Listowel Library in June 2025
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Good News
First with the news, The Kerryman
A Kerry man is hoping to bring the big screen back to Listowel after finalising plans to setup a new cinema in a historic building within the town.
Tom McElligott, a retiree from Listowel, revealed to The Kerryman that he purchased Sluagh Hall on upper William Street for €99,000 at auction last Christmas. He hopes to repurpose the building into a ‘family leisure and entertainment centre’.
A bit of history from Vincent Carmody’s Snapshots of a Market Town:
The Sluagh Hall ( Old F.C.A. headquarters )
” Patrick O Neill, egg and poultry exporter, located his place of business from the 1890s at the top end of Upper William Street, by the side of the old railway bridge. The building was afterwards used , along with adjacent properties, as headquarters for the L.D.F. ( Local Defence Force) during what was known as ‘ The Emergency’, or the years of the Second World War. The post-war period saw the emergence of the F.C.A. ( Forsa Cosanta Áitiúl) and a refurbishment of the hall. It became known as the Sluagh Hall. It was equipped with a stage, and this served two purposes – to facilitate the mounting of a boxing ring and also a much sought after venue for the newly-formed Listowel Drama Group to stage their plays “
Along with the central hall, it contained offices and store rooms on the street side, the long room on the opposite side was used as a firing range.
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Events to look forward to
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We’re delighted to unveil the full programme for the Cornelius Lyons Harp Summer School 2025, taking place June 20–22 at Teach Siamsa Finuge, Co. Kerry.
Friday, June 20
6–8 PM
Harp Workshop with Janet Harrison
Saturday, June 21
10 AM–3.30 PM
Harp Workshop (lunch break at 12)
3.30–4.30 PM
Talk by Niamh O’Brien – “From the Parlour to the pub: Irish Harping from the 1950s”
€5 (public)
7.30–9 PM
Concert & Album Launch – Janet Harbison & Two for Joy
€15 (public)
Sunday, June 22
10.30 AM–2 PM
Final harp workshop
3.30–4.30 PM
Concert at Rattoo Round Tower with Summer School performers
Tickets are available on Eventbrite:
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Were you in First Year in St. Michael’s in 1979?
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In Flanders Fields
In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
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A Fact
The creator of the safety pin — this simple object present in almost every home — was a man named Walter Hunt. But his story goes far beyond a bent piece of brass.
Walter Hunt was born in 1796 and was one of the most prolific inventors in American history. Creator of various devices, like a primitive sewing machine model, Hunt had a restless mind — but, like so many geniuses, he lived surrounded by financial difficulties.
In 1849, in debt with a friend for 15 dollars, Hunt did the unthinkable: he took an 8-inch brass wire, began folding it with his fingers, and in a little while, one of the most useful objects ever created appeared — the safety pin.
But Hunt didn’t just create a pin: he had the ingenious idea to include a spring and a protected tip, which would prevent accidental drilling. It was a small touch of genius with a giant impact.
He registered patent No. 6,281 on April 10, 1849 — and soon sold its rights for $400 to W.R. Grace and Company. Enough to pay off debt and, as always, continue your life as an anonymous inventor.
It wasn’t just an ingenious creation. It was a definitive solution to an everyday problem. Before him, common pins were dangerous, loose, unstable. Hunt’s model has radically changed it — with a design that endures to this day, almost unchanged.
While older versions exist, such as the Roman fibulaes, it was Hunt who created the model that is modern, functional, safe — and accessible.
Walter Hunt was not a millionaire But his little invention has become immortal. The safety pin is the perfect reminder that even the simplest idea, when done ingeniously, can transform the world.
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Correction
When is a fact not a fact?
When it’s out by 200 years.
Following its capture, New Amsterdam’s name was changed to New York, in honor of the Duke of York, who organized the mission. The colony of New Netherland was established by the Dutch West India Company in 1624 and grew to encompass all of present-day New York City and parts of Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey.
(Thank you, Jim Kennoy for the correction)
