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: Listowel juvenile tennis 1987

Tennis players in action, A Mystery Box, Olive Stack Gallery and Thumbing in Kerry in 2012

Keen photographer, Chris Grayson, is often out and about with his camera. He has a fascination for old abandoned houses. He lets the picture tell the story. It is often a very sad one.

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Coming to the end of the Tennis Photos


I have really enjoyed bringing you these photos of young people now in their thirties and forties, a cohort who dont often contact me re Listowel Connection. I hope they have enjoyed reliving their tennis days through Danny’s photographs.

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A Mystery Box



While walking on Charles Street the other day, I spotted this box attached to a road sign. Does anyone know what it is?

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When an Artist has a Shop




Isn’t this so stylish?

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Thumbing A Lift


In the good old safer days, thumbing was an accepted way of getting from A to B. Many motorists were obliging and usually stopped for a hitch hiker.

Recently in The Leinster Leader a journalist called Robert Mulhern recounted his exploits with this method of getting around. Here is an extract from the piece which tells of his experience in Listowel…

Travelling from London to Listowel for the races in 2012, I realised upon landing at Kerry Airport that there was neither a bus nor a train to Listowel, or anywhere else it seemed.

It was a beautiful late September evening, so I stood out the front of the terminal considering my options, when a woman I’d been chatting with on the plane recognised me and stopped.

“I’ll drop you to the cross, about five miles away,” she said. “You’ll get a lift easy enough from there.”

When we got to the cross, the first car I hailed pulled in. It was a jeep actually.

“Where ye for?” said the driver.

“Jet O’Carroll’s,” I told him, “near the Main Street.”

On the drive in he told me he was the general manager of Listowel Racecourse.

Then he dropped me right to the door of Jet’s, and threw in some complimentary tickets for the next day’s racing.

Of course this way of getting around is long out of fashion.

But I’ve long thought that, with its low carbon, energy efficient stamp, this thumbing lark is the very transport solution that would be front and centre of any environmentally conscious transport strategy.

Robert Mulhern is a London based journalist contracted to RTE’s The Documentary on One. To contact him, email mulhernrobert@hotmail.com

Ballybunion Sea Rescue, Kerryman 1994 and Listowel Juvenile Tennis in the 1980’s



The Presbytery, Listowel in January 2019



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Kerryman Christmas Supplement 1994









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Watch, for you know not the hour




Ballybunion Sea Res cue posted this picture and the accompanying story on their blog;

Today we were honored to accept a cheque from Lorenzo Cubeddu, his wife Amanda, Cormac and Elaine Cahill and the amazing staff at Super Valu Ballybunion. The staff raised 250 Euro which was matched by Cormac and Elaine for a total of 500 Euro for Ballybunion Sea Rescue.

This donation comes after Lorenzo went missing at sea on the 11th of November 2018. Lorenzo was windsurfing when he got into difficulty, he had last been seen by local fisherman, Mike Enright at around 16:30 and reported overdue around 17:10 which triggered a major search operation involving Ballybunion Sea Rescue, Ballybunion Coast Guard, RNLI units from Fenit and Kilrush, the Irish Navy Vessel LE Niamh, Rescue 115, Ballybunion Fire Service and Gardai. The search ended at 23:20 when it was confirmed Lorenzo made it ashore at Corlis Point.

It is a tale of strength and endurance and thankfully it had a fantastic result, Lorenzo returned safely to his family and friends. From then on we have seen an outpour of support from Lorenzo and Amanda and their friends and especially Cormac and Elaine Cahill who on that very night were a rock to Amanda and a huge support to all emergency services involved.

We thank you all for your continuing kindness, generosity, and support!

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Listowel Juvenile Tennis Club


Sometime in the late 1980s

Photo: Danny Gordon

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Listowel’s Christmas Goal Mile 2018



These are some of the large group of hardy souls who took part in the Goal mile at Christmas 2018. Jimmy Deenihan tells me that they had participants from the USA, UK and various European countries as well as Ireland.

They raised €1,200 for Goal

St. Brigid’s Day

Today is Feb 1 Feast of St Brigid, Muire na nGael. After St. Patrick, Brigid is the most significant Irish saint. In parts of the country her feast was celebrated, much as the feast of St. Stephen, with groups of Biddy Boys going from pub to pub singing for their supper.

St Bridget (there are several different spellings of the name) was born near Dundalk to a wealthy family. She was always religious. The following is from the encyclopaedia of Catholic  saints.

“About the year 468, she followed Mel to
Meath. About the year 470 she founded a double monastery at Cill-Dara (Kildare)
and was Abbess
of the convent, the first in Ireland. The foundation
developed into a center of learning and spirituality, and around it grew up the
Cathedral
city of Kildare. She founded a school of art at Kildare and its illuminated
manuscripts
became famous, notably the Book of Kildare, which was
praised as one of the finest of all illuminated Irish manuscripts
before its disappearance three centuries ago. Brigid was one of the most
remarkable women of her times, and despite the numerous legendary, extravagant,
and even fantastic miracles attributed to her, there is no doubt
that her extraordinary spirituality, boundless charity, and compassion for
those in distress were real. She died at Kildare on February 1. The Mary of the Gael, she is
buried at Downpatrick with St. Columba
and St. Patrick, with whom she is the patron of Ireland. Her name is sometimes
Bridget and Bride. Her feast day
is February 1.”

In a horribly ironic act, the tabernacle from the church of St. Bridget in Killester was stolen yesterday.

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We’ll take an ad. break now. I have 2 bills to post!

Back to business

 I have unearthed another old tennis photo. This one has the girls.

The year is 1987

These are the names as I have them on the back of the photo

Sorry about the poor quality of the photo. My skills as a photographer have come on a bit since 1987.

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