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 Tidy Towns Page 4 of 13

Lovely Listowel

By

On July 26, 2019

In Uncategorized

Lovely Listowel, My Home Town

Every emigrant knows that you can have two homes. It is no disloyalty to the place where you were born to love your now home, the place where you were welcomed and made to feel at home and part of the community, the place where you raised your family, where you worked and lived and made so many friends. 

For me, Kanturk was my first home and I give it my love and loyalty always. Listowel is my home now. It is the town that took me to its heart, welcomed me and made me feel at home. It is where I have lived, worked and loved for nearly a quarter of a century in the midst of a generous community that nurtured and took care of me and mine. It is where I now feel most at home.

I was never more proud of my town than I was yesterday, July 25 2019 when the Entente Florale adjudicators came to town.

We rolled out the red carpet, we baked the cake, we painted, clipped and washed and the lovely Tidy Town folk picked up every last bit of litter.

Whenever we have important visitors coming to our homes it is usual to do a bit of tidying before they arrive. This might consist of pushing the newspapers under the cushions, hoovering like a mad thing and putting everything untidy under cover. This was not what happened in Listowel yesterday as the finishing tidying was being done for our VIP guests. I was in town with my camera and today I am devoting my whole blogpost to images of my beautiful second home; beautiful, beautiful Listowel in July 2019.

Flower boxes, hanging baskets and window boxes appeared in places where we weren’t even aware there was a ledge or a window.

Then the shops came on board and business people arranged window displays with symbols of the participating countries

The local Tidy Towners were out in force on the morning of Judgement Day.

The judges were given a whistle stop tour of a list of pre agreed venues. They gave nothing away, made no comment or appeared to enjoy or be impressed by the display Listowel put on for them. They are impartial judges after all.

I went around slack jawed with my camera in obvious awe at what was on display. I am only giving you a small taste of the showcase Listowel people gave our lovely town on July 25 2019.

The Garden of Europe with its new planting looked its best ever.

By the river there was some plain air painting going on.

The Square was buzzing. Ballydonoghue Comhaltas was putting on a concert. John Stack’s set dancers who were still celebrating their Fleadh Cheoil success at the weekend danced a set and Katie MacNamara’s musicians played.  Heavenly!

Visitors from Dubai were delighted they hit town on just the right day.

The proud mammies and supporters were holding the coats.

Brian Mulvihill, home with his family from the Caymen Islands was enjoying the spectacle.

As I approached the Small Square I ran into the judges and entourage. I ignored them in case they thought I was trying to influence their decision in any way. There was a mini market going on here with lots of local crafters and producers displaying their wares.

Kissane Candles and the Olive Stack Gallery had a display.

Breda, the less camera shy of the two “Dawn Raiders” who head out at the crack of dawn every morning to pick up litter, was admiring Woodford Pottery display.

Mon’s Porter cake sold out everything she brought.

You could buy Kefir, a hat, some veg for the dinner or organic seaweed cosmetics in the Small Square in Listowel yesterday.

The Tidy Towers posed for a quick pic.

Everywhere a Tidy Towner

Local ladies dressed in the native costumes of the seven participating countries. I’m told that Olive Stack and her mother made the costumes. What an achievement!

The very best of traditional music  by the very best musicians

 appreciative audience enjoying the sunshine the music and the craic

Hard working Listowel people taking a welleparned rest

I went to The Listowel Arms where the red carpet was out metaphorically and literally.

Lots of floral displays here (and mirrors)

Some American visitors were enjoying a taste of Listowel at the Tidy Town seat.

and Martin Chute got Jumbos painted in time.

Well done Listowel…definitely a winner in my eyes.

Market Street, Tarbert Bridewell the Convent Chapel and The Big Fight at Ballyeigh in 1834

By

On July 5, 2019

In Uncategorized

Market Street, Listowel in June 2019

<<<<<<<<<<


Tarbert Bridewell, the Keepers Quarters

The family who looked after the bridewell lived upstairs.

They kept the prisoners locked up except when they were allowed into the exercise yard.

They cooked their meals and swept the floors and kept the jail in good order.

This is a selection of their cooking pots and irons.

A Bath

A settle bed

I think children would really benefit from a visit to Tarbert Bridewell to see for themselves history brought to life and to give them an insight into life as it was long ago.

<<<<<<<<


Memories, Memories



Do you remember the lovely convent chapel?



<<<<<<<<


A Faction Fight



from the Dúchas Schools Folklore Collection

On the 13th of May fair in Listowel some time previous to 1830. some Magheragh men (Ballyduff, Causeway, Ballyheigue, Killanhan, etc) were selling potatoes. A discussion arose as to the comparative merits of the potatoes between the Magheragh men and the cúl-na-lín (Culeen near Listowel) men. The discussion ended in a fight, where the Magheragh men got off the worst as they wouldn’t have the backing in Listowel that the others had. At the Whit Monday fair in Ardfert the fight was renewed. Practically every man in North Kerry took one side or another and for years after whenever people assembled at fair or market on Sunday after mass the fight was renewed.

The biggest fight of all took place at (Ballyduff) Ballyeigh on the 24th June 1834. The North Kerry race meeting was then held in Ballyeigh Strand (opposite the Cashen School) but was eventually transferred to Listowel (1870). The races were held on the right hand side of the River Cashen on the strand where the school is now and when some of the combatants tried to escape by crossing the river in boats and swimming, they were attacked by their opponents with stones, bottles, sticks and so on at the left side of the river. A terrible fight ensued in which about thirteen people were drowned and very many injured.

As far as I know there was only one man arrested for it, a well to do man named Leahy of Ballinorig near Causeway. Many others went on the run but were never arrested. He was tried and sentenced to be transplanted to Freemantle.

For three quarters of a century afterwards the people in this district and in North Kerry generally recorded events from the year the boat was drowned” or from the night of the big wind”. After the tragedy the faction fight slackened and died down and the famine helped to put an end to it altogether.
Even some old people take pride in the fact that their ancestors took one side or the other in the faction.
Collector, 

Murtie Dowling, 

Informant

Denis Lawlor, Address, Causeway, Co. Kerry

<<<<<<<<<



Listowel Tidy Town People



The trophies are gone back but the good folk of the Tidy town are working as hard as ever to present Listowel’s most beautiful face to the visitor

Photos from Listowel Tidy Town on Facebook of some of the volunteers at last Tuesday’s cleanup on the Tralee Road.

Entente Florale and Nationwide. Going Back 100 years and Horse Racing on Ballybunion Beach

By

On June 11, 2019

In Uncategorized

Entente Florale 2019

Listowel retailers are pulling out all the stops for the judges in the hope of adding another accolade to the town’s 2018 Tidy Town Award.

Nationwide cameras are due in town today.

Jackie Barrett Madigan, Breda McGrath and Eileen Worts were putting the finishing touches to the flowerbeds at Morkan Tiles. Breda was up since first light litterpicking.

Valerie O’Sullivan’s super photo of the Tidy Town people who assembled to meet Uachtarán na hEireann, Michael D. Higgins on May 25 2019.

<<<<<<<<


Met on the Street

Liz Dunne took a picture of me with Carmel Moloney and Alice Sheahan as they were out and about on May 29 2019.

And then I took a picture of Liz and Jim as they took a break from hanging an art exhibition.

<<<<<<<<<


Wizard of Oz windows


It is 100 years since The Wizard of Oz came into being. It is a story that has stood the test of time and is still popular today, in both the old story form and the more modern film version. To celebrate the centenary The National Children’s Literary Festival at Writers’ Week decided on this story as their theme for the 2019 festival. the local shops got on board and decorated their windows with Wizard themed displays. Here are a few.


Not quite Wizard of Oz but literary all the same

<<<<<<


Maureen Barrett Records Agnes’ Browne’s Memories



Memories of Home

I was always amazed at how she remembered everyone in Listowel even years after she left and she explained that while she never missed Listowel she said but after being gone for a while she realized she was forgetting people and she never wanted to do that so she would lay in bed at night and as she would say “go down the road into town” and go in an out of each house and draw up people’s faces in her mind and name them so that she would never forget them-and she never did.  She could name all the OConnor family down the road-Hilda, Nellie, Rita , Anthony, John, Mike and May-at least she thought that was all of them. She remembered a Sr.Frances at the convent very fondly. She once wrote an essay that she showed to her father Dan Brown and he gave her a penny as it was so good. She remembered  a Sr. Margaret who she had in 2nd class telling her she was smart like her Aunt Hannie who taught in Tipperary-( I don’t know who auntie Hannie was) She had so many little memories of things we wouldn’t think were important to remember. She remembers Margaret McMahon from Church St. telling a not appropriate joke in class and the nun hearing her. She had very clear memories of her family’s involvement in the “troubles” She and her neighbor (my uncle) Tom Pellican got many the pair of new shoes at Whelan’s (Morans’s) shoe shop-they would go into the shop and the notes would be put into the insole of the shoes for “the boys” and they would walk out and nobody knew what they were up to. 

She remembers one of the Enrights from the road getting TB while he was in jail with her father Dan Browne. She talked of her father escaping from Limerick jail and nobody knowing for sure where he was at first. She talked of the Black and Tans raiding their home on a regular basis looking for her father.  One of her sisters suffered from what I assume we would call PTSD from having the Tans come and go and thrash their house and frighten them. She died still loving DeValera and hating Michael Collins. I had attempted to get her to watch the movie Michael Collins when it came out and “no way” was her answer- I did prevail and on commenting to her about “what a powerful man he was” her answer was “wouldn’t we be mad about him if he wasn’t a blue shirt”. 

She could still name all the “informers” in the Listowel area-they shall remain unnamed. After the family settled in Chicago their house was a regular visiting place for the old friends from home especiailly the friends from the Republican side. They also would keep some of the footballers when they came from home to play in Chicago.

  Agnes married John Broderick whose family was from Listowel also-and raised 3 lovely daughters. Dan and Nora Browne never returned to Listowel. Dan died December 30, 1955-Nora Browne died July 14, 1959. As time went on different family members did go back to visit although not very often for most of them. Agnes was to go on one of the family trips but it was discovered that her citizenship papers were not in order and by the time they would have gotten them it would have been too late to travel with the family group.  Several  years before her death she had an opportunity to go back with her daughter and son-in-law but declined citing health issues. She never saw Listowel again but always kept it close to her heart. The remains of the house they lived in is still there next to Pellicans house in Dirha.  

As a final joyous note to finish her life’s story as a Listowel woman, a memorial mass was said for Agnes in St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Deerfield Beach, Florida on St.Patrick’s Day 2017 at the request of a decendent of her old neighbors in Dirha-the Pellicans. It was celebrated by Fr. Bryan Dalton the pastor of the church at the time who was from Listowel. She would have loved that.

<<<<<<<


Ballybunion Beach Racing


They had a great time in Ballybunion on Sunday. Looks like a super fun event. Lots more like this planned for the summer. Take a look at 

Ballybunion by the Sea

I took the below picture from that page.

Michael D is due in Town, Police Mutiny in 1920, Nora Moriarty’s lace

By

On May 24, 2019

In Uncategorized

                                    Listowel, Co. Kerry, Ireland’s Tidiest Town 2019



They say the queen thinks the world smells of paint. She’d feel right at home in Listowel this week.

Such a busy weekend we have in store, folks.

Today is Friday May 24 2019. 

It’s polling day in the local and EU elections.

At 7.00 in The Listowel Arms Robert Pierse is going to launch his autobiographical work, “Under the Bed”

And its MS busking day (weather permitting)

>>>>>>>

Tomorrow Saturday May 25th

It’s counting day in the election centres.

President Michael D. Higgins will unveil the plaque celebrating Listowel’s win in the 2018 Tidy Town Competition. There will be music, speeches, celebration and TV cameras. Promises to be great day.

Then after 7.oo mass we will have the annual eucharistic procession from St. Mary’s  and finishing with Benediction at the Presentation Secondary School

<<<<<<<<<

Ballybunion

A ship sailing on the Shannon Estuary.

Ballybunion is a pollinator friendly town.

<<<<<<<<


At Listowel Garda Station


This plaque at the Garda Station remembers those RIC officers who took part in the barrack mutiny of 1920.


There is a full account of the mutiny in the Garda Síochána history page.

Listowel Barrack Mutiny

<<<<<<<



Exhibition of Lace






Listowel Writers’ Week is always ready to try something different and this is truly different. In Kerry Writers Museum, beginning on Thursday May 30 2019 Listowel Writers’ Week will host an exhibition of the lacework of talented local lady, Nora Moriarty.

Nora passed away in 2018 but she left behind a treasure trove of beautiful lacework. Her family have kindly agreed to display some of her beautiful pieces during this year’s festival.

Nora was a member of the first committee of Writers’ Week and it’s first Honorary Secretary.

A Goat, Our Tidy Town Seat, Winding Wool, a ghost and an Old Album Cover

By

On May 15, 2019

In Uncategorized

Irish Wildlife Photography Competition

Feral Goat: Neil T. Halligan

<<<<<<



We Care with a Chair


Thank you Tidy Town people. I rarely pass the seat in this fine weather but there is someone taking their ease. These two local ladies were waiting for the bus.

<<<<<<<



Newspaper Pins its Colours to the Mast in 1912



Kerry Weekly Reporter  Saturday, October 12, 1912


THE POST OFFICE AND THE PARTY.


The 30th September, the fatal day when an Englishman was to be brought in to ride roughshod over able Irish officials, has come and gone. Mr. Norway has been duly installed as Secretary of the Irish Post Office: an office, we believe, he never previously put his foot in, and no explanation good or bad is vouchsafed by the Irish Party in the Irish Press -why an Englishman who never was in Ireland should be placed on the necks of the whole Irish Post Office staff. One can only, ask is this one of the fruits of the Balance of Power.

If this rotten job be one fruit of the Balance of Power and Mr. Runciman’s Regulations are another, and Mr. Winston Churchill’s Home Rule for Ulster scheme is yet another, and Mr. Birrell’s anti-Irish, anti-Catholic educational balloons are yet some others, everyone will shudder at what the Balance of Power may bring to Ireland out of the womb of the future. “Sinn Fein “



<<<<<<<<




Winding Wool




It is May 6 2019 and my little girlies are learning a social history lesson. A friend recently gave me some skiens of pure wool and I took the opportunity to teach my little granddaughters a lesson.

Do you remember when all wool (It was wool. No acrylic back then) came in 1 oz. hanks and you had to wind it into a ball before you could start on your knitting project? The girls were full of enthusiasm to start with but they found the job a bit tiring on the arms. Happy days!

<<<<<<<<


Scary Story from Ballybunion Convent School in the 1930s



From Dúchas, the school’s folklore project


About thirty years ago on Christmas night a man in Beale had to leave his own house and he had to take his candle in his hand to a neighbour’s house, because he was hunted by ghosts who asked him to leave as there was to be a fight that night between the Wrens and the Shines who lived in the neighbourhood some year before. As he and his sister were leaving, a man whom they knew to be dead of years offered to lead them and when they went out in the yard, he had to divide the crowd to allow them pass. The day before the place was covered with magpies and he did not know what was to happen. 

The morning after this he was going fishing. The moon had risen. When he got up, he thought it was day. He went to the boathouse and waited under his canoe until it was bright. As he was about to lie under the canoe, the man who told him to leave his house the night before came to the canoe and peeped in. He told him that if they went fishing that morning, someone would be drowned. When it was bright he and four other men went fishing. They were not far out when a great storm came and overturned the boat and two men were drowned.


Sheila Sheahan 

Beale Middle

Co Kerry

 <<<<<<<


Old Album Sleeve



Liam OHainnín found this one.

<<<<<<

Meeting a Blog Follower




I was lucky enough to meet (by chance) one of my most faithful blog followers in Flying Saucer on Monday.

Noreen Holyoake – Keese grew up in Listowel and now lives in New York.

Page 4 of 13

Previous

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén