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: Mattie Lennon Page 5 of 6

Tralee, The Phone Box and some Cork Street Art

By

On August 23, 2019

In Uncategorized

Kingfisher

Photo: Chris Grayson

<<<<<<<<



Tralee


These are some of the Rose dresses on display in Kerry County Museum until October.

These are some of the Rose bushes in the nearby Tralee Park. As you can see the new gardener   and his team are getting to grips with the sadly neglected rose beds. He has a huge task on his hands but the park is coming back to life again and, hopefully it will soon be restored to its former glory.

<<<<<<<<



The phone box

Mattie Lennon

A public phone in Foley’s Bar in Castle

The US presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.(Anthony Burgess)

The day of the familiar Irish phone box is drawing to a close. Earlier this year the powers-that-be decided to reduce the number of post boxes from 4,850 to 2,699. Since usage of the public phone has fallen by 80% in the past five years, how long before the total demise of the phone box? The Kiosk, especially in rural areas, provided a valuable link with the outside world. But, in the words of Clinical Psychologist, Marie Murray, “ What of their psychological significance rather than their utilitarian worth? What role did they play in the lives of people? What privacy did they afford, away from the home telephone for those lucky enough to have a telephone in the house but unfortunate enough to have no privacy using that instrument at home?”Dr. Murray goes on to say that phone boxes , “ will become but quaint memories of an older generation regaling their grandchildren with tales of trysts at the local telephone box or romance conducted through whispered confidences in that semi-private box in the middle of the village or at the end of the road . . . ”

In the days when one went through the Operator there was the story of the Cavan man who phoned his friend looking for the loan of a tenner only to be told, “It’s a bad auld line, I can’t hear you.” When the request was repeated it was, once again, met with,“ I can’t hear you”. At this stage the Operator cut in with, “I can hear him perfectly”. The answer was ready, “You give him the loan of the tenner, so.”

The first “public” phone in our area was in the Post Office in Lacken where most of the calls were to the Priest, the Guards, the Doctor, the Vet or The A.I. man (or “the collar-and-tie-bull” as he was known.) The Post Office was also a shop which opened late so nocturnal communications pertaining to illicit relationships could sometimes be conducted, albeit in whispered tones. (Or so I’m told.)

Lacken eventually got a Phone-Box and conversations could be carried out in a stentorian voice without fear of “ear-wigging.” Some “coins” used were not Legal Tender (or even legal.) Washers of a certain diameter and “push-outs” from galvanised junction-boxes, used by electricians, would suffice. (Or so I’m told.)

By “tapping out” the numbers on the top of the cradle (1,9 and 0 were free) one could get through to any number. (Or so I’m told.)

When Decimal-Currency was introduced in 1971 it took a while to have the Phones adapted. The new Decimal 1P coin was exactly the same size as the old sixpence and worked very well. (Or so I’m told.)

Another favourite trick was to block the return-chute with a piece of rolled up twine and to return for the proceeds when a number of people had pressed “Button B” without getting any refund. (Or so I’m told.)

Nowadays when I hear the Dublin joke, “What do Northside girls use for protection? A Phone-box”, it reminds me that at times in rural Ireland the Phone-box was often utilised for erotic pelvic activity while parallel with the perpendicular. (Or so I’m told.)

When a not-too-well-liked person would be retiring it would be said, “They’re holding his retirement do in a phone-box”.

On one occasion, in a neighbouring parish, a female who was presumed to have contracted a “social disease” used the phone and civic-minded local woman immersed it (the phone, not the female caller) in a bucket of Jeye’s Fluid. This caused a malfunction which the P&T engineer couldn’t find a cause for. A local wag said, “you were poxed to get it workin’ agin.”

When Mobiles were getting plentiful and it looked like the humble Phone box would soon be redundant I made a suggestion to Eircom as to the possible utilisation of same . . as Condom-Dispensers. And I even had an idea for cost cutting in the area of signage; by using some of the existing logos and slogans. For instance; wouldn’t the Eircom logo, with very slight modification, look remarkably like a rolled-up condom? And where would you leave slogans like, “Let your fingers do the walking”. Do you think they acknowledged my suggestion? They didn’t even phone me.

<<<<<<<


On a Cork Street


Dursey, Photo exhibition in 2007, Heritage Week 2019 and National Treasures from a Pharmacy

By

On August 22, 2019

In Uncategorized

Dursey Island, Co Cork

My Cork family took a trip to Dursey at the weekend. It’s a beautiful, unspoiled place.

This speed limit sign looks like a bit of a challenge. I think maybe it was placed there by some joker.

<<<<<<<<





Heritage Week 2019


So far I’ve been to a talk on The Power of Matchmaking, The Rose of Tralee Fashion Exhibition where I saw close up some of the gorgeous and unusual dress worn by Rose winners over the years. This exhibition is in the Kerry County Museum in Tralee. On Tuesday I was in Kerry Writers’ Museum again for a seminar on architectural conservation in Listowel.

The highlight so far was a lunchtime talk, also in The Kerry County Museum by Tom Dillon on The Knights of Kerry. This knighthood, Tom told us, was awarded on the battlefield while the hero knight was still bleeding from wounds received in the service of the king.

That’s me on the far right with four local North Kerry historians, Martin Moore, Declan Downey, Tom Dillon and Michael Guerin

Tom told us of the mother and father of all family rows between a Fitzmaurice and a Fitzgerald. We heard tales of political and religious intrigue, much bloodshed, imprisonment and skullduggery.

This knight from Ennismore near Listowel didn’t fight his way or even talk his way to success. True to form for a man from the Literary Capital of Ireland, he wrote his way out of trouble and lived to tell the tale.

This talk was diligently researched, well prepared and eloquently delivered by the star (for me, anyway) of Heritage Week 2019.

And there are lots more Heritage Week events to come over the next few days.

<<<<<<<<

Listowel Castle




Be sure to take a tour before the summer is through.

<<<<<<<<<

Photography Exhibition in 2007

Mattie Lennon visited this exhibition in St. John’s and this is the account he posted online about it.

Earlier this year, Dillon Boyer passed away. This is a tribute to him.

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man. –Edward Steichen

Ever since Joseph Nicephore made the first permanent picture with a camera, in 1826, photography has been evolving as an art form. But a different and separate one, unrelated to any other. 

In the words of Berenice Abbot,”Photography can never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself”. 



Saint John’s Arts and Heritage Centre

For the month of September, Saint John’s Arts and Heritage Centre (a former Church) in Listowel, will be home to the works of two Kerry-based photographers Tom Fitzgerald and Dillon Boyer. 

Seeing how the ordinary can become extraordinary, in a frame, one is obliged to concur with the words of Elliot Erwitt, “ . . .Photography has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” 

Dillon Boyer

DILLON BOYER who was born in Kent, England, has been interested in photography for almost sixty years. He was a member of Tunbridge Wells Camera Club where he won many prizes within the club and nationally. On retirement, drawn to the landscape and opportunities for portraiture in the Kingdom, he and his wife Mary moved to Listowel. 

He was a founder member of Listowel Camera Club with John Stack. Under Dillon’s guidance it went on to become a major camera club within the Irish Photo scene, winning the National Shield in the mid-nineties, and also hosting the event in 1995. Dillon has won National Medals in the Nature category on two occasions in the 90’s. He is also an accomplished Video and wedding photographer. The Canon is his favourite camera. 

Tom Fitzgerald

TOM FITZGERALD, a native Kerryman, has being interested in photography since the mid sixties when, as a young man, he started taking photos with a Kodak instamatic camera. He bought his first SLR camera, a Pentax K500 in 1974 and graduated to Nikon in the eighties. He was a reluctant convert to digital but won’t now travel (even to the shop) without his Digital Nikon SLR. A member of Listowel CC almost from its foundation, Tom has an extensive collection of photos of local people and places as well as prize shots from further afield. 

And his indexing system is just as baffling, to me, as quantum Physics. If you want a pictorial record of a moment frozen in time, be it a First Communion in 1970, Mount Brandon shrouded in mist, or Bill Clinton putting in Ballybunion, the image is produced in seconds. 

This is one Kerryman who doesn’t answer a question with a question. Your query about that shepherd’s cottage backlit by the rising sun will elicit a comprehensive account of the topography of that burgage, with the unpronounceable name, in the Scottish Highlands. And what about the shot of the two ponies on Glenbeigh strand? That was taken on Sunday the nineteenth of August 1979, when the wind was blowing from the east and Seefin illuminated by a waxing moon. 

Landscape (“the supreme test of the photographer”) features largely in the exhibition and includes the fruits of Tom and Dillon’s many trips to Scotland and England. And appropriately enough the exhibition (Which is supported by North Kerry Together Limited), is titled “Near & Far”. 



Sunset at Kerry Head

I attended the opening and it’s amazing the snippets of information the camera-illiterate such as myself can pick up at such a gathering. Amid terms such as “Chromatic aberration”, “Macroscopic”, “Reciprocity failure” and “Tonal range” I learned that the first photograph taken in Ireland was in 1848 and was of Young Irelander Patrick O’Donohue. 

Glen Inchaquin

David Hockney said, “ All you can do with most ordinary photographs is stare at them”. Well, these are not ordinary photographs and if you are in or near Listowel during the next month you call to Saint John’s and you can browse, buy or both. 

Waterville Lake

 <<<<<<

Artefacts from a Pharmacy


From National Treasures on Facebook

“Array of Items from a Pharmacy. My father was a pharmacist and he bought a shop in Thurles in 1962 that was originally established as Pharmacy Way in 1889. The shop was in its original state and within it, he found these objects among many others. My father, Donal P. Sammon, never threw anything out and kept all the old artefacts he found. The objects include old poison bottles, powders, and a cut-throat razor. My father continued the shop as a pharmacy from 1962 to 2004. I took over from him then and the pharmacy is still going strong. As a pharmacist, I find these objects really interesting. Back then, a pharmacist had to mix medicine in the shop. Opium, cocaine, arsenic, and morphine were regularly used. Thankfully, we don’t have to do that today!”

Thanks to Carmel Sammon

Lovely Listowel people, Changing meanings, Public phones and Hair Oil

By

On August 8, 2019

In Uncategorized

St. Patrick’s hall, July 2019

<<<<<<<<<

Chance Meetings


Nature lover, Carmel Gornall I met walking by the river on a sunny morning.

Frances and Edel were enjoying the sunshine and the music in the Square

<<<<<<<


Post no Bills

This sign is on an arch in Ballincollig. I suspect today’s young people have no idea that it has nothing to do with payment due.

I grew up in an age when this sign was a common sight in public areas. It means  Do not affix advertising posters to this wall.

<<<<<<<



Public Phones





Working public telephone boxes are rare enough these days so when I see one I grab a snap. The above one is in Kildare town.


This one is in Kent train station in Cork. It takes credit cards as well as coins and you can make international calls.

The tariff is a bit steep at a minimum of €2 per call and calls to mobiles costing €1 a minute.

<<<<<<<,



Mattie Lennon Remembers

These were found during the dig at the site of the new bypass road at Curraghatoosane. I posted the photo last week, and Mattie Lennon has been in touch;

Hi Mary,

I remember when Brilliantine hair oil came in those phials. It cost a penny ha’penny.

( hair oil, for those not in the know, was for plastering men’s hair down so that it stayed in place.)

<<<<<<<



John Lynch Mass



Martina OGorman has emailed to tell us that the people of Ballylongford are putting on a memorial mass for the late John Lynch on Sunday next ,August 11 at 10.30.

You may remember that when John , who was originally from Ballylongford, passed away in London recently it was feared that he had no relatives or friends left to attend his funeral. The  London Kerry community were rallied by Martina and friends and he had a good Kerry send off. Now Martina is hoping that the Kerry people at home will turn up to this special mass for John.

Horsefair, Peggy Sweeney, Some Shark Facts and three local people snapped on Bridge Road

By

On July 19, 2019

In Uncategorized

Church Street, Listowel, July 2019 with Fitzpatrick’s new bay window in place.

<<<<<<<<<

Pictures from July Horse Fair 2019

<<<<<<<<<


Peggy Sweeney  by Mattie Lennon


Continued from yesterday 

… Peggy  has also judged competitions. That is not her favorite exercise either but her advice to young singers is: “Enjoy what you’re doing, I like to see a child – or an adult – enjoying their song”.

She tells beginners to pick a simple song and work up from there. She believes that a child competitor should always be put at ease and not pressurized into competing, by anybody. 

Although she grew up among a lot of famous people (Bryan McMahon, et alia) from Listowel and the surrounding area, she says that she didn’t see them as famous; she knew them all so well.

Talk of John B. Keane brings her to her other great love, amateur drama. She says,”I love being somebody else for a couple of hours”.

I didn’t have the neck to quote David Mamet for a second time. And anyway I can’t vouch for the validity of his claim that ” … .the person onstage is YOU. It is not a construct you are free to amend or mold. It’s you. It is YOUR character which you take onstage”.

The great thespians of the world might not agree with Peggy’s claim that to do one of John B’s plays you have to be from Kerry. “The only accent that would lend itself to one of his plays would be the Kerry accent”.

She sang for Presidents … but her fondest memory is of the night she performed in the National Concert Hall with the late Eamon Kelly. She says; “I was nervous but Eamon was twice as nervous”.

She made her first album ” The Songs of Sean McCarthy” in January 1991, just two months after Sean McCarthy had called her to his deathbed and requested that she record his works. This was followed by “The Cliffs of Dooneen”, “The Turning of the Tide” and “More songs of Sean McCarthy”. “The Songs of Sean McCarthy” was released on video in August 1999. 

*******************************************************

(Of course any Kerryman will tell you that there are only two Kingdoms: the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Kerry).
“One is not of this world and the other is out of this world”
Well, now there are three. “A Kingdom of Song” is the title of Peggy Sweeney’s new album of Kerry songs. As. The sleeve of “A Kingdom of Song” appropriately shows a map of Kerry. The 15 songs take you on a musical trip from Duagh to Dingle and from Tarbert to Rathmore.

“The Valley of Knockanure” (that all too familiar story of young Irishmen shot by the Black-and-Tans) has been recorded by many artists. But when I heard this version I couldn’t help thinking that the song was just waiting for Peggy Sweeney to sing it.

Mick McConnell’s “The Tinkerman’s Daughter” and “Brosna Town”, two very moving songs have taken on a new lease of life.

“The Hills of Kerry”, “Lovely Banna Shore” and the Jimmy McCarthy composition, “As I Leave Behind Neidin” are the stuff to moisten the eyes of an exile.

“Ballyseedy Cross” and “Lonely Banna Strand” tell further tales of men who gave their lives in the cause of Irish Freedom.

It features a refreshing rendition of a song that I hadn’t heard for decades; “The Young Youth Who strayed From Milltown” as well as “The Wild Colonial Boy” and “Killarney and You”.

That old favourite, the universal anthem of Kerry, “The Rose of Tralee”, “Lovely Banna Shore” written by Peter Kelly and the Stack brothers, John and Pat and “The Wild Flower of Laune” written by Myles Coffey and Peter Joy are all given suitable treatment by the woman that this reviewer calls “The Voice of Kerry”.

And there is of course that tribute to her own native town land, mentioned earlier, “Rathea in County Kerry”

I’m sure almost everyone in that close-knit community around Rathea would agree with the letter, which Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun sent to the Marquis of Montrose et al:

“…….if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation”.

Maybe you can’t make the laws of a nation…..or even write a ballad but you can enjoy the best recording of 15 Kerry songs that you are likely to hear.

Kerry, A Kingdom Of Song is now available on Cassette and CD from www.kerrymusic.com. It will also be available early next year on Video with the breathtaking scenery of Kerry added to the singing of these wonderful songs.

The perfect diction and beautiful voice moistened many an exiles eyes during her several tours of Britain, as Bean-a-Ti, with The Irish Rambling House Concert group. She agrees with Charlie Landsborough that the ability to give a spititual message through songs is “a Blessing from above”.

When her old school friend, Kay Forristal, brought out her book of poems New Beginnings Peggy wrote the Foreword.

“Spirituality is free flowing and ever changing. This aptly describes the connecting relationship between Kathleen and I. We have known one another since childhood yet, neither time or distance has failed to quench this unseen dimension of our lives.

“Our spirits have been inextricably linked through the medium of verse and song. Through this thought-provoking book, we celebrate decades of true friendship and inherent spirituality”.

What (more) could I say about Peggy?

© 2002 Mattie Lennon, printed with permission. 

<<<<<<<<<<

Today’s Fun Fact


How does a shark track you?

Sharks have the most astonishing sense of smell. They can detect blood at a concentration of 1 part in 25 million, i.e. one single drop of blood in a 2,000 gallon tank of water. If you are bleeding, no matter how slightly, a shark will know. Sharks are brilliant swimmers and they swim at speeds of 25 mph  so a shark who smells your blood from 400 metres away can be on you in sixty seconds.

Sharks also have excellent hearing and sight.

In case I’ve frightened the bejesus out of you, the book also has this interesting fact. Research from all US coastal states, averaged over the last 50 years, show that you are 76 times more likely to be killed by a bolt of lightening then by a shark.

<<<<<<<


Something to Look Forward to




<<<<<<<<


Snapped on Bridge Road




On an early morning walk with my canine house guest I met John Bunyan, Martin Chute and Carmel Moloney taking a coffee break.

<<<<<<<<<



Fancy a Walk, this Weekend?



Dandy Lodge, Peggy Sweeney, The Saltiest Water and a Corner Stone

By

On July 18, 2019

In Uncategorized

The Dandy Lodge in Listowel Town Park. Beautiful window boxes in place for the upcoming Entente Florale judging.

<<<<<<<<<<

Harp and Lion

Restoration work has started on this great Listowel icon. I’m looking forward to seeing it restored to its former glory.

<<<<<<<<<

Today’s Pearl of Wisdom from my Charity Shop “Find”

Is the world’s saltiest water in The Dead Sea?

No, it’s not, according to this fascinating book. The saltiest water in the world is in Don Juan Pond in the Dry Valleys of  north eastern Antartica. It’s also known as Lake Don Juan. It’s a tiny lake whose depth is only 6 inches. It’s water is so salty that it doesn’t freeze even though the air around it is -50C.

The water is a whopping 40% salt, more than twice as salty as The Dead Sea. The water in Don Juan didn’t come from the sky. It’s too cold and dry there for rain or snow. The water seeped up through the ground and the upper layer of water evaporated leaving this salty residue behind. The lake was only discovered in 1961.

<<<<<<<<


A Reminder of Slower Times


Patrick O’Shea, who had a Listowel mother, was curious to know what this is. He saw if at a junction in Cork and he asked Facebook what it could be. He learned that stones like these were placed at the entrance to lanes and small roads to prevent horse drawn carriages from riding over the corner of the nearby building and wearing it away. The corner stone forced the horse to swing wide into the entrance and to take a straight path into the side road.

<<<<<<<<<<


Peggy Sweeney



When I posted this photo of Peggy and her family a while ago, Mattie Lennon saw it and remembered a lovely piece that he had written about Peggy and her relationship with the great Seán MacCarthy. Mattie sends us the piece here and I’m going to give it to you in two instalments.

Peggy will be singing the songs of Seán MacCarthy at the memorial weekend on the August bank holiday in Finuge…well worth a visit.

What could I say about Peggy?
Nothing but the truth.
I loved her songs and her singing
I heard away back in my youth.
Her songs were food to my Soul
Her voice was a thrill to my ear.
I loved her then as a child,
It was mutual and sincere.

I love her today as a friend
And the memories shared together.
Her songs still lift my soul
Like the lark warbling o’er the heather.
What can I say about Peggy?
Thanks for the joy she has given.
Blest be the dawn of our friendship
When Peggy was only seven. —-
Dan Keane

The above, written in perfect Copperplate, was handed to me by octogenarian Kerry poet Dan Keane when I told him I was writing a piece about Peggy Sweeney.

When I met and talked to the singer herself she spoke in equally glowing terms of Dan. But, then, she struck me as the kind of person who would have great difficulty speaking unkindly of anyone. Any mild criticism of a fellow human being seemed to be invariably followed by. “Ah … he (or she) is alright”.

Peggy was born in Rathea, Co. Kerry, the second youngest of seven children.

My hinted request for a D.O.B. [Date Of Birth] was met with Kerry specificness; “In the second half of the last century”.

When I point out that David Mamet, in his book True and False, claims that nobody with a happy childhood ever went into show business the tumultuous reply is like the Smearla river in flood. I am left in no doubt about her happy childhood, despite the fact that her father died when she was only six. Her grandfather was a very good fiddle player and by the time Peggy was a year-and-a-half old she was able to hum the tunes that he played for her. Her father was a dancing teacher and her mother, a beautiful singer, (who was very much a woman before her time), taught her all her songs.

She emphasizes that she grew up in a house of laughter, song and dance “which brought us all a long way, the day wasn’t half long enough for us and if I had to do it all over again I’d do the very same thing”.

Peggy can, in the words of Thomas Prior, ” … answer to the truth of a song”. When she sings “Rathea In County Kerry” written for her by cousin, Brian Burke, you get an example of that.

When I think of the days that once I spent
In the hills of County Kerry
Those happy days before I went
And took the Holyhead ferry.
Well we danced and we sang
‘Til the morning shone shone,
Though my grief I try to bury
For our lives were free in good company
In Rathea in County Kerry.

A story emanating from the Presentation Convent in Listowel has a two-pronged connection with W.B. Yeats (first it brings to mind his line:” I made my song a coat”). When Sister Austin asked Peggy to recite “The Sally Gardens” the quietly confident child recited a line or two and got stuck; only to then volunteer, ” I can’t recite it Sister … .but I will sing it”.

From an early age she competed. But competition is not her forte and she says: “I had to compete.” Adding modestly, “I won a couple of All-Irelands with the Lixnaw branch of Comltas”.

She competed, as a member of Scor, and left unbeaten in Kerry or Munster and believing that competition destroys the love of singing. “When I reached the age where I didn’t have to compete any more that’s when I really enjoyed singing”. 

More tomorrow.

<<<<<<,


A Poignant Tarbert Story


from Tarbert.ie on Facebook

Tarbert.ie posted this photo with the following caption;

In 1985 a man was waiting for the Ferry in Tarbert when a group of children spotted he had a camera and asked him to take a picture of them…. the result was the below picture! 

He kept it safe over the next almost 35 years and now wants to reunite it with its subjects! 


Jennifer Scanlan saw the photo, recognised her brothers and their friends and solved the mystery;


The children are Derek R.I.P and Thomas OGorman with their friends, brother and sister, Josephine and Thomas.

Page 5 of 6

Previous

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén