Tag: Matt Mooney Page 1 of 2

A Poem and a Tale from Down Under

By listowelconnection

On December 15, 2022

In History, Listowel, Personal, Poem, Schools' Folklore

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Home for Christmas.

Matt Mooney sent us his Christmas poem

Snug in our house at home Christmas Day,

Condensation heavy on the window pane,

Hearing the sudden click of our small gate,

Someone saw him come and said his name.

Mother hovering over the Christmas dinner,

Up on the Stanley range – her engine room,

Looks out in hope and then she saw her son

Walking in again the sloping path to home.

Her heart filled with joy so warm and full,

She emerges as if a wave in a warm ocean

Is carrying her to let him in and greet him,

Her embraces laced with motherly emotion.

He smells roasting goose as he sips soup,

And talks farming talk with his eager father;

Soon he melts into the man he was before

He took the boat to England with his brother.

He was happy he had made the journey west,

He knew that it was not a time to be alone;

Here by the fire he felt it even in his bones –

That at Christmas it was great to be at home.

Matt Mooney.

Taken from ‘The Singing Woods’ (2017).

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It’s a Long Long Way from Clare to Here

Marie Moriarty came across this story on a recent trip to Australia

Fr. John O’Shea was just one of many Irish missionaries who are remembered for their great work in Australia.

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A Few more Photos I took at the Garda Centenary Celebrations

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A Christmas Custom from the National Archives Folklore Collection

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A Story with Neven Maguire in it

Every now and again I get an email from a researcher asking permission to use a photograph that they have found credited to me. Usually its some fabulous picture, well outside the scope of my talents.

Here is the latest email and I’m hoping someone will know this photographer.

My name is Helen and I work at a TV production company called InProduction TV. We are currently producing an RTÉ TV series called ‘Neven’s Greenway Food Trails’ for RTÉ One.
We would like to request permission to use an image from your website in the series if possible please? The image is attributed to Liam Downes, if you might have Liam’s contact details please?
The context of use is that Chef Neven Maguire will be travelling the Limerick Greenway exploring the food producers nearby and learning about the formerrailway and the history of the Greenway.
This is the image we would like to use if you might be able to help please?

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Reaching out beyond Parish Boundaries

By listowelconnection

On February 25, 2022

In Ballybunion, Listowel, Listowel Writers Week

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Old Friends Reunited at Writers’ Week

Éamon ÓMurchú, Kay Caball, Pat White and Jim MacMahon

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Ballydonoghue Parish Magazine

Ballydonoghue Parish magazine is a credit to everyone associated with it over the years. It is a treasure, eagerly awaited at home and abroad every year. So many of these precious local journals have ceased to publish and their loss leaves a huge gap in our tapestry of local history and memories.

I take my hat off to the good people of Ballydonoghue.

The 2022 Ballydonoghue Parish Magazine committee at a function at The Thatch, Lisselton February 19 2022.

Front: Maria Leahy, Jim Finnerty, Áine Canavan, Colette O’Connor and John F Keane. Back: Seán Linnane, Ger Moran, Mike Gilbert, Ann Foley, Seán Stack and David Kissane.Material is being accepted now for the 2022 edition and may be emailed to magazine@ballydonoghue.net or posted to BPM, Lisselton PO, Co Kerry.

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A Dan Keane Limerick

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Matt Mooney’s Photo

Matt shared this photo of Vocational School boys on Facebook…no dates and no names except for Matt himself on the back left and Michael Gaine on the back right.

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Old Ballybunion

Ballybunion Tourist Office shared this beach scene as it was 1930 to 1950

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In Time of War

Mattie Lennon sent us this;

“Hitler was running riot through Poland with very little opposition. The cream of the British Army, battered and broken, had their backs to the sandy walls of Dunkirk. The Listowel Grenadiers of the LDF were gathered in Eddie Scanlon’s pub making feverish plans to invade Russia…..

“The Listowel LDF after much liquid discussion, in Eddie Scanlon’s Bar, decided not to invade Russia after all”.

Written by the late Sean McCarthy.

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Autumn and a Story about a Storyteller

By listowelconnection

On October 22, 2021

In Ballylongford, Poem

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Conkers

They’re nearly ripe. These ones are in the Community Garden by the river.

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Poem about Listowel

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A Ballylongford Tale by Brendan Kennelly

from Shannonside Annual 1956

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A Lovely Memory of a Proud Kerry Man

Letter printed in The Irish Times, October 20 2021. The writer, Gerard Neville, comes from InchWest Listowel. He is now living and teaching in Littleton Thurles, Co Tipperary.

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A Good One

John B. Keane and Aengus Fanning, his friend and editor at The Irish Independent corresponded regularly. Here is an extract from one of John B.s letters.

Dear Aenghus

What father and son were beaten on the same day in Division One National League (football) in Kilkenny?

Kevin Cahalane was beaten by Maurice Fitzgerald in a scrap near the goals and his father was beaten by Alan Kennelly (Brendan’s brother) in a scrap in the stand.

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Opening Night Listowel Writers’ week 2018, Elizabeth Stack’s New Post and Emmetts Under 16s

By Listowel Connection

On June 15, 2018

In Uncategorized

Charming mosaic picture in the window of Olive Stack’s Gallery

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Photos taken at Opening Night, Listowel Writers’ Week 2018

Niall MacMonagle was here to work, but not tonight. Also working were Máire Logue, Maria McGrath, Maria Leahy, Noel Twomey and Louise Lyons. Eddie Moylan came to support his daughter, Catherine who introduced proceedings on the night and Robert Pierce and the Walshes of Aspire Technology were there to present their prizes. The rest were heading to the Listowel Arms for a night out, one of the highlights of the Listowel season.

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Emmetts Abú

I spotted this story and photos on Listowel Emmetts’ website

Emmets U16’s choose the bog over the beach 😀

Fair play to our U16 team and mentors who spent this evening in the bog with Seamus Stack. It was all for a great cause too as the turf will be sold to raise much needed funds for The Nano Nagle School here in Listowel.

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Listowel Lady doing well

This is the account in this week’s Kerryman of Elizabeth Stack of Listowel and her new job.

This is what it says in The Irish Echo;

The Irish American Heritage Museum has a new director.

Elizabeth Stack has taken the helm and has plans to extend the reach of the museum beyond its physical location in New York’s state capital, Albany.

“I have lots of plans for the museum and am excited to settle in to the capital region,” said Stack, who previously worked at the Institute of Irish Studies at Fordham University.

“I am looking forward to meeting the wider community,” said Stack who indicated her intent to extend the museum’s activities beyond its home city.

The museum describes its educational mission as “To preserve and tell the story of the contributions of the Irish people and their culture in America, inspiring individuals to examine the importance of their own heritage as part of the American cultural mosaic.”

The museum was first organized in 1986 by the New York State American-Irish Legislators Society and was initially financed by the State Natural Heritage Trust, the State Council on the Arts, and private donations.

Initially, and after it opened in June, 1990, the museum was located on the grounds of the Irish Culture and Sports Center in East Durham, in New York’s Catskills region.

In 1992, the museum was permanently chartered by the Board of Regents of the State of New York as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

The museum was relocated to downtown Albany in 2012. The 3,250 square foot space opened on January 17, 2012 and includes the Paul O’Dwyer Library and the Ancient Order of Hibernians’ archives.

Exhibits at the museum have included: “Irish in the Civil War,” which looked at Irish Americans in the American Civil War; “The Irish and the Erie Canal,” which highlighted the contributions of the Irish in all phases of the Erie Canal construction, and “Dublin: Then and Now,” which included photographs of the streets of Dublin in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

States the museum on its website: “Our museum….provides year-round access to our exhibits, our Paul O’Dwyer Library, lectures, presentations, film screenings, book signings and other special programs and events.

“The Museum was an integral force in providing instruction in New York State’s public schools about the Irish Famine of 1845-1853. Further, we are the first Museum of its kind here in America to have exhibited at the National Library in Dublin.”

The museum is located at 370 Broadway in Albany.

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Remembered with Love

Sunday, June 10, would have been Fr. Pat Moore’s birthday. In this age of social media, people find solace in posting messages on a dead loved ones’ page. I visited Fr. Pat’s page on his birthday and it was lovely to see the old pictures of his smiling brave presence among us.

Ní imithe uainn atá sé, ach imithe romhainn.

Listowel Writers Week, Opening Night 2017

By Listowel Connection

On June 7, 2017

In Uncategorized

People at Opening Night, Writers’ Week 2017

Rose McGinty is a writer who attended Writers’ Week. Her wonderful blog is Here

Here is what Rose writes about opening night

“All of Listowel was out last night for the opening ceremony of the Writer’s Week. No other literary festival that I have attended over the years feels as loved by its own town as this. It’s family, pure and simple.”

If you had any doubt of the truth of her statement look at my photos, taken on Opening Night 2017. I stood outside the Listowel Arms as people filed across The Square to partake in the great night.

From the door of the hotel Maire Logue one of the two brilliant festival managers emerged accompanied by Elizabeth Dunn, Chairperson of Listowel Writers’ Week, and Colm Tóibín, president and the V.I.P. guest Richard Ford who was due to officially open the 2017 festival. As they reacted to the music, they broke into an impromptu waltz .

But they reined in the giddiness and composed themselves to greet the night’s special guest who was to receive this year’s lifetime achievement award.