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: Martin Chute Page 1 of 7

Stags, Horses and Style

Waiting in the long grass…Chris Grayson’s image of stags in The National Park before the commencement of the rut.

Tackling a Horse

This photo of a workhorse in Jim Dunn’s great Athea mural led me to boast that I once could name every piece of tack on that horse. Mattie Lennon helped me out.

There is a winkers on the horses head and a bit in his mouth. The reins is attached to the bit.

Around the horse’s neck is the collar and hames. The reins goes through this.

On his back is the straddle and britchen.

If the horse was attached to a cart, a bellyband under the horse and attached to the shafts prevented the cart from tipping up.

The brass attached to the winkers was an optional piece of horse jewellery.

Gortaglanna Memorial

Gortaglanna
Gortaglanna Celtic Cross

I thought that the white commemorative steps on the roadside were the memorial to those who fell at Gortaglanna, but I was wrong. Kathleen Griffin sent us these pictures which she took on a rainy day in 2016 of the bigger monument. This memorial is in the field where the men died.

There’s Always Hope

Some of the local Style on Ladies Day at Listowel Races 2024

A gravity defying creating from milliner, Cathy Troth

One for the Diary

Signwriter at Work

Martin Chute was on his scaffold painting Listowel Garden Centre sign as I was going to Thyme Out for a cuppa and a chat.

Martin is used to immersing himself in his work and ignoring distractions.

But when he spots me, he is always willing to chat.

On this occasion he descended the ladder to pose with Barry McAuliffe and his son who are home on a visit from the U.S. Barry is one of my oldest internet friends, from the days when we were all on Boards.ie. He reminded me that he won Vincent’s nearly impossible quiz and he has the placemats to prove it.

A Fact

Albert Einstein’s brain had a parietal lobe that was 15% larger than the average human brain

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In Newmarket

Róisín Darby riding Eclipse on the avenue at Lee Valley Equestrian Centre

23 Years on

Sand art on Ballybunion beach on September 11 2024.

Alice Moylan sent us the photo and she also did the research. The number 343 is the number of New York fire department personnel who died in 9/11.

Something Old

We all had this beautiful old cutlery in the days before the dishwasher.

Bone used to be used to make the handles. Bones of cattle or deer which were available locally and cheaply were used. But then came plastic and I think our knives were faux bone. They were warm and comfortable to hold.

Cora and Molly

Cora read a reflection from Moments of Reflection to Molly. She didn’t show much interest. Molly’s nose is out of joint because she is not in this book.

Newmarket

Scarteen Street, Newmarket, looked picturesque in the September sunshine last week.

Tony O’Callaghan Bronzes

Liz Kearney, daughter of the late Bill, shared these photos of two beautiful pieces presented to her father. The first was from Listowel Pitch and Putt Club. It is replete with symbols of Bill’s life, his family and friends.

This one from Listowel Drama Group, celebrated his involvement with their production of Our Town.

Owen MacMahon will remember Bill and other stalwarts of the drama group in his talk in Kerry Writers’ Museum at 12.00 noon on Saturday, September 21.

From the Archives

The Sydney Herald

May 4 1840    Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

TEMPERANCE REFORMATION IN IRELAND. The intelligence we have communicated from time to time, respecting the rapid diminution of drunkenness, and its concomitant evils, crime and distress, in various parts of the South of Ireland, has given to many a heart an impulse of pure and benevolent pleasure. Thousands in this country have panted for the amelioration of Ireland, but have almost despaired of realising, even in distant prospect, the accomplishment of their desires. The wretchedness and degradation of Ireland seemed curable and hopeless, and hung as a dead weight the neck of British philanthropy. A brighter day is at length dawning. A movement, doubtless proceeding under a special blessing from above, has commenced, having for its object the extinction of drunkenness. Already have thousands of the Irish population risen as one man, and freed themselves, by a single fart, from their hereditary bondage to an appetite which entailed upon them almost the total sum of misery and degradation which human nature was capable of sustaining. Not the least pleasing feature in this incipient social revolution is, that it is self – originated and self sustained. It is from first to last an Irish movement, and therefore promises to be both thorough and permanent. In introducing the following extracts, it may be desirable to remark that they are called both from Orange and Catholic journals. So far as we see, this glorious cause redeemed from the bitterness of sectarianism and partisanship, being carried on by true lovers of their country, of various sentiments in religion, and of diverse opinions in politics. ” We have heard, ” says the Dublin Evening Post, from authority which cannot deceive, and which has no object in deceiving – good Protestant authority too – that in almost all the small towns of Cork, Kanturk, Bandon, Middleton, Mill-Street, Fermoy, the progress has been so extraordinary that the whiskey shops are in the process of being shut up and soap, coffee, and tea houses are establishing generally. In the small town of Listowel, in the county of Kerry, seven or eight of these have been closed within the last two months. In the county of Clare the progress also has been very great, and we expect that we shall speedily have Galway to add to our list.

An Artist Paints at the Gallery of another Artist

Martin Chute at Olive Stack’s this week.

A Fact

In the US in the 1940s a chicken lived for 18 months without a head. His jugular vein and his brainstem were left mostly intact.

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Dough Mamma, A Success Story

Listowel library in September 2024

Dough Mamma, a Success Story

William Street, Listowel on Monday Sept 2 2024, a signwriter at work

Martin Chute painting the Dough Mamma sign

As I was taking my photo, a young man came up beside me. He was also taking a photo. As we admired Martin’s work, he told me that he was the proprietor of Dough Mamma. So he obliged me by going across the street to pose for a snap with Ireland’s best signwriter.

The owner of the business (sorry, I don’t have his name) had never heard of me so here is a reminder of my visit to Dough Mamma during last year’s Food Festival food trail.

I looked up Dough Mamma on Facebook, searching in vain for his name, and I read this about the story so far.

“What a journey it has been. 3 years today I sold my first pizza and 2 years the restaurant is opened. It’s no longer just about the food here at Dough Mamma but the craic and good vibes we have week in week out which we love. What started out as a simple idea has grown much more than I could have ever hoped for and I am proud of it. I want to thank everyone who has been a part of this journey, some of who are pictured here, from buying a pizza to covering a shift to hanging a picture. You have all played your part in creating the Dough Mamma you all love. Here’s to striving towards continued growth and always improving.”

Hankies

Did you used to always have a hanky in your pocket? If you didn’t, then you are a spring chicken. Us, oldies, never left home without one. My family used to have these children’s ones.

They were so much better and more beautiful, but so less hygienic than today’s dull tissues.

A Talented Musician with a Listowel Connection

This is Liam ÓCeallaigh, grandson of Matt Mooney. Liam is a champion whistle player, piper and sean nós singer, and also a TG4 actor.

Photo and information from Neil Brosnan.

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A Fact

There are quite a few colourful phrases in Irish for being drunk.

I’m not condoning drunkenness, just marvelling at the inventive descriptions we had for what used to be a much more common sight.

ag stealladh na ngrást….so drunk that you are pouring out compliments all round.

caoch ar meisce…literally blind drunk

Bhí an hata ar a leathcheann aige…his hat was skeoways on his head .

Bhí an dá thaobh den bhóthar aige…He was from side to side on the road, literally, he had the two sides of the road.

Listowel’s Back Lanes

Listowel Credit Union building in Sept 2023

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A Stroll Through a Back Lane

In these days of modernisation and urban renewal it is great to see so much of Listowel’s history preserved in the back lanes.

The stone walls were built by Listowel craftsmen in a bygone era.

We can’t hold back the march of progress. For me the stone walls hold far more charm and history.

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St. Michael’s Graveyard

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Progress Report on the John B. Keane Mural

Martin was painting the first letters of the quotation on Sept 10 2023

Sept 13 2023, Martin Chute, muralist and Pat Nolan, wall owner at Listowel’s newest mural in the Creative Walls initiative by Listowel.ie

This John B. Keane quotation from his song, Sweet Listowel, will be very well received by everyone with a Listowel connection.

Here is the full song from Listowel Emmets website

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Sweet Listowel

A song by John B. Keane as promised to Eric

Oh sweet Listowel I’ve loved you all my days

Your towering spires and shining streets and squares

Where sings the Feale it’s everlasting lays

And whispers to you in it’s evening prayers

Chorus

Of all fair towns few have so sweet a soul

Or gentle folk compassionate and true

Where’er I go I’ll love you sweet Listowel

And doff my distant cap each day to you

Down by the Feale the willows dip their wands

From magic bowers where soft the night wind sighs

How oft I’ve roved along your moonlit lands

Where late love blooms and first love never dies

Chorus

Of all fair towns few have so sweet a soul

Or gentle folk compassionate and true

Where’er I go I’ll love you sweet Listowel

And doff my distant cap each day to you.

(A link to one of the best singers of this song…Louis O’Carroll R.I.P. recorded and produced by Denis Carroll of Fealegood Productions ….

Sweet Listowel by John B. Keane)

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A Story about Marriage

From the School’s Folklore Collection, Boy’s National School, Listowel

There was three sisters in one house and no one would marry the old one. The two young sisters got married and she was culled. There was one man and he said she would make a good wife so they got married and those days they used ride side saddle after being married behind the husband.

They all raced to be at the house the first and he rode too fast. There was a big ditch near the house. The horse would not leap the ditch. He came off and he told her to come off too. So he pulled out his gun and shot the horse. She asked him why so did he do that. “That’s what I do to anyone that wouldn’t be said by me” said he.

So at the wedding the three were drinking in the room. The three wives were playing cards in the kitchen. The three husbands were having a conversation on which of the wives would come to them at their first call.First girl that married her husband was to be called. The man that was married second was to be called second.

The first one that was called said she was dealing out the cards. The second one when she called she said she would when she have these five cards played. The man who shot his horse when he called her, she ran to him and he won the price of his horse back.This wife always answered his call when he called her.

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COLLECTOR Joseph Cahill

Address Curraghatoosane, Co. Kerry

INFORMANT John Carmody

Age 81

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A Fact

The tern canter to describe the easy comfortable speed of a horse is thought to have come from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It described the slow measured pace of the pilgrims as they made their way to Canterbury.

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Charles Street Mural

Courthouse Road

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The Mural

London has Banksy; Listowel has Martin Chute. Martin is much more of a purist. His public artworks are done, not with spray cans and stencils but with brushes and masking tape.

I am privileged to watch this artist at work and to see this masterpiece take shape before my eyes.

Saturday September 9 2023

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Listowel in Bloom

Every road facing window at Scoil Realta na Maidine is adorned with flowers.

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Irish Nurses in England

There is a long tradition of Irish girls going to England to train as nurses. Jer Kennelly found this photo and account for us.

Jan 26 1957 New York Advocate

The Gulson Hospital Coventry employs a total of 191 nurses, 18 nursing auxiliaries and 24 nursing cadets. Of these 50 are Irish. ——————————–

Some names      

T. Kennelly. (Kerry); Nuala M. McNamara, (Limerick); Helen A. O’Malley, (Mayo); Ellen McCarthy, (Kerry); Mary A- Keane, (do. and Johanna C. Cunningham, (Kerry); Julia Johnson, (Laois)

I would love to hear from any local lady who has memories of nursing training in Britain.

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Prayer I Picked up in Baile Mhuirne

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A Muslim Fact

This is the tallest building in the world. It is The Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Ramadan is a month -long period of fasting, prayers and good works observed by Muslim people. They fast between the hours of sunrise and sunset.

Residents of this building who live above the 80th floor have to wait 2 to 3 minutes longer than people on the ground to end their daily fast.

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