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
Eamon ÓMurchú has sent us photographs of two beautiful bookmarks, the work of Bryan MacMahon, poet and Michael O’Connor, artist.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
A Problem Solved
(with the help of a good teacher)
Do you remember a while back I complained that my blogposts were showing up minus the sidebar and footers in tablets and phones. I blamed WordPress.
A bad tradesman blames his tools.
Jim Ryan, formerly of this parish and follower of Listowel Connection, came to my aid and gave me the Ladybird version of how to solve my problem. In solving that problem Jim has also solved another issue that has been bugging me (and probably my followers, although they don’t complain). When I post a “memory” on Facebook, the link takes you, not to the post in question, but to the most recent post. This “problem” has been with me for the whole ten years of my blogging life. Now, thanks to Jim, I’ve solved it.
<<<<<<<<<<
Sean Walsh of Killelton Ballylongford with Noel Doyle at Carrigafoyle
<<<<<<<<<<<<<
St. Batt’s Well
I visited the holy well in Coolard on Sunday last. It is a haven of peace and quiet and birdsong.
This is the well. While it is dedicated to St. Batt. Much of the symbolism and the devotional rounds are more reminiscent of a marian shrine.
It is traditional to leave tokens attached to the bushes to symbolise the petitions being prayed for at the well.
It is significant that this year along with rosary beads, flowers, holy pictures and statues there are face masks hanging from the branches.
Two different views of the same beach, An Clochar in Corca Dhuibhne. Photo: Éamon ÓMurchú
<<<<<<<<<<<<
Moran’s Hotel
I’ve had a few suggestions as to who the girls in Luaí ÓMurchú’s photo might be but no more definite than the leading three.
Miriam Kiely who lived in that part of town remembers her neighbours on the street well.
The building with the upstairs bay window was Moran’s Hotel, then Quirke’s and now Fitzpatrick’s. Various different catering enterprises operated in this premises.
Miriam remembers that the gardaí used to come there for their meals. The hotel is located opposite the guards’ barracks and back in the day the gardaí used to live in the barracks. Listowel often had a cohort of handsome young gardaí who made quite a stir as they made their way across to Moran’s every day for their dinner.
On First Holy Communion Day, the girls got their communion breakfast in the convent and the boys from the nearby Scoil Réalt na Maidine went to Moran’s for their repast.
For many years Morans did the catering on The Island for Listowel Races.
Eileen Moran married Joe Quirke. They bought Chute’s chip shop and added a fast food outlet to their catering offerings.
Miriam also has a theory about the car in the picture. She thinks it may have belonged to a Moriarty, a bookie. She remembers many trips to Ballybunion in Moriarty’s car and it looked very like this one.
<<<<<<<<<<
More from the Michael O’Connor Collection
Some more of the intricate, detailed works of art, painstakingly drawn and illustrated by the late Michael O’Connor of The Square.
I’m looking forward to seeing these marvellous works in reality. Hopefully they will soon return to their artist creator’s home in Kerry Writers’ Museum.
<<<<<<<<<
A Poem by John McGrath
from his anthology, Blue Sky Day
A Time For Dancing
Our lives proceed in rhythms of their own,
Sometimes in waves that dash from stone to stone,
Sometimes a soothing, softly murmuring flow,
A ride to cherish, be it quick or slow.
A river by a highway, river-paced,
Not rushing by as if by demons chased,
With time for wine and dancing in the night
Or fiddle fit to put the moon to flight –
But lest you perish in the deafening din,
Life trades her fiddle for a violin,
Soft lights, sweet music and a moon that lingers,
Eyes that are smiling just for you, and fingers
To soothe your soul just like the murmuring stream.
A time for dancing and a time to dream.
<<<<<<<<<<<
The Last of the Islanders
This photograph was republished in The Irish Examiner this week. It shows the boat carrying the men of The Great Blasket to their new homes in the mainland in 1953.
An Blascaod Mór was like a little independent republic for many years. Despite the many many hardships and deprivations, its people loved the island and they grew strong and resilient there. A corpus of literary work in size out of all proportion to the little scrap of land, grew out of that sparse but contented lifestyle.
Eventually the islanders relented and could take the harsh life no longer when the illness and death of a beloved local boy was the last straw for them. The death occurred during a storm when they couldn’t cross the sound. This proved a test too far. The islanders were getting old and less well able to take the hardship any longer.
They sent this famous telegram to De Valera “Storm bound, distress, send food, nothing to eat.”
The government heard their plea for help and they were uprooted from the only life they knew and relocated inland. The picture tells its own story. These men are being rescued but they look far from happy.
There’s been a bit of a change in circumstances in the Kildare branch of the family.
Last week I got to visit the lovely Aoife, my newest grandaughter, who, at two weeks old is already everyone’s darling. Here she is making her Listowel Connection debut.
<<<<<<<<<<<<
24 The Square, Listowel
This lovely town house has been home to some of Listowel’s most famous families. The Creagh family lived here before the O’Connors. This house is now home to Kerry Writers’ Museum.
This was the family home of Michael O’Connor, illuminator. Here are a few more examples of his work.
The alphabet is amazing. The second picture is a work in progress. Michael died at a young age leaving many projects at various stages of completion.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Our Ancestors were Superstitious
The Schools Folklore collection has many stories of superstitions and weather lore. Here are some beliefs the old people held that foretold wet weather on the way.
The Robin sings inside in the middle of the bush. The Geese fly against the wind. The Snail creeps up the wall. The cat turns his back to the fire. The wave can be heard for miles. Red in the sky at east before the sunrise. The warble fly lays its eggs on the cattle and the cattle run in the fields. The high hill near Tralee is clouded at the east side. The fish dont rise to the fisherman’s fly. The cement floor gets damp The spring wells will rise The Seagulls come inland from the seashore. COLLECTOR Gerald Mulvihill
<<<<<<<<
St. Bartholamew
Today, August 24 is the day for visiting St. Batts Well in Coolard. Applying the water from the well to sore eyes is meant to cure ailments of the eye.
Ballybunion folk have been busy growing sunflowers this year. They had a display of all their sunflowers on the castle green in Ballybunion.
They made all the papers. They are thinking of making it an annual event.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
A Christmas Card from the Michel O’Connor Collection
Words by Bryan MacMahon gorgeously illustrated by Micheal O’Connor, a lovely co labortive work by two talented Listowel men.
<<<<<<<<<<<
John Stack
John Stack shared this old Fleadh photo on Facebook
<<<<<<<<<<<<<
War Relief to Listowel and North Kerry, 1921
Mark Holan sent us the following interesting information he uncovered in his research
I wonder if anyone knows if their family was helped in this way.
The American Committee for Relief in Ireland collected $5 million (£1,210,627) during the first half of 1921 to ease war-related suffering. The Irish White Cross distributed the money to all 32 counties through summer 1922, with £25,878 in “personal relief” approved in County Kerry. The North Kerry distribution including:
Ballybunion, £1,312
Ballylongford, £634
Listowel, £2,102
Lixnaw, £680
Tralee, £3,901
“Personal relief” included weekly allowances to dependents of civilians prevented from working “through being ‘on the run’ or imprisoned for reasons connected with the political situation”, dependents of those killed during the war, and to those prevented from following their ordinary occupations due to military restrictions or the destruction of their businesses, the Irish White Cross reported in 1922. Lump sum payments also were made to wounded civilians, and for the purchase of key essentials such as clothes, bedding, and trade implements.
Some 600 volunteer parish committees, typically composed of “local clergy and other responsible people,” helped to process and forward applications to the Standing Executive Committee in Dublin, which made the final determination.
On Sunday, 21 August 1921, a month after the truce, Bishop of Kerry Charles O’Sullivan ordered a special collection taken at all the masses in Listowel to provide local assistance to the Irish White Cross. The collection totaled £119 5s 10d, Kerry People reported.
A few weeks later, the Irish hierarchy sent letters to the Freeman’s Journal thanking the American Committee and White Cross. In Kerry, Bishop O’Sullivan wrote, “our persecuted people have good reason to remember and be grateful for the timely help which has enabled not a few of them to keep body and soul together, after they had seen their homes reduced to ashes, their women ill-treated, their men folk cruelly done to death.”
Of course, with civil war around the corner, the hardships were far from over.
<<<<<<<<<<
Question answered
I posted this question a short while ago.
Can anyone tell us if this lady was an aunt of the late Canon Leahy of Listowel?
Advocate, Melbourne, Sat 4 Sep 1909
IRISH NUNS IN INDIA
Again the Daughters of the Cross have to record the loss of one of their Sisters, who died at Anand on Sunday, 18th July, after an illness of only a few hours. Sister Agnes Mary was born in Kerry, Ireland, in April, 1865, and joined the congregation at Liege in October, 1884.Two years later she arrived in India, and since that time worked with the greatest earnestness in the convents at Karachi, Igatpuri, Bandra, Panchgani, Dadar, and finally at Anand, of which house she was made Superioress in December, 1908. In the first week of July, cholera broke out in that locality, and some of the orphan children confided to the care of the Sisters; contracted the disease. A few cases proved fatal. However, on Sunday last it was hoped that the epidemic had ceased, an intimation to that effect
having been written by the Superioress herself, little thinking that she would be the next chosen victim. Sister Agnes Mary saw without fear death approaching, and was perfectly calm and resigned to God’s holy will. During the years she spent in India, and in whatever house she laboured, she was ever a subject of the greatest edification to her Sisters in religion and to all with whom She came in contact. Her happy disposition endeared her to everyone, and her loss will be keenly felt. Quietly and religiously she spent her days, and one may truly say: “She went about doing good.” Her death was a fit crowning to her life—a victim to duty, she has fallen at her post.
R.I.P.—Bombay “Examiner.”
Dave O’Sullivan has the answer.
I can confirm that Sister Mary Agnes who died in India was the aunt of Mgr Michael Leahy.
She was born Honora LEAHY was born about 11 Apr 1865 in Lisaniskea, Knockanure, Co. Kerry. She was christened on 13 Apr 1865 in Moyvane, Co. Kerry. Her parents were James Leahy and Kate O’Connor.
Mgr Michael Leahy was the son of Honora’s brother Tom Leahy.
<<<<<<<<<<<
Listowel Pitch and Putt Club plays Host
Kerry County Juvenile Matchplay competition is being held at Listowel Pitch and Putt Club this Thursday the 26th Aug.The course will be closed to everyone apart from the juveniles competing on the day.
Above is an example of the work of Michael O’Connor, formerly of 24 The Square Listowel.
Totally unrelated to yesterday’s post I had a phonecalll from a man called Stephen Rynne who is in possession of much of the work of the late O’Connor.
Michael O’Connor worked in Dublin as a draughtsman in The Department of Industry and Commerce. In his spare time he made these marvellous illustrated artworks in the style of The Book of Kells.
This is a family photograph of Michael looking at The Book of Kells from which he took inspiration.
Stephen has many of these works, many of them gold leaf on vellum and he also has correspondence relating to the works from a collaborator of O’Connors, Maurice Fridberg , a famous Dublin art dealer. This Fridberg considered O’Connor to be the best artist doing this kind of work.
A former Uachtarán na hEireann, Cearbhall ÓDálaigh was presented with some of O’Connor’s work by Fridberg on the occasion of his inauguration.
Since O’Connor lived in Listowel in the house that is now Kerry Writers Museum, Stephen would like the artwork, some of it unfinished, to return to the his native place.
There is much work to be done to bring this about but it looks like a valuable and historic find for Listowel.
Another example of the detailed artwork and colourwork in one of Michael O’Connor’s pieces.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
What Kathy Did
Kathy Hochul is to be the first female Mayor of New York. Kathy’s maternal grandparents hail from Kerry and she is proud of her Irish roots.
Kay Caball of Find My Kerry Ancestors had traced Kathy’s maternal ancestors to a remote West Kerry parish.
<<<<<<<<<<<
Ballybunion Arts Festival
Something to look forward to in September.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Local Fleadh Committee 1970
Frances Kennedy kept this cutting and posted it on Facebook. Maybe someone will name them all.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
My Friend has become a Beekeeper
and I have learned something. Native Irish bees are black!!!!!
<<<<<<<<<<<<
A Bit of Housekeeping
Some of you will know that this year I changed platforms from Blogger to WordPress. I am still having teething problems. One such problem has only come to light recently. The way a web post displays on a tablet or phone is different to how it appears on my laptop.
People reading this on a tablet or phone don’t see the side bar at the right hand side. This is where the search box and the subscribe box are located.I dont know if I can fix this but I hope so. In the meantime if you are reading this and you would like your name added to the mailing list please sent me your email address and I’ll do it for you.
