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: Lartigue Museum

Tullamore, Snails and More from my Lartigue Museum Visit

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On August 14, 2019

In Uncategorized

Entrance to Kenny Heights

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Tullamore



Many years ago, in another life, I spent a summer in Tullamore, Co Offaly. I returned recently and found it much changed.




This Irish Foresters building has been restored  and rededicated since I was there.

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Today’s Fun Fact 


from The Second Book of General Ignorance

Snakes can swallow things that are bigger than their heads. They can do this because most of the bones in a snake’s head are not locked in position, as in mammals, but are attached by a flexible ligament. One of these bones links the snake’s lower jaw to its upper jaw in a double jointed hinge.

In 2005 the remains of a 6 feet long alligator was found in the Florida Everglades National Park. It was protruding from the body of a 13 foot long Burmese python.

The python had tried to swallow the alligator whole and then exploded, The alligator clawed at the alligator’s stomach from the inside causing it to burst open.

Fights between alligators and Burmese pythons, which can grow to 20 feet long, are a popular tourist attraction in The Everglades.

As the young people would say, WTF?

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Behind the Time?




I wonder what it was that attracted so many snails to this old clock.

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The Lartigue Museum



As well as taking a trip on the train for €6 for an adult and €5 for an

O.A,P. you get to see some really rare old foottage of the original monorail and you get a guided tour of the museum which has all kinds of memorabilia, some, but not all, connected with the Lartigue.

We learned about Marconi and about the Valentia cable station.

We learned about the coming of electricity. We saw some old electric kettles, fuses and other switches and plugs and stuff.

One of the first lamps people bought as soon as they got electricity was the Sacred Heart Lamp .

Everyone who ever had to “clock in” and  clock out” at work will remember this.

This machine is still used on railways today. Railways are fairly low tech but very efficient nonetheless.

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Lock up your chickens




Neil Brosnan photographed this sparrow hawk in his Listowel garden last week. Be warned!

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Travellers on their way to Puck Fair in 1954




Photo credit : Inge Morah

Source: KillorglinArchives.com

Co. Cork countryside, in The Lartigue Museum and Crusaders in Dingle

By

On September 11, 2015

In Uncategorized

Life in the Country 2015


These great photos of tillage farming in Liscarroll, Co. Cork were taken last week by local photographer, Denis MacSweeney.

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More from The Lartigue Museum at Pride of Place Judging



Jimmy Deenihan with Martin Griffin welcome the visitors to the museum where a great crowd of local business people had gathered to meet them.

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Crusade to Dingle

A group of Kerry Crusaders who ran marathons and half marathons in Dingle on Saturday.

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The Good Old Days




(Photo: Facebook)



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Christy Browne Remembered

Christy Browne, artist and his mother are remembered at this time. Christy passed away in Sept 1981 after a life spent painting with his left foot.

Christy Browne was the youngest of 13 children born to a Crumlin family. Christy’s mother never let his cerebral palsy stop Christy doing anything he wanted. She encouraged his art and his writing. He celebrated her in his autobiography My Left Foot which was later to be made into a film. Brenda Fricker won an Oscar for her portrayal of Christy’s mother.

Christy married and lived out his final years in Co. Kerry.

(Photos; Rare Irish Stuff)

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Kearney’s Bar , Moyvane


The late Dan Kearney of Moyvane with some of his customers and with some of his grandchildren

(photos: Moyvane Village)

Pride of Place 2015, Ballincollig and Fleadh na Gael in Listowel in 1974

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On September 8, 2015

In Uncategorized

Pride of Place


On Sept 1st. 2015 the judging for this year’s Pride of Place competition took place in Listowel.

The sun shone, Listowel put on its best dress, and the place never looked so good.

The business community, the volunteer community and clubs and associations went the extra mile to show the judges a taste of what happens in Listowel and how the local people engage with their town. I think the judges left impressed and, if Listowel does not win, it will be a travesty. I took photos in The Lartigue Museum and in the Seanchaí and I’m told that the display in The Family Resource Centre was excellent and showed the town in the very best light.

The judges were a husband and wife team. They took their job very seriously. They chatted to everyone, looked and admired everything on display and seemed genuinely impressed by everything that was going on in the town.

This is the judge alighting from one of Fitzpatrick’s coaches which brought them from venue to venue.

 Jimmy Moloney and Mary Hanlon of Listowel Tidy Towns were bursting with pride in their place.

Jimmy Deenihan was on hand to welcome them to the Lartigue and to explain to them a bit about the project, its origins and how it runs today. 

Click on the link below to see the video Denis Carroll made of the event at The Lartigue.

Pride of Place 2015 by Fealegood

Tim O’Leary and Martin Griffin were ready to welcome the visitors.

 Two other visitors were watching the video prior to their trip on the train.

The Tuesday crew, driver, John MacAulliffe and guard, Junior Griffin, were on a tea break and chatting to Paddy Keane and John O’Connor.

The museum, as always. was looking in tip top shape and was of great interest to the two “ordinary” visitors who had travelled from Canada and were on a trip around the world looking at railways. They were very interested in all the doings of the railway and brought a knowledgeable eye to view the workings of the engine and the complicated changing of the rail so that the train could be turned.

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Music in the Community


Music in the Community is a great initiative to bring music into the lives of as many people as possible. I attended a great free open air concert in Ballincollig Regional Park  on Sunday August 30th 2015. The sun shone. The setting was ideal and we all had a great day. A bit like a free Electric Pixnic!

 This is a section of the crowd in the Regional Park for the free concert.

My family, plus newly acquired dog, Cappi, were there in force.

The marvelously energetic Jerry Fish was the headline act.

This is the queue for a crepe! The queue for coffee was longer.

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Fleadh na Gael in Listowel



A brochure from Betty Stack’s collection of Comhaltas memorabilia.



This is a flavor of the brochure for Fleadh na Gael in Listowel in 1974

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