anymore.

Anita was fun loving and artistic. She had so much to live for.

Whenever I hear Garth Brooks’ The Dance I am back in the church in Lixnaw on a bright May day when no one felt like dancing.

May Anita rest in peace.

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Kildare in February

February is St. Bridget’s month. What better place to be than Kildare , the home of Bridget.

This is the statue of Brigid in Kildare Town Square.

This is the lovely Heritage Centre where a nice lady told me all about the town and its history. This is also the place to buy a few souvenirs and find out what’s on.

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Where are the other Twenty Three?

Sing a song of sixpence…last week I snapped this solitary black bird at Mike the Pies.

From the internet some crow facts;

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For the Chop

I heard on Radio Kerry that some of the trees in Childers Park will have to be cut down or relocated to accommodate the Greenway and for health and safety reasons. I walked that way on Saturday but I couldn’t see any sign of which trees have to go. The work starts today, Monday February 14 2022. I’ll keep you posted.

While I was in the park I was delighted to see a rugby game in full spate. Looks like the old normal is back.

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Sr. Consolata’s Arizona Story

By

On February 11, 2022

In Listowel

North County House, Listowel February 2022

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Sr. Nuala R.I.P. and Sr. Consolata

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Sr. Consolata’s adventures in Arizona (Concluded)

In 1997 Sr. Consolata Bracken spent a year in Arizona. She wrote an account of her time in the U.S. for the school magazine. Here is the final extract from that essay.

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Historic Adare

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A Lovely Family Occasion

A Baptism is a truly lovely family occasion. Even in times like these, welcoming new life into a parish community is an uplifting event.

Anne Cogan was ten years old when her baby sister was born. She has always had a motherly relationship with Cliona. It is lovely to see her developing the same motherly bond with Clíona’s baby.

Isn’t that the sweetest face ever?

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Kildare, Some Socks and a Soccer Match Fact

By

On September 2, 2021

In Listowel, Personal

An image from summer 2021 with St. John’s surrounded by scaffolding.

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My Trip to Kildare

Kildare Town Square in August 2021. Lots of accommodation for outdoor dining in the spacious town centre area.

It was Heritage Week so reminders of Kildare’s heritage were everywhere; St. Bridget, horses and horse racing. There were a few sheep too from the nearby Curragh.

The bunting outside the turf accountants was jockeys’ silks.

How appropriate.

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A Wedding and some US Visitors

My niece got married. Covid made much of the planning a nightmare but it was all “alright on the night”.

I was wondering what token to buy for the U.S. branch of the family who were travelling for the occasion. I wanted something small, light, useful and easy to pack but something also that says Ireland. What better than Listowel native Anna Guerin’s Sock Coop’s beautiful socks. I bought them online and they were delivered in 2 days.

They were a big hit!

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I know this for a fact

In October 1963, 90 men who worked in Dunlops in Cork were suspended. They took time off without permission to watch a soccer match on TV.

The match that nearly cost them their jobs was England versus The Rest of the World. (Source The Irish Examiner)

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A Casualty of Covid and Lack of Funds

(Story from Mark Holan’s Irish American Blog)

Museum Closure

Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum in Connecticut, closed for over a year due to COVID-19, will not reopen, owner Quinnipiac University says. The museum is said to hold the world’s largest collection of historic and contemporary Irish famine-related art works. The pandemic has further eroded the museum’s poor financial footing, which surfaced in 2019.

“The university is in active conversations with potential partners with the goal of placing the collection on display at an organization that will increase access to national and international audiences,” Associate Vice President for Public Relations John Morgan wrote in an early August statement.

The museum opened in 2012. The 175th anniversary of “Black ’47”, the worst year of the famine, is next year.

Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute, founded and directed by history professor Christine Kinealy, remains open, as does the special collection of famine-related books, journals, and documents at the Arnold Bernhard Library on the Mount Carmel Campus, Morgan said.

I visited the library and museum in March 2013. I hope this impressive collection finds a good home.

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Gresham Menu 1972

This old Gresham Menu has gone viral on Facebook. In 1972 eating in a restaurant was a big treat, not an everyday thing. I don’t know why I believed that it was horrendously expensive!

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Yarnbombing in Kildare, Bird Lore from 1937 and a Listowel Fashion Designer

By

On June 25, 2019

In Uncategorized

Listowel Presbytery

Recent repair work at the presbytery entrance revealed a lovely stone wall under the plaster.

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Yarn Bombing in Kildare


People who know me know that I love a spot of knitting and crochet. I was thrilled to get to see this huge yarn bombing project in Newbridge as part of Kildare’s June Fest.

It’s lovely to see this neglected craft getting an airing outdoors for everyone to enjoy. But there is a small practical part of me says that’s it’s a shame to expose these lovingly created artworks to be destroyed by the elements.


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Sign of the Times



A huge display of paper diaries at half price in Eason in June 2019

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Some Bird Lore from the Dúchas Collection



When people are trapping singing birds they often make a crib. This they do by getting smallchips of wood. they place two chips about a foot from each other, then they get two more the same size and place them on top of the other two about ten or eleven inches apart, then they get two so smaller ones and place them on top of the other two and a smaller distance away and so on till they reach the top with smaller sticks and a smaller distance away. Then they get cord and tie all the corners of the crib up along till they reach the top. then then they get a long cord and tie a stick on to it. They raise up the crib place the stick under it and get a few crumbs of bread and put them under the crib. then if a bird comes the person pulls the cord and if the bird is under the crib it flaps down and the bird is caught inside.

When people are taking the hatch out of a hen they dip the hen into cold water.

Another way for taking the hatch out of a hen is to stick a feather up its nose.

People often “strike” birds with a knife and fork. Once we had a canary in my house and it used never sing unless my mother took out the machine to  sew.

This was collected by W. Keane, Ashe St. Listowel and told by Mrs Keane, Aged 36, of Ashe Street, Listowel for the schools folklore collection of 1937/38

( I am fascinated by the idea of taking the hatch out of a hen. By the way, does a hen have a nose?)



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Couture with a Listowel Connection




This is a page from last Sundays’ Sunday Independent Life magazine. The feature is about Create, which is Brown Thomas’ showcase of Irish design, which will open in Brown Thomas Dublin in July.

From 70 prospective candidates, Brown Thomas chose 30 designers who met the very high standards required and each of those 30 had to produce a 25 piece collection. As well as fashion there are creations in lots of other fields of design as well.

The picture above is from Anna Guerin’s first collection “The Duellist”. It is a double breasted lambswool coat in pinstripe Donegal tweed which is woven sustainably.

Anna is the daughter of Michael and Áine Guerin of Listowel and she is no stranger to award winning in fashion design and tailoring. She has been working in this field for a while now. This is her first individual collection and when I spoke to her a few weeks ago she has lots more creative ideas in the pipeline.

The above coat looks to me like a garment that would be perfect on Kate Middleton. I hope it catches her eye. We know how much she loves good Irish design and she loves tweed.

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Just a Thought



Here is the link to my Thoughts from last week on Radio Kerry



Just a Thought

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