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: Lidl

Christmas at the front in WW1, An Gleann and some Christmas windows

By

On December 10, 2014

In Uncategorized

Jim Halpin, curator of a great collection of war and other military memorabilia at his museum in Church St. invited me to photograph his Princess Mary tin and he told two very interesting stories apropos the tin.

The idea of sending a tin to the soldiers was not an original one. Princess Mary’s aunt, Queen Victoria had sent such a present to soldiers during the Boer War. Jim has one of these in his collection and it contains the original straw packaging used to protect the enclosed gifts.

The Princess Mary story is fascinating. Apparently, the young princess went to the warehouse where these tins were being packed and she brought a hand written note to enclose in one tin. The note asked the finder to contact her. The story goes that the note was found by a Munster Fusilier from Limerick.

This old photo of 4th battalion of The Munsters comes from Historical Tralee

The tin is inscribed Christmas 1914. It has a cameo of Princess Mary surrounded by a laurel wreath. In the corners are the names of Britain’s allies in the Great War. Other symbols of the British Empire at war adorn the box as well.

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Last Rites 1915

Chaplain to the Munsters was a Fr. F. Gleeson from Tipperary. In this famous painting he is depicted giving last absolution to the troops as they paused on their way to the front.

Whilst moving forwards to the trenches on 8 May 1915, in preparation for the Battle of Aubers Ridge, Lieutenant-Colonel Victor Rickard ordered the battalion to halt at a roadside shrine in Rue du Bois, near Fleurbaix.  Gleeson, who had ridden at the front of the column, addressed the assembled 800 men and gave them the general absolution whilst still mounted on his horse. The men then sang the hymns Hail, Queen of Heaven, the Te Deum and Hail Glorious Saint Patrick before Gleeson moved along the ranks bidding farewell to the officers and encouraging the men to maintain the honour of the regiment.The battalion then moved off to the trenches from which they launched their attack at 5.30 the next morning. The Munsters were largely cut down by machine gun fire before they had advanced more than a few yards although enough men survived to capture the German trenches, the only unit to do so that day, before being forced to withdraw. (Wikipaedia)




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Football

Denis Carroll posted this old one on Facebook. The Mart Field is now Feale Drive.

Back row L-R: Gigs Nolan,?, Pa Kennedy, Miley Fitz, Jerry Kelliher, Bob O Brien, Buster Lynch, PJ Kelliher, Jimmy Griffin, Manager Roche.

Front L-R, Denny Carroll, Peter Sugrue, Kempes Kelliher, Kevin Sheehy, Liam Kelliher & Noel Roche

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The Kerry Football team is one of Six Nominees for Rte Sport Team of the Year 2014



(photo; The Sunday Game )

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This cool vehicles was spotted in Limerick this week



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Christmas 2014 Scenes from Listowel





Listowel changes

By

On November 22, 2013

In Uncategorized

One little corner of Listowel is badly hit by the downturn.

I only moved a few paces to take these three photos yesterday. Sad!

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This was the scene in Cahirdown last week as a new pedestrian crossing was being put in place outside Topaz.

As you can see the crossing is between the entrance and the exit of the busy filling station.

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This corner looks great now.

And this one.

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Kay Caball of Find Your Kerry Ancestors has a great blogpost here:

http://mykerryancestors.com/blog/

Muiris OSuilleabháin was one of the famous Blasket writers. Kay tells us that his daughter was a friend of Anne Moloney’s. This is what she says:

Muiris’ s daughter Máire
Ní Shúilleabháin-UíChiobháin, who is now a retired Nurse. living in
Galway.   My  sister-in-law, Anne Moloney (Scully) got this lovely
letter from Máire reminiscing about their schooldays  in Dingle.  

We left Connemara
in 1954, four years after my father, Muiris Ó Súilleabháin, had
drowned.   At this point his sister Eibhlín, nó Neilí Sheáin Lís, had
died in Springfield and also her brother Séan – both in their forties – of
heart disease or heartache and loneliness.   A mixture of all I would
say, as their sister Máire had returned to Ireland and married Pádraig Ó
Ciobháin, and settled in Carraig, Baile na nGall.  Máire was the eldest of
the three Súilleabháins who had lived in Springfield.  It was said that
Máire leaving to go home affected them greatly and thit an tóin as an sail and
cailleadh le huaigneas an bheirt.  Níor phos cheachtar acu.

   This left my father Muiris, who
was drowned in 1950 and Mike who was now a tailor in Dingle, married to Hannah
Philí Ni Chearna, with no family.  Mike had served his time in the
tailoring trade with the Lynch family in the Cottges in Dingle.   He
had died in 1951 of heart disease.

   Hannah was now alone in Goat St,
as was the custom in those dark days, she was ‘mad to have me stay with her for
a while’ for the company.   So in 1954, I landed in Dingle where I spent
three magical eccentric years, leaving an imprint on my soul forever more.

    The small house backed onto
the Convent wall where I went to school at the age of 10 and spent three happy
years.  The nuns were wonderful women, totally dedicated, be it in the
classroom, or in the large welcoming kitchen with the Aga and its warmth, where
I was brought on a few occasions.  I must mention Sr. Mary of the Sacred
Heart or Sr. Mary Tarrant, who arrived as a fresh-faced new teacher and
mothered and cared for me whilst I was there.   She certainly
influenced us all greatly and we never forgot all she taught us.

   Three years afterwards, I was to
attend a Catholic girls’ school in West Yorkshire, run by the Passionist
Sisters, and found that what I carried with me from Dingle, placed me in a
different

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Don’t forget that special guest is turning on the lights in The Square tonight, Nov 22 2013





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Did you see this one? 

From the Surrey police!






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The Christmas lights go on tonight. Here is a pic from last year to get you in the festive spirit.








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A Lidl Bit of Lidl Magic


Lidl, John B. Keane Road, Listowel on Weds. Nov 20 2013

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I saw this in St. John’s last night.  Great play, great show…well done all. The 2 remaining shows are fully booked. There is an extra show on Monday night but book early.

(John Kelliher took the photos)

Bord na Mona, Lidl in Listowel and Knitwits

By

On February 19, 2013

In Uncategorized

This is the Whickham rail car which was used to ferry
visitors around the Bord na Mona works. the passenger is Father Brown, the famous photographer of World War I
and Titanic fame. He visited BnM in the late 1940s and took lots of photos.
Here he is waiting for the visit to start.

In these 2 photos, Fr. Browne has alighted from the car and his hosts are moving it off the line and out of the way of the oncoming cart.

This photo from the Fr. Browne visit  is from Lyrecrompane or Barna . The McHenry lorry has
“Kerry” written on its side. The lorry is being loaded with sod turf,
probably for the Dublin market. At the same time a donkey and cart is also being loaded with turf for local delivery. The new and old way of delivering turf pictured side by side. 


Photos and text from


Bord na Mona Heartland

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Here is another of those old photos from Maurice MacMahon. On the right is Jim (Salmon) Roche. Another one for his family to enjoy at their upcoming family gathering. No one so far can name his companion.

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Lidl under construction

Excavating the site 2006

The walls have arrived.

August 2006

Lidl today

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KnitWits

To celebrate our 2nd. birthday and to coincide with our first Tuesday knit-in I will give you here a short history of KnitWits.

KnitWits, Listowel’s knitting and crochet group began life on February 12 2011.

Isobel Barrett put an
ad in the library and in a few shop windows in town. We rang Isobel and she
told us that the first meeting was organized for Saturday February 12 in Off
the Square Café.

 10  knitters turned up. We drank
coffee or tea and knitted away. Isobel decided on the name Knirvana. This name
had been suggested to her by Martina in the library. It proved to be
troublesome later when we established our web presence. People kept going to
the website of the band of a similar name or else putting in Knitvana, so we
changed to KnitWits, which is what Liam Hayes had always called us.

There are 6 of that original gang who still come regularly.
People dropped out for various reasons but they are all welcome back at any
time.

In 2012 the café closed and we were homeless for a few weeks
before Isobel found us our new home in Scribes. We were very happy in Off the
Square and we missed them at first but Scribes is a super location for us,
bright and airy, comfortable, great food and lovely staff. Namir has become
one of us and has made us all feel at home in his lovely restaurant.

Our numbers have swelled to roughly 20, 11 or 12 of whom come
most Saturdays. We have a mix of ages but the majority of us are in the older
category. We still remember the age when women knit all their families’
jumpers.

We count among us a goodly number of women who have lived
most of their adult lives outside of Ireland. We have women who were born in
England and Wales, women who were born in various counties of Ireland and were
driven out by the last recession. We have blow- ins from Cork and other places
further afield. This diversity adds spice to the chatter which is an essential
part of our get- togethers.

What do we do between 11.00a.m. and 1.00p.m. ?

We knit or crochet, we exchange patterns, and we chat. We
have a cuppa or a mini breakfast and we provide a support network for one
another. We are friends.

We have adopted 2 charities, locally The Society of St.
Vincent de Paul and globally Kozy Kaps 4Kids. We have got great pleasure and
satisfaction from using our talents to help those less fortunate than us. So
far we have raised €400 from our Christmas Craft Stall for St. Vincent de Paul
and we have made over 100 caps for children undergoing chemotherapy.

We enjoy our sessions so much that we have decided to meet
on two days per week in future. From this week, Knitwits will meet in Scribes
on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 11.00 to 1.00. We welcome new people at any
stage. While we do not give lessons, we are always willing to help a beginner
or anyone who is encountering difficulties with a pattern.

We also reach out to our sister group who meet in The Family
Resource Centre on Thursday nights. There is a significant overlap in our
membership and we share an annual outing to The Knitting and Stitching Show in
the RDS Dublin in October.

We are on the web at

https://www.facebook.com/pages/KnitWits/134286519974162

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I got this email from Karen in the US

Hello,


Was wondering if you can help? We are trying to locate members of the Kiely family who we believe had a store in the town around the early 80s. May of been a son (?) of Cornelious Kiely and we think there may of been a brother who was a priest, possibly Michael. They had connections with the Kielys from Glin.


Any information at all would be very helpful.

Thank you very much.


Regards

Karen

I directed her here

http://churchstreet53.com/intro.html

Does anyone else have any ideas?

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