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 5 of 6

Painting the Community Centre, Changes at Bank of Ireland and Olive Stack’s mural

Morning in Listowel Pitch and Putt course

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Molly is still enjoying her trip to Listowel


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Painting work continues at Lisatowel Community centre



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I Met the Hannons in The Square



Danny, Eileen and Maurice out for a stroll in the July sunshine

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Aspects of The Listowel Arms Hotel

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Changes at Bank of Ireland



They’re changing the interior layout of the bank. I’ll keep you posted.

Olive Stack’s mural is still intact.

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The First of the Beal Spuds



Photo: Ita Hannon


Do you remember when the first of the new potatoes would come into the grocery shop and the grocer would boil a muller of them and plonk them outside the door?

 There was no better advertisement.

Ita Hannon’s photo took me back to those days and I just know that there is many an emigrant mouth watering at the sight.

Rattoo Sunset, Bank of Ireland Mural and Pitch and Putt in the sun

Rattoo Sunset

Photo: Michael Pixie O’Gorman

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Olive Stack’s Mural in Bank of Ireland, Listowel


The mural depicts The Square as it was. It’s sad to see so many of the characters who have passed away


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Well Done Tidy Town’s People



The old telephone exchange is not a particularly pretty building at the end of O’Connell’s Avenue. My eye was drawn away from the industrial bleakness of it to the lovely flower tubs at the corner.

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Pitch sand Putt Course Looking Resplendent


As I was walking through the park last week I spotted three happy men out for an early morning game of pitch and putt.


Don’t they look like photos from Florida?



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Ballybunion/ Ballybrown……Could be in Florida


These photographs of Ballybunion Golf Course this week were taken by Barry O’Halloran and he tells me that CTH stands for Closest To Heaven as it is on  the highest point on the course.


Opening Night Listowel Writers’ Week 2018, a local poet, candle making long ago and pitch and putt today

In the Pink

Photo; Chris Grayson

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Folk on their way to Opening Night Listowel Writers’ Week 2018

In glorious evening sunshine on May 30 2018 they trooped into the ballroom of The Listowel Arms. There were writers and prizewinners, invited guests and local people. I photographed only a few of them.

Writers’ Week opening night is attended by loyal local people, writers, young competition winners and their proud parents, older competition winners and the great and the good in Ireland’s literary firmament.

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Donal O’Connor, Tarbert






Photo by Graham Davies on Facebook

Donal is a poet farmer and a bit of a local legend. He is a brilliant raconteur with stories and poems readily to hand. He gained a whole new audience with his appearances on a TV series called Senior Moments.  If you encounter Donal in storytelling form, he is sure to brighten your day.

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When fat wasn’t all bad


The school’s folklore collection has all sorts of little interesting snippets of information. This extract is all about candles and candle making

Before candles were commercially made people used to make their own from “fat.” They used the fat of goats and other animals according to Mary Hickey of O’Connell’s Avenue who was 85 when she told her stories to B. Holyoake of Railway House. According to Mary, they got a mould, put a stick across the top. Attached to the stick were 6 or 7 “cotton threads”  These were obviously the wicks. Then they “rendered the fat”. 

(I rememeber well my mother rendering suet in the days before cooking oil.  There was always a bowl of fat or dripping at the ready for frying. This dripping is actually making a comeback recently and you can buy it again in artisan food shops.)

Back to 1937…the hot fat was poured into the mould and left to set overnight. In the morning they had 6 candles. Half penny candles were called “padogues”.

Another type of candle was a dip candle. These were so called because the wick was dipped into the tallow, brought out, allowed to cool and then dipped in again.

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Listowel Pitch and Putt Competition

I was out walking early on Sunday morning when I spotted a competition about to begin at the pitch and putt club so I grabbed a few photos.

I learned later from Facebook that it was the County Strokeplay competition and these were the winners.

Convent Street, Pitch and Putt and Athea Mural blown down

From The Irish Farmers’ Journal

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A Quiet Corner of Town undergoing renewal


This site has gone Sale Agreed so we await developments.

One is sold and the other is for sale

This is the area of Convent Street that is about to change.


These houses in Convent Street are boarded up too so it will be good to see life return to this corner of town.

And in another corner of town…

A little bird tells me that Iceland is coming to Listowel shortly.

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Listowel Pitch and Putt Club


Dave O’Sulivan, a loyal follower and supporter of the work of your blogger replied to my appeal for history of the Pitch and Putt Club.



My photos taken at different times of the year show the variety and abundance of planting in the course over the years.

Here are the cuttings that Dave found for us;

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Athea Revisited on January 19 2018




That was then

This is now

The high winds last week flattened the lovely mural with the whole history and mythology of the village on it. I have no doubt that the good people of Athea will see it restored to its former glory.

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And the Winner is



The Dublin Kerry Association have announced their Kerry Person of the year

There was a goodly attendance on the night.

Colm Cooper was revealed as this year’s choice and he got a standing ovation as he entered.

Colm was a very popular choice.

Colm Cooper with  Keelin Kissane of  Listowel, chair of The Kerry Association in Dublin


Bare Trees, Food in the Fifties and Ballylongfond in the snow

“Bare Ruined Choirs where late the sweet birds sang”



Trees in the pitch and putt course in January 2017

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Old Friends

I snapped Junior with Helen Loughnane at the badminton tournament in the community centre. Junior was helping to run the tournament and Helen was part of the catering corps.

Tom Bourke sent me this photo of Junior presenting his new cup for his old competition to the Cork winners.

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Maria Sham continues her memories as she remembers some foods they ate in her Listowel childhood.

 Maria on her confirmation day

Maria’s mother

 Maria’s Nan Moloney

Happy days

When Lent came
along we would give up eating certain things such as sweets and save our
pennies. On Easter Monday we would take 
off for a picnic. We would take whatever we could; lemonade, bread and
maybe cake, nothing fancy, our pennies would not stretch so far.

My dad worked at
the creamery and when we were old enough he would take us in his truck with
him. There were no restrictions then. He would go to all the small creameries
to collect the milk. I remember in Ballylongford dad would go for a pint with
the other workers and I would have to wait in the creamery for him and he would
put a whole measure of cream for me to drink. Today I don’t have to wonder why
I have high cholesterol! He took my cousin Kathleen and me to pick mushrooms.
They were plentiful early in the morning; he used to say he had never seen
anyone run as fast as me to get the best ones.

I remember mam
going to Tralee with him in the lorry and spending the day in Woolworths. She
would always bring Doreen and me lovely slides for our hair. They had stars
attached to them. Her trip would not be complete without chips and peas at the
Brass Rail.

When it was
blackberry season I would go with my cousin Betty and friends to pick them. We
would pick gallons full and eat as many more and go home our mouths all black
from the juice. On one occasion I lifted a blackberry bush and to my surprise I
saw something bigger then a butterfly with big eyes.and wings. It turned and looked
at me. Nobody believed me, but to this day I am convinced it was a fairy. Nobody
will change my mind.

Often mam would
send Doreen and me to Foleys or Louis O’Connell’s. They had orchards and for 6d
we would get a bag full of beautiful apples. On the way home we would sit under
a tree and enjoy some of the apples. We had to save some for mam as she made
the best apple pie I have yet tasted.

Milk did not come
in bottles then and because dad worked at the creamery we were entitled to a
full gallon of milk every day. Dad would make sure it was pasteurised. I think
there was a lot of TB in Ireland then due to unpasteurised milk. Mam was
able to help the neighbours out and give them some milk. When it got sour she
would make soda bread with it.

On Sunday we
always had a lovely dinner, roast beef or lamb sometimes veal with green garden
peas which had to be soaked the night before, so on Saturday night the routine
was soak the peas and make the jelly. Also on Saturday mam would make a currant
loaf, a huge one.

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Ballylongfond in the Snow, Early January 2017




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An Honour for Local Cyclist

Photo of Eugene surrounded by the Moriartys by  John Kelliher




“Cycling Ireland has announced the appointment of Eugene Moriarty, a member of the Institute of Directors, as the latest addition to the Board. He replaces Senan Turnbull who stepped down in November as an Appointed Director. Former international cyclist, Moriarty, is very accomplished in both the sporting and professional realms. Originally from Listowel, Co. Kerry, Moriarty has competed at the top level of the sport, finishing fifth in the Road Race at the B World Championships in Uruguay in 1999, contributing to the qualification of a slot for Ireland in the Olympics in Sydney in 2000. 


Currently residing in the Netherlands Moriarty has a range of professional qualifications from both the academic and business sides. He holds an honours degree in medical sciences, qualified as an accountant via the ACCA and has worked in asset management for the last number of years. He has extensive experience across a range of areas from finance, legal and IT to reporting and governance. 


Speaking about the appointment of Moriarty to the Board, Cycling Ireland President Ciaran McKenna expressed his delight saying – “Eugene will bring a wealth of cycling and business experience to the Board, particularly in the area of Corporate Governance and Organisational Reform – with them being his two areas of expertise.”


Moriarty is looking forward to joining the Board of Cycling Ireland – I am flattered and honoured to have been approached to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of Cycling Ireland. I look forward to working together with my fellow directors, our members and our highly skilled and dedicated team at the Kelly Roche House, and beyond, to continue to build on the significant achievements of this great organisation for the benefit of our current and future generations.” 


This appointment brings to eight the number of members on the Cycling Ireland Board of Directors. At the 2016 AGM the Memorandums and Articles were passed with a ruling to increase the Board of Directors to ten, once approved two further members will be appointed to the Board.”  Source; Cycling Ireland website

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