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: Listowel Pitch and Putt Page 1 of 6

Reggie’s Visit

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On April 15, 2025

In Listowel

Teeing off at the Kerry matchplay championships in Listowel on Sunday April 13 2025

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Pitch and Putt

Organiser and competitor: There was plenty of local interest in the competition.

The course was looking superb, a credit to all involved. We are so lucky in Listowel to have this top class amenity in the heart of town. We owe so much to the foresight of the club’s founders who planted the seeds and landscaped the field and laid the foundations of the great club it is today.

My visitors, Bobby and Carine were happy to meet a pitch and putt supporter and dog lover.

Monday’s message on the club website:

Yesterday we hosted the Kerry Matchplay Championship. Our own players did us proud on the day. Richard Bunyan and Paul Hayes were beaten finalists, while Ger Guerin, Albert Barrett, Bobby McCarron, Jake Shine, and John Heffernan had excellent runs to the semi finals. Congratulations to all the winners, and to the County Board for succesfully running the competition on the day.

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A Walk by the River

We took Reggie for a walk along the riverside. Getting on to the walk from the ball alley side was a bit problematic as Reggie was afraid to venture on the metal walkway under the bridge. He had to be carried. He’s not light and he doesn’t like being carried.

The river was very dry. At places you could walk across. I don’t recommend it.

Wild garlic at a tree stump. If you like this for flavour there is plenty of it freely available in Listowel.

Reggie takes a look at Kerry plant and a fallen tree.

Reggie and Bobby posed for me near the picturesque town end of the walk

The brisge to the racecourse with the river water almost completely dried up.

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In Thyme Out Café

Sometime a sparrow flies in to check out the diners.

It was lovely to meet Marie MacCarthy on my recent visit. Marie ran into Eleanor Belcher on her travels last year. They found themselves in the same little café in a remote little town in Greece. Listowel connections everywhere.

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Something New at Kerry Writers’ Museum

I copied this information from KWM social media page

📚 James McGrath’s Poetry & Irish Lending Library in Kerry Writers’ Museum in Listowel

James McGrath, a distinguished poet and artist from Santa Fe, New Mexico, has roots tracing back to Ballyvaughan, County Clare.

At 97, James continues to make remarkable contributions to the literary world, recently relocating his Poetry and Irish Collection to Kerry Writers’ Museum in Listowel.

A regular visitor to Ireland and a cherished friend of the Ballydonoghue Bardic Festival, James has generously sponsored an annual €200 prize for writers aged 75+ since 2018.

Visit the museum to explore this unique collection and support the ongoing legacy of James’s work. Kerry Writers’ Museum is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm.

I called to see how it worked and you can borrow any book from the collection. All that is asked is a small donation.

They didn’t have a list of the books available and I couldn’t find a list on line. Maybe a job for a quiet day in the museum.

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A Fact

A giant panda in the wild can live for 20 years.

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Sunshine and Visitors

By

On April 14, 2025

In Listowel

Beautiful Listowel Pitch and Putt course on Sunday April 13 2025

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Glorious Weather

I’ve been outdoors a lot in the past week so not so much research for my blog being done. I also had a lovely family visit, so this week you may not see the best of me on here.

Water level very low in the Feale in April 2025

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I do not like thee, Dr. Fell

Fourth Wall Theatre Group take a curtain call in St. John’s on Saturday, April 12 2025.

Maeve Heneghan and me after the play. Maeve was delighted to be returning to her Kerry roots and playing in a town where her famous ancestor, John J. Foley performed many a comic turn. Maeve played Rita in the show, a very funny character whose (imaginary) husband was “savaged by dogs”.

Bobby Cogan, Maeve Heneghan, Mary Cogan, Bridget O’Connor and Carine Schweitzer in St. John’s

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Meanwhile in the horse racing world…


2025 Randox Grand National Winner Nick Rockett Homecoming, Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow 9/4/2025
Ruby Walsh, Ted Walsh Winning jockey of the 2025 Randox Grand National on Nick Rockett, Patrick Mullins and winning trainer Willie Mullins
Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

The two father son combinations which won the Aintree Grand National twenty years apart.

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Sign of Summer

The shops are putting out the sunglasses.

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A Fact

In 1923 Firestone put the first inflatable tyres into production.

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Kanturk Grotto

By

On October 31, 2024

In Listowel, Poem

In Listowel Pitch and Putt Course

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Kanturk’s Marian Grotto

Kanturk always looks well. It has a very hard working Tidy Town Group, a Men’s Shed and a very involved local community.

The grotto at Greenane is always beautifully maintained.

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A Few More from My Brehon Law Book

“The laws were a civil rather than a criminal code, concerned with the payment of compensation for harm done and the regulation of property, inheritance and contracts; the concept of state-administered punishment for crime was foreign to Ireland’s early jurists. They show Ireland in the early medieval period to have been a hierarchical society, taking great care to define social status, and the rights and duties that went with it, according to property, and the relationships between lords and their clients and serfs.” Wikipedia

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Some People at the Hospice Coffee Morning

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Things Fall Apart !

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St. Patrick’s Hall’s New Sign

This is how it used to look with the old white sign

This is how St. Patrick’s Hall looks today with its glamorous new gold sign.

I spotted Martin Chute erecting this one. He did a beautiful job, as usual.

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A Fact

Even though the first newspaper crossword appeared in a US newspaper in 1913, it took until November 2 1924 before a crossword was published in an English paper, The Sunday Express.

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Honours and Fundraising

By

On March 6, 2024

In Listowel, Poem

Photo: Chris Grayson in Killarney

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Pitch and Putt Club Honoured

Photo: Dominick Walsh

Text: Listowel Pitch and Putt Club on March 2 2024

Last night, the Listowel Municipal District honored our three All Ireland Champions at their annual awards night in Listowel. Honored were Jake Shine (All Ireland Junior Strokeplay Champion, 2020 (played in 2021)), Killian O’Gorman (All Ireland Intermediate Strokeplay Champion, 2022), and Ajay Barrett (All Ireland Boys Strokeplay Champion, 2022). It was a lovely night for the boys to be honored by their hometown for their amazing achievements on the Pitch and Putt course. Thank you to the Listowel Municipal District for acknowledging their achievements. Well done, boys.

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A Poem

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1986 in the Newspaper Archives

Kerryman, Friday, October 03, 1986

BARE SERVICE FOR THE BLIND

SERVICES for nearly 250 blind people throughout Kerry ¦ are “barely surviving” according to the Chairperson of the Kerry branch of the (National Council, for the Blind, Mary Jo McDonnell.

Last week nearly 100 bind people from around the county gathered in Ballybunion for the NCs Kerry Branch lunch. The organisation, in Kerry is finding it, increasingly difficult: to .run its services on, its present Health ‘Board grant,’ and voluntary subscriptions.

Next year the Kerry Branch, will be without a permanent headquarters when it: will have to vacate its present premises at the Social Services Centre in Tralee.

Moira finds that the attitude to the blind has changed with the general greater understanding of the disabled. Some bind people still have barriers, about using a white cane and, the attitude of sighted people can help in overcoming these.

Meanwhile the fund raising by the Kerry Branch continues. One recent example of it was a marathon walk by Bernie O’Connor of Moyvane who works in Rehab in Tralee and who raised, £600 by walking from, Killarney, through Tralee and Listowel and, on to Ballybunion.

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Irish American Heritage Month..The Listowel Connection

Tonight, March 6 2024, is a big night for our own Vincent Carmody.

The Irish American Historical Society will bring the extraordinary story of Kathy Buckley to a New York audience.

“Born in Upper William Street in Listowel, Co. Kerry in 1885, immigrant Kathy Buckley had unprecedented access to the highest corridors of power of the 20th Century, not to mention some of the era’ best kitchens. She was once heard to remark, “If my sandwiches came back from the Oval Office uneaten, I knew then there was a world crisis.”

In 1900, Kathy was employed as a kitchen help at the Butler Arms Hotel in Waterville Co. Kerry. In 1906, some American guests dined there and one asked to meet the cook. He was none other than the famous banker, JP Morgan, and in a pivotal moment in her young life, Morgan offered Kathy a job as an assistant cook at his home in New York. She was eventually hired by Mrs. Grace Coolidge, wife of Calvin Coolidge, to head the White House kitchen. 

The author of the book is Vincent Carmody, a proud Listowel man, who has published a number of books starting with North Kerry Camera: Photographic Memories of Listowel and its Surroundings 1860-1960, in 1989. He followed that book with Listowel – Snapshots of an Irish Market Town, 1850- 1950, in 2012.

The book will be launched by culinary journalist and historian Laura Shapiro. Her essays, reviews and features have also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Gourmet, Gastronomica, Slate and many other publications. Her first book was Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century (1986), which the University of California Press has reissued with a new Afterword. She is also the author of Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America (Viking, 2004), and Julia Child (Penguin Lives, 2007), which won the award for Literary Food Writing from the International Association of Culinary Professionals in 2008″

Text and photo from the page of The American Irish Historical Society

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A Fact

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Cafés and Coffee

By

On November 15, 2023

In Listowel

in Daisy Boo Barista on Church Street

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Listowel Food Fair Food Trail

Jimmy Deenihan lead us from café to restaurant to take away on Saturday as he showcased one of his pet passions, Listowel food.

My friend, John Relihan, internationally renowned chef and meat expert was also on the trail. I was documenting it for you.

John brought his womenfolk, Mary Ann, proud mother, and Talitha, proud wife.

At each stop (there were 5 ) a member of staff told us a bit about what they do. My friend, Anne Marie ORiordan told us all about Thyme Out Café at Listowel Garden Centre.

It was a super start to the trail. we got a cuppa while we were waiting and then we got samples of all their wares, savoury and sweet. I heeded the lesson of former years and held back at the first stop. The food was lovely and the staff are so efficient and welcoming.

Here I made the first of my new friends. This couple travelled from Dromid to enjoy the delights of Listowel eating.

We drank the coffee and things got better and better.

On to John R.’s tomorrow.

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A Listowel Legend Remembered

I took this photo of the late Toddy Buckley and Noreen a few years ago.

Toddy was remembered by the Pitch and Putt Club in a post lately.

Photos and text: Listowel Pitch and Putt Club

Brilliant photo by Brendan Landy shared by the club.

This month marks the fourth anniversary of the passing of Toddy Buckley. Toddy Buckley shot a course record of -13 (41) in June 1982, a record that holds to the present day. Toddy was more than just the course record holder at Listowel Pitch and Putt Club. He was part of the fabric of the place and worked hard on and off the course to further the cause of the club. He took a particular interest in juvenile pitch and putt and acted as a mentor to many juveniles in the 1980s/90s. A big thank you to Mary Buckley, daughter of Toddy, for presenting the club with this lovely memento of Toddy’s remarkable achievement. 

PS: for the eagle-eyed of you, the card was signed by Willie Enright. The course of time has meant that Willie’s signature is now barely visible.

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Kanturk’s Newest Success Story

On my recent visit home I called in to Catch Up Café. You may have read the story or heard Jack on radio. But for those who don’t know this great story here it is.

In my photo are Jack Tobin and his mother, Sonia, who run Catch up café in The Square.

This quirky little café has grown in popularity since its opening in April.

Above are some of the jokey signs that set the tone for the place. The decor is black and it looks like a city café.

Now the reason Catch up Café is in the news is because Jack launched his very own Coffee there on Friday evening, November 10 2023.

Jack is 24 . He has lost 10 years of that 24 to drug addiction. He was born in Cobh where he started smoking cannabis at a young age. He spiralled downwards into addiction until a day in 2021 when he knew it was make or break.

His family had relocated to Kanturk hoping to take him away from his drug taking suppliers and companions. He found new contacts and new suppliers and he was worse than ever.

He had been introduced to catering at the Cork Life Centre where he completed his education. His mother gave up her job as a Home Ec teacher, Jack went through rehab. and together they opened Catch up Café under Jack’s management.

A landmark event in the story of Jack and the café was the launch of “The Recovery Blend” of coffee blended especially for the cafe by Soma in Cork.

An exemplary young man from an exceptionally supportive family. I hope Kanturk continues to be good to them.

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A Fact

Roy C. Sullivan of Virginia USA was struck by lightning seven times in his life.He suffered a burnt left shoulder, legs, chest and stomach, burnt hair (twice) and lost a toenail and both eyebrows.

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